Harping for a thunderbolt external drive. Nah.

I've been meaning to move my Caldigit FW800 drive that houses all my samples over to a portable thunderbolt drive - mainly to reap the speed benefits, as well as to lose the power adaptor (plus I have 2 thunderbolt ports doing... nothing), and I went down to (probably) the only place in Australia you can buy it - the Apple store. Sadly (thankfully!) they were out of stock. A bit bummed, I ran around the usual suspects, Harvey Norman, Dick Smith, JB Hifi etc. They carried mainly WD and Seagate stuff.

WD portable drives form the bulk of my backups, and the are a damned good bang for the buck for what they are. However, for my sample drive, I want something faster to stream my samples. Now, I'm quite thankful for the thunderbolt drive being out of stock, as I realized that thunderbolt is kinda pointless for a single standalone 7.2k rpm drive. After looking at specs, even usb3 won't get maxed out by a single 7.2k drive.

After some hunting around, it seems MSY has in stock some HGST Touro S drives. 7.2k, usb3, 1tb. Just what I want. Probably going to pick that up over lunch tomorrow. Once I get rid of this Caldigit housing (it's not bad, fw800 + usb3) and move to the bus-powered Touro, I won't have to wait weeks for the sample drive to arrive by post - and save on postage!

Unity 5.0, my kindle, and a banana.

No, they are not related at all. As the self-proclaimed Most Boring Person with a Blog, I have to put in something more boring in addition to the boring stuff I post.

I ate a banana today*.

So, with regards to my Kindle - it's the 3rd generation keyboard, 5 years old now? - has been acting up recently. Freezing and resetting suddenly. Been _slightly_ tempted to used this excuse to upgrade to one of the new ones with the backlight - would be super to read in bed without the ceiling lights on.

But anyways, as I'm saving up for my dream aircraft carrier and can't really justify buying a new kindle, a quick google search had me taking the kindle apart, and lo and behold, the rattling that was going on inside, was due to loose screws! Those little buggers must have been the cause of my freezes. Got them screwed back in what I hope are their correct positions. Will know shortly if this is truly the cause, or if I truly need to speak to my banker about buying a new kindle.

For all the electronic toys I have, the kindle is probably the one I keep in the highest regard, and will definitely replace if lost or damaged.

Finally, Unity 5 got released today! Surprisingly, the free version (rebranded to "Personal Edition") comes with many coveted features only previously available in the pro editions - which cost a pretty penny - the profiler is now available, as well as render to texture and other nifty toys. This is apart from the new toys released in 5. And it's "free".

Basically, if you earn more than 100k gross a year, you need to get the pro version. This is perfectly fine for dabblers like myself, but many people are grousing that the key feature that they want, in the pro version is the removal of the Unity logo at the start up of apps and games.The cost to remove the logo can run up to several grand, in order to obtain the pro version. And now, with all the key pro features available in the Personal Edition, and not everyone needing the pro features, makes it sort of a tough sell. This, is from someone on the outside looking in.

Drawing a parallel to Houdini, which has 3 tiers - Apprentice, which is Non Commercial, Indie (my license!) which is valid for those who gross less than 100k a year with minor restrictions, and of course the full blown commercial licenses for Houdini/FX. Indie has got to be popular, I got it mainly to support sidefx, and because its 200 bucks. It's finally finding use with Unity.

I would think Unity would gather a fair bit of support (and maybe revenue!), if there was a middle tier that caters to devs who earn less than 100k, but would like the logo removed. It would slot right in perfectly with Hindie. But that's the random pitter patterings of the Most Boring Person with a Blog.

Right, unity's finally downloaded. Time to launch!

*and bananas are delicious.

Jupiter Ascending - what's up with it?

I honestly think my tastes must be at some perpendicular angle to most people. What's wrong with Jupiter Ascending? I absolutely enjoyed every minute of the show! For some reason, it gave me very familiar feelings, similar to that when playing Final Fantasy - to be brought into another world. And I really enjoyed my visit.

Spoilers Ahead:

Loved the ship designs, loved the detail inside so many of the sets, loved the otherworldly architecture. It's quite a universe. The technobabble at some parts just gave me a big grin.

