samm

Vast spun in my DVD player today too. For once I was up early enough to be listening on the big stereo instead on headphones Kemopetrol - Fireworks why don't you sleep / why don't you rest your head good question actually...

Elbow - Fugitive motel (artful pop, ) Elbow - Switching off Wow, I love this album (cast of thousands). So beautiful yet edgy (except that enervating "grace under pressure") You, the only sense the world has ever made This I need to save A simple trinket locked away I choose my final scene today Switching off with you or "I'm tired" I said "You always look tired" she said "I'm admired" I said You always look tired she said or Throwing advice like grenades at the table You’re spinning your wisdom in stories that change Your lies are fluorescent, my babyfaced angel Haha, so good! *goes off listening to more*

Well, reading a bit about the new Intel Atom processor (which turned out to not interest me at all ), there was an interesting part in the article over at ars technica which reviewed the new Via Nano. This really made me a bit angry... What's the story? Via allows for changing the vendor string, making it possible to - very superficially - make the processor appear as Intel or AMD. No info about features etc. are changed, only this one string. Normally, this shouldn't be tested by programs, unlike features like SSE etc., but apparently it is tested. The Nano-based system lost the PCMark benchmark to the Atom-based one. If the vendor string of the Nano was changed however, things began to look quite different: It does better with "Authentic AMD" as vendor, and even wins the test when "GenuineIntel" is used. Source: ars technica Cheat or sloppy programming? You decide. Both is bad imo. The following are sidenotes, not directly related to the above article, but concerning program execution optimization in general: Now it would be interesting to compare some ICC (Intel compiler) compiled programs, as this compiler is often favoured over the Microsoft one for example, because its said to result in speedups of about 10% on AMD and 30% on Intel processors. Is it the processor features alone, or probably something else happening, similar to the case above? I don't know, unable to test it, and with both AMD and Intel locking their vendor string, we can't test it on the interesting processors. But someone should take a Via processor and definitely check it out. Also, a comparison test with programs compiled with the AMD optimized PGI compiler would be interesting. Has anyone links for such a thing? It also shows that to truly have a comparable benchmark, it's best to either use a) real world applications or b) to test theoretically possible speed an open source benchmark which can be compiled any way one wants and fits the processor architecture best. SPEC benchmarks show the way.

I think you're getting this wrong It's not about faith in this studio. I think they're good, and have a lot of potential to be better. Cool down, rearead

Haha, yeah Peaches Lamb - Bonfire

gigahound: Learn the difference between a publisher with involvment in production (which was the role of BIS with BG and BGII titles) and a developer. If you repeat it a hundred times and cite your research sources it doesn't make it more true... Walsingham: I don't think it's a great idea to shift focus when you're only experienced in one field. But as Obsidian is growing, new devs with new background come in and the existing ones get the courage to try something new, so it's not totally off the track to ask for an MMOG. As far as the "interesting" thing goes, it's only partially true. More important to MMORPGs is the factor of collecting things: New titles, XP, collectable items, feats... combined with enough things to do: you have to have the choice at any moment to finish collection X or craft item Y which is the base for item Z or buy clothes for your character or buy furniture for your home or finish a quest or travel to the new area that came with the latest patch or try the new race that came with the latest patch etc.

A german magazine and some message boards have put out the news that POV is selling a "new" model of the old price/performance winner 8800GT. This new revision has been seriously crippled in performance by cutting the memory interface in half (now 128 bit) and deactivating shaders (now only 6 shader and 48 TMUs). It was said that it isn't an nVidia design, but has been created by POV on its own initiative, however other manufacturers will now start selling the same slow version of this hardware. So if you're going to buy an 8800GT, make sure you avoid this model. Sources: http://www.computerbase.de/news/hardware/g...-bit-interface/ (german) http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/sh...ad.php?t=426833 (german)

Fields of the Nephilim - Requiem (Bootleg from this year's WGT, PM if interested )

NIN - Legend of Zelda Theme (Live)

Tiamat - Brighter than the Sun

NFD - Psychonaut (FotN cover, available here, and demonstrating why Pettit is just the better bass player than FotN's new one, but even if Bob White is a nice guy and good singer, he's not magic unlike McCoy... *sigh* I'm born too late :/)

