Nov 29, 2007

Nov 29, 2007: Moderately-small progress with my 2D game, slight progress with my 2D RPG game, and major progress with the "how I make my animated GIFs" video tutorial were made. I got Ultima Exodus, a game I once played roughly 8 or so years ago but never understood. I posted a full game of Mario 3 on YouTube (my gameplay). 13 new dreams were recalled. I figured out how to use Virtual Dub to record videos of my actions on my computer. The method for how I process my videos has been updated and the method for how I process my music for my MP3 player now has a video demonstration of. A formula I wanted for artwork has been found.

#1 Moderately small progress with 2D game: The post lake hills are done and 3 of 6 layers of mountains are done for my 2D game. I've redone the forest and beach textures for a few enhancements and I've started plans (very briefly anyway) for the clouds. 5 hours per layer is what I currently have and instead of 52 layers as originally planned, it's now 55 as I increased the visibility slightly. The increase in visibility does not mean another layer of mountains are needed, it just means 3 small layers of clouds are needed (small as in 384x4 pixels - tiny). I have a feeling that the 5 is only accurate for layers 5 through 10. The closer layers will take longer since there's more pixels to do and the further layers would take less since there's fewer pixels to do. 265 total hours for 53 layers may actually be 150 hours for 56 layers, but without actual data to go on, the adjustment has not been made to the checklist.

#2 Slight progress with 2D RPG game: While my 2D game is nearing 30% completion, my 2D RPG game has less than 2% completion - only the base and main plans have been thought out with very few detailed plans. Off an on, as I get visions and new thoughts, I work on my 2D RPG game. Almost everything about it is classified at the moment, though some things aren't. Earlier, I thought of the game running at only 640x480 resolution, which is very low by today's standards. I figure that, since very few even use 800x600, let alone 640x480, and that 1024x768 is quite common, I'd develop the game to run at that resolution which means that all those simulated screenshots I did earlier need to be redone. Another change involves the stats, but this is classified. A third change involves the game's world map, though I'm questioning on the exact size of it, details are generally classified. The fourth change is a new thought toward the story, due to a vision but both the story and this thought are classified. The biggest thing about it that is unclassified are those three goals that I have for every project - player freedom, no stubborn limits (care to have 8-figure hit points or deal 9-figure damage to everything in sight?), and no adult content.

#3 Major progress with the "How I make my animated GIFs" video tutorial: I've been wanting it for a while, but the process is long and time-consuming. While I have a tutorial that explains just how I make my animated GIFs, only screenshots and text are used for it, which, for most cases, is good enough to at least explain how its done. But, what if I took this tutorial, made it as a video, throw in an educational-style format, and do the entire process with narration/commentary? While the entire process is covered, which is expected to take even 6 hours, some parts use time lapse such as the part where I'm drawing the hills and mountains or when I'm animating parts where I've already explained how its done. The main thing that bothers me is the sheer length - 4 hours. The title, intro, history, and first 2 stages can all fit into a 10-minute time period. The intro to stage 3 can still be within 10 minutes, but stage 3 itself (the detailed plan and setting up the spreadsheet), takes almost 20 minutes, but even that isn't the longest. Stage 4, drawing the basic scene, is currently going on about 2 hours, though quite a bit of it uses time lapse probably taking 30 minutes off of this. Stage 5, animating the scene is the longest of them all, even for only 120 or so frames. However, much of this is in time lapse mode. Stages 6 and 7 are quickies though. As of this update, I've completed everything up to the props in stage 4, the last part of stage 4, but that shouldn't take long. If it weren't for my mind drifts, I could probably go even faster as I wouldn't be needing as many as 5 takes to get it right.

#4 Ultima Exodus - 15 years ago: I was looking for games I once had but have since either lost or only rented and for systems that games are no longer made for. I was mainly after Mario 3 as I wanted something for YouTube, but when I viewed the seller's other items, I found Ultima Exodus and I recalled having played it roughly 15 years ago and was never able to figure out what you needed to do and I sold the game for a quarter (one measely little quarter). I always ended up dying due to running out of food (since I didn't know how to get any GP and the treasures when I did figure that out 2 or so years later, always seemed to cause poison or cold and I still never made it as I didn't know how those were cured. Despite that, I still made it to level 5 using the "undead" and "repel" spells. It was actually the first true RPG game I've played, though as of only two weeks ago, I had no idea I played it (and there's still a lot of games I don't recall playing that I have played). Endlessly battling enemies didn't seem to get me anywhere and the game wouldn't let me go beyond level 5 for some reason, with the king saying of needing to find the mark of kings. I recall that I had four clerics as it was the only way I knew how to defeat the enemies.

Then, in 2002, 10 years later, I got involved with Final Fantasy 7. I've since went with the Final Fantasy series where I completed FF1, FF2, FF6, FF7, and most recently, FF12 and played FF5 (very boring), FF8 (very boring), and FF9 (I'm stuck). After having seen Ultima Exodus, and now with the Final Fantasy series under my knowledge belt, I figured I'd have a much better chance at Ultima Exodus. At first, instead of 4 clerics, I went with a fighter, a barbarian, and two other character types I don't recall (see my YouTube video for details). The first thing that struck my attention was a sound effect. When an enemy misses one of the characters, I frequently laughed and when many consecutive misses were made from the enemies (especially the enemy called "brigands" which seem to miss frequently), I often laughed so much that my eyes went in tears as I found it so funny. I soon figured out how to get the GP for food and weapons and got upgraded weapons and a piece of armor I never thought possible. Then, even with 5000 GP (and even more), I reached the same point where I got stumped. I knew that, as the characters leveled up, the enemies got more powerful and with anything beyond those seen in level 3 and 4, I avoided. Little did I know that, the black ships were what I needed. I consulted an online guide at GameFAQs for hints on what I'm supposed to do, my biggest weakness when it comes to RPG's. Battles are much easier for me than figuring out what you're supposed to do (then again, as done with FF12, you can reach extreme levels with virtually no progress in the story which means defeating bosses and marks in 1 or 2 hits (my case had 3 to 6 hits). I never knew of the existance of Ambrosia or even the giant red snake or how the town of Fawn was accessed and I never knew of the existance of Dawn either. As of this update, I still haven't completed the game and I ended up losing interest, but I got new hope - I'm thinking of making a strategy guide or video walkthrough of the game, including commentary, but this is best if I a more decent way of recording the audio as the software that comes with GameBridge is far too limited.

