An awkward name perhaps, for an odd little, simple version of an "LED Screen / Scoreboard Style Capitals Only" font (including Punctuation and Accents!) - but years ago, I contacted the author of a similar-styled font, to ask specifically for Commercial Use of his font, that looked somewhat like this one [I have been using it "Officially" here at The Blog since then - you can see Examples of it all over this site, on the images].
Today, I found Fontstruct, an easy-to-use, free, online Font creation utility - and thought "why don't I make my own version this font, not only for 'The Blog' to use, but for others to possibly use as well?".
And so, here is an 'LED Screen' or 'Dot Matrix' style font (also usable as a 'Pixel font') - with punctuation and a couple of 'accents' - but capitals only, as traditional LED Screens or Scoreboards ("Score Screens") would have used; made by my hand, Just For You™...
I am distributing it as "LED SCREEN GTAMBLOG CAPS+ 2.0" by 'Troy from The Game Tips And More Blog', at various Font sites, such as those below (for Downloading, Updates as I add more and/or am approved by them). [If you prefer, contact me via email and I can also send you the TTF or Zip of the Font, from me, directly]:
Feel free to Comment on those sites, or here (Suggestions, Questions, And More) or contact me via e-mail if you have any questions about the font, at:
gametipsandmore@gmail.com Usage License: (Creative Commons, Attribution License, 4.0)
You are free to utilize this font for ANY purpose whatsoever, including Commercial Use and Monetization of any kind, Royalty-Free; the only condition being that you mention my name somewhere, anywhere, during use of this font. If you would like to make a Donation, on behalf of using this font, you may do so via PayPal, using my email (gametipsandmore@gmail.com), but this is not required at all, to use this font for any purpose you desire.
As some of you may know, I have been playing around with Fonts off and on, creating them for various images/headers/etc here at The Blog over the years, compiling at least 4-5 fonts or so from scratch, with varying levels of completion... I 'm not sure when I'll get around to finishing all of them - but for now, I hope this font can perhaps be useful for some quick images, videos, or whatever you may want it for - Enjoy!
Edit:
I may return and add some images and examples of the font... Soon™ Also, although I have made this font by hand at the Fontstruct website, I always suggest that you Scan any files you download (just in case), with an Anti-Virus utility of some sort - whether it is Windows Defender (built-in to Windows 10, after downloading) or via an online scanner/website, such as VirusTotal.com or similar.
Just a quick notification about GTAV (Grand Theft Auto Five) and how it seems to be crashing after the Launcher downloads an Update of some sort (and after looking it up a bit online, it looks like it's not just me). I'll quickly share some Tips I found from others and which one worked for me in the end - if your GTAV Launcher is crashing every time you try to play the game - don't worry, It's Not Just You™...
The thing that was happening.... oh I don't know maybe
EVERY SINGLE TIME I TRIED TO START THE GAME
Things I tried:
Rebooting
Copying d3d9.dll (eventually trying all of the d3d Libraries, copied to the game folder)
Updating GPU Drivers and Windows Updates (all was Latest already)
Updating RTSS (Rivatuner Statistics Server to Version 7.0.0 (Beta), part of MSI Afterburner)
Download latest Social Club installer and (Re)Install (to the same Location I had it already)
I just wanted to share a little 'intro' I made for the OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) project:
Feel free to Download and use this logo for anything you desire (following any rules set by The Open Broadcaster Software Project). Once I figure out how to offer a high-quality download link more directly, I will put it right here!
[The above video clip contains only Royalty-Free and First-Hand-created content and is Distributed here via the Creative Commons Attribution License (any use, even commercial, with attribution listed); the Logo/Intro itself is 12s00f long, so trim off my identifier after that point, to use it for anything you wish]
I recently Downloaded OBS to try recording with it again - I tried OBS only for a very short time a few years ago, barely touching it; but recently thought about it again and gave it a go and see how it works for recording gameplay (what I mean herein, is Offline ("Non-Streaming") Locally-Recorded gameplay clips)... And I love it! Although it has to be 'set up' somewhat before easy operation, after that, it seems to be able to produce great quality with little impact on performance. I was just using the 'default' x264 (H.264/AVC MPEG-4 Part 10) codec that seems built-in to the program, utilizing my own x264 settings that I found worked well for local recording with x264 over the past few years (found in previous articles here at the blog - just Search for "x264" on the right side there). I look forward to trying a GPU-Accelerated codec in the future, in OBS (I am not a Programmer, otherwise I would like to contribute towards this, as well).
