Ask Paul: December 4 (Premium)

Happy Friday and welcome to the last month of the most terrible year of our lives. Let’s get the weekend started a little early with some reader questions.
2.5D
ErichK asks:

Paul, Duke Nukem 3D wasn't a true 3D engine was it? My understanding is that honor goes to Quake.

Right, Duke Nukem 3D was not true 3D, it was what I think of as “2.5D” in that it faked 3D space, like the ability to be above other objects, when everything was actually flat. You can see this in the player and enemy sprites, for example, and on the first level there’s a great spot to see this weirdness if you jetpack up the side of the building in the back alley and look down. But it was still an incredible technical (and gameplay) advance over previous 3D-like games (DOOM and so on), and the ability to destroy in-game elements was impressive.

I’m not sure if Quake is literally the first “true” 3D game, but it probably is, and it was real 3D in that everything in the game, except for the skies, if I remember correctly, are 3D elements. The player and enemy characters were 3D objects with depth and height, but even the light sources were 3D.

It’s impossible to overstate how technically impressive all three of these games---DOOM, Duke Nukem 3D, and Quake---were in their day. Each was an important step forward. And Quake triggered the push to hardware-accelerated 3D graphics. We still live in that world today.
Fitbit inconsistencies
cwfinn asks:

Has anyone else noticed the disconnect between the Fitbit Android app and the fitbit.com web dashboard numbers? Resting heartbeat on tracker 62, Android app 62 fitbit.com dashboard 63?! Web dashboard shows "Active minutes" Android app shows "Active Zone Minutes" using a different metric?! Have they lost their way at Fitbit while awaiting the Google takeover, oops, merger? The Versa 3 is a wonderful device with crappy software behind it. Sigh...

I could write a book about this kind of thing. I used to have to visit the Fitbit website because it wasn’t possible to edit activity of sleep using the Android app, but now that both are possible, I don’t even bother with the website anymore. Thanks to your question, I did look at it, of course. And ... yeah, this Google acquisition can’t happen soon enough.
iPad Pro or Chromebook?
eeisner asks:

I'm trying to help my mom upgrade her machine. She's currently on a Surface Pro 5 and is mad that her battery life is shot. Considering all she does is browse the web, send emails, read in bed, and occasionally edit an excel file or edit a photo, I'm pushing her towards either an iPad pro or convertible Chromebook. The iPad Pro would be perfect except that she is a Galaxy user and doesn't want to exist in two ecosystems (having to re-buy apps, no texting from the iPad, etc). What direction would you recommend?

Ah boy, choosing between an iPad and a Chromebook is kind of a tough one. They’re still very different devices.

I don’t personally fin...