MCGT Tribune

Moving...

2006-09-02T16:50:00.000-07:00

The POTD will be moved to mkbunday.blogspot.com

CGTalk - Last Elf, Piotr Fox Wysocki (3D)

2006-08-21T12:03:00.000-07:00

CGTalk - Last Elf, Piotr Fox Wysocki (3D)

CGTalk - Theme Planet Lawyer, Michael Sormann (3D)

2006-08-16T19:24:00.000-07:00

CGTalk - Theme Planet Lawyer, Michael Sormann (3D)

CGTalk - Moon Key, Olivier Ponsonnet (3D)

2006-08-15T16:33:00.000-07:00

CGTalk - Moon Key, Olivier Ponsonnet (3D)

Technology: Heightmaps vs. Static meshes

2006-08-11T06:03:00.000-07:00

Heightmaps: A grayscale image used to displace a mesh. Several textures are usually applied.
Pros: Low GPU usage, LOD, Allows creation of high-quality terrain
Cons: No overhanging
Best For: Large amounts of "base terrain", e.g., extra static meshes placed on the heightmap.

Static mesh: A true 3D mesh.
Pros: Allows for over-hanging
Cons: High GPU usage, Forces creation of low-poly terrain.
Best For: Cliffs, Objects, Buildings, etc.

Technology: Skyboxes, Skydomes, and Skyplanes

2006-08-10T19:28:00.000-07:00

Skybox - A full cube mapped around the world geometry.
Pros: Full mapping; bottom of cube need not be hidden
Cons: Less realistic then alternate methods
Best For: General usage, Generic application

Skydome - A cube with no bottom (Is sometimes a half-sphere). Spherical texture mapping.
Pros: Most realistic
Cons: Most GPU-intensive, bottom of cube needs to be hidden, e.g. with terrain
Best For: Non-cosmos scenes, High realism applications

Skyplane - A flat plane placed above world geometry (Can sometimes be curved).
Pros: Best for some fog implementations, least GPU-intensive
Cons: All but top must be hidden
Best For: Valleys, Castles, Mountains, etc.

Tech: cfdisk

2006-07-22T09:35:00.000-07:00

Ya'll should know about fdisk-based partioning systems. What? You don't? Well now, this we must correct!

fdisk is a partitioning program included with MS-DOS. It's rather simple, and not all that easy to use, if memory (and wikipedia) serves. But no time to get into that. I want to cover cfdisk, which is what Symphony O/S and GeeXboX - and many others - use for partitioning (Although it can be used stand-alone). There is a great ASCII art illistration at the wikipedia page. This tutorial will be designed for GeeXboX, keeping in mind the current GeeXboX series.

Ok, GeeXboX has finished asking you some questions. Now you are being shown a black, rather DOS-ish screen with a bunch of text. What should you do now? Well, it depends. If you want to clean the disk and make it exclusive to GeeXboX, delete all the partitions. Do this with the following controls:

Up/Down arrow keys: Change the currently selected partition
Left/Right arrow keys: Change the currently selected control, e.g. delete, quit
Enter: Select

Ok, now that you've cleared the disk, select the New control, and hit enter. You will be asked how big the partition should be. The default is the maximum size. Any number bigger then 16 will work fine for GeeXboX. Now tell cfdisk to make it bootable, then hit write. After it's done, quit and continue the installation as before.

I don't have acess to cfdisk to check any of this, so I'm going off of memory for some of it. Caveat Emptor. If you do find any flaws, however, I would like to learn about it, so just tell me in the comments and I might fix it.

Technology: GeeXboX 1.0 Review (Part 2)

2006-07-08T16:25:00.000-07:00

Ok, part two.

Here I will tell you how to create a media center to play music CD's, DVD movies, photos, and movie files. I'll leave figuring out how to use remote controls, XBOX controllers, streaming web streams (including Realpayer streams), TV cards, and DVB cards up to you, the GeeXboX documentation, and the forum.

Neither i80and, mkbunday, or the MCGT Tribune takes any responsibility for any damage that occurs to a physical system or the data in it.

