by ·Comments Off on Rebelle 3 and My Inner Artist

Recently my wife and I attended one of these “paint night” events. We both drew works of art which surprisingly looked very good–enough so that we proudly hang them in our house.

Coincidentally, I also saw an add in my yahoo mailbox about an update to the Rebelle painting program. After revisiting that program, I realized how realistic that program is in terms of rendering paint–virtual paint that is. After a few trial runs, I have come up with my work of art based on what seen Bob Ross do in his show.

Check it out below.

Sun Rise

I like Rebelle 3. It allows me to paint without the mess of real paint. It allows the ability to mix (smudge or blend) virtual paint with realistic effects. Here are a few things you’ll notice weith Rebelle 3:

  • use paper texture, canvas, or none (they have others you can buy to create material surface texture)
  • paint with water color, acrylic, ink, pastel, and pencil
  • paint blotching effect based on amount of water being simulated in paint
  • paint on dry material
  • paint on wet material
  • dry or wet paint.
  • use of stencils
  • tilting of canvas which causes paint to drip

All of the above features is what makes Rebelle 3 stand out from its competition. Besides, if you’ve painted before, the simulated mixing and smudging make it a natural to quickly learn.

There is one thing I wish they had–a way to apply paint with palette knife instead of a brush. It would make creating mountains a lot easier–a la Bob Ross style.

Note that if you are going to do the same, it would be best to use a digitizing tablet. Trying to draw with a mouse it tough to do.

by ·Comments Off on TNT Boys: A world Class Talent

A couple of weeks ago, I somehow found myself watching some Filipino shows.  One of them is a show called “Your Face Sounds Familiar.”   Now I’m not the type to really get to deep into Filipino shows since I’ve lived practically most of my life in the US, nor am the type to even get impressed by some Filipino singers.  Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of great Filipino singers out there.  I’ve seen many, and none have really caught my attention as the TNT boys.  Their singing ability and expressions to go with their singing emotion is really catching.

I’ve also seen many YouTube reactions where the YouTuber ends up being caught off guard with the talent they are watching.  They were all simply amazed that three little kids can have such singing versatility, most adults can’t match.  Below is one of my favorite videos of them singing Jessie J’s single hit “Flashlight.”  I listened to the original from the movie Pitch Perfect 2, and the one done by Jessie J and I like TNT Boys’ rendition better.  Their version really pulls you into their emotion. Enjoy.

I hope you enjoy their awesome voices as much as I have.

by ·Comments Off on Powerball: How many sets of numbers should I get?

Powerball Lottery Ticket

Powerball Lottery Ticket

Today, 17 Aug 2017, the California powerball pot is at $700M. Wouldn’t it be nice to win that and tell your boss the next day that you won’t be coming in to work because you won the lottery?

Everyone dreams of that but sometimes take no action. Remember, you have to take action to at least have a chance of winning. That said, the question begs to be asked: How many sets of numbers would be best to get to improve one’s chance of winning?

The answer is simply one set. This will cost you just $2.00. Here’s why…

 

What’s the chance of getting the correct number?

Let’s first understand the powerball numbering setup.

  1.  You are to pick 5 numbers from 1 to 69.
  2. Then pick a number from 1 to 26

To figure out your chances of picking the right number you use probability theory, which says:

  • The chances of you picking the right number from 1 to 69 is 1 out of 69, or 1/69 multiplied to…
  • The chances of you picking the right second number out of 68 numbers that are left, which is 1/68 multiplied to …
  • The chances of you picking the right third number out of 67 numbers that are left, which is 1/67 multiplied to…
  • The chances of you picking the right fourth number out of 66 numbers that are left, which is 1/66 multiplied to…
  • The chances of you picking the right fifth number out of 65 numbers that are left, which is 1/65 multiplied to …
  • The chances of picking the right number out of 26, which is 1/26.

This equates to 1/69 X 1/68 X 1/67 X 1/66 X 1/65 X 1/26 or 1/(69X68X67X66X65X26) or 1/35,064,160,560 or 2.852xe-11 or 0.00000000002852.

Essentially, your chances of picking the right number is roughly 1 in 35 billion.

