#i think i need to fix my lighting mods ... one day

[pixelatedblues]

a servo repair shop hidden in some back alley

[annabtg]

Fic Year in Review 2024

Tagged by the wonderful @blitheringmcgonagall, thank you! ❤️❤️

I published much less fic this year than the previous ones - only 19,213 words, or 15 short oneshots. All new stuff, except about half of The Three-Minute Initiative which had been started in Jilytober 2023 (and still needed some rewriting).

There are two other major projects that I worked on during the year - my multichapter AU Revanche, currently at ~17k, and my long oneshot semi-crackfic Oh My God, She's Insane, currently at ~4k - so I have more than double of what I published, to be released hopefully in 2025!

It's been a year with ups and downs in my writing mood - mostly downs, it felt, but then I've also written some of my favourite works ever this year! I also branched out a bit, in style and content, which I think did me good. I got several Jily Awards - more than I ever dared to expect - and most importantly, I got a lot of love throughout the year from all of you! My stats might not have been significantly high for most of my fics, but your comments and support have been invaluable ❤️❤️❤️

Breakdown of my fics under the cut!

In chronological order:

Fixed Luck (1.3k, rated T): Canon compliant, Order era. Jily deal with addiction to Felix Felicis. Angsty af, no happy ending. One of my favourites of the year. Favourite Angst award.

The Three-Minute Initiative (2k, rated T): Written as a late entry for Jilytober 2023. Muggle AU, Lily goes to a speed dating event and gets to meet with all of the Marauders in turn. Flirty and fun.

Drunk With Power (746 words, rated G): James the insufferable Head Boy. Written as a fun way to celebrate my appointment as a @jilymicrofics Discord mod. Also flirty and fun and a favourite of mine.

The Roe Deer And The Knight (2.1k, rated G): Fairy tale style Jily for March 2024 @jilychallenge. I LOVED writing in this style and reworking Jily's story to fit the standard fairy tale tropes and format. Another favourite.

Iacta Alea Est (744 words, rated G): Julius Caesar AU in honour of the Ides of March. It fit surprisingly well! Slight crack and angst.

The Big Little Moments (2.5k, rated M): Jily's wedding afternoon - their first day in their new home. Super fluffy with light smut. A delight to write and a top-tier favourite. Favourite Fluff award.

Attention (300 words, rated G): SWM from James's POV, written for James's birthday.

so much blood. (268 words, rated T): The Sectumsempra scene from HBP, from Draco's POV. Written as an exercise in second person POV. It was unexpectedly fascinating to write!

Anemoia (748 words, rated G): Missing moment from the beginning of HBP. A hint of Hinny as Harry goes through the photo album with his parents' pictures.

Crush (712 words, rated G): Written for the Mystery May Microfic 2024 event. Canon compliant, Hogwarts era. Mary Macdonald wants to find out who is the mystery person her best friend Lily has a crush on. Fluffy and fun.

Verses Written In '74 (3.1k, rated E): Sirius/Lily, Sirius POV. Lily spends a night with Sirius - her ex-boyfriend, best friend and best man to her wedding, who will always be in love with her. Angsty, smutty, super atmospheric. A favourite in the most self-indulgent way.

The Lady Of Kini (963 words, rated G): Inspired by my holiday in Syros and the statue of the Mermaid Madonna - an AU where Lily is the mermaid patroness of the coast, and James is the sailor she's supposed to save from drowning. Poetic and atmospheric, a piece I've also shared with many of my offline friends. I love it.

crawl home (877 words, rated G): Written for the @jilytoberfest 2024 Masquerade event and based on Hozier's Work Song. James dies to protect Lily and Harry, and his death saves them - but no grave can hold his body down. Angst with a happy ending, very atmospheric in an eerie, creepy sort of way. Another top-tier favourite. Favourite Canon Divergent Short, Favourite Angst and Favourite Microfic awards.

The Professional (941 words, rated T): Written for Jilytoberfest 2024, prompt: “Maybe we can find out what the hell your problem is over dinner sometime”. I always thought a corporate Jily AU enemies to lovers would be the ideal setting for this quote!

All right, Potter? (1.8k, rated G): A very belated entry for Jilyweek 2024, prompt: Flip the Script. SWM but Lily is the bully and James is the prefect. It was a fun challenge to play with the inverted dynamics and still make it all fit the characters as we know them - it took some effort but I think it worked in the end!

My plans for 2025:

Finish Oh My God, She's Insane, and either also finish Revanche or make enough progress on it to start posting.

I have signed up for the @greenhouse-seven Be My Valentine Exchange and the Jilymicrofics Annual Fic Exchange and I'm eager to receive my assignments for them! So at least two fics to be expected in February.

I have also signed up for the January Jilychallenge, theme: Destiny. No pressure!

I have about 1.5k written on my November 2024 Jilychallenge fic (tentative title: Couples Therapy) but I've hit a block on it. Hopefully I'll finish it sometime during the year.

I definitely have plans to participate in this year's Mystery Microfic May as well!

Whatever else strikes my fancy! Whether an old WIP or a new idea.

Tagging @arliedraws, @neverenoughmarauders, @ksarasara, @harryissuchalittleshit!

[timebegins-onopeningday]

Time Begins On Opening Day 2024: Round Up Post #1

Happy Friday everyone and welcome to Round-Up Post #1! This post includes links to all works posted in the first half of the season + details about First Half Commentfest which begins today and goes through the weekend.

Soft Deadline #1 offers us 20 (20!!) fanworks for five teams and 104 prompts across several teams as well as some broad and open-ended prompts! For a small fandom and only halfway through the season, that's pretty cool. If you're just finding this prompt meme now, or if you didn't finish something you were working on before the deadline, never fear - this prompt runs the entire length of the 2024 season! There is still plenty of time create.

Enjoy the works, slam that kudos button, leave a comment, and enjoy the second half of the MLB season!

Soft Deadline #2 is September 29, the end of the regular season.

🌞 First Half Commentfest 🌞

First Half Commentfest runs this weekend, from Friday July 19 to Sunday July 21. As we catch up with all these amazing works (fic! art! poetry! y’all are amazing!!) my challenge as a mod for us is to get every single one of these works at least five independent comments from five independent readers by the end of the weekend. (So we’re not including creator responses in that comment count!)

Why? Because it’s very easy to feel isolated as a creator – particularly in a small fandom like baseball rpf. We all know how easy it is to hit the kudos button and move on, but in a challenge designed to inspire creators for a very small, very spread out of fandom, a little encouragement can go a long way.

justleaveacommentfest has a list of resources for helping write comments on fic here and hxphaestion wrote some notes on what kind of comments resonate with artists (scroll for reblog) if you’re not sure where to start.

Let’s get all these works some comments!

🌞 Fanworks from the first half of the season 🌞

That we got as many fics as we did in the first half makes your mod SO happy, because we’re already past what we had last year!! This was a pain in the ass to put together because there were so many links and that delighted me. Shout out to you all, you’re all amazing.