Contents:
1.0:
1.1: Find a computer & download
2.0:
2.1: Windows ISO Gen
2.2: Linux ISO Gen
3.0:
3.1: Install GeeXboX
3.2: Run GeeXboX

1.
1.1: Ok, first find a computer. It has to support VESA 2.0 video standards, but other then that, go wild. I've tested the install on a PII 400mhz with a GeForce 2 400/MX and 128mb RAM. Back up any data you may want later on, and download GeeXboX at http://www.geexbox.org. There are two ways to do this: The first option is to get a pre-made ISO to burn to a CD. This has pre-made settings that you may not want. To change these settings, download the ISO Generator, and save to your hard disk.

If you are downloading the pre-prepared ISO, skip to part 3.

2.
2.1: First download 7-zip and then install it. Now, use it to extract the ISO generator. Now run generator.exe.

This is what you should get. The DVD playback mode is of interest. It allows you to change the default DVD mode. Direct Playback skips copyright notices and ads; directly to the movie. DVD navigation menu is what you may be used to. It's still beta in my tests (e.g. I haven't gotten it to work, but then it isn't designed for keyboards, either), but gives you more features and options.

The audio tab sets certain audio feautes. If you have 5.1 surround sound, change the channel number to 5.1 surround.

The remote control tab allows you to set your remote control driver. I haven't tested this, but atiusb (the default) controls a ATI All In Wonder.

The services tab allows you to enable certain things. Windows Shares you can configure when you install GeeXboX, but the other options are of interest. I haven't tested any functions here, but the SHOUTcast check boxes help you stream radio and TV from the web. The server options I recommend leaving disabled, as my research into hacking shows that enabling a FTP server can be a huge security hole.

Packages allows you to enable Asian fonts, certain proprietary playback codacs, proprietary firmware for proprietary DVB cards and proprietary WiFi cards. Finally, you can install extra themes to set in the first tab.

Now, if you have the CPU power, you may enable Post-Processing Effects to give smoother and higher quality playback. Browse to the archive directory, then browse to
/iso/geexbox/etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf.
Right-click it, then hit Open, or Open With.
Open with Wordpad (notified won't work because it can't read the encoding).
Replace the lines

# Set Post Processing (h deblock, v deblock, dering, auto luminance)
# Consumes CPU power, disabled for low configs, uncomment to enable it.
#vf=pp=hb:a/vb:a/dr:a/al:a

with

# Set Post Processing (h deblock, v deblock, dering, auto luminance)
# Consumes CPU power, disabled for low configs, uncomment to enable it.
vf=pp=hb:a/vb:a/dr:a/al:a

Now just hit the Compile button, and an ISO file will be created to the root directory of the generator directory as geexbox-1.0-custom-en.i386.iso. Burn this as an ISO using a tool such as Nero or Roxio, or CDBurnerXP.

Note: I have heard of a bug in the Windows version that may result in a corrupt ISO

2.2:
The only difference in Linux is that you don't need to download a new archive tool. Xarchiver I know works fine, but most if not all should work. Also, the generator program is called Linux-i386-generator.

3.
3.1:
Make sure that your BIOS is set to boot off of a CD-ROM. Change this by restarting your computer and hitting F1 (This changes between vendors. See your vendor documentation. Some BIOS may use escape or delete). There should be an option somewhere to set boot order. Change the order so that the CD drive boots before the hard disk.

Ok, so far so good. Now insert the GeeXboX CD, and exit BIOS saving changes. As soon as the GeeXboX logo appears, hit F1. Then, the log should disappear (Or, you can make sure that your computer is supported by leaving it alone for 2 sec). Now type install. GeeXboX will boot into the installer (ugly).

Step 1: GeeXboX will ask you where you want to install it. hde is probably your hard disk. If this is where you want to install, hit enter.

Step 2: GeeXboX will tell you that you may now set up partitions. Hit enter. I won't tell you how to use cfdisk, because it's the same as the DOS fdisk. There are plenty of tutorials out there.

