Teaser

A screenshot of my current project.

Supports reflection, refraction, area sources, depth of field and multisampling. Internaly, it uses Cocoa, bindings for the UI, and Grand Central Dispatch for asynchronous computations.

PCSX2 settings for Macbooks

I discovered recently that my Macbook Pro Unibody (i.e. mid-2009 models, but anything with a 9600M graphic chip should do) is good enough to run PS2 games at decent speed, provided you use a recent version of PCSX2. I spent a few days tweaking the settings - so here are my advices if you want to give it a try.

These settings are tested on a Macbook Pro Unibody 13” - but most of them should be valid for other architectures. First, some general configuration settings:

• Graphics:
  • GsDX works well - go for it
  • Use “Native resolution”
  • Use DirectX 10 to prevent a few minor glitches (like a faint grid around the characters). Plus it allows switching windowed/fullscreen on the fly.
  • Use F5 in-game to see which (de-)Interlacing mode works best for you
• Sound:
  • I didn’t played a lot with the settings, standard config will do
• CPU:
  • Don’t forget to activate the Multithreaded GS : you have a Core 2 Duo, right ?
• Speedhacks:
  • Generaly, you can check all the recommanded speed hacks - and disable just the most dangerous ones
  • “VU cycle stealing” as “Slight” is a good bet - try “Moderate” if everything runs well

And now some Shadow of the Colossus-specific tricks:

• Graphics:
  • You don’t have to use any (de-)interlacing mode : the game takes care of this itself. There is an in-game setting for Progressive Scan, which works well - but I personally thinks that the picture looks crisper in Non-progressive (i.e. interlaced mode), plus the game will produce a neat motion-blur instead of unmatched horizontal lines.
  • The game will be (very) slightly faster in 4/3 screen ratio (this is an in-game setting, btw)
• CPU:
  • MicroVU works fine - not really faster, but cleaner, they say. Here we go.
  • “Limit frames” if you want, but don’t use frameskip: the display flickers, and SotC already skips frames if needed
• Speedhacks:
  • SotC loves “x2 cycle rate”, and it is a big speedup
  • You can set “VU cycle stealing” to “Moderate” without major glitchs
• Advanced:
  • A neat trick for SotC is to set all “Clamp mode”s to “None” : big speedup expected

You should be able to play Shadow of the Colossus at somehow-full speed, that is without slowdowns. The framerate itself is often not very high, but I think the original game wasn’t much better : SotC is beautifull, but resource-intensive, even on a real PS2.

I also tried a CD of Final Fantasy XII, which runs even better : it is probably less resources-demanding. PCSX2 compatibility is very good these days, so give a try to every PS2 game you own…

NTIC

La bibliothèque publique de Champaign, en plus d’enregistrer les livres en 5sc par RFID, en plus d’avoir des Kindle, elle envoie des rappels pour les livres à rendre par courriel. Ça n’a l’air de rien, mais c’est futé, pas cher, et ça rend la vie plus facile. Ça, les enfants, c’est de l’adaptation aux nouvelles technologies, et c’est cool.

Oh, et tout cela est gratuit si on habite à Champaign — même de façon temporaire, et sans y payer d’impôts. Peut-être que la Vieille Europe ça veut vraiment dire quelque chose… Pas forcément en négatif, d’ailleurs. Mais en termes de liberté d’esprit, de facilité d’innovation.

Windows 7 install-party

Windows 7 install-party drinking game :

• One shot every thirty minutes the install or upgrade process takes.
• Two shot if you have to start over.
• Drain the bottle if it ATE YOUR GODDAMN DATA.

(from David Gerard)

As the upgrade process from Vista to 7 might take as long as 20 hours, it might be a fun game.

Besides this, if you install from XP, you have to perform a fresh install (no upgrade), which is actually quite fast.

Clic central pour Macbook

Si vous possédez un Macbook, et êtes fatigué d’avoir à maintenir la touche “Cmd” pour ouvrir un nouvel onglet dans Firefox (en utilisant “Cmd+Click”), je vous comprends. Après tout, il suffirait d’avoir une combinaison de doigts ou un geste sur le touchpad qui corresponde à un clic-central.

Réjouissez-vous, la fin de vos souffrances est proche : MiddleClick permet d’émuler un clic-central en tapotant le touchpad avec trois doigts. Ce qui vous permet d’ouvrir un lien dans un nouvel onglet, de fermer un onglet sans avoir à viser le bouton de fermeture, et toute autre sortes de merveilles.

And there was much rejoicing.