#But if it's lagging in single player I can only imaging how bad it would be in the already laggy server........

[pawnnibel]

Oh good god I did not realize it was past 2 AM already

Got so distracted figuring out Minecraft trains I accidentally spent almost 6 hours straight doing it

[timetocode]

The Peeker’s Compromise: A Fair(er) Netcode Model

Many first person shooters are plagued by a netcode artifact known as the peeker’s advantage. I propose here a technique for correcting this bug, based around normalizing gameplay in such a way that human reflexes and skill decide the outcome of competition (as opposed to network latency or artifacts of varying netcode designs, discussed shortly).

When a player in a first person shooter is moving around the game world they exist in a position on their own game client that is slightly ahead of their position on the server. This is a solution/side-effect of clientside prediction which is ubiquitously used in first person shooters giving the player instantaneous movement and controls that feel like a single player game despite controlling a character that is moving around on a remote server. 

If we were to visualize the difference between the clientside player position and the serverside player position it would look like two characters chasing each other. How far apart the two characters are depends (in descending order of usual importance) on how fast movement is in the game, the latency of the player, and the tickrate of the server. But how big are these differences in the actual games of the current era? Are the two states of characters practically overlapping? Or is one several meters behind the other? The answer -- which varies by game and by internet connection -- is that the desynchronization between these two positions is significant. Over amazing internet connections in games with slow moving characters the desynchronization is usually on the order of 1 player length. So imagine any fps game character (valorant, cs:go, apex, overwatch, fortnite, cod, etc) -- and then imagine them creeping or walking around slowly. In this scenario the desync between the two states is such that one could picture the character being followed by its clone, touching. If they move *really* slowly then they’ll be overlapping. However as the characters break into a run their clone will trail them by more -- maybe 2-8 player lengths depending how fast characters are in the game. If a player has a high latency the clone will be ever farther behind in all scenarios except holding still.

Now when a player shoots their gun in all of the above games, the game engines will calculate the shot based on where the player perceives themselves. That means that as you play the game what you see is pretty much what you get. You don’t have to manually correct for lag while aiming in modern shooters -- just aim for the head right where you see it. However this introduces the peeker’s advantage. A defender can hold a corner with their crosshair primed to shoot anything that appears, but an attacker (the peeker) who comes around that corner is ahead of their server position and thus they get to a bit of extra time to "peek” and shoot at the defender before they themselves are visible to the defender. Depending on the actual amount of lag and the game itself the defender perceives themselves as either having been shot insanely quickly right as the attacker appeared, or maybe if the lag is not as bad they perceive themselves as having gotten to trade shots with the attacker, but ultimately they lost. The attacker perceives nothing special -- they just walked around the corner and shot the defender b/c they were playing aggressively and have superior reflexes (or so they think).

How big is the actual peekers advantage? Well it varies by game, but an article put out by Riot Games about Valorant goes into detail about how much the peeker’s advantage affects gameplay, and how their engine attempts to minimize it. It’s a great read: https://technology.riotgames.com/news/peeking-valorants-netcode. But to summarize, using 128 tick servers (very fast) 35 ms of internet latency (fast) and monitor refresh rates of 60 hz (standard) they calculate an advantage of 100 milliseconds after extensive optimization. That’s fast, but is it fast enough? Well back in 2003 I used to be a competitive Counterstrike 1.6 player at around the same time that I was obtaining a psychology degree with a particular interest in human perception (reaction time, how our eyes work, perception of subluminal images that are shown very quickly). I tested the reflexes of myself and all of my teammates. Competitive gaming didn’t have the same structure back then as it does now (everything has a ladder now -- back then it was private leagues), but by modern standards we were probably top 3% ladder players or something like that. Generally speaking there isn’t much of a speed difference in the whole pool of pro-gamers, at least when compared to new players. They are all pretty fast. Response time for watching a corner and clicking as you see a player (already perfectly lined up) fall into the range of 150-190 ms. Tasks that involve moving the crosshair to react quickly (as opposed to having had perfect placement already) slow that down another 50-150 ms. But generally speaking the competition between two similarly fast players with good crosshair placement comes down to very tiny units of time with even 10 ms producing an advantage that is measurable (both Riot and I agree about this). This means that had the server allowed for a double K.O. (which these games do not) we would find that in fact both players were very good and would’ve killed the other just 20-50 milliseconds apart. Valorant and CS:GO don’t work like that however, and instead the game essentially deletes the bullets from one of the players and leaves the other alive. Unfortunately this difference in human reflexes amongst competitive gamers is entirely gobbled up by 100 ms of peeker’s advantage -- meaning that at high skill levels the peeker will very often win and the defender will very often lose. So while the Riot article celebrates the success of engineering that allowed Riot to reduce the peeker’s advantage as much as they did, if you read the fine print you’ll find that the peeker’s advantage remains huge.

I don’t mean to pick on Riot, far from it. They’ve clearly done an amazing job. The other games I mentioned earlier are presumably in the same approximate ballpark, though I can tell you from personal experience that some of them are a fair margin worse. Not all of the games I mentioned use a 128 tick server (only one does). They also have longer interpolation delays and other little engine details that slow things down further. Riot is also an insane company that literally owns/builds the internet just to reduce latency for its players -- so if we want to take away a general sense of how bad the peeker’s advantage is in most games we should assume it to be worse than the scenario described above regarding Valorant.

Now that I’ve discussed at length the peeker’s advantage, allow me to present a related netcode model that attempts to solve these problems: The Peeker’s Compromise. If we delay the time of death on the serverside by the timing difference between the attacker and the victim, then we can allow the defender an equal opportunity to shoot the attacker. The server can then determine the winner (and the remaining damage) based on the performance of the human (instead of using the ~100 ms of engine-related advantage and internet latency). So let’s use some numbers for a hypothetical situation. Let’s say our game has 128 tick server, the players have 35 ms of latency, and 60 hz screens (like the Valoran example from earlier). Right as a player peeks another player they essentially get to shoot 100.6 ms sooner than their victim. As their shots arrive at the server the server might calculate that the victim has died -- but rather than killing the player it will keep them alive for 100.6 ms PLUS their own latency, which in this scenario puts the total at 135.6 ms. If during these 135.6 milliseconds the server receives shots where the defender hits the peeker, it will enter a section of code that attempts to settle this discrepancy. First off, it is entirely possible that after compensating each shot for the difference between the players we find out that one truly was faster than the other -- the game could use this information to decide which one lives and which one dies. It also might make sense to allow damage to legitimately trade kills and to build double K.O. situation into more first person shooters.

Let’s talk about the artifacts of this new and proposed system. In low-latency games with a high tick rate this change would be subtle -- we would just have no more peeker’s advantage. As latency increases all way up to 200 ms we will have a new artifact. Instead of having a more severe peeker’s advantage we’ll end up with a scenario where it looks as if players are taking 1-3 extra bullets beyond what would normally kill them -- although if you stop shooting early they still end up dead a few milliseconds later. The Vandal in Valorant (similar to the AK in cs:go) fires 9.75 shots per second, which is one bullet per 103 ms. So in a best case scenario the player death is delayed by the time it takes to fire one extra shot at full auto, and in a worse case scenario we add 1 bullet per added ~100 ms of waiting done by the engine. It would also make sense to cut off certain shots from being counted from a laggy player (existing systems already do this in their own way).

Gameplay at lower skill levels wouldn’t really be affected one way or the other. It isn’t affected much by the peeker’s advantage either -- players have to know where to aim and thus be involved in legitimate reflex test before we’re down to something so close that milliseconds of delay have an effect. If players are oblivious to each other, or place their crosshairs incorrectly as they come around a corner then the added slow down of the human having to make a new visual-search-decision-plus-adjustment is too slow for any of this to matter. But at higher skill levels there would be some actual changes to gameplay. The most significant change is that players would be able to hold corners -- and if they’re truly faster than the peeker they would win. In such a design it really would make much more sense to allow two players who fire at essentially the same time to kill each other which if adopted would need to be addressed at a game design level. Also games that had an alternate method of very indirectly addressing peeker’s advantage, such as weapon instability during movement as a major element (arma, h1z1, pubg, tarkov, etc), would have more options, and may need to tune existing timings to get the same feeling back.

The underlying netcode behind the peeker’s advantage affects more than the classic peeking situation. It also affects two players picking up an item at the same time (it decides the winner here). And it also is present when you’re playing a game and you duck behind cover and take damage after you should already have been safe (the peeker and the victim are on slightly different timelines). Neither peeker’s advantage nor my proposed peeker’s compromise actually removes lag of the underlying systems of the network connection nor the game engine ticks, both simply *move* delays around such that the controls feel responsive and the latency is suffered elsewhere. There’s a certain physics to the realm of network programming. As I like to half-jokingly say: “Lag is neither created nor destroyed [by compensation techniques.]” So the same problems would still exist, though the Peeker’s Compromise is philosophically different. Where the peeker’s advantage says let the fastest internet and the more aggressive player win, the Peeker’s Compromise says let the more skillful (in terms of accuracy and speed) human win. Outside of a double K.O.esque duel however, this is subjective. Who should pick up an item when both players tried to pick it up at the same time? Well the old method says the one with the better internet gets it, the new method suggests perhaps that we should compensate the timing to remove the internet/engine delay and award it to whomever was faster. But what about getting shot after reaching cover? This is really up to the game designer -- is it more impressive to tag someone barely as they run off? Or more impressive to slide behind a barrier right as you get shot? It’s a design decision. It’s also possible via this proposed system to compromise. The engine design I propose has more data in its context with which to make decisions, courtesy of temporarily allowing ties to occur which get addressed after both players take an action. It could say well that was an amazing shot, AND it was an amazing dodge. After crunching the numbers the decision is to deal a hit but cut the damage in half as a compromise between the feats of the two players.

[mybukz]

Work-in-progress: When Plan's Stolen by Fate by Deborah Wong

Image by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

When Plan’s Stolen by Fate (Novel excerpt from “One Maple Summer’) By Deborah Wong

It’s July 2010. I’m praying the germ-infused Boeing 777 will land in one piece at Vancouver International Airport, and my Nokia 1202 from back home will function. The Pacific Coast forces may have stolen a bit of my luck as I now have no signal—the battery was well-fed and ready to kick ass.

“If you need any assistance, please don’t hesitate to call me,” Sandy, the UBC accommodation officer says. Her smile shines sunnier than the Kellogg’s TV happy family commercial.

I thank her and she hugs me.

“Is there a public phone I can use around this area?”

“There’s one at the concierge but it’s under repair. You can try the one at the Student Centre, about ten minutes walking distance.”

