#if I can. it is unity. but if it’s running on a newer version then idk if I’ll be able to

[crowcryptid]

talking to puppy ૮ ˶ˆ ﻌ ˆ˶ ა

[t-beaubo]

Excuse me everyone while I don my fanciest tin-foil hat regarding the Unity TOS backpedaling.

I'd love to be like "Yeah, this is a great change! So glad they listened and are doing the right thing", but I have a lil' theory wrigglin' around, and it's not a good one.

After Unity reposted their prior version TOS that they scrubbed from the fucking internet with the new TOS change I had a little read through them, as they now claim that you can stay with the TOS for the version of Unity you downloaded.

While many of the older version are safe, the April 2023 version (well before the announcement earlier this month) included this lil' ditty, which isn't in any earlier versions.

This is the start of my big ol' theory.

So, what does this mean?

First, it means that the runtime payment model was likely not a spur of the moment decision, since this is a TOS change that makes this legal MONTHS before (they just forgot the part where they said a while back you are allowed to use the TOS that came out when the version of Unity you are using came out oopsie!)

Secondly, it means that all future version of unity (and some of the recent ones out rn) are able to have runtime fees attached to them.

My, hopefully wildly incorrect theory is that this, combined with the removal of the splash screen on Unity Personal, only for new versions of Unity is an attempt to lure developers into using the new versions, then 2-3 years down the line, retrofit a new, harsh pricing model, like they tried to do this time, only legally.

OR I could be completely wrong and this was a genuine good faith decision by the company that ignored the numerous warning signs both from their development team, and the Unity vets that were called in for opinions, has a CEO with a history of running companies into the ground in corporate greed and chose to scrub the previous TOS versions from the history books and pretend they never said you could choose to remain on a prior TOS version.

Just... Be cautious using newer versions of Unity, and if you can, please read the TOS for yourself.

(Note: I have absolutely zero ill will to the developers and employees at Unity, this was almost certainly not their decision and was likely a shareholder/CEO decision)

[hydrossity-zone]

how do you have models that arent on the models resource? like the idols and stuff

Theyre all my own rips! I dont use rips from tmr since qa on there isnt all that great and theyre often missing a lot of stuff (my grievances towards the-models-resource is actually partially why I started ripping things myself instead lmao)

Some behind-the-scenes of the ripping process, heres some of the assets for SFSB and Sonic Runners both pre-rip and post-dump, as well as a snippet of a SpeedSim rip dump I have yet to go through and clean up lol

Its safe to assume that unless otherwise specified all my model rips are my own! the only exception being that some early reference sheets I made were made using model rips my friend T did for me while I was having trouble with the programs we use to rip on my computer (he doesnt post his rips anywhere). Id feel absolutely terrible using other people's rips without permission and without credit

For SFSB and Dash I use a fork of AssetStudio that works on the newer versions of Unity those games use since trying to rip the assets with the original version kind of breaks everything and corrupts the textures. AssetStudio also works on Runners files as well, its just a matter of finding those files first (I had to scour the deep web and find an uncompressed file dump of the game files in an ancient forum post) because simply finding an apk wont work as the game was originally online-only and thus those files had to have been downloaded to your device's cache as the events were running before it was shut down. Thankfully SFSB and Dash's assets are in the base game so you can use an offline apk no problem!

As for Sonic Speed Simulator I cannot say how I rip things from there other than I use a scene ripper. Pretty much all scene rippers are picked up and blocked by Roblox's anti-cheat, but me and T discovered a workaround that bypasses it, which does have some questionable if not outright violation of the game's TOS, and Id rather not get in trouble nor have it patched. Sorry!

[siren-darkocean]

Oh hey not Mata Kids AU time but New Atera Headcanons!

Yeah I had a thing with celebrations that would happen in New Atera post Journey's End events so I thought to share it with the Bionicle community on Tumblr for those who wanna use any of them too!

Around the time the unity between the Agori and the Matoran occurred in the past, every year there's a "holiday" ig you'd call it where everyone in New Atera have a week long celebration in honor of that unity and the defeat of the Makuta

The week consists of seven different events that happen during each day of the week

I don't know the actual canon months, seasons and years system of Bionicle let alone Spherus Magna so I'ma just run with the Earth version bc yeah

First Day: The Day of Remembrance

The first event that happens is at night (kinda a baby ref from the Dance of the Moonlight Jellies festival in Stardew Valley bc its honestly my favorite festival in game, it's soo good even with Visible Fish and Reflections mods installed) by the shores closest to the village

Everyone gathers by/in the waves as the village leader (which my opinion I always associated with the old village leader of Bara Magna villages and the Turaga Metru(with Ackar and (maybe) Mata Nui) in their council) give a speech

The festival is to remember those who were lost due to either the Brotherhood Crisis, before Spherus Magna was reformed of the struggle or before the shattering and that their spirits (mediphorcally speaking) shall join them during the festivities in celebration of the unity

They then after a moment of silence release floating lanterns into the waves (the lanterns are bio degradable don't worry, one of their first ideas with the week long holiday, they literally got their planet more livable you think the Agori gonna polute it immediately? They may be organic but they aren't humans)

Honestly every year this always makes the stars seem to shine brighter, Mata Nui does admit he has nothing to do with that (he's honestly surprised by it every year) so everyone assumes now it's the spirits of the lost officially joining in

Day Two: The Day of Harvest of the Plentiful

The second day is where any Bo-Toa and even Mata Nui use their power to grow any if not all crops to their harvest state (idk how accurate this is bc can I roll with it please) to where a huge harvest for both the celebrations and the days to come can happen

Ik it feels wasteful of the energy for even Mata Nui but how the Agori literally struggled for food after the shattering it feels kinda natural to add this(literally I feel like even for a couple of centuries the Agori from post reforming Spherus Magna would still be antsy of low food and water due to being so used to it)

Day Three: The Day of Reminisce

During this day especially young Agori and Glatorian would gather in the village square by a bonfire as stories of events of the Toa Nuva's adventures, tales of the island and Metru Nui and even the events of rising against the Bone Hunters and Skrall United army and the final battle between Mata Nui and Makuta are told

The Turaga love this day especially because they get to put their good storytelling to good use (their good storytellers yeah, listeners? Not so much) while keeping the memories of the past alive in newer generations

