Joel Schultz

... and let's not forget "Win-D": minimize every app and jump to the desktop. I can't get through a single day without doing that about a dozen times. quote: Nothing a few mouse clicks can't do. (Move mouse-Click start-move mouse-click find-move mouse-click files) (Win-F) The keyboard is faster than the mouse. And many of us are lazy. Besides, haven't you heard for real-time strategy games a saying that goes sorta like this: "Show me someone who plays a game only using the mouse and I'll show you someone who gets their butt handed to them by someone who plays also using the keyboard." (All else being equal)

That website's solution is the same as the one found on Microsoft's MSDN, the "nuke the keyboard" solution.

quote: Originally posted by Duncan Idaho: Heheh, It's beginning to look like our tastes are widely scattered. Thank GOD no one said Myst! Idaho WHAT?!!!! How dare you say that! (j/k) I'm partial to leisurely-paced games with challenging puzzles in them. Outstanding graphics don't hurt either. The "point-n-click adventure/puzzle game" is among my favorite genres to play (the others being BCM, action/RPG, and starfighter sim). Anyway, I knew I missed a genre; my list seemed to short. Thanks for the reminder. Revised list: [*]Thief II [*]Redguard [*]Total Annihilation [*]Descent: Freespace [*]Riven (a.k.a. Myst 2) [*]Journeyman Project 3 [*]Zork [ 04-12-2002, 22:18: Message edited by: Joel Schultz ]

BTW, if you want to change the cutscene images, there's no reason why one can't assemble one's own 256-color grayscale CRTImages.bmp; just keep the same dimensions & layout and voila! But there's an upside to being a software developer after all: now that I've figured out how the thing works (you can download the source code for the screen saver too!) I may try modifying it some to support more images than just a 2x4-cell bitmap

(Excluding BCM from the list, heh, 'cause it goes without saying) [*]Thief II [*]Redguard [*]Total Annihilation [*]Descent: Freespace [ 04-12-2002, 14:17: Message edited by: Joel Schultz ]

[*]PS2: Dynasty Warriors 3 (drat it, why'd my brother get me hooked; this game's addictive!) [*]SNES: StarFox (still can't figure out why I liked it so much) [*]Atari whatever: PacMan I really never cared for console games too much. But those listed above were absolutely outstanding for me. Even PacMan, in its day.

I stopped over at my colleague's cubical to ask him for some files, but he was out to lunch. Anyway, I totally forgot what I came to ask him about because I was absolutely mesmerized by his screen saver Thought I'd post the link to it here, in case anyone was interested. Main Page Download Screen Saver If anyone tries this out...can anyone identify which Anime the still-shots were taken from? [ 04-12-2002, 12:51: Message edited by: Joel Schultz ]

I may have a potential solution. I've been reviewing some articles and found one that may be relevant to your problem. Although it says it applies to WinNT and Win2K there's a chance that it may apply to your OS (WinXP). The article was dated 1/28/2000; WinXP wasn't around yet but is supposed to have the same kernel as Win2K, so I am going to hypothesize that what works for Win2K will work for WinXP. I'll try to run an experiment soon (maybe even today!) and verify this. If it works out, I will post a workaround. TTFN ---UPDATE--- Drat it, the only XP machine around here had an evaluation copy that had expired. No experiments today, or in the forseeable future. But, so as not to keep you waiting, you may wish to try the advice in these articles at MSDN: DISCLAIMER: the article requires editing your registry and rebooting your computer. To undo the change in the registry to restore the Windows key, delete the value it asks you to add and then reboot. Also, the article was written before WinXP, and may not apply. FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS AT OWN RISK. I do not take any resposibility for the result. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...b;EN-US;q216893 This is kind of the "nuke the keyboard" solution. If you are not comfortable editing the registry, and you are worried about not being able to repair the computer should you screw up the procedure, don't do it! All things considered, it probably would be better if BCM knocked out that key itself, perhaps controllable from the INI. Knocking out a key for another application from outside the application is not the easiest thing to do, unless you're willing to go the "global nuke" route of registry editing. [ 04-12-2002, 12:24: Message edited by: Joel Schultz ]

Hmm... I think this answers a question I had a long time ago about changing my profile around to something other than the name it is. Best of all, I won't lose any of my forum stats.

