Single Best Tweak
A place to list single best tweaks that’d make something much better, greatly improve it.
This will often be about a video games, a primary topic formed by HyperTextHero’s brain and fingers clacking at keys on the keyboard, but other things can and will appear, from music to visual design.
I’ll begin with the same tweak type for two space games, Delta V: Rings of Saturn and No Man’s Sky: Better sounds when firing mass drivers and microwave beams in the former, and the scanner in the latter, with less treble and more bass. A sound heard often needs to be particularly pleasant so we don’t tire of it.
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Wednesday, 9 October 2024
- Rest of World ✶
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Haven’t dug deep into it, but this seems an interesting find. A nonprofit publication about parts of the digital world outside the usual technology media coverage, showing underserved communities’ unique perspectives.
I like the dynamic logo with diacritics that change when you refresh the page.
Wednesday, 2 October 2024
- Hope produces space and time? ✶
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That question is the last thing the physicist John Archibald Wheeler wrote in his journal, at 95 years old. Quite a question.
The longer I live, the more I appreciate Kurt Gödel’s proof that we can never know everything about the universe.
- Defeating Heisenberg ✶
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Jesse Schell, writing in chapter 2 of The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses, that I borrowed from the local library and am thoroughly enjoying:
But there is still a greater challenge of introspection. How can we observe out own experiences without tainting them, since the act of observation itself is an experience? We face this problem quite often. Try to observe what your fingers are doing as you type at a computer keyboard and you will quickly find yourself typing slowly and making many errors, if you can still type at all. Try to observe yourself enjoying a movie or a game, and the enjoyment can quickly fade away. Some call this ‘paralysys by analysis,’ and others refer to it as the Heisenberg principle. This principle, in reference to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle from quantum mechanics, implies that the attributes of a particle cannot be observed without affecting those attributes. Similarly, the nature of an experience cannot be observed without affecting the nature of that experience. This makes introspection sound hopeless. While it is a challenging problem there are ways around it that are quite effective, though some take practice. Most of us are not in the habit of openly discussing the nature of our thought processes, so some of the following is going to sound a little strange.
…
All this talk of experience brings out an idea that is very strange indeed. The only reality that we can know is the reality of the experience. And we know that what we experience is ‘not really reality.’ We filter reality through our senses and through our minds, and the consciousness we actually experience is a kind of illusion — not really reality at all. But this illusion is all that can ever be real for us, because it is us. This is a headache for philosophers, but a wonderful thing for game designers, because it means that the designed experiences that are created through our games have a chance of feeling as real and as meaningful (and sometimes more so) than our everyday experiences.
Tuesday, 1 October 2024
- The Axis Unseen demo ✶
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Bow with elemental arrows? “Heavy metal horror” game by someone who worked on Skyrim, Starfield and Fallout? Yes, I’ll try it out.
Saturday, 28 September 2024
- Screenshot from last Thursday’s Helldivers 2 session ✶
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Part B, that is, due to a WISPy internet connection. Part A is here, though I left the echo voice effect on for half the stream, again 😅 Streaming can be hell!
Dead Cells
The plan is to finish this roguelike platformer melee parrier of a side-scrolling shooter game called Dead Cells which has stats, loads of weapons, obscure lore, and high-speed movement action in randomly generated biomes with sound soundscapes.
I’m starting with a fresh save where nothing is unlocked and will reach the end of the base game this time, with some help from experienced players, while noting down thoughts here.
Notes
Dead Cells’ rogue lite design philosophy keeps you moving forward despite setbacks by letting you unlock permanent progression elements like new gear and skills that persist the next time you play. Like in life, a little bit at a time goes a long way.
One of the typefaces you can select in the user interface, Adys, is designed for people with dyslexia.
The game runs on a Mac laptop so I can take it with me where I go.
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How to turn off Fujifilm X100VI LCD screen with a button press
The Fujifilm X100VI’s DISP BACK button cycles the LCD display, but doesn’t turn it off, even with other display mode shooting settings selected.
As a workaround I set the Q function button to cycle the LCD display view mode setting so that I can turn it on and off when photographing, like this (click for larger image):
Reddit discussion with further tips about the LCD.
