#hyper-silly mode is enabled

[art-of-mathematics]

May I remind you of this seriously "breadified" post?

🧠 = 🥔 * 🥨

[fantabulosogamedev]

Barkwursts and Kickstarter Info!

Hey everyone!  Got a bunch of stuff to talk about in this post, so let’s get rolling!  If you aren’t already on the discord, I’d recommend joining it by clicking this link.  This is by far the best way to get in touch with me and keep track of development.

Barkwursts

Around 2-3 years ago, during The Fantabulous Game’s development, I announced the existence of Spheredogs.  These dogs would serve a similar purpose to Jinjos, giving Capboy a sausage if he collects them all in a level.  Initially made as a reference to the original Le Fantabulous Game, I’ve decided to change that plan.  After all, the new Spheredog design wasn’t even a sphere, but rather more of a sausage with legs!  So, I present to you:  Barkwursts!

(left-to-right: Tico, Cosmo, Jim, Goobert, Eyedog)

Barkwursts are the exact same as Spheredogs were in TFG, just with a new name.  Though they aren’t designed as of right now, Spheredogs will be returning as small, kickable, gremlin-esque Spherefriends -- just as they were back in the very first iteration of Le Fantabulous Game.  The Sausage rewards will be doled out by a new character, interested in collecting Barkwursts to help his own Quest for Sausage...

(fanart by ZackTheNerd)

The first new Capkin design in Fantaria’s history, I present to you: Ecapresu, the Farmer!  Living in Home Sausage, Ecapresu uses Barkwursts to help facilitate his peaceful harvest of Sausages.  To thank Capboy for bringing Barkwursts to him, Ecapresu shares a portion of his harvest with Capboy.  Additionally, Capboy will be able to learn more about his own species from Ecapresu, as well as get information on the Barkwursts that he has brought.

(kickstarter art by Scandre)

The aspect of Barkwursts that I’m the most excited about, however, is their integration into the Kickstarter.  The Barkwursts you see above are actually created by members on the testing team, hence their fantastically varied designs!  Also named by these testers, these fellas will serve as the five Barkwursts found in Fantaria’s demo level.  On that note, I’d like to move on to talk about the Kickstarter’s stretch goals and reward tiers!

Kickstarter Reward Tiers

Fantaria: The Quest for Sausage is going to have a variety of reward tiers, focusing on digital rewards.  Every tier has its own title in the credits, and your name will be listed alongside all of your creations (if you’re okay with it!) in the credits as well.  I won’t be going into incredible depth on all of them here, but here’s a quick lowdown:

$5: Coolfriend. Have your name put in the credits, and receive a wallpaper pack.  Every further tier has the wallpaper pack as well!

$15: Digital copy of the game on release.

Backerfriend title in credits.

$25: Deluxe copy of the game on release.  In addition to the game, this features the soundtrack and access to (potential, not guaranteed!) DLC released in the future.  Every tier beyond this point also has the deluxe edition of the game.

Deluxe Backerfriend title in credits

$60: Design-a-Spherefriend.  Similar to the build-a-spherefriend tool I released many years ago, design a Spherefriend NPC by choosing color, size, name, and customized headwear.  Also, you can name your spherefriend, pick a combat unit archetype, and write a small dialogue blurb to be translated into Spherespeak!  

Designerfriend title in credits.

$120: Design-a-Barkwurst.  With much more freedom than Spherefriend designs, you can have your own Barkwurst design put into the game, along with a name and a bio!  As seen with the example 5 above, Barkwurst designs have a lot of freedom, so this will be your chance to really get creative.

Dogfriend title in credits.

$150: Designer Dogfriend.  Design both a Spherefriend and a Barkwurst!  The next two reward tiers give you these privileges as well.

Designer Dogfriend title in credits.

$300: Design-an-NPC!  This tier will let you get your own unique NPC design into the game, with at least one encounter in one of the games’ levels.  Note that due to the larger universe impact of a proper NPC, some restrictions will apply -- see below.  

Deluxe Designerfriend title in credits

$600: Design-a-boss!  This tier will let you design your own unique boss encounter for Capboy and Friendwoman to face, featuring its own unique fighting style, difficulty, arena, personality, and rewards upon defeat!   Note that due to the larger universe impact of a full bossfight, some restrictions will apply -- see below.  

Ultimate Designerfriend title in credits.

Kickstarter Reward Limitations

To help make sure Fantaria: tQfS is a cohesive experience that fits my vision, there are some limitations on “design-an-x” reward tiers.  Note that these are guidelines, not hard refusals!  If you have a character that you’re concerned will be affected by these limitations, I want you to reach out to me to talk about it!  I’m always willing to work to find a compromise if you’re interested in seeing your character or design in Fantaria..

I reserve the right to have final say on small tweaks of all backer designs

You must legally own the rights to the characters and/or designs you request!  For example, a direct lift of Mario’s outfit on a Spheredog wouldn’t be okay, but a design which clearly falls under parody would be.  This applies more strictly to the higher tiers (see below).

Spherefriends cannot be made super massive, and their headwear shouldn’t be excessively vulgar or otherwise go counter to Fantaria’s aesthetic (i.e. no hyper realistic textures).

Barkwursts must always have the same silhouette, and make the same SFX as each other, to ensure the player can easily identify them despite the varied designs.

NPCs and Bosses have some further restrictions:

No humans.  Friendwoman is the only human presently in Fantaria’s universe, and this is a very key component of the universe.  If you have a human design that you’d like to see, I’d be thrilled to work with you on creating a variation of it that fits into the universe! (i.e. a capkin or PBot version).

No parodies/memes.  Unlike Spherefriends and Barkwursts, which don’t weigh much on the plot or universe, NPCs/bosses should not blatantly be referencing real-life jokes or personalities.  This does not mean that they all have to be serious, they can be wacky and silly!  Just...no ugandan knuckles parody, or trump parody, or other designs like that.

No characters with explicit and consistent ties to adult material.  It’s totally fine if your character is generally slightly lewd or attractive, but if all they’re associated with is porn (either vanilla or fetish), they won’t be a good fit for Fantaria.

I retain final say on the power level of your character in relation to the cast of Fantaria.  This is mostly to make sure that no characters become more important to the plot and events than pre-existing characters like Capboy and Friendwoman...unless, of course, I think the design can fit into such a role!  Naturally, you still have control over your character’s personality and attitude, and I will run any story events they are involved in by you to make sure you’re satisfied with the way they react.

Kickstarter Stretch Goals

Now that that’s out of the way, the final thing I’d like to talk about here are Kickstarter Stretch Goals!  I’ve budgeted these all fairly thoroughly, as I’ll explain in more detail when the KS itself launches.  These are as follows:

$25,000 -- Initial Goal.  This provides me with the living costs needed for the estimated year and some change of remaining development, as well as to commission Scandre and Viv for art and music, respectively.

$30,000 -- Local Deathmatch.  This tier will add a local deathmatch option to the main title, where you can fight with up to three of your friends in brand new arenas inspired by the couch competitions of old!

$35,000 -- More levels. This tier will add four fully-featured secret levels, pushing Capboy to the limit and providing special new rewards.  These levels will each come with a unique ability, melee weapon, and bossfight

$40,000 -- The Fantabulous Arena.  This tier will add a special arena to the game, allowing Capboy to fight endless enemy waves and challenge bosses that he’s already defeated again!  In addition to being able to have fun experiencing these fights, the Arena will have special challenges restricting Capboy to certain weapons, with even more sausages being rewarded for completing them.  Finally, post-release, all bosses will receive an additional Fantabulous version of themselves, unlocking potent new weapon upgrades for Capboy!

$50,000 -- Nightmare Mode. This tier will add a second campaign, inspired by the brutal NG+’s found in oldschool games.  Play as Capboy’s ally Friendwoman, travelling backwards through a distorted and damaged version of the main game’s story.  Face brutal platforming challenges, intense battle arenas, and mindbending puzzles, using with all of the main game’s weapons and unlocks to overcome the odds!  Naturally, this mode will also feature every single Fantabulous boss in place of their standard versions.  Nightmare Mode, if funded, would release as post-release DLC free to all backers of the $15 tier and above.

$60,000 -- Local Co-op.  Friendwoman will be able to join in with Capboy in the main quest, with the game dynamically adjusting challenges and obstacles to adjust for the additional player.  When in multiplayer, bosses will gain new co-op exclusive mechanics, and co-op exclusive puzzles and battle rooms will block the pair’s route.  This will also allow Friendwoman to be played instead of Capboy in the singleplayer main campaign.  If funded, this tier will release alongside the main game, and will likely cause some slight delay to the current predicted release date.

$65,000 -- Nightmare Co-op.  Friendwoman will be able to bring Capboy with her on her quest through the nightmare realm, enabling cooperation against the new threats and challenges of this brutal adventure.  As with the main campaign, new unique co-op oriented challenges will be present when in multiplayer on this campaign!  If funded, Nightmare Mode will have co-op when it is launched post-release.

