The MAL signature image will now finally remember its show/hide state across page loads. The reason I hadn't had this functionality in there to begin with is because Blogger restricts your use of certain bits of Javascript functionality, as well as your ability to load external scripts. I found a way around it, so now the feature can happen.
I can understand them wanting to restrict those bits of functionality, but at the same time, this is a completely benign use of said functionality, so it annoys me that they don't at the very least have an API to do it.
I'm skirting around mentioning exactly what's restricted and how I got around it on purpose, but it's not too hard to figure out.
So, yeah. XT-8147: 1; Blogger: 0.
Of course, it only works properly in standards-compliant browsers. I haven't tested it, but it should fall back to the old functionality in lesser browsers. It may generate errors in the process, I don't care.
In other news, YouTube thinks I'm 109 years old and I'm unable to change this. I probably gave a fake birthday on account creation, but the absence of a way to change it mystifies me.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Going up in resolution
I was playing around with the nVidia Control Panel and discovered that my monitor can run 1280x960@70Hz in 32-bit color, even though it doesn't advertise so and even says "New Mode" in its OSD when I play with the controls.
Previously I'd thought that this monitor (an old Dell E771p) couldn't do more than 900 lines above 60Hz.
I'd go to 1600x1200@60Hz, but I can see 60Hz refresh. It's not pleasing to the eye or the stomach.
This raises an interesting dilemma for this blog. Specifically, how I use the "wall of text" tag. I've been basing it solely off of the height of the post content sans images. If I had to scroll to view all of the post content, it got the tag. I never defined it, but basically there was a reference height in pixels that if the post was taller than it, I would slap on the tag. Well, that reference height just changed.
I think I'll just bump my use of the "wall of text" tag up to more than a screenful at my new resolution. I'm not going to go back and mess with previous posts, even though the new reference height makes some of them not qualify for the tag.
Previously I'd thought that this monitor (an old Dell E771p) couldn't do more than 900 lines above 60Hz.
I'd go to 1600x1200@60Hz, but I can see 60Hz refresh. It's not pleasing to the eye or the stomach.
This raises an interesting dilemma for this blog. Specifically, how I use the "wall of text" tag. I've been basing it solely off of the height of the post content sans images. If I had to scroll to view all of the post content, it got the tag. I never defined it, but basically there was a reference height in pixels that if the post was taller than it, I would slap on the tag. Well, that reference height just changed.
I think I'll just bump my use of the "wall of text" tag up to more than a screenful at my new resolution. I'm not going to go back and mess with previous posts, even though the new reference height makes some of them not qualify for the tag.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Tales of Fridays resumes
We decided that Symphonia is next, but first, we're finishing off Abyss.
The first portion of gameplay was us trying to figure out where we left off. We'd been using a guide on GameFAQs, so basically it involved pausing and scrolling down the FAQ until we found where we were. You really need a guide for the Tales games, if you don't have one, there's so much of the game you'll miss out on.
Our Fridays follow a distinct pattern: the first part is story, and the second part is side quests. The side quests are basically everything you'd miss out on, and they get you so much stuff. Anything from artes to weapons and items useful elsewhere in the game. So we went through the story part. Ion died, Anise was a spy (not by choice, but through blackmail), and Mohs is a dick. We fought some regular enemies with enough health to be bosses, and FINALLY GOT THE FUCKING FLIGHT STONE THAT LETS US GO THROUGH THE STORMS. Also, Mieu Fire 2, which is necessary for the aforementioned flight stone. There was a bit more story, but then it became sidequest time. We ground items for Din to get a specific doll for Anise (the Artificial Life Form one that gives her X-BUSTER, Honya's busy grinding a red chamber on that), then got a few costume titles, including the two remaining titles for Natalia that affect search point drops, Star of Malkuth and Adventurous Princess. This happened in Nam Coband Isle (or... Namco Bandai Isle), filled with references to old Namco arcade games. We lol'd.
Next time is more story (I dunno what, we've got something to do in Baticul I think).
I'm still playing Natalia, still mostly as a healer with party buffs and a couple of attacks. I have no clue who I'll be playing in Symphonia, if I even play anyone. There was talk of a dedicated healer and getting me drunk so I could heal people, we'll have to see what comes of that. I heal people well enough sober with Natalia...
Also, CAINE house needs a new projector. The bulb on the existing one has, as the projector irreversably bitches at us, "has reached the end of its usable life", even though it still works so we can see the message. I guess technically all that needs to happen is replacing the bulb, but the projector's kind of shitty, so I guess maybe get a better one and leave it at that.
