PAINTED DESERT - Illusionary Art Forms

PD Station II - Part One

noreply@blogger.com (Organic Zero) — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 00:28:00 +0000

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...

The "transplant" went out OK, i disassembled his PC, cleaned it throughly (lots and lots of dust, felt like I was trying to clean the sand out of a desert >_> ), reassembled it back, and while at it, added ONE extra cooler from his old case to improve the airflow onto the hard disk drives. That was enough. Once i plugged everything back, his PSU shortened, since it couldn't provide enough power to everything that was plugged (damn you generic brands). Took me a day to figure out WTF was happening, along a good amount of cursing and googling. Once i managed to get it ruining, i could see how bad the damage was. Both HDD were damaged. the one holding the system had some errors, but they were fixable, The one with the files was inaccessible. The boot section got messed up and Windows was asking to format it in order to get it back running. Had to run it through a disk recovery software for about an entire day to get all my data out of it.

After all that, both PCs were back on running, although my brother's were still a bit funky. He could no longer work on editing his stuff without getting random freezes and errors, and i could see that he was struggling with it. I thought about it and after a bit of talk, i decided to pass my PC to him, as long he waited till i built a new one for me as replacement.

Upon analyzing my options, buying a new one straight away was impossible, as much as I wanted, there wasn't a possible way to get all the right parts without having to sell my both kidneys around here... So i decided to go a different path, getting a set of parts each month, that way i wouldn't blow up my monthly budget. That involved into some long research about what i could get now for a fair price that wouldn't be too outdated by the end of the built, and would still keep me happy from months on.

I decided to set for this:
- AMD Phenom II X4 965 Deneb 45nm (CPU)
- Noctua NH-U12P SE2 (CPU Cooler)
- Crucial Ballistix Tracer 4.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 PC3-12800 (RAM)
- ASUSTeK Computer INC. M4A79T Deluxe AM3 (Motherboard)
- 1000GB Seagate ST31000528AS ATA Device (Sata II HDD)
- 500GB Seagate ST3500418AS ATA Device (Sata II HDD)
- LG DVD-RAM GSA-H20N (IDE DVD Drive - from my older PC)
- Spire SP332CB Cardreader (USB Internal Drive)
- Cooler Master HAF 932 (Case)

Theres one important thing still missing, which is the gfx card. Right now I'm using my busted nvidia one, but i do plan to get a ATI later on, since the Asus M4a79t deluxe is a ati oriented board. Still, right now everything is working right, no BSOD's, freezes, nada :P

I shall be posting pics of it once i get the card reader from the shop.

SCS Truck Simulators - Some Ideas

noreply@blogger.com (Organic Zero) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 00:38:00 +0000

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.

Right now, this leaves a large precedent on the game, allowing several possibilities. The first one i though was the lack of a custom truck paintjob for every company on the game. You have custom trailers, with the company logos and colors, but the trucks doesn't sport their company colors and logo. If you look on their real life counterparts, its rare to see a freight company that doesn't have custom painted trucks, take a look at Eddie Storbart Group, all their trucks are painted in a color scheme that matches their trailers. The same could be done in game in my opinion. That would make it a lot more interesting.

This would also leave room as for when the player starts his own freight company, he would be able to decorate his trucks as well. If this was used along a texture editor along the lines of games likes Forza Motorsport, Need For Speed, it would also solve the problem of the modding community of needing to draw custom textures on external softwares like Adobe Photoshop for example.

If the game went online, hopping too much would be the possibility of sharing your custom jobs with another players. Or even, the game giving you an option to export an color scheme to allow you to share it with others if the future games doesn't support online play..

The second bit of this would be the extras, things like crash bumpers, extra lights, blow horns, etc. Things like these are just add-ons, and naturally are not hard to be codded and modeled.

More to come about this some other time :P

New Layout...

noreply@blogger.com (Organic Zero) — Sun, 23 May 2010 20:45:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Organic Zero) — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 22:45:00 +0000

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.

Resuming, I'm tired... and I still have work to do.

Hot Wheels Collector's Safebox

noreply@blogger.com (Organic Zero) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 03:38:00 +0000

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

Test Renders...

noreply@blogger.com (Organic Zero) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:44:00 +0000

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

Closing 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Organic Zero) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 14:41:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Organic Zero) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:57:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Organic Zero) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 07:58:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Organic Zero) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:57:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Organic Zero) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:43:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Organic Zero) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:37:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Organic Zero) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:02:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Organic Zero) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:32:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Organic Zero) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:28:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Organic Zero) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:03:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Organic Zero) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 06:47:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Organic Zero) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 09:19:00 +0000

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...

noreply@blogger.com (Organic Zero) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 21:32:00 +0000

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?

Mine broke... for the second time! And in this Tech God forsaken country, is damn impossible to find a used replace part, let alone a new one.

The first time it happened, being my computer case a tower model, the cpu cooler stopped providing proper cooling to the cpu, leading it to self-shutdown in order to protect itself from overheating. It took me a while to figure out what was happening, till I opened the box and touched the parts to see if everything was in place and secured. Once the problem was diagnosed, I went out looking for a replacement on the web.

