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I played the free (if you own HL2) downloadable level for HL2 today. It’s called Lost Coast. It really isn’t much, very short. It was created mainly to demo a new feature called HDR or High Dynamic Range. It’s very impressive in my opinion. It is a technique used before in the film industry for color correction and computer animation rendering. With the power of today’s computers, it is finally being introduced in real time gaming. What it is, is basically a new lighting technique which replaces the conventional “fake” lighting placed in various rooms and scenes in the game. For example, in an outdoor stage, the entire world will be lighted by some kind of global illumination, when you walk into a house, the lighting will be darker, so the house has its own dimmer light. With HDR, it is possible to have just one light source that lights everything, even when you enter the cave. All the materials give off some kind of lightability, so the house will be lit by the same source as well as it pours through windows and doors and will automatically adjust. Also entering from dark to light will give you overexposure as well, just as how your eyes adjust in real life. You can see examples from the game and a better explanation here.
I understand the Day of Defeat: Source mod for HL2 is also using this HDR technology. And many of the next gen consoles can use this as it has been seen in Resident Evil 5. It will surely provide a more realistic experience in gaming.

If you’re like me and own a first generation first version Xbox console, and put it through some regular use, chances are you have some kind of problem with it. Whether it be a dirty disc error from the DVD-ROM even from brand new games or loud noises coming from the inside. I have both of these problems but one of which I can remedy. My Xbox makes a loud buzzing noise similar to a miniature lawn mower due to a craptacular fan on the processor. Luckily I was able to salvage a similar fan from a graphics card that fit well enough with some forced screwing. Now it hums like a dream. However, in the process of disassembly and reassembling, a wire from the modchip came loose off the motherboard. Of course, it had to be the one wire that is the smallest point and most difficult to solder, but I managed. All is well now. The Xbox is like the beat up car you always fix. American engineering!

I had my first Monster Energy drink couple days ago. It was the extremely large can. I got it because I had to study as much as I could and I was already tired from lack of sleep the day before. The drinks works, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a study aid. It’s such a funny feeling of wide awakeness and exhaustion that it was really hard to focus on anything. The exam would have been easy, if I had really studied and practiced. But I don’t know how well I did. It was a busy week overall school-wise. Monday I had to finish a project for Artificial Intelligence. Everyone is familiar with the 8 puzzle game. It’s basically those 3×3 boards with tiles scrambled up with one tile section missing so you can shuffle them around. My program basically solves whatever configuration you give it, if it is solvable. It works perfectly, and I’m pretty proud that I finished it. Very rare that I feel real accomplishment in my school projects. I also had a project for Computer Graphics which wasn’t too bad, but pretty time consuming. Basically programming OpenGL graphics. I’ve made graphics with software tools before, but programming straight code was kind of tedious.

Friday after I took the exam, I took the rest of the day off. Went to watch Doom with a school friend. I didn’t really want to watch it, but we had nothing else to do. My low expectations for the movie actually made it entertaining enough for 2 hours. I’m not saying it’s any good, just wasn’t terrible. Then I came home and started playing Shadow of the Collosus. This game is amazing. It’s easily one of my favorites of all time. I finished it today, it only took about 10 hours of game time to complete. The style of the game, music, art direction, everything was top notch. I just love the sheer size of the world and the Collosi you battle. If you’ve played or heard of ICO, this game was developed by the same team. I’m gonna have fun the rest of the weekend as next week is another busy school schedule.

I finished the 1st season of Veronica Mars recently, and it was awesome I must say. Then I watched the 1st episode of season 2, and lo and behold there’s a character with my exact name, first and last. I just thought that was crazy. I don’t recall ever seeing an Asian character with my first name before on anything. I just think it’s cool that a show finally represents a closer to reality variety of people. The show had quite a few Asian bit part characters, as well as Latino and Black major characters. Were there ever any Asians on Saved by the Bell or 90210? I don’t care where you’re at, a high school will always have consistent attendance from the Asian population.

I recently listed all my music CDs on half.com. I figure I don’t really listen to them anymore, especially all the hip hop/rap stuff I’ve grown out of. CDs don’t fetch much nowadays, a few rare ones can get me 5 or 6 dollars, but generally around the 1-2 dollar mark. I don’t mind, money is money and it frees up some storage space. It’s been going well. Just today I went to the post office and mailed out 10 items. Farewell, Bone Thugs n Harmony and Wu Tang Clan.

I also finished watching all of Veronica Mars today. Man were the last couple episodes crazy.

The early chill period of school is almost over, soon all the projects and homework start rolling in. I’m not sure if I’m prepared. I’m taking 5 classes and most of which are pretty difficult. One step at a time I suppose. Less watching TV and playing games should help, but I got 3 seasons of Angel to watch.

Friday night I drove down to LA to go see Serenity with my friend Matt. It was already his second time watching it. I’ve become a big Firefly fan recently, and the movie was incredible. Now I’m a super fan and I pray to God that they give us more in either movie or TV form. I’m loving everything Joss Whedon touches (except Alien Resurrection, which may not be entirely his fault). I also loved the movie so much I saw it again Saturday night with my brother. And I may very well go for the triple play and see it today with my girlfriend. I figure they could use my money anyway. I also got Angel seasons 3-5 on DVD in the mail today. Never got a chance to see them on TV, well, not in their entirety and in sequence. More Whedon goodness for my enjoyment. Back to Serentiy, I think it’s been well received by those watching it, but I don’t think the box office success will be anything staggering. Hopefully the support of fans will help revive Firefly/Serenity. Heck they brought back Family Guy based on DVD sales.

I also download all the available episodes of Prison Break as I never get a chance to watch TV on schedule. I’m loving this show. Can’t wait for the next episode on Monday. I was also recommended to watch Veronica Mars, so I got the entire season rather quickly (thanks bittorrent). I watched about 4 episodes and I really like it. I didn’t think it was my kinda thing. It’s about a girl in high school that’s like a private investigator in her spare time. The writing is pretty good, I think the writers worked on Buffy. So I’m good with the entertainment stuff, playing Half-Life 2, and several seasons of television.

Go see Serentiy! You don’t have to watch the show to get it, but it helps.