Screenshots from My Dev Team

I remember I used to say that I started development on a new game. Attached are some screenshots on the current progress of the project which is going along rather on schedule. We are working on making maps of Hell, and below are some of the screenshots of the game.


The picture above shows a first person viewpoint of the a certain scene in the game showing the hot lava and copper pots were sinners are boiled in.


Just a scenic viewpoint and the character rendered in 3rd person. As noted my game has actually 6 types of custom cameras in addition to the 2 systems that are already included. As you know, I like to tinker with things :P



In this picture I was just showing some strange color particles, nothing much more than that.

Oh well that sums up part of what has been a very busy last forthnight.

Jamming Session

During the last week one of my old friend Saj popped over from England for a visit and we just had a short jamming session. If you looked at the photo, you can notice its a pretty strange session :P

Winning the Virtual World Cup

One of my favorite sports is Football. However playing football in the real world is pretty hard considering many factors like finding at least 11 football players in our team, finding an opponent to play against, finding a football field, and figuring how to get everyone there. Due to all those issues, we found that playing virtual football as a team is certainly a easier thing to do. A few days ago, our football team assembled at my home, and we played Winning Eleven which is our favorite football game on the PS2.

In Winning Elevenwe usually compete in the World Cup(International Cup) and all of us would be playing in the same team. As being in the same football team, most of us have good knowledge on positioning issues. In this time around, we decided to create our players in Saudi Arabia and create arab sounding variations of our nicks. The last time we played this game, we were in Japan, and we made some seriously strange variations of our names. One example was like my little bro who was called Dan, and his character was called Danimaru.

After a number of matches we won the tournament and looking back at it I have to admit that stuff is something only homies would be proud of :P


The picture above is our team just strutting around before the award ceremony.


The captain of the team, Dan Shirani waiting to lift the trophy.


Lifting the trophy.


Starting the celebration. My character is just left of the captain. My largest contribution in the team was in the finals were after falling behind my 1 goal and 1 assist we managed to win the tournament :)


Who let the monkeys out?


Going for a lap of honor...


before partying throughout the night :P

Recommended Site: AweZoom - Flash and Music

During my younger years when I was composing music, I happen to like to listen to lesser known musicians from all around the world. One of the music scene that I was intrigued by was this MOD format. For those who don't know, the MOD format is the Amiga format for music. Amiga is one of the world's most popular computers during its days, and is known for its high quality audio and video production software. One of the formats used in music was called the MOD format or module format. What the MOD format was in essence was that in the MOD file, it contains samples of the music and also how it is played similar to the MIDI file. What the MOD file was famous for was the ability to provide high quality music (by using the in file sample) at a small size. It provides higher quality music than the MIDI format (as the sample in the file is usually higher quality than the synthesized sound of the MIDI soundcard), and is a fraction of the size of an actual sampled recording. As the MOD format being a fringe format, the format was never popularized in the PC users, and later with soundcards such as the SoundBlaster Live! having programmable wave tables (SoundFonts), the MOD file were of less relevance.

Many earlier online and computer musicians used this format, and I've managed to hear many great songs from many different artists who have been sharing their work through the Internet through this format. One of the artist that I remembered his music well was a DJ (or trackers) named Awesome (or Awezoom), in which I had the pleasure to happen to find one of his gems - For a New World, which is one of my favorite musical pieces up to this day.

Anyway, a few days ago, I decided to take a look around to see if any of these trackers I've listened to earlier had any web presence. During my searches, I found the website of the tracker Awesome at http://www.awezoom.com/. Do take some time to visit his site, it is pretty interesting :)

A Tribute to the Thai Postal System

I just wanted to dedicate this blog about how great our Thai Postal System is. During the last few years, I have usually ordered books that cannot be bought in Thailand. During the last few years and with over a dozen orders, I wanted to point out that the postal service between countries isn't as bad as many people suspect or usually assume it to be.

Let me begin by talking about some of the bad points. I had a few bad experiences with Amazon.com by using the default free shipping. The first case that I had a problem was about a broken CD along with one of the textbook I bought. In this case, since the book was a soft-cover, it was broken during the shipping as the box that was delivered had inadequate padding. In this case, I could easily reclaim the CD. On another bad case I had, the box just simply collapsed during the shipping, and practically destroyed the whole binding of another hardcover book. In this case, I asked for another copy, but since they ran out of copies in stock, Amazon actually gave us the book for free - which was an example of great customer service! My comments for people using Amazon.com is to go for the better shipping service. Though it is more expensive, I do want to point that it is certainly worth the time, trouble, and grief, though I comment that their customer service is good for an online service :)

Anyway, about other services, I don't really have to much to comment except for the last book I bought. The last book I bought, I extremely careless during the part I had to fill the mailing address that I actually forgot to fill in a few very important fields. Let me illustrate.

