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Showing posts from September, 2021

POVRay Animation

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 I made a rather silly post on Twitter because I discovered the POVRay bot. POVRay is a 3D raytracing engine I have been struggling to use ever since the last DOS version. I uploaded this GIF which is a sine wave plotted by tiny spheres. I have posted the POVRay code on a separate page just in case some one would actually like to see it. Some of it is commented out because I rather obviously poached a scene file from the examples. 

Lost in Random

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  Sometimes games I wouldn't normally purchase just appear on the PS4. That's the fun thing about a shared console. And I have to at least try them just because they are there. I enjoyed this one enough to finish it and even upload a couple of videos. Everything about this game is clever from the artwork to the game play, story, characters and dialogue. At it's core it is live action gwent or whatever similiar card game you fancy. The story revolves around a socially stratified realm called Random made up of six separated regions. Random is ruled by a mad queen who determines everyone's fate with the roll of a dice. It's like central planning was just Stalin sitting at a craps table. A robotic army keeps the enslaved citizenry in their place. Our protagonist, a little girl named Even, travels through the six districts seeking her sister Odd who has been taken by the evil queen. Even's companion is a vocal albeit incomprehensible animated die she calls Dicey. And

Dragon Age Inquisition - A Little Guide

 I wrote this for a family member a couple of years ago and forgot completely about it. I just forwarded it to another new Inquistor so might as well post it as well.   I thought I would send you some tips for playing Dragon Age. Some of these aren’t relevant until later in the game but helpful to know. Levelling: Your companions are never more than one level behind you. As I mentioned killings enemies 4 levels or more below you no longer grants XP. The game automatically raises base health rating and any attributes relevant to character class as you level. If you look at the attributes tab in the character menu you’ll see that there is a ton of them. These stats can only be directly affected through passive abilities and equipment attributes. I will get to the stupidly complicated crafting system later. The inquisition levels too through power and influence. Influence is harder to raise than power. Requisition quests help but they consume resources so it’s a trade off. Abiliti

My Tawdry Crusader Kings

 I bought some new games on Steam to try out on the new 'puter one of which is Crusader Kings 3. Before I begin this cry baby tale, I want to say that I've never played a Crusader Kings title before and I am very impressed with this one. I am also impressed with the nvme ssd that I installed. It's not necessary but definitely a benefit for this challenging game. I left CK3 still trying to master the tutorial. I tip my hat to this title's brutal learning curve. It should be called "The Curse of Unanticipated Consequences" or in my specific case, "Medieval Wedding Planner". I wasted a lot of time making my very first player character become soul mates with his wife. What does a girl do when her liege is her soul mate? She does an incest with the primary heir that's what. I tried to cover it up because the other options seemed kind of bad and who needs piety anyway? Well yeah I eventually learned that in Christian kingdoms piety counts for a lot. Wh

Watch Dogs Legion DLC

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 Quite some time ago I mentioned WDL's Bloodline DLC. I have been too embarrassed to admit that I was stuck on Wrench's second last side mission. It's like one of those Spyro the Dragon challenges except with jackasses. You know like the ones where Spyro has to fly through rings. Wrench has to pilot three different vehicles through arches and it's timed. I kept failing on the last one with a drone. I wouldn't mind doing it over and over were it not for those slow PS4 loading screens. The drone is piloted differently so you can't learn anything from the first two courses other than the characters' snarky dialogue. I got fed up rather quickly and went back RDR2.  WDL just released some new content. While checking that out I went back and finally finished off Bloodline. To celebrate I recorded another dopey video. I have enjoyed the new content. It was nice to get some back story on Aiden. Wrench injected some missing WD2 goofiness. Ubisoft made a couple of odd