“Alright, thanks for the info.”

“No worry. Take care.”

My heart sinks faster than the Titanic; my headache from the jet lag keeps me up like synchronised car hydraulics coupled with Eminem’s rap. To make matters worse, I’m unable to call my parents about my safe arrival—thanks to my dead phone. Sitting here alone, I want to throw myself off the bouncy comfortable bed, snooze off, and let the tantalising air joyride into a lullaby. No one would yell at me for falling asleep; I smell like an overripe durian.

The digital clock in black and white on the wall states 4:44pm.

With a foggy light brain, I try to balance and change into a fleece hooded sweater and denim shorts. I have no choice but to head to the Student Centre. I hope to stumble—miraculously—onto a phone booth. I roll my Holy Rosary in my pocket.

I step out of the dorm and lock the door like an infant experiencing the glaring evening sun at the foreign land. The cold breeze sweeps onto my face and penetrates my head and whole body. I solemnly declare my brain frozen without the help of immense scoops of Haagen Daaz.

I hear thumping footsteps. I brace for the worst. My hand grips the tree, and I prep myself to fly kick à la Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon.

As the footsteps get closer, I punch out my left fist and yell.

When I open my eyes, a man in glasses frowns. “Are you okay?”

I clear my throat and adjust my hooded jacket, embarrassed. “Of course, I…was practising my Kung-Fu.”

He smirks. “You picked the wrong place. What if I carried a knife and I stabbed you as self-defence? You’re lucky I’m not a pervert. You never know what a motherfucker will do. Next time don’t hide behind the tree.”

“Okay, thanks for your advice.” I choke as I feel my face heat up like a red lobster.

“Have a pleasant day and a great summer.”

“I know this sounds crazy but if you don’t mind, could you please lend me your phone? I need to send a text home.”

He turns and studies me.

“I know this sounds weird but I just got here and my phone isn’t working. I really, really need to send a text to my dad back in Kuala Lumpur, to let him know I’ve reached here. Why don’t I pay you a dollar?”

He thinks for a while. “Alright, I won’t charge a cent.” He takes out his Blackberry. “You want to type it yourself?”

“It’s better if you type it for me. It’s your phone anyway.”

“Okay.“ He types like a world champion, listening to me. “You may want to take a look before I send the text.”

I quickly read it. “Okay, you can send it now. Thank you.”

“That’ll be fifty cents service charge.”

“WHAT.”

“Hey, I was joking. I may charge if you’re texting your boyfriend. Anyway, welcome to Vancouver and UBC. I stay in Pacific Crescent.”

“Where is that?”

“Go straight from here, right behind the Asian Studies building, near the Nitobe Memorial Garden.”

“That place looks posh. I’m sure it cost you quite a bit.”

“I have friends coming over very often; hence staying in a dorm isn’t a smart choice. An apartment feels more like a home to me.” He glances at his gunmetal watch. “I need to rush to the convenient store. It’s a great pleasure knowing you.”

“Do they sell any sandwiches or pastries?”

“They only have selection of sandwiches, instant salad and packed sushi.”

“Great, maybe you can show me the way?”

“Sure, no problem…”

“I didn’t get your name.” I walk beside him.

“I’m Jun Nakamura.”

I have not been in this foreign land for twelve hours and I’ve been invited to this house party. Jun tells me Mansfield Heights is the most eventful student housing area in UBC, coming alive only in summer.

There’re blue poles along the cemented walkway and red lightings at each corner. If anyone looks suspicious, ready for misdemeanour or voyeurism, one presses the emergency intercom, a safety object for students, a deterrent. On the other hand, if I were in such situation, I’d run for my life and be sure to look out for this emergency button.

“There’s surveillance camera installed in each lamppost for supervision that links directly to the Vancouver Police Department,” Jun says. His hair is ruffled into pointy soft spikes. He is wearing peasant’s crinkled cut washed jeans and a white t-shirt that reveals his fine avid gym-goer chest.

“So, what kind of party your friend’s having?”

“Booze drinking, cigarettes smoking, chatting and whole loads of eating; take a look around you, it is Friday night but we have to clear the coast by midnight.“ He stops and studies me. “Have you been to any house party before?”

“I did but it was long time ago.”

“How long is long time?”

“I think about fourteen years ago.”

“Whoa, that’s like immeasurable yards away. Anyway we’re here.”

Jun ambles to this NHL nightclub bouncer lookalike, except he has a crimson face and dirty blondish hair. Their greeting is front and back palms slapping and then fists punching like the ghetto Harlem boys.

“Oh c’mon, we don’t welcome underage here.” He stares at me.

“I’m already twenty-eight.”

He laughs. “Sorry, my bad…But you don’t look like your age.”

“So, am I invited?” I raise my brows.

“Of course, you PYT, I’m Montgomery Peterson. Everyone calls me Monty.”

“I’m Maxine Cheong, nice to meet you, Monty.”

Out of nowhere, a girl hops into Jun’s arms, giving him a bear hug, and a quick peck on his cheek. She has porcelain skin and raven shoulder-length hair. “You’re late!”

“Kendra, I want to introduce you to Maxine from Malaysia.“ Jun lets go of her.

“Oh, how un-fucking-believable…” She covers her mouth and smacks his arm. “So, you decided to change your taste for the better, huh?”

“Well, I’m not Jun’s girlfriend,” I smile, curtly.

“Don’t be so serious and spoil the party, or else I’ll throw you out.”

I turn to Jun. Everyone seems to have gone quiet.

“I was just joking. I’m Kendra Choi.” Her tone becomes friendlier.

“Maxine Cheong.”

“You have the coolest name here in Vancouver so far lucky-lucky you.”

Jun returns to the crowd after answering a phone call. “It’s Makoto and he’s stranded at the guardhouse with Yosuke and Paul. The security guard refused to let them in, despite their party invitation pass.”

“Speaking of that guard, he kept calling me a Mongolian and asked whether my family slaughtered horses for a living,” Kendra says.

After Monty and Jun leave to rescue their friends, Kendra and I bump past party-goers before reaching the house living room. She speaks into my ear. “Sorry to disappoint you but it’s still too early to spot a drunkard.”

“I guess they’ll become Intoxicated Cinderella by midnight.”

All the seats are occupied. I have to sit on the carpeted floor, among vinyls of Ozzy Osborne, Green day, Dave Matthews Bands, Cypress Hills, Queen, David Bowie, Rage Against The Machine, just to name a few. Kendra has returned from the washroom.

“Monty once formed an indie rock band during his teens. The band was quite a success from Port Coquitlam to White Rock. But then a fight broke out a day before they were supposed to sign a million-dollar record deal. You wanna know why? The bassist caught the lead guitarist fucking his girlfriend in their trailer. Hell broke lose. All the instruments were damaged by the bassist who ran amok. Worse still, the boys have to pay off the loan and the damaged instruments to the music shop.”

“What instrument Monty played?” I refuse to accept an opened cap bottled drink from a random guy.

“Drums and percussion. He was also a turntablist,” she says with a shrug and a snort, “but one lesson that no other guys will ever learn: do not let your girlfriend join the band practise. Girls fall head over heels with men who play guitars or drums.”

I grab a can of Dr. Pepper from the refreshment bar, while Kendra fills up a plate with finger food. A guy by the banister eyes us before taking up with a girl. Both head upstairs after the guy winks at me.

We spot a three-seater sofa.

“These seats are meant for both of you, my exotic princesses,” says a Hispanic-looking man. He has been feeding another man with bacon stripes.

The Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged record is spinning in the vintage oak wood player. I’ve always been mesmerised by Kurt Cobain’s baritone voice.

“I don’t like his grinding dick voice.” Kendra walks to the player and lifts the needle with the cue lever. “Thanks to Janis Joplin, Joan Jett and Amy Lee, rock music is in my blood now.” She puts on a vinyl of The Runaways, that Cherry Bomb song filled with chattering noises and perfumed muskiness.

“I love X-Japan. Do you like them?”

“Me too!” We do a high-five. “But if you want me to wear a hanbok and play the gayageum in front of Korean men. No way José! Over my dead body! It looks damn submissive. I’ve been referred as a ‘leftover woman’ for not yet being married.”

“You’re not alone. I hear that very often. It happens to me as well. And what a cruel term is that? Nowadays in the Asian community, single and unmarried women are hiring men online to be their boyfriend to please their folks during festive seasons, or to attend their friend’s wedding.”

“Women have the earning power and are financially independent too. Some will have to succumb to the social pressure of not wanting to be called ‘leftover’, hence they get married and start a family, work their peachy-butts out, struggle to get promotion at work, earning more monies for the sake of their children. In the end of the day, it’s always easy to say. But to preserve such feminist though is difficult.”

“I’m in my thirties and not looking forward into getting married,” she says.

“Let’s make a toast to both of us, the most attractive leftovers.”

I raise my paper cup.

She pokes her nose. “Damn, how come I don’t even know you’ve been drinking orange juice? Let’s get you a beer.”

“I’m still recovering from jet lag. Sorry.”

“You should come over to my place one day and we’ll cook up a storm.” She stretches to grab two bottles of beer. “I invite Jun along too. He’s good at ramen, sushi, butter-poached seafood and miso soup.”

“Isn’t that…a big task for him?” I take a bottle but put it aside.

“Give me a break. That guy’s a chef.”

“Jun…is a chef?”

“That smoochy-bear, he is freakingly dedicated and talented. He has worked in Washington DC’s Marriott for couple of years, and then quit after he was promoted to an assistant chef. As to why he quit, well, Jun doesn’t talk about it.”

“…must be those shitty management politics.”

“I still think teaching is the best work so far. Less office politics.”

“You’re a teacher?”

“I teach English to adults and young adults in Tokyo.“ She wipes bread crumbs from her mouth. “And I know this is something uncommon. Even my grandparents are strongly opposed to anyone of us working there due to the Japan-Korea Disputes. So what’d you do for a living?”

“I’ve worked in an insurance company’s claims department for three years. It’s a huge department but most employees quit after the three-month probation. I handle mostly personal accident, employees’ medical bills reimbursement and at times on workers’ provident fund dispute.”

“Any weird cases you’ve dealt with?”

I lean my head on the sofa. “I was reading a decomposed body autopsy report in the food court and a waiter cringed when he saw those bloodied photos of torn phalanges on the claim file. He asked whether the man’s still alive. I said he should be lucky that his fingers didn’t fly into his colleagues’ mouth. His reaction was like this…” I imitate the painting from The Scream.

“Your work is very CSI-ish, so to speak. By the way, I’m curious as to how Jun and you get to know each other.”

“I bumped onto him when my cellphone isn’t working and he helped me to send a text message home.”