Suppose my home address(notice the addy is imaginary) was:
512 Clover Street Soi 51

I was so careless I dropped out the house number and the addy turned out to be
Clover Street Soi 51

By the time I managed to contact the customer service, they already had shipped the item. At that time I knew that I was probably about a few thousand baht poorer, but somehow beyond my wildest expectations, the Thai Postal dude managed to actually deliver the book directly to my door address. Now that is why I must dedicate this post to the Thai Postal System. Though many people had bad impressions about them, I do want to point that I could never been happier :)


What I figured was the default Amazon.com shipping isn't really that good due to packaging reasons. I found that Amazon.com usually tries to package books in the same box, and since some of them may be different sizes, some of the boxes

Strange Scenes

This snapshot was taken at my home. Strange isn't it?

Snapshot

Here is a random snapshot of what I'm feeling today.

Mood: Hungry, Hot, and Indifferent
Wants: Delicious Food!
Needs: To get back in the mood.
Biggest Happiness: Home sweet home!
Biggest Concern: The crazy weather (insanely hot)
Health Concerns: Slightly Injured Finger from Jarring my finger at a basketball
Learning: Cg Programming
Vices: Playing Computer Games
Productivity: 2/10
Happy: 5/10
Plans: Get back to working mood soon, and clear some of the back logs. Go to the bank and transfer some money between my different accts. Go eat some really good food.

Messing around with Mambo

Two weeks ago I was asked to come up with the website of the Faculty of Science and Technology Alumni Party (TelnetSci 2006). One of the requirements I was asked to work on was to make a registration page so that alumnis can register if they wanted to join the party and one of the staff would contact back. Since I was a little lazy to create the site completely from stratch, I've decided to work with modContent Management Systems (CMS). Some of the requirements I had to fulfill was that the registration system must be relatively flexbile as the fields for every user was not fixed yet. Another important info is that the site must be able to list all the registered members sorted by the ID. The last part is that it should relatively easy for the administrator to change or edit the site.

What I used was Mambo and the Community Builder modification. I kind of liked the Mambo CMS because of its simplicity and ease of design. Initially I had some minor difficulties to set up Mambo on my test server, but as usual the subtle difference between MySQL 4.0 and MySQL5.0 does cause some strange errors from place to place so its alittle irritating on the first go. Anyway, the site is nearly up, just waiting for final approval on the workflow and later on to mod the template just a little bit more.

Anyway, haven't been doing websites for a long time. Its such a long time, I have to admit that its easy to be rusty without constant practice :)

Dictionary of Programming Languages

I just found an intereating site called Dictionary of Programming Languages while browsing the net. This site lists the major programming languages and a short description that includes the language origins and also some coding sample. If you are a computer science student, I'm sure you'll appreciate it :)

Rant about Lords of the Ring - Battle for Middle-Earth II

I just bought myself a new game. The game I got was Lords of the Ring - Battle for Middle-Earth II. That game was an awesome RTS game (graphical-wise). On the hindsight, I finished all the single player campaign in about a day and the game kept on crashing. Now I wonder why should they rush the game out if it proves to be so unstable I have to save at every 20 minute interval so that I don't have to replay the stage over again.

In a hindsight it does remind me that the autosave feature is one feature that is indeed very useful and a great fallback to have.

Fashion Statement at the Local Election

During election time, I usually come back with a few strange observations from the voting booth. In today's Senate election, I found one of the volunteers with a strange T-Shirt which seem to have some white tape covering a huge part of the shirt. Initially I thought it was some sort of new and weird fashion, but after a short deliberation, I finally figured that the shirt actually had a number on it, and election committees are not supposed to suggest any candidates directly or indirectly. In other words, the shirt she wore was illegal technically, so the tape was there just to cover up the shirt.

On a strange note, I was wearing a sports shorts to the election, and my pants had a number on it. Is this violating any election laws? Thinking about it, I did. Now that is one fashion that I'm not planning to wear the next time to the elections.

RGB Loading Screen

Try looking at the following flash animation. This reminds me of the games played on some old computers/consoles. During the loading time, we would see a random RGB animation much like the flash piece linked below. If you wonder how long it took, a single game takes between 2-5 minutes to load in those ancient computers! Talking about it, that was such a long time ago LOL

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/rgb.php

Top's Car Basketball Team Report

For the last few months or so, I've been playing basketball at my old highschool, EIS (Ekamai International School), with a group of old friends and alumni members during Monday nights. After many months of casual basketball playing, many of the members wanted to have a competition between the 4 major groups in the court, which is divided into the Jek team (consisting mostly of old EIS school basketball team members who happen to be all of Chinese origin), Top's Car (our team, with an assortment of people from all backgrounds, including the only team that has a crippled player), Proflex (incidentally their team leaders are excellent sportsmen who happen to sell the muscle building supplement - proflex), and the Sundae team (a group of Thai Sikh players). After the division, we had a quick laugh that this was similarly to the old International School Alumni Basketball tournament :P

In the course of the last 6 weeks, our team finished a respectable 2nd place, giving the champs a run for their money. Not that the finishing position is important, but the most important thing was that we had a fun time, and it was a great excuse for us to socialize.



