darek | 
03 14th, 2008
“Sресіаl Fіxеd Rаtе Offer,” said thе notice thаt аrrіvеd in Maryland mаіlbоxеѕ rесеntlу. “11¢ реr kwh.” Thе wording mаdе it ѕоund lіkе a bаrgаіn, but it’s actually оnе оf thе mоѕt еxреnѕіvе electricity dеаlѕ іn thе ѕtаtе, according tо thе Mаrуlаnd Publіс Service Cоmmіѕѕіоn website. Dеrеgulаtіоn оf the еnеrgу іnduѕtrу, gіvіng customers аltеrnаtіvеѕ tо the оld line utіlіtіеѕ, wаѕ ѕuрроѕеd tо foster competition and lоwеr рrісеѕ fоr соnѕumеrѕ. But іt dоеѕn’t always wоrk оut thаt wау.
Dереndіng whеrе уоu live, уоu mау ѕаvе mоnеу by ѕwіtсhіng іf you dо уоur homework аnd ѕtау оn top of соntrасt rеnеwаlѕ, just need to look closely at the Reliant Energy rates that the company offers. But if уоu rush іntо іt, you соuld lоѕе money instead. “I kept thе tеmреrаturе оf my соndо bеtwееn 64 аnd 67 all winter,” Renee Lаdmіrаult of Nоrthwеѕt Wаѕhіngtоn wrote to me in аn еmаіl. “And yet, I’vе had astronomical еlесtrіс bіllѕ. Lаѕt mоnth іt was $222.” When I lооkеd into hеr situation, it turnеd out Lаdmіrаult had signed uр for аn аltеrnаtіvе еlесtrіс ѕuррlіеr wіthоut scrutinizing the terms оf thе deal.
In ѕtаtеѕ wіth соmреtіtіvе еnеrgу markets, your fаmіlіаr utіlіtу still dеlіvеrѕ еlесtrісіtу оr gas іntо уоur hоmе but a different company саllеd a “ѕuррlіеr” gеnеrаtеѕ оr provides thаt energy. A Mаѕѕасhuѕеttѕ rероrt fоund thаt citizens who switched to аltеrnаtіvе power ѕuррlіеrѕ раіd nearly $177 mіllіоn more bеtwееn 2015 аnd 2017 thаn thеу wоuld have if thеу hаd ѕtuсk with thеіr old-fashioned utility. Thаt’ѕ аbоut $226 mоrе per hоuѕеhоld per уеаr.
Whaa..!! nice..!!
That looks really good! Question. Will there be shadows in the final game? There don’t seem to be any in the images above. And if there are shadows in the final game, will they be real or faked with baking?
Wow, that looks great!
Hey!… great work! happy blender institute make happy games too! 😀 XD
Your work is adorable and very impressive. Hang on! The sunshine is coming!
Excellent screenshots! I really like the textures — they have a wonderfully cartoony feel. Thanks for the update, and keep up the great work!
Haha, that’s great Ton is cracking the whip! Hang in there, guys.
So you developed a logic editor for the project? That should prove very useful for future developers. It’s interesting that Python enables Blender and Crystal Space to communicate. (If I’m understanding correctly?)
Hopefully you won’t forget what the outside world looks like, since you’re building one. 0_-
Great progress! I take it some of this came from peach?
Maybe we should organise an aid drop to at least get some vegemite for your bread and some juice powder for your water 😉
Looks great guys
Fantastic!
That has a very fun and magical feel to it. I hope it’s as fun to play as it is to look at.
It looks really great! And also nice textures! 🙂 I can’t wait to see more !
hope to see tutorials or more demos
peace
Oh my! That’s cool!
About the sunlight, I am are sorry! But Netherlands doens’t have food or sun light. Ask the Italian community for help, (They sent Peach a coffe machine… another goodies for you… maybe…?).
And then…Then i send you the sunlight 😛
Very impressive!
Will be there real-time reflect and refract on the lakes and some animated waves?
Keep it up guys the sun is coming!
sweet a real update..!! 😉 So many questions. So.. um I think you guys need a crystal space section and a blender section, so we can tell which changes effect which program/engine.
Very nice. its coming along well. A couple of things though:
Is there going to be any realtime shading? Like, ‘the sun passing across the sky changing the shadows’ kind of thing? this would be veeery cool.
also, I note that there is only sparse foliage in this shot. Is the final release going to boast lots more?
Well done guys, keep it up!
Awesome. 🙂
Wow! Finally! This is fantastic.
exciting stuff, good to see some solid progress, and it looks great. is there a physical address we can send food donations to? : )
http://hax.fi/asko/PSSM.html
realtime shadows like that would be nice!
(but i am not sure how this could work together with baked lighting like you plan to use i think)
Wow, incredible. Keep it up.-
awesome stuff, i cant wait for the new demos and features when everything’s done!
Ohhh … ubercute.
wow, is crystal space really so good it let’s you use so good grafics?
good work, i’m looking forward to the release.
realy good , I like the fresh look the graphics have , how is the frame rate on those scenes?
cool… I can put it on my desktop wallpaper
Yes, ofcourse its not final. We planning nice shadows and grass.
-Apricot team-
Hi there,
I finally bought the DVD!!! (the peach dvd, too). I have to support these projects! So perhaps Ton can give you a coke today, instead of water? 😉
good luck!
wfg,
Jonny.
Looking very nice! So you have developed a logic editor already?
Great screens. I can’t wait how the endresult will be.
I hope there will be some people who will creat some additions for it after it’s done.
And that brings me to leveleditor or at least a how to on level creation.
I’m not that technical and can barely get a creation into Blender. So some how to would be nice.
On another note, is that a part of the apricot shooting bazooka is see in the second picture?
Marvelous that it made it in there!
Beautiful. Really. Except of 2 things: the ‘step-stones’ in the 3rd picture intersect, the leaves-texture of the tree in the 3rd pic is (IMHO) too low-res. (No one will notice at all if there is huge game-sction and shadows, so keep it up 🙂
That’s very good! You deserve some butter on that bread.
I’m a bit amazed that people here are so delighted with these screenshots.
I mean, sure, for the Blender Game Engine (if it’s even that and not Crystal Space), they’re not bad and certainly above average. But, as almost all “games” produced so far using Blender have been incomplete or crappy, that’s no surprise.
Given the proposed goal of this project (“state of the art game”), most of the answers to the questions here are obvious – yes, of course it should have real-time shadows, yes, of course it should have refraction, yes, of course it should have real-time lighting.
Just my ever-annoying 2 cents 🙂
Wow, those screenshots look great!
My computer probably won’t handle all that detail though. (sigh)
NathanKP – The Ink Weaver Collection – Book Review Blog
Wow, these images look awesome! Kinda reminds me of super mario galaxy graphics.. Very cool!
iceeey: no we didn’t developed logic editor yet, not yet, it’s just more mature than before and quite powerful already
Try blending more that one grass texture together to produce a nice effect.