$80,000 -- Online Multiplayer.  If funded, all multiplayer modes will be able to be played with one another online!  Releasing with the main game, Online Multiplayer will likely result in some further slight delay to the predicted release date if funded.

Whew, that was a lot!  If you bore with me for all of that, you’re a superfan, and it’s great to know that there are people dedicated enough to read through all of that.  As for when the KS and demo will actually launch, my current prediction is July 26th -- ironically, the same date (+4 months) as I wanted to release TFG’s kickstarter last year! Now that I’ve recovered from the issues I discussed in the last post, I’ve been diving deep back into development and making great progress.  As we approach that date, I will continue to evaluate the amount of work remaining and let you guys know if that seems like it’s going to change.

As I said at the beginning, swing by the Discord if you haven’t already and want to talk about this stuff!  I’m very eager to hear feedback on the price points of rewards and stretch goals, and am willing to listen to suggestions on any changes.  See you guys soon with another chunk of progress!

-Fantabuloso

[loadingdiscounts385]

Emulator Not Working In Android Studio Mac

Android emulator rotate orientation

How do I rotate the Android emulator display?, and press the 7 followed by 9 on the NUMPAD on the right side of your keyboard; On Mac OS X, you can use Ctrl + Fn + F12 to rotate the Android emulator if you have have not configured your keyboard to 'Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys' (Check it on System Preferences - Keyboard).

How to rotate the Android emulator display, There is an option within emulator itself. You can even do it with command Windows : Ctrl + down Arrow or up arrow Mac : CMND + (right or left arrow) Change the emulator to landscape mode by rotating in Android Studio, Eclipse on windows, Linux, Mac OS. Android emulator by defaults starts with portrait mode same as our android mobile phones but some times developer want to change the android emulator screen orientation by moving portrait screen mode to landscape mode so here is the complete step by step tutorial for Change screen

How do I change screen orientation in the Android emulator , Just click on Rotate button to change the landscape to portrait and vice versa. sahil Kothiya. 2 Years ago. By default each and every time android emulator starts with portrait mode by app developer can force manually to rotate android emulator and use like a tablet device. So here is the complete step by step tutorial for Rotate android emulator to landscape mode manually.

Android emulator does not rotate screen

Android studio emulator not working windows 10. Android Emulator Troubleshooting, HAXM, the Intel Android Virtualization Technology is incompatible with Hyper-V. Turn off Hyper-V and give it a go again. Hyper-V will often be installed if you @Chris Dotchin I had the same issue when I upgraded to Windows 10. I am facing a weird issue with Mac version of Android Studio (i.e., I am not able to copy (⌘ + C) and paste (⌘ + V) any text). I have no idea why it is behaving strange like this. My question may be silly, but I have been facing this issue since I started working from Windows to Mac. Any solutions and alternatives would be much helpful for me.

Android, is disabled. Pull Down the drop-down of the mobile and enable it. Yes, the problem still exists in Android 4.4.2 emulator. It simply rotates the screen and does not display the corresponding layout file under the corresponding res/layout folder. I have verified this by running in a nexus device where it works as expected. – Rajaraman Mar 9 '14 at 17:53

Android Studio AVD rotates but not the contents : androiddev, When I type Ctrl+F12 the screen goes to landscape, but the contents of the device doesn't, I'm using lollipop (some reported that the problem was only available in 4.4, so it should not appear in lollipop), The emulator is very unfriendly. On Mac OS X, you can use Ctrl + Fn + F12 to rotate the Android emulator if you have have not configured your keyboard to 'Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys' (Check it on System Preferences - Keyboard).

Android Emulator, When I switch to landscape mode (NUMPAD 7 or CTRL+F11) the emulator rotates the screen to landscape orientation but the Android OS and none of the apps I would like to test the rotation of a phone on the emulator, I see everywhere that we have to use Ctrl+F11 but it only rotates the image of the emulator and does not launch a configuration change event or redraw the activity.

Android emulator rotate orientation mac

How do I rotate the Android emulator display?, if you have have not configured your keyboard to 'Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys' (Check it on System Preferences - Keyboard). On Mac OS X, you can use Ctrl + Fn + F12 to rotate the Android emulator if you have have not configured your keyboard to 'Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys' (Check it on System Preferences - Keyboard).

Switching to landscape mode in Android Emulator, Try: ctrl + fn + F11 on Mac to change the landscape to portrait and vice versa. left-​ctrl + F11 on Windows 7. ctrl + F11 on Linux. For Mac users Change the emulator to landscape mode by rotating in Android Studio, Eclipse on windows, Linux, Mac OS. Android emulator by defaults starts with portrait mode same as our android mobile phones but some times developer want to change the android emulator screen orientation by moving portrait screen mode to landscape mode so here is the complete step by step tutorial for Change screen

How to rotate the Android emulator display, Change emulator mode portrait to landscape manually after startup AVD(Android virtual device) in windows, Linux, Mac. Android device By default each and every time android emulator starts with portrait mode by app developer can force manually to rotate android emulator and use like a tablet device. So here is the complete step by step tutorial for Rotate android emulator to landscape mode manually.

Android emulator landscape

Switching to landscape mode in Android Emulator, Try: ctrl + fn + F11 on Mac to change the landscape to portrait and vice versa. left-​ctrl + F11 on Windows 7. ctrl + F11 on Linux. For Mac users Android device provides us two different modes first one is Portrait mode, second one is landscape mode. By default each and every time android emulator starts with portrait mode by app developer can force manually to rotate android emulator and use like a tablet device.

How to rotate the Android emulator display, When I type Ctrl+F12 the screen goes to landscape, but the contents of the device doesn't, I'm using Ubuntu 14.10 and the The emulator is very unfriendly. HOWTO: Running Java programs directly on Android (without creating an app). To switch to Landscape mode in android emulator u have 2 ways to accomplish. 1> You can create a relative layout such that when you switch from one mode to other it will change accordingly. 2> You can create 2 separate XML file both the views and use it whenever required

Android Studio AVD rotates but not the contents : androiddev, How to Rotate android emulator to landscape mode manually. · For Windows : Press Left CTRL + F12 after starting android emulator. · For Linux, Change the emulator to landscape mode by rotating in Android Studio, Eclipse on windows, Linux, Mac OS. Android emulator by defaults starts with portrait mode same as our android mobile phones but some times developer want to change the android emulator screen orientation by moving portrait screen mode to landscape mode so here is the complete step by step tutorial for Change screen

Android emulator orientation locked

And how to make one of the Activity should be in portrait mode and all the other activities should be set at auto screen orientation? Here is a preview for the same: Steps for Locking Screen Orientation. Step 1: Create a New Project. To create a new project in Android Studio please refer to How to Create/Start a New Project in Android Studio.

Some apps have a nasty habit of ignoring your Android's auto-rotation settings and locking the display into either portrait or landscape orientation. When you open one of these apps, the screen goes into landscape view and you're forced to hold your phone differently. Conversely, other apps use portrait mode only, so you couldn't flip it sideways even if you wanted to (I'm looking at you

The screen on your Android device switches between portrait and landscape mode in response to the way you hold the device when you run certain apps. Some devices, such as Google Nexus devices, the home screen switches screen orientation automatically by default.

Auto rotate not working

My screen isn't rotating when I move my device onto its side , Discard a Third-Party App as the Culprit. Poorly coded apps are known to cause all types of problems. Locate the last app you installed before your Android Screen Auto-Rotation not working. The root cause of the problem may be due to the issue in software or there may be a problem with Device Drivers. Before trying these suggestions, make sure that

My Android Won't Auto-Rotate - What to Do, If the rotation is not working, you may need to change your device's Auto rotate If your screen is still not rotating, you can try restarting your phone or tablet. When it works, I have an active Rotation Lock icon. When auto rotate stops working, the icon is grayed out, or gone. Additionally, when auto rotate is working, Display Settings has a checkbox to enable auto rotate. But, when auto rotate is not working, there is no checkbox in settings to enable auto rotate. It just doesn't exist.

Screen does not rotate on Galaxy phone or tablet, Won't rotate when turning the phone on my pixel 2xl. I have restarted, the phone, turned auto rotate on and off through dashboard and settings. My auto rotate is working for apps most the time so I am not too worried going to try and transfer some data like videos and such to my computer so I can make space on the phone maybe that will assist it in functioning properly. At least that is my hope lol.

