Dr Wookie

Oh yeah, Horizons has updated to 2.0.7, which supports the release version if the Oculus SDK: "Enhanced VR support - Added support for Oculus 1.3 SDK - Added new VR specific graphics presets (VR Low and VR High) - Added Hangar main menu background when HMD is present - Added VR experience demo as a scenario in the tutorials menu - Added option for SRV to maintain level horizon if player finds motion uncomfortable​ - Please note: This will not be on by default, users will need to select this option to activate it - Added option for SRV blackout when rolling if player finds motion uncomfortable - Please note: This will not be on by default, users will need to select this option to activate it - Adjusted VR and panel positions in the SRV - Improved UI mesh tessellation for rendering the front-end on VR - Preflight checklist can be completed with just a controller - Updated various warnings when using Head Mounted Displays - Crash fix when entering open play with HMD active - Crash fix when entering CQC with HMD active "

Gah! I'm now pretty torn between the Rift and the Vive! The Rift has some really cool looking games that might not come to Vive: I particularly like the look of Radial-G, a VR F-Zero like; Adr1ft and Lucky's Tale are also intriguing, and I bought the first episode of Albino Lullaby after last year's PAX East. The Vive seems to have a better, more complete experience. However, I suspect that I won't have room for much more than seated VR, and the Rift is geared towards that. Furthermore, the Vive has no exclusive titles (which is admirable).

This week's newsletter includes concept art for an Engineer base: We will be able to trade data, commodities, and materials for "unique" ship modules . Here is the first engineer to be revealed (was shown about a month a go) Todd "The Blaster" McQuinn,(yes really) which seems a bit Bald-Gruff Space Bro; he looks pretty good but I hope for more diversity

I jumped into the Planet Coaster alpha earlier this week since it is now open. It's made by Frontier Developments, and I got 10% off of the "Early Bird" edition that includes the alpha as a thank you for being a Kickstarter backer for Elite Dangerous. I was initially uninterested, but got swayed a few months ago by this Dev Diary, which goes into really impressive crowd tech, and shows an incredibly charming style (in my opinion). I was wondering if there was enough interest to start a new topic? The alpha is very much an alpha: it took me an hour or so even to get the game running! It includes a whole bunch of parks to start you off, and a host of building options, as well as a number of "flat rides" such as boat swings, ferris wheels etc. Coasters are included if you input a cheat code; they are not officially being supported until Alpha 2, but if you type in a cheat code then you can access them now; I think this is quite a clever way to set expectations. I've built my first coaster that went all the way round, but there's plenty of room for improvement (it initially stopped at the top of the first hill). The launch livestream is a great demo of what is already possible; one of the artists is constantly working on one of his parks while the other guys are talking, and nearly everything looks spectacular; hence clicking just about anywhere in the time line shows something cool . Frontier are using a similar pricing model to that of Elite Dangerous, with alpha access substantially more expensive than the full game: the "Early Bird" alpha costs 50 GBP / $75, while preorders currently cost 20 GBP / $30. Again, some people don't like this, but I think that this strategy reflects the current digital pc game market, where you can get just about any game you want at any price if you are willing to wait long enough, but if you really want it now you are willing to pay more. I jumped in because I thought it looked cool, and enjoyed the alpha feedback process for Elite Dangerous. I am not advocating that anyone should buy into alpha or pre-order unless they fancy it . EDIT The fix I had to do to get it to work was to remove all copies of MS Visual C++ and install the ones associated with the game manually. This seems to have borked a whole bunch of other games, meaning I'll have to download them again or something, grrr!

That overlay is incredible! I've seen a few videos with it now at various settings, including the direct video feed, and am currently more wowed by the Vive than Oculus Rift. Speaking of Oculus, they have released a list of the complete line up, as well as a "Comfort" level for people worried about motion sickness

Great news about OR . I remember FD saying that they were planning on a PS4 version about this time last year; I was being a volunteer ambassador for Elite at PAX EAst, and the announcement was made at GDC, which was happening at the same time. Now I am less sure which head seat to go for. It might depend on where in the UK I get my next job; I could afford an extra room for the Vive in some areas but not others.

