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One day I will live the dream and daisy chain 64 firewire devices together. The most use I got out of firewire (besides power-adaptor free harddisks and chaining externals together to transfer stuff) was probably target disk mode. It's real handy to just plug in a computer to use as a hard disk if you find yourself with a broken library or something.
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Jun 26, 2016 02:54
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DoctorWhat posted:How does the pre-baked Global Illumination implementation in the "Hedgehog Engine" relate to these methods? In terms of realtime gaming, there just isn't enough power to have the system shoot out rays of light, bounce them around, bend them, and gather the results while also allowing for smooth performance (note: realtime GI has actually just started to be viable to some small degree, but from what I understand it's both limited in things like number of bounces and often pretty darn slow). So what game engines like Unity, Unreal, and Hedgehog (I assume it works this way) do is precalculate the light bounces using a solver, and store them in a lightmap, which is a texture of the shadows which is overlaid on geometry. It does this using a process called photon mapping - it sends out hundreds of thousands of photons, sees how they interact with the geometry, and collects the results. Beyond just a simple shooting of photons from light sources, there are options for things such as baked ambient occlusion and lots of settings to tweak variables such as the scale of the distance that should be sampled, the quality of the GI, the intensity of the diffuse and environment contributions, and so on. Calculating all this takes time, sometimes hours per level, and it's common for larger companies to have render farms (probably using regular workstations at night or something) set up to distribute the load of generating all those maps. A simple indoor scene with a few windows that sunlight streams through, default settings and a lightmap resolution of 64x64 can often run into problems with splotchiness of the indirect lighting, and light bleeding from the corners of walls/gaps in window frames and such. To counteract this, portals can be used, which tell the photons that they should be focusing through there, instead of being tossed out every which way. Also, lightmap resolution can be increased for large flat surfaces such as walls that may receive a bunch of shadows. Note that lightmap resolution is set per-object, so you can choose a high resolution only for the things that receive shadows. Also, an influence box can be set around only the parts of the level that need to receive high quality lighting, so if there's background geometry the player will never get close to the solver isn't wasting time calculating high quality maps for it. Now, lightmaps in all their high-quality glory are not realtime - that means that any dynamic object such as a player or a swinging lamp needs to be lit or cast light using a dynamic light, which is not a part of the GI system. There is a limit to how many shadow casting dynamic lights can be overlapping in a scene at once (UE4s limit is 4), but you can have a near-infinite number of non casting lights because just influencing the diffuse color is super cheap. There are ways to influence the lighting on the player from the lightmaps, where the engine sets out points a certain distance apart and as the player model walks through them it already has a cache of indirect lighting generated for that, but it's not for shadows, just for diffuse lighting influence. One of the neat things is that this technique was used in offline rendering before games picked it up, probably most notably with the Mental Ray renderer that comes with 3dsmax. It's where I had my first introduction to it, and I was surprised to see it used in game engines when I started messing around with that. E: for buttcoin purses question, POV Ray is still getting releases, including a preview release May 18th of this year. I was absolutely expecting it was dead, but I figured I'd check first before spouting something as fact and lo and behold, it's still going! That surprises me a bunch, as it was one of the early programs that piqued my interest in CGI. And funny thing is, it can use photon mapping! The Gasmask has a new favorite as of 03:02 on Jun 26, 2016 |
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Jun 26, 2016 02:55
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That sounds right re:Hedgehog, based on what I've overheard from the level editing community/modscene.
