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NYR: New York Race is one of those games that is just gone. It is a racing game based on the 5th Element. I remember it being a blast to play, with incredibly fun music. -47dJ78zzz0 I wish I could find any information about the composer, or track names...

I can see your point. Since your music organization is more personal, less general. Still, you could have a piece of software with virtual folders, instead of duplicating files, that would be neater in my view :]. Then have a button, that opens up the playlist in your favourite music player (like MusicIP Mixer software has). I'm really curious, whether Ross find any potential in our blabber. Would any of these systems (mood, genre tags/virtual folders) be of any use for him? By the way, what languages you speak, Watterson? I'm mostly C# speaker.

Hey there Watterson . Sorry for real slow response time. As I mentioned earlier, I don't like files in folders idea just because it's kind of messy, and I'm a bit of a pedant . In a sense what you're doing with folders is an algorithm and it could be implemented in some software. Have a software that has virtual folders with subfolders where you drag or copy stuff around and you have the same thing. Could you give some examples of your folder/subfolder structure? What are the criteria for classification music at different folder levels? Couldn't this be implemented by simple playlists? Well, if we would make tag based system where themes were defined by moods, we could easily exclude certain tags (like melancholy) from certain themes. At the same time, I can see it decreases the control over individual songs in every "theme". Markets always have gaps to fill in. Products cater to certain needs. One of the design ideas behind Apple is - less customization for the end user. Customization adds complexity, which actually worsens user experience. I think what you and Ross are trying to do is quite niche and might not be addressed at all. Or addressed inadequately for you (there were several software solutions posted that did mood thing). If we can figure out what would work, we could implement it .

So I see Ross's quest continues. As a programmer with a bit of free time at the time I might be interested in tackling this too. Watterson: what I would do, is probably have tempo separate from moods/genres. Also for tempo I would prefer using BPM (at least under the hood). Finally, since adding information to songs is such a huge task I would love to utilize some existing database and pull tags to make it easier for end users. After looking around for a bit I've found this: http://developer.echonest.com/docs/v4/song.html Still need to look more into licensing, but at the first glance it looks well suited for my needs. Each song is fingerprinted. Then each track has multitude of attributes. For example: style: jazz, metal^2 mood: happy, sad^.5 max_tempo: 0.0 < tempo < 500.0 (BPM) min_tempo: 0.0 < tempo < 500.0 (BPM) Haven't played with it yet. It might work, or it might be to much/to constrained (requires API key, etc). Not sure how useful their playlist creation options are, this one could be done in-house. I just want fingerprint option. That allows me to avoid modifying end-user's mp3 files. Instead I can have an internal database, that uses fingerprints to identify unique files. And then I need metadata, to minimize end-user work. Here's a list of all moods from this system, I think this could be enough: And here's all the styles: Ross, Watterson, what do you guys think? Would style (aka genre) + mood + tempo organization work for you? We could always limit the styles and moods we're using. Or we could create "themes" - a list of styles and moods would be a theme. Would this work?

Long time viewer, not very active here. Freemand's Mind not being in a HD-ready format isn't that big of a deal. However, having someone as dedicated and creative as you is. Therefore, my small chip in is mandatory. And I only now noticed paypal has monthly donations. Hmhmhm... Also, if you'd ever consider Patreon, I'm also disposing of some of my excess money there. (Well, I have a job, that pays ok, but sort of brings me down. I would love to be in your shoes, therefore it's easy to relate). And hello from neighbor Lithuania! We should go to Tatras for a hike! xD

Hey, Ross, nice to hear things are moving forward! About financing models. New site just launched, that aims at financing content creators: http://www.patreon.com Basically fans subscribe to your free content and agree to pay predetermined sum of money per video with optional maximum per month. Of course, this model highly depends on your fanbase wanting to support you. Then again, if you could make it early on such a platform, you would get more exposure. Since you're looking for options, consider it ;]. Now go get 'em facehuggers!

Are you planning to port Source assets to Unreal at some time? Have you found people to do that?

They are extremely vague. I urge you both to read this link I've provided just above: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/18/1055849/-Confessions-Of-A-Hollywood-Professional:-Why-I-Cant-Support-the-Stop-Online-Piracy-Act-%28UPDATED%29 Or at least watch this video (also provided): They both are pretty well prepared, and can introduce anyone, who's not to familiar with technical/moral dealings of these bills, and overall background on this. As for being exploited... Even today, things are happening, that have no legal ground. Innocent websites, like dajaz1.com are being seized and held for a year without making charges, or disclosing any details about the seizure. Completely legal, non-infringing blog. Or the takedown of , in order to sabotage it's campaign. So the laws are being pushed and exploited TODAY, what do you think they'll do, if laws as this pass? These laws are basically written to concentrate huge power in the hands of a small group of people. Basically you have big media companies deciding, what is right, and what is wrong, and dictating content on the net. Now, what do you think will happen to their competition, that threatens to put a dent in their sales?