“I think you’ve missed the most crucial part.” Jun is walking toward us with a bottle.

Kendra sniffs Jun’s neck. “You smell like fresh from the crispy oven.” She puts her arm over his waist. “He is always so helpful, but inviting you to his friend’s party is his first time. Lot of girls are trying to get their hands on him too.”

Jun whispers to me. “She’s out.”

She clutches her beer bottle, a smile forming on her face. “But you serve a good impression on me, but my experiences taught me not to trust an acquainted human girl too much.”

Later that night, Kendra follows me like a puppy afraid to lose direction. Her eyes stay on Jun whenever we’re engaged in an ear-to-ear conversation because of the loud music at the DJ stands. She puts three Budweiser in front of me. “You have to bottoms up. I don’t care.”

I still have those butterflies in my stomach and don’t have much appetite. But towards the second bottle, Jun pulls Kendra to the kitchen area, and asks Makoto to bring her more food.

Approaching midnight, Makoto offers to drive me back to the dorm, even though it’s only ten minutes walking distance. I’m unable to find Monty to bid goodbye. Jun tells me he’s already passed out near the toilet bowl, and he carries grumpy Kendra into the back of Makoto’s car. I wind down the window, inhale the gentle ocean breeze as the car moves along Marina Drive, but the tranquillity ends with Kendra counting chicken and sheep in a slur.

*

Deborah Wong: "My works have been published on numerous online journals and paperback magazine, including Crack the Spine, Rat’s Ass Review, Eksentrika, Thought Catalog, Liquid Imagination, Strange Horizons. Some are forthcoming from Frozen Wavelets and Seagery Zine. I have performed at local reading groups and open mic poetry sessions. I am currently working on a fictionalised travel memoir and some speculative poetry and fiction. I have an ongoing artwork-poetry crossover project with an emerging Australian artist on Instagram. You can follow me on Twitter @PetiteDeborah ‘When Plan’s Stolen by Fate’ is the first chapter of my work-in-progress semi-autobiographical novel ‘One Maple Summer’. The novel is about my intensive creative writing workshop at the University of British Columbia in the summer of 2010. At 28 I traveled for the first time 12 thousand kilometers to the other side of the continent. My debit card and cellphone failed, and the one-month stay at a pen pal’s place turned out not as imagined. However, things navigated otherwise when I received accolades from my creative writing course instructors. Discovering the melting pot of diverse cultural background of acquaintances made traveling worth a lifetime.”

[entrepreneurnut]

BuilderAll vs Kartra - Which All-In-One Platform Is Best In 2021?

New Post has been published on https://entrepreneurnut.com/builderall-vs-kartra/

BuilderAll vs Kartra - Which All-In-One Platform Is Best In 2021?

Looking for a fair comparison between BuilderAll vs Kartra?

If you’re having trouble choosing between Builderall and Kartra then I’ve pulled each of these all-in-one marketing platforms apart and given my brutally honeys opinion on each.

SPOILER ALERT: Builderall promises to offer more for less.

 It does.

However: Does that mean it will help your online business make more sales than Kartra?

Keep reading my comparison to find out.

Kartra vs BuilderAll: Summary

While Kartra and BuilderAll, have a similar set of features, Kartra is the more robust software overall, despite the higher cost. The main reasons include better templates, more comprehensive marketing automation features, and DFY campaigns built by internet marketing pioneers like Frank Kern.

Get Kartra Free Trial

BuilderAll vs Kartra Overview

Here are the main differences between Kartra and BuilderAll:

BuilderAll is more affordable than Kartra

BuilderAll has a Chatbot builder, Kartra doesn’t

BuilderAll has a webinar and streaming feature, while Kartra doesn’t

BuilderAll is more popular with affiliates since the program is almost an MLM scheme

Kartra has a behavior-adaptive marketing which can considerably boost conversion rates with a more targeted message

Kartra has better email marketing tools for automation, and more triggers

Kartra has a help desk that you can connect to all your pages, BuilderAll doesn’t

Kartra has a better selection of templates that are suited for more types of businesses

Kartra has pre-built funnels and campaign templates that renowned marketers like Frank Kern built. Unfortunately, BuilderAll’s are not on the same level

Our Pick

Our pick: Kartra doesn’t only give you access to all the tools you need to run an online business. But it also comes with SUPER-comprehensive marketing automation features to help average business owners like you and me create a marketing machine that’s working on 24/7 auto-pilot.

Try Kartra For 14-Days

Now let’s get into the features and benefits of each of these marketing software features.

We’ll start with BuilderAll and give you a walkthrough of everything it has to offer. Then we’ll delve into Kartra and pick apart the features so you can have a thorough comparison of the two platforms.

More Comparison Articles

GrooveFunnels and BuilderAll compared

GrooveFunnels and Kartra compared

Kartra and ClickFunnels compared

What Is BuilderAll?

BuilderAll started in 2011, but the company behind the tool was founded in 2008 by Brazillian Entrepreneur Erick Salgado. BuilderAll is commonly known as a “cheap ClickFunnels alternative” in internet marketing communities despite it being around for longer.

However, more recently, they have started setting themselves apart from the competition with more features such as their chatbots, streaming tools, or video hosting (BuilderAll 3.0).

Besides that, BuilderAll is also VERY-Known for its affiliate program. When you refer customers, you get paid too. That’s not to say that Kartra doesn’t have an affiliate program – they do, in fact, one of the best in the industry, but we’ll discuss that in more detail later.

Who Is BuilderAll For?

BuilderAll targets online businesses, entrepreneurs, internet marketers, and affiliate marketers looking for an affordable all-in-one tool.

Unlike some of its competitors, it doesn’t have a problem with not charging hundreds of dollars for a large set of features.

Instead, BuilderAll focuses on being affordable, which also makes it quite popular with beginners.

BuilderAll Pros

It’s very affordable

Builderall has a great set of robust features

The tool evolves quickly

It integrates with WordPress, which is excellent for bloggers

It has a Chatbot builder to help you engage customers

BuilderAll Cons

BuilderAll support isn’t very good

The builder feels clunky at times

I don’t like the feel of the templates compared to Kartra

The majority of users are affiliates, which questions how much value there is inside

It doesn’t have as many features as Kartra

What Is Kartra?

Compared to BuilderAll, Kartra is that new kid in school who’s killing it in all the sports games. In this case, I’m talking about internet marketing features here – several of them absolutely kick butt!

Kartra only launched in 2018 but already has one of the most impressive lists of features on the market.

This isn’t a surprise: The people behind this thing, a company, named Genesis Digital, is a well-known player in the internet marketing space.

They’ve also developed software for similar target audiences like EverWebinar, and WebinarJam – which you may have heard of.

Who Is Kartra For?

Like BuilderAll, Kartra is for online businesses, entrepreneurs, internet marketers, and info-product vendors who want to market their business online.

But while BuilderAll focuses on doing everything as affordable as possible, Kartra targets those who want to grow their business to the highest possible point.

It does this very effectively by putting more effort into the marketing automation side of things.

I’ll go into more details on all this in just a few minutes, bear with me 🙂

Kartra Pros

Kartra has some of the best marketing automation features to help you generate more sales

It has a help desk feature to help you provide the best support to your customers

Kartra has some of the best campaigns and high-converting sales funnels templates in the entire industry

Behavior-adaptive marketing on the pages will help you match your message to the visitors’ interests

You get all features on every plan

It has a calendar tool that will help you set appointments, generate leads, and close deals

Kartra comes with detailed analytics and a better CRM lead management system

Kartra Cons

It is more expensive than BuilderAll

It doesn’t have a webinar feature

The builder can feel clunky at times too

BuilderAll Features

Now I’m gonna walk you through BuilderAll’s list of features so you will know exactly what you’re getting for your money.

Cheetah Website Builder

BuilderAll has always had its cheetah website builder. I think the name’s supposed to give you the impression that you can build things super-fast using their page builder.

The builder itself is pretty basic but has a good selection of elements that you can choose from.

Some of the elements include:

Opt-in form

SEO text & (h1, h2, h3, etc. + body text)

Scarcity timers

Images/Videos

When using it, I was satisfied. There wasn’t anything to complain about, apart from the odd lag – and it did the same stuff most other competitors do for about half the price, not bad.

Overall, I think this is BuilderAll’s strongest feature.

Templates

The templates were one of the areas that I wasn’t too impressed with.

The reason?

I just really do get a slight “cheap version of ClickFunnels” vibe from them – but that may just be me.

BuilderAll also seems very internet marketing-focused, and I can’t really imagine a business outside of this industry using the templates.

But, I’ll let you form your own opinion:

Cheetah Funnel Builder

This is a visual sales funnel builder where you can visualize your entire campaign’s emails, pages, etc. – It’s comparable to Funnelytics, but it’s still pretty useful, and I think many marketers would love using this.

Email Marketing Platform

BuilderAll’s email marketing software, called MailingBoss, is not too bad either.

It’s pretty basic compared to most other autoresponders (including Kartra). However, you can still build automation sequences and send newsletters, so there isn’t much to complain about – especially considering the price point of Builderall.

If you were expecting some serious bells and whistles in the automation triggers – I’m afraid this will be a disappointment.

The triggers are very limited (especially compared to Kartra, as we’ll see later):

Link click

Did not click

Campaign open

Did not open

User subscribed

User unsubscribed

The good news is that Kartra does do this much better, as you’ll see in a few minutes in this article.

But if you are looking for a basic autoresponder, BuilderAll’s MailingBoss does the job.

Video Hosting

One thing that I love about most funnel-builders nowadays is that they come with video hosting for your sales pages, membership sites, or wherever you want to use them.

BuilderAll chose to follow this trend – a BIG plus – especially if you’re going to sell online courses.

However, I would love to see a few more tagging options here, though, as they are limited.

That being said, you can add CTAs and text to your videos, which could help conversions.

Blogging Apps + WordPress Integration

Builderall has a blogging app and also directly integrates with WordPress.

I would still not personally use BuilderAll for blog pages simply because you can’t get all your WordPress store plugins to work with it.

The pages you integrate with WordPress are still built and hosted in BuilderAll. Because of this they might be slow, and you can’t make changes to them, apart from the ones that BuilderAll offers.

If you want to, you can use BuilderAll for your landing pages or sales pages that don’t necessarily need to rank well organically in the SERPS.

Checkouts

BuilderAll also has a pretty decent checkout tool, which includes:

Order bumps

Auction Checkout

One-click upsells

Two-step checkouts

Again, this is impressive, especially considering the price point.

