T w e n t y S i d e d
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And the (very late) final episode of the week. Fortunately, it’s completely topical and we don’t spend fifteen minutes driving cars into trees.
Josh Plays Shogun 2 Part 19: Holding it Together
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Yes, it’s finally back! After gathering vital intelligence at PAX and fighting off the vile ninja minions of Rutskarn, Oda Nobunaga has finally returned to conquer Japan! Now let’s see, where were we? Oh yes, we fought some siege battles, had half of Japan declare war on us (including the largest and most powerful clan in the entire country, the sea-ruling Mori) and extended our domain to the doorstep of Kyoto and the ruling Ashikaga Shogunate.
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Oh yeah, and we converted to Christianity so we could crash our entire economy and insult every other clan on the island for the slim chance that we can build some European-style galleons to stop the inevitable Mori naval invasion before it happens.
If our own citizens don’t get us first.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Josh Plays Shogun 2 Part 19: Holding it Together”
Alan Wake EP11: Physics and Pasties
Link (YouTube) |
So this wasn’t actually a short week or anything; I didn’t delay this post because we didn’t have a fourth episode. No, I was just sick Thursday morning. I suspect Shamus might be trying to get back at me for crushing all of those sleeping pills into his tea last week.
Also, for those of you interested, Josh Plays is totally actually really coming back tomorrow. For real this time. Like, the post is (almost) all written, I just need to finish the last bit and compile all of the images for upload. And of course there will be the fourth Spoiler Warning episode next week too. And hey, Shamus might have even written an article for the Escapist this week! (But I get bonus points if Shamus only remembers that he was supposed to do that when he reads this post.)
Project Octant Part 6:Tiling
So here we are, six entries into this series and we haven’t really done much in the way of making software. I actually find this kind of liberating. In Project Frontier I felt driven to get my core features in there. I like that this project is more an excuse for endless digressions. It’s a lot easier to navigate when you don’t care where you’re going.
Still, I guess we’d better get started with the actual thing and stop whinging on about technology and development platforms. First, let’s look at texture mapping…
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(We don’t have a lighting system yet, so I’m just painting the sides of cubes darker than the top. That’s close enough for now.)
I’ve slapped the default stone texture from Minecraft onto this landscape so I can illustrate the thing I want to work on. As in Minecraft, flat stone can look kind of dull if you see too much of it at once, and I’ve deliberately designed this scene to show us way, way too much of it.
This texture is kind of bland. I mean, it’s a scattering of grey values that barely deviate from each other. Of course, this is by design. Notch knew what he was doing when he made his textures. Some well-meaning modders come along and try to make the textures more “interesting”, and you wind up with:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Project Octant Part 6:Tiling”
Alan Wake EP10: Nightingale, Agent Nightingale
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And we almost made it through a whole episode without fighting any darkness-related creatures. Damn.
Oh well. At least we have coffee.
Project Octant Part 5:The Rainbow Collection
Today we’re finally going to start adding some features to make this thing look a bit more… What? You say you want another digression on noise filtering and interpolation techniques? You sure? Okay then!
(Nerd!)
If you remember from last time, we’re taking tables of random white noise and expanding them to create “interesting” patterns. Stuff like this:
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Now, I really don’t want to have the next bunch of images be black & white scramble squares. That’s boring and it’s actually hard to see the effect I’m talking about. So I’ve altered my program to output example images that will use color-blending to make the gradients more clear. So the above image now looks like this:
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Just remember we’re not really dealing with color data right now. We’re actually just generating heaps of numbers between zero (dark blue) and one (red) and this color-fade makes it easier to see what we’re doing. Okay? Great.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Project Octant Part 5:The Rainbow Collection”
Alan Wake EP9: But You Can Hit People With Cars!
Link (YouTube) |
I’ve done it! I finally got rid of Shamus! Now I rule Twenty Sided! Mwahahahaha!
Good thing Rutskarn was able to hire those Algerian terrorists. Even though they might not have actually been terrorists. Or Algerians.
Or people.
Okay, so Shamus might have just gotten sick and didn’t make it to the recording session. Which means he could recover and be back to posting on this blog any day now. Cherish the Shamelessness while it lasts!
From The Archives:
Could Have Been Great
Here are four games that could have been much better with just a little more work.
The Middle Ages
Would you have survived in the middle ages?
How I Plan To Rule This Dumb Industry
Here is how I'd conquer the game-publishing business. (Hint: NOT by copying EA, 2K, Activision, Take-Two, or Ubisoft.)
Blistering Stupidity of Fallout 3
Yeah, this game is a classic. But the story is idiotic, incoherent, thematically confused, and patronizing.
Bowlercoaster
Two minutes of fun at the expense of a badly-run theme park.
Gamers Aren’t Toxic
This is a horrible narrative that undermines the hobby through crass stereotypes. The hobby is vast, gamers come from all walks of life, and you shouldn't judge ANY group by its worst members.
The Loot Lottery
What makes the gameplay of Borderlands so addictive for some, and what does that have to do with slot machines?
Wolfenstein II
This is a massive step down in story, gameplay, and art design when compared to the 2014 soft reboot. Yet critics rated this one much higher. What's going on here?
What is Vulkan?
There's a new graphics API in town. What does that mean, and why do we need it?
In Defense of Crunch
Crunch-mode game development isn't good, but sometimes it happens for good reasons.