How an off-hours project, a rising YouTuber, and a unique Discord-driven release strategy came together for a game-of-the-year candidate.

Consider watching this video with FreeTube, a nifty open-source program that lets you watch YouTube videos without Google spying on your viewing habits!

Combined with Libredirect, which automatically opens youtube links in Freetube, it becomes really slick and effortless to use.

Other than Smite, what video games have a lot of playable mythological pantheons? I already know about Megami Tensei, Persona, and Fate video games, what about others?

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/25192334

This is a heavily cut playtest of my revived Thrustmaster F-16 FLCS joystick and Cougar throttle quadrant of my ViperPit. Both were refitted for USB-C with Arduino Pro Micros: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYiPFDpHwmc

The cockpit panel is part of my VF-1 inspired home cockpit which interfaces with X4 via a homebrew Lua socket I programmed. You can read more of this on the dedicated project page at https://simpit.dev/

The game is X4: Foundations with the Battlestar Galactica mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/1167

If you enjoy SimPit|s (or any home cockpit / simulated cockpit) and Battlestar Galactica make sure to also check the awesome Colonial Viper builds of https://www.youtube.com/@projectcolonialviper2094 and https://www.youtube.com/@BuildsByBaz 🤘

Hundreds of Bethesda video game workers, who work on titles like Fallout 76 and Elder Scrolls, are going on strike across the country. Workers in Maryland and Texas are walking off the job, claiming that the company has failed to address their remote work concerns at the bargaining table, and has begun outsourcing quality assurance work without the union's agreement.

The union is looking to limit the percentage of quality assurance testers the company outsources in comparison to the number of full-time workers present in its bargaining unit. It would not share details on where Microsoft has chosen to outsource labor to.

The union is also seeking a more flexible remote work policy. ZeniMax workers are currently required to go to the office twice a week, and many, the union says, are being denied their remote work requests. Eichner says that the company has repeatedly ignored the union's remote work proposal.

This one flew under my radar so far (haha, sorry):

Rescue the civilians, race the clock, and raze the enemy in MH-Zombie, the world’s only helicopter arcade simulator! Three flight physics modes, three difficulty modes, and a tutorial mode provide a stepped learning curve and wider accessibility to realistic helicopter flight.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1429350/MHZombie

The reason this came to my attention is because it’s one of the few games that [just] implemented head tracking via UDP e.g. available by OpenTrack (and various others). This is great because it doesn’t force people to jump the hoops of TrackIR, which is only supported for Windows and officially limited to their proprietary devices. See this in action at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMGFdO7VXiY

Apparently it’s written for mobile games but runs on PC as well – that seems to include Linux PC which even makes this a LinuxGaming title! 🤓

I don’t know about you but for 3 bucks I’ll totally get this for the occasional pew pew fun. Game seems to be a labour of love so sharing is highly appreciated.

[alt text: a 4-panel comic by Safely Endangered. The first panel depicts Kirby in the doctor's office, telling a doctor, "I don't feel well". The doctor resembles Dr. Mario. In the second panel, the doctor is placing his stethoscope on Kirby's "chest" and saying, " Ok, breathe in." The third panel depicts Kirby inhaling and sucking the doctor's entire body into his mouth. The fourth and final panel shows Kirby wearing the doctor's head mirror, and he is standing in the doorway of the doctor's office, looking at the receptionist, and saying, "Sharon, send in my next patient".]

Late post sorry about that.

I've been playing a lot of UFO 50. Finished golfaria and started night manor.

Also played through the puzzle game escape from mystwood mansion. It was decent. A little short but good overall.

Steam store pages received a new Anti-cheat field. Disclosure is mandatory for kernel-level anti-cheat solutions. And recommended for other anti-cheat solutions (like server-side or non-kernel-level client-side).

The field discloses the anti-cheat product, whether it is a kernel-level installation, and whether it uninstalls with the product or requires manual removal to remove.

This game is so pointless and forgettable that I can't even be bothered to write a description. It sucks, don't play it. Watch my video instead!

