creativity without the internet

i woke up one morning and found myself going to my computer to do a little bit of light work (as i do every second of every day - promise) but to my amazment the damn internet was cut off! i suddenly came to the realisation that i had no way to cheat my way through life O.o as someone had decided to cut me off! lets skip ahead a bit to the point where it sunk in.
life without the internet at around day three was becoming more of a fear than an irritation as i might actually have to nip to the librery more often than i usually do just to get somthing simple as an anatomy book. well it seems that having little to no outside influence made my creativness more than bland, it got me wondering if i lived in a time when there was no internet or it was just difficult to get connected, would i be producing the same work, would i be producing any work at all? what if my entire workload was reliant on me spending 90% of my time down the librery shifting from book to book in the hopes of finding something somebody had not yet noticed just so that i could get somthing interesting on paper, would the internets absance lead me this? and if so would i be any different as a person, student, brother or friend.
back in the 1960s when packet switching was coined i.e. the baby steps of the internet. people didnt even know the potential of other people on the other side of teh clobe, did einstein have the internet? no. so in what way did people pass on their creative aspects to others? well its simple. they just didnt. the furthest your ideas went were as far as the person standing next to you could pass it on but as soon as more and more people got connected to the internet it was made easier to get information from people without even being face to face. this leads me to my point, if i cant go without internet for 3 days i dread to think what creativity meant to people just 50 or 60 years ago. Was it a myth? or twinkle in someones eye? creativity isnt easy to define but its relitivly easy to find with the masses of people connecting each and every day.

creativity unleashed

reason why i'm going to really love my job in the future. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkgYret8syk&feature=related
the major feature that will make the games industry so much more interesting is the software that will be used to work with it. dire
cxtx 10 is a windows API that supports shader model 4.0. what it can do is take the strain of working out mutiple processors and sort of collapse them into multi threaded lines, almost like a que. this speeds up processing power allowing your console (hopfully) or pc to process more things faster thus allowing for the evolution of graphics.

shader model 4.0 comparison:

	PS_2_0	PS_2_a	PS_2_b	PS_3_0[2]	PS_4_0[3]
Dependent texture limit	4	No Limit	4	No Limit	No Limit
Texture instruction limit	32	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Position register	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Instruction slots	32 + 64	512	512	≥ 512	≥ 65536
Executed instructions	32 + 64	512	512	65536	Unlimited
Texture indirections	4	No limit	4	No Limit	No Limit
Interpolated registers	2 + 8	2 + 8	2 + 8	10	32
Instruction predication	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
Index input registers	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Temp registers	12	22	32	32	4096
Constant registers	32	32	32	224	16x4096
Arbitrary swizzling	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Gradient instructions	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Loop count register	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Face register (2-sided lighting)	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Dynamic flow control	No	No	No	24	Yes
Bitwise Operators	No	No	No	No	Yes
Native Integers	No	No	No	No	Yes

Vertex shader comparison

	VS_2_0	VS_2_a	VS_3_0[2]	VS_4_0[3]
# of instruction slots	256	256	≥ 512	4096
Max # of instructions executed	65536	65536	65536	65536
Instruction Predication	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Temp Registers	12	13	32	4096
# constant registers	≥ 256	≥ 256	≥ 256	16x4096
Static Flow Control	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Dynamic Flow Control	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Dynamic Flow Control Depth	No	24	24	Yes
Vertex Texture Fetch	No	No	Yes	Yes
# of texture samplers	N/A	N/A	4	128
Geometry instancing support	No	No	Yes	Yes
Bitwise Operators	No	No	No	Yes
Native Integers	No	No	No	Yes

i knew that shader model 4.0 enhanced 3d applications and games possibilities in quality but not to the extent that the charts show. it basically runs the same amount of processes in terms of rendering all the effects on screen but at a blinding speed with almost no limit.

an example of the evolution in 3d, direct x10 hardware can borrow ram from your computer if it needs to. basically it upgrades itself. no need to care about a graphics cards on board ram any more as long as you have them expansion slots filled.

to get to the point direct x applications will allow the games industry to go that 1 extra leap forward and create more life-like games with more AI running at once (qued processors). enhanced for multi core processors as well.