When it gets to the Agori and Glatorian adventures though usually the Agori leaders take place in this but at times the younger Agori and Glatorian ask for Mata Nui and or Ackar to do the story telling (personal headcanon Mata Nui is a good storyteller like the Turaga but also is a good listener, Ackar's the same bc good green flag dad energy), they usually roll with it honestly due to how the little ones are more entranced into the story telling from the Great Spirit and Veteran Glatorian themselves

Day Four: The Day of Embers

This celebration is where people come together to put on their own performances, like a talent show but you don't need talent for it

Tahu uses this day to show off his Toa powers in more flashy ways

Takanuva always manages to drag Jaller and Halhi into either a Kohli match reenactment(when they were still Matoran of MOL Kohli match, and also making sure it's safe) or some comedy skit

Lewa always takes the opportunity to join his Le-Matoran bands (I always imagine Lewa playing the drums but you can tweak this for whatever instrument headcanon you have for him)

Day Five: The Day of Sports(bad title Ik)

Basically this day there's two events that happen in one

First is two Kohli matches, one Matoran(and Agori join as well) based one and the other a Toa based one), the Toa Kohli match does have special measurements so no one in the audience doesn't get hurt

While the second is a Glatorian fight, they do keep monitors on this one so there's no Strakk incident again like before with Ackar and no Thornraxx Launchers user

Tahu and Kopaka are banned from fighting against each other in Glatorian matches tho due to how violent they would get between the two (Both Onua and Mata Nui would have to step in to pull the two apart)

Ackar occasionally joins in on these fights but most of the time he watches, it's not he doesn't like the fighting it's just he's actually curious how good the rookie Glatorians are training and learning, this being a habit from his mentoring

There isn't a single Toa Kohli match Pohatu would be in and you bet your ass he'll try to bring Kopaka into it

Day Six: The Day of Joy

The second last day is basically a huge party with music, dancing, food and all kinds of fun

The dances are completely random they'll either be fun ones you can drag friends in for shits and giggles or they can be romantic type ones

You're not required to dance it's entirely optional, just being there is a requirement (to the dismay of Kopaka's anti social self)

Personal Headcanons I tie with this(you can ignore these bc these also include shipping ones as well):

Pohatu is always trying to get Kopaka to dance but manages to get at least one dance out of him

Lewa, Takanuva, Terix and Vastus would be dancing with the young Agori and Glatorian children (Lewa especially and would drag Onua into this as well for the fun) as Lewa would also be keeping them occupied with his Toa powers

If there's a romantic dance going on you will definitely find Mata Nui and Ackar (bc I love this ship, they're so gay for each other) dancing together and the same with Kiina and Gresh (there is no platonic explanation for these two I am sorry)

Any dance Takanuva would literally try to pull both Halhi and Jaller into (This can be taken Platonically and Romantically, polymorphous relationships for the win as a Polysexual woman, accurate polymorphous relationships representation is always welcome in my book)

Despite the state of his body, Matau will definitely be dancing (this is so him I'm sorry)

Nuju and Whenua will definitely be dancing romantic dances together (they were so married, my immediate thought when I first saw them together on screen with Legends of Metru Nui, I immediately thought they were married. I had a similar thing with Duncan Bulk and Jimi Stringer when I was 6-7 years old first watching LEGO Hero Factory), don't even try to separate them it won't work

Day Seven: The Day of Farewells

The final day is similar to the first day where they gather and release lanterns but this time to say farewell and see you next years to the spirits who joined them during the festivities

This time they gather in a huge plateau/field to release (ofc biodegradable) lanterns into the sky

Any Glatorian who have weapons do keep their weapons on them during both the first and last festivities in case of any threats that may happen

After another speech, everyone lights their lanterns, says their farewells or "see you next years" and then on the count of three they release the lanterns into the night sky

It's a moment of silence, or as silent you can get with children and even adults aweing at the sight of all the lanterns flying away

Personal Headcanons I have of this:

Mata Nui always finds himself when the lanterns release looking between the Toa Nuva and his friends, he knew it's been a long time since both the Agori and his Matoran have had peace and joy like during the festivities of the week and is grateful for their unity and glad to have the Toa help protect the Matoran and to have his friends that helped him

Vakama always finds himself looking amongst his fellow Turaga as he remembers their adventures as Toa and ofc the Hordika Venom, they've come a long way yes and had many difficulties but despite their issues he's grateful to have them around

Hot damn took two damn hours to finish this post, or a hour idk I was not focused on the time despite how late in the night it is

[tearsoftime0086]

Thinking of wild AU concepts tonight and came back to the Amalgam AU idea I had for Resident Evil. It lifts a lot of System Shock 2's dynamic with SHODAN and the Many, but essentially Leon nearly dies in Gaiden after his solo encounter with the B.O.W. parasite. Turns out that parasite had just beaten up the newer, second parasite, so the new parasite clings and melds itself into Leon in order to stay alive. That's why the cut on his throat bleeds green in the ending. Leon just thinks he passed out and is unaware of most of this.

Flash-forward to RE4 and Leon's asking Ashley if she's hearing the weird multiple voices speaking in her head too. Ashley's confused because she isn't, and there's differing symptoms of infection between her and Leon. They chalk it up to plaga behavior, but it really becomes noticeable when Leon successfully gets Ashley treated and passes out.

Ashley wakes up to Leon on the ground, looking more emaciated than normal... like he's lost a significant amount of flesh. Is that even possible?

Then a shadow flits across the wall.

She screams when there's another Leon - a younger, bloodied, Leon, asking her to help "our host".

The Amalgam tells her that they had reached a symbiotic relationship with their host, until this intruder began to ruin their union. "If you repay our favor, then our unity shall be restored. Our intruder shall live as one with us."

Ashley is trying SO hard to not panic because there's one version of Leon speaking like a hive mind with nosism, and the other one is passed out looking super plaga infected at this point. She asks what the Amalgam is, and they politely recite their backstory.

"And what will this... unity mean for Leon?" she asks.

The younger copy's dull eyes seem to look puzzled. "We have always been one. We will return to our harmony, together."

Okay, so this... thing was in Leon the whole time? How come it didn't present itself before? And what's cooperating with it going to do to Leon.

The copy smiles.

"But you fear us. We hear your thoughts - and they rage for the one you believe dead. But he is not. He sleeps in us."*

She eventually agrees, and the copy... merges back into the other body? And when she props Leon up and runs the machine, it malfunctions mid-way. But the inky veins vanish, and Leon opens his eyes.

Cloudy, dull eyes.

