Bamboozled

Today I woke to the morning news on the alarm clock babbling on-and-on about the fact that it's going to be even warmer than it was yesterday (around 50 degrees Fahrenheit). Even though I was annoyed to be yanked from my peaceful slumber, I was happy to hear about the warm weather. Are we in for an early spring or is it simply Mother Nature teasing us and we will soon have mounds of snow dumped in the valley, reminding us that winter is not yet over? I am hoping for an early spring. Although I am still a little bummed that I never got my photo of the frost by the waterfall, there is always next year!

Blame It On The Rain

I can't believe that everyone is freaking out by the fact that Beyonce' may have milli vanilli'd lip synced when she sang the star spangled banner at the presentational inauguration this past Monday. Who really gives a shxt? Not me yet here I am writing about it, albeit more for personal historical purposes but still. I think there are much bigger fish to fry regarding the inauguration, things like why do we need to have 2 to 10 ceramonies and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on them or more? Yea there is not enough time in the day to start bitching about that sort of thing.

So then why the hell am I wasting white space on my blog to rabble about it? First off because it's my blog and while I enjoy your company you are certainly entitled to stop reading it at any time as that is one right that has been left alone so far.

Ok back on topic; I am writing about Beyonce' because I am stoked that it takes the focus off of the gun control topic for a few days, no really I am. See there, see how easy the sheeple of the country are side tracked -- and you have the nerve to make fun of dogs when you yell "squirrel"!

Whats-more is that for all of you tree-hugging hypocritical hippies that are not into firearms and constitutional rights as well as the rights of others you may be into something like say, oh I dunno, bicycle racing? If so then I think you should be pretty dam stoked as well. Just think, the Beyonce' news takes some of the attention off of Lance Armstrong's cheating-ass as well. Although its not an entirely fair comparison when you stop to think about it. I mean at least Beyonce' allegedly "cheated" just this once and in all fairness, if she did in fact lip sync, she did it over her own track so is it really that big of a deal? Wow, I feel sorry for this country at times like this. And on that note I think that is about enough on the topic, don't you?

Bitmaps Vs. Vectors

Just a quick one that I have to get off of my chest without going into too much detail and more importantly to keep the names and specifics to myself as to not tarnish anyone or anything on a personal level. It's work and never personal for me, but some see it otherwise and the last thing I want to do is have someone read into something that was never there in the first place.

Today something came across my inbox that was in need of "repair" for a project that I am working on. Basically there was some artwork in my game that is "jaggy and needs to be drastically improved to make it acceptable" as it was explained to me in the message. First off, I have no problem making my games look pristine, after-all it's what the company pays me to do and more importantly it's a matter of pride for all of us working on it.

I immediately dove into researching this "pixelated" graphic because I was under the assumption that something had fallen through the cracks with my compression algorithm or related and it would be a quick fix and therefore I was thankful that it was pointed out. If a quick 15 minutes of work could drastically improve the game and at the same time be an easy fix I was all for it - unfortunately this was not the case.

As I dug deeper into it I realized that this same icon had been mentioned several times before and it was assumed that I was just an idiot or lazy. The problem (but not really) is the fact that we are dealing with a bitmap (raster) graphic and not a vector graphic. For anyone in the industry you know as well as I do right away what the differences and limitations are between each type. You also know to make a curve on a bitmap you will always have some sort of jagged edge, there is no way around this. Yes there are some tricks using softer edges, larger graphics scaled down, higher resolutions and so on and yes, these were all accounted for in my case and to be honest, the graphic looks fine.

In the simplest terms you can think of each in the following way:

Bitmaps: Bitmaps, also called Rasters, are made up of a grid of points at a set resolution. At zoom levels above 100% these images we become increasingly pixellated or blurred.

Vectors: Vector graphics use mathematical properties defined in code that can be modified and exported as a raster image of any resolution. If your target allows, vector can be used all the way through the pipeline (ours does not). A vector graphic can scale to any level above or below 100% and not become pixellated or blurred.

Anyway after checking into it and realizing that we have beaten this horse at least once before I replied and took the time to explain why this was happening - along with examples and even some additional solutions to try, all the while assuming that this person would completely understand. Even though the aforementioned employee is now in a higher status position, no longer creating art they surely have not forgotten the basics, have they? Conveniently Apparently they have because the tasks are once again on my list today. Ahh, so fuckin frustrating!

I don't really have much of a point in writing this I am sorry to say, other than it amazes me how changing the title after your name on your business card can give you amnesia regarding the things you know and have done for the majority of your life and career. If history holds true, as it generally does in this industry, then I think this is much more of a power trip and those that can piss, are going forth and pissing on each others fire hydrants - because they can.

Don't get me wrong, it's what they pay me for so if they want me to spend all day trying to solve the unsolvable then I will do it and have fun the entire time. Probably the best part of working in the gaming industry, even on problematic days it's hard to not have a lot of fun.

Exit Stage Left

Enough for a Wednesday I think. I have a feeling that I have managed to offend at least a few people with the preceding combinations of words strung together forming sentences. I cant wait to see what is on the menu tomorrow regarding today's drama in the news. Sheeple - baaa! baaa!

Photo: Bitmaps Vs. Vectors (Google images)