#5 Video commentary - if only I had better, working, video recording software: You may notice that, ever since I began using my newer method of processing videos, commentary in them is even less common? Well, there is a fix to this, but I need better software. GameBridge's provided software is extremely limited. For video quality, there's just 3 settings - good (320x240), better (480x320, which is what I use), and best (720x480). The video quality main just affects resolution and nothing else. For audio, there's just two puny options - stereo and mono (mono doesn't seem to work as it gets forced back to stereo for some reason and what sense is there in using stereo if the two channels are exactly identical). There's no way I can record using a microphone short of having another program run in the background. However, there's a problem with doing that - synchronization. For some odd reason, instead of recording exactly in sync with the video while I'm playing it (I can chop off the intro without problems), but slightly more samples are being recorded each second then the video's time causing playback of the audio to be 99.5% true speed. To most, that doesn't seem like a problem, but over 10 minutes, it amounts to offset of 3 seconds where the audio is behind by 3 seconds. 3 seconds is very significant and even a half second is (which is achived in under 2 minutes). I can't just speed it up as the synchronization is uneven and occasionally, other programs that run in the background such as automatic updates cause the sound to become erratic, and even stop causing the synchronization to get even worse. In addition, GB's software only records videos into the MPEG-2 format, of which Virtual Dub refuses to open (which is why I got Virtual Dub Mod since it has this functionality). Another annoyance involves a bug with GB's software. Whenever my virus scanner runs its automatic updates, the video becomes very jerky and the game almost unplayable without pausing it. The solution to this is to have the program run at above normal thread priority which works very well, even after hours of play, but, when I start recording, that's where the bug is. At normal priority, the default for almost any program, even my currently released "The Interactive Animation", there's a delay of usually 2 seconds for I see what's going on and the actual recording starts. With "above normal" as the priority, the delay spans an entire minute and its annoying. This is a class 4 bug.

Now, if I had a program that could record the audio stream coming from GameBridge into the left channel and that from my microphone into the right channel, commentary in my videos would be almost a certainty, or, at least, far more likely. If the program could save into AVI and let me use the XviD codec, processing videos would take but mere minutes instead of about 1/3 to 1/2 of an hour (or 6 hours as was the case for the 4-hour long recording of Mario 3 (see below)). Virtual Dub didn't work as all I got was an all-black 720x480 video display (the 720x480 is right) and no audio. I messed around with the settings a lot but got nowhere. I thought that, because GB uses MPEG-2 (probably hardware-encoded), and VD refuses to open MPEG-2 streams (an error pops up), I attempted to use Virtual Dub Mod which is able to open and work with interlaced MPEG-2 streams. Again, though fiddling with the options and things, all I got was a black 720x480 video display without any audio hinting that VD and/or VDM doesn't support the hardware. I looked into DScaler, as was suggested in one forum, but, upon installation, I see a warning mentioning of a bunch of crashes and instability issues. I found that I was actually pointed to an alpha release (which is often buggier than a beta release), but even the latest "stable" release still has the same indication. On top of that, it doesn't support GameBridge at all. I don't know of any other alternatives though, however. The program must have these ten features with the importance rated from 1 to 5 where 1 is of the greatest priority:

It should let me choose what codec to use. XviD is what I would like to use. Importance: 1
It should let me choose the file format. I use AVI. Importance: 2
It should play the video without jerking (as the software GameBridge comes with does (where it stops and goes very rapidly)). Importance: 2
It should be able to resize the video in realtime to a size I want (usually something around 480x320 from 720x480). Importance: 3
It should be able to crop the video in realtime using exact pixel amounts specified (as Virtual Dub does). Importance: 4
It must be free without any trial-related limitations (typical of open source programs). Importance: 1
It must work with GameBridge, which uses MPEG-2 video (probably the reason Virtual Dub doesn't work - it won't open MPEG-2 streams, though VDM can open them, I still don't get a usable picture). This, of course, is likely something I'll need to test myself since I doubt you have GameBridge. Importance: 1
It must work with Windows XP Pro SP2 without the need of having to download extra software (such as the case for the font-creation thing where I needed cygwin, very confusing to use and install).
It must record at above normal priority without a one-minute delay in starting. At normal priority, the motion gets very jerky when other programs like virus scanners are running updates, but at above normal thread priority, this never happens, but in order to record, I have to wait 1 minute before anything comes up, a bug with the software. At normal priority, it's only about 2 seconds for the delay, which is perfectly acceptable. Importance: 3
What would be nice is a feature to record a stereo sound where the original stereo sound (which has two exactly identical waveforms, or so close that one can't tell a difference) is blended into one of the channels, and the other channel being toward what is recorded through the microphone. This would make video tutorials of my games, video reviews, and other things much easier and faster. Importance: 4

Instead of that for item number ten, at least allowing me to record from the microphone is good enough, but the downfall to this is that the sound track from the game will of somewhat lower quality. If VD worked with GameBridge, this option would be the most likely used.