Step 3: GeeXboX will ask you which partition you wish to install to. Select with cursor keys, then hit enter.

Step 4: GeeXboX will as you if you want to reformat. Select with cursor keys, then hit enter.

Step 5: GeeXboX will ask you if you want to set up networking. Select with cursor keys, then hit enter. The defaults should work fine on most windows networks (if you know that your current network has a password, you will need to enter it).

Step 6: GeeXboX will now inform you if it found any other O/S installed, and if you want the bootloader (GRUB) installed into the MBR. I told it yes, but follow your inner nerd.

Step 7: That's it! GeeXboX will now reboot (unless you have a TV card. But I'll leave that one to you.)

Your computer will reboot. Take out the CD, and let GeeXboX boot. The interface, by the way, is on the top of the GeeXboX team's to-do list to revise, so don't be too harsh on it. When you insert a DVD or CD, the media will began playing automatically. To watch TV, view photos, sound clips, or video files, hit Open. Then, just follow your nerdy sense (with a little bit of trial-and-error, you can get it. But it may help to know that SAMBA is a Windows network). You may want to know these keys for the file manager, though (These are all in the Help menu, as well):

D: Set copy destination
C: Copy selected file to destination
Enter/Return: View or go into a directory (including ./)
P: Play all files in directory
R (then) O: Remove the currently selected file

Congratulations! No thanks to me you now have a media center! Yay!
Any wuestions? Just post them in the comments, and I'll make fun of you. I mean, answer them.

Technology: GeeXboX 1.0 Review (Part 1)

2006-06-28T09:45:00.000-07:00

All who know me know of my Linux obsession. But none know of my recent finding of a small, 7mb distro called "GeeXboX". On June 22, 2006 1.0 was released. It featured a huge jump in codac quantities, the introduction of the ability to show DVD menus (although I haven't gotten this to work), the introduction of the ability to play network streams (such as SHOUTcast, WebTV, and RTP/RTSP), and more drivers have been introduced. Finally, metadata can now be viewed on files.

I have been using GeeXboX for about a day on LiveCD, so I'll have more later.
My test computer is:

Pentium III 11ghz
512mb RAM
GeForce 2 MX/400 32mb dedicated
DSL Internet

The developers say that all you need is 64mb RAM and a Pentium II 400mhz, so my computer was adaquite.

The next post will have an in-depth review.

Features: 4.5/5
Stability: 5/5
Preference: 3.5/5
Interface: 3/5
Overall: 4/5

http://www.geexbox.org/en/index.html

CGTalk - Knight - Soul Of The Ultimate Nation, An Jungsik (2D)

2006-06-12T11:26:00.000-07:00

CGTalk - Knight - Soul Of The Ultimate Nation, An Jungsik (2D)

CGTalk - Alien Priest, Emrah Elmasli (2D)

2006-06-12T11:25:00.001-07:00

CGTalk - Alien Priest, Emrah Elmasli (2D)

CGTalk - Sherbetcibot, Emrah Elmasli (2D)

2006-06-12T11:25:00.000-07:00

CGTalk - Sherbetcibot, Emrah Elmasli (2D)

CGTalk - Necrotica, Wayne Williams (3D)

2006-06-12T11:24:00.001-07:00

CGTalk - Necrotica, Wayne Williams (3D)

CGTalk - Fortress, Ales Horak (2D)

2006-06-12T11:24:00.000-07:00

CGTalk - Fortress, Ales Horak (2D)

CGTalk - 3d Artist Demoreel - Steffen Unger

2006-06-10T15:31:00.000-07:00

CGTalk - 3d Artist Demoreel - Steffen Unger

CGTalk - Fall, Levi Szilárd Péterfi (2D)

2006-06-09T11:21:00.000-07:00

CGTalk - Fall, Levi Szilárd Péterfi (2D)

CGTalk - Matte painting: Clamps of steel, Luca Bonatti (2D)

2006-06-08T19:43:00.000-07:00

CGTalk - Matte painting: Clamps of steel, Luca Bonatti (2D)