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Friday, 27 September 2024
Thoughts on the Fujifilm X100 digital camera series
These are my notes about the Fujifilm X100 series of digital cameras that I’ve been using since 2013 when I bought an X100S after photographing with Leica M9, M8, and M3 rangefinders and other cameras for many years. Links to videos and photos will appear shortly.
X100VI
I wrote a postcard from Seattle to the boss at Fujifilm with thanks for making the X100VI and asking how to get one more quickly to The Camera Shop in Traverse City, Michigan, where I was on the wait list for the illusive camera after paying an advance in February 2024.
Not sure if the card helped, but I got a call from Molly and drove up to get my X100VI (here’s its manual) in September 2024.
The X100VI is somewhat popular due to social media marketing dance meme craziness and its classic film camera looks inspired by the Leica M3 design. It does deserve to be admired since it’s a very nice digital camera with unique features:
- Both an electronic viewfinder (EVF) for precise focussing and exposure preview, and, most exciting for this candid photographer, an optical viewfinder (OVF) with a clear view of the real world with a frame over it. Each can be instantly switched to using a lever selector on the front of the camera, and the X100VI can even place a thumbnail of the EVF view on the corner of the OVF, which they call the Electronic Range Finder (ERF) so you get both EVF and OVF simultaneously. Bravo!
- Weather sealing for wet conditions.
- Neutral Density (ND) filter.
- A quiet leaf shutter that lets you sync flash at most any speed.
- Ability to transfer photos to your pocket computer or up to the “cloud” wirelessly.
- Giganto 40 megapixel sensor that enables the useful existence of a digital teleconverter so we have 35mm default “seeing” field of view (full frame), 50mm “looking” view (hold your arm out straight and open your hand and that’s roughly the 50mm “normal” HCB view), and 70mm “examining” portrait view. You can also get adaptors to get the 28mm “perceiving” view, and maybe 21mm “sensing” view.
- High Efficiency Image File (HEIF) format to help your storage media and your pocket manage the big files.
- Image stabilization for those who want very sharp photographs yet have shaky hands and, or, photograph in the dark.
- Even Koudelka likes it.
Though it looks like one, the X100VI is not a mechanical rangefinder camera because the control ring of the lens keeps spinning rather than stopping somewhere:
The great advantage of a rangefinder is this: With some practice and experience you can reliably focus the camera without putting it to your eye or pointing it at the subject. You can do this because the lens rotation stops at both far and close focus points and you can judge the focus distance by feeling the relative position of the finger tab on the lens, or, if you’re less experienced, by looking at the distance markings on the lens.
So not the perfect digital camera for this photographer, yet, but given the price of Leicas and their competition, it is close enough.
Thank you, Molly, Gavin, Bob, Jason, Fuji bossess and employees, ship and airplane pilots and controllers, delivery drivers, food, infrastructure, manufacturing, and government staff, artists, tax payers, and everyone else in human civilization, including you, who make the existence of a machine that records moments in time, like this one, possible.
Notes
Ongoing thoughts about the Fujifilm X100VI will be noted down here and edited into the paragraphs above over time.
- High ISO images up to 12800 have fine grain and manageable mottling, with little discernible noise patterns.
- Converting HIF files to DNG makes the fan turn on in my M1 Macbook Pro.
How to turn off Fujifilm X100VI LCD screen with a button press:
- Shoots film in Log format. Stereo mic with noise-reduction filter as an option.
- Many braketing and filter options to create particular effects like panoramas and classic film simulations in-camera (press Drive/Delete button to access the menu).
- Mechanical ISO selector by lifting the shutter speed dial and rotating it, thus changing the numbers in a little window on the dial. Beautiful old school design.
- Default ISO sensitivies from 125 to 12800, and auto ISO available so you can set a particular shutter speed or aperture and have the camera automatically change the ISO to get a good exposure. High-sensitify “extended” ISO values of 25600 and 51200.
- Check focus either on LCD or in the Electronic Range Finder (ERF) by pressing the rear command dial.
- Story about accidentally dropping and kicking the X100S, which kept on going.