#6 Virtual Dub for screen capture - move over CamStudio!: When I first got Virtual Dub around 4 or 5 years ago, I found the capture mode feature, but I couldn't figure out how to get it to record video from my screen. Then, on Oct 27, 2007, I finally figured it out and recorded two videos. One video involves how I process my videos using my latest methods and the other for how I process my music (see the headline below for details on this). Virtual Dub does more than 3 times better than CamStudio. I can best explain it using a table:

Feature	CamStudio	Virtual Dub	The winner
Recording screen area	Can be set to exact size	Can be set to exact size	Tied +0
Recording frame rate	Starts getting bad at 20 fps	Smooth even at 30 fps	Virtual Dub +2
Dropped frames with Microsoft Video codec at 10 fps	4 of 10 frames were dropped	none	Virtual Dub +3
Dropped frames with XviD codec at 10 fps	Practically all	none	Virtual Dub +5
Usability with Microsoft Video codec at 10 fps	Good except when CPU-intensive tasks are being done	Good at any time	Virtual Dub +1
Usability with XviD codec at 10 fps	Highly unstable	No problems at all	Virtual Dub +5
Shows area of video recorded	Yes - a rectangle	Can't tell directly	CamStudio -2
Recording sound	Not kept in sync and heavily screws up when CPU-intensive tasks are being done	Synchronizes with no problems at all	Virtual Dub +4
Flexibility	Not much	Lots	Virtual Dub +3
Other features	Has a way to convert to flash video, but I don't need this	Could be used to record my games with with more flexibility than currently available, but apparently isn't compatible with GameBridge	Virtual Dub +2
Overall	Not all that worthy though it does have a few uses.	The most dependable around	Virtual Dub +2.3

I used the Microsoft Video codec sort of as a control due to CamStudio's extremely slow speed (resembling the symptoms of the infinite loop crash GIMP often has) when using XviD even at 5 fps. So, from now on, it's Virtual Dub to record videos of what I do on my computer.

#7 How I process my videos (now updated) and now my music: If you recall from an older blog entry where I had a video on how I process my videos where I took a rather long route using one of my custom-made programs and a lot of other things. My techniques have changed considerably since then and that workload is drastically reduced. An hour-long video would've otherwise meant completely filling up my hard drive with tens of thousands of BMP files for time lapse, which, even today, is still the case since Virtual Dub doesn't have a frame-blending functionality (it just deletes frames which is less realistic). For the most part, which doesn't involve time lapse, I only need to reserve about 10 GB for a 3-hour video, most of which toward the original MPEG's. The Mario 3 video (below) used almost 8 GB in MPEGs alone, but XviD at quality 3.5 (the quality I use for archiving) cut it down to just 1.2 GB. I recall on the package for my 250 GB external hard drive where the box said that it was enough for 12 hours of video for a 160 GB hard drive and 38 hours for 500 GB (19 for 250 GB). 19 hours!? Where do they get that from as that's way, way lower than what I'm getting. If Mario 3 takes just 1.2 GB and that lasts 4 hours (300 MB per hour) and the Sonic 3 & Knuckles one with Sonic and Tails together, which is 3 1/6 hours takes 2.8 GB (or about 900 MB per hour). The average seems to be about 650 MB to 700 MB per hour, that of what a typical CD stores. Given 700 MB per hour as the average, then, for 250 GB, that's over 350 hours, close to 20 times as much as they're claiming (though I use roughly 432x300 resolution instead of 720x480, there's still a 6x (or so) offset. It also mentions of 62,500 songs for that same amount. This one is closer for my case, but still, 4000 8-minute songs for 4 GB on my MP3 player (not including optimizations of the older versions), that means around 1,000,000 songs. This makes a lot more sense given the typical CD standard of 128 Kbps for MP3.

Anyway, since the "how I process my videos" updated version (version 2) is over the 10-minute limit for YouTube, it is split into two parts. This is the first part and here's the second. As to the "how I process my music" video, that's at the "how I process my music" part of my site and uses 4 segments as it's nearly 30 minute long.

#8 Ulillillia at Su Doku?: You've probably heard about what Su Doku is, but in case you haven't, it's a puzzle where you have 9 columns and rows of numbers along with a 3x3 grid of numbers. Within each row, column, or 3x3 grid, each of the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 must be placed where there aren't any duplicates. They seem to be sort of like logic puzzles where you rule out possibilities. Lately, within the past 3 weeks, I've been involved with it, but not much as, between Ultima Exodus, the site update, the 2D RPG game plan updates, and various other things, it is of very low priority. Still, however, I'm involved mainly when I'm in bed. It's my first time I've done any Su Doku puzzles and even an easy-level puzzle can still take about 40 minutes for me to solve. My fastest hovers at 32 minutes. Mind drifts and being stuck add to the time, the mind drifts only about 4 or so minutes at the most, 2 on average.

#9 Got a dictionary?: Whenever I hear an unfamiliar word on TV or sometimes pretend a word is unfamiliar, I mention to myself "got a dictionary"? Basically, the system goes like this:

TV: I thought I saw a putty tat!
My thoughts: What's a "putty tat"? (even though I actually know what it is - a cat)
TV: I did! I did saw a putty tat, a nice, big one too!
My thoughts: Got a dictionary? Then again, what's a dictionary? Seems like I need a dictionary to find out what a dictionary is!
My thoughts (second varient): Got a dictionary? Then again, what's a dictionary? Seems like I need an encyclopedia to find out what a dictionary is. Yet, what's an encyclopedia? ....

This is just a rough idea and it's mainly for self-entertainment only. Just like that game show case with the fox and the blue - it's only for entertainment.

#10 My first two phishing scam E-mails: For those who don't know what a phishing scam is, it's an E-mail message (postal mail questioned) where it appears as if a company is looking for your special data (bank account numbers, phone numbers, social security number, etc.) due to supposedly losing their records and formated in a way to look legitimate. It's actually a trap in an attempt to get this special information. As usual, I'm very cautious when it comes to not only that, but money and other things as well. One of which involved a beta-testing job which mainly asked for just the phone number. While I did reply to the message, I didn't mention any of this and did mention about wondering if it was legitimate or not, one of my many cautions. I didn't get a response in more than 2 weeks so I suspected that it was a phishing scam. Another one involved my bank, which I easily found suspicious and never replied to. For the 5 or 6 years I've used E-mail, these two were the first phishing scams I've got. While junk mail isn't anything new to me (haven't you seen those screenshots where I have several hundred in the junk mail folder, one with over 600), phishing scam E-mails are, but I have all sorts of back up tricks and things so I don't end up taking the bait.