Let’s say you decided to buy 10 sets of numbers.  This changes your chances from 1 in 35 billion to 10 in 35 billion.  Does that really make any mathematical difference?  The answer is NO.  You chances went from 0.00000000002852. to 0.0000000002852.  Let’s say you decided to buy 1000 sets (cost is $2000).  This changes your chances to 0.000000002852.  Say that you are rich and had $2M to spare.  You buy 1M sets of numbers.  This improves your chances of winning to 0.000002852.  Still practically 0!

Besides if you’re that rich, why even buy a lottery ticket?

The bottom line:  buy one set of numbers for $2.

That’s it.

by ·Comments Off on Absolver: Become a Virtual Martial Artist
Absolver

I recently ran into the Absolver game trailer and I was immediately attracted to it.  Being a martial arts and PC gaming enthusiast, it was simply natural to like the game.

I’ve never played it, but have seen videos of it.  It is due to be released at the end of August 2017.  You can pre-order it on STEAM at a 10% discount.  I’ve never pre-ordered any PC game before.  This was the first for me.  In two weeks, I shall have access to it.

Here’s the funny thing.  Just a few days ago, I binged watch on Netflix the series “The Legend of Bruce Lee.”  After watching that I thought, why not try to apply Bruce Lee’s fighting mindset called Jeet Kun Do to this game.  Then I can start a clan of Absolver Jeet Kun Do practitioners in that virtual world.

I’ll soon see.  By the way, check out the Absolver official web site.

 

by ·Comments Off on How to show Item IDs in Minecraft Inventory

I was just watching some information about some advanced topics on Minecraft command blocks.  I saw a Youtube video where the item IDs where showing up as additional information in inventory tooltip.

I did some searching and all you have to do is press F3 and H at the same time.

by ·Comments Off on Arma 3 Computer-based Military Simulation

There have been many first person shooters that try to simulate the military experience like these console and PC gems:

  1. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six
  2. Battlefied
  3. Counter-strike
  4. Call of Duty: Black Ops
  5. Call of Duty:  Modern Warfare

In these games, teams have no pre-designated functions or hierarchy .  The playing field is very small, and there really is no combined arms that is integrated well in the game.  The closest thing these games have to simulating the military experience is the chaotic way things happen in the game. These games are also characterized by very fast paced action where the person with the most hand and finger dexterity, as well as game experience, generally dominantes the game.  The best one I’ve seen that come close to a good military simulation is the free FPS created for the US Army called America’s Army.

None of these come close to ARMA 3.  What makes ARMA 3 especially unique and realistic in terms of the player’s experience are these two main things:

  • Modding community support (e.g. through Steam and Armaholics)
  • More mature military simulation gamers (in public games and in clans)

This trailer from Bohemia Interactive (maker and producer of the game) gives you a good taste for the game’s military immersion:

Below is a short gaming session so you can get a feel for the military immersion.  Warning:  the audio below has some 4 letter words sprinkled in there.  Just be aware.

It is very easy to put in several hours in one session.  The players in the game can talk to each other via the built in voice over IP communication or via chat.

I just joined a clan recently and I’m seeing more and more of this game’s potential–more than what the videos above show.  I may write more about this at a later time.

If you have any opinion about this game, please feel free to share.

by ·Comments Off on XCOM 2 Better and Tougher

XCOM 2 Custom Character

XCOM 2 Custom Character

XCOM 2 was recently released and is generating a lot of interest on the web.  The interest comes not from the mods produced for it, but from the ability of players to create their own custom pool of soldier recruits.  This seemingly small feature adds an interesting twist to the game.  Already various content providers have created their custom pool of recruits.  One such example is PC Gamer magazine with their best custom set of XCOM 2 characters.  Check out some celebrity names you should easily recognize.

To install the binary files, simply copy the downloaded binary and move them to C:\Users\yourLoginNameGoesHere\Documents\My Games\XCOM2\XComGame\CharacterPool\Importable.  From there, the custom recruits will become visible from XCOM 2’s Character Pool’s Import Character tab.  There you can open the pool, select the characters you want, then click the import button.

By the way, I created 4 characters of my own and was able to export them to a .bin file.  This file ends up in the same location as the binary files you can import.  Here’s a mission I played that included one the custom characters.

https://youtu.be/jSEclDBUk7g

If you enjoy playing games of thinking strategy, you will like XCOM 2.  It is definitely challenging.  You can buy it on Amazon for just about $60.