BuilderAll Affiliate Management

Using Builderall, you can also create affiliate programs:

Create a tier-1 and 2 affiliate program

The single sale or per recurring affiliate programs

Chatbots

BuilderAll has a unique selling point (USP) that many other competitors don’t have: Chatbots.

The not-so-good news for BuilderAll is that there are alternatives like ManyChat, which do this for only around $10 per month, so this extra feature is unlikely to be a deal breaker for you. Still, it’s a nice feature to have.

However, BuilderAll also has some pre-built funnels, which may make their USP look a little more appealing.

On the highest Builderall plan, it comes with pre-built funnels for different types of businesses and offers. Still, I don’t think it’s going to be a reason to go for Builderall – then again, that’s just my option.

Webinar and Streaming Tool

These are two separate tools, but BuilderAll comes with both a webinar and a streaming tool.

The streaming tool was something that I was pretty impressed with, even though it’s a minor add-on feature.

You can stream to places like Facebook, YouTube, or Twitch from your BuilderAll account, which will make life easier for you.

I know there are endless 3rd party tools that do this, but I still thought it was pretty cool.

BuilderAll Affiliate Program

BuilderAll’s affiliate program is one of the most lucrative out there. You refer customers who, in turn, refer more customers. And you get paid on all those who sign up under you, similar to an MLM. Since this model is very borderline MLM, it attracts a lot of affiliates to use and promote the software.

Is that a bad thing?

Not really, especially if you want to become an affiliate itself and make money with BuilderAll.

However, some might view this negatively because it shows that many users aren’t there for the software – but the affiliate program. But, again, I’ll let you have your own opinion on this.

What BuilderAll Has That Kartra Doesn’t

Here are the features you get with BuilderAll, but not with Kartra:

Chatbots

Visual funnel builder

Better affiliate program

WordPress integration (kind of)

Auction checkouts

Webinars and streaming

While this list of features is nice, most of them are very easy to get elsewhere for not too much money, even if you decide to go for Kartra:

Chatbots? Just add ManyChat for an additional $10 per month.

WordPress integration? Kartra’s kind of got it (more on this later)

Webinars and streaming? Use EverWebinar, StreamYard, or WebinarJam starting from an additional $42 per month

So, it’s not that big of a deal for most businesses out there.

Kartra Features

As you have seen, BuilderAll has set the standard pretty high with their list of features. Let’s look at how Kartra compares.

In my opinion, Kartra is one of the most complete all-in-one platform out there for online marketers, and I think you will soon see what I mean.

Kartra Core Feature: Page Builder and Templates

Kartra’s core feature is its page builder and the templates that come with it. It’s user-friendly and lets you build pretty much any type of page you can think of, and the templates back this up.

Whether it’s a full navigation website or just a squeeze page – Kartra has at least ten templates for every step of your business. The pages are fully customizable, but it uses a block system only to drop elements into a box.

It also comes with all the standard elements like:

Opt-in forms

Count-down timers

Pop-ups

Images/Videos

Behavioral-Adaptive-Marketing

Something unique (and very cool) about Kartra is that it lets you match your Kartra pages to your visitors’ previous behavior.

For example, if they have expressed interest in a certain product (through clicks, scrolls, etc.), you can make your future pages automatically adapt to that. Pretty cool..?

Damn right!

And it’s not just “a cool feature” – it can actually give you a HUGE boost in conversions too.

Embed Your Pages – Anywhere

One thing that I love about Kartra is the ability to embed your pages anywhere.

How?

Using an HTML code that you simply copy and paste. I love that your pages aren’t stuck inside Kartra, and this also counters the WordPress integration that BuilderAll has… So it’s a pretty sweet feature.

If you already have a blog set up on WordPress then you don’t have to worry about trying to also rank additional Kartra pages. Simply embed your Kartra page into one of your WordPress page and rank that page as you would do any other WordPress page on your site.

Checkouts

Kartra, just like Builderall, has some advanced checkouts, including:

Order bumps

One-click upsells

Two-step checkouts

The only area where it misses out is the auction checkouts, but I have never really used them myself, so I can’t comment too much on this.

Membership Site Builder

The Kartra membership site builder is a dedicated platform as it has all the features it needs.

Drip feed content

Several access levels

Advanced analytics

Automated member management

Compared to most dedicated platforms, the only area where it loses is the design.

Email & SMS Automation

Now, this is the part where Kartra gets REALLY SWEET!

Remember where BuilderAll’s MailingBoss kind of disappointed us a little with the lack of triggers and marketing automation?

Yeah, Kartra Mail is the complete opposite!

There are triggers for things like:

When your visitors visit your page

If a lead has watched X% amount of your video

If your customer has requested a refund

If your customer is an active affiliate

Let me give you two really (and I mean really) cool examples:

Example 1: You have a service-based business and you’re building your email list. Months later, one of your leads visits your service pages, and you have a trigger to set up an email campaign if they visit this page to send out an email that offers a free consultation… Boom! Now you have a serious opportunity to close that deal.

Example 2: You’re selling an info product via a sales video (we’ll get to this feature in a few moments), and your lead watches the whole thing… But doesn’t buy. They are CLEARLY interested since they watched the whole video – but the cool thing is that you can have a trigger set up for this and tempt them again using a targeted email.

This is by far one of my favorite Kartra features.

And did I forget to mention, you can do this with SMS too?

There are so many ways you could use this as part of your marketing strategy, I’d actually find it hard to count them all. But I would definitely recommend thinking about all the ways you can use this feature in your online business to your increase sales.

Pre-Built Campaigns & Funnels

As I’ve mentioned at the beginning of the article, the pre-built campaigns and funnels are head and shoulders above what you get anywhere else.

Why is this the case?

Because they’ve not been created by just anyone… You’ll have direct, FREE access to marketing campaigns built by internet marketing legends like Frank Kern.

Besides, you’ll also be able to access the marketplace where you can buy and sell marketing campaigns too.

So if you’re a marketing-savvy funnel wizard… This may be a pretty lucrative income opportunity for you.

Video Marketing

Kartra also lets you host your videos inside of the platform. Compared to BuilderAll, the tool is a little more advanced, and comes with more triggers that you can use to activate your autoresponder.

And you can also use CTAs and headlines in your videos too, which will give you another advantage over your competition.

Affiliate Management

Just like BuilderAll, Kartra gives you a pretty advanced affiliate managed tool.

You can:

Create a tier-1 and 2 affiliate program

Create single sale or per recurring affiliate programs

Use instant payments with Paypal

But where Kartra sets itself apart is that it also lets you create CPA affiliate programs too.

MEANING: You can also pay affiliates for leads they generate (pay per lead), giving you more opportunities to grow your business.

Leads/CRM System

In general, Kartra gives you super-detailed analytics for every feature. Whether it’s email marketing campaigns, video hosting, membership sites, affiliate management – you can SEE everything on a beautiful, easy-to-overview dashboard.

And in general, you can pull up any customer to see all of their actions/history in your business, which I thought was pretty cool too.

Other Features

Other features that are pretty self-explanatory:

Calendar

Forms

Helpdesk software

Integrations & API (we’ll look at these later)

What Kartra Has BuilderAll Doesn’t

Here is a full list of what Kartra has that BuilderAll doesn’t:

Much more comprehensive marketing automation to help you make more sales

Calendar

Helpdesks

Behavior-adaptive-marketing

Much better CRM/Lead management

Slightly better affiliate management

Much better pre-built funnels/campaigns

An affiliate marketplace

As you can see, if you compare this list with the one from Builderall earlier – you will quickly see that the features here are more significant.

Unfortunately, if you want to get these advanced features for Builderall, it will require you to upgrade your entire system.

As you can see, Kartra has a great list or robust features that can go a very long way to help scale your business.

If you still want a more info on this online marketing platform then you can read my detailed Kartra review here.

Integrations

Now let’s take a quick look at the integration differences between Kartra vs BuilderAll.

BuilderAll Integration

BuilderAll has a tiny list of integrations. Of course, it does come with many features, but it’s still quite annoying because you might want to use a dedicated platform in the future, but not be able to.

The main integrations are:

WordPress

Zapier

Integrately

Desktop.com

Pabbly

See the full BuilderAll integration list here.

Kartra Integrations

Kartra has a larger list of integrations, despite not needing a lot of them.

For example, you can integrate directly with email platforms, webinar platforms, payment processors, and more.

Some of the main integrations include:

MailGun

Stripe/Paypal/Braintree/Authroize

Twilio

Google Calendar

Zapier

You also get the Kartra API so that you can integrate with more software too.

See the full Kartra integration list here.

BuilderAll vs Kartra – Pricing Plans

Here’s a breakdown of the pricing plans for these two digital marketing platforms so you can clearly see what you get for your money with each company.

BuilderAll Cost

Get a screenshot from here: https://builderall.com/plans

BuilderAll has more affordable pricing with 3 options to choose from:

The BuilderAll Essential Plan

The BuilderAll Premium Plan

The BuilderAll Funnel Club Plan

 Essential Plan – $29.90/mo

Here you get the most basic BuilderAll features at a great price.

Some of the features you don’t get are the dedicated funnel builder, the chatbots & pop-ups, video hosting, and others. It’s pretty much giving you the basics, with some pretty severe limitations.

Premium Plan – $69.90/mo

BuilderAll Premium is the plan where you do get all features, but not the pre-built campaigns.

Funnel Club – $99 /mo ($199 on first payment)

Here, you get all features PLUS:

30+ Messenger funnels

50+ Niche Lead Gen Funnels

50+ Niche Funnels For Agencies

20+ Niche Funnels For List Building

10+ BuilderAll Premium Funnels

300+ Cheetah Strategic Funnels

Special: BuilderAll Premium Funnels

300+ Cheetah Strategic Funnels

Premium Affiliate Automatic Approval

Weekly New Niche Funnels Added

Weekly New Cheetah Strategic Themes Add

Kartra Cost

With Katra, it doesn’t matter which plan you are on – you get all the features besides Kartra agency.

The agency feature is something you only really need if you actually run a digital marketing agency. It will allow you to sell Kartra accounts and manage them for your clients.

Here are the details on the cost of Kartra:

Kartra Starter ($99 per month)

Up to 2500 leads

1 custom domain

15k emails p/m

50 GB Bandwidth

Host 100 pages

Host 50 videos

Sell 20 products

Build 2 membership sites

Add 1 additional team member

Connect 1 helpdesk

Kartra Silver ($199 per month)

Up to 12,500 leads

3 custom domains

Unlimited everything else (Bandwidth, videos, pages, etc.)

Kartra Gold ($299 per month)

Up to 25,000 leads

5 custom domains

Unlimited everything else (Bandwidth, videos, pages, etc.)

