Happy Halloween you ghoulish readers you. The girlfriend and I carved up a couple of pumpkins for the occasion.

A couple years ago I went with Strong Bad. This year I chose the ever popular, Trodgor (The Pumpkinator):

She went with The Prince from the Katamari games:

We turned the lights down low and basked in their pumpkiny goodness:


Elsewhere on the 'net...

If you like video game themed pumpkins, bs angel collected images of a few over at Hawty McBloggy in her post "I Spy Something Orange". Very cool.

The Homestar Runner guys released their yearly Halloween Toon, which is always amusing (for me half the fun is trying to figure out what each of the characters is dressed as). The Trogdor pumpkin came from a Halloween stencil set they made available on the site.

The guys at Bungie have added a Living Dead playlist to Halo 3 for 27 hours around Halloween for playing the gametype "Infection". Should be fun.

And CuteOverload mixes in the Halloween ridonk with pictures of cats in various costumes, a guinea pig as a dragon, dogs dressed as cheerleeders, cowgirls, and "being eaten by an crocadile", as well as a pumpkin carved with a chipmunk holding a flower.

WITFITS readers, did you carve any fun pumpkins this year, dress up your animals in strange ways, or celebrate the day in a remarkable manner?

Is this becoming a videogame blog? Sure seems like that's all I've posted about lately. Oh well, it's what's been occupying the majority of my time.

I picked up Guiter Hero III: Legends of Rock for the 360 the other day. I haven't gotten too much time to play it, what with making 3D screenshots in Halo 3 all the time, but here are my initial impressions (as well as those of some of my fellow Guitar Heroes).

The Good

• The guitar controller is improved over the GH2 Explorer model. The fret buttons are a bit softer (less "buttony" I guess) and the raised ridge on the center yellow button is easier to feel. The Xbox Guide button and directional pad have been moved closer to the neck making it unlikely to hit them accidentally. The slightly longer whammy bar feels good, and the strum bar, though still very "clacky" sounding, has a better feel--I find I can hit multiple notes a bit faster (it "rebounds" faster?) Plus it's sexy black and wireless, to boot!
• Load times have improved a bit.
• They are finally leveraging the multiple buttons on the fret to navigate the set list menus, instead of having to endlessly scroll ("downloaded" and "bonus" songs are on different "tabs" for instance, accessed via the yellow and blue fret buttons).
• The hammer-on/pull-off notes are easier to see.
• There is now a note streak counter and popups telling you how many you've hit in a row (though some may consider these popups a bit annoying and you really don't have time to glance over at your counter whilst playing)
• The Boss Battles (of which there are only 3) seem to be cooler than one might expect.
• Casey Lynch is hotter in this one.

I haven't played too much of the single-player and as such a majority of my complaint deal with how they handled the co-op play. Co-op is what made me run out and buy Guitar Hero 2 within minutes of seeing it. I was disappointed that they took a few steps backward...

The Bad

• The leaderboards are still clumsy and awkward, and may be more poorly implemented than in the previous game.
  
• The one flaw of the guitar is that, instead of using the rechargeable battery packs like every other wireless controller for the 360 (which, I admit, is limited to the gamepad controller and the racing wheel), it only takes regular batteries. I personally think the rechargeable battery packs are great and I don't understand why they wouldn't have made use of them.
• The animated scenes between the sets are cool to watch at first, but it would be nice to be able to skip them when playing on a different difficulty, or for them to be different if between, say, easy and expert.
• There seems to be a larger emphasis on "battling" in this title than on jamming. I'm much more interested in cooperative guitar play than head-to-head competitive play.
• Local co-op career is laid out in a slightly confusing way... I'm still not sure how it is keeping track of scores, but it looks like it is based on the lowest level of the two people playing sets the career level (though, if so, why wouldn't you both just play at the same level, other than the obvious boredom factor from having to play at a lower level than your skill). The implementation could have been much clearer.
• They've done away with the breakdown of stats for each player in co-op which, I think, is a huge design mistake and I'm incredibly disappointed. Part of the fun in playing co-op, at least for me, was being able to see how we both fared on different sections of the song. It helped you get a feel for where you needed to go back and practice and gave you a better sense of how you performed. You don't even get an indication of how many notes either person missed, just one average percentage score. So they basically took an existing feature of GH2 that worked really well and dropped it for no reason. A really crummy decision, I think. Here's hoping they wise up and release it in a patch.
  
