User talk:Geyser

Clean slate here, marking my change of status. I'm still an admin, and I'll be making a few contributions (mostly Edition brainstorming and todo). But you no longer should feel like you need my permission to carry out more or less radical initiatives. You're all big boys (as in grown-up boys with jobs), so there's no reason why you couldn't weigh the pros and cons of an initiative on your own. You just need to think of it for a while, not as the designer but as an implementer and an end-user; you have to try and take some distance with respect to every kick-ass idea of yours if you want to see what it's "actually" worth (good old cartesian doubt, sorta); experimenting with a bunch of pages in your user space is always a good idea if you're not sure whether your idea is somehow evil (you always have to ask yourself that before you embrace something tempting, right?). And if "it's not EZ being OC", then, heck, try not to be OC for a change, chances are that it will be easier... --geyser 03:19, 24 March 2008 (CET)

As for me, well, I'll try to maintain a minimal presence here, but I have an awful lot to deal with IRL. Truth is, I'll be lucky as hell to make it at all; I hold out hope that my dedication to Oni has not yet brought me to a point of no return, but either way these are going to be a very tough few months. Take care. --geyser 03:19, 24 March 2008 (CET)

Best wishes; I will miss your constant harassment on the wiki! In your absence, I promise I'll try to ask myself, "What would geyser say?", before making an edit. --Iritscen 15:05, 24 March 2008 (CET)

Really really on Oni-sabbatical now, until further notice. Expect nothing. Take care. --geyser 21:57, 10 June 2008 (CEST)

Enjoy your break from Oni. EdT

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Just in case, you are not visiting OCF, Loser is back and has come up with demo of a wall collision particle system: http://loser.oni2.net/Videos/Head2Wall_collision.wmv

http://oni.bungie.org/community/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=6944#p6944

EdT 15:25, 26 May 2008 (CEST)

Loser's intuition and patience are impressive as always. However, it can be a bit frustrating how he constantly comes up with something new instead of consolidating the hacks-so-far into something reliable and non-controversial enough to qualify as a release. Thus, the general TRAM hacks in the latest Edition bundles cause crashes via memory corruption. I've commented on that HERE. Oh well... We'll figure out something Soon Enough. --geyser 21:57, 10 June 2008 (CEST)

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Thanks for the comment on the YouTube video. I really don't know how to make adjustments with 3D meshes. Being able to edit the TRAC in .xml is great. It still needs a lot of work, like you said the pelvis height problem for one thing, but it is a fun start.

Here's the files: http://edt.oni2.net/AE_Files/motoko.zip

EdT 04:28, 27 May 2008 (CEST)

My adjustments to the meshes are mostly limited to selecting groups of vertices and moving/scaling them around. I try to keep the transformations consistent withe the model's symmetry, either by transforming self-symmetric group of vertices or by transforming a pair of symmetric groups in exactly the same way. In some circumstances I need to delete/subdivide/create triangles or weld edges, or to fix UV vertices. Those are rather simple operations after you've done them once or twice, but a lot depends on the quality of your tool's manual/help. Blender has very poor documentation (partly due to the fuzziness of the product itself), XSI's docs are wonderful. Dunno about Cheetah.

geyser 21:57, 10 June 2008 (CEST)

If you're interested I made some new weapons: http://edt.oni2.net/AE_Files/NewWeapons.zip It has Halo's assault rifle, an Uzi like machine gun and a shotgun. The shotgun is basically, the chaingun without sustained fire. However, if you continue to hold the mouse button down, the audio continues. I haven't figured out how to fix that yet.

Hope all's well with RL.

EdT 02:30, 29 July 2008 (CEST)

I can't say it feels OK to keep importing ripped Halo assets apart from the Spartan (I'd rather use original weapons or steal from other games). As for the shotgun and SMG, making Oni look like Counter-Strike is not much of an improvement, so this is not trailer stuff: prefer the weapon meshes that I listed on AE:BGI, which I think are original and futuristic in an Oni sort of way: of course they would gain from having unique firing properties and being more than just a bunch of bullet-spewing machines... but a "bap" (BGI AutoPistol), a shotgun and maybe a machine gun won't hurt and could actually make BGI troops look more badass (just a suggestion, though, dude: don't showcase a new weapon with a trite stand-and-fire sequence - rather, set up a moving camera, show a death squad of Spartan mow down TCTF/Strikers/civilians; don't forget clear views or close-ups of the weapon). Coming back to the shotgun: we'll come to polish the ONWC and PAR3 eventually, but in the short run (for the trailer) sound issues are irrelevant.

geyser 11:34, 29 July 2008 (CEST)

Good points about the weapons, I picked these models as a starting point since they had textures. Looked at the weapons on the BGI page. the lack of textures is a problem for me, I'm not good with graphics at all, (the Delorean as an example). But I'll work on getting the models ready for Oni.

