[MP-Ryan]

Proptip: If you use Nvidia's GeForce Experience utility, do not under any circumstances let it update to version 3.0.  In their infinite head-buried-in-rectum wisdom, Nvidia has deemed it necessary to create an account (or link Facebook/Google) before being able to so much as open that version.  This seems a rather noteworthy level of corporate bull****.

I didn't update, but I still can't use the older version anyway. Uninstalled it since I don't need Game Ready Drivers (the newest game I intend to get for PC is Forza Horizon 3, and since it runs terribly even on high-end graphics cards, I'll probably wait for a decade before I buy it).

They can't even code their (un)installer right.

This prompted me to go check, and all of the sudden geforce experience is conspicuously absent from my PC.  I didn't uninstall it.  Wut.  Have we reached the level of corperate interference where even on windows 7 they can remotely uninstall **** from your computer without any kind of permission or even notification?  I have UAC enabled also.

Clicked on anything in settings recently?

I really wish I read these posts about 10 minutes ago, before I tried to open GF Exp and click through the auto-update.  Sonofa*****.

On the plus side, you can create an nVidia account which seems to be the standard collection bull****, as opposed to linking it to further collection.  I am honestly - and sadly - to the point where my give a **** is broken and don't want to have to manually check for updates.  As per usual, I'll go hunt through the settings and nVidia's privacy pages to turn all the extra **** off as much as possible.

[Woolie Wool]

People have probably wondered where I've gone and what happened to my modding projects. Basically my computer's hard drive was damaged beyond repair while installing a huge GTX 970 in December 2014 (the card's cooler smashed the SATA connector). I saved most of my projects (ToF, WCAG, Wings is still on the freespacemods SVN unless it was deleted), but while I was reinstalling FreeSpace with the new installer I kept having problems downloading everything and just...lost interest. I was kind of losing interest for a while, because the amount of effort I have to put in to get a little bit of progress in FreeSpace Open is huge and increases every time major features are added and the standard to hit goes that much higher. Working with debug builds and the anal-retentive table parser was like pulling teeth. So I just put it down and didn't tocuh it for almost two years.

In the meantime I've released four projects for Wolfenstein 3D, the other primary game I mod (three of which I started after the hard drive loss, two of them from scratch--the third was a sequel episode to an earlier mod and the fourth was a megaproject I had been working on since 2012), revamped another one, and contributed a map to a community project. All of these mods, within the tiny Wolfenstein community, have received acclaim. I've done at least six others in the past. My released output for FreeSpace basically amounts to a very old demo for Twist of Fate with mission design so basic I really find it embarrassing. There's no question which game I'm better and more productive at modding. Then Talon1024 started messaging me about his problems adapting to PBR texturing and I realized I had no hope of being able to deal with it.
 
My heart's not in this. I can't go on modding FreeSpace, I've been lying to myself for two years thinking I still want to continue. If I ever did try it again, I would probably do it with a near vanilla feature set, only stuff that would have been doable in the FSO 3.5 era. But not now. I'm going to come back soon but only as a player, not a modder. If anyone wants to continue any of my projects I'll scrape what I have together and send what I've got along with outlines for how it was supposed to go, not that I believe anyone would want somebody's cast-off, because if I were in that situation I wouldn't.

In the meantime, if anyone wants to play a mod I've actually made happen for real, you can try my Wolf3D mods Operation Serpent or Coffee Break 1 and 2, both of which were released after I disappeared from HLP

[Black Wolf]

People have probably wondered where I've gone and what happened to my modding projects. Basically my computer's hard drive was damaged beyond repair while installing a huge GTX 970 in December 2014 (the card's cooler smashed the SATA connector). I saved most of my projects (ToF, WCAG, Wings is still on the freespacemods SVN unless it was deleted), but while I was reinstalling FreeSpace with the new installer I kept having problems downloading everything and just...lost interest. I was kind of losing interest for a while, because the amount of effort I have to put in to get a little bit of progress in FreeSpace Open is huge and increases every time major features are added and the standard to hit goes that much higher. Working with debug builds and the anal-retentive table parser was like pulling teeth. So I just put it down and didn't tocuh it for almost two years.

