No single, coherent topic today, though I have some more random mini-topics, so words shall be typed, and you shall read them.
This morning, I got a chance to give Crysis 2 a quick bash. In 3D (goggles and all). Yes, my last post was about how I hate 3D. I still hate 3D. However, this didn't hurt my eyes as much as usual, and it even had a slight 3D looking effect on the gun. It may be possible to make this thing work after all, though that wasn't the point I was arguing (it probably is possible to do 3D well. Just not yet).
I will probably pick up Crysis 2 at some point to play on my gloriously 3D-incapable monitor, because the graphics are so pretty...
My face to face Pathfinder group hasn't had a session in months. This is due to one of our players constantly being annihilated by work (at Maccas >.<) and uni (last semester of a teaching degree). Once that's done, we will likely resume a more consistent play schedule, though by that point we'll all have forgotten what had happened in the game as well! Thank God for the Madboards Pathfinder to tide me over!
Speaking of which, said Madboards Pathfinder is becoming increasingly difficult to moderate due to Krug. SMK, I know you're gonna read this, and I'm glad you're staying in character, however the last action you took may well lead to your death. Well, that or break the plot irreconcilably. Either works.
Plot wise (and there are minor spoilers here), there is a plot-scheduled pub brawl that is supposed to begin (and will very soon), however it is supposed to be weapons free. The material I am using states that the moment someone draws a weapon, the Sheriff will be on them like Donkey Kong, which makes sense. If people are fist fighting and someone draws their blade, then that guy is the biggest threat. Krug has drawn his greatsword, so he will have a level 4, fully healthy fighter bearing down on him. Not pretty at all...
Cityrail failed more so than usual yesterday. Somehow their signal box at Sydenham station managed to die (I was told some vandals got to it), and caused pretty much every train to be stopped indefinitely. I was at Revesby station at 7.30am, to go to work. I arrived at work at approximately 10.30am. Something's wrong here...
They'll likely try to apologise to everyone by having a day where train travel is free. This seems to be their standard apology method. However, there is a big issue with this - it doesn't actually make up for the failure to the people who were put out by it.
For example, someone takes the trains to work regularly. They likely buy a weekly (or even fortnightly) ticket, since its cheaper than to buy a return ticket every day. So ShittyRail schedules a day where travel is free. The people who have already paid for this weekly ticket don't get any benefit - they already paid for that free day.
And the people who used the trains as a one off the day they failed? What are the chances that they need to use the train on the day they pick to make free?
Fail.
Dino D-Day is horrendous. Don't waste your money. This guy explains it all in a 20 minute video - and explains it better than I ever could.
Showing posts with label 3D. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 3D. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Why the 3D fad must be killed. Now.
There has been a small discussion of 3D technology on my Facebook page. I call it a small discussion, though that's embellishing it somewhat. It really boils down to me complaining about the 3DS hurting my eyes when I tested it the other day, and a few people commenting on said statement. I figure that my stance on 3D in general (as opposed to the 3DS on its own merits, or lack thereof) should be supported, and so today's topic came to be.
Well, the title of this post very succinctly sums up my feelings on the whole thing, but I suppose I should elaborate. I will be talking about 3D in the context of both games and film/TV, to be something resembling fair.
Let's start with the obvious. 3D has been done before now, obviously. Take a look at the Virtual Boy, for example. Actually, don't. Really, really, don't. It's screen had an amazing two colours - Red and Black. And it was in 3D. You could play for about 10 minutes before it broke your eyes.
But even before that, 3D has been achieved. For example, watching sports in 3D has been done for years. Centuries even. The Ancient Greeks even had 3D sports. This was usually achieved by leaving the home, and actually attending the event. There you go - an amazing full 3D event.
