What I mean is, the renderer, the part of the engine that powers all the visuals is not the native unreal engine renderer. It was rewritten by 3D Realms, so the "unreal ugliness" isn't there, it's "DNF ugliness" . The "plasticy" or "plastic wrap" look that was coined during the Doom 3 era, has little to do with the engine but the artists.

Just because Epic is endorsed by nvidia, doesn't mean they purposefully ruin the experience for ATI cards. That's like saying since ATI endorsed Half Life 2, Source has been purposefully made to not work with nvidia cards properly.

I believe they've fixed the AA issue on new versions. Batman has AA, DNF has AA and the new DX11 AA looks great. Keep in mind, a lot of games take years to develop and by the time it releases, the engine can be a bit dated. Homefront for instance? That version of unreal is 3 years old.

The engine is not without it's flaws (IE: without serious modification, the default player movement code for a first person game, imo, feels awful. Not Metro 2033 awful, but pretty bad) but it's constantly being updated and improved. The reason why developers use it is because it's tool set is fantastically good. It makes development so much easier, unless you're a programmer unfamiliar with Unreal's way of wanting to be written. And developing on PS3... which I hear might've also been improved.

>> ^EvilDeathBee:

>> ^ForgedReality:
Looks kinda lame and unpolished. Typical Unreal Engine ugliness abound. Why won't that stinking pile just go the fuck away and stop snaking its way into games I might otherwise want to play?

Oh please. DNF may use Unreal, but the renderer is a custom rewrite. You would never have noticed "Unreal ugliness" if you didn't know it was Unreal. Are you honestly saying Mortal Kombat 2011 looks ugly? Batman Arkham Asylum looks ugly? Are you saying this looks ugly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzjsTt_DzCw
Unreal only looks as bad as what the artists are capable of, and the newer versions of the engine are looking... unreal.


Actually, I'm not sure you know what I mean. The way the game looks is what prompted me to check if my assumptions were correct. I didn't know it used UE until I looked it up prior to that post, and the way everything is shiny, like it has plastic wrap on it is one such aspect to which I refer.

I don't like the engine because it tends (in my experience) to not be very robust and has several issues which always seem to nag at me no matter what game it is that uses it. Epic endorses NVIDIA, because they give Epic lots of money to do so, likely. As a result, they aren't as friendly to ATI (AMD) cards. It's possiboe it was the cards I was using, but other games never exhibited the same behaviors on ATI and not NVIDIA as UE games did. One such issue would be vsync seeming to behave incorrectly on ATI.

Oh, and don't even get me started on anti-aliasing... what the fuck modern game these days doesn't support AA? Oh, right. UE games. And if you manage to get it working by forcing it in your drivers, (doesn't always work, especially on ATI), then you get a much higher framerate hit than you should. Other engines handle it just fine, but for some reason, UE has a very hard time with AA, even on extremely powerful cards. Shitty engine.

If not realtime, would not put it past having acceleration using a GPU with todays hardware.

When nVidia put out the first physX for GPUs there was a realtime softbody demo, slow... but proved the principle on now 4 year old hardware.

No problem. My Mom is very religious and my Dad has Asperger's so I tend to be a great diplomat. But, these type of scientific insights into psychology are awesome when they come out. Especially, in my case where I can see that it hit's the nail dead on.

I think we underestimate our physical imposed mental limitations too much. Everything we've learned about modern psychology tells us that our psychology is in a "ready" state when we're born; to the extent that you could say one person uses "ATI" to see and the other "Nvidia" if you know what I mean.

In reply to this comment by SDGundamX:
Sweet, thanks for the info.

In reply to this comment by kceaton1:
>> ^SDGundamX:

>> ^westy:
I think what this video inadvertantly highlights is that Education is directly tied with atheism the more intellectual/educated sum-one is the harder it is for them to believe in bullshit and the more likely it is they will do things based on facts of reality to improve reality.

You should check out this study, which basically shows that isn't the case. The high proportion of atheist scientists compared to the general population seems to be a function of upbringing (i.e. they were raised in homes that didn't place much importance on religion). The increased education seems to have little effect on those who enter the field with religious convictions. In other words, those raised in non-religious households seem to self-select disproportionately highly into the sciences. The study states that more investigation is required before coming to any conclusions as to why, but they didn't see any indication of people giving up their religious beliefs as they advanced in their education or career.


One interesting aspect coming out in psychological studies versus genetic backgrounds shows one interesting aspect of people that have Asperger's being unable to relate to religion and are constantly looking for a more rational explanation for any event. Likewise, some people may show an inclination to be religious via their genetics.