[I plan on doing a 'TestRun™' article on OBS here in the future; but fitting with this blog, it would be more concerned with showing others how to use OBS to record gameplay locally on their system (just like using Bandicam or MSI Afterburner) and what kind of results to expect from it - for now, enjoy this little logo...]
Behind The Scenes - The Creation Of The Above Thingamajig
Creating this Logo/Ident for OBS was an idea I had, because although I had seen a couple of past Submissions of Logos for OBS on their Official Forum, there was no "cinematic-style" logos done that I could see, so far - ones that could be presented in a Professional Setting, perhaps at the beginning of a Streaming Event that was utilizing OBS. This is more what I was 'going for' here - something that looked "professional" and then on top of that, I personally wanted it to be "Cinematic"...
I used programs I had purchased in the past few years, for the logo (mainly Corel's VideoStudio Prox8 and CyberLink's PowerDirector 12 Ultra Edition), along with some Open Source Software for tweaking the various elements, such as The GIMP (Graphical Image Manipulation Program [although I think they just call it "GIMP" now]) and Inkscape, Audacity (an Audio Editor) and FontForge.
It was a lot harder than I thought it would be, to create an 'only twelve second long' production... I knew what I wanted in my head [the way it looks in the end, thankfully]; but what I wanted specifically couldn't be done, with any of the Software that I had available. So, when a situation like that arrives, I like to "forge my own trail" and figure out how to make it happen, despite not being able to do so easily, with the Tools at hand.
What I mean for instance, is the black OBS 'disc' that comes in from the lower-left. It seems like that would be easy to do perhaps, and at first I avoided Blender because I thought I could just use PowerDirector to have a "circle" of some Font (Wingdings or Webdings, etc) and apply the Logo to the Font face and manipulate it there – which seemed really easy in my head, five minutes work maybe.... The problem was, PowerDirector wouldn't apply the image properly onto the front face of a Font 'circle' character - it was always offset oddly. I even tried applying the Logo to a circle character in VideoStudio's NewBlueTitler, but it did the same thing - the logo got applied all 'wonky'. I surmised it was the Font itself that was offset oddly for what I wanted to do (it's dimensions/metrics) and so, after searching through a ton of Fonts to find a 'simple circle', it turned out I couldn't find one and had to create a font from scratch and create a circle character inside that font, to do what I wanted...
[I realized I could have just created a circle and manipulated it in Blender, but I liked the Automation of Font manipulation that was offered in the NewBlue Titler add-ins that came with a couple of the video editing applications I purchased (VideoStudio Pro and PowerDirector) - I thought it would be easier...at first]
So, I created a Font and drew out a circle. I saved the one-character Font and installed the Font into Windows and then tried applying the OBS logo 'disc' once again to the front facing of the circle – it worked! The thing is, the font came out looking 'blocky', the circle didn't have a nice roundness to it - it was more like an octagon. I figured it was the resolution of the Font being displayed, but that was something couldn't really be adjusted, so I went back into the Font itself and added nodes for the circle character I created… painstakingly making it more complex and 'round', by altering each node one-by-one, lining them up into a circle shape, until eventually, I had a better 'circle' to use. Then, going back into NewBlue Titler, I set up the Font, applied the facing of the logo and it matched up enough - and looked like a 'circle' enough - to start manipulating it how I wanted…
A 'flipping coin until it sits flat' type of movement, although more 'monolithic' in style, is what I wanted for the OBS 'disc' - and that animation was actually built into the NewBlue Titler Add-on in VideoStudio Pro, it was really close to what I was thinking. Great. I then wanted the Text that you see on the right side, desiring to emulate logos I had seen at the OBS Project website (the “Powered By...” ones). I settled on a Franklin-Gothic-styled font that was Royalty-Free [I do not know the Font that was actually used in the “Powered By...” logos at the Forum I saw in the past – in fact, I can't find them there anymore either].
