Software update hell
Well, I guess I asked for this...
Three years of refusing to install windows updates kept me under the radar for most difficulties, but, I guess, no more.
I finally needed one of them to install something I wanted. So I finally enabled the windows updater on both computers and... Woo... this is taking a while. So far the laptop is in the lead (as I was testing something on the desktop) having just hit it's second reboot due to updates.
Everything's slowed down to a crawl on both computers as the updater is a system hog too. Oh well, at worst, I'll just leave them both running whilst I'm at college.
Now then... I have found an interesting plaything :3
For those of you not in the FPS (first person shooter) computer game scene, I'll try and fill in the blanks as I go. Half life 2 has a very detailed in game physics system. What does this mean? If you throw a rock at a wall, it bounces kinda realistically... As realistically as they could make it.
So what?
So what if you had an environment where you could use this physics engine to play around? Make a copy of any object in the game and stick them together to form different things?
Effectively, we're talking software lego.
Woo... Yay... It's actually a fair bit of fun, but just making crude, jet propelled bathtub cars and things does get rather dull... Quite fast too.
The fun bit comes in the form of an add on that's been made for it... Called Wiremod, it adds, effectively, electronics to the mix. This adds a whole new aspect to the game. Suddenly, you can build things that -do- stuff :3
It was pointless trying to build a gun turret, for example, before the update. You would have to aim it manually, and it was much slower to do so than to pull out a gun and shoot what you wanted to anyhow.
Right now, I would be putting the finishing touches to my gun design and making final adjustments for accuracy at extreme ranges.
We just got software lego technic :3
Anyone who wanted to try robot wars on an even lower budget than robot wars? (and no restrictions on size and safety) That might be my next project :3
That is... once I reboot... again.
Three years of refusing to install windows updates kept me under the radar for most difficulties, but, I guess, no more.
I finally needed one of them to install something I wanted. So I finally enabled the windows updater on both computers and... Woo... this is taking a while. So far the laptop is in the lead (as I was testing something on the desktop) having just hit it's second reboot due to updates.
Everything's slowed down to a crawl on both computers as the updater is a system hog too. Oh well, at worst, I'll just leave them both running whilst I'm at college.
Now then... I have found an interesting plaything :3
For those of you not in the FPS (first person shooter) computer game scene, I'll try and fill in the blanks as I go. Half life 2 has a very detailed in game physics system. What does this mean? If you throw a rock at a wall, it bounces kinda realistically... As realistically as they could make it.
So what?
So what if you had an environment where you could use this physics engine to play around? Make a copy of any object in the game and stick them together to form different things?
Effectively, we're talking software lego.
Woo... Yay... It's actually a fair bit of fun, but just making crude, jet propelled bathtub cars and things does get rather dull... Quite fast too.
The fun bit comes in the form of an add on that's been made for it... Called Wiremod, it adds, effectively, electronics to the mix. This adds a whole new aspect to the game. Suddenly, you can build things that -do- stuff :3
It was pointless trying to build a gun turret, for example, before the update. You would have to aim it manually, and it was much slower to do so than to pull out a gun and shoot what you wanted to anyhow.
Right now, I would be putting the finishing touches to my gun design and making final adjustments for accuracy at extreme ranges.
We just got software lego technic :3
Anyone who wanted to try robot wars on an even lower budget than robot wars? (and no restrictions on size and safety) That might be my next project :3
That is... once I reboot... again.