I started playing this game a while ago with one of my friends, but we haven't been able to co-ordinate a time to play lately. Even when we do schedule a time, something comes up and foils the plan. Sigh. We'll work it out eventually I guess. We've gotten to the 3-x stage where you are gunning down motorcycle Majinis from the jeep.
Anyways, about the game - it's a lot of fun. Kind of hectic with the number of zombies (Here, the zombies are people controlled by a baseball-sized bio-weapon parasite called the Las Plagas, rather than a virus.) and they rush you, unlike the older RE games I'd played on the Playstation way long ago.
I don't want to get too far ahead of my partner, so I've been playing the already-completed portions of the game casually. I set it on amateur mode where I can blaze away at the zombies with the guns and not really worry about ammo.
I read a few FAQs and they say that if you upgrade the Skorpion SMG fully and finish the game, it will unlock a minigun for Chris Redfield that has unlimited ammo. Sounds pretty fun. Similarly, if you upgrade the Sako Rifle all the way when you finish, you unlock a bow for Sheva Alomar. I wonder how much damage they do?
When you play with a CPU partner, the AI can really vary in response. Computer-Sheva can nail a zombie that is a speck on a cliff when in attack mode using the rifle. However there are times where there is a zombie right in front of you, and she does nothing with pistol nor rifle. (until you are grabbed and chewed on)
It was really annoying in the low light stage underground. If you take the light, Sheva goes stupid while something is coming after you. Its better if she takes the light, but you have to be a decent shot in the dark for some of those foes. It seems every 2nd foe in those tunnels turns into a Las Plagas spinning nightmare, so annoying.
I could see myself in the harder difficulty setting, trying to just run past it all instead of shooting it.
Maybe it isn't such a good idea to have maxed out the critical ratings on all the guns? The critical rating is a chance to blow their head off, which I think means that the Las Plagas might pop out and take over, and you have to kill the foe a second time. That is a bother since the critical upgrades were not cheap.
I guess I'll try upgrading a piercing or other weapon next.
Upsen.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
IO stagnation
I changed some of the plans for Tenmos, my tank.
Gave up on finding Ragnarok IOs and went for a set of Positron's Blast instead. For right cheap too - I spent about 50 million on all 5 of them. I still want the Eradications and the last Obliteration, even though the tank seems to be surviving everything. Except maybe a Mission Architect killer-deathtrap that Mira Moonshadow made from my Renaissance de la Veritas SG. I did last until the rest of the SG team were almost back from the hospital though.
I've been playing a Dark Melee/Shields scrapper and it's at L40 pretty easily. Put together a few decent IOs for him too, to try and cap up the defenses, but I've decided against trying to super-IO him. Its just too time consuming.
Also made a Peacebringer Nova which is about L18.
Tank IO list:
* 1 x Miracle: Heal/EndRdx (40) forget about it.
(have a placeholder Mira H/E/R right now)
* 1 x Reactive Armor: ResDam/EndRdx (40) forget about it.
(placeholder low level version)
* 1 x Apocalypse: Dmg/Rchg (50)
* 1 x Apocalypse: Acc/Dmg/Rchg (50)
* 1 x Apocalypse: Acc/Rchg (50)
* 1 x Apocalypse: Dmg/EndRdx (50)
* 1 x Apocalypse: Dam% (50)
* 1 x Eradication: Dmg (30)
* 1 x Eradication: Acc/Rchg (30)
* 1 x Eradication: Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg (30)
* 1 x Eradication: %Dam (30)
* 1 x Obliteration: Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg (50)
Gave up on finding Ragnarok IOs and went for a set of Positron's Blast instead. For right cheap too - I spent about 50 million on all 5 of them. I still want the Eradications and the last Obliteration, even though the tank seems to be surviving everything. Except maybe a Mission Architect killer-deathtrap that Mira Moonshadow made from my Renaissance de la Veritas SG. I did last until the rest of the SG team were almost back from the hospital though.
I've been playing a Dark Melee/Shields scrapper and it's at L40 pretty easily. Put together a few decent IOs for him too, to try and cap up the defenses, but I've decided against trying to super-IO him. Its just too time consuming.
