I know I'm late to the party, but I noticed a couple nights ago that UT2k4 has voice recognition for ordering the bots around. I became further intrigued when I discovered that one of the commands would make a bot get out of a vehicle, which I desperately wanted since bots love to jump in a vehicle just as I'm getting near it.
Setting it up was slightly complex. In Microsoft's infinite wisdom, the speech recognition engine for WinXP is only usually distributed through Office XP/whatnot. There is, however, a free and legal way to get it. Simply download their speech recognition SDK, and install it. You'll then be able to train it up (it provides several things you can read to it when you have spare time, they only take about ten minutes) so it recognizes your voice, which is necessary for accuracy.
One issue I have is that it seems very adamant on turning off Mic Boost, which my mic needs so I'm audible. I just have a fairly cheap Altec Lansing stereo headphone+microphone headset that I got at Best Buy several years ago so I could talk on TeamSpeak while playing Guild Wars. I guess if I get a better headset I'll have to retrain.
It works fairly well in UT2k4 though. I can now push to talk and order bots around. Sometimes it takes a couple tries because the mic volume meter occasionally won't go above two or three blocks, and it won't recognize a damn thing I'm saying unless it goes all the way up to the red. But in CTF I can tell the bots to cover me while I'm running a flag back and then tell them to go back to attacking when I get the capture, without having to navigate the speech menu and divide my attention.
Sadly this doesn't make the bots not suck at Onslaught. If I try to run any sort of advanced strategy involving me going and tying up the enemy so that our team can get a few nodes uncontested, they'll still take forever to take power nodes on their own, even if I order them to attack. It would be nice if I could say "Everyone take node 1" and have the bots all converge on node 1.
"Everyone suicide" at the beginning of a match is usually funny.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
yay more kana
Solaris-H released the rest of My Lovely Ghost Kana all at once a few days ago. I didn't notice until now.
Fortunately it's all on MediaFire so it was painless to download. I also kind of uselessly subscribed to the folder, seeing as how I believe volume 3 is the end of the story.
More adventures of Daikichi and his ghost girlfriend Kana to read... It's more of a romantic comedy than a hentai manga. There is sex, but the focus is everyday life with a ghost.
I even painlessly extracted all the .zip files at once using a batch script and 7-Zip. Doing it through a GUI would have taken forever, but I spent about 5 seconds writing a batch script, double click it, tell it not to overwrite the credits page for each archive (they're the same in all of them), and wham, it's done.
This reminds me I still need to catch up in Yuria 100 Shiki. I've been putting it off because I'm several volumes behind, but I'm not getting any less behind by not reading it... I also have a pile of print manga sitting here that I got for Christmas that I haven't touched yet. Five volumes of Negima (that I've already read on OneManga, lol) and Yotsubato! volume 6.
Fortunately it's all on MediaFire so it was painless to download. I also kind of uselessly subscribed to the folder, seeing as how I believe volume 3 is the end of the story.
More adventures of Daikichi and his ghost girlfriend Kana to read... It's more of a romantic comedy than a hentai manga. There is sex, but the focus is everyday life with a ghost.
I even painlessly extracted all the .zip files at once using a batch script and 7-Zip. Doing it through a GUI would have taken forever, but I spent about 5 seconds writing a batch script, double click it, tell it not to overwrite the credits page for each archive (they're the same in all of them), and wham, it's done.
This reminds me I still need to catch up in Yuria 100 Shiki. I've been putting it off because I'm several volumes behind, but I'm not getting any less behind by not reading it... I also have a pile of print manga sitting here that I got for Christmas that I haven't touched yet. Five volumes of Negima (that I've already read on OneManga, lol) and Yotsubato! volume 6.
stuff
So the dilemma now is between episodes 4 and 5 of L/R: Licensed by Royalty. I broke out the DVDs last night and checked. I'm leaning towards episode 5.
I had another reason to get out the DVDs though. I decided to start working on my Anime Family Project, and I needed pictures of some people that I absolutely couldn't find on a *booru because a) they weren't female, and b) were in fairly overlooked and underrated shows.
Then I discovered that regardless of the actual aspect ratio of the video on the DVD, Media Player Classic saves DVD screenshots in 720x480. So I had to resample to correct the aspect ratio in Photoshop (shrink the width to 640 for the 4:3 shows, and shrink the height to 405 for the 16:9 shows, make sure to uncheck "Constrain Proportions" when you do this).
It's actually going fairly well. I sat there with writer's block with just Yomi in the list trying to write something (anything) about her and then I finally found some words. Then I had writer's block again until imagination hit and I had most of a family before long. I still need a character for my mom, but other than that it's complete.
Also I started writing it here and then realized it really should go on Seven Random Characters, so I copypasta'd it over and moved the pictures to the other hidden album on Picasa. Unless there's something I'm missing, you have to move pictures from one album to another one by one, which is kind of annoying.
I had another reason to get out the DVDs though. I decided to start working on my Anime Family Project, and I needed pictures of some people that I absolutely couldn't find on a *booru because a) they weren't female, and b) were in fairly overlooked and underrated shows.
