BioShock Infinite Screenshots

No Spoilers, just some beautiful scenery. These are all gameplay screenshots –  no cutscenes.

Link to all screenshots: http://sdrv.ms/159OnMc

A few samples are below. Click on them to see the full-size original screenshots.

First Look at ArtRage 4

I'm a bit late in taking note of this –  ArtRage 4 released back in February. Look, ArtRage is the best value you are going for a painting program you are going to get on Windows or Mac (it runs on both). I've been recommending it for years, and ArtRage 4,0 still my top pick.

From a feature perspective there are a couple of nice improvements since ArtRage 3.5.5 but nothing major. Having said that let's look more closely.

The Application icon has received a minor tweak. The screenshot below is from the Windows 8 Start Screen with ArtRage Studio Pro 3.5.5 on the left and ArtRage 4 on the right. Apparently they've dropped the “Studio Pro” from the name.

Overall Application: ArtRage Studio Pro 3.5.5

Overall Application: ArtRage 4

The overall interface hasn't changed. You may notice though that some icons look a bit different.

However ArtRage 4 does have a special interface activated via View > Workbench Mode

The Workbench Mode is a minimal interface with a thin strip of tools at the top.

You can access all the brushes by click on the crush icon.

Clicking on color square yields special color picker.

I was already very please with ArtRage's minimal UI and easy-to-access fullscreen mode, so this Workbench Mode isn't that interesting to me.

If you want to see it in action, there's a YouTube video available of someone walking through some more UI changes and new feature

http://youtu.be/VCcuOuS4enQ 

Interlude: BALANCE by Tobias Hutzler

 Tension. 

Tobias Hutzler - BALANCE from Tobias Hutzler on Vimeo.

Start CMD.EXE and PowerShell in a Folder The Easy Way in Windows 8

Launching CMD.EXE or PowerShell in a specific folder got MUCH EASIER in Windows 8 thanks to the File Explorers's File Menu.

First open any explorer window. For example below is a folder in my local SkyDrive. Then click on the File menu in the upper left hand corner.

The first think you'll notice is that has a useful frequent places list.

To launch CMD.EXE:

To Launch PowerShell

But be aware of which folder CMD.EXE or PowerShell will be started in.

You can see thay the explorer window is open D:\saveenr\skydrive\Public

If nothing is selected as shown below

Then clicking on File > Open Windows PowerShell will start the PowerShell session in current location (D:\saveenr\skydrive\Public)

However, if something is selected, for example the Visio folder then the PowerShell instance will start in that folder (D:\saveenr\skydrive\Public\Visio)

It even supports multi-select –  if multiple folders are selected, then multiple PowerShell instances will be launched

Another Experiment with Fills and Effects in Visio 2013

I am still surprised Visio 2013 is capable of making images like this.

Get the original VSDX file here: http://sdrv.ms/YbO8Mx