#11 Time path/event path theory: When I read an article in the December 2007 Scientific American issue, I saw something involving various events being split down multiple pathways based on quantum mechanics. While quantum mechanics, to me, is mostly unfamiliar territory, before I read that article, I thought of something rather similiar. The difference is that, instead of 1 dimensional time, I had it as multi-dimensional where one dimension is the one we perceive and the other contains branches which head off toward different outcomes. When I saw very similiar diagrams as to what I made 2 or 3 years ago, I was amazed. I also thought that, by doubling the time, the predicted outcome would be 25% as likely (note that 2^-2 is 0.25). I had something similar used in one of my stories.

#12 I finally found a formula: If you recall the system I have for "apparent brightness" where green has a value of 212, blue at 85, and yellow at 239? I had the system for pure hues only, where one color value was 0, another at 255, and the other as anything. The color 00FFA0 is a pure hue along with FFA000. The color 40C000 and 4080FF are not pure hues as 40C000 lacks a 255 and 4080FF lacks a 0. I've been wanting a formula that finds the apparent brightness for any color and not only have I found it, I wrote up pseudocode (in C) that performs the algorithm and it's far more accurate than any of the more traditional RGB to grayscale conversions. I've often seen green, 00FF00 (a pure hue) become 153, but using a grayscale gradient with the test color above it, I get 212 which is far higher. I've updated the color system page involving apparent brightness, and even replaced the graph I had. This is that formula that I found:

ApparentBrightness ~ (HighValue*LowValue + BaseGrayShade*Value*(HighValue-LowValue))/HighValue;

HighValue is the highest value in the color. For the color 40C060, the high value is 192, from the C0. LowValue is the lowest value in the group, which is the 40, or 64. Value is the "value" in the HSV system. It is determined by "LowValue/HighValue". BaseGrayShade is what I've added in the chart of sample hues, though there are some oddities. It appears as if the curve is exponential, but some of the bars on the graph are out of place. The only thing that's now needed is a much more accurate version of that chart and seeing the curves, an exponential function is involved. It is also how I found the oddballs in the graph at 30� (too high), 40� (too high), 50� (a little too high), 70� (a little too high), 190� (a little too high), 200� (too high), 210� (way too high), and 220� (way too high). The others are generally okay, but may be slightly too high. The greatest focus should be toward the hues of multiples of 60� - red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and magenta, since these are critical.

You may also recall, a long while ago, that I was after a formula that, for color printouts, would more closely match that on my monitor. I would now suspect that a formula similar to this would work. I haven't had any need to test it though.

#13 13 new dreams - what's with all the weird ones lately?: Lately, I've been getting dreams with a rather high weird rating compared to others in the past. Usually, the weird rating hovers from 1.5 to 2.5, but lately, it's been from 2 to 4. While that doesn't seem significant, it's considerable. I have recalled 13 new dreams putting my total dream count at 661. One of the dreams is a lot of fun, but somewhat vaguely recalled, another has a great story, but is still less than 5% of the record. My dream recall rate, during mid-November took a huge dive where, from Nov 14 to Nov 27, I didn't recall a single dream. Compare that to August where, in that same time span, I'd have recalled 15 dreams, what I'd usually get in a month. A few more proposed dream categories have been added, now including the splitting of the video game dreams category which is also a big one (3 new ones added of the 13 - travel, the current monster, has 5 new ones, more than 1/3).

#14 Repeated mind game Sonic scene/level: For quite a long time now, about two weeks, I've had this scene in my mind where I'm playing a 2D Sonic level that mimics the behavior of my animations, only using the physics of the Genesis 2D Sonic games. In the scene, there's a lake in the background with either 16 or 32 for the scaling of the close part, 64 for the distant part and the closest mountains which, at the Sonic games' 320x224 resolution, appears to be 64 pixels tall (or 4096 pixels in relation to the foreground). Another more distant layer of mountains has either 85 1/3 or 128 for the scaling. From the ground level, just 80 pixels above that of the lake in the BG, there's a wall that extends upwards 12 "bumps" of the closest mountains (or 768 pixels). I climb up it as Knuckles watching the closest mountains "bump" about once a second until I'm at the top. I jump up, causing the closest mountains to "bump" again then I fall down the cliff reaching about 20 pixels per frame and I do a glide-hop, which essentially doubles the height at the maximum and have Knuckles glide to the left into another ledge reaching only 8 pixels per frame from the starting 4. I climb up this ledge another 6 "bumps" and that's usually how far I go in terms of height. I do a big fall where the maximum scroll rate is 32 pixels per frame, of which I wished Sonic 3 & Knuckles had (S3K has 24, the other two before this have just 16). I've had moderately strong thoughts of making this as an animated GIF and even a YouTube video. GIF is limited to 10 fps in browsers so it'll be based on that for the GIF, but the YouTube video would almost certainly use 59.94 fps, of which Sonic, as far as I know, is based on (either that, or it's 60 fps).

