Quaking Quake

I just tried out Quake 4 and this is a game not to be taken lightly. I previously thought my laptop was a monster, with a ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 which has 512 MB of RAM. It also has 1.5 Gegs RAM. Unfortunately my thoughts were not matched when I put this game in. It would not run at the maximum video setting. Even in the minimum video mode, the graphics sometimes screwed up in the middle of gameplay. I thought I have a above average gaming system here. Maybe or maybe not...

Quake 4 is a very gruesome and bloody game. From the very beginning I felt its darkness and evil. The first scene shows soldiers floating in space with missing eyes and limbs and bloody faces and bodies. Ouch! Anywayz I started playing and I was chilled up the spine from step 1 as I faced the first Strogg. They produce a sickening growl before they attack and one of them has a sharp metal arm that he pokes you with and as you get poke you loose focus and the screen distorts as if the spike is actually hitting you. My heart was pounding all through the short time I played it and I jump up in my seat suddenly every time a monstrous Strogg came out of no where. And they don't die straight away, they take a beating to fall to the floor.



Respect to the graphics. I read about the real-time ray-tracing technique that Quake 4 utilizes for rendering and collision detection. The shadows too are done very well. The game is very dark. Pretty kool stuff, I must say. Quake 4 uses the same engine as its predecessor and Doom 3. The funny thing is I'm taking ray-tracing in the graphics course I'm taking. Only yesterday did we discuss the differences between ray-tracing, using z-buffer algorithm and BSP object rendering. Im new to all this, so its all very exciting!!! I cant wait to do my next project.

Im starting to dread the moment when I go back home tonight after work and after my masters class and play the evil Quake 4 in the darkness and solitude of my own room. "Its just a game" - they always used to say. We will see...

Graphics Premiere

I created my first openGL graphics composition. This was our first assignment in a graphics course Im taking. The whole idea of the project was to draw graphics on a buffer without using openGL functions. Once the buffer has been drawn on, we only use openGL to output the buffer to the screen.



Of course the composition you see above has animations, color changing, color filling and size changing. I tried to experiment with all the basic techniques in 2D.

I hope the grade I get for this lives up to the effort I put in. InshAllah.

My next challenge will be trying to create a 3D corridor with a box in the middle with fog, lighting effects and (something i'm dying to do) image wrapping. This will be my ultimate goal. After this I want to experiment with 3D modeling and importing real 3D model characters like Warcraft orcs or something and do some animations.

Until my next blog entry...

Which game console is the greenest of them all?

One guy was probably soooo bored that he decided to discover the "greenest" of the three major game consoles in the market.

He measured the power consumption of the Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. To no surprise the Xbox 360 proved to be a monstrous energy sucking creature taking in 194 watts. This was followed by the PS3 with a 171 watt energy footprint. The Wii sips in 17 watts and has been declared the greenest game console.



So the little Wii has beaten its bulky brethren at the "Greenest of them all" contest. If you want to help keep energy consumption down to a minimum, buy a Wii instead of the other two.

Copyleft

Copyleft is an interesting term i came across. It is kind of the opposite of copyright. It uses copyright law to remove restrictions on distributing copies and modified versions of some work and force any further modifications to also apply this.

Am I a geek? A nerd perhaps...?

According to a t-shirt I got from the Microsoft store @ Microsoft HQ in Redmond, a geek is a excessive computer user. With this, Im definitely a geek.

According to Wikipedia a geek is the following:
1: a carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken, bat or snake
2: a person often of an intellectual bent who is disliked
3: an enthusiast or expert especially in a technological field or activity

Hmm. I dont qualify for 1 or 2. 3 sounds more like me. I am an enthusiast and a bit of an expers in some technological fields. I am after all a software engineer.

So I guess I do qualify as a geek. What about a nerd? I was once called "Closet Nerd". What this person meant was that I studied my ass off in secret and did not like to show I was studying. This was kind of true, but not for the fact that I wanted to hide it, but because I was unable at the time to study in groups. I found it very distracting and inefficient.

According to Wikipedia again (my favorite source of information) a nerd is:
A person who passionately pursues intellectual or esoteric knowledge or pastimes rather than engaging in social life.

Well right now I definitely classify as a nerd and a geek...hehe...

The Halo Effect

Im sure if your a gamer then you've heard of Halo 3 (the third part to the XBOX's killer app). Its believed to be the biggest entertainment release ever. In the first 24 hours it made 170 million dollars.

This of course smacked me right in the back, coz I was dying to be a part of the whole hype about the game and try out the revolutionary MMO (massive multi-player online)
FPS (First Person Shooter). I dont have an XBOX, and believe you me, when I say Im dying to buy one now to try out Halo 3. In order curb my vein-racketing urge to play it, I decided to check out the history of Halo and go out and buy Halo 1 : Evolved Combat, the first game in the Halo trio.

I bought it from a local shop and started playing. I must say it has been one of the most enjoyable games Ive ever played. The storyline is catchy and the way you can ride vehicles and fly Banchees really really appealed to me. It satisfied my current surge for computer gaming.

Well Ive just finished the game in easy mode. Took me around 3 sittings to finish the game. Unfortunately Halo 2 runs only on Vista and I dont have Vista. So Im still thinking of buying an XBOX but I read some reviews about it and there are many complaints. People are complaining of the Red Light Of Doom (RLOD), I think its called. The console freezes up and stops working and displays a red ring of light. They have claimed to have fixed the problem in all newer versions. The slight probability that this could happen to me, has made me rule out ordering it from abroad. If I do decide to buy the XBOX, it will be from Egypt for a higher price.

Hmm, I dont really know, maybe I should wait a while until i cool down a bit and my gaming hormones settle down.

I also finished Splinter Cell - Pandora Tomorrow around a week and a half ago. I bought a multiplayer game called Battlefield 2142 which seemed interesting, but I got fed up of the limited single player mode.

As you can see i'm in a gaming frenzy...

Which game am I going to try out next!!!! Oh I bought Quake 4 which I anticipate to be awesome, but there is something wrong with the setup files. I'll return it. I cant wait to play it, now that im done with Halo.

Imagine working in a game studio in Microsoft and developing something as complex and enjoyable as Halo 3. I can only dream of working in something like this. If I ever do (inshAllah), I hope it lives up to my dreams, and I live up to my dream.