• They online co-op setup should have been handled differently. Currently you set up a session and have to set a number of songs that will be played (1, 3, 5 etc., always an odd number from a list), a set difficulty level, and a set assignment of who is lead and who is rhythm/bass. Once this set is done you have to completely set up the online co-op game again to continue playing more songs or change any options. This is cumbersome and quite frankly ridiculous. The co-op should have looked exactly the same as it did/does in the single player. You should be able to choose any song to play at any difficulty and any guitar/bass combination. You shouldn't have to be locked into your choices ahead of time. What if I want to spend the next two hours with my buddy playing co-op and jumping from song to song, trading off who plays lead and who plays backup? What if I want to play expert on some and hard on others? Why can't we just pick these options as we go? Another really strange decision by the development team that makes me think they threw co-op in at the last minute and didn't really think about how it is played or how it should work.
  
• Also, when setting up a private co-op game, there is no hotkey button for inviting a friend (usually the yellow Y button on the controller). Instead you have to hit the guide button and navigate.
• Also, also... there doesn't appear to be a way to play a co-op career online. Why? Because we would have wanted to do that, I guess...
  
• When playing online co-op they also should have done something about the volume balance between the players. When you are playing bass, you are sometimes drowned out by the sound of the lead guitar, making it difficult to hear the part you play. This problem is somewhat understandable when you're playing in the same room, but when you're playing over live, there's no reason that the person playing the bass shouldn't hear his part louder than the lead line. You can go into your audio options and tweak a couple of settings to try to account for this but you shouldn't have to--it would have been trivial to implement and its amazing they overlooked it.
  
• Some of the Achievements are pretty lame. Achievements should be, well, about achieving something. But ideally those achievements should be fun and not chores. "Button Masher" and "Buy A Guitar Already" for instance, are really dumb: the first requires you to win 15 consecutive online matches using the gamepad controller instead of the guitar, and the second requires you to finish the hard or expert career using the gamepad controller. The question is: Why would I ever want to? Isn't that why it comes with a guitar?
• The GuitarHero website, which was supposed to allow you to link to your game to view scores and compare with your friends, etc., still isn't working right after a couple of days of the game being out. How hard is it for these companies to get their act together--they could have predicted the number of people who would buy the game and want to go to the site. All they had to do is consult with a network expert, load test their software, and put in the requisite number of servers.
  
• Finally, Judy Nails, my favorite avatar from GH2, is no longer cute and sassy. She's now more punk and, well, kinda "chunky". She looks like a linebacker in drag. Why, Neversoft, WHY?

Oh well, it's still fun, but they could have done better.

I could bore you with an entire discussion on stereophotography and the ins and outs of stereoscopic vision, but instead I'll cut to the chase so you can see how to make 3D screenshots from Halo, with a few explanations along the way. If you're really interested in learning more about some of the techniques I touch upon here just Google topics such as "stereo photography" or "stereographic 3D" for more information.

If you want some samples of my work so far, check out my previous post, Halo 3-D Screenshots, or see my full sets on flickr, available in Red/Cyan Anaglyph for those with 3D glasses, and Crosseye for those without.

In this tutorial we will basically be using the Halo 3 theater to save two screenshots (a left-eye view and a right-eye view) which we will then download and make into a more convenient red/cyan stereo image (I will also show how to make one for crossed-eye viewing if you don't have 3D glasses, though you could always try Googling "free 3D glasses"). The only piece of software needed for this project (other than Halo 3 on the Xbox 360, obviously) is the excellent StereoPhoto Maker. It is a free tool for Windows-based PC's that will assist us in making and tweaking our final 3D image. You can follow the previous link to the homepage or download version 3.10a directly here.

