Simulation new facelift.

Rainy days...its been more than 4 days and it became local headlines for having flash flood due to recent typhoon that hit Philiphines and around South China Sea region. The typhoon tails hit Borneo island so we get to taste itsy bitsy of those wet cloudy days. Being stuck in my own home and couldn't move my bike around i have to spend some quality times with my PC. I'm staying away from Z-modeler heavy work for a while due to tedious jobs but instead put my hands on easy stuff like modding 4x4 Evolution 2 programs on UI settings, POD files, INI's and remove redundant files which i discover that some component of XBOX files placed inside the game which is useless for PC. The screenshots above is new UI designs for those game interface...very much clean, more spacious, not cluttered and foward new looks...smaller new font too.
Other than that i've remove some redundant 3d files (SMF), TIF, RAW and some unused track object to shrink the file size down so it could fit on my handy drive and i could move around and play the 4 wheeling simulator on the go. Some other improvement are the UI for career and all new blank center highlight Garage room which suits today simulation style, just like in Grand Turismo game. I'm right now experimening some common shared parts used on the sims like axle, cbox and suspension which mostly on *.BIN 3d meshes with old texture format on RAW + ACT.

After Christmas and eventfull week.

My my! what a week. Anyways i just came back from Christmas holiday trip from my hometown in Limbang city. It was great christmas treat! not only i get Christmas gift but also trip to lots of relative and friends house for Christmas celebration all eat and drink till drunk. Cakes, pudding, sweets, roast meat, chicken BBQ, beers, wines, whiskeys and late night laughter. First eve and next two midnights i was pretty blur minded when most of my relative serve me with high calories food and strong expensive wine. For christmas i receive a SONY noise reduction earphone (cool!), Nokia NGAGE accessories, CD games and few goodies goodies. The weather at my hometown was luckily very bright and sunny most of the time but yet hot, have to turn on the AC whole day too cool me down. Back at my cousin house who take care of my grandma, i was there to visit my grandma. Greeted my grandma Christmas greetings and good luck kisses on her forehead to tell her i'm back and here for her. I hope she could make it up till next year but her health seem not promising as her age nearly reach human limitation, i wish for the best and may Lord guide her to the next phase of life when times comes. On the 2nd day my parent show me some land that they owned and point out some potential area that we could work out on...maybe some plantation project or anything profitable. Later on Tuesday 26th i return back home on flight.
Back at home i hugged my bike and computer! Really missed them soooo mucchhh! 3 hours later i'm on my gears and ride my bike to nearest off-road spot for trails riding..."addictive"!
Little i didn't know earth quake strucked Taiwan region crippled internet throughout ASIA Pacific region as the undersea data cable were damage during those event. Plus heavy rain down pour rocked my city the next day spoil my daily dates with my bike. What a day!.

Merry Christmas! Yay!

Merry Christmas everyone!
And early greetings from me, i'm going back to my hometown Limbang city for family gathering and celebration. Its a best time to see my olds folks and my grandma. Brought also some surprises for them too.

So I had already prepared some little present for my cousins who request some thing special and useful.
1. A USB handy drive with bootable PUPPY LINUX OS…(damn he really got such crap 128MB PC…gotta rescue him with this!)
2. Mini custom simple setup of SUSE linux station to host his mini personal website for his vegetables business. (2x unit, one for me and one for him.)
All this cost to prepare this great gift almost cost to none. Puppy and SUSE downloaded free and most hardware are recycled (almost junk). The only this that worth expensive is workmanship. Simple Christmas gift but yet damn usefull. Anyways I’m on the budget since I finish up thousands on home loan, cars and stuff to advance the bill after those last project I did. I haved book an airplane ticket to get back to my home town in two hours from now. I have to remind myself to buy some little goodies for the little ones and also to my old man.
In the fridge there’s kilos of chocolate cakes ready to be slice for Christmas to be brought over there, my mouth drools… just need to count till tomorrow and chomp it off.

