Dawg Bonz

" It will be enjoyed both by hardened grognards as well as by more casual “twitch” gamers who are more interested in “run and gun” game play." Seems like that would work? My twitch is a bit lacking but my hardened grognard skill... well dat is a bit lacking as well but playing the game with friends as a team should be a hoot. Dawg... in da Wonka Factory

Maybe "Space Lobsters of Doom" ... 'Final Claw'? The most likely (IMO) PC / Console release candidate is DropTeam.. a TBG Software game in development to published by Battlefront.com. "BELIEVABLE COMBAT DropTeam depicts futuristic armored combat in a believable way that doesn't insult the intelligence of mature gamers. We eschew such misguided, entrenched mechanisms as "hit points", "healing", and unexplainably short weapon ranges that are found in many games today. Instead, weapons have specific effects on their targets. For example, a projectile that penetrates a vehicle’s armor might disable its engine, kill individual crew members, damage the ballistics computer, etc. Most weapons have effective ranges in excess of 4 kilometers." APPEAL DropTeam is unique in that it strikes a balance between realistic, tactical combat simulation and pure, accessible fun for the novice. It will be enjoyed both by hardened grognards as well as by more casual “twitch” gamers who are more interested in “run and gun” game play. Its layered complexity allows for a wide range of play styles and tactics, so a vibrant user community is expected. DropTeam will also offer a steady stream of new content to players over time, thanks to its highly extensible architecture. Finally, DropTeam is a truly cross-platform game! Both its server and its client run on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS-X. This will no doubt lead to a broad, diverse and vibrant fan community. ....and lots of other good console like stuff....... Madmatt, 6 days in the desert of darkness... a drop of water for these console dry Bonz... cough... sputter... Dawg... My neighbor just got his FEMA trailer today 172 days after KATRINA! Now they ain't got no electric, sewer, water, to actually live in the trailer but... the FEMA guys said... it is on the 'fast track.. like the trailer'. Hmm.. that would mean power et. al by July 8th 2006.. a month + into hurricane season. :mad:

RE; XP-Imperfection... that is why I would keep a separate volume.. outside my new Number Six, Cylon looking Apple Intel babe... ugh... machine... so as not to contaminate her with XP cooties. There shouldn't be any social stigma to having lice, any more than like having a common cold and if it runs CMx1&2... just follow the pediculosis association warnings. Dawg... seeking gaming perfection in the imperfect kutu of XP

You are probably right Peter. I was kinda hoping for a Number Nine, Jeri Ryan Borg or better a Number Six, Tricia Helfer Cylon looking offspring... but... if an Apple Intel Machine can also boot XP and play all the CMx1s and 2s ... looking and playing the games well... that could fulfill the Cylon machine warriors quest to fulfill their programming & purify the universe of imperfection. As long as they don't have kids that look like Space Lobsters or sumpin. Dawg ... a galactic genetic guru LLC

It looks fine at 1280x1024 but of course I would like the Sharp to accept a true 1080p signal not scale it up to a 1080p display. Don't get me wrong, the scaler IMO does a great job. The 720p football on ESPN looks outstanding but .. wondering if a 'firmware' fix could bump up the highest screen resolution via DVI? There is a firmware port on the Sharp. Now ...a console version of CM for the masses... Well that would certainly get me in line for a PS3 or Xbox 360. WAIT AND SEE... Madmatt OK .. Four long days... nuff yet? Dawg ... off to run in the sun with my fido for fun :cool:

So if I read the Intel Macs may boot XP article correctly and "... Apple has included a Compatibility Support Module, Intel-based Macs should be able to boot XP..." then all I may need to be CMx1 and CMx2 capable is a new 'Core Duo processor' Intel chip-powered G5 iMac, an XP OS, 3 - PC editions of CMx1 and I could run CMx1 and CMx2 on my new Intel Mac :confused: Dawg... wondering if the OSX and XP OS could make babies.. what would they look like?

