Medals, Ribbons, and Rank

04.04.2007

I've mentioned elsewhere that my favorite non-wrestling game was Wing Commander, mainly because of the joy I had in collecting ribbons and medals and being able to view them in game on my little virtual me of a pilot.

Although the first Wing Commander is 17 years old, it still holds a special place in my heart. Now that I'm frequenting a message board with fellow Battlefield 2142 players, I came across a topic where someone suggested a way to have a dress uniform and display the awards they've won in-game. I had read (somewhere on the interweb) that you can't skin the 2142 in-game uniforms/armor because the UV mapping is unavailable. I'm not sure what that really means other than "common folk can't re-skin the game". After a little more discussion it was pointed out that this would be more for a sig file or something along those lines.

Well, being me I had already been thinking of this, mainly by playing around with Poser to create the uniform, then pasting on the awards from the game gleaned from screenshots within the game or various places around the web. I offered up my idea on the board, along with a mock-up or two of what I had in mind. After going back and forth a couple of times, this is what the latest version of my dress uniformed avatar looks like:

It's not the best thing I've made, and a lot of the detail seems to be lost inj the decorations, but so far I'm liking it. I think the neat thing to do would be to make a web application where you pick the awards you've gotten and it generates the image for you - this would be a good way of keeping things in order on the uniform. Right now I'm thinking that the easiest way to let people use it (if they want to) if to render out a blank uniform to a JPG, then have a file with all the awards appropriately sized so that people could cut and paste them on top of the uniform.

There's probably some more tweaking to go through first. Best not to get too far ahead of myself. There's no telling what it'll look like for people that have been playing for a while and have racked up mountains of awards.

Permalink video games

In A Clan

04.02.2007

Whilst playing of Battlefield 2142 I've managed to join a clan. I'm not sure what all that entails right now, other than the same people will get to blow me away rather than just folks on some random server.

I happened on their server over the weekend when there were not yet enough players for a game to actually start. Whenever this happens, I tend to take it on myself to go ahead and run around the map - maybe find a hiding spot I hadn't seen before, or try to improve my feeble flying skills. I warned the other 2 players that were logged in that I was going to try to fly, but that I wasn't very good so to not be surprised when I did something stupid. Instead of just killing me easily and outright, they offered a couple of handy suggestions as well as answered a couple of questions that offered up. After 10 or 15 minutes more people logged on and the proper game began.

I got an offer from one of the guys that had been giving me tips to join their clan. I poked around their message board and learned a couple of things. It seems that not everyone involved is 12 (important for an old fart like me). They're also forgiving with the less skilled/new players. I may have been playing this game off and on for 2 months, but I still think of myself as a novice. So with that, I cast my ballot and joined up.

Now I'm part of a gang! Don't be shocked if you see me in game, crouched down low, snapping my fingers and coming towards you with my West Side Story attack!

Permalink video games

De Plane

03.27.2007

It's not much to look at, but above is the result of my P-38 tutorial I talked about the other day. It's not thebest model in the world, but I'm proud of it. I followed the tutorial and didn't get lost in the basics, then when the tutorial said "and now you can add propellers and guns" I manged to figure out how to add propellers and guns.

They're not the prettiest of props or guns, but they are at the very least similar to props and guns.

Now to find another tutorial subject!

Permalink programming/interweb random

Movie I'm Not Getting

03.26.2007

I like to browse the upcoming new releases just before Tuesday, to see if there's anything I can't live without. After skipping last weeks new releases, I'm more apt to widen my scope of what I would normally get. This blurb from IMDB caught my eye:

Tomboy Commando(Thailand) Action comedy about four members of an all-girl rock band who battle dwarfs and transvestites in their search for a medicine that will change them into guys.

Who could pass up an all-girl rock band battling dwarfs and transvestites?

Well, I guess I can, but it's going to be hard with a sales pitch like that.

Permalink movies/tv/dvd random

Male Modeling

03.21.2007

After going through my 3DS Max beginners class last week, I'm starting to put some of it to use - by going through some tutorials. Luckily, the tutorial I'm working on is kind of fun. I'm making a P38 Lightning airplane. I wish I could take some screenshots of my desktop at work, because much to my surprise, it actually looks (somewhat) like a P38!

I'm also mixing that in with some of the finer points of switching from VB.NET to C#.NET, but it's not nearly as much fun as making these little CGI models that I've been yearning to learn how to make for years upon years now.

I've got to find a way to take a screenshot, though.

Permalink