I Woke Up In An Alien World

in

Friends and family fade and disappear. In their place, I find myself surrounded by strangers. They remind me of the people I once knew, while at the same time, they seem alien. I try to understand them, be part of their group. But we have little to talk about anymore. We no longer share the same passions. We laugh at different things. And our world views are irreversibly out of sync. What happened?

Dawn of War III

in

It’s raining bodies by the thousands in this trailer for Dawn of War III. The whole thing doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but then again this is Warhammer 40k, which is pretty batshit insane anyway.  And I mean that in a good way, like Dune universe insane.  This is a teaser cinematic, so nothing solid about the game play, but I love the style and tone and it's got some truly beautiful images.  I'm hoping Dawn Of War III will be a solid RTS. I enjoyed DOW II immensely, so this is on my short list.

Crackdown 3 Exists in the Cloud

in ,

I rag on Microsoft quite a bit.  But this demo for Crackdown 3 is pretty incredible.  Basically having the physics you've always wanted in an action game.  It also completely eliminates any sense of a game existing only on your machine.  Because no one machine could ever render all this in real time.  I'm pretty sure that last part is a very intentional twist on Microsoft's part.

Shiny Happy People

in ,

Haters gotta hate. And today, I will fully admit... I am a hater. My misanthropic self is bursting at the seams. As I'm sure you are aware, people love announcing on Facebook how attractive and successful they are.  I am not suggesting that is a crime; self esteem and happiness are both great things and I hope to know these concepts one day. It's just that I'm insufferable asshole.  I simply can't see one more self congratulatory post, mention of you hobnobbing with celebrities, or photo of your adorable offspring... without pulling out my hair and screaming.  These are obviously the days when I need to avoid my newsfeed altogether.

 

Death By Video Compression

in ,

I remember when the audio CD first came out in the 80's there was this perception that "digital" was inherently a lossless format. That it was a perfect reproduction that would never degrade. That's what the marketing sold us on anyway. The problem is that it actually takes a huge amount of ones and zeros to store audio and even more so for pictures and video.  And we could barely fit a little more than an hour of lossless audio in 1982.  Which isn't much: about 650 megabytes.  Digital video was just a dream.  Laserdiscs had analog video and were gigantic. Then came one of those inventions that everybody uses but few people think about. Lossy data compression. It basically said it was ok for part of the picture or sound to be thrown away because they were the less important bits (to human eyes and ears). It made possible JPGs, MP3s, Napster, the iPod, DVD Video, YouTube and many other cool things.

But it's not without its drawbacks. Like what happens when you make a copy of a copy of a copy? What happens when you compress a video over and over again?  Turns out lossy video can degrade into nothing, just like those crappy VHS tapes. Lossy video is also the bane of video editors everywhere.

First Look: Space Engine

in ,

Just discovered a program called Space Engine written by Russian astronomer and programmer Vladimir Romanyuk.  It's pretty amazing.  It's basically a universe simulator.  Like the entire visible universe (what isn't based on observed data is procedurally generated). SpaceEngine allows you to fly literally anywhere in the universe at any speed and it shows it to you in real time.  This is the most impressive part for me, because unlike 3D animation programs, there's no rendering, it's like a game engine.  There's downsides to this, like sometimes you can see some gradient banding and texture popping, and the framerate fluctuates, but for the most part, it is visually stunning and rivals some of the best visual effects shots from movies in the 90's.

I've strung together a few of my preliminary flights in a video.  I'll probably be making more of these.

Music from Hans Zimmer's excellent Interstellar score.

Loop

in

"We need to have a talk..."He wasn't going anywhere, in this relationship, or in life. He was a stuck in an endless loop and she wanted out.

"We need t0 have a talk..." She had a plan. He didn't. It was nothing personal.

"Wi ne3d t0 have a talk..." She left him the same as she found him: Angry, bitter, withdrawn and with a chip on his shoulder the size of a boulder.

"Wi ne3d t0 have a ta1k..." His feet pounded on the treadmill. He wanted the noise to drown out his thoughts. How long had he been running?  An hour, two?

"Wi ne3d 2 h@ve a ta1k.,.' Not long enough. He ran through the pain. If he ran all night, Could shed his old self like so much sweat?

"#i n$ed 2 h@v% A ta1q.,;" Would there be any person remaining after this purge? He hoped not.  He had to break the loop. And he was the loop.

#+,!3$b 2,&87% 4 t@1q.!;"

BREAK His feet were numb.

BREAK His chest was on fire.

BREAK Almost.  There.

BREakkkkk "…........................"

He laughed as he stumbled. And then everything was slow motion. The treadmill stopped. White flash as he fell. And then he stopped as well.

DATA NOT FOUND.

 

2014 © Eric Jolley