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CEC Warp Core The Warp Core is a culmination of 4 months of work and over 200 hours of shopping, planning, fitting, building, rebuilding, re-rebuilding, busting, fixing, modding and testing until it was rocksteady and ready to take on the heaviest loads this hardware is capable of on a water loop. Beautiful, Chaotic, Powerful and an undeniable statement piece; this PC was an absolute pleasure to build and we miss it in the shop every day. (Below the parts list is detailed build information) Parts List: ~CPU: Intel i9 9900k 8C/16T ~GPU: EVGA 2080TI SC Ultra 11GB ~RAM: 32GB (4x8) Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 3200mhz, CL16 ~Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus X Formula ~Storage1: Samsung Evo Plus 1TB NVME M.2 ~Storage2: Crucial P2 1TB NVME M.2 ~Power Supply: Enermax MaxRevo 1350W 80+ Gold ~Case: GamerStorm Quadsteller (Modified) ~Cable Extensions: LinkUp Orange ~RGB: Corsair DRGB Strips (2 x 4 pack) ~RGB: Corsair DRGB Lighting Node ~RGB: 2 x EZDIY DRGB Diffused Strips ~Fans: 2 x Noctua Chromax Black ~Fans: 3 x AI Aureola Duo 80mm ARGB Ring ~Fans: 7 x Antec Prizm 120ARGB Waterloop >CPU Block: EK-Quantum Velocity LGA1151 >GPU Block: EK-Vector 2080TI >Main Pump: SWIFTECH MCP35X >Top Pump: XSPC Photon >Reservoir: 2 x 300mm >Tubing: PrimoChill PrimoFlex 3/8x5/8 10ft >Coolant: Corsair XL5 1L Blue x 2 ----Fittings---- >BitsPower 15 x 3/8x5/8 Compression Matte Black >BitsPower 4 x 3/8x5/8 45 DEG Rotary Matte Black >Bitspower 1 x 3/8x5/8 T-Fitting Matte Black >BitsPower 2 x 3/8x5/8 MiniValve Matte Black >BitsPower 6 x 3/8x5/8 Various Extenders __________________________________________________ Build Story and Information: The Warp Core started out as a motherboard, a case and an idea that quickly turned into sketches, head scratching and many long hours. Performance Choices: Motherboard: Honest is; we started this build less than 4 months after establishing our company and we got this Maximus Formula X board for a steal; absolutely certain we could make something stunning with it. The board is performant, stays cool and is beautiful. CPU: The baddest CPU that can fit on the Z370 chipset; simple as that. GPU: We started out with an Asus GeForce RTX 2080TI O11G Dual-Fan OC Edition aaaaaaand…. The memory died … we still have it as a memento in our shop. In the end, we settled on the EVGA 2080TI SC Ultra 11GB as a replacement due to the global price spikes and availability issues at the time at building making it extraordinarily difficult to find another ASUS card. RAM: The Corsair Vengeance Pro RGB is longstanding, reliable RAM that mixes fabulously with the i9 9900k. At 3200mhz and CL16 this RAM just makes sense. Storage: The most notably performant PCIE 3.0 NVME available was the obvious choice here backed up by some peppy NVME game storage. Power Supply: 1350W of headspace on a rig that can pull nearly 800W from the wall… yes please. Aesthetic Choices: The Case: We ended up having to Dremel fit the reservoirs, top pump and a few other items in order to get a clean and performant system. The Quadstellar Case underwent further modification with the removal of the front opaque flaps in order to show off our signature RGB styling and to further improve cooling. Working in a 70lb water cooled system on a slant produced further loop issues for draining and filling that we ended up working some creative plumbing magic to fix. The Lighting: The Warp Core is equipped with over 200 Addressable LEDs inside 11 x Digital RGB Ring Fans, 9 x DRGB light strips, 4 x DRGB RAM modules, GPU and CPU Water Blocks and motherboard lights. The Warp Core's lighting functionality and customizability is through the roof. We ended up running everything through OpenRGB for full Digital control over multiple inputs: this allowed us to set 9 one-click lighting profiles for hassle-free instant lighting swaps. The Water Loop: Our goal here was to provide an alien looking, wild and wildly effective water loop with a true CEC signature look. Our inspiration here is in the name. We wanted it to look imposing, complex and exactly what you’d expect opening up a starship warp drive. We built in a dual valve system to drain this loop with a chimney. The whole system holds over a half gallon of liquid and including the 28 fittings, dual res and rad; the loop is right at 14ft in length. Performance Numbers: The Warp Core’s water loop was set up with an extended and dedicated top loop splitting off of the combined dual reservoir for the GPU. This configuration outputs extra head pressure into the radiator allowing for a distro block level of efficiency without a distro block. The i9 9900k will turbo on it’s own up to 5.1Ghz all-core without thermal throttling. The 2080TI was able to outperform some lower-end RTX 3080s rocking extremely stable frames and temps while never going above the loop water temp. The GPU maxed out around 65C after 6 hours at 100% full system load while benchmarking at 22.2C ambient room temperature. In our 100% system load testing, this system pulls a continuous 750W+ from the wall. We maxed out the GPU VRMs at 367W along with the thermal transfer capacity of the 9900k die size sporting our IC-Diamond thermal paste topping out around 85C at 5.1GHz All-Core. At one point we considered de-lidding the 9900k and applying liquid metal, but ultimately decided against it as this was a more sustainable thermal solution. Summary: As CEC’s first Ultra Custom, the Warp Core was both a success story and learning experience. We have several more Ultra Custom Rigs in the works and are looking forward to bringing those into the limelight!

