National Geographic has a new feature up today in which they discuss the new finding of a cave in the midst of an unexplored Mayan megacity–a cave with very particular glyphs on the walls. Those writings include charts to predict lunar cycles and other calendrical workings–including a cyclical Mayan calendar that counts many thousands of years in the future. Which means, um, that stuff about the Maya predicting the end of the world is kind of…factually problematic.

The article’s pretty great; this kind of calculation room was probably a part of every Mayan city, but it’s the first to be found well-preserved enough to examine. This particular city, named Xultún, was “discovered” about a hundred years ago, north of Tikal and south of San Bartolo, two other Mayan cities. The calendar-type charts on the wall of the cave emphasize the Mayan concept of cyclical time, and counts some 7,000 years in the future, which pretty much debunks the 2012 myth (which is itself based on a calendar that shows the year “starting over” in 2012).

[National Geographic]

Street Fighter x Tekken handles colors in a completely different way from Street Fighter 4 and its derivatives as a result of the color customization feature. Instead of just pulling colors and textures directly from the texture image, the textures look like this:
and the game calculates the appropriate color based on a series of numbers, which represent a color mix from the texture image’s color channels. These numbers are stored in the *.obj.emm files–specifically the ‘MatCol’ attributes–alongside the various other object materials and material attributes.
There are two main ways to edit *.obj.emm files, manually via hex or using NanjouJ’s MatEdit tool, which is a little more user-friendly than fiddling with hex codes. In this tutorial, we’ll be using MatEdit to copy colors from another color file, rather than calculating the color from scratch. If you would like to calculate an entirely new color from scratch, this post from yajirobe does a good job of explaining it.
So, first thing, we need to make backups of any of the files we plan to mess with. Once you’ve done that, go download MatEdit from the AE wiki’s ‘tools’ page and identify which files you want to work with. I’m going to be copying a color from one of Ryu’s *.obj.emm files into one of Poison’s.
Now, create a new folder (on your desktop or wherever) and copy matedit.exe and both Ryu and Poison’s *.obj.emm files into it. Then, hold ctrl+shift on your keyboard and right-click somewhere inside that folder, and choose ‘Open command window here’:
 This will open a command line window, but don’t freak out. I’m going to tell you exactly what to type in.

First thing, we want to export the materials from both of our files, using the syntax “matedit.exe export [target obj.emm file] [newfile.txt].” So, in my case, I’m going to type (replace PSN/RYU and poison/ryu as appropriate for your files):

matedit.exe export PSN_01_01.obj.emm poison.txt

and

matedit.exe export RYU_01_01.obj.emm ryu.txt

If done correctly, you should have two new files in your directory, in my case, poison.txt and ryu.txt. At this point, we’re done with the command line for now, but don’t close it yet because we’re going to need it again later.

For now, open both files in the text editor of your choice. Notepad works, but I prefer Notepad++ (it’s free and awesome; go get it).

Open both of the txt files in your text editor. You’ll see a series of sections which correspond to the various objects that make up the character’s model. In each section, there are a bunch of variables and values that tell the game how to render each object. The ones we’re worried about today are the MatCol variables:
 You’ll notice that I highlighted just the *R, *G and *B MatCols, which correspond to the red, green and blue color channels, respectively, and not the *A MatCol, which corresponds to the Alpha channel. You shouldn’t mess with the alpha value if you’re just trying to change colors.

So, lets say we want to take the color of Ryu’s pants–i.e., white–and copy it over to Poison’s hair. To do this, we would hop over to our ryu.txt file and search for ‘pants.’ Then, scroll down through his ‘pants’ section until we find the MatCol subsection.
 In this case, I only have a single color, MatCol0 to choose from, but some models will have multiple color groups, such as MatCol1 and MatCol2. These MatCols represent the color groups that can be customized in-game, so make sure you’re choosing the correct one.

Copy those values and then switch over the poison.txt file and search for ‘hair.’ Scroll down to the MatCol section and replace the values there with your new, copied values:
 Great, we’re almost done.

The last step is to import the modified text files back into the target *.obj.emm file. So, back to your command line window (if you didn’t listen earlier and closed it, just open a new one) and type:

matedit.exe import poison.txt PSN_01_01.obj.emm

Now you’re ready to test it out. Copy the PSN_01_01.obj.emm file into your [install directory]\resource\CMN\battle\chara\PSN folder, overwriting the one that was there (you made a backup, right??) and go check it out.

If you had calculated a new color from scratch using yajirobe’s instructions instead of copying the color from some other costume, you would go through the exact same steps, only using your calculated color numbers instead of the ones from Ryu’s pants.

That’s it. Have fun, share your work and always make backups.

