Empire Earth II - The Best RTS Game Ever ?

- Bahasa Indonesia Mode -

 Semua bermula dr celoteh teman sekantor waktu ngeliat gw main AOE3 minggu kemarin. Sambil nonton gw main, kami ngobrol2 soal game RTS. Dia bilang kalo dulu dia punya game RTS yg mirip2 AOE. Bedanya kalo AOE setting cuman pas zaman2 kerajaan sampe kolonial, game yg dia punya settingnya mulai dr zaman batu sampe zaman modern. Game yg gw ingat modelnya kayak gitu cuman satu, Empire Earth.

Karena server game Indogamers nggak nyala2, teman gw ini rupanya gerah jg ngeliat gw keenakan main AOE3. Ternyata dia bongkar2 lg koleksi CD gamenya dan nginstall Empire Earth (EE) di PCnya. Gw yg waktu itu sama sekali blom pernah gimana sebenarnya EE jd penasaran jg, dan gw gantian nonton dia main EE .

Setelah gw perhatikan, wah ... game ini lumayan jg. Tampilannya nggak jauh2 amat bedanya dengan AOE, gameplaynya jg mirip. Yg bikin game ini beda dr RTS yg lain mungkin cuma satu, Setting Waktu. Seperti yg udah gw bilang di awal td, setting waktu game ini diambil mulai dr zaman batu sampe zaman modern. Jadi unit2nya bisa berubah seiring waktu, mulai dr prajurit biasa sampe pake robot2 canggih, mulai dr perahu kayu sampe kapal induk dll.

Keren jg, kalo gw perhatikan, game ini seperti gabungan antara AOE (gameplay), Civilazation (civilization/building), RedAlert (Modern War) dan sedikit Warcraft (RPG/Hero/Unit Name - ada unit2 yg namanya mirip karakter dota !). Hebat jg yg bikin gamenya, idenya bagus buat ngegabungan konsep beberapa game RTS terkenal.

Lama2 tangan gw gatal jg kepingin nyobain gamenya. Cuman berhubung minggu ini gw sibuk luar biasa ngoprek2 program yg gw bikin, gw tahan2 keinginan itu. Puncaknya hari ini, sabtu. Kebetulan program gw (creasindoID) udah hampir rampung, gw jalan2 keluar lab. Tadinya kepingin ke Mangga dua nyari CS Source, tp berhubung cuaca di luar panasnya luar biasa, gw putusin buat jalan2 ke BSD aja. Di ITC BSD, gw cobain liat2 CS Source, siapa tau udah ada. Ternyata blom. Dari pada pulang dgn tangan hampa, udah panas2 pula, gw putusin buat beli game lain. Waktu itu gw langsung ingat kalo gw kepingin nyobain EE. Kebetulan di sana ada EE versi II. Setelah ngeliat minimum spek nya, gw langsung embat (beli maksudnya) dan balik ke lab.

Di lab, gw langsung cobain di PC kerja gw, kalo diliat dr min speknya sih kayaknya kuat. Setelah diinstall, ternyata emang jalan, cuman .... setelah beberapa lama mulai terasa beratnya. Dan akhirnya ... tampilan mulai patah2, ternyata game ini berat jg. Waktu itu teman gw yg punya EE iseng ngintip ... wakakaka ....  dia kaget pas ngeliat game yg gw mainkan. Buset katanya. Dari cara dia ngeliat gw main langsung kelihatan kalo dia pingin nyoba jg, gw langsung pinjamin CD game EE2nya. "Nih, cobain, siapa tau mau ", kata gw. Dalam hati sih gw ngerasa nggak bakalan jalan mulus, di gw aja patah2, apalagi di PCnya dia yg speknya lebih rendah dr gw.

Karena di PC kerja gw nggak kuat, gw coba install di PC pribadi yg gw bawa ke kantor. Nah .. di sini baru bisa jalan mulus. Tampilan EE2 benar2 gila .... keren banget. Fitur yg paling mencolok mungkin Cuaca. Di EE2, cuaca jg bisa berpengaruh terhadap unit yg ada. Cuaca yg ada jg macam2, mulai dr hujan biasa sampe badai pasir.

 

Begitu main, gw bener2 langsung jatuh cinta sama ini game. Improvementnya benar2 jauh di atas game2 RTS yg gw tau. Mulai dr cara membangun, sampe perangnya benar2 luar biasa. Salah satu hal yg gw cari dr game2 RTS sebenarnya adalah membangun kota kerajaan yg komplit, yg susunannya bagus, ada jalan2, wonder yg nggak cuman satu, dan semua itu gw dapat di EE2.  Nggak salah kalo banyak yg bilang kalo ini game RTS terbaik yg pernah ada. AOE3 ? Kalah telak ! Hampir semua yg ada di AOE3 ada di game ini.

Satu2nya kelemahan yg gw liat dr game ini adalah system resource yg dibutuhkannya gila2an. Mau tau min system requirementnya ?

Prosesor AMD atau Intel Pentium 1,5 GHz atau yg kompatibel. Ram 256 MB. VGA NVidia GeForce 3 ke atas dgn memori 64 MB atau lebih dan udah bisa ngedukung TL tech + DX9.0c. Dan ruang HD kurang lebih 1 GB.

Untungnya PC gw, speknya masih di atas itu, jd gw masin bisa main. Gw masih kepingin main nih ... tp teman gw itu skrg lg main EE2 di PC gw ... ehehehe ... usir nggak ya ... ?

Shopping ... let's go shopping ...

It was a clear sunday. Yes it was .. at least until the midday.

I planned to go to some shopping centers of Serpong, in order to buy some books about VB6, and some game CDs. Unfortunately, when i went off, i had to walk to the front gate of puspiptek because there weren't any 'ojek's (a kind of motorcycle used like a taxi in indonesia). Besides, the weather changed so suddenly, and began to rain. So after withdrawing some money from bank, i took an 'angkot' (the same as ojek, but this is a van, not motorcycle) to the Pasar Serpong. It was a heavy rain, and i had to wait for a moment to get another 'angkot' to BSD ITC.
After i arrived to the ITC, i went to CD Seller to find CS Source Game. Darn .... it was sold out. The seller said that i had to order the game before. Forget it , i thought. I'll have to find it at another place. Maybe at Mangga dua or Glodok next week. Finally, i bought some CDs before leaving the CD seller. It were MSDN CDs and i spent about Rp.60.000 for all of them. The good point was, the money would be returned by my company, so i didn't have to spend my own money to buy the CDs . Leaving ITC, i went to Serpong WTC to buy some books at Gramedia Book Store.

At gramedia, i searched some books for VB6. I hoped that i could find a good one like "Mastering VB6" or at least the same type as "VB6 Step-by-Step", i meant, the books were imported from foreign country but re-translated in Bahasa Indonesia, so it was published by a wellknown publishers like Microsoft Press etc. But i could not find any of them. So i bought another books of VB that seem to be interesting to read.

After 2 hours of shopping, i return to the base ... oops ... i meant, return to geostech . 

 

CreasindoID Rebuild - Part 2

Early Friday, April 21st 2006, 03:00 AM 

-Bahasa Indonesia Mode (cause i fell so so sleepy ... )-

Setelah proses coding yg lumayan ribet (+- 12 jam), akhirnya prosedur printing ulang KTP CreasindoID 90% rampung . Sebelumnya sistem printing yg gw pake bergantung dengan properti printform. Masalah utama yg muncul waktu itu adalah ketergantungan properti printform pada resolusi layar/form. Jadi kalo resolusinya kecil, jumlah KTP yg bisa dicetak jg sedikit. Misalnya, resolusi monitor gw sekitar 1152x864 px, maka jumlah KTP yg bisa dicetak cuman sekitar 6 lembar.
Biarpun gw paksain properti width atau height ke nilai berapapun, tetap aja jumlah maksimal KTP yg tercetak cuman 6 lembar. Kalo gw pasang 8 lembar, pasti kepotong KTP-nya .

Setelah mikir2, akhirnya gw putusin buat memakai sistem printing manual (pake metode print tab/spc). walaupun akhirnya beres, bukan berarti nggak ada masalah dalam proses scriptingnya (gw sempat stress mikirinnya). Masalah2 yg muncul dalam sistem printing manual antara lain :

1. Ribet. Kelebihan properti printform ada di kemudahan dalam mengatur layout dr KTP yg dicetak, soalnya programmer tinggal menggeser objek yg mau dicetak ke posisi yg diinginkan secara visual dengan mouse. Sedangkan untuk metode print tab/spc, programmer harus pake ilmu 'kira-kira' untuk menentukan posisi dr objek yg mau dicetak. Untungnya driver printer yg gw pake memungkinkan user untuk melihat tampilan sebelum cetak (print preview) walaupun gw make VB buat mencetak.
2. Image printing. Ini jg sempat jd masalah. Tadinya gw bingung gimana caranya mencetak gambar secara manual. Pake metode print kagak bisa. Setelah ngulik2 MSDN, akhirnya jawabannya ada di metode paintpicture. Metode ini memungkinkan printer buat mencetak gambar dengan posisi dan ukuran yg diinginkan programmer. Tadinya gw pikir objek yg bisa dicetak cuman sebatas picturebox, ternyata objek image jg bisa .
3. Huruf. Kalo pake printform mah gampang banget, tinggal pake objek label, terus atur fontnya/alignnya. Kalo pake print tab/spc ? Jangan harap segampang itu. Masalahnya, nggak ada hubungan antara jumlah huruf dgn lebar kolom (tab) untuk tiap huruf. Misalnya gini, kata "WARE" terdiri dr 4 huruf, idealnya sih ruang yg dipake buat kata ini cuman 4 kolom. Kenyataannya, huruf W memakai 2 kolom (karakternya lebar soalnya), jadi jumlah kolom yg dipake kata "WARE" ini ada 5. Kalo udah gini, ngatur align buat tiap karakter yg mau dicetak jg nggak bakalan gampang, dan dijamin nggak bakalan rata. Satu2 solusi adalah dgn memakai fixed-pitch font (huruf dgn lebar kolom tetap per karakter). Setelah googling, akhirnya gw dapat huruf yg bagus, namanya Bitstream Vera Sans Mono (nama yg aneh kan .. )
4. Algoritma. This is the main problem. Gw putuskan buat tetap make sistem array. Soalnya, selain lebih hemat memori, gw jg nggak pusing bikin algoritma pencetakannya. Karena ada delapan KTP sekali cetak, maka indeks yg dipake dr 0-7. Supaya lebih efisien, gw pake looping sebanyak 4 kali. Jadi untuk tiap looping ada 2 KTP yg dicetak. Proses looping jg harus disesuaikan dgn indeks dr array. Misal, Variabel looping = i, starting point=1 (for i = 1 to 7). Supaya stabil, untuk tiap loop, data KTP yg dicetak adalah data dengan indeks (i-1) dan (i+3).  Jadi untuk loop pertama, indeks data yg dicetak adalah 0 (1-1) dan 4 (1+3). Loop Kedua, indeks 1 (2-1) dan 5 (2+3). Dst sampai loop keempat, indeks 3 (4-1) dan 7 (4+3).
5. Yah, kayaknya untuk printing KTP cukup itu dulu, gw mau tidur dulu. Ngantuk berat bo. Pekerjaan selanjutnya besok adalah menghubungkan variabel printing dengan data array yg sebenarnya dr CreasindoID. InsyaAllah, untuk printing, besok udah rampung semua .
   

Vista Tranformation Pack

I read some PC magazines several days ago, and i found about this issue, you could change your windows XP visual styles into vista ones in minutes with Vista Transformation Pack (ver 3.0 so far). First, i was not so interested about it, but this morning, i was thinking to try it a bit (??).

So i downloaded this utility from Softpedia website (http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/Vista-Transformation-Pack.shtml). The download size was about 31.5 mb. Fortunately, my lab connection was fast enough this morning, so i could get it in just 15 minutes. Before i downloaded it, i read another users reviews as usual in order to know the worst disadvantages of the utility, so i could also prepare for the worst possibility it could take if i install it. Most of the users said that this program could give great visual styles of vista but also lacked in system stability, because it modified many system files. Few users wrote that this program's just a bunch of junk because they have to re-install windows after using it . I felt uncertain for a moment but finally decided to install it (in fact, i felt afraid for a bit ).

Before i installed it, i backup my system (including system restore and registry backup), then i ran the setup file. The first window i could see was extraction window to place the original setup program.

The fear grew larger, but i continued. There are so many customization settings before installation began, so i must read the instruction carefully. To avoid system failure, i choose the program not to changed the system files. Then, after i restart the computer, the program began to modified my windows xp visual style. The bad sign appeared when the longhorn sidebar failed to start and it caused some system errors, including explorer.exe process in the task manager. When i saw the display, there was nothing special with it, just some effects such as transparent style and softer colorization of the windows. But, the most noticeable effect for me is, my computer run so slowly after i installed the program (AMD Athlon 1.4, RAM 512 mb, vga gforce2mx 64 mb). Despite its great visual effect, i felt no advantages of this program, so i decided to un-installed it.

The un-installation process was successful ..... but wait, the visual style of my win xp changed  into classic window style. When i opened the display properties window, i found that the xp visual style had been gone from the system !!! Fortunately, i made a backup before, so i restore the system to the previous state before i installed vista transformation program. And the system back to normal again.

The conclusion is, don't try the program if the computer's not fast enough and you have so many programs installed. If you want to try, backup your system first. 

CreasindoID Rebuild - Part 1

Well ..... programming and coding again as usual ... . I'm going to rebuild my first complex program, CreasindoID (or Creasindo Kependudukan in Bahasa Indonesia). The rebuild process has started yesterday, and i thought that it would take about 2 or 3 weeks to be completed. The process includes ; reprogamming some little aspects of the main program, the modules, printing methods and ofcourse, the display and visualization of the program.

Yesterday, i started the process by rebuilding the MDI Form of the main program. The objects that have been redesigned were the menus and toolbars. The old MDI had 5 main menus, all in Bahasa Indonesia, so i extended it into 6 main menus. I thought that many users have been recognized with the look of some microsoft programs, such as Word or Excel, so i changed the language to English (in order to avoid the confusion with the words like "Dokumen" or "Opsi" - "File" and "Option" in english - because Bahasa Indonesia lacks most of the words related to IT ). But ofcourse, the sub menus were still in Bahasa Indonesia, so the users would not be confused with the functions of the program.

The toolbar was extended also. Now it has about 21 buttons on it (compared with the previous, which only had 10 buttons). The new looks provided, includes the icons of the buttons and the menus. Now, i use some icons of OsenXP instead of Mindjet ones (the icons were cute and have different kinds of type, depends on the functions ).

 

(Above ) Previous MDI and (Below) the New MDI

About the program system, i still use the previous one with some new improvements. The unload query function now takes place in the main program (MDI Form, not in the system module). One of the new functions of the main system might be the dialog window. I redesign a new dialog box, that contains some blank labels, 2 blank buttons, blank caption and Icon. The dialog box will be controlled by events of the program. eg, if the user wants to close the program, the unload query will trigger the dialog box. Some properties will be sent by the event (Labels, Images, Icon, size, etc) in order to control the looks of the blank dialog box. So i don't have to create another dialog box to display confirmation. Just give the required properties of the dialog box, then it will appeared in many ways, depends on the functions and properties which it's received.

 

The main problem was the positioning of some objects in the dialog window. I spent about 2-3 hours just to deal with the algorithms of objects positions. I was a little confused by the top, left, height and width property of the objects, but finally it solved.

 

The last addition of the program was welcome screen. It took about 1 hour to design the wellcome screen with adobe photoshop. The welcome screen included prologues to guide users for using the program. It also provided some shortcuts to the main functions, such as New Data, Open Data, and KTP Printing (Only New Data shortcut could be processed so far).

Today, i will improve the data system of the main program. For visualization and data outlining , i'll use VSFGrid 8.0, since it has huge advantages than the normal ms grid. Now, The problem is ... I've never used it before ... hahahaha ...

Milan goes to the CL Semifinal !!

Well, i did'nt watch the match last night, actually, because i felt so sleepy. When Inzaghi scored the first goal for Milan, i was awaked for a while then went to sleep again . Then, when i heard, several minutes later, Lyon got the equalizer, i continued my sleeping (hoped that Milan will win the match when i awaked .. heheheh ...  ).

When i waked up few hours ago, i turned my computer on, then searched the news on the net. Wow ... Milan goes to the semifinal through the last minutes drama. They got 2 goals in the last 4 minutes of the match !!! If they failed to change 1-1 score until the final whistle, Lyon will go through, instead.

 

Then i downloaded the goals from soccerpulse forum as usual. I could see the emotions when Inzaghi and Sheva scored the winning goal for Milan. The crowds blew up the whole San Siro with shouts, yells and cries. It's so amazing to me, and i watched the video again and again .

Some people said that Milan just was lucky to scored the goals through the "chaos" in front of Coupet post and the blunder by Clerc. But In my humble opinion, you could not just said so without seeing the whole match. You must see the process too. You could not get Luck if there are no chances, and chances will not come if you don't push yourself, to keep trying until the final whistle. And Milan showed the characters, never give up until the end. So see the efforts, not just the goals.

Finally, Congaratulations to Milan. I hope they will get through the finals and lift the new thropy of CL this season. Forza MILAN !!!  

The Answer ?

After i did salat (Sholat) few minutes ago. Something appeared in my mind suddenly.

"Just think and do 'it' for your self and for your sake. Don't think about another one, because there will be another which better than yours"

Was it the answer for my problems ? I don't know, but i feel much better now.

5 Keys to Success

According to my big boss, there were 5 keys to success.

1. Emotion (I think i could handle this, although sometimes i could lost my mind too )
   
2. Time (I'm trying to manage my time well, but sometimes i wasted my time too much )
   
3. Physical (This is the hardest thing to do, well ... uhm .. yeah, do you know how to get slimmer in a month ? )
   
4. Money (The second hardest, what can i do with 1 million rupiahs for a month in the time like this ? )
   
5. Relationship (Well ... i think i could handle this too .. but women is another exception  )

If you could manage all of them, surely, you'll be successful (with God's Help certainly, so don't ever forget to pray every single day ).

Udahan dulu ah. Bahasa inggris gw makin kacau aja kayaknya .