Kartra Platinum ($499 per month)

Up to 50,000 leads

10 custom domains

Unlimited everything else (Bandwith, videos, pages, etc.)

Try Kartra For 14-Days

Kartra vs Builderall: My Final Thoughts

The race to the pricing bottom between Kartra vs Builderall has an end, but there is NO LIMIT on how many sales you make. That’s why I’m going to decide that there is a winner in this BuilderAll vs. Kartra battle, and fro me, that winner is Kartra.

I say this because even though you may pay a bit more for Kartra, their robust features will actually help you to make more money, which is why most of us are business owners, after all!

Kartra focuses on helping you convert more, while saving you time – to me, that’s much more valuable than saving a few extra dollars each month.

BuilderAll is a good software tool for beginner marketers, but if you’re really looking to scale up your income then I recommend choosing Kartra.

When you sign up for Kartra, make sure to click the button below to start your 14-day trial.

Try Kartra For 14-Days

[shiratorizawaheadcanons-blog]

Would you do a study of the opening for S3? Hikariare is really good but do you think it surpasses the others?

Sen: Probably the longest study that I’ve ever done. It’s only 1:30 long but there is so much to talk about. I’ve put it under the cut if anyone actually bothers to read this.

‘Hikariare’ stands out as one of the most different openingsof the series. While the main aim of an opening is to prepare you for the showto start, the 5th opening also does an amazing job of delving intosymbolism that has been used within the series but never explicitly dealt withwithin the opening. This arguably has the most content to deal with in contrastto the other openings which were around for two or three episodes more than‘Hikariare’. Buckle up bois cause this music student is about to take you for awild ride.

Like SPYAIR’s ‘Imagination’, the opening begins slowly withsimple on the beat strumming in opposition to the syncopated rhythm of thefirst opening; this gives the 5th opening a grounded feeling as wellas building up suspense as soon as it starts. This already works with the ideathat openings are meant to hype up and audience. The next shot focuses onHinata, our main character but only shows the number on his shirt, working withhow in ‘Imagination’, there’s a shot where someone ties his shoes and thecamera moves to reveal Hinata, about to do something, also accentuated withsome sort of struggle as his back moves with each breath. This carries over tothe next shot where the lyrics “meippai ni kuki wo suikon da//I took a deepbreath” are sung as Hinata breathes in and out with his mouth open. Hinata’seyes are open wide in a beautiful shot with his wild hair flying everywhere andsweat droplets running down his face, indicating more of a struggle. Uponlooking into his eyes and the next frame, it is revealed that he was climbingup on some sort of mountain; Hinata seems to have come before them by only afraction of a second, showing that he is far from alone in this matter.

However, another mountain comes into view, another challengethat Karasuno must face. This mountain is sublime, daunting for thesecharacters; the perspective which makes the characters appear small shows howbig the challenge will be for them as well as showing the viewer how much isabout to happen. The mountain unfurls into a great large eagle, it’s wingsoutstretched, showing off pride and readiness to attack yet Karasuno’s positionhas not changed despite their image becoming smaller on the screen, symbolisingyet again the immense odds that this under dog team is up against. Finally,Ushijima appears on the screen with undefined features. His eyes however havethe same challenging gleam that appears throughout the rest of the show and avolleyball is placed firmly in his hand, showing that he is in full control andKarasuno has to take him down. His stance of course is not special despite howmenacing his broad shoulders and feet shoulder width apart seem to bethreatening; it is simply the way he usually stands when he is preparing forsomething.

Shiratorizawa’s team is first shown in an earlier shot inseason 2 where their faces are covered in darkness while Ushijima is the onlyone visible. Here, Ushijima’s stance is a little more relaxed with his arms byhis sides yet his back is straight with perfect posture. Goshiki stands withone foot forward and his hands on his hips, showing off his confident natureand Yamagata stands with clenched fists, presenting him to possibly be a roughcharacter. Shirabu and Kawanishi have relatively relaxed poses in comparison toTendou, who is relaxed with his arms folded behind his head, as if believingthe match will be over quickly and staying in line with his taunting nature.Reon however stands to Ushijima’s right side, going along with the theme thatReon is like Ushijima’s right hand man. Haikyuu’s stadiums are always brightlylit, presenting a burst of energy, yet a single spot light is focused down onthe net as the outlines of crows flutter past. This could actually be badforeshadowing of how Karasuno will take the spotlight from Shiratorizawa, or itcould show that it’s time for Karasuno to rise up and return to their formerglory.

All of a sudden, a flash of light shines across the screenwith the vocalist singing “hikariare// let there be light” as crows fly past.The camera in the next shot swoops past Hinata like a bird, hence how thecamera does not completely focus on him. His quick instincts tell him to turnaround with his fists clenched, ready for a fight; his eyes make eye contactwith the camera, and us in the process, showing a piercing determination. Thecrow flies and soars to the sky which is still dark before the next shot snapsto Hinata whose figure lowers, indicating him preparing for a receive.

The phrase “hikariare” is often used in this opening as abuild up for something. On the next shot, a spiker from Shiratorizawa (notUshijima based on the fact that he spiked with his right hand) snaps on thefinal syllable of “re” and at this point the music is not synced with what ishappening on the court. Usually, the camera would follow close to Hinata likein ‘FLY HIGH!!!’ where the intro starts with the camera lagging slightly behindas he runs; instead, this time the camera runs along the side then snaps to theopposite side of the court where the ball slams down and bounces over thecamera. The following shots are comprised of Nishinoya, Tsukishima and Daichisupporting the team in their usual roles but this also shows off that they’regoing to have a big role in this season. In addition to this, Tsukishima’sright hand snaps back when the ball hits him, foreshadowing his injury to comebut his eyes keep on the ball as it continues to sink down on the other side ofthe court, showing off his immense concentration.

Once again, we’re back with Ushijima again and his animationhas become a lot rougher. This style is emphasised by the white blur on theedges of the screen and rough shadows over his hand; this is seen when Oikawaand Ushijima serve as well, meant to show the immense impact that they candeliver. Light suddenly snaps like thunder upon the court when Ushijima smashesthrough their block and air shifts when the ball bounces, showing once againthe ultimate strength that he brings to his team.  

The ball bounces off into the darkness to be replaced by theimage of an eagle. The striking part about this image is the fact that it hasbeen coloured in black, only to be replaced with an even more determined shotof Ushijima’s golden eyes as little of his face is illuminated. Eyes play animportant part in Haikyuu’s openings as shown when Hinata first looks up at themountain in the beginning and in ‘FLY HIGH!!!’ where Hinata’s eyes reflect theball as he jumps to spike it. Though Hinata was once afraid of Ushijima, hiseyes appear on the screen as well, unblinking and almost relentless; this trulyshows off how much Hinata has developed as a person and also a player if he’sable to stand up to Ushijima in this way.

Crows once again fly past, potentially making the metaphoroverused, but it is soon followed up by the Karasuno team as they run up for amob attack. This section is potentially also the most monotonous as everysingle opening has had a scene where the same players show off their skills butin the same motions that they have been doing in openings from season 1. Thenext shot is far more effective with Hinata jumping up amazingly high to thepoint where he appears to be flying; upon this thought, the image of a birdappears. This bird could possibly just be Karasuno’s crow soaring in the lightthat is finally shining, or the fact that feathers fly off of it could onceagain foreshadow Shiratorizawa’s defeat and this could be an eagle.

Light flourishes in the gymnasium with shadows transforminginto crows before scattering away. This particularly does not have muchsymbolism but the next shot shows Hinata’s hair move, as if the crows reallydid fly past him. Now the setting is bright and clear like the court regularlywould be, indicating the fact that this imagery built up in Hinata’s head needsto be cast aside and that it’s time to focus upon the game. The typical shot ofthe main team’s numbers on their back is only momentary till it snaps back toHinata possibly nodding to the singer’s words of “your shine today willilluminate another’s tomorrow” as a response as well as showing hisdetermination to fight.

The camera returns to the common theme of showing thecharacter’s feet as they step forward onto the court. This is one of the firstscenes in Haikyuu where Hinata looks on coming back to Karasuno and they allshout “let’s have a good game” yet Hinata’s steps are not as bouncy as before,showing that he has become more mature and serious as the series hasprogressed. The characters walk forwards towards the net but at differentspeeds; it is clear that Ushijima and Hinata come close to the net first butit’s also shown that Yamagata walks slightly faster than the others and Tsukishimalags behind his team a bit as well. Crows and an eagle appear with a flash oflightning, signifying the start of the match effectively, with the eagle’stalons bared and beaks open in preparation.

The final shot however is once again daunting yet hopeful.The trophy looks big in the perspective that the camera shows us and there areclear details of possibly laurels over the underside of the cup. The finalglint of the cup matches up with the last words “hikariare” again to show offthe imagery of light. The final guitar pattern ends on an imperfect cadence,leaving you unsatisfied as you want a final chord to finish everything off.However, this satisfaction will not come from another note but in fact from theshow that you’ve been so eagerly prepared for. All these images culminate into one of the most effective anime openings from last year.

[news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog]

Outdated ways of listening to music, ranked

Not to be too "old man yells at cloud," but I realized the other day that the average freshman entering college this fall probably has no idea what it's like to not have any song they want to hear available within moments.

These lucky individuals will never know the torment of waiting half an hour for one 30-second clip of the new Weezer single to load over that 28.8k modem connection, praying no one calls to interrupt the transfer so you can finally — finally — hear that sweet music that sounded like it was played through a bad AM radio dropped down a running garbage disposal. 

SEE ALSO: How Phish became the unlikely heroes of digital music streaming

But in the late 1990s that was the life. That was the future. I once spent almost four hours downloading a single song — a cruddy .WAV rip of a new R.E.M. song — that I then played through two cruddy computer speakers with a microphone hooked up to my dad's tape deck sandwiched in-between, just to have the song on a cassette. 

I thought I was a genius. "IT'S SO GREAT," I'd proclaim over the din, "THE FUTURE IS AMAZING. JUST LISTEN TO THIS. AND I DIDN'T HAVE TO LEAVE MY HOUSE."

Now I can have any song playing within 10 seconds of picking it, no matter where I am. 

Sometimes you have to look back to appreciate how terrible even the most state-of-the-art advancements were at the time. So I did. Here you'll find a ranking of seven ways we've listened to music in the last 25 years or so. It's a shout-out to the tools we used before the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora. 

This isn't exhaustive by any means (the world was flooded with software and apps ... and probably always will be). Just wait another 25 years, when Blue Ivy's comeback album is streamed directly into our skulls nanoseconds after we think about it. 

