With the recent announcement that DeskScapes 2.0 will be out by February and that it will work on all versions of Windows Vista, the question is no longer if but rather when will animated wallpaper be widely available.  Stardock expects to release the first beta of it to Object Desktop users before Christmas and include some premium animated wallpapers (which we call "Dreams") with it.

So how mainstream will animated wallpapers become? It's an open question.  Like all customization, the answer is, most people won't use it. Most people don't even change their default wallpapers.  But I believe that animated wallpapers will become surprisingly popular. Here's why:

In the past month, Dreams have more entries in the top 30 than any other category other than WindowBlinds.  And considering that only users of Windows Vista Ultimate can even use them at present, that's an incredible statistic.  And considering how gradual Vista adoption has been overall and that Ultimate users make up only a tiny fraction of that group, one can imagine a future where animated wallpaper is quite popular.

Some people have argued that animated wallpapers are a waste of system resources.  And while it is true that some animated wallpapers (particularly video ones) can use quite a bit of CPU, that's not the general case.  Moreover, I remember people who thought static wallpapers were a waste because, after all, a 1024x768x24bit wallpaper used over two megabytes of memory which, back in the 90s was a lot of memory.  What seems resource intensive one day seems trivial in later days.

Like regular wallpapers, the popularity of an animated wallpaper will depend on its quality. Regular wallpapers can be pretty obnoxious. Animated wallpapers have the capacity of being even more obnoxious since they move.  But that doesn't mean animated wallpapers can't be compelling. 

Only time will tell but I suspect that animated wallpapers will become an extremely hot commodity in the coming years.  We'll see.

At home, when I'm coding or playing games I do it on my trusty Dell XPS Gen 3 PC.  It's blue, it's loud, and it's powerful.  Or at least it was in 2005 when I bought it.

But this weekend, when I benchmarked my various PCs, the trusty machine came in last. By far.  My new laptop is much faster. Heck, my OLD laptop is faster.

So now I'm in the position of trying to decide whether I should retire the Dell home mega machine (not mega anymore) and instead simply get a docking station for my ThinkPad T61 and use that for everything at home instead.

Though, it does go to show that PCs don't become obsolete very fast anymore.  My new machines may be much faster on paper but I don't feel that much difference.  The Dell from over 2 years ago is still fine for playing Company of Heroes, Galactic Civilizations II, and any other game I've recently thrown at it. 

CO2 produced by humans is causing the recent increase in temperature is a hypothesis. But it has no evidence to support it. It's not even what one would label as a theory. It could be correct, it might not be correct.  I have about the same opinion of it as I do for the hypothesis of "intelligent design".  Maybe it's true, maybe it's not. But there isn't evidence.  Given the movement's spotty record for yearly temperatures (it's actually gotten cooler since 1998 incidentally, not that you hear much about that little tidbit) it's hard to argue that it's firmly based on "science".  Theories are science and they make testable predictions. (see theory vs. hypothesis).

Methane is also a green house gas. It traps heat at over 20X the level of CO2.  Moreover, while CO2 in the atmosphere has gone up some since the start of the industrial revolution, the rise in methane has gone up vastly more in the past 50 years in particular.

But at the end of the day, the hypothesis remains: CO2 is a green house gas. Green house gases trap heat. More trapped heat will cause temperatures to rise. Temperatures have risen in the northern hemisphere since 1976 slightly. Therefore, it must be CO2.

Of course, temperatures in the southern hemisphere have not risen and the antarctic ice cap has grown. 

But I will grant that the northern hemisphere has definitely increased in temperature.  And I'm willing to also grant that humans are probably helping it a long.

Therefore, what should be done?

First, we have to decide whether global warming is a "bad thing".  The case really hasn't been made that it really is a "bad thing" (Al Gore's ridiculous arguments that the sea level will suddenly rise by a dozen feet or whatever notwithstanding).

Then, we have to decide what we would do about it.  Even if we removed every car off the road, it would make a trivial impact on worldwide CO2.  Humans only produce 14% of the CO2 that goes into the air each year.  And CO2 only accounts for a couple % of the green house effect. (this data is available on the global warming advocate websites btw, they don't dispute these facts).

The bottom line, there is really very little we can do to affect the situation other than largely eliminating all worldwide use of fossil fuels AND largely moving to a vegetarian diet (methane levels have gone up because the population of animals for meat is now several BILLION -- people don't like talking about this fact).

As a meat eater and someone who likes to use energy, I don't really want to give up my pork chops or my air conditioning in the Summer.

