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celestius · 11 months ago

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Sm(Art)

Neil Gaiman once wrote a short article on “How to Read Gene Wolf” and although retrospectively, most of it feels a little too edgy and forcefully clever (thus ironically contradicting the very point made below), there is one bit that stuck with me, especially because it’s so widely applicable. It was this:

“There are two kinds of clever writer. The ones that point out how clever they are, and the ones who see no need to point out how clever they are. Gene Wolfe is of the second kind, and the intelligence is less important than the tale. He is not smart to make you feel stupid. He is smart to make you smart as well.”

It feels like such a productive and interesting perspective to perceive art through: is it making me smarter? Or does it just make me marvel at how smart the author is? The first is definitely much harder to achieve, but is obviously infinitely more rewarding.

Enter Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Yes, yes, buying a Nintendo in 2024 and making observations about a game released in 2017 after everyone already had their thoughts and feelings feels a little redundant, but besides a myriad of things for which the game should really be admired (against my best efforts to prove the contrary), I feel compelled to address the brilliance of its puzzles and how wonderfully they encourage creativity and original thought.

In most games that include puzzles, the puzzle is A) entirely clear to be a puzzle (very often described as such in-game by either the characters or the interface), B) constructed to have us reapply previously gained knowledge (meant gained prior to playing the game). Examples: reordering something by amount or order, rotating an object, moving tiles to make a picture etc.

All of those are similar to math equations on the recipient level: we have been told the equation, we are given the numbers and our task is to more or less tediously solve it. We are not rewarded for being original thinkers. No one really looks at the puzzle and thinks “wow, I sure don’t have any idea what to do”, or more precisely, the ratio between figuring out the point of the puzzle and its solving is about 10 to 90. (coincidentally, one of my rants prior to encountering Zelda has consistently been that I loathe game puzzles where there is too much effort between figuring out what to do and doing it - e.g. pushing a boulder someplace for 5 minutes after you already KNOW it should be moved there. Ideally, enacting a solution after fully figuring it out should be a 5 second affair).

In Zelda, however, you have to figure out WHAT the puzzle IS. Brilliant, right? That’s it, end of post. Okay, okay, I’ll elaborate:

The sheer brilliance of Zelda is that you don’t simply reapply previously present knowledge or go through a linear pattern of logical steps, but that you almost constantly have to PROPOSE solutions to each puzzle and test it out. Moreover (!), in a sequence of similarly “themed” puzzles, the next one invariably requires the player to change their assumptions from the first step in order to complete the second.

Surely, this all sounds too theoretical, so let’s get down to examples:

Example 1: The Kinetic Boulder

One of the abilities that you can use to solve puzzles is to freeze an object in time, hit it, and its accumulated kinetic energy upon “defrosting” will propel it forward.

Cue a puzzle where you are in a room with a boulder and across the water, there is a hole. At first, you think there’s no way to get it there. Then you remember you have the abovementioned ability. Oh, and there’s a hammer in the chest next to the boulder.

You freeze it, hit it 3 times, doesn’t fly far enough (=needs more kinetic energy), so you hit it 4 times, perfect, right in the hole.

You move to the next room. Same situation. Cockily, you assume you’ll be simply asked to recalculate your hits again. Imagine your surprise when you hit 4 times and it’s not enough, and 5 is too far. Hm. That just makes NO sense. Like what is BETWEEN 4 and 5 hits? You screw around a bit, try different things. And then you think (potentially): what if (!) I change my weapon for the last hit for one with lower damage (=less transferred kinetic energy) and ta-daaa. The ball goes exactly where it needs to.

(moreover, like with many other puzzles in the game, I have a lurking suspicion there were MULTIPLE way to resolve it! Sometimes what I do is so outlandish it feels like other, more “normal” solutions must be possible, which is in itself incredible)

Example 2: The Constellations

In one of the puzzles, there are several holes in the ground arranged in columns, and small spheres next to each one. Okay, so I need to put a sphere in the correct hole in each column. But how do I know which one? Oh, there are star constellations on the wall above each column. Could the hole be the number of stars in each constellation? Nope, too many, so it can’t be that. Hm. Wait, there’s also a giant wall in the back with the same constellations as the columns. But how do they relate? Wait! What if the number of times each constellation is displayed on the big wall in the back is the number of the hole where I’m supposed to place the sphere? So if constellation A is displayed on the distant wall 3 times, it’s 3? Voila!

Take a moment to think about this thought process. It doesn’t require me to have any previous knowledge besides absolutely basic math. It doesn't require me to assign a well known pattern to the puzzle and go through the motions. No, all it takes (and what an “all” it is) is for me to keep coming up with hypotheses. With creative trial and error approaches, rather than replication!

Example 3: The Magnet

Another ability Link has is move metal objects with his magnetic powers. You start a puzzle by pushing a metal door open with your power. Pretty straightforward. Next you need to cross a small gap. You find a metal box, move it in the gap, jump over it. Again, easy pickings. But now there’s a huge gap and no more metal objects. You try to position the box somehow (see, above, trying to replicate already gained knowledge, but the game won’t have that), but nope. There is NOTHING you can use. Seriously, no metal objects. Just the stupid box and the door you opened. So nothing. Wait. The door? You go back and notice the wall that the door is attached to is cracked. You destroy it, the door falls down and you use it as a platform.

All of this encourages out of the box (or in this case “besides the box”) thinking! Not to replicate but to create.

Games in which the player is meant to rotate or reorganize something etc., don’t really expect anyone to be ultimately incapable of doing so Rotating an object until it finally fits someplace doesn’t require wild creativity. The solution is immediately apparent, all it takes is some run of the mill logic. We’ve done this before. EVERYONE has done it before.

Zelda, on the other hand, probably doesn’t expect every player to figure out every single thing: there are to my knowledge 120 shrines (larger puzzles) and 400 korok seeds (smaller puzzles). Especially with the latter, the game showers players with so many small puzzles that require so many different kinds of a carefree “let’s try this” attitude, that what occurs to one player might not to another and vice versa.

It is rare for any puzzle, game or conundrum to reward its solver for being creative and becoming more intelligent in the process. Most puzzles are like old school education: re-encountering, reapplying, reiterating. Those are all most definitely very useful and important skills on their own, but we so rarely pair them up with an ability to create one’s own solution. The solution to rotating an object isn’t using a special ability to notice extra details about it, or breaking it with a hammer or any number of unusual things: and just like in real life, when a game doesn’t reward certain behavior or creativity, we stop trying. If it prevents us from literally circumventing a problem by climbing a steep wall to get around it, we stop assuming it’s an option, simply because it clearly isn't. By contrast, the moments where I felt put back on a linear pattern by Zelda could be counted on one hand.

The feeling of “oh my god, I figured it out!”, the “Heureka!” of the moment is incomparable to “wow, I sure rearranged these tiles to make a picture”. No one feels particularly smart or creative when simply reusing previously gained knowledge - gained, mind you, mostly through someone imparting it upon us, rather than by our own invention. But nearly each time I solved a puzzle in Zelda, I felt like I added a potential solution to my arsenal. To elliptically return to the beginning, I felt like the game was so smart it made me smarter by playing it.

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goldeklee · 3 years ago

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Splatoon 3 thoughts overall (my opinions and such, feel free to disagree)

Also is long

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Gamemodes:

-Tower Control could stand to have a bigger tower. I feel like it's too small. Probably also shouldn't be allowed to have specials (like Big Bubble or Booyah Bomb) attach to it? Unsure about the last one but it feels kinda bad.

-Clam Blitz is an alright mode where really the only change related to it needed is the map design.

-Splatzones are fine. I've not really an issue with any part of it.

-Rainmaker is probably my least favorite competitive mode overall. It also can be the shortest. I honestly have no idea how to improve it in my own views of the game.

-Turf War I feel like suffers from having everything be decided by the final 30 seconds. Like the rest of the match is just sort of a "screw around" moment. It's fun, but I genuinely can't think of any changes to make to it without making it worse overall.

Matchmaking:

Oh god. This is messy. Easily the messiest part in the game, even if it's not my biggest sore spot. I can't think of any other multiplayer game where everything seems like a stomp in one direction or another. However it handles matchmaking, I don't think it does a very good job at focusing on "fun" but moreso making matches fast. I want an equal power struggle please.

Weapon Balance:

I feel like overall, this aspect of the game is pretty okay. I think some weapons and their time to kill are a touch ridiculous, like the .96 Gal, but I also come from a Halo background.

Really the only thing I'd suggest for the game is to make sub spamming harder as oh boy does that make certain weapons a total nuisance.

Map Balance:

It's kind of a joke that Splatoon 3's map design is basically linear corridors with a wide middle section. There's not much cover, not typically much flanking routes, it makes the weapon balance feel a bit worse than it actually is. Weapons like Rollers for example have a tougher time as they have to shark to get any kills, which is not always easy. As for Chargers, they somewhat thrive in this scene, or at least they did until the torpedo spam started.

Ability Balance:

It might just be me, but I've incredibly mixed feelings on Gear Abilities in general. It's mostly because of two things: some abilities are just *that* good where you'll see it a lot (ninja squid, intensify action, stealth jump) and the time it takes to get certain abilities on your favorite gear is just horrendous. I like a bit of grind, but 40 or so chunks to get a primary is a bit crazy to me. Also I genuinely dislike respawn punisher as a whole.

Fashion Game:

Pretty solid! Aside from Gear Abilities preventing me from just running around dripped out, I find that there's a sizable catalogue of clothing to wear that covers a decent number of vibes. I do, however, kinda wish we had the ability to buy pants. Even if that'd probably mean even more ability nonsense.

Catalog Grind:

It's a free battlepass essentially. I kinda wish it didn't throw out the old one at all as I feel exclusive "you had to be there" things are best saved for actual events like Big Run or Splatfests but that's just me. The Catalog goes relatively smooth, only really having hitches after you completed it, which is fair.

Map and Mode Rotation:

This for me is the biggest sore spot. I cannot tell you *how* many times I've just stopped playing Competitive because I saw it was on maps I disliked and on gamemodes that were painful for the weapon I was trying to freshen up (I like stickers okay?). I suppose it'd be one thing if the gamemode would rotate, but with so few maps in rotation it's gotten to be a thing where my friends and I see Mahi-mahi and just play a different game for a bit.

Salmon Run:

Tons of fun, teammates can be a little... special at times. It's incredibly hard to raise rank with randoms I find. Only thing I can think of that I'd like is maybe less long grates for when high tides come up.

Campaign:

I've not done much on this yet actually, so all I can say is that as an Octoling the immediate racist grandpa was something else.

Things I'd like in the game that likely will never come:

-The ability to "Booyah!" or "Ouch..." once the match is over before the results get tallied. Just to interact with teammates a bit more

-A level editor! I love making maps for games, so to be able to make them for Splatoon would be fun too. Maybe have little mapping contests every now and then with the winners being transitioned into full maps?

-Aforementioned ability to buy pants

-An actual MMR system. Please. I'm begging.

-"Silence Shelldon" button

-Button customization! I don't like special being on Right Stick Click. I want it on L. And I'm sure other people would like some other options as well.

-Mayhaps a more traditional deathmatch mode? Antithetical to the game, I know, but I think making it one of the more casual modes would be nice.

-Ability to skip through the post-match stuff. It takes so long. I just want back in. I don't want to watch my gear slowly level up then spit out a chunk.

-Ability to thank the staff for the meals/drinks

-Let a Big Run permanently mark a map. Destroy it a bit. Make new paths/ cover. Let there be consequences.

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If you made it this far, thanks for reading! I hope you found it at least interesting to see how I personally view aspects of this game!

#splatoon #splatoon 3 #games #chittering

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mimik-u · 5 years ago

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Multitudes

Summary: On the 6,242nd anniversary of Pink Diamond's shattering—nearly a year after the Diamonds discovered the existence of Steven—Yellow Diamond, as she always does, searches for Blue. Pre-movie.

Note: It has been far too long since I've written Bellow Diamond, and I've needed this very story lately—something about allowing yourself to feel your emotions while also continuing to move forward.

AO3

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It is with a studied rhythm that Homeworld’s twin suns pull each other up through the darkness, blanketing the sky in a soft pink glow as they ascend, going slowly, all gentleness. Yellow Diamond watches the familiar spectacle from her latticed window, hand beneath her chin, mind elsewhere as the fractured light glances off the angular planes of her face.

To a being who has lived ten thousands of years upon years, the emergence and passing of a new cycle is but a blink of the eye, a meaningless unit in the long linearity of her given lifetime. And yet, as she has learned so viscerally in even just the past six thousand years alone, the surest, and perhaps only way to measure time is to judge it by the movements of the other gems around her.

And by other gems, she means Blue Diamond.

For she always means Blue.

Her strength, her weakness, her light, her darkness, her partner, her monomaniac fixation, her fellow goddess, her friend.

(The dichotomies and multitudes of their relationship have always stunned Yellow Diamond at best and scared her at worst.)

For six thousand years, she scheduled her entire existence around knowing exactly where the other matriarch was at all times. In-between court sessions and trials and all of the various other councils Yellow convened alone, she sent Pearls to inform her of where Blue Diamond was and what exactly she was doing. The trail of her mourning was as readily available to her as reports on potassium deposits in faraway colonies.

She learned, intimately, that Blue rotated between haunts every so often like an organic beast migrating between seasons. Each spatial relic of Pink Diamond’s past were but pastures to graze in prolonged misery.

Against her own volition, Yellow came to understand that some cycles, by the sheer fact of what they once were, were harder for Blue Diamond than others.

The anniversary of Pink’s emergence into the world.

The day they decided to bequeath her her own colony.

The remembrance, the haunting, the sadistic exhibition of her shattering.

Before they laid eyes on what they had thought to be her shards, the Diamonds had never truly known pain, the sharp dimensions of it, the astonishing depths.

When Blue Diamond’s screams rent the air for the first time, the entire Earth seemed to scream with her, wailing an unholy, feral song to which the three deities did not know the lyrics, though they sang along anyway. With their hands outstretched towards the colony Pink Diamond had once called home, they tried to fill in the melody the best that they could.

And they corrupted hundreds upon hundreds of gems.

And they shattered thousands more.

Because they had never lost anything before then.

And they wanted to make someone else and everything else feel the extent of their loss, too.

It is not an excuse.

A justification either.

It is only history, raw and unsanitized.

Yellow Diamond abruptly closes her eyes against the rosy sunrise as though stung, her fingers spidering against her tall nose.

Today would have been the 6,242nd anniversary of the shattering.

Nearly a year ago, they learned that everything they had ever assumed about their beloved Pink Diamond was a lie—including this very date.

Still, the old memories come unbidden—the shards, the terror, the ungodly screaming.

