Tag Archives: Online

HTPC of Doom!

Posted by Steve on June 15, 2012 1 comment

Ok, it wasn’t really of doom, but I liked the title. This last week I have spent a lot of time building my new media PC to be hooked up to my TV. I canceled cable, and my Tivo service and am now relying on online services and rentals. I just got tired of missing things when they aired, the DVR not catching them for some reason and then not being able to see things.

So I built an HTPC (Home Theater PC) to pull in my DVD’s, and play videos straight off the web. I was using my Xbox for this, but, while the Xbox has been coming out with more and more apps to cover everything, it’s still not perfect. So I balanced it out with the HTPC.

Sorry for the low-rez, I was excited

Thankfully, I am friends with an HTPC expert, my friend Louis. The one I built is based on the one he owns. He helped spec out the parts and guided me through the setup. See, I haven’t exactly built a desktop PC in around 8 years. Apparently, a lot has changed since then! All of the parts arrived on Monday afternoon. This was bad. See, I a the type that wants to open and play as soon as I get stuff. So that evening I dove in to start building.

Huge Mistake.

I was up till 1am before I finally got everything installed and running. WIndows was fully patched and ready to go. Then, Tuesday, Louis had me check the mode the Hard drives was running in. Turns out they were defaulted to IDE and needed to be in ACHI. Yeah, when I made the switch (even after following instructions to ensure it wouldn’t happen) the OS was wiped out. I had to do the software portion all over again.

Long story made short, I spent the last few evenings tweaking and configuring. I am now running the following:

[amazon_link id=”B004EBUXHQ” target=”_blank” ]Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost)[/amazon_link]
[amazon_link id=”B002X578GE” target=”_blank” ]G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333[/amazon_link]
[amazon_link id=”B004Q81CKY” target=”_blank” ]OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G 2.5″ 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive[/amazon_link] (SSD) (Boot Drive)
2 x [amazon_link id=”B0042SGDVG” target=”_blank” ]SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 HD204UI 2TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Internal Hard Drive[/amazon_link] (for 4TB Total)
[amazon_link id=”B0048D7AD0″ target=”_blank” ]SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card[/amazon_link]
[amazon_link id=”B005FE52X6″ target=”_blank” ]ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard[/amazon_link]
[amazon_link id=”B005HGPPG6″ target=”_blank” ]LIAN LI Black Aluminum PC-C60B ATX Media Center / HTPC Case[/amazon_link]

Needless to say, I may have gone a bit overboard on the hardware for something as simple as a Media Box. However, playing Civ-V on the 47” tv is pretty damn cool.

Downside, I am exhausted. Sleep soon!

Xbox Live online while at a Hotel

Posted by Steve on April 16, 2012 1 comment

So I ran into an interesting hurdle while here in Vegas this week. As you know I brought my Gaems Xbox case with me to get some gaming in while not at the conference. Well when I arrived at the hotel, I had unlimited Internet, both wired and wireless, (Thanks TI, you guys rock) but, to access it you have to fire up a browser and select the “I accept” option. This is usually the case with most free wifi locations. (Starbucks, Panara, etc.)

Well, with my iPad and my laptop that’s not a big deal, but the Xbox doesn’t really have a web browser to allow you to accept that proxy! This was a problem. When I connected the Xbox, it pulled an IP address but, of course, it couldn’t get out. Without accepting that proxy, it’s a no-go.

Well, I poked around in the Xbox settings and noticed that in the advanced network settings I have the ability to switch to an alternate MAC address. (the MAC is a hardware address for the specific network card). The fact that this was there blew me away. They allow the Xbox to essentially spoof its MAC address

So I thought, If I accept the proxy and use my Laptops MAC address as an accepted address with the hotels server, then I should be able to tell my Xbox that it’s that MAC address. Sure enough, by “Borrowing” my laptops address, the Xbox popped right up on Live and I was good to go!

Seeing as how there is a good chance I will be in a hotel a lot through out the rest of the year, I figgured this was good info to know, and, who knows, maybe some of you might need to know it!