Talk about raising fuel standards or Kyoto accords or what have you are not serious discussions as they would have no impact.

Which is the problem with global warming as a religion. Because its adherents are generally ignorant of the details of it, they've simply been hammered with "the debate is over" mentra, they don't really understand the ramifications of their belief.  It's sort of like the person who believes that the old testament of the bible must be followed literally only to get ticked off when we start talking about Leviticus and stoning his wife for being out in public during certain times of the month. 

That is, if you believe that CO2 is the cause of global warming and that the CO2 in question is from humans then only deinustrializing most of the planet is going to cure that.  Getting rid of SUVs or switching to hydrogen based cars or solar power isn't going to have much impact unless it's done completely, worldwide and even then, the effect is going to be miniscule (especially as long as we have billions of methane producing livestock hanging around).

Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor BETA 2A

Return of the Yor

Beta 2A reintroduces the malevolent Yor.  The Yor are a race of cybernetic beings bent on wiping out all biological life that they consider a threat.

The Yor get a variety of unique technologies. They are strong on manufacturing but a bit weaker on research and colonizing.  One would think a race of machines would be good at research but their problem is that they lack imagination.

The Yor get a unique technology called Synthetic Ingenuity. It describes this situation:

One advantage that the biological organisms of the galaxy have over cybernetic is imagination. For whatever reason, organic based life that achieves sentience is able to make that "leap" that the machines cannot.

Synthetic Ingenuity is the answer to this deficiency. It works by introducing a random element into the calculations of pure research based computational systems. As a result, it simulates truly insightful thinking.

So the Yor end up with a few extra steps to get the technology they want.

The Yor also don't have markets and banks as we know them. As cybernetic creatures, they generate their economic output differently -- through efficiency optimization.  They have a series of efficiency technologies that lead them to being able to build an efficiency center on their planets.

Moreover, as one might expect, the Yor do not use farms.  It should be noted that the Yor can convert food into energy which is a byproduct of how they were originally designed by the Iconians. But they prefer a more efficient way of population growth -- charging stalks.  So rather than researching farming, the Yor research charging stalk technologies.  Charging stalks don't increase population as much as a traditional farm, but they have the benefit of increasing morale amongst the Yor.  Charging stalks give a 2 to 1 benefit.

The Yor also get a handful of unique weapon technologies. Most notably the Scatter Blaster, a space shot gun of shorts that is very cheap but uses a bit more space.  On the other hand, they also get the Seeker missile technology which doesn't do as much damage as say a Stinger missile but it costs less and uses a lot less space.

Better Graphics, Less Memory

Remember seeing before/after images when a next generation console comes out or some sequel.  When you see the screenshots below, consider the level of improvement in graphics quality even as they use less memory and it's not a sequel.

The Yor are the first race with the updated ship textures.  These textures use a new technique that don't just look better but use less memory. A lot less memory.  In a late game, we estimate that it may result in hundreds of megabytes less memory usage when enough ships get into play.  So far, our rough estimate is that a given ship uses about 1/8th as much memory as before even while looking a lot better.

Before & After on the same Yor hull

another example:

Before & After on the same Yor hull

Every Yor hull and many of the components for the Yor have been updated in this way.  The difference in quality is quite significant.  And you should notice an increase frame rate as well due to the way the textures work with the engine.

Charging stalks provide food and morale for the robotic Yor

Torian Love

Our semi-aquatic friends, the Torians, got an overhaul. They were only partially ready for Beta 2. In Beta 2A, they got some much needed attention with lots of new technologies, planetary improvements, and more.

The Torians are a tough civilization to design a technology tree. By tough, I really mean they require a lot of work to do correctly.

The Torians didn't go through an industrial revolution. Their planet was conquered by the malicious Drengin Empire 30,000 years ago in the pre-Hyperdrive era using a Stargate that had been towed out there by an unmanned probe.

When the Drengin left, the Torians inherited a technological legacy that they didn't fully understand but lack the cultural background for large scale research and engineering.  At their heart, the Torians are still a preindustrial society whose people still adhere to rituals of mysticism and folk lore.  As a result, the Torians have some significant challenges they have to overcome.

However, the Torians are not without their significant advantages. They breed very fast and they lack many of the preconceptions that other races have.  For example, the Torians have a philosophical branch to their tree that no other civilization has.