Getting Started

1. Start up Halo 3 and resist the temptation to play a match online. On the main menu choose Theater.
2. In the Theater Lobby, choose Film: and from the Select Film page choose the film you will want to take a screenshot from.
3. Back in the Theater Lobby, choose Start Film when it is ready.
4. Once the film has started find something you are interested in making a 3D screenshot of. It is assumed you know most of the ins and outs of the Theater, but when in doubt consult the manual, or the Bungie How To: Saved Films page, or hit Start to see the control layout.

Taking The Shot

1. When setting up your shot for 3D you should take into consideration a few things that you wouldn't necessarily be concerned about otherwise. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
   • You will have to be in the third person detached view in order to make the appropriate camera movements for the shot (so, no first-person 3D views). To do this you'll need to hit the Y Button to Change Camera Type until the camera is no longer locked on to a player and can fly about the world. If you move the camera and it's rotating around the player you're not in the right mode.
   • The directions given here assume you are not in the "zoomed in" mode available by clicking the Right Stick. This mode changes the field of view and could be used for making stereo shots, but these directions were not written with that view in mind (but feel free to experiment--I suspect you will find you don't need to move the camera as much).
   • Assuming you are focusing on something that isn't right against the camera, be mindful of objects (terrain, foliage, parts of buildings, explosions, shell-casings, etc.) that are very close to the camera. They may look cool in a regular screenshot, but if you are taking a stereo screenshot and they are not the focus, they may be too close and cause eye strain. That is not to say you can't have anything close to the camera, but remember that they'll be right in your face when you put together the final 3D version.
   • Note that many explosions and other weapon effects in the game aren't actually geometry but rather flat polygons with textures applied. When viewing in 3D they may seem a little odd or "flat". In my experience this hasn't really detracted from any of the 3D screenshots I've made, and I encourage you to take shots that include explosions (because, hey, they look really cool) just keep this mind if you notice them looking funny.
2. Once you've chosen a subject you're ready to actually take the screenshots. At this point it is helpful to reduce the sensitivity of the camera to make the process easier. Hit the Start button to bring up the Film menu, then push right on the Left Stick to move over to the Settings Tab. There choose Game Controls, Flying Camera, Speed and set it to Slow. Back out of the menus to get back to the game/theater.
   
3. Frame your subject(s) for the first shot, keeping in mind which way you're going to have to move the camera for the second shot (so that it too is framed correctly). Let's arbitrarily say that you are going to take a shot where your subject is closer to the right side of the screen first. Line it up and hit the X Button to bring up the film controls, then with the Directional Pad (NOT the left stick) move over and choose the Camera Icon ("Take Screenshot"). After it scans the screen choose Save as... and give it a name. I suggest labeling it with the subject and the letter "L" for "Left Eye".
4. Now we make the big decision that makes or breaks this 3D screenshot: how far to move the camera for the second shot. We will be moving the camera to the RIGHTonce the Theater is done saving/uploading your first shot. You will be pushing only right on the Left Stick and not touching the Right Stick at all. Try not to move forward or backward or point the camera elsewhere. You don't want to swivel the camera, you just want to pan slightly, constricting your motion to only left/right. The amount you move determines the "eye separation" and to an extent the "Wow, 3D!" factor of the resulting shot. In the real world, you would move the camera the average distance between your eyes to get a "realistic" stereoscopic picture, but it's nearly impossible to determine how that would translate into in-game units, and we have no way of judging how many of those units we are moving our camera. Instead, with a little experimenting and some number crunching, I came up with an amount of movement that delivers pretty good stereo results. You'll want to move the camera such that the closest object of interest in the scene--perhaps a rocket coming from a launcher, or the tip of a sniper rifle, or just a Spartan himself--moves no more than about 2.95% of the width of your television/monitor (in this case by pushing LEFT on the Left Stick. So, if you've got a big honkin' 60" widescreen TV which is around 52.3" in width, you are going to move the camera such that the closest object of interest moves about 1.54" across the screen (52.3 * 0.0295). If you're playing on a 16" wide monitor, that would be more like 0.47 inches. These are numbers that work well for me but by all means experiment and see what separation distances provide the most pleasing results for you.
   
