r3dux.org

The basic idea of the IllumiRoom setup is that you tap into visual content from a console and have that content affect how a projector displays additional/augmented/related content onto the walls surrounding your TV – you’ve really got to see it to get it:

Interesting, huh? I like the idea, but… it seems a little impractical to have a projector on your coffee table. Also, to really take full advantage games would have to be created which deliberately interact with this system, which is increased developer effort, and how many people will have and use one of these devices? I really do like the idea, but I just don’t see it reaching critical mass right now. If there was a drive for people to move from buying large TVs to projectors in the first place – then maybe it would stand more of a chance of gaining high adoption, but in that case you generally clear the projection surface so it wouldn’t have to compensate for room geometry in the first place. Still, it’s a great idea and some very cool tech!

Physics simulations are always interesting, and this one is probably the best liquid sim I’ve ever seen, all running live on a top-end NVidia GPU:

You can read the paper about how it all works here, if you’d like. I don’t think NVidia are gonna hand out the source code, but they’re likely to incorporate it somewhere in the next PhysX release.

I caught this mesmerising teaser for a music video (directed by Nacho Guzman) over on BoingBoing the other day, and I guess I came for the video, but stayed for the music…

If you’re down with its dark, electronic vibe also, you can find the full track plus a longer remix version over on their SoundCloud page here: https://soundcloud.com/opaleopale.

Beautiful stuff.

That guy’s a terror since the public-school era:

This one’s also excellent (it’s still Party in the USA – but mixed to “I Got a Story to Tell You” instead of “Party and Bullshit”) – in fact, it might even be the superior mix as it contains absolutely zero Miley Cyrus (just the Party in the USA riff).

This should come as nothing of a surprise to anyone with a few working braincells, but shiny, happy match-3 game Candy Crush Saga is bullshit. The game itself is allegedly free to play, and it kinda is – only it’s designed so that you can’t finish any but the very earliest levels without paying for in-game upgrades via micro transactions.

Now although I’m not a huge fan of micro-transactions and software trying to constantly nickle and dime me (especially in software I’ve already paid for – I’m looking at you Dirt 2/3) – if an application is free to download then I don’t fanatically object to it trying to entice me to purchase a few extras here and there to support a game I might enjoy. But this is where I do take issue: If you want to make any real progress in CCS it’s not optional at all to have to pay for items – without them your progress will be hideously, torturously slow – if any progress can be made at all.

The company who make the game (who I won’t link and namecheck) would no doubt claim that technically it’s possible to finish the game without making any in-game purchases. However I’d argue that it’s only technically possible in the same way that’s it’s technically possible to win fifty million on the lottery. Without that degree of good fortune, expect to play the same level over and over until you have no more lives left, at which point you can wait an hour or so for your lives to regenerate, or you can buy five more lives for 99 cents…

Or (and how about this for a deal) – you can buy a paintbrush to change normal candy into column/row destroying striped candy for a mere forty frickn’ dollars!

Ahahahahahaha… No.

So, do the right thing and uninstall that money-grubbin’ time-vampire – you’ll be glad that you did.