I organized these by fanwork type, then grouped works by team and sorted alphabetically by the creator’s name + title (with the exception of one set of works, which are grouped in order of the series). Enjoy the works, bang that kudos button and COMMENT 🥳🥳

Art

Baltimore Orioles

[collage] heat waves by sapplyandherfriend

a celebration of dingers and slug edit: WOOOOOO TONY IS AN ALL STAR

Toronto Blue Jays

[collage] cheer on your team! by idlt

a toronto blue jays collage made on a 6x4 index card with a bunch of junk from the recycling bin

[collage] love song (show elation) by idlt

a vladdy and bo collage made on half of a page of cardstock with a bunch of junk from the recycling bin and a pile of old magazines that I got from someone in my neighbourhood who was going to throw them out, plus a few star stickers and a picture of vlad and bo pasted on top digitally

Poetry

Toronto Blue Jays

come home (the way they need you to) by idlt

A short poem about Vladdy and home and being seen.

Fic

Baltimore Orioles

one warm summer night (fireworks outside) by Settsplitt

Technically, they’re kind of hidden, standing a few steps down the tunnel, with their teammates all turned towards the fluorescent night sky, eyes fixed on the show. But still, Kyle thinks, as Adley tucks his hand under the hem of his pants, slipping his fingers beneath his belt and digging until he finds bare skin, this can’t be a good idea.

Milwaukee Brewers

In Stadium Light & Shadow by TheGlobeLifeBarn 

A thin satellite in orbit of nothing.

Philadelphia Phillies

Pressure Point by caltrain

Bryce fucked up his hammy and he’s being an enormous baby about it.

you think it’s different but it’s always the same by palimpsestic

Florida’s always so fucking humid, even in February—the air is sticky with unshed rain, hangs heavy with anticipation.

Who’s on First by powerblu (bluspirits)

A lot may have changed since Rhys first got called up to the Phillies: the size of the crowds, their record, the fact that they're playing in the World Series. But one thing is exactly the same: Bryce Harper is still there on the other team, annoying the hell out of him.

put some moves on you, babe (i know you need it) by pronoe

Bryson reminds himself to be careful where he sucks his marks on Alec’s skin, with the way he keeps his jerseys half-unbuttoned.

Seattle Mariners

Broken Foot and Cuddles by Anonymous

turns out that record-breaking pitch had actually been “breaking” in more ways than one. Poor Ty, with the foot fracture.

Toronto Blue Jays

Fiber arts for first inning starts by caltrain

There’s a hot guy no one has ever seen before at the softball clinic. He crushes three balls out of the park off of Kevin and pisses Kevin off so bad that Yusei slings an arm around his neck and kisses his cheek. “Can we get him?” he says happily.

5 Times The Blue Jays were Blue Gays: Number 1 Will Shock You! by idlt

George Springer is writing for the first edition of the new Blue Jays newsletter, organized and edited by Davis Schneider. George's first assignment? Clickbait the fuck out of everyone with the most unbelievable listicle ever (except somehow it is actually that gay)! Here's what he wrote, plus what Davis had to say about it.

he said i have bisexual swag! by idlt

An ode to Jordan Romano's short-lived yet glorious septum piercing (in the format of 2 idiots texting)

the grip of artificial chaos by idlt

Davis and Ernie sneak a moment in the dugout as the fireworks go off.

Out of Left Field by OneWhoSitsWithTurtles

Danny Jansen and Daulton Varsho were rivals playing on opposing baseball teams in high school. Now, ten years later, they are playing on the same team for the Toronto Blue Jays. As they weather the ups and downs of the baseball season, Danny and Daulton find an unexpected companionship in one another. But there is a lot on the line and neither knows if it is safe to indulge these feelings or if they are better left buried in the past.

Cover Your Bases by OneWhoSitsWithTurtles

Ten years after being high school rivals, Danny Jansen and Daulton Varsho started playing baseball on the same team for the Toronto Blue Jays. Their months together brought them closer as teammates, friends, and then something more. Now they need to decide what risks they’re willing to take if they want to make their relationship official.

Swing for the Fences by OneWhoSitsWithTurtles

Danny Jansen and Daulton Varsho are officially dating. Unfortunately, being public figures in a major league sport makes that anything but simple. They’ve agreed to keep things private until the end of the baseball season but that means Danny and Daulton must balance their blooming relationship and their work while navigating the ever-present media attention.

The Longest Road by OneWhoSitsWithTurtles

After their nightly game of Settlers of Catan, Davis has a heart-to-heart with Spencer about his growing feelings for their mutual friend Ernie. Spencer offers some valuable advice and reassurance, which gives Davis the courage to accept when Ernie asks him to forgo the living room couch and share a bed for the night.

Therapy with Daulto Varsho by OneWhoSitsWithTurtles

Daulton has always been a listener rather than a talker. Whether it’s good news or bad news, he’s there to hear out his teammates. Sometimes, this leads to unexpected revelations.

[borninwinter81]

Collage curio cabinet

Another day, another awesome find! This miniature curio cabinet was £2. Part of the reason it was so cheap is probably because one of the handles is slightly broken (just missing the hanging part) but it's still perfectly usable.

Though I did think the paint job was quite pretty, it's not my style, so a repaint was in order. I used what I had to hand which was cheap black acrylic paint. Not ideal for furniture perhaps, but I'm happy enough with it. Also because I was lazy and didn't remove the old paint the doors are now very tight fitting and I can't close them properly. It's easy to fix, I can sand the top and bottom of each door down to the wood and then repaint them, but honestly I don't mind too much, and I can always do this in the future if not being able to close it gets on my nerves.

If the inside had been as red as its appearing in this pic I probably would have kept it like that, but the lighting must have been weird as it's exactly the same orange that you see in the first pic.

Any little charm or dangle would be good to replace the broken handle - I had this fake pearl teardrop in my collection from an old charm bracelet. I absolutely love how it looks, and it's actually way easier to grab hold of than the other handle, however unfortunately I've only got one of these pearl droplets so I can't remove the other handle to make them match just yet. This kind of thing pops up all the time in charity shops though, I'm sure I can find another charm bracelet or even better a pair of earrings that I could use.

The ring I've used to connect it is a hinged body piercing ring which I ordered online but was too small for me to comfortably wear, and I have a few so can use another when I need to.

I have a huge stack of scrapbooking paper from another similar project I did recently, so I cut two pieces of that using my paper guillotine to glue into the back.

I also have tons of interesting bits of paper and art left from that same project which I wanted to see if I could use. This is a 100% perfect spot for one of the anatomical drawings I have, as it looks like he's praying to the cthulhu candle I've put on top! (Paint inside still slightly wet here, i was impatiently trying bits out!)