Android emulator change orientation

How do I change screen orientation in the Android emulator?, The little icon seems only shown when auto-rotate is turned off. After I turn on auto-rotate, the emulator changes orientation automatically. Change the emulator to landscape mode by rotating in Android Studio, Eclipse on windows, Linux, Mac OS. Android emulator by defaults starts with portrait mode same as our android mobile phones but some times developer want to change the android emulator screen orientation by moving portrait screen mode to landscape mode so here is the complete step by step tutorial for Change screen

Android Studio Emulator Download

How to configure android emulator to auto change orientation upon , In the updated emulator you don't have to remember the keyboard shortcuts -- they have added a side panel to the right side of the window. You can change the​ Android Emulator Shortcuts. Ctrl+F11 Switch layout orientation portrait/landscape backwards. Ctrl+F12 Switch layout orientation portrait/landscape forwards. 1. Main Device Keys. Home Home Button. F2 Left Softkey / Menu / Settings button (or Page up) Shift+f2 Right Softkey / Star button (or Page down) Esc Back Button. F3 Call/ dial Button. F4

How do I change screen orientation in the Android emulator , The emulator is very unfriendly. You have this bug, which can be worked around by using an older Android, or configuring a custom device. Then there's the bug Change emulator mode portrait to landscape manually after startup AVD(Android virtual device) in windows, Linux, Mac. Android device provides us two different modes first one is Portrait mode, second one is landscape mode.

Emulator Not Working In Android Studio Mac Torrent

Android emulator app doesn t rotate

Android, is disabled. Pull Down the drop-down of the mobile and enable it. It doesn't rotate for the home screen or any app or menu, etc. It appears to only do this for the Google APIs (Google Inc.) 2.3.3 API Level-10 AVD. The normal Android 2.3.3 seems to rotate as expected. Not sure if this is a bug or what. – Jake Wilson Sep 12 '11 at 22:06

Android Emulator Won't Turn On

Android Studio AVD rotates but not the contents : androiddev, I've found using the Nexus skinned tablets won't rotate, but a custom tablet will. So rather than choosing Nexus 5/7/9/10, choose a custom size and go from there. I It does have button to change device's orientation - i.e. internal state on what device thinks about it and will automatically turn screen accordingly, but it obviously doesn't help with apps that have fixed orientation. Is there any way to just rotate emulator window?

Android Emulator, android emulator landscape android emulator orientation locked auto rotate not working android emulator change orientation android emulator app doesn t Locate the last app you installed before your Android stopped rotating. If you can’t remember which apps you installed at that time, uninstall the ones that you think could be the culprit. Don’t worry about forgetting the name of those apps since I’ll show you later how you can easily recover them.

Android Studio Emulator Not Responding

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[entergamingxp]

Put a Conquest Mode in everything • Eurogamer.net

Conquest Modes, I truly believe, are the best thing to almost happen to video games. There was a weird, brief time when it looked like they might happen around 2005, seemingly off the back of a wave of appreciation for Total War, when they started popping up in everything from other RTS games to the original Star Wars Battlefront 2. But then – poof! – gone.

I would very much like them to come back. It’s taken me a while to realise but conquest modes are often the secret ingredient to some of my most beloved games, home to my most beloved pre-adolescent memories. Not to be confused with the tickets-and-control-points Conquest mode in Battlefield, which is fun but not what I’m on about, the conquest mode I’m talking about is where you get a big, often slightly silly layer over the top of the “actual” game itself, in the form of a map with regions or planets or whatever that you strategize over capturing, and fight over down on the real-time ground itself. A metagame, if we must use that word: a driving, continuous reason to keep playing the game, but essentially one that is also a game itself, as opposed to just a path of XP unlocks or a paid-for pass.

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A favourite of mine – if we’re excluding Total War, which is sort what you get if you make an entire series of conquest modes, where the mode itself is fleshed-out and maximised to its logical conclusion – is the one that came in the Dawn of War: Dark Crusade expansion, which frankly had no right to be so good. The story here, if you chose the Space Marines, is that you’ve landed on some xeno planet and just about every other intergalactic race (there are seven of them) just happens to show up as well. If you play as the Necrons, it’s a bunch of rowdy neighbours moving in and waking you up. If you’re the Tau then apparently you think this planet’s yours. Everyone’s here, basically. Orks! Imperial Guard! Chaos! More! For some time since, quoting the hyper-committed narrator’s “…and then the Eldar came!” has been a running joke with friends.

This is the joy of this stupid, brilliant mode. It does not need much thought or care, nor any great dedication to lore. It’s an abstracted, non-place all stars battle royale of whatever you feel like throwing in the mix, a playground game where Aragorn’s fighting Gandalf and nobody can butt in to tell you, actually, that Aragorn can’t beat Gandalf because Gandalf’s a Maiar and therefore can’t really die, never mind the fact they’d never be fighting anyway. In this mode, in this game I have just made up, Gandalf dies because I captured his base and beat him in a battle down on the ground, and you just have to get over it. Load up a new game and play it differently if you don’t like it. That’s the point.

In Dawn of War: Dark Crusade, different territories grant you bonuses like special ‘Honor Guard’ units or buildings. A grotesque amount of my time was spent here.

It’s apt, also, that it’s another Star Wars game that has me pining for conquest mode’s shlocky return. Squadrons, the new dogfighter from EA Motive, which looks ace – properly colourful and dramatic and, obviously, carrying on EA’s penchant for making their games look unnervingly close to the films – has just been shown off in a bit more detail. We’ve learned it has a single-player story on top of what I’m sure is the actual, long-term focus of the studio in its multiplayer, which we know lots of people will be very happy about. (And full VR! The six of you who keep talking about that in the comments must be delighted.) But! No conquest mode.

This is good news, in the sort of palatably grey and textureless way that Disney era Star Wars delivers good news. Star Wars: Squadrons sounds immaculately inoffensive. It’s focus testable and on-brand, it won’t contradict page 43 of the Big Book of Star Wars Lore someone has locked in a vault at the head office. It fits the apparent rule that Star Wars-ness is measurable by looking at buttons and trees and holding up a kind of authenticity ruler, and that as such all new Star Wars properties must begin with a period of concentrated existential crisis. What is Star Wars? Who is Star Wars? Is this Star Wars? Am I?

There’s another, much more boring and miserable argument here, that in consigning this wonderfully endless mode to history studios are missing a trick. That today’s world is one of engagement: continuing attachment to and interaction with a given platform, be that Netflix, or Fortnite, or Facebook – or your playtime in Game Pass freebies on the Xbox One. The word goes that a lot of people seem to have looked at the multiplayer giants of the past decade, that have so easily and indefinitely gobbled up the hours, and decided that pitting people against each other is the golden ticket to the infinite click – and that we must disagree. I do, in fairness. And Football Manager disagrees, sports and racing game career modes disagree, and above all strategy games disagree.

Star Wars: Battlefront 2’s Galactic Conquest mode was rudimentary, but that was part of the charm. Simple concepts and broad strokes – earn resources, spend on upgrades, repeat – can often morph into something brilliant.

A strategy layer – which is all conquest modes are: strategy lite – is a cheap and cheerful way to get people coming back forever. They’re an infinitely more relaxing way to play these kinds of games. It’s a shameless, “back in my day it was just sticks and mud we had to play with” point, all this, but I do think it’s also quite valid. The crux of multiplayer engagement remains frustration for me, rather than fun. The “one more game” mindset is famous across the competitive scene – I’ve certainly lived it out over a few thousand games of FIFA and LoL, and I am far from saying it’s all bad, too – but still, that fame should probably be infamy. The compulsion is driven by the desire for a rematch, to set the record straight, to end on a high. To live out the Monte-carlo fallacy that a losing streak will eventually lead back to a win. There’s a sour difference between one more game and one more turn.

But, like I said, that argument is miserable. Conquest modes are a guiltless pleasure, and that is what we should focus on. You turn them on, you squash some AI, min-max a few resources, squash some more AI and continue, painting the galactic map, colouring in the little corners, tidying up the frayed ends and scattered edges and getting everything in line. Innocent compulsion, proving the existence of satisfaction without tension. It’s a driving force to keep playing, and a means of injecting spirit and fantasy to fantasy worlds that are growing stale, without fear of consequence. With the conquest mode of old Battlefront 2, Star Wars could learn a thing or two from its own game – but so could lots of others. The point remains: Gandalf dies and you can just get over it.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/06/put-a-conquest-mode-in-everything-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=put-a-conquest-mode-in-everything-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

[jesusvasser]

McLaren Speedtail: In-Depth with the 1,036-HP Stunner

McLaren today is Usain Bolt in the drive phase, right as he comes out of the blocks, exerting every muscle and sinew to get up to speed. Head down, legs pumping, no distractions. Sports Series, Super Series, and Ultimate Series cars are arriving in an endless stream that is the byproduct of the furious work rate. 570S begets 600LT; brilliant, limited-run 675LT is usurped by a faster, more capable 720S; P1 morphs into P1 GTR; and then along comes the Senna. What next?