The photograph above is the picture of the team I'm in. We call ourselves the Top's Car team, in a short tribute for Top who happens to drive the majority of the members to court. From the top row, me, Bob, Eak, and Top. The bottom rows, Joke, Pong, Nek.

True or False?

Do you think the following conversions are true or false?

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Customer: "I've been ringing 0700 2300 for two days and can't get through to
enquiries, can you help?".
Operator: "Where did you get that number from, sir?".
Customer: "It was on the door to the Travel Centre".
Operator: "Sir, they are our opening hours".
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Samsung Electronics
Caller: "Can you give me the telephone number for Jack?"
Operator: "I'm sorry, sir, I don't understand who you are talking about".
Caller: "On page 1, section 5, of the user guide it clearly states that I
need to unplug the fax machine from the AC wall socket and telephone Jack
before cleaning. Now, can you give me the number for Jack?"
Operator: "I think you mean the telephone point on the wall".
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Tech Support: "I need you to right-click on the Open Desktop".
Customer: "OK".
Tech Support: "Did you get a pop-up menu?".
Customer: "No".
Tech Support: "OK. Right-Click again. Do you see a pop-up menu?"
Customer: "No".
Tech Support: "OK, sir. Can you tell me what you have done up until his
point?"
Customer: "Sure. You told me to write 'click' and I wrote 'click'".
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Caller: "I deleted a file from my PC last week and I have just realised that
I need it. If I turn my system clock back two weeks will I have my file back
again?".
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This has got to be one of the funniest. I think this guy should have been
promoted, not fired. This is a true story from the Word Perfect Helpline,
which was transcribed from a recording monitoring the customer care
department.

Operator: "Ridge Hall, computer assistance; May I help you?"
Caller: "Yes, well, I'm having trouble with WordPerfect."
Operator: "What sort of trouble??"
Caller: "Well, I was just typing along, and all of a sudden the words went
away."
Operator: "Went away?"
Caller: "They disappeared."
Operator: "Hmm. So what does your screen look like now?"
Caller: "Nothing."
Operator: "Nothing??"
Caller: "It's blank; it won't accept anything when I type."
Operator: "Are you still in WordPerfect, or did you get out??"
Caller: "How do I tell?"
Operator: "Can you see the C: prompt on the screen??"
Caller: "What's a sea-prompt?"
Operator: "Never mind, can you move your cursor around the screen?"
Caller: "There isn't any cursor: I told you, it won't accept anything I
type."
Operator: "Does your monitor have a power indicator??"
Caller: "What's a monitor?"
Operator: "It's the thing with the screen on it that looks like a TV.
Does it have a little light that tells you when it's on??"
Caller: "I don't know."
Operator: "Well, then look on the back of the monitor and find where the
power cord goes into it. Can you see that??"
Caller: "Yes, I think so."
Operator: "Great. Follow the cord to the plug, and tell me if it's plugged
into the wall.
Caller: "Yes, it is."
Operator: "When you were behind the monitor, did you notice that there were
two cables plugged into the back of it, not just one??"
Caller: "No."
Operator: "Well, there are. I need you to look back there again and find the
other cable."
Caller: "Okay, here it is."
Operator: "Follow it for me, and tell me if it's plugged securely into the
back of your computer."
Caller: "I can't reach."
Operator: "Uh huh. Well, can you see if it is??"
Caller: "No."
Operator: "Even if you maybe put your knee on something and lean way over??"
Caller: "Oh, it's not because I don't have the right angle - it's because
it's dark."
Operator: "Dark??"
Caller : "Yes - the office light is off, and the only light I have is coming
in from the window."
Operator: "Well, turn on the office light then."
Caller: "I can't."
Operator: "No? Why not??"
Caller: "Because there's a power failure."
Operator : "A power...................................... A power failure?
Aha, Okay, we've got it licked now. Do you still have the boxes and anuals
and packing stuff your computer came in??"
Caller: "Well, yes, I keep them in the closet."
Operator: "Good. Go get them, and unplug your system and pack it up just
like it was when you got it. Then take it back to the store you bought it
from."
Caller: "Really? Is it that bad?"
Operator: "Yes, I'm afraid it is."
Caller: "Well, all right then, I suppose. What do I tell them??"
Operator: "Tell them you're too stupid to own a computer".

You might be surprised, but all the conversions are true.

