Dr. Jason W. Ellis' Blog on Science Fiction, Computers, Artificial Intelligence, LEGO, Skateboarding, and More
This is another image created using my fMRI brain scan images with Stable Diffusion, A1111, and controlnet. My brain’s folds turned into pipes and took on this heat map coloration. The lines of connection surround the brain–kind of like the path of your ship in Konami’s Gyruss video game.
For the next few weeks, I’m going to be sharing some of the images that I have created using Stable Diffusion, an opensource generative AI text-to-image model created by Stability.AI. Today begins the series with images based on a classic video game.
Earlier this year, I used the low-resolution screenshot of Williams’ 1982 Moon Patrol video game from its Wikipedia page and manipulated it with Stable Diffusion and Automatic1111’s stable-diffusion-webui tool. After many, many iterations with img2img and some inpainting, I arrived at the image above. The most difficult part of the image was creating the moon buggy with six wheels, something that most SD 1.5 derived models seem to abhor.
Later, I took another stab at transforming the gameplay screenshot to a high resolution version. This time, I used controlnet to create the moon buggy based on the Alvis Stalwart. With inpainting, I was able to achieve great detail and lighting on the buildings.
Wouldn’t it be cool to see a new Moon Patrol game with high resolution graphics and ray tracing? Layer on backstory, mythos, and a brooding protagonist and it could be the next Halo series!
Soon after the Nintendo Game Boy launched in 1989, I was gifted one. Being able to carry video games with me wherever I went was a ground-shaking experience. Even though I enjoyed Castlevania: The Adventure, Batman: The Video Game, Alleyway, Super Mario Land, and F-1 Race, I always returned to Tetris for hours of play eliminating lines while driven by the best chiptune music. Yet, all of these games were immersive experiences that were available nearly anywhere. Unlike a console, you didn’t have to monopolize the family TV. You had your own albeit small and black-on-green screen, a window to miniaturized interactive worlds.
Eventually, it became a habitual companion everywhere I went, including Italy with my high school Latin Club (though, I didn’t play it on the trip–I let my friend Brian hold it on the trip to play Star Trek, which he had bought to play even though he didn’t own a Game Boy). This nylon belt pouch was my favorite on-the-go accessory for carrying my Game Boy. The main compartment held the Game Boy with a cartridge loaded. The back pouch accommodated extra batteries (stretched) or a manual or sheet of paper with codes. And, the two front click button
The industrial design of the Game Boy was well thought out. It was as pleasant to hold when I first got it when I was 12 as when I was a teenager or now in middle age. It has a good weight that is balanced. Playing for hours doesn’t fatigue my fingers, hands, or arms.
As long as the ambient lighting it good, the non-backlit screen is pleasing to watch during extended game play.
The cartridges and cases are equally designed well. The long oval space above the game’s logo sticker allows for easy grasping of the game cartridge when removing the game. The power switch locks the cartridge into place when turned on.
Despite how much I love the Game Boy, I think that Nintendo has become a garbage company by the actions of its executives to unfairly bully and litigate against its fans instead of acknowledging fair use rights and finding ways to work with its fans (see TechDirt for details and the long history of Nintendo’s actions toward fans). I suppose it all comes down to control on Nintendo’s part. When the Game Boy first launched, control was built into the product. And, there wasn’t yet a widespread medium for participatory culture that the Internet made possible that could riff and build on new cultural art forms like video games. Now we can but Nintendo tends to take a copyright maximalist approach to their IP and most fans who get caught in the company’s crosshairs don’t have the deep pockets to establish their fair use rights through litigation. It’s for those reasons that I haven’t bought any Nintendo products in many years and I encourage others to do the same. There are good games made by better people on other platforms that are as enriching, engaging, and entertaining.
One of my favorite mid-1990s video games is Star Wars: Dark Forces for PC. In the game, you play as Kyle Katarn, a mercenary employed by the Rebel Alliance, who stumbles on the Dark Trooper project through one of his missions (none of Dark Forces is considered canon, but the Dark Troopers were brought into canon via the second season of The Mandalorian). I played Dark Forces often on my 486DX2/66MHz machine, but I was unable to beat it back then (the video game Force is weak in this one). Thanks to DOSBox, I finally beat it about 25 years after I first played it!