CGTalk - Soulless Warrior (Game Rez), Andrew Kincaid (3D)

2006-06-07T16:51:00.000-07:00

CGTalk - Soulless Warrior (Game Rez), Andrew Kincaid (3D)

CGTalk - Vampire, Alexandre Rodrigues De Oliveira (3D)

2006-06-04T10:27:00.000-07:00

CGTalk - Vampire, Alexandre Rodrigues De Oliveira (3D)

CGTalk - Acossado - Frames From The Animation, Mario Ucci (3D)

2006-06-01T13:16:00.000-07:00

CGTalk - Acossado - Frames From The Animation, Mario Ucci (3D)

CGTalk - Assassin's Creed E3 trailer matte painting, Benoit Ladouceur (2D)

2006-05-30T13:45:00.000-07:00

CGTalk - Assassin's Creed E3 trailer matte painting, Benoit Ladouceur (2D)

CGTalk - Rodeo, Mark Endre Seljan (3D)

2006-05-29T19:07:00.000-07:00

CGTalk - Rodeo, Mark Endre Seljan (3D)

Technology: Windows Vista

2006-05-28T18:05:00.001-07:00

Before the release of Windows XP in 2001, Microsoft was talking about Windows Vista, which was a small step between XP and another project, Blackcomb (which was later renamed Windows Vienna. The original release date set for Vista was 2003, but as more features planned for Vienna were implemented into Vista, that date was set back several times. In 2004, Microsoft announced that they were going to significantly change Vista's design to help them release it sooner. Basically, they started over using the Windows Server 2003 code. Among the changes announced were the dropping of WinFS (a new file system that was going to include a faster indexing system, along with major changes to UI format), and the renaming of the project to Vista from Longhorn.

The project was delayed several times later on, and has recently been set to January 2007, (upsetting the market and causing the computer industry millions) although CEO Steve Ballmer has stated that if more bugs appear, Vista may be delayed into the second quarter of 2007.

The estimated system requirements will be high for the Areo experience (which Linux has countered already with XGL), including a gigabyte of RAM, a dual-core CPU, and a fairly modern GPU. The basic Vista product (called Windows Vista Home Basic) will only require 512mb RAM and a 800mhz+ CPU.

Windows Vista will be available in the infamous 6 versions:

Windows Vista Starter

For emerging foregn markets. Limited to 256mb RAM

Windows Vista Home Basic

For budget home users

Windows Vista Home Premium

For advanced home users

Windows Vista Business

Like Windows XP Professional

Windows Vista Enterprise

A special version not avalible OEM or retail. A more powerful version of Vista Business. Includes the ability to run UNIX apps

Windows Vista Ultimate

Merge of the ubove versions (except Starter and Basic), and includes podcasting support, a proformence tweaker, and more support.

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Vista
http://www.playfuls.com/news_02745_Windows_Vista_vs_Linux_Why_Vista_Might_Lose_the_Battle.html
http://www.microsoft.com/Windowsvista/
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;cid=1148681733480&call_pageid=968350072197&col=969048863851

Questions about Vista? Post it in the comment area and I'll see what I can drudge up. You might have to wait a while for a answer; I'm taking a vacation to Ireland.

CGTalk - Jennifer, Rami Shtainer (3D)

2006-05-28T18:05:00.000-07:00

CGTalk - Jennifer, Rami Shtainer (3D)

CGTalk - Raining Canyon, Michael Lee (2D)

2006-05-27T19:02:00.000-07:00

CGTalk - Raining Canyon, Michael Lee (2D)

CGTalk - The prayer, Xiao Bing (2D)

2006-05-25T10:03:00.000-07:00

CGTalk - The prayer, Xiao Bing (2D)

CGTalk - Encompass, Jonathan Ryder (2D)

2006-05-24T08:50:00.000-07:00

CGTalk - Encompass, Jonathan Ryder (2D)

CGTalk - Taurus, Soa Lee (3D)

2006-05-23T09:34:00.000-07:00

CGTalk - Taurus, Soa Lee (3D)