The “space-y” background I wanted was a free one included in PowerDirector, but I tweaked the particle generators (more particles and added custom types) and changed all of the colours and levels to how I wanted [“space travel but classy” if that makes any sense lol] - I thought it would give a sense of 'going out there to everyone' that was befitting OBS. I brought down the Saturation a lot, to make it match the feel of the two-tone OBS logo and also not take away too much from the logo/text reveal... [I might share an early “daily” I had, where there was waaay too much Glare and Flares going on haha].
The right-side text was finished in VideoStudio, where the NewBlue Titler there allowed me to give it a nice Chrome finish (there is even a Chrome style Preset in there). The animation was also from the same NewBlueTitler there, tweaked slightly. [I had tried to get the Chrome style I wanted in GIMP and Inkscape, but couldn't get what I was looking for in those, for the moment, despite having used them in the past for similar 'chrome'-desired projects]. After all that, only a bit of lining things up, a bit of tweaking here and there, and it was almost done! All it needed now was an inspiring Backing Track…
Both video editing suites (VideoStudio Pro and PowerDirector) included an 'automated music generator' type of module within them [what a great thing, coming from always having to create my own Backing Tracks in the Old Days] and I found what I wanted in PowerDirector's version (even though Corel's offers more Tracks to choose from). Royalty-Free for Any Use, I tailored it down to a crisp, "majestic-yet-hopefully-still-'classy'-and-also-cinematic" 12 seconds, which was what my animation seemed to be settling on. A few more tweaks and timing line-ups later and what you see above is the final result... Slash-Whew!
I have my little Identifier/Disclaimer at the end, but just cut if off by Trimming the clip to 12seconds00Frames and use it however you desire. Enjoy it! And please feel free to let me know what you all think of it and if there are any Suggestions to further tailor it for The OBS Project (and public) usage.
Thanks to all the contributors of The OBS Project for your hard work and inspiration for this logo, my own Personal Project. I hope everyone can eventually enjoy and use this logo as they desire.
When I first read about this from EA, that is, the possibility of getting absolutely every single expansion and "Stuff" add-ons completely free, I thought there must be some mistake... A little bit of reading at the EA website and I inferred from the phrasing that it was initially going to be offered as a free upgrade to current owners of The Sims 2 (Digital/Download or Disc-based versions); but I did a little more reading about it today and it seems that EA may be 'planning on putting it "in everyone's game list" eventually'... [in my opinion] most likely to arouse just-a-little-more interest in The Sims franchise for the upcoming "The Sims 4" release (now available for pre-order, slated to be released in September 2014).
Therefore, now feeling fully-okay-mostly safe from the dark shadows of 'releasing something that wasn't meant to be distributed', I share with you the Product Code that will allow you to be the proud owner of "The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection", which includes all of the below:
The Sims 2
The Sims 2: University Expansion
The Sims 2: Nightlife Expansion
The Sims 2: Open for Business Expansion
The Sims 2: Pets Expansion
The Sims 2: Seasons Expansion
The Sims 2: Bon Voyage Expansion
The Sims 2: FreeTime Expansion
The Sims 2: Apartment Life Expansion
The Sims 2: Family Fun Stuff
The Sims 2: Glamour Life Stuff
The Sims 2: Happy Holiday Stuff
The Sims 2: Celebration! Stuff
The Sims 2: H&M Fashion Stuff
The Sims 2: Teen Style Stuff
The Sims 2: Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff
The Sims 2: IKEA Home Stuff
The Sims 2: Mansion & Garden Stuff
Wow, thanks EA!
Note: this package release may be time-limited and EA has stated that they will no longer be updating The Sims 2 or it's expansions, although they can still be contacted if you are having technical problems running the game
Here are the steps to redeem the free Activation/Product Code:
If you don't already have it installed on your system, download and install the Origin game client from EA [it is similar to Steam and other game management interfaces] from http://origin.com/download
In the pull-down menus at the top of the Origin interface, click on "Origin" and then "Redeem Product Code..."
In the white box [field] under Product Code, enter this: I-LOVE-THE-SIMS [hyphens may not be needed]
You should then see a message that the activation was successful and you are the newest owner of [oops, I forgot what year I'm in, I mean a temporally licensed user of] The Sims 2, along with all possible Expansion Packs and Add-Ons
Select the game in your My Games list in the Origin Client and install it by clicking the Download button that pops up [and if you're like me, click OK to the Insufficient Disk Space message]
That's it!
