This post is going to be a rant. So, if you don't like rants, you're better off listening to a good song. To sum it up, I was previously using Windows as my primary operating system for work and home. I was doing design and Flash on Leopard but it was not my primary desktop OS. However my recent experiences have forced me to quit windows altogether and shift to Snow Leopard as my primary platform for work and home use.

It was some days ago that I was working on a little script and I had to leave my computer on for about an hour while connected to the Internet. I was using Windows 7 Ultimate with firewall on and ESET's NOD32 in complete control. When I got back from a friend, to my surprise, Windows was unresponsive. I had no option but to shutdown manually. Upon the next boot, NOD32 started telling me that there were suspicious files in my temp folder and soon after that a virus signature started popping up in every exe file on my computer. It was not limited to the running processes but EVERY executable on my 3 hard disks. NOD32 was working but it was unable to catch up to the virus' activity. Soon the virus had killed off windows' services and important executable files. NOD32 was unable to clean the virus and so it deleted every file it scanned the virus with. And so the disaster struck. It was after so many years that I encountered a virus but it totally ruined my workplace.

The question does not lie where I ask that:

- I had a perfectly good Virus System running
- I wasn't downloading any malware or something that could have executed the virus
- I left my browser open with a perfectly safe site, which probably could have executed an XSS script that led to virus downloading. Although, I had noscript enabled.
- Or that I am a n00b who does not understand how to avoid virus activity.

The question lies where I ask Microsoft that the last time THIS virus attacked me was on Windows 98. The exact same virus that ruined my computer 10 years ago was still able to execute itself on Windows 7 Ultimate. I mean WTF!!! This tells so much about Microsoft. They haven't done the least bit to change their operating system's core security. This also tells you that Windows hasn't changed the slightest bit over 10 years. A recent report suggested that Windows 7 is prone to 80% of the viruses in the wild.

Windows 7 is being admired to have gotten a lot of stuff right but it is experiences like the one above that tell you how a company has only re-branded it's product through overhauling the UI. The introduction of Microsoft Security Essentials is perhaps the step that Microsoft should have taken years ago. Anyway, this may be good news for the future versions of Windows.

Whatever the case, I have moved my entire workplace and home setup to Snow Leopard and I am liking it. Hey kitty, kitty...woh!! sharp teeth.

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So, after months of inactivity, I have an article worth posting. I have been playing video games on my PC lately. I have been a console gamer all my life but since now I have a good enough PC, I decided it was about time I tried playing on the PC. Now, while I was at it. I already stated once that I have all my gaming and computer gear connected together. This time, it was the audio. I have a 5.1 Audio Speaker System. This is where the story starts .

Intel / Realtek Integrated Multichannel Audio How to

Previously, on Windows XP, one could get a multichannel audio from a single Line Out, but that changed when Vista was introduced. If you scroll around the internet and try to find solutions on how to connect multichannel audio speakers with Vista or Windows 7. You'd be amazed that people almost give up on this. I faced the same kind of issues, when I connected my 5.1 audio to my Realtek High Definition Back Panel.

The issue seemed quite strange at first. It seemed that as if the system only output 2.0 channel audio i.e. Stereo. The other speakers remained silent, no matter what I did.

Yes, many people think that it is a problem with either their motherboard, the audio system or the Realtek hardware / software solution. May be some people do have a broken system but I am sure this is not the case here. Here's where things get interesting. I immediately scrolled through the Intel High Definition Audio manuals and found out that Intel has explained this problem in quite some detail. This entirely depends on your Motherboard's Audio capabilities.  For starters, take a look at your motherboard's specs and see how many channels of audio does it support. Mine supports 5.1 audio at it's best. For this reason, my back panel has three output ports i.e. Line In (Blue), Line out (Green), Mic (Pink).

How to Identify your Desktop Board Audio Codec
The Technical Product Specification (TPS) for each Intel® Desktop Board will indicate whether your board supports AC’97 or HD Audio. To find the TPS for your board:

1. Go to http://support.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/
2. Select your desktop board.
3. Click Product Documentation in the left-hand navigation channel.
4. Select Technical Product Specification.

