clyde

So if you don't tip then they don't make minimum-wage? How is this legal?

Gear VR is rad imo. I haven't used another virtual reality device, so I can't compare it to others. After using it for a few hours, I have some things to say, especially regarding what my assumptions were. Nausea: Nausea is an issue for both myself and my wife, but it's a spectrum, not a binary. What I mean by this is that we've been trying out the demos and developing understandings about what increases our nausea and what does not. The Gear VR does not detect head-movement beyond rotation and this is the biggest cause of our nausea. So we have to be a bit cognizant of how we move our heads; doing things like leaning in and straightening my posture when I'm hunching give me little stings of nausea which accumulate. The nausea is similar to the nausea I experience if I read an email or forum post in the passenger seat of a moving car. I can recognize it happening and stop doing the thing that is causing it (which is typically non-rotational head-movements while in Gear VR). Regardless of my head-movement management, trying out all sorts of demos, I can only last about 30 minutes right now. I suspect that I will be able to manage it longer, but my understanding of what is happening makes me look forward to VR devices that can track non-rotational head-movements. Radness: This thing is cool as shit. Listening to my wife's observations while she navigates cyberspace is very enjoyable. Being in cyberspace is fucking cool. The sense of scale is exciting. We are also experiencing notable moments of disassociation with the physical world which are entertaining and surprising us. My favorite example was while I was playing the Colosse which is a cartoony, paper-crafty, short play with two characters nearby; a NPC comes akwardly close while carrying a spear. In playfulness, I reached out to touch the spear and felt a chair in physical space that was inhabiting the same position. It freaked me the fuck out. It was an incredible moment of illusion. I don't see the value of this device being the ability to not be in physical space though, it's much more the ability to be in virtual spaces. I've explored probably 20 different environments briefly and what is most striking is just visually inhabiting a (typically central and unmoving) spot in a space created by digital media. Even the 2D, 360 photos can provide a novel perspective. The most impressive spaces I've seen though are the OTOY dioramas (which are 3D and seem to be somehow more plump than other 3D scenes) in the Oculus Photo app. There was a fictional one-room apartment that was claymation-esque and it was so cool to examine it. Exploring these brief experiments is super interesting and sci-fi as shit. Technical Limitations: I read a lot about VR developments over the last 3 years, keeping up with it as an enthused consumer. You've probably come across people describing things like "the screen-door effect" and heard passioned claims about the importance of a few degrees of FOV. All of this stuff has an influence, but I'd like to just give you an idea of which of these things seem relevant and which do not after an hour or so of use: -Screen-door effect: It's fine. Yes, you can tell that things are made of pixels. It's noticable, but it's not a deal-breaker what-so-ever. In fact, I kind of see it as a particular aesthetic that I know I will at some point be nostalgic for. There is this moment in Introduction to VR where you are hanging out in a yurt with some folks. They look pixelated, but it just makes it feel like an intimate tele-presence rather than a convincing illusion of reality. It's cool. -FOV, You are basically using a scuba mask the entire time. This is most noticeable during the underwater-simulations. This does create a sense of disconnect, just like when snorkeling. I always feel like a visitor in the environment, the FOV makes me feel like this is not a default perspective. But imagine having a scuba-mask that you can put on in your living room, that once on allows you to look around a remote or fictional place. It's cool as shit. -The lack of positional tracking (non-rotational head-movement): I can totally imagine this being a significant enough limitation for someone to decide to wait for another device. I have no regrets though and neither does my wife. We both feel confident that we can manage the nausea by developing best-methods and being picky about which apps we play. The ones that we can play without problems easily make the device worthwhile for us. Still, I can imagine never going back once we have a device that can track non-rotational head-movements. -Overheating: It totally overheats, but the manual says it doesn't damage the phone. I'm sure this will become annoying, but thus far, it happens when I should stop anyway (after about 30 minutes). Content: There is a bunch of free stuff. Everyone is gold-rushing to recreate every genre in computer-game history in virtual reality. The thing is that screenshots and videos are useless in determining what I will enjoy. Take for example Smash Hit. I looked at those videos of gameplay and was like "I think I can safely skip that one, it looks simple and boring." I just played it tonight and it was fun as shit. Flying through those environments at 45-60 mph throwing giant pinballs at pleasurably breakable crystals turns out to be surprisingly engaging when you are in there. Strong recommendation. Note: When it first starting moving me, I got a ping of nausea, but for some reason it stopped after about 20 seconds of play. The game doesn't make me nauseous at all now. Smash Hit is the only dexterity-challenge I've played thus far even though there are some other free ones, but it's worth saying that the rooms and spaces tend to be the main attraction for me. The OTOY dioramas were so cool. They are one of the things I'm looking forward to just looking through for a few minutes each. there's a lot of stuff like that. OK. that's about all I want to say about it now. Oh and if any of y'all have a Gear VR, I'd be interested in chatting in Oculus Social though I'm really difficult to schedule with. I'm not sure if you can look people up to chat with them though. I only did it for a minute once, for the first time this evening. Edit: Oh, and I don't think it's feasible to use this device without a chair that spins. Thank Erkki for cleaning it up.