More. Faster. Lighter. Back in July, McLaren announced its Track 25 plan, a commitment to launch 18 new models or derivatives by 2025. You wonder when the company might start cruising, allow itself a little glance across to see how far ahead of the competition it has traveled.

Yet no matter how fast McLaren runs, no matter how many new products it develops and releases, the company still can’t outrun history. The F1, McLaren’s first road car, remains the supercar against which all others are measured. A few cars have gone faster since then (it was released in 1993, after all), and many can accelerate harder or go around a track quicker. But for purity of purpose, engineering ingenuity, elegance of execution, and raw excitement, the F1 is still king. So when McLaren revives the three-seater layout and central driving position, it better know what it’s doing. Understandably it doesn’t want us to think of its new Speedtail as an F1 replacement, but when you tap into that heritage, you must be prepared to measure up to the highest standards imaginable.

It doesn’t want us to think of it as an F1 replacement, but when you tap into that heritage, you must be prepared to measure up to the highest standards imaginable.

So what do you think, on a gut level? Forget the $2.62-million-plus-taxes asking price, the headline output of 1,036 hp, and the 250-mph top speed. Do you like it? The Speedtail has already divided opinions like few other cars. We attended the car’s official reveal in a rather unremarkable industrial unit just outside of Woking, England. And it looked amazing. As the silk was pulled from the carbon-fiber bodywork, the volume built slowly. Layer upon layer of chuckles, excited ooohhs and aaahhhs, little groups pointing out details to each other, and questions red hurriedly at Andy Palmer, vehicle line director for the Ultimate Series. Stand next to the Speedtail, walk around it, and you can’t help but fall under its spell.

The McLaren’s structure was modified to accommodate three seats. There’s more room than in an F1, and it’s easier to get to the hot seat.

Of course, in today’s hypercar hyper reality, individual opinions make little difference. All 106 Speedtails—a nod to the total number of F1s produced, but remember this is not an F1 replacement, revival, or re-creation, no siree—have been sold. Production starts in late 2019 with deliveries slated for early 2020. Around a third will come to the U.S. even though the car won’t be homologated for the North American market. Blame that central driving position, which makes side airbags for the driver impossible. Oh, and the retractable rearview cameras in place of traditional side mirrors. U.S. owners will import them and attempt to register them under Show or Display criteria.

Palmer is excited and exhausted. “It’s been a busy month,” he says before correcting himself. “It’s been a busy couple of years.” His job means he has one of the coolest business cards in the game to make up for the fact that he probably rarely sleeps more than 20 minutes at a time. He and his team defined the Speedtail’s goals and are now setting about delivering them.

McLaren’s chassis and powertrain modes are still activated by rotary switches, but they’re now on the ceiling.

“It was never a successor to the F1—that’s not what we set out to do,” Palmer says. “We knew with the central driving position that people would compare it, but that wasn’t our intent. We hold that car in such high regard. Every time I walk past it, every time I look at it, it sends shivers down my spine. The Speedtail is McLaren doing what McLaren�� modern McLaren—does very well: creating something that enables us to express our engineering, our design, our innovation, and allowing the great people we have to put their ideas forward. It enables us to show the world what we’re capable of.”

So let’s put the F1 stuff to one side for a second and examine what the Speedtail can do and what it says about McLaren. The basics are that it’s a three-seater “Hyper GT” car weighing 3,153 pounds (dry), and its teardrop, streamliner shape measures a huge 202.2 inches long (a Porsche Panamera is 198.9 inches). The maximum combined power output of 1,036 hp is produced by the familiar 4.0-liter twin- turbo V-8 found in the Senna (where it produces 789 hp; McLaren won’t reveal the exact output of the Speedtail’s V-8) plus an electric motor. Palmer says the way this hybrid system is deployed is all-new, but he remains frustratingly coy on details.

The Speedtail’s design has proved divisive but looks stunning in the carbon. Every detail helps lower drag coefficient.

“We’re using the system in a very different way to P1,” he explains, “which I feel is more in keeping with the Speedtail. It means the customer can use hybrid technology to give a very different form of driving experience to what’s in the market today.” For the record, there is no pure electric mode.

McLaren isn’t coy about its potential: 0 to 186 mph in 12.8 seconds and a top speed of 250 mph—once you select Velocity mode to drop the Active Chassis Control’s hydraulically linked dampers by 1.4 inches and retract those rearview cameras. Why so slow? Silly question, but the F1 did 240 mph with just 627 hp. The Speedtail is more aerodynamically efficient and uses elegant tricks like the movable rear carbon bodywork, which exes when pressure is applied by hydraulic motors, to trim the car’s balance. Surely 250 mph downplays the potential?

“We capped it at 250 mph on the tires,” Palmer says. “I’ve driven a car on the almost Kevlar-style tire that you’d need to go above [250], and you would not want to drive this car on those tires on a conventional road. It’s too harsh; the sidewall stiffness gets so hard that you’re rattling around.”

Room for three: The Speedtail’s brief is to be a “Hyper GT,” which means room for three adults and their luggage.

So how much will it differ from other McLarens? “I want the customer to jump in it and feel like they’re driving a McLaren,” Palmer begins, now really animated about his new baby. “What do I mean by that? I mean that it gives the level of feedback, the level of steering feel; it is still a grand tourer.”

Part of that is the way the Speedtail will sound.

“We’ve pushed the exhausts right into the rear diffuser, so you’re not going to get a level of volume of Senna or 720S,” he says. “We’ve lowered idle sound, and again I feel that the design statement is such that it doesn’t need a loud exhaust. It will still be a McLaren, but nevertheless I don’t want it to be a loud, popping, banging supercar. This has to be elegant.”

Beneath the skin, McLaren modified the Monocage tub (this is version four) to accommodate the central pedal box, and extended it slightly for the two passengers, but it retains the integrity we’re used to from the 720S and Senna; the engine is familiar, and we’ve seen hybridization in the past with the P1, too. What we haven’t seen is this level of luxury.

The details are stunning: electrochromic glass for the canopy and top of the windscreen that can darken at the touch of a button; “titanium deposition” carbon-fiber for the front splitter, diffuser, and side skirts (a micron-thin layer of titanium is fused onto the weave, which can be anodized or used to create images or symbols); and “thin-ply technology” carbon fiber that can be machined to a unique finish, to name a few. Nor have we seen this level of performance. Forget the top speed: 0 to 186 mph in 12.8 seconds is nearly 4 seconds quicker than a P1. The F1? It would need 22 seconds. Still, McLaren will probably never outrun the endless shadow of its tiny, perfect icon.

But boy, is it ever trying.

IFTTT

[eddiejpoplar]

McLaren Speedtail: In-Depth with the 1,036-HP Stunner

McLaren today is Usain Bolt in the drive phase, right as he comes out of the blocks, exerting every muscle and sinew to get up to speed. Head down, legs pumping, no distractions. Sports Series, Super Series, and Ultimate Series cars are arriving in an endless stream that is the byproduct of the furious work rate. 570S begets 600LT; brilliant, limited-run 675LT is usurped by a faster, more capable 720S; P1 morphs into P1 GTR; and then along comes the Senna. What next?

More. Faster. Lighter. Back in July, McLaren announced its Track 25 plan, a commitment to launch 18 new models or derivatives by 2025. You wonder when the company might start cruising, allow itself a little glance across to see how far ahead of the competition it has traveled.

Yet no matter how fast McLaren runs, no matter how many new products it develops and releases, the company still can’t outrun history. The F1, McLaren’s first road car, remains the supercar against which all others are measured. A few cars have gone faster since then (it was released in 1993, after all), and many can accelerate harder or go around a track quicker. But for purity of purpose, engineering ingenuity, elegance of execution, and raw excitement, the F1 is still king. So when McLaren revives the three-seater layout and central driving position, it better know what it’s doing. Understandably it doesn’t want us to think of its new Speedtail as an F1 replacement, but when you tap into that heritage, you must be prepared to measure up to the highest standards imaginable.

It doesn’t want us to think of it as an F1 replacement, but when you tap into that heritage, you must be prepared to measure up to the highest standards imaginable.

So what do you think, on a gut level? Forget the $2.62-million-plus-taxes asking price, the headline output of 1,036 hp, and the 250-mph top speed. Do you like it? The Speedtail has already divided opinions like few other cars. We attended the car’s official reveal in a rather unremarkable industrial unit just outside of Woking, England. And it looked amazing. As the silk was pulled from the carbon-fiber bodywork, the volume built slowly. Layer upon layer of chuckles, excited ooohhs and aaahhhs, little groups pointing out details to each other, and questions red hurriedly at Andy Palmer, vehicle line director for the Ultimate Series. Stand next to the Speedtail, walk around it, and you can’t help but fall under its spell.

The McLaren’s structure was modified to accommodate three seats. There’s more room than in an F1, and it’s easier to get to the hot seat.