This is what I came up with for the other door (another anatomy drawing and a flyer from a ballet version of Dracula)

I haven't yet decided what to do on the front of the doors. There's nothing in my collection of paper pieces that's really speaking to me right now. I think it would look really cool with some metallic bits stuck to the front but again, nothing in my collection that I like enough to glue on there, so I'm going to leave it as is for now and will add more in the future if/when I find some pieces that work. Here's how it looks for now after using mod podge on the doors and the back, though I think I'm probably going to go over the whole cupboard to help seal the paint. Apologies for terrible lighting.

Bonus piece: amongst my bits of paper I had a guide from a William Blake exhibition which contained this reproduction of one of the plates from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. I really wanted to use it, but Blake is so important to me and the picture so perfect that I thought it warranted special treatment. Instead of using it in a collage with other pieces, I painted a small piece of board from a broken picture frame and stuck it to that, and made a little triangle out of some jewellery wire so I can hang it on my wall. It's extremely lightweight so although this is only taped down it shouldn't come unstuck.

[elvenbeard]

3 hours into update 2.0.0....

I love it xD But also, I'm a little bit overwhelmed, but UUUURGGGHHH there are some real gems in there already 😩

So, I didn't start a new playthrough for time reasons and went right in with my post-ending save. There was some initial fuckery with my wardrobe outfits that seems fixed now though after unequipping everything and remaking the outfits xD Custom tattoo and scar mods work just fine though and I might test these next few days what other mods do :D I'm really happy about the tattoos though at least :3

Some Bugs

Also, someone desperately needs to send the NCPD some funds cause....

That vehicle doesn't look like it should be allowed in traffic (this happened twice, and I was cackling xDD honestly just a really funny little bug that's probably gonna get fixed somewhere down the line xD)

But yes... Man the new skills and perks and cyberware and EVERYTHING is so fucking cool, but also so fucking overwhelming when you're already level 42+ and have everything at your disposal all at once xD But I was so excited to see all the different new Kiroshi options and how cyberware is tied to skills like... damn. And the strongest quickhacks really need a fuckton of RAM... as they should. And I still need a fuckton of practise in terms of using them, but I'm really excited to get the hang of it all somewhere down the line :D

They didn't forget about the LIs!!!

But then this:

When I read this in the patch notes, I was so fucking excited xD Hell yeah, a good reason to go to the apartment apart from sorting through my inventory xD Some more Johnny interactions!

AND. A DREAM COME TRUE WITH ONE OF THE DIALOGUES!!!

I was always a bit sad that Johnny had no comments whatsoever on V's relationship with Kerry, when he did with some of the other LIs, so this already made my evening xDD and one of the big perks of jumping in with my post-ending save to already get to see and hear this now :DDD Not gonna spoil what he says but... yes XDD It fits, I figured. And I hope the other LIs get something similar because it's glorious xD

Vehicles and Radio

In regards to vehicle handling... I can definitely feel a difference with my go-to bike! Like, it still has its weaknesses, but also feels a lot more stable in other regards, less flimsy and "heavier" like they described it in the patch notes. I love it a lot. I didn't try vehicle combat yet, although I did get randomly attacked in the badlands by some NPCs once, which was very fun XD I almost had a heart-attack, but it did feel like something that could happen. Sadly didn't manage to get my revenge in time, but next time!!

I like the new radio stations, but didn't hear every song yet... but also, and I think some others already said that, they don't really add much new in terms of sound and genres. Nothing that isn't already there in some shape or form. But still nice to have something new to add to the rotation.

Leveldesign

And as I was driving around, I randomly stumbled right into Dogtown :DDD well, not quite but, damn, that was an impressive moment:

The faction of the guards was labelled as "Test" though xDD Close but, not quite... Figure that's also a little bug though.

Overall... I fucking love how they integrated it into Pacifica o.o It's insanely impressive, huge and rundown and maaaaaan.... I cannot wait to explore behind the walls!!

Also, random little thing... I feel like the clouds looked nicer? But that could be me not paying much attention/ rain being rare-ish in Night City.

Not Dogtown but North Oak, obviously. But... idk o.o The light shining through like that looked so fucking cool and realistic, but I really dont know if maybe this wasn't already part of the Pathtracing update and I just never noticed it like this before XD

And lastly... I discovered whose nooks they added to the Columbarium. Right in the feels.

Cannot wait to discover more little details as I go but URGH yeah. The tiny little Kerry convo already made it worth it for me XDD And Viktor <3 And the Autofixer shop is so cool! And aaahhh I cannot wait to see what's gonna come with PL :333

[dystopianam]

Yesterday I didn't have internet so I tried to solve a problem that I and a lot of player have. I found a half way to fix the problem of buildings not turning on with Better Nightlife!

Unfortunately it's not a quick fix and it doesn't solve everything 100% and I'll explain why, but at least it works! (P.S: isn't the usual "put a single outdoor light in a corner of the street" solution)

1. To make the street lights work, you have to open every single lot, toggle the night mode and put in every corner of the lot (even across the street) a outdoor directional light. Normally some people only need a single light in a random corner, but if like me it doesn't work for you, you have to put a light in every corner (it also works with a non-directional light but with directional ones it is better because you can choose where to point the light). You expecially need to point them towards the light poles.

2. If you see the neighborhood light poles starting to light up, it's working. At this point you have to toggle the day mode again, open the cheats console and write "sethour 19" to force the game to set the lot time to 7pm (or whatever time it is in the evening/night). Apart from becoming night, you won't see anything change. Save, exit and reload the lot. When you return you will see the magic... now all the buildings and light poles you placed in your neighborhood are lit!

Pro: Just "unlock" this thing with all your families and any community lot you visit will fix itself and the decorations will light up. BUT you have to put directional outdoor lights in every lot, community lots too.

Cons: Doesn't work with families with whom you have not done these steps. For example, if I did these steps with the Caliente, visiting a community lot at night I will see everything turned on. If I do this with the Burbs and I haven't done the steps, when I visit the same community lot I will see everything turned off. You have to do these steps with every family.

Cons: If when you enter your family lot or a community lot it is night and everything is turned on, unfortunately the game cannot read the transition from night to day and vice versa for a bug. If it is night the lights will remain on even during the day and if it is day the lights will remain off even at night. To turn them on or off you have to save and reload the lot (and if it's a community lot you have to change the lot and return to it) basically you have to reload the lot to "reset" the lights and turn on or turn off them.

Pro: Luckily the light poles seem to take more command from the lights you put in the corners of the lot than from the "reset" of the lot. Up to now I have seen that by turning on the outdoor lights you can turn on the light poles of the neighborhood, BUT I haven't played yet to confirm that this is enough and if you can turn off them in the same way. I'll let you know when I test this thing.

The biggest problem is that this bug appears to be caused by the fact that lighting mods that use parts of the Radiance Lighting mod (like Dreadpirate's Maxis Match and Cinema Secret) have something that changes the way the game calculates day and night time (I think something happened due to the addition of sunrise and sunset, perhaps?)