Are you thinking of launching an open source project? Doing so successfully and rallying community support can be more complicated than you think, but a little up-front footwork and howework can help things go smoothly. Beyond that, some planning can also keep you out of legal trouble. Issues pertaining to licensing, distribution, support options and even branding require thinking ahead if you want your project to flourish. In this post, you’ll find our updated collection of good, free resources to pay attention to if you’re doing an open source project.

The Open Source Definition is where every project leader should start when it comes to how open source projects should be distributed, and what actually qualifies as open source. It’s also good to review Open Standards requirements.

As we noted in a this post, the Software Freedom Law Center has a set of very good online resources on how open source licenses and copyrights work, and much more. Legal issues are smart to anticipate up front. The authors are attorneys who were part of creating popular open source licenses. It’s also an excellent idea to keep up with urrent and archived editions of the International Free and Open Source Software Law Review

For an easy to digest, plain language discussion of license types for open source projects, and which license will work best for your project, try available here, and the Free Software Foundation has a good primer. It’s also an excellent idea to visit SourceForge, and review the many projects housed there, which types of licenses they have, how their communities work, and more. Should your project be housed there?

If you’re stitching together open source code or deploying applications, Hewlett-Packard’s free application Fossology is designed to analyze the source code for any project and report accurately on which licenses are being used.

For developers who want learning resources, Developer.com offers useful in our post here.

Finally, don’t forget that Tecnobitsitself is an excellent forum for getting questions answered. Type a question in at any time in our Member Questions area (see the Questions button on the home page) and you’ll get answers from experts. You can also read some of OStatic’s many interviews with open source project leaders, some of them found here, here, and here, and find a whole series of interviews on open source cloud-based projects here.

Today we are looking at two of the latest graphics cards from HIS, the confusingly named HD7870 IceQ Turbo and the IceQ X Turbo X. Both of these cards feature custom cooling solutions and are supplied in a pre-overclocked state. We have been impressed with the IceQ coolers in the past, especially in regards to low noise levels, so we have hopes that these cards will prove a tempting solution for the discerning enthusiast gamer.

HIS have some of the most dramatically designed coolers on the market. While companies such as XFX and MSI opt for distinguished metallic coolers, HIS have designed their ICE-Q coolers in the past with bright plastic aqua blue and transparent colour schemes. The appearance will certainly split opinion, however technically they are actually in the top 10% of cooling solutions on the market.

Above, the HIS HD7870 ICEQ Turbo and ICEQ X Turbo X. No longer have they bright blue semi see-through coolers. Good move, we say.

The HIS HD7870 ICEQ Turbo and ICEQ X Turbo X are both shipped with a 100mhz core clock increase from 1,000mhz to 1,100mhz. The ICEQ X GDDR5 memory also receives a boost, from 1,200mhz (4.8Gbps) to 1,250mhz (5.0Gbps).

Sniper Elite V2′s hyper-realistic, surgically accurate KillCam feature takes you inside your victim’s body to see precisely how your bullet will end his life. Will gamers embrace the gore, or is the KillCam a step over the line?

The creators of Sniper Elite V2, a third-person World War II shooter released this week, know that the success of a modern video game comes down to the details. They worked closely with historians to nail the feel of 1945 Berlin, all the way down to the pattern of the wallpaper inside a typical German home. The typeface on the Nazi propaganda littering the crumbling virtual urban streets is Antiqua, the preferred font of the Reich.

But the primary subject of research for the team was more, shall we say, internal: what happens when a sniper’s bullet enters a human body? They consulted medical experts, ex-military snipers, photography of real-life gunshot victims and x-rays of bone fractures, gathering a mountain of data and funneling it into through the incredibly powerful software and hardware used to create today’s videogames. The final result: a realistic simulation they call the “KillCam,” in which the camera follows a bullet as it leaves the sniper’s gun, flies through the air, hits its mark, and invades the body–with all the bone-crushing, organ-bursting, blood-spewing destruction that entails.

I went to see Sniper Elite V2 demonstrated in a hotel suite in midtown Manhattan on a weekday morning. In the room were the same three people you see in almost every product briefing: a young PR girl with a notebook, for scribbling notes about me and my reactions, which is not as flattering as you’d think; a talky representative from the developer (this one was British, and named Tim Jones; he’s the head of creative for the developer); and a stoic engineer-type, a stocky guy from the publisher who stood behind the couch and spoke very little but was outrageously, effortlessly good at the game. Before the demonstration, Jones asked if I wanted to play. I declined, theoretically so I could better observe and take notes, but mostly because I am lousy at shooting games. The stoic engineer took my place. He would be the sniper. Later, during the demonstration of co-op mode, Tim Jones would provide his ground-cover.