Testing FRAPS with SWTOR

Posted by Steve on January 30, 2012 No comments

A long time ago (blah blah galaxy) I tried my hand at some Machinima video capture. For those who don’t know, Machinima is using video game footage, re-edited together to make a video. A lot of folks use the medium to make music videos, some people have ran with it and made full series of funny videos (like Red Vs. Blue). Well, a few years back some friends and I tried to make a series called Stupid Hobbitsess. It was made using the Lord Of The Rings Online game. Unfortunately, the videos were pulled from YouTube because of Digital rights for some of the music used. (less than 30 seconds worth). So now, they only exist on my Hard Drive. I may see if I can get them up here somewhere.

Anyways, I used a capture software called FRAPS. It’s one of the popular choices for Video Game capture. Problem is, back in the day, when I ran the capture on my old system, it would lag the game…..a lot. On a while I decided to try and run FRAPS behind The Old Republic and see what the hit would be. I was amazed to find that there was no lag at all. Now, it is an updated system and FRAPS has been updated quite a few times since then so it may be more streamlined. Below is a sample capture of some in game footage. This kind of stirs the creative juices a bit, well see if anything comes from it.

Ninja Edit: Looks like the old Myspace page for Stupid Hobbitsess is still up with the videos. If you dare venture into Myspace land, you can see them here

SWTOR Crew Skills, or “Corso Shakin his Money Maker!”

Posted by Steve on January 23, 2012 1 comment

Next in my line of talking about Star Wars The Old Republic, Crew skills!! Crew skills are TOR’s form of crafting. In other MMO’s they incorporate crafting in the form of “Hunting and Gathering” where your character would come across materials out in the world(s) and use that material to build armor/weapons/stuff back in some special location. In WoW you could find an Anvil somewhere or cooking fire, etc. You would have to stand next to that location and toil away your time watching your character move his arms up and down.

TOR sought to make that a little more enjoyable. For starters, in general game play they give you a companion to aid you in your quests. The companion ties in to your story line and can change the way the story plays out depending on which companion you use (through out the game, you gain more Crew Members). For crafting, the added the ability to send your companion out on a Crew Skill. This is a mission that your crew ventures out on for a set amount of time, and then comes back with materials used for crafting. While your crew is out, you are free to continue questing un-hindered. They still include the random nodes in the world(s) that you can harvest for materials, but this allows you to pull in specific materials for your crafting by sending your companion out to get them.

The actual crafting part works much the same way. You can send your companion out to make up to 5 items at a time and then go about your business. When he/she is done the items will be in your inventory. The best part is that all the materials can sit in your vault. This is a huge step beyond any of the other MMO’s that force you to carry everything you need and tie you to a work area to build things.

Now, the down side. Unfortunately, not all crew skills are created equal. All of the discovery crew skills (the ones that gather materials) cost credits to send your companion out. Essentially you are paying for them to gather instead of you doing it. This is a double edged sword since you get your materials, and your skill increases, but too much and you end up broke. Except for one skill, Slicing.

Slicing used to be overpowered to the point where it was insane to not have it because it was a steady flow of large sums of money. Sadly, they “fixed” that and brought it down to a slow trickle of money. If you have the ability to run slicing missions non stop, it can still turn you a profit, but it takes some time and you have to face the consequences of a loss from time to time. In the long run you will make money.

The below chart is a great display of which crew skills tie together for crafting (Credit goes to http://www.swtorcrewskills.com):

http://www.swtorcrewskills.com

Enjoy your Crafting!

“Corso, get back out there and shake your money maker!!”

Returning from the Alpha Quadrant, or, Shore leave on Hoth

Posted by Steve on February 8, 2010 2 comments

Well, the snowpocolypse 2.0 has taken it’s toll on us, and the house. We got about 20+ inches of snow and spent most of Saturday and Sunday clearing it off the driveway and everything else. Some of my neighbors have drifts in front of their houses (mostly because of the plows) that measured up to about 9 feet tall! This of course meant that most of the time, not spent shoveling snow, was spent inside playing games. Sarah was on the Internets, until she picked up Overlord 2. Andrew was on Mass Effect 2, after he finished with Uplink, and I was playing Star Trek Online, no after there, it was all STO.

