Episode 403 – E3 2017 – 6/15/17

18 thoughts on “Episode 403 – E3 2017 – 6/15/17”

1. Here’s a thought: Apple releasing podcast metrics might be bad for podcasters. For instance, I’ve listened to or watched this podcast every week for years, but never once have I used an Apple device to do that. Apple’s metrics are always going to be only a slice (a big one, granted) of the overall listenership, but advertisers are probably not going to pay attention to aggregate metrics: they’re going to look at the Apple metrics to make their decisions about who gets money. I currently subscribe and listen to 20 different podcasts, and I’d hate to think that those podcasts might be hurt because I’m not listening to them through iTunes.

   Reply

2. Show notes are up here: http://bit.ly/TiOaTShownotes

   Reply

3. “Over the moon” for Super Mario Galaxy? Really, Jeremy? Really?

   What did you all think of Sea of Thieves? That’s the game shown at E3 that I’m most interested in.

   The toy Kishore was thinking of is a See ‘n Say.

   Reply

4. *A This is a great point. I’m assuming the other podcasting apps will follow suit if the metrics take off – but I’m not sure it will be technically feasible.

   Reply

5. Graphics always matters. My biggest problem with VR: fuzzy grainy pixelated poor graphics. Needs twice the resolution at least. May be ready in 5 years I guess. Only use my Rift for sculpting in medium for the past 2 month.

   Reply

6. Interesting podcast as always guys. One small critique though. I’m glad to hear the Ms. Pac-Man story discussed because it is an interesting story, but nobody seemed to know exactly what the story was about. A number of questions were asked and a few assumptions were made on air without anybody referencing the source material for answers. To his credit, Zach Radding did acknowledge the lack of answers given at the end by saying “I think we need more research.” For anyone curious, Kishore’s shownotes do provide a link to a good article with more accurate information. That article also links to Microsoft’s original blog post on the subject. Basically:

   1. At 38:28, no, a human has never achieved a perfect score on Ms. Pac-Man, especially not on the Atari 2600 version of the game.

   2. At 40:08, as far as I can tell from reading a few articles, no, the AI does not do any pattern recognition of ghost movement. The researchers purposely chose Ms. Pac-Man because it has far less predictable ghost movement in it than original Pac-Man. That being said, no program is ever truly random, so Ms. Pac-Man probably still has complex patterns in ghost movments. Still, as far as I could tell, their approach to winning did not involve learning the movement of ghosts, but rather using a complex scoring system to determine the best course of action at any given moment.

   Reply

7. Dude, what? Super Mario Galaxy was layer upon layer of amazing. 97% on Metacritic.

   Reply

8. Totally agree. I followed the link after the show and saw what we got wrong. There’s kind of an unwritten rule that if you submit a story to the show notes (we aggregate links throughout the week) then you’re responsible for being able to lay out the facts for discussion. All I know is I didn’t submit the Ms. Pac-Man story. 🙂

   Reply

9. Austin Walker, of Waypoint, also mentioned that scale in Skyrim was weird , but I think he was referring to reports from ppl who have tried to play the non vr version with a headset and not what he had tried himself at the time the podcast was recorded.

   I think it could be some type of ramping FOV effect that makes a somewhat small world look more vast that works when rendering to a monitor but in 3d the ‘cheat’ doesn’t work.

   Reply

10. Oh, no, I love Super Mario Galaxy! I was making reference to the (apparently unnoticed) pun, describing yourself as “over the moon” for a game about flinging yourself around gravity objects.

    Reply

11. After spending a few minutes in the Vive, I don’t even notice the “fuzziness” unless I’m either specifically looking for it, or trying to read small text. It just fades away.

    Reply

12.   I’m about to take the plunge and get a Vive. Any idea if any build changes air in the wind like including the new audio strap being included? I’m just worried a month after I get one all the best accessories will be included. 😋
    Big fan,
    Bryan

    Reply

13. Not sure when Steam VR Tracking 2.0 will make it into shipping VIve, but that’s worth considering. Not sure beyond that.

    Reply

14. Did you ever finish your testing on different mosquito repellents?

    Reply

15. I thought I get used to it or will learn to ignore it. Sorry but I can’t. The glare from the fresnel lens at high contrast transitions and the limited focus area in the middle of the image. The active area of focus is about 640 by 512 pixels the rest is periphery. Some games do better and certainly things improved with updates and the GTX1080 but still I am mostly annoyed after a few minutes, although I have spend 2 hours and more in Medium. Some people even can watch 3D movies with the Rift/Vive so your mileage may vary.

    Reply

16. Fun Fact related to the NASA launch of colored clouds into the atmosphere:

    President Jimmy Carter famously reported seeing a UFO in 1969 (before he became president). “The object is then said to have changed color, first to blue, then to red, then back to white, before appearing to recede into the distance.”

    In 2016, after a bunch of research, a former member of the Air Force wrote to him and thinks he knows what he saw: sodium and barium clouds launched to study winds in the upper atmosphere. The guy worked at the near Air Force base and there are records of launching the clouds that night at the same time and location Carter reported seeing the light. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter_UFO_incident

    Reply

17. Now I want to hear about the welding mask.

    Reply

18. Anyone know what CNC machine Zach bought from China? It would be awesome to see a video about that!

    Reply