NOW, I don't remember if it's always been like this and if it's actually a bug in the game (I've been using lighting mods from a lifetime, I don't even remember what the vanilla lighting is like anymore) BUT, I've noticed that the biggest problem occurs in the fact that the game DOES NOT automatically turn outdoor lot lights on and off. The outdoor lights of my sims' houses are ALWAYS off unless I turn them on manually.

I'm not sure if it's the same for community lots, I would have to spend a whole day in a community lot and see if the outdoor lights turn on automatically.

Someone advised me to download a mod fix for auto-lights. I checked and I already had it...so I will have to check if maybe this mod has something to do with the problem of the lights not turning on (I also doubt it because theoretically it FIXS this problem) I admit that I have already tried to remove it and nothing seems to have changed, but I have to try again x^x I have to try to remove it, launch the game, save and reload it without the mod

[chevvy-yates]

Ryder + Mantis Blades

Is one of my biggest wishes to VP — in a way that it looks good.

I've tried it already several times — only 3x I was looking at the outcome thinking they are… okay-ish. Yet they are not worth posting like I usually do. As some of you might know, the blades do not show up right, they are always bugged in some way.

Up there are my latest tries. I cut off Ry's right hand/arm in these because it always makes a fist and the blade seems to be more bugged than the one on the left arm, so only the left arm can be made of use, though it still doesn't look great.

Below are some of the second try. The best looking ones. I could live with having these bugged blades since in certain angles they look okay-ish. If only it wouldn't be such a stressful pain to take pics!! It's like this: I spawn Ry via AMM, give him a pose and expression I want then freeze him, then set some lights if needed. All good so far, but then: hit the fight button so the blades come out. Then you need to be quick — I switch to photo mode and do a sort of speed run in setting the angle, the FOV, quickly jump into reshade for the DOF, set that fast as well and pressed a lot of times to do screenshots because the blades vanish after 2–3 min. The amount of times I restarted this is way too long and the outcome not really satisfying, tho so I won't do it again.

There is a mod, but it's for female Vs only. There's a prop pack to use but srsly I do not want to spend more time in placing everything together bit by bit, also it would not be Ryder's arm? and there's still Ryder's arm as well. idk how this stuff should even work. Below is my first try ever. The amount of time I cursed on this is not countable.

I will just continue to wait until the day a fix for male V with blades out in photo mode suddenly appears on the nexus page. And this is gonna be one of the happiest days in my life then. xD

Looking at his arms with blades out always has me thinking that Ry replaced his good arms for some entirely mechanical ones. Not that the thought of him walking into a ripper doc's place telling "off with those I want blades", is disturbing enough already — just the thought of never having a real feeling of touch again is disturbing also. His hands aren't real anymore either. It's probably like your hands are numb. you may notice if the surface is hard or soft, idk if he can feel if something is hot or cold, tho. Probably not. 

I experienced some numbness on my left foot not long ago. Somehow I must have damaged one of my bigger nerves there so I always felt a certain numbness (besides some prickling). Maybe feeling sth and receiving touch with and on his hands might feel similar? I’ll think about this for a bit. It is an important detail given the thematic when he’s all cuddly with Thyjs (who’s left hand is entirely cybernetic as well, but his right one is still organic so he can surely tell the difference how things feel).

⚠️ READ: Please do not repost/reupload any of my art here or to any other platform, or I will be forced to do anything to get it annihilated.

[anneapocalypse]

Rating my own recreations of my Hawkes in Inquisition

Why? Because I thought it would be fun. Please feel free to steal my idea and tag me so I can see your Hawkes.

Alessandra Hawke

World State: Elf Lovers

Difficulty: Easy

DAI's character creator offers a very similar hairstyle to to Alessandra's original. Her lovely hooked nose is a key feature and DAI fortunately had one similar enough, though it's a little more rounded at the end. She looks a lot more Tired in DAI, but all Hawkes do, and they probably should. It's tough to get a more rounded jawline in DAI, so her face looks a little more angular. Darker skin tints tend toward warmer in DA2 and cooler in DAI (and cool light severely washes out medium browns in DAI) but all told, she came out pretty darn good.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Sabine Hawke

World State: For Love of the People

Difficulty: Easy

She changed her part to the other side, but otherwise Sabine came out pretty bang-on. All Dragon Age games need a better variety of Asian features now and forever. Nonetheless, I think her face shape, skin tint, and even her nose comes pretty close. Looking at these shots, I could have possibly made her chin a little longer and rounder. That's about the only quibble I can come up with.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cillian Hawke

World State: Love & Magic

Difficulty: Moderate

Cillian took a few outtakes to get right. The hair is acceptable, eyes and mouth look good. and after a lot of tweaking I think I got his face shape pretty bang-on. The nose, however, is a problem. The nostrils are sitting way too high relative to the point (as opposed to his original nose which is pretty straight across the bottom), which makes him look like he's sneering at all times, and this combined with DAI Hawke's tendency to have a pinched, worried brow makes him look Angry in a lot of shots--not exactly right for a gentle-hearted Blue Hawke. Nevertheless, I'm really proud of how I nailed those cheekbones.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Emilia Hawke

World State: Noble Hearts

Difficulty: Hard

Woof. Just woof. This did not go well. First off, DAI really doesn't have a true "dirty blonde," just this mustard color which makes the whole shot look overwhelmingly yellow, so much that DA2 Emilia looks washed-out by comparison. I thought the nose was fine, but looking at these shots side by side, something does seem a little off. The hairstyle is acceptable, but its makes her forehead look much larger than the original (modded) hairstyle, and I couldn't really find a way to fix that. Overall it's really the face shape that kills it. DAI does not like round faces. I did my best, and then left her in the Fade where she belongs. (Trust me. It what she deserves.)

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars ⭐⭐

Mallory Hawke

World State: Rogues Gallery

Difficulty: Hard

We're starting from modded hair, so we have our work cut out for us here. (Curly hairstyles WHEN. Also modded freckles, but there DAI has us covered.) Unfortunately, I was not able to get a hair mod to work in DAI, so Mal was forced to wear her hair up, which she Would Not. But we make the sacrifices we must. Mallory also has a lot of soft curves to her face, but I'd say she survived the jawbonification a lot better than Emilia did, and where was this nose when I was trying to make Cil? DAI's neon teal eyes are a touch greener but I can let that slide. Overall, I'd say she's still recognizable, even without letting her hair down. That's still my girl.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

(Note: I put all the comparion pictures in side-by-side, but none except the first one will display that way on the dash, and I can't fix it. 🤷‍♀️Sorry.)

[erebus-the-answer]

Will Power shouldn't have been Akechi's final theme(+ how Maruki did it better)

Persona 5 was my first smt game, but even in my first playthrough it bothered me. While I do think that Persona 5 has a problem with reusing tracks (I'm looking at you, Rivers in the Desert), when comparing it to the other games + animes, Goro's fight theme being Will Power becomes unacceptable.