Now, if you are not using an SPDIF / Optical solution. This is for you. To configure your audio system according to your motherboard's specifications:

Configuring 2-Channel Audio
The line out connector, located on the back panel, is designed to power either headphones or amplified speakers only. Poor audio quality may occur if passive (non-amplified) speakers are connected to this output.

Configuring 6-Channel Audio
Installing the audio driver from the Intel® Express Installer CD-ROM enables the flexible, analog audio system. The back panel audio connectors support up to six speakers and are retaskable using the audio driver interface.

Jack retasking is a feature that allows an audio jack to support more than one function. For example, the pink audio jack can support microphone input when the system configuration is set to Stereo Mode, and as Center/LFE or Rear Surround (depending on the audio solution used) when set as 6 channel.

Connect speakers as follows:

* If using two speakers, connect the pair to connector (B).
* If using four speakers:
o Connect the front left/right speakers to connector (B).
o Connect the rear left/right speakers to connector (A).
o Using the audio driver interface, retask connector (A) to be Rear Left/Right Out.
* If using six speakers:
o Connect the front left/right speakers to connector (B).
o Connect the rear left/right speakers to connector (A).
o Connect the center/subwoofer speakers to connector (C).
o Using the audio driver interface, retask connector (A) to be Rear Left/Right Out and retask connector (C) to be Center/LFE Out.

Configuring 8-Channel Audio
8-channel audio is available only on certain Intel Desktop Boards.

After installing the audio driver from the Intel Express Installer CD-ROM, multi-channel audio can be enabled:

* Connect speakers to A, B, C, D, or E as shown in the figure below, up to eight speakers.
* Two types of S/PDIF connectors are available: coaxial (G) and optical (F). Select the proper connector according to the style of S/PDIF speakers that will be used.
* The back panel may look like either of the following, depending on board model.

I configured my 5.1 Audio by using the 3 output jacks behind my computer chassis. Although, this also means that your Multichannel Audio System should have 3 (4 or 5) input jacks to accompany that. Most of them do. You'll have to use 3 separate (4 or 5 depending on your system) 3.5mm jacks  to connect your system with your Realtek Device. Refer to the above diagrams for port configuration.

Fire up the Realtek HD Audio Manager in windows and double click on the jack icons on the right. You'll notice that each one of them can be used in two different ways. Configure them as you have plugged the jacks (see above). Once you're done. Check the speakers one by one and you will have sound coming out of all of them. Time to enjoy the Multichannel audio. You don't need the Speaker Fill option. No more distorted audio. Go to this page and download some audio files. If you still have issues, you can refer to the Intel Audio page.

Further to this problem, I also came across another one. I was using Headphones on my computer before I attached my 5.1 Audio system and never used my Front Panel Audio Jacks before. So, when I moved my headphones to the front panel jacks,  both the Headphones and Mic were not working. This led me to another Internet searching adventure and people were annoyed as hell over this issue.

Front Panel Jacks don't work / Realtek HD Audio Manager does not detect my Front Panel devices

Firstly, make sure you always have the latest Realtek drivers installed on your system. You can download them for your chipset from the Intel's download center, or from the Realtek website. I'm going to list this down in steps for troubleshooting:

1. Make sure your Front Panel Audio Jack is connected to the HD Audio Front Panel Header on the motherboard.

2. Determine if your Front Panel Audio is HD or AC97.

How to Identify your Front Panel Audio Solution Codec
To identify your front panel audio solution’s audio codec, refer to the specifications or documentation for your PC chassis or front panel module. Note that AC’97 and HD Audio front panel solutions are different and may not be directly compatible or interchangeable.

You can also physically check the audio cable of the front panel audio solution. If there is a cable connected to Pin 4, you have an HD Audio module; if there is no cable to Pin 4, you have an AC97 module.

3. When you have connected your Front Panel jack to the motherboard and you still don't get audio or the device detection to work. You certainly do have an AC97 audio jack.

