jay pettitt

I think, and this is pure 100% undiluted speculation, that this is complicated because mappers can tweak how sound propagates between rooms and areas. So it might be a noticeable issue in some maps, but not others.

I've come across (but not done anything useful like file a bug report, oh no) some problems with noise arrows not playing nicely. I think what is happening is that the sound propagation system can be set to stop sounds travelling (or at least alerting Guards and other AI) from one room to another - which is nice sometimes, but not when you deliberately want to noise around. So basically, you can alert AI in the same room/area as your noise arrow, but if the room portalling isn't set up well and you want to try and coax AI out of one room/area to another, when you fire a noise arrow into the hall or the room next door or whatever the AI will be stubbornly oblivious to all your efforts. In short, Noise Arrows and Room Portals don't play nice. At least, I think that is what is happening - my investigations were entirely half arsed.

One of the things that I found disappointing with Invisible War Human Revolution was the art assets. No dirt. Not one single speck or iota of muck, grime wear or signs of use anywhere on anything. Everything was shiny and new and unused. Including the litter. A gritty adventure in Playmobil land. --edit-- Arse, of course I mean Human Revolution, not Invisible War, tsk.

So I had a go with DX:IW DX:HR just recently and it was quite good. But there's no escaping that it was Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell with cyborg upgrades. That doesn't make me hopeful for T4.

Wobbly heat haze effect looks good where it is - don't move it unless it's an actual nasty problem. Mayhaps stick it in as is and fix it in a later release if there are riots.

Colour me intrigued; what did Digi say? I'm guessing the only whales in the game are dead ones. Mostly I think the trailer is very swish, and I especially like the guy-in-the-wagon's nose - but what I'm not getting from this is any sense that Corvo, or his story, is a character/narrative I might like to be interested in. I think that might be a lost opportunity, marketingwise, to make normal folk think they might want to try this out.

Also nice to see the wobbly heat haze effect in there. If there's no big performance hit and the physical height of the thing isn't going to break stuff (including the wobbly heat haze, it looks taller - I'm imagining wobbly heat hazes potentially poking through ceilings and floors), then go for it.

I propose a new magic arrow that allows players to switch between flames and flamicles and back again by shooting at them. This allows mappers to apply their artistic vision by choosing the default for individual torches. It empowers players to change the game to their preferences. And, crucially, doesn't clutter the options screens. It would require only simple scripting and could make efficient use of existing assets - just paint one of the existing arrows to look like a rainbow and off you go. Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have a solution. It could also be used to switch rug textures on the fly.

This is almost as exciting as the China GP. Who's winning? Arcturus' new torchicles are rather awesome and if they're not already, it'd be nice to roll them out to mappers asap. I don't think it's obvious that TDM should assume that all previous torches should be replaced, by order of the peoples' republic of Bridgeport, with torchicles, and it's possible that a mapper may even prefer the old torches for some strange, unfathomable aesthetic, technical or egotistical reason. Not sure how that transpires into votes (or even what we're voting for), but hray - new torches \o/

...in that case, I'm your man. #3 for the win.

Yes.

I hate to be all mean and I'm the last person you should take relationship advice from, but me thinks you're probably more attached to the idea of this person (the filler that the brain projects to fill the gaps - and there's a lot of gaps to fill if you've just been phoning and emailing) than the lying, cheating, no good she-monster herself. Damn brains.

I think it's definitely one of those truth is stranger than fiction things. More awesome weirdness. --edit-- You have to wonder what the possible implications for things like video games could be here - if you can convince the brain to take conscious ownership of a virtual self with some fairly simple feedback trickery.

Plainly you can't actually be not in your head, but your head can get very confused as to where it actually is.

Also possibly related and just as barmy: http://www.radiolab.org/2011/jan/25/you-are-here/

Coo! I had my first ever sleep paralysis episode a few evenings ago which was quite exciting. Happily it wasn't a frightening one, just a dog, and it was over quickly, but kinda unsettling and weird all the same. Also happily I knew that sleeping on one's back made you more susceptible, so I made sure I was curled up on my side - so no potentially scary repeats as I drifted back off. Phew. But yeah, kinda awesome that the brain plays such wacky tricks and how hard it is to differentiate real from not when your head is mucking about. You can understand how people think that ghosts and other spooky visitors are the real deal. As far as I heard the out of body, astrally projected self stuff is triggered when the brain gets conflicting signals about which way the body is orientated. How you'd go about gaming it to encourage repeats I don't know though. --edit-- If I remember right, there's some stuff about out of body experiences in this fascinating vid:

Those a brilliant \o/ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Asterix, Disney ducks, Bert and Ernie

Your answer to B was spot on. The RGB model is the one to use if you need to reflect more light. (if you start from a black screen and progress to white) The CMY model is the one to use if you need to work the other way and absorb more light. (if you start with start with a white piece of paper and progress to black) So if you want to add colour to black Red Green and Blue are the primary colours and CMY are secondary colours. If you subtract colour from white Cyan Magenta and Yellow are your primary colours and RGB are your secondary. Black ... RGB ... CMY ... White If by amplitude you mean brightness - in printing you start bright and work toward dark with pigments that absorb an increasing amount of the colour spectrum. For TV, Film and computers you start dark and work toward bright with pigments that reflect (or emit) an increasing amount of the colour spectrum. Obviously you 'add' ink to the page - but it's negative sort of adding. Like adding -10 to +20. What you're doing is subtracting. Does any of that make sense?

Printer resolution (dpi) and image resolution (ppi) are fundamentally different things. Printers need to make a dithered pattern of lots of dots of different ink colours to represent one image pixel. In theory, the higher the ratio of dpi to ppi the better the tonality of your print (which is to say that a higher resolution image could actually have worse colour reproduction). In practice your software will look after you.

Shamelessly retweeted from Rock Paper Shotgun: http://arnoraps.com/...on=album&id=103

Adult lego, uh huh.

Hi John Apparently the next update to TDM is due soon(?) and brings with it some small, but significant changes to AI behaviour and the way that they ratchet up the alert levels - which will help immensely. In the mean time, you just have to learn the ropes and be extra sneaky.

TDM is getting loads of love in that poll. Beleg being a persistent arse isn't something worth losing sleep over. So ask something they can do. Ask for feedback on the training mission. Think of it as outreach. (not that an endless supply of FMs isn't outreach)

If I was devious and manipulative I'd suggest that TDM should ask TTLG ThiefFMers for help in quite a visible way over at TTLG from time to time. Mayhaps asking for help/suggestion for a new training mission. Or with some coding work Or replacing textures/materials in preparation for the great untethering Or something ...so that there continues to be a sense of ownership and being on the inside rather than the out.

The heritage industry is rife with curious ethics. On another day I may have to think about it more carefully, but secretly I think it's quite awesome. It's not like Europe can't spare the occasional medieval monastery or three.