Quote - Torrent downloading is not fast track either because it takes hours and days to download. Torrents are better for larger files like whole CDs.  Torrents are not peer to peer meaning you don't connect to anyone's computer.  Files are uploaded to a central server in bits from everyone uploading that file.  The server scans the files.  When you download the file you are downloading it from a central server and not from any one particular person. And because it's been scanned, the chances of it having a virus are slim.

uh......no

torrents do not send the files through the server, basicly it's in this order of events

1. someone creates a torrent, using most any client software that has the create ability
2. another someone goes to the site he created the torrent on, there are many floating around, and major difference between these sites, and say kazaa, is the fact that watching torrents becomes their responsibility, as they usually choose just a few types of things to share (music, tv episodes, etc) and to keep a good reputation, will usually ensure the files stay clean, by deleting bad torrents
3. said person downloads a torrent file, basicly containing a hash key (used for identity of yourself, and for checking downloaded data), and information for the client on what "tracker" to talk to
4. the client software talks to the tracker server, which gives information (an ip address) on who has the files, or parts of the files, that are currently also connected
5. client software connects to these addresses asking stats of files they contain (ie what % they have) and ask to download from them, if their client agrees (depending settings, if it has upload slots open) it will start sharing
6. downloaded data is checked, to ensure its the expected data (can't make a torrent and later replace 1 file with another of same size/name thats a virus or check fails)
7. once done, you have your files, and continue to seed to others who are trying to get it

torrents download data off both seeders (fully completed people) and leechers (still downloading), data you obtain is passed on to more people. the data sent is directly from their computers, not the server, as the bandwidth for that would be huge, the only further data is your computer reporting to tracker that you sent/received this/that amount of data, if the site required you to register and keep a decent share ratio (give as much as you take) to keep things balanced

sites also do not handle the data directly due to liability reasons, they simple keep the maps of who has what for people who are connected to it, so they dont accually touch illegal files if someone decides to wander off to the dark side

so now you ask, is it possible to see who has the files? assuming you are smart enough to use one of the "advanced user" clients, that will show ip addresses connected to you, then yes, you can see, and yes it can be tracked. some people use a proxy (lets just call it "call forwarding" for the net k?) which would show the proxy ip instead of your own, but slows the connection, understandably

torrents are much safer than programs like kazaa and emule, and never once have i got a bad file (yes i use virus scanners, just smart enough to see if things look suspicious, easy enough to avoid) and many torrent clients are free of malware and spyware, just depends which ones you go for

crosspost ;p

curious, did you ever right click a zip file and choose "open with...." then choose IE? if you installed nothing, then that would be another way it could have changed.

If your default web browser is set to IE, then that error will come up. But IE is used for a lotmore than just the internet, many don't realise that it's the same program that runs when you browse your own files on your harddrive.

wonder if i could play with math nodes and get every ray from refraction to converge on 1 point.....would probably get the 2nd type

didn't see this part above

as said, put a math node, and value1 plug in the map, but enter value 2.0 for it, and value2 put 1.0, and set subtract, this will make your map range -1.0 to +1.0, rather than -0.5 to +0.5, just making it easier in some cases to set strength of displacement, such as a 2nd map that you might add ranging just 0.0 to 1.0

it will give your map the range of having -1 (black) lowest depression
to 0 (grey) being unchanged , to 1 (white) highest bump

face_off's skin shader can be used on V4, accually on any object/person/etc that one can imagine (hopefully nobody models a booby ball......), just need to rework it a little
it's like you have a can of paint, but your brush is the wrong type and unusable on the project

another thread has a link to his tutorial to fix it, simple to do. or go the path i did when he first made it and understand how it works so you can rebuild the node structure yourself, which i do since it's only a part in the end shaders i use :)

as for what's in the packages, not sure, i steer clear of colored maps, too limiting to the end result IMO, greyscale maps much more control :)

Quote - p.s. each individual frame might take 400 minutes to render, but with 100 machines in parallel, that's a net rate of 4 minutes per frame.

i haven't even been ABLE to pass 400 minutes/frame, with full scenes, which i can easily see pixar having the render farm to do it with ;p but with carrara i've never got that high hehe

i keep my scenes to about 60 seconds time per frame on a P4 3.0ghz (then network render to cut the time), and using carrara5 for the renderer

i use carrara5pro and render on a network of 2 comps =P
1st is main comp for modelling and making the scene, P4 3.0ghz with 1GB ram and majority of the harddrive space (including an external drive), 2nd comp is a core 2 Duo 2.44ghz (overclocked to 3.0ghz and extra cooling, havent had problems with stability yet, ever)

in total after that, i try to keep render time to 20 seconds average per frame, which ends up being slightly higher quality than poser has been putting out for me in the past, and without network rendering, poser6 would do the same scenes on my P4 in about 60-70 seconds per.
carrara renders same things about twice as fast as poser on average, which allows me to use higher render settings and get higher quality out of my time, then add in network render and cut down the time :)

i own bryce (due to a sale at daz) but never had the time to get into using it. but i ran into the same problem of not having landscape in poser, so i turned to terragen. you can see the quality of terragen in the gallery here. just export the landscape into carrara, ad somethings like plants/trees for closer stuff, and tada!

just a 3d one for personal use, both for practice in modelling/texturing, and (soon) practice in rendering realism - if at a later time when it's done, and someone wants it, they can have, or i sell, though never sold stuff before ;p

ockham - the ground doesnt matter to me ;p i am going to be making my own yard when the time comes (hair room grass and all lol, which accually i think i'll be modelling in terragen)
ease of modelling isn't an issue, and fireplace i'm pretty sure will be against a wall in the living room, just can't decide where (usual brick fireplace, not firestove with a pipe to the roof). 

so just a matter of where to put stuff, or do them at all, that i can't decide ;p

render to seperate pics, not a movie file, if program crashes, you lose 1 frame at most too
advantage of doing it this way is you can assemble the pics into a movie, and change codecs to find one you want and works good, without the need to re render, and you can "touch up" small things on a frame by frame basis, as well as set overall quality over and over

what you see is just the completed "wall", ie no countertops or cabinets or floors, trying to make it show clearly and simple

Quote - a group of Chinese hackers was using the security hole to steal and sell log-ins to the popular "World of Warcraft" multiplayer computer game.

HA

still aint gettin vista =P
xp works, why change? :)

thought it was in a train depot =P

this is why i have backups after i install :)

i have the usual cds/dvds to do all from scratch, which i do when new comp or OS. But after first time clean install of things, I back up a copy to a partition on my harddrive, as well as a copy of just the installed OS/Drivers (fits 1 DVD-DL) to dvd. Worst case is i pop in a DVD and go afk 30 minutes, which i've found no need to do in the past 5 years yet :)