I have a slightly older machine that has a Gigabyte GA-7DXR motherboard and uses 2 x 256 mb PC2100 DDR ram (using 2 out of 3 ram slots). I would like to get some more ram. The problem is: I've heard that some Socket A boards require the memory sticks to be of identical brand AND size for them to work, would that apply to me? I took a quick look through my motherboard manual and couldn't find any specifics. I also recall hearing (a long time ago) that in order to use all 3 memory slots on this board, all ram has to be registered ram and that if it's not, only 2 slots can be used.

The motherboard however contained some slightly confusing "Total Memory Sizes" table that seemed to only use memory sticks of the same size. To add to the confusion: the motherboard manual states that the maximum amount of unbuffered ram for this board is 3 GB, whilst the website http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Products_GA-7DXR.htm says that it's 2 GB (2 x 1GB) for unbuffered and 3 GB (3 x 1GB) for buffered. As if this wasn't enough, I ran Sisoft Sandra and took a look at the details on memory: it showed me that 2 out of 3 memory slots are in use by 256 mb sticks and that the maximum installable memory is... 512 mb... WTF?

So now my questions are: can I get more ram into this machine? If so, what ram do I get? Will I have to use a 3rd 256 mb stick or would a 512mb one work? Or are my worst fears true and I can only use 2 slots with unregistered memory and will have to replace one of the existing 256mb sticks with a 512 mb one? 

I am not trying to start a flameware here, but rather I am trying to gather some opinions. I have played around with both Maya and 3DS MAX a bit (never went beyond build a few basic shapes) and haven't managed to build a firm opinion on which one is better for me.

I am not interested (for now, at least) in doing landscapes, complex scenery or animation. My interest is making mapmodels, which one is better for said task? I am seeing that there are more export plugins (for game formats) avaible for Max, but I also keep hearing lots of praise for Maya. 

I thought it was easy to get a grasp of its interface, though by far the easiest program I have ever used for modeling is Wings3d.

I've never tried Maya.

If this is for modding, I noticed the ROTCW questions earler, you might want to give GMax a try first. It is essentially a version of 3ds Max with some of the more commercialy viable features taken out. It's pretty well documented and there are now several different import/export model files written for it.

Also there is Blender. I like its ergonomical input design. Your left hand can pretty much stay in the same place on the keyboards while your right does the clicking, but there is a steep learning curve because it's interface is nonintuitve (even though, it is effecient).

By comparison, the biggest disadvantage to wings3d IMO is the constant need to click on mouse buttons to bring up menus -- other wise it is a very clean design (before anyone brings up the matter of key binds for the menus, remember, there are submenus too) 

IMO, Max is much, much easier to get started with than Maya. I know this because I wrestled with Maya for a few weeks for my D3 stuff. Now in my new job, I'm using Max exclusively to build all my architecture and terrain, and it took me about a week to pretty much master it for the purposes that i'd need it for.

And yeah, GMax is basically a free, stripped down version of 3dsmax 3.0 or something. Not bad if you want to try out the interface, but I found the tutorials were a bit shit. 

Whichever one you are most comfortable with is best, so try doing some slightly more complex stuff in each one. I like Max myself, although I spent a year working on a game with a Maya-based toolchain as well and was happy enough. Max is probably the one most widely used in the industry, if that is a consideration.

I'd encourage you to try Lightwave as well, a lot of people I know that have tried all three ended up going with that and seemed to crank stuff out in it a lot more quickly than they did in Max or Maya. I've never got around to giving it a proper go myself. 

I only got to play around with it one afternoon on someone elses system, but it is the cats balls -- esp. if you are more oriented to 2d design work, it'll feel intuitive. 

Where are the retro-scifi (idbase is quite close though) and soviet textures I requested earlier?!

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/Posters/scifilobbyweb/SheCreatureThex03halfsheet1956.jpg

More gems at:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/Posters/scifi1.htm 

it is the cats balls

Now is that supposed to be a good or a bad thing? 

Hi everyone, not seen you all in ages!
I haven't mapped for about 3 years now. I've just downloaded GTK Radiant and started again. I see that qmap is gone. I managed to find this site though and instantly knew what it was.

I hope everyone is well. Do any of you use an irc channel these days? 

yes we're still on irc
irc.quakenet.org se.quakenet.org
#terrafusion

welcome back to hell 

i thought you might like these:
http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/visfront/vizindex.html

imric: #terrafusion on quakenet 

Ah good, I remembered it was #terrafustion, just was looking on the wrong networks.

I'll see you all a bit later today I guess as I can't get onto irc from work :( 

aren't all the kids using that expression these days? 

you have GOT to see the pinky demon it's just like in Doom

Yay!

3.

oh. 

nice link 

if you haven't already:

http://agtp.romhack.net/doukutsu.html

it's an adorable and addicting side scroller game with some of the coolest music i have heard in quite a while.

100% free and from japan! 

It crashes for me after going through the door behind the rock in the labyrinth or whereever the hell it was. Which is REALLY sad because I'd really like to finish this game. 

for those people who have used gmax, would it be useful for creating doom3 map content such as terrain or is it more centered around character modelling? 

Well, I'm pretty sure WC 1.6 is more suited to finishing TronDM3. 

Just found this, theres a source available... might be of use/interest...

http://countermap.counter-strike.net/Nemesis/portfolio/bspviewer.html 

I totally forgot about announcing it. I reworked my file archive, so you can upload maps now (and you can work on existing entries, just ask for account upgrading). I would really like you to use the upload function, every new singleplayer map released should be there. This does not mean that I ask you to switch to Quaddicted as your host (haha!), no. Just upload the files on your own space as usual. Then go to Quaddicted and "transfer" the file. Quaddicted will download the file from your host then and add it to the file archive. You are welcome to use it as host for your maps of course! If you can't find a place to upload your map or only a temporary, just go for it!

http://www.quaddicted.com/content/view/185/25/

I'd hug you for contributing :) 

Well I'll have to wait, Spirit. I see it's SP only. I only have 1 decent DM release. :) 

Here, in Wisconsin. Of starvation, to be specific.

They say the cost of living here is nice and low, but apparently 'they' have never been to Chin's, where they charge you eight dollars for a 'chicken stir fry' meal that consists of a lot of vegetables and enough little dry pieces of ambiguous chicken meat that you could probably almost cover the surface of a quarter, or any number of other establishments around here that expect you to pay through the nose for the same flavorless lack of meat, namely all of them.

Plus all the tables have a gross of chopsticks in the little centerpiece thing but the rice they serve with the meal isn't the sticky clumping kind. What the fuck. 

Wisconsin blows. You'll have to get used to it for awhile. 

holy moley, that's quite a decent thing to do.