If you have an HD Audio Motherboard Header and your Front Panel is AC97 compatible. You won't be able to get sound out of your front panel jacks. There are two ways to do this depending on your system.

1. Check your motherboard bios, if you have an option that says Codec Driver is HD or AC 97. Set that to AC97. Usually, you can find that option in the Peripheral Section. When you'll come back to windows, your Front Panel Jacks should be working.

2. If you don't have such an option in the bios. Open up Realtek HD Audio Manager in Windows and find a folder shaped icon in the right panel. Click that and you'll find an option that says "Disable Front Panel Jack Detection". Enable that option and you'll have a working Front Panel with both the Headphones and the Mic working. Refer to teh pic below:

Now, some people may get annoyed by the fact that you'll lose front panel jack detection and HD Audio capabilities for the devices plugged into the Front Panel. So, I searched around and found a solution to that as well. There are two ways to go from here.

1. Replace the Front Panel with an HD Audio Panel. You can search for them on the internet or contact your Chassis manufacturer.

2. Make an HDA Dongle for Front Audio Support. You will need some parts for this and a little bit of electronics knowledge. You can follow this thread for the details.

I hope this should help many people out there trying to figure out how to configure Realtek  to work with their Multichannel Audio Systems and also have working Front Panel Audio Support.

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I've been meaning to write this post for a long time. I'm an old gamer since the days of the Arcade and Atari. I've seen games become into what they are today. There used to be a time when I was never concerned about what the game says or if the game carries any political, religious or educational value. But that has changed. I can tell you that games have the least to do with politics, so we can leave that aside. The games used to be educational and that number has decreased to such an extent that I have to put down 6 out of every 10 games that come out in a season. The FPS genre is mostly a waste but I am not going to start a rant about that here.

This brings me to my point. Games should have the least to do with religion. I'm not advocating the use of Cultures or anything else. Russians, Africans, Americans, Italians, Afghanis, Israelis and cultures and phenomena from all over the world have been taken into the gaming worlds. The use of history and facts is good. But I stand against the use of religions in gaming. Not many game developers dare to mess around with religious cults. That is mostly because they are either going to destroy their market or get bad reviews for it. It was once that Microsoft Game Studios did something similar when Koranic verses could be heard in a Fighter game called Kakuto Chojin for the Xbox. Sony recalled LittleBigPlanet from the shelves when a song that had Koranic Verses in it was highly criticized. Now, Capcom has been meddling with this sensitive subject for a long time.

When Resident Evil 5 first debuted, people and organizations criticized Capcom for depicting the poverty and killing of Black people or specifically African people. I wasn't against it mostly because games have used other cultures equally to depict their stories and the stories are fictional or either based on historical facts, which people or cultures do not have issues with being used in games. So, let's come to the point. Capcom rolled out Zack and Wiki a long time ago for the Wii. The game had a debut trailer in which a group of characters used the Islamic phrase "Allah o Akbar" and performed a ritualistic dance. The trailer was not taken lightly and Capcom was bombarded with criticism from Islamic faith and organizations. There was also a court filing against Capcom from Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The filed case asked Capcom to remove the Islamic phrase from the game. Capcom quickly recognized the severity of the issue and removed the phrase from the release version of the game and issued a press release with their response. If you haven't seen the video, you can watch it below:

So, that's a case of Capcom messing around that people are aware of. I searched around the internet for a long time and could not find a single result where people noticed that Capcom has been depicting Islamic artifacts in its "Devil May Cry" Series. What's more infuriating is the fact that the artifacts used are of grave importance and respect in the Muslim faith. First, it's Devil may Cry 3. Linked below is a video from Devil may Cry 3, where Virgil, Dante's brother, enters the Demon's domain through a door. Hint: At the end of the video. 2:17-2:19.

