Cold breezy rainy day.

A kilometer away the sound of wave pounding the sandy beaches much louder and noisy that ever. The wind seeps into the door howling push cold wind into my house. The weather have been very cloudy and rains heavily very ofthen in the morning...which spoils my plan to go out for mountain biking both yesterday and this gloomy Sunday morning. I been munching lots of calories in the morning...egg, nuggets and sausages hoping i could burn them for noon activity..well postponed tomorrow so keep it under the skin. The whole day i'm on PC playing Ripmax Radio Control Simulator and checkout some files for 4x4evo2 games..let say house cleaning the files. I wish tomorrow will be a brighter day.

Day 2: take a break..have a kit kat...watch anime.

Since this week and forth will be a week break away from 3d modelling tools and task every night i spent some times watching some collection of anime episode that i've been keeping for long time. After night shift and get back home... i pull out disc of episodes from 'Chrono Crusade' to keep me entertained. Tonight i supposed to watch episode 14 and 15. It was great but not as good as AKIRA movie. Watching anime is a great activity for me,... pull out some great stuff to watch help me refresh my brain. My brain kinda like VCR recorder...as i watch i actually record back into my brain and put the into sequential library of movie so i can remember back and rewind the movie and play back again whenever i go...that's memory power! Whenever i feel boring i just recall back those episode and movie enjoy as if jump into virtual world and be part of it.

Enjoyable weeks.

Ouch! man...thing going pretty slow as snail around here especially on the design developemtn side... i also forgot to update my blog to tell you guys updates on 4x4evo1/2 and some designs for our gaming and modelling community. Its been weeks i haven't blog some updates but i think those weeks should be rewarding for me to get my burden on designs and models off my shoulder. Those weeks i spent more times with my family, friends, pc games and finish up some collection of anime episodes behind the desk. I manage to get special part-time work on graphics design for my friend's father company at night which explain why i didn't have much time to pop-up with updates on my blog so soon.... late at night i pretty worn out and doze to sleep...z.zzz..zzz...zzzz. Made some good cash and spend on upgrading my bike and put aside some few for February special day....emmmmm!!.
January and February 2007 will be my breaking month to cool myself down and enjoy my life before i head back on the drawing board. Btw i was thinking dumping some parts from SIXTY-7 like wheelsets and part into my website download section as an advance. I haven't decide yet but i need to arrange suitable time slot to make it available in pairs. Wheeewwww! what a week!..

Toy from the past.

A toy from the past. XCALIBUR...a replica of my kiddy minded dreams. Still it was my best lightweight 3d models and well enjoyed dune buggy vehicle models. Just this evening i was trying it our for a ride around the Autumn tracks, it rolls over through any terrains flawlessly in 4x4evo2 sims. Back then in real world,my uncle used to have an Radio Control buggy almost jut like this. When i was a kid he used to live round my house and his room fill of models from Radio to mini scaled plastic kits. My eyes caught on his RC buggy collection which he used to bring it out and let it sprint around the sandy track infront of our house. Playing Radio Control models was expensive hobby back then. As a kid i can only watch him control this mini wonder round and round the track which attract much crowd nearby. I remember having to drool all over the shopping window glass which housed a big box of R/C models of "TAMIYA Super Sabre" and "TAMIYA Boomerang" pretty expensive for a kid like me.
But now i'm grow older and no need for real thing to be in my hands, i can always have on virtually and share with others thanks to 3d modele tools and 4x4evo2 sims, with race cam view and PS2 via PC to USB adapter i feel like kid again...my my 20 years went by so fast!

Dream of wonders.

I had a dream...
Was driving in a car, the cockpit was very wide in width, two seater type everthing covered in dark leather covers, seated in a very relaxed nap posture type chair with leg reaching the accelerator almost straight vertical level with the chair. I can see the hood of the car dark high polished violet dual tone in pearl essence color viewable through very aero slanted windshield. I was driving into the office compound reversing the car into parking lot. Then in few second i passed out and awake....wondering why i had such dream. Anyways violet color car isn't my choice of color even if to put it into my designs. Wonder what was all about.

Ride to the edge.

I crashed a lot on mountain biking this week after tryout few steep downhills and some wheelie jumps, on the scene: all around me are hills, valleys, rocky slope, cliff and stalagtite type terrains with deep gap way down below. Its just me and my bike jumping around gripping every corner of terrains, balance through narrow slippery rocky trails and hop/leap over the biggest possible obstacles. Sometimes i slipped crashed, fly over bar and land head first, side ways, and even worse grab dear life at the edge of the cliff 6 storey high after almost slip at the end of the cliff. Damn i was lucky to be alive. Back on my feet looking down the ravine i was wonder was if i did down there..... That's the price i have to pay for going into extreme sport,exciting but risky. There's an important lesson i can learn being at the edge of between life and death: You'll appreciate your life much more than you ever experience and felt before...every minutes is meaningful and no rules govern and restrict your freedom. heh! i felt good! I should do again everyday. Live strong.

Pocket burner day.

I burn lots of budget today, spent mostly on bike maintenance.....its necessary. Part worn out badly mostly on drive trains, gear shifts, and traction system. Gobble more than half of my salary. Some parts have to be order from overseas which costs a lot since my bike can only be fitted with special custom parts. I'll have to wait 4 days until the bike is up. Anyways no regret for that because such investment worth benefit for my health, fitness and trouble free pleasure since i'm an adventurous dude. Actually i suppose to get a Playstation Portable (PSP) today but our local SONY shop stop ordering due to lack of customer response and less game titles available for PSP. I'll stick to my trusty NGAGE this time..again.

Happy New Year! Good bye 2006, welcome 2007!
Wishes all 4x4evo1/2 community, 3d modeler, gaming fans and all my friends a happy new year and may all the wishes and dream this year and after be a successfull and prosperity for those who have the will to achieve their goals and success.
Well for me i hope i could expand my work with ideas outside the box, plus putting 3d models into more realistic approach to real world demand hence my moto " bring design closer to reality" as pronounced 6 years ago. Also i'll be concentrating more into getting people gather around and enjoy online together for an adventure ride this mid. I hope the server will be around to host our adventure 4x4 simulation drive. With site, forum,chats and stuff in the community i hope i could these community into real virtual driving community via 3d simulated environment just like the Matrix with common interest; car, trucks and track. Let's go!

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.