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Jun 26, 2016 03:08
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Rev. Bleech_ posted:I graduated college in 2000 and the IS/Programming Concentration course of study focused on COBOL and RPG. Apparently they were going to make us all rich fixing the Y2K problem for a bunch of textile factories around the state. And I thought my college was backwards! I graduated around the same time and I probably would have enjoyed learning COBOL and RPG because I already liked obsolete technology back then, but fortunately I actually learned practical stuff like C and Java. Closely related: In 2001 I picked up a copy of Teach Yourself COBOL In 21 Days from the specials bin at Borders, I assume after Y2K there was suddenly a lot less interest in it again. Still haven't read it  The Gasmask posted:E: for buttcoin purses question, POV Ray is still getting releases, including a preview release May 18th of this year. I was absolutely expecting it was dead, but I figured I'd check first before spouting something as fact and lo and behold, it's still going! Thanks for googling that for me  Also drat all that stuff is way more complicated than I ever thought about.I like how Minecraft seems to not do anything complicated at all with lights and still has massively broken lighting.
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Jun 26, 2016 03:17
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I just looked up some deets on Hedgehog engine, and it looks like it uses something like photon mapping, as they had to use distributed rendering over longer periods of time to render the lightmaps for the levels. Also, the light field technology they talk about for the characters sounds an awful lot like the indirect lighting cache used in UE4, so I'm guessing it's the same concept of sampling the GI influence at set points and using that to influence the lighting on the character. Most engines will use different terms for the same techniques so it makes figuring out if they're the same a bit more complicated, but once you start to learn the science behind it you realize there aren't a whole lot of ways to calculate global illumination.
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Jun 26, 2016 03:18
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Regarding FireWire... I bought my first iPod around '03 maybe? It was a 15gb 3rd gen. The one with the touch wheel and 4 orange buttons. Truly an amazing upgrade from the mp3 Sony Discman I had before that. I just remember being so drat frustrated when I got my shiny new iPod home and found that it was FireWire only. I had to go out the next day to find a FireWire card and figure out all the drivers and poo poo before I could use my shiny new precious. I never found another use for that FW card other than my iPod. A few years later I spent way too much money on a Power Mac G5 that had FireWire 800. I got a 250gb Lacie external HD with FW800 and it was the fastest transfers I'd seen until USB 3 became a thing. I still have that Lacie HD and it still works like a champ. It outlived that Power Mac by many years. I always wondered why FW800 never caught on. It was seriously fast and simple to use in my experiences. I believe it was ahead of its time.
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Jun 26, 2016 04:29
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Esata took over for fw800 for people that cared about speed on drives, and not enough people had video cameras with 800 (most had that weird fewer-pin mini 400). I'm sure there were industrial uses or probably high channel audio mixers, but nothing public i can think of
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Jun 26, 2016 06:15
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A lot of soundcards use firewire, but they're being phased out for thunderbolt and usb. I wouldn't call firewire 100% gone yet, but I'd be surprised if people were making FW devices in 2020.
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Jun 26, 2016 06:28
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FireWire really started to die off once video devices moved off tape/internal hard drives into removable disk formats. Plus the prosumer market started kicking in right when USB started decent speeds and video cameras started recording in H.264 and other compressed formats so you didn't need to move as much space as before and even USB 2 speeds were bearable. Plus USB is smaller and cheaper to make and has lower power requirements making it a better fit for laptops while fitting Apple's trend to make everything wafer thin. FW800 did catch on but people don't usually upgrade to the latest and greatest on release so there was a bit of a jolt when people went from a fat mac to a skinny mac and had to compensate for a loss of CD drive and FireWire. Thunderbolt's pricing has been one cause for it's slow adoption rate and unlike FW being Mac and PC based, Thunderbolt has been slow to appear on the PC side of things but I suspect it's going to start picking up.
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Jun 26, 2016 07:13
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Never forget.
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Jun 26, 2016 11:23
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WebDog posted:FireWire really started to die off once video devices moved off tape/internal hard drives into removable disk formats. Plus the prosumer market started kicking in right when USB started decent speeds and video cameras started recording in H.264 and other compressed formats so you didn't need to move as much space as before and even USB 2 speeds were bearable. Reminds me that I really ought to get a FW card for my PC to get my home movies off my miniDV camera...
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Jun 26, 2016 11:43
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Humphreys posted:Never forget. That's Firewire flash, right? Or err "1394" flash?