I know Sonic's game mechanics the best followed by Super Monkey Ball 2 then Bubsy. There are many ways I figure these things out, the main being through debug mode and experiments. Here's a question that involves just this. Play Launch Base Zone Act 1 of Sonic 3. How many pixels on the foreground did Sonic move up and down (vertically) when the background has moved 100 pixels vertically? To answer this, you need to find the background's "scaling" - how many pixels on the foreground does it take to move the background just one pixel. This question is very easily answered with debug - 16 (0000 going to 0010, in hexadecimal means 16 in decimal). Not all backgrounds are exact integerical values. Mushroom Hill Zone's BG is actually 6.4 (32/5) and Carnival Night's city BG has a rather screwy 128/13 (I originally estimated 10 before I used debug and 128/13 is slightly less than 10). So, if the background of Launch Base Zone Act 1 moved 100 pixels, then the foreground has moved 1600 pixels. Sonic's height as a ball, for comparison, is just 30 pixels, less than 2% of that. Here's another question. What is the acceleration rate of Sonic when he falls? This, even with debug, cannot be answered without an experiment. The trick is to use Metropolis Zone and the endless fall glitch (view video demonstration of this here). Have Sonic or Knuckles jump up into the ceiling of the area to the far right and use frame advance mode. When the character suddenly stops upon impact while going up, upon advancing the frame (doing this sets the speed to exactly zero), start the count at 0. Press C to advance a frame and count 1. Press C again and count 2 and keep doing this until the point where Sonic or Knuckles has suddenly shifted from going down to going up, now at 128 pixels per frame. If I recall it when I did this, I got 594, making 6 or so counts per second (hypercount - how useful). If it takes 594 frames to reach 128 pixels per frame, then, in one frame, the speed has increased by 128/594 or 0.215488 pixels per frame. You could continue on while Sonic or Knuckles goes up, comes to a full stop, then having the swap occur again for even greater precision (1782 frames expected for 384 pixels per frame). This is typically how I study game mechanics - debug mode (if available), or through experimenting. While I don't have the exact details, I think that speed uses a signed char (8-bit variable) for the integerical part (given the overflow occurring at 128 pixels per frame), and probably a 16-bit variable (probably unsigned, but I can't tell) for the fractional part (8-bit seems too imprecise for what I'm observing). A game with debug mode in it allows me to study the game mechanics to a far greater detail than what only experiments can get. Now, how the creators managed to use sines and cosines as with the slopes with two separate variables, that I don't quite know. This is only a small fraction of the details I know about in Sonic's game mechanics, but it's enough to make the animation. By studying game mechanics like these, I can exploit any weaknesses I find which can lead to otherwise well-hidden bugs. In fact, if I knew Sonic's physical height in physical units (in feet or meters rather than in pixels), I can work out the acceleration of gravity and compare it to Earth's gravity, figure out the height of Ice Cap's mountain outside something just under 11,000 pixels (the 128-scale background helps gives this), and how fast 24 pixels per frame is in mph, all with just one more piece of information.

#15 A strange mind game event - traffic and a cop: If you've read my mind game report, you'll know about the strange things I do in my mind game. One of which, on November 15, 2007, involves the roadway and a policeman. In the scenario, I'm running along with traffic at 40 mph (the speed limit (though I could go faster than any car could, even supersonic)) approaching an intersection with a traffic light. The light is red. A cop in a common police car was behind me and "pulls me over" at the intersection. I make an abrupt turn to get into the side of the road and slam on the brakes making puffs, but I go over the edge making puffs over the edge. I run back up the slope I fell down then stop making more puffs. Going from 40 mph to 0 in 2/5 of a second is very extreme. The policeman then asks what I'm doing in the traffic and I mention of my special abilities in that I can keep to the speed limits just fine, even 70 mph and my top speed is faster than most cars, even drag-race race cars (these gets to 300-some mph, top speed is 800+). The cop lets me go without any further comments but does tell me not to cause trouble with the traffic. But hey, if I want more speed, then just jumping up and starting a glide is the best way for easy speed and since I'm not on the ground, there's little chance of crashing into a car, even at 800 mph (and when I get too close to the ground, just pitch up a bit then level back out and it don't take long to get 1000 feet).

#16 3 new songs and an admitted mistake: Although at first, the music from when in a town in Ultima Exodus didn't seem all that attractive, it was during the first two measures of part 5 (of 7), or measures 13 and 14 that I encountered a spike at 1500 compatibility. When played back at about 105% true speed, slightly faster than normal, that spike increased to 2000, and the highest recorded (from changing my position) is 2100. The sustained value is about 650 (or about 1400 motive). The second song, Mario 3's Sky Land (played when you first start world 5 (my Mario 3 video series below has this played), but it's only around 90 sustained (with a greater 50% logarithmic margin of error since I haven't had much time listening to it to get a more accurate value). Sky Chase, the third song from Sonic 2's zone, is a rather high 500 sustained and I lasted almost a week at it. 90 may seem very low compared to the 2200 I've often mentioned of for FF6 World, but I found that, when looking at the compatibility for FF6 World as a whole, the value I referred to was actually the motive, not the compatibility. Listening to music has a +2.2 affector so this makes FF6 World, as a whole, 1000 for the compatibility. The best part, the first four measures of part 2 (measures 9 through 12), however, is accurate with the 2800 spike and the 2400 sustained (which gives a net motive of nearly 5000 for listening to that part). OWTLI isn't sustained at 1800, but rather, it's at 800 instead. The 3190 record spike is still accurate (almost 7000 for the motive). I discovered this as something wasn't making sense. Music on the radio almost always hovers from -4 to +10 (the higher values usually toward music from the 1940's to 1970's). If FF6 World really was 2200 sustained, I'd last at it for well over 3 million times longer than music on the radio and that didn't seem right. FF6 World lasting for a theoretical maximum of 80 days, 6,912,000 seconds means only 7 or so seconds sustainability for radio on the music (repeats mainly, much more if the song hasn't been heard before), but it's not that low, rather, it's considerably higher and by applying that 2.2 offset, 7 seconds becomes 35 seconds which seems much more like it, but even that still seems a little low meaning that the 2.2 is rather low (+2 to +4 seems the most likely (+2.8 is the average), given how much I tend to avoid silence over a neutral-rated song). +2.8 would mean 7 seconds becomes about a minute. For song sustained values, I tend to use the motive value instead of the compatibility, even though I'm referring to the compatibility. The compatibility/motive system is still a work in progress though.

#17 Mario 3 full game video series: In addition to getting Ultima Exodus, I also got Mario 3 for the NES, I game I played long ago, but lost and I haven't played it in over 3 years, but 4 years at the most. When I first tested the game out, I had a hard time getting the NES to read the cartridge (the blinking light - don't you just enjoy that?) and through nearly 20 minutes of repeated reseating and the occasional cleaning, I finally got it to work. I played the first two worlds to practice a bit, then I took out my GameBridge and started to record a full game of it where I play every single level that I know of without using warps. I perform many stunts and oddities early on. However, by world 6, I start having difficulties and the stunts are kept to a minimum. I may seem to avoid the fire flower but the first 3/4 of the video, but I avoid it for only one main reason - score. Shooting an enemy only gives 100 points and the enemy doesn't respawn. By a long jump chain, however, you can easily score 100,000 points before the clock runs out, and even get lots of extra lives and it's this that I often avoid the fire flower. The same thing applies with invincibility as well. Late in the game, however, I get the fire flower mainly to function as an extra hit or for the water levels where jumping on enemies is useless.

