Previously on Phil’s Newsletter: Double Dragon II kicked our asses again, I went to a ballgame and ate 3 hot dogs.
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The guests on this week’s edition of OpenCV Weekly were Anna Petrovicheva and Alexander Lyashuk of Modelplace.AI. Phil’s wrestling shirt of the week: Cease and Desist
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Introducing Modelplace
The big news over here this week is a product launch: Modelplace.AI, the Artificial Intelligence Model Marketplace from OpenCV. I wrote and narrated the launch video, which was edited by Breezy (a member of the OpenCV.ai team):
I feel pretty good about it. The downside is that I’m fuckin SPENT, folks. Launches are tough. It’d help me a lot if you could like and share the video/site this week!
Meet The Engineer
Me and my nephew played some Team Fortress 2 last night- it was their first playing and we did pretty damn well in Mann .vs. Machine mode. We played some Heavy / Pocket Medic and then I switched over to Engie. I like to make stuff.
It’s kind of amazing how TF2 remains extremely fun and playable almost 15 years after its original release. The amount of stuff they added over the years is staggering- and the ways in which it innovated community content, crafting, and the workshop is still being (badly, tbh) copied by huge games like Fortnite.
Well-crafted games never stop being fun. TF2 still owns. The music is still some of the best ever, to boot.
I Regret To Inform You That I Have Purchased Another Guitar
Last one, I swear. Probably. But look at the pretty (not my pic):
I got a pretty good deal on an demo model G&L ASAT Classic Bluesboy from Sweetwater. Prolly gonna name it Bruce/The Boss. I wanted a telecaster-style guitar for awhile, and this one is perfect with the semi-hollow body and a humbucker in the neck position. It greatly expands the shitty, dumb, sounds I’m able to make here in the studio. I can’t wait for it to get here.
Also on the music front, I’m working on a pack of reverb-heavy spaced-out drum loops made with my Korg Volca Beats, Monotron Delay and Monotron Duo. Patrons will get them for free, everyone else will be able to buy them on Bandcamp for a couple bucks. They’ll be freely-licensed. Watch this space.
OpenCV AI Competition News
Due to the circumstances of COVID and the global shipping and logistics issues involved, we’ve decided to extend the deadline for OpenCV AI Competition 2021. We notified participants earlier today. The new deadline for final submissions is August 9th.
Brad Doesn’t Suck
As mentioned last week, friend of the newsletter Brad Sucks released his first new album in a long time. I just got my vinyl copy. It is very good. I have listened to it a dozen times this week. It’s a pretty good soundtrack for my current existential crisis.
The Good Links
Come ‘n get em.
A partially restored deleted scene from the 1978 Lord of the Rings cartoon
So, like, someone made a handheld Virtual Boy. It’s incredible and beautiful.
Cyan Worlds released a ton of assets to OpenUru under a Creative Commons license
Valve Reused Half-life Code For Flickering Lights in Alyx 22 Years Later
Paul Debevec shows off his attempt to make a 3D model of his car using photogrammetry, 30 years ago
A new paper implies that the encryption method used in GPRS data was deliberately backdoored by its designer
Some kind soul remade the G-Man tech demo from 2003 in the new Source 2 engine. We’ve come a long way, baby
The shaders they’ve got working in the newest Lego game are incredible, it’s like visual ASMR
That’s all from me today. I am tired as hell.
— Phil
Wizard Tower Gamma, SoMA, San Francisco, CA, USA, Earth
06.17.21