Architecture

I made a mistake and bought a case of Shiner's Birthday Beer. It's a chocolate stout and it's way too sweet. Gotta get rid of these tonight!

You've sort of spotlighted one of my major issues--the tutorial should tell me that directional light isn't occluded by game geometry. I could see my platform lit, and I didn't understand why. The tutorial should express these concepts in plain language. Perhaps it makes more sense for Epic to rename "Geometry" as "BSP" for veteran developers, but I personally have no idea what the hell binary space partitioning is (I'd never heard of it until John Romero brought it up during that Devs Play episode with JP LeBreton). And when they change things in their engine, they should update their documentation accordingly. I'm certainly going to keep at it, but it's pretty disheartening to feel completely out of my depth during a tutorial.

I believe you meant anonomous free speech, Bjorn. You've wrecklessly been using correct spelling, you cog in the machine, you.

My trouble begins with the "Place Actors" section of the UE Quick Start Guide. The first issue is that it calls for you to select "Box" from the "Geometry" menu in the Modes tab. After some hunting around, it appears that "Geometry" has been relabeled "BSP." Confusing, but fine. So I grab the box and place it into the main window. It's clearly too tall (at least, it doesn't reflect the size of the tutorial), so I scale down the Z axis to make it look more like a floor or platform. Then the tutorial asks me to place a directional light inside the editor, and states that it should be sitting on top of the floor. It isn't, and switching into the orthographic view, it's clear that the light is somewhere underneath the floor. So I use transform to change its Z-axis position, but it doesn't behave as I'm expecting (or, more to the point I guess, as the tutorial suggests it should). I think my primary issue is that while basic, a lot of these tutorials seem to expect some level of competence regarding design and I essentially have none at all. What I need is something that not only explains what to do but also covers why I'm doing it. I desire something closer to Photoshop Essentials, but for game design.

Are there any good tutorials for someone who lacks complete knowledge of UE4? Thanks to Lacabra, I've got a 30-day pass for 4.6.1, but much like the issue I had with Unity, certain features have changed names in this build so the official tutorials are basically useless to me.

Yeah, I realized this after I posted it. I had only seen the episode concerning Romero and DooM.

Finally got my hands on this at PAX today. This with the Saitek X-52 Pro and an Oculus Rift DK2 is just...wow. So amazing.

I'm already home, sorry guys. And Jon, I was the guy who asked Drew about Elite & Oculus VR. I caught a few panels, shot the shit with the GB crew and managed to see Elite: Dangerous with the Rift. All in all, it was a good day. The show floor is kind of sparse, but there were some cool things. I would recommend checking out the Elite booth (though you should do this as early as possible--the line gets crazy quickly), and you should also check out Road Redemption if you haven't. They have a booth on the outer edge near the Twitch megabooth. Hopefully the attendance was big enough that they continue the show next year. It would be nice to live near a big game-centric expo.

Currently waiting to wait in line for Giant Bomb. Ridiculous.

It seems like overdosing on THC is vastly preferable to overdosing on capsaicin.

STRAFE® Their amazing website and their kickstarter page.

It's decriminalized in Travis County (which is where Austin resides).

This will only work if they bring back the sweet, sweet pause music.

Alright, I bought a ticket for Friday. What panels are you planning to attend? The Geoff Keighley one seems interesting, but the only one I care about is the Giant Bomb panel.

Are any of these still available, perchance?

T-Mobile is fine in certain markets. Here in Austin, it's easily comparable to AT&T or Verizon, and since my parents and I consolidated our plans back in December, we're paying about $140 a month for three lines with unlimited everything, versus $270+ for capped data. I think even with my EIP for a new phone, it's about $170 a month for everything. I went with the Sony Xperia Z3, and I like it thus far. I wasn't intending to replace my Nexus 5, but an errant drop back in October just shattered the display. Use cases, people!

When the game is "working," it's amazing. The map system is still unparalleled in modern design, and the concept of weapon fatigue seems mostly ignored since 2008 (the Souls games notwithstanding). But the AI is definitely isn't tightened up the way it should be (how can it both magically see me through dense foliage a quarter-mile away and other times stand six feet from me and not spot me?), the story is sloppy, and the gameplay doesn't amount to much more than "upgrade guns to kill better." This is one of those games that I always wanted and expected to love, but it just never sat well with me. I'm going to continue playing it for the time being, but I can't help but feel that despite veering off into a more casual arena, FC3 is the better game.

Last night I dreamt I was arguing with my father. We're ideologically opposed. Horrible way to wake up.

Steam tells me I've put 7.4 hours into this game so far. And for whatever reason, I'm still finding it hard to play. The thing is, I can't stop playing it. I think having the ability to hit F5 and save at any given time makes the PC version far more forgiving than it was on consoles, which is a boon. I still think the mission design is really dumb though, and the music is pretty fucking abysmal.

So tired.

This is exactly where I am, and have been, for about 9 months.

Tempted to go Friday for the Giant Bomb panel. Did you buy tickets?

That seems ridiculous to me. I spent more time playing Titanfall than any other 2014 release--my Origin account clocks my time at north of 100 hours. And that's just the base game. I also got it day of release for $50. It would have been incredibly difficult for a savvy consumer to buy all content for the game at a cost of $90. Furthermore, literally every 2014 release was available a month or two after release for 25-50% off its initial asking price. Wolfenstein was $30 less than four weeks after its release date via Steam, and Alien was $20 less than eight weeks after release. Even Call of Duty, a franchise notorious for holding the line at MSRP, was available at numerous times in its first month for 25% off retail. To criticize Titanfall for lowering its price aggressively seems unfair and shortsighted considering the current state of the industry. I'd also argue that Respawn has been better about supporting its game post-launch than just about every other AAA developer out there. They shipped a game that worked on day one, and have continually updated and improved the game with new content for almost a year. And other than additional maps, this content has been free to the consumer. Maybe you wanted a single-player campaign--I understand that. But if you went in with the understanding that it was an online-only multiplayer title, you got at least what you expected if not more. It's one of the best-designed shooters ever. Period.

Anyone attending PAX South? Kinda want to see the Giant Bomb panel since it's only about an hour drive away.

...Can you back up the Amiibo data to your SD card if you're swapping games?