Of course, in today’s hypercar hyper reality, individual opinions make little difference. All 106 Speedtails—a nod to the total number of F1s produced, but remember this is not an F1 replacement, revival, or re-creation, no siree—have been sold. Production starts in late 2019 with deliveries slated for early 2020. Around a third will come to the U.S. even though the car won’t be homologated for the North American market. Blame that central driving position, which makes side airbags for the driver impossible. Oh, and the retractable rearview cameras in place of traditional side mirrors. U.S. owners will import them and attempt to register them under Show or Display criteria.

Palmer is excited and exhausted. “It’s been a busy month,” he says before correcting himself. “It’s been a busy couple of years.” His job means he has one of the coolest business cards in the game to make up for the fact that he probably rarely sleeps more than 20 minutes at a time. He and his team defined the Speedtail’s goals and are now setting about delivering them.

McLaren’s chassis and powertrain modes are still activated by rotary switches, but they’re now on the ceiling.

“It was never a successor to the F1—that’s not what we set out to do,” Palmer says. “We knew with the central driving position that people would compare it, but that wasn’t our intent. We hold that car in such high regard. Every time I walk past it, every time I look at it, it sends shivers down my spine. The Speedtail is McLaren doing what McLaren— modern McLaren—does very well: creating something that enables us to express our engineering, our design, our innovation, and allowing the great people we have to put their ideas forward. It enables us to show the world what we’re capable of.”

So let’s put the F1 stuff to one side for a second and examine what the Speedtail can do and what it says about McLaren. The basics are that it’s a three-seater “Hyper GT” car weighing 3,153 pounds (dry), and its teardrop, streamliner shape measures a huge 202.2 inches long (a Porsche Panamera is 198.9 inches). The maximum combined power output of 1,036 hp is produced by the familiar 4.0-liter twin- turbo V-8 found in the Senna (where it produces 789 hp; McLaren won’t reveal the exact output of the Speedtail’s V-8) plus an electric motor. Palmer says the way this hybrid system is deployed is all-new, but he remains frustratingly coy on details.

The Speedtail’s design has proved divisive but looks stunning in the carbon. Every detail helps lower drag coefficient.

“We’re using the system in a very different way to P1,” he explains, “which I feel is more in keeping with the Speedtail. It means the customer can use hybrid technology to give a very different form of driving experience to what’s in the market today.” For the record, there is no pure electric mode.

McLaren isn’t coy about its potential: 0 to 186 mph in 12.8 seconds and a top speed of 250 mph—once you select Velocity mode to drop the Active Chassis Control’s hydraulically linked dampers by 1.4 inches and retract those rearview cameras. Why so slow? Silly question, but the F1 did 240 mph with just 627 hp. The Speedtail is more aerodynamically efficient and uses elegant tricks like the movable rear carbon bodywork, which exes when pressure is applied by hydraulic motors, to trim the car’s balance. Surely 250 mph downplays the potential?

“We capped it at 250 mph on the tires,” Palmer says. “I’ve driven a car on the almost Kevlar-style tire that you’d need to go above [250], and you would not want to drive this car on those tires on a conventional road. It’s too harsh; the sidewall stiffness gets so hard that you’re rattling around.”

Room for three: The Speedtail’s brief is to be a “Hyper GT,” which means room for three adults and their luggage.

So how much will it differ from other McLarens? “I want the customer to jump in it and feel like they’re driving a McLaren,” Palmer begins, now really animated about his new baby. “What do I mean by that? I mean that it gives the level of feedback, the level of steering feel; it is still a grand tourer.”

Part of that is the way the Speedtail will sound.

“We’ve pushed the exhausts right into the rear diffuser, so you’re not going to get a level of volume of Senna or 720S,” he says. “We’ve lowered idle sound, and again I feel that the design statement is such that it doesn’t need a loud exhaust. It will still be a McLaren, but nevertheless I don’t want it to be a loud, popping, banging supercar. This has to be elegant.”

Beneath the skin, McLaren modified the Monocage tub (this is version four) to accommodate the central pedal box, and extended it slightly for the two passengers, but it retains the integrity we’re used to from the 720S and Senna; the engine is familiar, and we’ve seen hybridization in the past with the P1, too. What we haven’t seen is this level of luxury.

The details are stunning: electrochromic glass for the canopy and top of the windscreen that can darken at the touch of a button; “titanium deposition” carbon-fiber for the front splitter, diffuser, and side skirts (a micron-thin layer of titanium is fused onto the weave, which can be anodized or used to create images or symbols); and “thin-ply technology” carbon fiber that can be machined to a unique finish, to name a few. Nor have we seen this level of performance. Forget the top speed: 0 to 186 mph in 12.8 seconds is nearly 4 seconds quicker than a P1. The F1? It would need 22 seconds. Still, McLaren will probably never outrun the endless shadow of its tiny, perfect icon.

But boy, is it ever trying.

IFTTT

[jonathanbelloblog]

McLaren Speedtail: In-Depth with the 1,036-HP Stunner

McLaren today is Usain Bolt in the drive phase, right as he comes out of the blocks, exerting every muscle and sinew to get up to speed. Head down, legs pumping, no distractions. Sports Series, Super Series, and Ultimate Series cars are arriving in an endless stream that is the byproduct of the furious work rate. 570S begets 600LT; brilliant, limited-run 675LT is usurped by a faster, more capable 720S; P1 morphs into P1 GTR; and then along comes the Senna. What next?

More. Faster. Lighter. Back in July, McLaren announced its Track 25 plan, a commitment to launch 18 new models or derivatives by 2025. You wonder when the company might start cruising, allow itself a little glance across to see how far ahead of the competition it has traveled.

Yet no matter how fast McLaren runs, no matter how many new products it develops and releases, the company still can’t outrun history. The F1, McLaren’s first road car, remains the supercar against which all others are measured. A few cars have gone faster since then (it was released in 1993, after all), and many can accelerate harder or go around a track quicker. But for purity of purpose, engineering ingenuity, elegance of execution, and raw excitement, the F1 is still king. So when McLaren revives the three-seater layout and central driving position, it better know what it’s doing. Understandably it doesn’t want us to think of its new Speedtail as an F1 replacement, but when you tap into that heritage, you must be prepared to measure up to the highest standards imaginable.

It doesn’t want us to think of it as an F1 replacement, but when you tap into that heritage, you must be prepared to measure up to the highest standards imaginable.

So what do you think, on a gut level? Forget the $2.62-million-plus-taxes asking price, the headline output of 1,036 hp, and the 250-mph top speed. Do you like it? The Speedtail has already divided opinions like few other cars. We attended the car’s official reveal in a rather unremarkable industrial unit just outside of Woking, England. And it looked amazing. As the silk was pulled from the carbon-fiber bodywork, the volume built slowly. Layer upon layer of chuckles, excited ooohhs and aaahhhs, little groups pointing out details to each other, and questions red hurriedly at Andy Palmer, vehicle line director for the Ultimate Series. Stand next to the Speedtail, walk around it, and you can’t help but fall under its spell.

The McLaren’s structure was modified to accommodate three seats. There’s more room than in an F1, and it’s easier to get to the hot seat.

Of course, in today’s hypercar hyper reality, individual opinions make little difference. All 106 Speedtails—a nod to the total number of F1s produced, but remember this is not an F1 replacement, revival, or re-creation, no siree—have been sold. Production starts in late 2019 with deliveries slated for early 2020. Around a third will come to the U.S. even though the car won’t be homologated for the North American market. Blame that central driving position, which makes side airbags for the driver impossible. Oh, and the retractable rearview cameras in place of traditional side mirrors. U.S. owners will import them and attempt to register them under Show or Display criteria.

Palmer is excited and exhausted. “It’s been a busy month,” he says before correcting himself. “It’s been a busy couple of years.” His job means he has one of the coolest business cards in the game to make up for the fact that he probably rarely sleeps more than 20 minutes at a time. He and his team defined the Speedtail’s goals and are now setting about delivering them.

McLaren’s chassis and powertrain modes are still activated by rotary switches, but they’re now on the ceiling.

“It was never a successor to the F1—that’s not what we set out to do,” Palmer says. “We knew with the central driving position that people would compare it, but that wasn’t our intent. We hold that car in such high regard. Every time I walk past it, every time I look at it, it sends shivers down my spine. The Speedtail is McLaren doing what McLaren— modern McLaren—does very well: creating something that enables us to express our engineering, our design, our innovation, and allowing the great people we have to put their ideas forward. It enables us to show the world what we’re capable of.”

So let’s put the F1 stuff to one side for a second and examine what the Speedtail can do and what it says about McLaren. The basics are that it’s a three-seater “Hyper GT” car weighing 3,153 pounds (dry), and its teardrop, streamliner shape measures a huge 202.2 inches long (a Porsche Panamera is 198.9 inches). The maximum combined power output of 1,036 hp is produced by the familiar 4.0-liter twin- turbo V-8 found in the Senna (where it produces 789 hp; McLaren won’t reveal the exact output of the Speedtail’s V-8) plus an electric motor. Palmer says the way this hybrid system is deployed is all-new, but he remains frustratingly coy on details.

