UE4 looks like it’s a great tool for visualisation. I’m working on various projects to show the history of the development of my home town of Lodz, Poland and so far I’ve rendered a few things in Blender, but I wanted something in which I can create some interactive stuff.  And UE4 is quite powerful and, most importantly,  absolutely free for this!

Working on the history of Plac Wolności (Freedom Square), I live just next to it, here you can see how it looks now, I’m trying to recreate the architecture of how the place looked in various stages of its history since its founding in 1823.

Here’s how it looked about 1849. Basic geometry only, almost no textures yet.

If you’re interested, here’s the video project I made last year about a fragment of my town a bit north of here (has English subtitles – not my own translation):

So the latest patch was released with a bunch of fixes and a couple new maps. I’m actually impressed with Robot as they seem to be spending all their time on balance and fixes for Survival mode now which is what they should have been focusing on all along IMO. You can read the patch notes here to see what I mean:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/427270/discussions/3/361787186439543936/

One of the new maps is called The Wall. Its basically a beach siege map kind of like Normandy but with Orcs and Pirate Orcs.

As you can see from the map, its one large middle lane with two smaller lanes that open up later on in the cycle. My basic defense is to load up the main lane with every trap I can afford and place my Guardian in the back. This leaves me free to manually monitor the other two lanes. (also notice the pirate orc. very dangerous!)The upper lanes are much smaller but Robot likes to throw many Ogres at you from up there so you have to keep on your toes.

After a couple of attempts, I seem to have figured the map out but I’m sure later on it will be much tougher.

Last night, I finally got to see Jurassic World. I also saw the first Game of Thrones episode for the 2016 season. Here is my catchy image for this post:

I’m using this image because I have a morbid fear of copyright takedown notices.

Anyway, about Jurassic World:

Total excrement.

1. The effects haven’t improved very much since 1993. If anything, they’ve gotten worse. They should have called this movie “Jurassic Cut Scene on the Xbox One.”
2. The characters are idiotic. I thought there might be an exception, but nope. Hated the kids; hated the “navy-paleontologist” character; hated the woman park boss; hated the rich Middle-Eastern Hammond replacement; hated the military nut. Not one redeeming person.
3. The plot goes from stupid to ludicrous to face-palm to brain-damage. Every scene introduced a new improbability (and we’re talking way beyond the improbability of the fictional world here — I’m referring to intra-plot “luck” and other problems — the final scenes are just off the chart with deus-ex-machina stupidity).

This movie has not one single good thing going for it. I’m very glad I didn’t get the Blu-ray.

About Game of Thrones:

I’m pleased to see that various revenge plots are beginning to gyre up. I only hope they come to something. I especially want to see Cersei kick some ass. I also am interested in the weird Arya plot — will look forward to where they’re taking this “blind martial arts master” thing.

I dreaded that they might bring back Jon Snow, and it looks like that may be on the table. I got really sick of that character and his Tarly nerd sidekick, but I imagine a great herd of heartbroken girls wrote in protests, so Snow will probably be rezzed. Too bad.

The dumbness is strong in this one.

Reckitt Benckiser, distributors of Lysol, have decided to give themselves a raise. Already overpriced, the big spray can used to cost $4.97 at Walmart. Yesterday, it was $5.97. Can someone tell me what’s in Lysol that justifies paying $6 a can at Walmart’s low-low pricing?

Never mind. I bought Walmart’s house brand for $2.57 or something. It doesn’t smell as good, but it claims to kill germs just like Lysol.

Let this be a lesson about something.

For some reason, most of you don’t have the DIY Network. I won’t say you should be ashamed of yourselves, but this isn’t anything to be proud of either because you’re going to miss the renewal of the best flip series in the world, to wit, The Vanilla Ice Project.

I don’t know what this season has in store. Probably Wes Kane will be back as Rob’s right hand man. Unless the earth has turned incorrectly on its axis, Jeremy the College Kid should also be a regular. The identities of the rest of the crew are a mystery, but they may be pretty good. I don’t see how they can be as great as Pork Chop, Handsome Dan, George the Plumber, or other erstwhile cast members, but I could be surprised.

What I can count on is very high-end house flipping the likes of which no one has ever surpassed. The bling will be mighty, and I don’t doubt that Rob will bring his usual ingenuity to every crisis. Over the course of an unspecified number of weeks, prepare to watch a hopeless wreck of a mansion go from zero to hero. Kitchens will be destroyed and rebuilt with state-of-the-art accessories. Swimming pools full of unspeakable detritus will be transformed into sparkling water attractions. Tiki huts will almost certainly be fabricated on white sand beaches. Yard flora will rival the gardens of bygone sultans.

If you don’t watch any other do-it-yourself flip show this season, you owe it to yourself to be awed by the VIP Ninjas. Send word to your mother.

(I’m supposed to give credit for the photo, so here goes: By Dave Kleinschmidt from Williamstown, MA – Is this real? Cropped from original image., CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2558759)