PD Station II - Part One

So, time to get this back on moving. During my absence during the previous weeks, I were busy sorting out a mess that was the PCs on my house. And for a self learner, it was a sort of a nightmare...

I can't deny that i have a bit of experience when it comes to assembling, cleaning and fixing PCs, but I've never built one from scratch, I've always had someone to do it (normally, the guy from the shop i bought it), and all that was left for me to do was deal with upgrades. So how would it be, having to disassemble and reassemble nearly 3 at the same time?

It all started when i decided to get a new gfx card for my old PC, dubbed "PD-Station I". I had it running with a problematic Foxconn Nvidia 8600GT, 256MB model. It keept conflicting, overheating, getting all sorts of driver errors, I would at least get BSOD per week on Vista, I also sort of messed with my onboard audio card. Strangely, i would get this problems only when:
- Running Games
- Running iTunes

All other times it would run fine. It would even render stuff on 3DS with V-Ray without problems, either way, i got tired of it and went on searching for an upgrade. But i had some problems to deal with that. 1st, my PSU. It was a old 420W Seventeam model, and as much as good as it was (never failed me once, protecting my PC from burning specially when all went haywire during the blackouts here), it didn't produce enough juice to allow me to get a really decent Nvidia card. So i had to look on lower levels. I ended up settling for a 9600GT model, 256bits, 1GB memory from Zogis. Good brand, enough memory to run some of the last gen games, cheap to my pockets. Everything seemed fine, but after sometime, i noticed that while playing games, it would heat up pretty fast. The problem? My PC Case, A WiseCase Dolphin BK-9959.

 While it was a somewhat good case (you should see the other ones available when i went to pick my old PC), it lacked of several key features for a more modern PC. So to replace it, i went on and got a Cooler Master CM 690. Man, i was happy, everything now was perfect, temps were cool, the case was great looking, lots of space, i even had a go at cable management for the first time of my life XD. And since I was happy, i decided to help my younger brother with his PC by changing his case with my old one, since his didn't have enough coolers nor front usb / sound connectors. That's when it all went downhill...

SCS Truck Simulators - Some Ideas

I've been playing these games for quite a time already, and lately i got my hands on German Truck Simulator. By far one of the best of the series in my opinion. Still, the game is just an improvement over the original Euro Truck Simulator, and has lots of things that can be improved.

I decided to make a series of posts about the ideas i had to make the game better. Hopping that they will be heard somewhere...

On this post, I'll diverge onto the customization of the trucks and cargoes in game, which in my opinion, compared to the late 18wos, is one of the most lacking features of it. The games gives you only the standard trucks, out of the showroom, with no possibility of visual customization of any sort other than changing its color. Back on 18wos, you could change the paint, add bumpers, lights, pick between 4 types of custom paintjobs.

New Layout...

I had made a personal promise to change the layout of my blog in a year basis. But later i noticed that i wouldn't be able to do that. This year I'm yet to come with something really nice looking of my own, so i decided to temporally run with a pre-made one. Its not the best option, but I'm in no mind to come up with something of my own now...

20ft Dry Van Container Set Game Model

After messing around with my 20ft container model for quite a time, i decided to do a proper presentation for it. Little research here and there, managed to grab some interesting reference material to make the textures, then onto the rendering... seemed like a quick job...

Boy... how i was wrong...

Now imagine, 20 images like the one above, but each one with its own texture, with render times around 35mins each, plus 20 something minutes used on correcting the texture and render setup.