On the flip side, there were things I that were poking in my mind like: why didn't the processing plant or whatever it was inside Jupiter like collapse like paper when wolf-dude cracked through it? The gravity that deep inside a gas giant has to be crazy. Even if the main structure is able to survive, I do not see how regular people could survive - the atmosphere should have vented near-instantaneously.

And what's more, what's with that processing plant doing inside jupiter? Like the bad guy wasn't supposed to harvest earth for awhile longer until he learnt about Ms Jones. Or do such processing plants just standard operating procedure when a planet for harvesting is seeded?

The story also felt somewhat rushed, I thought the idea of 3 siblings trying to figure out what to do with the re-born empress was quite undeveloped, and generally just not very cohesive. I get what's going on, but maybe more time could be spent developing it.

Defo would love to watch it at another time. Don't think I got my name in the credits though. Boo....

Houdini Random Dungeon Generator

Title says it all :3 My long term plans are to use this to generate some kinda data as input into Unity.

Houdini - Unity - Vertical Cross from Lat Long map HDA

Bit of fun this evening :) Writing out vertical cross maps from a lat long map input. Have a few times I've been needing to do this, so might as well create a Houdini Digital Asset to streamline stuff to one-click.

Houdini OpenCL kicking butt!

Spent some of this evening moving stuff to my new laptop, and also got the latest production build of houdini to play with. H14 now runs absolutely smoothly on osx 10.10 - previously on 10.8 houdini would crash when I select a point! According to forums this is a open gl 3.3 thingy, not available on the older osx. Should have upgraded, but I had too many fun mini-projects going on to deal with a major os upgrade.

Last I did major upgrades of osx... nothing happened. But you never know, and dealing with os upgrades and stuff like that - I avoid it if possible.

OpenCL also works a treat! Running a smoke solver with openCL make a tremendous difference in sim speed. On the flip side, in order to get that speed, we're not supposed to use caching and other things, which affects workflow. Perhaps simming at mid-res on the cpu + cache will be good for judging the performance, then running the full sim at high res with OpenCL...

That said, my gfx card only has 2gb of ram; it's not going to do sims as large as what the main cpu memory can handle.

EDIT: OMG Grain solver runs pretty swift on opencl! RAR RAR RAR!

Big jump, houdini 14. Can't wait for Unity 5 to be released then I can play with Houdini Engine :3

Houdini + Unity FTW

Testing out how a character in Houdini can be brought over in Unity. Appears to be quite straightforward, and once inside Unity, the rig is picked up automagically! Afterwords, setting up an animation controller to retarget some random animation clips into the imported rigged character is very straightforward.

No idea what I'd do with this info hmm.

Spring Is Here!

A short piece I got inspired with last night! Harpsichord doing some good 'ol alberti bass, and I've taken the cello up to its highest register. Yum!

Exploring A* in Unity!

So I was introduced to Shattered Pixel Dungeon last week, and interestingly, it's not as addictive as I thought it'd be. It's great to spend a few turns playing it before bed or whilst on the can.

Pathfinding isn't something new, and I've actually coded A* in C++ years ago... not sure if it's still on the blog somewhere. But I was like.. yeah, pathfinding rules! Let's code it up in Unity! Plus I've not had a chance to play with the new UI in 4.6, so this was good fun.

The distance parameter, H, changes the results quite dramatically. Originally, I used the Manhattan Distance (I was following this tutorial) and while you get a solution, it was quite meh. Changing it to simply the distance between the selected node and target provided a much improved result.

Weather!

The weather this week has been craaazy! The earlier part of this week saw temperatures in the high 30C, and it was nigh impossible to sleep at night. I only have a ceiling fan, and with the poor circulation, it takes a long while to cool down. Some night I could only sleep probably after 2-3am >.<

Last night though, the temperature dropped crazily, and this evening, I actually found I really missed my jacket as it had dropped to 16 degrees C! The next week is forecasted to have very nice temperature and wet at the same time.

Even landmarks get festive!

