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.

Hot Wheels Collector's Safebox

It's a safebox for 1/64 miniatures, branded with my favorite maker...

Test Renders...

Did these renders to test out a lighting technique i learned through this tutorial.

Closing 2009

End of year, finally, had much less time I hoped I would have to dedicate to my personal stuff this year. Anyway, time to clean up the PC, do another fresh install of windows and get some stuff going on :P

T-Shirt: Dig Racing Team Sponsor T-Shirt - FIGER

As main DRT sponsor, FIGER got it's own suporter t-shirt. I really wish i could talk more about the brand other than that it has some obscure relation to a part of one of Namco's games. Also, i really like their logo shape.

T-Shirt: Speed Factory RGO Super T-shirt

While the other model is designed to have a classical look and serve as uniform for the employees of the shop. This one is made after the customers/fans/supporters of the shop. It has a more modern look and it's available on the black with red accents combo.

T-Shirt: S.T.L Test Driver Tee

S.T.L. Test Driver Series #1

Another original concept, this time for the Test Driver Series. The color scheme is Black w/ Gloss Dark Grey Accents.

T-Shirt: Dig Racing Team Supporter T-Shirt

Inspired by the Namco's '98 Ridge Racer Type 4 game, this is a custom designed team supporter t-shirt for the Dig Racing Team (DRT), which in game was the used as the hardest game level available.

It comes in 2 color options being one sporting the team colors, and a second one sporting both the team and it's main sponsor Figer yellow color.

T-Shirt: S.T.L God of Speed Tee

S.T.L. God of Speed Series #1

This is my first completely original design for my own fictional tuning brand. Made with 2 color schemes based on the brand colors, factor blue and factor red.

T-Shirt: GTApex.com Panda Tee

based on the color code of the Toyota AE85/86 Series. The GTApex.com Panda Tee is a proposed limited edition commemorative t-shirt made for the veteran members of the GTApex.com forums. Avaiable on 3 color schemes, white/black, red/black, black/grey.

T-Shirt: Yamamoto Speed

The third design made out of Wangan Midnight anime. This time is a purely fictional design made for Kazuhiko Yamamoto's shop, dubbed Yamamoto Speed. I did not had any reference material for this, so i pictured what would be the closest option.

I'm still gonna work more on it if i ever come into contact with any references of it on the anime for sure.

T-Shirt: Green Auto Shop

Another t-shirt based on the Wangan Midnight anime/manga. This time featuring one of the least known, yet one of my favourite by color choice shop, Green Auto Shop. This one was also inspired by a photo i saw over Wangan Midnight Expressway Forums.

T-Shirt: Speed Factory RGO

The idea for this t-shirt came both from the anime Wangan Midnight, and the exemple found on Wangan Expressway Forums, developed by an unknown menber. I just upped his design with a more favorable placement of the shop logo and colors.

Boredom = Productive day

Now playing: Sequentia - Eclipse (Adam Nickey Remix)















Not much to talk here, i'll make a single post for each one later on

mid season changes

We are getting close to that time that where i get pissed with the blog's layout and ends up overhauling it...

yep... I'm not liking the look of it right now... :P

I blame the weather. >_>

PC unwanted updates...

Seems that my plans had to be put up to speed before I planed. If some of you may have noticed, I was "absent" for some time in the last few weeks.

All because of this...



This is the retention bracket for the AMD Am2 motherboard. A meaningless priced plastic part responsible for securing the CPU cooler on its place. Every Am2 board comes with it, and it's expected to last the motherboard's lifespan.

But that is not what always happen, right?

The update plan...

Now playing: Breakdown - Breakdown

For quite some time I've being studding the performance possibilities of my actual PC. While the "temptation" of getting a more improved new machine, I´ve often caught myself contemplating my percentage of use of my actual equipment.

So far i'm not convinced that i'm overusing it. And it's a pretty lowbase machine compared to the new motherboard and processors.

Actual Hardware

CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4600+ 2.41GHz Socket AM2

Fan/Heat Sink:
Asaka OEM

Motherboard:
Asus M2N4-Sli
- 2 x PCI Express x16
- 2 x PCI Express x1
- 2 x PCI 2.2
- 10 x USB
- Gigabit Mac Lan

RAM:
Corsair Value Select DDR2 667Mhz 2048Mb PC2-5300(2x1024mb)

Storage:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA2 3.0 GB/s 160-GB Hard Drive
LG HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H42N 48X DVD/CD Writer
Generic 3.5” FDD

Graphics Card:
Foxconn NVidea GeForce 8600GT 256 Mb DDR2 Sli 128 bits

Sound Card:
Onboard

Monitor:
Samsung SyncMaster 2232BW 22” 1680x1050 @ 60 Hz

Power Supply Unit:
Seventeam ST-420BKV-03F 420W ATX PSU

Miscellaneous:
Forceline 101/102 keys ABNT-BR Keyboard
Clone Optical Mouse

OS:
Windows XP Professional SP3
BricoPacks Vista Inspirat 2


As you can see, it's not exactly bad, but not great either, it's just fine. I can do my work fine(rendering doesn't take much time since i do a lot of optimization prior rendering), and play some games at full specs without much lag. But, after looking around, i started thinking if it was worthy to push it to it's limits...