November 5th, 2009

New Epic 3D game engine toolset: Fabulous, fun, and free!

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 12:05 pm

Categories: Commercial, Community, Games, General, Licenses, Programming, Scripting

Tags: 3D, EPIC, Epic Games, Unreal Engine, Games, Personal Technology, Ed Burnette

This is big: Epic Games just announced the release of the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), a free edition of the Unreal Engine 3. It’s available to anyone interested in using 3D game engine technology, including game developers, students, hobbyists, researchers, creators of 3D visualizations.

The Unreal Engine is the technology behind popular PC and console games such as Gears of War, Unreal Tournament, Bioshock, Medal of Honor, Army of Two, and Batman: Archam Asylum. It’s one of the best game engines available today. See the UDK features page for more details on all of its capabilities.

Previously, if you wanted to use the Unreal Engine in your programs you had to enter into a very expensive agreement with Epic for access to the technology. A few years ago, Epic reportedly asked for up-front payments of as much as $8 million before your game was even developed! Now anyone can download the PC version of the UDK and immediately try it out without paying a cent or signing anything. As a former professional game developer, this is just amazing to me.

The Unreal community was going nuts this morning after the announcement. Some were shocked that Epic chose to release the entire engine and not just a crippled subset. As one poster put it,

“Man, one thing I hope you guys realize is that this is almost EXACTLY the engine build that we’re using here at Epic! You get every single feature that we’ve been using here that aren’t even in any games yet! We only got some of these features last week!”

Use of the new UDK is free for noncommercial purposes, but it can be licensed cheaply for commercial uses. For example you can use it to write a commercial PC video game and pay nothing up front and no royalties until your sales go over $5,000. See the licensing page for all the details. Currently, the free kit is only offered to PC users but Epic says console support is “under consideration”.

“Unreal Engine 3 has been used to create games in a wide range of genres, as well as military simulations, 3D architectural walkthroughs, animated movies and more,” said Epic VP Mark Rein. “Users are only limited by their imaginations. Go ahead, make something Unreal!”

Related articles:

• Epic Offers Free Unreal Engine 3 Dev Kit, New Licensing Deals
• North Carolina’s Research Triangle–“the hub of East Coast video games?”
• Never mind the recession, the Triangle computer gaming industry is booming

July 22nd, 2009

World of Warcraft Armory charms the iPhone

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 11:33 am

Categories: Games, General, iPhone

Tags: Apple iPhone, World Of Warcraft, Games, Personal Technology, Ed Burnette

Some friends at work recently introduced me to World of Warcraft (WoW), a massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) that runs on PCs and Macs. I’ve been playing these kinds of games for years, most recently Fly For Fun (FlyFF) but I’ve been wary to try new ones because I have a strong tendency to get addicted to them, invest lots of money and time, and end up with nothing much to show for it. I did try Wizard 101 with my kids for a month or so, but was turned off by the cost model (you get to certain points in the game where you just cannot continue without whipping out the ol’ credit card).

So it was with some trepidation that I created a WoW account. The addictive nature of the genre is still there, but it’s tempered by the level caps and relative ease of leveling. Experience is gained through quests instead of grinding away at monsters. For example on FlyFF one of my kids recently got a reward (a special title in his display name) because he had killed 10,000 of a certain kind of monster. It took him weeks of sitting in one area pressing the same sequence of buttons over and over killing the same monsters for hours at a time.

Besides experience points, levels, and fancy armor, one of the things you can do in WoW is to earn Achievements. Currently there are nearly 1,000 achievements you can win by doing things like reaching certain levels or making friends with certain races. Comparing achievements with your buddies online adds a whole other level of competition to the game. Which brings us finally to the iPhone app.

Read the rest of this entry »

December 15th, 2008

Buy a Dell, get a Wii

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 5:56 am

Categories: Dell, Games, General, Nintendo

Tags: Dell Computer Corp., Nintendo Wii, Engineering, Ed Burnette

A friend of mine recently decided to buy his kids a Wii for Christmas this year. After trudging to four different stores only to find “Sold out” signs, he gave up and ordered one from a guy on Craigslist for a “slight” premium. It’s too bad he didn’t wait a few days, because now Dell has a unique promotion. With the purchase of certain high-end computers Dell will throw in a Wii for list price. After discounts, the Wii is essentially free.