Jones and stoic engineer played that cooperative mode in a burned-out Berlin in 1945. The game is fairly cleverly designed, as far as shooters go; it’s not a “shoot everyone in sight” sort of game–not a “run and gun,” said Jones–but one much more about stealth and strategy. This level found the players tasked with destroying a cargo truck, which in turn required several sub-tasks to set up the final shoot-the-truck sequence. They’d have to draw enemies away from the truck, plant explosive charges, and set them off (by, not entirely realistically, shooting the glowing red fuel caps around the outside of the truck). While going through that checklist, Nazis would need to be dispatched. The stoic engineer would pick off long-range targets, and Tim Jones would set traps and place bombs.

You’re killing people. And that’s a messy business.I was going to ask the players to show me the KillCam, basically the entire reason I was there. Th KillCam is triggered only when a particularly well-placed shot is fired, and I didn’t want to watch these guys play videogames like I did in middle school when I was bad at Battletoads and hanging out in friends’ basements. I didn’t have to worry. Within a minute, I saw it. The target: a mirror image of the stoic engineer’s own player, a Nazi sniper perched a few hundred yards away on the roof of an abandoned building, ducking behind a shard of concrete that once may have been a wall. The stoic engineer found his target, lowered the crosshairs expertly on the enemy–not directly on the enemy, but slightly above, because at this distance, the player has to adjust for the effects of gravity. (On expert levels, you also have to contend with wind, and the game features heart rate and breath-pattern meters–your shot will be more accurate if you shoot with a low heart rate and empty lungs.)

Immediately the game paused for the KillCam cutscene. Everyone stop what you’re doing and watch this.

The bullet exploded out of the muzzle of the Gewehr rifle, emerging in a bright, jagged flash. The camera pulled back as it began its flight through the air, then quickly swung to the side. You could see the bullet rotate, see the waves, like dreamy smoke rings, left in its wake. The music muted slightly. Then, up ahead, I saw the mirror-image Nazi sniper, directly in the bullet’s path. Time slowed down even more as the bullet approached its target. It’s a perfect head-shot, an achievement. The stoic engineer will receive a small digital trophy for this, an award that will pop up in the corner of the screen. The camera rotated back behind the bullet to follow it as it got closer and closer to the enemy. Then it reached the enemy’s face. Suddenly the Nazi’s skin peeled back, like a Venetian blind rolling up, snapping backwards over his skull. I saw the bare, perfectly clean bone, the teeth, grinning and eerie, the spinal column beneath with its visible path of nerves. The bullet splattered through the cornea, shattered the bones of the eye-socket and cheek, broke through the blood vessels at the back of the eye, burst backwards through the brain cavity and punched a hole in the back of the skull, its course realistically altered by its journey. Blood and bone shot upwards, outwards, backwards. The entire cutscene took maybe eight seconds.

“Nice shot,” says the talky representative. “Thanks,” mutters the stoic engineer. I’d see the KillCam several more times, would see “Vital Hit” bullets pierce vital organs in the chest cavity (heart, lungs, liver, kidney), break ribs, turn collarbones and pelvic bones into coarse fragments of bone, and, on one memorable occasion, would see a bullet strike a hand grenade the enemy wore on a belt. The grenade exploded, almost robbing us of the full force of the KillCam, the Nazi’s body reduced to pulp and shrapnel in the blunt force of the grenade, negating any need for an x-ray image of his death. (The name of this type of shot, for some reason: a “potato masher.”) Not as clean as the sniper round, but rarer. The talky representative was excited to explain to me what had happened. “Did you see that? He hit the grenade!”

“Wow,” I said.

* * *

What struck me most about seeing these guys play the game was how businesslike they were. Partly that’s because these guys are the creators of the game: they’ve played it, I’m sure, hundreds or thousands of times already. Nothing in the game surprises them. But there was no posturing, no “Fucking awesome, man!” when a Nazi met his grisly end, not even for my benefit. No high fives, no elbow nudges, no cheering, no grins. Instead, in between the talky representative’s steady monologue about the intricacies of Sniper Elite V2′s gameplay, which I mostly ignored, there was quiet cooperation. “Coming up the stairs on your left,” said the stoic engineer, who could see the talky representative’s avatar from his sky-high perch on the rooftops. “Cheers,” said the talky representative, as he set a tight-wire explosive trap, which the Nazis would trip when they reached the top of the stairs. Upon their explosion, the stoic engineer and the talky representative didn’t so much give a nod of approval. They moved away from the doorway, because the explosion, while effective, had given their position away. They weren’t watching an action movie. They were working.