The Speedtail’s design has proved divisive but looks stunning in the carbon. Every detail helps lower drag coefficient.

“We’re using the system in a very different way to P1,” he explains, “which I feel is more in keeping with the Speedtail. It means the customer can use hybrid technology to give a very different form of driving experience to what’s in the market today.” For the record, there is no pure electric mode.

McLaren isn’t coy about its potential: 0 to 186 mph in 12.8 seconds and a top speed of 250 mph—once you select Velocity mode to drop the Active Chassis Control’s hydraulically linked dampers by 1.4 inches and retract those rearview cameras. Why so slow? Silly question, but the F1 did 240 mph with just 627 hp. The Speedtail is more aerodynamically efficient and uses elegant tricks like the movable rear carbon bodywork, which exes when pressure is applied by hydraulic motors, to trim the car’s balance. Surely 250 mph downplays the potential?

“We capped it at 250 mph on the tires,” Palmer says. “I’ve driven a car on the almost Kevlar-style tire that you’d need to go above [250], and you would not want to drive this car on those tires on a conventional road. It’s too harsh; the sidewall stiffness gets so hard that you’re rattling around.”

Room for three: The Speedtail’s brief is to be a “Hyper GT,” which means room for three adults and their luggage.

So how much will it differ from other McLarens? “I want the customer to jump in it and feel like they’re driving a McLaren,” Palmer begins, now really animated about his new baby. “What do I mean by that? I mean that it gives the level of feedback, the level of steering feel; it is still a grand tourer.”

Part of that is the way the Speedtail will sound.

“We’ve pushed the exhausts right into the rear diffuser, so you’re not going to get a level of volume of Senna or 720S,” he says. “We’ve lowered idle sound, and again I feel that the design statement is such that it doesn’t need a loud exhaust. It will still be a McLaren, but nevertheless I don’t want it to be a loud, popping, banging supercar. This has to be elegant.”

Beneath the skin, McLaren modified the Monocage tub (this is version four) to accommodate the central pedal box, and extended it slightly for the two passengers, but it retains the integrity we’re used to from the 720S and Senna; the engine is familiar, and we’ve seen hybridization in the past with the P1, too. What we haven’t seen is this level of luxury.

The details are stunning: electrochromic glass for the canopy and top of the windscreen that can darken at the touch of a button; “titanium deposition” carbon-fiber for the front splitter, diffuser, and side skirts (a micron-thin layer of titanium is fused onto the weave, which can be anodized or used to create images or symbols); and “thin-ply technology” carbon fiber that can be machined to a unique finish, to name a few. Nor have we seen this level of performance. Forget the top speed: 0 to 186 mph in 12.8 seconds is nearly 4 seconds quicker than a P1. The F1? It would need 22 seconds. Still, McLaren will probably never outrun the endless shadow of its tiny, perfect icon.

But boy, is it ever trying.

IFTTT

[victoriagloverstuff]

On Writing a Short Story: 'Everything is Always Happening, All the Time.'

The first time I met Jamel Brinkley, he made a remark so sharp and so true that I let out a loose holler of laughter in an alleyway. He had delivered the observation with such wry politeness that there could be no defense against it. When I opened his debut collection, A Lucky Man, I encountered that same quiet compassion and keen eye for detail. Jamel attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and received a prestigious creative writing fellowship from Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing. A Lucky Man has been on almost every Most Anticipated and Must Read List for the summer, and it’s easy to see why.

Brandon Taylor: In the opening story of this collection, “No More Than a Bubble,” we encounter a familiar scene: two young men at a house party scoping out two women. But what follows is one of the most uncomfortable stories I’ve ever read. And in later stories, there seems to be a common motif of characters encountering the most uncomfortable incarnation of their desires and wishes. Can you talk a little bit about how you court and shape discomfort both for your characters and for the reader?

Jamel Brinkley: It might be true that discomfort is one of my own primary modes of experience. So much of living has been about discomfort for me. Maybe discomfort is related to vulnerability and sensitivity, and maybe for me it’s one of the most effective ways by which a person or character can be presented with the opportunity to grow or change, or at least have their settled notions of themselves pierced to open up a space (a wound?) for self-reflection. I’m deeply suspicious of the idea that people or characters can suddenly undergo deep and genuine change, or that radical change and true epiphanies are common, but I am completely faithful to the idea that there are moments when we can be profoundly shaken.

It’s a cliché in fiction to have a dog barking in the distance, but what happens when that dog actually shows up? What happens when harmless potentialities peel themselves from the inert background, become fully animate and dimensional, and intrude on our mental and physical space? Naomie, one of the girls in ‘No More Than a Bubble,’” says, “There’s always more to what you want than what you wanted,” and generally speaking I think she’s right. What characters desire, and what we as readers desire for the characters, can be so simple and solid, but what they actually get as a result of their pursuit is complicated, unstable, and fluid, especially when those desires involve other characters and their desires and complexity. Or, what you want might be difficult or impossible to name, but it hears you calling it anyway, and it answers with full, unavoidable force.

BT: This collection contains quite a few longer short stories, which to me feel like a different breed of story. It’s not quite novella length but its maybe a little longer than the typical short story (whatever that is). What are your thoughts on the long short story?

JB: I used to teach high school English, and sometimes students would grouse about how hyper-interpretive English teachers are. It seemed silly to some of them that we could seemingly find symbolic meaning in even the most banal detail and that we were seemingly encouraging them to do the same thing. Being good at English class, some of them felt, meant being good at finding (bullshitting?) symbols at every turn. Of course their characterization of literary instruction was an exaggerated one, but I bring it up for a reason. Sometimes very tightly compressed stories can feel as though they are offering themselves up a little too easily and earnestly for symbol-hunting and other analysis of that kind. Or maybe what I’m saying is that my own unsuccessful attempts to write shorter stories have felt that way. They feel airless to me, and each sentence feels merely (and so embarrassingly) instrumental, as though it has been written in color-coded neon ink, to be read through a megaphone.

“Everything is always happening at the same time, and that truth about time is what makes life dense, confounding, rich, and haunting.”

Since a number of my stories are journeys, a greater length helps me engage and take advantage of the interesting possibilities inherent to that shape, such as detours and random encounters. Longer stories also enable me to play with time in ways that aren’t strictly limited to a vivid, central present story and a gray, subordinate back story. I like that “minor” characters are granted more room to emerge. I like that I can slow down the pace and find layers to explore. Longer stories demand the particular kinds of shapeliness and tension you find in shorter stories, but I like that they permit me to include some of the lifelike “untidiness” one is more likely to find in a novel.

BT: The way that you handle time in these stories is so complex and so delicate that at times, I found myself gasping. Short stories are often defined as the moment in a character’s life that causes that life to change. And I think what you demonstrate so deftly in these stories is how that moment is really a summation of moments. In your stories, everything is always happening at the same time. Can you talk a bit about your approach and your thoughts on time?

JB: There’s a kind of dummy version of the short story that I find myself writing against. So, for example, a short story has to take place on “the day that is different.” Well, yes, sometimes, but that model, hardened into a rule or a law, contains a theory of time, one which can mislead you into thinking that everything prior to that day is less important than or subordinate to that day. The past is permitted only insofar as it feeds into the present or “real” story. But my experience has been that the past can be as (or more!) alive, seething, persistent, and forceful than whatever is going on in the present. I’m drawn to writers, like Edward P. Jones and Alice Munro, whose stories convey the past just as vividly as the present. I’m drawn to writers, like William Trevor and Yiyun Li, who aren’t afraid to write “aftermath” stories, in which the most overtly dramatic thing has already taken place and the present story is set in its wake. I think you’re exactly right: everything is always happening at the same time, and that truth about time is what makes life dense, confounding, rich, and haunting.

BT: You’ve already spoken at great length in other interviews about the themes of masculinity that recur in this collection, but something I’m still quite curious about is the role of intimacy in these stories. We see again and again, the men in these stories trying to connect with each other and with the women in their lives who occupy an array of complicated roles. It seemed to me that collection was not interested in masculinity writ large so much as the ways in which masculinity made intimacy more difficult to achieve or maintain. Can you talk about intimacy and how you see or don’t see it operating in these stories?