Ashley grabs a nearby scalpel before Leon dissuades her. It's the same professional, slightly awkward tone he'd had for the entirety of their time here, which lets her relax, a little. In fact, Leon's the one who's most startled when the Amalgam mentally projects their gratitude to Ashley, now with another voice in their choir.

Anyway, the rest of the AU would be the events of RE4 where Ashley and Leon have to deal with Leon's secret dual parasite hivemind that's now part cruise-ship parasite and plaga. With body double fun times too, because that's a thing Leon can do now.

[sa-game-remake]

what would u say the hardest part of remaking spirit animals has been so far?

Of what I've done so far, the hardest part has been the decompilation of the old game. It's very easy to get something that nearly works - something that can extract the animations, but only in a game engine-exclusive format; something that can pull out the code scripts that make the game run but can't work out which game object each script belongs to.

And unfortunately, with computers, 'nearly works' is pretty close to useless. The old game, decompiled, has a little over 35 000 files, which is a few too many for me to go through manually and fix all the way, if I even knew how (gotta admit, at some points I've considered trying).

As of this month (only!), I finally have a decompilation of the old game that - well, that doesn't run, but that is together enough for me to export the assets and read the code I'll need to recreate the game. I tried out about 5 different decompilation tools and opening their results in about 4 different versions of Unity. In the end, I used a newer Unity version (the versions the game was developed in don't have the ability to export assets!), and quick-fixed the ~400 compilation errors in the code to convince Unity that the assets were not-broken enough that it should let me export them.

(For those without much computer knowledge: there are two main categories of errors: compilation errors and runtime errors. Compilation errors are things that would crash the program that the computer can spot before running the program and crashing, and so it'll refuse to run the program. Runtime errors are the other kind: errors the computer can't predict in advance but will cause it to trip over its own feet. (These are categories (mostly) distinct from bugs, especially in the 'video games bugs' category, which is (mostly) a term for when the computer thinks it's running fine, but it's doing something completely different from what you wanted it to do.) What I've done here is just hiding the fact that the game's broken from Unity; converted all those compilation errors into code that looks fine but'll probably fall apart if you try to actually run the game. This is bad practice and usually you'd be trying to go the other way: have all your errors be compilation errors, so that by the time you fix them and your program is able to run, it will run flawlessly.)

Second hardest thing is that I didn't know anything about the web before this. Setting up the website at keeperofgreenhaven.net was not hard, necessarily, but was a bit brain-melting learning everything I needed to know.

[sdgnelson]

I've been taking the development of the next Unturned update more "slow and steady" this past month than I used to. It's much more relaxing. No specific release date is planned yet, but it will probably be in early October.

Most recently, I've been working on the conversion to "UI Elements" / "UI Toolkit" - Unity's newer UI system. After upgrading to 2021 LTS, it's supported for use in the game view.

I have yet to make any big decisions about handling the Unity trouble. Some posts have suggested we can stay on the current LTS versions with the original Terms of Service. That would probably be fine for a few years (4-5?), but longer down the road, we could start to see issues on newer OS.

Unturned has custom formats for levels and doesn't rely much on Unity assets like prefabs, so automatically converting the data to another engine would be feasible. However, converting all of the code and game logic would be a massive effort. Existing mods would be unusable without the creator(s) running the conversion, and all code plugins would break.

It's also been pointed out that now could be a great time to revisit the possibility of a new project. In the meantime, I've been playing around in Godot, reading the "Game AI Pro" books - one of my weakest areas in gamedev, re-sorting my Lego by shape (sorted by color as a kid), and painting the house.

[linuxgamenews]

Heartworm: Discover the Unique Twist to This '90s Horror Classic

Heartworm is a 90’s survival horror game heading to Steam Deck and Linux via Proton with Windows PC plus a Demo. Vincent Adinolfi's incredible talent is the driving force behind this project. Due to make its mark on Steam in 2025. Let's talk about DreadXP's latest move in the industry. They've recently acquired the rights to Heartworm, a title that's stirring up excitement for fans of psychological Survival horror . This title, created by Vincent Adinolfi, is a nod to the gritty, atmospheric style of ‘90s horror classics like Silent Hill and Resident Evil, but with its unique twist. Part of that includes platform support.

I don't currently have plans for official Linux support, but I have tested many builds using Proton on my steam deck and it has run flawlessly through that.

Developer Vincent Adinolfi has confirmed in an email that Heartworm does run perfectly on the Steam Deck. This means there's also Linux support through Proton. And since it's built on the Unity game engine, there's also hope for a native Linux version in the future.

Heartworm Trailer | Coming 2025

Heartworm centers around Sam, a character grappling with intense grief. Her journey leads her into the depths of the dark web, where she discovers a mysterious mountain house linked to the afterlife. The premise alone is enough to hook anyone who likes a good story – it's a mix of eerie lore and the kind of emotional depth that stays with you. What sets Heartworm apart is its homage to early console-era design. Think of cinematic fixed camera angles and retro 3D graphics. There's a certain charm to this style that newer titles often miss. It's not just about nostalgia; it's about recapturing an era of gaming that many of us remember. The gameplay promises to be as engaging as the story. With a weaponized camera and puzzles to solve, it's not just about jump scares but also strategy and depth. The suburban setting adds another layer of eeriness, making it familiar yet unsettling. What really hits home for me is Adinolfi's passion. Last year was tough for him, with uncertainties and a broken publishing deal. But his commitment to Heartworm is evident. It's not just a project; it's a labor of love. And now, with DreadXP's support, it's finally getting the support it deserves. Plus you can play the game Demo on Steam via Proton. For those eager to dive into this experience, Heartworm will be available on Steam in 2025. Playable on Steam Deck and Linux via Windows PC with Porton. It's already on my Wishlist, and I recommend adding it to yours. It's not just another horror title; it's a tribute to an era and a new take on what psychological survival horror can be.