In the meantime I've released four projects for Wolfenstein 3D, the other primary game I mod (three of which I started after the hard drive loss, two of them from scratch--the third was a sequel episode to an earlier mod and the fourth was a megaproject I had been working on since 2012), revamped another one, and contributed a map to a community project. All of these mods, within the tiny Wolfenstein community, have received acclaim. I've done at least six others in the past. My released output for FreeSpace basically amounts to a very old demo for Twist of Fate with mission design so basic I really find it embarrassing. There's no question which game I'm better and more productive at modding. Then Talon1024 started messaging me about his problems adapting to PBR texturing and I realized I had no hope of being able to deal with it.
 
My heart's not in this. I can't go on modding FreeSpace, I've been lying to myself for two years thinking I still want to continue. If I ever did try it again, I would probably do it with a near vanilla feature set, only stuff that would have been doable in the FSO 3.5 era. But not now. I'm going to come back soon but only as a player, not a modder. If anyone wants to continue any of my projects I'll scrape what I have together and send what I've got along with outlines for how it was supposed to go, not that I believe anyone would want somebody's cast-off, because if I were in that situation I wouldn't.

In the meantime, if anyone wants to play a mod I've actually made happen for real, you can try my Wolf3D mods Operation Serpent or Coffee Break 1 and 2, both of which were released after I disappeared from HLP

I definitely feel your pain here, and I respect your decision. I've basically resigned myself to the fact that I'm not going to learn how to do PBR, or team colours, or any of the more complex model creation stuff like that. I don't see the advantages when I play, as much as people talk it up, so for me (and ultimately, as selfish as it sounds, I'm making stuff that I like to see in game, to a standard that I set for myself). You have to find a point where quality, speed and enjoyment all balance if you expect to complete anything (in any context, but particularly applicable in FS modding with the constantly changing engine), and I've decided that for me, when making models, that's probably somewhere around 2012-ish era FSO. I don't remember exactly the date, but around the time where poly counts ceased to matter, you could do all the fun stuff with animated submodels, but before shaders and whatnot mattered. That's where I'm comfortable, and that's where I do my best, most efficient work. If people don't like it, they're not obligated to play it.

Ultimately, you have to do what you enjoy. Feeling like your forced to go beyond that turns a hobby into work, and nobody needs more of that.

[Mongoose]

This prompted me to go check, and all of the sudden geforce experience is conspicuously absent from my PC.  I didn't uninstall it.  Wut.  Have we reached the level of corperate interference where even on windows 7 they can remotely uninstall **** from your computer without any kind of permission or even notification?  I have UAC enabled also.

At least for me, the original update process managed to crash immediately after uninstalling the older version, which proceeded to leave me with neither version installed.  Now that takes talent.

I really wish I read these posts about 10 minutes ago, before I tried to open GF Exp and click through the auto-update.  Sonofa*****.

On the plus side, you can create an nVidia account which seems to be the standard collection bull****, as opposed to linking it to further collection.  I am honestly - and sadly - to the point where my give a **** is broken and don't want to have to manually check for updates.  As per usual, I'll go hunt through the settings and nVidia's privacy pages to turn all the extra **** off as much as possible.

If you feel like bothering, you should be able to uninstall it and then find the most recent 2.X version on your old-installer-versions site of choice.  Of course then you'll probably have the thing wind up auto-downloading the update and giving you a prompt screen when you try to run it, but you can get rid of that by going to the Nvidia folder in ProgramData and deleting the folder marked Update.  I do genuinely sympathize with the can't-be-assed-to-care-anymore mentality, though.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

After spending a bit too much time reading BW's post above Mongoose's and reflecting on what I believe is one of the bigger reasons why I left HLP for some time, I'm now wondering if standing still, while everyone else is moving forward, is considered a movement in itself.