Blessings For Our Father

http://www.thaiking.org/

Plans for Today

- Go to the Elections wearing all black to protest at the current state of Thai Democracy.
- Bring along a pen and vote my usual No-Vote category in the parlimentary election that I've done in every occasion for nearly the last decade.

On a side note, during the last month, I've been completely irked by the state of democracy in Thailand. There are a few major points that I want to highlight:
1) You MUST VOTE in the Election - the quote before here is what is being played on the radio. I find that vote to be extremely ignorant. In a democratic society, you SHOULD NOT BE FORCED TO VOTE, though I find it ironic that many people choose not to go to vote, when they can. If people can't stand politicians like I do, then the best way in a democratic society is not to abstain but to vote for no-one. This gives a clear message that you don't trust politicians enough with our tax money.
2) Buses opening the radio in extremely high volume - As we know, the BMTA has received a huge handout from the PM. Due to that reason, it seems most of the BMTA is pro-Thaksin. What I hate the most about them is that lately they have resorted to turning up the radio (especially the pro PM FM94) in the bus to an abnormally high volume. The reason is that they wanted to shove the rants of many of the Pro-PM DJs there. Though I admit there are a number of interesting points, I had the urge to junk the Radio when I heard the following phrase:

"The academia are hopeless people. They are people in the Ivory coast and they want to force their ideals on the people. They say Thaksin is bad and poor people stupid. Now I want to tell us that these academia are ridiculing us, and they don't know what is best for the country. They don't know what the people want, like what we people want. What is wrong with Thaksin? I'm not closing my ears to the academia, but these people are so aloof, that they can't even explain me what Thaksin did wrong with the Temasak deal in a way normal people can understand, then I will not change my stance."

Hmm... No point arguing with stupid people because they will drag you down to their level and they will beat you with their experience in stupidity.

3) Business Books - Here is a few things I learnt from most business books in a bullet point:
1) Business is the art of maximizing profit (at the expense of others)
2) Increase shareholder value (at the expense of others)
3) Reengineering is a good way to turn the company around (and an excuse to fire workers to increase shareholder value)
4) Workers are just resources (does this ring of slavery?)
5) Managers should keep raises low (so that they can get a high raise by minizing cost)
My opinion? Read the Dilbert's Principle by Scott Adams. This book summarizes what business books are teaching today without all the water.

4) Democracy is Overrated - Democracy is just a system of governing. Its way overated especially when you have a country that is uneducated, uninterested, and divided through key issues. In these cases, Dictatorship might be a better option isn't it? Though in most cases Dictatorship are corrupt, at least we can save money from not having to arrange elections and also don't have to live with the irony of a dictator in the guise of a democratic elected leader.

5) Freedom of Speech is Simply a Mirage - The freedom of speech is stupid. Let me just say it straight that Freedom of Speech is desirable if you aren't on the receiving end of it. What I would suggest we should use is called Decency of Speech. Instead of warranting full freedom of speech, we should put in a fine-letter explaining the limits of what is allowed. Let me point out that there is no real freedom of speech. If I was to say if I was the moderator, I would point out that there is no Freedom of Speech, and as the moderator, I dictate what is the limit of the discussion. End of Story.

6) Who is the Villian in causing the Mob mentality? - Today, there are numerous discussions on who is the major cause of political impassie in Thailand. Many of the people blame Thaksin. Many on the other side blame Sondhi and Chamlong. Me? I blame all politicians, and I want to especially point out Chamlong as the huge curlpit. Why do I say that? Let me just say that Chamlong started the mob mentality. He did that in 1992. After that a while, he got Thaksin into politics. Thaksin is related with Sondhi as they were business associates back. Sudarat is one of Chamlong's protege, and she taught Thaksin about the art of appearing good in public without the requirement of substance. Later Chamlong revived his forte in mobilizing the mob by joining up with Sondhi. Soon afterwards Thaksin, Chamlong's heir, used the same art to mobilize his mob.

7) How to Solve the Political Situation in Thailand? - I would suggest creating a military dictatorship, declare martial law, and crush both the Pro-Thaksin and Anti-Thaksin factions. This blickering has gone far enough and also is extremely dementrial to our country. I do not believe we can no longer trust politicans to do good for the country. I do not believe that Thai people in general know what is best for their country. Democracy and Freedom of speech is overated. All we need is a strong, ethical, and morally sound leader to turn things around, and based on my rambling rant today, you know that I'm planning to arrange a coup and take over the country.

Regarding the above post, I'll let you decide if I was serious, or not :P

Experiment at the MRTA Subway System

A few days ago, I happen to stumble into the MRTA subway without planning to. To be exact, around Fortune Town at the Rama 9 station, I was planning just to cross over to the other side of the street through the subway walkway. However due to my natural instincts, I happen to enter into the subway station instead of just crossing it.