Vergil entering the Demon Gate

The texture used to make that door is taken from the Entrance of the Holy Kabah. Also called the Baba' e Kabah. The use of the texture is completely outrageous. The concept of the game revolves around Demons and Evil Powers. The depiction of demons or evil people entering it justifies the fact that someone at Capcom is messing around. I wouldn't call them names but it is obvious that the use is taken into account with knowledge of the importance of that artifact.

Here's another evidence why I call it "someone" acting fishy at Capcom. The next image is from "Devil May Cry 4", which was recently released to every major platform in the market. The concept of the game revolves around demons like I said earlier and this time they have a so called "prophet" or "holiness" in the game. Linked below is an image taken from the game where "his holiness" is lying on a bed and awakens as a "Demon" or an evil power. The video was large, so I did not link it. However, once can view the video in Mission 5 named "Return of the King". Click the image to get a larger version.

Notice the texture on the bed. That seems like Arabic writing. I agree that it's been blurred a bit to lower the chances of it being noticed but if you look closely enough, you'll notice the glyphs easily.

Now, being a Muslim myself, I condemn Capcom's act and protest against the use of Islamic artifacts in such defamed manners. Capcom is a very old Game development company and I am a fan but this is not acceptable at all. I do not hold the whole company responsible for the act but some individuals who are actively passing these ideas into their Video Games. I'd appreciate it if the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) take notice of these acts and caution Capcom with the use of these artifacts in their games and in the future.

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Update 1: I recently did a little experiment that allowed me to play Dirt 2. That game is sooo awesome and I had to play it. The experiment is to take a "ginger pill" 2 minutes before you're about to play. It really helped me and I kept playing for more than two hours straight. If anybody reads this, try it and let me know.

Update 2: I found this really really amazing and detailed article on Simulator Sickness over at loonygames. It has everything that you might wanna know about this.

It's been a while since I posted something apart from technology. But this subject was something that inspired me to post about it. Video gaming is a big industry now and people of all ages play them several hours in a day (including myself). If you're a gamer you should be aware of this feeling when playing certain games and it is better that one knows more about it.

To start off, Vertigo may be a bigger word for this because typical dizziness from playing a game is not vertigo or at least a severe or permanent form of it. But it is definitely serious and you should always take caution and read a game's manual where it shows warnings about physical health. So let's define what we are talking about here:

What is this feeling? What are the Symptoms?

When you play an FPS (First Person Shooter) game and the camera moves fast enough to shake your head, that feeling is dizziness. But if that feeling prolongs and your eyes and the head cannot follow up to it, you'll start feeling sick in the stomach, eyes with throbbing headaches and increased Blood Pressure. This is where you leave the game, and I advice you DO leave the game. However, this is not restricted to FPS games only. You can feel sick to many a games and real life situations and there are reasons to it, which I will list down in the following paragraph. Now, you must keep note here that the amount of pressure a game can put on your health varies to the patterns involved in triggering that feeling. Some games can just make you feel a little dizzy, some will make you feel sick with little nausea/headaches and others can be extreme like triggering epilepsy and vertigo. The symptoms can be as follows:

- Varied Dizziness
- Altered Vision
- Light Headedness
- Vision Displacement
- Stomach sickness / An urge to Vomit
- Eye or Nerve Twitching
- Muscle Contraction or Aching

Reasons for this feeling?

When I was young, the first game I picked up to play on my old 286 system was Duke Nukem. I was 8 years old and I played that game for 10 minutes with a friend. That game made me sick and I vomited shortly after. My gaming career is too long to detail here but I can list down games that have made me sick over these years, and most of them are FPS games. I avoid playing FPS games or games with a dodgy camera, which is one of the reasons for this feeling. I must also say that this feeling has started to climb down in the recent years, not because of my age but because of the advance in technology and how the games are made.