Well to all modeler, 4x4evo fans and the gamming community who read this, sorry I can’t release my production on time this Christmas because I’ll be away for Christmas holidays for a while, it’ll be next months that is 2007. Family reunion is the biggest priority this season so I couldn’t neglected it. Hobby can come later. Anyways my old grandma getting sick and hardly wake up. So is a good timing for me to get back to her and touch for the last time. May this coming Christmas season bring luck, joy happiness and heavenly light shone one happy people and those who I care. Merry Christmas! ;)

Word from an old man.

I met this old man at night outside the building just below the publishing company, he was sitting down near the bench under the a big shady roof and staring up in the sky, rain drops started to drips on the pavement. Sitting relax with portable radio cassette running playing old 80’s Chinese music beside him. And sing and hum along, dressed only with khakis blouse and short pants in his 70’s. I was about to move out from the building as my night job on customer computers have been settled and planning to drag all my stuff back into my car just across the road. And settle to nearby coffee shop for a good night meal The rain started to rain heavily.
“Young man! Its wet out there just wait for a while” he nudge.
He was right, it couldn’t hurt to wait until the rain cease rather than going back at night in cold and wet my car cushion. So I stood there with a box of CD software and some PC tools.
“What do you have over there?, wants some bak-pau?” he said.
“No thanks, and this is some computer stuff to fix computer” I replied.
He stare silently, raise his eye brow and then lean back against the bench with a wide smile; “ Oh computer I see……..emm..computer guy!..uumm yeahh…mmm….”
The rain seems to be longer than I ever expected with loud thundering sound from the dark nigh clouds…I waited and waited fear I will miss my day with computer games by midnight.
“Wah! Computer everywhere, phone with computer, computer tv, computer business, computer hospital, kids play computer, pay tiket with computer and soo many… too many computer around..amazing! amazing!”……….then he halt, took a bite of meat bun and gulp, he continues with a blank stare into the front surroundings of busy streets under the rain: “ people so busy with computer, …haiiya..they make money.. ..no time.. no emjoy… family.. no time.. no time.., ……. You,.. computer make you happy? You live with computer?”
“No sir, not always” I spoke….actually its my 50-50 facts.
The old man smiled and replied; “Life is very short you know…” then he hum along with the oldies song from cassette player.
Puzzled with his words I just smiled to him. The rain almost calm down, I start to walk slowly along the corridor to nearby path where I could reach my car without getting wet. I passed in front of the old man and wave at him. Just a few steps..
“Never be slave to a machine, they are not everything….this thing bring sickness” he murmured.
I look back at him pondering and yet smiled with confusion. He seems to relaxed with those words, he looks calm and enjoy staring at the city lights late at night, look wise and ambiguous.
He turn his head to me and said “ Don’t be like my daughter…hmmmpp…peace is not in the machine”.
“Where is she now?” I asked.
He took a long breath and ease himself in a relax position, “Very very far away from here…very far away, but I have no regret”.
So I thought she must have been working overseas. “Oh!”, I turn around and continue walking.
“Hey! Do you feel stress at work?” he stare at me.
“Nope! Why should i” I replied.
“Good, I wish my daughter was like you but it was too late” he shook his head and continue took a last bite on the meat buns…”enjoy life…you know there lots of nice food you can enjoy.”
“Umm…”, I grin. So I left the place silently leaving the old man ponders by itself under the lights of city nights.

Back driving in the car looking at by standers with working suits outside the windows, I recall what the old man says and understand what he meant. Back few months ago I worked very hard and catch up with opportunities day and night. My nose bleed every morning, headache, sleepy and muscle pain. But now everything went ok, I felt much healthier and enjoy more outdoors every day. I know now. Learn to enjoy, avoid stress, ignore obstacles, ignore the rules that govern us into work slavery. Life is good when you enjoy every minutes of things you always wanted to feel, hear and touch. Thank god I was born to explore the world and able to mix around with weird people day and night, learning new things.

At the same night I pick up my sister who worked late at night at medic lab inside private medical center. Then saw a familiar face come out from the door in his late 20’s . “Did you diagnose this guy?” I wonder. “Oh, he came to monitor his blood pressure level, he needs stress management” my sister answered. To bad I knew that person…working under the same building where I worked for.