Due to that reason, I had an experiment with the subway system. It seems that if you exit the same station as the one you entered, you will lose the same amount of money as going to the closest station.

The lesson learnt is that if you happen to enter the subway by mistake, its best to call a staff to assist you and hopefully you'll get your refund back.

Notice Great Teacher Pisal!

If you happen to be a fan of GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka), you can notice that Onizuka likes to make a long face when things go wrong. Oh well, check the following Luigi's Newsletter and spot GTP!

Fork!

I'm in an extremely bad mood today. All I can say is that I can't stand incompetent, irresponsible, and inept ******ers.

Just Extremely Bored...

..... Can't figure what to do, so decided to waste my time doing something...

1. What time is it?
10:43

2. Name? The name which appear on ID card?
Pisal Setthawong

3. Nickname?
Chang

4. Piercing?
None

5. What is the most recent movie you have seen at the theater?
...

6. Eye color?
Black

7.Place of birth?
Bangkok

8. Favorite new food?
...

9. Ever been to Africa?
No

10. Ever been toilet papering (rolling)?
?

11. Love someone so much it made you cry?
...

12. Been in a car accident?
Yes

13. Croutons or bacon bits?
Bacon Bits

14. Favorite day of the week?
Friday

15. Favorite Restaurants?
Many Places

16. Favorite flower?
Anything that blooms is fine.

17. Favorite sport to watch?
Football

18. Favorite drink?
IceTea Peach Flavor

19. Favorite ice-cream?
Strawberry

20. Disney or Warner Bros.?
No preference

21. Favorite fast food restaurant?
Arby's

22. What color is your bedroom carpet?
No carpet

23. How many times you failed your driver's test?
3

24. Before this one, from whom did you get your last email?
MSN Notification

25. Which store would you choose to Max out your credit card?
Never maxed my credit card

26. What do you do most often when you are bored?
Zzz...

27. Bedtime?
When I feel like it.

28. Who will respond to this email the quickest?
...

29. Who's the person you sent this to that is least likely to respond?
...

30. Who are you the most curious about their responses to this questionnaire?
...

31. Favorite TV shows?
Dr. House

32. Last person you went to dinner with?
Work Related

33. Ford or Chevy?
None.

34. What are you listening to right now?
BGM From a game

35. What is your favorite color?
Gray

36. How many tattoos do you have?
None

37. How many pets do you have?
None

38. Which came first the chicken or the egg?
Waste of time to answer

Scott Adams is a Genius!

It sometimes strange to hear that life imitates art. The strange and uncanny fact is at times many things that Scott Adams' crazy comic strip Dilbert manages to do is to poke fun on what really has happened in the real world.

One of my favorite example is a strip in which the VP of the company declares that since the company was too centralized, they needed to decentralize to improve efficiency. After a year or two, the same VP comes back and informs that the company needs to centralize to synergize activity. To many people, they call that a management genius.

On a strange note, you could notice in Thailand, we have also seen that, within a 5 year period, they have expended the Science Ministry into many different Ministries and departments, but now are considering to merge them again. Management genius! - if you notice, there is a hint of sacarsm.

Regarding the topic of terrorism, why more that the following absurb column?

Scott Adams wrote:
Let me begin by saying there are lots of good reasons for conserving energy. It saves money, it’s good for the planet, and that’s good enough for me. I drive a small car.

But I keep hearing the argument that we can combat terrorism by using less energy. I can’t quite grasp how that chain of logic works. I suppose I can understand how there would be less terrorism if the entire world used no oil at all. Then the bad guys would have bigger problems to deal with, such as cannibalism. But how does reducing oil consumption by say 20% (a gigantic leap) in developed countries make a difference to the war on terror? Especially since China and other developing countries will quickly make up the difference.

If someone is fanatical enough to fund terrorism, do you think THAT’S the part of his budget he cuts first? What part of “living in caves in the mountains of Pakistan” is compatible with “we’ll only do this as long as the money comes easily”?

And how expensive is terrorism anyway? Their last attack could have been accomplished with Bonus Miles and a few box cutters. Is there somewhere a would-be terrorist on a tight budget who is thinking “As soon as I save enough money for a box of nails, I will complete my exploding belt”?

And to cap it off, what more than the next surreal piece?

Bangkok International Film Festival 2006

As I written earlier in my blog, I'm currently a volunteer of the International Game Developer Association - Bangkok Chapter and I'm currently the coordinator of a booth that showcases a number of game developed in Thailand that is shown in the Bangkok Film Market(BFM) at the Bangkok International Film Festival 2006(BIFF2006). As the game and movie industry are related industries, it is a good idea to be present to raise the profile of local game developers by showcasing the development projects from a number of different developers in the international setting of the BIFF2006. Since we are being non-partisan, we had a number of volunteers contact nearly all the development companies and indie projects in Thailand regarding submitting video demos of their latest products in a fixed format that would be combined to the ThaiGame Reel to showcase the latest games developed in Thailand. Since IGDA is a non-profit developer association, we do not endorse any companies, products, and tools, and we serve mostly more as an informal information center - any contacts would be forwarded directly to the associated companies.

