Bay 12 Games Forum

I really want to play this, but it lags so much. Maybe I'll try to update Java...

Won't fix the lag, unfortunately. It's entirely down to the developers' inadequate hosting, rather than the client itself (though that too is graphically laggy and inefficient).

Populous 3 is full of nostalgia for me. Whilst your terraforming abilities are limited, they can be abused against the AI for lots of mindless fun. Speaking of AI, I found it to be quite a challenge and not as dumb as you'd expect: I always tried sinking the land under their docks or blocking them in with landbridges, but the enemy shaman would always try to fix my meddling. And then plant a volcano in the center of my village.

The sound effects and graphics have a certain charm, too; classic Bullfrog. I highly recommend it, if it'll even play on modern machines.

For lulz: Volcano the enemy's reincarnation site, then cast a flattening spell at the summit. When she dies, she'll respawn on an inescapable plateau.

Sorry, I got my wires a bit crossed there; those programs I mentioned are for streaming, not actually recording. I'd say FRAPs is probably what most people use. To cut down on filesize you could try recording at half-size and with a lower framerate, but for the most part, you'd probably have to compress the raw data in ten minute segments (perfect for Youtube) before trying to record anything further, or you'll quickly run out of disk space.

As for FRAPs not picking up DOSBox, does DOSBox have any display settings you could tweak? Specifically, you might want to try looking for "hardware overlay", and see if you can disable it. Most screen capture softwares have a hard time recording anything that's using a hardware overlay, due to a whole bunch of boring and technical nonsense involving display layers and other stuff I don't fully comprehend; all I know is, I've wrestled with it in the past, and I hate it. HATE IT. But that's the only reason I can think of why FRAPs might not be playing nicely in that instance.

About the volume thing; I'm still on WinXP, so I'm not entirely sure how much Volume Control has changed in later Windoze. However, for me, I just go into Volume Control in Control Panel, select Properties, and switch to the Recording option. Then the sliders change to display all my recording inputs, like Line In, "What U Hear", Analog Mix, Mic, etc. I tick the box under "What U Hear", which allows software like FRAPs to pick up both game audio and mic audio whilst it records the video.

What I usually do is have the volume control set up to use "What U Hear" as its Recording source. Then you just have your mic on Line In and everything your soundcard produces is then broadcast; mic, system and all.

For capture software on a PC, you might want to try ManyCam at first. If performance is too laggy with that, VH Screen Capture is a much more powerful tool, but may take a while to configure properly. I'm using ManyCam right now (literally at this very moment, as it happens, lol) because VH's drivers are a bit fubared on my system at the moment.

Streaming from a console requires a Dazzle capture card or similar. I use an old Hauppauge 1100 TV card, though the quality is bad and there's a nasty video delay.

Hope that helps a bit, other more experienced LPers may give some better input.

Any game with ragdoll physics can keep me entertained indefinitely.

Case in point, Hitman; dragging people through narrow doorways, too narrow for their limbs to fit without bending backwards into impossibly awkward positions. "Sure you can do the splits, see? Easy!"

Other than that...

Final Fantasy 7. There's this one place, right at the beginning of the game, where several NPCs are supposed to run ahead of you through a door into the next area. I take a shortcut and block the doorway. They get stuck. I lol.

Assassin's Creed. Using the "Gentle push" action to harrass people. It makes Altair/Etzio pat women's boobs. Pointless, but hilarious, and the little 'pat' sound effects make it even better.

The Witcher. Running past people makes Geralt shove them out of the way. Rinse and repeat on the same NPC to completely stall them from reaching their destination.

Thief 3. Dropping oil flasks. Due to an engine physics bug, persuing NPCs who trip over tend to go flying forward at top speed, making this especially hilarious if triggered near a flight of stairs.

I guess he thought he 'bought' the sprites off you and have all the rights to use them as he likes. Not sure what's the norms among you guys game developers, though.

You're probably spot on. I suspect he's well aware that I've no right to complain, and that there's hardly anything I could do about it at this point, anyway. Very clever of him, but on the bright side, it's an important set of lessons for me to have learnt in a relatively harmless way.

Quote from: Moogie on June 21, 2010, 03:06:18 am

Nice to see the bastard is still using the graphics I made for Protector 2, without my permission or even knowledge. He basically took the work I did, gave me a small initial payment, and then never spoke to me again.

I wonder who else he's conned into giving him reusable assets?

WHAT? WHOA? Which graphics? All of 'em??

I did a large selection of monster sprites for "Reclaiming the Throne", including these guys. I was all set to work on future projects with the guy who actually codes the games, but I was told he'd accepted a job working for the people who develop (of all things) Runescape and he was no longer going to work on any independant projects. Two years and two Protector sequels later, this seems to not quite fit the picture.

I said it from the beginning, New Vegas would be little more than an expansion. A very good expansion, no doubt, but I've had arguments with people who swore blind that NV would be the best thing since sliced bread, and I just cannot understand the hype for it.