Was it because you were working in a wide gamut like AdobeRGB? Converting to SRGB should presere colour better if you do, because if you send AdobeRGB to something that expects SRGB, the colours often get subdued

A few months is nothing in academia! Plus, the only real job perk is getting to do something you really want to. Everyone should understand that you should really move on, even if they are disappointed. Your current department would have to advertise for a new student, but that's nothing like as problematic as filling a postdoc or professorship; these are very niche roles where highly specialised knowledge is a prerequisite. PhD students are generally recruited fresh from undergrad, so basically need to be keen and have good grades. Maybe you could offer to document everything you know for the next guy. Oh, and smart, well funded people greatly improve your chances of success, just so you know

I started over my Enemy Within campaign, and am doing much better this time. I ransacked the alien base without any casualties, and had my first encounter with mutons, cyberdisks and mechtoids after they invaded my base! I lost 4 people in the base defense mission, including the seargent that I had just received as a reward for the previous mission; the other guys were rookies and didn't get a mention on the commemeration wall, so I think they were base staff. I am about to complete my first thermal power station, then I'll be golden for a while I think.

Given that there was no release date, I can't be too disappointed by a 6 week slip ! It sounds like the beta for 2.1 will be in May. The latest dev update revealed that rewards for missions will no longer be confined to credits. They could include locations of treasure caches, rare materials and items that would normally only be available through salvage. I haven't played much recently, but have been pottering around helping community goals and building imperial rank. I almost toasted my anaconda during one planetary delivery mission: thanks to 2.8g gravity, I landed with 18% hull!

I am really excited for VR, and not just for gaming. A number of my friends are working with VR for data visualisation, which sounds incredibly promising. Then there are applications like aversion therapy and virtual tourism. I think I will get a Vive as soon as I am able: it seems the more complete package, and is already working well with Elite Dangerous. I borrowed a Rift DK1 from work nearly 2 years ago, and was convinced even then, playing Elite but also a wide variety of demos. It's amazing how you can be immersed even when the graphics are nowhere near photorealistic.

I agree with all of your comments. The ability to get a system map by scanning the nav beacon makes exploring colonised space far more accessible, as there's no danger of missing stations (especially planet side ones). More variety and less hassle when doing missions can only be a good thing too. I recently broke a cardinal rule and traded slaves, but only to take them to the refuge set up by Aisling Duval for the CG . I went for nearby slaves rather than more distant profitable ones to maximise the number of people freed rather than profit; still a 22.5 million credit completion bonus ain't bad! CGs are about the only time that I use my anaconda any more, it's almost too good (and also slow)... fun for a while, but I tend to prefer smaller and nippier ships.

Frontier have made some changes to how you can buy the game: Horizons is now a season pass, priced at £24.99, which is £10 cheaper than before for people who have the base game already; also, the arena mode is available separately for £4.99. It's a but weird that they removed Horizons as a separate steam item given that they previously justified it due to different system requirements. It might be due to the more negative steam reviews by people who didn't realise most of the content is still to come. Also, they've given some more info about mission changes for 2.1. Interestingly they are moving rank requirements for accepting missions; instead, ranks indicate mission difficulty and level of reward. The aim is to have a wider range of missions available, and also to make the types of mission available in a given system more predictable. Missions associated with USSs will generate in specific locations that will be revealed by a system scan. Scanning Nav Beacons will also reveal mission locations and undiscovered planets.

My long-standing but very niche research career is no longer viable (thanks to the next big billion dollar project being delayed by at least 15 years), so I have been retraining myself to work in a more real-world environment. I have over 25,000 hours of data analysis experience, but hardly any experience with the more advanced commercial software. I have been taking online courses, but several times came to a problem which had me stuck for a few hours because I simply didn't know the name of the command that must definitely exist. So to me, learning the puzzles is similar to that, learning completely new skills rather than doing things that have made sense for a long time. Also, didn't it take Jonathan Blow years to come up with the puzzles? Therefore it took years for him to solve them

I had just finished researching skeleton armour but could not see it in the list of things for my engineers to build; I had skipped carapace armour and assumed it was an automatic upgrade because it was already pretty late. I rocked up with basic armour! I do have a laser rifle though . I might as well see how far I can get in this mission before deciding whether or not to restart, I've already made a whole bunch of mistakes to learn from so a few more won't hurt .

Wow, I may have just hosed myself! I am assaulting a base, probably way under equipped because I thought I had something when I didn't. As soon as I left the landing zone, we got charged by a bunch of chrysalids, my heavy (and slingshot VIP) got torn apart and subsequently zombie-ate my support guy. Panic ensued:D. I left it mid mission for the evening with just 2 assaults and a sniper. If they wipe, I might start over!