Below are just a few pictures from in front of the Bangkok Film Market.







Since we have been invited by TAMMA (Thailand Animation and Multimedia Association) we have shared our booth with them. As noted below are some pictures from the booth which is highlighted by Ramayana an epic animation in the pre-production stages.









In this fair I would like to thank you Phot, A, Un, Dear, Rut, and Tuang for helping manage the booth with me.

Below here is just a small list of games and some screenshots that are shown in the fair which are listed by contribution in alphabetical order:

AIM

MMOG called GigOnline.

CloverSoft

A number of mobile phone games including Puzzle Warrrior.

Flying Pig Studio

Just for laughs!

GameSquare

Two mobile phone games - HellZone and CardWarrior

Imagimax

A collage of CG works from AAA titles such as Ninja Gaiden (XBOX) and etc. combined with video clips or an assorted of video games.

Iyara

PanPan3D a 3D action game for kids.

Look-kid

A collage of animation and video capture of their latest 3D Fighting PC game - Yuth which is adapted from a popular local manga.

MFEC

The latest technical demo of a PC - 3D engine under development.

PicSoft

A video showcasing how to play DiscDevil - a PC game that uses a camera system for player input.

Pinnacle

The demo shows TaiOnline their latest 3D MMOG game on the PC platform.

Polygon Devices

An example of GeoBuilder, a generic 3D world editor/level design tool and Tarot Reader - a future prediction software.

PromptNow

A demo of their dancing rhythm-based PC game is shown.

Sanuk Software

A collection of past projects done with many clients from a various number of companies.

StudioGu

A screenshot from the Interactive Novel game Angel's Tale that is on the PC platform.

Silly Rule #0 - I can't teach you anything!

During the last few weeks, I was seriously pondering about learning how to play the saxophone. To be exact, I'm a huge fan of Jazz, and I do think it might be a good idea to try playing some instrument for a change instead of composing it with my computer. Anyway, while I was just browsing through the Internet looking for resources on saxophones, I stumbled upon one very interesting site that teaches new people how to play the saxohpone. In one of the sections posted there, I liked the article posted, and just wanted to highlight it.

To be exact, its pretty much the same thing I'm telling in my computer programming class :P

http://www.ryanfraser.com/lessons/rules.html

Rule #0: I can't teach you anything! Neither can anybody else!
Oh no! Why is there a rule number zero? Call it my tribute to Issac Asimov. (If you haven't a clue as to why, go read Asimov. Lots and lots of Asimov.) More importantly, rule number zero is the most important rule of all. And, probably the wierdest.

You see, my theory is that all that your teacher can do is give you all of the right tools to learn. It's up to you to try and make use of them. You must become your own teacher. We can give you the resources, but it is totally up to you to make the most of them. Besides, if all your teacher does is spoon-feed you information, you won't ever become better than they are. And then the quality of saxophone playing in the world will never, ever improve. Good teachers will start off by giving you lots of information, and expect and demand you to put it to use. Eventually, every teacher's responsibility should be to become completely irrelevant to your life. Your teacher should become just one more resource for you to use to become a better person, or a better player. Even a better teacher. If you can't teach yourself, you can't help anybody else, can you?!

Democracy in Thailand in an Candid Way

In light of today's dissolving of the parliment, it reminds me to a candid discussion in which I and my colleague came up with this conclusion about Democracy in Thailand:

Democracy is for the educated. Thailand is not an educated country.

Pisal @ Economic Times (india)

I've just noticed that during one of my earlier exchanges with Shuchi Vyas, a reporter at the Economic Times from India, I was mentioned in his article though I figured that it seems my rank is a lot higher than it should - I'm not a professor :P

p.s. on a hindsight is a professor mentioned as a lecturer in other parts of the world? I'm not very sure on that O_o


http://www1.economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1354546,prtpage-1.cms


Munnabhai is eying on gamesutra!
SHUCHI VYAS

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ MONDAY, JANUARY 02, 2006 12:01:18 AM]

