Topic: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 166

[NWR_Lindy]

If FDTD is better than Planet Terror, then I will never watch PT.  Deathproof rules, though.

[ShyGuy]

The best part of From Dusk till Dawn was the song on the closing credits.

hot air hangs like a dead man
from a white oak tree
people sitting on porches
thinking how things used to be
...dark night
itsa D A R K   N I G H T (proceed to rock out)

[Halbred]

I don't remember barenaked boobies in Dusk 'Till Dawn. Salma never takes that bikini off, Johnny, much to our collective chagrines.

I do like the Las Lobos song that plays during her dance number, though.

[Jonnyboy117]

I don't think it was Salma, but some of the dancers before her. If it's not on the DVD then it must have been censored out to protect the actresses (that does occasionally happen). I saw it in the theater, and there was no mistake.

[NWR_Karl]

I don't understand how anyone could hate a movie with a character named Sex Machine.

[D_Average]

I don't think it was Salma, but some of the dancers before her. If it's not on the DVD then it must have been censored out to protect the actresses (that does occasionally happen). I saw it in the theater, and there was no mistake.

Oh. I can affirm their presence. It was one of the first movies I rented after completing my entertainment center in junior high. They were a very pleasant suprise and looked great on my 27 inch Sharp.

[vudu]

I'm sorry to interrupt all this talk of hockey and bad movies, but I have a question about video games.

What's this screen tearing that Jonny talked about during the new business section?  I have no (known) experience with this.

[broodwars]

I'm sorry to interrupt all this talk of hockey and bad movies, but I have a question about video games.

What's this screen tearing that Jonny talked about during the new business section?  I have no (known) experience with this.

If my recent experience with Uncharted 1 is any indication, it's something like when you try to pan the camera and you see a visible frame skip instead of a smooth transition.  It's like someone just jerked the camera for half a frame, if that makes sense.

EDIT: Here, this wikipedia entry has a much more technical explanation and a good picture of the effect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_tearing  Somehow that ended up getting put in the wrong post, so I had to go retrieve it.

[GoldenPhoenix]

I'm sorry to interrupt all this talk of hockey and bad movies, but I have a question about video games.

What's this screen tearing that Jonny talked about during the new business section?  I have no (known) experience with this.

If my recent experience with Uncharted 1 is any indication, it's something like when you try to pan the camera and you see a visible frame skip instead of a smooth transition.  It's like someone just jerked the camera for half a frame, if that makes sense.

Yeah I think it is what it is, I hate it and it shows up too often in "next gen" games that aren't on the PC where you can turn on vsync.

[ShyGuy]

Screen Tearing is sometimes more drastic than that. You turn your character's view around and the top half changes but the bottom half doesn't update for a split second.

[Jonnyboy117]

Yeah, that's what the term makes me think of, ShyGuy.

[vudu]

I can't really tell how noticeable the problem would be from ShyGuy's screen shot--it's so large you can't really get a good idea what it looks like normally.  Is this a problem you'd have to look for to see or is it obvious?  Are certain televisions more susceptible than others (like with phosphor lag)?

[GoldenPhoenix]

I can't really tell how noticeable the problem would be from ShyGuy's screen shot--it's so large you can't really get a good idea what it looks like normally.  Is this a problem you'd have to look for to see or is it obvious?  Are certain televisions more susceptible than others (like with phosphor lag)?

I see it really easily and hate it. Maybe it depends on the person.

[Yoshidious]

I can't really tell how noticeable the problem would be from ShyGuy's screen shot--it's so large you can't really get a good idea what it looks like normally.  Is this a problem you'd have to look for to see or is it obvious?  Are certain televisions more susceptible than others (like with phosphor lag)?

All I can say is that it was very noticeable in the case of the Japanese PS3 Bayonetta demo, which is how the screen tearing issue came up on the show. Having played so few HD console games, I'd never seen it before and indeed was not looking for it at all, but it was so obviously apparent that I suddenly thought "oh, this is what they mean when I've heard people talk about screen tearing." Any time the camera would rotate at a reasonable speed, the view in the distance would be blighted by the kind of jagged discontinuities that you see in Shy Guy's picture. When it's that bad, I imagine you'd see it on just about any kind of TV, but I think Bayonetta PS3 is a pretty uniquely substandard case these days from everything I've heard about it.

[vudu]

So is it the byproduct of poor programming or a technology limit or just the game being a little too ambitious for its own good?

[ShyGuy]

From what I understand, the developers turn off vertical sync to get a little better framerate and end up with this glitch.

here's the Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_tearing