Chris

Idle Thumbs 280: Hamburger Mode

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Idle Thumbs 280:

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Hamburger Mode
If your controller has a hamburger button, you should press it. Chris pressed the hamburger and watched as his copy of Halo traveled in time from his Xbox 1 to his Xbox One. We also pressed the hamburger button in our minds, mentally transporting ourselves to the mid '90s with Obduction, the latest from Cyan. Meanwhile, Nick, starting up his third new game studio in as many years, demanded his employees add hamburger buttons to all their latest product in Software Inc.

Discussed: Anno 1080p, Xbox One S, Halo: Combat Evolved, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Obduction, No Man's Sky, Software Inc.

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I can't believe you've been recording podcasts for 280 years.

 

The best thing about the FMV man in Obduction is played by Rand Miller, the founder of Cyan who also played Atrus and Achenar in the Myst games. There was a really good interview with him recently on the AV Club.

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I've finally caught up with the 280 episodes that we celebrate today!

With regards to Anno's resolutions, this is because of 2 things: resolutions are named after the number of pixels in the height of the resolution (for example, 720p stands for 1280x720 pixels), which is often a number divisible by 9; and the digits in a number divisible by 9 again add up to a number divisible by 9, which is often 9 itself.

As for the first part, most screens have a 16:9 aspect ratio, which is the ratio between the width and the height of the screen: 1280 / 720 = 16 / 9. In particular, this means that 720 (and 360, 540, 1080, 1440 and 1800) are divisible by 9. Moreover, we apparently like these numbers to be divisible by a lot of numbers, probably because we want to be able to separate the screen in many equal parts and because we like "easy" numbers. In practice, this means that these numbers are only divisible by multiples and powers of 2, 3 and 5, and that they end in one or multiple zeroes. (Note: I know nothing about screens or resolutions, this is what I learned/guessed from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_display_resolution).

With the second part I'm on firmer ground: the digits of any multiple of 9 (i.e. any number divisible by 9) again add up to 9. This is a quirk of our decimal system: in an octal system for example, 7 would be special like this. And because our number will end end a 0, there just isn't much room for numbers that add up to a larger multiple of 9, like 18 or 27; the first one would be 990, which is not that "easy" (because it's also divisible by 11).

In the future, we might see more screens breaking the Anno-rule: 5K/UHD+ (5120x2880) exists, which is good enough for 2 Anno's! But it doesn't look that bleak: moving to 21:9 still keeps us divisible by 9, and 8K UHD (7680x4320) is still perfectly Annoable.

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The worst is when restaurant websites use the hamburger menu, which then contains an item called 'Menu'. Doubly so if that menu includes hamburgers.

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I've finally caught up with the 280 episodes that we celebrate today!

With regards to Anno's resolutions, this is because of 2 things: resolutions are named after the number of pixels in the height of the resolution (for example, 720p stands for 1280x720 pixels), which is often a number divisible by 9; and the digits in a number divisible by 9 again add up to a number divisible by 9, which is often 9 itself.

As for the first part, most screens have a 16:9 aspect ratio, which is the ratio between the width and the height of the screen: 1280 / 720 = 16 / 9. In particular, this means that 720 (and 360, 540, 1080, 1440 and 1800) are divisible by 9. Moreover, we apparently like these numbers to be divisible by a lot of numbers, probably because we want to be able to separate the screen in many equal parts and because we like "easy" numbers. In practice, this means that these numbers are only divisible by multiples and powers of 2, 3 and 5, and that they end in one or multiple zeroes. (Note: I know nothing about screens or resolutions, this is what I learned/guessed from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_display_resolution).

With the second part I'm on firmer ground: the digits of any multiple of 9 (i.e. any number divisible by 9) again add up to 9. This is a quirk of our decimal system: in an octal system for example, 7 would be special like this. And because our number will end end a 0, there just isn't much room for numbers that add up to a larger multiple of 9, like 18 or 27; the first one would be 990, which is not that "easy" (because it's also divisible by 11).

In the future, we might see more screens breaking the Anno-rule: 5K/UHD+ (5120x2880) exists, which is good enough for 2 Anno's! But it doesn't look that bleak: moving to 21:9 still keeps us divisible by 9, and 8K UHD (7680x4320) is still perfectly Annoable.

 

Nailed it!

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"Halo is awesome." - Remo Extremo

I'll probably get an Xbox One of some flavor someday (if for no other reason than those blu-rays with the extra kays), and I'm going to play the heck out of Halo. It's the one exclusive thing I've felt like I'm missing out on from the Xbox.

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I've finally caught up with the 280 episodes that we celebrate today!

With regards to Anno's resolutions, this is because of 2 things: resolutions are named after the number of pixels in the height of the resolution (for example, 720p stands for 1280x720 pixels), which is often a number divisible by 9; and the digits in a number divisible by 9 again add up to a number divisible by 9, which is often 9 itself.

