FROM SHONNER'S STUDIO

Modders Are Lame

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 07:13:06 GMT

I feel bad for software technical support folk in this day and age. The gaming industry used to have to deal with pirates. They still do in fact. But now they have to deal with customer support calls triggered by modders. Modders are the bottom feeders in the programming gene pool. They hack into perfectly good software and then offer their modded version of it to users where it then crashes and makes the original version of the software pretty much useless. Thus, the trouble call to the software's customer support. And the user doesn't bother to mention to the technical support person that they installed a mod, so that wastes each other's time for awhile.

It Used To Be A Hobby I Could Enjoy

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 06:23:06 GMT

It all makes sense to me now.

For years I've noticed that guys that are into model railroading have no social skills. They have almost a mentally retarded kind of personality and no sense of humor. You see these guys at the museums running the trains and behind the counters at the train stores in town.

Anyway, it just occurred to me that toy trains are child lures.

A Better Use Of Living Space

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 05:45:11 GMT

Please don't let this go beyond you and me, but for years literally I've been throwing my T-shirts on the floor rather than putting them away somewhere. Well my T-shirt collection (a.k.a. the pile) has become too large to manage now. So I opened up one of my dresser drawers and found gobs (a.k.a. yet another pile) of VHS movies that I'll never watch.

Problem solved. Dumpster filled. Dresser drawer re-filled. The things one does when waiting for Europe to wake up.

Train Simulator 2

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 06:12:54 GMT

Seven years ago, Microsoft released Train Simulator. Next month at the National Train Show in Anaheim, California they will show a preview of Train Simulator 2 which will begin selling next year.

I'm curious if there will be a booth there showing the proposed maglev monorail which is to connect Anaheim to Las Vegas.

The Sims 2 Is Still Alive And Well

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:42:15 GMT

After the announcement of The Sims 3, I figured The Sims 2 series was done. Today I found out that a new add-on and a new content pack will be released. So I pre-ordered the new apartments and some Ikea furniture to go with them. That was easy.

And no, I have no plans to get The Sims 3. It doesn't excite me. Anyone remember The Urbz?

Societies In Decline

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 09:39:06 GMT

Heterosexuals are enablers for homosexuals.

Need More Like Him

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 08:47:59 GMT

Charles Payne is my hero.

Mental Note

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 03:44:00 GMT

Do not put quarters in the Coke machines at Fry's Electronics in San Diego. They're full of spilt Coke, so cans stick inside them rather than dropping down. If a can does manage to drop all the way down, it's not worth touching for 50 cents.

Modo 302

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 03:20:38 GMT

I have been clearing 3D apps off my computer since discovering modo 302. It's like finally finding a girlfriend that understands me for a change. Or for sure like owning a cool fembot with all the necessary built-in home defense security weaponry.

Price Drop For Rail Simulator

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 06:35:30 GMT

Rail Simulator's price just dropped to $9.99 over at Amazon.

Interesting. Could be good news or bad news involved with this.

Hooked On Rail Simulator

Fri, 30 May 2008 00:56:08 GMT

Real quick.

I just recently got hooked on EA Games' Rail Simulator. Finally, a train sim that is a train sim and that looks great on the screen as well.

Anyway... I was hoping to use my modeling skills to create some 3D content for the game. Well the two choices for Rail Simulator to build models with are 3D Studio Max and 3D Canvas Pro. With those two choices (I can't afford 3D Studio Max and I refuse to model with crap like 3D Canvas Pro which is up to version 7 now and still works like those crap modelers I used back in 1994) and the fact that the Kuju programmers have managed to make Rail Simulator one of the hardest games to create content for, I decided to hold off doing any modeling for it for now.

I'll see if I can at least import terrain files into it though.

First Car Wash

Thu, 15 May 2008 07:22:23 GMT

Today I washed my car for the first time since I've had it. It's been almost a year. So it's not like I'm a total slacker or anything. But since I have SHONNER as my license plate, I should at least make the vehicle it's attached to look somewhat presentable. If someone asks, "Did you get a new car, or something?" I'll know the muscle pain was worth it.

I Really Should Cut Down On My Impulse Shopping

Thu, 15 May 2008 07:16:39 GMT

Not even a month ago I was at Wal-Mart with a sudden urge to buy a webcam. Microsoft's LifeCam VX-3000 looked like the ticket. I figured if it worked, I'd get my money's worth.

So I used it once or twice that day. It did the job. Last night I needed to use it again. No doing. Lots of static in the image. 16 colors seemed to be the most I could get out of the thing. Long story short, it's in the dumpster and the LifeCam software is un-installed.