Underneath the cut I will compare the secondary/social link boss themes from Persona 3, Persona 4, and Persona 5

Spoilers for all three games/animes/movies under the cut

Persona 3:

so in persona 3, I would say that the closest thing to a party member boss fight would be the meeting and little tiff that happens with Ryoji on the bridge with Aigis.

So, in the game this is an animated cutscene and the song that plays is a slightly~ different version of Unavoidable Battle. (Don't get me started on Unavoidable Battle being used for the ??? fight lol)

Persona 3, especially during The Answer has a real problem with beating Unavoidable Battle into the ground until it's deader than dead. But... I feel that they rectify this in the movies with Light In Starless Sky

This is one of my favorite tracks from the Persona 3 Lineup (P3, P3FES, P3P, and the P3 movies) Even though Ryoji doesn't technically have his own boss battle, I felt like he was deserving of his own theme for such a big moment and such a "betrayal" from a character that you grow to love and care about. In theory anyway, I don't very much like Ryoji.

Persona 4:

So obviously in Persona 4 the secret twist villain or whatever you'd like to call him is Adachi. I was one of the many people unfortunate enough to get into the game with this twist already spoiled. That being said, with the expectation that Adachi would be a final boss sort of deal (even if he is third to last), it was really disappointing to me that he and Namatame share the same boss theme. I understand that we are supposed to believe that Namatame is the killer (even though he really obviously isn't IMO), but to hear the same theme twice made it extremely underwhelming to me. Also Adachi was not a hard fight lol

Luckily, this gripe that I have with the game can easily be fixed with this mod, which adds Yin Yang from the Persona 4 Golden anime to the game in the place of New World Fool during Adachi's boss battle. This was perfect to me because honestly this is such a jaw-dropping song to me. It perfectly explains the type of dynamic that Yu and Adachi have with one another. love love love love Yin Yang, and even though Persona 4 is my least favorite game from the series and Adachi is then by default my least favorite villain, I think this track being in the game and just existing in general really helps with the music aspect of the game.

I fucking love The Almighty and The Fog though, even if I did feel that the amount of fakeout-twist villains was a little bit annoying. (Do not get my started on I'll Face My True Self -Marie version)

Persona 5:

So, as I mentioned at the beginning of the post, I feel like Persona 5 has a real problem with reusing tracks. Persona 5 was my introduction to the series, and when I said that it made me so excited that I felt my heart beating out of my chest and I was sick to my stomach (in a good way), I mean it.

In Persona 3, I feel like Master of Tartarus and Master of Shadows were fitting themes for the type of battles that we were having. The Full Moon shadows were just that. Shadows. They didn't really have any discernible personalities and they were just Shadows that needed to be killed for the sake of being shadows. I sort of wished that Strega had their own theme, but again whatever.

In Persona 4, even though we were fighting all sorts of different versions of different people, at the end of the day they all were facing their true selves, their shadow selves, so it makes sense for them to use the same battle theme when they are doing the same thing.

My issue with Akechi's theme being Will Power is that yeah, sure, his boss fight is technically an awakening, it's just been overused and beaten into the ground.

Now, I will say that it is better than his theme being Blooming Villain, the theme that EVERY SINGLE palace ruler uses, but it is still way too overplayed.

Like I said, P5 and ESPECIALLY P5R have some amazing tracks, but after the 4th time in a row hearing Rivers In The Desert, it starts to lose its spark.

In a stark contrast to the way that Akechi's battle solidified that they beat Will Power until it was dead, I'd like to take a moment to talk about Takuto Maruki, one of my favorite characters of all time.

I love Akechi as much as your average Persona 5 fan, but when it comes to how the music of the story drives home the point of their character, Akechi has nothing on Maruki.

I remember shaking in excitement when I first went on Spotify to look at the names of the songs from Maruki's palace and see what they were called (I am very particular about my music when it comes to persona games, my friends will let you know that I do not play when it comes to music spoilers).

The titles alone bring so much light into what Maruki was trying to accomplish. Gentle Madman, for example, is probably the most obvious one. It's who Maruki is. He's kind, sweet, he wants what's best for everyone, and yet he's on a complete wrong path. Something about the light piano mixed with the dark (???????????) sounding instrument really adds to it. It sounds clinical in a weird way, honestly, and it totally matches the aesthetic of the palace.

Out Of Kindness is one of the ones that makes me the most excited because it's such an awesome double entendre. He is doing it out of kindness, yet at the same time he has no kindness left to give! Beautifully, beautifully written! My God!!!!!!!

anyways, Keep Your Faith and Throw Your Mask Away. Need I say more? If you've played it then you know.

Of course I'm not saying that I expected Akechi to have an entire 5 hour long palace and half a soundtrack dedicated entirely to him. At the end of the day he isn't a final boss, he isn't the secondary boss, and he isn't the tertiary boss(at least in Royal anyway). Which I find to be... Disappointing. I mean he literally tries to kill the player character and thinks he succeeds! I know that Shido is the big bad, but I feel like Akechi deserved a bit more than what he got.

My idea would be perhaps Akechi got his own theme that he shared with the Holy Grail? I absolutely hated the fact that Shido and the Grail shared the same thing. It was so beautiful and amazing when we fought Shido and it transitioned between Rivers In The Desert instrumental and the vocal track. Almost threw up, so awesome.

They were kinda beating it already when it came to the Grail. I understand why, but to overuse such an awesome track really ruins it for me. and then when you fight the twins too? Jeez, give me a break.

Jaldaboath was an ok track, I'll probably talk about it in another post.

ANYWAY, my point is that I feel like Akechi deserved a better, more tailored theme, and it disappoints me that even in the anime he doesn't get it. The anime is even worse because he only gets Awakening? How annoying is that? There is a fanmade Akechi Palace theme, but that is a palace theme and not a boss battle. I guess we can only dream.

[blackered]

my journey in DST modding: day 6

these are the last few days of making character art for this mod. im pretty hopeful that the "Tale of Tails" will finally come to an end! . but first, there's some stuff i need to tweak. when i tossed her into the game, i noticed the game itself adds a filter that makes her hair way too light. i did desaturate it a little but with the filter on, it looked almost white. then i just darkened and saturated it a little more just so see if that would fix it. here's the before and after:

it's not a BIIIG change, but to me it looks much better. excuse the difference in the tail, i remade the tip so it wasnt curved. from the front, she looks perfect. but today is the day we conquer this damn tail layer.