In my early years when I played this, I called the turtles a "boppa sinsy". The "boppa" part comes from the way the mouth is animated and "sinsy" from the way the legs are animated. The brown things I called as "owls" since, to me, they looked quite a bit like owls. The only good song in the entire game is that of the music for Sky Land at the start, of which I give a lengthy pause during this part.

Daily Events

Nov 1: Layer 4 done, lots of Sonic-fox fun - carnival night fox splasher recorded, no trick-or-treaters came, layer 5 started on (20% done with phase 1). For the most part, I spent too much time with Sonic... while originally waiting for the lighting to process. I found another "Tails abuse course" concept, a splasher. I spent 90 minutes trying to optimize it, then, after finishing the rest of layer 4, I recorded it for 70 minutes while I watched "Scooby Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf", of which, previously, I only saw the last 1/3 of it missing it most of the time but I saw 97% of it this time (too much attention was spent toward the fox splasher being recorded, of which I found a lot funnier). Current song: Felix World 1 85% (MP3 75%) Woke up at 7:58 PM and went to bed at 1:18 PM.
Nov 2: An escape-themed dream using a page of details taking 2 hours to write it due mainly to TV. I ate after this then I went at my usual daily check. In the midst of it, I processed the video for the fox splasher and finished but an annoyance with Virtual Dub (settings aren't reset after opening a video), the audio, still left at "WAV audio from before" was totally wrong and I was forced to redo it. I worked on layer 5 then but was slown down by the forums. Still, I got 3 points' worth - 50% completion. I finished stages 1 and 2 and setup for stage 3. I also finished the lighting gradients, about 90 minutes' worth. GIMP 2.4 released - doesn't seem worthy for now, mainly due to the awkward selection system. Current song: Felix World 1 75%. Woke up at 12:50 AM and went to bed at 1:57 PM.
Nov 3: Eat, TV, process lighting while glugging the fox out, layer 5 done, layer 6 started, rock fade method worked out, lots of time with forums, reached stage 3 but need lighting gradient. Almost no TV was involved. The rock fade is almost invisible for layer 6 so how it looks right now is highly questioned. Strong boredom signs for Felix World 1, 90% likely to change tomorrow. Current song: Felix World 1 78% (MP3 75%). Woke up at 12:47 AM and went to bed at 4:49 PM.
Nov 4: Layer 6 is done, layer 7 is 30% done (75% in stage 1) by time. TV was only watched at the start, then little forums. I'm now into the ice-capped high hills. I spent nearly an hour figuring out the system for the fades, but I've got it somewhat well now. Daylight Savings Time Ended causing me to get messed up with the times. I wished it was always on or always off year-round. I processed Sky Chase at the end of the day, that from the zone in Sonic 2. Current song: Sky Chase speed swapping 1/3 day, 130% 2/3 day (MP3 130%). Woke up at 2:46 AM and went to bed at 5:33 PM.
Nov 5: Layer 7 done with the heights, rock and snow fades, and the first hill started. GIMP slew me down for a bit for the lighting of layer 7. I ate pizza rolls and had the lighting processing while doing so but was going extremely slow - I'd have finished the lighting before I finished eating, though, at the time, I forgot about my trick to work around this and found the cause - the script floods the undo history very rapidly. Once layer 7 was done, I modified the checklist drastically, now including a score for every element, ignoring the few new additions, the totals practically equalled what the grand total was beforehand. I intend on uploading this after finishing layer 8. I encountered a 2000 compatibility spike with Sky Chase. 110 to 130% expected knowing the "activeness theory" (inactive song - faster than normal speeds preferred). Current song: Sky Chase 120%. Woke up at 3:05 AM and went to bed at 8:02 PM.
Nov 6: The usual daily start, fixing the formula for active gradual neutralization (failed), 2 hills for layer 8, then, dominating the day, working on the "How I make my animated GIFs" video tutorial. Stage 3 was done in full using my new techniques for recording which worked quite well. The start needed 5 takes and 2 other segments, of 9, needed more than 1 take, 2 in both cases. Then, during the ads and spam on TV, at the day's end, I processed the text screens until the start of stage 4, of which I intend on doing tomorrow. I'm doing this so I can get it off my mind. Current song: Sky Chase 118%. Woke up at 6:47 AM and went to bed at 11:08 PM.
Nov 7: That was a nice water dream! I made a discovery - converting any color to my high-precision grayscale system, even writing the basic algorithm in C, but not tested. See the headlines above for details. I updated the color system page and created a replacement graph for the apparent brightness. I got 1/3 of the way through stage 4 in the "How I make my animated GIFs" video tutorial, but tiredness settled in. I completed the third hill of 9 in layer 8 just before going to bed. I spent nearly 4 hours working on getting the formula to suit more than 1 or 2 test cases. Current song: Sky Chase 118 9/10 day, 122% 1/10 day (MP3 118)%. Woke up at 9:15 AM and went to bed at 10:56 PM.
Nov 8: A video game dream involving Mario - little story. 2/3 of stage 4 is done - props are left for stage 4. Layer 8 only has the lighting and finalizing left. The gradient was done just before going to bed. Lots of TV was watched from 5:00 PM to 10:00 PM - I worked on my game during the ads and spam. Current song: Sky Chase 122% 9/10 day, 128% 1/10 day (MP3 118%). Woke up at 10:16 AM and went to bed at 11:16 PM.
Nov 9: A somewhat strange airplane travel dream was recalled. Eat, shower, take trash to dumpster, daily check, 10 minutes working on the hills, eat at Perkins (unexpected), went grocery shopping, processed lighting while putting stuff away then doing Su Doku and a few logic puzzles while finishing the processing of the lighting. I finished layer 8, and made more touchups to the checklist. I made no progress with the animated GIF video. Current song: Sky Chase 80%. Woke up at 11:36 AM and went to bed at 3:24 AM.