Enjoy playing The Sims 2 once again, experiencing all that this version could possibly offer.
I don't usually talk about current sales/promotions on this site [or haven't so far], but after seeing all of the sales on out there, I had to make a quick post just to say that there are some great deals on now!
Even if you don't live in the United States (for instance, I'm in Canada [eh]) you can still take advantage of them, as most electronics and entertainment companies are on the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend bandwagon, with tons of purchases available online - and it's all "nuthin' but good" for gamers... Steam, Origin, Gamefly and other digital gaming distribution platforms are all chock full of great sales, as is Amazon, TigerDirect, MemoryExpress and other local and online hardware stores, allowing you to finally get that Upgrade you've been wanting, should you decide to jump on a deal out there.
Some examples of games on sale are below; but whether you buy a few games this weekend or save your money and just play with the new influx of players in your own favourite online game - I hope you enjoy your weekend and have some fun:
An example of the Black Friday Weekend Sales for 2013 on Steam
A small example of the Black Friday Weekend Sales for 2013 on Origin
An example of the Black Friday Weekend Sales for 2013 on Gamefly
[Currently this article is text-only, with no screenshots. They will be added in the near future (read: after the free weekend)]
Sometime around January/February, 2012:
Greetings all, TheTechnician here and I can honestly say that I have never played MW3 before in my life. This free weekend/demo of the game is my first time playing any other of the COD series besides the first, which I tried on a friend's PC back almost a decade ago, and even then, I only played a short while.
Three main things hit me right away after downloading the free/demo Steam version and starting it up. The first was the game/server matching system. I thought I was playing Left For Dead Joins The Army. Not that it is a bad thing, as most of the decisions were automated, but it was quite different than... oh let's pull a game out of the dark randomly here from hundreds of games... Battlefield3.
There was no huge server list to wade through, no filters to set, no options to play certain maps, no inviting friends to play on your maps with you (at least I didn't see these things at first, perhaps they were Unlockable, as most of the game seemed to be). Two comments about this: one, unlockables aren't bad. They are an attempt to keep people playing (their numbers are then high to submit to shareholders and industry press) and add a freshness to the game, as time goes on and there are 'new' things to find within playing the same game for a time; and two, simplicity isn't bad as well. I can see that this game was made more for Console players (let's try not to start THAT war now) from the beginning as the simplified matchmaking and server choices (no choices at all actually, that I saw at first) make for 'plug-it-in-and-get-a-drink-and-just-play' game starting, which isn't a bad thing either.
Coming from PC gaming (I have played consoles since PONG but only owned a couple such as the NES) it was quite a different feeling, not being able to set how many players I wanted to play with, what maps I wanted to try (if I wanted to limit it to one or two for a while to get used to them), and I can honestly say - as a PC Gamer remember - that I missed that. I felt my army-bootlaces were being tied together for me from the very start and to place a value judgement on it, I didn't really like that there were no lists of options that I could pick through to get the type of game exactly how I wanted. Perhaps I am 'spoiled' as part of The Master Race [according to Console vs PC wars] but to not have all those choices and be forced to play with a small group of people I didn't know in such an intimate (spatially and conceptually, not emotionally) way was.. uncomforting.
Small is the operative word now. Small as in a group of only 8 as in ONLY EIGHT people were present and the game started. That's it? Why didn't it wait longer (since it made me anyway, again no choice) and why only eight? Is that the minimum required to play? /gasp Is that the maximum?
The game started and I was thrust into warfare. I tried to switch weapons scrolling my mousewheel but couldn't. "Only one weapon?" I typed. Noone answered. I ran and sprinted but then I stopped sprinting for some reason. Is my keyboard dying? I'll have to troubleshoot that later... There must be more weapons as it definitely showed more than one thing on the screen at the start, what class did I pick again? I tried hitting some keys such as 'throw grenade' and "2" to switch weapons, ah there we are, feeling more comfortable now, things are getting learned. Wow, this game looks pretty good.
