matt milne

I use dxtbmp for all my skinning needs. The FSX formats aren't that much different from the 2004 ones. Using dxtbmp avoids conversion problems where dds is concerned. (you can send it to an external editor, edit the texture and import it back into dxtbmp without converting around). I think they're dds dxt5, but the reload-after-edit option saves converting between bmp and other formats.

Browser redirects and other malware can be checked by disconnecting from the internet and loading up the blank browser page. most port exposing malware will ask you to connect to the internet if you disconnect for any reason. For always online broadband systems this can go unnoticed as you're logged into the internet long before the desktop appears. Asking to be connected to the internet after disconnecting, is a good sign something's listening in from the disk. But as i said, if one of the files explorer or ie explorer fragments, it can cause issues. You also get that problem if you use disk caching/page file as additional memory (fragmented files loaded into ram and then transfered back onto the disk will hang the system and cause disk cycling) Fragmented files do to hard disks, what a scratch does to a dvd player (well that's how i think about it)

hmm, i did have a problem with occasional start up hang ups (after loading windows but before it executes the login, aka the black screen of nihilism) and other occasional problems with the hd light on and clearly audible disk cycling. I normally get this problem if i haven't defraged for a few months Sure enough it was a fragmented master table and one or two fragmented system files. One quick (5 hour) defrag and all was well. I'm sure you've already tried that but you never know.

take a model with 10,000 polygons and recreate it a billion times, perform 10 minutes worth of physics calculations and apply it to each particle on a particle by particle basis (recalculating for each one) = 100s hours of processor time, per frame. so 30 frames a second is a bit out of the way for even the most modern supercomputers. The biggest films use huge rendering farms (100s of computers networked together) to render just a few seconds of footage in 24 hours. you will never see real world phenomena in games, or films, you will only ever see realistic ones.

it's important to keep things going, and introduce as many people as possible to P3. i'm sure you all know plenty of people who can be introduced to it, the more the merrier. until p4 arrives, p3 is what we have. the more who play p3 now, the more will be available for p4.

monte cristo were the only game in town for city sims (as EA had previously dropped the ball). Their system was where you paid a monthly subscription fee to get content that should have been included with the retail version, made you login every time to play offline, and only made additions to the game themselves. (a familiar business model) they eventually went bust, and rightly so. myst online, went offline pretty quickly too. In any case any failure of the business model, development, board and project managment is always covered in press releases with the phrase "inadequate subscription uptake" I wish the business worked like that parky, but it doesn't. The industry functions better if gamers support the games they like and don't feel obligated to hold up the ones they don't. The good companies succeed and the bad ones eventually fail. As harsh a reality as that is, as unfair as it seems, that's how it's meant to be.

Since they've unloaded the designers who knew what a simulator was, i'm not holding my breath. Instincts suggest it won't be good, I won't be wasting money on it.

Al always backed me up, nice bloke. I like colorful people, they liven things up. I prefer not to be nannied and i like it when people speak their mind. Especially when i disagree with them, makes it much more interesting for everyone.

thanks winder, i won't start until i get the materials from you along with an outline of everything you'd like to do with it, which won't be for a while. but i needed to know early so i can get in the right frame of mind, and start sourcing some inspiration, sketch out some pre-score ideas etc anywho, for every good media composer, there's a thousand better-funded, less-talented ones.

"Matt....I can say we would be honoured - I can also say we never considered anyone else for P4!" well alrighty then, p4 here we come. I shall put my thinking cap on. i don't expect it for a while, but give me a heads up when you're ready for scoring WM. you can hop along to www.soundclick.com/mattmilne for an update and contact info meantime.

lol, well so do i. anywho, it doesn't reflect anywhere near what i can do today, it was 2 years ago. It's done well with regards to publicity, and i made it so you wouldn't want to turn it off after 5 seconds, so it compliments the experience. helps to make bhah more polished, and can be a pleasent surprise to people used to more corny offerings . so i think it's done its job.

re p4, haven't been asked yet. i would certainly love to score p4, to build on the success of the music of p3, but it's entierly up to OBD who they have write their music.

lol, well perhaps. and i would love to work with stephen and george. But mr williams is still by far in a way the best composer the business has, and there are so many morons just waiting to kick him out and take his place, i wouldn't want to be one of them. we still haven't found a replacment for goldsmith, it would be a total disaster for john to leave at this point. granted his skills need refreshing, but that's a momentary thing. I would relish the opportunity to work on great projects, and i think i can contribute a lot.