[hospitalterrorizer]

diary57

11/7-8/2023

tuesday - wednesday

not a boring day, today.

i ate leftovers from yesterday and had leftover ramen that my gf didn't finish. i also ate candy and stuff and it's made me feel sort of sick, or at least like, sick with myself. but whatever. thursday is errand day but i don't think i'm going then. idk what i'm doing tomorrow, i'm probably going to try and record more, today i got 2 songs re-recorded basically, i think i'll like them a lot more when i slot those parts in and stuff. what else. mostly i vc'd today with a friend who was super deliriously drunk, and a friend who was not drunk our drunk friend got on this thing, of digging through his steam library for all of these dumb games he had. there was this one about a courier frog, we all were amazed and charmed by the shitty unity effort it was, and how there was this giant transformer running in circles for no reason, a crime scene, the frog held a knife, and a man on a roof. all unrelated to the game, or really even its setting, a row of 8 houses in a suburb, a shitty prefab full of invisible walls. for some reason that game made me want to play videogames more again. things are mysterious that way. seeing him get drunker, and play other games, made me want to play games less though. he was so drunk, thus out of it, while playing a puzzle game called chuzzle, he was getting really, i don't know, i don't know if he was for real frustrated or doing a joke where he was acting frustrated and crazy, by this time the vc had filled up more, the person who introduced him to the server we're in joined and i haven't vc'd w/ her in forever, a friend who is intermittently around in vc joined for a minute too, all while our drunk friend was sat there, staring at his screen, manic and silent, playing a kind of weird and cruel version of bejeweled where you torture strange creatures, made up of hair and eyes. he stayed on that game for like an hour. then he moved onto some other puzzle game that was like, you move blocks around a non-environment, it looked like lame mahjong tiles. anyways he was pretty good at that one and then hit the difficulty bump, and was still basically good but also drunk and still doing his frustrated guy bit, he did some stuff i feel bad about, i was writing it out but there's no reason to do that i think, i can't tell if it was a bit or not, or where it ends, if him feeling free to do some stuff as a bit is just him being able to actually just do certain things for real or not. he did start what i hope was a fake crying thing, where he was like, doing this intense fake ugly cry face, at least i hope it was fake, i asked our friend who knows him irl and she said he is just being a #mastermanipulator but i honestly can't tell still and feel bad basically because i was having a go at him being bad at a puzzle, not really mean i was just saying like "you're making the wrong shape." i don't know. it was funny hearing him say really slurred nonsense, and then say to us all, "can't you be quiet." or "shut your trap" and stuff like that. it was still a little stressful. i dunno. alcohol is kind of nightmarish to me, at least he had people around a while, so it wasn't totally drinking alone. or he was drunk alone but had some people beside him, to make it less soul-destroying. the people i knew who would do that were really really worrying. the vc was a lot of fun though, it's tragic how it makes me snack though, i love to eat salty trash while vcing. i am also just generally so hungry, always.

outside of that, uhhhhh, nothing really, it's a lot of just bullshitting about random stuff in those vcs, i keep thinking about watching this dogra magra movie. maybe i'll try that rn. thinking about the progress on the album, it's feeling closer and closer, i wonder how much closer i can get, if i keep re-recording stuff i'm maybe not happy with this week, that'd be good, but i wonder if i'd feel closer if i tried getting some lyrics out for these newer songs. or they do have lyrics, some at least, those ones are recorded thoughhhhhhhhhghghgh. i dunno. i think by the end of this week i should take a closer inventory of where these songs are, i should also try getting the vocals down for one of these older songs w/ lyrics. as it stands, there's a couple songs i want to still master differently, really minor guitar tone things i think. thennnn, there's one i definitely want to do some minor arranging on to get one part to be less fucked up, or maybe not arranging, just come in differently w/ vox, add an additional guitar bit. and then there's still one i for sure need to get the vocals right on, or a couple i guess.

anyway i watched like half of it i have to finish it 2morrowww, so

byebye!!!!!!!!!

[radwolf76]

@lucario1829 has an accurate assessment here. The original Myst was designed for 640x480 screens with an 8-Bit color depth (and didn't even use all of the screen, there was a large black border around every pre-rendered scene).

Myst: Masterpiece Edition re-rendered the scenes larger and with more colors, but kept the point-and-click node-based navigation of the original game.

(I want to say the video animations are larger as well; the original's videos were a kludge of getting Apple QuickTime files to play borderless in a HyperCard stack. But I may be misremembering.)

However, even though it was remastered, Masterpiece Edition is still from 2000, so it may look crude to modern eyes.

That same year, another remake was released, realMyst. This one moved away from point-and-click navigation, instead offering free roaming WASD movement in a real time 3D environment. This too hasn't aged well.

However, in 2014, realMyst got its own Masterpiece Edition now running in the Unity Engine. Being only almost a decade old, it has more polish than the previous entries. It runs on the Unity engine, and the environments are not as static as previous versions of the game. It also has an option to use node-based navigation like the original, but with smooth transitions as you're basically auto-walking through the 3D environment instead of just warping to the next vantage point.

I think this is the one that also added a flashlight, something that Myst purists feel can ruin the atmosphere of some parts of the game. But it's optional, you can just not hit the flashlight button. Then again, the original Myst didn't have a day/night cycle, so some environments get darker than originally designed, so the flashlight may be handy.

Myst (2021) is a ground-up rebuild of the original game using all new art assets. It was originally designed for VR, and runs on the Unreal 4 engine. Curiously, even though node-based navigation is very much a thing for many VR titles (to reduce motion sickness), the latest version is free movement only.

It can be played on a regular 2D screen as well, and has some new features like optional Puzzle Randomization, and multi-lingual subtitles.

Honestly, I'd say it's a toss up between realMyst Masterpiece Edition and 2021. There is some very cool post-endgame content in realMyst that is not included in the newer game, but without going into spoilers the newer game has one big feature that Myst fans have been wishing for since the 90s that cuts out a bunch of time wasting repetition. And of course, the latest entry is going to have the best graphics and sound.

Prices fluctuate of course, but looking on Steam right now 2021 can be had for less than $20 USD, Myst Masterpiece Edition for less than $3 USD, with realMyst in the middle. Unless your budget is extremely tight, I'd even say get both realMyst and 2021. Play the newest to completion, then hit realMyst up with the speedrun strats to skip to its endgame.

ok wait which version of myst do i buy for my steamdeck... why are there so many versions... can i just get the cheap one or...

[wildtulipfield]

Resources for faceclaims/forms

A whole bunch of character creator resources for anyone trying to find their perfect faceclaim/form (Or just want to play dressup games all night XD) Sorry I couldn't put pictures for all of them since the limit is 10. If anyone knows of any more feel free to let me know if you want.

Artbreeder

Website, Realistic

Artbreeder is a website that lets you make face claims by mashing different faces and facial features together. Sometimes the results are a bit weird but it's super fun to use. You can merge faces and use gene sliders to make unique AI generated faces that can look real or like a painting. There are also anime and furry versions but they don't work as well.