In the example above if you order this Studio XPS system you can get a Wii added for $249. That’s more than covered by the instant savings Dell gives you on this model normally. (Note that the screen says $249 but the Scrooge-like site actually adds $250 to the price if you select it.)

So, if you’re feeling Grinchy because you can’t find a Wii for little Timmy, here’s another option for you. Be sure to hang some extra-large stockings by the fireplace (with care) for Santa to fill with those extra batteries and controllers you’ll need.

October 29th, 2008

Top 10 Android apps for 10/29/2008

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 2:23 pm

Categories: Android, Games, General, Google, Java, Programming

Tags: T-Mobile G1, Phone, Android Market, Ken Magic, Games, Wiki, Telecom & Utilities, Personal Technology, Online Communications, Ed Burnette

The Android Market has only been open for a week to US users, with UK users coming online today. Developers have been able to register and upload their own applications for Android phones such as the T-Mobile G1 since Monday. Even so, close to 100 new programs are available now for free, with more being added every day. Here are the top applications and games (by popularity) in the Android Market as of this writing.

Applications

1. The Weather Channel - There are several weather programs available now but this one is on top due to its rich interface and quick updates. The only down side is the size - 1.4MB, which is relatively hefty by Android standards. If you want a smaller one you might want to consider
2. WikiMobile Encyclopedia - You could always to go the wikipedia web site, but this version is segmented and architected for the small screen and narrow bandwidth of your phone. In my opinion, though, Quickpedia is better.
3. CompareEverywhere - The best of the three barcode readers, from Jeff Sharkey. Right now it’s more likely to find your item than ShopSavy, but ShopSavy developers vow to make a comeback through agreements with retailers. We’ll see, it should be interesting.
4. MySpace Mobile - Stay in constant contact with your friends any time, any place.
5. Ringdroid - This is my personal favorite out of this week’s batch. It lets you edit any audio file (or even record one) and save a snippet as a ringtone, alarm, notification, or a new audio file. The user interface is far beyond most other Android applications at this stage (see screenshot above).

Games

1. Pac-Man - Namco’s port of the perennial favorite. What can I say, except turn down your volume before trying it: it’s loud! Works best with the little trackball on the G1 phone.
2. Solitaire - What computer slash phone would be complete without a game of Solitaire? Ken Magic’s take on it is graphically uninteresting and pixelated, but if you gotta play, you gotta play.
3. Brain Genius Deluxe - Beautifully drawn, but slow and not very fun. It’s also large, weighing in at a hefty 6MB.
4. CB Blackjack - Charlene the bikini wearing beach beauty is back in this, um, bouncy and somewhat fun version of Blackjack. It’s a poor fit for Android, though, looking more like a 16-color port of a J2ME rerun. Sorry, Charlene.
5. Bonsai Blast - A big game, at 6.5MB, but this one is worth the download. Try to line up three or more balls of the same color by shooting at a moving ball train with magic cards. Hmm, it’s easier to play than explain (see screenshots).

Honorable Mention

These applications didn’t make the top 10 list this week but I like them so I thought they deserved to be recognized here:

• mem - A simple but fun version of Simon. It even talks to you.
• Quickpedia - Another mobile version of wikipedia but this one is faster and more full featured.
• AnyCut - Creates shortcuts out of anything, including hidden activities inside of larger ones. For example you can go directly to the WiFi configuration with one touch.
• TuneWiki - Synchronized music and lyrics of your favorite songs.

What’s your favorite Android app? Let us know in the comments.

July 20th, 2008

iCrash: Buggy apps tarnish iPhone 2.0 appeal

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 9:45 pm

Categories: Apple, Games, General, iPhone

Tags: Apple iPhone, App, Engineering, Digital Music, Personal Technology, Ed Burnette

Installation problems, buggy applications, lack of trial versions, and a mediocre selection have dampened initial enthusiasm for Apple’s brand new iPhone App Store.

Not counting punishing server load when the store debuted last week, some users (like me) have encountered a series of obstacles to get apps to work at all. The first time I tried to install an application on my 8GB iPhone model after upgrading the firmware to 2.0 I got this error:

To fix this, you have to select Store > Authorize Computer… in iTunes, enter your Apple ID and password, and follow the instructions on the screen. If you don’t have an Apple account you have to create one, entering your credit card on the off chance that you may want to use a non-free application.