Then I discovered that regardless of the actual aspect ratio of the video on the DVD, Media Player Classic saves DVD screenshots in 720x480. So I had to resample to correct the aspect ratio in Photoshop (shrink the width to 640 for the 4:3 shows, and shrink the height to 405 for the 16:9 shows, make sure to uncheck "Constrain Proportions" when you do this).
It's actually going fairly well. I sat there with writer's block with just Yomi in the list trying to write something (anything) about her and then I finally found some words. Then I had writer's block again until imagination hit and I had most of a family before long. I still need a character for my mom, but other than that it's complete.
Also I started writing it here and then realized it really should go on Seven Random Characters, so I copypasta'd it over and moved the pictures to the other hidden album on Picasa. Unless there's something I'm missing, you have to move pictures from one album to another one by one, which is kind of annoying.
theme night coming up
As soon as I heard we were having an "underappreciated/underrated anime theme night" for one of our showings this semester, I knew exactly what I was going to bring.
L/R: Licensed By Royalty.
A lot of the series is similar to James Bond-type things. The main characters are agents of an undercover government agency and have all sorts of spy devices and disguises. There's the doctor who's continually inventing new things, some of which are actually useful, and others of which look neat but fail hilariously. Then there's Mr. Pennylane, who always says "That's right." in English during mission briefings to confirm the agents' suspicions. The whole thing is set in a country that's supposed to be a takeoff of Britain, so the random English kind of makes sense, but it's still funny.
As for which episode I want to show, that's where the dilemma is. My immediate thought was to go with episode 4, which shows how awesome the main characters are at what they do while still maintaining their everyday personalities. It's also a very entertaining episode overall, with plenty of laughs.
However, that episode doesn't contain my favorite character in the series. I actually forget which episode he first shows up in, but it shows how epically awesome he is. Yeah, you read that right, I have a male favorite character from a series. I need to figure out which episode this is (I think it might be 5 or 6).
Dilemma, thy name is anime.
L/R: Licensed By Royalty.
A lot of the series is similar to James Bond-type things. The main characters are agents of an undercover government agency and have all sorts of spy devices and disguises. There's the doctor who's continually inventing new things, some of which are actually useful, and others of which look neat but fail hilariously. Then there's Mr. Pennylane, who always says "That's right." in English during mission briefings to confirm the agents' suspicions. The whole thing is set in a country that's supposed to be a takeoff of Britain, so the random English kind of makes sense, but it's still funny.
As for which episode I want to show, that's where the dilemma is. My immediate thought was to go with episode 4, which shows how awesome the main characters are at what they do while still maintaining their everyday personalities. It's also a very entertaining episode overall, with plenty of laughs.
However, that episode doesn't contain my favorite character in the series. I actually forget which episode he first shows up in, but it shows how epically awesome he is. Yeah, you read that right, I have a male favorite character from a series. I need to figure out which episode this is (I think it might be 5 or 6).
Dilemma, thy name is anime.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
I'm an idiot
I found my watch. It had fallen onto the floor between my computer and my desk.
The entire rest of this post is unrelated.
So I was actually testing Tales of the Abyss off of the hard drive with Mode 1 and MDMA0 set, but I've now found a battle that freezes the game on encounter and another right next to it that freezes after the fight is over. It's such a shame because the world map load times are still reduced even with the HDD speed slowed down.
The battle in question is on the Tartarus, when it's being attacked by Griffons and Ligers, and you see the cutscene with Largo. It's right next to the ladder that leads way up that Jade tells you to use to get to the bridge. I could easily run past the enemies, but a) I liek experience, and b) I don't know when it would be safe to start fighting again, and testing each encounter one by one would be tedious.
I can try the other compatibility modes, but I don't really have high expectations.
So fuck it. We'll just have to cope with the load times.
The entire rest of this post is unrelated.
So I was actually testing Tales of the Abyss off of the hard drive with Mode 1 and MDMA0 set, but I've now found a battle that freezes the game on encounter and another right next to it that freezes after the fight is over. It's such a shame because the world map load times are still reduced even with the HDD speed slowed down.
The battle in question is on the Tartarus, when it's being attacked by Griffons and Ligers, and you see the cutscene with Largo. It's right next to the ladder that leads way up that Jade tells you to use to get to the bridge. I could easily run past the enemies, but a) I liek experience, and b) I don't know when it would be safe to start fighting again, and testing each encounter one by one would be tedious.
I can try the other compatibility modes, but I don't really have high expectations.
So fuck it. We'll just have to cope with the load times.
easy mission is easy
I just did the first mission of Guild Wars: Nightfall 10 times on Hard Mode, once with each of my characters. I have one of each profession, so this demonstrates total ownage of what's basically the second easiest Hard Mode mission in the entire game.
This is because of their daily rotating quest system. Today's Zaishen Mission happens to be the first mission of Nightfall, Chahbek Village. Completing this mission on Hard Mode with the Master level bonus nets you 1000 experience, 250 gold, 100 Sunspear points, and 74 Copper Zaishen Coins. I'm saving up for the heavy equipment pack, which costs the outrageous price of 15 Gold Zaishen Coins.