Link: artbreeder.com

Picrew

Website, All styles

Picrew is a website where people upload their own character creators and there are 1000s of them. Most people have heard of this website and many of the creators have pride flags. It can be accessed on both phone and computer. (Link)

Meiker

Website, Varied

Similar to picrew but it's more focused on clothing and dress up. Many of them are full body and focus more on fashion than being the perfect character creator. (Link)

Doll divine (+Rinmaru)

Website, Varied

A website with many character creators and dressups. Some made by the creator and some by other artists, older dress ups are still being converted from flash to html. This website also hosts dressups for other creators but has her own exclusive collection. (Link)

Pastelkatto

Website and a few apps, stylized

(Formerly missangest) Is a website/app creator who makes themed character makers such as 'Monster girl dollmaker' and 'Assassin dollmaker' in html. Most of these dollmakers are feminine in style. The creator also hosts dollmakers from others on her site. (Link)

Azaleas dolls

Website, Stylized

This one is similar to doll divine and Pastelkatto. Some of her old dress ups still require flash but newer ones are being made with HTML. Like the other two this website hosts dressups made by other people and most are feminine in style. (Link)

Vroid

App/desktop program, anime mostly..

Vroid runs on both android and desktop but the desktop version is very in-depth, you can edit textures and sculpt hair so the options are infinite. If you have a little knowledge on blender and unity you can upload your models to vrchat and let your headmates walk around and socialize without appearance dysphoria (I've done this myself it's super fun.) I recommend Argama witch's tutorials if you have never made a model before.

You can download it here (Link) or on steam, find/buy already made assets here (Link) and can see other peoples models here (Link)

Custom cast

App, Anime

This is a cute anime style 3d modeler app, it's similar to the android version of vroid but as far as I'm aware you can't upload these to vrchat. There is a face tracking option meant for vtubing though. You can create both male and female characters.

Sims4

Game, Semi-realistic - realistic

I don't recommend getting this game just for the "create a sim" as the unmodded base game doesn't have too much variety. You can build houses too. (Link)

Heroforge

Website, 3d cartoonish

This is a website mostly meant for ttrpg characters, you can customize a 3d figure with lots of options for weapons and armor. There are also options for 3d printing. (Link)

Kisekae

Program(pc), Anime

This is a bit hard to access but has a lot of options. Most of the clothes and body options are feminine leaning. This game does have some explicit 18+ options and ads.

Here's a guide on how to download (Link)

Lunaii Dollmaker

Website, pixel anime

An old pixel avatar maker. Has a good amount of options but is only a face portrait. It has both feminine and masculine styles and a cool color picker. (Link)

Old flash dressups

Swf, varied

These are tricky to access these days, but if you download an older version of flash you will be able to play these old .swf file games. Here's (link) a guide for that by Doll divine, you can also use a method for the older dressups of Doll divine and Azaleas dolls.

You can mostly download these on deviant art, here are some specific ones.

Mew mew creator

This is a flash dress up based around the show Tokyo mew mew, it has a color picker and tons of options for animal ears, wings and tails. The base and clothing style is feminine. The creator is Hapuriainen. You can download it here (Link)

School dress up

This one is basically like the Tokyo mew mew one but with school clothes. This one is also by Hapuriainen. You can download it here (Link)

Gen8's Chibi maker

This one is just a simple chibi maker with limited colors but a great range of clothing and features. (Link)

Dragon maker

A dragon maker with a color picker and tons of options by Wyndbain (Link)

[into-control]

Into i need help. I bought a oculus quest 2 right and i tried to connect it to my laptop and it wont work so I realized i needed and actual pc gaming setup you know, problem is idk anything about PCs and i dont wanna get scammed. Can you help me? Ive looked online and idk wtf im looking at tbh. Can you give like advice and shit lol 😂 love you into 💕

well i'm not a professional at pcs by any means but i've always had a huge fixation on them so i can try to help as much as possible and i'll even try to put it in simple terms. fair warning, i talk A LOT in this post because i love rambling about computers :') i tried to use the simplest terms possible since you seem confused but if something doesn't make sense just ask and i can try to reword.

it all depends on what you want out of your pc. and do you want to build one or get a prebuilt one? if you want my advice i recommend building one. getting a prebuilt pc is the easiest way to get scammed because retailers tend to overcharge and they think they can get away with it because they stuck a flashy high end graphics card and colourful lights in it even though it has shit airflow and they cheaped out on the motherboard and power supply or something like that. if you're going to get a prebuilt pc make sure you look at allll the specs and consult some online reviews to see if they're any good, and figure out if you're going to be overcharged. now i'll talk about building one. a lot of this will still be useful if you're considering buying a prebuilt though.

the very first step is deciding your budget. idk where you are but in USD the typical amount to spend on pc parts is i think like $1000 - 1500 (you can spend less but that's if you don't have a lot of money to spend and are still desperate to have a gaming pc). i'm spending around $1700 CAD (before taxes, eugh) on mine bc i want to get into more demanding games eventually. it sounds very costly but computers like these can last you a decade and are very multifaceted. figuring out your budget first instead of going right ahead and buying stuff is important because each component should take up specific percentages of your budget. another important thing to consider when deciding your budget is if you want RGB (the colourful lights as previously mentioned), because components with that capability are slightly more expensive.

