Christmas 1.65
by Godzprototype, HSM filmmaker
Greed! Sometimes it hurts.
This is supposed to be a review of the new 1.65 update of the entire Home client. A new interface, with all that is Home.
Well…
I have to start with Christmas references at this point. Remember when you were a kid growing up, and it was almost time for that dive into what you just knew was going to be everything you were looking for in a Christmas present? That one gift you just knew was going to be The One? Your parents carefully — and, I might add, skillfully — hid from you for weeks on end. You could hear the wrapping paper as they covered the coveted!
For me this was too much. I honestly don’t know how many people were like me — and, if not many, I will probably get some pretty mean replies. But in true Hunter Thompson fashion, I will tell you the kind of kid I was. I was the kid with the razor blade several weeks in advance of the morning of Christmas opening my gifts and then skilfully re-wrapping them so no one would notice. My parents had to have college degrees in hiding a present! That joke played both ways.
On the one hand, nothing was ever truly hidden from me, and I could walk into the living room and open my gifts with all the confidence that I was getting exactly what I expected to get. On the other hand, as I got older, this became somewhat of a joke for my parents to play on me!
For my twelfth Christmas, I was getting a twenty-gauge shotgun. I knew it because we had been learning and practicing hunting for weeks. My pops came home one day in an excited and quick mood. I knew it was on! I watched the shovel, as no hole would be deep enough for him to hide this one! It would be my first hunting trip with my own weapon! I watched his every move and later discovered the gun in the attic. Carefully opened the gift, I was so excited even my confidence was excited! The gift glowed with expectation.
And so…Christmas morning! I ran to the tree looking at that carefully wrapped slim box, looking just like a twenty-gauge shotgun box with a bow stuck to the wrapping paper. My dad, sitting in his chair, with a grin and a rally cry. “Come on!”
I ripped the box open, shredding it better than a paper shredder! Lifting the box, it had the same weight and density as the box I had opened earlier in the week. As I opened the present, I was thinking of how I would be able to impress my Dad with my hunting prowess! How we could take on the woods and come back with no mouth un-fed. The box opened… and there they were… several carefully carved — and weighed, I might add — bricks.
Bricks. Taped to the inside of the box!
Can you imagine my face? My dad roared with laughter. So did I!
You see he knew I had already looked. He was onto me! So I think in effect it doubled his gift-giving fun.
And so, back to the topic of the new 1.65 update. I had a peek at a video that was online, giving a preview of what was to come.
(Editor’s note: HSM does not support leaking confidential and proprietary information.)
I had been asking for an admin control for the camera so that the ads for furniture items, or even other avatars, would not show when I filmed things. In this video, I had seen this control. I didn’t sleep for two days waiting to use this new control feature. I anticipated the use of these controls; not having to cut so much of the frame out would make Home machinima easier. The larger frames in which I could work with would and could save so much time not having to carefully cut. This has been a very important topic for all of us at HSM that have been making machinima, and I am sure is a topic of discussion in most of the groups involved in these sorts of ventures.
So I got the download for the new client hours before I was able to actually connect to Home because of the maintenance in implementing this update. Anticipation. I believe Carly Simon just kept rolling through my head.
Finally it loaded, and just like that box with the gift wrapping on it, I went to ripping the wrapping off and digging into the controls. And while the gift is almost what I expected, alas there were no admin camera controls. So while that control for now is on hold (and man, I really was hoping for it — expecting it, really), I know it is on the development table. For that I am very excited. The new interface has a field of depth to it that I really like, and as with most new interfaces it will take a small adjustment to get used to. I have as of yet to try any other feature out, as I was only really looking for that control.
So after all that expectation, and anticipation, I remembered that Christmas morning — and had a good laugh.
For the people who are about to start tripping out about what just happened: relax. It’s called change. I think it will be very exciting to see what Sony has for us here at Home in the very near future.
May 6th, 2012 by Godzprototype | 5 comments
Godzprototype is learning the art of creating Machinima, and would like to share it with you. Hope you enjoy.
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I wanted a Red Ryder BB gun. Just like the one Gene Sheppard wanted in his very memorable movie about Christmas. And I too, was told, “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid!”.
As for that camera use enhancement, all I can say is ‘BRING IT ON!”
LOL I thought I was the only razor wielding present peeker! I even went so far as to teach myself to pick a lock so I could get into the travel trailer my folks ended up hiding stuff in… ah, those were the days!
Wow such a crowd, razormen and lock picks, what are admitting to here…LOL
Christmas was fun and challenging. Those were the days Dlyrius.
All the connection problems aside, the new interface is very clean and to the point. It does make sense that we have access to the store in our wardrobe. Putting companions in storage is a nice feature too. Very glad to get all these goodies, and the color grey! As this article probably just went in that area. Thought it might bring a laugh…..
Thanks Sony!
Not being into the filming side of things I can’t really relate to what you think is needed there. I was one of those kids who never peeked at the Christmas presents ahead of time. It wasn’t that my parents hid them better than others, I just liked the build up of excitement in the days preceding Christmas morning, then being able to tear up the living room for a day without repercussions was nice too.
I do hope that Sony realizes the potential for user based content in Home like machinima and gives those into it better control to make even more amazing films. I also hope they have a Home based film festival that people like you and others into the genre could submit to. That would be an awesome turn of events.
Good read as always Godz.