#ubisoft #nft #garbage

Invidious, an alternative YouTube client in the browser without using YouTube directly (more private): https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=VH_8arwuRz8

Video Description:

This is why I don't download game mods. Another backdoor has been found, this time in a popular modular for City Skylines 2 by paradox games. Checkout what happened in this video.

reddit.com/r/antivirus/comments/1gh4qp0/popular_mod_for_a_game_may_have_been_malicious_no

I am a really big fan of base building in RTS games, which is why I never liked Starcraft. Bases in Starcraft feel like they have such little rhyme or reason. They are messy and ugly. I always build a ton of bases in games like Tiberian Sun, that, while gameplay wise, are a waste of time and money, feel fun to build and fun to defend and destroy. I think a really cool strategy game idea would be a logistics themed game. One where building more realistic bases all over a map is a strategy so that they can supply and support each other. Maybe you start out with a FOB and you need to expand into guerilla held territory, but you need to build COPs and Logistics centers to keep your troops supplied and protected.

I always hated in Starcraft how clicks per second is a means to measure how effective some one is at the game. I really want to see a game where tactics and unit composition matter, where a platoon of mechanized infantry face off against like a BTR platoon and, using strategy, you pull through. Have each squad with a realistic composition of like a Squad leader, 2 team leaders, a radio man, 2 squad weapons, a crew served weapon, 2 anti tank units, a combat life saver, and 2 rifle men. I think something with that depth, but with a more coherant interface than like Shockforce, and with pausable real time combat would be awesome. Like Arma but an RTS.

What games would you want to see?

After a few weeks trying out different shmups, I finally got around to playing Radiant Silvergun.

tl;dr I like it

I am considering starting a new world and I am currently trying different seeds. heres some I recently found by using three of the mod usernames.

Seed: alyaza You spawn at the boarder of a flower forest and a beach.

Seed: Gaywallet You spawn in a jungle with a river nearby with a village on the other side of the river. Seed: Lionir You start in a Savanna right next to a beach.

These are some pretty interesting seeds.

Also I did my own as a seed.

seed: Gamers_mate You spawn in a jungle next to a small beach with a dark small dark forest on the shoreline of the beach.

Edit: I forgot to mention I tested these seeds in 1.21.3 (Java) Depending on the minecraft version you use you may get a different result for the same seed. Also it is case sensitive so using any capital letters will give you a different seed.

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/24694356

This video is how I gutted my already modified old Thrustmaster F-16 FLCS joystick of my ViperPit and made it work again with the help of an Arduino Pro Micro. This flight stick (and also the other peripherals) do belong in a museum but where’s the fun in that? I modified it and now it’s a generic USB joystick that works on any recent system. I focus mostly on the 5x5 button matrix since this is the hardest part to understand. In the end are a few minutes of playing X4 Foundations with it to give it a good test run. Now it just needs some oil for the creaking 😅

https://makertube.net/w/qrqqZLr2QvJFjCwyNzzAmp / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYiPFDpHwmc

Hello there, gamers!

Ever since the handheld boom since 2022, I wanted to use one because of the concept; play any game anywhere and without the annoyances of a PC. I bought a Steam Deck OLED earlier this year, but because of personal reasons I am now using an ROG Ally (Got it at a huge discount) . This is my experience of using the device for over 3 weeks now.

Disclaimer: I am a Linux user (Left Windows in 2016) and I don't play games which require anti-cheats, so this post might seem biased. However, I'll try to be as much factual as possible. I'll list the pros and cons of both the OSs as per my personal experience.

The Windows experience

There is nothing new to say, everyone knows the first bootup process. Enter your mandatory Microsoft account to access the device. I know there are workarounds for a local account but I didn't want to jinx it. You get greeted with Armory Crate which shows how to manage your device.