if its to much information at once, the simplest way to put it is direct x 10 will allow game artists to be more creative with their tools and with much higher texture sizes and poly budgets, freedom!

well finally finnished myself as a fool. no normal or spec yet and about 180 polys over budget but overall i enjoyed doing this project. it realy helped me build up my skills in max and my judgment skills.

i think i look really unhappy in this model but i guess i would be if i had to wear something like that.
the major increase in poly cound came at the higher amounts of curves in this model but i kind of used the polys for the prop to make it so im closer to 500 polys over.

this is me so far. I'm just under triangle count and will probably fill it up with my glasses but until then i think i look pretty close.

i found modeling myself one of the hardest things i have ever had to do in max. it was like starting all over again. my reference was off and because of this it took about 4 attempts at my head to get something i was satisfied with.

please feel free to comment on anything.

sorry ive been buisy with drawing work :D
thanks for teh praise dude and as requested the low poly mesh. still not had time to finish the final tho D:
its only a jpg atm because blogger is a bit you know...naff! :x
i could defiantly take a few polys out but to be honest i couldn't be bothered. i just wanted to texture normal and specular it :D

prolly will finnish it soon once i get some free time. untill then...back on teh shelf it goes :O

I found the character designing project to be quite difficult at start as it was so broad a task. "design a character that is organic" so i took steps to narrow the project down a little. weather it was giving it a setting or just reverse engineering other organic characters to see what they have in common. eventually i created an idea with a back story thats pretty well detailed and explains the characters quite comfortably.

breaking boundaries

(creativity part1)
creativity? what is it? where is it and how can i get more of it?
creativity. highlighting the last video about Ken Robinson's views on creativity in schools being over looked and treated as second class subjects, granted creativity is defiantly being overlooked but there are still creative people out there that struggle against adversity to allow their views to be expressed, which is one of the many definitions for creativity "poiein" or "to make", in ancient greek times. this was the word that was used in place of somthing they didnt have "creativity" muses were thought to be the source of all poiein. in a place and a time where the word didnt even exist, the meaning and practice was still apparent everywhere.


creativity is boundaries that are broken and new ideas that are expressed. in schools today creativity is not entirely as wide spread as it should be but creativity can not be taught, a tutor can only give a pupil the space to be creative, not the tools.


(creativity part 2)

i was reading another blog recently and found that they made a comment that got me thinking. he explained that at the end of the day the science student could save lives but the dance student could only entertain. i found a link that explained there was a decision made between International Center of University for Peace and Brazilian Institute for Innovations in Public Health to create a day of urban peace in Toronto (http://www.schoolswithoutborders.com/SWB/Events/CreativityUnleashed.aspx) with the use of dance festivals, painting seminars, dancing and allot of other things that get the children out of the streets in an attempt to stop them from killing each other - the city of Toronto is one of the worst effected places for street crimes, much of which are murders - which leads me to my point, a dance student could have a part in saving lives, so could the arts student.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4AqFW3wbmo

Creativity is geared totally towards saving lives but it can be used to get children and adults alike to focus on something to express themselves.

(creativity part3)

as far as i can remember my start on the road to creativity began when i was about 9 or 10 and i found that i liked to break things and put them back together to make something else - mainly weapons to scare off my brother with - i once made a crossbow out of an umbrella that actually worked rather well. i really enjoyed just making things, thats sort of why i ended up doing stop motion animation as my college f.m.p. college was the biggest learning curve in creativity that i can remember as my tutor was brilliant. the way he taught was almost trickery, you didn't know he'd taught u anything until u actually got out of college and instinctively thought in a complete different way to when i entered his class on the very first day. if i didn't go to that college on that particular year (he quit his job at multimedia the next year) i wouldn't be here today and id probably be working in McDonald's right now!