And yet, the familiar is now tempered by the newer sensations that have surfaced to foreign planes in her mind ever since she has met, loved, and wanted to do better for Steven Universe: the guilt, the helplessness, the fragility of everything, of it all.

When Yellow Diamond snaps her eyes open again, the images still burn the backs of her retinas, and it all comes together in one jangling, dissonant, clashing symphony—lights and noises, echoes and pale ghosts: the shards, the guilt, the terror, the helplessness, the ungodly screaming, the fragility of everything, of it all.

She is naked.

Fifty foot tall, the fragments of thousands of gems all over her hands, she is exposed.

With a violence that startles Pearl—who’d been running algorithms on her screens—Yellow stands up from her alcove, stretching her long limbs extensively, as though trying to excise something out along with the stiffness, too.

“Sorry,” she says gruffly, glancing away. (She’s working on it—she is—but apologies still don’t come easily to the matriarch.) “Just have somewhere I need to be.”

With a few quick taps of a nearby panel, Pearl pulls up and enlarges a video feed of the throne room. A snatch of heavy blue fabric dragging against the floor is all she needs to see.

“... that wouldn’t happen to be the throne room, my—I mean, your—um, Yellow Diamond, would it?” (Pearl is working on it—she is—but thousands of years of ingrained slavery are hard to completely forget, too.)

Relief mixed with gratitude mixed with awkwardness darkens the gold around Yellow Diamond’s sharp cheekbones.

“Thank you, Pearl.”

A similar blush scribbles itself across the bridge of the smaller gem’s nose.

“Of course.”

(They’re both working on it—they are—Diamond and Pearl alike, trying to figure out what it means to be companions in Era Three. Equals. Maybe one day, friends, if such an unstudied phenomenon can happen between them after all these unchanging cycles of mastery and slavery.)

(But she wonders to herself—she wonders this every day—is there grace enough in this universe for the Diamonds?)

(Is there such a thing as absolution and reprieve?)

Brow furrowed above her eyes, Yellow finally sweeps out of her chamber, heels clicking reliably against the marble veined floor.

(She doesn’t know.)

(She isn’t sure she wants to know.)

The passage between her chamber and the throne room is a covered bridge, the path intricately laid, sunlight slanting through the arches and onto her handsome armor in patches.

She doesn’t stop to look below—doesn’t have time to spare even though she has all the time in the world—but even as she walks, she can hear all the many ways that Homeworld is changing, the echoes of the reforming city drifting up to the palace like sacrificial smoke. There is the humdrum of communication—talking and conversing, snatches of loud laughter. And there is the steady thrum of ship traffic zooming through the brightening sky.

She knows, without looking, that there are flashing colors and newly constructed infrastructures. Councils are being formed, the judicial system overhauled independently of the Diamonds' oversight. Representatives for the various Gem types are elected fairly and democratically. An economy based on rare rocks—locally sourced from Homeworld’s own Kindergarten—is slowly but surely being constructed by business minded Peridots. Gems from all eras and cuts and cabochons are cohabiting side by side, communing and learning to coexist without prejudice and fear.

Their world, for the first time in millions of cycles, is evolving.

For good and for the best.

With a pang that tightens her diamond as she finally approaches the intricately carved double doors leading into the throne room, Yellow Diamond wonders what it means that she is falling into the same pattern she has threaded year after year for 6,242 years.

Do Diamonds ever change their facets?

Or are their hardnesses immutable, unchanging?

(She wonders—she wonders this every day—if one day the universe will pronounce judgment on the three of them for their crimes against Gemkind?)

(Will doing better be enough to lighten the sentence?)

(Is doing better the same as being better?)

She curls her fingers tightly around one of the quartz handles and pulls outwards, her nerves suddenly electrified as the square of light from the door slowly pools into the throne room and across the floor, inching and seeping until it touches the hem of a heavy, dark robe.

“Yellow.” Blue Diamond looks up, awed. “You remembered.”

As has been the Diamonds' shared habit lately, she's kneeling in front of the warp pad, cerulean fingers neatly templed on her lap, her posture reminiscent of the weeping statues in the Saturnal Spire, many of them immortalized in prostration. Yellow can see the traces of wetness beneath her grooved eyes, a telltale and familiar sign of what has already passed and what is yet to come.

“Did you think I would forget?” She asks, immediately loathing that the question sounds so vulnerable and needy, as though she’s dependent—and maybe she is—on a negative answer.

“Truthfully?”

“Yes”—she interjects impatiently—“I always want to know your truth.”

But, to Yellow’s surprise, Blue laughs quietly, the edges of her plump, blue lifted along the contours of her smile.

“Stars above, you still never wait for someone to finish their thought, do you?”

“I didn’t intend to interrupt! I just—“

“Yes, I know, Yellow. Come.” Blue Diamond extricates her hands from one another and pats the empty space next to her. “Be with me, please.”

It is an irresistible request, an invitation that Yellow could never refuse (though she has never fully tried). With a few, stiff strides, she join the other matriarch on the floor, sitting crosslegged, even as her armored spine is ramrod straight.

Appropriately chastised, her cheeks are dark with golden flush.

“Are you happy now?” Yellow mutters beneath her breath.

“Yes,” comes the quiet reply that very nearly paralyzes her. Perhaps realizing this, Blue Diamond extends the same hand she used to gesture towards the floor and places the tips of her fingertips on the spines of Yellow’s gloved knuckles. “I am…. in my own small way—happy and also undeniably sad. It is a curious contradiction.”

“Oh,” Yellow Diamond can only say, swallowing hard.

“Oh,” Blue Diamond agrees, leaning—softly, very gently—against her, so that their shoulders touch. Her silvery hair falls to the side at the movement, the light from above crowning her head in liquid amber.

In gold.

“I didn’t wish to be alone today,” she admits, frowning, “but for the last six thousand and sundry years, you have unfailingly ensured that I never was alone on this date... even when I thought that I wanted to be, even all the times I pushed you away.”

Yellow‘s breath hitches, shallow of air.

They’ve scarcely talked so openly before, even now, and perhaps especially now that the Diamonds are trying their damnedest to amend the wrongs of their pasts.

Even beyond that, intimacy is hard.

Indeed, it is one of the few lessons that the resilient general has yet to master for all of her focus and control.

She still doesn’t have all the steps in order yet... if there are even quantifiable steps to intimacy at all.

“You pushed me away often,” she finally says, and try though she does, she can’t quite keep an accusatory tone out of her voice.

(Even if the Diamonds don’t wear their wounds, that doesn’t mean they were never inflicted.)

“I know,” Blue confesses, closing her eyes tightly against what Yellow knows to be a deluge of memories. “I knew all along most likely. I wanted to hurt you as were hurting me. If I could make you feel even a fraction of the misery that I did... if I could make any gems who crossed my path understand... I was quick, injudiciously so, to do as much.”

The matriarch is precise when it comes to identifying and analyzing her own emotions—incisive—another ability which Yellow never quite learned in thousands of millennia.

“We don’t have to talk about this now,” she says quickly, “if it’s too much.”

(It's always too much for Yellow.)

“But I want to.” Blue abruptly opens her eyes, and Yellow is startled to see that they’ve hardened, her expression pinched. “I mean, I suppose I need to... for there is this feeling in my chest, Yellow. It pulses in my very diamond and has expanded with each passing second that I have been up today. And I want to get rid of it—I must.”

Her fingers tense where they rest upon her hand, and the space between palm and knuckles, blue and gold, is electric with energy, pulsating.

The column of Yellow Diamond’s throat is thick, sticky with feeling.

“I have a feeling, too,” she admits, her voice surly. “When I awoke... and recalled what day it was... I couldn’t shake it.”

Blue’s eyes are wide and tired, weary with six thousand cycles of mourning. The carnage is pooled all over her face. It scarred both of them. It nearly maddened White.

“Name it, Yellow,” she whispers, and it is almost a supplication, desperate and reverent on the Diamond’s lilting tongue. “Please.”

What is there to do but comply?

What stands between her and a handful of words except her own sheathe of an ego of a personality?

Yellow Diamond flinches before she ever opens her mouth, half-hating and entirely fearing what she is about to make their reality.

“I miss her, Blue.”

“And?” Because Blue Diamond knows—she always seems to know—when her sentences are unfinished, when words remain unspoken.

Yellow’s eyes burn, the leakage threatening to spill out.

“And I feel guilty about it, for missing her now… after what we did to her... after what we have done to so many other gems.”

To ourselves, too.

To each other.

More unspoken aches, though the merciful Blue Diamond is kind enough not to call her out on them.

A single tear glances down her long, oval face, collecting calmly on the point of her chin.

“How can we be moving on,” Yellow continues, wiping roughly at her eyes with her other hand, “if we are here again? The same place we have been every year for the last six thousand years? On the floor, broken. Our world is turning, Blue! Evolving! Transforming! Do we not revolve with it?”

If this is the pattern and the routine to which they inevitably return, does this not mean that they will one day become stagnations and calcifications?

Monuments and monoliths to their own shattered pasts?

What is all their progress, their actions and their actions and their atonements and their actions, if they cannot ever abstain from this vicious ceremony?

Will they still be here, six thousand years more from now, missing a gem who will never come home to them again?

Will there never not be a day when a rosy, pink sky doesn’t evoke her name on their tongues?

Pink Diamond.

She used to sing flowers into full bloom.

When Blue isn’t immediately forthcoming with an answer—her dark lips parted slightly in silence—for the first time in the entirety of her existence, Yellow feels no triumph in being right.

There is no pleasure in the conception and epiphany of their eternal damnation.

There is only acceptance, she thinks, glancing down at the warp pad, dull and empty.

(Steven hasn’t visited in twenty-one cycles now.)

Stoic and unceasing resignation.

“Yellow Diamond...” A tall hand cups her chin gently and draws the general’s gaze upwards until all the goddess sees is blue. Her eyes. Her complexion. Her alice blue hair. Her lips. Blue Diamond looks at her all over, and there is an ancient sadness engraved in all the geometric lines of her face. “Do you really believe that multiple things cannot be true at the same time?”

“I—“

“No,” Blue cuts her off firmly. “Let me finish, please. We have done horrible things, and we are trying, every day, to do better. We hurt Pink immeasurably... and we are hurt—stars, we will be devastated—by her loss forever. Those sentiments are not mutually exclusive.” Blue’s voice hitches, her warm breath so close that Yellow can feel it on her skin. “They can’t be... or else, what do we have to look forward to for the next thousands of years of our lifetimes? How can we deal with the enormities of our lives if we do not allow our lives to be enormous—both an exemplar and a testament to complexity?”

Yellow stares at her companion incredulously, wanting to believe in the grandiosity of their existences (again) but not quite daring to (as she had once so easily done before).

Dichotomies and multitudes and holistic systems of so many moving, working parts—Yellow Diamond, for all of her intelligence and logic and ratios and statistics, does not know how to compute them. Her morality has always been a straight line that favors extremes, tilting like an unbalanced scale, from one weighted end to the other.

“But you feel it, too,” she argues hoarsely. “You have a feeling in your chest as well.”

Her gaze unwittingly travels down to Blue’s gem, gleaming brightly against her cerulean complexion.

But the other Diamond, fingertips still captured beneath her chin, doesn’t allow the moment to linger, insisting, with a gentle nudge, that Yellow Diamond holds her head up high.

“And so this just means we have a final pair of questions to ask ourselves, yes?” Blue smiles lightly, all tenderness and sadness, all warmth and terrible grief.

Dichotomies and multitudes.

They stun Yellow Diamond, and they perplex her, and they frustrate her to no conceivable end.

Even now, she isn’t sure that she’s following, and yet, as the two of them sit here—linked by touch and millennia and memories—she knows, without ever being able to articulate the sentiment into words that would matter or make sense, she would follow this gem to the ends of their world, conceivable or otherwise.

“What do we do with this feeling now that we have it?" Blue’s smile only deepens, becoming more felt, arctic eyes melting. "And how do we make sure it doesn’t go to waste?”

Her face shines in the brilliance of the warp pad’s newly glowing light.

“Today,” she says, “we allow ourselves to feel the pain of losing Pink... and we play with Steven Universe... and we not only love him, but show him that we do.”

“And tomorrow?” Yellow dares to ask.

A concentrated beam whooshes downwards from the ceiling of the palatial hall.

“Tomorrow”—Blue Diamond squeezes her hand—“we can move forward again... hand in hand.”

There are colonies to continue dismantling and long corroded infrastructure to repair. Homeworld’s grid system needs to be replotted, and a Kindergarten on Iphigenia would be a meaningful location to repurpose as an organic life conservation facility. Transportation services between Homeworld and Earth are still being configured, especially given Earth’s less than spaceship friendly atmospheres and surfaces. Former gem experiments require a delicate unraveling and a reckoning both for Yellow Diamond who ordered them to be carried out in the first place. Blue and White and Yellow Diamond alike, all three of them in harmonious union and sync for the first time in thousands of years, want to build a memorial spire in Sector 9 for the Rose Quartzes to inhabit if they should so choose—a place of rest and healing, circled all throughout with restorative waters.

“I... like the sound of that.”

The tentative beginnings of hope creep into her low voice.

“I thought you would,” Blue teases as particulate matter and atoms and long reclaimed stardust begin to arrange themselves into the boy named Steven Universe.

“We start now.”

#bellow diamond #blue diamond #yellow diamond #mimik-u #steven universe

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tutorialsandmore · 5 years ago

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7 Most Effective Exercises

Experts say there is no magic to exercise: You get out of it what you put in. That

doesn't mean you have to work out for hours each day. It just means you need to

work smart.

That said, experts agree that not all exercises are created equal. Some are

simply more efficient than others, whether they target multiple muscle groups,

are suitable for a wide variety of fitness levels, or help you burn calories more

effectively.

So what are the best exercises? We posed this question to four fitness experts

and compiled a list of their favorites.

1. Walking

Any exercise program should include cardiovascular exercise, which strengthens

the heart and burns calories. And walking is something you can do anywhere,

anytime, with no equipment other than a good pair of shoes.

It's not just for beginners, either: Even the very fit can get a good workout from

walking.

"Doing a brisk walk can burn up to 500 calories per hour," says Robert Gotlin,

DO, director of orthopaedic and sports rehabilitation at Beth Israel Medical

Center in New York. Since it takes 3,500 calories to lose a pound, you could

expect to lose a pound for every seven hours you walk, if you did nothing else.

Don't go from the sofa to walking an hour day, though. Richard Cotton, a

spokesman for the American Council on Exercise, says beginners should start by

walking five to -10 minutes at a time, gradually moving up to at least 30 minutes

per session.

"Don't add more than five minutes at a time," he says. Another tip: It's better to

lengthen your walks before boosting your speed or incline.