I recently had a bug of a niche side of the city building genre: colony building. But then I remember an old standby that I still think should be used as the yardstick for all colony building games. That game is Outpost 2: Divided Destiny. What is Outpost 2? Outpost 2 was a game developed by Dynamics and released by Sierra in 1997. It can be summarized as Sim City meets Command and Conquer. Well, loosely speaking. The premise is that humans have left earth because an asteroid annihilates it. And in their time drifting, they reject planet after planet until they find one is close enough. In desperation due to running low on resources, they land and hope to start anew. So there's a colony building aspect. But humans being humans have different ways of solving a problem of trying to survive. One side wants to terraform the planet. The other wants to adapt to it. And things get heated and point lasers at each other. There's the combat aspect of it. What makes Outpost 2 great? The first part has to do with the colony building aspect. Depending on the scenario, you start off with a central command center that is the heart of your colony: if it goes, the colony goes. But from thereon, you build, expand, get resources, make babies, research! Speaking of resources, there are plenty to manage, but most of the time you're not monitoring all of them constantly. The ones are metals to build stuff, food to feed the colonists, power to power structures, the colonists themselves (broken up into children, workers, and scientists), and the one you'll mostly be keeping an eye out, colony morale. The neat thing is a lot of the time you don't really have to actively manage them. You get regular reports both with a voice over and "pinging" if something needs attention or something happened. The colony building itself is done by you. You put down the structures, layout the infrastructure, and generally make the colony. Speaking of which, there's only one infrastructure to worry about: tubes. And perhaps bizarrely, this is only to connect to the command center. Power is transmitted wirelessly. Food magically appears to colonists. Refined metals just teleport. Here's a snippet of a colony from a scenario I'm playing: There's a middle ground between macromanaging and micromanaging. You don't really need to tend to any single building or unit. The only time you do is because you want to use the building's function. But at the same time, you may need to juggle resources. If there's not enough workers to run a building, you may consider "idling" one until you get another worker. Morale may be the only one you really have to look out for, because there are many ways to influence it. Some directly, some indirectly. The other part of the game is the lore. A whole novella was written and included in the game. It's something you have to read though after the mission briefing, but a surprising amount of backstory was available from the get-go. The game also came with an online manual (which was really just a large help file) and even the description of the units and structures get a blurb about what life is like for the people trying to survive. I mean, here's an example for a Vehicle Factory: And this extends a bit further in game. I mentioned there's research, which was starting to become the next big feature in RTS games of the time with regards to the tech tree. But I don't recall an RTS around that time that went into a level of detail such as this: I mean, most other games probably would've cut it off at the first paragraph. The second part though, makes the game feel more immersive. Instead of the what the research is providing, it's telling me the why. Why should I spend my valuable scientists on this research? And not only that, the level of science fiction used in this game could be closer to hard science fiction than not. Sure there are some implausible technologies thrown around like "cool fusion" and "boptronics" (a