Oscillations
oscilliations by miguel chevalier transforms music into a huge 3D graphic mural style visualization.
What it’s like to go through a 9.0 earthquake AND tsunami
This video footage has been making the rounds. It shows what a 9.0 earthquake is like, and then after that is done, the resulting tsunami that comes in.
Requisite warnings – nobody is injured/hurt in the footage, but knowledge that thousands died during the event and the violence of the experience mean it might not be for everyone.
Unreal Engine resource viewer
This is a really cool tool (UE Viewer/uModel). I have used this several times to explore and export models and resources from various games. You just need to know what version of Unreal the game was developed with.
For example, I extracted a model from Dead by Daylight by pointing this tool at the pak file directory (…\Steam\steamapps\common\Dead by Daylight\DeadByDaylight\Content\Paks) and indicated the game was ‘Unreal Engine 4 version 4.21’.
Improving mental health with games
What if we could start treating mental health issues using games? The game Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice sought to capture experiences of those with mental illness – especially schizophrenia.
The Insight Project is a partnership with the game studio Ninja Theory and clinical neuroscientists. The video is a little bit pretentious, but is a solid idea.
Does VR have the ability to help diagnose and treat people deal with various mental health problems? I believe so. The ability to simulate the experiences of schitzophrenia (a disease that often sets in later in life) could help people recognize the symptoms and get treatment before their condition deteriorates. Many conditions such as phobias and anxiety are often treated with exposure therapy. A virtual reality environment might be the perfect place to set up environments in which people can be safely be exposed to their fears – with all variables controlled. People that need help with social anxiety could be treated with simulated situations to help them learn good interaction skills. I think this has some great potential to really improve lives.
Just like Begger’s Canyon…
DCS (Digital Combat Simulator) – one of the most difficult military aircraft simulators around. Just learning how to start the engines and take off is considered quite an accomplishment. Players are often known to have amazing setups like this:
An online group of friends call Grim Reapers do various amazing battles and competitions together using DCS. They’re quite a funny, and talented crew. Here’s a pretty good clip of them doing runs through a canyon full of AA:
If that doesn’t impress you, here’s an absolutely amazing competition to land their planes on an aircraft carrier. Carrier landing in game is known to be unbelievably difficult in the best of conditions, but these guys ramp the difficulty up to 11 and beyond…
Give their videos a watch. They’re pretty awesome.
Carbidschieten – A Netherlands New Year’s tradition
In the Netherlands, New Year’s Eve means partying hard. And partying hard means carbidschieten—detonating calcium carbide in a milk churn:
Basically, a small chunk of calcium carbide and a little bit of water is placed in a metal milk churn. The carbide decomposes into acetylene and a flame is held up to a small hole in the milk churn. The resulting explosion sends the lid of the milk churn across a field and much fun is had by all. Just be sure to wear proper ear protection. 🙂
Portland Winter Light Festival
The Portland Winter Light Festival was on Feb 6-8. While not as good as it was in years past (and really, really over-crowded this year), there were some good displays:
UFO’s finally explained
This guy mounted a 1000 watt LED light bar under his drone and creating some pretty amazing shots. Check it out. Opens some interesting photography ideas up for me. The ability to turn a spot location from night into day has some interesting implications…
Long Dark early releases
I have been a huge fan of the game The Long Dark. I bought a copy during early release (something I almost never do). It was only $5.99 or something at the time and I loved the game already for what it was.
Fast forward a few years (too many years IMHO – their development started in 2013, and here we are in 2020). The game has expanded and been re-worked numerous times – but that sense of wandering a beautiful but deadly frozen wilderness alone with only your wits to save you is very appealing. Cap that off with some really, really music by great composers famous for a number of large game titles music, and you’ve got a solid little sandbox game.
Unfortunately, I can’t say as I’ve liked all the changes over time, and still get really nostalgic for the old versions of the game. Well, I must not have been alone because other folks have asked the same. Now Hinterland studios has released Steam codes to go back to those early releases – called the Long Dark Time Capsule.
You can enter the following codes to get the various pre-release versions in steam:
| Release | Date | Branch name | Code | Notes: |
| v.119 | 09/22/2014 | z_tbd | 688jsRNQe6NkE3GV | Early Access |
| v.236 | 05/21/2015 | z_silenthunter | Myr9JbqSXm7qJxWP | 3 regions: mystery lake, coastal highway, pleasant valley |
| v.258 | 07/31/2015 | z_deepforest | 6BXgaAPncUz4umsA | |
| v.271 | 09/17/2015 | z_desolationpoint | 9uJcchMtNvpkKUUB | Desolation point |
| v.302 | 12/15/2015 | z_timberwolfmountain | L9mmQmZc48tEveTX | Timberwolf mountain |
| v.339 | 04/20/2016 | z_tirelessmenace | cFvvcA3bk7eZsLTe | |
| v.349 | 06/24/2016 | z_pentitentscholar | xgUqeYAhD5jhjsZX | |
| v.365 | 09/22/2016 | z_vigilanttrespass | q3EmEnt7wCc495TG | |
| v.393 | 19.12.2016 | z_resoluteoutfitter | TVnhrrydqtT8ta88 | Forlorn Muskeg |
| v.426 | 07.06.2017 | z_faithfulcartographer | hE72eT9KP5WtBCn4 | |
| v1.15 | 01.08.2017 | z_1.0launch | zEkBaxsFU6wu2rsa | Wintermute 1.0 launch |
| v1.30 | 07.12.2017 | z_ruggedsentinel | m3k5U5BzgGSECQ9d | Moose |
| v1.37 | 14.06.2018 | z_vigilantflame | d2Zvdbgare46aRps | Hushed River Valley |
| v1.47 | 17.12.2018 | z_wintermuteredux | 9LWcV267hKpHjg6w | Significant re-write of Ep1+2 |
| v.1.56 | 06.05.2019 | z_steadfastranger | cSY4ueT7TUDT62Xc | Revolver |
| v1.60 | 22.10.2019 | z_episode3 | BdZkXXpH6hqsbyZd |
https://www.thelongdark.com/time-capsule/
Instructions:
- Launch Steam
- Go to your Library
- Right click on The Long Dark in your Steam library and select Properties:
- Select the Betas tab.
- Input the Archive Build of your choice.
- Enter the code in the ‘Enter beta access code to unlock private betas’ box and click the Check Code button
- Select the branch from the drop down menu (z_timberwolfmountain/etc)
- This will update your installed version of the game to the branch. Once completed the branch name will appear next to the The Long Dark in your library list.
- To return to the latest release, simply go back to the Beta tab of the game and select ‘NONE’ at the beta dropdown.
Watch and listen
Ride along and listen to this great rider on her horse Simply Priceless. As a casual rider, I’m impressed and jealous of their bond.
Here’s an interview with the rider: