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Showing content with the highest reputation on 08/14/2015 in all areas

  1. Jimbob

    Minecraft Screenshots

    I just found this interesting picture from an old round of UHC. I think it's Arthuriel standing on a large mound of stone he built during the final duel.
    5 points
  2. le717

    Where in the world is LEGO Island?

    For years, one question has lingered in the minds of many LEGO fans, a seemingly simple question with an unresolved solution: "Where in the world is LEGO Island?" For those who are not aware, LEGO Island is the very first computer game published by The LEGO Group, predating LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game by 8 years. For many older LEGO fans, LEGO Island is considered the LEGO video game, surpassing even TT Game's latest offerings. Just as we know where we individually live on the earth, kids, TFOLs, and AFOLs have wanted to know where LEGO Island is located in the vast universe we call space. Although this is a simple question, it has no definitive answer. There are a few theories as to the whereabouts of our friends Nick and Laura Brick, Pepper Roni, The Infomaniac, and The Brickster. Some say it has no physical latitude and longitude coordinates, but instead represents a timeless location with a near-Utopian society. Unfortunately, philosophical answers portraying imaginary locations do not satisfy the inquiries for a physical location. One popular idea illustrates LEGO Island as a planet, while another says it is America. The only substantial evidence available regarding the official position of the Island is this one image displayed during the game's credits for a short time. Time and time again has this picture been subjected to strong scrutiny, and the conclusions drawn identify the geographical location of LEGO Island to the south of the Bering Strait or even Florida, the latter of which is suggested by internal Island Xtreme Stunts references. However, neither of these findings completely satisfy everybody. In June 2014, some really smart people from the Netherlands created a tool that allows limited (though more than previous tools) access to the game’s assets. Using this, access was gained to that very same image displayed in the credits. Upon close examination with assistance from rioforce, it was discovered that rotating the image 180 degrees clockwise/counterclockwise revealed the true location of LEGO Island: off the coast of India. Kinda spooky, huh?
    1 point
  3. emily

    LEGO Ideas June-September 2014 Review Period Results

    And we've got the official unveiling for Wall.E now. https://ideas.lego.com/blogs/1-blog/post/38
    1 point
  4. Fluffy Cupcake

    What we needed

    @Ace; If LEGO was to make an official remastered version of Island (1st) it would have all my yes.
    1 point
  5. noghiri

    RRU Quotes 2: Reckoning

    [2:47:58 PM] <McJobless> HOLY #@$%, I'M LATE TO COLLEGE. I GOT PEOPLE TO BERATE s*** [2:48:04 PM] <McJobless> -GONE-
    1 point
  6. le717

    RRU Quotes 2: Reckoning

    [8/12/2015 10:47:04 PM] Pereki: all I know is that the ps1 version [of LEGO Island 2] is kind of like playing a compressed jpeg version of the pc game
    1 point
  7. le717

    RRU Quotes 2: Reckoning

    [8:25:22 AM] JAL: It's always fun when you wake up and your hair has gone full anime
    1 point
  8. lol username

    The Sins of LEGO Island 2

    LEGO Island 2 is a hilariously strange beast under the hood. Here's some fun things I've noticed while poking around. First, the game is hardcoded as hell. All the assets themselves are stored in the bob/bod files, but absolutely all of the information linking them together in any way is in the exe. The exe is filled with huge lists of file paths for every asset in each bob/bod file. The exception seems to be textures - these are stripped of meaningful names and referenced by number (like, say, text420.tga instead), and all the info on what textures go on what models, where those models are located, etc is all in the exe. But each level in the game seems to be pretty much entirely isolated from the rest. There's a small amount generic assets shared around, but 99% of the time, if an asset - a texture, model, whatever - is used in multiple levels, it's just duplicated, saved in each bob/bod individually. You know all the different hats the NPCs have, and how you can swap them around in any level with NPCs? And how trees/plants/sign posts can be swapped around in the same manner? And how there's usually 3-5 levels of detail (LODs) for each of these? Those are hundreds and hundreds of models, collision files, and textures - and that's fine, but all of that is entirely duplicated for every scene that uses them. Duplicated in the bobs/bods, taking up hard drive space (and what was likely not an insignificant amount in 2001), and of course that means a lot of duplicated stuff in the exe too. This also means the game wastes a lot of time re-loading assets that already had their duplicates loaded for the previous level. But wait, there's more silly duplication of assets! There are some exceptions like the standard minifigure model, but generally, if two models are identical, but merely have different textures, the meshes and collision files are duplicated anyway. So for example, every minifigure has a unique model for their head, as they have unique face textures... And each of those has several LODs... And alllllll of those are once again duplicated per level they're used in. Minifigure heads alone account for hundreds and hundreds of duplicate files. But there's sillier examples. There's two switches you flip in the Brickster's Palace minigame - and they account for four models. Wait, what, four? Yep - switch 1 up, switch 1 down, switch 2 up, switch 2 down. Because apparently sharing a model and then changing its rotation when it's flipped is too hard. There's plenty of other silly things like this, but I think one deserves special mention... Every single asteroid in the Asteroid Belt minigame is its own 3D model. I'm serious. There are 235 3D models for asteroids, and 235 corresponding collision files. They're divided into three sets/variations - 66 copies of asteroid variation A, 70 copies of asteroid variation B, and 99 copies of asteroid variation C. But it gets better, variations B and C are identical! (Thanks to Will for using a tool of his to automatically check which of the asteroid files were identical to each other.) So instead of just having two asteroid models (with collision files) for a total of four files, there are 470 files being loaded to achieve the same result. There's also a lot of inefficiencies in the models themselves. Excess polygons, using a bunch of smaller textures instead of a larger atlas... But here's my favorite. You know that skeleton in the desert on Adventurer's Island, holding a gem? It's a pretty low poly model (though it could be lower poly and look identical), with 1416 triangles... And 3065 vertices. Wat. Let's take a look at the UV map... The face is the only part of the model that's properly UV mapped. The rest is just given the plain white texture (text027.tga if you wanna try swapping it out), and while it's UV mapped, it's done in a pretty horrible way. If you're curious about the details, read this article, originally published in 2003 (two years after LEGO Island 2 was released) but still relevant today: http://www.ericchadwick.com/examples/provost/byf1.html http://www.ericchadwick.com/examples/provost/byf2.html The bits relevant to the vertex count are explained in part 2. In short, splits/seams/breaks in UV maps split/duplicate vertices... And the UVs for the skeleton's body are doing more splits than a masochistic gym instructor. What you're seeing in the first image there are all the triangles for the body UV'd on top of each other. If you lay them out separately (and I've moved the face elsewhere as it's not relevant), it looks something like this... This is a UV map straight out of hell. Just by fixing it up I got the vertex count of the model down from 3065 to 1686. And as you might expect, that's not an isolated case... Lots of models are like this. More coming, maybe. I think the point has been made.
    1 point
  9. Fush

    Where in the world is LEGO Island?

    now you've got me doubting myself. I need to check again but I seem to remember the last time I thought about this I compared the coastline and it matched up to the US pretty closely. but now I'm not so sure... Edit: I took a couple pictures https://www.dropbox.com/s/gqb2fhkwb5kekkw/IMG_20150810_185908263_HDR.jpg?dl=0 here is the continent as first seen all the way from space. If you look closely you can see a couple spots that match the coastline of Canada. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ztxhpdc67extt9a/IMG_20150810_190221028.jpg?dl=0 and here is the immediate coastline surrounding the city itself. I don't think I've quite match today exactly to a single spot on earth but it probably could be. and that's the info I have on lego city. don't mean to derail this topic further
    1 point
  10. Fush

    Where in the world is LEGO Island?

    The the continent seen from space in LCU actually isn't ambiguous at all. It's very obviously North America, with legocity replacing New York
    1 point
  11. lol username

    Where in the world is LEGO Island?

    Remember that bit in LEGO Island 2 where you parachute down to Ogel Island from space? The model of the planet is "legoworld_lod1.msh" (and lod2 and lod3 of course), and here's the texture: Meanwhile in the intro... (0:14)
    1 point
  12. emily

    Where in the world is LEGO Island?

    Why are we not talking about the fact that the island is INSANELY MASSIVE in that picture? The jetskis alone would create massive tsunamis for any neighboring countries. Earth is doomed, and its because lego men need to go fast, definitely fast e: also what the heck happened to africa
    1 point
  13. Wognif

    Where in the world is LEGO Island?

    Well, that makes sense, as there's always perfect weather on LEGO Island, you'd expect it to be in a place that doesn't experience Winter. However, with that location, I'd assume they'd have to deal with typhoons and the monsoon season. Maybe when we get on LEGO Island we somehow always manage to arrive when there are no storms, and this whole "always perfect weather" thing is really just their propaganda to attract visitors.
    1 point
  14. Antillies

    RRU Quotes 2: Reckoning

    [12:30:46 PM] Cirevam: But minotaurs ruin everything [12:30:55 PM] Ciprian: Hey man [12:31:01 PM] Cirevam: I know it wasn't your decision [12:31:03 PM] Ciprian: Fans are demanding we make 3 minotaurs spawn [12:31:11 PM] Cirevam: Your fans are bad
    1 point
  15. le717

    HTML5 Rock Raiders Remake

    The wiki still exists, it's just... hidden. It can be found here.
    1 point
  16. The Ace Railgun

    RRU Quotes 2: Reckoning

    [8/3/15, 18:03:31] Fushi: On 8/3/15, at 18:02, jamesster wrote: > I have both streams going The dreaded double stream [8/3/15, 21:27:44] Hugh Wotmeigh: But at least it's all good in time for my daily ritual of eating to the sound of Kitchen Nightmares[8/3/15, 21:31:14] Fushi: If I ever get rich I'm gonna hire chef ransay to fly out to your house every morning and yell about how s*** your breakfast is
    1 point
  17. Fush

    RRU Quotes 2: Reckoning

    [7:50:00 PM] McDankless: Going to start the pre-stream in a moment. Will repost the link when I'm playing the game. [7:55:21 PM] Bug Catcher: >pre-stream [7:55:24 PM] Bug Catcher: eewwwwwwwwwwww [7:56:22 PM] Jamesster: and I thought I was dirty minded [7:57:51 PM] Bug Catcher: We all have twisted, perverted minds underneath it all [7:57:59 PM] Bug Catcher: people are just conditioned to hide it [7:58:15 PM] Jamesster: your avatar makes that somewhere between hilarious and terrifying
    1 point
  18. Ostoya

    Minecraft Screenshots

    A stave church. In particular, based on the Vang stave church since I've actually been there (yet to make a stone tower).
    1 point
  19. Arthuriel

    Minecraft Screenshots

    @Drill Master: Wow, that's weird . By the way: "Thanks" to the instable and laggy connection between me and the server I have to log myself out and in again. Result: I can make pictures like this one:
    1 point
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