5. Save this screenshot by hitting the X Button to bring up the film controls (if you closed them), then with the Directional Pad move over and choose the Camera Icon ("Take Screenshot"). After it scans the screen choose Save as... and give it a name. I suggest labeling it with the subject and the letter "R" for "Right Eye"

Uploading the Screenshots

1. Every screenshot you take is automatically uploaded to Bungie. However, sometimes they don't successfully transfer, do to network or server issues at one end or the other. Also, sometimes it takes awhile for the screenshots to appear on Bungie.net. If you are in a hurry, I recommend adding your newly taken stereo shots to your File Share.
2. From most menus, hit the Start Button to bring up the Media menu and choose File Share. Select an open slot (or remove some shares to free one up) and choose Screenshot then pick the appropriate shot to upload. Don't forget to share both your left and right pictures.

Retrieving Your Screenshots

1. On your PC, browse to www.Bungie.net. Click Sign In in the upper right corner to sign in with your Windows Live ID. Once you're signed in, click on Halo 3 in the upper right corner. (If you don't know your Live ID or don't feel like bothering, you can choose Find a Player from the My Stats dropdown and search on your Gamertag to find your Halo 3 stats page).
2. Click on Hi-Res Screenshots and check to see if the pictures you snapped are there. If so, click on the thumbnail of the screenshots and, in the new window that opens, click on the image to download it. Save it someplace meaningful and preferably with a name that makes sense (i.e. whatever you named it when you took the shot in the first place). Don't forget to download them both.
3. If you don't see them there and were forward thinking enough to save them in your file share, click on Return to Service Record Main and there click on File Share. Find your screenshots, click on the thumbnail, and in the new window that opens click on the image to download, naming it appropriately. Don't forget to download both your left and right image.