. i tried to look for the animation template in the Klei forums (again), but the files werent available for download, then i added it to the game via steam workshop....but the game said it was crashed and it was disabled. . i found another one in the workshop that i was able to download and look inside its files, but god fucking damn it, there was NO layer in the place i needed, and if i have to rearrange layers again, id rather just stick to what im already doing. . but now ive got an idea and that will be my last ditch effort. i just made a backup for the entire folder and here i go. . i redrew the tail in a way that mimicked the back of the coat. but i had to make it so the tail is coming out of it. it looks a little weird but it's what i got.

time to jump back into the game! im sure it's gonna look a little fucked up when the torso animates from the back and distorts a little. but whatever i just want this to be over. . the first screen looked really promising, but i fucked up the pivot points for the hair and tail again. but that's absolutely fixable.

i think i have to make the braids even shorter and get the pivot points working again, but hey, that wont take too long. and things are looking up. . eventually i fixed it, but there are two things left still. . the ghost, and the big portrait. . it was hard to mimic the art style but i think i managed:

(the watermark wont be present in game) . theres only the ghost left, i think i'll have to resize the png and straight up paste the elements i need. but its getting kinda late. tomorrow will be the last art day, actually. have her page in character selection as an extra:

[incorrect-whos-lila]

hi! i’m mod lila, and welcome to incorrect who’s lila quotes! about the mod, rules, and tagging system can be found under the cut. i hope you enjoy your stay! :)

about the mod!

hi, i’m mod lila. you can call me that if you’d like, otherwise, i also go by marshy. i use any pronouns, but generally have a preference for he/him or they/them. i’ll be the one running this blog, as well as contributing quotes of my own to fill the queue with—currently, i’m not looking for additional mods since i don’t expect this blog to be too overwhelming to maintain, but if that changes, i’ll be sure to make a post about it! my main is @marshmellowtea, and occasionally i make unhinged posts about this game over there. :)

rules for the blog! (well actually some of these are more like loose guidelines but still lol)

submissions are open for this blog, including anon submissions. i as mod reserve the right to refuse submissions i feel are inappropriate, but hopefully those those will be few and far between.

quotes will post once a day based on queue, unless there’s a reason to change that (such as a huge influx of submissions). quotes will be both from myself and submissions, and they will be tagged accordingly. submissions will be tagged with the blog url of the submitter as well if applicable, otherwise they’ll be tagged as anon. :)

because the queue is run on submissions and my own brain power, this blog may have periods of inactivity from time to time. sorry in advance for that ^^;

if your submission hasn’t been posted in a reasonable amount of time (depending on how the queue looks that time period will probably change), feel free to send an ask about it! i just ask that you don’t hound me about it, i do have a life outside of this blog after all, lol.

if you know the source of your quote, please include it in your submission! unknown sources will be tagged as “source: unknown”, but i think part of the fun of an incorrect quotes blog is seeing where all the quotes come from so i’d like to minimize use of that tag as much as possible. if you see a quote with an unknown source that you recognize the source of, please feel free to send in an ask!

light nsfw will be allowed (think things like jokes and allusions to sexual content), and will be tagged as #suggestive. no full on smut in the inbox though, please.

this is more of a personal preference than a hard and fast rule, but i highly recommend putting your submissions in chat format if possible (or quote format, if it’s a quote for one character and you think it fits better). i’ll still publish submissions in normal text post format, but i just think it looks neater, haha. also, as mod, i may go in and edit the formatting of your post if needed for readability (ex. bolding character names, adding paragraph breaks if need be), but i’ll never change the actual text of the post itself (that includes typos, btw—if you see a typo in your submission, feel free to send in an ask to get it fixed! i just don’t want to fuck with your text without permission, it feels rude, lol). ^-^

please do not send submissions through the ask box! submissions sent through the ask box will be deleted!

any content that i feel needs a trigger warning will be tagged as “tw [thing]”, and trigger tags can be asked to be added for certain posts, though i reserve the right to deny tag requests for any reason (they will probably almost always get a yes, but there are some things that i may just be unable to tag for whatever reason. not....quite sure what those reasons could be, but i figured i'd put the warning out there, lol). on the whole, though, while i understand this game can be dark and deals with some heavy topics that are bound to be mentioned here from time to time, i’d like to keep this blog mostly lighthearted.

finally, most importantly: no discourse on the blog for any reason, lol. it's just not the place :'))

tagging system (or, aka, mod lila overexplains himself lol)

i wanna preface this section with that i don’t expect you guys to tag your submissions yourself—as mod, i’m more than happy to do it! especially since i’m a little particular about the way i order them, haha. that being said though, if you do want to tag your posts, this is the way i’ll be doing it. don’t worry about following it to the letter if you do add tags, because i’ll go in and edit them as needed like the perfectionist little shithead i am, lol.

tags should (mostly) be in the same order every time: fandom tags first (i use both who's lila and who’s lila?), character tags generally in the order they appear in the post (mentioned characters may or may not be tagged on a case by case basis), ship tag(s) if applicable, trigger tags if applicable, the quote source, whether it’s a submission or my post, the submitter’s url/anon, and any commentary from myself or the submitter (i am a chatty bitch, apologies in advance lol. if both me and the submitter have commentary, i’ll differentiate our comments in some way, with the submitter’s comments always coming first).

the submission tag will be, well, submission, lol, and my quotes will just be tagged “mod lila”.

as stated above, triggers will be tagged “tw [thing]”. sources will be tagged “source: [thing]”.

general posts/announcements will be tagged “mod lila whispers to y(o)u” (like when she whispers to yu in that one scene? haha. i’m clever i swear—)

any other tags/tagging conventions that need to be created will be added here as needed!

[thessalian]

Thess vs Fixing Stuff

Went to the optician yesterday, as previously stated. Ended up with a massive migraine, as predicted. The puff test they do for glaucoma wasn't so bad this time - seems that they've made the jet of air less powerful - but there were a lot of flashing lights and the lights in the place in general were pretty bad after that, so... Yeah. Not a great day. New glasses in less than two weeks, though, so that's something. And I did the buy one, get one free thing so I'll actually have a spare pair! My mother sneers a bit at SpecSavers and chain opticians in general but that's my mother for you.

After that, couldn't deal with Shenanigans so I spent some time lying down and the rest of it trying to hyperfocus past the pain, largely pondering my Baldur's Gate 3 dilemma. The most common solution to the problem was "Remove all mods, ModFixer included, then install a different script extender, then reinstall your mods (preferably without ModFixer, since the new script extender will do what ModFixer does without the creator insisting that nothing about what they did needs an update ever) and you're good to go". Hasn't worked for everyone, but that's because some mods have ModFixer built in. So I did that - as instructed, purged the lot and reinstalled things. Now, I would have gone to at least see if everything was fixed ... buuuuuuuut ... well. See. I think some of my mods have had an update since I installed them? Or at least some of the file names aren't the same? Or I'm missing a few, which shouldn't be possible because I have my download history over on Nexus Mods... Anyway, point is that I couldn't use any of the aasimar!Alisaie save files because the mods didn't match up. Thankfully I had only just started Act 2, so I didn't lose much, and I guess it's probably better this way, since given I couldn't get Nere's head either, my initial aasimar!Alisaie save file has been corrupt for ages. Still ... again? Especially if that still hasn't worked and I end up stuck not being able to recognise Nere's head or infernal alloy or that stupid amethyst for unlocking the necromancy book (all items that just don't get recognised with this bug)? Still, best I figure it out at stupid amethyst rather than getting all the way to trying to fix poor Karlach's heart or not being able to give Shadowheart night orchids.