As for the first part, most screens have a 16:9 aspect ratio, which is the ratio between the width and the height of the screen: 1280 / 720 = 16 / 9. In particular, this means that 720 (and 360, 540, 1080, 1440 and 1800) are divisible by 9. Moreover, we apparently like these numbers to be divisible by a lot of numbers, probably because we want to be able to separate the screen in many equal parts and because we like "easy" numbers. In practice, this means that these numbers are only divisible by multiples and powers of 2, 3 and 5, and that they end in one or multiple zeroes. (Note: I know nothing about screens or resolutions, this is what I learned/guessed from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_display_resolution).

With the second part I'm on firmer ground: the digits of any multiple of 9 (i.e. any number divisible by 9) again add up to 9. This is a quirk of our decimal system: in an octal system for example, 7 would be special like this. And because our number will end end a 0, there just isn't much room for numbers that add up to a larger multiple of 9, like 18 or 27; the first one would be 990, which is not that "easy" (because it's also divisible by 11).

In the future, we might see more screens breaking the Anno-rule: 5K/UHD+ (5120x2880) exists, which is good enough for 2 Anno's! But it doesn't look that bleak: moving to 21:9 still keeps us divisible by 9, and 8K UHD (7680x4320) is still perfectly Annoable.

 

I was going to write in about the divisible by 9 thing but damn you covered all the bases really well

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With the second part I'm on firmer ground: the digits of any multiple of 9 (i.e. any number divisible by 9) again add up to 9. This is a quirk of our decimal system: in an octal system for example, 7 would be special like this.

 

I once wrote up a simplified version of the proof for why summing the digits in a number can determine if its divisible by 3 in another thread.  Divisible by 9 is the same concept, just swap divisible by 3 with divisible by 9.

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I was going to write in about the divisible by 9 thing but damn you covered all the bases really well

 

Thanks! Also, heh, "covered all the bases".

 

 

Thanks for the link, I'll go look at that thread. You're right about the swapping 3 for 9 part, the proof works for any divisor of [the base you're working in minus 1]. So if you're a masochist, and like working in base 31, the statement will be true for 2,3,5,6,10,15 and 30.

I've always loved this trick, it's probably the first math-fact I learned and convinced myself of it was true (though my "proof" was not nearly as nice as yours; luckily, when I had to teach it someone showed yours to me before I was in class). It's just such a pretty but non-intuitive fact.

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Congrats Chris for powering through the podcast sounding like you have the worst cold and still doing a great job.

And Nick's Software, Inc. stories were amazing, but I have no idea how any actual software developers can play a game like that without feeling ill the whole time.

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I really disliked the remastered graphics in Halo Anniversary. The original game may have been a bit sparse and dark, but they made it work within those limitations. Nighttime levels and indoor areas were gloomy and oppressive, and it really added some atmosphere to those parts. The remaster just vomits neon holograms over everything and completely ruins it.

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I really disliked the remastered graphics in Halo Anniversary. The original game may have been a bit sparse and dark, but they made it work within those limitations. Nighttime levels and indoor areas were gloomy and oppressive, and it really added some atmosphere to those parts. The remaster just vomits neon holograms over everything and completely ruins it.

I don't think the original was anywhere near as dark as he was describing on the podcast.  I think it's just a case of the "original" graphics actually being somewhat inaccurate.  It's actually a weirdly common issue with HD up-ports (or just... ports) where one version will inexplicably be way darker than the other.  I figure that the various platforms must have their own ways of handling brightness which will produce wildly different results if the developers don't bother to account for it.

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I don't think the original was anywhere near as dark as he was describing on the podcast.  I think it's just a case of the "original" graphics actually being somewhat inaccurate.  It's actually a weirdly common issue with HD up-ports (or just... ports) where one version will inexplicably be way darker than the other.  I figure that the various platforms must have their own ways of handling brightness which will produce wildly different results if the developers don't bother to account for it.

 

The most memorable example of this for me was the light bridge area in Mission 2.

 

Original (PC version, but it's comparable to Xbox version):

 

 

Dim with small islands of light, sometimes dark to the point where using your headlamp might be necessary. Hard to see enemies, making ambushes a real threat. The bottomless pit that yawns below the bridge is obscured by a haze that makes it seem dangerous, even if the geometry is just a kind-of-deep trench.

 

Remaster (~13 minutes in):

 

 

What's a headlamp? Light it all up! Look at all that stuff! What do you mean, "atmosphere and sense of mystery?"

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I generally agree that the graphics ruin the mood a bit in spots, but more importantly, all the little doodads on the ground everywhere made it a lot harder to read an encounter on the fly, based on my experience with the remaster. In certain spots would have a hard time spotting smaller enemies through grass and get ambushed, but flipping over to original graphics let me more accurately assess danger. It's a bit like turning everything down in Quake 3, I guess.

 

I don't think the original was anywhere near as dark as he was describing on the podcast.  I think it's just a case of the "original" graphics actually being somewhat inaccurate.  It's actually a weirdly common issue with HD up-ports (or just... ports) where one version will inexplicably be way darker than the other.  I figure that the various platforms must have their own ways of handling brightness which will produce wildly different results if the developers don't bother to account for it.

 

 

The extra weird thing about Halo 1 in the Xbox One collection is that it's a port of a port - the Anniversary version with graphics switching was originally on 360.

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