Hot!..wheeww!

uhh...it Tuesday early wee morning, can't get back to sleep...too hot. I think those after effect eating pounds of BBQ meat last Sunday beach biking party really put me on weight and made my body full of fat under the skin. I did turn the air-cond and fan to the max still felt hot and itch. I guess those grilled saucy food haven't worn off and still burning some calories as we speak. I must get back riding my bike this coming evening to burn those fat.

Beautiful sunday! Cycling and BBQ feast!

Sunday ride was great! Well blessed with beauuuuutifullll weather! The sky so blue clear, can see far horizon and mountains, and the climate was really hot and made us bath in our own sweat. As usual 3.30pm about more than 20 mountain biker went off into the woods, up and down the trails, swinging our bike through curves and tight windy path, ram through bushes and up into rocky hills. At 6.30pm we return back into our finishing point at our city Esplanade facing towards the sea. Tired, sweaty, sticky and our stomach was growling. Everyone load their bikes into their car and pull our sets of BBQ hardware, some heavy buckets full of raw chicken wings, drumsticks and meat, box of iced cold beer, junk foods and whole bunch of fruits. ITS BBQ PARTY! Yum! Yum! Its our monthly mountain biker gathering party! Everyone was busy BBQ and frying some food over the grilled, others busy on the drinks, bath on the sea, sightseeing, chatting, testing bikes and me I was seating down looking the beautiful orange violet horizon looking over sun setting down to welcome the nights. People running around the beach, playing around the sea water, jogged and romantic couple holding hands.
The sea wind pound my face and body, cool and breeze keeping me dry and refresh after long tired rides. The smell of BBQ meat really made my tummy growl. Everyone gather around as darkness be fall our surroundings, only our HID bicycle light brightens our gathering spot plus burning fire from charcoal grille. We talk and laugh about common interest, from bikes to public incident. We also talk about plans for rides during Christmas season. By 7.50pm all nice BBQ chickens, meat, hotdog, snacks and slices of fruits ready to be consume. Everyone have handful of hot chilli meat and cans of carbonated cold drinks and beer to cool us down, The night star was bright, the sky very clear and cloudless. I had a good laugh and full tank of dinner, hardly move my body….ummmphhhh!! All of us spent the BBQ party until almost 10.00pm. Then we packed and get back home back into our cars.
The smell for fried burned chicken and meat spew from my stomach and out of my mouth as we drove home. Wow! What a feast! I sure gain extra weight today.

CG quality high poly cockpit parts.

Alright time to put all 3d quality to the max….beat beyond Playstation 3d complexity and TEST DRIVE standard. Everyone knows that by year 2007 and forward 3d quality and complexity are getting more and more detailed and realistic thanks to high performance processing power of CPU and Graphic Processing Unit plus trick graphic engine that can render trillions of polygon per-second or even can achieve at mili’s.
Back behind the desk I was thinking way deep and outside the box, thinking if “SIXTY-7” worth released if the 3d complexity is between gaming and CG standard 3d. So I said “ Get over it, let burn the PC and overload the CPU processing power, let get make a REAL ride!”……..super high polygon to the max!… Since the future 2007 compose of high end gaming PC, I don’t think they’re be any problem running my car at super high poly. Aw c’mon, Intel and AMD going for QUAD CORE Cpu. Wouldn’t that run smooth?

So……here’s some super high polygon 3d parts I made for SIXTY-7, each parts worth tones heavier than normal 3d. Like, my latest wheel polygon amount = SIXTY-7’s gear box shifter set. Yup! more than 5 thousands poly per parts…per parts!
For me high polygon is good news for me:

MORE POLYGON = LESS TEXTURE RESOLUTION
This is useful since 4x4EVO1/2 only can support 1x 512x512 texture per-overall 3d car/trucks.
Check the picture above. They look superbly wonderful looking even without texture. This is CG quality 3d!