Also made a Peacebringer Nova which is about L18.
Tank IO list:
* 1 x Miracle: Heal/EndRdx (40) forget about it.
(have a placeholder Mira H/E/R right now)
* 1 x Reactive Armor: ResDam/EndRdx (40) forget about it.
(placeholder low level version)
* 1 x Apocalypse: Dmg/Rchg (50)
* 1 x Apocalypse: Acc/Dmg/Rchg (50)
* 1 x Apocalypse: Acc/Rchg (50)
* 1 x Apocalypse: Dmg/EndRdx (50)
* 1 x Apocalypse: Dam% (50)
* 1 x Eradication: Dmg (30)
* 1 x Eradication: Acc/Rchg (30)
* 1 x Eradication: Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg (30)
* 1 x Eradication: %Dam (30)
* 1 x Obliteration: Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg (50)
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
My Brute - RAWRS
http://upsen-downs.mybrute.com
Just a little time waster flash game that I thought was interesting. Automated melee fights in an arena, create a little warrior and let it bash away. I get some points if you try it :D
Upsen.
Sound Blaster Audigy static crackling and popping
Well, I put in a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value edition I had lying around, and now I remember who I took it out and tossed it aside. It crackles and pops incessantly, whether or not anything is playing.
Back when I took it out, it was when I upgraded from WinXP to Vista (or was it Win2k to WinXP?) I dont even remember any more. But whichever it was, it was working fine before, and then cracking and popping after the software change.
Basically the drivers for the newer OS were broken or something.
When I went back to the older OS, it would work all right (good thing for multiple hard drives eh) But when your buy a new OS and want to USE it, some sacrifices had to be made.
Especially when you have an onboard sound card that works fine in either OS. Sure it isn't as high quality sound as the Sound Blaster, but the onboard sound was working while the SB sounded like a record player with a worn out needle.
Anyways, it happened long ago enough that I'd forgotten about it, since I could still get working audio even without fussing over an old SB sound card.
So, now that my onboard sound's jack is messed up, and the Soundblaster is still crackling and popping, I decided to poke around and see what other people have the problem, and perhaps find if there was ever a fix for it. Google search provided a ton of links when I searched for "Sound Blaster crackle crackling" showing it was an extremely common issue with the Audigy and X-Fi lineups.
As I understand it, Creative says that these cards can't handle the PCI buffer delays introduced by certain motherboards, making it a hardware issue. (what happens when you haven't changed any hardware like in my situation?) Even if it was a latency issue that is related to how the OS decides to allocate resources, you'd figure that the company would release fixed drivers, right? But there is a lot of conspiracy theory style talk about how Creative doesn't want to support these older products in order to sell it's newer products. Its a shame if that's true.
So, I found some alternative drivers that people say seem to eliminate the crackle problem, written or modded by Daniel Kawakami. They havent seemed to help me much but I had a hell of a time trying to get the newer official drivers uninstalled. Maybe something didn't work out. I'll try uninstalling and reinstalling the software again later - SB drivers take forever to install.
Back when I took it out, it was when I upgraded from WinXP to Vista (or was it Win2k to WinXP?) I dont even remember any more. But whichever it was, it was working fine before, and then cracking and popping after the software change.
Basically the drivers for the newer OS were broken or something.
When I went back to the older OS, it would work all right (good thing for multiple hard drives eh) But when your buy a new OS and want to USE it, some sacrifices had to be made.
Especially when you have an onboard sound card that works fine in either OS. Sure it isn't as high quality sound as the Sound Blaster, but the onboard sound was working while the SB sounded like a record player with a worn out needle.
Anyways, it happened long ago enough that I'd forgotten about it, since I could still get working audio even without fussing over an old SB sound card.
So, now that my onboard sound's jack is messed up, and the Soundblaster is still crackling and popping, I decided to poke around and see what other people have the problem, and perhaps find if there was ever a fix for it. Google search provided a ton of links when I searched for "Sound Blaster crackle crackling" showing it was an extremely common issue with the Audigy and X-Fi lineups.
