Eastfist

The Real Shape Of The Globe

The Real Shape of The Globe
By Chongchen Saelee

Most depictions of the globe is an oversimplification, a mapping projection made by cartographers so it is easier to read and navigate.

But the actual physical earth is not a perfect sphere. If anything was a perfect sphere, it would be the Earth’s atmoshphere. Everything else is irregular. So to map the physical land to a perfect sphere is inaccurate.

So if you were to fly a literal straight path from point-to-point, there would be no curve like how some animations depict it. You would actually travel faster and shorter distances.

Had to revert back to Qt 4.8.5 but it works nonetheless. The video is choppy because I’m screencapturing the video as it’s running, but on my quadcore it runs at steady 60 fps. On duo-core it runs a steady 20 to 40 fps, so it really depends on your hardware, or I just need to optimize it more. But check out pure 3D in Qt and c++, no third-party dependency on OpenGL or DirectX!

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/160928-five-dimensional-glass-memory-can-store-360tb-per-disc-rugged-enough-to-outlive-the-human-race

As cool as it sounds, I think it hasn’t caught on because it’s too fragile. Imagine, according to the article, that entire 360 Terabytes of data GONE because you’re dog knocked it off the desk, or you were getting your hanky panky on and sat on it, or something more stupid.

That’s why USB sticks caught on because consumers are idiots and prone to accidents, and USB sticks are TOUGH little buggers.

Whatever new media storage technology comes out next, it’s going to have to be flexible and indestructable, but at the same time also capable of storing a lot of data. It might look something like plastic tape.

Because, if my understanding is correct, modern access to digital storage is always via electricity. It’s all about having that electrical charge or not, the universal and tried-and-true “binary” data structure. Unless you can control black holes and store data at 3D coordinates in time-space, you’ll only be able to store data on something material or utilizing nano-technology.

By Chongchen Saelee

http://youtu.be/RFoSwc3w0PA

I wonder if you’re getting spooked by how advanced this technology is. What possible good can come of this? I already know that it’s dead in the water when it comes to “live performances”. No one wants to go watch a big screen. They want REAL PERFORMERS doing real music. Otherwise, they can go watch a movie.

The technology is so advanced, if my understanding is correct, that they video feed can be broadcast in real-time with a body double and have the face tracked onto the moving double with no problem. That’s scary stuff.

It makes me wonder which countries our governments are going to use this to dupe. Who are they planning on assassinating? Who are they planning on ressurrecting and impersonating?

Jesus F. Christ. It’s advancing and it’s advancing FAST. Who knows? Maybe by the time Avatar sequels come out, it’ll be blase.

Check out the IMPRESSIVE teaser trailer:

Construct GTC Teaser from Kevin Margo on Vimeo.

A lot of tutorials out there claiming to show you how to do real 3D text like the Universal Studios logo, but either force you to download additional files or won’t show you how to do it at all. Well, extending on the existing tutorials online, I’ll show you how to do it. I’m nice like that. Check it out.

Another step forward for SDXM, my 2D game engine being built with Qt and c++. There is now functioning, gimmicky image distortion, and so far the effects are: water, spiral, and pixelate (more coming). You can observe the background in this video. Possible usage is for underwater levels where the effect can be applied to the frame buffer, transitions between stages, or other fancy 2D gimmicks. (more…)

There are no tutorial to be found on the Internet on how to create 3D Text that rotates around a 3D sphere like in the Universal Studios title card. You can apply basic 3D, but it doesn’t have any depth or extrusion. I figured out how to brute-force it, all without third-party plugins! Check it out! (more…)

Oh, it only took years of research and learning… but here it be, the fruits of my labor… (more…)

Using a tutorial for Blender 2.5, I was able to hunt and peck together fire and smoke in Blender 2.66. The following render took about 5 hours.