Snarkiness aside, there is something to be said for the concept of 3D movies and gaming. I reckon it would be great to be able to experience a game in full 3D surrounding you. However, the problems with 3D as it is now are:
A) It doesn't work
I haven't seen many movies in 3D, to be completely honest. Hell, I haven't seen Avatar in 3D or even in glorious 2D. The movies I *have* seen in 3D are Alice in Wonderland (the Johnny Depp one), and Tron Legacy. If there was ever going to be a movie where 3D would be amazing, Tron was it. However, the only real 3D effects I saw in that movie was a slight amount of depth perception on the house, near the start of the film. In Alice in Wonderland, there was a butterfly in one scene, and I'm not even sure it was part of the movie - it may have been the title screen or something. Admittedly my memory is hazy. The fact that I cannot recall anything about the 3D of these 3D movies is a bad sign, is it not?
B) The glasses suck
When I went to these 3D films, I had to wear 3D goggles, as they make you do all the time, obviously. The reason behind this is that (typically) there are two images being displayed, overlapped on each other. One is for your left eye, the other is for your right eye, but the images are slightly different. The lens on the glasses filter the images so your eye only sees the appropriate image, giving you this 3D effect. The one that doesn't work.
Am I the only one who has a problem with seemingly crossing your eyes for potentially hours on end? Am I the only one who thinks that this is a horrendous idea?
Anyway, this is why some people tend to get headaches and eye strains from this - your eyes feel like they are going funny because they ARE going funny. Intentionally. I don't know if there has been much research into this, but it sounds to me like a logical way to injure yourself.
On a related note, as a permanent glasses-wearer, wearing glasses over my glasses is impractical, and stupid.
C) It's a gimmick. An expensive gimmick
Nowadays, almost every big Hollywood film seems to be in 3D. A lot of them aren't designed initially for 3D, and just tack it on. This may be why my experiences mentioned under (A) were pathetic. It seems everyone is tacking pointless 3D onto their film in a bid to sell more movie tickets. At a higher price at that. Can't the filmmakers rely on good writing, and good acting to make money.
Well, it IS Hollywood we're talking about. I suppose they can't.
It's gimmickyness feels like the Nintendo Wii's motion controls to me - shoehorned into everything that is released to appeal to the idiots who go "ooh shiny" and then wonder why their heads hurt after watching the thing.
On a related note, I tried the Nintendo 3DS. It gave me a small headache, and made my eyes hurt a lot. Part of this is likely fatigue, I have been getting minor headaches a lot lately because I haven't been sleeping well. However, this was triggered almost instantly as I looked at the screen trying to play Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition.
To me, the 3Dness of the game looked like two distinctly different images slightly on top of each other, which was very disconcerting, and definitely the course of my headache. Somehow, I still managed to beat the CPU, but by that point, my mind had been made up - I am NOT buying this machine. I don't care that it would be my first opportunity to play more than 30 minutes of Ocarina of Time - if I can't get use of the main feature of a device, then I will not purchase that device.
And I will avoid 3D TVs, movies and gaming machines as well. I like to be able to see what I've paid to see, thankyou very much.
Well, the title of this post very succinctly sums up my feelings on the whole thing, but I suppose I should elaborate. I will be talking about 3D in the context of both games and film/TV, to be something resembling fair.
This is the Virtual Boy. It sucks. It's also 3D. Coincidence?
Let's start with the obvious. 3D has been done before now, obviously. Take a look at the Virtual Boy, for example. Actually, don't. Really, really, don't. It's screen had an amazing two colours - Red and Black. And it was in 3D. You could play for about 10 minutes before it broke your eyes.
But even before that, 3D has been achieved. For example, watching sports in 3D has been done for years. Centuries even. The Ancient Greeks even had 3D sports. This was usually achieved by leaving the home, and actually attending the event. There you go - an amazing full 3D event.
Snarkiness aside, there is something to be said for the concept of 3D movies and gaming. I reckon it would be great to be able to experience a game in full 3D surrounding you. However, the problems with 3D as it is now are:
A) It doesn't work
I haven't seen many movies in 3D, to be completely honest. Hell, I haven't seen Avatar in 3D or even in glorious 2D. The movies I *have* seen in 3D are Alice in Wonderland (the Johnny Depp one), and Tron Legacy. If there was ever going to be a movie where 3D would be amazing, Tron was it. However, the only real 3D effects I saw in that movie was a slight amount of depth perception on the house, near the start of the film. In Alice in Wonderland, there was a butterfly in one scene, and I'm not even sure it was part of the movie - it may have been the title screen or something. Admittedly my memory is hazy. The fact that I cannot recall anything about the 3D of these 3D movies is a bad sign, is it not?