Yes, the game looked good. It was realistic. Nice shadows, detailed textures, this city map I was in looked great. I haven't watched any 'BF3 vs MW3' videos on YouChoob (I try not to watch much gameplay video before playing a game) but if they argure about detail and realism, I would say they are both very similar and both very good.
As I moved around, I felt a bit like I was 'floating' around, gliding on skates as opposed to ...oh I don't know ...some random game like.. Battlefield3. Don't get me wrong I am not complaining, it felt a lot smoother and I remembered right away how COD was based on the QuakeIII engine and when Medal of Honor and Battlefield1942 first came out, crossing over to those games [from Quake3] felt like I was running hip deep in water all the time. I don't know if MW3 is just a really-really-souped-up Quake3 engine, but the smoothness of movement reminded me of it, and it was nice.
***** TIME TRAVEL TO FREE WEEKEND APRIL 2012
That's where I stopped working on that post? Hmm.. well, from what I remember, it was a pretty fast-paced, action-packed couple of days. I only got to Rank 4 but was starting to learn the controls and the game. I even killed a few people.
My biggest complaint (other than what seemed like the odd never-miss person, I don't like to throw 'that word' for them around) was the scope of the play areas. If the limited number of players gave me a taste I didn't like at the beginning, the limited play space by the end left a lingering, bad aftertaste. Perhaps I am spoiled (am I really using this phrase again?) by the sheer size and huge number of players in BF3 games, but to be put into a little kennel of an area, usually what felt like five rooms together and some open spots (read: small spots with no rooves) was just plain... small. Perhaps it is the limited hardware in consoles holding back programming for any larger scope of gameplay, but whatever it is, you either like it and love the close-quarters action - or you don't, and feel that you were just thrown into a kennel with other dogs, all just itching to fight. At least, that's what I remember...
*****
Fast-forward to the April 2012 Free Weekend of MW3 and... I can't play it. Every time I start it through Steam, my computer reboots itself. Great, now what's the problem?
"Steam, verify the integrity of your cache."
"Yessir. All files successfully validated, sir."
"Understood.. hmmm."
Well, let's look at some forii and see if anyone else is having "mw3 crashes" or "mw3 reboots computer" problems... "Update your ****" well, thank you very much, I actually have the latest drivers, blahblahwait.. my BIOS. I didn't update that since I upgraded to my sex-core FX with Gigabyte Mainboard!
Ah, Gigabyte, the gimmick-laden utility-dropping wonder of a manufacturer. Although I will usually say "ASUS" when people ask what to get at the lunchtable, for dependability (Remember Kids, It's Pronounced 'ahh-suhs' As In 'Pegasus', Which The Company Is Named After (sounding more like us-us than ah-sus or the ear-tearing ay-soos)), I also heartily recommend Gigabyte. Feature-packing and ready-to-go, I easily find the Touch Bios utility at the website, which allows BIOS access within Windows and tell it to Automagically Update the BIOS with the latest version found over the internet at the manufacturer's website. Oh, it's done already?
REBOOT = SUCCESS
The game starts and I can begin to run around and die once more. What's this about Free Weekend = Hackers on the forum I saw? Bah.. too bad, but I'll still try to play some.. It looks like they are doing updates as the weekend goes even, updates are coming down the Steam pipe. [dude, steampipe, get it, dude]
So, for those having crashing issues with the April 2012 Free Weekend of MW3, after making sure all your drivers are up-to-date, update your BIOS through your manufacturer's instructions (will make a post on this in the future) and that should help.
See you in there!
[Screenshots and more to follow...]
Short versions of updating the motherboard bios from our Resident Techie:
For Gigabyte: install TouchBIOS, run it and update via the internet for the latest version straight from them.
For ASUS (and others): go to the company's website and find your mainboard through models/type/etc and in the Downloads section, download your board's BIOS, latest version. Install and run the manufacturer's update utility (usually on the disc, or dl it from the website) and tell it to update using the file that you downloaded from the company's website.
Reboot.
[Back in my day, we took up the phone line to put the handset on the cups and we put the bios updates onto floppies and booted to dos and ran a separate flash utility and prayed and gave scented offerings to the gods that nothing bad happened and we liked it, dagnabbit]
+2013+-+2013-11-30.jpg)