2. Interval training

Whether you're a beginner or an exercise veteran, a walker or an aerobic dancer,

adding interval training to your cardiovascular workout will boost your fitness

level and help you lose weight.

"Varying your pace throughout the exercise session stimulates the aerobic

system to adapt," says Cotton. "The more power the aerobic system has, the

more capacity you have to burn calories."

The way to do it is to push the intensity or pace for a minute or two, then back

off for anywhere from two to -10 minutes (depending on how long your total

workout will be, and how much time you need to recover). Continue doing this

throughout the workout.

3. Squats

Strength training is essential, the experts say. "The more muscular fitness you

have," says Cotton, "the greater the capacity you have to burn calories." And our experts tended to favor strength-training exercises that target multiple

muscle groups. Squats, which work the quadriceps, hamstrings, and gluteals, are

an excellent example.

"They give you the best bang for the buck because they use the most muscle

groups at once," says Oldsmar, Fla., trainer David Petersen. Form is key, though, warns Petersen.

"What makes an exercise functional is how you perform the exercise," he says.

"If you have bad technique, it's no longer functional."

For perfect form, keep feet shoulder-width apart and back straight. Bend knees

and lower your rear, says Cotton: "The knee should remain over the ankle as

much as possible."

"Think of how you sit down in a chair, only the chair's not there," suggests

Gotlin.

Physical therapist Adam Rufa, of Cicero, N.Y., says practicing with a real chair

can help.

"Start by working on getting in and out of a real chair properly," he says. Once

you've mastered that, try just tapping the chair with your bottom, then coming

back up. Then do the same motion without the chair.

Gotlin sees lots of patients with knee pain, and says quadriceps weakness is the

cause much of the time. If you feel pain going down stairs, he says,

strengthening your quads with squats may very well help.

4. Lunges

Like squats, lunges work all the major muscles of the lower body: gluteals,

quadriceps, and hamstrings.

A lunge is a great exercise because it mimics life, it mimics walking," only

exaggerated, says Petersen.

Lunges are a bit more advanced than squats, says Cotton, helping to improve

your balance as well.

Here's how to do them right: Take a big step forward, keeping your spine in a

neutral position. Bend your front knee to approximately 90 degrees, focusing on

keeping weight on the back toes and dropping the knee of your back leg toward

the floor.

Petersen suggests that you imagine sitting on your back foot. "The trailing leg is

the one you need to sit down on," he says.

To make a lunge even more functional, says Rufa, try stepping not just forward,

but back and out to each side.

"Life is not linear, it's multiplanar," says Rufa. And the better they prepare you

for the various positions you'll move in during the course of a day, the more

useful exercises are.

5. Push-ups

If done correctly, the push-up can strengthen the chest, shoulders, triceps, and

even the core trunk muscles, all at one time.

"I'm very much into planking exercises, almost yoga-type moves," says Petersen.

"Anytime you have the pelvis and the core [abdominals and back] in a

suspended position, you have to rely on your own adherent strength to stabilize

you."

Push-ups can be done at any level of fitness, says Cotton: "For someone who is

at a more beginning level, start by pushing from the kitchen-counter height.

Then work your way to a desk, a chair, the floor with bent knees, and, finally, the

floor on your toes."

Here's how to do a perfect push-up: From a face-down position, place your

hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Place your toes or knees on the

floor, and try to create a perfect diagonal with your body, from the shoulders to

the knees or feet. Keep the glutes [rear-end muscles] and abdominals engaged.

Then lower and lift your body by bending and straightening your elbows, keeping

your torso stable throughout.

There are always ways to make it harder, says Rufa. Once your form is perfect,

try what he calls the "T-stabilization" push-up: Get into push-up position, then do

your push-ups with one arm raised out to the side, balancing on the remaining

three limbs without rotating your hips.

6. Abdominal Crunches

Who doesn't want firm, flat abs? Experts say that when done correctly, the

familiar crunch (along with its variations) is a good choice to target them.

For a standard crunch, says Cotton, begin lying on your back with feet flat on the

floor and fingertips supporting your head. Press your low back down and begin

the exercise by contracting abdominals and peeling first your head (tucking your

chin slightly), then your neck, shoulders, and upper back off the floor.

Be careful not to pull your neck forward by sticking the chin out; don't hold your

breath, and keep elbows out of your line of vision to keep chest and shoulders

open.

For his part, Petersen teaches his clients to do crunches with their feet off the

floor and knees bent. He says that with feet kept on the floor, many people tend

to arch the back and engage the hip flexors.

"Crunches can be excellent, but if they're not done correctly, with the back

arching, they can actually weaken the abdominals," Petersen says.

To work the obliques (the muscles on the sides of your waist), says Cotton, take

the standard crunch and rotate the spine toward one side as you curl off the

floor.

"Twist before you come up," he says. "It's really important that the twist comes

first because then it's the obliques that are actually getting you up."

But keep in mind that you won't get a flat stomach with crunches alone, says

Cotton. Burning belly fat requires the well-known formula: using up more

calories than you take in.

"Crunches work the ab muscles; [they're] not to be mistaken as exercise that

burns the fat over the abdominals," he says. "That's the biggest myth in exercise

going."

7. Bent-over Row

Talk about bang for the buck: This exercise works all the major muscles of the

upper back, as well as the biceps.

Here's how to do it with good form. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, then

bend knees and flex forward at the hips. (If you have trouble doing this exercise

standing up, support your weight by sitting on an incline bench, facing

backward.) Tilt your pelvis slightly forward, engage the abdominals, and extend

your upper spine to add support. Hold dumbbells or barbell beneath the

shoulders with hands about shoulder-width apart. Flex your elbows, and lift both

hands toward the sides of your body. Pause, then slowly lower hands to the

starting position. (Beginners should perform the move without weights.)

Technique These seven exercises are excellent, efficient choices, the experts say. But with

just about any strength or resistance exercise, says Petersen, the question is not

so much whether the exercise works as how well you execute.

"Done with good technique, all exercises do what they're supposed to do," says

Petersen.

The trouble is that poor form can change the whole exercise, putting emphasis

or even strain on different areas than intended. This can hurt, rather than help

you.

So especially if you're a beginner, it's a good idea to seek the advice of a fitness

trainer - whether it's a personal trainer or a trainer at your gym -- to be sure your

form is safe and correct.

source : satupos.com

#health #fitness #male #menswear

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audio-luddite · 5 years ago

Text

Resonance.

Both your friend and enemy. Digging deep into the world of phono pickups is a real rabbit hole. A thing that I never worried about experts fret over. Glad I am not an expert. Apparently the mass of the tonearm and the compliance of the cartridge cantilever can (do) resonate and this affects the sound. OK that makes sense.

I actually dug up an old textbook which covered harmonic motion. The square root of the ratio of a spring constant divided by the mass divided by 2 times Pi determines the resonant frequency. Real science there. The current published method for phono pickups is to invert the spring constant so the formula is the inverse of the product of 2 pi times the square root of the product of mass and compliance.

Back in when I started in this the only thing tonearms had to be was light. That was so they could track over warps and such. Before that they had to be heavy as it took a lot of force to get the sound out of old records that were usually very very flat.

All the tonearms I have or have had are light, or so I thought.

The SME arm was SOTA had an effective mass of something like 6 grams. The HK ST7 arm is 6 grams. My Grace 707 is probably less. The crazy Transcriptor Vestigal Tone arm was much less still. Audiophiles liked these arms and bought popular pickups that worked with them.

(Note the name Vestigal is not a typo. The word vestigial means a thing that is the remnant of or an undeveloped thing. Like your appendix. In the UK there was a scandal where a drug caused unborn children to fail to develop limbs. Hence the word vestigial was avoided out of sensitivity to those victims)

Back in those days cartridges were mostly “high compliance” and those require light tonearms. They publish the compliance figure for most cartridges and there starts the rabbit hole.

A spring constant is a measure of the force needed to move a linear elastic spring a certain distance. It does not change with frequency, it just is. Phono compliance does change and is quoted at a specific frequency. Wise men say compliance should be doubled or divided in half depending on the published frequency. So we are not talking about a spring here, but something else which kinda actually undermines the whole theory. Frequency dependent elasticity talks to damping and to other things my lovely textbook formula does not consider. But lets just go ahead.

The first problem was the effective mass of the phaser tone arm. It is short and stubby and logically light. Apparently it is rather heavy though at 16 grams effective from one authority. I do not like the word effective. One way to express mass is the resistance to motion under force. (I am an engineer remember?) A rotating thing has resistance to motion based on the polar moment of inertia. The arm masses involved are are arranged around a pivot. Oh this is getting messy. Polar moment is harder to calculate. I know how to do it and strangely got close with only a few starting guesses to say the phaser arm is 15.7 grams effective at the stylus. Lucky maybe?

Resonating things boost response. That is because it takes so little to “excite” the system. Yes that is the technical term. If the arm / pickup resonates at an audible frequency it will boost the output up to a lot. That is bad. That is a thing speaker design exploits so there it is good. A typical speaker box will resonate in the bass to draw the response down. Typically a woofer can physically only go so low. Usually not as low as you want. By resonating the enclosure at a lower frequency the response of the speaker can go much lower. That is why my little 8″ woofers can shake the house. 400 Watts help too.

The ideal is to have cartridges that match the tonearm. Better to say they do not mismatch. Low compliance means stiffer and stiffer is bad in light tonearms.

All this ignores some things that are happening here. First there is damping. Damping stops resonance or much reduces it. Think shocks in you car. They are properly called dampers. The phaser tonearm is damped. There is damping in the arm and in the counterweight. The fact that compliance is recognized as changing with frequency tells me there is damping in the cantilever suspension.

All that pushes me to stop digging. I have cartridges. I guess I should avoid some. The Phaser arm is much heavier than my Grace, but it still works. The whole thing sort of melts into a pudding. Does it matter? It can work badly in certain situations. Do I see the big bass in the Grado because of this? No the numbers clear it. Am I missing Bass in the others for the opposite reason? No it don't work that way. Does any of this matter to what I am doing?

No.

That’s why its a rabbit hole.

#audiophile rabbit hole #resonance #phono cartridges #phono pickups #SME Arm #Transcriptor vestigal #Harman Kardon ST5 #Grace 707 #phase linear 8000A

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bearpillowmonster · 5 years ago

Text

FF7 Remake Review (Gameplay)

Great big pizza in the sky? Ha, yeah!

I never played the original FF7, all I know is the stuff from Kingdom Hearts and (spoilers) Aerith dying which puts me in a unique position. If my opinion is a little swayed then it’s because this is my first experience. However before you say I don’t have any experience and you don’t care what I think, I did play through a decent amount of Crisis Core before I lost my save file but finished by watching a cutscene compilation on YouTube and got the whole scoop. This will be spoilers since it’s been a while since the game came out but I’m doing it through exposure, gameplay first, characters next, then story, if you don’t want any of the first two spoiled then I suppose you’re already sold on the game but I’m making then separate parts because of how much there is. There will be some things I’ll compare to the original game in the later parts, only because I looked it up after beating the game.

Let’s start with gameplay. I’m not a fan of turn based, which makes it a good thing that this game doesn’t exactly have that. There are a lot of things I could compare it to and people are going to say it originated from somewhere else but I don’t care. So the combat is more real-time action based, so you can actually hit square and you’ll attack vs picking a command and having turns. You do have commands to heal and use special abilities and magic like Kingdom Hearts and bringing up that command menu slows time so much that it’s almost a stand still so you have time to think about what you’re going to do. The core combat is regular, kind of like FFXV but better (much better in my opinion.) There is a stagger meter which I’ve seen in FF13, you attack consistently and the enemy will break under pressure and is vulnerable to more damage, some abilities may be stronger in this instance and is also used much better in this gameplay style.

It’s true you can play as other characters, this is during combat, it’s really enjoyable playing as them. If you’re really feeling up to it, you can command them what to do, what to focus on, what attacks to use, while controlling your main. You’re going to have a harder time in some instances with Cloud than you would using a more effective character like Barrett. Imagine turrets that are high up, it’s hard to reach with a sword right? That also goes for if an enemy traps you, just jump ship and play as the other character to get the enemy off. (Imagine playing as Donald Duck to heal Sora instead of waiting for him to do it himself as an NPC) plus maybe you equipped a specific command to a character or want to use their specials. I like the fast pace and how they’re actively telling you stuff that needs to be done, during both combat and regular gameplay, there’s always a conversation. One thing that you need to keep all your party members in sync by the ending, I gave 3 of my characters the good and maxed materia while I just had regular stuff for the other, rotate your materia and make sure you have one readily available for each member to use rather than switch it out when the time is right, I’ve had to fight bosses weak to something such as lightning and not have it equipped because the two party members that do have it equipped, aren’t in the battle so I had to cheese it just using limits and abilities.

With the gameplay variety comes different types of weapons for each member, for example, with Cloud if you use the buster sword, it’s the combat I’ve described along with Punisher mode which is heavy attacks in sets, but I believe your guard is lowered a little, you can’t dodge, and you can’t do aerial combat in this mode (don’t worry, you just press triangle to change it) but with something like a Nailed bat, he powers up his swing which can take some much needed time but has a strong impact (seeing as you’ve upgraded it) and some come with naturally better stats, like higher power/magic. Trust me, it sounds more complicated than it actually is, I even thought it looked more complicated in the E3 presentation but no, don’t take its looks at face value, just feel it for yourself, you can ease into it.

The way it interweaves between cutscene, venturing, and combat is very smooth, comparable to how KH3 does it because gone are the text boxes of yesterday, and here are the full fledged voice acted cutscenes (with subtitles) of today. This is very nice but at the same time, I like to talk to randoms and then skim and walk away in most games, but this one makes you wait until they finish saying their sentence, which isn’t bad, it’s only a sentence but just a thing I do in my impatience. It does help with the world building because even just walking around, you’ll hear people talk and the sidebar will have their dialogue so it’s out of the way and not in your face and you know it’s just side stuff.

Speaking of “Out of the way”, I get anxious over menus and sub menus and certain games being complicated, hence the reason I don’t like turn based combat, the two seem to go together, but this game takes everything that I don’t like about them and turns it on its head, it’s really good, nothing is cluttered, yet I don’t have to search for stuff, very good organization and capitalized on the stuff I actually like from FF.

With that being said though, this still has side quests and I kind of hate a lot of the side quests in FF games in general, with FFXV, I would get a roadblock because I needed more EXP before going any farther and the only way to do that is through side quests, I was able to do it a bit better with this one though especially since it’s only available during certain chapters and you’re always on the move fighting enemies for EXP anyway. If you’re going to do the quests though, you either do it all at once or not at all (for that chapter) because it gives you what I would call a grace period of an allotted time to explore the place and do some side quests but you can’t go back and do them, so you can’t switch between main quests and then do a few side ones which in a way I can respect because it keeps the narrative rolling in my opinion since you’re going sector you sector but just something fundamental that is either respected or hated. That is until after you finish the game, then you get chapter select, which is a great idea makes me glad I can just jump back in if there’s something I want to do really bad.

