Mark Danks

I spent some more time playing with video output in Peduncle. This time, instead of using a movie file, I fed the system four still images. Each image had a single word on it in a different color – One, Two, Three, Four. The brushes were randomly placed on the images and wanted to move to brighter areas. If a brush was only on a black pixel, then it would randomly move in some direction. I also blended the color from frame to frame so that there would not be sudden changes as the underlying images switched.

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Today is my one year anniversary with Sony. A lot happens in one year…

Amdahl’s law is mentioned a lot these days, especially with the multi-processor consoles which are out in the marketplace. I have been thinking a lot about how it actually applies to a typical game tick-loop. The main thing with Amdahl’s law is that it needs to be applied with all of the information or you can get incorrect results.

Amdahl’s law is the following formula:

Where:

F = serial part

N = num cores

For example, if you had an application which was set up as follows:

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I got video output working in Peduncle.  I started with a movie with a couple of fish swimming around.  I randomly place 1024 little “brushes” on it (just small circles).  Each brush always has the color of the pixel under it.  Every frame, each brush wants to move in the direction of a brighter pixel from the underlying movie.  This means that over time, the brushes cluster together on the brighter sections of the movie.

I have a short version and long one.

Warner Brothers and New Line have decided to support the Blu-ray format. Hopefully this ends the pointless high def format war with HD DVD. Michael Bay summed up the real reason behind the war: Microsoft does not want either side to win. While I am all for digital downloads, they are still a long time coming, and until they do, I would like to be able to see my movies in high def.

Obviously, as a Sony employee, I am totally biased, but I believe that the benefits of Blu-ray for the next generation of games and movies are obvious.

There was a beautiful sunset last night on New Year’s Eve.  The picture from my porch says it all.