OK Madmatt... given consideration to making console versions of our games? I waited 2 days. Is that long enough? Hmmm .. "our games" ? So maybe a CMx1 console version? Darn.. That could easily be a CMBO for PS3... then BB for PS3... then AK for PS3.. then... etc. :confused: If Apple can switch to Intel maybe BFC (or a BFC partnership with XXX) will provide a simultaneous PC / Console launch of CMSF? I would buy a console for your guys games alone... already got the HDTV that can 'display' 1080p. Dawg ... giving consideration to console versions of BFC games

Come on back akd and help us rebuild smarter & 'mo betta'. The Urban Planning Committee Final Report is solid and 'forward leaning'. Lots of empty houses here cheap now. We got a 2 story 'fixer upper' if your interested. Only 7'6" of water for 2.5 weeks... but the upper floor is 'OK' ... well that is what the insurance adjuster says! Bring some 'back up' akd cause we still... almost 5 months out... have looters preying on our uninhabited homes... hundreds of thousands of uninhabited homes. No where near the immediate post K 'civilians in a combat zone'.. but no where near 'normal'.... there can only be a new normal now with only 144,000 people vs. 485,000 that have returned. Heck, only @ 10% of our local business are back. many will never come back. The Civilians" in CM:SF thread reminded me of all the chaos in the city and just how hard it was to distinguish who was a good guy vs. bad guy... aside for the blatant arm full of stuff and some kinda weapon.... but then LOTS of folks were heavily armed those first several weeks... and very edgy... not a good combination. I can empathize with how extremely difficult the proper target ID must be in a certified combat zone like... An-Nasiriyah... where IEDs for example are part of the bad guys weaponry! I admire the US military's skill to keep as many soldiers alive and sane as possible in that toxic insurgent soup. BFC has shown they make computer games as realistic as they can so... "Yet another reason we aren't going to do civilians this time around." Makes good sense to me. Looking fwd. to CMSF's release. Ciao, Dwag... my wife finally admitted my damned kayak was a good thing

Were you in New Orleans during the last year? Yep... the last 30. Here for KATRINA's visit and the levee failure and the urban fire&floodworks that followed. Only took 7 weeks to get back home but we were lucky and still have a home... well one of them anyway. Good to see Steve's notes re: civilians in a combat zone. When CMSF includes complex levels of civilians (good / bad guys... tourists, press, animals, etc) in an urban combat zone, things quickly become a lot more complicated than shoot the "bad guy"... although anybody with a gun showing is much more than suspect... kinda a truism I suspect around the world. Dawg... Just released yesterday! Urban Planning Committee Final Report at http://bringneworleansback.org/

"...the tactics and surrounding chaos." "So basically, anybody driving around was suspect. Anybody running was suspect. Anybody with a gun showing was more than suspect.... civilians in a combat zone provide different amounts of "cover" than they do when life is supposedly back to normal." Valid for a Natural Disaster as well! RE: ".... civilians during the initial phase of combat and civilians under established military occupation." Speaking from our post Katrina experience, once the military was deployed in force, things (blatant, open bad guy looting) got MUCH better really quick. The military presence did not stop the bad guys completely but even numb nuts stealing stuff realize that US forces were about to annihilate them right off... so there "home field" advantages got traded for more subtle stealing further out or moving to another city all together. "..civilians in a combat zone provide different amounts of "cover" than they do when life is supposedly back to normal. Kinda like hiding in a field with a few bushes vs. hiding in a forest. Same fighter, same clothing, same intentions... different ability to remain unseen." Reasonable and a very good description what happened with our "Natural" disaster. If/when you include civilians in CMSF, you may want to also include friendly civilians as well. Like locals who stayed to protect their property actually gave extra ammunition & back up to law enforcement... it could / did happen. Dawg ... an irregular with abilities to infiltrate close to food

3 Woofs from a Dawg in a post Katrina Big Easy. Thanks for the back scratch Madmatt Dawg... smellin da chicken in da kitchen... that means 'white' tonight

Thanks for the post akd. I was wondering about this for CMSF cause... "Snipers fulfill a critical role in the the urban insurgency." Dawg..... Designated Mutt

