Are you sure that this week's show was put out in the right form? Windows Media Player is showing episode 10 as "input media format is invalid" - the previous episodes work fine.
I downloaded the mp3 file and found I could play it directly using Winamp instead of playing it with Windows Media Player 9.
Of course I couldn't just listen to it streaming...
It sounded like it was difficult to get this episode together due to other commitments and so I'm impressed that an episode wasn't skipped. Many of the podcasts I listen to have a history of missing episodes and it does get tiring to hear the excuses why an episode is late. I think we all understand that the level of commitment that goes into something like this is a good indicator of how professional it is.
So while the show felt a little more rushed than usual, I still thoroughly enjoyed it.
I have to chip in about Black and White which was brutally mauled during the show, it may not have been the kind of RTS game many would have wanted or on the flip side, an evolved AI pet experience (that I was hoping for) but apart from its predecessor, it's a truly unique game. Its games like this that push the boundaries of game design. By their very nature, games that try to do this will be hit and miss but the hits often strike gold and can spark off completely new avenues for game dev to go down. Lionhead should be supported by the press for what they are trying to do, not panned because it isn't another clone of C&C that the masses are used to. A Game like Dragonshard (which was mentioned last week) introduced a slightly new spin on RTS but a game like Black and White goes so much further, creating a new genre. The upcoming Movies game ( www.themoviesgame.com ) shows just how inventive Lionhead is in its approach to game design and isn't this what we all really want? Exciting new types of games to play
So really I'm saying that games like Black and White should be given more slack than yet another clone game in a well established genre. The press has to encourage these kinds of games.
"Its a little frustrating to see Maya's perceived market dominance being reinforced by those who don't do this for a living."
I think a little Google war could shed some mental ray light on this one. Looking at the popularity of the more well known 3D companies and their 3D app
Autodesk 3DS Max = 137,000Newtek Lightwave = 350,000 Maxon Cinema 4D = 421,000 Alias Maya = 590,000
The results obviously do not show a high level of distinction between industry and amateur use and you could argue that most people will write "3DS Max" not "Autodesk 3DS Max" therefore skewing the results. I wanted to try and filter out the casual talk where company name is not mentioned and reasoned that the more professional writing would include the company name.
As distorted as this may be, it shows there is at least more use of other software in the industry than is often quoted. Still, what do I know? I'm still using this for modeling
Impulse Imagine = 364