One of the main things I hated about FF12 is that I had no idea what I was doing or where I was going, in fact the only reason I got that game is because I got my Roman numerals mixed up and thought XII was VII and they just ported VII to the PS2 but no. This game is decent at telling you where to go, however, it expects you to explore for some of them, it doesn’t always show where to go on the map. Internet is a lot more convenient these days so it’s not too much trouble, I never spent a lot of time on being lost, let’s put it that way. XV has those really tough enemies in certain areas that you could just run away from if you’re under leveled but with this more linear setup, it has a lot more control with its leveling. That reminds me, whenever you do finish a side quest, it asks you if you want to fast travel back so you don’t have to go through the hassle of running back.

One thing I do regret is not seeing where the summons were because by the time I actually got into it, I had already passed most of them so check up on that as well as limits. Another interesting and funny tidbit is that I went through the game with basic spells, yeah, I didn’t know how to change from Thunder to Thundaga, that includes Cure so I had to use it multiple times to even make a dent with my characters and I still had a blast? (Hint you just go to use the base command and just press right on the D-pad) Like it wasn’t even overly difficult like you’d expect, it just costs less MP. I did the same thing with KH2 by not equipping a new keyblade/chain until the Xaldin boss so it’s just me being oblivious. Serves me right for trying to do it blindly.

Also I would ask myself how each boss was after I played it and even with the annoying ones, I would think “I still had fun.” Except maybe the Trypapolis’ if you consider those a boss, there’s 3 and they are during the Chocobo retrieval side quest so it’s not even mandatory but I did all the Ch.14 ones and oh boy this boss isn’t hard, no. You can use an ability called “Assess” which tells you what you can use against it for maximum damage and what not to use against it, well these things don’t have a weakness but they are resistant to attack and magic, those are how you beat any enemy so you would think “use an item?” Right? Nope. “Stagger and get more damage?” Nope, the stagger only lasts a literal second. You sit there and do chip damage, they are literal sponges and only attack every so often with a few Aerogas, pointless time wasting battle. FFXV is open world which is a love hate relationship for me, FF13 is very linear...not much to say about that. This is a middle ground, the soft spot, I’m comfortable within its confines, and that’s supposedly one of the main complaints I was seeing in other reviews so it’s just whatever you prefer I suppose. Look at it this way, it was a PS1 game before, why would it suddenly be open world? I’d compare it to the original MGS, though I think there was more backtracking in that one. I would also compare it with, once again, Kingdom Hearts 3 because that’s pretty much all I ever play, it depends on what area you’re in and what’s going on and this that and the other thing. One more thing, Chapter 7’s lever puzzle is stupid, I did exactly as it said and it wasn’t enough.

Man, I haven’t done a review this long and in depth since KH3 but there’s so much to talk about here, it’s unreal. Check out the next 2 parts:

(PART 2)

(PART 3)

#ff7 #remake #final fantasy 7 #review #game #gameplay

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privateplates4u · 6 years ago

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Ferrari 488 GTB is the 2017 Motor Trend Best Driver’s Car

When a car is as good as the Ferrari 458 Italia that won Best Driver’s Car in 2011, you don’t need to change much. Ferrari did anyway, and it produced the even more impressive 488 GTB. Although much of the front half of the car has been reused, it’s all been tweaked. The new bodywork has been designed with slavish devotion to aerodynamics, and the 488 features both an electronically controlled drag-reduction system in the rear diffuser and a Formula 1–inspired blown diffuser in the rear bodywork. The new 3.9-liter twin-turbo V-8 makes a staggering 661 hp and 561 lb-ft of torque and carefully controls boost levels at lower engine speeds to keep the turbos spooled and the acceleration linear. The second-gen Side Slip Control vehicle dynamics system now controls the adaptive dampers, the traction control, the stability control, and the electronically controlled limited-slip differential. The seven-speed dual-clutch automatic, your only choice, receives new ratios and shifts quicker. The rear suspension, meanwhile, is wider than ever. It’s Best Driver’s Car week! Don’t miss the incredible story of how we chose the 2017 Best Driver’s Car right here, and stay tuned for the World’s Greatest Drag Race, coming soon. With 661 horsepower and only 3,412 pounds of carbon fiber to move, the 488 GTB screams to 60 mph in just 2.7 seconds and past the quarter mile in a stunning 10.6 seconds at 135.2 mph. Let it loose on the figure eight, and it’ll post a 22.6-second lap time at 0.99 average g. In steady-state cornering on the skidpad, it’ll pull 1.02 g. Stopping from 60 mph takes just 94 feet. We Say “Wow. That’s a super car. Ferrari proves here and now why it’s the gold standard. The speed is absolutely incredible. It’s so incredibly powerful and yet so linear. It’s a force of nature, like being picked up by a tornado. There’s zero turbo lag. Even still, it’s easily modulated. The ESC is magic. I see the light blinking, but I have no idea what it’s doing. Completely invisible. I know from the figure eight it’ll snap sideways left to its own, but not in Race mode. The handling is perfect. It flows like whitewater rapids through the corners. The weight transfer is just enough to make you feel like you’re pushing it (you’re not, really), the grip is unending, and yet it’s so light and responsive. The steering is fantastic. You think. It goes. You almost don’t have to think. Instinct happens, and the car responds. My only complaint is the brakes. They’re very strong, but they feel very wooden to me. If you need to scrub a lot of speed, you need to stand on them like you’re trying to break the pedal off.” – Scott Evans “Holy crap. How can a car this powerful be this easy to drive? It has the most horsepower in this group, and it takes some bravery to floor it for the first time. This thing has limits way beyond what I’m capable of, but that doesn’t make it any less fun at lower limits. This is a car that makes you feel like a superhero. Part of that is in how usable every single one of its 661 horsepower is. True to exotic form, responses are heightened everywhere but not dramatically so. The steering is quick with no dead spot at center—just a consistent flow of alacrity lock to lock. The transmission is even more telepathic than Porsche’s PDK, intuitively anticipating all upshifts and downshifts. “The drive up 198 was literally a blur. I was going so fast. Only after I rounded the last corner coming down 198 did I realize I had been holding my breath.” – Derek Powell Read about other 2017 Best Driver’s Car contenders: Porsche 911 Turbo S Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE Porsche 718 Cayman S Lexus LC 500 Mercedes-AMG GT R Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport Aston Martin DB11 Nissan GT-R NISMO Mazda MX-5 Miata RF McLaren 570GT “I got a couple of instances of bump steer, but otherwise it was glued to the ground. The steering is very lively and requires constant attention (this car needs me), if only to keep it pointed where I want to go, but it does go there with obedience and authority. The engine is brilliant … everywhere in the rev range, and the brakes were unflappable and the soundtrack was intoxicating. This is one of those cars, one of those drives, one of those moments that will forever be seared into my synapses as an epic moment—when all that is good in the world was heightened/bristling for the 4.2 miles up and then down the hill. A true deus ex machina experience that I will add to four other ones in my life.” – Chris Walton “This is what every teenager’s fantasy is when they think of Ferrari. Sometimes in the past, Ferraris have been more about image and beauty and grace and style, but the performance has been just OK. The 488 is razor sharp, blisteringly quick, and finely tuned. The engine note is simply animalistic. This fulfills the complete list of needs, from extreme exotic to dauntless touring car. On Highway 198 it immediately became clear there is only one true supercar in this batch. There is immortality in its forgiveness in going at least 10 mph quicker around corners than its nearest competitors. How you can wad up this car is unknowable. Downhill, the brakes seem like they were a bit softer than I would assume a really fast Ferrari would have, but you get used to them. Besides if you grab a shorter gear, the engine braking is phenomenal.” – Mark Rechtin “This is one that forces you to keep both hands on the wheel and your foot on the gas (or brake) at all times—no fancy lane following/departure stuff. In that sense, at the most basic level of car control, it demands that your full attention. But that doesn’t mean it’s hard to drive—it’s effortless at very high speeds, completely poised yet responsive. A flat attitude and fingertip control while cornering at speeds 10-15-mph faster than other vehicles is difficult to achieve—as is the same, if not greater confidence heading down 198 as up. Only this 488 and the 911 Turbo S gave me that exhilarating feeling of invincibility (I had no issues with the brakes), and I only give the 488 the nod over the Turbo S because the V-8 twin turbo wail at WOT sounds more lurvly.” – Ed Loh “Faster than everything else by 10 mph, at least, in every situation. Blazing speed. In love with it? No. Not as satisfying to drive as some of the others, even in Race mode. But in terms of athleticism, a benchmark. As Randy said, it’s more like a Moto GP bike than a car. Also, I did not trust the brakes. “I understand the intoxication of the 488. It’s an out-and-out supercar that within 3 seconds of behind-the-wheel time, you’re able to confidently take to your limit. Perhaps that’s really what makes a Best Driver’s Car: a machine that not only makes you confident, but one that does so almost instantly.” – Jonny Lieberman Randy Says “Whoa, that’s a thrill. Entering a corner, the front is very strong and turns in really hard. And then through the middle of the corner, I think the stability controls are doing things. I found that if I went to an early maintenance throttle, it didn’t like that. It would create quite a bit of understeer, and I’d be pushing enough that I couldn’t go to power. So I realized the best strategy was to stay off the power longer and let it get turned more for a really late apex, so I could straighten up and just shoot down that next straightaway because it gains speed with amazing rapidity. “Its engine is absolutely a delight. It’s so fantastic. There’s no turbo lag on the track, it just feels like a very powerful engine with a fat torque curve, and it’s not very picky about the shift point because the torque curve is so fat. “I felt what I think was like traction control or stability control coming in, and it was very smooth. It allowed a lot of slip angle in the tire, and that got to be quite a lot of fun. Especially the last time I went out, when I kind of figured it out. Things were all happening so fast. This was a car where it was not easy to go fast in right away because it took so much getting used to. “I was not real happy with the brakes. I didn’t get that initial bite, you know, not like the Corvette. You know good old GM? It’s just so good at designing brakes right now. With the Ferrari, I had to push really hard, and after a point pushing harder didn’t cause the brakes to be better, they made them worse. A couple times I started thinking about explaining to these guys how I got in the wall, and I think I was braking early enough. I really was. But there was not a linear relationship between pedal pressure and brake force. And there was not a lot of bite. It took a lot of pedal effort, and it didn’t get a lot better as you pushed harder. So I found myself having to brake what felt early, like real early. “The car is relatively soft to me. It feels compliant, and if I still had a lot of weight on the nose when I turned, I could feel it roll. It wasn’t terrible but it rolled in there. It would rotate, the rear would move out a little bit, but it was best to let it do that and not go to throttle. Have the entry speed, slow hands, a little bit of brake maybe or at least off-throttle, and be patient and get it pointed way down at the late apex because then when you go it was amazing how it just pinned me back in the seat. It just felt so good, like if you could take the seatbelt right out of the car then it wouldn’t matter while your accelerating because you’re pinned to the seat. It feels really, really good. The engine is an absolute home run—it’s just unbelievable.” 2016 Ferrari 488 GTB POWERTRAIN/CHASSIS DRIVETRAIN LAYOUT Mid-engine, RWD ENGINE TYPE Twin-turbo 90-deg V-8, alum block/heads VALVETRAIN DOHC, 4 valves/cyl DISPLACEMENT 238.1 cu in/3,902 cc COMPRESSION RATIO 9.4:1 POWER (SAE NET) 661 hp @ 8,000 rpm TORQUE (SAE NET) 561 lb-ft @ 3,000 rpm REDLINE 8,000 rpm WEIGHT TO POWER 5.2 lb/hp TRANSMISSION 7-speed twin-clutch auto AXLE/FINAL-DRIVE RATIO 4.38:1/2.81:1 SUSPENSION, FRONT; REAR Control arms, coil springs, adj shocks, anti-roll bar; multilink, coil springs, adj shocks, anti-roll bar STEERING RATIO 11.9:1 TURNS LOCK-TO-LOCK 1.9 BRAKES, F; R 15.7-in vented, drilled, carbon-ceramic disc; 14.2-in vented, drilled, carbon-ceramic disc, ABS WHEELS, F;R 9.0 x 20-in; 11.0 x 20-in, forged aluminum TIRES, F;R 245/35R20 91Y; 305/30R20 103Y Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 K1 (Tread 180) DIMENSIONS WHEELBASE 104.3 in TRACK, F/R 66.1/64.8 in LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT 179.8 x 76.9 x 47.8 in TURNING CIRCLE 38.7 ft CURB WEIGHT 3,412 lb WEIGHT DIST, F/R 41/59% SEATING CAPACITY 2 HEADROOM, F/R n.a./— in LEGROOM, F/R n.a./— in SHOULDER ROOM, F/R n.a./— in CARGO VOLUME 8.1 cu ft TEST DATA ACCELERATION TO MPH 0-30 1.2 sec 0-40 1.7 0-50 2.2 0-60 2.7 0-70 3.4 0-80 4.2 0-90 5.0 0-100 6.0 0-100-0 9.7 PASSING, 45-65 MPH 1.2 QUARTER MILE 10.6 sec @ 135.2 mph BRAKING, 60-0 MPH 94 ft LATERAL ACCELERATION 1.02 g (avg) MT FIGURE EIGHT 22.6 sec @ 0.99 g (avg) 2.2-MI ROAD COURSE LAP 1:31.68 sec TOP-GEAR REVS @ 60 MPH 1,600 rpm CONSUMER INFO BASE PRICE $249,150 PRICE AS TESTED $365,793 STABILITY/TRACTION CONTROL Yes/Yes AIRBAGS 4: Dual front, front side/head BASIC WARRANTY 3 yrs/Unlimited miles POWERTRAIN WARRANTY 3 yrs/Unlimited miles ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE 3 yrs/Unlimited miles FUEL CAPACITY 20.6 gal EPA CITY/HWY/COMB ECON 15/22/18 mpg ENERGY CONS, CITY/HWY 225/153 kW-hrs/100 miles CO2 EMISSIONS, COMB 1.11 lb/mile RECOMMENDED FUEL Unleaded premium The post Ferrari 488 GTB is the 2017 Motor Trend Best Driver’s Car appeared first on Motor Trend.

http://www.motortrend.com/news/ferrari-488-gtb-2017-best-drivers-car/

#Best Driver's Car #Car Performance

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anglelyre2-blog · 6 years ago

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Automotive Museum In Southwest Philly Goes The Distance (And Then Some)

The Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum at 6825-31 Norwitch Drive may be well off the beaten path, but its collection of historic race cars is astounding. | Photo: Michael Bixler

If modern evolution is a linear progression of technological advancements, in no place is this more evident than the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum. The easily overlooked building on Norwitch Drive in Southwest Philadelphia is a treasure trove of rare racing cars. It is a place where the past comes to vibrant life, where long forgotten machines are reintroduced to new generations and the early days of racing culture are celebrated.