Over the weekend I have managed to make it to the rank of Lt. Commander, I have 4 different ships to choose from, and I have 5 bridge officers. (Also, I have at least 3 tribbles.) The long arduous road to Lt. Commander was painful right at the end, mostly because of the lack of realization that I needed to spend skill points to earn the promotion instead of just earn them. Made it all the way to Lt rank 11 before I figured that out. Once I had earned the rank I ventured back to the Sol Sector and attended my promotion ceremony. It was very touching. After that it was off to claim my new ship. I had actually been saving up energy credits for my entire career so that I could buy an extra ship so one Cruiser and one Escort. Since I am still new to the heavier ships, I will hold off on the pluses and minus until later. Instead lets go over some of the things I loved and hated about my time as a young Lieutenant

Things I loved:

Who needs friends with an away team like this? – Every time I had to beam down to a planet I always had an away team with me. For starters it was just me and my Engineering officer along with a few security guys, (those poor red shirts) but after a while I had my science officer, my tactical officer, and my ferengi, ok so he is a engineering officer too but he’s my token. Each officer has a special ability that they use on their own or by my command. Even coming around and reviving me if I get knocked out. It’s very helpful!

Autogrouping with Others. Now I know this may be a plus or a minus depending on the type of person you are but I found it to be very helpful. If you and 3 other people are working on the same mission at the same time (as is the case in most missions), it will auto group you together and adjust the level accordingly. The amazing thing about it is that without even sending a hail, everyone just worked together! This avoids all of the Awkward conversations and ninja tagging.

Dead Klingon = New Mark II Engine – Everything that I needed for my LT Career was found in loot. I had no need to spend credits on anything because it was all available in loot. This allowed me sell anything excess that I had looted and didn’t need so I could have the money to buy the second ship.

Things I Hated:

Oh god more Patrol missions – To boldly go where everyone has gone before. The patrol missions are really more of a love hate thing. I love that there is a large variety of types of missions, but they start getting repetitive after a while. Clearly they are meant to be filler around the other larger missions, so my advice….don’t run them back to back. Run one system, go do a main mission, come back and do another system.

No, mister Klingon, I do not want to enter an chance enemy encounter. – Flying around in sector space I found myself automagicly sucked into enemy encounters, which under normal circumstances would be fine, but these are on a timer, and the timer is ALWAYS ticking down from like 5 min to start. So I won’t be sitting around for 5 min for my “chance” encounter.

Still a tad clunky – Ok so this is an overall grievance. Unfortunately the game is still a little rough around the edges. There are minor glitches in the graphics, in the performance, in the interface. BUT… It’s a brand new MMO and it’s still finding it’s place and growing into some very large combat boots. After wittnessing the launch of SWG, EQ2, AOC, LOTRO, WoW, COH, and who could forget The Matrix Online! (Wow, I have tried a lot of MMO’s, and many of them from launch!) I can easily see how things will get ironed out and the issues are really minor. I have seen nothing that is a show stopper.

Final verdict: For a starter MMO, I give Star Trek online a good 7.5 out of 10 Tribbles. But I reserve the right to change this score after 1: I play more since it doesn’t really end and, 2: Time mends all glitches.

Just in time too as tomorrow I will be venturing back to Rapture for Bioshock 2!

To Boldly Have Gone. or Mission Accomplished

Posted by Steve on February 3, 2010 No comments

Here I am, only minutes after finishing Mass Effect 2, and I am still processing all that happened. I may end up actually replaying from my last major save point because I am not completely happy with some of my choices. For now I am going to let them bake in my head and deal with the consequences. (And mourn the loss of Jack, Grunt, Thane, and the Colonists. In the words of Joker: “Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit, What the Shit!?”

This also means that I am now un-distracted until next Tuesday! A fact that I am sure Sarah and Andrew will be happy about. (Or not.) In the mean time I have to say that I have become increasingly tempted by Star Trek Online based on what I have seen about it online and the few friends who have tried it. I am probably only slightly less of a Star Trek fan than I am a Star Wars fan. (Which is to say, pretty damn rabid.) Although I do not own any Star Trek costumes, and I am not sure I will any time soon, I have always enjoyed the shows and the inspiration they provide. I loved many of the other trek games, even though they were widely un-popular. I even have a copy of the Star Ship creator lying around here somewhere. I am curious to the designs of the ships and to see the variants. Ok damn, this is really not helping.