Most likely this is due to a preference in the way the brain decides to use information. Such as: the right hemisphere versus the left; or even to the extent of specific areas on one side--like math over chemistry.

This is VERY new information. Their was another study out on Friday I believe (look for it at physorg.com) that showed that people that were religious tended to be more healthy both mentally and physically. However, the study (from what I could find) doesn't really say whether they took the disparity of between population numbers into account. Also they never took into account situations like autistic savants, Asperger's, bi-polar, and other conditions that tend to "create" extremely smart people (I'm guessing this might happen as they tend to favor the left hemisphere and also have a very different perspective than a normal healthy average human--giving them "fresh eyes" and a new perception intrinsically), comparatively.

I remember the passthrough 3DFX voodoo2 cards. And you could even put 2 of them in SLI- the origination of this acronym is Scan-Line-Interleave, where 1 card rendered the even lines, and 1 card rendered the odd lines. Since nVidia bought the defunct 3DFX's intellectual property, they could use the same acronym, but changed it to mean Scalable-Link-Interface instead.

Speaking of Acronyms and FPS, anyone remember the acronym LPB ?
Low Ping Bastards! These were the elusive few who had dual-ISDN or University network connection to the internet instead of dial-up. I always felt great when I had ping of 200+ and killed a LPB with ping <50 in quakeworld.
>> ^JiggaJonson:

ACTUALLY, Quake was released to the public on June 22, 1996 and the OpenGL version wasn't released for more than six months later on January 22, 1997. While all my gradeschool buddies were focused on their SNES I was tagging along with my dad to computer shows (this was long before newegg) and saving up for my first 3dfx card. That was back in the good old days where you had to use a dongle cable just to run your 2D card to your 3D card and only THEN did it find its way to the monitor. Ahhh good times...
Get ur facts straight son!

>> ^Yogi:

It's amazing how perceptive, funny, and intelligent Brian Williams can be...and yet still I couldn't watch his program without stabbing forks in my eyes. How can you be this way and not see that your own network...your own show is soo full of shit?


I think he's like this because of the people that surround him; how could you not be. I would also try to make many a joke that they don't understand unless they look up a turn of phrase--on their iPad (a glorified non-cellphone/unless you really need/want to spend that much money on one-"buggy and slow"-device).

Yes, I've used my Dad's. It certainly has some nifty features (which have all been invented or used already), but since it's Apple and it has the name i"x", it must be a game changing, revolutionary, cutting edge, never crashes, solves: world hunger, bi-polar, cancer, Fox News, heralds baby Jesus's return to Earth in North Western Missouri; and it has a shelf/I'm mean battery life of 30.62 days--or so I've heard.

It was semi-slow (that wasn't very surprising); slow in two departments: switching and starting between and new apps or processes. Second, the Wi-Fi connection was flaky (either not downloading or when downloading, even including the occasional burst speeds, it averaged 22 KBps (as I say below it should at least be going 100-200 KBps [this is still incredibly slow], as his connection has a download rate of 1.2-1.5 MBps). I'll play with that a bit more (as I think it may have been the wireless router as he has a 14-Megabit connection).

The games were fun and a few of the apps were great. But, I'd rather have a lightweight fully functional notebook PC with a 16:9 screen, atleast 720p, and a fully customizable network adapter. ...And to be blunt, I'd much rather have Windows 7 or even Vista (fully patched), as both have great functionality and support plus their 64-Bit support is great. Plus I can put in a full Blu-Ray drive that comes with PowerDVD.

Better applications, better games and support. Yes, this is an anti-apple rant as I think all of their once "highly revered" features: functionality, non-crashing, no hacking (hah!), graphical editing applications (which is a "contract" feature), sound editing applications (same as the last), and it's "ease-of-use" (which is now a completely moot point). Apple is still successful, because they find niche products that do well; like the Nintendo DS. The iPod (although the screens break a bit to early, my only complaint) and the iPhone are great products and fill a gap in a niche market. The iPad does the same thing, but from what I've tried it needed another year (plus some spec changes like a 16:9 screen going up to 720p (which is HD not this stupid licensing agreement so they can use the logo on a nice, but NOT HD screen (I think it's XGA or 1024x768), a connection port that could handle a multitude of devices: usb, 1394, ethernet, gamepads, speakers, etc I know it does some of this already, especially in the bluetooth department.