The Star Wars universe created by George Lucas is, like his earlier film American Graffiti (1973), about motion, movement, travel, and vehicles. The importance of movement in Star Wars is what elevates vehicles like Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon to be a character in their own right. The same is true for Katarn’s HWK-290 light freighter named The Moldy Crow. I liked its angular, bird-like appearance. It reminded me also of He-Man’s Talon Fighter from 1983’s Point Dread and Talon Fighter playset. The image of the Moldy Crow stuck with me, and when I was building with LEGO in Atlanta in 2014, I thought of a way to capture the Crow’s design in a LEGO MOC (my own creation).
Unfortunately, I sold my LEGO Moldy Crow on eBay before Y and I moved to Brooklyn (along with a boatload of other LEGOs). I wonder if the buyer still has it or modified it in some way.
A lot of the bricks that I used in the build were older style dark grey, which I don’t have many of any more. I would like to take another stab at The Moldy Crow with my newer bricks and use techniques that I’ve learned over the years since then. Another project added to an already long list!
When I built my desktop PC last year, I opted for a low-end video card, because my graphics requirements were modest and it helped keep the cost of computer parts down. Since then, I’ve wanted to experience a better visual experience on my computer in games and graphics simulations, meaning more detail and effects, and higher frame rates at 1080p resolution.
Unfortunately, video card prices were outrageously inflated due to high demand from Etherium and other easy-entry cryptocurrency miners. With the welcome crash of electricity-wasting cryptocurrency markets and the anticipated announcement of a new generation of video cards from nVidia, the prices of video cards began to return to lower prices, which prompted me to begin looking for an upgrade.
Considering that I have a 400-watt EVGA PSU and my monitor is 1080p, I focused on nVidia’s GeForce GTX 1060, because despite its Pascal architecture’s very modest power requirements (recommended 400 watt PSU and 6-pin PCIe auxiliary power), it pushes very high-quality graphics at 1080p resolution. While the 3GB model was less expensive than the 6GB model, I chose the latter, because it has more CUDA cores (1280 vs. 1152), more texture mapping units/TMU (80 vs. 72), and more streaming multiprocessors/SM (10 vs. 9). These enhancements coupled with twice as much GDDR5 video ram justified its slightly higher price for better performance and hopefully greater use lifespan. I went with EVGA’s single fan version of the 1060, because I have had good experiences with their products and I appreciate their streamlined, unostentatious, and quiet design on this video card.
After purchasing the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB video card for $280 from Microcenter and installing it in my PC, I stress tested it and ran benchmarks to verify that everything was okay after the upgrade. As you can see above, it scored a 3D Graphics Mark of 10684, which is more than twice as high as the 3,954 scored by my old Radeon RX 550 4GB video card.
In the Final Fantasy XiV Heavensward benchmark, the GTX 1060 GB scored an 11,797 at 1080p, while the RX 550 4GB scored only 4,416 at the same resolution.
In the Docking Bay 94 Unreal Engine 4 simulation, I get well over 40 fps with the settings maxed out at 1080p. Read about how the simulation was made and find download links on 80 level.
And, I get to fly the Millennium Falcon in EA’s Star Wars: Battlefront 2 video game. While the game’s graphics are amazing, I was reticent to purchase it after its launch debacle with in-game purchases and loot crates. Thankfully, EA backtracked on those things after the gaming and Star Wars fan communities collectively denounced these greedy and unethical practices.
Finally, EVGA’s current video game promotion includes a free copy of Destiny 2 with the purchase of a GTX 1060 or higher video card. After redeeming my copy, I’ve played a little of it, and I like it. I’m a big fan of the original Halo by Bungie, and this game reminds me of that game without the story relying on a single archtype hero, such as Master Chief. In Destiny 2, you can create your own character based on class (Titan, Hunter, or Warlock), species, sex, and appearance. For my first experience in the game, I created a Hunter. The GTX 1060 6GB video card makes this game run smooth and look beautiful at 1080p.
Overall, I’m very glad that I made this upgrade to my PC. If you’re considering an upgrade now rather than waiting for nVidia’s recently announced RTX line of video cards, I strongly recommend the GTX 1060 6GB as a lower cost, high performance video card.
Dynamic Subspace 