Apparently Samsung announced a consumer-grade 360/video capture device which I assume is intended to democratize the ability to make content for the GearVR. I don't think it includes any depth-data, but it is might be a significant step towards that. http://www.roadtovr.com/samsungs-gear-360-specs-in-full-launching-q2-2016/

It is such a great thing to be appreciated in your workplace.

So I don't have much time to play this during the free-weekend, but I enjoyed making a main-street and installing the first-person mod. I'm curious about how complex the system and aesthetics of disrepair go. Does Cities: Skylines evoke narratives of gentrification, patinas, and other aspects of hyper-local histories?

So you just make a big 'U' with the water pump at one end and the drain at the other?

My melodica arrived before I headed to work so I get to play it today. The build-quality and bass-range are better than I expected. I think it may be an exact replica of the Suzuki model (the Study32) that I didn't want to wait 1-4 months for. The color of this one is better though.

I'm enthusiastic about multiple things nearly everyday. I guess I'll list the ones I am interested in at the moment. My wife is really interesting. She just got accepted as a beta for a fanfic writer she likes the work of. Also, everyday she has a new story of how she is trying to encourae fairness and capability in her workplace. Also she makes me laugh a lot and likes me. My cats are fascinating. All of them like me a lot but one of them might eat me if I was the size of a mouse and the other three certainly would eat me in that circumstance. Rainbow Six: Siege is probably the most fun I've had in multiplayer since Shadowrun (2007) Trackmania2 is really neat when a server is playing unlicensed music and there is a sense that you and 100 people from all over the world are just chilling out in the same online space. I ordered a melodica that is supposed to arrive on Friday. I plan to use it at work to become more familiar with chord-progressions. I had an epiphany today after adding the HSV noise filter to a portion of a landscape intended for a background in a throw-away TyranoBuilder game I started this morning. I immediately wanted to add a static sound of a certain quality and I feel like I had a taste of internalizing Jake Clover's process. I realized that I was developing tone by exploring my tendency to complement intriguing aspects already in the design with other senses. It's hard to explain, but it really does feel like a progressive moment. I watched a documentary about recent attempts to pass immigration reform in United States of America federal laws. Suddenly a lot of political frustrations make sense to me. I made a fire and sat in front of it for a while and looked around at the strange collection of items in the room and their particular yet unintended arrangements. That was really cool. I played Birdland today and enjoyed the first 3/4 of it more than I expected to. We get to ride a train to New York City on Saturday to go see EXO. I'm frightened by crowds and dense urban areas, but that's part of the adventure. I've been thinking about this video all day. I just finished watching a documentary on Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán and I noticed the plastic chairs. I would never had noticed the plastic chairs if I hadn't watched the above video.

Progress Report: I followed along with the first video in that playlist and learned a lot of things about Gimp that I did not know. Also I love that Christina is constantly referring to Gimp as "the gimp". Here's my resulting drawing: I used layers for coloring even though that was not part of the instruction. Late in the week I was kind regretting only doing one tutorial this week, but I was playing Firewatch and the Moon Knight table in the pinball-tournament during my free moments. Plus, I was sleeping and working more than usual so... it's whatever. I'm not thinking of this as a February project anymore as much as just having a playlist of things I can follow along with if I feel like doing something that has the semblance of productivity.

You can turn off the head-bob and you will quickly recognize all the environmental prompts that denote that you are about to get a animation applied to the camera. If you encounter a prompt to jump over or down or climb, you could hypothetically close your eyes, press the button, and wait a second or two.