CGTalk - Changing, Benita Winckler (2D)

2006-05-22T08:48:00.000-07:00

CGTalk - Changing, Benita Winckler (2D)

CGTalk - Reckoning Day, Philip Straub (2D)

2006-05-21T15:43:00.000-07:00

CGTalk - Reckoning Day, Philip Straub (2D)

CGTalk - The Admiral Kolchak, Sergey Musin (2D)

2006-05-18T17:28:00.000-07:00

CGTalk - The Admiral Kolchak, Sergey Musin (2D)

CGTalk - The carpet trader, Sylvain Jézéquel (2D)

2006-05-17T08:37:00.001-07:00

CGTalk - The carpet trader, Sylvain Jézéquel (2D)

2006-05-17T08:37:00.000-07:00

CGTalk - The carpet trader, Sylvain Jézéquel (2D)

CGTalk - -Medieval Scene-, Mathias Verhasselt (2D)

2006-05-16T11:29:00.000-07:00

CGTalk - -Medieval Scene-, Mathias Verhasselt (2D)

Potd

2006-05-15T08:58:00.000-07:00

Potd
Very atmospheric, nice reflection on the water. Check out the step by step thing.

Potd

2006-05-11T08:59:00.000-07:00

CGTalk - Alien Creature Concept, Julian Jeremy Johnson-mortimer (3D)

potd

2006-05-10T19:55:00.000-07:00

potd

Potd

2006-05-09T12:05:00.000-07:00

Potd
Wee, now introducing the more easy to use hyper link format!

potd

2006-05-08T18:11:00.000-07:00

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?threadid=354500

Cool, I'm a fan of these gathered army things.

potd

2006-05-07T14:45:00.000-07:00

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?threadid=354375

potd

2006-05-04T08:24:00.000-07:00

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?threadid=353291
Cool, studying for UMTYPM

potd

2006-05-03T18:58:00.000-07:00

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=347502
Very cool, very busy.

potd

2006-05-01T17:27:00.000-07:00

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?threadid=351380
Yeah, too busy.

potd

2006-04-30T17:56:00.000-07:00

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?threadid=348073

Sorry, too busy to do anything, but post it.

potd, article thing

2006-04-28T15:07:00.000-07:00

http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=3538&page=

Kinda busy...

potd

2006-04-27T17:07:00.000-07:00

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?threadid=350516
Hmm, interesting.

This guy look freindly?

potd: Pluto Software RPG status

2006-04-26T19:18:00.000-07:00

Matthew asked me to fill in for him!

This is a generic human being used as a low-detail human. Feedback wanted, as this is my first "real" human!

potd

2006-04-24T08:49:00.001-07:00

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=234681

too busy to comment.

potd

2006-04-24T08:49:00.000-07:00

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=234681

too busy to comment.

potd

2006-04-22T15:02:00.000-07:00

go scifi!

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=272597

Yeah, pretty cool. The buildings need variety.

Technology: Sun Microsystems vs. Microsoft

2006-04-21T16:47:00.000-07:00

January 23, 2001: Microsoft agrees to settle a lawsuit with Sun Microsystems over the JAVA COMPATIBLE issue. The reason for the lawsuit lies in the introduction of Java in 1996. The basis of Java was to introduce a method of introducing interactive, live, content into a web page with more flexibility then what is supplied in languages such as JavaScript. Unfortunately, for obvious reasons it could not be embedded deeply into any one operating system. Microsoft then, illegally, created their own version of Java to be included with Windows that had enhanced features set deeply inside of the Windows architecture. This created a security risk, but more importantly, it was a blatant software patent infringement. Microsoft would later pay the price in $20,000,000 and loss of legal freedom to sell and support some products.

December 15, 2003: Support is suspended for 25~ Microsoft Products, including Windows 98 (excluding SE) most Office 2000 products, SQL server 3, and service pack 3 of SQL server 3.

Author's note: Yes, I know that this is old news, but I thought it might be kind of nice to write a short article on it. Don't expect all my work to be of this low, low grade.