Of course, I could actually poke at all the games I haven't touched yet, as per my New Year's resolution, but that involves shaking an answer about which one out of my executive function and that's never easy. I'll ponder this whole thing over more coffee.

...Oh, yeah, I did Adulting as well yesterday. Got the descaling solution and descaled the kettle, which makes such a difference when you've got the kind of hard water problem this country has (and no water filter on much of anything). Seriously, we're talking flakes of limescale after maybe a couple of months. It's gross. Anyway, also the last things I need for that cake I wanted to make, and fajita fixings. I'm just praying that the gluten-free tortillas I bought don't end up tasting like cardboard. I get that a lot.

[exilederdrick]

Path of Exile 2 – Day 15-17: More Impressions From Cruel

Platform: PC Controls: X-Input Controller Class: Titan Level: 63

Skills: Rolling Slam L14 with Overpower, Splinter, and Aftershock Boneshatter L14 with Execute, Impact Shockwave, and Magnified Effect Volcanic Fissure L14 with Fire Infusion, Ignition, and Persistence Shield Charge L13 with Stomping Ground, Second Wind, and Momentum Armour Breaker L14 with Martial Tempo, Break Endurance, and Break Posture Seismic Cry L14 with Premeditation, Murderous Intent, and Dazing Cry Hammer of the Gods L14 with Brutality, Fist of War, and Fast Forward Attrition L14 Overwhelming Presence L14 with Precision

Content: Cruel Hunting Grounds through Jiquani's Machinarium

My health really got in the way this weekend, to the point I decided to put this off for tonight. As it was, things were going pretty smooth otherwise. So I felt like it made sense to just compile a lot of Cruel into a single log.

What's Working:

Jonathon is no liar! Cruel is going much more smoothly and quickly than Normal did. I'm easily clearing through content and bosses and I feel like I'm making quick progress towards endgame. I'm also still having fun. And not only did I find I could often still play during my health issues, but I constantly want to play more. I'm easily finding this game more compelling than Elden Ring, and possibly more compelling than when Path of Exile first really got its hooks into me in Legacy League.

I also just wanted to shout out a cool thing I noticed today. While fighting in the Azok Bog, I noticed the enemies were lighting their weapons on fire to do more damage or enhance their attacks. This is doubly cool since it also adds a strategic element to the fighting. If you destroy burning structures, they can't light their weapons on fire.

What I'm Struggling With:

I'm still feeling the size of these zones the second time around. I honestly do think many of them are just too big. I don't know if you can easily fix this with your procedural generation engine, but I do think that they should be made a little smaller. I'm dreading if they get bigger than this in later acts or maps.

As the acts go on and higher tier mods drops, finding gear with really low rolls or getting low tier mods from crafting is becoming more common and persistent. This is one of the reasons I hate drops in PoE1. I feel like if I drop a level 86 item or craft on one, I shouldn't feel like I'm far more likely to get a garbage roll than a good one. If drops and crafting are going to be meaningful, I have to feel like there's a point to picking up items besides, “If I don't get anything good I can sell it for gold to buy another piece of trash or disenchant it to get 1/10 of a Regal that will give me a garbage mod.”

I'm still actively crafting, but I just scrapped another project I'd put Exalts into today. Please make these systems feel rewarding.

On another note, I still can't figure out how the King in the Mists' thorn trap works.

What's Not Working:

The game obviously still needs a lot of polish. There are little bugs everywhere that need to be hunted down. I also found another quest dialogue and timing issue if you enter the Freythorn before finding the Ritual in the Hunting Grounds. Again, I'm reporting everything I find.

Zalmarath was particularly bad this time around. At one point I ended up on his head.

Hammer of the Gods seems to have some issues too. This is another one where X-Input seems to need a lot of help.

That's all for now! Let's see how things pan out when I reach Endgame!

[gothmiqote]

some assorted cutscene varhas & me complaining abt blender under the cut lol :p

the head is a fairly quick & dirty port i did, the struggle to put new teeth in there was 1. fucking unreal 2. probably also not something that was as difficult a i made it out to be

on my list of further things to do are more edits around the mouth area, specifically the upper lip. ofc you can't spot the problem in this shot, but the inner area needs some more volume since it's doing a weird think where it curves noticeably inwards when the mouth opens. probably a fix that'll take a few hours max, half of which will probably be spent testing motion until im happy. there's also a bit of a seam down the middle, but idk if that's enough of a problem for me to deal with lmao. the hair covers up the most visible area, and even that's not too awful in most lighting conditions.

speaking of hair, it does look like my go-to styles for her will need the ear replacements done in blender (blegh). miqo ears are attached to the hair model, so while you Can use pre-7.0 hairs without any movement issues, you won't have the updated ear shape and the textures will probably be a bit off. these ones were just run through the loose texture compiler, no manual editing on my side. i can't tell if i'm liking that or if it could be better? idk I've never painted hair maps before, could be fine or it could be a mess lmao

i haven't even looked at converting the scar texture for her body yet, i probably won't until penumbra is back online tbqh. the new textools is fucking fantastic, but i don't love having to open and close the game every time i want to make a mod change. it also doesn't look like the body shape i use will be getting updated (boo) since the creator has a new version they're working on and i don't like it as much lmao which means it might be up to Me to sort that one out. probably not a big deal except i'm also running the ivcs skeleton version which is fghjsdgjk a whole extra Thing to deal with. i like the extra control it gives me in gpose + some custom animations though so worst case scenario, more blender lessons lmfao. if that's the case i might make the switch to skelomae, depending on which dev kit i find easier to actually parse. i'm wondering if it's worth my time to play around with some body scaling mods, never used them before but im intrigued. also a distinct possibility I'll have to update the skin texture i use for estinien, but i know tbse already has a beta out so i'm not too worried about that. at the end of the day body & face textures are probably the easiest things to mess with. fucking love the person who, within 24 hours of early access, released a mod that gave him his lips back. was worried i might have to port that too but nope, someone beat me to it.

oh god right i also still have to do azem's head port. that one had custom texture uvs, which i'm sure will provide anyone layer of weirdness to whatever process i end up performing on it. i am Not looking forward to putting in another set of nicer teeth lmfao but it's worth it. perhaps it won't be such a shitshow this time around. her eye texture is fucked but I've already seen some updated ancient eyes floating around, so it's whatever.

i am Also not looking forward to going through my penumbra wardrobe to see what works and what doesn't & all i have to say is 10/10 for me for having the foresight to meticulously organize those mods into hyperspecific folders.

also i miss my pose mods gfsdhkghysjd i need to take cute pics in some of those new areas okay.