Haven't left the apartment other than heading out for a swim or to buy groceries. XD

Sometimes I wonder why I learn CG...

I guess I'm feeling a little lost, as I'm not yet feeling the love for the classical pieces I'm working on at the moment, and I have to be one of the few people who have never touched a guitar till their mid thirties!

Granted, the guitar is quite enjoyable, but I never got into the crazy in-depth keenings when I was learning other instruments. I'm like... "yeah, not bad, making progress with this hal leonard book..."

And I only have *one* book, amazingly. Maybe I've gotten a bit more miserly, as I had a friggin' stack of sax and piano books.

......

Oh right, I forgot... the traveling around for work bit. Riiight. XD

......

The music so far that really draws my soul in, is actually lute music transcribed for guitar - more accurately, Early music. However looking at those pieces, I think they are still a leeeeetle too advanced for me at my stage.

Plus, I really want to figure out how to write for CG.

Maybe you'll see me with a glockenspiel next.

No, a marimba is more likely. XD

Houdini Cube Maps

There are a few built-in ways to generate environment maps in Houdini - they can be auto-generated by each object, and you'll need to use the isixpack command line tool to combine them, or render a polar environment map with a camera and use hdrshop to convert to whatever format you need. The isixpack workflow is a tiny bit annoying and I wondered if it could be possible to generate a map like this at a go directly without isixpack. Also, I don't run windows, so HDRshop is out of the question for me.

Came up with this idea of using Mantra's UV space rendering to render a cube with its UVs laid out in the vertical cross format. And the shader simply shot a ray into space (the direction vector is simply current object space position, as my cube was at the origin). Good fun. Now to do something more productive, like figure out bullet constraints in-depth.

Path of the Reindeer

So, this is the piece of music that has got me thinking about laptop upgrades. This evening, I found some resources online that allowed me to get MIR working - basically 1024 buffers and large processor buffers in Logic - and most of the time it gets by without buffer over runs. The next assignment I have will be much simpler, harp with 4 percussion instruments, no worries there!

Laptop Amortization

This weekend has been a busy one... kind of. I've been working on my music assignment for about 3 weeks and finished writing all of it in Printmusic on Saturday.... then decided to spend the rest of the day reading a book :P

Most of Sunday was spent sequencing the written music - that's the process of making actual audio from a score. The sounds I use are from VSL, which are one of the top companies for writing detailed intricate music. I like to pretend I'm writing detailed, intricate music. But the stuff I wrote can only be accurately sequenced with either VSL Dimension Strings as well as a few other libraries out there.

The reason being is that, for example, I have 8 string players on my first violins section. I've written some lines that need these 8 string players to be split into two groups of 4. Some composers compose music that requires taking 8 players into 4 desks, one pair of violinists per desk.

Lots of orchestral samples record all 8 players (nb: the violin 1 group varies depending on the orchestra) at once, so you can't really split them up. If you play two lines with 8 recorded players each, you are arguably getting the sound of 16 players. Not good.

Dimension Strings from VSL, gets over this issue by actually providing samples for each individual player. Even more crazy, they do it for each individual string, each note sounding different depending on how hard the strings are played, and multiple recordings are done for each volume level and much much more.

Unfortunately, this means that instead of just reading of one set of samples, I'm actually having to read 8 sets of samples for just the 1st violins vs just one set for other sample libraries. Add in the various "articulations" - different recordings of how an intrument is played - short notes, long notes, intervals between notes, special effects. All these also need to be recorded at different volume levels, as a french horn for example, sounds totally different at maximum volume versus played softly.

Intense amounts of data to process..

And my machine is 4 year old, Core 2 duo laptop :P

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The machine conked out yesterday, with 16 violins playing together. No crashes, just the usual - "unable to process that much data" warning. That was no problem, as Logic, as many DAWs, feature a Bounce to Disk feature. Basically, it writes out the live audio played back by the sampler into a sound file on disk.

Playing back this sound file is near effortless; I have over 20 separate tracks for this piece, and the cpu meter in Logic barely ticks over playing the files together.

But sequencing the sounds is only part of the game, there is still mixing and mastering.