I was reading the comments on the AE Trailer page and its obvious you have a plan for the Anniversary Edition. Currently, as a community we are going in all sorts of directions, trying out different things, which in a way is good. For ex Paradox's Imago project. Perhaps to get more organized, can you make a single page called AE:Roadmap with your ideas about the direction AE could take. I noticed you already made a few pages such as AE:BGI, AE:Ninja, AE:Training, but they get lost in the wiki. So a Roadmap page with links to these pages could help to focus our attention. The same roadmap could also be posted to OCF for the lurkers to take note and some may come out and help.

FYI, I have been trying to find some Mac programmers that could help with the Mac engine, but so far, no success.

EdT 15:49, 29 July 2008 (CEST)

"the lack of textures is a problem for me" I know, but you can always use THESE (pointed out on AE:BGI below the main list). Also, the "BGI autopistol" HERE has perfectly good UVs, so maybe ask coool or someone to have a look. That's a good point, actually - who in the community can texture a gun that has UVs (THIS one)? who can texture a gun from scratch (THIS one)? no one? then we're screwed, aren't we? how will a roadmap involving these guns make us less screwed?

"as a community we are going in all sorts of directions" I feel bad about assuming project lead (I'm on Oni-sabbatical, remember?) and I sorta hoped for some kind of resonance among the more motivated and creative community members, meaning that someone who's talented, dedicated to Oni and aware or the possibilities wouldn't just sit and goof around... and would instead either make something awesome on their own, or maybe discuss specific skills and priorities with a guru (like, me). A digest roadmap is a lot of work, and I don't even have a TODO for a "team of geysers" that I could dump right now. Also, if there's no one in this community who can make a simple wiki page that links to AE:BGI, AE:Ninja, AE:Training, etc... then we have a problem. You can see those pages, Ed. You can see they're "lost in the wiki" and you think they'd be interesting to "lurkers". So what the blam are you waiting for?

So, don't expect a detailed roadmap for the Edition from me at the moment. I might post requests for trailer footage though: that's much more to-the point than issuing directives to hypothetical modders without a clear consensus or deadline.

geyser 18:20, 29 July 2008 (CEST)

"I feel bad about assuming project lead". Buuut... you are the lead on the Edition, and always have been. If you have to take a sabbatical, I won't argue with that (Real Life > Other Stuff). But, frankly, you haven't always been open to other people's ideas as to where to go with Oni-related things, so I can't see you somehow sitting back and letting someone else guide the Edition, plus, you're the one who works closely with Loser, Neo, etc. I personally wouldn't want to be the one to take over and then get criticized by an occasionally-active geyser who drops in once in a while with a bombshell after lots of work has already been done.

P.S.: I don't speak for Ed, but it seems unfair to say "You can see those pages, Ed" as if the Edition is a completely democratic collaborative effort, when really you're the one with the plans for the Edition, and how can Ed know what you're thinking? I would be glad to be a substitute taskmaster, trying to corral people's efforts towards AE stuff, if I had any idea what specifically you had planned. If Ed hadn't pointed out those AE: pages, I wouldn't have ever seen them. They're orphaned, yet don't show up in the "Orphaned pages" list. All things considered, I still think the only efficient way for the AE to move forward is for you to use whatever time you can spare to manage it yourself. It would help if you made a page like "AE:Content needed" to let us know what's going on in your head, with needs listed item by item. The more we work together, the faster the AE can get finished.

--Iritscen 19:33, 29 July 2008 (CEST)

Perhaps I didn't make it clear up there, but I sorta hoped for some kind of creative resonance with "fellow geysers", open-minded and patient enough to take in the to-do that I've been outlining for a year or so (primarily on OCF). I expected those motivated and talented people to contribute modular things that are prominently featured in the AE forum (I mean, the DeLorean has been around for ages, you'd think someone would have retextured it by now, right?), and if they can't find a subproject suiting them, they'd go and find me (that's what's been happening with Gumby; we kinda sat down and figured out he'd do particles for new weapons). All in all, this hope for a "team of geysers" is not totally delusive, but I understand the frontend is less dense and "itemized" than most of the potential contributors would expect it to be. One reason why I'm not too motivated to draw a roadmap is that I'm not confident that major extra motivation and organization would ensue: I wanted to see at least one "fellow geyser" show up first... and all I see is people like Loser and coool who could do great but keep goofing around without consolidating anything ^_^ There are ready-to-work-on items all over OCF and all over the wiki, and no one is working on them; how would an itemized list change that? that's just bureaucracy, that's what.