 

by ·Comments Off on The ASUS ROG G751JL-DS71 17.3″ Gaming Laptop

I’ve been looking for a nice but cost effective gaming laptop for some time now.  After over a month of searching, I found  the ASUS ROG G751JL-DS71 17.3-Inch Gaming Laptop which my wife purchased for me at Amazon.com.  At the time of purchase, the unit cost $1199.  For this price I got an awesome ASUS gaming laptop with the following specs:

  • 17.3″ display screen
  • 1TB of 7400 RPM hard disk drive
  • 16GB of RAM
  • Intel i7 processor
  • NVIDIA 965M with 2GB of video RAM

At the time of this writing, I’ve had the laptop for a period of over one month.  To date, I’ve used it to play awesome games like Guild Wars 2, The Witcher: Wild Hunt, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Minecraft, and Grand Theft Auto V.  My experience with the unit and the games has been great to say the least.

The laptop performed extremely well.  Specifically, I didn’t perceive any lag in any of the games I’ve played.  Even with the graphics settings set to maximum, the laptop ran and displayed the games smoothly.  In addition, the fast 7400 RPM 1TB hard disk drive really showed off ASUS ROG G751JS’s speed in terms of boot time.  I could really perceive its fast boot speed having used a solid state drive on a work laptop.

I could easily run a benchmark test on the unit, but my own senses really could really tell that this unit is a computing and gaming workhorse.  At the price my wife purchased this for, $1199 is well worth the price.  Depending on supply and demand, the price for this awesome gaming laptop could go up or down.

I highly recommend this laptop, especially if you are looking for a cost effective entry level gaming laptop.  Note that the only “entry level” about this laptop is its price.

If you have the same laptop, please share your experience by commenting below.

by ·Comments Off on Video/Screen Capture from HDCP Protected Devices

ViewHD 2 Port 1x2 Powered HDMI Mini Splitter

ViewHD 2 Port 1×2 Powered HDMI Mini Splitter

Recently I encountered a problem with trying to do a video capture of a game I was playing on an Android device.  The device in question happens to  be a RCA tablet, and I was using an Elgato Game Capture HD device.

On the Elgato game capture program I noticed that although the signal was being detected, it wasn’t showing the screen.  It stated something about disabling HDCP in order for it to work.  Upon doing some Internet research, I discovered that HDCP–which stands for high-bandwidth digital content protection–was a content protection scheme implemented on connection like the one I was working on.

I thought that I just wasted about $7 buying this HDMI A type (standard size) to C type (mini size) cable (a BlueRigger high speed mini HDMI to HDMI cable, 6 ft — http://amzn.to/1dDQ4Y8) because the connection is blocked by this HDCP protection scheme.

Upon doing a bit of checking around on the web, I found that purchasing a certain HDMI splitter can get around the issue.  I found the ViewHD 2 Port 1×2 Powered HDMI Mini Splitter (http://amzn.to/1KDlloV) for about $24.  I received and tried it, and low and behold, I can do video screen capture!  Problem solved.

by ·Comments Off on Installing a Hard Disk Drive on a XBOX 360 4GB

Several years ago, I purchased a XBOX 360. I opted for the XBOX 360 4GB because of price. I thought that 4GB was enough. But with the massive growth in size of software applications as a result of storage price going down, some new games that came out for the XBOX 360, especially in 2014, will only work on XBOX 360 models that have a built-in hard disk drive. Destiny is such a game.

After some serious searching on Amazon.com, I found the perfect drive–a generic 500GB hard disk drive designed for the XBOX 360 slim form factor model.

The drive came in within 2 days.

The most challenging aspect of installing the drive was figuring out how to open the bottom of the XBOX 360 case.  I did a search on youtube.com and found a video that showed me how to open it.  As it turns out, no tools are required–just your finger to pull a latch, then pry the cover open.

Once the drive bay is open, just push the new drive in until you feel that it has snapped in.

When you turn the XBOX 360 ON, go to the SYSTEM settings and look at the storage section.  If everything worked out, XBOX 360 will detect the hard disk drive and will make it available for storage.