Thanks again for the feedback Hpt. Lisse. Long busy sheet rockn'roll weekend here in post K New Orleans. Here is what I did find out re: 1080p video signals to the HDTV. My 45-inch AQUOS (LC-45GD4U) uses Sharp’s proprietary advanced CV-IC System III video processing circuit to upconvert 1080i (interlaced) and 720p signals to a finer image. IOW "Progressive scanning (line doubling)" Not technically a false advertisement from Sharp as it DOES 'display' 1080p. What Sharp does not tell you is the sets do not accept 1080p signals directly: the max they accept is 1080i and then Sharp processor sends 1080p to the panel. IOW: This is not a 'plug and play' computer monitor. So while the LC45's display 1080p, they do NOT accept 1080p INPUTS. There is a way to bypass this limitation with the GX series, but not with the GDs... the model we saved from da KATRINA looters. Nonetheless,the 45-inch AQUOS panel does a very good job to resolve the 1,920x1,080 resolution. I suspect is a slight loss of detail caused by the internal scalar but I do not have the equipment or experience to test this. Since the upscale conversion is from 1080i signal to a 1080p display, i suspect any upscale degradation of signal is small. I can say I am happy with what I see and the HDTV signals (720P, 1080i) I currently get from HD cable. Everyone viewing the screen has also been impressed with the image quality. 1080i should be fine for the next 5 years. Combining the higher resolution of 1080 with the greater refresh rate of progressive, 1080p is very data-dense and will soak up even greater broadcast bandwidth. Broadcasters ask if the 1080p format provides enough incremental picture quality to warrant the bandwidth and other cost content providers pay for. That starts with the video produced from 1080p cameras. At present, 720p and 1080i cameras output video at about 1.5 Gbps, but 1080p would roughly double that to 3 Gbps. Then you have to convert that into a standard 19.4 Megabit per second channel for transmission across a cable network. 1080p would likely require greater compression or greater bandwidth. Unless there is some kind of easy to spot jump-in experience (in the consumer show room) a real significant jump-in quality I suspect broadcasters are gonna stick with the current 6 HDTV formats for the short term. Bandwidth is a very valuable commodity. Since we had to invest in a new BIG screen (our 13 year old CRT died just before the storm) I think we will be OK for a few years to come. The next generation of 1080p displays will more than likely have 1080p capable digital inputs. It is a bit troubling we early adopters that drive the industry are the ones who get burnt. Make sure your new 1080p display is able to accept a 1080p input signal. Anyway... Back to CMSF and 1080p and console games. I am certain the PS3 or Xbox 360 would look great on this 45" LCD using Sharp’s video processing circuit. I suspect BFC knows all about these scaling issues for PCs and the new HDTVs. As time passes, our credit card balance drops (paying off the Sharp) and CPU/GPU upgrade time rolls around a new 23" LCD will arrive for true 1080P signal. My wife would prefer this as well to all the in games audio in the living room. "Boom -Boom" Of course the biggest factor for us now is real Cat. 3 levees. "If the levees had not broken, they could have all walked home from the Super Dome." Governor Blanco. Peace and Happy Gaming, Dawg ... read beans and rice is mighty nice on Monday :cool: BTW: I did read of one Sharp owner using a 15" powerbook to the input 4, DVI->HDMI to get a full screen picture in 1080i, not 1080p on his LC-45GX6U.

Thanks Hpt. Lisse I am guessing here but... I suspect the Sharp DVI input won't take an external scaler signal beyond 1080p30 because now (1/06) 1080p30 is the maximum ATSC signal. The sharpest images and best colors may be from the DVI-PC input if you can get a 'handshake". The published limit is 1280x1024 but maybe a firmware update could fix that? After all, if you got the SLI - GPU(s) to pump 1920x1080 to the DVI input the BIG LCD (Sharp) SHOULD take the signal.... shouldn't it? HDMI: I suspect Sony has plans for PS3 to send 1080p60 thru the HDMI to the LCD. I think I read that they are setting this as a requirement for PS3 game developers. If that is the case, assuming you got enough SLI - GPU(s) to pump 1920x1080, maybe an end around is with a DVI to HDMI cable from the PC? I just don't have a clue what the GPU requirements might be for filling 6,220,800 dots [1,920 (H) x 1,080 (V) x RGB] of gaming goodness. Off to another fine dinner cooked by my lovely wife in a post KATRINA New Orleans that now has 191/451 = 42% of our traffic lights back on line! Hey... for 4+ months after that witch of a storm... little things are greatly appreciated. Ciao, Dawgo

Thanks Hpt. Lisse Ingenieur. Looking forward to your advice on PC to LC45GD4U - HDMI vs. DVI hookup. It would seem that the Sharp LCD should accept whatever the DVI or HDMI can feed it no matter if it is from a PC, console, DVR, Blu-ray Disc player, etc. . If you can feed it 6,220,800 dots [1,920 (H) x 1,080 (V) x RGB] then it should display it. No scaling required. Seems like a pair of 7800 GTX 512MB with 24 pipelines and 8 vertex shaders core/memory clock speed of 550MHz/1700MHz respectively and 512MB of GDDR3 memory... plugged into a MOBO with PCI express x 16 would work but then we can't afford another loan for a game PC right now. Dawg ... off to more Russian Training Exercises .. Thanks Jason.