JB: I want to thank you for this question. One fear I’ve had, as I’ve watched the collection emerge and find readers, is that its various concerns are being simplified and pigeonholed, stamped with the singular thematic label of masculinity. Of course that theme is in the air presently, as we engage in an important and necessary critique of toxic masculinity, and on a surface level, with male protagonists in every story, my book lends itself to that thematic labeling. But I never consciously set out to write a book about masculinity. I never began any of the stories thinking, This will be about masculinity. You’re right to point to intimacy as a concern. Vulnerability, loneliness, and privacy as well. The kinds of things that shape friendships, romantic/sexual relationships, and families. Those things feel more primary to me as felt experiences, closer to the nerves. Masculinity feels more conceptual, or it feels like it is itself made up of things that are more primary or granular, if that makes sense. To go at masculinity head-on, for me at least, would be a mistake.

But, yes, to answer your question more directly, I do think intimacy, and our confusions about intimacy, are at the heart of these stories. The ways in which we confuse intimacy and sex. The ways in which attraction might be operative in supposedly heterosexual male friendships. The ways in which the space of intimacy can feel like a violation or also become a space of potential or actual violence, especially in the case of siblings. The things people will do or accept out of desperation for intimacy. These kinds of questions are fascinating to me. I realize that, in the interest of exploring them, I like putting my characters in physical spaces that draw or force them close together.

BT: The collection also seems interested in the permutations of loss and the permutations of family, often within a single story. A family seems like a kind of ideal unit for a writer to try out different modes and effects of loss. What are your feelings about the domestic space and what are the questions you’re most drawn to regarding families in your fiction?

JB: Families and domestic spaces are great for the kind of fiction I’m interested in writing. Domestic spaces, especially the kinds of small, cramped apartments that poor and working class urban families tend to occupy, force people together in ways that court some of the elements we’ve been talking about, discomfort, intimacy, and privacy (or the lack thereof) among them. I also like that families tend to come with webs of obligation already loaded in. Desires multiply because there are multiple people, and duty can energize or make active a character who otherwise doesn’t want (to do) much of anything at all.

In terms of ideology or desire, families can be powerful because there is such a prominent and idealized notion of what a family is supposed to look like. The whole idea of the white, well-off, heterosexual nuclear family that is marketed to us. Any deviation from that ideal family can feel like a massive loss or lack. So part of why Ben is so angry in “No More Than a Bubble” is that his family has been broken. The missing father is a haunting presence in “J’ouvert, 1996.” Notions of what a real family and real home are supposed to look like have a powerful grip on Freddy and his imagination in “I Happy Am.” And so on. I’m interested in how people construct families, in life and in their own minds, out of a deep desire for them, but also, and often at the same time, how people resist and rebel against such a collectivity. I’m also interested in how families act as a profound kind of training ground for what it means to be human, and what happens when the way we’ve been trained comes into contact with entirely different notions of what it means to be alive.

BT: Finally, I’d like to know about the other forms and genres that inform your work. And the writers and artists who keep you fed, in an artistic or spiritual sense.

JB: Music and poetry definitely inform my work. Someone recently pointed out—I wasn’t aware of this—that music or dance appears in almost every story in the collection. Maybe that’s not profound or unusual, but the collection does name or allude to specific musicians: Ol’ Dirty Bastard, The Fugees/Lauryn Hill, Willie Colón, James Brown, Ray Charles, Antônio Carlos Jobim, T-Bone Walker, Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, Bunny Wailer, Burning Spear, The Abyssinians, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, and Donny Hathaway (multiple times!). These names give a pretty good indication of the kinds of music that inform my work and feed me, but yikes is that list male! In real life my playlist has way more women.

Good read found on the Lithub

[joannemaly]

The Zhiyun Crane – How Does It Stack Up?

The convergence of photography and video has never been closer than it is today. Virtually any camera marketed towards enthusiasts and professionals is expected to have some form of video functionality.

The combination of large high-quality sensors and fast lenses has created a revolution in the way we produce video. No longer are we restricted to expensive broadcast quality camcorders. We can create cinematic video with pretty much any DLSR or Mirrorless camera on the market.

One of the biggest issues with this, however, is a fundamental difference in the way photographers and filmmakers capture their images. As photographers, we can handhold our cameras to capture high-quality images. However, hand holding to shoot video mostly ends in shaky, jittery footage with “jello-cam”

To get stable footage we needed video tripods. To get smooth movement we needed steady-cams or sliders. Both cumbersome to use.

In the last year or so, however, there has emerged a new type of handheld stabilizer, the three axis, brushless motor gimbal. I have recently bought one for myself, the Zhiyun Crane and this is my initial impressions.

Since initially writing this article, my original Zhiyun Crane has had a motor failure rendering it unusable. However, a combination of good service from my supplier, https://zadeshevo.com.ua/, and Zhiyun’s own customer service led to mine being replaced with the updated Zhiyun Crane v2

What Is A Gimbal?

Gimbals allow us to mount our DSLR/Mirrorless cameras on a handheld rig. The rig allows full movement in all three planes, horizontal, vertical and pan. By using powerful motors and attitude sensors, the gimbal will hold the camera extremely stable in the direction you point it, smoothing out much of your body movement.

The Zhiyun Crane is one of a number of these gimbals to hit the market. It is designed for Mirrorless cameras, but could conceivably carry a lighter DSLR model too.

The Zhiyun Crane V2 with my Fuji XT2 attached

Setting Up The Gimbal.

The gimbal comes in a very sturdy plastic case. Inside there is the gimbal itself, the battery pack which doubles as the handle, and rechargeable batteries good enough for 12 hours of use and a charger. There is also a user manual, but I found that for setting it up, the Zhiyun videos – and others on YouTube – provided a better visual reference.

The first thing to do once the batteries are charged is to balance your camera. At first, this might seem complicated, but with practice it will become second nature.

The balance of the camera will change every time you change the lens but Zhiyun have made this tool-less so it is a matter of loosening thumb screws and making the adjustment. The best policy for this is to use a tripod to mount the camera – the Crane has a tripod thread under the handle. Of course the point of having a gimbal is to avoid tripods but it is possible to balance by hand, however another option is to buy something like a lightweight mini tripod such as this Cullman.

I use this Cullman mini tripod to balance the Crane and for use in the field.

Balancing takes place in all three planes, starting with the tilt, then the roll and finally the pan. If you like to shoot with your screen out to the side, make sure you balance it this way. Even the relatively light weight of the screen will unbalance the gimbal.

Using The Gimbal

Once balanced, you switch on by pressing a small button for a couple of seconds. It is a weird feeling when the motors kick in, the camera suddenly locks into place. As you move your hands or body the camera remains locked straight in front of you. On the front – or back – of the handle is a small joystick. This allows you to electronically pan or tilt the camera for very smooth movements.

It is usable either hand held or tripod mounted. Pressing this joystick allows you to cycle between the three gimbal modes.

The gimbal controls are simple but effective

The first mode is Locking Mode. This locks all three axis so that whatever you do, the camera will face the direction originally set. The second mode is Pan Following. In this mode tilt and roll are locked but you can move the camera in the pan axis by twisting the gimbal handle. Lastly is Pan and Tilt Following Mode. This mode locks on the roll axis and the tilt and pan will follow you movements on the gimbal.

Finding the right mode for the job is a matter of practise and experimentation. From my first efforts I have found about 20% of my clips were useable. This is mainly down to my inexperience using a gimbal. With subsequent research and practice clips, my videos are becoming smoother and much more cinematic.

One very useful technique to learn is the “gimbal or ninja walk” Looking rather like something from Monty Pythons’s Ministry of Silly Walks, it is in fact a very good way to get smooth movement when walking or even running with the gimbal.

Another consideration to factor in when using a gimbal is focus. It is not recommended to attempt focus while shooting as this will obviously unbalance the gimbal. Techniques you can use include preset focus, autofocus or using a deep depth of field.

The Zhiyun Crane does not come with a quick release system as such. To enable me to remove the camera quickly from the gimbal I bought a quick release base and plate. The advantage of this is that so long as you do not change lenses, the gimbal should remain in balance when you put the camera back on.

The Slik quick release base and plate that I use attached to the gimbal.

From a purely photographic point of view, the Crane can potentially be used as a replacement for a tripod. It certainly allows you to shoot slower shutter speeds than hand held – although you need to use some sort of remote trigger to avoid touching the camera on the gimbal. When mounted on a mini tripod you can go even slower but only to a certain point. Then the constant slight adjustments of the gimbal axis will eventually introduce motion blur.

Two practical uses for photographers are for hyper-lapse sequences and time-lapse. The app supplied for the Crane includes a motion control section. This allows you to set a start and end point and time and will move the camera slowly over that time. In practice there is too much movement between individual frames to make motion time-lapse viable. Hand held hyper-lapses however are much more achievable.

I am excited by the possibilities. With practice I feel that the Crane will bring an extra dimension to my video shooting, with the possibilities of cinematic style movement. With the price being not much more than a good video tripod and head, its flexibility opens new creative possibilities.

If you shoot purely photographs, there is little benefit from buying a crane. However if you like to shoot motion and stills from the same camera, a gimbal such as the Crane can be a worthwhile investment.