The museum is currently home to 70 immaculately maintained and extremely coveted race cars, lined up and displayed by decade in colorful diorama-type settings. Dating back to the early 1900s, cars like Ferraris, Jaguars, BMWs, and Maseratis sit proudly as tangible remnants of eras gone by. The varied assortment of vehicles are not merely parked and gathering dust. They all run, a museum requirement, and are regularly taken outside to be showcased on the museum’s three acre back lot.

What propelled the museum into existence was one man’s personal collection. Gathered over the course of decades by Dr. Frederick Simeone, a prominent Philadelphia-based neurosurgeon at Pennsylvania Hospital, the cars were first stored in an unassuming public parking garage at 8th and Lombard Streets. Simeone rented the garage and gradually began to fill it with his treasures, simultaneously keeping it open as a public garage. Ultimately, the space filled with his collection and was no longer open for public use.

“Any collection doesn’t start as a gigantic collection. It starts with one piece at a time. Back in the 1970s when the collection started, it was still possible to get really great cars. The general public had not caught up with the iconic value of certain types of cars. You had to be a historian. They were affordable to buy and I was able to select the ‘Mona Lisa’ cars of the sports racing world. They aren’t available now,” Simeone remarked.

This exhibit features Le Mans racers from the 1930s through the 1970s. | Photo: Michael Bixler

Crediting his lifelong fascination of cars to his father who encouraged his interest, Simeone always had a penchant for early sports cars that were not Formula One cars. He liked racers with beautiful designs that could also drive casually on the open road. Simeone acquired the first three quarters of his collection at affordable prices, focusing on cars with noteworthy racing histories. As time went on, early racing cars morphed from hobby objects into art collector pieces. This led to a high demand and made them impossible to purchase. Simeone used other vintage cars he had attained that weren’t sports cars as trades to acquire those harder to purchase vehicles and added them to his lot.

As the collection continued to grow, Simeone was nudged by people who came to see it to preserve the collection for the future. He created a charitable foundation and found a larger location on Norwitch Drive to display the cars properly to the public. Simeone had two main goals for the foundation: the preserve the vehicles and to keep the collection together.

“I wanted to make sure there was a place for them to stay in perpetuity. The original purpose of museums was to preserve. In the process of preserving, you then have the opportunity to exhibit. These cars are all very special and cannot be duplicated. They are from an era that was iconic,” he said.

Simeone noted there was specific criteria he looked for when acquiring a car or accepting one into the museum. Each car must hold historical significance and must be a car that won a race. The cars must also have original parts, and be aesthetically attractive, to demonstrate the design of the period it was made.

Hill climbs, where an automobile’s power and speed is tested, were popular in England in the 1920s. | Photo: Michael Bixler

“We want to have the finest cars that represent the ‘winners’ of the race world. We want to tell the evolution of these cars by the winners, to show the ingredients that lead to success. A lot of museums don’t care. We’re very fussy that they have all the right, important things particularly the original chassis, engine, and body.”

Along those lines, Simeone decided the theme of the museum would be “The Spirit of Competition” based on the concept that competition spurs forth advancements and better ways of doing things. He hoped this would especially reach younger visitors to the museum, who are finding their place in the world. The museum offers educational programs like STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) and a popular summer camp that demonstrates this focus.

“Our theme is based on the belief that competition makes everything better. The alternative is not competing. With that, there would be no evolution or development. The cars are set up chronologically, so you can see the progression. As technology evolves, things change,” Simeone said.

Preserving and maintaining the vehicles is a top priority of the museum. Among the collection, the oldest car is a 1907 Renault that was once belonged to William K. Vanderbuilt. It was donated to the museum by a man who had it in his family for 90 years. Simeone noted the rarest car in the collection is also his favorite, a blood red 1938 Alfa Romeo 2900 B. One of only four made, it is considered to be the best pre-WWII sports racing car. The museum also has rotating visiting exhibits that are popular among car clubs and those wanting to learn more on a particular make of car. Most recently, the museum showcased an exhibition of MGs.

A 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport in the Watkins Glen exhibit. | Photo: Michael Bixler

Another draw to the museum are its Demo Days, when one or two cars are taken outside and raced in the museum’s lot. Each Demo Day event focuses on a particular historical race, event, or make of a car. The day includes a brief discussion and social commentary about the featured cars.

“My real obligation is to create activities to ensure the museum is socially relevant and to use it as an educational device. The Demo is about taking an interesting car and explaining what makes it important. We associate the day with either a social event, the driver, the venue, or what was going on in the world. People love to see the cars in motion.”

Despite the impressive collection, which has garnered recognition and multiple awards overseas, the museum continues to stay under the radar of Philadelphia attractions. This has made fundraising efforts difficult. Cars in the collection can be “adopted” if a person takes a special interest in, one which usually stems from a personal connection one feels for a certain make or model.

“We have no philanthropy at all. People just don’t donate to car museums. It is a shame because the value level of the contents make us one of the highest in Philadelphia. It’s more valuable than the contents at the Rodin Museum, for instance. We are very overlooked,” Simeone remarked.

“We’ve been voted ‘Best Car Museum in the World’ twice, which is more than any other. The International Historic Motoring Awards in London gave us the ‘Best Museum’ award four times. They know about us in Europe, but not much in Philadelphia, sadly. We’re a hidden gem, I’m afraid,” he added.

This exhibit depicts the Targa Florio, a race through the hills of Sicily, Italy. | Photo: Michael Bixler

One longtime fan of the collection is Mike Wolfe from the show, American Pickers. Wolfe, an Iowa native, has been visiting Philadelphia for years, prior to his show, and met Dr. Simeone along the way. Simeone eventually acquired a Fiat 600 cut away engine from Wolfe which he “picked” in Italy. Now on display in the museum, the exposed, functioning engine is used as a teaching aid. Wolfe holds a deep appreciation for the museum’s preservation efforts and noted its worldwide importance.

“It’s a collection that you cannot see, literally, anywhere in the world,” Wolfe said. “When I travel in Europe, they all know Dr. Simone and respect him and the collection. He has the rarest of the rare. They envy everything he has because so much of it was pulled out of Europe. It is the type of collection you could never put together today, no matter how much money you have, because the cars have all been bought up. It’s one of the best-preserved collections of European and American Le Mans cars. It’s stuff you don’t even think exists anymore.”

Wolfe noted the artistic component of the collection. “There are types cars that tour art museums because the museums understand those cars are works of art. That is what Dr. Simeone’s whole museum is like. Everything is next level. When you go to a car museum like, his you realize it’s more art than anything else. When you think about art does it always to be a sculpture or a painting on canvas? Or can it be something that was made in an era that will never come again.”

On Demo Days the public gets to see the museum’s cars in action. | Photo: Michael Bixler

Also onsite is an extensive 6,000 square foot research library, filled with automotive literature that Simeone began collecting when he was just 14 years old. The library specializes in original car company literature that came with cars upon purchase, repair instructions, early automobile designs and illustrations, and pre-World War II magazines. There is a large assortment of hard bound books. Simeone continues to gather materials and noted private collectors have donated their literature collections to the museum to keep them intact.

“Automotive literature is the classic ephemera,” said Simeone. “It disappears. There is no card catalog for automotive books. Libraries don’t ordinarily have automotive sections. The materials are really important for restorers, historians, and for people who are selling their cars and want to make sure it is authentic and original. It is one of the highlights here. It’s actually where I spend most of my time.”

Simeone hopes that anyone who visits the museum will leave with something memorable. With a plethora of rarities from all over the world, it is hard not to gain an appreciation for race car technology. As early automotive pioneering continues to catapult us into the future, we are all along for an inspiring ride.

About the author

Virginia Lindak is a three-time Keystone Press Award-winning journalist, photographer, and author. As a journalist for nearly a decade, her 500-plus published articles span the Philadelphia region into New Jersey and Delaware. She has also co-authored four books on Lancaster County. Additionally, she works full-time in development at a non-profit organization in Chester County. In her free time she enjoys adventuring off the beaten path and delving into local history. Lindak holds a B.A. in Communications, Public Relations and Journalism from Immaculata University and a M.A. in Communication Studies from West Chester University.

Source: https://hiddencityphila.org/2019/05/automotive-museum-in-southwest-philly-goes-the-distance-and-then-some/

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updatedc-blog · 6 years ago

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New Post has been published on https://www.updatedc.com/2019/01/21/bright-tangerine-clash-138-matte-box-review/

Bright Tangerine Clash 138 Matte Box Review

The Bright Tangerine Clash 138 is a lightweight matte box that allows you to use two filters as well as a 138mm round filter such as polarizer or diopter in a third stage. The Clash 138 was announced just prior to NAB 2018 and started shipping in July. I thought it was a good idea to take a lot more detailed look at this product.

Looks like a Misfit Atom, but it ain’t

At first glance, the Clash 138 looks just like the Misfit Atom, but don’t let looks deceive you. The front of the Clash 138 is almost identical to the company’s Misfit Atom, it’s the back of the matte box where most of the changes have been made. The back of the Clash 138 has a larger opening (143mm) than the Misfit Atom (114mm), and this allows it to accept any 138mm round circular filter. This would also allow for use with lenses that have a larger diameter than 114mm which a lot of the larger anamorphic lenses do. Just like the Misfit Atom, the front of the Clash 138 can accept two 4×4″ filters or two 4×5.65″ filters. If you do choose to use two filters, you will need to stack them.

London Calling

Bright Tangerine certainly has a strong appreciation of the British Punk group The Clash. The Clash 138 is not the first Bright Tangerine matte box to have name ties to the group. The Strummer DNA matte box is named after The Clash’s lead singer Joe Strummer. Misfit after The Misfits, the VIV after Viviene Westwood who many regards as the mother of punk and so on. The Atom matte box is probably named after the 1982 song Atom Tan. It’s unfortunate that The Clash recorded 139 songs and not 138.

Why do you need a polarizer?

Polarizer filters tend to be one of those items that a lot of shooters tend to forget about, but they are a very essential tool for filmmaking. Light rays which are reflected become polarized. Polarizing filters are used to select which light rays enter your camera lens. They can remove unwanted reflections from non-metallic surfaces such as water or glass and also saturate colors providing better contrast. The effect can be seen through the viewfinder and changed by rotating the filter. The filter factor varies according to how the filter is rotated and its orientation to the sun. Getting rid of nasty reflections or glare is not something that can easily be fixed in post-production.

Design and build quality

Bright Tangerine certainly takes a lot of pride in the design and attention to detail of their products. The Clash 138 is no exception. Despite being a lightweight matte box it still feels well made and fairly well thought out. A circular filter can be secured inside the Clash 138, with no risk of it falling out whilst filming.

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I did, however, find that the getting a 138mm filter inside the Rota Ring was a little tricky and it’s not a super quick process. You wouldn’t want to be swapping different 138mm filters in and out. If you have multiple 138mm filters, you can buy additional Rota Rings and have one for each 138mm filter that you own.

When no circular filter is being used, the Rota Ring can be removed to allow the matte box to clamp further onto the lens for a wider field of view. The Clash has a 143mm diameter lens attachment and is compatible with Bright Tangerine’s clamp-on rings, rubber donut as well as the Black Hole.

The design is also nice as you can use the Clash 138 as a clip-on matte box even if you are still running 15mm rods. If you buy the optional 15mm LWS support bracket then you have the choice of either using the Clash 138 as a clip-on matte box or mounting it on rods. This is also useful if you are using the matte box with a rubber donut like the Black Hole that allows for lenses with travel.

The only problem with using a rubber sunshade is that it is a magnet for dust. This dust then ends up on your filters.

Room for a Polarizer

Rather than using a PV (4×5.65″) sized linear polarizer, which needs rotating stages for the angle of polarisation to be adjusted, the Clash 138 can use any mounted 138mm filter. The Clash 138 allows you to rotate your polarizer up to 120-degrees without undoing any screws or having to remove the filter. 120-degrees is more than enough to effectively use a circular polarizer as circular polarizers only require 90-degrees of rotation to achieve minimum to maximum effect. The filter sits inside a retaining ring.

If you want to rotate your polarizer you just grab the lever and rotate it. By having the lever you can move your polarizer into the correct position when shooting. I did find that the lever is a little bit stiff and doesn’t move around that smoothly. In the Clash 138’s defence, it doesn’t really need to move completely smoothly as you are just going to be moving your polarizer around into the position you need it before you hit record. It also needs to be tight enough so that it doesn’t move around during the shot. I can’t really see any situation where you would want to be turning a polarizer (when used by itself) while you were actually recording.

Every Little Bit Hurts

Nobody wants to make their camera package heavier and we are always looking at ways of shedding unnecessary weight. The Clash 138 tips the scales at just 270g (9.5oz) which makes it perfect for use on gimbals and handheld work where weight is a factor. The fact that the Clash 138 is made out of Aluminum, Elasto Polymer and Stainless Steel and still tips the scales at under 300g is impressive.

The weight, or lack of it, is what makes the Clash 138 a very appealing matte box, especially if you want to use 138mm polarizer or diopter filters. I can’t think of any other lightweight matte boxes that allow you to rotate a 138mm polarizer as well as run two other filters.

If you want to save even more weight the rubber sunshade can be removed for an extra weight saving of 100 grams. This feature is also very useful when filming with drones or on a tracking vehicle, as it helps reduce wind resistance. If you aren’t using a round filter, the retaining ring can also be removed to reduce weight.

Three Card Trick

The ability to run up to three filters in a matte box that only weighs 270g certainly sounds like a parlour trick. The Clash 138 lets you mount up to two 4×4″ filters or two 4×5.65″ filters and a 138mm Circular filter. This gives you a lot of versatility and it’s great to be able to use a rotatable polarizer, diopter or split diopter in a lightweight matte box.

I tried putting two 4″ x 5.65″ filters into the front of the Clash 138. The filters fit in securely, but you do have to be a little more careful when you are stacking filters than if you were just using one.

A word of warning though, getting the filters in and out of the Clash 138 is quite a lot harder than it is using any traditional matte box. There is a lever that safely secures the front filter(s) inside the matte box, but they are quite tricky to get out and you will end up getting fingerprints on your filters. This is especially true if you are running two 4″ x 5.65″ filters. Unfortunately, the easiest way to remove the filters is probably to take the matte box off your lens or tilt your camera up on an angle.