Once I had the authorization straight I got a bit further. Some apps installed OK, but on others I got odd errors like this:

Using the time-honored technique of “try, try again”, I was able to get several apps downloaded onto the phone. Whew, glad that was over with. Only one little problem: none of them worked. Not a single one, not even the copy of Super Monkey Ball that I paid $9.95 for.

Read the rest of this entry »

February 28th, 2008

Sudoku ported to Android

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 7:16 am

Categories: Android, Games, General, Google, Java, Linux, Programming

Tags: Touch Screen, Theme, Eclipse, Documentation, Emulator, Android, Android Life Cycle, Android SDK, Java Development Tools, Open Source

I’ve written a free Android version of Sudoku. It’s very basic, but after I clean it up I hope it will serve as a good example to beginning Android programmers. Here’s a screen shot:

The source code and binaries can currently be found here. Consider this to be a very early ‘alpha’ version. The code is rough, undocumented, it only has 3 puzzles, and it doesn’t know when you’ve solved the puzzle. But rather than sit on it until it was ‘perfect’ I decided to release it as-is. Future updates will address all these things.

Comments and suggestions for improvement are encouraged, but keep in mind this is a teaching example. Each feature should hold some lesson for aspiring Android developers.

I learned a lot when writing this. One thing is that Android documentation isn’t as good as I thought it was. Some parts are great, like the documentation for Activity and life cycles. But there are large swaths missing, like all the things you can do in XML resource files. Hopefully future versions of the SDK will fill out the missing doc pieces.

Here are some more features and lessons: Read the rest of this entry »

February 25th, 2008

Forget AMD, Intel should buy Nvidia

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 6:05 am

Categories: Games, General, Licenses, Patents

Tags: NVidia Corp., ATI Technologies Inc., Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Graphics, Intel Corp., AMD Stock, Mergers & Acquisitions, Chipsets, Investment, Finance

AMD stock is in the tank right now, so proposals have been circulating they might be an acquisition target. However this combination makes no sense to me, and it took me a while to figure out why. Intel should be the one buying, and they should be buying Nvidia.

Nvidia is basically a fab-less operation. They design the chips but outsource the manufacturing. Intel is king of the fabs. Nobody, with the possible exception of IBM, can touch their fab technology lead at this point in time.

Intel makes integrated graphics accelerators but they are universally panned in the reviews. They’re ok for spreadsheets and Solitaire, but if you want Unreal Tournament or Crysis, then you have to go with an add-on from ATI (AMD) or Nvidia. Despite the fact that most of the readers of this site probably have one already, the vast majority of computer users just make due with the integrated graphics. When AMD bought ATI enthusiasts hoped that the ATI graphics genes would find their way into AMD integrated chipsets, but it hasn’t happened yet. In fact one could argue that merger marked the beginning of AMD’s latest slide. Maybe an Intel/Nvidia merger would bear sweeter fruit.

Since AMD/ATI and Nvidia are the top two high end graphics card manufacturers, I imagine that there would be serioius anti-trust objections to any merger. By contrast, the product lines of Nvidia and Intel are complementary. And Nvidia has always had trouble getting official permission to work with Intel chipsets due to licensing issues. A merger would make those issues go away, giving the consumer more choice. Nvidia acquired some good talent and patents when it bought 3DFX; Intel could use that for its future plans and reduce the risk of lawsuits.

Finally, both Nvidia and ATI are working on novel techniques for massively multi-core computing. At SC07 “GPU computing” was all the rage. Using off the shelf hardware, programmers can get a 50x boost for certain scientific algorithms using the vector processors in a graphics card. Expect to see this trend continue, with 1,000 core engines available for a song later this year. Nvidia is the leader in this area. By teaming up with Nvidia, Intel could leap ahead of its rival and avoid some potentially nasty IP questions.

Intel and Nvidia are at the top of their games right now, so they both have high market caps on paper. A merger between Intel and Nvidia would be expensive, but from a technical and anti-trust point of view it makes a whole lot more sense than putting AMD/ATI and Nvidia together. What do you think?