Making It 3D

1. The final step in the process is to create a 3D image. If you haven't already, download the free StereoPhoto Maker tool (web site | 3.10a direct download) to your PC and unzip it someplace useful. Mac/Linux folks, you might want to check out the Engadget story on how to make 3D photos or Google how to do it with Photoshop or The Gimp.
2. Start up StereoPhoto Maker (there's no installer, just run the app that came in the zip). Choose File->Open Left/Right Images and browse for your left-eye picture. Assuming you consistently named them (i.e. one ending in "L" and one ending in "R") StereoPhoto Maker will find the other file automatically and ask if you want to load it (hit Ok). Otherwise, browse for the other file.
3. You will see your images side by side. To view it as a Red/Cyan stereo image, go to Stereo->ColorAnaglyph->color (red/cyan). Put on your glasses and admire your handiwork. You might want to compare and contrast this with a half-color anaglyph by choosing Stereo->ColorAnaglyph->half-color (red/cyan). You may find that through the glasses one looks better than the other (perhaps its the tint of the armor or the colors in the scene or reflections on a nearby surface that make the difference). If it doesn't look 3D or looks off somehow, you might have the left and right images reversed. Choose View->Swap Left/Right (or just hit the X hotkey) to swap the left and right images and see if that looks better.
4. If the eye separation--the is, the distance you originally moved the camera--is too great you may have a hard time resolving the image or it may strain your eyes. You can fix this a bit by moving the images closer together simply using the arrow keys. More than likely you will be using the right arrow key to move them closer together (the x number after Position Alignment at the bottom of the screen will go up and the red and blue images on the screen will get closer together). Doing this doesn't really change the 3-dimensionality of the picture (you set that when you took the snapshots) but putting them closer together may help eliminate eye strain (at least for the main subjects or close up object--objects in the background may become harder to resolve). The true effect of moving the screenshots closer together/further apart after you've taken them is to change where the 3D objects appear with respect to the "window" on the scene (either in front of, or behind) which is a topic beyond this discussion.
5. When you're satisfied with your Red/Cyan Anaglyph, you can save it by going to File->Save Stereo Image. It's important to note that compression artifacts are a huge detriment to the stereo effect and as such you will want to save in a loseless format. BMP and particularly PNG are good choices ("Full colors"). You can also save it as a JPG, just be certain you set the Image Quality to 99 and tick the No Compression Ghosting option to avoid compression artifacts inherent in saving it as a jpeg. (Additional note: If you plan on putting these up on flickr, be advised to save them as PNGs or JPGs. I found that if you save as a BMP and upload to flickr, they convert the file to a jpeg and it introduces a fair number of compression artifacts.)
6. If you don't have 3D glasses you can easily create a 3D image for cross-eyed viewing. If you're in one of the Red/Cyan modes you can choose Stereo->Side-by-side->Side-by-side to get back to the side-by-side view. Now, you'll want to swap the left and right views (assuming they were correct to begin with). Do this by choosing View->Swap Left/Right or by hitting the X hotkey once. Now the left image is on the right and the right image is on the left. Since the original images are pretty large (1920x1080, which is 3840 pixels wide side-by-side) you'll likely want to resize it to something more easily viewable before saving. This is a matter of preference, but 500 pixels per image works pretty well for me. Choose Edit->Resize and enter 500 for X (make sure Keep Aspect-ratio is ticked as well as Resample). Hit Ok and the image is resized. Finally you can save this out just like the Red/Cyan was saved by choosing File->Save Stereo Image and choosing an appropriate format (as mentioned above, something losless like BMP, PNG, or JPG at 99 image quality).
7. You can even make a "Wiggle Stereo" version (an animated GIF that goes back and forth between images) by choosing File->Make Animation GIF in StereoPhoto Maker.
   

Congratulations, you can now show the world how you teabagged some poor noob... in glorious 3D!

The other day I was playing around in the theater in Halo 3 when brilliance struck me, like a plasma grenade to the helmet. I was panning the camera back and forth looking for a good angle on my subject when it occurred to me: with full control over the camera, I can take multiple pictures from slightly different angles. This is the foundation of stereo photography. Since the screenshots aren't locked to the Xbox (I can download them to my PC via the Bungie website), I can process them into 3D screenshots!

The awesomeness of that idea almost overwhelmed me.

Fortunately for me, I've done some work in stereoscopic 3D rendering, so I'm familiar with the concepts and what's involved. It took some trial and error and some number crunching to work out some of the kinks, but I think I've got a pretty good feel for it now. So, without further ado, I present to you: Halo 3(d)!


You'll, of course, need a pair of 3D glasses to see this, particularly red/cyan (red/blue will work, but not quite as well). It also helps to view it as big as possible. I've taken a dozen or so other shots in 3D which you can check out in my Halo 3 Stereo 3D Screenshots (Red/Cyan) set on flickr.

But maybe you don't have a pair of 3D glasses handy (misplaced your Spy Kids 3-D DVD, did you? You could always try Googling "free 3D glasses"...) For those without the color spectacles, try one of the two methods below, either parallel-view or cross-eyed view. Mileage may vary.

Cross your eyes so that the two images become four, then vary your cross-eyedness until the middle two images overlap to form a single (3D) picture. Now try to focus without uncrossing your eyes. Some find it helps to hold a finger between your eyes and the picture, focusing on that (to cross your eyes) until the image in the background seems to converge and be in 3D.

You can view more of these in my Halo 3 Stereo 3D Screenshots (Crosseye) set.


Look straight ahead, lining your nose up with the line between the two images. Let your eyes relax and look "through" the image, as if looking at some distant point beyond the monitor.