(creativity part 4)

For we are God's own handiwork, (His workmanship)…that we might do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us…(Eph. 2:10).

this bible verse exposes the meaning that we are all created for a purpose and that until we find the meaning to our own existence we will always be left with the question "who am i and what am i doing with my life" in short creativity is thought to be a devine way of making people different (gods handy work) what if creativity was defined some other way by i non religious people? Would that make creativity nothing to do with got thus making us different some other way.
to the best of my knowledge world renound painter van Gogh suffered from a severe genetic disease called AIP (acute intermittent porphyria) this disease causes, psychoses, hallucinations, convulsions and paralysis. hallucinations and psychosis and the abuse of absynth wich contains a drug that causes people to see with a yellow hue (thought of as van goghs favourite color) are argued to be the cause or creation of some of van goghs "devine" paintings or creative outlets. but this is just theory. van gogh could also have been given more than his fair share of gods grace.

one day maybe creativity will be defined as an illness or gods greatness. but as far as i can tell, everyone could be very sick in their own way.

task to create and rig a character. i chose to create my own rather than take the offered alternative. its my first attempt at a character using max and mudbox in tandum. I decided to try out making a high poly mesh to normal map my low poly character. this is an example of how i managed to make my high poly into a noraml for my low poly. there are around 1.2million polys that make up this model with another 1.5 making the total character.



















this is the unfinished max version with normal. when the textures are finished the character will be more jester like than alien looking. the gray was just a base mesh color to see what the normal looked like but i may stick with it depending on how the other colors mix with it.

all in all I've had fun doing this project as it gave me chance to warm up my skills for the up coming 2nd year.

Currently the course has suited me brilliantly, I'm coming along with all aspects of it with no hindrance at the moment. I would like to have more outings such as conferences and the like, gathering peoples opinions and information off the net is second hand. It would be more beneficial to find current news about games and situations in games from people rather than the internet and news.

the games industry is such a vast area of expertise from animators to molders to artist. i would gain allot of insight into being able to do more non computer based learning such as modeling or workshops that link to our current project and with lectures that also reinforce our current projects too. doing more diverse art would be welcomes such as manipulating a landscape painting into 3d and putting it into a game engine.

looking at film and animation is a great idea as it would allow me to look more into creative story telling, as well as understanding some characterization and production workings.

i was talking to some friends and we agreed that understanding why we are doing something would help a great deal, almost as much as what and when.

Taking a peak a GDCs site showed me that many new game developments are under way with next gen hardware and software that allows for ultra fast rendering and level creation in almost a blink of an eye. games such as crysis show some lengths games developers go to create these next gen games.

Reading a magazine a few weeks back lead me to believe that the advancement in hardware for pcs would allow the main processor of a pc to take on multi threading with new heights and generate AI that is currently unheard of in games today. what if a character ran behind a tree that had randomly fallen (possible never to fall there again) and use it for cover, or decide that a stream was to cold to cross thus they would run the bank to find an warmer place to cross. this also allows for some graphical advancement as the processor will be doing the A.I. work but the GPU would be taking on the frame rates, giving the stunning view from atop the sky's.

As far as games like crysis and far cry go. they intended to give the character a little bit of freedom but not to much (oblivions quick jump) to involve the character in gorilla warfare, actually experience what it would be like to take on a load of bad guys in a jungle but still give boundaries for a character not to walk to far away from the story. this is all part of interactive story telling. many games such as final fantasy have emotional attachments to characters and working this in can also be a part of interactive story telling. If a strong dramatic point in the game is apparent, it could over shadow any minor more subtle points in the game.

Games often support a wide verity of tricks to fool the player into attachments and believability, to make the game a memorable experience. at the current state games are beginning to make use of graphics and careful story telling to make a game seem more real and immersive to the player but as it stands to date, games in general are still only trying, cracking that perfect balance is a step - in my opinion - that has yet to be taken.

Getting in to university was a big step for me and my family as most of my immediate family have never been. its a new concept to my parents and thus they are fearful - rightly so i suppose - but i knew from the outset what i wanted to do required an education from tutors with history in the field. this started my craving for higher education in some respect but also wanted to make my family proud, in some ways.

apart from changing the way i think university will hopefully bring me up to scratch with what i need to take a role in the industry. some of the skills id like to develop are my self motivation and confidence as well as my technical skills but as it stands learning at the pace i am currently
giving me so much understanding in all areas.

For as long as i can remember i have been playing games and drawing, now i have the chance to put my ideas and development to critique. One thing i have always found to be fundamental to teaching things fast isn't just being told how and when to do something but also told why i am doing it. This gives me a basis to learn from and makes me remember key things much faster.