- Lightroom performance. Is it slow? How are the RAW files without the bayer filter over the sensor?
- Insert Yakuza 0 reference about difficulty of finding camera, like fighting for real estate in Tokyo.
- Wanted: Trip to Japan to photograph.
- 2 million menu settings. Needed to study the manual to understand how to turn a lot of things I don’t need off.
- X100S candid photos.
- User interface. Touch screen.
- Check and report back on battery life of the official Fuji NP-W126S and perhaps other batteries.
- No charger included (Fujifilm BC-W126S Battery Charger). Needs to be purchased separately. We can charge the battery inside the camera by connecting it to a computer using an included USB-C cable.
- X100VI is around 50 grams heavier than prior X100s.
- Tiltable LCD monitor.
- Manual ISO selector.
- If uninterested, lazy, or lack the time to develop raw images in your own workflow, there are a selection of film simulation settings that are applied to JPEGs in-camera.
Other interesting still cameras:
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Thursday, 26 September 2024
- ♫ Holding On ✶
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Beautiful song and video from The War On Drugs.
Wednesday, 25 September 2024
- Interview with Portal 2 project lead ✶
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Josh Weier, who’s currently working on a game that includes an emulated Apple II called Zero Page.
Wednesday, 18 September 2024
Web Games
A list of video games you can play in your web browser found while surfing the open waters of the internet.
Super Press Space to Win Action RPG
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- Can we make a computer screen light in color when turned off? ✶
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Or is the only alternative to keep displays on all the time?
- Is it possible to work and play at the same time? ✶
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Or are “work” and “play” terms for the left (analytical, procedural) and right (creative, random) sides of the brain so we’re balancing both all the time?
Which companies have the best balance of work and play?
What books about this have you read and recommend?
Consider creativity and flow.
Tuesday, 17 September 2024
Helldivers 2
Helldivers 2 is a third person procedurally generated open-level bug and robot 4-player coop PvE shooting game elevated by wild yet precise physical movimenti and marvellous action movie satire-militaristic sound and music.
The vibes in the jungle areas reminds me of one of my favorite lush graphical and aural adventures: Far Cry 2.
Writing is funny and voice acting is close to perfectly on point making this one spill over the top of the excellent all-out action video games glass.
The moments of action with the music punctuating the intensity makes me think the essential experience that the designers had in mind for the game was to feel like you are in a 1980’s or 1990’s action parody film like some sort of cross between Terminator 2 and Loaded Weapon.
Notes
Forthcoming annotations about Helldivers 2:
Good idea to map arrow keys for stratagems instead of WASD so you can keep running while you call in an orbital artillery strike (thanks to Futura_Light for this tip).
Attention to keeping-in-game-character art-sound direction detail: Drum flams with touch of cymbals upon opening of inventory.
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Monday, 16 September 2024
- The Outside World ✶
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Delightfully bizarre animated film by David Oreilly’s Department of Computer Graphics.
Sunday, 15 September 2024
- What “Follow Your Dreams” Misses ✶
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From Grant Sanderson’s commencement speech:
Influence is not distributed uniformly in the population and I for one would feel a lot more comfortable if it was you who were at the helm guiding this crazy ship that we’re all riding.
If you step into the next chapter of life with an implacable focus on adding values to others, you’re more likely to be the ones at the helm.
If you recognize that action precedes motivation, you’re more likely to be at the helm.
And if you ask what’s possible now that wasn’t 10 years ago, you’re more likely to be at the helm.
If you appreciate just how much power you have to shape the lives of the generation that follows you, you’re more likely to be at the helm.
And if you remain adaptable to a changing world, treating passion not as a destination but as a fuel, following not dreams but opportunities, you’re more likely to be at the helm.
- Art History Project ✶
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Previously known as Trivium, now Obelisk, still a website to explore the ongoing story of art via large images.
Thursday, 12 September 2024
- ET Book ✶
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Bembo-like serif typeface designed by Dmitry Krasny, Bonnie Scranton, and information display expert Edward Tufte.
Wednesday, 11 September 2024
- Building a small solar power system ✶
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Photovoltaic energy system guide at Low-tech Magazine.
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