Maybe I'm thinking too much.

[WeatherOp]

I have the best wife ever.

[Colonol Dekker]

Knowing wink.

[WeatherOp]

It is always interesting when you have a customer talking to you and then switches subjects completely to tell you how rude the neighbors are and that they just do not understand why.

And the kicker, you are a complete stranger and have never talked to them before.

[Dark Hunter]

Probably just wanting to vent a bit. Anyone will do, they just need to express their feelings to someone.

Not saying that's necessarily the right thing to do, but I'm guessing that's why they'd do such a thing.

[WeatherOp]

Probably just wanting to vent a bit. Anyone will do, they just need to express their feelings to someone.

Not saying that's necessarily the right thing to do, but I'm guessing that's why they'd do such a thing.

Personally when I'm told things like this out of the blue, I tend to believe the exact opposite.When you start telling things to a stranger about someone else it makes me think you are the problem.

[Sololop]

I have discovered a new love of Guacamole

[Colonol Dekker]

So I got a puppy last Saturday.

[esarai]

It's been an ungodly long time since I last did one of these... holy **** I think the last time was back when the page count was still in the high 400s. 

Let me begin...

...

no, there is too much.  Let me sum up:

2.5 years ago I graduated from college with a bachelor's in physics.  Officially a physicist, WOOoOO!  Worked in biophysics research for a while, but burnt out on that and spent the next two years working retail and battling with the depression I developed in school.  I took classes at my local community college to get a programming certificate, decided I wanted to make a career out of game dev, then got accepted to UC Santa Cruz's MS in Games and Playable Media and had to defer admission because of strange turns of phrase concealing the actual cost of attendance and my own financial issues. I started applying to jobs because retail, while it pays the bills, is boring/soul destroying and I reached a place where applications no longer gave me panic attacks and it was time for a change.

And ohhhhhh boy did a big change happen.  Today I got a job offer from Rockstar Games to be an AI Programmer.

My face hurts.

(I wish I could go into more detail, but the sheer amount of stuff that has happened and how much I have changed in the last two years is overwhelming and I'm left without words. If you have questions, feel free.)

Oh yeah I also built my first computer with DahBlount's help

[Black Wolf]

Dude! That's awesome, congratulations! Hope it's everything you want it to be.

[Mongoose]

Congrats! I wound up with that same degree but never even made it to the research phase (for better or worse), and I'm still trying to figure out what the hell I'm supposed to be doing.  It's definitely encouraging to see someone take that next big step.

[esarai]

Dude! That's awesome, congratulations! Hope it's everything you want it to be.

Thanks!  The work environment looks amazing, and I'll be getting paid to make stuff instead of kowtow all day, so

Congrats! I wound up with that same degree but never even made it to the research phase (for better or worse), and I'm still trying to figure out what the hell I'm supposed to be doing.  It's definitely encouraging to see someone take that next big step.

Thanks!  I loved doing lab work (unlike everyone else in my year), I did the best in it compared to pure theory classes.  Helped me realize I'd have been much happier in engineering.  I wish you luck and hope you find your path soon.

[NGTM-1R]

On the one hand I'm puking my guts out at home.

On the other hand I'm rather enjoying Armored Warfare's new Global Operations mode and just bought my first Tier 9, the Challenger 2.

[NGTM-1R]

EVERYONE STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING.

TODAY IS A VERY IMPORTANT DAY.

It's the birthday of HLP's very own judgefloro (and perhaps his seven dwarves?), may his semi-coherent ramblings be many. Be sure to congratulate him on this.

[X3N0-Life-Form]

Important day indeed !

Happy birthday the best poster in HLP history. May his rambling illuminate our interwebs.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

I'm now mentally scolding myself for unknowingly screwing myself up 6 years ago when I first pushed out a massive stream of updates to the Wiki to make sure the information and images of the retail ships were updated. It seemed very well done back then, but my edits didn't take another 6 years of development into consideration, so a significant portion of my efforts back then are now obsolete.

Completely my fault.