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Jun 26, 2016 11:52
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I went ahead and said gently caress it and went to Windows 10 on my old sony from 2008. So far it's working fine. It probably helps to have an upgraded processor on an SSD. What the hell, I'll try this biznass out and see how it goes.
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Jun 26, 2016 14:51
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It's burgin' time! 
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I was trying to connect my old FireWire external hard disk yesterday, but I couldn't find my FW1 to FW2 adapter and just said screw it and used the USB port instead. That's my FireWire story. Thunderbolt seems to be better in most every way and can do video too, so it's not too big a loss. I will have to keep at least one FireWire capable device around for old mini-DV tapes though. I want one of the stand alone players, but they're not obsolete enough price-wise.
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Jun 26, 2016 15:42
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I heart bacon posted:I went ahead and said gently caress it and went to Windows 10 on my old sony from 2008. So far it's working fine. It probably helps to have an upgraded processor on an SSD. What the hell, I'll try this biznass out and see how it goes. As someone primarily employed as a computer technician, my advice has been thus so far: if you like the version of windows you are using, stick with it. I've seen literally hundreds of machines come in over the past year simply because Windows 10 caused driver issues or was incompatible with installed software. But go ahead and try it out because within 30 days you can roll back to your previously installed version of windows.
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Jun 26, 2016 15:55
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My PI got a new high-end toshiba laptop with windows 10, and within 30 minutes of booting it up the massive diagonal screen tearing and constant popups of of "The display driver stopped responding and has recovered" made it clear they never bothered testing it.
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Jun 26, 2016 17:38
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Tunicate posted:My PI got a new high-end toshiba laptop with windows 10, and within 30 minutes of booting it up the massive diagonal screen tearing and constant popups of of "The display driver stopped responding and has recovered" made it clear they never bothered testing it. Your private investigator? Are you the femme fatale or the mob leader?
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Jun 26, 2016 17:53
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Arivia posted:Your private investigator? Are you the femme fatale or the mob leader? I was about to ask the gently caress a PI is supposed to be but I didn't want to seem iggorant.
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Jun 26, 2016 17:58
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Jerry Cotton posted:I was about to ask the gently caress a PI is supposed to be but I didn't want to seem iggorant. Principal Investigator, aka project lead in an academic or research setting.
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Jun 26, 2016 18:00
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Principal Investigator, probably. The way a lot of science research works now is that there's one older professor who manages to get a bunch of grant money (admittedly a very very important job) and sort of head up the research while postdocs and grad students do a lot of the more researchy looking work.
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Jun 26, 2016 18:00
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Shugojin posted:Principal Investigator, probably. The way a lot of science research works now is that there's one older professor who manages to get a bunch of grant money (admittedly a very very important job) and sort of head up the research while postdocs and grad students do a lot of the more researchy looking work. And one of them paid dollars for a Toshiba product?
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Jun 26, 2016 18:02
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Sir Unimaginative posted:And one of them paid dollars for a Toshiba product? Your average 70 year old tenured prof doesn't usually know a lot about computers. Even if he's in computer science, because playing computer janitor and reading the latest PC World doesn't really help in his job.
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Jun 26, 2016 18:04
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Shugojin posted:grad students do a lot of the more researchy looking work. and the tech support
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Jun 26, 2016 18:37
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GreenNight posted:Yeah my boss is all surprised we aren't getting any applicants. The 25 year RPG programming vet is retiring and we have no replacement. Woot woot. That would explain why I keep getting recruitment emails from places wanting RPG programmers. My LinkedIn profile mentions that I've programmed a few RPGs and stuff related to them. Guess a scraper decided it was a match? And I'm like no I will not work for a bank while being confused as to why a bank would want somebody to program games.