I was waiting for someone to point this out... quote: First of all, Linux already has an openly adopted desktop environment standard: XFree86. KDE and GNOME are X-based, thus any software package that works in X will work in KDE and GNOME.My rebuttal: what good is it? X11 is a GUI/windowing/drawing standard. Sure, it has windows, drawing, etc., and everything that runs on X11 will run on KDE or GNOME. But X11 is not a desktop. And it is the desktop that needs to be unified. Pick one and toss the other. Why? Because although a GUI system like X11 is great for drawing and windows, you need a ton more than just drawing to write an app. A typical application requires additional services like a clipboard (which it can share with other applications), standard dialog boxes (like display property control and printer configuration), and other higher-level beyond-just-drawing services that make sense to include in the "desktop" API layer versus the pure windowing/drawing/GUI API layer. X11 is like a collection of parts you find in a hardware store. A desktop offers useful pre-assembled components built from those parts. Sure, you can write an app that only uses X11 calls. But you then have to end up re-inventing the wheel for all those nice "standard" goodies. Therefore to minimize the amount of redundant functionality and to maintain a common look and feel across all applications running on a desktop, an application should use desktop-level functionality wherever appropriate. Hence, the need for ONE desktop, with ONE API. Standardize on GNOME or KDE, and toss out the other. Once done, applications can consistantly take advantages of these higher-level functions (that logically do not belong in the basic GUI sevices API layer) and begin to look, feel and behave the same. Which is ultimately good for the end user by reducing the learning curve (e.g. if a user knows how to use the tree control in Windows Explorer, he can depend on near-identical behavior in other apps). Of course, in all fairness games usually don't use a lot of these higher-level functions anyway (when's the last time you played a game that used the clipboard or needed to print something? ). But the lack thereof is definitely a discouragement towards general development, and it could reasonably be argued that this could also discourage game development. (Hmm... I think I've drifted off topic towards Linux applications from Linux gaming. Sorry.) [ 02-12-2002, 18:23: Message edited by: Joel Schultz ]

Possible hope for a future resurrection of Linux gaming: Ximian's "Mono" project IF game development on Winboxen switches to use Managed C++ or C# as the language with NO funky Win32 API (P/Invoke) calls, AND there is a .NET API for sound and 3D graphics (dunno if there is, haven't looked), AND the Mono project succeeds, THEN there maybe possible a direct means of porting Windows games to Linux, with little or no work done. Dollars to donuts the first game portable in .NET/Mono will be Minesweeper. [ 02-11-2002, 17:19: Message edited by: Joel Schultz ]

OK, I've used both Linux and Windows and the blessing of Linux is its free open-sourceness that allows lots of potential customization. Including different distros. Which is also its biggest drawback. You mention on some Linux distros you need to specify a refresh rate. On others you don't. I've seen both myself. However, this is a case in point of how the sword of freedom is two-edged and can cut both ways. steps onto soapbox I would argue that this should never happen. Within an OS, there should be ONE universal environment, with ONE programming interface, under the control of ONE committee/group (similar to how OpenGL is governed). Pick KDE or Gnome as standard and toss the other. Pick a 3D API like OpenGL and toss out the rest. Pick a single sound API to implement and toss out the rest. Offer some standard utility dialog box screens (screen display properties, file open/save, printer setup) to discourage temptations to have others write duplicates of the same. The benefits of having the above ONEness is unification of development effort. You start diluting the field with multiple APIs that can and do conflict, you dilute development effort and increase cost. Yes, you sacrifice diversity and some freedom when you do this. I would argue the diversity should be in the application software, not in the desktops or within the OS. Gaming is an expensive business that doesn't seem to always have big returns on the investment, unless you be fortunate to write a great game. Modern Windows gaming already has that ONEness in devlopment. It therefore makes more sense to make games for Windows from a business standpoint since your development effort can stick to a single standard. Finagling out hardware oddities within a single API standard is hard enough without having to worry about umpteen different API interfaces to hardware drivers as well. I predict that Linux gaming could take off if it matures to the point where there comes to be a high-level governing committee similar to what OpenGL has that has the right and authority to dictate high-level standards as in: "Thou shalt have X desktop. Thou shalt implement Y sound programming interface. Thou shalt implement Z 3D programming interface. Any further extensions made by individual distros are unofficial and must be submitted for cataloging to prevent conflicts, but may be considered for future addition to the standard." Sort of like a consensus-driven committee version of OpenGL for Linux. Call it "Linuxsoft". quote: Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: Linux gaming will NEVER come of age and anyone foolish enough to think otherwise, is going to end up down the same path. I'm afraid I agree (hence the "could" in my words above). Linux missed the boat, and it may be too late.

