Jump to content

All Activity

This stream auto-updates

  1. Past hour
  2. I caught LTT's preview of the Xbox Ally family. What the Microsoft team is doing on the Windows side is pretty interesting, and I'm more interested than I initially was. For me it's really going to come down to price and the performance delta of the Xbox Ally X over the original Ally X. ... Wish they could have made the screen a little bigger. After 40 years of 20/20 vision I'm starting to need reading glasses. The Switch 2's bigger screen is starting to spoil me.
  3. But it's still Windows, even if stripped down. The Xbox app is running on top of this stripped down Windows and allows you to import games from other storefronts (Steam, Battle.net, Epic, etc as well as serve as a Xbox Cloud device). Microsoft is trying to make this a one-stop-shop-handheld. And that admirable but we'll have to see how well it does it in practice.
  4. You mean, no one else who frequents this site has the energy to argue with someone who refuses to budge on "the books are always right". It's not the length, it's the shape. An aircraft carrier is has an optimized shape for volume, and basically every carrier has a rectangular hangar that goes from the stern of the ship up to two third to three quarters if its full length, and the full width of the ship. The Northampton class can *at most* use *one* third of its length as a hangar, and the bit it can use is only marginally wider than normal carrier. The volume usable for a hangar is only big enough for about a dozen fighters, packed like sardines (i.e. not with the kind of walkaround space that you'd want on a real carrier). And no version of the ship has the kind of hangar access port which would be required in order to *use* this space - you'd need Star Wars Style side mounted hangar doors on both sides to turn this into anything close to an acceptable "baby carrier", and that's not what's been done for *any* of the three attempts at it. If the upper deck is just storage, the the capacity is just 29 fighters. But okay. The whole reason why I am even arguing this is because, if I want to use the Gefion design in a 3D scene, doing its thing, I need to make it 1000 meters long, to be visually consistent with what we see in the game (i.e. being able to walk a battroid in there.) My brain does not allow me to fudge things, things have to fit at true size, or my brain hurts. If the Gefion has to be 1000 meters long to support the best scale-able visuals, then I will also need to make the Northampton the same size, because it is the same ship. Again, my brain would hurt because of the inconistency if I didn't. Similarly, the Guantanamo-class, at least the one I have, also has features from the anime that my brain says "this has to be *this big* to work properly, So I sized the ship appropriately. If I had a model based on the *other* Guantanamo shooting model (the "Maizuru" model, instead of the "Maiduru"; I wouldn't have so much of a problem, but I *might* just go with "if there's two inconsistent models, they might be different ships". Which is a common trick in for example the Star Wars fandom. I also arrive at this from *several* fandoms where "if the number obviously doesn't fit, throw it out and calculate the actual one" is what we *do*. A building consistently shown with 30 floors is obviously not going to be 100 feet tall, it's going to be 100 meters tall. If a ship is obviously more than ten times the size of another ship, of course it's not going to be just 5 times the size even if the books have said so for 20 years. So what I'm doing is I'm using the official models to figure out what I think is the actual size implied by the VFX shots, just like fans have been doing in every other Sci Fi franchise since the dawn of DVD freeze frames, and checking how weird things looks if I use those sizes. The answer, so far, is "not very", despite the Uraga being unchanged size-wise. There just aren't all that many shots of the Uraga model dwarfing a Northampton that I'd need to ignore. And I will never really accept a book size figure if the very first instance where that size would have become relevant, flat out ignored it for plot reasons. It literally has the same vibe as the time the studio that animated all the VFX for Stargate SG-1 made the whole Daedalus ship at 650 meters long, down to the bridge and hangar interiors, and because someone corporate wrote "225 meters" in a DVD liner booklet, the ship is now officially so small that the fighters it launches out by the dozens will not actually fit through the hangar bay doors that are now a third of the size they were designed to be.
  5. I liked what they did with Chase, but I thought Heatwave missed the mark by too much, so I passed on him. I would've liked to have had the Prime Cliffjumper repaint of Chase, but he came in a pack with other figs I didn't want, so again, I passed. Hopefully that particular fig will get his own release in a year or so. As to the other Rescuebots, I consider each on its own merits at how well the update captures the original toy, but I've no burning need to have them in my collection. For me, they're more of a curiosity than anything. Thanks for the review, as always, Mike!
  6. I second this suggestion. 08th MS Team is great!
  7. A very stripped down windows would theoretically have much better compatibility than the proton layer that Steam OS uses, but we'll just have to wait and see. Proton and Anti-cheat don't get along if the gamedevs are lazy. They had better make it do stop'n'go as well as Steam OS, because that's the one huge downgrade I experienced when I went from a Steamdeck to the Rog Ally. Losing a few minutes everytime I had to put the game on hold makes playing games during my commute awful; a problem the Nintendo Switch or Steamdeck never had. If the Xbox Ally fixes that stop'n'go issue and the Z2 extrene offers a significant upgrade in performance over the Z1 extreme I'll definitely nab one.