ThinkGeek yet again tempts me, with the solution to 3D... these glasses make the 3D into 2D - and the film actually watchable
B) The glasses suck
When I went to these 3D films, I had to wear 3D goggles, as they make you do all the time, obviously. The reason behind this is that (typically) there are two images being displayed, overlapped on each other. One is for your left eye, the other is for your right eye, but the images are slightly different. The lens on the glasses filter the images so your eye only sees the appropriate image, giving you this 3D effect. The one that doesn't work.
Am I the only one who has a problem with seemingly crossing your eyes for potentially hours on end? Am I the only one who thinks that this is a horrendous idea?
Anyway, this is why some people tend to get headaches and eye strains from this - your eyes feel like they are going funny because they ARE going funny. Intentionally. I don't know if there has been much research into this, but it sounds to me like a logical way to injure yourself.
On a related note, as a permanent glasses-wearer, wearing glasses over my glasses is impractical, and stupid.
C) It's a gimmick. An expensive gimmick
Nowadays, almost every big Hollywood film seems to be in 3D. A lot of them aren't designed initially for 3D, and just tack it on. This may be why my experiences mentioned under (A) were pathetic. It seems everyone is tacking pointless 3D onto their film in a bid to sell more movie tickets. At a higher price at that. Can't the filmmakers rely on good writing, and good acting to make money.
Well, it IS Hollywood we're talking about. I suppose they can't.
It's gimmickyness feels like the Nintendo Wii's motion controls to me - shoehorned into everything that is released to appeal to the idiots who go "ooh shiny" and then wonder why their heads hurt after watching the thing.
On a related note, I tried the Nintendo 3DS. It gave me a small headache, and made my eyes hurt a lot. Part of this is likely fatigue, I have been getting minor headaches a lot lately because I haven't been sleeping well. However, this was triggered almost instantly as I looked at the screen trying to play Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition.
To me, the 3Dness of the game looked like two distinctly different images slightly on top of each other, which was very disconcerting, and definitely the course of my headache. Somehow, I still managed to beat the CPU, but by that point, my mind had been made up - I am NOT buying this machine. I don't care that it would be my first opportunity to play more than 30 minutes of Ocarina of Time - if I can't get use of the main feature of a device, then I will not purchase that device.
And I will avoid 3D TVs, movies and gaming machines as well. I like to be able to see what I've paid to see, thankyou very much.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Programs and Users, now in 3D
I saw Tron:Legacy last night. I was given 2 premiere double passes by my boss, mainly because he wasn't able to use them due to a work call which would land smack bang in the middle of the movie. I was able to scrounge together a group of 4 (including myself) to get to Fox Studios to watch the movie, on incredibly short notice.
It was really lucky that a bunch of my friends were in the city yesterday, and that my girlfriend also works in the city.
So, we got to the cinema, and entered (after the guards relieved us of our phones and iPods... paranoid much?) and got our seats. And our 3D goggles.
I hate 3D goggles. They go over the top of my glasses, the ones they had there were "return them when the movie's over", so they had fingerprints on them (because, clearly, what people do first when given glasses is to stick their filthy fingers all over it in an effort to make it impossible to see through them), and were quite flimsy. Despite this, they didn't fall apart mid-movie.
However, Tron is also one of those movies which wasn't made with 3D in mind - it was shoehorned in afterwards. How do I know this? Because the movie gave a WARNING at the start, stating that some scenes will be in 2D because that's how they were intended to be seen.
In fact, the 3D scenes were at the start, before Sam goes into the grid. Yes, the only 3D I really noticed in Tron was n the real world. A missed opportunity, I feel. Even though I am quite vocal in my views of 3D as a gimmick, if there was ever a chance to convince me otherwise, that was it.