First stop, Asus website, as they are the manufacturers of my motherboard. Managed to get hold of a email for the Brazilian branch of them just to know that they are a bunch of incompetent people. Not only they don't sell parts or anything to a direct customer, but also they couldn't even be able to point me into one of their vendors.

Second stop, ebay(a.k.a. mercado livre here). I managed to source a seller of used parts, tried to contact him about the piece, but he kept me stalling about meeting me to get the part with him directly. Within time I got fed up with it as the sensation of scam started to rise from the reply of most of his clients.

Third stop, Sta. Ifigenia st., a street known for the large quantity of PC hardware vendors. If I couldn't find it there, I wouldn't find it ANYWHERE. This place is huge, with stores dealing with almost everything pc related, from brand new stuff to tech junkyards. I had to run down the place entirely to find a Akasa distributor that sold used pieces of that part. The store owner said he started storing them as many of his clients asked about them. Anyway, part bought, peace for a few months.

Now, April 1º (yup, i'm not joking), the damn part broke again. but this time it was worse, as went it dislodged from its original position, it pulled the cpu around, making all operations that were undergoing to go haywire. Windows wouldn't boot up anywmore, not even on safety mode. I had to undergo a fresh install to get everything back

So, since I would need to deal with all that jazz again. I went out and bought the Akasa Evo Blue cooler, it goes attached directly to the motherboards, no need to used the damn bracket, it's not perfect, as it's hella noisy and have those leds which I'm not exactly a fan of (but i can live with them), but since i don't have to worry about finding another bracket I'm at peace with it.

I also got another hdd, so soon i should post a updated setup of my workstation. And Asus, if you ever read this, i gotta tell you, I like your products, but can you guys stop being so damn CHEAP??? seriously, plastic pieces? give us a good damn metal part instead.

The update plan...

noreply@blogger.com (Organic Zero) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 19:26:00 +0000

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...

So far i managed to list what my motherboard and power supply unit can handle, since these are so far these two items are the ones that will determine what i can and can't do with it. While the PSU is replaceable, the motherboard is not. After i change the PSU, everything i planed will be feasible...

Updated Hardware

CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6000+ 3.1GHz Socket AM2 (65nm SOI)

Fan/Heat Sink:
Akasa AK-922 Evo Blue

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 XMS2 DHX DDR2 800 MHz 8192Mb PC2-6400 (Q2X8G6400C4DHX - 4x2048mb) – only after Windows 64 bit update

Storage:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA2 3.0 GB/s 160-GB Hard Drive
2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 320GB Hard Drive
LG HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H42N 48X DVD/CD Writer
Generic 3.5” FDD

Graphics Card:
XFX NVidea GeForce 8800GTS 512MB XXX Alpha Dog DDR3

Sound Card:
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro Series PCI Express

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

Power Supply Unit:
Seventeam ST-850ZAF - V FORCE series 850W PSU

Miscellaneous:
Divoom X-Force 5 2.1 Audio Boxes unit
Akasa AK-FC-03 Fan Control Unit
Akasa ATA-60-CU Round Cooper IDE ata133 Cable
Akasa FD-45-BL Round Blue FDD Cable
Akasa AK-ICR-05 Card Reader
Forceline 101/102 keys ABNT-BR Keyboard
Clone Optical Mouse

OS:
Windows XP Professional SP3
BricoPacks Vista Inspirat 2

Now, the way i see it, not only I'll have something up par in terms of performance with many new PCs, but I'll also not need to worry about moving for a new PC platform for a while. I mean, my machine now is close to be good enough for me to work on. And, if everything goes along with the plan, it will be more than perfect to work with, specially 3d modeling, and it will be cheaper than building a new Quadcore monster Ram something in the long run...

What baffles me is the fact that people keep claiming that i should scrap that and go for something newer, just because it will be milliseconds faster... I seriously don't get that.

9 Nine

noreply@blogger.com (Organic Zero) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 20:54:00 +0000

Now playing: The Offspring - Change The World

9 Nine Shane Acker Short Animation
by FrFKmeron

a pretty cool animation i found while walking around snafu's site.

TGD - chapter - 05.ghosts from the past… pt.02

noreply@blogger.com (Organic Zero) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 18:59:00 +0000

Another chapter of "The Grey Desert" added, Operation Backstab

check it here

Trippin..

noreply@blogger.com (Organic Zero) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 02:30:00 +0000

Now playing: Joy Division - Disorder

The 80's were soo trippin, so many good memories :P

Mercedes-Benz W220 S600 VIP

noreply@blogger.com (Organic Zero) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 18:03:00 +0000

Now playing: DJ Nova - Starshipoetry

holy sweet damn... vip style in all of it's greatness... thats all i have to say

Almost there...

noreply@blogger.com (Organic Zero) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 23:49:00 +0000

Now playing: Hideki Naganuma, B.B. Rights, Mic Harrison - Grace & Glory [B.B.M.H. Mix]

The layout is almost done. I just need to make a new header and footer images... gotta burn some brain cells to that....