About the meta-orphaned AE pages, don't get me wrong: I was just encouraging you or Ed or whoever to link to them from OCF or Current events or wherever. I meant to add more of those and I meant to consolidate them as a roadmap, but I haven't done so, OK? and, the situation being what it is, I'm not the only one who can do something about those pages being completely invisible, am I? If you identify me as the project lead and shy away from any initiative, you're in for a long wait and possibly a big disappointment at the end. If I didn't have a job, I'd design and author the Edition pretty much by myself, but that is not gonna happen. And you can't expect me to consistently detail in words everything I'd do and how exactly I'd do it, because that's even more time-consuming for me than sitting down and doing it all myself. The best I can do is mini-pages like AE:BGI, AE:Ninja, AE:Training, when I'm in the right mood for delivering accurate and concise summaries of my visions. I could also make other, more specific mini-pages, like AE:DeLorean, and then I'd just let Iritscen slap a nice little "cat" onto all those (something like "Category:AE_roadmap", maybe embedded in a template). Then the category's page could eventually be filled in with a nice big outdated list (really, who'd keep "AE:Content needed" up to date? the same people who look after the OniSplit page, huh? would you leave it all to me? why, thank you...), but I doubt that'd be necessary: just a category, and specific mini-roadmaps and discussions on the respective mini-pages.

get criticized by an occasionally-active geyser who drops in once in a while with a bombshell after lots of work has already been done if those look like lots of work to you, then you're simply not fluent enough. Every development process involves a few iterations, and unless I give you lots of concept-art and verbose-like-crazy explanations aforehand, there's no reason why you'd create something beyond revision (unless you're a "fellow geyser"). I'm ready to work closely with Gumby and Loser and coool and whoever, but this implies a repetitive (if not intensive) back-and-forth exchange of tentative content and constructive criticism. When I tell you "your HD Griffin doesn't suck by design, but the mesh is FUBAR and overkill, here's one I made in response to yours, why doncha scrap yours and work off mine" - that's one such iteration, and it's supposed to get "the AE to move forward". Then it all depends on how much my analysis and authority are worth to you, of course, but you can't avoid iterations altogether.

you're the one who works closely with Loser, Neo, etc only with Neo and SFeLi, and previously Alloc. Loser is secretive and unreachable, maybe because he actually wants to preserve that autonomy of his.

Anyway, like I said to Ed, don't expect anything in "Category:AE_roadmap" from me right now. It's much more of a priority to define/design/author specific content for the Trailer. In that respect, the closest thing to a roadmap is a list of needed scenes. Once you take those scenes in, you can try to figure out what they imply for the Edition, or you can just author those scenes blindly, concentrating on the intrinsic awesomeness. I hope to do a brainstorm dump on the AE:Trailer page tonight. Actually, I ought to have done so instead of writing all of the above, but probably those things needed to be said as well. Hope I made myself clear.

geyser 12:12, 30 July 2008 (CEST)

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geyser, is there a way to get the members from the Russian Oni forum involved with the AE Trailer and other aspects of AE? It seems we need more help with getting the video clips made. Currently, I'm only able to spend a short time on the computer, this shoulder injury makes it painful to work on the computer, so I can't do much. EdT 07:09, 12 August 2008 (CEST)

I've been in contact with the OniMia community all along (actually posting there). The placeholder texture for the DeLorean was made by a fellow Russian (Ricker a.k.a. Iritscen.ru ^_^). There is a good artist (SeverED) who's seriously looking into texturing, and a couple of fluent modders. The problem is that those few fluent modders (who are apparently the only people capable of authoring something awesome or showcasing it in an awesome-looking way), those guys typically can't be told to sit down and "script something awesome", because they work on inspiration, and fail to be inspired by the trailer's "roadmap" for some reason... But heck, since we're all certified procrastinators, it makes sense that people tend to avoid responsibility and tangible results, continually losing focus: just who in the community is concentrating on trailer content right now? No surprises here. Ultimately, the only way to get anyone to "do what's necessary" seems to be for me to nag them into it personally (as in relentless IM or forum spam), and I clearly have only this much time to spend on "coaching" fellow gurus. Perhaps it would help motivate people "spontaneously" if a couple of truly awesome scenes were already edited for or into the trailer draft, setting the tone for scene dynamics, creativity and all that. But the sad truth of all this is that it's unlikely that we'll meet the deadline unless I sit down for a day and record 75% of the required footage myself. That's OK, though, because the editors of the Septagonal Gazette have been uncooperative, and the public awareness of the Edition is still nil.

geyser 12:44, 12 August 2008 (CEST)