The first portion of gameplay was us trying to figure out where we left off. We'd been using a guide on GameFAQs, so basically it involved pausing and scrolling down the FAQ until we found where we were. You really need a guide for the Tales games, if you don't have one, there's so much of the game you'll miss out on.
Our Fridays follow a distinct pattern: the first part is story, and the second part is side quests. The side quests are basically everything you'd miss out on, and they get you so much stuff. Anything from artes to weapons and items useful elsewhere in the game. So we went through the story part. Ion died, Anise was a spy (not by choice, but through blackmail), and Mohs is a dick. We fought some regular enemies with enough health to be bosses, and FINALLY GOT THE FUCKING FLIGHT STONE THAT LETS US GO THROUGH THE STORMS. Also, Mieu Fire 2, which is necessary for the aforementioned flight stone. There was a bit more story, but then it became sidequest time. We ground items for Din to get a specific doll for Anise (the Artificial Life Form one that gives her X-BUSTER, Honya's busy grinding a red chamber on that), then got a few costume titles, including the two remaining titles for Natalia that affect search point drops, Star of Malkuth and Adventurous Princess. This happened in Nam Coband Isle (or... Namco Bandai Isle), filled with references to old Namco arcade games. We lol'd.
Next time is more story (I dunno what, we've got something to do in Baticul I think).
I'm still playing Natalia, still mostly as a healer with party buffs and a couple of attacks. I have no clue who I'll be playing in Symphonia, if I even play anyone. There was talk of a dedicated healer and getting me drunk so I could heal people, we'll have to see what comes of that. I heal people well enough sober with Natalia...
Also, CAINE house needs a new projector. The bulb on the existing one has, as the projector irreversably bitches at us, "has reached the end of its usable life", even though it still works so we can see the message. I guess technically all that needs to happen is replacing the bulb, but the projector's kind of shitty, so I guess maybe get a better one and leave it at that.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Re: What were the chances of this happening anyway?
In reply to my own post this time, here's a slight update.
First off, after having become acquainted with the level editor and haivng learned how to set up a computer hack like this one, I now know just how easily this could be fixed. Every computer hack, when you're setting it up, has outputs on various events that can do whatever you need them to do.
Since Alien Swarm was released just so the modding community could have fun with it, there's a version of Landing Bay that's loadable in Hammer. Loading it up and looking at the hack's trigger, it's supposed to trigger the spawn to break down the door when the hack starts. So, what I guess happened is: since the hack started up complete, none of the OnComputerHackStarted outputs fired, and none of the other outputs cause enemies to spawn. No enemies spawned, nobody to break down the door.
However, there are other events where the spawn that breaks down the door could be enabled. OnComputerHackCompleted jumps out as being suitable at first, but it's probably a bit late to spawn them, since the door does take a while to knock down and we want the players to have some sense of urgency. OnComputerDataDownloaded is much too late, if they spawned then, the players would have to stand around and wait for the door to be knocked down. It should be set to OnComputerActivated, and maybe increase the delay from 5 seconds to 7 to account for the computer starting up to give it about the same amount of time in the end.
Yet another solution involves changing the door itself. As it exists in the level, it's nonfunctional and not welded. If we change both of those, so that the door can open if triggered and make it welded, players can still get through if this ever happens again. To prevent the obvious speedrun exploit, the door's Total Seal Time could be jacked up from the default 10 seconds, and the door set to be fully welded. This will make it take a while to unweld the door. The exact amount of time required would need some research. Figure out how long it takes the chainsaw to break down a default health door and go from there. The door out of the room on the other side would need to be locked until the OnComputerDataDownloaded output of the computer hack fires. I'm unsure as to whether or not it's locked in the first place (it's been a while since I chainsawed the door down to check).
There's something that bugs me about this though. Looking at the outputs on the computer hack trigger, there's a broken one set for OnComputerDataDownloaded with a target of AfterHackSpawnTrigger. This trigger doesn't appear to exist in the level. Was this broken output originally meant to be in the level to prevent this "mystery case" from messing up the game?
The other update is to correct the data needed to calculate the probability of this happening. I forgot to mention that for the hack to complete, all of the columns need to be moving the same direction. So the new situation is that the hack starts up with all four ones aligned AND moving the same direction. Basically it adds an extra bit's worth of complexity to each column.