For fans of The Clash, Three Card Trick was probably one of the worst songs the band ever recorded in 1985.

Create a variable ND filter

The nice thing about adding a rotatable 138mm polarizing filter is that if you combine it with a linear polarizer you can create your own variable ND. A combination such as this gives you up to 6-stops of ND and is a nice solution for cameras that don’t have built-in ND filters.

I used a Tiffen linear polarizer and a Formatt Hitech Circular polarizer to create a variable ND filter. I found this worked well and was a nice solution if I wanted to have finite control over the amount of ND I was using on my camera, or when I needed to use ND on a camera that didn’t feature internal ND filters. The only downside is that the rotation of the polarizer is not that smooth and it is a little sticky. This would limit you from being able to do a smooth variable ND change while you were recording.

Diopters

Diopter filters are just like a magnifying glass for your lens. They also shift the minimal focus distance so you can get macro shots without having to use a macro lens. Diopters come in varying strengths with +1, +2 and +3 being the common strengths.

When using a +1 diopter, one additional 4×4” or 4×5.65” can be mounted into the frame. If you are using a +2 diopter, no additional filters can be mounted due to the thickness of the diopter. A +3 diopter can be used with the Clash 138 using the rubber bellows donut or Black Hole. I tried out the Lindsey Optics 138mm Brilliant Diopter +1 in the Clash 138. This diopter worked really well and it is nice to be able to reduce your lenses close focus ability without sacrificing optical quality. I’ll do a separate article that looks specifically at diopters.

Anamorphic lens support

If you’re shooting anamorphic, the Clash 138 supports +1 and +2 diopters using the Rota Ring. Just mount the filters in the Rota Ring and you are good to go. Using diopters with anamorphic lenses makes a lot of sense as anamorphic lenses don’t tend to have a short minimum focus distance. To save time, additional Rota Rings can also be purchased separately so you can have a range of filters ready to load in straight away.

Optional extras

Photo from Bright Tangerine

A carbon fibre top flag is also now available which provides protection from the sun or when shooting into direct lighting sources. To minimize internal reflections, an optional tilt adaptor can be mounted on the Clash 138 matte box. This additional tilt bracket adds 6 degrees of tilt, for up to two filters.

There is also now an ARRI accessory mounting bracket (3/8-16″) which you could use to mount a rangefinder or small LED light. This bracket can be mounted to either side of the Clash 138.

I would have liked to have seen an option to attach side flags to the Clash 138. Even if this involved having to buy a different version. I can’t think of any lightweight matte boxes on the market that are similar to the Clash 138 that offer side flags.

Bright Tangerine also sells a 15mm LWS support bracket for mounting the matte box on support rods, and the Clash 138 can also be adapted for 15mm Studio & 19mm Studio rod formats with additional brackets (sold separately). There is also a Clash 138 Mattebox 15mm LWS Kit available.

138mm Formatt Circular Polarizer

I tried out the Formatt 138mm Circular Polarizer Filter that is made from Schott-Desag B270 Crown Optical Glass with the Clash 138. Formatt claims that the filter provides absolute consistency in color and density to Kodak Wratten standards. Formatt also says that the filter is manufactured using precision grinding and polishing that results in optical flatness so the filter will work even on ultra-long focal length lenses.

I found the filter to be well made, and most importantly it didn’t seem to noticeably affect optical quality, even when used on long focal length lenses.

Technical Specifications

Compatible Filters 4×4″, 4×5.65″, 138mm Circular

Clamp Diameter 143mm

Degrees of Rotation 120-degrees (Circular polarisers repeat at 90-degrees)

Construction Aluminum, Elasto Polymer & Stainless Steel

Dimensions (LxWxH): 226 x 205 x 60mm

Weight Frame Only – 165 grams/5.8 ounces

Frame with Rubber Shade – 270 grams/ 9.5 ounces

Conclusion

In some regards, the Clash 138 is a bit of a speciality item and it may not be everyone’s cup of tea if you are looking for a matte box. But in saying that, it is a very versatile matte box that can be used for a variety of different shooting scenarios. If you are looking for a lightweight matte box for gimbal use or a clamp on solution to run a circular polarizer then it makes a lot of sense. It’s also a nice option if want to run a combination of a circular polarizer and a linear polarizer to create a variable ND, or if you want to use run speciality 138mm filters such as diopters.

The Clash 138 is well thought out and made. My only real complaints are that the 138mm rotating filter ring is a little sticky and not that easy to rotate, and the front mounted filters are a little tricky to take out.

With a small footprint and low weight, you can easily just keep it in a bag and pull it out anytime you might require a matte box. The ability to fold down or remove the sunshade altogether in a matter of seconds is also a nice touch. Overall I think Bright Tangerine have made a good product that just works and lets you get on with the important process of shooting.

#camera #lens #news #om #production #tips

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riverpersonn · 8 years ago

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i watched arrival again

and i started thinking about heptapods like ??? we know they’re big and tentacley and don’t really process stuff linearly and i started thinking about stuff like, why would they be like that?

like evolutionary history that could lead to these outcomes

here are some thoughts i had

1) considering their size, their home planet likely has both lower gravity (as evidenced by how louise was all floaty in their place and also them FWOOSHING away like octopi) and a higher proportional concentration of their primary metabolic gas (oxygen for us, no idea for them, but probably one non-toxic to humans as louise could survive in their ship), as large animals tend to exist in lower gravity (whales) and higher oxygen density (prehistoric megafauna like dinosaurs) environments

2) considering their FWOOSHING they also probably have some sort of air sac or helium sac?? and hollow bones(/internal structures) like birds, so for their size I bet they’re super light

3) the fact that their written language/ink is a biological component could mean that their written language developed before or concurrently with their spoken language, and given how spoken language is an inherently linear process and how they said in the movie that heptapod words corresponded to meaning instead of sounds, i think that it’s not only highly likely that written language is by far their dominant means of communication but also that their sounds are less of a language and more of a supplementary form of communication, like gestures or facial expressions for us)

4) i think probably some of the reason humans developed to process time and the universe in a linear fashion is because as predators, our eyes are on the front of our heads - in fact, the construction of animals and the process of hunting/chasing lends itself to linear interpretations of the world. we, predators, are looking forward and designed to face one way and run that way, already dividing the world into “in front of” and “behind,” which is a linear interpretation at its heart. could heptapods not have been predators, or could they have come from a world where the predator/prey relationship doesn’t even exist?

5) they also don’t seem to have a specific front or back side, and their whole thing with circles, possibly implying that their bodies are symmetrical on more than one axis - divided into sevenths or twelfths, maybe?

6) anothe reason i think humans probably developed a linear sense of time is the day/night cycle, I bet heptapods’ home world is tidally locked, meaning it doesn’t rotate and one side faces the sun at all times - the relative changelessness of this planet would make keeping track of linear time far harder and less natural

7) they probably have limited vision, they could see humans through the barrier but they don’t have visual seeing apparati or much of an indication that they do see (they don’t really angle themselves towards those they communicate with, etc) plus the (human) visibility inside their ship was pretty low cause of how foggy it was, they probably have some senses we don’t have

has anyone else who’s seen the movie thought about this sort of thing??

#aliens #arrival #heptapods #my thought process #WOW i love arrival #SO MUCH GUYS!!!!!#SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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thelmasirby32 · 5 years ago

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Declining Visitor Values

Late Funnel SEO Profits

Before the Panda update SEOs could easily focus almost all their energies on late funnel high-intent searches which were easy to monetize without needing to put a ton of effort into brand building or earlier funnel informational searches. This meant that SEOs could focus on phrases like [student credit cards] or [buy earbuds] or [best computer gaming headphones] or [vertical computer mouse] without needing to worry much about anything else. Make a good enough page on those topics, segment demand across options, and profit.

Due to the ability to focus content & efforts on those tiny subset high-intent commercial terms the absolute returns and CPMs from SEO investments were astronomical. Publishers could insert themselves arbitrarily just before the end of the value chain (just like Google AdWords) and extract a toll.

The Panda Shift / Eating the Info Supply Chain

Then Panda happened and sites needed to have stronger brands and/or more full funnel user experience and/or more differentiated content to be able to rank sustainably.

One over-simplified way to think of Panda and related algorithms would be: brand = rank.

Another way to look at it would be to consider the value chain of having many layers or pieces to it & Google wanting to remove as many unneeded or extra pieces from the chain as possible so that they themselves are capturing more of the value chain.

That thin eHow article about a topic without any useful info? Not needed.

The thin affiliate review which was buying Google AdSense ad impressions on that eHow article? Also not needed.

All that is really needed is the consumer intent, Google & then either Google as the retailer (pay with your credentials stored in your phone) or another trusted retailer.

In some cases there may be value in mid-market in-depth reviews, but increasingly the aggregate value offered by many of them is captured inside the search snippets along with reviews directly incorporated into the knowledge graph & aggregate review scores.

The ability to remove the extra layers is driven largely by:

the quality of the top players in the market

the number of quality publishers in a market (as long as there are 2 or more, whoever is not winning will be willing to give a lot of value to Google to try to play catch up against their stronger competitor)

the amount of usage data available in the market

the ad depth of the market

If your competitor is strong and they keep updating in-depth content pieces you can't set and forget your content and stay competitive. Across time searcher intent changes. Those who change with the markets should eventually have better engagement metrics and keep winning marketshare.

Benchmarking Your Competition

You only have to be better than whatever you are competing against to win.

If you have run out of ideas from your direct competitors in an emerging market you can typically find many more layers of optimization from looking at some of the largest and most successful players inside either the United States or China.

To give an example of how user data can be clean or a messy signal consider size 13 4E New Balance shoes. If you shop for these inside the United States a site like Amazon will have shoe size filters so you can see which shoes from that brand are available in that specific size.

In some smaller emerging markets ecommerce sites largely suck. They might allow you to filter shoes by the color blue but wanting to see the shoes available in your size is a choose your own adventure game as they do not offer those sorts of size filters, so you have to click into the shoe level, find out they do not have your size, and then try again. You do that about 100 times then eventually you get frustrated and buy off eBay or Amazon from someone who ships internationally.

In the first case it is very easy for Google to see the end user flow of users typically making their purchase at one of a few places like Amazon.com, the official New Balance store, or somewhere else like that which is likely to have the end product in stock. That second experience set is much harder to structure because the user signal is much more random with a lot more pogos back to Google.

Bigger, Better Ads

Over the past couple decades Google has grown much more aggressive at monetizing their search results. A website which sees its rank fall 1 position on mobile devices can see their mobile search traffic cut in half overnight. And desktop search results are also quite ad heavy to where sometimes a user can not see a single full organic result above the fold unless they have a huge monitor.

We tend to look at the present as being somewhat static. It is a part of human nature to think things are as they always were. But the general trend of the slow bleed squeeze is a function of math and time: "The relentless pressure to maintain Google’s growth, he said, had come at a heavy cost to the company’s users. Useful search results were pushed down the page to squeeze in more advertisements, and privacy was sacrificed for online tracking tools to keep tabs on what ads people were seeing."

Some critics have captured the broad shift in ad labeling practices, but to get a grasp of how big the shift has been look at early Google search results.

Look at how bright those ad units from 2001 are.

Since then ad labeling has grown less intuitive while ad size has increased dramatically.

Traffic Mix Shift

As publishers have been crowded out on commercial searches via larger ads & Google's vertical search properties a greater share of their overall search traffic is lower value visitors including people who have little to no commercial intent, people from emerging markets with lower disposable income and

Falling Ad Rates

Since 2010 online display ad rates have fallen about 40%.

Any individual publisher will experience those declines in a series of non-linear step function shifts. Any of the following could happen:

Google Panda or another algorithm update from a different attention merchant hits your distribution hard

a Softbank-backed competitor jumps into your market and gains a ton of press coverage using flammable money

a roll-up player buys out a series of sites in the supply chain & then tries to make the numbers back out by cramming down on ad syndication partners (sometimes you have to gain enough scale to create your own network or keep rotating through ad networks to keep them honest)

regulatory costs hit any part of the supply chain (the California parallel to GDPR just went live this month)

consumer interest shifts to other markets or solutions (the mobile phone has replaced many gadgets)

a recession causes broad-based advertiser pullbacks

Margin Eaters

In addition to lowering ad rates for peripheral websites, there are a couple other bonus margin eaters.

Junk Sunk Costs

Monopoly platforms push publishers to adopt proprietary closed code bases in order to maintain distribution: "the trade group says Google's Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) format was foisted on news publishers with an implied threat — their websites wouldn't show up in search results."

Decreased Supply Chain Visibility

Technical overhead leading to programmatic middlemen eating a huge piece of the pie: "From every £1 spent by an advertiser, about half goes to a publisher, roughly 16p to advertising platforms, 11p to other technology companies and 7 per cent to agencies. Adtech companies that took part in the study included Google’s dv360 and Ad Manager, Amazon Advertising and the Rubicon Project."

Selection Effect

Large attention merchants control conversion tracking systems and displace organic distribution for brands by re-routing demand through a layer of ads which allows the central network to claim responsibility for conversions which would have already happened had they not existed.

Internal employees in the marketing department and external internet marketing consultants have an incentive to play along with this game because:

it requires low effort to arbitrage your own brand

at first glance it looks wildly profitable so long as you do not realize what is going on

those who get a percent of spend can use the phantom profits from arbitraging their own brand equity to spend more money elsewhere

those who get performance based bonuses get a bonus without having to perform

Both eBay and Microsoft published studies which showed how perverse selection effect is.

The selection effect bias is the inverse of customer acquisition cost. The more well known your brand is the more incentive ad networks have to arbitrage it & the more ad networks will try to take credit for any conversion which happens.

2) Why does CAC (mostly) only go up? When you think about, CAC is "lowest" in the beginning, because you have no customers. You can get the low-hanging fruit cost effectively. Think ad spend. Outbound sales spend. etc. First movers are ready to buy quickly.— Elizabeth Yin (@dunkhippo33) July 6, 2020

These margin eaters are a big part of the reason so many publishers are trying to desperately shift away from ad-based business models toward subscription revenues.

Hitting Every Layer

The commodification of content hits every layer from photography....

Networking is an art and a skill... but if the gold you hold are your images, don’t trade them for the passive networking value. Simple lesson that is difficult to accept.— Send it. (@johnondotcom) July 4, 2020

...on through to writing

When you think about it, even $1000 is really inexpensive for a single piece of content that generates 20,000+ visits from search in the 1-3 years it's alive and ranks well. That's only about 1,000 visits a month. Yet companies only want to pay writers only $200 an article — Dan Shure (@dan_shure) July 6, 2020

...and every other layer of the editorial chain.

Profiting from content creation at scale is harder than most appreciate.