Making Supreme Commander Play More Realistically

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:14:20 GMT

I thought I'd start playing Supreme Commander again after over a year of ignoring it. And I slowed its game speed down to -7 just to see if the units moved more realistically instead of using the normal speed that allowed units to race across maps everywhere in seconds.

So I played through UEF's mission one last night at speed -7 and it was kind of cool watching the units travel close to scale speed. Tanks were taking around 15 seconds to build instead of 2 or 3 seconds.

At normal speed, I never really cared about each unit. I'd just build and send them off to their destruction. Then repeat. No big deal since it took only a minute to build more and a few seconds for them to get across the map. Battles lasted less than a minute.

At speed -7, the same ground battles went on for over 10 minutes.

And if I needed an engineer far away somewhere, it would have to use an air transport because it would take 20 minutes for the engineer to drive there itself.

Supreme Commander is now less of a video game and much more interesting to play. Maybe I'm a fan of realism in battle games? It seems like a more real war at slower speed. I have way fewer casualties and I don't need to build as many units since I can keep them alive longer.

It may seem boring for some after playing Supreme Commander at only normal speed. Units don't zip across the map like they used to. They don't die before you have a chance to respond to their attacks. You have time to veteranize units and do cool things like flanks and formations before starting your next offensive. You begin to use only scouts for actual scouting because they can get somewhere quick. All units essentially could be used as scouts before because they all could zip around before.

The generals aren't buzzing in every two minutes telling you what your next objective is. It's more like 30 minutes go by before you hear back from them. It's like a more real battle is going on. I'm not into building and bashing in 12 minutes to finish a game. I can stretch it out and get some cool bases built at various locations to make up for unit trip-time across the map. And then there's the battles.

The battles can go on for a good long time when they start. So why rush through all those quick little ones when you can have one long big one? And with better unit management besides?

And I can save a game and come back to it later. Supreme Commander is a much better game for me now. If I had wanted to play the game at normal speed, I would just play Starcraft instead.

Infogrames Finally Finished Its Supper

Wed, 07 May 2008 09:34:42 GMT

ATARI just had the rest of its company swallowed whole by Infogrames. I don't think ATARI knew what it had been doing for the last ten years. I'm guessing the company didn't even need to be numbed first.

THQ Is Caught Acting Stupid

Wed, 07 May 2008 09:16:58 GMT

THQ reported losing over 35 million dollars so far this year. It's not rocket science to figure out that if you have a lousy web site which you use to provide horrible software support, that skilled Interweb users will go elsewhere for their online playing and game buying. Company of Heroes is a great game. But a controlling software company has to allow other titles it owns to succeed just as much, rather than hoping to live off the income forever from its first hit.

Supreme Commander and its Forged Alliance so-called "expansion" game are both heading to the bargain bin already because both games were designed for PC's that no gamer owned yet in order to play them. Word-of-mouth was, these games won't run on your brand new computer you just bought because it's not fast enough.

Advertising Forged Alliance as being a stand-alone game was another fatal software blunder. In reality, the $39 Supreme Commander was still required to get the $39 worth of playing time out of Forged Alliance for $78 total. A rather high price for a computer game that couldn't be played on one's own computer anyway.

Why a software company invents speedbumps and other obstacles to prevent their customers, who have been waiting for years to play their new game, from buying their products is beyond me.

Realsoft 3D

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:10:30 GMT

I was going through some older issues of 3D World Magazine and came across issue #75 which had a full copy of Realsoft Graphics' Realsoft 3D 4.5. I had either never heard of this software before, or I had forgotten all about it. It looks a lot like Amapi Pro 7.5, but with a lot more features such as texturing, animation, lighting, and rendering. Their gallery looked interesting.

Anyway... I was just curious if anyone has used this program? Especially for any NURBS modeling.

Keep The Computer Out Of The Shot

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:19:32 GMT

If actors want to date themselves, they only need to sit in front of a computer. View http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj2A0LybwPA&feature=related for proof.

Thank You, Luxology!

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 10:02:11 GMT

I'm done with using DAZ3D products. I'm done with their bugs, too. The more I learn about modo 302 everyday, the more I don't want to use Hexagon and Carrara. DAZ3D caters to those that just want to buy pre-made 3D models for ray-tracing.

Luxology is a company that is far more mature and professional. And it treats their customers and products as such, which means the two fit together extremely well. Luxology reminds artists why they became artists in the first place. To make great art. And using modo's tools is like second nature, which raises one's own great level of artwork even higher.

Found It!

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 05:38:06 GMT

Finally. After three or four years. I was finally able to track down exactly where the Rohr Aerotrain is. It took some doing since people in Pueblo, Colorado don't know much about their own town or what they have in it.