Positives with Windows on the ROG Ally

• Launch any game with no restrictions. It's just a Windows PC.
• Nearly everything works out of the box (Not everything though)
• Asus's Armory Crate (AC) is decent at what it does
• Asus's BIOS is very well made
• AMD's software center offers lots of options regarding graphical fidelity

Annoyances with Windows on the ROG Ally

• [major] The OS is not controller-centric at all, this is probably my main gripe about the device.
  • A user buys a handheld and expects it to behave like a handheld.
  • Steam's big picture mode helps but it's severely restricted in terms of capabilities.
• [major] Certain games (usually older) do not install smoothly on the device.
  • You have to manually tinker to get it working.
  • Tinkering on a touch-screen device is not a fun experience.
• [major] Game launchers other than Steam do not support a controller OOTB.
  • GOG Galaxy/Amazon Games does not support
  • I did not try Epic, but the last I heard it also does not support a controller.
• [major] No central hub to control all system/graphical settings.
  • You have to switch between multiple applications. You need to update Windows/AC drivers/MyAsus separately.
• [major] The Windows onscreen keyboard interferes with the Steam onscreen keyboard.
  • This happens most of the time.
  • I can't configure the Windows keyboard
  • We have AI baked into Windows and it can't even detect if there is an existing onscreen keyboard.
• [minor] There is no cohesive design among the different components of the system.
  • I remember hearing about Microsoft's Fluent design framework several years back but it seems like app developers have not adhered to it.
  • It's quite jarring to switch from the Windows interface to AC, MyAsus center, AMD Software Center
  • Other than AC, none of the core system components support controllers.
• [minor] Because of how application windows and AC appear on top of each other, the game window or AC sometimes lose focus and it feels like the interface has frozen.
  • When this keeps on occurring multiple times it becomes quite annoying.
  • You need to manually tap on the window to get the focus back on the window you want.
• [minor] People recommend using Playnite to manage games from different launchers.
  • The idea seems good in theory, until you find out it requires you to install all the launchers anyway.
  • The only serious advantage is that you can launch the game using a controller.
• [very minor] You can't turn off the RGB permanently which is persistent across a reboot.
  • Note: It's possible that I'm dumb and did not fiddle with the settings enough.
  • I fixed it (hacky fix) by setting the RGB color to black.

Overall, the ROG Ally with Windows is not a pickup-and-play device. I felt like I just bought a Windows PC with a touch-screen instead of a handheld. Let me iterate; I'm not 'anti-touch screen' but it should not be a core requirement of the UX. Using the touch-screen once a while is fine. If you are forcing the user to use the touchscreen for non-gaming/non-essential reasons, you have failed. Some of the annoyances vanish if I'm using a keyboard/mouse, but then it just becomes a PC (PSA: This is supposed to be a handheld, not a PC. If I wanted a portable gaming PC, I would have got a laptop).

If you notice carefully, I didn't even talk about Windows telemetry, Copilot, Recall, mandatory Microsoft account, ads baked into Windows, nagging by Edge, and other issues because an average gamer doesn't care about it. I just wanted to focus upon how Windows performs as an OS for handheld gaming.

Moving over to Bazzite

I used Windows for a week but I grew tired of it. I don't want to sound dramatic but gaming sessions had me go like "here we go tinkering again". I do testing and tinkering at work already, I don't want to do it at home again. So I decided to just format everything and install Bazzite on it. I saw that Bazzite has a growing community and Valve has no update on when they will release SteamOS for the ROG Ally. Bazzite it not perfect, but it does a way better job compared to Windows.