As far as disciplining my mind goes, in college my tutor was a pretty intuitive person. he was an out-the-box thinker, if u will. he gave me an understanding into things some people may over look and thankfully these things are being reinforced now, proves it wasn't all for nothing and that im going to be expected to think differently.

At the end of the course I'm going to take on the games industry, i feel i will have the knowledge and skills to do this effectively.

creatus "to have grown" -wiki

creativity or Latin term creatus means "to have grown" (wiki) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollo_May Creativity according to psychologist Rollo may is the final and foremost stage of a person. although these stages are described as being somewhat erratic they can be considered a list of what people can go through in various stages of their lives. such as a child can be quite rebellious but so can a teenager. Creativity - "Creativity is not merely the innocent spontaneity of our youth and childhood; it must also be married to the passion of the adult human being, which is a passion to live beyond one's death." Rollo may. I perceive this as a description that a person creativity is driven to keep something of themselves alive even after they cease to exist. creativity would possible be a persons foremost understanding that they are not going to live forever and need to show their inner most feelings before they pass, they stand up and have one last final breath before reaching the finishing line. Probably why Rollo may puts creativity last. as it require most of the previous - innocence, rebellion, decision, ordinary, - be activated by a person. creativity is developed over time and put to practice with passionate accuracy when the time comes. creativity is a mixture of the motivation knowledge and thinking outside the box. thinking up new solutions and ideas as well as being able to adeptly solve puzzles or understand the in understandable. creativity in children and in adults can be vastly difference according to benchmarks, after all children are children first. creativity as a word means to have grown but does that mean that creativity has to be waited on until later years or can a young enthusiast show signs of creativity? creative thinking: knowledge creative wanting: motivation creative doing:skills all three key points can be shown in just about everything people do in their daily lives, people are creative in their own ways and in their own situations (age does not apply) wether it be drawing a pretty picture for a parent or designing a ground breaking sky scraper, creativity is a trait we all posses in some form.

"The Games Game"

Does it really matter if a company wants an art based student or a game art student. each type has its own place, downfalls and benefits as the game industry employees many people from different backgrounds, some of which are from animation, movie, and business backgrounds that in later life found a love for games. all walks of life get into the industry with different backgrounds in which some are totally unrelated to games but those of us that are just starting out with a small portfolio and no experience in the industry can gain this from the careful nurture of experienced people already in the industry.

there are always people there than can teach and there is always someone to learn. this basis gives a slightly opened door to the chosen path that people may chose to take as some people are stuck in this position;

"How on earth do you get game experience if you don't already have game experience? Isn't that a chicken-and-egg kinda problem?"

without some basis we are (relatively speaking of course) screwed. thats where higher education with the aid of knowledgable people come into play to give people like me a kick start when its well and truly needed, where as some people with art degrees have the skill, would this benefit them in a company that doesn't teach time management, game art history, game culture. its like jumping head first into something you thought you knew but ultimately wasn't.

a keen knowledge and drive for the industry was well as an arts background helps, sadly not all people posses god like powers, that allow them to be good at everything (although some do, damn them!)

if games centered educators decided to get up one day and quit. who would be left to teach the knowledge of old, you would find art graduates asking "whats a game culture?" and our link to games history would be lost to a select few that keep it to themselves.

at the end of the day many people have different talents weather it be in art or in games, different companies take on a diverse range of talents and skills to suite them and before long everyone will realize that games and art are fundamentally the same concept but expressed in different ways.

a slice of game history

How is sound used in games?
ever since the first games rolled in on us, sound has been apparent throughout as a medium or identity in wich people describe or remember games. many people can say they remember the mario tune and probebly humb it to. sounds can often be found to be more famous than the composer or even the game itself.

some audio can be an expression of the games visual style and intended mood such as silent hills "promise reprise" not to mention its overly aerie ambient sound effects. games can often be used a psychological tools to get a person to buy or play a game. almost as if someone is saying "coming over here and play this game"
if i am to be honest audio in games has scared me, made me cry, even made me hate a particular character. any form of audio in games has the ability to make you fight on(halo theme tune) my brother learnt the halo theme tune on his guitar just because its an uplifting i wanna kill some bad guys tune.
music can also conjure up an "i don't wanna know whats behind that door". feeling. (silent hill)