For "mixing", I have not used the traditional way for a long while, but rather use another of VSL's awesome tools, "MIR". MIR works hand in hand with VSL's samples to make samples sound like they were played back in a specific location.

Unfortunately, this comes at a very heavy cpu cost, and my poor core 2 duo was only able to run about 12 tracks in real time. I had to basically bounce to disk every time I make changes in MIR. Very annoying, when previously on smaller ensembles I could do all my changes in real time.

To be fair, VSL's minimum requirements indicate an i7, ideally a Xeon; I'm on a Core 2 duo!

Which brings me to laptops: Is it time to upgrade?

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I've got my macbook for about 4 years now, bought it certified refurbished for just under 900 pounds if memory serves. Solid machine, not any problems so far, and I put in a SSD last year and got a major boost in speed.

Getting a new laptop is _slightly_ unreasonable as I don't really do anything serious with it. The odd houdini test here and there. Web browsing. The retro games off GOG.com don't need that much horsepower!

But it would save alot of time if I didn't need to do all these bounce to disk operations So.... how much did my laptop cost me all these year?

Quick maths indicates its about 19 pounds a month, amortized over 48 months. Not too bad I think!

So, if I were to get a new macbook, I can sell my existing one, which would bring the price down, and that would help bring down the amortization as well.

Another issue is that the newer modelled 13in macbooks do not have nvidia graphics, and I have concerns about running Houdini on them - my Core 2 comes with a crappy nvidia something, which is good enough for all the stuff I want.

Ponder ponder ponder.

Weather and stuff

It was warm last night! Could not sleep till probably 3am? Whatever it was, I was waking up endlessly in the heat. Blah. Oddly enough, the temperature dropped like mad, and it was very cool when I left the house this morning.

I'm not sure what's going to happen when the full summer temperatures hit! XD

I also came across Chrono Cross for vita! OMG! I can't wait for the holidays to come so I can dedicate a few days to playing it. I love the music, and I hope the game play lives up to that of Chrono Trigger. That, and FFX/X2 will keep me firmly in place at home...

Can't wait XD

Got a new toy...

Haven't updated in a while, been struggling to get a neural network example working, but to no avail (insert sad face). I've shelved it for the moment and am snuggling up to several new ebooks on my kindle, as well as a new toy I've bought, a graphical calculator. Ostensibly, it is to be used for following along the math classes on Khan Academy. We'll see how that holds up XD

I was wondering if I had totally forgotten about powers as squaring a negative number got me a negative. I was like.... (o.0)

Testing on the mac indicated that.. yes... -1 x -1 is 1... so what's up with that?! Evidently, it's how the calculator evaluates such statements, the proper way to do it is with the parentheses. Anyways... here's hoping as I go through all the basics, that I will one day understand calculus.

Down by The Sally Gardens

Must be the weather. Had a sudden need to learn a new tune, and found this lovely piece. Decided to play it on the low F, as the low A just takes a leeeeetle too much breath for a slow piece. I also found a staircase in my apartment that appears to be unconnected to the main living areas, and it had a marvelous reverb - had to try a recording there.

Unfortunately, I don't think I'm that much of a fan of such a long recorded reverb. Its great fun to play with such a long reverb, but I think it's a bit overwhelming. In addition, playing rubato - no tempo - was really difficult. With just the whistle alone, it needs to feed into the subconscious rhythm of the music of as well and I don't think I did too good a job.

Live and learn!

Hallett Cove

Yesterday was a bit cold and very windy, which I thought was perfect weather to go capture some sound waves of the beach. Hallett Cove lies about 40-ish minutes away from the CBD via train. There are two stops, Hallett Cove, and Hallett Cove Beach that provide access to the cove. I got off at the beach stop, and made my way back to the other train station. I would suggest doing it the other way round, as there would be a board suggesting the walk routes to take.

The beach is not one for swimming; it's those kind of beaches covered in rather big smooth rocks. That said, I saw at least two surfers there, not sure how they navigate the rocks...