As I understand it, Creative says that these cards can't handle the PCI buffer delays introduced by certain motherboards, making it a hardware issue. (what happens when you haven't changed any hardware like in my situation?) Even if it was a latency issue that is related to how the OS decides to allocate resources, you'd figure that the company would release fixed drivers, right? But there is a lot of conspiracy theory style talk about how Creative doesn't want to support these older products in order to sell it's newer products. Its a shame if that's true.
So, I found some alternative drivers that people say seem to eliminate the crackle problem, written or modded by Daniel Kawakami. They havent seemed to help me much but I had a hell of a time trying to get the newer official drivers uninstalled. Maybe something didn't work out. I'll try uninstalling and reinstalling the software again later - SB drivers take forever to install.
I did find a work-around late last night though. (or so I thought) I tried the Audigy's digital out port with my stereo jack-to-rca jack adapter, and found the R-audio could deliver digital audio that my stereo's co-axial audio would accept. With no static even! I was happy, why didn't I think of using digital audio to eliminate something that sounded like analog static? (well cause it always failed before) However that was short lived, as when I turned it on this morning, the crackle was back in all its glory, on a digital audio connection. I don't get it.
Maybe I should splice some jacks onto my Logitech USB audio headset's cable and split the sound to headphone and to the stereo. Then I could go office space on this stupid Sound Blaster and smash it.
Someone slap me if I ever buy Sound Blaster again.
Upsen.
Maybe I should splice some jacks onto my Logitech USB audio headset's cable and split the sound to headphone and to the stereo. Then I could go office space on this stupid Sound Blaster and smash it.
Someone slap me if I ever buy Sound Blaster again.
Upsen.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Oil PC Completed
I've been a bit busy at work so I haven't posted the results of my Mineral Oil PC - its worked, and I haven't seen any wicking yet. Though, I have the oil at a level where the interfaces are just above the oil. This was about 7 gallons plus a bit from the 8th jug.
Here I have the tank set up with all the parts inside - this actually took a while, since I had to figure out how to arrange the cables in a way that I could use them, and not have it running criss-crossed all over the place like in a closed case pc. I sort of regret going with such a tall fish tank. I suppose at some point I should try and locate some long cables like the ones they use in those clear-case modified PCs. Then maybe I can plug in the DVD drive again. I'll have to network off another DVD drive for now if I need it, which is rare in any case.
I almost gashed my arm putting these things in place - gotta be careful...
Rear view showing the vidcard
I filled it to a point where the oil is just covering the bottom of the interfaces on the back of the board. The computer turned on with no problem. The pump was a different story, it refused to pump oil through the radiator until I cleared all the air from the tubes. That was a bit of effort since it required me to basically suck the air out by mouth, without getting a mouthful of oil. The rubber tubing smell was pretty gross already, so I tried to just get a mouthful of air at a time as if it were a drink through a straw, without getting any in my lungs. It also changed the level of mineral oil in the tank, so I had to top it off again.
Checking the fans, the CPU fan was turning, but the video card fan and power supply fan ran only intermittently - on a bit, off a bit, as if the oil was too thick and had triggered a safety stop mechanism. I turned up the speed of the vidcard fan from 30% to 100% using NTune software and and that solved it. Though I have to do it in software every time I'm powering up - I wonder how I set the fan speed to 100% permanently? The power supply fan I haven't found a way to modify, blah.
---
The PC has run like this for about a week or so now. I haven't kept it on continuously, only when I'm using it. The video card runs at 50 degrees instead of 80 degrees now. The motherboard is still running at it's 30ish degrees that it usually runs at.
The system is a LOT quieter now - the pump's muted hum is the only sound. I did submerge the pump under the oil to help keep it quiet, so it's not in exactly the same spot as you see in the pictures above.
I put a chassis fan in front of the radiator the other day, to help with cooling - the chassis fan runs silently, though it looks kind of silly. I wish I had a desk fan or something bigger, that ran at a quiet, slow speed. The only ones I have sound like an airplane taking off. Maybe I'll get a potentiometer or something and modify it to run slowly and quietly. I only want to have a quiet breeze on the radiator otherwise what is the point of this whole project? :P
The only bad thing that's come out of this is that the built in sound card stopped working. I didn't actually find out till last night, since I'd been just using my USB headset. I think there is something messed up about the line out stereo jack. The software works, the drivers are fine, the meters indicate operation, and even the cables and stereo are okay when I hook up it up to something other than the computer. I messed around with the SPDIF in/out ports and tried to plug it into my digital inputs on my stereo, but I couldn't get it to work. I may have to try a seperate sound card. :P Yeesh.
Anyways, more later when I figure out how to tidy up the cable mess on top of the tank.
Upsen.
Here I have the tank set up with all the parts inside - this actually took a while, since I had to figure out how to arrange the cables in a way that I could use them, and not have it running criss-crossed all over the place like in a closed case pc. I sort of regret going with such a tall fish tank. I suppose at some point I should try and locate some long cables like the ones they use in those clear-case modified PCs. Then maybe I can plug in the DVD drive again. I'll have to network off another DVD drive for now if I need it, which is rare in any case.
I almost gashed my arm putting these things in place - gotta be careful...
Rear view showing the vidcard
I filled it to a point where the oil is just covering the bottom of the interfaces on the back of the board. The computer turned on with no problem. The pump was a different story, it refused to pump oil through the radiator until I cleared all the air from the tubes. That was a bit of effort since it required me to basically suck the air out by mouth, without getting a mouthful of oil. The rubber tubing smell was pretty gross already, so I tried to just get a mouthful of air at a time as if it were a drink through a straw, without getting any in my lungs. It also changed the level of mineral oil in the tank, so I had to top it off again.
Checking the fans, the CPU fan was turning, but the video card fan and power supply fan ran only intermittently - on a bit, off a bit, as if the oil was too thick and had triggered a safety stop mechanism. I turned up the speed of the vidcard fan from 30% to 100% using NTune software and and that solved it. Though I have to do it in software every time I'm powering up - I wonder how I set the fan speed to 100% permanently? The power supply fan I haven't found a way to modify, blah.
---
The PC has run like this for about a week or so now. I haven't kept it on continuously, only when I'm using it. The video card runs at 50 degrees instead of 80 degrees now. The motherboard is still running at it's 30ish degrees that it usually runs at.
The system is a LOT quieter now - the pump's muted hum is the only sound. I did submerge the pump under the oil to help keep it quiet, so it's not in exactly the same spot as you see in the pictures above.
I put a chassis fan in front of the radiator the other day, to help with cooling - the chassis fan runs silently, though it looks kind of silly. I wish I had a desk fan or something bigger, that ran at a quiet, slow speed. The only ones I have sound like an airplane taking off. Maybe I'll get a potentiometer or something and modify it to run slowly and quietly. I only want to have a quiet breeze on the radiator otherwise what is the point of this whole project? :P
The only bad thing that's come out of this is that the built in sound card stopped working. I didn't actually find out till last night, since I'd been just using my USB headset. I think there is something messed up about the line out stereo jack. The software works, the drivers are fine, the meters indicate operation, and even the cables and stereo are okay when I hook up it up to something other than the computer. I messed around with the SPDIF in/out ports and tried to plug it into my digital inputs on my stereo, but I couldn't get it to work. I may have to try a seperate sound card. :P Yeesh.
Anyways, more later when I figure out how to tidy up the cable mess on top of the tank.
Upsen.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Setting up for an Oil Cooled PC
After reading about some of these projects online, I figured it would be a nice little project to get going myself. My PC runs so hot that I can't shut the case cover on it, without it soon crashing. It's also a noisy bugger and collects enough dust to warrant a cleaning every few months.
Here it is, sitting with it's insides hanging out. Notice the chassis fan pointing at the video card? Yes, it is needed when I run important 3d applications like City of Heroes.