combination of biological, optical, and electrical gadgets), but take this for example: The outcome might be a bit of a stretch (they found a way to use conductive fluid to generate electricity due to the planet's shifting magnetosphere), but this research topic is a real thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetohydrodynamics This sort of thing tickled my imagination way back when I found it. It still sort of does. Either way, the amount of detail that went into this game, for an RTS that didn't deal with historical points or whatnot, is amazing. What isn't so great about Outpost 2? I may love this game, but that doesn't mean it's not without its faults. A large part of it is RNG. This game is full of it. While you can control how much metal you have, how much power you generate, and how much food you can produce, anything involving the colonists are random. You can only influence them. This means that in the beginning, you'll be struggling to break even as you have to squeeze every bit of resources you can get. And what makes things worse, one resource, Scientists, do not automatically generate and require scientists to create (by way of a University... which needs a scientist). So you can doom your colony to failure. In addition to the colonists, the planet the people settled on is active. It has its natural disasters. While most of the time they take place away from your colony, you still have a chance of say a tornado spawning in the middle of your colony and wrecking everything. Damage control will be extensive. But hey, maybe this RNG is part of the charm. You are trying to survive after all. But if this is too much random chance, it might be best to skip this. There's also the announcer. While it's helpful at times to give you periodic resource reports, later in the game it starts to get a bit too chatty. One thing it announces? Every natural disaster. You can also research early disaster warning systems... which the announcer also announces. Of course, you can turn it off and still get reports, but it also means you have to keep an eye out on the resources tab more often. And lastly, but this is more of a preference, the game is slow paced. One complaint I saw in a review of it at the time is that the game is slow. Not that it ran slow, but it's slower than others. It can actually take a while for units to move a good distance of the map. But this was at a time when RTS games were compared to Command and Conquer and Warcraft. You did mention a combat system... I did! But part of me feels it was tacked on as an afterthought to make it try to compete with other RTS games at the time. It's not that it's bad and there's justification for it. But at the same time it feels slightly out of place. In any case, combat is mostly relegated to robot vehicles (can't have the colonists risking their lives now). They shoot things. There's pros and cons. There's also guard posts that shoot things but they can't move. But wait, this is a "2". Where's "Outpost"? (Or why Outpost 2 never really took off) The original game had a similar idea: Earth is dead, so go find a planet and build a colony. But the problem is that the game was released lacking features that someone hyped, it was unpolished, and the worst sin that any game can commit: it was unstable. This left a bad taste in people's mouths. So when a sequel came out, not only was it facing the genre defining games that I mentioned, but people still looked at this as yet another soppy colony building game that couldn't pass muster. How do I get a hold of this game? So far it's being sold at Amazon from third party sellers for a fairly decent price: https://www.amazon.com/Outpost-2-Divided-Destiny-PC/dp/B0006OFKOQ/ I'd say if you like colony building games, this is one you should at least try. I feel this sets the bar for other colony building games. If not just for the game mechanics, but also how much they put into the lore and story.