The patterns in video games that trigger this feeling may differ from one person to the other and that is entirely on how a person perceives or processes the information in front of him. Let me explain this through an example:

One knows that when a pilot controls an aero plane, he pulls the control lever downwards to make the plane go upwards. Now when you play games that simulate flight behaviors, they give you the same controls. If you press down on your controller d-pad, the plane should go up. But if those controls do not respond the way,  your mind thinks they should, you will feel uncomfortable and might say that it is unrealistic. So whenever you play a game, the information you engulf with your eyes is readily processed by your brain and if your brain evaluates the information to be wrong or "not the way it wants it to be", it will cause this feeling. Thus, this feeling can differ from one person to the other. Your brother can keep playing a game for hours and not feel dizzy but you might get sick looking at him play, in 5 minutes.

I have gone ahead and tried to figure out things that can cause this dizziness to happen. I will try to incorporate more factors into this later on.

Jittery Frame Rate or Lag
It turns out that whenever a game runs in a jittery manner and without consistent frame rates, it can induce this horrible feeling. For example, playing a fast game like Far Cry or Counter Strike requires that you have a firm control over your view and keep moving fast. This also requires that the camera be updated and moved as fast as possible. Now, if the game suddenly slows down due to graphical reasons or network issues, you'll start feeling irritated and might get dizzy.

Also, if a game is supposed to run at 30 FPS (frames per second) and it slows down on various intervals, you can start feeling the effects of that too. I have also noticed that most of the games that run on 30 FPS and 50 FPS induce mild nausea while playing. This somehow does and does not mean that games that run on 50Hz can behave the same. This is because the induction of this feeling is not entirely dependent on the game or the game platform itself. Your environment and your TV play a big role in this.

Uncontrollable Camera or Insanely Fast movement
This can be easily explained that whenever a person moves too fast or takes circles, he'll get dizzy. This is because the eyes cannot follow the motion fast enough and a feeling of confusion will cause you to get sick. In games, games like Tomb Raider and Counter Strike can have a very fast mouse scrolling rate, which can leave you vomiting on the floor. While playing games like Quake Arena, the characters move insanely fast and the camera is totally out of control. This can cause nausea very quickly.

Camera Centering
Again, it seems that Camera plays a big role in the creation of this phenomena. This is of course true since the game is seen through it . Many games have a procedure built into the programming of the Camera that it tries to re center itself every once in a while or due to an object blocking the viewing angle. If this happens frequently or if it is badly handled by the programmer, you'll instantly get sick.

Patterns (Light Strobes, Blood, Gore)
It is not always that you feel sick by moving or changing the camera angle. Certain points in a game can make you feel sick. I have heard people complaining about the water in Tomb Raider and Halo as well as COD4 that it makes them feel sick. This is also true to real life objects like Cliffs and high places. People who have issues with Motion Sickness can easily fall victim to those patterns in games.

Violent games like Quake and Gears of War have extreme Blood and Gore content. This can also lead to nausea and sickness. Some people are allergic to blood and objects alike. So this is also a contender in that.

Certain light patterns in games, for example in poker or card games can lead to light headedness and mild dizziness.

Camera Inversion
This may be one of the biggest reasons behind game sickness and nausea after other reasons attached with the camera, I explained earlier. Many games have a controllable camera but not all of them give the user complete control over it. This means that whenever the player wants, he/she can adjust the camera viewing angle as he/she sees fit in a 360 degree manner. The reason why this can cause dizziness is because of the following reasons:

- the speed and accuracy at which the camera moves when controlled by the player
- the direction of the camera when moved to as opposed to the directions given by the mouse or an analog stick. For example, if the user moves the control right and the camera moves left or if the user moves the control down and the camera moves up. This is called camera inversion.

Many games give the user an option to invert the axis of the camera according to their controls but many of them don't. This can be frustrating and certain people get sick very easily with how the camera controls respond to their actions.

Too much information on the Screen
Ok, this is another one I've seen people complaining about. Some people cannot digest the amount of information being updated rapidly on the screen. This means that there mind is not catching up to the pace of the information being fed to the eyes.  This can too lead you to sickness.

Ok enough Reasons, Are there any Solutions to this?