It’a a strange irony: if you have a passion for computer and console gaming, then consider making a career of it. Once in, though, don’t expect to spend much time playing games, warns Peter Cole, head of the school of IT at Australia’s Murdoch University, “because you’ll be too busy producing the games.” If that doesn’t deter you, then now is a good time to get you career plans in order. With the gaming industry in India predicted to grow quickly and with foreign companies setting up shop here, game developers plan to double and in some cases even triple their workforce next year. With specially designed courses for both programming and design at the undergrad and grad levels serving as career navigators, placements and job opportunities are gaining ground. Since 1997 when the first courses in gaming were offered at the Abertay University in Dundee, hundreds of others have sprung up across the world to cater to student demand for a comprehensive introduction into the world of gaming. To begin with, one would require a sound understanding of maths, physics and computer programming on the technical front. If you are creativity-inclined, then your areas of competence should be animation, modelling and texturing, which require a knowledge of art, multimedia and computing. Indian academia has come late to the party and courses in the area are still in a nascent stage. A reasonably well organised one-year diploma in interactive game design and development is offered by the Zee Institute of Creative Arts in association with design programme & media technology centre, IIT Kanpur. The programme focuses on areas like logo animation, texturing and camera move, texturing fundamentals and advanced animation. This apart, the Image College of Arts, Animation and Technology, Chennai, offers a one-year PG diploma in game development and includes subjects like design foundation, 3D modelling and animation, mathematics for gaming and game development with engine, among others. While a comprehensive gaming education may be hard to come by, a number of courses in specific areas like animation, content development, graphic design and programming are readily available. The UK and US, where the game industry is well-developed, offer a larger and more mature educational market where candidates can pick from many specialised courses. For example, it is estimated that there are currently over 165 computer games degree courses on offer in the UK. A number of universities in Australia and Canada have also launched gaming programmes. For a partial listing of institutes across the world that offer games-related courses visit www.igda.org or www.gamasutra.com. Most acclaimed courses in the area prepare you to work as a game programmer, designer, tools developer, middleware designer/ developer and software engineer (see table for a longer list). The games technologies courses include game design and programming, software engineering, graphics programming, real-time animation, artificial intelligence, online gaming, mathematics for games and specialised languages to develop games like Opengl and DirectX. Digital entertainment systems courses emphasise game design, animation and new Java-based technology for handheld, mobile and internet gaming. The industry reaction to gaming degrees has, however, been mixed at best. Professionals point out that degree programmes that focus only on game development lag in certain aspects and are unable to provide a full understanding of the demand. “One of the most essential requirements for aspiring developers is an understanding of the basic mathematics’ theories — trigonometry, geometry, series and fourier transform (which is required for Digital Signal Processing),” says Pisal Setthawong, a professor in Thailand and member of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), a global association that advocates issues related to game creation and development. Most game development degrees are not adequate as they lay emphasis on the software used to create games, but fail to lay out foundations for more complex undertakings, he explains. “One studies how to draw graphics and develop sound, but not how the computer works and this would be an issue when the developer moves to larger projects.” Setthawong suggests that if a person is serious about game development s/he should opt for a course that offers a computer science degree. In fact, gaming companies often draw recruits not from specialised gaming courses, but from more traditional degrees like comp science, programming, art, design, psychology, maths and physics. “Some universities offer really strong courses, but there are a lot of other vocational courses that are almost too specific. At EA we go more for people with a very solid basis in the core skills like maths, physics, computer programming or animation. It is actually much easier to learn specific skills rather than general, so get the general first,” Richard Leinfellner, executive VP at EA Games UK was recently quoted as saying. Ben Nickson, who completed his MSc in computer games technology from the Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) in ’04, believes that a good route for students is to do a first degree in artificial intelligence, computer graphics, maths, physics or computer science “as these courses give students the skills they require in a specific area of games development, although one would have to study C++ on their own.” After graduating, one can pursue an MSc in games technology as such courses are usually quite advanced and give students all the skills they require, he says. Education though will only take you so far. For an industry that thrives on young blood, enthusiasm and fresh ideas, individual initiative is greatly appreciated. “A dedicated course will not guarantee a job even with excellent marks. It is essential to create a portfolio with demos of small games or artwork in order to be taken into consideration. From this point of view a specialised course will help in creating interesting demos during various course work,” says Stefano Zanetti, who works with Electronic Arts, Vancouver. First jobs, say those in the industry, are hard to find. But just wait till you get one: the work is interesting and in many cases even cutting edge. Prof Cole points out that technology developed in the gaming arena is replacing methods commonly used in engineering simulation, medicine and military training. Job security in the industry, however, is an issue as are salary levels. “Generally the pay is not as good as equivalent jobs outside of games. Artists, testers and designers get paid the least, while programmers get paid the most. Often you will start on a low salary but after a year or so it will go up greatly,” says Abdennour El Rhalibi, principal lecturer in computing at LJMU, organiser of the Game Design and Technology Conference and co-ordinator at IGDA. Looking at recent figures, he estimates that in the UK starting salaries can be approximately £16,000 in north-east England and £24,000 in London and Cambridge; whereas in Paris it can be 17,000 euro; 20,000 euro in Munich and $54,000 in the US. In India, it is approximately Rs 15,000. “Though the starting salary is approximately £25,000 per annum in the UK, experienced programmers are paid £35,000,” says Nikhil Patel, who works with Technologies 2 at Liverpool. “The good news is that nowadays in the UK there are many game companies looking for game developers.” “This definitely is NOT a field to get into if you are primarily interested in money. There are fewer stories of amateur game designers making it big than there are of Hollywood actors and actresses. Many of my classmates believed that completing their respective course was a one-way ticket to an industry job, and I haven’t personally found that to be true at all. These programmes will present you with a lot of the skills that working in the industry requires, but you really need to pick up where they leave off,” says Nick Baker, a graduate from LJMU and The University College for the Creative Arts.