In the early 170s music was difficult to incorporate into games as they were cumbersome and quite delicate but a "more affordable method of having music in a video game was to use digital means, where a specific computer chip would change electrical impulses from computer code into analog sound waves on the fly for output on a speaker." similar in fact to the progression of soundtrack to final fantasy 1 through to 12. you ca just about notice the distinct difference in the tones. before long in games were able to take more channels of audio without aking up to much space thus allowing for vocals to be heard in video games and as to date composers are able to play with more than 250 channels of audio.
Akira Yamaoka: silent hill
Nobuo Uematsu: final fantasy
Yoko Shimomura: super Mario, parasite eve, legend of man, kingdom hearts.
jeremy and julian soule: prey
are just some of the major composers on games to date.
"good times" was the most influential songs of the time period and the song left the way for grand master flash's' "Adventures on the Wheels of Steel" and the Sugar hill Gang's single, "Rapper's Delight". it has been used by many hip hop and dance recordings since its release.

game engines

A game engine is a technology many are familiar with, it calculates graphics physics animation a.i. sound scripting etc. game engines are a fundamental piece of design, created to simplify a structure to a game for programmers, allowing the creation of a fantasy world. many game engines are used today and are some of the most recognizable aspects of a game, such as
Unreal Engine 3, Doom 3 engine, CryENGINE2, RenderWare, Gamebryo, Virtools Source engine
these engines are the more famous engines as they implement something different than the others, such as physics or graphical potential. game engines are also used as "game middle ware" as they can be reused on many platforms and in different games. a structure or scaffolding if you will.
This scaffolding can be either subtractive or additive, meaning, either the world is carved out of a giant mass inside of a game engine (subtractive) i.e. unreal engine, or a game is created in an empty space "void" out of an infinite space of nothingness(additive) i.e. half-life engine.
both styles of games have their advantages and disadvantages. most game creators carve a fake "void" out of the subtractive mass and enlarge it as they see fit.
buying into middle ware can often come with pricey consequences with your game. such as hidden liscences that take a few long late nights deciphering the legalese so not to be sued in later development. installing correct versions in the right place can be a disadvantage but finding that a new version has popped up and changed formats and or given more bugs can halt a game in its tracks for extended periods of time. to boot a middle ware game engine is usual designed for specific physics such as cry engine or half life engine. these specific engine characteristics may not even have been thought of in a game, also these features may have hidden the fact that the engine may not have something simpler such as a decent lighting effects.
where middle ware software has problems it also has advantages in its application for a cheap quick game release. its much faster to learn an existing engine than to create then learn one of your own (not to mention cheaper) many people would have used the existing game engine on multiple formats platforms and versions this would have allowed for many bugs to be found and eradicated (piece of mind) forums and other unofficial and official advice centers would have been established due to the engines reuses over the period of time since its release.
despite destructible worlds and amazing visual effects that are partly coming into place now with crysis and other leading games in development, games are also in the pipeline that will take on new ways of a.i. for example it has been released that quad core computers can now multi task to a point of total realism "if Gordon sat down to play chess with DR Kleiner, for example, a spare core would be dedicated to running a deep blue chess simulator to ensure they played a realistic game" pcgamer 2007 issue 107. these software advances through hardware development will be pushed to the limit with new physics applications too. to be first seen in the half life engine.

too much WoW!

since i can remember I've been an major fan of mmorpgs, well any game, through which i can actually interact with real people. this one aspect of an internet virtual environment (V.E.) part of the online gamers world is playing the game itself which is rather basic to online veterans but second to this is interaction with other avatars(players) from around the globe. part of gaming cultures is to compete with others in you niche', online games are a major example to this. whether they are fps rpg rts. they all take on some form of competition. most of these competitions take up serious amounts of people patience and time, I've clocked around 50 or so days in one such mmorpg.
as one gets to know his culture or niche he finds himself online more often that he should be, making invisible friends, maybe starting a complete fantasy life that takes up more than its fair share of a persons time. http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2005/11/21/wow_lawsuit/

as far as gaming culture developed into many different niches, people still ignore and refuse to accept that gaming cultures are widely apparent and get to people in many different formats, such as forums, blogs, articles, games themselves, face to face chat, even if they don't wish to believe so. gaming cultures are what drive people to debate -key word- compete and argue over what they believe is to be true, whether it be games or any other medium. people take part in gaming cultures through the many formats to be more involved in their chosen culture. In truth gaming cultures have formed many derivatives and kind-of split games in different independent pieces, such as video game music (http://www.videogameslive.com/index.php?s=home) and commonly known retro games. everyone that is interested in the games industry knows of or is part of the games culture by default, but it is up to them to take it a step further to be more involved.