I've noticed it start up with two of them aligned every now and then, and three fairly rarely.
One thing's for sure: The odds of anyone at Valve reading this: zero.
First off, after having become acquainted with the level editor and haivng learned how to set up a computer hack like this one, I now know just how easily this could be fixed. Every computer hack, when you're setting it up, has outputs on various events that can do whatever you need them to do.
Since Alien Swarm was released just so the modding community could have fun with it, there's a version of Landing Bay that's loadable in Hammer. Loading it up and looking at the hack's trigger, it's supposed to trigger the spawn to break down the door when the hack starts. So, what I guess happened is: since the hack started up complete, none of the OnComputerHackStarted outputs fired, and none of the other outputs cause enemies to spawn. No enemies spawned, nobody to break down the door.
However, there are other events where the spawn that breaks down the door could be enabled. OnComputerHackCompleted jumps out as being suitable at first, but it's probably a bit late to spawn them, since the door does take a while to knock down and we want the players to have some sense of urgency. OnComputerDataDownloaded is much too late, if they spawned then, the players would have to stand around and wait for the door to be knocked down. It should be set to OnComputerActivated, and maybe increase the delay from 5 seconds to 7 to account for the computer starting up to give it about the same amount of time in the end.
Yet another solution involves changing the door itself. As it exists in the level, it's nonfunctional and not welded. If we change both of those, so that the door can open if triggered and make it welded, players can still get through if this ever happens again. To prevent the obvious speedrun exploit, the door's Total Seal Time could be jacked up from the default 10 seconds, and the door set to be fully welded. This will make it take a while to unweld the door. The exact amount of time required would need some research. Figure out how long it takes the chainsaw to break down a default health door and go from there. The door out of the room on the other side would need to be locked until the OnComputerDataDownloaded output of the computer hack fires. I'm unsure as to whether or not it's locked in the first place (it's been a while since I chainsawed the door down to check).
There's something that bugs me about this though. Looking at the outputs on the computer hack trigger, there's a broken one set for OnComputerDataDownloaded with a target of AfterHackSpawnTrigger. This trigger doesn't appear to exist in the level. Was this broken output originally meant to be in the level to prevent this "mystery case" from messing up the game?
The other update is to correct the data needed to calculate the probability of this happening. I forgot to mention that for the hack to complete, all of the columns need to be moving the same direction. So the new situation is that the hack starts up with all four ones aligned AND moving the same direction. Basically it adds an extra bit's worth of complexity to each column.
I've noticed it start up with two of them aligned every now and then, and three fairly rarely.
One thing's for sure: The odds of anyone at Valve reading this: zero.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
I'd Tap That
Tapping is an advanced technique in Guitar Hero that involves the player moving their strumming hand up to the fret buttons to press them. It's adapted from a technique of the same name for playing real guitar. What makes this possible is the fact that not every note in a chart needs to be strummed. For those who have never tried to use them before (and never played the friggin' tutorials), any note in GH3 and newer that's glowing on top doesn't need to be strummed so long as you don't break combo. They exist in the earlier games too, but they're harder to see, and in GH1 they're almost impossible to use. The reason a player would want to tap is simple: It makes the section of the song easier. You only have but so much dexterity in your fretting hand, so breaking a section down into what you hit with your fretting hand and what you tap with your strumming hand allows you to get around that. The technique is perfectly legal for both ScoreHero and Guinness World Records.
If it sounds difficult to do, well, it is. I've been trying to learn how to do it for a while now. I've been doing it all over the place in World Tour, Metallica, and Smash Hits thanks to the slider notes which never need to be strummed even if you break combo, but that doesn't really learn you how to tap the complex stuff since you can just start your combo back up without having to change what you're doing.
The section I've been tapping is in Guitar Hero 3. The song Impulse has a section called Funkiest Riff In History, which ends with a fast zigzag on red, yellow, and orange that I can't hit with just my left hand. I'm terrible at zigzags in general. I've had a fair amount of luck learning how to tap this zigzag, to the point that I've played the entire section, started tapping, and gone back to the strum a mere two notes after the last tap several times now without dropping combo.
Some people share their fingerings for song sections and just imply that "this is THE way to do it", when in reality, different methods will work for different people. When reading anything suggesting a fingering for a specific section, it should be regarded as "this is what works for me".
So, this is what works for me. This image is from the chart on SlowHero.
