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[Tenguman]

er -s

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/08/11/news_6104680.html

Carmack's rocket crashes and burns
A $35,000 test rocket created by the Doom 3 designer's Armadillo Aerospace topples and smashes into the ground.

In an ironic footnote to John Carmack's recent success, the id Software founder and Doom 3 engine creator ran into a little trouble on the launch pad last weekend. Carmack's Armadillo Aerospace, a research and development team that is designing computer-controlled rockets, launched a $35,000 rocket that promptly tilted to the side and crashed into the ground in spectacular fashion, opening a demonic hole into hell that unleashed waves of evil demons. (As Carmack says, "It’s a good thing Doom 3 is selling very well.") The team is hoping to eventually design and launch a manned rocket into outer space to win the $1 million X-Prize, but it seems that they may have some more work to do. A video and detailed description of the crash are available on Armadillo's Web site.

 

[DCharlie]

"In an ironic footnote to John Carmack's recent success...."

why is this ironic???

 

[xabre]

lol

 

[Bruce Vilanch]

"In an ironic footnote to John Carmack's recent success...."

why is this ironic???

BECAUSE YOU'D EXPECT A VIDEOGAME DESIGNER TO BE ABLE TO DESIGN AN AWESOME FUNCTIONING ROCKET SHIP

 

[xabre]

If his Doom 3 programming skills are anything to go by, such as shitty shadow projections from the flashlight, then you'd expect his rocket to crash. Can't fool the laws of physics Johnay Carmackage.

 

[DCharlie]

"BECAUSE YOU'D EXPECT A VIDEOGAME DESIGNER TO BE ABLE TO DESIGN AN AWESOME FUNCTIONING ROCKET SHIP"

indeed - it's not like it's rocket scie....


oh wait.

 

[Baron Aloha]

If his Doom 3 programming skills are anything to go by, such as shitty shadow projections from the flashlight, then you'd expect his rocket to crash. Can't fool the laws of physics Johnay Carmackage.

And I suppose you could do better?

 

[LinesInTheSand]

And I suppose you could do better?

He isn't trying to, so that's a pretty stupid thing to say.

 

[Tenguman]

 

[xabre]

And I suppose you could do better?

Imagine if Carmack was a rocket programmer for NASA, imagine all the innocent astronauts that would plummet to their death from his corner cutting programming skills. I think a simple "If you can't do it, don't" applies here.

 

[WHOAguitarninja]

If his Doom 3 programming skills are anything to go by, such as shitty shadow projections from the flashlight, then you'd expect his rocket to crash. Can't fool the laws of physics Johnay Carmackage.

The shadow projections from the flashlight are just fine, it's just the viewpoint and the fact that the light expands at the exact rate as your fov that makes it look odd.

Don't beleive me?

Go into one of the bathrooms and go up to the mirror. Switch your flashlight on and off. watch as yoru hand swings around behind you to switch, when the light hits the urinals/whatever. The shadows form exactly as they should.

The flashlights are fine.

 

[xabre]

The flashlights are fine.

I'm not saying shadows aren't being projected, the point being that that shadows do not project onto surfaces behind the object as they should, they just seem to hang in mid air like a silhouette which is pretty ridiculous. For example, if I shine the flash light onto a wire fence, you would expect the shadow of the fence being projected onto the wall behind the fence but in the case of Doom 3 the shadow just hangs in mid air. It looks pretty cheap to be honest.

 

[Tenguman]

The flashlights are fine.

Except, last time I checked shadows don't form in mid air

 

[Mister Zimbu]

Nitpicking is fun!

Doesn't change the fact that Doom 3 is still (and will be) the best looking and best running FPS for awhile.

 

[sprsk]

didnt have enough metal and pentagrams, and maynard.

 

[DCharlie]

"I think a simple "If you can't do it, don't" applies here"

... what?

The effect is convincing enough for me, the fact that it's not 150% perfect doesn't mean it should be pulled from the game.

If we took that stance with every facet of a game, we'd have to have a mass gaming cull.

 

[aaaaa0]

If you read the log, it seems this crash was caused when the rocket ran out of propellant during the flight because the warmup consumed more fuel than expected...

Damn.

 

[WHOAguitarninja]

I'm not saying shadows aren't being projected, the point being that that shadows do not project onto surfaces behind the object as they should, they just seem to hang in mid air like a silhouette which is pretty ridiculous. For example, if I shine the flash light onto a wire fence, you would expect the shadow of the fence being projected onto the wall behind the fence but in the case of Doom 3 the shadow just hangs in mid air. It looks pretty cheap to be honest.

The thing is...they're not hanging in midair. It seems to look that way due to the nature of the way the light expands in relation to your viewpoint, but doing what I just said to do will show you that the shadows really are projected onto surfaces.

EDIT-

Just tried something else to make sure i wasn't talking out of my ass here...

if you STILL don't beleive me, do this.

type "bind p toggle pm_thirdperson" in the console (ctrl+alt+~)

Now go to the beggining of the enpro level(or any level...enpro just happened to work nicely), and go sortof close to the right edge of the entrance, and watch as he moves his flashlight around. The shadows are cast exactly the same as they would be from any other light source in the game. Like I've been saying all along it's the angle of the flashlight, the fact that expands at the same rate as your fov, and the place from where the light comes that makes it just look like a solid black mass of shadow, and not like it's being accurately cast.

 

[dark10x]

I'm not saying shadows aren't being projected, the point being that that shadows do not project onto surfaces behind the object as they should, they just seem to hang in mid air like a silhouette which is pretty ridiculous. For example, if I shine the flash light onto a wire fence, you would expect the shadow of the fence being projected onto the wall behind the fence but in the case of Doom 3 the shadow just hangs in mid air. It looks pretty cheap to be honest.

Whoa whoa whoa...chain link fences fences and the like are a little too complex for stencil shadows (heck, stencil shadows don't even work with alpha textures).

I believe the method of casting shadows from the flashlight was chosen as a compromise between speed and visual quality.

Imagine if Carmack was a rocket programmer for NASA, imagine all the innocent astronauts that would plummet to their death from his corner cutting programming skills. I think a simple "If you can't do it, don't" applies here.

The guy isn't WORKING for NASA. He doesn't have even a fraction of the resources available to NASA. Programming a game engine is very different (I seriously hope you realize the difference). Corners are cut and tricks are used quite often in game programming. Surely you were aware of that...

 

[Ferrarisimo]

It'll take more than a patch to fix that crash!

...

I apologize for that.

 

[tedtropy]

Poor rocket, probably didn't have an adequete enough video card to run...