SC, I don't know much about Python or LUA, but as soon as you said "Python" I am intrigued. Why? Because Python is one of the languages supported by the Microsoft .NET Framework's CLR (common language runtime). Is there any chance that this BCO scripting will be exposed in the form of a object class library capable of interfacing with Python via the CLR, thus blowing open scripting to not just Python, but Managed C++, C#, Cobol(!) and so on? And before you accuse me of it, yes I'm insane.

I'm from Pittsburgh, so with apologies to Myron Cope, here's my Terrible Table: GO STEELERS [ 01-25-2002: Message edited by: Joel Schultz ]

1. Cambridge Soundworks something or other (3 years old, 1 subwoofer + 2 satellites) 2. Turtle Beach Santa Cruz 3. Mid-level bass, but that's more than enough to shake things up (my subwoofer is located in an odd location which tends to excessively amplify its output, so putting it up to full-bass power actually causes things to sound worse).

I haven't forgotten this, although I had hoped U_E would have carried this forward. I may eventually get around to contributing some more. But at the moment I'm very busy with RL. You know, the one thing that can actually be more important than THE GAME? ducks flying rocks as shouts of "Blasphemer!" ascend into the air In all seriousness, I probably won't be able to even get back to seriously playing BCM till February, let alone assist on a community project like this. I have to finish my MS degree, or my company will never pay off my tuition...

quote: Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: Didn't someone already mention that it is an mp feature not possible in sp? Originally posted by Epsilon 5: I think not. Hmmmmmm.... You know, I have very vague recollections regarding SC's response, but they're so vague and fuzzy I dunno if it's just my brain inventing memories on the grounds that his explanation seems rather sensible. In which case I'm inclined to agree with E5, but with no more certainty than I have that SC didn't say the above. Either way, thanks to all for the responses. At least now I have a grip on what can be done with the thing for the moment.

I rarely comment on these "review is up" threads (at risk of adding redundant sentiment). But I have to say this: of all the reviews I've read thus far, it seems IMHO that this reviewer actually "got" the whole thrust of what BCM is supposed to be, vs. what it's not. Yes, if you rate graphics all by themselves it doesn't have as much glorious eye-candy as other titles that would (pretend to) compete in its genre - but BCM isn't about graphics for graphics sake. Yes, if you rate FP all by itself, it isn't Q3 - but BCM isn't about being the next king-of-the-mounted FP shooter. But whoever this "Viper" reviewer is understood the crux of what BCM is about. Gameplay. Gameplay. Gameplay. And brought out some cool points regarding the driving force behind the gameplay, the AI. BCM is a game that most definitely proves that the sum can be greater than the parts. Far greater. . . . Now, when's AVault going to review this thing anyway? Are they even working on one?

So no one knows how to eject the cargo pod into space, then? Bummer, I had some vague ideas for that feature. But I'll try the smuggling bit out for sure.

quote: Originally posted by Papi: You can load cargo to the cargo pod and eject it to be picked up later (illegal items ) or to exchange goods with other players in the future mp. So how do you eject the pod? That's kind of what I thought but couldn't figure out how to do it.

Hm. I don't recall reading about it anywhere and my question doesn't seem to be answered in the newbie area, so I'll risk a "Dumb Question Of The Day" award. I can transfer cargo in Logistix to a cargo pod. What good does this do? Transporting cargo to planet surface is a separate operation done from another screen and creates its own cargo pod. I don't think then that that's what the Logistix one is for. Pointers to missed manual pages and/or appendix files preferred so I learn where the info is for future reference, but I'll take any answers at all on this...

Well, I'll be! The patch fixed my save game; I can leave the planet now! Thanks, SC! I've been playing as a Ter/Mil in the interim, but he met an unfortunate demise the other evening due to a stupid mistake I made. Thanks to the fix, I can resume his friend's career now.

quote: FIXED: In some cases the planet pointer wasn't being set when you entered it. This would cause a CTD when you answered the prompt to egress to space. Sounds like the problem one of my AEs had. Will the VCF fix repair my "broken" save game or will I have to begin it anew?

One of my AE's can't return to orbit on Ramis. I was biding my time puttering around groundside waiting on an engine upgrade with some mining drones doing busywork. After I turned on the important stuff again to lift off (like the engine) and picked up the drones, when I tried to leave the planet I get a CTD or other lockup on confirming I want to go to space (above 30K altitude). Save game submitted as per instructions. Clarification: I think I just figured out how the quick-saves work after doing some reading around here. Given my at-the-time ignorance, use the full-game "restore" to load my profile. [ 12-18-2001: Message edited by: Joel Schultz ]

Ever hear of the GIMP? I used the Windows port of it to design our splash screen at work. And since its GNU software you can't beat the price...