everyone that i call friend -that is interested in games- likes some form of game derivative and that is why the game industry will continue to interest all gamers and non gamers alike, who knows maybe in the future something new will come of game cultures. its a partly unexplored area of games and with every new game style or game development comes a new niche for people to take part in.

games industry

How is the industry doing? the games industry is pushing the boundaries of technology through ever increasing need for betting games that result in technology advancement and in short requires even more staff to produce a game title. this is forcing the game industry to grow exponentially but as the industry grows so do the team sizes and with it a larger budget is always needed, thus even with the reuse of common game engines for example "cry" (crysis, far cry) games developers are taking a page from smaller indie companies and marketing their games online to reduce overall prices. cutting out the middle man. this increases the royalties from an average of 20% to almost 100% as the publisher is taken out of the picture.

As the strain on the game industry begins to get worse many of the design team move around to find better job prospects in the game industry or even create their own smaller companies.
the increasing under recognition of talent in teh industry has also lead for staff members to just up and leave to create their own niche' in the games industry thus the cycle begins again.
currently the games staff movement isn't the only issue. game liscences also effect the games industry when developed for consoles as the publishers must secure multiple liscences in order to start a game and more licenses to distribute and advertise the game. in the future tha game industry is going to face a short fall as increased stress on development teams is costing far more than in the earlier years, as a result the industry will increase the prices of their hardware and software.

the Japanese industry is more a cultural niche' and will always be a need for games no matter the price but this is very much different in the western world as alot of people don't care for games and those that do may find themselves a little out of pocket to affort "next gen" titles

Psycho babble...

Game play? game play? play, game. What exactly is this thing?
And why is it important?
Does it exist as a definable set of rules?
Can it be designed into a game, or is it the random convergence of several interacting factors?
Is it even important?
I woke up to a new PC in the middle of December realizing the fact that i could play games simultaneously with my brother. the first game we chose was America's Army its a rather simple first person shooters for those that do not no of it. on arrival into the game i began to realize that the games graphics are somewhat dated and the animations cumbersome but my brother and me play this game blindly for some reason. could this be game play or do i just enjoy the sheer fun in, kill....competing with American gamers. It usually takes me a while to come down to earth and play a good ol' game that has anything short of beautiful graphics but i play AA just as much as i play for example battle field 2142.














i have a small explanation that may explain why i enjoy playing them both. where as battlefield you are part of a small army and can fight for your cause or run aimlessly into the wilderness if you so desire, AA each man counts for a larger percentage of the game. its almost possible for 1 man to fight for your teams survival against an entire 16 man squad and win. the 'Game Play' is involved in AA competes with battlefield and over shadows the graphics somewhat. this is why i beleive game play exists -even if some critics and game developers don't- and is a fundamental part of a games development, however AA may have been a complete accident as it was originally intended to train and test actual recruit's for the army, therefore it is possible that game developers did in fact overlook what hey were creating.

game play as a hole could be developed into a game through in built factors scattered throughout a game. such as development of team work to be a more necessary to accomplish a final goal

"A game should encourage player interaction. Players should not be so far apart that a player has to venture 3 or more turns in the same direction to reach another player, especially if it is a space game. In a strategy game, a player who sits back and does not get involved should not benefit while others fight it out. As well as gaining resources, one suggestion is that a player's units increase in strength with experience.

gameplay can be directly influenced by playing a game with more than one person for a shared goal but this is an example of only one factor that contributes to game play. there are more factors that make up game play such as, story, characterization, emotion, realism.

game play is i word i consider to be used when a player likes a game and when the game developers don't know really how they have done it, but some game developers use psychology and manipulation to add something more to their game, therefore is game play a psychological or a physical factor? ill think about this some more and try to give a definite answer