  8. Nobody else seems to struggle with the premise that the two or three scenes in that episode that depict the Northampton-class as unusually roomy or launching fighters from ports that shouldn't be able to fit them are anything but animation errors. The creators of Macross 7 have had 30 years to correct the size of the Northampton-class based on that scene if it really is not an animation error. They haven't changed its size. Cutting straight to the point, you asserted that the Northampton-class was not big enough to be an aircraft carrier and I pointed out that it's actually about the same size as many modern aircraft carriers. You yourself then provided a visual aid that shows that, yes, the Northampton-class (Frontier version) is comparable in size to an aircraft carrier. We both agree that it's absolutely not set up to BE one, but that's beside that particular point. It's still large enough to hold a nontrivial number of Valkyries internally, as you agree later on. That's why Macross 30 introduced a carrier conversion of one in the form of the Gefion... to specifically address the point of egress. It's a model from a video game so it's not in perfect scale in-game, but it suffices. I was looking at it when I wrote my post, and I'm looking at it again now... it is the same size as the stock Northampton-class in terms of length and width of the hull. It's very very slightly taller, but all they really did was slap a carrier deck on the bottom of the ship and call it a day. That deck only protrudes slightly from the ship's diamond profile. Yes, they use most of the ship's interior as hangar space, but that was already true for the Gefion as well (at least in the novel). They actually only use two decks as hangar space, the third (uppermost) is equipment storage according to their diagram. Even if you omit the largest and lowermost deck, the only one that changed the Northampton's profile, they still show you can theoretically fit a dozen or so VF-11s into a single Northampton-class in a plausible manner. Standing by a conclusion that doesn't tally with the facts isn't a particularly useful stance to take. Anyway, the official size of the Northampton-class is 252.5 meters long. We know the episode of Macross 7 contains animation errors that mistakenly represent the Stargazer as larger than it actually is. We accept that these are errors and move on with life. Pobody's nerfect. By your own admission, the Northampton-class is actually big enough to hold a dozen or so Valkyries. The Gefion-type solves the problem of "how do they get out" with the two modest gates and hangar decks added to the sides of the design. Yeah, the game model doesn't make the gates quite big enough to allow the very largest craft available in the game to work that way, but it's a game and that's just acceptable breaks with reality in action the same as the ship's hammerspace arsenal of every VF you unlock in-game. For rational purposes, we can assume they're not actually present or not actually canonically used. Ukyo Kodachi's novelization of Macross 30: Voices Across the Galaxy does confirm the Gefion is a modified Northampton-class stealth frigate, so we can safely assume that she really is 252.5 meters in length.
  9. Today
  10. I was scratching my head at the slogan till I watched the youtube trailer. Apparently, it's Freedom "of" Windows. Wario got the wording wrong.
  11. Best Predator content since Prey and the first Predator IMO, this film was absolutely fantastic! I loved it, and I need a sequel, stat. I loved the ending too, animation is clearly the way to go as far as bringing legacy characters back too, and the implication of the ending makes sense considering the overall continuity in this franchise. Absolutely need a sequel, probably my favorite piece of Predator media since the first film, just phenomenal beginning to end. I'm glad this thing debuted to critical acclaim, and apparently really solid viewer numbers, the new live action film looks beyond meh, I want a sequel to this, and how it ended, I'm sure we are, and the crossover stuff is gonna be fun.
  12. One of the best ideas to come out of Frontier: taking the idea of the GBP set-up, but allowing it to be used in all three modes. Always loved the concept, and shows how the Macross universe is progressing with Valk designs.
  13. Early Sunday AM decal session yesterday with the Academy F-15E with my furry little helper....😺. So.....the very 1st "SJ" tail marking decal literally disintergrated upon application. I really DON'T like Cartograph decals...yeh there're nice and thin...to thin for my liking, and I've done a LOT of decals over the years. FYI, they DON'T like Micro-SOL! STEAR CLEAR! Micro Set is just fine once you lay them down, but Micro Sol on the surface = ruined decals! Anyway, after that everything went fine. Had to go online and track down an aftermarket sheet of Strike Eagle decals with that "SJ" tail marking out of Australia, so they'll be here eventually......Only about a million more microscopic stencil aircraft markings to go...
  14. Since that’s sorta from Gundam wing, you could try watching the show or at least a few episodes. Maybe get a little inspiration. It seems to be streaming in several spots like Hulu. As far as being not being into Gundam, I’d recommend 08th Ms Team at some point for a short watch that’s very easy to get into without the need for any background information
  15. Model Graphix July 2025 has a beautiful build up of the Plamax battroids Vermillion Squadron
  16. I liked the last guardians of the galaxy as well as the Deadpool one. I liked the last Spider-Man movie on first watch, but rewatching it was a horrible mistake
  17. I'd say: go for a high-contrast scheme like black/white/ gold. Maybe use this as inspiration for the color scheme:
  18. Ordered another Tamashii Nations Store VF-1J Hikaru without having to pay for travel. I'll open this one to go with my VF-1A TV Max and leave the GBP on the first release VF-1J Hikaru. Hopefully someday Vermillion Squadron can be completed.
  19. The DX VF-25F Armored is just about the only thing missing from collection, so the VF100 continues to fill the gap. Will Bandai do a Revival version? But I'm not enthusiastic of another full fat bundle release - just standalone armor would be great.
  20. Since there are no examples of their not having F'd up or severely diminished IPs/studios they've acquired, some immediately, others after a few outings, and even their own legacy stuff (Snow White being their latest abomination) gets plundered, I'd posit that it's much closer to always than usually. Disney is a content singularity. It consumes everything it can in order to grow and, in the process, shreds everything it eats into unrecognizable particles.
  21. The first of the three really wasn’t bad, just kinda been there. The other two were jumbled messes and changing creative heads and scrapping plans for each film was a recipe for disaster
  22. I don’t know, just one of those I’ve never had to use.
  1. Load more activity
×
×
  • Create New...