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Jun 26, 2016 19:39
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treiz01 posted:As someone primarily employed as a computer technician, my advice has been thus so far: if you like the version of windows you are using, stick with it. I've seen literally hundreds of machines come in over the past year simply because Windows 10 caused driver issues or was incompatible with installed software. I agree. Very much. I dragged my feet going from XP to 7 but really really liked 7. It was a case of what the hell, why not? I'm also a former IT goon where I like to stick with proven tech. This may suck donkeys but so far it's not so bad. I wish I new where to find the old command box. I was putting up a new router and went to go find the old command box for hitting ipconfig and windows 10 was no help there.
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Jun 26, 2016 21:01
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You just hit the Windows key and type "cmd" and push enter, or right click the windows icon.
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Jun 26, 2016 21:07
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I heart bacon posted:I agree. Very much. I dragged my feet going from XP to 7 but really really liked 7. It was a case of what the hell, why not? I'm also a former IT goon where I like to stick with proven tech. This may suck donkeys but so far it's not so bad. I wish I new where to find the old command box. I was putting up a new router and went to go find the old command box for hitting ipconfig and windows 10 was no help there. I have 10 running on not my main computer for this reason. I just use too much legacy software that I've spent a lot of time getting to the point where it works on 7 to break it by going to 10 at this point.
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Jun 26, 2016 21:30
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Elliotw2 posted:You just hit the Windows key and type "cmd" and push enter, or right click the windows icon. Thanks! 
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Jun 26, 2016 21:36
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Elliotw2 posted:You just hit the Windows key and type "cmd" and push enter, or right click the windows icon. Which you should have been doing in 7 too! It's also on the right click menu of the start button. Lots of useful stuff is there, actually.
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Jun 26, 2016 21:38
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So far the only thing I have fixed on a win10 computer was a bug related to the network adapter saving power causing the computer to lose its assigned IP until a reboot. It was like a 5 minute research and fix after I found out that the network problem was just that one computer on all networks. Which admittedly was after two hours of not finding anything wrong with their wifi config but i charge hourly so yolofuckit and I was able to give them tips on improving their wifi coverage without buying a new thing.
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Jun 26, 2016 21:39
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Elliotw2 posted:You just hit the Windows key and type "cmd" and push enter, or right click the windows icon. Also, if you go into start menu and taskbar properties, you can tick a box to change the win-x/start button context menu's command prompt link into a Powershell link.
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Jun 26, 2016 22:09
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Toast Museum posted:Also, if you go into start menu and taskbar properties, you can tick a box to change the win-x/start button context menu's command prompt link into a Powershell link. Oh awesome. I was too busy looking for "run"
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Jun 27, 2016 01:37
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Windows' 10's search feature is so garbage I hope it's obsoleted soon. It won't find stuff that's pinned to the taskbar and can't even do basic math. It's decades behind spotlight. Spotlight!
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Jun 27, 2016 12:10
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I heart bacon posted:Oh awesome. I was too busy looking for "run"
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Jun 27, 2016 13:19
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well why not posted:Windows' 10's search feature is so garbage I hope it's obsoleted soon. It won't find stuff that's pinned to the taskbar and can't even do basic math. It's decades behind spotlight. Spotlight! Do you have Cortana off? I think it needs to be on for most of what it can do.
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Jun 27, 2016 14:12
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Aphrodite posted:Do you have Cortana off? I think it needs to be on for most of what it can do.
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Jun 27, 2016 14:35
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Aphrodite posted:Do you have Cortana off? I think it needs to be on for most of what it can do. Not available in Norway (or indeed most countries), which makes it especially annoying when things break without her/it.
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Jun 27, 2016 15:06
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Computer viking posted:Not available in Norway (or indeed most countries), which makes it especially annoying when things break without her/it. Astounding.
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Jun 27, 2016 19:19
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At launch it wasn't available in Canada. I just set mine to be US though, since that doesn't affect anything really. Probably not the case in Norway.
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Jun 27, 2016 19:53
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Computer viking posted:Win+R . I didn't even think of that either.... thanks! 
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Jun 28, 2016 01:04
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