Annoyances with Bazzite

• [major] Some SteamOS features not yet available OOTB (Finer TDP/fan controls)
• [major] Big picture mode does not support remote viewing/streaming (It was crashing for me)
• [minor] Loss of focus between webpage and the game, but this happens very rarely.
• [minor] Bazzite offers Xbox, Steam and PS5 controller. However, it's not clear (in Handheld daemon) which controller should one use for the best experience. I understood that PS5 needs to be used in order to use gyro.
• [minor] No support for AMD's fluid motion frames.
• [minor] No support for the fingerprint sensor
• [minor] The installation process requires a physical keyboard to be connected to the Ally if secure boot is enabled. Either it was not mentioned in the installation guide or I'm too dumb to understand instructions.
• [very minor] The installation wizard requires interaction with a touch screen and the buttons are very tiny.
• [very minor] Slight interface lag when using the quick access shortcuts (75 ms instead of 25 ms)
• [very minor] Bootup process is slightly slower compared to SteamOS
• [very minor] Buying games through Heroic still needs touchscreen (Launching does not require the touchscreen)
• [very minor] There is no mention of how to view the Bazzite shortcuts (It can be viewed but requires minor tinkering).
• [very minor] Bazzite does not support the screenshot shortcut OOTB. I had to adjust some settings to get it working (No, I did not use the terminal). The only time I had to use the terminal was for installing SimpleDeckyTDP which was just a single command.

However, most of the cons mentioned above are explicitly stated by the Bazzite team in the FAQ. It's because of a device limitation or a functionality tied to the firmware which is not yet available on Linux, so I can't really blame them. On the other hand, all the major annoyances that I had with Windows are fixed in Bazzite.

Major positives of Bazzite

• Right after the installation, it offers a simple welcome screen which recommends some helpful applications.
• Bazzite recommends using the Heroic launcher. I'm using Epic/GOG/Amazon games through Heroic and never once did I see any of those launchers during gameplay. This is a core requirement for a handheld device. I don't want to tap at unnecessary screens to start the game.
• Decky Loader plugin manager => manage your system and increase the functionality of your system using the controller. I believe Decky Loader is missing on Windows
• Proton => All the tinkering required to get a game working is done in the background by Valve. The user doesn't have to tinker. I am a bit shocked that I have to tinker less in Linux compared to Windows to get games working. Old-school Linux users know this was not the case a decade back.

By the way, Bazzite has a fully fledged desktop interface but it needs to be switched on manually. This separation is essential in making the user feel like they are now exiting gaming mode. On Windows, you are always in desktop-mode. I have to admit, I was spoiled by SteamOS because of which the above mentioned points affect me so much compared to an average Windows gamer. Also, the SteamOS experience is even more polished than Bazzite.

Conclusion

Listen, I am not trying to say "Window bad". I want the Windows folks to know what they are missing from a gaming UX perspective. You should really put the pressure on Microsoft to fix these issues. Windows users should try the SteamOS/Bazzite interface (Not Steam Big Picture mode. It's not the same) once to understand what a modern day gaming interface should look and feel like.

Image source: TechDweeb

Edit: Improved formatting.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/18077287

Artist Links

• Linktree

Invidious, an alternative YouTube client in the browser without using YouTube directly (more private): https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=h9Z4oGN89MU

I recommend watching or listen this video at x1.4 playback speed. If you can't set the speed to this value, then at least watch at x1.25.

Description:

Graphics Cards can run some of the most incredible video games, but how many calculations do they perform every single second? Well, some of the most advanced graphics perform 36 Trillion calculations or more every single second. But how can a single device manage these tens of trillions of calculations? In this video, we explore the architecture inside the 3090 graphics card and the GA102 GPU chip architecture.

Note: We chose to feature the 30 series of GPUs because, to create accurate 3D models, we had to tear down a 3090 GPU rather destructively. We typically select a slightly older model because we're able to find broken components on eBay. If you're wondering, the 4090 can perform 82.58 trillion calculations a second, and then we're sure the 5090 will be even more.

Table of Contents:

00:00 - How many calculations do Graphics Cards Perform?
02:15 - The Difference between GPUs and CPUs?
04:56 - GPU GA102 Architecture
06:59 - GPU GA102 Manufacturing
08:48 - CUDA Core Design
11:09 - Graphics Cards Components
12:04 - Graphics Memory GDDR6X GDDR7
15:11 - All about Micron
16:51 - Single Instruction Multiple Data Architecture
17:49 - Why GPUs run Video Game Graphics, Object Transformations
20:53 - Thread Architecture
23:31 - Help Branch Education Out!
24:29 - Bitcoin Mining
26:50 - Tensor Cores
27:58 - Outro