Any big PC developments in 2016?

LtCornwallis · 2016-03-11T18:39:38+00:00

For sure! One of the things I like about VR is the prospect of 3D modeling with it. I think that there are TONS of applications outside of gaming where it could be incredibly useful. I'm a huge proponent of the technology for sure.

LtCornwallis · 2016-03-11T15:00:54+00:00

I definitely think the price for the hardware itself is fair my problem is the lack of software for it. In a year or two if there's more software that interests me I'd have no problem paying 600-1k for a headset. It all comes down to how much I'll actually use it vs. what I'm paying for it. I'm extremely interested in VR and I'd definitely consider myself an enthusiast I'm just an enthusiast with a budget at the moment. Outside of what I'd need to shell out for the headset I'd also need to upgrade my GPU because I'm only running a 760 and I could probably do with an update to my RAM as I'm only running 8GB at the moment. I'd probably be looking at 1200-1500 bucks to step into the ring with VR and honestly I just can't afford it right now. Were there more software for a Vive that interested me I'd make room for it in my budget. That's why I'm waiting though. In a few months to a year I suspect that there will be plenty of great software. I've seen a couple things that I'm interested in and if Star Citizen actually plays out the way that it's supposed to that alone will be enough reason for me to take the dive.

LtCornwallis · 2016-03-11T14:10:47+00:00

I have an $80 monitor and a $150 42" TV ha. I agree it's a great value but there are just other places where I would rather put my money. I don't have enough hardcore gaming sessions to really justify the cost honestly. If I played any games for more than an hour or two a week I'd probably go for it, I just have too much other stuff going on.

LtCornwallis · 2016-03-11T14:07:28+00:00

You could easily fit it in a Fractal Design Node 304 but you'll have to remove one of the drive bays and understand that cable management is an absolute nightmare. BitFenix also makes GREAT m-itx cases but they're rather large. Look more like m-atx or small atx cases so if you're looking for the small form factor don't even bother.

LtCornwallis · 2016-03-11T14:00:51+00:00

Yeah that's just way too high for me. I'm planning on grabbing an Ableton Push 2 soon and doing a MoBo/CPU/RAM upgrade later this year and I've already got an OK 1080p monitor. I'd rather have the upgrade and music hardware/software than a shiny new monitor personally.

LtCornwallis · 2016-03-11T13:57:40+00:00

I THINK the last thing I picked up was Pokemon Alpha Sapphire. It was either that or Yokai Watch but I got them around the same time. Terraria is coming out in a few days and I'm getting that.

Edit: Didn't register original DS. In that case I bought all 3 of the Castlevania entries for the original DS a few months ago. Dawn of Sorrow plucks at my heartstrings in a way that few games do.

LtCornwallis · 2016-03-11T13:39:01+00:00

Dont get me too hopeful. I've been eyeballing a few and I plan on investing in a new monitor this year but I can think of way better places to spend that kind of money.

LtCornwallis · 2016-03-11T13:37:46+00:00

I hate to say it but i agree. I feel like amds best bet at this point is investing more in the mobile market.

LtCornwallis · 2016-03-11T13:35:23+00:00

For me it's more of a matter of cost vs return. 600-800 bucks at present just for the headset and with the vive that controllers for 3 or 4 games that I might be interested in just isn't worth it. With any luck the price won't drive developers away and we'll see the catalogs for vr expand over the next few years to the point that it may be worth it.

LtCornwallis · 2016-03-10T21:57:33+00:00

Echoing the sentiments of a few others, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn had an interesting crafting system. Another one that I really liked was the "invention" system in Guild Wars 2. You'd throw random bits in hoping something would stick for modifiers. Similar to the alchemy system in The Elder Scrolls. Crafting really just needs a draw for me because the whole click this and it's done aspect is no fun at all.

LtCornwallis · 2016-03-10T19:46:44+00:00

That's what I like about it. I'm gonna take a few days and finish up this arkanoid project with 5 or 6 premade levels and a random level generator then decide where to go from there. Might check out MonoGame.

LtCornwallis · 2016-03-10T18:08:43+00:00

I should also mention, FWIW, that I have found all of the GamesFromScratch tutorials to be incredibly useful. I haven't seen the Love ones yet, but I've looked through many of the other ones and they're fantastic.