I figured that getting the parts over a period of time would soften the impact of the costs, so I've been occassionally buying a part here and a part there for the past 4 months. I am still a couple pieces short, but I am almost done. Basically there are 4 important things:
The computer I have. I bought a transmission radiator from Canadian Tire for the cooling, and you can see it as the black grid in the picture above. The container wasn't too hard, I just had to find a fish tank of a shape, size and price that I was happy with. It turned out to be a 10 gallon tank that is almost the same footprint as a computer case. Taller for sure though.
The hardest part seemed to be locating the mineral oil.
Mineral oil is sold several ways. It's sold as a laxative or enema at pharmacies in 250/500ml bottles and at the veterinarian's in larger amounts. Higher quality versions are sold industrially as napthenic electrical transformer oil by the barrel or truckload (yeesh), and as laboratory supplies from lab suppliers at like $10 per 5ml. In the end, I got a pharmacy to supply me with 8 1-gallon (~4 Litre) jugs of the stuff. 8 Gallons is worth about $300 Canadian, at retail price. I managed to get it wholesale, which was a lucky break for me. Though, the pharmacist must think I'm either really constipated or really perverted.
I disassembled the computer on a large cloth sheet - there was a ton of dust that I had to scrub off lightly with a toothbrush. I thought about using an air can, but I didn't have one around and besides it would have sent dust flying everywhere in the house.
After assembling it, I had to test it out to be sure it still works. So far so good. You'll see in the picture below that I stripped the plastic case off the video card. I dont think that the fan will push enough oil through the card to cool things properly.
Anyways, all that I have left to buy is something to line the bottom of the fish tank with, and perhaps something more to support the motherboard frame. Also, a way to cap off the fish tank that I can rest a hard drive or two on. Once I have that, the oil is going in.
I wonder if I have to worry about oil wicking out of the tank through the cables? I might have to mount a power bar and internet router above the tank to keep it dry, but I'll find out when I get to that stage.
Upsen.
Here it is, sitting with it's insides hanging out. Notice the chassis fan pointing at the video card? Yes, it is needed when I run important 3d applications like City of Heroes.
I figured that getting the parts over a period of time would soften the impact of the costs, so I've been occassionally buying a part here and a part there for the past 4 months. I am still a couple pieces short, but I am almost done. Basically there are 4 important things:
- the computer to submerge
- a cooling system
- mineral oil
- a container to hold it all in.
The computer I have. I bought a transmission radiator from Canadian Tire for the cooling, and you can see it as the black grid in the picture above. The container wasn't too hard, I just had to find a fish tank of a shape, size and price that I was happy with. It turned out to be a 10 gallon tank that is almost the same footprint as a computer case. Taller for sure though.
The hardest part seemed to be locating the mineral oil.
Mineral oil is sold several ways. It's sold as a laxative or enema at pharmacies in 250/500ml bottles and at the veterinarian's in larger amounts. Higher quality versions are sold industrially as napthenic electrical transformer oil by the barrel or truckload (yeesh), and as laboratory supplies from lab suppliers at like $10 per 5ml. In the end, I got a pharmacy to supply me with 8 1-gallon (~4 Litre) jugs of the stuff. 8 Gallons is worth about $300 Canadian, at retail price. I managed to get it wholesale, which was a lucky break for me. Though, the pharmacist must think I'm either really constipated or really perverted.
I disassembled the computer on a large cloth sheet - there was a ton of dust that I had to scrub off lightly with a toothbrush. I thought about using an air can, but I didn't have one around and besides it would have sent dust flying everywhere in the house.
After assembling it, I had to test it out to be sure it still works. So far so good. You'll see in the picture below that I stripped the plastic case off the video card. I dont think that the fan will push enough oil through the card to cool things properly.
Anyways, all that I have left to buy is something to line the bottom of the fish tank with, and perhaps something more to support the motherboard frame. Also, a way to cap off the fish tank that I can rest a hard drive or two on. Once I have that, the oil is going in.
I wonder if I have to worry about oil wicking out of the tank through the cables? I might have to mount a power bar and internet router above the tank to keep it dry, but I'll find out when I get to that stage.
Upsen.
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