Go ahead, ask me what time it is. I got a Midnight Multi-ball that lasted for 40million points worth and I have no idea why it started; that's where the high-score came from. But I'm more proud of this 69mil game where I lit all but two letters. I just needed Stock Broker and Silent Pursuit (the Marlene is in a van mission). I lost the ball during the last Silent Pursuit shot. I can't complain, I got three extra-balls in this game and I'm not sure how to get extra-balls. Moon Knight remains largely a mystery to me. If I ever do manage wizard-mode on this table, I'm posting in this thread about it.

We enjoyed watching you play. It was interesting to see how differently you play than Cm0nster and myself. You rarely trap the ball and not once did you use a dead-flipper pass, so your game is much faster paced. Also, in the first half it seemed like the right-ramp was your bread and butter, but it was interesting to see how your accuracy on the right decreased once you became acclimated to the left (I might just be imagining things). Shooting at the right-ramp or right-orbit is how I lose 90% of my balls. I hit the post between the ramp and the orbit from the left-flipper and it goes straight down the drain, so it was weird to see you casually make right-ramp and right-orbit shots so casually. I depend on dead-flipper passes a lot especially during timed modes. It can be hard to get used to at first, but you might want to look into seeing what it can do for you. Now if you will excuse me, I have less than three hours to get wizard-mode.

I'm looking forward to watching this.

Today is the day. I fully intend to get wizard-mode before midnight. It's time to get serious dude.

I think it's actually tied to the battle animation. It seems like you have to make at least one of the lit shots before the Black Spectre strikes Moon Knight each time the Black Spectre is winding up to attack. So it's kinda like each shot is an individual short timer (I think). Edit: Maybe not. Also I just noticed this: I don't think that will be part of my strategy.

That is really cool.

I don't experience these symptoms as intensely as you, but I do experience them. The movement animations like ducking below the spot where the propane tanks are while going down the fire-tower stairs are especially nauseauting. Climbing up steep rocks creates a similar problem for me. I suspect that part of the problem is that I sit too close to my monitor, but I don't typically have these problems in games.

I've only gone through day 1 and 2 so far. I really like the sense of place. The idea of getting familiar with a space of this scale is appealing to me. They did a great job of making a memorable place that I enjoy browsing while listening to story. A big reason I enjoy hiking (in physical space) is that we encounter interesting things to see and do light path-finding while conversing; Firewatch seems to symbolize that well.

Historically, I've bought consoles without a specific game in mind. I'm very attracted to hyped potential more than realities. The two exceptions are wanting a Super Nintendo for xmas very vocally in a wealthy-enough household because of Super Mario World and when we payed one of my wife's co-workers to make us a Battlefield 3capable pc about a month before it came out iirc. Oh actually my wife made us get an Xbox 360 after visiting her dad and seeing Oblivion. Our roomate was playing Wind Waker and my wife was like "You guys don't understand, in Oblivion you can't just walk into someone's house and break things; the city-guard will arrest you!"

I enjoyed this episode a lot. Thanks for pointing out Reality-on-the-Norm. I'm looking into it now. I just recently started using MIT's Scratch game-development tool and one of the really neat things about it is that everything made with the engine has an MIT license. The interface of the online-editor encourages remixing each other's games and automatically makes a genealogy of how the remixes branch. It also includes a lot of default art and sound assets that create a sense of sharing and familiarity in most of the individual results. As someone who has an interest in making games for fun with a community, it seems like a pretty sweet place to hang out.

I screenshot> snip tool> upload to imgur Your flipper delay could be a latency problem. Also if you are using a controller, the triggers have some give to them (I use shoulder-buttons on the controller because they seem to be binary and immediate). I detailed the way to change your pre-rendered frames setting in Nvidia to reduce latency earlier in the thread... Just a moment, I'll find it Here it is...

What are your initial impressions of the table?

I don't have experience with your tools and I don't think the google hangout is used, BUT there is an active Idle Forums/Game-dev slack-channel. Sign up here and just ask the chat where the game-dev side-channel is.

I just bought so much stock when it was low and I lost my ball before I could sell it. That's like 90% of the table's appeal for me. "Someone has to do it, the fun stuff." I think he is referring to bagging some bad guys. Why would he need to get to the crime-scene before the cops do anyway? I noticed a few things on my 15mil game. The main-mode ramp DOES light after you collect enough blue orbs; I saw it in the dot-matrix. Also, if you can get that car burning by reaching the crime-scene before the cops do, you can shoot the left ramp to set your ball on fire for double points. The double points seem to apply to everything. I shot Khonshu with a flaming ball during the crossbow mission and got 2mil. One game later: