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I think that just a little more detail in shading would be nice.  If the slight contours were a little more well-defined, it would bring some depth to the image.  One example, the toes on the left foot.  With small portions of those toes non-shaded, it would make them a little more "concrete" and not quite as amorphous.

Quite alright, you're "funny" enough as it is, Farl.

I'm all for it..  but I would suggest that we put in place a warning that it's only for the thick-skinned and that anyone taking it personally would be shot.  Basically, it becomes a debate forums without end.. if moderated, it could be quite interesting.  If not, I'm sure it'll dissolve into name-calling and stupidity.  I wouldn't mind giving it a shot.  It's an interesting mental exercise.

alright then, I'll go now.

The only differences ME would cause would be: 1) If the hardware manager is different than 98.  Being based on a 2000 kernel, I believe it's still accessible, just takes a bit more hunting.  If there's an uninstall in the start menu, than finding add/remove programs is unnecessary.  As far as the printer's windows-system files, the Printers section ought to be the same in all Windoze versions.  2) The driver files from Lexmark ...  I don't know about the popularity of ME in driver updates.  

If you have any difficulties or would like exact information, my dad's got ME on his computer and I could fiddle with that for specifics.

That perspective thing is odd (the window top ought to be parallel with the ceiling's line) unless you meant it to seem warped.  I love the style but it looks a bit like a 256-color drawing reduced to 16-color without diffusion.  Some of the colors are a little hard on the eyes, there's a lot of banding and many saturated colors.  

I like the style, setup and think it looks nicely adventure-gamey..  could just use a little neutralizing.

I figured this post is for child photos, and what better than pre-birth!  Suprised Scott?

Incidentally, this thread has made me realise I don't seem to have any baby photos. I'm unsure as yet whether this is good or bad.

Ah, it's always the poor test-tube baby who ends up feeling deprived.

...you could try extracting them to a directory Vs. (a what?) using the installation program (Which one? the printer or driver?).  If it forces an installation (for what?) then let it install before plugging the printer back in so it'll be able to find the drivers...

To clarify. If the installation drivers you download from Lexmark launch into an install routine automatically (and assuming the install routine doesn't do it for you) then you could try extracting them (using Winrar, etc.) to a directory.  When you've removed the driver from the system hardware settings and removed USB plug, it ought to allow it to reset it's device installation.  When you plug it back in, it ought to ask for drivers.  You point it to your extraction path.  

In troubleshooting, given the symptoms you've described... I (personally) would:

1) unplug printer from USB port (Either at USB jack or connecting to printer, whichever brings a smile to your cheery little face)

2) Uninstall previous drivers.  Use the uninstall option if one was placed in your start menu, if not then using the Add/Remove programs dialog as well as deleting any lexmark entry in the Printers section of the control panel.

3) If I were into being thorough, I'd look at the driver file names and delete all instances from my windows directories.  I would also remove instances of Lexmark from my registry (but only those keyed to the Lexmark company (e.g. Not a lexmark entry for Adobe Photoshop, etc.))

4) If the driver is of the auto-install type, you would either run it first and then plug the printer in (normal routine) or plug the printer in and then run the install, ignoring the prompt for a driver disk.  If you have extracted the drivers or they don't auto-install, plug the printer back in and, when prompted, browse to the extraction directory.


Of course, all this assumes this is merely a Windoze-blows kind of error.  If not, it may be a conflict with your USB-IRQ which you can change via Windows System or BIOS.  I don't know what OS you're using so I didn't even touch this one.

Nobody answered the question.  I'd pick Hoagie.  I like Gabriel's character more but if I had to hang with one of 'em, I'd rather it could be someone I'd chug soda with while sitting on the couch saying, "Dude," in a profound manner.

My question: What was the whiniest, wussiest most pathetic adventure game character?

The US is very different in that respect, I guess.  GF was unavailable in my area about 6 months after it came out.  Other adventure games never get shelf space or, at best, a couple copies of each game.  The newest Sims expansion Pack or FPS, however, you could find a copy for every person in the US at your nearest Wal-Mart.

Have you tried unplugging the printer from the USB port and removing the drivers?  Once they're removed and you plugged the printer back in it should kick the prompt up for drivers..  As far as the drivers go, you could try extracting them to a directory Vs. using the installation program.  If it forces an installation then let it install before plugging the printer back in so it'll be able to find the drivers.  Also, I recommend checking for updated drivers on Lexmark's site.  I had weird printer non-recognition problems when using my Lexmark z54 with USB 2.0 until I updated the drivers.

Y yo hablo un poco de espanol tambien. (I'm too lazy to do the "en-yay" tilde)  I'm horrible with my past tense and most future tense, so ..  Yo tengo tres anos de escuela en espanol.  Argh.  Vacas muertas no cocinan el pan.

I love it, and think it would make an excellent background.  However, it's gonna be difficult to get a character to blend with that background, especially if you want to be able to see where you're going.  Maybe if you could lighten up the foreground a bit, it'd be easier to use.  I like the tone of the picture as it is, but it might be a tad dark.

I like the sketchy look to it.  I think it helps to make it a scene from the imagination and not just a well-made background.  

You'll probably get critiqued to hell for the gradients but in this case, I think they help to add depth and aren't intrusive (with the exception of those on the right.  the red-green tree and its hillock aren't very subtle with the gradient and its direction.  As a whole, I think it works. The sky, also is quite nice.

I have only two problems..  the black lines, I think make the drawing look even more rough.  If they could be done away with or replaced with colors similar to the objects, I think it'd be an improvement.  Also, if you put a few lines more in the center of the trees, it'd make 'em less 2D and make it less likely that one would confuse them with tribbles.

Voxel stands for volume-pixel.  In typical 3D, we have points connected to make lines and 3 lines together forming a triangle (Of course, some 3d apps don't use only triangles but 3D games do).  The problem with this is that for a realistic scene we need 3 sets of coordinates (in x,y,z) for every triangle and then attributes for the triangle (Texture, alpha, masking, shadowing, bumpmap, environment map, etc.)  It adds up to a lot of data for even the description of a simple box.  

With volume-pixels, each "pixel" is not one "dot" on your monitor but rather a 3-dimensional cube.  Imagine a landscape made out of building blocks and you get the general idea.  Since each voxel is a small part of the whole, it can be assigned simply 1 color based on the color scheme of the whole.  It requires only 1 set of coordinates - placing this "block" in 3d-space.  The amount of data is reduced greatly and any shadowing or other lighting effects are generated to the map as a whole.  The downside to voxels is that you can only be as detailed as the number of voxels generated, depending of the size of them.  So, if you've got decent hardware CPU-wise and memory-wise then a modern voxel app can generate a nicely detailed scene.  

Ken Silverman?  I could be wrong but wasn't he the guy who made Ken's Labyrinth?

If the above doesn't work, and you can't adjust your settings or return to default due to lack of desktop visability, then:

You can just re-install your video drivers.. A fairly thorough way would be to go to the control panel or video adapter display settings and update drivers to the default PCI VGA settings (seen when you select show all devices).  When prompted, reset and you'll be back at windows with 640x480 crappiness.   Then, install your driver again (it sounds like you've got an Nvidia card, but whichever driver you used, load it the same way).  If it's got a self-installer, do that. If not, extract the files to a temporary directory and change your adapter driver to whatever your card is.  

If I've said anything stupid or elementary, it's only because I'm trying to be slightly thorough without being too wordy.  

One down side to this is that most people would like all of the stuff in their games to be of the same (or similar style).  It would look totally different if Pessi, Helm or Mr. C did a background.  By the same token, different tunes could add variety to a game's sound-track but some people's styles may clash a bit.  There's probably a solution out there somewhere but the only one I can think of off-hand is to 1) Ask for help by people that can do a similar-looking background or similarly-styled MIDI or 2)To extend the requests and provided items to slightly larger projects, but this defeats the purpose of OPD.  

Ideas?

Hey, how about getting back on topic a little?  If there's one thing I remember about the pics before they were taken down it's the quality and the diffusion.  I would recommend either using the originals and re-doing them or re-touching the ones there.  There's an awful lot of diffusion, apparently from a 16-bit to 8-bit color reduction.  It would also use significantly less webspace if you made them GIFs after retouching them.  

Ghallager is actually Lou Ghallager (I think I've got the first name right) and he's running for Governor of California, not president yet, though you can hope Trap.  He's a stand-up comedian that does quite a lot of political humor but is known for smashing watermelons and other fruits & veggies with a sledgehammer.