7. Microsoft Zune

You were too beautiful for this world, Zune.

Image: Getty Images

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Sorry, had to get that out of my system. The Zune remains one of tech's biggest flops, at least since the year 2000, if not ever. 

When it was released in 2006, Microsoft's personal music player tried to horn in on a market that was already becoming saturated with Apple's superior and sleeker iPod, which had hit shelves years earlier.

If the Zune was destined to play catch-up, then the infamous "Leap Year" bug that bricked a certain model of the device at the end of 2008 was probably the final weight that dragged any hope to a halt.  

The device developed a cult following, but that didn't raise it above the level of the Newton of the new millennium. 

6. Minidisc

It's like a CD player but with an option to record. And smaller. And more expensive. And much harder to find. Like Betamax was to VHS, the Minidisc player offered a lot of advantages over cassettes, which it was aiming to replace, and compact discs, the other emerging technology. 

But, as with Betamax, the Minidisc wasn't as cheap as its competitors, a factor that helped lead to its eventual demise after repeated efforts to rebrand it. 

5. RealPlayer

RealPlayer lives to this day, but I best remember its original incarnation, which allowed you to stream audio and video files straight from the web before Spotify and YouTube. In a way, RealPlayer was ahead of its time, one of the first to offer users this ability. 

Two old versions of the Real Player

Image: Archive.org

However, my experiences were not always great. (That was more a product of circumstance than indicative of poor player quality.) Since it debuted before high-speed internet become affordable and widely available, streams often lagged and sputtered. And coming before more compressed forms of audio and video became widespread, music often sounded like a messy AM-quality version. 

The company seems to have a warmer memory of the software than I and other users do. But, credit where it's due for being there early. 

4. Discman

Compact discs on the go! I'll always remember having to haul at least one small binder of CDs every time I traveled with my Discman, and then having to hold the portable player as I walked. 

Eventually, I figured out how to wrap the Discman in a T-shirt and leave it in my backpack, stretching the headphones out to keep listening even while I walked. I'd have to stop and dig back in to switch out CDs every so often. When it became easier to burn your own mix CDs, that meant less CD swaps, but it didn't do away with the skipping or bulky size of the Discman itself.

Look, it's not that I'm not grateful for having a Discman. I could listen to it on the go, plug it into a stereo, or even plug it into my car and listen to it over an unused FM frequency (hello, static) when I drove all over the place in college. For those of you who are under 20 years of age, we really did have some incredibly weird ways of listening to music in our cars.  

3. Walkman

True story: When I began running on a regular basis in 2004, I was too poor to afford an iPod, and running with a Discman is pretty much impossible due to its awkward size and the fact that the CD would skip endlessly. 

Ah, my beloved.

Image: Sony

So I bought a cassette Walkman, even though this was the same year the Walkman included a line of MP3 players (again, steep prices). It was small enough to fit in my hand while I ran, and the earphones were relatively unobtrusive. 

Plus, for longer runs, it was easy to flip my mixtape over and keep running, no fumbling with discs. And at this time, there were 120-minute cassette tapes to far outlast any 70-minute mixtape I could put together.

Say what you will about cassettes and Walkmans becoming obsolete. For a small window in the early 2000s before iPods and everyone had smartphones, they still had a purpose.

Or at least they did for me, and this my list, so here we are.

2. Napster

Oh, Napster. You were trouble from the start, but you pushed music into the digital age.

Image: Getty Images

The music industry was dragged into the digital music era thanks to Napster, which allowed us to download tons of MP3s from our favorite bands and listen to them right then and there. 

Sure, it was illegal as hell, but it was so easy to use and flooded with music you wanted. (There were several downsides.) Still, there's no under-selling the impact Napster had when it debuted. 

A whole lot of digital ink has been spilled talking about Napster, including on this site right here. But it brought MP3s to the masses and forced the music industry to get its act together. It spurred on imitators galore, was eventually shut down and forced to go legit, and, in 2011, it merged with Rhapsody. 

It might have been doomed from the start, but for a few fleeting moments, we saw the future.

1. Winamp

Oh, Winamp. You were the King of Music Listening Software for a good chunk of my college years and even into grad school in the early 2000s, especially before I moved from PC to Mac. 

In the pre-iTunes era, Winamp was the ultimate in playback software for MP3s for quality, ease of use, and the ability to play live audio streams. Video playback made for nice versatility, as did the fun skins you could download to customize the look and feel of the player.

Thanks to its flexibility — supporting an incredible range of sound files from MP3 to FLAC to AAC — pretty much anything you had on your computer could be played through Winamp. And its playlist function was superb, an easy way to make hours-long lists of jams for parties or just hanging out in your dorm room. 

I wasn't the only one. Winamp hit a peak of 60 million users by 2001. 

And, oh, those visualizations. Talk about great ways to spend time holed up in your dorm room...

Nullsoft, the company that created Winamp, was purchased by AOL in 1999 for a bundle of cash ($80 million), but it was shuttered in 2013 and then sold in 2014. There is a web-based version of the player you could check out for old time's sake, if you want.

In the end, many associated with the software blamed AOL mismanagement for dooming Winamp to the scrapheaps of history and preventing it from evolving into something that could have competed with iTunes or even a streaming music service.

It's a damn shame. Rather than having an interesting competitor to those services with built-in audience loyalty, we're left to look back fondly and remember what was. 

WATCH: Meet the man who makes music with vegetables

[chicagopdlover]

Tarantino First Look; Academy Class Questions; Chalamet's 'Beautiful Boy' Trailer; L.A.'s "Influencer-Only" Mural

Tarantino First Look; Academy Class Questions; Chalamet’s ‘Beautiful Boy’ Trailer; L.A.’s “Influencer-Only” Mural

What’s news: Leonardo DiCaprio unveiled the first look at Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood . Plus: Lingering questions about the Academy’s record new class, Dana Brunetti launches a new company and an “influencer-only” mural arrives in Los Angeles. — Erik Hayden June 27, 2018 What’s news: Leonardo DiCaprio unveiled the first look at Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood . Plus: Lingering questions about the Academy’s record new class, Dana Brunetti launches a new company and an “influencer-only” mural arrives in Los Angeles. — Erik Hayden Academy Class Questions Having sifted through the 928 member list unveiled by the film Academy, Scott Feinberg has a few questions about the direction of the organization: 1. Is the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences still an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences? In order to meet its diversity goals, the Academy — and, in particular, its largest division, the actors branch — is increasingly inviting people to become members who are tremendously talented, but whose talents have primarily manifested themselves in other media. 2. If you’re good enough to win an Oscar, why aren’t you good enough to join the Academy? I do believe that there is one circumstance under which someone who has not amassed a large body of standout work should still be invited to join the Academy, and that is if that person has made a contribution to a film that was deemed excellent enough to merit an Oscar. 3. Is Oscar campaigning about to go crazy? With the latest class added, this will create the highest number of Oscar voters since the period spanning 1938 to 1945, when certain classes of members of outside guilds, including the now-defunct Screen Extras Guild, were granted full voting privileges, bringing the size of the voting rolls to approximately 12,000. Full column. Elsewhere in film… ► MoviePass parent stock hits new low. The company is losing about $45 million a month on its plan that gives subscribers 30 movie tickets for the price of one; it may need to spend $1.2 billion more if it is to stay afloat and keep growing ► Mark Wahlberg, Peter Berg reteam for Netflix film. The duo have set their next project (their fifth together) with the movie Wonderland , an adaptation from Robert B. Parker’s detective series. Sean O’Keefe penned the screenplay. ► Pete Davidson to lead indie Big Time Adolescence . The SNL star will join Machine Gun Kelly and Griffin Gluck in the pic. The film, which will begin shooting next month, will be the directorial debut of Jason Orley. ► Annapurna president to exit company. Marc Weinstock is leaving after less than two years in that role. According to insiders, his decision to depart is amicable and he will not be replaced. ^Sony’s Quentin Tarantino Manson drama unveils first still. Leonardo DiCaprio posted an image of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood , with him and Brad Pitt featured. First look. ► Amazon unveils Beautiful Boy trailer. Steve Carell, Timothée Chalamet and Maura Tierney star in the drama from the streamer that hits theaters Oct. 12. Full clip . ► Dwayne Johnson’s Skyscraper scores rare China release date . Legendary Entertainment and Universal’s action thriller has locked down a July 20 date, securing a spot right in the midst of Beijing’s summer blackout on imported Hollywood fare. ► Lionsgate finds new film group marketing chief. Damon Wolf, currently co-head of marketing at Sony, will join the studio Jan. 1. His recent campaigns include work on Baby Driver and Don’t Breathe . ► Constantin Film buys production group Hager Moss. The Munich-based production outfit is best known for its dramas and for crowd-pleasing films, including Oktoberfest . ► Independent Film and Television Alliance leaders renew contracts. Jean Prewitt and Jonathan Wolf have each re-upped for another three years with the trade association. Prewitt has headed the group since 2000. ► Writers Guild of America East unveils board candidates . It’s election season for the guild, which revealed a list of 16 candidates nominated for 10 open seats on its council. In Heat Vision : Marvel’s wait-and-see LGBTQ character approach. Graeme McMillan writes: Studio chief Kevin Feige recently confirmed queer characters are coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which lags behind the comic book publisher. Full column. Mega TV Deals It’s official: Fox will be the new home of WWE SmackDown Live, Marisa Guthrie writes: + Fox: The new five-year agreement will commence Oct. 4, 2019, and will give Fox two hours of live event programming 52 weeks each year. It is worth $205M annually, and $1.025B over the life of the pact. + NBC: The network said that is has closed a new five-year pact to keep the Monday night showcase Raw on USA Network. That deal is worth $265M annually, a big premium over the current pact, which is worth about $150M annually for both properties. Currently both programs air on NBCUniversal’s USA. Full story. Elsewhere in TV… ► Charter greenlights its first scripted series. Bad Boys spinoff L.A.’s Finest , starring Jessica Alba and Gabrielle Union, has been ordered by Charter Communications. The 13-episode drama will premiere in 2019. ► HBO casts Jeremy Irons in Watchmen pilot. The actor will topline the pilot from Damon Lindelof. While the pay cabler has remained mum on details, Irons will likely play an imperious lord of a British manor. ► Freeform cancels Famous in Love . Sources say the Disney-owned cabler wanted more money from SVOD partner Hulu for a potential third season amid clashes between star Bella Thorne and showrunner I. Marlene King. ► Lionsgate inks Dear White People showrunner to deal. Fresh off a third-season renewal, showrunner Yvette Lee Bowser has signed an overall deal . Under the pact, Bowser will create new projects for the studio. Quoted: “It seemed like, you don’t need to murder someone that’s committing suicide. I thought the firing was overkill. She’s already dead.” — Jerry Seinfeld to USA Today on Roseanne Barr ‘s firing. ^Can Netflix transform the TV landscape in the Middle East? With over 400M potential viewers, the region has vast potential, but with little variation in programming, audiences are starved for original content. The streaming giant could change all that. Full column. ► ITV COO, CFO to step down. The U.K. TV giant said that CFO and COO Ian Griffiths has advised the board of his intention to retire in the next 12 months. The company is searching for a successor. ► Endemol Shine names head of non-English scripted drama. Lars Blomgren, producer of the Scandinavian series The Bridge , has been hired as the new head of scripted across Europe, the Middle East and Asia. ► Fox Searchlight’s TV division fills out exec ranks. The new arm of the company has tapped Kara Buckley and Danny Samit as vps of television production. The division has yet to launch its first project. ► Sony shutting down Crackle in Canada. The video hub will shift some of its Canadian inventory to two new local ad-supported VOD services, via a partnership with Sony Pictures Television. Dana Brunetti launches new TV and film company. He is teaming with former Relativity exec Keegan Rosenberger to create Cavalry Media with “moderately-priced, premium” programming that includes the Columbus series Hispaniola. The budget for a film will be in the $40M-$80M range. Details. L.A.’s Influencers-Only Mural A stunt: Stroll down Melrose Avenue and there it is: A blue mural with a pink heart and angel wings. A security guard stands out front, next to a sign that reads, “For verified influencers and people with over 20,000 followers only,” Natalie Jarvey notes. What that means. What else we’re reading… — “Comcast hunts for additional cash.” Amol Sharma and Dana Mattioliis report that the company is “exploring tie-ups with other companies or private-equity investors that could provide additional cash as the cable giant pursues a costly acquisition of 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets.” [ Wall Street Journal ] — ” How’s he gonna react when there’s a scandal?” Joe Pompeo on CNN: “So much appears to hang on the Jeff Zucker-John Stankey bromance. For now, everyone is saying the right thing.” [ Vanity Fair ] — “Hollywood’s instant antihero.” Reggie Ugwu’s Benicio Del Toro profile: “he’s been a strikingly economical player, if not always the most valuable one, averaging an unusually high ratio of memorable moments.” [ New York Times ] — “What does ABC want from The Conners ?” David Sims writes: “The network canceled Roseanne and ordered a rebooted version of the show without its star, but what kinds of stories is the spinoff hoping to tell?” [ The Atlantic ] — “Prince estate signs deal with Sony Music to re-release 35 catalog albums.” Colin Stutz notes: “The deal also includes rights to other previously released singles, B-sides, remixes, non-album tracks, live recordings and music videos recorded before 1995.” [ Billboard ] From the archives… + 10 years ago today: On June 27, 2008, Pixar unveiled WALL-E, a sci-fi adventure that would become a summer hit with critics and audiences. Flashback review. Today’s birthdays: Sam Claflin , 32, Khloé Kardashian , 33, Wagner Moura , 42, Tobey Maguire , 43, J.J. Abrams , 52. Follow The News Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. ©2018 The Hollywood Reporter. 5700 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036 All rights reserved. Unsubscribe | Manage Preferences | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use June 27, 2018