Nature

2006-04-21T12:32:00.000-07:00

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=348230

Cool nature scene.

2006-04-20T08:37:00.000-07:00

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?p=3471754#post3471754

Nice landscape, some inconsistances with the lighting however.

Those flying things look right out of Da Vinci?

PoTD

2006-04-19T13:32:00.000-07:00

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=52335

Not much to say.

Horns a bit big?

Video PoTD

2006-04-18T08:43:00.000-07:00

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?threadid=347045

Funny annoying creature, apperently a commercial for a cell phone company.

Would you like this thing as a pet?

PoTD + Announcement

2006-04-17T09:05:00.000-07:00

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?p=3461282#post3461282
Very cool, nice details on the skulls and everything. 3d artists can be so evil.

How many people do you think died in this duengeon?

Chapter meeting tonight at Roseville library. No public access computers. I won't be there. Happy chatting.

PoTD

2006-04-16T16:59:00.000-07:00

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?threadid=346253

Wow, the effect of the picture is very unique. This is one of those pictures that avoids photo-realism and achives a sort of atmosphere instead. Very cool.

Isn't the composition great?

Technology: Lucent vs. Microsoft

2006-04-16T08:41:00.000-07:00

Just last month (March), a lawsuit was filed against Microsoft by Lucent,
a telecommunications company. The lawsuit is over the MPEG-2 digital video compression algorithms used in DVD playback. The company has previously sued Dell and several other companies, but has always lost due to a technical loophole. Now that Lucent has patched up the patent, several questions hang around: How strong is the case, and if Lucent wins, what will it mean for Microsoft and the open source community?

The case is over patent number 5,227,878, (called Adaptive Coding and Decoding of Frames and Fields of Video) given to Lucent in 1993. The demand is that Microsoft pays for as-of-yet unreleased damages, and removes all Xbox 360 units from sales world-wide. If this lawsuit passes, the soonest that it would be enacted would be about two years from now, past the product maturity point. The U.S. Patent Office does indeed have this compression patent registered to Lucent. If, in fact, Lucent does have a patent on the exact method used in the Xbox 360, this could cause trouble for not only Microsoft, but also for the open source community.

To Microsoft, the issue isn't the lawsuit money, but the loss of legal ability to sell the Xbox 360. It has been sued before by large companies, such as Sun Microsystems, without a huge dent in funds. However, the Xbox 360 is a large product for Microsoft, and the loss of ability to sell units would come as a huge blow to them, in both sales and credibility. Doubtless, they would re-release it without the MPEG-2 compression system, but in doing so they would lose the capability to play DVDs and have high-quality cinematic movie compression, both star features in any game console system. This pause in Microsoft's war machine could allow competitors such as Sony to pull ahead. But Microsoft has huge funds, and although this loss would be one of their biggest, they would still survive and thrive. But how would this effect the open-source Linux community? We shall cover this problem next.

The Linux community has had copyright problems recently, due to popular proprietary formats such as mp3 and DVD encryption. How severe would this blow be to them? My guess is that it would hurt the short term popularity of Linux, as MPEG-2 is an integral portion of any form of the already patent-encumbered DVD playback. However, beyond this problem, it would have little effect because DVD is really the only usage of the MPEG-2 algorithm. Even now, DVD is losing it's edge as competing technology gears up, such as Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. These will probably use a different compression algorithm, thus rendering the lawsuit moot in the long run.

More info:
Lucent Patent (103)
zdnet news
digital Lifestyle

Art Journal

2006-04-15T12:22:00.000-07:00

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?threadid=345613

Strange.

Would you like a factory like this?

Daily News #1

2006-04-14T17:13:00.000-07:00

*************PoTD**************
PoTD

********Commment*************
Architectural 3D works never cease to amase me. This particular one approaches photo realism only off by little details.

********Question*****************
Would you live in a house like this?

***********NetHack**************
Lilik killed by wand of zapping
Esillisar killed gnome while helpless
RNG killed by spiked pit

Rather nad day for my characters despite the full moon.

**********Life*********************
Blog