[volfoss]

like... to get an idea of what all id need to do. for anyone curious ig and also to just... totally beat the allegations of yucky little beast:

survey the damage... bc shes obviously in VERY bad shape. so id need to see if i could even get her eyes out or if id maybe. need to dremel into them to get them free so i could start on faceup removal

get the eyes out. this is very scary bc of the hot glue and also the mysterious gray substance. if it IS apoxie sculpt like i think it is then good god. thats going to be the worst 7 bucks ive ever spent or smth

clean the head. im really hoping that its dirt and not.. the alternative on the forehead and other parts of the face. if it IS some mold or fungus, ive got pony experience here (as in. i have dealt with that a few times on MLP) so I'm not... too worried? My guess is its surface level grime that should go away w the faceup being removed.

attempt to remove the faceup. the paint rly looks like it goes ALL the way around her head (poor thang) so ill probably test with acetone at the back of her head. for whatever reason i feel very much like her head has to be fragile so id rather test the more strong/easy to use chemical in a lesser seen spot. i really do not want to be scrubbing with rubbing alcohol for 5 years. bc the faceup looks like at LEAST a few layers of paint with a bad sealant so (as someone whos removed two full body resin paint jobs) i know acetone would be quickest (but alcohol is safest. but we will see)

assess the damage AGAIN. i predict that she is severely yellowed (due to the cracks on the cheek) but the question of if it is either just. in those spots where the faceup cracked or if its all over is really unsure. i mainly want to get her to try retrobrighting (which ive done on older MLP with great success and it seems to be something that works for this kind of vinyl as well) on her and just. fix up a doll that is beyond repair for most people lol. from what ive experienced with resin, i think the yellowing could either be all over (and the head was painted to try and hide this. although this clearly did not go well lol, altho i think its a sealant issue and not a paint issue, as it kind of looks like when ive fucked up with MSC (a common sealant for bjds)) or it could be just... shes been in sunlight and where the paint cracked got unevenly yellowed (i experienced this most recently with my big blue boy, where all the blue paint kind of. protected his resin and the non covered parts got more yellow). so its kind of a toss up. or a mysterious third thing you never know.

once shes all clean (which i assume will take a while due to well... how bad of shape that she is in), ill probably sit with it for a few days and then get milliput and sculpt a new nose. this will not be fun for me i think because I just... am not a sculpting fan (funny thing when this project WILL have a lot of sculpting) and much prefer sanding. I'm not too mad about the chin being sanded down (as the original had an INSANELY pointed chin which I really didn't like. I hate sanding vinyl so this works for me) or the eyes being opened (other than.. having to figure out the size on my own and pray for the best). Most of the mods are not... bad to me and are partially why I'm drawn to miss yucky bc like... the diseases but also the fact that the mods do mostly make the head cuter for me

Redo the faceup. I would love to keep the elements of the original with the big eyelashes as I find them cute, but the BIGGEST order of business is eyebrows good god. I'll have to paint over the mod that I did but I'm not super worried about it (maybe falsely I've never painted a vinyl head in full bc I have exactly one vinyl doll) and then hope i can get the head right on the first try. depending on how bad the yellowing is (and if im able to retrobright her to a lighter skin tone, as the body i have is pretty light (altho it doesnt match any skins from this company so. its a whole thing its ok)) i might just paint the whole head (or even come up with a story or reason why its mismatched. I have a lot of heads and bodies like that so I don't mind fully lol). It's just kind of a scary tossup on how bad of shape everything is.

Done <3 i really dont think itll be TOO bad but i also like... think i wont know fully until i get my hands on her if i do. She would be pretty tiny too (as in 45 cm or so, or for the americans, 1.5 ft) but I do love that scale of doll so. it could work.

[itswavelengths]

Everything in Moderation

The team at NVIDIA Studio released this video late last month showing off their new and astonishing "RTX Remix" tool for remastering PC games and I haven't stopped thinking about it. Taken at face-value the software allows developers and modders to easily and visually update assets and lighting in older games through some clever tricks and assistance via AI upscalers, sprucing them up enough to be considered truly remastered works. To be transparent: I am not a game developer, but I have been doing some digging into actual developer reactions to this and the term "wizardry" appears frequently. The ability to automate processes that needed to be done by hand, or to visually see changes made to textures and modeling reflected in real-time is a game-changer for the kind of work the modding scene has been painstakingly toiling away on for decades.

And although the focus of the presentation seemed to be aimed squarely at said modding scene — there are multiple times in which the presenter mentions they "can't wait to see what the community will do" — I do find it interesting on a high level that NVIDIA sought to make this tool in the first place, knowing full well that the remake and remaster side of the game development business has ballooned in recent years. The line between those two terms has never been blurrier, but there's no denying that we can't go a week without hearing about some long-dormant game being revitalized for modern consoles. For NVIDIA to not only recognize the business need for a better suite of tools to coincide with what can be considered its own mini-industry, but to provide such a huge collection of innovative concepts into the fold means we'll likely be seeing many projects coming down the pipeline soon. And by "soon" I mean it's likely that NVIDIA has already been helping shuttle multiple game remasters simultaneously through the RTX Remix pipeline behind-the-scenes for months. Not only are there credible rumors of remasters for Bioshock and Mirror's Edge in the works, but NVIDIA themselves unveiled a trailer for an RTX edition of the first Portal:

The realities of the games industry being... well... an industry... means IP-holders and publishers will frequently overlook the benefits of just porting an old game to new hardware, but given a cost-effective tool like this to hypothetically expedite the process I'm hopeful more forgotten classics will return in some playable form. Although remastering a game isn't quite the same as preservation, a desire to revisit and rerelease previously unplayable titles will usually be a net-positive in my book. One concern I keep mulling over though is the tendency to lose nuance in the process of remastering a game. In the past I've been critical of "next-gen ports" just adding ray-traced lighting to higher-res textures and calling it a day. There are times I've found in which relying on technological fixes end up removing the artistic intent of talented world and level-designers using hardware constraints to their advantage.

The PS5 version of Judgement comes to mind here in which, despite higher fidelity textures across the board, scenes previously awash in the vibrant glow of Kamurocho's neon nightlife take on a more realistic contrast at the expense of the original's atmosphere bringing out the best (and worst) in the city streets. Personally I think this is a case of early adoption — even the Portal with RTX trailer linked above seems like it's overdoing its lighting effects at times, sliders pushed all the way to the limit making previously highly-visible scenes take on a new and unintended darkness. While the tendency right now is to show off how powerful and exciting ray-tracing and AI-upscaling can be, developers will slowly start to incorporate them the way they do all other effects: with a light touch. There was a time when particles and destructible environments were all the rage as well, and every single game was littered with exploding bullet-hole-laden walls and floating motes of dust obscuring the player's view.

But I have faith in the future here, everything in moderation.

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One last note here is a point in the video in which the following wildly disappointing sentence pops up:

Morrowind RTX is a technical showcase and is not currently under active development.

Sad!!

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