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[zeroviraluniverse-blog]

The best cheap projector deals and February sales 2018

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The best cheap projector deals and February sales 2018

It’s not hard to find great projector deals in 2017 … if you know where to look.

Admittedly, some of us have a strange fear of projectors. That they’re some unknowable quantity that only AV students and master electricians can understand. But trust us, they’re not. Projectors are just as easy to set up as a new flatscreen and, guess what, they usually have a larger max screen size, too. 

Why go for a projector instead of a big screen? Well, the benefits of a projector include a more cinematic experience in your home with a massive image, great resolution and cost, often they’re less than the 65 or 75-inch screen you had in mind. There are some downsides here, too, including caring for a lamp and some input delay in some cases, but the pros far outweigh the cons. 

But you knew all that already, right? That’s why you’re here looking for a the best cheap projector and not, I don’t know, perusing cheap TVs. Good for you.

So what makes a good deal on projectors?

Look we’re not going to tell you how you should spend your money. That’s not our style. But, what we will say, is that the best projectors are almost always Full HD and come with built-in speakers. If you get both those features and aren’t looking to break the bank, don’t spend more than $650 or £500. You can do better for less. 

That being said, we’ve found a few great deals this month that we wanted to bring to your attention – hopefully ending your long hunt for the perfect addition to your home theater setup.

1. BenQ TH670

This is the best cheap projector we could find

1080p resolution

10-watt speaker

Not a ton of input lag

Contrast ratio could be better

You can probably stop reading right here. This is the best cheap projector you’re going to find. Sure, the BenQ TH670 might be a bit more than you were looking to spend, but it’s almost impossible to find a better projector in terms of quality versus price. The TH670 has a Full 1080p (1920×1080) resolution, 3,000 ANSI lumens of brightness, 10,000:1 high contrast ratio and built-in speakers. Those speakers could be a hair bit more powerful, but for the price it’s hard to complain too much. The projector is capable of images spanning from 60 to 120 inches across and its lamp is rated for 4,000 – 10,000 hours depending on which modes you primarily use. Input-wise it offers Computer in (D-sub 15pin) x 2 (Share with component), Composite Video in (RCA) x 1 and HDMI. Win! 

2. Optoma HD142X

Optoma’s HD142X from 2016 is a solid runner-up

Full 1080p image quality

23,000:1 contrast ratio

Not the best picture

Only two HDMI ports

In a very solid second place is Optoma’s excellent HD142X projector. It has a full 1080p (1920 x 1080) resolution, 3,000 ANSI lumens of brightness, 23,000:1 high contrast ratio and built-in 10-watt speakers. It even supports 3D video to boot. Optoma says that the lamp life for the HD142X is somewhere in the ballpark of 8,000 hours – and claims that it would last around 10 years if you watched a two-hour movie every single day. Input-wise the HD141X offers 2 x HDMI (1.4a 3D support) + MHL v1.2, perfect for hooking up a PS4 or 3D Blu-ray player. 

3. BenQ W1070

Another BenQ projector? You better believe it

Full 1080p image quality

Day and night viewing modes

10,000:1 contrast ratio

Fan can get loud

Yes, we’re really including two BenQ projectors on this list. While the TH670 is still king of the proverbial projector castle, the W1070 isn’t a bad third choice. We say that because it makes a fair amount of trade-offs. Yes, you’re still getting the awesome 1080p resolution, but you’re also getting the poor 10,000:1 contrast ratio. Worse, though, you’re losing a bit of light output (the W1070 only outputs 2,000 ANSI lumens). At least there’s still plenty of inputs should you need them – 2 x HDMI, component and VGA inputs are all here. That being said, if a good deal pops up on one of these, this shouldn’t be overlooked. 

4. Acer H5380BD

In last place is Acer’s entry-level H5380BD

17,000:1 contrast ratio

3,000 lumens of brightness

1280 x 720 native resolution

2-watt speakers

At one time, Acer’s H5380BD was king of the world with its 1280 x 720 resolution and 2-watt speakers. But now there’s a new king in town rocking 10-watts of audio prowess and Full HD. That doesn’t mean you need to relegate Acer’s entry-level home theater projector to the dustbin, however, it’s still plenty capable for most folks looking for something cheap. So where did it go wrong? The H5380BD only has a 720p (1280 x 720) resolution, but at least puts out 3,000 ANSI lumens of brightness. It has a 17,000:1 contrast ratio, but only 3-watt built-in speakers. That said, the projector is capable of images spanning from 300 inches across and its lamp is rated for 4,000 – 10,000 hours depending on which modes you primarily use. Input-wise it offers HDMI, Composite Video, S-Video and two VGA ports.

5. Optoma UHD60 4K Projector

Rewriting the 4K HDR projector rule book

It’s a 4K Projector! 

Sharp, bright pictures

Limited HDR effect

Slightly high input lag

They may have taken their own sweet time getting here, but 4K projectors using DLP technology are finally starting to arrive. The first of these affordable UHD beasts is the Optoma UHD60, a 4K HDR projector that has all the benefits of a standard DLP projector, plus a few of the perks of a 4K flatscreen. The UHD60 is a prime contender for AV bargain of the year, delivering genuine 4K and HDR thrills at a price that instantly leaves many of its rivals with some serious explaining to do.

[superfamigos]

Games with friends, remotely: Streaming with audio chat

Hey yall! I’ve mentioned in passing that Super Famigos got started originally because we wanted to try streaming videogames with each other. As such, we’ve done a lot of research into this topic, and recently we’ve found some solutions, mainly Mixer’s low-latency streaming technology, that make interacting with friends on stream a lot more natural. I’d like to share those solutions with you!

The problem: stream delay

When we started the first iteration of Super Famigos, we wanted to use streaming to recreate our childhood experiences of gathering around the TV to watch and play a cool single-player game. So, our goal was to find a solution where we could all talk together over audio chat, rather than the text chat that’s standard for most streaming services. In practice, this ended up being a lot more difficult than we expected, and we’ve still probably logged more hours on test streams than on actual gameplay.

The main problem we’ve faced in having natural interactions on stream is stream delay. On Twitch, there can be as much as 20-30 seconds of delay between an event happening in real time, and when it occurs on stream. Other services like Smashcast (formerly known as Hitbox) have a smaller delay, around 7-10 seconds in our experience, but until we found Mixer, we struggled to find a service that could stream with any less delay.

A delay might not be so bad in some situations, but it really messes with our voice chat scenario. The lag over voice chat (over the phone, Discord, Google Hangouts, etc.) is typically less than a second, compared to up to half a minute of lag on Twitch. With a gap of several seconds between what the streamer and the viewers are seeing, trying to talk about the game can be frustrating.

A secondary problem for us has been annoying echo-like repetition in the audio. Because of stream lag, any voices picked up on stream will be heard twice by the friends who are watching: first on audio chat, then again over the stream.

A solution: Mixer (née Beam)

As I mentioned earlier, we spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to get around these issues. We came up with a few different solutions, but none work quite so well for this application than Mixer, the streaming service formerly known as Beam. Mixer is much like Twitch, but it has a killer feature that sets it apart: FTL, a software process that allows high-quality game streaming with sub-second stream latency.

You can probably see how this instantly solves much of our problem. A delay of less than a second is pretty much negligible in normal conversation. This makes it easy for a streamer and viewers to consult each other on a dialogue choice, or to react at the same time to something funny or exciting. This works great whether you’re using audio chat or Mixer’s built-in text chat.