CPU + GPU processing killer 3d models.

It was a boring day in the office, my area of work seem to be unchallenging… All I do is do the repeated task and trouble shooting on computer hardware and administrative task over and over again. I hate repeated task it doesn't make my brain function well. When I look back at my Degree in Computer Science certificate I don’t think it worth to be in such crap position. I’m losing my C++, VB, PHP and MYSQL programming skill as days pass by. But good thing the current post provide a very loose work hours for me to work on other stuff. Too avoid being brain dead on my own desk I need to grease up my mind. Since I got few minutes of free slot between work I manage to work out and pull out ideas for “SIXTY-7” new cockpit....now that what i called progress and mind building activity. After long thinking its been decided SITXY-7 should have higher polycount models exceed today PC game’s 3d models standard and jump into PS3 style high detailed cockpit models. 4x4 EVOLUTION game engine and DirectX-8 based render provide a better platform to support high amount of complex 3d model object in one group. So better take advantage over its feature and push the computer processing power to the limit. Few parts of models especially on the cockpit models been made, it a right hand drive steering models. Very high poly on the dashboard alone. It is estimated that “SIXTY-7” have massive polycount on the cockpit model alone equal to the overall amount of polycount of NEMIXIS complete car model. The engine itself, chassis, suspension system and other small detailed miscellaneous parts will take a heavy rendering power. This is estimated value of it polygon count for “SIXTY-7” periodly:

PROJECT: SIXTY-7
estimated total of polygon
from complete car models-
----------------------------
FACE: 369324
VERTICE : 362720
----------------------------

Remember this is the minimal value. Some 3d structure in SIXTY-7 models have not been completed and expect the value to increase soon. This is the most heaviest polycount 3d models ever built for racing game simulation periodly! Its a CPU + GPU cycle sucker!

Premium gold label wheel.

I've decided to put gold platted finishing on the new wheels "RAPID FIRE GSR-24 XL". As shown in the picture above is the beta version of final product for SIXTY-7's wheelset. The front and rear wheel will have different width and tire density ratio just like NEMIXIS have. It was a tough choice choosing proper color for new 2007 models, the color have been chosen because it fit the car looks and given characteristic of secretive and mysterious charisma of a car. Gothic and exotics. It reminds me of color theme from old PORSHE 911's BBS webbed wheels from FIA-GTR. Looks massively bulk and aggressive!

Project SIXTY-7: the wheelset GSR24-XL

This evening i run my Z-modeler program to edit few missing parts on project SIXTY-7 model's wheelset. I made few minor mistake for not putting enough details into the models. Just like the previous wheels the XETA GSE24-XL (on NEMIXIS) it has missing parts....the pump valve (shredder valve). How you gonna pump a tire without those? So for SIXTY-7 car's wheelset i added those on the rim perimeter just below the flange bow. Oh btw the picture shown above is the new wheelset design for "SIXTY-7" car. It is called RAPIDFIRE GSR24-XL super asphalt wheelset for hatch back car. The design almost similar to the latest models used by NEMIXIS except the rim flange on "Y" configuration spread much wider, bulkier touch on the wheels perimeter and flange bolt added and protrude againts others to provide much better weight and stress distributon..theoratically, I'm planning to show the complete finished version of GSR24-XL with texture maybe tomorrow or two days later. Choice of color probably gold anodize, titanium dark grey rims and some ball burnished silver coating. That would depend how well the color fits and match SIXTY-7 main chassis color.

Another ruined Sunday.

Sunday suppose to be happy day to me but no, just another bad luck..
1. Some dude at crowded public place didn't cover his sneeze, the wind then blew the germ from the front to behind where i was seated. Now i'm getting it. Damn! That guy bring crap sickness!
2. Rain! awwww!!! Suppose to be my bike riding day today. From morning till evening as we speak.

Drive the old and new.