The Eden House - All My Love (Myspace site) Now this is a supergroup to love

yeah, let's turn this into a console vs. PC flamewar... But really: It's not the best idea to praise consoles for multiplayer (other than hot seat), as this is a new phenomenon on consoles, because there simply was no access to the internet or other networks, while the technology had a lot of time to mature on PCs. Shooters on consoles are either difficult or slow to play, if you don't buy an addon keyboard+mouse, and strategy titles are almost no option. Consoles to have DRM too: Sucky country codes making it unable for us Europeans to enjoy many interesting games only out in the US or Japan for lack of mass appeal or because of slow localization and PAL conversion. Such limitations just don't exist on PCs. edited for correctness

taks, same here. I'm a tech freak, and not going to buy anything technologically behind time, or anything of cheap quality. Now Foxconn does not only have bad or low end motherboards, that's why a had an eye on them at all.

Ah well, so I keep the option open.

Rubicon - Unspoken (fan's myspace)

Thanks for that information! Maybe I'll try that next time I play PS:T in order to avoid the mouse trails that I get once I try the workaround with lowering the hardware acceleration, and inform the people who for some reason can't do that.

Also makes selling such a game on eBay rather difficult.

Some problems with copy protection systems: That it's not PC dependent but configuration dependent. I don't know for ME because I don't own it, but it's possible that if you install a new processor or graphics card, the DRM will not recognize it as the same PC. Other systems like the one used in NWN2, MotB, can wreck your DVD drive. Some hide from the system, antivirus etc. and can do what they want because the OS doesn't see them, effectively acting as rootkit (--> Sony) or driver (--> Starforce). Others require you to stay online while playing or at least be online when starting the game which is a) not an option for some people b) not a wise thing to do anyway, even if it's becoming more and more common with broadband connections. Some of these won't allow you to install or play the game anymore if the publisher goes from the market or decides that it's too expensive to keep registration servers running (has happened and is currently happening for certain DRM protected music). Some don't allow you to have virtual drives nor programs that could be used to run virtual drives installed, as is the case for NWN2, which doesn't allow me to have something installed I'd need for my work (MS SQL ISO, am now working in a virtual machine with a virtual drive ). Etc. If there's some FUD about what I just said: Sorry, it's late here (4 am)... I thought he wanted to play when there, because he understood that no playing at the same time is possible, which would only make sense if it was he who played... But I think you're right.

Interesting, yet well known to almost anyone on these boards, although by most known better than by you: Baldur's Gate was developed by Bioware. And how does this connect to MMOGs or your plead to create one? All the more reason not to invest the millions needed to create and sustain an MMORPG for an oversatisfied market when even the most hyped games tend to fail. And it wouldn't interest the persons interested in Obsidian's games, read: target audience. At least it's neither my nor many other's cup of tea as shown by the answers in this thread. Alright, but again: how does it connect to the topic or your plead for an MMOG? If people are derailing your very own thread, it's usually best not to participate in its derailment

Who ever did say that?Securom didn't slowly convert my drive to electronic junk, so I'm lucky. I'd just prefer my hardware not being endagered by a piece of intrusive software, to always and guaranteed be able to reinstall the game after having uninstalled it, or reformatted my Windows partition, or bought a new PC, even if some licence server of the publisher should be down, and play it while not being connected to the internet. If a copy protection fulfills these criteria every piece of useful software should fulfil, I'll happily live with DRM.

Locksmith would probably have been interpreted as expert (an NPC class ) and scout as ranger, which is even further from a dwarven hero. I phrased it thus in order to make the simple people understand that I meant the DnD rogue class Whose alt I am is my affair...

((Browser games == PnP) || (allowed(advertising)) == false

Probably I'll recreate my TOEE-party consisting of four dwarves, including a mage and a thief It's not as much fun with PB 32 however, as they'll be too strong... Maybe again a party of two drows, one female as the boss, one male underling and two slaves (duergar and svirfneblin)? Hm... Looking forward to create many a party for a playthrough each

To support the devs: buy the games regardless of copy protection! Then, to make the game playable without wrecking your DVD drive or it being unable to installed after reinstalling windows: do somthing illegal to your legally bought copy. Not that hard, not as unfair as pirating the game. Also, to send a clear signal to the industry: Buy more games without copy protection (instead of just not buying those with it, which punishes the mostly innocent devs).