Finally, for the truly lazy among us, here's an animation showing of wiggle-stereo, which basically flips back and forth between the left and right eye images. Not the greatest stereo effect, but it gives you a basic idea:



Wanna know how to do it? I've posted a tutorial... How To: Make Stereo 3D Halo 3 Screenshots.

Hi, I'm Kato. Remember me? I blog here. Or at least I do sometimes. I think.

Lately I've found that the biggest hurdle preventing me from doing this is... well, doing other things.

To be honest, the biggest chunk of my time has gone to developing a steady relationship with another human being (i.e. biological, non-silicon based entity). But I've also been claimed by friends and family, video games (Halo, *ahem*) and, the gods willing, baseball playoffs for the next couple weeks.

These are all good problems to have. Invariably, though, other pursuits suffer.

This has always been a problem for me. I know it's cliche to say that there aren't enough hours in the day but it's true. I have tons of pet projects/hobbies that either sit half-finish or are un-started. I've been very good at balancing my time.

I feel like Jessie in that "very special episode" of Saved By The Bell. (Okay, not really, but c'mon that was a classic TV moment.)

Oh well, at least I'm a Lieutenant in Halo 3. That's gotta count for something. Right?

The most recent Strong Bad E-mail pokes fun at webcomics. In it he claims that The Cheat makes unusual comics based on the weird subject lines from spam e-mails. I thought this was an amusing concept, not realizing that it's based on a real site called Spamusement. There are some pretty funny drawings in the 300+ comics so far. Check it out if you don't mind killing your whole afternoon with "I'll just read one more..."

Next stop: Boston!

I know, another Halo 3 post. What can I say, it's a major driving force in my life right now. Multiplayer has me firmly in its glovéd grip, consuming me in a fire of delicious deathmatches, captivating Capture the Flag, and some-adjective-that-begins-with-o Oddball.

Consonance aside, I'm enjoy it.

In Halo 3 they added a "Theater" feature--the ability to record and playback any of your multiplayer matches. This isn't particularly new to the FPS genre--PC first-person-shooters have had this for years--but it's a first for its console bretheren. It's not without its flaws (No rewind button? Srsly?) but being able to go back and watch great displays of gaming prowess from an online match is pretty damn cool. In addition, you can save sections of a replay and share them with others to show off. But if you're not in the mood to suck up all that bandwidth, you can take a screenshot of any moment from a game, from any perspective you desire.

Like, for instance, this moment here, where my girlfriend proves that the sometimes the only way to break up a 24 to 24 tie is with a well placed rocket.


Incidentally, for those that might be interested in such things, I have started collecting my more interesting captures in my Halo 3 Screenshots flickr set.

Not only are these screenshots available on Xbox Live, but they can also be downloaded in full resolution from a section of Bungie.net, which allows me to share them with wonderful folks like yourselves who might not own an Xbox. Personally, I think this is really cool, and a long time coming. Halo 3 isn't the first console game to allow this (Forza Motorsport 2 may have that distinction, or perhaps an earlier title) but it's a nice extra to have.

Despite what some politicians and whack-job lawyers might want you to believe, videogaming is quite a social culture. If we're not playing games, we're sitting around talking about them. Telling your buddy, "Man, last night I flipped my Warthog ten times and landed upright, splattering a guy!" is one thing, but actually being able to show him is even better. I always thought that the 360 should have just had the "Take a screenshot" capability built in--it is, after all, essentially a PC, and it's not a big deal to write the frame-buffer to a file. That way you could share with your friends the cool things you've seen and done without it having to be built into every game. (As a long parenthetical aside, this very issue came up when I was playing Saints Row. I was pimping out all these rides and my character was looking fly as can be, but I was frustrated that I had no way to show my friends short of taking a photograph of the screen or invited them over to see it in person. And man was I looking P-I-M-P!)

So, kudos to Bungie for making this happen, and maybe this will catch the attention of other game companies as well: we want to show our friends how cool your game is! Also, let me take this moment to chide 2K Sports: Bungie lets me share game clips with my friends for free and you want to charge me, what, like five dollars to do that? Get outta here!