HalfLife 2 Node graph out of date/ AI disabled

Howdy internet gamer kids. I don't know how many of you are into Half Life 2, I just started to play it again today on my newly installed Windows 7 x64 install and see this note in the upper right hand corner "64-bit mode active", reading this I was kind of excited, woo get to use the 64-bits to full effect, yes.

Anyways, my happiness was quickly replaced with annoyance. Each map start would have a message "Node graph data out of data" and something about recompiling or whatever...I thought fine, recompile I see no slow down or issue.

As I approached the doctors building I then see a statement "AI disabled" which stays on the screen in the lower right quadrant of the screen. Guess what all AI objects stopped working; pigeons sat around, and the swat like guys didn't attack me so that Alyx could come rescue me. Oh boy how can I play the game if the computer has been lobotomized?

I did a quick search for AI disabled what was returned was a console command to disable/re-enable the ai "ai_disable" which seems to be a Boolean variable. Pulling the console down "~" (remember that you must have enabled to console "developer access" in the Advanced keyboard settings) "ai_disable 0" allowed me at times to re-enable the AI and sometimes not.

With the AI re-enabled I was able to proceed past the attack and meet Alyx. Now Alyx calls the elevator to take us down to find the doctor, however, she cannot seem to see that the elevator is there or just doesn't know how to walk into the elevator. My hypothesis is that the rebuilt node graph is inaccurate or not working. With the help of some threads on steampowered forums I was able to add an automatically executed fixer to disable the node graph updates "ai_norebuildgraph "1"" with this in place I have not yet had another issue. I am midway through the lake map and hope that I see no further issues at all.

So in summary
1. Valve, please put someone on fixing the 64-bit build of HL2.
2. For anyone having trouble, I would recommend adding this auto command. or
3. You can also try running in 32-bit mode, add the -32bit launch option, in 32bit mode I had crash issues when at the doctors for teleporting so YMMV *Your Mileage May Vary".

Happy Gaming,
Craig

Wolfenstein 3D, still fun after all these years.

Just finished re-playing Wolfenstein 3D using NewWolf a OpenGL (video) and SDL (audio) rewrite of the engine. A little issue is that after killing each of the Boss's it doesn't end the map but, whatever you know you did it. It's a dead project but, it is the best Wolf3D engine rewrite.

The game is still hard, fun, and can get your blood pumping when you come around a corner and face down the Blue machine-gunner. And who doesn't like killing Nazi's (ah when good and bad was so black and white), except maybe German's. The map (TAB) gives you a little bit of a cheat at finding secrets. Be careful as you might go bleary eyed through some of the maps where the secrets are like impossible to get to all of them.

You'll be amazed by some of the great design and gameplay mechanics that were ahead of the games time, including enemies that patrol, specialized sounds (e.g. things farther away are softer than those that are close up, also things on the left and right are actually setup that way). You might want to search for the original game, not sure if the full version is legal to download, so that you can also revel in the nostalgia inducing game with NewWolf.

Apparently my musical tastes are not in the US iTunes store

Something is either a) horribly wrong with me, or b) horribly right.

MC Chris For the Win

Friday I went out to Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, NC (www.catscradle.com) to see MC Chris Live. It was amazingly fun. I only sat down once in the hour long set by MC Chris. The opening set by Whole Wheat Bread was a lot of fun too.

Anyways, check out MC Chris' Left 4 Dead rant on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kje_iluojts

240Hz? Why?

So, you might have read one of my previous posts discussing 120Hz, the technologies and what they solve. I recently read that Sony has released a 240Hz model, I am at a lose as to what this solves, it only allows there SmoothMotion, Automotion, whatever interpolation algorithm more chances to change the original picture to something new.

As we know, traditional NTSC broadcasts are 60Hz (30fps), movies are 24Hz (24fps) and Digital broadcast is an amalgam of 24Hz (24fps) and0 60Hz (both 30fps and 60fps for interlaced and progressive). And we also know that these smoothing techniques are interpolation and create images that were never captured by the camera. So bottom line, 120Hz covers the entire spectrum of frame rates and there is no reason for 240Hz.

This is the same argument I had with European countries and the 100Hz LCD panels. In Europe the two primary analog transmission styles were PAL and SECAM both of which where 50Hz (25fps) and films are already modified (read slowed slightly) to be 25Hz (25fps)...so 50Hz covers both segments, 100Hz is unneeded and does not cover 24Hz (24fps)...so what are these companies thinking?

Oh wait, I know they are thinking that they can make a buck off of people who either a) do not understand film/video or b) just want the prestige of owning the latest and greatest gadget.

Anyways, enough of my rant. Please note, this discussion is only for LCD technology flat-panel displays.

Snow in NC?!!!

Check out some pics I took of the snow a few weeks ago.

Click the Image.