Emerald rocks

Seems like every time there’s a new release of Emerald there’s always something cool they added to it, but they don’t really document those new things very well. Sure they have a change log, but it’s long and tedious to read and a lot of it is esoteric stuff I have no idea what the fuck they are talking about. So if you haven’t been following their changelog since they started development on this project, you’ll be clueless of other features that may not be so apparent in the interface.

One “Feature” i just learned today was if you double click a name on the radar, your camera will instantly snap over to them, if they are in range.  FOOKING AWESOME!  But I don’t know if this is a new function added in since I started using Emerald this past summer, or something that has been in it since early on.

But then there are the frivolous new features like breast physics, which I have no use for since I wear prim boobs (though it will give booby physics to all avatars), but there’s always one douche bag who has to complain about adding “features” and not working on bugs, lag an all those “important issues.”

This reminds me of an pet peeve I’ve had for years since I’ve been beta testing games and software.  Just because a small group (or even just one person) is working on a feature or function of an application that some people may deem useless, doesn’t mean the development team as a whole is being distracted from the so-called “important issues,” and those issues aren’t getting the attention they need to get them resolved as soon as possible. That’s bullshit.

This isn’t an RTS game, like War Craft, Star Craft, Total Annihilation, or SupCom where the more workers/engineers you have building or repairing a unit, the faster it is built or repaired.  Real life doesn’t work that way.  If you dedicate more people to work on a problem; that won’t guarantee the problem will be fixed any more faster, and thusly if you take away some people to work on something else won’t hurt the over all progress.

Now there IS the risk that when you add new features/functions into an application that’s already buggy, that can exacerbate the problems it already has.  But we live in an age where software development is on such a grand scale like a movie production costing millions of dollars just to produce a days worth of work, it’s impossible to avoid problems that arise when you have so many ppl working on the same project.  Ever heard of the old saying of “too many cooks in the kitchen spoil (or ruin) the soup?”

This “too many cooks…” analogy is status quo in all aspect of productions, TV, movies, video games, even books; especially government too. Mainly so that when something goes wrong, which almost always does, no one can blame a single person for the failure, so the whole group are failures, or that the shit rolls down hill for the blame.

Back in the 80s, most software wasn’t created by huge teams of professionals who each spent four years in collage/universities for their creativity to get sucked out of them and produce mundane software and games (cough-Microsoft-cough). Back then it was done by individuals who mostly created awesome works given the limitations of computers back then.  Now we have extremely advanced computers compared to 20 years ago, but now 20 times more people working as developers to create uninspired contrived unoriginal games like, for example Halo. And continue this mundane-ness umpteen times with squeals, or “prequels” just to make it seem “cool” ever since George Lucas did it 10 years ago with Star Wars. >sigh<

But I digress, I wanted to talk about bugs and requests I have for Emerald Viewer.

Bugs:

• Logins ALWAYS fail the first time you try, claiming it’s a bad login/password. If you log out, and then launch the viewer again and login with a different avatar, it ALWAYS fails. Including if you just installed Windows, and a fresh copy of Emerald viewer for the first time, and you login, it will fail that first attempt, always.  Has something to do with how it handles multiple accounts with a drop down menu, but I’m just used to manually typing in my login and password.
• Double clicking on objects in inventory to “wear” doesn’t always work, and brings up their properties. (this may have been fixed since the new release)
• The built-in AO is a cumbersome to use when you need to turn it on and off, or load up a different set of animations.  I’m considering going BACK to using the ZHAO-II HUD attachment, but I love the concept of the VIEWER having these nessessary functions and not relying on SLS that simply adds more load to the simulator and grid over all.
• At start up, after it shows the “splash screen” and it goes away, there’s a very significant delay between that and when the login screen appears.
• The sitting AO [checkmark] often comes back on on it’s own, after re-logging.
• While on the login screen (before you login), often the random in-game screenshot doesn’t appear. That’s not a big deal really, but the links on the screen do not work, until the the image appears.  Which isn’t a good thing since I often DO want to click the link to see LL blog posts, and Emerald Blog posts that seem important (like down times, updates, and other issues)

What I want in Emerald Viewer:

• Sculpted flexi prims (a la CoolViewer)
• The new shadow rendering engine that’s been seen in different viewers.
• Double clicking on a group in your groups list, activates that group, instead of starting a group chat.
• When an object “speaks” in local chat, you can click on it to see who it belongs too.  It either shows the users profile (if worn) or a smaller dialog with a SLURL, and a button to mute the USER.  Why isn’t there an option to mute the OBJECT?
• Support for wild cards mutes (for objects) so I can specify *xcite* and it will mute every spammy xcite product on the grid (assuming the owner didn’t rename it).
• Full mute function so I won’t get *anything* from that user.  No inventory exchanges, no script pop-up menus, no IMs, no ANYTHING.  Hopefully this will thwart grifers.
• If a user installs the “optimized” verison of Emerald Viewer onto an older PC that won’t work on it, it should give a message STATING SO when the user tries to run the app.  As of right now, it just doesn’t do ANYTHING when you double click the Emerald icon to run the viewer.  No error message, no anything.  Would also be nice if you guys had a “compatibility” list for the optimized version.
• External (floating) Local Chat/IM window.  IM windows that appear as separate window(s) so you can drag your IMs outside of the viwer, or minimize the Viewer, and still have your IM window open for chat (also great for dual monitor users!)
• 64bit Windows, and Linux versions, assuming there would be any benefit to it.
• Speaking of Linux; how about a .deb installer please!