Nov 10: Eat, daily routine, 2D game, gradient system rejected but replaced - postlake hills 6-8 has been redone in terms of the gradient. I got Mario 3 and Ultima Exodus off Ebay for the NES. A change made to my plans was going from 2640 visibility (50 miles) to 2772 visibility (52 1/2 miles). It enhances the scenery somewhat, especially the most distant layer of mountains, though it adds 3 more cloud layers, small quickies mainly. Current song: Sky Chase 85% 4/5 day, Sonic 3 invincibility 60% 1/10 day, speed swapping 1/10 (MP3 Sky Chase 85%). Woke up at 1:54 PM and went to bed at 3:27 AM.
Nov 11: Eat, apple clean-up failed (got dark unexpectedly early, mainly due to the Daylight Savings Time change), daily routine, lots of TV, and completing the first layer of the mountains made up the bulk of the day. TV, starting at 7:00 PM, and working on the mountains completing the remaining 90% lasted until 4:00 AM - 9 hours. 80% of the time, I just listened to it. Current song: Tree Climb 90% 1/5 day, Winter Land 4/5 day (MP3 Winter Land 90%). Woke up at 3:23 PM and went to bed at 7:06 AM.
Nov 13: A bizarre dream that doesn't really fit any category was recalled. Eat, unusually short daily check, lots of TV while working on my game, 7 of 11 mountains done (2 points' worth), and I processed Winter Land at day's end. Oddly enough, it seems that TV seems to encourage progress more - work mostly done during the ads and spam. 4 left, gradient, lighting, and finalizing remain. A mega wind storm occurred - 40 to 50 mph sustained winds forecast! Current song: Winter Land 90% (MP3 120%). Woke up at 5:15 PM and went to bed at 7:00 AM.
Nov 14: A dream involving Ultima - that's new! Eat, daily check, TV and finishing the mountains, getting 2 videos of NES games - Mario 1 and Marble Madness, TV, and finishing layer 2 of the mountains made up the day. Layer 2 is now done and the last needed gradient is done. I'm now 3/11 (27.3%) done with the project as a whole. Current song: Winter Land 122%. Woke up at 6:01 PM and went to bed at 9:52 AM.
Nov 15: Lighting for layer 3 remains, made fix to previous 5 layers - wrong layer order (rock, snow, then grass from bottom to top). I thought of rewriting the description page - the intro is done. I took the trash out. I then spent 30 minutes studying Winter Land's favorite frequenies at true speed. 1700 to 4000 is the main area and 0 to 300 is the worst. TV and an unseen episode of "Assignment Discovery" made up most of the first part of the day. Current song: Winter Land 122% 4/5 day, 100% 1/10 day, 125% 1/10 day (MP3 125%). Woke up at 9:35 PM (�3 minutes) and went to bed at 11:07 AM.
Nov 16: Eat, daily check, start layer 4, process layer 3's lighting while watching an unseen episode of Assignment Discovery, finalize layer 3, attempt to get a new version of Winter Land (source played it awkwardly in part 1 many times, skipping out mysteriously). I also assisted significantly with the GIMP forum glossary and I completed 3 of 13 expected mountains for layer 4. Current song: Winter Land 125%. Woke up at 11:00 PM (�30 minutes) and went to bed at 11:47 AM.
Nov 17: Oh what a nice, fun dream - I want repeats! I got one of the games, the one mentioned in the dream occurring on November 13. I played it from about 3:00 AM until I went to bed. It's a pretty tough game, especially keeping everyone healed. For details about my history with Ultima Exodus, see the headlines above. By day's end, I hit the same scenario I had over a decade ago. I did my usual daily checks before I started - no progress with either my 2D game for the animated GIF video tutorial. I stopped early to avoid possibly unwanted housework. Current song: Winter Land 125% 1/3 day, varied rest. Woke up at 11:01 PM and went to bed at 12:56 PM.
Nov 18: Woke up due to my evil nose - a nosebleed was in progress when I woke up. Most of the day was spent doing what I did yesterday. I reached the 9800 gold mark, enough for one thing of what I was after. I partially resolved the healing troubles - getting a cleric in. I recorded a video of my actions (as two attempts), and I wanted just the right "mix". I'm so attracted to the sound when an enemy misses. I updated the checklist to take note of playing Ultima Exodus. In bed, I got yet another nosebleed, but much less severe. I got the cleric to level 3, but can go to 4 (saved before I did). Current song: Winter Land 125% 1/4 day, varied rest. Woke up at 11:35 PM (�10 minutes) and went to bed at 5:45 PM.
Nov 19: Daily check, eat, Ultima - dragon armor seemed useless, a few more battles, then trying to figure out what you're supposed to do - forget the caves as enemies do 10 HP more damage and have 50 or so extra HP making what would normally be a relatively easy battle very difficult. It's so easy to get lost as well. With rapidly dropping motive, I consuled GameFAQs for a strategy guide. I started a new game afterwards with a new party based on what I got. I also started a guide for my strategies. Current song: Winter Land 125% 1/5 day (length unspecified, but estimated), varied rest. Woke up at 4:29 AM and went to bed at 7:45 PM.
Nov 20: Ultima, eat 3 hours later, recording full game of Mario 3 (after the first two worlds being done as practice), of which, outside the ending part, was excellently done. The first phase of the video was processed (getting the archived version). While playing Ultima, I focused entirely on battles, for both EXP and GP. I'm now after nearly maxing the GP, which, by then, I'd have 5000 EXP for each. Nearly maxing the GP means getting to about 8000, 9999 is the max. Current song: Winter Land 125% 1/5 day, varied rest. Woke up at 5:30 AM and went to bed at 9:51 PM.
Nov 21: Lots of Ultima, some TV, (4 hours, 2 when eating), finishing the the Mario 3 game video (processing for YouTube), then uploading the first 5 segments, worlds 1 and 2. 1500 more GP and I've reached my intended goal. I've been having more thoughts of my 2D RPG game - the story (one part only), the magic system (1 aspect only), and the lists (status effects and enemies mainly, all unrelated to Ultima as they were thought of weeks (even months )before I started playing it). Current song: Winter Land 125% 2/5 day, varied rest. Woke up at 9:29 AM and went to bed at 10:55 PM.