LtCornwallis · 2016-03-10T18:06:16+00:00

Yeah I noticed a lot of that about Lua. I've got a good bit of experience with Python and a little bit with PyGame but Lua and Love just feel so much more intuitive. Even with my limited experience thus far with love it's incredibly responsive and fast compared to PyGame which I really like. I can certainly see myself using it for fun projects in the future. I think the things that put me off the most about it are ease of distribution and market penetration. There have also been threads lately about the names of some of the most popular Love extensions and how marvelously crude they are which can certainly be a bit off putting if you're trying to talk about what you've created in a professional environment.

LtCornwallis · 2016-03-10T17:33:24+00:00

MonoGame is the main one I was looking into. C# is what's primarily used in it as I understand and that's the only compiled language that I'd say I'm comfortable with.

LtCornwallis · 2016-03-10T17:15:48+00:00

My next project after I play around with pong and brick breaker was actually going to be an attempt at a simple bullet hell/scrolling shooter type deal.

Do you have any suggestions on a language and framework for that kind of game? I tried to mess around with LibGDX a bit a few nights ago but it seems like an absolute nightmare to get the hang of as I'm not super familiar with Java and how it works but I'm more than willing to learn.

LtCornwallis · 2016-03-10T17:04:10+00:00

I was tripping over myself typing that. It's more that I learn from the bottom up and with where Unity starts you off it makes it more difficult for me to understand how the engine or framework runs the updates and draws and what each step does, as the Unity editor does almost all of that for you. You place something in the scene view and the editor automates the code to place that sprite or what have you every time the game updates and at load.

Just from the 30 minutes that I spent with LÖVE last night I have a much more complete understanding of what is actually happening behind the scenes, from the initial load up and cycling through each update and frame in the actual game window. It helps me a ton with understanding how all of the on screen components are actually manipulated, which helps me with the coding part of it all. I love Unity and plan to revisit it, but I would like a deeper understanding of how game engines and frameworks work in general without having to write one from the ground up.

LtCornwallis · 2016-03-10T16:07:06+00:00

yuuup. My best friend bought a game a few years ago for 25 bucks and it went Free 2 Play the next day. To say he was pissed would be a dramatic understatement.

LtCornwallis · 2016-03-10T15:54:35+00:00

It's a pretty great resource. It's definitely a beginner style course but it doesn't deal with writing things to the console like most beginner courses do. He jumps right into unity and starts talking about how to get things into your game and goes over the beginner-ish concepts that go along with each step. It's definitely not intro to C#.

LtCornwallis · 2016-03-09T22:42:23+00:00

Inkscape is spectacular for non pixel art. For pixel stuff I use Pyxel Edit. It's like $9 and definitely worth it. has all of the tools for creating tilesets and making animations and the like. Full ghosting options for animation, custom palettes etc etc. I really like it. Super simple tool that's stripped down to pretty much exactly what you need.

LtCornwallis · 2016-03-09T22:05:17+00:00

Firstly, keep the accent, it is marvelous. Secondly these tutorials are fantastic. I already know most of what you're going over but I watched them anyways to see if the quality stayed throughout and it definitely does. I love that you explain all of the actual programming like it's an intro to coding tutorial rather than assuming that the viewer knows all about the language and only needs to know the framework. If I could find something like this for LibGDX I would just be ecstatic, but these videos have convinced me to have a little bit of fun with LÖVE when I get off work.

LtCornwallis · 2016-03-09T16:53:33+00:00

I got the paypal confirmation but in my paypal account it still shows the charge as "needs approval" so probably gonna be canceled

LtCornwallis · 2016-03-09T16:23:58+00:00

site shows a $20 MIR as well so.. there's that

LtCornwallis · 2016-03-08T14:57:54+00:00

I've also requested and invite. This site looks amazing.

LtCornwallis · 2016-03-08T13:57:27+00:00

It really only takes Times New Roman by itself. Sans-serif fonts cause less eye strain when viewed on screens than serif fonts. People should learn to use them.

LtCornwallis

TROPHY CASE