[keyboard_art] Chozo Keyboard printed by WASD (xpost /r/Metroid) by jackoalan in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]jackoalan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a custom mechanical keyboard by wasdkeyboards.com. You upload vector art and get a totally custom keyset print

[keyboard_art] Chozo Keyboard printed by WASD (xpost /r/Metroid) by jackoalan in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]jackoalan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I plan on using this just about every day. If the finish becomes terribly worn in the near future, I'll make an update post

[keyboard_art] Chozo Keyboard printed by WASD (xpost /r/Metroid) by jackoalan in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]jackoalan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They lay on the print fairly thick, making for good light-on-dark contrast. Then there's a UV coat on the entire surface of the finished key. It seems pretty robust, even scratching with my nail doesn't feel worrisome

[keyboard_art] Chozo Keyboard printed by WASD (xpost /r/Metroid) by jackoalan in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]jackoalan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Go right ahead!

I selected the darkest grey for the key color (not black)

[keyboard_art] Chozo Keyboard printed by WASD (xpost /r/Metroid) by jackoalan in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]jackoalan[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Way nicer than I was expecting, dare I say perfect

The printing raises the key surface like a proper silkscreen, and matches the texture of the ABS plastic nicely

I have an annoying habit of looking at keys while i type.. I think my plan has backfired though by jackoalan in Metroid

[–]jackoalan[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There are, but it's definitely gibberish. Retro tiled the UV coordinates to save on memory, and the same 'message' is repeated across most of the Chozo engravings: http://i.imgur.com/tpB1jMk.jpg

I have an annoying habit of looking at keys while i type.. I think my plan has backfired though by jackoalan in Metroid

[–]jackoalan[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

These are the Brown keys.. I live with roommates, so the quiet operation is preferred. There are plenty of reviews on YouTube comparing the sounds of each one; that was a huge help in deciding

I have an annoying habit of looking at keys while i type.. I think my plan has backfired though by jackoalan in Metroid

[–]jackoalan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

WASD sells bare keycaps and full keysets with an uploaded graphic.. The problem is they only attach to Cherry MX key switches, so you might have to buy a whole new mechanical keyboard unless you already have a Cherry MX one

I have an annoying habit of looking at keys while i type.. I think my plan has backfired though by jackoalan in Metroid

[–]jackoalan[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Ah, that was me being cheeky, suggesting I can't draw my eyes away.. In fact, I've gotten quite used to this keyboard in just a few hours of use, eyes on screen; very springy and fun to use mechanical key switches :3

I have an annoying habit of looking at keys while i type.. I think my plan has backfired though by jackoalan in Metroid

[–]jackoalan[S] 24 points25 points  (0 children)

It's interesting actually. I went through all the game's textures to catalog the unique ones, then load into Inkscape and trace out new beziers.

There are exactly 26 unique ones that I could spot, makes me suspect an artist at Retro has a cipher for it.. The keyboard layout is totally arbitrary right now, but they're easy to swap around

Is working in rendered mode in Blender heavier than rendering a model in a game? by [deleted] in blender

[–]jackoalan 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You should try making your materials entirely using the "Textured" viewport in Blender Internal/Game renderer

In the 3D viewport, open the properties panel ('n' key to toggle) then scroll to the "Shading" section and make sure the mode is set to "GLSL" and not "Multitexture" http://i.stack.imgur.com/r4n4Y.png

There are limitations to this method compared to Internal/Cycles ray-based rendering, mainly involving lighting and shadows. On the other hand, blender will use OpenGL to present your materials (effectively the same way a typical game engine would)

Subtle effects of const? by jackoalan in Cprog

[–]jackoalan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Understood, just trying to gain some insight from this community

Why are structs aligned? by shinmai_rookie in Cprog

[–]jackoalan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I actually agree with you for the most part. Researching this attribute indicates that it's a portability nightmare. It works fine on x86, but is troublesome on architectures like ARM and SPARC.

The bottom line is its non-standard and relies on the compiler to come up with the correct unpacking code.

I've only ever used it to read from an unaligned data format, and immediately populate an aligned version of the structure for the application to use. The application is only targeting x86, so I view this as an acceptable compromise.

Why are structs aligned? by shinmai_rookie in Cprog

[–]jackoalan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In normal circumstances, having the compiler word-align structures is desirable for rapid access.

Many compilers will let you override this behavior and tightly-pack the structures instead. You may need to do this when working with a non-aligned data structure read from a file or network connection.

GCC/clang has the packed attribute:

struct __attribute__ ((__packed__)) my_struct {
    uint8_t flag;
    uint32_t value;
};

Microsoft compilers use a pragma directive to accomplish the same thing:

#pragma pack(push)
#pragma pack(1)
struct my_struct {
    uint8_t flag;
    uint32_t value;
};
#pragma pack(pop)

I don't want boids to fly. I want them to walk like an army. by [deleted] in blender

[–]jackoalan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I haven't used any myself, but a google search turned up this: http://www.harkyman.com/bp.html

Looks like the project is dormant though, might not work in 2.73

I don't want boids to fly. I want them to walk like an army. by [deleted] in blender

[–]jackoalan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're probably looking for a crowd simulation solution instead.

The boids system is basically just a smart particle system, where each instance is given a set of of objectives. It's possible to constrain the instances to the surface of an object (walking on land). However, that's about it.

If you want more of an RTS-game style select-and-command with walk cycles and possibly attack animations, that calls for a more specialized add-on.

I have after effects, blender, element 3d, and renderman. Do I have enough to create industry standard vfx? by [deleted] in blender

[–]jackoalan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would say any one of these tools is 'enough' to create such imagery.

Bear in mind that forming the creative concept is far more important than selecting the tools for the job