How NOT to be a noob

This is a quick list of things noobs tend to do, so try NOT to do them!

1. Avis who wear underwear under their penis. It looks like a STRAP ON like that!
2. People who try to edit their penis longer and end up making it float off their body
3. People with a “solar system” of facelights around their head.
4. Over-acting roleplayers who narrate every non-sexual mundane thing they do
5. Female avatars that are just TOO DAMN TALL!
6. Groups that hand out VIP roles to EVERYONE, and the idiots who join then compulsively.
7. Total strangers who send friend requests w/o greeting me or even saying hi.
8. Girls who wear prim boobs with the pointy ends up to their collar bones, looking like they are wearing a baby’s bib!
9. People who have their hair set to Glow, or Full-Bright
10. Prim finger nails. You’ll look like Wolverine when your hand goes into a fist.
11. People who try to insult me, or argue with me when they barely speak English.
12. People who ask me “R U a Shemale?” when I’m standing there butt-nekkid with my big boobies exposed, cock hang out and a “shemale” group role in my name above my head.
13. People who still have the default avatar face on their hot avi body shape
14. People who are too infatuated with me; they try TOO HARD to be friends, and just come off  as creepy, clingy, and annoying. They think can get a “Free Fuck” if we become friends. Don’t bother.
15. People I barely know who just spontaneously start to roleplay in IM, and say they are being friendly
16. People who have obvious fake RL pics when you can see the web address in the corner
17. People who SCREAM in their profiles “NO MEN!” are probably men themselves in RL.
18. Nude beaches/resorts when no one is nude.
19. Spammy penises (and other addons) that fill the screen with meaningless sexting that no one reads
20. People who use English translators, when they are already chatting in English.
21. Users who wear text floaters over their heads that  redundantly shows their name.
22. People who TYPE IN ALL CAPS. Sign of the douche bag.
23. Avatars who are well over 2 years old but still look and act like noobs!

Yet another Red Ring of DEATH

RROD

Just as I got GH Van Halen, my 360 died AGAIN!  I had the game playing idle looping  songs while I messed around on the net.  I heard the song stop (playing Panama!) I was thinking… oh shit not again!  Restarted it, and got nothing. Not even the red rings at first.  But after disconnecting everything (HDD, MU, Ethernet) and power it back on a couple more times, I saw the the three flashing Red Rings (top right not blinking) meaning the hardware is faulty… again.

Amazing the last time I had a problem with it was the DVD drive broke down exactly two years ago tomorrow (Wednesday October 7th.)  They replaced the DVD drive and sent me back the same unit, so technically this unit lasted for over 2½ years without RRoDing.  Three times before that I had RRoD’s and they sent me a different 360 each time (swapping my Premium model with the Chrome detail on the DVD tray, for a dull looking Core unit). This will be the FIFTH time I’ve had to ship my 360 in for repair.

RRoD’s are still a FREE repair (and free shipping), and I just filled out the online forms at xbox.com. It was painless; so printed out the UPS shipping label and taped it to shipping box my LAST 360 came in two years ago.  Thank gawd I kept the old shipping box, and packing materials with the “bumpers.”  They will likely repair and send me back the same 360 unit, but I hope they send me a NEWER 360 that has an HDMI port. From what I understand those newer units don’t RRoD fail as often since they figured out what the defect was.

Guitar Hero: Van Halen

Yes it came today. The only really disappointing thing about it is it didn’t come in a normal plastic green DVD jewel case like all Xbox games come in.  It had no manual, just a thin cardboard sleeve which at least has the unique code on the back so I can export the songs if I wanted.  It also had two fliers advertising the other Guitar Hero games that are coming out soon.

The game it self seems to be based off of Guitar Hero Metalica, with OUT all the with the extra features and function thgat GH5 has.  It doesn’t have the ability to “join in” at any time, or have up to four players playing the same instrument.  As per-usual, these band-specific Guitar Hero titles includes songs from different artists, and a lot of them I’ve already played in different music games. >sigh<

Also included was a small letter thanking me for purchasing Guitar Hero 5.  At the bottom of the letter shows the “founder” of guitar hero as “Kai Huang.” Sorry I don’t buy that claim. From my understanding, the people behind Rock Band were the original creators of Guitar Hero 1, 2, and Rocks the 80s, before Activision bought up Red Octane, and dropped the Guitar Hero franchise on Neversoft’s lap when they were doing their umpteenth Tony Hawk game. Harmonix was then acquired by MTV, and Rock Band was soon born.

So while I don’t know the exact history and the names behind these music games (other than the fact that Konami invented music rhythm games, including a three-button guitar YEARS before Guitar Hero came out for the PS2) I’m sure this statement of Kai being the “Founder” might be true.  But history is a funny thing, and can be re-written to mean anything one wishes; you just have to be in the position to do so.