Ahhh...tired at work...yet brainless and repetitive task in the office made me dull guy without future. Lame day especially on friday..reached home at 5.30pm, my brain wishper "C'mon turn on the computer, run 4x4 evolution and pick a ride". Before i took off for the night work i run my usual favorite game/simulator and pick up two of my old and new vehicle collection and start driving around on my joystick. Rode an old "DX 200T SRS 7" and latest "NEMIXIS CD 12.0 XL-XGT". Made few rounds of speed cruise, drift, drags and rubber burnout on the tarmac. The old model was easy going and easy to drift around corner with much higher differential slips while the new ones more like drag racer and hard to turn around the junction. Physically when i look at both of my creation i do feel that my models and skills on creating models do evolve and manage to catch up with high poly 3d trends...also as hardware performance like higher GPU clock rate more high polygon models can be made to be added into 4x4evo1/2 sims. Both models on the picture separated 3 years apart symbolised my youth and adult hood souls. As we count our fingers each days 2007 will be around the corner. I hope to built something that would shock the gaming, 3d modeler and designer community.

Out for morning trails riding. A day off

Its was a great day today, Wednesday morning greeted with bright sunshine, blue sky and fresh dry weather. Today suppose to be my working day for me but i took emergency day off today to work out on new trails and explore new location for next Sunday bike riding event. Also a good timing to go out since the weather is unpredictable and occasionally rains at random times. Only 4 people went out searching for trails. As shown from the picture above we went to into the dense jungle and penetrate further till it reach behind or nearby LAMBIR National Park. We reached at about 10.30am and cruise into a logging trails, then back into the single track path under the canopy trees. We passed SOON HUP area then climb over the highest hill overlook the horizon looking for possible path toward the National Park. At 11.30am the sun rise above us, pretty hot..wish i wore yellow FOX Racing jersey instead of dark blue because it doesn't reflect back the heat out of the body. Anyways the weather suddenly became much cooler by 12.00pm..then minor rain started to drizzle towards east. We quickly cycle as fast as we could towards our final destination that is going out through SONG Hills that was a junction above the hills before LAMBIR National park, but that was 3 hours ride away through bumpy rides, rocky obstacles, roots, valleys, bushes and dirt trails. We also met some local villagers who we were working about their plantation and seek help to locate possible path the leads to possible path towards the highest hill where the rear back National Park was located. They were very friendly. The wind getting much stronger as it blew through the dense forest. I can hear wind turbulence thrust against my ear which also plugged with earphone interfering as I listening to mp3 along the way. We climbed the highest hill point, the scene was beautiful and rewarding. It make me felt that living in urban community really all that sucks. Green habitate rocks! Then we did few up and down hill through loose rocky and muddy roads to the east-south bound for the SONG hills. By 1.30pm we reached civilized road and stop at nearby hut to take cover from the heavy rain. I took 30 minutes nap on wooden plank as we wait for the rain to calm down. Everything went well at 4.00pm and we head back home….my head began imagining of me holding iced cold can of Coca Cola gulping those fizzy cold beverages down my throat relieved my thirst. Yes we cycle damn fast for it. Home!

Few bytes per download?

Its getting suspicious about my internet access broadband speed for the pass few weeks, it getting slower and slower. Even took almost 4 hours to download 14MB files and same as other FTP websites. I wonder if the ISP provider lied about the internet speed as offered on their package for 1MB per sec offer. Sometimes i got the feeling that some net speed have been consumed by probability of filter server to monitor illegal internet activity locally and in asian region. But one thing for sure its kinda cut throat to know that my money burn off to lousy internet access services. Right now i felt like having runing a dial-up speed. Lame!

Renovate my website in time for Christmas and New Year.

Well, a month alter it'll be 2007! There so much thing to do in just a short period. As usually i'm also prepare to welcome the new year for the community. First step i need to update the my website interface with much lively feeling plus changable theme skins for user view pleasure. Mmm!! changeble website templates on the spot! sound rare aa! Hopefully it'll be done before christmas along with other creation. I don't know what i wish for christmas. But at my typical age i don't wish much for material gift, but hoping something special might appear in my life next year. Something that would make me forever happy. Till then i just play along and enjoy my life as it is.