One technology, called "Exceptional Consciousness" puts it like thus:

When we first learned of the Precursor civilizations, we sought out the Iconians who were most familiar with them. According to the Iconians, the Precursors did not really consider them "truly sentient" which would, one assumes, apply to all of us. Over the course of this path of research, we have started to understand what the Precursors would have meant. The reality is, most life forms are only barely sentient -- they are barely aware of their conscious actions. Most of us still merely react to stimuli in the crudest reflexive ways. Exceptional Consciousness helps teach us how to raise our awareness to a level that is indescribable to others. We realize now that there are different levels of sentience and that that sentience carries with it abilities that could one day take us to a whole new level of existence.

The Torians, however, lack research labs. It is completely foreign to their culture. Instead, they have schools, universities, and outgrowths of academic achievement.  The idea of researching new things outside an academic setting is beyond their experience. Teachers teach. Students learn. What more is there? Their universities are not as effective as labs but combined with philosophical technologies, the Torians can still keep up.

However, the Torians are quite weak when it comes to hull design. Large scale engineering is beyond their capacity. They can do it, but they struggle. So if you love capital ships, the Torians aren't likely to be your bag.  However, the Torians are masters of logistics.  And they tend to be very rich thanks to large populations, high morale, which makes them incredibly wealthy compared to other civilizations.  In turn, the Torians tend to be quite good at logistics which results in large masses of ships.  Quantity has a quality of its own.

Lots of new planet surfaces

So in GalCiv II the planet surfaces may have been ugly but they at least used a ton of memory...but...but..they were randomly generated...which means that load times at the start of a new game were much longer too...But now in Twilight of the Arnor, the planet textures have been done by Stardock's art team as well as help from LogicSequence.

Planets look better and use less memory

Better planet surfaces, planet capitals improved

Designing your ships becomes even easier with the improved Extras interface.

Gameplay Tweaks

There have been a number of gameplay changes made in Beta 2A that will interest players.

First off, if a planetary improvement requires a technology that you don't have access to, then that improvement will be destroyed upon conquering a planet. So taking into account what planetary improvements might be missing is now a variable players will have to keep in mind when deciding who to attack. If their means of research or manufacturing is foreign to your civilization, you will have a lot of rebuilding to do.

Secondly, tourism has been modified. In beta 2, it was just over-powered. What we wanted to do is start players off with quite a bit of income via tourism to help get the game going without just throwing lots of money into players hands. This time, the tourism income is derived by looking at what % of the galaxy you control and giving you an amount equal to that plus a tiny bonus for what % of the galaxy's population lives in your areas of control.  So far, we're pleased with the results.

Thirdly, the Yor no longer are subject to plagues. They're robots.

Fourthly, the Dread Lords event is a bit tougher. No longer do the Dread Lords just pop up with an undefended planet. Now they have some defenses in there.

Fifthly, if a planetary improvement is specified as indestructible, it also means you can't upgrade it.

Sixth, some new race portraits were added.  And I for one welcome them and look forward to working in their underground sugar mines.

Seventh, we modified it so that when you focus on research or production that there's more wastage when switching from research units to industrial units or vice versa. Doesn't really make a lot of sense that the two were so fungible. We may do more in this area in the future.

Lastly, the AI hasn't been touched yet.  So as you play and see the AI using the new techs and the new improvements, that's one of the reasons we don't use scripted AI. When players start modding the game they don't have to worry that the AI won't be able to use their mods.  That said, a bunch of AI work will be done in December based on new strategies and ideas players have given us.

Stability-wise, the beta should be pretty rock solid.  Full list of changes can be found here.

There will be a beta 2B next week before Thanksgiving based on feedback from this beta.

Want the beta? Pre-order Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor. 

I recently did an interview with USA Today Weekend Edition regarding my preemptive purchase of a Porsche 911 Turbo in order to be ready for my midlife crisis. 

It never hurts to plan ahead...

(see article below).

 Stardock announced DeskScapes 2.0 today.  DeskScapes is a program that allows users of Windows Vista to have animated wallpaper on their desktop. 

DeskScapes 1.0 was released earlier this year exclusively for Windows Vista Ultimate users.  It supports playing video content as animated wallpaper, dynamic content as animated wallpaper, and more.

DeskScapes 2.0 will run on all versions of Windows Vista that can run Aero (Windows Home Premium, Ultimate, Business).  What makes DeskScapes special is that it can run animated wallpaper and use virtually no CPU and very little memory.

DeskScapes also supports the .DREAM format for animated wallpapers which allow for user configuration of individual animated wallpapers, triggers, author info, and more.  You can see a gallery of .DREAM files here.