(For the record, I have NOT seen Avatar)
So, the movie was quite fun. I haven't seen the original Tron either, in fact, all I know about the original movie came from the level in Kingdom Hearts 2, and I played that at least a year ago and forgot most of it!
Happily, Tron:Legacy stands alone enough that people who haven't seen Tron won't be totally lost. This is a good thing too, since the first movie is close to 30 years old if I recall correctly.
I won't spoil anyone on the plot, but I will mention two moments that I found hilarious.
At one stage in the movie, a "program" (they ARE inside a computer, after all) gets injured. So they mess with the data circle on its back - you know, look at the code to fix it up. Programming is SO much cooler in Tron than it is in real life. A digital sphere pops up, and the guy starts manipulating it, looking for bugs in the code. He eventually finds the bug. He pulls out a physical bug, which flies away. The program then starts to regenerate. Awesome.
Also, Daft Punk (who did most of, if not all of the soundtrack, which in itself is cause for seeing the movie) cameo. This made me so, so happy. There is a scene in a club, and you can quite clearly see them playing the music. You know, doing their usual jobs. Wearing their usual outfit - the skin-tight suit and the helmet visor with flashing lights. Their regular performance outfit looks so much like it was from Tron in the first place that they likely didn't need to be fitted or costumed at all!
All in all, I enjoyed the movie. Don't expect it to be accurate on the technical side (though I clearly saw someone using a grep command early in the movie), but it never claims to be either. Its just a load of fun.
And I'm totally gonna buy the blu-ray - but not a 3D version.
It was really lucky that a bunch of my friends were in the city yesterday, and that my girlfriend also works in the city.
So, we got to the cinema, and entered (after the guards relieved us of our phones and iPods... paranoid much?) and got our seats. And our 3D goggles.
I hate 3D goggles. They go over the top of my glasses, the ones they had there were "return them when the movie's over", so they had fingerprints on them (because, clearly, what people do first when given glasses is to stick their filthy fingers all over it in an effort to make it impossible to see through them), and were quite flimsy. Despite this, they didn't fall apart mid-movie.
However, Tron is also one of those movies which wasn't made with 3D in mind - it was shoehorned in afterwards. How do I know this? Because the movie gave a WARNING at the start, stating that some scenes will be in 2D because that's how they were intended to be seen.
In fact, the 3D scenes were at the start, before Sam goes into the grid. Yes, the only 3D I really noticed in Tron was n the real world. A missed opportunity, I feel. Even though I am quite vocal in my views of 3D as a gimmick, if there was ever a chance to convince me otherwise, that was it.
(For the record, I have NOT seen Avatar)
So, the movie was quite fun. I haven't seen the original Tron either, in fact, all I know about the original movie came from the level in Kingdom Hearts 2, and I played that at least a year ago and forgot most of it!
Happily, Tron:Legacy stands alone enough that people who haven't seen Tron won't be totally lost. This is a good thing too, since the first movie is close to 30 years old if I recall correctly.
I won't spoil anyone on the plot, but I will mention two moments that I found hilarious.
At one stage in the movie, a "program" (they ARE inside a computer, after all) gets injured. So they mess with the data circle on its back - you know, look at the code to fix it up. Programming is SO much cooler in Tron than it is in real life. A digital sphere pops up, and the guy starts manipulating it, looking for bugs in the code. He eventually finds the bug. He pulls out a physical bug, which flies away. The program then starts to regenerate. Awesome.
Also, Daft Punk (who did most of, if not all of the soundtrack, which in itself is cause for seeing the movie) cameo. This made me so, so happy. There is a scene in a club, and you can quite clearly see them playing the music. You know, doing their usual jobs. Wearing their usual outfit - the skin-tight suit and the helmet visor with flashing lights. Their regular performance outfit looks so much like it was from Tron in the first place that they likely didn't need to be fitted or costumed at all!
All in all, I enjoyed the movie. Don't expect it to be accurate on the technical side (though I clearly saw someone using a grep command early in the movie), but it never claims to be either. Its just a load of fun.
And I'm totally gonna buy the blu-ray - but not a 3D version.
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