lol, well peter works with howard shore, and spielberg works with john williams, and that's how that should be. but i'm available for anybody else.

lol, oldham. jenato did pop along to soundclick and had a listen to the track there. and promptly emailed a fan letter, to wich i responded. i do like fanmail, keeps me going. (seriously some projects take 6 or 7 years to get to the scoring point, so there's a lot of waiting, one of the reasons why i make frequent requests for projects) according to my catalogue the theme was completed on the 21st february 2008, almost a full year before the release of p3. polovski was kind enough to make a series of films, that let me see how the public responded to the music before release, which i enjoyed.

having good music in a game makes it more polished, improves the gamelplay and immerses the player more fully. together with graphics, sound, historical details, and a clean interface, it can make for a pleasent experience and a long lasting publication. the same goes for films, television and adverts. i would like to contribute to other sims, ww2 in particular, but need to be asked first.

Fans/players should keep stimulating interest in p3, build the fanbase until p4 is ready to go. OBD are quite right, best to keep it all tight lipped. Those who fail must fail completely, to leave space for those who can succeed. leave them to their death throes and failed business models, the market will take care of them. some companies have spent the last 10 years hiring some selfish morons, and they're paying the price. time for a significant change in direction. the gifted turn dust to gold, the ungifted turn gold to dust talented people are genuine and kind, talentless people are evil and jealous. keep the lid tightly on guys, until a couple of weeks pre release. meantime we can continue to increase interest in p3.

lol, no more after thursday for at least 3 weeks. it was just a low system that was too far north, got the warm south westerly on the way in, caught the left side as it drew cold air down from the arctic. most of the april systems will come from a more west southwest direction. chance of snow will diminish as iceland's and greenland's snow melts.

the p4 processor was on the table 10 years ago, and then it was predicted that they would get it to 10ghz. but it was discovered once they got it up to 3ghz, that electron migration started to happen over 3ghz and so the processor has never really gone much above that. the companies opting for more processors in one computer, rather than a single faster processor. even though they say it can run at 70C i never allow it much above 50C

watch with the overclocking, and read up on electron migration before you start it.

i had this problem with fsx, constantly saying don't have the terrain on max. so i had everything set to minimum and i was getting 4-10 fps. when i set everything on maximum, i got between 20 and 50fps. if you've got a recent high end or hd card and a modern processor, it should run it on full or close to full settings no problem. most modern computers send different types of task to different parts of the processor and graphics card. each bit is designed to process that type of information at an optimal speed. But if you force everything through just one section, it's gonna overload that section with information it wasn't optimised to handle, whilst all the rest of it does nothing. every game is different, every card is different, every computer is different, so a little experimentation to find optimal framerates is a very good idea.

ah ubisoft. DRM is a tool to enable a publisher to stop losing money through piracy. or at least thats how the ignorant software engineer sells it to them. If some bright publishing bean counter out there, could submit a paper showing how publishing companies lose more money by utilizing ap software than they would otherwise lose, they would stop using it in a flash.

it's rather like saying you drive for free when you still have to pay to start and stop the car. if you need to be online at any point between loading up the program, playing a campaign or dogfight, then exiting to the desktop, it cannot be said to be offline, because you require to be online at somepoint during the process. all they're saying is that you don't have to be online for the flying bit, you still have to phone home at some point ('mission update' being the gamespeak they use, meaning you phone home at the end of a misson to tell them how you've done) It boils down to this: The drm is part of their business model, in agreement with their publisher, and therefore it will stay for the forseeable future. The public don't like this, so naturally they will try to convince people it has gone forever. it's just a marketing ploy to try and sell copies to people put off by the mention of drm. it is likely to be too little, too late. i'm afraid it's not possible to combine obd's gammaking with neoqb's simply because the companies have different business models, different strategies, and completely different approaches to gammaking, ergo the products are very different. people like rof and off because they have very distinct effects on the gamer, becuse they have been made in very different ways, with very different approaches. both teams have their rightful place in the industry.

ovs is absolutely right. the best way to avoid or nulify the effects of piracy, is to use talent to make a great product that people will pay a lot of money to own legit. even if piracy figures are high, you're still earning enough not to tar your customers with the same brush. game production is about bringing talented people together and making something the public will enjoy (and spend their good money for the experience) it's a sustainable business model that survives any economic and industry crisis for decades.

just wait till she discovers she likes to fly ww1. You'll never get on again.