Tutorial How-to – Shadowgun On Non-Tegra Devices
Friends! I bring to you Shadowgun! Probably one of the most bad ass Android games to date. It’s Tegra only so if you have a tegra device you are good to go. Nab the game, install, download, done. If you don’t have a tegra device you aren’t left out in the cold. Here’s how you get this epicness working.
- Grab Chainfire3D https://market.android.com/details?id=eu.chainfire.cf3d The free version should work just fine.
- Grab the Chainfire plugins which include the tegra plugin. http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4P9LEW7P
- Finally grab the Shadowgun 1.0.2 APK file. I do not condone piracy. You do this at your own risk. Buy the game it’s that good! http://brockh.at/tiOUcP (google search)
- Install chain fire.
- Install Shadowgun.
- Unrar the plugins(should have 3 zip files).
- Copy the zip files to your SD card.
- Open Chainfire install the chainfire driver(requires phone reboot).
- Open Chainfire again. Choose Install plugins/shaders.
- Install the Nvidia plugin.
- Go to “Per-app OpenGL settings”
- Tap Shadowgun
- Uncheck “Use default settings”
- Check “Reduce texture size” and “Disable MapBuffer emu”.
You can now run the game. If you want it even more buttery smooth and don’t mind giving up a little visual quality you can also check “reduce texture quality”. It’s also worth noting this little tweak could be applied to any tegra game you want to run and can also be used to increase performance for demanding non-tegra games especially if you are on an older device.
Happy hunting!
PSP a GO GO. Or, how to GOify your standard PSP.
Whats a PSP love’n gamer to do these days? The Vita looks fantastic but is still several months out. The PSP GO is just kind of awkward but the standard PSP isn’t quite cloud ready. The cost of Memory Stick is kind of cost prohibitive and carting those UMDs around is a pain. If you are a Playstation Plus member you also have access to a pretty decent collection of free Mini’s that run on your PSP and quite a few discounted price full PSP games in digital form. So how do you throw out the UMDs and bolster your storage capacity with out breaking the bank? (more…)
Netflix On Android First Look
The long expected has finally happened. The gods of streaming video have finally seen fit to bestow uppon us lowely Android users the full fledged Netflix experience on Android devices. Well some of them at least. The following devices are the first to be supported:
- HTC Incredible with Android 2.2
- HTC Nexus One with Android 2.2, 2.3
- HTC Evo 4G with Android 2.2
- HTC G2 with Android 2.2
- Samsung Nexus S with Android 2.3
Luckily I just swapped out my Droid 1 for a Droid Incredible and I’m able to take advantage of the experience. So lets get in to it.
All is not silky smooth but still functional. The bumps in the road started immediately when my search for Netflix on the Android Market turned up 20-30 apps and the official app wasn’t at the top of the heap. At first I thought I couldn’t get the app for some reason but after making two or three swipes worth of scrolling I spotted the app. The download was reasonably fast as the content required is mostly text. The app is nicely laid out and functional but for some reason the UI seems slow and a little unresponsive. Once you get down the point of the app which is watching video you’ll find its a pretty pleasant experience.
I’m at work as I write this so I am unable to test on Wifi but I think most of us are really interested in how well it works while you’re out and about. Video over 3G seems to buffer fairly quickly. 15-20 seconds from hitting play to video playing. Video starts off fairly low quality and as your buffer grows and it adjusts to your connection speed it quickly focuses to a crystal clear image. As expected your quality adjusts as the video plays so if your signal starts to drop you’ll notice the quality go down. Over all it runs great on the go with no hitches noticeable during the two entire episodes of “The IT Crowd” I managed to squeeze in before having to shout to the world how awesome finally having Netflix on Android is!!!!
I speculate that the hackers and devs out there will have this APK working on other devices quite quickly. With in 24 hours if I have to guess. Hopefully Netflix is quick to push this to more devices bringing Android in line with the Apple products.
Google Android Needs a Style Guide
I’ve suggested this for discussion on a few Android related blogs and yet to see this get any talk time. Android needs a style guide. In kind of a bad way. While it’s seeing a lot of up take and it’s gaining ground on market share it’s headed for a bad spot if Google doesn’t take some steps to clean some things up. I’m not saying everything needs to look and act the same every where but having a mostly common UI for things I think would help the uptake of the platform immensely. For example if they simply released some suggested guidelines for how far away from the edge of the screen is good/best for button elements to be or standardize common locations for common buttons e.g. File, Edit, View in the Windows world.
I’m not saying Google has to crack down on it or anything but may be put a system in place similar to the way they maintain the OS and offer a ‘Google’ stamp if programs meet the minimum style standards or something. That way I always know how to find the settings for a program and I get to feel at home even with a new media player. Comfort and familiarity play in to usability as much as originality and style.
RANT: Windows Phone 7
May be because I didn’t go to the Microsoft launch event for Windows Phone 7 and wasn’t threatened by a large man ready to break my knee caps if I don’t stick to Microsoft’s ridiculous naming convention but why does the media keep calling it that!? It’s sooo ridiculous and we all know that if the crowd demands it companies give it up. So lets us, as in all of us, quit calling it that! Lets either call it Windows Phone, because series 8 doesn’t exist so we’re not going to get it confused. Or, call it what we’ve been calling it till Microsoft mandated this stupid name and call it Windows Phone 7. From this point on I refuse to type that entire kermudgeon of a name and you should too!