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January 3rd, 2008

Nintendo to bring DS downloads to Wii

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 6:14 am

Categories: Games, General

Tags: Game, Nintendo Co. Ltd., Nintendo Wii, Kid, DS, Games, Personal Technology, Ed Burnette

According to the New York Times, Nintendo is moving their two top gaming platforms even closer together: the Wii, designed for casual gamers of all ages, and the DS, designed for players on the go. Both devices feature built-in WiFi connectivity. Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America’s president and chief operating officer was interviewed earlier this week:

Mr. Fils-Aime said that future DS device will be more tightly integrated with its Wii console. Complete games as well as game samplers will be able to be downloaded into the Wii using its broadband connection, and then transferred wirelessly to the DS.

Aside from whole games, other possibilities will be pursued. The ideas are being tried in Japan first before making their way to other countries:

In Japan, the DS’s functionality extends beyond its game-playing ability. There the device is used to give information during museum tours, and to download content from the Wii.Some of those features will eventually be introduced into the North American market as well. “To aggressively drive DS business we need to provide other forms of entertainment to excite the consumer,” said Mr. Fils-Aime.

The Wii continues to be a big hit at my household over a year after its release. The kids’ current favorite is Super Mario Galaxy. Innovative gameplay, rich character development, and tons of just plain fun have made the game a big hit. Warning: if you get vertigo, don’t even watch.

After playing Pokemon Diamond and Perl about a dozen times,  however, the DS seems to have lost some of its appeal with our family. That, plus the fact that no one can find their games (or most of the Wii remotes for that matter). WiFi connectivity on the DS has been a major disappointment so far due to problems connecting, the lack of games, and difficulty finding people to play against.

One friend can’t connect at all because his parent’s router is set up using WPA protection which the DS doesn’t support (or didn’t, last time we checked). Even for WEP, locating and typing in a 128-bit hex key doesn’t exactly say “ease of use”. But perhaps the promised downloading capabilities will breath new life into the portable and have us digging under the bed and in the sofa to find it again.

December 19th, 2007

New Duke Nukem Forever teaser released

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 2:13 pm

Categories: Games, General

Tags: Screenshot, Games, Personal Technology, Ed Burnette

“When it’s ready.” That’s when Duke Nukem Forever will be released. Six years after the last trailer was shown to the public, many gamers (including myself) assumed it would never be ready. Wired gave it a Lifetime Achievement Vaporware award in 2004.

But now out of the blue, 3D Realms has released a new teaser trailer. A single screenshot has surfaced as well (right). Does this mean our favorite cigar-smoking, foul mouthed, politically IN-correct tough guy will one day grace our PCs or consoles again? When reached for comment, Duke’s reply was unprintable.

For a complete Duke Nukem Forever history see Nick Breckon’s article, A Decade of Duke. “I was in 7th grade when DNF was announced,” he writes.

November 2nd, 2007

Hard drive? Wii don't need no steenking hard drive!

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 5:26 am

Categories: Games, General, Nintendo

Tags: Hard Drive, Nintendo Co. Ltd., Nintendo Wii, ComputerAndVideoGames.com, Ed Burnette

By any measure the Nintendo Wii has been a tremendous success. Thanks to its low price and innovative design the Wii continues to outsell all other next generation consoles. It’s fast, quiet, and cool. So why mess with success?

That’s why I’m always puzzled when people request Nintendo put a hard drive on the Wii. ComputerAndVideoGames.com writes “Have you filled up your Wii’s internal memory yet? We have and it’s bloody annoying.” Well I haven’t and I’ve been playing it hard since buying one from a scalper ebayer last Christmas. CVG writer Mike Jackson takes Nintendo to task for the omission. But he fails to mention that the latest XBox 360 Arcade version doesn’t have a hard drive either. The PS2, probably the most popular game machine ever, doesn’t have a hard drive.

With “storage in the cloud” of the Internet, and with solid state options like flash memory, hard drives are completely unnecessary. Suppose the Wii did have a hard drive. You know what the next complaint would be: “The Wii hard drive isn’t big enough,” or maybe “It’s too noisy,” or “It’s too expensive”. There’s no pleasing some people.

Well Mike, if it makes you feel better just pretend the Wii has a hard drive on the other end of its network connection. It’s a really big one that will never run out of space. It will never crash, it doesn’t require a noisy fan, and will never get demagnetized if your 8 year old leaves the fish tank magnet cleaner on top of the console.

Nintendo got where they are by ignoring conventional wisdom and doing things that other people thought were crazy at the time. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t, but God bless ‘em, we need more people like that in the world. Wii would like to play, not defrag our disk drives.

What do you think? Does the Wii need a hard drive?

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