The tricky part about this zigzag is that it speeds up. When it gets to the last red note in measure 63, I anchor red. This slower part is easy to one-hand while I move into tapping position. When it begins to speed up I switch over to tapping the orange notes that I circled in red. Note the chord two notes after the last circled orange note, that has to be strummed. Speed in moving your strumming arm is everything to tapping. The major barrier for me is to do it without really thinking about it, which in my case will result in moving my arm faster. I tend to think about it too much and end up dropping right when I would otherwise begin tapping. But I just did it without even really thinking about it at all.
So if I were posting about this on ScoreHero, I'd probably just post the zigzag (well, everything starting from the green note in measure 63, and all of measure 64) using their fret icons, with number notation for fingering. But here, with the black background, the fret icons that I'd have used otherwise won't show up properly, and just putting a random mass of numbers would be confusing. So even though I really want to post the numbers, I won't.
Rather, I'll explain what the numbers would represent. I slide my index finger from green to red, then use my index finger on red, middle finger on yellow, and pinky on orange. As mentioned, when I get to the first red of the zigzag (the last one in measure 63), I hold it down for the rest of the zigzag (anchoring). Beginning from the third orange note, I tap with my strumming hand. This is usually my middle finger just because it's longer, but really, anything works as long as it's intuitive. Hitting the zigzag basically becomes a matter of developing a rhythm between pressing yellow, tapping orange, and releasing yellow. Then, after the fifth orange, waste no time in getting my strumming hand back down to strum the chord.
I just hit it again in practice mode while verifying that there is indeed no red note at the end of the zigzag. Sometimes I fail to notice the strangest things about certain charts. For instance, there's an orange note in Generation Rock that I didn't even know was there, even after FCing the song several times. I thought it was blue, because it's blue when that pattern comes up earlier in the song.
If it sounds difficult to do, well, it is. I've been trying to learn how to do it for a while now. I've been doing it all over the place in World Tour, Metallica, and Smash Hits thanks to the slider notes which never need to be strummed even if you break combo, but that doesn't really learn you how to tap the complex stuff since you can just start your combo back up without having to change what you're doing.
The section I've been tapping is in Guitar Hero 3. The song Impulse has a section called Funkiest Riff In History, which ends with a fast zigzag on red, yellow, and orange that I can't hit with just my left hand. I'm terrible at zigzags in general. I've had a fair amount of luck learning how to tap this zigzag, to the point that I've played the entire section, started tapping, and gone back to the strum a mere two notes after the last tap several times now without dropping combo.
Some people share their fingerings for song sections and just imply that "this is THE way to do it", when in reality, different methods will work for different people. When reading anything suggesting a fingering for a specific section, it should be regarded as "this is what works for me".
So, this is what works for me. This image is from the chart on SlowHero.
The tricky part about this zigzag is that it speeds up. When it gets to the last red note in measure 63, I anchor red. This slower part is easy to one-hand while I move into tapping position. When it begins to speed up I switch over to tapping the orange notes that I circled in red. Note the chord two notes after the last circled orange note, that has to be strummed. Speed in moving your strumming arm is everything to tapping. The major barrier for me is to do it without really thinking about it, which in my case will result in moving my arm faster. I tend to think about it too much and end up dropping right when I would otherwise begin tapping. But I just did it without even really thinking about it at all.
So if I were posting about this on ScoreHero, I'd probably just post the zigzag (well, everything starting from the green note in measure 63, and all of measure 64) using their fret icons, with number notation for fingering. But here, with the black background, the fret icons that I'd have used otherwise won't show up properly, and just putting a random mass of numbers would be confusing. So even though I really want to post the numbers, I won't.
Rather, I'll explain what the numbers would represent. I slide my index finger from green to red, then use my index finger on red, middle finger on yellow, and pinky on orange. As mentioned, when I get to the first red of the zigzag (the last one in measure 63), I hold it down for the rest of the zigzag (anchoring). Beginning from the third orange note, I tap with my strumming hand. This is usually my middle finger just because it's longer, but really, anything works as long as it's intuitive. Hitting the zigzag basically becomes a matter of developing a rhythm between pressing yellow, tapping orange, and releasing yellow. Then, after the fifth orange, waste no time in getting my strumming hand back down to strum the chord.
I just hit it again in practice mode while verifying that there is indeed no red note at the end of the zigzag. Sometimes I fail to notice the strangest things about certain charts. For instance, there's an orange note in Generation Rock that I didn't even know was there, even after FCing the song several times. I thought it was blue, because it's blue when that pattern comes up earlier in the song.
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