DeskScapes 2.0 will be released in February 2008 to the general public. A freely downloable version will be available as well as an enhanced registered version for $19.95 which will also come with Object Desktop. A beta version will be available to Object Desktop users shortly.

Screenshots:

 DeskScapes home page

We put the question to gamers -- which would you prefer: A Christmas release of Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor or a January release with an extended public beta program? To our surprise, the answer wasn't even close: January.  Over 9 out of 10 people preferred having a longer public beta to a Christmas release.

To that end, below is our updated schedule:

The idea is to be able to reintroduce the major new civilizations one at a time and provide maximum time for player input on balancing them.  We plan to have another beta tomorrow which will introduce the Yor, update the Torians, and re-balance some of the updated economics.

If you would like to join in on the beta, simply pre-order Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor.

For those of you who have pre-ordered Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor can get beta 2. Released late last week, the new beta has a ton of new features in it.

We will be rolling out a new beta nearly each week between now and release and highlighting what's new so that players can be re-introduced to the Galactic Civilizations universe as the civilizations evolve with unique technology trees, unique ships, unique planetary improvements, Terror Stars, Tournaments, and lots of other goodies.

To read up on what is new in Beta 2, go here.

On Friday we released Beta 2 of the new expansion pack, Twilight of the Arnor.  From a game play point of view, Twilight of the Arnor is a massive enhancement to the Galactic Civilizations experience. For one thing, each civilization gets its own technology tree which means its own unique planetary improvements, ships, and abilities. 

For the beta of Twilight of the Arnor, we're working on having weekly updates so that we can re-introduce the various civilizations of the galaxy and help introduce the new features bit by bit.

Here's some of the highlights of Beta 2.

Tournaments

Players can finally compete for the best score on very specific tournaments. Upon victory in a scenario, their score is submitted to the Met averse where they can see how well they did compared to others. The first tournament has been released with Beta 2 - Rock & a Hard place which puts the player in the role of the Terran Alliance against the Drengin and Arceans.

Rock & a hard place starts players with nothing.

Starting in December, Stardock will be holding Tournament competitions with the winners winning T-shirts and other goodies.

Updated Technology Tree Display

The technology tree in Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor has been been updated to display to users modules, improvements, and abilities they receive from researching a given technology.

The Tech tree now displays items users get with a new technological advance.

Revised Planet Surfaces

The planet surfaces in Galactic Civilizations II have always been a bit ugly. That was because of the decision to have planets randomly generated each game.  In practice, randomly generated planets looked ugly, required immense start-up time generating them, and used a great deal of memory.  In Twilight of the Arnor, planet surfaces are created by artists including LogicSequence. The game then takes these surfaces and randomizes them to create a wide variety of planet surfaces.  The result is a significant decrease in memory as well as faster game-startups all the while looking much better.

Planet surfaces look much nicer.

 

The Korath

The malevolent Korath have been reintroduced and their technology tree is heinous along with their special planetary improvements.  The Korath are an off-shoot of the Drengin Empire.  The Drengin want to conquer and enslave the galaxy.  The Korath, by contrast, aren't that nice. They want to conquer and exterminate the galaxy.  They have figured out how to use the life force of creatures to fuel their empire.

The Korath Home World isn't nice.

 

The Korath have a planetary improvement that absorbs life force from the biosphere of the planet to generate manufacturing. It reduces planet quality in exchange for a 30% industrial gain.

 

The Torians

The Torians wouldn't even ben a space faring civilization if it weren't for the fact that the Drengin Empire had enslaved their world for 30,000 years.  For beta 2, their technology tree was only lightly changed from the default. In subsequent betas, the Torians will see their technology tree evolve.

The Torian technology tree focuses on having lots and lots of stuff. The Torians won't generally have access to high quality stuff but they will have lots of it. With a very high morale and high population, the Torians are often the richest civilization on the block but with the poorest technology.

The poor Torians have had a rough time, luckily, they reproduce like rabits

 

The poor Torians have had a rough time, luckily, they reproduce like rabbits

Evolution of the Arceans

Each beta, the existing civilizations that have already been added continue to evolve.  For instance, the Arceans received a new technology called Weather Control which enables them to upgrade their planet quality -- at a price.

The Arceans get the Weather Control Zenith

What's next...

This week we plan to release Beta 2A which will bring back the Yor as well as enhance the Torians further.  The Tournaments will get further enhancements as well and we hope to have our first Tournament match starting next week.