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, the reason I wrote this post was to help people find some solutions to this issue. Firstly, I must tell you that these solutions are really not that effective for playing and that if a game makes you feel dizzy, stop playing it. The world will not end if you don't play that game. Gift it to a friend if he can play it easily. You're better off with good health than some enjoyment with a game. OK?

Now i am going to divide this into two sections. First, if a game makes you sick, how do you correct it to play it. Second, if you are already sick, what do you do help to yourself.

Section 1: Making them play Right

Play in a well lit environment
You should always play in a well lit room, which does not put pressure on your eyes while playing. This will reduce the amount of light falling on your eyes and the concentration you require to view the screen.

Frame Rate / Screen Refresh Control
Ok, most games do not let you control the frame rate they run at. But some of them do. This depends on what platform you are playing the game at. For example, if you are running the game on a PC, you can tweak your Card's and game's graphical options to make it run more smoothly. Good Developers like EA and Capcom keep that option in there, so you can give it a try. You can also change your VGA to run at a higher Refresh Rate to help this out.

If you are playing on a TV using a console, you can try shifting from a 50Hz mode to a 60Hz mode and see if that helps you. You can also notice that if you run a game in Progressive mode, you're less likely to feel dizzy. Of course, you require a better quality TV for that to work.

Axis Inversion
Many recent games feature that option in Camera Control Settings. Many gamers including myself prefer that the camera moves to where I move my Mouse or Analog Stick. So if you find an Axis Inversion option in your game, try flipping that and you're less likely to feel dizzy. For example, I always invert the Y Axis to play Metal Gear Solid 4 or else I can't play it .

Camera Sensitivity / Mouse Scroll Smoothing
Many games have a shitty camera and that is because the programmers did a bad job programming it. If you find an option to control the sensitivity of how fast the camera moves to your controls, try adjusting that and it might help. I could never play Killzone 1 because of its awful camera and lowering the camera sensitivity helped me enjoy that game for hours.

CRT versus LCD / Old versus Modern
Ok, this is a definite must. If you have a big screen TV at your home and it is a CRT, please get rid of it and try to play your games on an LCD monitor or TV. If you can't then you should try to sit as far away as possible from your CRT screen. Also, I must tell you here that monitors and televisions capable of running at 100Hz or higher are less likely to induce you with this sickness. So this is a highly recommended change.

Viewing Angle
This may not be a big one but the angle at which you view the game screen does matter a lot. You should not look straight or under your TV screen. Make sure that you are a bit above the screen and the TV/monitor screen is a bit tilt adjustable to help with that.

Section 2: Ok, I am about to vomit, what do I do now?

I don't want to sound ironic but whenever a certain photographic pattern makes you dizzy, this could be bad for you. So immediately stop viewing it or you can worsen your situation to an extent of triggering Epilepsy or worse.  You can search around the internet and see for yourself, the cases people have posted.

Lie Down and Close your Eyes
Lying down straight or on your couch and closing your eyes will help you relax instantly. You can also try putting your elbow bent over your eyes to help with the pain in the eyes.

Wash your Face
If you feel that you are heating up and the feeling is uncontrollable. Go wash your face twice or thrice. Drink some water and then lie down again. Do not drink milk or any Soda. This will only worsen your situation. If you feel like vomiting, you possibly won't, but you may. It will help.

Go to Sleep
Just go to sleep, period. Sleeping for about 2-5 hours will eventually help you with this feeling. This has always solved it for me and I am pretty sure it will help you too.

What if it persists?
This is bad. If this feeling persists even after sleeping and you feel the same after one or two days and you change how you want to eat, then you should immediately consult a doctor. There is no fighting it, you should be careful with your health.

So, that was the longest post I ever wrote but I am happy that I put all the information I have ever known about this feeling in this post. Please feel free to contribute your experiences. I did not add any games that make me feel sick because it can vary from one person to the other.

Thank you and enjoy your games. Take care of your health and try not to over do it. I would like to mention Hideo Kojima and Metal Gear Solid 4 here because it was the first game that included content during it's loading that advised the player to take  a nap either if it is too late in the night or if he has been playing for too long.

MHAQS

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