So I have recently upgraded my monitor and removed a hutch over my desk: So, I have a whole bunch of space now, and I really want to fill it. I am a huge sci-fi nerd, and my current background is below. Do you have any suggestions for a poster in this vein, or of spaceships, such as this poster. I love the star citizen style, and would love to see what you enjoy, as well! PS: Sorry for the terrible quality of above picture, they were taken on an iphone 4s. PPS: Thanks for the input!

WOW, this is really cool knowing they used the Unreal Engine to design the scenes in 'The Mandalorian'. Its fucking awesome that video game tech has gotten good enough that it can contribute to the movie industry.

Hey guys i wrote a short spec fiction story and was hoping i could have some feedback. If you just want to read then do that. I really want to share this asi am pretty proud of it *i know the paragraphs and whatnot were lost in the copy-paste from google docs... Sorry Goodbye By Jack Vann-Lammonby Rosalie lay there, staring up at the ceiling. Lights danced across the smooth white surface, telling tales from long ago. Lions ran through savannahs and white horses galloped through fields of green and yellow. She could hear her parents rushing around, picking up her things and putting them into white, plastic boxes, occasionally pausing to argue about something, then hurrying to to pack again, as if to make up for the time they just lost. Then the lights turned off. Rosalie was picked up and carried through the house, towards the door and out into the vast expanse of what once was New York. Buildings, mere skeletons of what they had once been, casting shadows over the endless rubble and destruction, as if glaring down at what once was a happy place, sadly reminiscing. A car pulled up. It's immaculate white finish a stark contrast to it’s surroundings. Rosalie felt herself slide into the cool black leather. Her mother and father slipped in beside her, the doors shut themselves and the car began to move. The long, thin Windows allowed the family a cinematic view of the streets of the once-New York City. The road utterly useless, bar a small strip of fresh tarmac, on which they drove. The side window displayed walls of corruption; political propaganda and extremist posters. Graffiti lined the sidewalk and defaced the governmental figures adorning the walls. The car slowed as it maneuvered through the tight streets. Not a thing moved around them. There was a breeze, but no trees to slowly sway in it. Though it was a warm summer morning, no people peered out of windows to catch the sun’s rays. The streets were littered, yet no dog strayed to find a meal. Slowly the broken cityscape faded and and they approached a vast emptiness in amongst the chaos and destruction. In the centre of this concrete field sat a building composed of a bright white alloy and reflective, black glass. It sat there, a single daisy in a meadow of grass; alone. The building was round and, in the centre, stood a white pinnacle, it's tall frame casting a shadow over them. Rosalie was taken from the cool grasp of the leather and into her mother's arms. The two of them moved down the walkway that led to the building, her father beside them. As they approached the building, glass doors hissed open. They stepped in. Rosalie thought it smelled like a hospital, the reek of disinfectant stinging her throat and making her gag. The only thing in the room was an elevator. It's glass doors parted, inviting the new arrivals in. The doors shut and the elevator began to move. When they stopped and the elevator opened it's doors, it became apparent that they were on a roof, with the pinnacle of white towering over them. A voice from an unknown source spoke to them, “Walk towards the entrance and await further instruction”. Two panels slid aside from the seemingly solid white surface and they stepped in. The authoritarian female voice addressed the family once more, “Please proceed down the hallway then turn left into room ten”. They walked slowly down the hall, carefully putting one foot after the other, not wanting to disturb the absolute perfection and silence. They turned left into room ten. There were doors to other numbers going down the hallway, slowly trailing out of sight around the curve of the structure. Once they would have been filled with people, now they were empty. The room was simple. It was a stark contrast to everything else. It had a brighter, more colourful theme, with three small beds: one blue, one red and one orange. The walls and floor remained crystal clean white. On the far wall was a solitary window, looking out. Three seats faced the window. “Your belongings have been placed in your room. Please be seated”. They sat and did as they were told. A low rumble could be heard. The rumble became an ear-piercing scream and the ship pushed itself from the grasps of Earth’s gravity. Rosalie shut her eyes tight and plugged her ears with her fingers, wanting to shut out the assault on her senses. Rosalie felt the ship shudder as a they pushed through the atmosphere. Then all was quiet. Rosalie felt weightless and free. She opened her eyes. She felt her mother's hand grasp her’s. Rosalie unbuckled herself and floated to the window. Peering out at Earth, a blue and green globe, now nothing but a memory. “Goodbye”, said Rosalie.

This seems hideously interesting: http://www.vox.com/2016/6/1/11787262/blade-runner-neural-network-encoding

Hey LTT, I've been scouring the internet for sci-fi themed atmospheric audio tracks but haven't been able to find anything. Do you guys have any ideas? Specifically, I'm not looking for actual music, but more just ambient tracks. Things like a futuristic docking station for example, with background chatter, some lady's voice occasionally saying something like "Docking port 3 available" over an intercom or something like that , and passing ships. Or like a "Derelict Ship" style track, with steam pipes and a general acoustic chord. I don't know if there are things like that but if you guys know of anything, I'd really appreciate it as I'd like to use it in a project I'm working on. Thanks for anything you can find, MDPS

HELP! So right now I am doing a school project, which is due this Wednesday, and one of the requirements it to assign one texture map (for each map, Diffuse, Specular, Normal, etc.) for all my objects. The problem is when I was texturing I did each individual object as a separate map at (4096x4096). If I merge my objects do I have to re-unwrap? Do I just add all the objects together as one large object, then unwrap and detach after? would that mean I would have to start from the beginning? Main Question: How can I merge all my objects onto one UV map with out screwing up my already unwrapped objects? Thanks in advance! My work so far still needs some work lmao

Dear Awesome People, I am in search of some good Sci-Fi games with sweet ass graphics. I could go on listing the space related games that I have played anywhere from Mass Effect, to Eve Online, to FTL, and others but I really am interested to see what the community thinks in terms of recent AND older games that has sweet ass looking graphics or really good sci-fi story lines. Throughout suggestions of some games I could jump into soon. Cheers, Canto666Hades

I was watching terrible music videos for a bit and came across the song that I think definitely takes the cake in this category, but I wanted to offer my opinion up for dissent just to make sure I wasn't being too shortsighted. My entry: Wild Wild West As you know it was the title song to the film which also featured Will Smith. Not only were the song & film generally considered terrible, but it takes the cake as being the most catchy awful theme song of all time. I watched it one time and I haven't been able to stop singing the intro in my head, "Wild-wild, wicki; Wicki-wicki Wild-WILD WEST..." It may also be worth noting that some people have slightly attributed this movie to the sudden rise in popularity of "steampunk." My runner ups were Princes of the Universe & the Flash Gordon Theme (Queen), but both were ultimately disqualified because they are not really considered bad as much as just disproportionately epic in comparison to the films they represent.

Interesting galactic spin on Sim City / Civilization style game. Watch the video for some info and some of the work they have done themselves without backing. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ideologic/interstellar-incorporated-monopolize-the-galaxy Will definitely get made knowing Ben and his dedication. He has also written a couple of Sci-Fi novels with one on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Ring-Eternity-Mannequin-B-Ranson-ebook/dp/B00956VV5S

After making it to silver league in starcraft 2 and promptly getting my a$$ busted down to bronze again.. im kinda sick of it So i dug through my shelf o' games and found my all time favourite strategy game. Ground control 2 Unfortunately the disc doesn't work anymore and this makes me quite sad Now i am a bit curious if there are any newer games that have pretty much the same gameplay Added this video of one of my favourite missions to show gameplay. So the main question is: Do you know if there are any games with gameplay like this made quite recently? The second question is: I want to get my hands on another copy of the game... But im not sure if it works on windows 8. So if there are any other Ground control fans here on the forum that have personal experience with running it on windows 8 i'd love to hear what you have to say.

Right. So this may sound like a huge and menacing task, but it's something I've wanted to do for a while. Basically I want to create a game that is reminiscent of early 21'st century sci-fi, with elements from Firefly and the early Mass Effect games, and throwing a bit of Star Wars in for good measure (The original trilogy OBV). While I know what I'm doing when it comes to Unity, when Crytek made CryEngine available on steam I thought about that alternative, and came to a conclusion: While it isn't free, it is far superior to Unity and UE3 (UE4 might be good though) and overall it would be more enjoyable to develop for. While the choice of engine is still up in the air, I wanted to start gathering a small group of people to help. I have a huge amount of concept writing and ideas all ready to go, as well as a very small amount of concept art and a name. What I don't have is extensive skills when it comes to 3D design, animation and capture or Programming. While I may want some people later down the track to come on board with creative development, for now I need about 3 people. One person who knows game engines (UE3[so essentially UDK], Unity and or Cry Engine), one who knows Maya (Or any other 3D design software) and one who knows programming languages (I would assume C++ as CryEngine(The most likely engine right now) is basically self contained, with very little code tinkering required, as far as I understand. Correct me if I'm wrong) TL/DR I need a Coder who knows C++, A 3D designer competent with Maya and somebody who knows their way around Cry engine/UE3/Unity. (Just a stock image from the web, nothing fancy) Respond to the thread (Or PM me) if you know anyone who would be interested. (I'm based in Australia, but Skype makes everyone a lot closer)