Nov 22: Thanksgiving - neutral compatibility. Lots of Ultima - got very far, but still only level 5, even with 7000 EXP, but the main damage dealers have maxed strength - 75. 144 is the highest damage I've seen. I even found 2 gigantic enemies 4 times larger than all others doing 100 damage per hit and mean certain death, but there's a handy trick to allow everyone remain almost unharmed - sands/powder, which stops time for everything except the characters for 10 battle rounds or steps in caves/towns, or 3 on the world map. Current song: Winter Land 125% 1/5 day, varied rest. Woke up at 8:22 AM and went to bed at 12:58 AM.
Nov 23: There goes the motive for playing Ultima.... At the end of the day, I wanted to add the new details to my 2D RPG game's plans, mainly rearranging stats and something with the spells. I did, however, get the best-liked song from Ultima - that of being in towns. I took a shower hoping for going to the grocery store after I wake up. Current song: Winter Land 125% 1/4 day, Ultima Exodus Towns 90 and 110% 1/5 day, varied rest (Winter Land 125% MP3). Woke up at 10:25 AM (�5 minutes) and went to bed at 4:52 AM.
Nov 24: Got awakened early to go grocery shopping - dad's impatience again. It was first Menard's to do some exchanges - I lost dad when he passed by a mirror at an inconvienient place and time (since many others were in the way) forcing me to take a detour. I then did my intended grocery shopping and unexpectedly got Domino's. Then it was finishing up my 2D RPG games' plans and starting more of those simulated "screenshots". 1024x768 sure has a lot of room compared to my previous 640x480 that I intended on using. At the end of the day, I processed my current song for my MP3 player so I had it. Current song: Ultima Exodus Towns 110% 2/3 day, 120% 1/6 day, 84% 1/6 day (MP3 105%). Woke up at 12:48 PM and went to bed at 6:47 AM.
Nov 25: Where'd the dreams go to!? Working on the 2D RPG game's plans and the status menu simulation images made up the bulk of the day. I hit two snags - the descriptions in my plans were unclear as data was missing. I filled this in. The second snag involves the character banners which list the basic RPG stats - HP, MP, and level, along with the character's image (these elements, common in RPG games are not classified), but it lead me to do that for the main menu instead. I should be finished with uploading the Mario 3 video after I wake up. I ate just before going to bed. Current song: Ultima Exodus Towns 105% 1/2 day, 108% 1/2 day (MP3 105%). Woke up at 3:39 PM and went to bed at 6:32 AM.
Nov 27: I first had trouble with Norton where, somehow, my full version became a trial version. The usual uninstall/reinstall method worked hinting that a file may have gone corrupt. 2D RPG game main menu is otherwise done with new data added to the plans (new features are included). I've now been thinking of updating my site. I encountered a huge spike in the current song - part 5's first two measures (of 4). Current song: Ultima Exodus Towns 108% 2/5 day, 104% 3/5 day (MP3 104%). Woke up at 5:16 PM and went to bed at 9:41 AM.
Nov 28: Finally a dream was recalled, the first in two weeks. The website update has most headlines done and 3 of 13 dreams. Last time, I had roughtly 20 pages' worth spanning 2 months. Now, it's just 7 so it should go by much faster. 2 more days to do it in - easily within reach. The dream journal is usually the slowest followed by the headlines then the quick daily entries. The headlines followed by the daily entries are my favorite parts. Current song: Ultima Exodus Towns 108%. Woke up at 8:37 PM and went to bed at 9:48 AM (�1 minute).
Nov 29: Website updated... a day earlier than expected. All day, I struggled to keep warm, even shivering under my two blankets. I was going to take the trash to the dumpster, but with a -20�F wind chill, I won't, especially if, all day, I've been freezing where even my blankets aren't good enough. 67�F was my room's temp when I woke up, and it got to 74� near day's end. I've had strong thoughts on the video walkthrough for Ultima Exodus lately. Current song: Ultima Exodus Towns 104% (80% MP3). Woke up at 10:00 PM and went to bed at 12:53 PM.
Nov 30: Ultima Exodus video walkthrough started and it has gone very well so far. I'm now at the long process of obtaining tons of GP. I also finished 4 more mountains of layer 4 of my 2D game. Most impressive, though yet to be tested, is a super shortcut for the clouds. 265 expected hours? With this extreme shortcut, even 100 is too high and 50 is within reach. That's a huge reduction, so much so that I have had thoughts of another plan change involving the clouds. 30 minutes per layer means barely 30 hours are needed, 30 points. It involves tons of temporary layers, a blur, and bucket fill along with an assortment of enhancements like noisemaps afterwards. Took trash over since it wasn't -20�F wind chills unlike yesterday. Anything below -10�F wind chills will result in a very high chance of refusal. Current song: Ultima Exodus Towns 80% 3/5 day. Woke up at 9:58 PM and went to bed at 2:52 PM.

Go to another time:
Earlier than 2005: Earlier than Nov 2004 | Nov 2004 (and late Oct 2004) | Dec 2004

Year 2005: January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December

Year 2006: January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December

Year 2007: January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December

Year 2008: January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December

Year 2009: January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December

Year 2010: Yet to arrive....

The news entry headlines in bold are color-coded for a reason. They tell how big the event was for the headlines and how good my day was for the daily entries. From May 2006 onward, a slightly different system is used, of which has triple the precision. For dates prior to this that use color coding, from the white color, skipping two to red and so on is used. Here's what each color represents (for updates to before May of 2006):

	Extremely major event / Very good day
	Extremely major event / Very good day
	Major event / Good day


	Somewhat major event / Somewhat good day


	Normal event / Average day


	Somewhat minor event / Somewhat bad day


	Minor event / Bad day


	Extremely minor event / Very bad day
	Extremely minor event / Very bad day

Footnotes:
None