If you want to be selfish about it, think of the students as opportunities to better understand the subject ! I've taught hundreds of undergraduate students and thinking of all the different ways of explaining something til the student gets it really deepens your understanding of the subject.

There are some things that I don't care too much about, such as finding those + puzzles. However, I have made sure that I have solved every line puzzle myself, albeit with a couple of hints on the general methods. This is partly pride, but also reinforcing the rules in my head; once I solve it one way, I go back and see if I can find other valid solutions.I struggled for ages with that particular marsh puzzle, having almost got it fairly early on, but missing a vital rule. There is a door in the village that seems grossly unfair as it appears to introduce a new rule or breaks an old one (coloured stars). I have lit 7 lasers and have gone to the next area, but have not reached the end yet.

Yeah, I just want to get something built, and missions keep popping off- how inconvenient ! I'm near the end of April now, if that means anything

I've just sent my first soldier to certain death, and felt pretty terrible about it... otherwise, it's been great ! I spent an absolute age trying to catch an outsider, with its vicious laser killing anyone in two hits, but people kept missing for ages and I ended up Benny Hill-ing around the crashed saucer trying to get within zapping distance when the only person with a stun gun was down to 2 health. Got it eventually though, after losing 2 guys. I HOPE IT WAS WORTH IT, VAGHN! It looks like I'm at the start of my first terror mission, but l have already played 2 today (and met my first chryssalid), so that's for another time. I've really been missing out all this time

Thanks for the advice... I won't stress too much until I raise the difficulty . And yeah, the issues are more like occasional hitches in cinematic a rather than anything drastic. I mentioned them because they might indicate troubles in the engine that maybe persisted into the sequel. Ironman is actually quite like the old games on the Spectrum, since there was no saving mid mission. I later played emulated versions on my PC and could save snapshots of battles that made it far easier!

Heh, I was just sent here, having bought XCOM Enemy Unknown and Enemy Within as a bundle in the last Steam sale! As I said in the other thread, I played the really old progenitor games like Rebelstar and Laser Squad, but spent a long time on console rather than PC, so missed out on XCOM all these years! I am playing on Ironman mode on Easy; I don't really play strategy games but don't want to spend ages save scumming. I think it's fantastic, and every couple of missions I find new enemy types where I have no idea what they are capable of, which is scary. I am most worried about messing up on the building side, but would rather go through a few failed campaigns than look up optimal builds. There are a few guys that I have really got attached to, I'm sure it's a big mistake since I get yelled at when explodifying a room full of aliens when the alternative is that my heavy will definitely die. I've lost 2 good people since the tutorials (I think all those first-mission deaths are scripted). My last mission ("Very difficult") had me stumble through a room en route to some Meld, only to activate floaters, sectoids and seekers all at once, with the floaters right behind the door! I managed to get everyone out OK, but only thanks to a stabilising medpack in one case . Strangely enough, the game has framerate hitches and drops, similar to those I heard about in XCOM2; I have a 970 and a i7-4770, so I'm pretty sure it should be able to run a 4 year old game !

I was another one who bought a N64 for Goldeneye... My brother had it and it was so cool! I've had many of the consoles released since, but most of them I just fancied anyway. I remember getting a PS1 for Gran Turismo, a Dreamcast for Sonic Adventure (ugh), and a PS3 for Uncharted. I got back into PC gaming after buying a new one for Elite Dangerous, have already upgraded the GPU once, and may just get a whole new system to support its VR requirements depending on how big and power hungry the next generation of GPUs are, since my current one is small and has a 330W limit. Most recently I bought a Vita for Danganronpa, and regretted nothing until it was announced for PC! I do like the Vita as a system though, and have stacked it with JRPGs which are much more bearable when you can turn off at any time and restart instantly!

I finally got 7 lasers, and am fairly deep into what happens next (spoiler, I get stuck some more ) The Witness is really annoying at the moment, as I refuses to run if I download a new game without a clean install of my nvidia drivers... Grrr

Major necro time ! Call me Johnny Come Lately, but I got XCOM Enemy Unknown + Enemy Within in a bundle in the latest steam sale, having never really played it. Would you recommend that I play the original first or just dive in with everything? I played Rebelstar and Laser Squad back in the day, and heard that XCOM was kinda based on that, but spent many years as a console gamer rather than PC gamer so missed out