They have an exchange rate for working your way up to the more valuable Zaishen Coins. 50 Copper = 1 Silver, and 10 Silver = 1 Gold. One Gold coin basically costs 500 Copper coins. There's also, for inexplicable reasons, a small gold cost for going up each level. So from the 740 Copper coins I got, I cashed in 700 of them and got a measly 14 Silver coins. Of those 14 Silver coins I cashed in 10 and got my third ever Gold coin. This is going to take forever.
Hard Mode makes enemies higher level (which grants them more health and affects the damage equation in their favor), and gives them faster movement and skill activation. The reason the mission is balls easy on HM is because it's a tutorial mission. Thus the groups are designed to not be very challenging on NM, which translates to a not very challenging HM mission. All throughout the mission various NPCs are talking about various aspects of the game and when you're doing it on HM you already know everything they're saying and you just wish they'd shut the fuck up.
Anyway, yeah, Chahbek Village is a really easy HM mission in Nightfall, and as previously mentioned I consider it to be the second easiest HM mission in all of Guild Wars, period. The easiest HM mission is Tihark Orchard, which is also in Nightfall, because it's a solo mission with no real fighting until the very end when you're aided by over 9000 NPCs that can usually kill the enemies on their own.
This is because of their daily rotating quest system. Today's Zaishen Mission happens to be the first mission of Nightfall, Chahbek Village. Completing this mission on Hard Mode with the Master level bonus nets you 1000 experience, 250 gold, 100 Sunspear points, and 74 Copper Zaishen Coins. I'm saving up for the heavy equipment pack, which costs the outrageous price of 15 Gold Zaishen Coins.
They have an exchange rate for working your way up to the more valuable Zaishen Coins. 50 Copper = 1 Silver, and 10 Silver = 1 Gold. One Gold coin basically costs 500 Copper coins. There's also, for inexplicable reasons, a small gold cost for going up each level. So from the 740 Copper coins I got, I cashed in 700 of them and got a measly 14 Silver coins. Of those 14 Silver coins I cashed in 10 and got my third ever Gold coin. This is going to take forever.
Hard Mode makes enemies higher level (which grants them more health and affects the damage equation in their favor), and gives them faster movement and skill activation. The reason the mission is balls easy on HM is because it's a tutorial mission. Thus the groups are designed to not be very challenging on NM, which translates to a not very challenging HM mission. All throughout the mission various NPCs are talking about various aspects of the game and when you're doing it on HM you already know everything they're saying and you just wish they'd shut the fuck up.
Anyway, yeah, Chahbek Village is a really easy HM mission in Nightfall, and as previously mentioned I consider it to be the second easiest HM mission in all of Guild Wars, period. The easiest HM mission is Tihark Orchard, which is also in Nightfall, because it's a solo mission with no real fighting until the very end when you're aided by over 9000 NPCs that can usually kill the enemies on their own.
where the fuck is my watch
Here's the story. I got home last night from Tales of Fridays. I made myself some T.G.I. Friday's Honey BBQ wings. When it came time to eat, I removed my watch and wrist brace, so I wouldn't get honey bbq sauce all over them.
After finishing the wings, disposing of the bones, and soaking the plates in hot water to loosen the remaining sauce, I went back to my computer for a while, then went to sleep.
When I woke up to go to CAINE's showing, I could not find my watch. Anywhere. It's not in its usual spot on my bedside table, it's not in my bathroom, it's not on my desk, and I've looked all around the kitchen including in both the freezer and the refrigerator, just for good measure. No watch.
I had to be a noob and check the time on my cell phone all night.
Dammit, I liked that watch too. I know it was just a cheap digital watch, but it was awesome. The LCD had enough extra display elements that it could display text. When you held the set button in it would say "Hold to set" on the screen. When setting things it had labels for all of the buttons that explained what they did, like "Done", "Next", "+", and "-". Also it could adjust any field in either direction, so if I went one minute past where I wanted to set my alarm to I could just go back as opposed to having to go around again. The numbers were huge as well, meaning I didn't need to shove my wrist in my face to see what time it was.
It was awesome and I want to find it.
After finishing the wings, disposing of the bones, and soaking the plates in hot water to loosen the remaining sauce, I went back to my computer for a while, then went to sleep.
When I woke up to go to CAINE's showing, I could not find my watch. Anywhere. It's not in its usual spot on my bedside table, it's not in my bathroom, it's not on my desk, and I've looked all around the kitchen including in both the freezer and the refrigerator, just for good measure. No watch.
I had to be a noob and check the time on my cell phone all night.
Dammit, I liked that watch too. I know it was just a cheap digital watch, but it was awesome. The LCD had enough extra display elements that it could display text. When you held the set button in it would say "Hold to set" on the screen. When setting things it had labels for all of the buttons that explained what they did, like "Done", "Next", "+", and "-". Also it could adjust any field in either direction, so if I went one minute past where I wanted to set my alarm to I could just go back as opposed to having to go around again. The numbers were huge as well, meaning I didn't need to shove my wrist in my face to see what time it was.
It was awesome and I want to find it.
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