RAD 2 July 2008 Contest

[Grogyan]

I agree with Robert.

Nevertheless today was the worst day since long. Last night I explored some of the shells and all was ok. Today I wanted to continue, but Uru crashed, I got the BSD and had to reboot. Before launching I had removed the KI images out of that folder, cause it was terribly full. Could that be the reason?

Anyhow, I reinstalled ABM and wanted to install Pots, but Uru insisted I had to install ABM first. I then tried to install ULM, but that didn't work either. Does it need Pots?

I was near at becoming insane. After 5 hours finally I have a running version and can visit the shells again. I instantly saved a backup. I had one once, but couldn't find it anymore. Oh well...

I agree too, each one has merits in their own regard, though you can scrutinize shell(s) that cause poor performance on your hardware, thats why we have so many judges, so that we can have a rounded view of the entry.

Yup you need PotS for ULM to work properly.

[mar]

I am amazed about the lag in my age because I haven't had that when I load my shell in Ahra Path.
What means shadow casting, what have I done wrong?

I am not experienced in writing and it was for me the first time I make something where other people can walked through.
I have spend a lot of time to do this and I found it for me a hole thing. When Lontav is saying

What I don't know is if we should give the bad performance ages really bad scores in some of the categories of if we should disqualify

I get a sad feeling because:
I think that it is not encouraging starting writers.
There are about 500 people at this forum and from them there are about 25 people who are have make a age or fill there shell. I think you must hug that people especially the newbies.
I think that the judges better can give positive critic so people can learn from that then disqualify them.

About judging it is maybe a idea for the next RAD contest to make two categorize. One for people with not or less experience with agewriting and one for the people who have proved to have the ability to writing a good age.
Than it is not comparing apples with pears.

[andylegate]

With the plugin ver. 1.5.0, the tool team made it to where the ShadowBuf's work. When you apply a Material to your objects, you need to turn that button off, else every single object in your Age (or shell) will try to cast a shadow now. It used to not get exported, and we were able to ignore it, but now it does.

Unfortunately, everytime you make a new material for an object, that button is defaulted on, so make it the first thing you check as soon as you make your material.

Too many shadows cause a lag (or crash if the Age is big enough) and will not look very good either.

[mar]

This explain a lot. I used version 1.4 , so I have never experienced the lag.

[Trylon]

When Lontav is saying

What I don't know is if we should give the bad performance ages really bad scores in some of the categories of if we should disqualify

I get a sad feeling because:
I think that it is not encouraging starting writers.
There are about 500 people at this forum and from them there are about 25 people who are have make a age or fill there shell. I think you must hug that people especially the newbies.

Oh, don't worry, Lontahv just got carried away and said things someone in his right mind shouldn't say. (Sorry Lon, but you did )

We have a judging category called "stability", that one's meant for issues like this.
The other categories should be judged without respect to these lag issues.

[katreeny]

This might sound really horrible, but I'm so glad I wasn't the only one to run into these performance problems! It means I'm not the only clueless one out here

I ran into the same problem with the shadows - for a while there I had a shell that lagged SO bad it was like walking in glue. Now it just takes eternity and some to load (1 GB RAM, 2.4GHz processor). I think the benches are the issue. I got a really nice shape and effect out of them, so I made lots of copies... I think I put 2 or 3 level subsurf on a basic shape to get there.

As for texturing, I really had NO idea what I was doing there, so the way things emerged was as much good - or bad - luck as anything else! Boy do I have a lot to learn. But I'm glad I won't be the only one learning

Katreeny

[di gama]

In response to those wondering about my shell: the idea is to get the red ball to roll up and into the hole. Yes, things are supposed to happen at that point, but I am still fighting Blender, so my clickable is broken there. (Help me!!) I was hoping that I could get it working before anyone got the ball into it, but I'm having trouble working it. I don't expect a very high score (no, Grogyan, what you see is the entire age), but it should pique your interest until I get it working, and at least I get a little publicity for it. Sorry guys .

[ametist]

@mar: Please don't be sad or worry about your age, it's really a nice one! I just love to visit yours and the others ages , having fun is a big part of it all, don't you think? And as Trylon said, there are other categories than stability to judge so let's see what comes out of this in the end

@di gama: It's an evil ball you've placed there! It absolutely don't wont to be in that hole But I still haven't give up on him

@katreeny: I'm sorry I haven't been able to visit your shell yet, Pahts freeze every time I get a quarter from it, and I have to reboot. But I'm working on it! Now I'm really curious of it! EDIT: I made it !!! /me dance

[mar]

Amethist, I am not sad for myself or shell.

I find it not a good attitude and out of respect to say to newbies, who has the guts to participate in the contest, that because of a bad performance of there shell to disqualified them.
It is in my vision for the newbies more a achievement, despite of a not good functioning shell than for a experience member with a perfect age.
However I think other people has take action.

So I think that we must closed the discussion otherwise the matter became bigger than it is and it not necessary to spoil the contest.

[Grogyan]

Just a heads up
I've received scores from
Chogon,
EricL
LaReh

There is still plenty of time to score them, so no rush, yet.