after deciding your budget, your first move is deciding what graphics card (GPU) you want. the GPU is responsible for processing and presenting the visuals on your screen. theoretically it should take up between 35 - 40% of your budget because it is the powerhouse in a gaming system. you have two developers to choose from here: NVIDIA or AMD. from what i've seen people tend to prefer NVIDIA but AMD cards aren't bad and they definitely compete in performance. i'll talk about nvidia though because that's what i know more about. by searching up the oculus quest 2 system requirements it tells me you at least need an nvidia geforce gtx 970. this card came out in 2014 and is by no means bad however it is actually the same base price as a lot of newer cards. if you want to go better than the minimum requirements, first consider what your monitor is capable of. if you don't have one yet, consider what you want it to do. monitors are not considered a part of the budget i keep mentioning by the way. idk how much this matters to you since we're talking about the oculus quest 2 but i'm just kind of assuming you're going to use this pc for other games too. the main two things to take into consideration are max resolution and refresh rate. my monitor has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 and a 144hz refresh rate. what the resolution means is that there are 2,073,600 pixels in the screen, and can go up to a resolution of 1080p in video games. the refresh rate means the monitor can refresh the picture on the screen 144 times a second, therefore can show a max of 144 frames per second in a video game. to put that in to perspective, most screens have a refresh rate of 60hz, such as regular laptop screens, iphone screens, etc.. monitors come in mainly 60hz, 75hz, 144hz, and 165hz, and for resolution they mainly come in 1080p, 1440p, and 4k. seeing as i don't have any plans on upgrading my monitor any time soon, dropping extra money on a GPU that can achieve more than 144fps and 1440p/4k would be pointless. but forget about the monitor, the oculus quest 2 has a max refresh rate of 120hz and its resolution lies somewhere between 1080p and 1440p. if you know what kind of games you're going to be playing, look up how they perform with different kinds of cards. i'm fairly certain anything above an nvidia geforce rtx 3070 would be pointless because of your display limits, and anything below the nvidia geforce gtx 970 simply won't be enough for the system. you can look at all the GPUs ranked here. after deciding which GPU you want you need to figure out which brand of it you want (NVIDIA themselves, asus, gigabyte, evga, etc), because they all perform at slightly different levels, although the difference is usually only a few frames so it's better to save money. something to watch out for is the quality of the fans in the GPU because if they aren't good, it will overheat and underperform. i'm aiming to get a 3060 or 3060 ti, if that helps. the only problem is that there is currently a worldwide GPU shortage due to covid, tariffs, and the cryptocurrency mining boom (gpus are used in bulk to mine). fortunately there is currently a crypto mining crackdown happening in china, where majority of mining in the world happens, so the demand for GPUs will hopefully start going down soon. you wont be able to build your pc right away but the market is looking better than it has in awhile. this is just about the only argument i have in favor of getting a prebuilt pc, because they have GPUs in them and are more readily available. i don't think that's a good enough reason though especially since part of the reason i'm building my pc is because it looks fun lol. another thing to note is that you should not overspend on your GPU. the shortage has caused a lot of GPU prices to skyrocket into the $2k-3k range but none of them should be above 1k except the highest end ones. when deciding on a GPU, search up the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP). cards made by brands other than AMD and NVIDIA will almost always cost a little extra, but do not pay hundreds of

extra dollars. but anyways!! the GPU is now out of the way and is definitely the longest paragraph here because it's the most important part.

next up is the central processing unit (CPU), which you should be spending about 20 - 25% of your budget on. its job is essentially to retrieve instructions from the RAM and execute it. i suppose you could call it the brain. again you have two developers to choose from, this time between intel and AMD. i've had two laptops with an intel CPU and my current one has an AMD CPU and both are very good, however the general consensus is that you can get the same performance for less by going with AMD. CPUs have cores, and each core can run its own process. the more cores you have, the more your pc can think about basically. you can get CPUs will all sorts of amounts of cores but for gaming, 4 or 6 cores is all you really need. 8 is actually already a bit overkill. so you really don't need to get the best CPU out there. the one you get should depend on what GPU you get (hence choosing that component first). you don't want to bottleneck your GPU by getting a CPU that isn't good enough for it, but bottlenecking your CPU with the GPU by a small amount isn't as big of a deal because the goal is to allow your GPU to be used to its full ability. another detail about CPU is clock speed, which determines how quick it can complete tasks. the higher the faster, obviously. my (non gaming) laptop's CPU clock speed is 2.30 GHz and has 4 cores. the cpu i have for my build is the AMD ryzen 5 5600x. it has a base clock speed of 3.7 GHz but it can be maxed out to 4.6 GHz, and it has 6 cores. the oculus quest 2 has a minimum requirement of the AMD ryzen 5 1500x or the intel i5-4590, which is a little low on the performance list. but like i said the CPU should depend on the GPU. all it takes is a google search for which CPU goes best with the GPU you've chosen and you can find several answers depending on if you want the best possible performance, best budget performance, etc.. a nice little fact about choosing AMD over intel is that most AMD CPUs will come with a stock cooler, which is absolutely necessary otherwise your CPU will overheat (this is another thing prebuilts will cheap out on). this only adds to the whole price-to-performance thing. the stock cooler will most likely do unless you push your pc or want the build to look prettier.

next on the list is a motherboard, where all the parts come together in unity. you should spend 8 - 10% of your budget on this baby. it's easy to over and underspend on a mobo. the most important thing when it comes to choosing a mobo is that it supports your CPU. you cannot use the same mobo for intel and AMD CPUs. fortunately the product page will straight up tell you which CPU brand the mobo is meant for and will typically have two versions of the same board. it's important to note that motherboards don't always have onboard wifi, meaning it wont be able to connect to the internet via wifi and instead needs an ethernet cable or an external wifi adapter. if you can't get an ethernet cable to the room where you want your pc, you're going to need onboard wifi, or a wifi card/usb. onboard wifi mobos tend to be more expensive so it's up to you, but i personally bought one with wifi included so i wouldn't have to worry about it because our ethernet cables are in the basement and i'm upstairs. another very important thing about motherboards is that their BIOS version (operating system i guess?? idk how else to describe it) doesn't always support your CPU out of the box and must be updated before using it. this can present as a problem if you don't have another CPU to perform the update with, however some motherboards allow you to 'flash' the BIOS with a only usb drive as long as it's hooked up to power. there are plenty of step by step youtube videos about how to do this. i will have to do this with my motherboard when the time comes because it doesn't support ryzen 5s out of the box. don't let this deter you from getting a certain board as long as it has a BIOS flash feature. next up is what I/O ports you want, which are the ports (usb ports, headphone/mic jack, hdmi port, etc) you'd find on the back of any desktop computer. that is the side of the motherboard. basically just be aware of how many of each ports you want, and remember that there will probably be even more ports on the front of the case you get. the last thing i can think of right now is making sure your motherboard has all the headers (where you plug components in) you want it to have but i'll get to that later.

next up on the list is RAM, aka random access memory. this stores short term data. the amount of RAM you have kind of determines how much your pc can multitask. RAM sticks typically go up by some multiple of 2GB. most standard laptops and desktops nowadays will come with 8GB of RAM, which is enough for day to day use. it can be enough for mid and low end games however it cuts it pretty close most of the time. 16GB of RAM is the sweet spot for gaming and anything above that is pretty much overkill (and once again a waste of money) as long as you don't have a billion unnecessary background processes. a large amount of RAM is typically needed for video editors or computer programmers. you should always make sure your motherboard can support the amount of RAM you want although any good motherboard will support 64GB or even 128GB. the best option is to get a 16GB RAM pack, which will include two 8GB RAM sticks. splitting RAM between two sticks will increase efficiency. this is called dual channel. i also recommend getting DDR4 RAM, which is simply faster than DDR3. a good speed to have is around 3600 MHz. make sure your motherboard supports DDR4. you also want to be weary that your RAM is compatible with your CPU brand because they do have to interact for your pc to function.