[Read More ...] The Zhiyun Crane – How Does It Stack Up? was originally posted by proton T2a

[latestbycloud-blog]

"Why the hellfire does this mouse need to associate with the Internet?" Razer requests that clients enact gaming mice on the web, hullabaloo follows.

In this hyper-associated, organized world, numerous a greater amount of our gadgets are getting connected to the cloud, regardless of whether we need them to or not. That is now and again great, and in some cases terrible, so when an essential gadget like a mouse requires a client to go on the web and set up a record to initiate the greater part of its usefulness, individuals are naturally going to inquire as to why?

We've seen truly terrible usage of cloud network for gadgets that essentially needn't bother with it. Witness Cisco's "Associate Cloud" program that swapped the customary administration interface for remote switches with a cloud-associated one that was less helpful and contained some strange hostile to porn and against robbery terms of administration. Clients dissented in what we believe was a totally advocated resistance, and Cisco rapidly retreated to hide any hint of failure face.

Presently we have another section in the adventure of "Why the hellfire does this thing need to interface with the Internet?" For this situation, the organization on the less than desirable end of the backfire may not so much merit it, however hasn't made an extraordinary showing with regards to maintaining a strategic distance from perplexity among clients.

It would be ideal if you actuate your mouse

The subject is Synapse 2.0, a "cloud-based bound together driver for gamers" offered by Razer that spares gaming inclinations web based, including the client characterized settings and setup of gaming mice. This gives gamers a chance to sign in from anyplace on the planet, or change to another mouse and play with their own settings in place. The actuation server for Synapse 2.0 went down two or three times as of late because of Hurricane Sandy and some server use spikes that the framework couldn't deal with. That is pertinent in light of the fact that a hubbub against this administration assembling this week appears to have begun from a discussion post by a client who obtained a Razer Naga gaming mouse, and clearly attempted to set it up amid one of the blackouts. The client composes:

This truly shocked me. Just purchased another Naga 2012 mouse, introduced the product and get welcomed by a login screen directly after. No alternative to sidestep it to utilize the product to arrange the mouse, set the choices, affectability, easy routes, macros and so on.

So I simply ahead and make a record and attempt to sign in. Nothing. Attempt a few more circumstances, and as yet nothing. Attempt to make new records with various email locations regardless it wont work.

At long last call Razer who discloses to me the actuation server is down, and I wont have the capacity to utilize the mouse until it backpedals up and might have the capacity to utilize it as a standard fitting and play mouse til then. I get some information about a workaround to utilize the mouse disconnected and they say there is none. Evidently once the mouse is initiated on the PC disconnected mode will work, yet it needs to transfer my profile and actuate my record first and since their server is down it won't occur. I request a boss to affirm this is the situation and approach again for a workaround to utilize it disconnected. He said sorry theres nothing they can do, discloses to me the call focus is shutting and hangs down on me.

Im truly stunned Razer thought it was a smart thought to do this to clients. No place on the container does it say anything in regards to requiring an Internet association with "enact" a mouse. In the event that the servers go down later on, any individual who purchases this mouse is stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Truly the last time I purchase a Razer item. Completely silly.

While the client's post recognizes the mouse works out-of-the-crate, without an Internet association, it goes ahead to state that best in class usefulness gamers rely on is not accessible without one:

Razer compels you to make a record with them before you can utilize the product with the mouse. You can't arrange the mouse in any capacity until you make a record with them and initiate your PC and record through their server. … Yes, you can utilize the mouse as fitting and play with essential usefulness in the event that you pick not to make a record and initiate your PC, yet who pays $80 for a fundamental attachment and play mouse? The reason individuals purchase the Naga 2012 is the configurable catches and to change the DPI, surveying rate, set up macros and profiles alongside everything else. Razer has no privilege to bolt this far from clients who paid for these components. For the Naga 2012 mouse, there is no other disconnected drivers to return to. Neural connection 2.0 is your lone choice.

The client's post prompted an assortment of objections about Razer blocking usefulness and driving "dependably on information mining" and DRM plans onto its clients. The grumblings might be exaggerated, however in any event Razer hasn't made a decent showing with regards to advising gamers about the contrasts between Synapse 1.0 and Synapse 2.0.

Spare your settings in the cloud

Razer's Synapse 2.0 FAQ could be perused to recommend that a Synapse 2.0 record is required to make macros and key ties. "All Razer items work as fitting and play gadgets," the FAQ states. "Razer Synapse 2.0 offers an administration well beyond fundamental usefulness to upgrade your Razer item's abilities. This incorporates highlights like arranging and sparing macros, key ties, and inclination settings. Razer Synapse 2.0 likewise keeps up your gadgets in ideal condition via consequently refreshing and downloading driver and firmware refreshes, notwithstanding its cloud-synchronizing capacity. Razer Synapse 2.0 is not obligatory programming to get your Razer peripherals working—however it is prudent in the event that you need to get the best out of them."

In any case, advance explanations by Razer because of the debate propose that Synapse 2.0 is required just to sync settings crosswise over gadgets, not for making the settings in any case.

Razer Creative Director Min-Liang Tan tended to the discussion in a long Facebook post yesterday, and our old companion Ben Kuchera of Penny Arcade announces the commotion a storm in a tea kettle. Subsequent to exploring the matter, Kuchera finished up "You just need to go online once to enlist the item, the organization asserts no data is being gathered, disconnected mode is accessible once you make a record, and in the event that you need to sidestep this insanity you can simply adhere to a prior rendition of the Synapse programming or not utilize Razer's drivers by any means. Be that as it may, DRM? Spyware? That doesn't look likely."

The Synapse 2.0 enrollment page requests first and last name, telephone number, email, and road address. Regardless of the possibility that you never make a Synapse 2.0 record, you can at present arrange a Razer mouse, it appears. "For the DeathAdder [a gaming mouse], for instance, you can at present program your catches, yet you need to do it through the diversion or Windows, not through the driver," a Razer agent disclosed to Penny Arcade. "A few changes would should be made through the driver on a few mice or by means of a switch on other mice."

While I don't have one of these mice to test it out for myself, Tan writes in his Facebook post that the usefulness requiring a Synapse 2.0 record is for the most part to sync settings on the web, not for making the settings. There is a special case that could restrict a gamer's usefulness, however, in that the Synapse 2.0 drivers are important to match up keymappings amongst mice and consoles. This is what Tan says:

Our items work superbly out of the case. Not at all like DRM recreations or other media that require a dependably on association, you can utilize any of our peripherals ideal out of the container, regardless of the possibility that somebody doesn't introduce Synapse 2.0, and whether a client is disconnected or on the web.

Neurotransmitter 2.0 accommodates extra usefulness as distributed storage for settings, between gadget correspondences, and so forth. Once enlisted, Synapse 2.0 gives extra usefulness of practically boundless memory in the cloud. It does likewise with mapping physical capacities, managing heap alternatives for a variety of utilizations. The measure of data required to enroll the item is negligible. Once more, we make a scope of items that, to some degree or another, advantage from cloud-based usefulness, however it is not a prerequisite for our items to work. There are awesome gamers out there that don't frequently utilize Synapse 2.0, which addresses the inalienable nature of our items.

Tan goes ahead to state that once a mouse is enrolled with Razer's servers, the majority of the Synapse 2.0 usefulness can be utilized disconnected, with settings put away locally as opposed to being synchronized to the cloud. Be that as it may, Tan recognized Razer needs to take "ventures to clear up the circumstance." For a certain something, Razer now wants to make Synapse 1.0 drivers and other heritage drivers accessible in the blink of an eye on its bolster webpage, in spite of the fact that this lone applies to "appropriate inheritance items." Razer will likewise include what Tan called a "manual disconnected mode" giving clients a chance to keep their mice disconnected notwithstanding when their PCs are associated with the Internet.

Right now, clients need to check a setting to enable the mouse to enter disconnected mode when the Internet association goes down. "As of now, Synapse 2.0 works flawlessly amongst on the web and disconnected mode, and is unpretentious to the client," Tan composed. "In the event that an Internet association goes down and if the client has empowered disconnected mode by checking the "stay signed in" box, Synapse 2.0 consequently goes into disconnected mode."

More disconnected mode, please

There may not be much to stress over in this specific case. Be that as it may, it's difficult to consider the matter completely settled, as Tan's illustrative post brings up a few issues. For example, he says, Razer is pushing toward distributed storage since "we understood that as firmware, profiles, macros and different settings put away in locally available memory turned out to be more mind boggling, more memory space was required."

While Synapse 2.0 in its present shape works disconnected once you've made a record, Tan's announcement recommends a conviction that mice are very nearly increasing more propelled usefulness that can't be conveyed without access to distributed storage. In any case, if the settings can be put away in the cloud, why can't a client who inclines toward not to have a record at all simply store them on their PC? Indeed, even today, if Synapse 2.0