The photos don't do it justice, nothing beats experiencing this place on its own. On my way back, I noticed that the length of the train stations are _really_ long, easily 3 times the length of the train. I'm wondering why that is so? Is it because of older trains? Or maybe it is planning for the future when the area more densely populated, all they need is longer trains?

Incidentally, this post really should be titled Seaford - as I'd actually visited Seaford to check out whats there. There was a shopping centre... not really my thing :P Along with Moana Beach and the Moana Sands Conservation park.

 Didn't see any specific walkways, but there was a definite trail, so I kept to that.

 Eh, token shot.

 The conservation park. No wolves here, so I turned back.

Had lunch at Barnacle Bill, and it was quite good.

Have to go back to Hallett Cove another day!

Ratchet and Clank HD Trilogy / Vita

So, completed the first and third of the series this weekend. Had a bloody awesome time! Been a loong while since I spent so much time on gaming. I think there's something to be said about the positive mood gains when completing a level :)

The first game was generally very well done, the main "issues" I have is platforming with the gravity boots, the controls aren't very intuitive for me with them, and I've fallen off the (narrow) paths too many times. If they are static paths, no problem, I can just inch through them step by step, but there are some paths that have lava or what not cuts into the path at times and omg it is so annoying to have to restart a section after falling off the edge >.>

The final boss was the other showstopper, I spent all my bolts buying various ammo (I did not have the ultimate weapon) and didn't really get anywhere. In  my frustration, I switched from "hit him from a distance" to "ah, *@&^ this, let's get close and let him eat my blaster!" (fact: I ran out of bolts to buy the more expensive ammo as I died sooo many times :P)

Unbelievably, the blaster, one of the earliest weapons in the game did really good damage to the final boss! In addition, the blaster takes out mines and critters the boss shoots out, and really the only thing to avoid was the shockwave grenades he throws - I couldn't seem to jump over the shockwaves in close, only from a distance.  By the time I reached the final form of the boss, I had run out of ammo for the blaster. Took out the pyrocitor to melt the mines and critters, while waiting for the ammo boxes to appear... then when the blaster was maxxed out. Bam. Dead boss.

The 2nd game has major crashing issues. Online forums indicate buying the digital download avoids this, gah. I bought the cart because it was used, so really affordable. The crashing is a pain, but what seems to happen is the game saves the data, then loads up the next stage. This loading of the next stage crashes, but upon reloading, you continue onwards in the next stage so it's not too bad, just friggin big waste of time.

I found part 2 of the trilogy to be a big step forward, yet at the same time, many things did not appeal to me. I felt the mini games to be a real drag to play, and that the enemy damage/ammo-you-have balance to be skewed towards the end of the game - or its just that I suck.

Fighting with the wrench up close towards the end of the game is not really doable when fighting large vehicles supported by other flying vehicles with gunbound enemies! The 2nd to last stage had me going back to the ammo vendor endlessly to refill my sniper rifle, then back again. Some stages, I basically gave up killing every enemy unit, and just blitzed through them to get to the end zone, as I had no ammo left!

This is the problem I'm encountering at the moment, running out of ammo as I'm fighting the bulk of the enemies, only to encounter a pair of tanks that I can't kill as I'd spent all my long range ammo on the snipers! Gah! I'm going to put the game aside for awhile.

The 3rd of the trilogy plays like a well tuned engine. It is balanced near perfectly, and has so many convenience features like a "buy all ammo" option. In addition, weapons you have and are already maxxed out don't show in the weapons vendor screen, making it very easy to determine what you can buy for, and what ammo you need.

The mini game here was simple, and very easy to get into the zone; I love the MDK-esque parts when you skydive into new areas with other commando robots. Not sure what else to say, it's a very polished game, and the pacing is great, something is always coming up, making it difficult to say, "I'll stop here for the day" without feeling a sense of un-accomplishment.

One fun thing about the trilogy is that weapons from previous games are available, and if you bought them, get them free! I also like the fact that Clank starts out the 2nd game fully upgraded, because the first game had us going around to upgrade him. Characters from previous games also make appearances. Such continuity just puts a smile on my face.

Can't wait for the movie next year, I'll know who all the characters are now :3