ProgammerNetwork

> Gets a Linux (Ubuntu MATE) machine
> Tries out, likes it, throws Windows install CD away
> Alt has a cool HUD function for when you are too bored to used the mouse (I mean it, it's very useful.)
> Gets Wine
> Installs some games, they work just fine
> Installs .NET 3.5 and XNA, gets XNA XPS working fine
> "Y'know, I miss making XPS guns"
> Gets Blender
> Had already done research, enables execution
> Only right alt works
> "I can live with that"
> Ports a shotgun
> Updates Blender
> Alt does not work at all
> "oh well, it must be broken then"
> Goes to keyboard settings, remaps Win to Alt and Alt to Win
> Alt now works, but on Windows/Super key
> Firefox now shows menu when Win (Alt) is pressed
> Win key works on Alt (?), can lock screen with Alt (Win)+L
> Can't open HUD though
> Realizes the same behavior on a shiny new external keyboard
> "No, it isn't broken"
> Ports some more stuff, but keeps looking at keyboard in order not to type Win (Alt) instead of Alt (Win)
> Spends some time researching, is told to look at the terminal output of some weird stuff called "xev"
> xev reports alt was being hijacked by some other window I can't see
> Does some more research, is told that desktop utilities usually hijack shortcuts
> What has likely hijacked alt: HUD
> Goes to keyboard settings, finds no HUD shortcut
> Does some more resarch, finds out you need to go to dconf (the equivalent of going to registry editor in Windows, though it's a lot more user-friendly) and change the key there
> Changes shortcut from Alt to Win
> Undoes mapping Alt to Win and Win to Alt
> Alt+G finally works
> Feels like a haxxor.
> Wants to write a bug report to the Ubuntu MATE team: "pick a better shortcut maatays"

Some time ago two MMD porters asked me permission to port my XPS stuff to their platform.

Well, I don't mind if you port my stuff to other 3D programs or use these models to make sweps, skins or mods, as long as you follow these terms:

- Do not claim those as yours. Give credit to me and to the original authors of the models.
- Do not sell or bundle them in commercial products. I and the original authors of the models spent time making this stuff. And I was kind enough to release it for free. Please keep this price tag.
- (optional) Link back to the original XPS port.

Note: if you are using my models outside DeviantArt, please tell: "made by ProgammerNetwork on deviantArt", or else people using your port of my stuff might look for me on the website where you posted your mod/skin/swep/port/MMD/etc. rather than here, where I really am.

The porting of the SMT .40 was one of my hardest works. Let's look on how it was done.

1st: Getting SparkIV version 0.6.6.6

Of course, I had to get an GTA IV-compatible extracting tool. Well, installation went rather well, I grabbed a copy of GTAIV.exe on the internet (which is as illegal as porting itself; no profit, unable to play the game, but oh well, it's copyright infringement anyway.) and I let the program extract the cryptographic keys.

I opened the Fragtype model and tried exporting it as an SMD. I got a geometryless file. I assumed it was an issue with the program, so I moved to...

2nd: ...OpenIV...

but for some reason they export the models in an in-house format which has no importer to Blender, only for 3DS Max (is that a conspiracy to make everyone use 3DS Max? I mean, nearly every 3D model format in this world is 3DS Max only! Wat? Don't they know about Blender?). I didn't felt like researching the format and writing a Blender importer, as I have no experience with Blender plugins and the process would be very slow. And there are none on the internet, so I moved back to SparkIV, this time I went...

3rd: ...Deep into the code.

I grabbed the source code for SparkIV 0.6.6.9, so I could try finding out what I did wrong.  And then, in the export code, I found out you were meant to tick the geometry you want exported. I felt like an idiot.

I grabbed the binaries, as I've already downloaded them, ticked every possible item in the list, and finally, I got an SMD with geometry. But no, it wasn't ready yet, because of the UVs...

4th: UV flipping

I went to set up the materials, and then I realized every texture on every object went wrong. I tried every possible combination until I remembered about UV flipping. There was the problem.

I used Noesis to export the SMD as an OBJ with flipped UV maps. I was ready to go. The material setup worked, but at the XPS testing, I found out serious issues...

5th: Backface Culling Issues

When I moved the stock (which evidently wasn't meant to be moved in the game), I found out backface culling makes some parts of it disappear. Thankfully I found out a good tutorial on doubling faces and make backface culling not evil.

6th: Final Test and Release.

Nothing special.

Everything is super-abridged here, but this happened on a span of 5 hours. My hardest port.

Hardest Ports Rank

1st: SMT .40 - Everything above
2nd: Beretta Duo Version 1 - Rigging
3rd: Remington 870 - Rigging/Render groups

Mood explanation

One of my favorite YT channels is going to die...

I've been using Firefox since mid-2008s throwing away my highly unstable IE. Since then, I've been using Firefox a lot, until mid-2012s I changed to Google Chrome. However, the latest Chrome updates since late 2014s had severe impact on my PC. The first bootup after I uninstalled Chrome was 30s faster than before. After that, I started to use Firefox again.

Returning to Firefox seemed a good business at first, but each update added more useless power consumption and crap. Hello and Pocket, all of then I disabled from Firefox, especially because Hello has on the bottom, 'Powered by [guess who]'  and Pocket is useless when you have something called bookmarks and no other web-device (actually, I have a iPhone 4, but my browsing habits there are highly different from those on PC).

The latest update managed to be even more unstable than the crappy IE7 my 2008 PC used to run. Thank god no BSODs happened.

I'm not moving to Chrome again. Instead I'm moving to Palemoon, which is a Firefox clone without that hello and pocket crap.