next is storage. there are three-ish options here depending on how much you're willing to spend. generally you should spend 8 - 10% of the budget here. you can always get a good ole hard drive for the cheapest, however they are the slowest and physically biggest option, meaning whatever you put on it will take a bit longer for your pc to retrieve and open (they can load about 100-200MB of data per second). the next option is a solid state drive. they are a little more expensive but can load as much as 600MB of data per second and take up less space. the last and most efficient/expensive option is an m.2 nvme drive. these things are physically absolutely tiny and can load up to 4GB of data per second. anything you put on these will open very very quickly. the fairly standard solution for this is a combination of two of these three. personally i'm using one m.2 drive and one hard drive. the hard drive i have can store 2TB while the m.2 drive can only store 256GB. funnily enough these two drives are roughly the same price. the idea here is to install your operating system on the faster drive. this makes it so it only takes like 8 seconds tops for your pc to start up. you can also put any other programs you use most often on there (like your main browser and favourite games) and they will open very quickly, while the bulk of your games and other files will go on the bigger drive. that's all there really is to say for storage, just make sure the reviews are good on the drive you want to get, but that goes for any component.

next is your power supply (PSU). very very important to not cheap out on this. 6 - 8% of the budget should go to this. the function of the PSU is to do exactly what its name implies: supply power to all the components. this is where the website pcpartpicker can come in very handy. not only does it help you build a list of parts that are all compatible with each other, it will also estimate how much wattage you will need to run your pc. 600W is usually enough for a normal gaming pc. PSUs are ranked, and you should never really go below a bronze ranking. you can also choose between non-modular, semi-modular, and fully-modular PSUs. non-modular PSUs have all the cables permanently attached. this can be desirable to people who are confused by what cable is plugged in where but also undesirable as unused cables cannot be removed and make cable management harder. fully-modular PSUs come with the cables all in a separate bag so you choose which ones to plug in. semi-modular power supplies have the necessary cables attached and the rest can be attached need be. it all depends on preference and how much faith you have in yourself. i have an 80+ gold certified fully modular 750W PSU because the thought of unnecessary cable management makes me sick lol. corsair is pretty much the most trusted brand for power supplies. be careful because this is another place prebuilts will cut corners.

now for the case! this one isn't overly difficult to choose and mainly will just appeal to your aesthetics. it's less important to stick to a precise percent of the budget for this one but you also don't want to spend more than 8%. do you want a black case? a white one? do you want a glass side panel so you can see inside your pc and admire your hard work? besides that, you also need to make sure the case is big enough for your motherboard, GPU, and PSU. most info pages for cases will tell you the max size of the GPU and PSU and what size of mobo it's meant for. you also want to make sure there is a place to put your storage drives (unless you only have m.2 drives which are installed on the motherboard). you also want to make sure it has optimal airflow abilities. a case with no airflow will cause overheating. the best ones have mesh fronts and tops to allow cool air to be pulled in and hot air out. it's even better if you can get a case that comes with fans in the front, because they are what pulls that cool air in.

next is the CPU cooler, which i briefly mentioned. if you don't get an AMD CPU then you'll need to buy a separate cooler. you can choose between air coolers (a fan and a heatsink) or liquid coolers. i don't really have much to say about them and i recommend doing your own research on liquid coolers lol.

last but not least, case fans. like i said a lot of cases will come with front fans and also an exhaust fan at the back, however you might want more, or even replace the ones you already have with better ones. pay attention to how many fans your case manual says can fit and plan accordingly. check out reviews to see if the fans you want are quiet and efficient. if you buy a three pack of case fans there is a chance it will come with a fan hub. this makes it easier to control all of them in sync because the hub will connect all the fans to one header on the motherboard. generally 3-6 fans are pretty good for a gaming pc. two or three in the front pulling in cool air, one at the back and two on the top to pull out hot air.

now that i have all the components out of the way i'm gonna talk about RGB lighting. numerous components that i've mentioned have the option of including LED lights to make your pc brightly coloured, which is always nice if you have a glass side panel on your pc. it's an extra bit of money but i personally was willing to sacrifice that because i want to show off my build lmao. motherboards, RAM sticks, GPUs, CPU coolers, and case fans are the main components that can come with RGB lighting. you can also get special LED strips and power connectors designed for PCs. if you decide to go for RGB lighting, do try to stick to one RGB ecosystem, meaning make sure all the RGB components can be controlled by one program. RGB is controlled by your motherboard. for example if you get an asus motherboard you'll probably want to use their program, aura sync. most components can be controlled by any brand's program however if the motherboard itself has RGB lighting it can only be controlled via its own brand's program, along with the GPU. if you want RGB case fans you really have to make sure your motherboard has RGB headers (the thingy on the motherboard where you plug the fan's LED lights into). most motherboards will only have two-ish RGB headers so if you're going to buy a bunch of fans make sure they come with a fan hub, which lets you plug them all into one header on the motherboard. also, never sacrifice performance for RGB. specifically when it comes to GPUs. if you have a choice between a GPU with RGB and a GPU without RGB, always take the one that has better performance (given it's within the parameters i mentioned earlier).

that's all i have to say :) if you couldn't tell i really love this stuff. i will also recommend you watch youtube videos about this, you can see the build process and the reasoning for using each component, and also tips on what to do and what not to do. i hope this helps and wasn't too confusing. i know you said this is mainly because you got an oculus quest 2 but if you're going to get a gaming pc you should definitely consider games outside of the oculus too.

[cosmicblog819]

Mac Family Tree Free

Mac Family Tree Free Online

Mac Family Tree For Mac

My Family Tree™ is a genealogy application for Windows®. You can use it to build interactive family charts in no time at all. For those just starting out investigating their family history, it provides an easy way to visualize and share your family tree with photos, stories and basic facts about each person. Explore your family tree and your family history in a way generations of chroniclers before you would have loved. MacFamilyTree helps you capture your family history, and turns data and facts into conclusive reports and visually impressive charts. MacFamilyTree offers numerous options for you to capture and visualize your family history. MacFamilyTree 9 - Genealogy for Mac. Discover and experience your personal family history, explore your origins, your ancestors, and how your family has evolved over the course of time. MacFamilyTree 9 offers you a wide range of options to capture and visualize your family history. Search the free FamilySearch archive, which contains billions. Dec 07, 2017 MacFamilyTree 8 gives genealogy a facelift: modern, interactive, convenient and fast. Explore your family tree and your family history in a way generations of chroniclers before you would have loved. MacFamilyTree helps you capture your family history, and turns data and facts into conclusive reports and visually impressive charts. Finding quality genealogy software for the Mac has been impossible. There have been useable free/shareware programs that have helped but had none of the functionality of the PC based programmes. IFamily has changed all that. It equals and even surpasses the best in all genealogy programs across all platforms and for only $40aus - £16.50 sterling.