But, I feel that it should have come with the large flash/ssd drive, cell phone features (which they do have, it just costs an arm and a leg), more functionality for the "touch pen" (some mouse-like buttons etc...), FLASH & FULL browser SUPPORT (not having flash, plus other regular features "kills it" in a lot of ways)--Apple has to have their money/way though; I don't think they've got any clue when they shoot themselves in the foot), and a slightly faster (or duo-core) processor to help the experience feel more smooth; they have a: "1GHz Apple A4 custom-designed chip" were as a Intel Atom that has an nVidia extension may have been a better choice (I'm not to sure about battery usage for these guys, but from the devices it was used in it wasn't too bad).

So in the end (damn this was WAY longer than expected) I think they should have refined it for another year. Got some REAL user feedback; give it to people that don't work for the ass-kissing mainstream Apple press-core (yes, I'm talking about the likes of Engadget). Then, actually work on their gripes! People already seem willing to pay an arm and a leg for their stuff, so if the price goes up one-hundred, don't worry all your loyal'ii will still buy it. Anyway...this didn't happen, so I was left feeling underwhelmed by it and would instead by a nice laptop.

BTW, Brian Williams is the shit!

/This post may seem anti=Apple and in a lot of ways it is, but I would like them to make a good tablet (or awesome tablet--if they'd pull their collective heads out of their asses). It seems to me that any company, right now, that takes some time and makes a fast, reliable, easy-to-use, with 720p (and lots of video/codecs support)...will destroy Apple's iPad longterm (right now I just see Android tablets, but the ones I've seen are underwhelming).

//If someone has seen a good tablet coming out that has some of the features that I'm talking about, please throw in a reply.

Not yet, I do not think? Soon, though. (and not CCP soon either, actual soon I do believe)

http://videosift.com/video/EVE-Online-Incarna-Nvidia-APEX
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7R6AxoO8yY

>> ^rychan:

Wait, is your character ever visible in this game?

Not exactly:

http://videosift.com/video/EVE-Online-Incarna-Nvidia-APEX
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7R6AxoO8yY

>> ^KnivesOut:

All that work to populate a postage stamp on your UI.

The game is absolutely bug ridden. As an Nvidia user I wasn't able to play the game 'at all' on the first day until I found work-arounds for all the issues I was having.

But besides that the game beats the pants off Fallout 3 in every way.

I'm guessing Deskscapes + Windowblinds... (The Star Trek stuff is already on Deskscapes, which allows for moving backgrounds. Then use Windowblinds for all the rest.) I could do the same thing, but mine only runs on a 40" LED Samsung (for 3D usage, nVidia, etc...).

Those moving backgrounds are actually very low on the CPU usage side and they also pause and unload when you go fullscreen into anything. They restart FAST. It's pretty fun, plus you can make your own. To tell you the truth the Star Trek one is OK, but there are others that are amazing and must have taken quite some time to make.

Crikey, why is this video not up there? Amazing realtime effects. Caused Nvidia officials to cream themselves. The world is going to dung.

I guess I'm late to this party, but I'm also glad to see some Apple sensibility here for once.

I really do not get how Jobs disses netbooks and then introduces something that is almost twice the price with half the usefulness. I know half the Apple user crowd will buy this anyways, but I guess I will take solace that my netbook easily fits in a carry bag.

My mum has one of those Asus eeePC's as well and despite being a technophobe she absolutely adores it. It's not about how fancy it looks or what it is capable of, its about how goddamn convenient it can be. That is why netbooks stormed the industry despite the fact they have barely been out two years now!

A $329 netbook can get 10 hours of battery life, has a built in camera + microphone, usb ports for removable storage, built in memory card reader for MORE removable storage, physical keyboard, can do more than one thing at a time, run flash... and hell the latest ones can even decode HD video with that nVidia ION stuff.

The iPad just looks like an iPod touch for old people... think about those large sized remote controls.

This explains my relationship with Jesus Christ to the T. When I go door to door, I bring my Bible and a box of whip-its.

In reply to this comment by deathcow:
> Such a cold cloud of gas can actually work as a quantum computer.

Just dont do what I did, I went to Best Buy and bought the Nvidia Quantum Computing card, which comes with a can of Rubidium, but then we all huffed the Rubidium because you get to meet Jesus for about 10 minutes.

> Such a cold cloud of gas can actually work as a quantum computer.

Just dont do what I did, I went to Best Buy and bought the Nvidia Quantum Computing card, which comes with a can of Rubidium, but then we all huffed the Rubidium because you get to meet Jesus for about 10 minutes.

>> ^Stormsinger:
any real cheating would tend to have some rather serious financial effects on the company.


That never stopped Nintendo, Microsoft, nVidia, and others from outright faking new products in the past.

(Still remembers the infamous "Nintendo 64" demo that was just a powerful SGI workstation under the table covered by a skirt)