How to use Mixer

If this sounds appealing to you, here are a few tips and instructions to help you get started with Mixer.

Prerequisites for this guide If you have an Xbox One or Windows 10 PC, you don’t really need any streaming experience or extra hardware. Streaming with Mixer on Microsoft platforms is wonderfully simple, ever since a few months ago when the “Creators Update” integrated what was then called Beam into Xbox One and Windows 10 at a system level.

If you’re trying to stream from anything else, this process isn’t quite as easy. You’ll need to be familiar with the general process of streaming with OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) Studio, a popular, free streaming package. I won’t get into how to use it in this guide, but there are good guides online on how to use it.

In addition, Mac and Linux users may or may not need to look up how to compile OBS from source. (I know this might sound scary, but Mac users in particular can probably avoid compiling any code. Check below for more explanation.)

If you want to stream to Mixer from a non-Xbox console, you will also need a streaming-capable video capture card (like those made by Elgato), and know how to use it with OBS. Again, guides on how to do this can be found online.

Xbox One Streaming to Mixer from Xbox One is about as easy as one could hope for, as you can see in the GIF above. Here are the steps in text form:

1. After starting the game you want to stream, open up the Guide by pressing the Xbox logo button on your controller. 2. Scroll down to and press the Broadcast button in the sidebar (looks like a satellite dish). 3. Select “Broadcast your game.” 4. Select options like toggling on your microphone, camera, and chat. You can also select where the streaming overlay (including text chat activity) appears on your screen, and where your camera footage will appear on a viewer’s screen. 5. Hit “Start broadcast,” and you’ll start streaming at the mixer.com address shown when you were selecting options! (In my experience, the address is simply mixer.com/<YourGamerTag>.)

And that’s pretty much it! As far as I could tell, you don’t need to sign up for a Mixer account or anything, they automatically provide one for you. You can log into your Mixer account to adjust more settings by selecting the “Login with Microsoft” option on the Mixer website. You can also find more options in the Xbox Settings app under Preferences > Broadcasting.

Windows 10 I haven’t tested the Windows 10 process yet, as I’m generally a Mac man myself, but it seems very similar to the above. Rather than using the Xbox Guide though, you pull up the Game bar by pressing Windows key + G, and select the Broadcast button from there.

For a bit more context and a demonstration video, check this article from the Xbox team: The Beam App Arrives on Xbox One for Xbox Insiders Starting Today - Xbox Wire

If you want more control over your stream than the built-in options give you, you can also use OBS-FTL with your Windows 10 PC, as explained in the section below.

Other platforms (Mac, other Windows versions, PS4, Switch, etc.) Things get slightly more complicated if you’re not in the Microsoft ecosystem, but it is possible to use Mixer to stream on other platforms. This process is not documented too well (perhaps because the team is more focused on the Microsoft OS-integrated versions currently?), but I can hopefully get you through the basics.

Since OBS is an open-source project, Mixer has branched OBS’ code and created their own version of OBS Studio called OBS-FTL. (You might also see that they created an OBS version called Tachyon, but that version is outdated.) OBS-FTL appears identical to vanilla OBS in most ways, but under the hood, it contains Mixer’s FTL technology for low-latency streaming.

So, the process of streaming to Mixer from other platforms is the same as the vanilla OBS process, once you’ve acquired OBS-FTL and made the necessary settings tweaks. Here’s how to do that.

1. Download a copy of OBS-FTL. You can do this at Releases · mixer/obs-studio-ftl · GitHub, where you’ll find a list of the most recent updates to the software. Each release has a download section, where you can download a package containing a compiled version of the program, either an .msi Windows installer or a .dmg Mac disk image.

You may notice that the most recent updates only offer the Windows version to download. I’ve been told by Mixer support that their Mac support is limited right now, but they haven’t stopped working on it. Mac users still have the option of compiling the program from source code, but that’s quite an involved process for someone without much programming knowledge. (Heck, I have a computer engineering degree, and I still think it’s a hassle.)

Fortunately, you might not need the most recent version. In my personal experience, I have been able to use OBS-Studio v17.0.2 w/FTL.30 (the most recent version with a Mac download) to successfully stream to Mixer without much issue.

(I haven’t done much research into running OBS-FTL on Linux, though since OBS itself has a Linux release, it should theoretically be possible to compile a Linux version from source. Let me know if you successfully do this, or find any information about it online.)

2. Update OBS settings for low latency. OBS-FTL is capable of both Mixer’s low-latency streaming and the standard process available in vanilla OBS Studio. You’ll need to configure certain settings to enable FTL streaming.

The settings that need to be changed are listed on the Mixer GitHub release page that I linked previously (Releases · mixer/obs-studio-ftl · GitHub). Rather than write them here in this guide, I’ll refer you there in case the settings change in newer versions.

Here’s one tip though: it’s important to make sure to change the Stream Type to Beam FTL Service in the Stream tab of Settings, as shown in the image above. I somehow overlooked this myself, and was very confused for quite a while when my stream had much more delay than I expected from FTL.

3. Continue using OBS-FTL as you would OBS Studio. Once you’ve made the necessary settings tweaks, you can use OBS-FTL like any other version of OBS.

I guess I can note that you’ll need to log onto mixer.com to get a stream key, as you would with Twitch or any other streaming service. I think you used to be able to create a new account with an arbitrary email and password, but nowadays it looks like a new Mixer account needs to be linked to a Microsoft account.

After logging in, you can find your stream key by clicking on the circular avatar button in the top right corner of any Mixer page and then selecting “Manage Channel”. You’ll be taken to the Broadcast tab of your Manage Channel page, where you can copy or regenerate your stream key or change other settings.

One last note: audio snafus

As I mentioned briefly, a secondary problem we experienced was repeating audio. Because the streamer’s voice is usually being picked up both on stream and on audio chat, viewers end up hearing it twice. Viewers’ voices can also end up “echoing” if they get picked up on stream. Fortunately, we’ve been able to find a pretty simple way to fix this problem.

Xbox One Most of our experience using Mixer has been with Xbox One. During our first Mixer stream, we were somewhat amazed to find that the streamer’s voice actually transmitted faster on the Mixer stream than it did in the audio chat over Discord. This makes the problem we mentioned above really simple to solve. Viewers can simply mute the streamer’s mic over their chat service, and hear both the streamer’s voice and the game audio over the stream.

Unfortunately, it’s not as easy for the streamer to get a nice mixed version of the game audio and the chat audio. To listen to the chat, we recommend using one ear of a pair of headphones, or simply using speakers on low volume. Just make sure that the volume is quiet enough that the voice chat isn’t picked up on stream, or the viewers will start hearing themselves twice.

OBS-FTL on PC/Mac/Linux (and with other consoles via capture card) Using your computer gives the streamer a bit more control over their audio sources, which we think can actually be more trouble than it’s worth. We recommend putting audio chat on your phone and using the tips above, rather than trying to route all your audio in software.

If you’re committed to trying to route all your audio inside your computer, best of luck to you. Most programs we’ve used for streaming route audio from all programs on your computer into a single virtual source. We didn’t have a lot of luck finding free solutions for routing audio from individual programs or to specific outputs. JACK is one free option, but it’s not very easy to use. One of our Super Famigos crew has been able to get it working on Windows, but I was never able to get it working on Mac. I did find some paid software on Mac like Loopback, but it all seemed quite expensive.

Windows 10 (native) We haven’t tested the native Mixer integration in Windows 10 and how it integrates with audio. Please let us know if you’ve tried it!

Conclusion

If you read all the way down here, congratulations, and thanks for reading! We’re really excited to have found a solution for voice chat streaming that works for us, and we’ve been enjoying putting that solution to use. We hope you’ll have fun with it too! Please let us know if you have any questions.

If you skipped to the end, that’s okay too. Here’s a tl;dr -

If you want to do voice chat with friends while streaming, try using Mixer! Pro tip: have your buddies mute you on voice chat so they don’t hear your voice twice.

Appendix: A few more tips for alternate setups

As I mentioned before, we spent quite a while trying to get audio chat working on other services before finding Mixer. With that experience, we can offer a few tips for people who would rather use another service, or who want to extend our idea to a wider audience.

Twitch, YouTube and other traditional streaming services Even though we think that Mixer is great, we recognize that there are reasons you might want to stick with bigger services like Twitch or YouTube. It doesn’t look like these sites are planning to reduce their stream delay at the moment, but you can try to work voice chat around that delay.

Unfortunately, in the end, the big issue with audio chat on these platforms is the lag. If you want to broadcast your voice on stream and talk on voice chat at the same time, you will always end up in a situation where your viewers on voice chat will hear your voice twice.

The best solution we could come up for our original scenario is to simply cut the streamer’s voice out, and just stream the game audio and video. This isn’t ideal, but at least the viewers on voice chat will be able to talk normally with the streamer without any echoes.

An audience of followers as well as friends (Mixer, Twitch and more) Up to this point, we’ve only really considered the scenario I pitched at the start, where the only people watching the stream are your friends on voice chat. But I’m sure there are some people out there who would like to build a larger audience on Mixer or Twitch or wherever, and are thinking banter with some friends could make for a fun streaming show.

We haven’t yet done this ourselves, but I do have a few ideas on how you would need to do it.

If you wanted to broadcast a Mixer stream that included the game audio, the streamer’s audio, and audio chat from remote friends, the friends on chat would not be able to easily listen to the audio from the stream. Even though the lag is small, the friends would end up talking over audio of themselves from less than a second ago.

To get around that you would probably want to find some way to route the game audio into the voice chat, and then output that voice chat + game audio mix as the audio for the stream. Then everyone would mute the stream (and the game) and listen over the voice chat. I’m not sure how you would route that audio that way, but it would probably involve using OBS-FTL rather than the built-in apps on Xbox One or Windows 10. You would probably also need some paid audio routing software (or deep and arcane knowledge of JACK).

As for doing this over Twitch or a similar service with stream latency over 1 second, I think that getting natural conversations will be very challenging. No matter how you route the voice chat audio, you won’t be able to get around the fact that the streamer is looking at something several seconds ahead of the friends he’s talking to. If you’re okay with that, you might be able to find a way to route the audio that will remove any echoes for the friends on chat. But I’m still not sure the disjointed audio of the streamer and the viewers will make sense to a wider audience.

Perhaps this is obvious, but it should be noted that all the problems we’ve talked about go away if you can get all your friends together in the same physical location. If you’re really serious about streaming a show with banter from friends, it might be worth trying to get together with friends in your area, rather than bring friends in remotely.

Best of luck!