Shadow Assassin

One of these is an excellent choice. I own the 3-fan version and it did wonders for my laptop.

So they're either hipsters (well, the mere fact that the bushmen are actually working makes this very, very unlikely ) or lumberjacks. Aaaaannnd... cue:

I'm not saying that at all. No one has an excuse to stick his head in the sand, but reality trumps ideology, and the reality is that nothing is happening without support from the Baby Boomer generation. The younger crowd doesn't have the power to do much more than smash its collective head against the wall and hope that the wall breaks before its skull does. (That wall isn't breaking until a significant chunk of the Baby Boomer population decides to break it.) And why would they break it? Most of them are happy where they are because they have all the power, the money, but they choose not to do anything about it. We could play a blame game here, but what's the point really? Nothing's going to get done if we just keep passing the buck.

Even more out of hand then. Something HAS to give.

Can someone please explain to me why Obama's throwing even more money away? This is getting out of hand...

Hi there, recently reinstalled 3dsmax and corresponding game pack... decided to give it a go after being turned off 3d modelling in the previous two years while studying. Now that I've got a decent computer, I've decided that maybe I should give it a go, if not just for SC4 but for my own personal portfolio. This is what I've done so far tonight, 2 or 3 hours work: I still haven't decided how I'm going to do the podium, and these textures certainly are not final (though I'm liking the look of the window inserts). I need to do more reading on textures, specifically textures for windows. Any thoughts? Any feedback? Any suggestions for improvement?

SC4 preview of the building (fixed my scale issues, looked like all I had to do was to reset the rig): Texture glitch - only because I removed the UVW, it was causing me grief so I temporarily removed it, at least until I finish the back side of the main building. I'm not sure what the non-sandstone sections of the building will be made out of yet, but I'm thinking concrete. And this one's the shot of the upper lobby. I know it doesn't really appear all that much in the day view, but the idea is that it might have some spotlights showing it off. Though, remember this is also for my personal portfolio so I can just keep it like that anyway. It also needs door handles. I still haven't started on the podium, haven't really decided what I want to do with it.

Is it just me or would a better description for DTA's award would've been: "For his tireless efforts in keeping chat squeaky-clean with his feather duster"?

It'd be slowed by one-sixth (or thereabouts). Not by half. But thanks for the suggestion, maybe I'll try core affinity when I next render. And by the way, yes, my computer has a six-core processor. It's a Phenom II X6 1090T, a very capable processor.

25C at the moment, with a brisk NWN breeze (24km/h average). It's very nice weather though it's been gusty all day.

I have a question: when rendering is it normal for your computer to grind to a screaming halt? It seems that whenever I render, I usually have to wait for it to finish, can't do anything else until it's done. If so, is there a way to limit the number of cores that are being used for rendering or offload some of the work to the GPU if it doesn't do that already? I'd like to keep one core free at least for other things, which leaves five cores to do the rendering.

Yep, BAT4MAX is installed... but... um, it seems my scales are a bit off. It looks really tiny in Zoom 5 at the moment. The building is poly-modeled (believe it or not). What I've done is this: build the floor plan, reference it across multiple floors (with separate instances for both the top and bottom-most floor), model one floor's glass windows, then clone that down across all the floors. It's very quick. The glass texture is just a frosted glass texture taken from the Arch&Design material templates (my god, they are great to work with -- I've worked with other material systems and even though Arch&Design seems intimidating at first, it's really quite nice to work with). Thanks! And roger, cheers for the smiley Cheers, I'll take a look when I finalise the window texture. Now, to keep modelling the main building, then I'll deal with the podium.

Cheers, thanks for the response. Meanwhile, while installing 3dsmax '12, I was asked to download SP2 - I assume it has the hotfix so won't need to download that separately?

I dunno, bromances can cross that line too.

Congrats to the both of you, you've made us proud!

Simfox, got a question about TruNite: is it just a new way of doing the traditional Maxis night view or is it DarkNite only? I'm just getting back into working with 3d models after an extended break, so would like to try my hand at some 3d models -- so I'm actually quite curious about TruNite for SC4 night views.

Australia does tend to have some unusual signage, notably this one in Canberra: Unusual because we tend to use US-style signage like this: Or this (older style, I believe for NSW): Individual states tend to have a different idea of what constitutes a good sign, though they're slowly becoming unified in style.

In terms of SC4, it is theoretically possible, but since no such piece exists at the moment, it can't be done in-game. These puzzle pieces take time to do and we haven't really considered special situations like what you mention. It's possible, but it's more difficult to mod than ordinary puzzle pieces (believe it has something to do with the ordering of CheckTypes and path stanzas). for instance, Tram-in-Road puzzle pieces can intersect heavy rail viaduct puzzle pieces without any problems.

Seems like a natural second step for the Samoans, considering they switched to driving on the left two years ago. Samoa has become closer to both Australia and NZ considering that both countries now have quite significant Samoan populations now, so once again, it's a step closer to having the South Pacific work closer together economically and culturally.

Level 32, going on 33, but in the doldrums, so to speak. It seems my rate of leveling up has slowed right down, I'm finding it difficult to pick up new skills that allow me to level up quickly because I already am high-leveled in the skills that I use (eg. Heavy Armor: mid-70s, Two-Handed: 83, Smithing: 100) on a regular basis.

I get the feeling he wouldn't be so against it if it was a woman going nude or in revealing clothing. Double standards, you see?

In my previous experiences hunting for jobs, I have found that networking has made things a lot easier, but it isn't 100% guaranteed that you will get a job, though your chances are immensely improved. For instance, I'm with an employment agency who are helping me find work. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be on the books of a certain large company. My case officer actually knew someone high up in the HR department of said company, so was able to give me a chance to get my foot in the door. Because I've already gone through the first stage of the interview process, I can skip that stage for any entry-level position I apply for within that company. Unfortunately, I did this too close to the end of the year, where everyone's rushing around trying to fill positions and generally not following the procedures set out by management in the HR department. Perhaps early next year will be better, considering that in a lot of companies, not just this one, a lot of people tend to leave work just after Christmas for extended periods of time or to find more work. What I'm saying, I guess, even with a network, it really boils down to three things: the people you know, the skills you have, and finally, what might be the important thing: luck. I haven't had much of the third thing, but hopefully I can get myself something before long.

I was level 24, and it was anti-climatic too.

There is talk that it's perhaps a good thing that the amendments didn't go through because it makes it more likely for the bill to be shut down by a judge as unconstitutional. I'm not sure if that's true, or possible, as I'm not familiar with the US constitution.