The idea that a $200 piece of content is particularly cheap comes across as ill-informed as there are many headwinds and many variables. The ability to monetize content depends on a ton of factors including: how commercial is it, how hard is it to monetize, what revshare do you go, how hard is it to rank or get distribution in front of other high intent audience sets?

If an article costs $200 it would be hard to make that back if it monetizes at anything under a $10 RPM. 20,000 visits equates to 20 units of RPM.

Some articles will not spread in spite of being high quality. Other articles take significant marketing spend to help them spread. Suddenly that $200 "successful" piece is closer to $500 when one averages in nonperformers that don't spread & marketing expenses on ones that do. So then they either need the RPM to double or triple from there or the successful article needs to get at least 50,000 visits in order to break even.

A $10 RPM is quite high for many topics unless the ads are quite aggressively integrated into the content. The flip side of that is aggressive ad integration inhibits content spread & can cause algorithmic issues which prevent sustained rankings. Recall that in the most recent algorithm update Credit Karma saw some of their "money" credit card pages slide down the rankings due to aggressive monetization. And that happened to a big site which was purchased for over $7 billion. Smaller sites see greater levels of volatility. And nobody is investing $100,000s trying to break even many years down the road. If they were only trying to break even they'd buy bonds and ignore the concept of actively running a business of any sort.

Back in 2018 AdStage analyzed the Google display network and found the following: "In Q1 2018, advertisers spent, on average, $2.80 per thousand impressions (CPM), and $0.75 per click (CPC). The average click-through rate (CTR) on the GDN was 0.35%."

A web page which garnered 20,000 pageviews and had 3 ad units on each page would get a total of 210 ad clicks given a 0.35% ad CTR. At 75 cents per click that would generate $157.50.

Suddenly a "cheap" $200 article doesn't look so cheap. What's more is said business would also have other costs beyond the writing. They have to pay for project management, editorial review, hosting, ad partnerships & biz dev, etc. etc. etc.

After all those other layers of overhead a $200 article would likely need to get about 50,000 pageviews to back out. And a $1,000 piece of content might need to get a quarter million or more pageviews to back out.

Categories:

publishing & media

from Digital Marketing News http://www.seobook.com/declining-visitor-values

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entergamingxp · 5 years ago

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Hellsinger is an ingenious mix of Doom and Guitar Hero, but needs a little tuning • Eurogamer.net

David Goldfarb, you might remember, actually wrote something here on Eurogamer once, about the big, wide-eyed “what if” questions that drive the creativity of developers. Metal: Hellsinger, the FPS veteran’s newly announced effort, is definitely a “what if” game. What if, it asks, you crossed the chaotic, arena shooting action of modern Doom with the rhythm and sound of Guitar Hero? The result is… strange. Metal: Hellsinger is an extremely unusual, rub your tummy and pat your head genre mix, but for better or worse it’s totally unlike anything else I’ve played.

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It also comes in the wake of Darkborn, Goldfarb’s studio The Outsiders’ first game (you might remember it as Project Wight) that was suddenly cancelled earlier this year. “It was rough, for a little while there,” he told me, when I asked about the decision. “We didn’t know how things were going to work out, or if they would work out at all, honestly. We’re lucky that things worked out the way they did and we found a great partner with Funcom.” It’s an unusual partnership – Funcom’s best known for publishing MMOs like Age of Conan and Anarchy Online, as opposed to the more traditional multiplayer shooters or single-player games Goldfarb’s worked on before – and how Hellsinger’s going to be monetised, in terms of whether it’ll be free-to-play like Funcom’s other games or not, wasn’t up for discussion at the time of our chat.

Without digging too far into it though, the reality is that it’s probably a marriage of convenience for now. “I’m gonna use a weight lifting metaphor,” Goldfarb said. “A lot of the lifting that we did, which was really hard in the beginning, I think we got used to it. We got strong enough to be able to just force up a fairly heavy thing and make it work. We got into shape, is the short version of it. And that helped us get to the next thing because we had learned all the things we could do wrong.”

It’s also, to go back to that question of “what if”, allowed The Outsiders to release something that actually sounds like a bit of a dream. “When I was thinking about this game,” he explained, “I was thinking about it in the context of other games that did stuff that I liked, but never put them together. So I would play Doom and listen to music that I really liked listening to – or even just the great stuff in [Doom] 2016 or whatever – but it wasn’t… like I would get to a point in the song and I would know it was that part. So I’m like, ‘Oh this is awesome’, and if I was lucky, I would kill a monster or something at that point in the song. But I kept thinking that the flow state that I want is a little bit different, because I’m also a giant Rock Band and Guitar Hero nerd, and that level of engagement is different for me than it was to play a shooter at a higher flow level.

“So I was thinking: there must be some way to do these two things together. And typically, I think – or the way that a lot of people have tried to solve it – is like the way Beat Saber solves it. You have a static rail shooter, basically. And then we did these things [in development], but we’re all shooter devs, you know, and so that didn’t feel good to do it that way. I want to be able to move around.” He cites a lot of other examples that come close – Doom but also games like Brutal Legend, but none of them quite scratched the itch.

The version I spent some time with is apparently “very early”, and so things are likely to change and tighten up. A single, linear mission with the odd area opening out a little into a slightly wider space, from what I’ve played so far it is also very Doom. You play as The Unknown, a sort of hell-angel looking Doom Slayer equivalent, with a cool skull for a weapon (which I believe is also the narrator, voiced by Troy Baker), and your task is to take down a big bad hell monster called the Red Judge (Jennifer Hale). Demons pop up, you slay them, you move into an area where progression is blocked off for a bit, a lot more demons pop up and you shoot them too, before moving on.

Obviously the twist here is the impact of the music, which from a purely technical position is pretty astounding. Around your aiming reticule is a little pair of brackets that act as a timing indicator, pulsing in time with the music. Attacking in time with the beat, and this little indicator, gradually builds up a multiplier meter. At each level of multiplier – 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x – additional layers of music come into play. So, when you start the mission there’s a fairly simple, toe-tapping bit of bass and drums, with some very low-key guitar chiming in. Go up to 2x by successfully attacking in time with the beat and you’ll get some rhythm guitar and more elaborate bass, 4x maybe another guitar, 8x a third layer of harmony and complexity, and 16x is all-out, fully voiced thrash. As Goldfarb put it, the “flow” of the game is built on you trying to reward yourself with more complex, layered music that kicks in at the right times. You get the heavy riffs, and the screaming vocals, and the double-bass drumming when you’re in the most demanding, intense parts of the game – but specifically when you’re nailing it. The badass music arrives precisely when you’re at your most badass.

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The other side to this, though, is that Metal: Hellsinger plays out better when you think of it as a music game first. It’s deeply satisfying, musically, but action-wise – and I should stress how early the game is still – things felt a little simple. The magic skull, your base “rhythm weapon”, zaps several demons at once if you’re near enough, and doesn’t require the most accurate aiming to activate. Get enough zaps and the demon in question will be stunned, letting you execute it for health (again, very Doom 2016), and you also build up an ultimate meter that, when used, stuns everything of any size in front of you, letting you chain a few executions and taking down big enemies in one. There’s a sword, and a shotgun, and a pair of fantastically satisfying duel-wielding pistols, but all of them are much harder to time with the beat and I didn’t feel a huge need to actually use them.

The shotgun, for instance, takes two beats for each pump between rounds fired, and even longer to reload, so it’s simpler to just keep zapping everything in sight at a much faster rate, keeping my multiplier and score high and the amount of my own mental energy required low. You can even keep tapping your rhythm weapon to the beat when there are no enemies around without consequence, which is great for keeping in time and generally keeping dialled into the music but, if I were being really cruel, I’d say it can at times also reduce the game to just pressing left click to the beat and moving around the space to stay alive. There needs to be a fair bit more incentive to rotate weapons, use the environment and even use my own ability to dash for the game to really sing, if you’ll excuse the pun, and for the biggest drops to kick in when you have a more ‘real’ sense of accomplishment.

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Like I said though, the music is the heart of this game, and it’s pretty sensational. The Outsiders and Funcom have managed to bring on board some pretty huge names from the metal world. Matt Heafy, frontman and rhythm guitarist of Trivium (who’s also become a regular streamer on Twitch), as well as artists from Arch Enemy and Dark Tranquillity were name-dropped in the presentation, with apparently plenty more on the way. As Goldfarb – a metalhead as you’ve probably guessed, who also contributed some lyrics of his own to the soundtrack – put it to me: “I one hundred per cent will go on record saying yeah, I think we’re making the best fucking tracks for this game for sure.”

As a bashfully lapsed metalhead myself, from the one track on this demo mission alone I find it very hard to disagree. But while the music’s there and it’s a genuinely fascinating premise, Metal: Hellsinger’s earliness is just showing a little for now. Metal’s brilliance is its complexity and its precision; the layers and the elaborate, unashamedly committed climaxes that give it that weird, juxtaposed closeness to classical music. Goldfarb clearly knows what it’s all about. “I wanted to make this weird, like, Paradise Lost album cover, with super hard music. I wanted to have vocals from artists that I admired, and I wanted us to figure out a way to build a universe around this that didn’t feel like it was a joke. But also didn’t feel like it needed to be reverent. So that the people that love that music feel like ‘Yeah, this is actually a world that I want to be a part of’.” Metal: Hellsinger is right on the money there. It’s committed, it’s earnest, it’s fantastically proud of the goofiness that comes with the territory without having to laugh at it. It just needs to weave a little more of the signature complexity into the gunplay itself.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/06/hellsinger-is-an-ingenious-mix-of-doom-and-guitar-hero-but-needs-a-little-tuning-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hellsinger-is-an-ingenious-mix-of-doom-and-guitar-hero-but-needs-a-little-tuning-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

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moonmurph-gamedev · 7 years ago

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Unit 70

Pre-Production

Inspiration

I looked at my Mood-Board that I had created for Unit 79. I decided to look into those games I mentioned and create a mood board focusing on their game environments.

I found a lot of stuff from these games which I liked. I really like the low-poly rocks and trees that animal crossing and LittleBigPlanet use. They’re also assets which can be made quickly and in large amounts so you can create a nice variety to populate the game world with. In Splatoon I like the bright billboards and signs which decorate the city. I’ll be creating an urban section to so I’ll look into how they’ve created various buildings.

Urban Environment Board

Nature Environment Board

My plan is for the player to start in the nature environment. They’ll be sent to retrieve a key from the bottom of a mine so they can enter the city. The city will be located on the higher portion of the map.

Landscape

Sculpting

I created a basic flat landscape and began using the sculpt tool to create a higher area. I then used the smooth tool to smooth the cliff side so the textures weren’t as stretched.

I also used the flatten tool which upon use makes anything you brush over the same height as what you started on. This is great for having flat ground at different heights.

I then used the ramp tool to place two points. I moved the bottom point a little closer to the cliff and adjusted the width of the lines to give the cliff a thicker walkway.

This is a great tool for creating natural ramps between two different levels in the environment. It’s a lot quicker than manually sculpting, smoothing and flattening a ramp myself.

By holding shift I can invert the brush and create crevices in my landscape. I used this to create a pond which I’ll later fill with water. I made use of the hydro-erosion and smooth tool to get a realistic slope into the pond rather then it being too sharp.

It’s important to think about how the different sections of the landscape would have different materials (when I later paint the landscape)

When creating a landscape you can also choose to use height maps which automatically generate and sculpt your landscape according the a height map image. This is great for creating huge landscapes where manually sculpting every mountain and crevice would be too time consuming. For my project however I decided to simply sculpt it myself as I’m only creating a small compact environment. A downside of this however is I’ll have to make use of fog, lighting and assets to hide the edge of the world from the player character. This becomes much harder as they reach higher areas. I wouldn’t have this problem if I had decided to the an interior of a building. I’m happy with my choice however as I’m enjoying the landscaping tools and learning a lot about UE4 which will help me in the future.

After the painting processs I went back and sculpted hills around the edge of the area to act as a natural barrier to contain the player.

Painting

To start the process of painting my landscape I first had to create materials for the different layers such as grass, dirt and sand.

I found a few images of grass and edited them together in photoshop.

I added small dots to stick to the stylised feel that I’m going for. For the dirt and sand I simply found some JPEGs from online that suited this style. I then imported the textures into UE4 and began working in the material editor to create a landscape material.

I created a layer blend with different sections for each material.

I did the same for the normal maps which I also created in photoshop.

An issue I had with the materials is that they were tiling and it didn’t look good when placed on the landscape. To reduce this I used ‘texture bombing’

The texturing bombing lets me add some variety to the texture tiling. I also did the same with the normal maps so they line up correctly. The normal maps are great for giving the illusion of depth to the grass. I used similar techniques when adding my other materials.

Another issue I had with some of the dirt was I didn’t like the colour. I simply used a colour parameter to add an orange hue. This also makes the dirt work nicely with the rock assets I created.

I mentioned how it’s important to stick to a colour palette so the world looks coherent.

All the textures then connect to the layer blend which then connect to the base colour and normals. I also added a 0.5 constant to the roughness which makes the landscape reflect light a little less. I could of set it to 1 to be more realistic but I like the small shine and I’m not going for complete realism.

Painting in UE4 is really simple! You simply select the layer (after creating a landscape layer weight) and use the brush to paint directly onto your landscape. You can edit the brush size and strength to get your desired affect. I started my covering the entire area in grass then covering a pond area in sand. I blended in the two different types of dirt along the cliffside (with a low strength) to create a semi-realistic cliff-face.

I’m happy with my first attempt. I’ll make use of my dirt textures to create pathways to guide the player through the natural segment of the project. I’ll also use assets such as rocks, fences and trees to populate the landscape (and help guide the player character).

I really like how I can go back and repaint the landscape at any time. As I place assets I can change the landscape to suit the needs of the level instead of being stuck with what I’ve created at this moment.

I end up going back and editing my grass texture in Photoshop. I made it more stylised and bright.

Environmental Assets

Rocks

I began creating more environmental assets to populate my game world. I started off simple by creating stylised rocks.

Here’s the base material. I then created two material instances and made the colour a parameter. I have a dark and light one to have a difference between the sides and tops of the rock formations. I wanted a cartoony and colourful environment like I described in other units.

I created my models in Maya using tools I’ve used before such as extrude and multi-cut. I then imported them into UE4 and applied the textures to preview them.

I made sure to set the collision as ‘complex as simple’ which means the character can walk along the mesh accurately.

I’m really happy with the textures at the moment. They fit the simple stylised world I want to create. I made the top edges a little brighter as I like the contrast.

I also created normal maps in Photoshop which give the illusion of depth to the material. It’s especially noticeable when the material is reacting to light.

Trees

I experimented with different trees in Maya and settled on a smooth flat top design. This will be useful for if the player needs to jump across the tree tops to reach higher points.