©Bennett, Coleman and Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Quote of the Day (After many months :P)

I hear and I forget, I see and I remember. I do and I understand. -- Confucius

Psychopath!

Sorry but I can't resist posting this picture:

Theoretically Speaking about February 14

On a curious note about February 14, I wonder and ponder upon a few things which I'll highlight in the following points:

1. Why should you buy roses on February 14 when all the flower vendors actually jack up the price of roses to outrageous levels?
2. Why should you buy dinner on February 14 when the service is bad due to the overload of patrons and promotions that are overpriced and mostly not decent?
3. Why should you spend so much time to say someone else you love them in one day when you could in so many other days?
4. What is the point about chocolate and roses when the best thing you could tell someone you love is that you love that special person?
   
5. Is it love in the air or is it the love of commercialism?
   

Manusaya?

I got this from a friend, a lecturer in another University. Thought it was interesting. Unfortunately I haven't authenticated this, so I was wondering if anyone known more about this?

Koh Mr. Saxman Fansite from Japan?

Whoa, I just noticed there is a Koh Mr. Saxman fansite from Japan:
http://saxmanfan.exblog.jp/

Game Seminar at KMUTT - 01/02/2006

Just wanted to post a few pictures from the Game Seminar that I organized at (King Mongkut University of Technology, Thonburi Campus) KMUTT on February 1, 2006. I've invited 3 guests over to the class that includes Thanit (A), a game designer from Debuz, Polsin (Oke) a game designer from Sanuk Software, and Suphot who is a game developer currently on leave :P

Details would follow soon.

Thanit A(Standing) and Oke (Sitting) are busy thinking about answering questions from the students.


A snapshot of Oke and part of the class in the background enjoying the seminar.

Suphot decided turn back the clock and appear to be just another student in the class :P


Another shot of the class from another viewpoint during some thought provoking topics.

On a side note, I forgot to take a picture of myself!!!

The Sound of Today

Hack hack hack!!!

Pisal @ TAM2006

I forgot to update about how my entry at the SuperPitch competition at TAM2006 went in my blog, dear old me. Anyway, I just finished writing a short summary of my entry, and it can be viewed from the following website:

http://www.imt.au.edu/forum/index.php/topic,3.0.html

Unfortunately at this moment due to a miscommunication with the University Network administrator, he hasn't allowed the site to be viewed out of ABAC(the university where I teach) and I'm currently working with them to change the permission setting. Once it is done, I'll edit this post :P

That is the picture of my team, I'm at the left, Suphot (Game Developer), P' Mon (Character and Story Design From CU), Pop (Art Director), and P' Tuang (Leader and Game Designer from KMUTT)

A picture of some of the judges at the SuperPitch competition listening intently to our proposal.


Just a cover of our presentation and game, which is a wacky casual game.

ATM Gaffe?

I just noticed today after using my local ATM (Krungsri Bank) for a number of months that there was something amiss with it. When I punched in the keys and made a withdrawal, I just figured there was something wrong with the message which was spelt the following:

"Please Receive Your Money and Receive"

I've just noticed it should have been RECEIPT. Hmm...

Down to Earth

During the (Thailand Animation and Multimedia) TAM2006 festival, my team Tri-Casual has a finalist entry in the highlight SuperPitch Computer Game contest for 1 million baht of support fund. In this contest we had created one of the most memorable pitches, though we were unfortunate to miss out on the top project. Anyway after a dizzying amount of work and tasks done during the last few months, I have to admit somehow that it would be difficult for me to figure what is like when that is all over.

It didn't take me too long to figure. Just a few days afterwards, I got fever, coughing, bad stomache, and red dots that seem to appear everywhere around my body. Hmm... If you look at the symptoms, it is indeed a case for concern.

A picture of my arm with all the red dots on the 2nd day

I promptly went to the doctor and had a number diagnostics on the disease. After numerous tests, the doctor figured out it was an acute case of Infectious Mononucleosis and practically I'm grounded for a while waiting to recupperate. At least on the saving grace is the virus is hardly fatal, though I do admit that staying attached to my bed for a long time is indeed the last thing I've planned at the moment :-/