I set the FoV at 60 for all my interior views. Diego is right, it makes a huge difference in being able to see more of the interior.

@jackson said:

@bellwells said:

Looks like I'm the slow kid on the block with my 4 year old Sony Laptop, 1.73 Ghz, 1Gb, GeForce Go 6200, hardware and feedback turned on and AA at 4x.
The AA will make a huge difference, I'm amazed you have it turned on at all on your laptop. My lappie is coming up for 3 years old and I always have AA turned off- I can't afford the slow frame rate when working and as much as x 4 AA'd lines look lovely I much prefer the fine crisp aliased lines- I find them much easier to select. Of course I apply AA or resize in PS for presentation images and animations.

I probably should turn AA off when I model. However, the largest my models get is around 7 Mb. But even at that size, my laptop is a little sluggish sometimes. I have to admit, I never think to turn off AA.

I turned off AA and the fps went up to 11.2; a significant increase from 5.5. I haven't tried the city block test.

Edit: I ran the city block test with AA off and scene 7 took 355 seconds at .2 fps. With AA 4x, it was 451 seconds and .16 fps (the script rounded up to .2; I just did the math for a more accurate reading). This is a 20% improvement.

@unknownuser said:

@bellwells said:

There is no question that the US does more good than harm. Just look at the level of our foreign aid. Who's first on site when there's a tsunami in Indonesia or any other disaster?

So? I'm sorry, but surely you're not implying we should all go "oh, please, help yourselves, blow something up" because of the level of the US's foreign aid?

@bellwells said:

I don't sense the same level of disdain for those who actually have "no respect for international law or civilian life", ie. radical Islamists, Robert Mugabe, the Mujahadeen in the Sudan, etc, etc, etc.

Sigh. Sorry. I forgot to mention all the other baddies. That "actually" is funny.

I know how fashionable it is for some Europeans to turn their enlightened nose up at us. I can assure you that most of us here don't care. Don't take this as arrogant, take it as fact.

Edit: I did alter some wording to more accurately reflect my sentiment.

@unknownuser said:

@bellwells said:

Stinkie, do you think 911 was the fault of George W Bush's foreign policy?

Not just his, regrettably. Remember that Sudanese pharmaceutical plant Clinton decided to bomb? Or the missiles that Bush Sr. had shot at the centre of Bagdad? (I was 13 or so, but I was shocked at hearing the reasoning.)

I think the perception of the US as a country that does exactly as it pleases, with no respect for international law or civilian lives, is severely p*ssing people off.

The sooner the US realises that "the others" aren't the agressors, the better. Should I add I'm not an America hater?

There is no question that the US does more good than harm. Just look at the level of our foreign aid. Who's first on site when there's a tsunami in Indonesia or any other disaster? I don't sense the same level of disdain for those who actually have "no respect for international law or civilian life", ie. radical Islamists, Robert Mugabe, the Mujahadeen in the Sudan, etc, etc, etc.

Edit: Sorry about continuing the off-topic nature of this subject.

On the city block test, I got 9.1 fps on scene 1 and .2 fps over 451 seconds on scene 7. On the cube test all three runs were generally the same for me: 5.4-5.6 fps and 12.95-13.06 seconds.

Looks like I'm the slow kid on the block with my 4 year old Sony Laptop, 1.73 Ghz, 1Gb, GeForce Go 6200, hardware and feedback turned on and AA at 4x.

@unknownuser said:

Nope. They hate ya. Which, as far as I know, is due to the US's support to Israel. I'm no fan of terrorist attacks, or of any sort of violence for that matter, but I think there's a firm link between the US's foreign politics and, say, 9/11. I sincerely hope the next American president realises you cannot tread on sore toes without there being some retribution (that's a word, right?).

Stinkie, do you think 911 was the fault of George W Bush's foreign policy?

My God, I'm shocked 28% think it's an inside job. Pitiful, really.

Wow Alex, very clever. You know, I just bought a 10' USB cord for my mouse so I could sit back and walk my clients through a model allowing them to be closer to the screen. The Wiimote would have been much better for this and only about $8 more!

@alan fraser said:

@bellwells said:

My Lord, what the heck does the Virgin Islands do to consume oil at 3 times the rate as the next highest per capita consumer????

It caters to 2.6 m (mostly American) tourists.

Ahh, this does make sense. That many tourists, as a ratio to the native population, can really skew the numbers I guess.

http://www.crai.archi.fr/RubyLibraryDepot
The script is called Thicklines.rb and it's under the Architecture heading.

My Lord, what the heck does the Virgin Islands do to consume oil at 3 times the rate as the next highest per capita consumer????

I'm not clear on how I made your point, but I agree that perception often trumps reality in these matters. Supply-Demand still rules the roost IMO.

China and India are HUGE "demanders" of energy right now. I read that if China were to consume oil at the same per capita rate we do, they would soak up the world's total production supply. Before that day comes, we better find some alternative sources.

@lapx said:

If they could change anything why aren't they changing gas prices now. Are not these guy's already in office? We still have a president and congress. Why do they have to wait to be president before change happens? Everyone wants lower gas prices, right. That would be a welcomed change now!

Uhhh...neither Congress nor the President set the price of a barrel of oil or any commodity for that matter. They can impose tariffs and such to artificially alter the cost but that's it.

The price of oil (and gasoline as a derivative) is based on basic supply and demand with a little weak dollar thrown in for good measure. I'd have to say that if the dollar were as strong as it was 2 years ago, oil would be at $80/bbl.

I'll probably vote for Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate. I voted for GWB twice and he has angered and disappointed me greatly. I am so Goddamn sick and tired of Congress' ineptitude and unwillingness to address important issues. Neither Obama nor McCain are capable of REAL change.

Don't forget that Perot got 19% of the vote in 1992. Third parties can be viable.

Todd, thanks for taking and posting these photos. Hey Ross if your listening, you don't look as much like my brother-in-law as I thought.

Simple idea indeed. Like you said, the basic commands would be orbit, pan and zoom. Any visible touch-commands would just take up valuable screen real estate.

I wonder if the accelerometer feature could be used for orbit and zoom. Turn left/right to orbit left/right and tilt forward/back to zoom in/out. The problem with this would be controlling the amount of movement to achieve the desired effect. Using your fingers, as you suggest, might allow for a greater degree of control.

From our mouths to some programmers ears.....

Or...utilize a program like "Go To My PC" to access your home computer. From there, you could open any model and display/manipulate it.

I'm stunned no one has mentioned the Godfather; ALL of them. Now that's the best trilogy of all time. For a horror flick, see the remake of The Thing with Kurt Russel.

Edit: I see Alan did mention the Godfather I and II.