I did the UVs for the tree and the trunk. It was difficult finding a good place for the seam on the tree head.

I then created the material for the tree. I began with the tree head. I used two different spot patterns to create a fun material.

For the trunk I used a wood texture and changed the base colour to be darker. I also used the panner tool so the material slowly rotates.

After playing around on the materials I placed the asset into the world and placed a few to see how it looked.

I’ll create a few more variants and use different sizes and placements to avoid too much repetition. I also want to go back and tweak the landscape materials as they’re a little too realistic compared to the cartoony assets I’m creating.

I decided I wasn’t happy with the original tree texture and went back to create better normal maps which will help improve the quality. I find when thinking of ideas in my head they don’t always look how I thought when placed in the project especially when comparing them to the game world I’m creating. It’s great that it’s so easy to go back into UE4 and make changes to textures and also go back into Maya and make changes to the UVs if necessary. I don’t feel like I’m stuck when I find something I don’t like about my models because I can always edit them.

I’m a lot happier with the appearance of the trees and I’ll continue to stick to this style as I create more.

Foliage

I need to create grass to populate my landscape to give it more depth.

I began by finding a grass PNG that suited the style I was going for.

I then created a material instance and applied it to a blueprint class of four panes (double sided).

I made sure to remove collision as the player needs to be able to walk through the grass. I went into the material editor and made some changes.

Here’s the blueprint that gives the grass movement. I can change the intensity and speed the grass moves in the wind. I also used a Linear Gradient node to ensure only the top ends of the grass sway in the wind. This movement gives the scene more life.

An issue I came across was the gaps between the panes were too dark and looked weird. To remedy this I created two more PNGS and blended them together into the emissive input.

This means the texture ignores some of the light and doesn’t cast large shadows. Here’s a before and after. Notice how the gaps between the grass are now a darker green and not completely black.

I liked the grass however it was bland just having the same thing repeated across the level. I went back and looked at other foliage that would make sense to have in a forest area near a pond.

I went into maya and created some toadstool mushrooms and also some oyster mushroom clusters. The clusters can be placed on walls of rock, or trees. The toadstools can be scattered across the ground and also large ones can be used as platforms by the player. The lily-pads will be platforms for the player to jump across the pond. They’ll sink however if the player stands on them for too long!

I placed my Lilypad across the lake to see how they looked and created the texture in UE4.

Mine Entrance

I created a simple plank in Maya and exported to Unreal. I then used the landscaping tools to build a hill and carve a hole into it. I then placed my plank and rocks to create a mine entrance. I want to keep the entrance to the mine dark as it’ll teleport the player to a different area (I’m planning it to be a boss battle room) however I do want light on the outside to show off the models.

I needed to place a light at the mine entrance but didn’t have a source for the light with my assets so I went into Maya and created a lantern model which will act as this source.

I then decided to create a minecart which I can reuse for the outside and inside of the mine. I obviously only needed to create one wheel and can simply duplicate it.

I placed a couple of carts around. In different levels of disrepair. I’m really excited because I made sure to make them hollow so I can place other assets inside them of have enemies use them for cover. I can also place useful items inside which will train the player to search them and eventually let me trick them by hiding a trap/enemy in one.

Crystals/Ore

I want to create colourful crystals/ore to populate my rocky mine area. I’ve always found them really eye catching when used in other games. I created a simple cylinder in Maya and played with the attributes such as subdivision axis and height.

I can create more crystals of different sizes and shapes with this method. I’ll then create the textures in Unreal.

I made use of the Fresnel node. I’m a big fan of how it pushes out the colour. I inverted the Fresnel so unlike the holograms I made which has a coloured centre and white outline the crystals have a white centre and coloured edge. I made the yellow a parameter that can also be changed. The great thing about using material instances is that it’s the quickest rendering and is generally less demanding on the system.

I placed a couple of the crystals in the level of different colours. I also went back and created a small smooth rock to have some jutting out of.

I created some mine tracks to make it obvious to the player that the area is an old mine and also adds something interesting to the ground which is very flat and bland at the moment.

I created three different sets which I can easily extend to make longer ones. I also made bent ones for corners and some that had an incline.

Dust Clouds

I made use of the particle system to create some dust clouds to give the impression of the dusty dry area that the mines would be like.

I set the colour, hardness and extinction of the dust clouds as parameters so they can be changed on the fly.

I created a thin and wide cylinder emitter and set the particles lifespan to a constant.

Here you can see I’ve placed a couple of the emittors around the scene. I focused on shrouding the entrance to the mine as it’ll teleport the player upon entering them to an interior scene.

Lake area

I placed a simple space plane and resized it to fill the lake area. I then turned off it’s collision so the player character can move through it.

I then added a custom material that I created to the plane.

I also placed a post processing volume inside the lake which blurs and changes the tint of the screen to blue. I made it so the transition is instantaneous as the player character falls into the water.

Here’s the material that I made. The parameters can be changed in the editor which is great to easily preview how it will look. With the panner nodes I can change the speed which the water moves. I’m really happy with how my lake turned out as it’s the first time I created water. I’ll decorate the rest of the lake and great a fishing pier. I’ll also create collision boxes to change how the player character moves when inside the water.

Urban Assets

Buildings

I created a handful of small simple buildings in Maya. These can be placed together to create different buildings and give more variety. I also made sure to have sections where different materials can be assigned such as glowing sections or windows.

I placed simple placeholder textures on them to see how it looked. I used these assets for my small scene in a previous unit.

Clutter

I also created clutter such as signs, wires and lamp posts. These help populate the urban environment and make it more interesting.

This clutter can be used in lots of different ways. For example wires can hang across the street like powerlines which make the scene more interesting but also give a place for birds to sit. The same wires could instead be used to plug into a mechanical asset and give an explanation for how it’s powered. Lamp posts not only fill the street but also provide the level with a source of light which will be very useful for any night scenes I might create.

#unit70

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jewelwriter · 7 years ago

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My Two Cents: Why yez, Gen 7 is the worst of them all.

Disclaimer: "My Two Coins" are to be read as such, someone's two coins about the topic at hand. IF at any point you disagree with it or agree, remember they are just my coins about said topic and the value you have of it will differ from my own because of religion, upbringing, beliefs, and logic based on your own experiences. Do not assume my coins are the international equivalent for it may be considered of a lesser value in the bank of public exchange. Thank you.

Pinks, You asked for it. YOU KNEW how stupid your commentary to defend Gen 7 is and yet you did it and I gotta rip you some new ones. I’ll even go...

Yea. I’m going this far TO KICK YOUR ARGUMENT and banish it in all it stands for to the Shadow Realm! Though first things first.

Welcome ladies and gentlemen. You've found a wild Jewelwriter.

And here’s the reason why I’m going at it and I’ll be commenting on it non stop so if you value your gen 7 souls then escape and don’t look back.

Oh boy... You seriously were that worried that it is a not belonging in the place where it belongs and is going to be ripped by me where I wouldn't hold back. Trust me... I know your brain is deep in Gen 7's cave of wonders but it's time to get your head out of there and get with bleeping reality. Trust me I'm tempted to use memes to say you are so wrong that it hurts. And I'll get even the pictures that you point out so I'll be thoroughly ripping this up with a sword and not a chainsaw.

OH, it is... I mean seriously do I got to list them... but if I gotta say it there's going to be a gen 7 of that bleeping picture and your call of calling hypocrisy so allow me to poke of each point you pull up.

-If not counting all the added Pokemon the difference is 7 more for everyone thinks Ultra added more. This wasn't a bugger to me since I expected a low number and its clear people aren't getting it.

-Exp isn't too bad and I was keeping it on since it was meant to be on and I still felt the challenge was more with two of the 3 starters and everyone's frog was the easy mode for people when I felt the "Charizard" of the generation is Chespin and Fennekin gets it easier at least as well be the next second since through the playthrough of X and Y, gym one has bugs with one a bug water, followed by rocks, then fighting types (Fennekin's evolution gets psychic moves to soften this) then grass types (Unless you got a poison move, Fennekin gets this faster) and then we get to electric which isn't good for both and then fairies (with fully evolved Pokes now, Chespin's line is in trouble sans poison.) then Psychic and then ice (Poor Chesnaught times two more) And Chespin and Fennekin's line doesn't get love at all in the Elite 4 either.

-Story is not bad but it's true that story wasn't good but it wasn't going for hyper twists, it was more on the nose and wasn't ashamed of it. Pluse there was more expressions in that than both su and moon games.

-This is true that I can't fight it but I'll say that I saw them as a copy of team rocket if Giovanni decided to return just in time for a new kid to smack them stupid and if Giovani had a death cannon.

-Only the true rival of sorts being your opposite without the hat and the others...mixed.

-Skip since this is true for all Pokemon but it doesn't last longer than both Sun and moon and Ultras.

-Customization was first introduced so it would be limited.

-Fairy Pokemon is the first big shake up and I like it.

-Depends on your mega. OH, gods.... it ranges from ...Garchomp to Mega Rayquaza (who was introduced in ORAS) though I will say this....this should have been the end of Smogon's reign. I still want it gone!

-Postgame was in Lumiose, and it was short and otherwise, it was the battle house. (Delta episode in ORAS)

-This I don't mind... And here's the funny thing...you never could get out of that Linear road in a sense unless you are thinking gen 1 at when you take on Saffron City and gen 4 which allowed you to break that norm when crossing Mt Coronet.

-This I can get on ORAS on for teasing that and it not showing up since post battle content really shrunk in gen 6 but it's worst in gen 7 so it's not getting off that hook.

I was willing to buy X and Omega Ruby (and gained Alpha Sapphire as a gift which I thanked.) which was a good thing overall.

And now...let's see how right you represented how it is the worst....which you tried to hide.

-This is wrong... the number where it stopped before getting the special Pokemon is 78. And I'm not counting Alolan forms.

-The Island Trials don't feel as rewarding since you only get emergen-z gemstones and nothing really marking progress.

-This is a sad truth that hurts making it fun. Super Training allows one to EV how you want without battling and having to plot how to grow your Pokemon there. Triple Battles I can say I'll not miss as much as Rotations since Rotations is battle intelligence pushed into one great format that you don't have to worry about Rocks and other entry hazards in a sense. Just tactical play! Contests came back and were lost is a sad thing since there could have been more potential if done right. And HMs I see is sad because they were a better gate block than what those silly borders and the HM rides are which were so underused it's ridiculous.

-SOS battles are the only way to get high IV Pokemon from the wild and yet they were able to annoy to no end since it means you might get a Pokemon Interrupting your catches and will burn more resources. They kind of fixed it with the Ultras but still exists the moment you trigger SOS. Hypertraining is an IV copout while breeding your best mon isn't loved anymore. Festival Plaza....oh gods that is a mess more of a mess than what happened at Gen 4's first steps into Wifi. And the Ultra Beasts...I can't tell if they are legendary or out there Pokemon that are in the wrong series.

-This is entirely correct with how many Pokemon of Gen 1 got not only representation but given special forms....and guess what...no extra Alolan forms!

-If you picked Primarina's line you were on easy street, even on Ultra when taking on Necrozma after dealing with the BS handicap of the Pokemon getting boosted artificially to make difficulty. Rowlett is able to take on only the first Kahuna, the new Kahuna of Poni island and for a while Team Skull/Aether President...Keep in mind of who has poison type but otherwise...You'd be recked with the owl... and Litten..let's see Bubble beam with the Kakuna of MElemele, Rocks with Akala's Kahuna, Team Skull's Bugs when you go john Incenaroar on top of the water type and bugs while on Ula Ula, And Poni island's new Kahuna if you can endure the dragon of the north star.

-I mentioned it earlier....tutorials are needed but this did it so wrong and had nearly all of island 1 be this. You get pushed to a school of it, you get forced into battle with the false rival, and you get guided by the Nosepass by Rotom.

-Returning to Hau... he's the 'Bianca' rival which I didn't mind but knew people would uproar but I guessed it wouldn't show up at all. I was wrong. It was the Professor who is the true rival (as in get the starter strong to yours and would be the real challenge) and they pull that off with the best First championship battle of Alola in Sun and Moon.

-Skip since I already covered this in gen 6 but it's worst since it is to nearly all of island 1.

-This was less forgiving as we got such fewer options than before as far as attire. Least you can lose the hat.

-the Emergen-z moves are in fact worthless. As I stated in a bit of a comparing document. Z-Moves are Hyper Combos that can be 'blocked', countered, or even snuffed out before you pull them off. Mega Evolution is a boss character with upped stats that can be harder to take down in battle and would be on the field still until you KO the Pokemon.

-This has less postgame than what X&Y had and this is when counting the Looker missions vs the UB hunt for the startups and the Delta Episode vs RR Episode is at least a stronger fight to one side....and while I give Zennia the lore and potential aspects, the RR gets you all villains of the past trying to get the world with grandpa Giovani at the top who should have RETIRED by now but nope...

-(sarcasm) It's so linear here that you got a Pokedex pointing the way to where to go. Great job Programmers. (sarcasm ends here.)

I at least hold my ground when it comes to this kind of argument.

For the picture comparing B2W2 to USUM...

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Pleasantly surprised [Vs] worried and sickened.

Didn't come to mind [Vs] Why would the series leave the 3DS? Which I say is a stupid idea still!

I had a good surprise on this and took it [Vs] WAIT will you...the fact you can still play them is proof you can wait.

This was a great surprise and showed they cared [Vs] Super rushed game that barely got out before 1 year of the game's release...which most of the other mainline Pokemon games weren't released in under a year.

New story and set in a truly different timeline [Vs] it barely changed and any changes were mostly seen near the end and were cheap shots.

This would be entirely wrong Vs IT is highly true!

That's because nothing really did change sans Ultra Recon Squad as far as plot goes and the killing of an already weakened char when USUM came up.

On sales, this would be one thing on its own and yet I was able to smell bs and not buy them (somehow I still got them because someone didn't get the note I DIDN'T WANT THEM!) and it's good I rate games based on what is within them...not the sales and that.

So sorry, it still belongs to gen 7! And there's a diff between good changes and BAD changes. You kept ignoring all the bad changes while also trying to make it look like the other generations did it worst.... sorry but This is utter BS to the nth degree.

I haven't claimed that 8 will be worst but I have a worry about what will be in it if certain games sell well.

Also Funny you use someone that you hate for someone to be the big comment here. I can't help but laugh it up. (I got stories of this but that's a need to know a thing)

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So excuse ME for killing all your hopes and dreams but they are really nightmares and falsehoods that you have tried to hide behind all this time. TIME to come into the light and maybe wear this while you're at it.

As for me... this wild one runs away!

#m2c #rant #nintendo #opinion #pokemon gen 7 #response

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