Very nice video on SOPA/PIPA and the future: So stay put! Also, a very good read on SOPA http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/18/1055849/-Confessions-Of-A-Hollywood-Professional:-Why-I-Cant-Support-the-Stop-Online-Piracy-Act-%28UPDATED%29 As for Megaupload, I think it was raided since it was planning to launch Megabox - a music store, that offered 90% from sales to the artists, and was supported by major artists The artists aren't happy, Busta Rhymes called their record labels 'criminals' http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120120/15060817494/busta-rhymes-backs-megaupload-says-record-labels-are-real-criminals.shtml This is not going to stop. Any competitive business model, and user generated content is MPAA/RIAA's biggest enemies. Do not let your guard down, and keep following the news. http://www.techdirt.com http://www.torrentfreak.com

Hum, you pointed me to very interesting things to read. I come from original Half-Life, so the knowledge is a bit rusty, and outdated. I'm now trying to pick up mapping for Source. I'm referring to maps as levels, i.e. buildings, ground, etc. And yes, people import models into maps, but the actual map is built as "brushes" and "entities" (entities can be point- and brush-based). Basically, you want to export all the brushwork, which is originally saved in map file *.vmf. vmfs are editable map "projects", that are being used in Hammer. If you want to use someone else's map (for example, original HL2 maps), you'll have problems, since finished maps, that are used in game are compiled as *.bsp files. Those aren't editable, sometimes can be decompiled, yet it produces errors, or doesn't work entirely, and generally is frowned upon. The examples you show are talking about model export, which should be relatively easy. Upon some more refined searching (again, thanks for your links ), there seems to be a tool, called Propper, that is written to convert small vmfs into models. https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Propper http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=970412 It looks incredibly useful for mappers, I wonder, if it could be used to convert whole maps into 3D meshes. Since I'm thinking about getting into Source mapping, I think I will give it a spin :]. I'm generally excited for this tool. Yet, it still isn't ideal in Ross' case, since he still won't be able to use any map without author's help (unless I don't know something about Source, feel free to correct me). And it isn't clear, how accurate the model would be. I have a hunch, that it would still require additional work. The best scenario still might be to export all the textures, and remodel/build new map in a program of choice. Hope Ross doesn't mind us being not to skilled and delving into this discussion. I just became personally very interested in possibilities. And, being a sort of a Half-Life fan, it would be a shame to see Civil Protection gone/moved to other setting. Still, it is a lot worse to see Ross buried under all Source bugs, or stuck trying to save all good assets from Source, just to save CP, when he possibly might be a lot more productive in other settings .

I doubt importing maps would be that easy, if at all possible. As someone, who has been digging in HL files back in the day, I can say, that maps use a very specific format. Just to be sure, did a quick Google-check, and there seems to be no trivial conversion method/applications for this.

Garry's Mod is still in Source, can't you understand what Ross is saying? Source has some very problematic things in it, that Garry's Mod will never solve. Overall, I'm happy to hear from you, Ross. Hope you'll figure this one out .

Damn, Ross, I just wanted to remind you: you're awesome . Nice final edit, thanks for everyone, who participated :].

Woo! Freeman's Mind in mkv uploaded! Finally, can watch it. Thank you, Ross!

Yes, I don't think, that any alterations to your videos would be appreciated - you have set pretty high standards of quality, and "donator voice acting", or visual clues to people in this community (it might be immersion braking). I would actually love avoiding any special attention, since I feel it has to come from heart, and one shouldn't need anything in return . Well, forum tags/special page on site, maybe... Then again, I am really not in a position to donate at the moment, so I don't really know, how much weight my argument has

This a bit odd. I see, that links are coloured here, but over at soundtrack section they aren't. See my post - it contains both, BBCode, and non-BBCode link, and it appears in the same colour, as other text. EDIT: no colours for me here too D:

I doubt, that organizing folders according to mood is a good option - at least I organize my music by artist\year - album\, and have separate folder for soundtracks, where games and movies are separated by titles. Knowing, that same soundtrack\album may, and will contain music with different moods, separating music into different folders by mood makes more mess, than helps. Actually, I've been using one very handy application, called MusicIP Mixer. It analyzes your music with some sort of algorithms. Then you can pick a particular song (or group of songs), and make a mix with similar music from your collection. I must admit, I like it very much. The criteria for "similarity" is also configurable (style preference, variety, artist preference, decade lock, etc.), so if you're not happy with results of mixes, you can tweak it. Of course, it doesn't actually help you to organize, but still, is a very good tool, when you are seeking for a particular mood in music (heck, you can even save "moods" ). I call it my own radio (since I have loads of music, and am not familiar with all of it). Having said that, there are sad news - officially this program is no longer supported (still, it's nice, that they provide the download link). I'm running Windows XP 32bit, and have no problems, but people with Win7 or/and 64bits might be unable to use it ;/ EDIT: urls aren't coloured differently, so I'm pulling the link out of BBCode: http://www.amplifindmusicservices.com/what/downloads.php (Ross, this needs to be fixed ;])