I'm Ryan, a 30-something engineer. This is my blog about my geekdom, my family and my life. Come with me on my journey to becoming a game developer and other nerdy endeavors.
The DEA was out in force today in my back yard. Turns out for the last few years we've had our own weed house in the neighborhood.
This really creeps me out. So close.
On Sunday Gail and I noticed some strange behavior over at this house. We were on our deck and we noticed the neighbor was pulling dead plants out their backyard basement window. We commented on it jokingly, as they must be cleaning out the weed. We don't really know these neighbors, having never taken the time to try and get to know them. I couldn't identify them if I needed. Last night we watched the Season 5 premier (onDemand FYI) of Weeds on Showtime too. Then today DEA raids the house.
I was worried going into the final for GSP-380, but once I started it was a breeze. Some of the questions were wonky to try and trick you. Or maybe just poorly phrased to try and be different, but a strong A pulled through.
My next class is GSP-410, Software Engineering for Game Programming. Hope this class rocks. I'm taking it alone so I can give it some focus (and take some pressure off during the summer).
I finished my week 7 GSP 380 homework with flying colors I think. This week was about animation and inverse kinematics. The lab had us calculating the bones of a two jointed arm to find the appropriate angles and then animate them. It was very interesting, although pretty easy since it was really all spelled out. I went above and beyond the assignment and added some controls to adjust the length of the arms and the rate of animation. I also added error checking in the event of unreachable positions so the arms would still do something appropriate.
FYI, the lab's in this class generally comes pre-packaged with a basic skeleton of a program and then we, the students, have to add the guts. In this case, the window with camera controls and a white sphere were starters and we had to add the arms and do the math.
This is the first class I've had some struggles with. I've stayed in the A range most of it, though I really messed up one quiz with a 40%. I learned that I should prepare a little better and not make overarching assumptions regarding similarities between OpenGL and DirectX. This puts me at a B if I don't get above 80% on the final. I get 3 hrs to do the 300 point final, which consists of 21 multiple choice questions and 5 essay questions.
I rented Fallout 3... And after 6 late nights with the game, I had to returned it. I'm going through withdrawals wishing I hadn't taken it back. Oh well... I was at Target today and I would have dropped the $60 on it had I not already ordered it online a few days ago. It won't be here for a couple days unfortunately. It's probably for the best since I've got assignments due and a final next week.
I don't know if I'm biased or what, but I still think Microsoft did a bang up job with their press conference this year. It seemed that in response to Project Natal, Sony announced their own form of motion control, though it uses the Eye Toy and some wand controllers.
I do think some games could be great with this concept, but Natal shows so much more promise IMO.
Nintendo also announced something like a dozen new Mario games, so not big deal there. Their new Metroid game though shows promise, regardless of its awful name.
I just watched G4's coverage of the Microsoft Press event and the most pressing question I have is what can Nintendo and Sony do to top it, if even match it? It reminded me of last years event but with less stuff I could care little about (You're in The Movies, Lips) or feel remotely embarrassment for the presenters.
Of course the games are a big deal. The Left 4 Dead sequel, Modern Warfare 2, Splinter Cell and Final Fantasy XIII interested me the most, but it was Project Natal that had me really thinking. I've been predicting to friends, family, co-workers and even in my classes, that the next big thing will be no controller. I even mentioned today the idea of being able to drive without a controller by just by holding your hands in the air.
I also realize that the internets are going to be very skeptical about this too. They will undoubtedly say Microsoft is copying the Wii, but I honestly think its the next step. One that Nintendo could hardly make (with their lackluster system IMO and lack of real Online capabilities, etc.)
As I was watching Peter Molyneux present Milo I got excited thinking of the game possibilities. Seriously, here's the perfect interface for an honest to goodness story based game, a mystery exploration game, the next evolution of text based adventure into a fully imagined, 3D world. Granted, its about the programming and the AI, but with the loss of a controller it becomes something so much more.
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