And that’s part of the what makes Sniper Elite V2 so interesting. It is easily the most graphic, violent video game I’ve ever seen, but the violence is relatively realistic, not cartoony. The game has the dubious honor of humanizing Nazis more than any of the scores of WWII-era games, films, and books that came before it: these are not anonymous targets, dispatched from far away with the tug of the R-trigger: once you see testicles exploded, fingers severed, an artery slashed open by the force of your bullet, that you shot, from your own gun, you feel the effects of your actions in a way I didn’t expect. The original idea might well have been to create the most extreme, violent period shooter ever made. Blood! Guts! X-rays! But the effect is the complete opposite. You’re not yanking a cartoon ninja’s spine out of his body with your bare hands, or stabbing a shrieking purple alien with a glowing light-sword. You’re killing people. And that’s a messy business.

* * *

For all its talk of realism–the publisher has billed the game as “the most brutally realistic military sharpshooter out there”–there are serious lapses in realism throughout the game. It’s realistic until realism interferes with the fun of the game, at which point realism can be cheerfully abandoned. Having to monitor your heart rate, wind speed and direction, and the precise loss of altitude your bullet will experience due to gravity over distance? Those are realistic variables, and fun ones. But with rare exceptions, a shot to the torso will kill any target. An exploded kidney will drop a Nazi like a stone, just as dead as if he’d been shot through the frontal lobe. Shots to the wrists or knees will sometimes mean instant death, for some reason (although most times, a leg shot will topple the enemy, leaving him to scream for help from his comrades–whom you can then take down).

But the question of realism isn’t an easy one to answer–as a player, you don’t really have the option of trotting over to a Nazi you’ve just shot in the torso to see if the splinters of bone fragment from his ribcage have reacted in a realistic way to the effects of the cavitation caused by the bullet, or if the enemy is bleeding out from a shot to the femoral artery in an appropriate time frame. You get, at most, two seconds of the bullet entering the body, then it’s time to move on to the next target.

You yourself are remarkably bulletproof–you can take several direct hits before having to duck behind cover and heal up, which you will, automatically. You’ll score “two-in-ones” fairly often, in which you’ll kill two enemies with a single bullet. In the real world, that shot is referred to as a “Quigley,” a reference to a 1990 Tom Selleck movie. It’s extremely rare.

The AI are smart enough to locate you due to sound, but hiding for a few seconds will send them back to their regular rounds, where they seem not to notice that they have to step over the bodies of their fellow soldiers who were shot by a hidden sniper moments before. “Oh well, back to the patrol!” It’s not tremendously more complex than the stealth mechanics of Sly Cooper, which is a decade-old game about a cartoon master thief raccoon and his two friends, a turtle and a hippopotamus.

* * *

You still get extra points for hitting a vital organ.The motives for creating this element of the game are murky, by necessity. It would be sort of untoward and unnecessarily confrontational for Jones and the other representatives from Rebellion and 505 Games to be vocal about the awesomeness of shooting somebody in the kidney and watching it rupture. Jones said it would be false to claim that the “visceral ‘wow’ factor [...] wasn’t a big factor in our decision to design and implement it that way.” Sniping feels like a relatively mechanical way of killing someone–you’re removed from the act itself, separated by distance and the glass of the scope, making adjustments for wind and gravity and angle in the same way you adjust the steering wheel to keep your car in its lane. “It does force players to reflect on the fate of their enemies in a way that many other games gloss over,” he said.

He also referred to the KillCam, in a sort of action-movie, U.S.-Army-recruiting video way, as a “heroic death sequence” for the fallen enemy. That’s just one of a whole mess of ways to approach the game–in your gut, you may think it’s noble, or you may think it’s brutal, or, as much of the chat on messageboards shows, you may think it’s awesome.

The messageboards are full of comments like this: “It’d be cool if they’d allow for a replay kill-cam, with a rotatable/zoom-able camera with editing tools and the ability to upload your videos to [Xbox] Live/PSN for others to watch.” Or excited folks who “just got [their] first nut-shot.” For them, the KillCam is just a new gore-delivery system, the latest in a long line of mildly transgressive evolutions in gaming violence. Shooting games are a dime a dozen, and as much as Tim tried to insist to me that what really sets Sniper Elite V2 apart from the pack is its stealth mechanics, I know better. Stealth isn’t new. Watching your bullet puncture a lung from the inside, that’s new. The trailers lean heavily on the gore. And no matter how educational or perspective-altering the KillCams are, you still get extra points for hitting a vital organ.

Reviews so far are mixed, but all mention the KillCam. The GameSpot review calls the KillCam shots “gruesome and gratifying” and “delightfully gory,” and says “they never get old.” The Official Xbox Magazine review uses the phrase “buckets of red awesomesauce.” GameInformer’s Tim Turi self-identifies as a “gore hound,” but even he notes that “some of these kills made my stomach twitch a bit.”

Mine too.