sdqume - Slashdot User

Comment Incandescents not less efficient in cold climates (Score 1) 1049

by sdqume on Friday February 25, 2011 @07:30PM (#35318436) Attached to: Activists Seek Repeal of Ban On Incandescent Bulbs

I live in the south of New Zealand, and for 10 months of the year or more have thermostat controlled electric heating.

Any waste energy from a bulb will heat the house and the heaters will spend proportionately less time switched on. I.e. NO waste whatsoever.

Yet another good reason to let people decide - there are too many variables for a broad sweeping law like this to work.

Oh, and given this argument, all of a sudden the negative aspects of CFLs considerably outweigh their non-existent advantages. Therefore where I live CFLs have MORE reason to be banned than incandescents.

Comment Link to the game (Score 1) 74

by sdqume on Sunday March 01, 2009 @05:50PM (#27033197) Attached to: Creating 3D Environments Without Polygons

www.casebookthegame.com

Creating 3D Environments Without Polygons 74

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday March 01, 2009 @01:51PM from the too-cool-for-geometry dept.

Igor Hardy writes "I've conducted an interesting interview concerning a new episodic indie adventure game series called Casebook. What's quite uncommon, especially for these kinds of independently developed and published productions, is that they include professionally created FMV — all of the footage is filmed in real locations. Yet what's even more interesting is that the games use an innovative photographic technology which recreates a fully explorable 3D environment through the use of millions of photos instead of building from polygons. The specifics of how it works are explained by Sam Clarkson, the creative director of the series."

Economic Climate Spurring Independent Game Success 40

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday March 01, 2009 @07:50AM from the all-about-the-benjamins dept.

Eurogamer is running an opinion piece suggesting that innovation and creativity have been on the decline for years within the games industry. Now, with the threat of the economic crisis looming, game publishers are shying further from new projects and ideas, instead choosing to rehash popular IP in order to minimize the risk of failure. The upside is that their reluctance, along with technological improvements that make game distribution easier, is allowing independent developers to gain exposure like never before. "This revolution will give us a new wave of developers who see games through very different eyes to those of their studio-bound compatriots. Forced to consider the financial bottom line, the technological bleeding edge and the whims of Metacritic at each turn, big studio development is by no means uncreative, but certainly has to follow certain set patterns. ... The studio system couldn't have created a game like Flower, the utterly beautiful PSN title which came out earlier this month; but more than that, it couldn't have created a persona like Jenova Chen, the mind behind Flower, who happily talks in interviews about evoking emotions, moving past primal feelings and 'maturing' the industry in ways that don't involve sex, blood and swearing. He talks about making games that don't empower gamers, but instead make them experience other things, other emotions. It's spine-tingling stuff. It's also commercial suicide — or would be, to a studio working in the traditional development context."

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