August 13, 2009
The new face of a conspiracy
Hi everyone! It was a long time since I posted something new here, because my network keeps going down… But this time, I’m bringing you news about the Conspiracy engine. Missed him? Me too… 😛 Well, it has a brand new face since many new features have been added that make him stand much higher then before.
To start, a small problem with the vertices was corrected. Somehow the vertex data was getting scrambled all the way through the CMOL (Conspiracy Mesh Optimization Pipeline), and I ended up removing some of the optimization routines that could be handled in another way by DirectX himself. And by doing so, the GenerateAdjacency problem was also solved! This way, the meshes are more perfect and faster than ever! 😀
Also, I’ve implemented a XML parser system from scratch. With that, I created implicit support for something else: Scene graphs! And this is a very important part of the engine, as some objects might now be loaded directly through a simple configuration file. This is great for scenarios, lights, etc., but also for the future creation of a visual editor for the engine!
With so many new features, something logical occurred! A game is being developed on top of it and I can guarantee that it is already in a very advanced state! Stand by for more news! 😉
July 26, 2009
Breaking Dawn
Hi and welcome to my first post about books! This will be about the well-known book “Breaking Dawn” from Stephanie Meyer. This is the last book from the Light and Darkness collection and I must say that I really loved all the previous three books (Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse) and the Twilight movie. In few words, these books tell us the story of a girl, Bella Swan, who falls in love with a vampire. After many adventures, this last book is supposed to answer every question that was left unanswered in the previous volumes. I will try not to give any spoiler, but if you haven’t read the book, and don’t want to risk it, then don’t read the next few lines.
“Breaking Dawn” starts off quite slow, contradicting the past three volumes, and that was a rather unpleasant feeling, because I really loved the rhythm of the story up until this point… But, as I had almost 800 pages of book, I did not pay it too much attention. However, I sadly noticed that the writing is very confusing from the start until the end. Unexplained changes of pace, fragments of story that are thrown to the air and that are never picked up again, quick decisions or changes of mind that are taken without a reason… As I was reading I had the impression that the book was written with a certain schedule in mind and was rushed to be ready on time… This could explain the appearance of some of these loose ends.
But for me, there is something that is unexplainable… Towards the end, the story gets ready for a really big happening (which I will try not to mention) and when everything is ready… Nothing happens! So much preparation, so much effort, so many wasted time… For nothing? Not even a little bit of action or emotion? Everything after that moment stays exactly as it was before. And this moment is immediately followed by “They live happilly ever after”…
So, summing things up, this was a deception, because I was really waiting for something much better from this grand finale… A loose story that does not really answer all of our questions about the plot, probably written having a tight schedule in mind and with some unexplainable failures and rhythm changes that leave the reader confused… For example (and trying not to spoil anyone):
Why did Alistair flee? What were those clues that Alice left for if they were never used? Why did the Volturi abandon their initial plans of abducting some of the vampires? Amongst some other questions…
Tiago Fernandes 