Free Mac Genealogy Software(edit | edit source)

Commercial Mac Genealogy Programs(edit | edit source)

iFamily for Mac for Snow Leopard and newer. For older OS versions, use iFamily for Leopard (still works for Tiger)

Mac Genealogy Programs Certified for FamilySearch(edit | edit source)

FamilySearch Certified Products and Services

Ancestral Quest for Mac Tree Share, Sources, Discussions, Change History and FamilySearch Support

MacFamilyTree Tree Share, Sources, Discussions, Change History

Mac Family Tree Free Online

Running Certified programs for FamilySearch that were created for Windows on a Mac

You will need a valid copy of Microsoft Windows.

You can partition your hard drive and create a windows section on your computer which will allow you to run any of the certified programs for New Family Search on your computer. You would partition your hard drive using Apple's Boot Camp. Boot Camp comes preinstalled on your computer. The program walks you though step by step how to partition the hard drive although I do recommend that you print out the instructions before you begin. Apple

As alternatives to BootCamp there are a few virtualization programs that allow you to run the Windows OS as you would a native program program.

Oracle VM VirtualBox is free open-source software similar to Vmware Fusion and Parallels. Virtual Box

Parallels is currently $79.95. Parallels contains a feature similar to VMware Fusion's Unity called Coherence. Parallels

VMware Fusion is currently $79.95. It has a feature called Unity, which allows you run Windows programs like native applications. VMware

Mac Family Tree For Mac

Retrieved from 'https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/index.php?title=Mac_Genealogy_Software&oldid=4204586'

[bltngames]

Review: Lloyd the Monkey 2

Back before TSSZ News imploded, I would often do write-ups for many of the games at the Sonic Amateur Games Expo (SAGE). SAGE is an annual online expo that I started all the way back in September of 2000. I personally ran SAGE for over a year, and remained deeply hands on for at least another two years as it continued to grow. The main focus of SAGE was primarily to showcase fangames, in particular Sonic fangames, but the event never limited itself to any one type of game. It's never been uncommon to see original games appear in the lineup -- especially now, given the modern indie scene. 

One such original game was Lloyd the Monkey, a bit of a strange game, written in Javascript of all things and run through a webpage. That by itself was notable enough to stand out from most of the games at SAGE, but Lloyd was also a completely original product created by someone who possibly seemed to be young and new to game development. Making games is no easy feat, especially when they’re written in Javascript and you’re doing tons of original artwork yourself. Taken as that whole, the game impressed me, even if it was more than a little rough around the edges.

Now we have Lloyd the Monkey 2, written in Unity. The developer, Noah Meyer, sent me a Steam key in order to review the game. Up top, I just want to say how I think it’s kind of brave to go all the way in putting the game on Steam and everything. It felt like just a few years ago, newer indie developers sort of had to work up to releasing their game on Steam, usually getting a few releases under their belt first. People view games differently when they’re asked to pay for them, and critics may not be so willing to let circumstances influence their review. It can be a harsh world out there for a beginner.

Lloyd 2 is a much bigger, more ambitious game than the first. Whereas the original Lloyd didn’t even have sound effects, Lloyd 2 introduces voiced cutscenes, some of which are full-on animated cinematics. Quality is about what you would expect -- I would assume the developer sought out friends and acquaintances to voice characters in Lloyd 2, leading to wildly varying audio quality due to differences in recording hardware. Lloyd himself sounds fine, but some of the other characters are a bit quiet, while others have clear background noise. Nothing I heard was unlistenable, however. 

The story is also a little hard to follow. Not much is done to refresh our memories as to who anyone is or what’s going on, we’re just kind of thrown into the middle of things and turned loose. On one hand, it’s nice that the story doesn’t slow the pace of the gameplay down too much. On the other, you’re given a map screen with different objectives to clear but there’s very little context as to what you’re doing or why. At one point I made my way to the end of a Power Plant level only to confront what appeared to be an evil monkey. Despite a whole cutscene involving a conversation between four or five different people, this evil monkey never seemed to say a single word. He just stood there in total silence with a sinister smile. Then I killed him.

I suppose maybe I missed something, however. With greater ambitions comes a number of unfortunate bugs in Lloyd 2, one of which happened not long after our monkey and his crew landed on planet Grecia. I entered what appeared to be a castle to talk to the Queen, but I think the game expected me to take a lower route, where I was apparently meant to overhear the Queen making secret preparations before my arrival. Instead, I took the direct route straight to her chambers, and triggered the cutscene with Lloyd standing in front of her while ominous music played, even though the camera was still clearly focused on the next floor down. I apparently still had some amount of control, because midway through her dialog I touched a teleporter that sent me to the game’s map screen before she was done talking. If that cutscene was meant to give context to what I was doing, I didn’t get a chance to see it.

That was one of the more harmless bugs in my time spent playing Lloyd 2. Harder to ignore was the fact that, within the first 30 seconds of getting control, I soft locked the game. Lloyd 2 opens with a short prologue section where you play as a man with black hair. If you decide to ignore the obvious and go left instead of right, you quickly run out of solid level tiles and begin falling indefinitely. Later areas feature invisible walls presumably to prevent this exact scenario, but for whatever reason they weren’t implemented in the prologue. 

For the most part, Lloyd 2 seems to be a co-op game. Many levels see Lloyd teamed up with an alien princess named Lura, with gameplay vaguely reminiscent of Mega Man X crossed with the tag mechanic from Sonic Mania’s Encore Mode. At the touch of a button, you can switch between the Swordsman Lloyd and the more projectile-based Lura… assuming your partner is still alive, I guess. While playing alone, your partner is controlled by artificial intelligence, but it’s incredibly basic and prone to accidentally committing suicide. That wouldn’t be such a big deal (considering Tails in Sonic 2 never acted in self-preservation either), but once your partner dies, they stay dead. Your only option to bring them back is to either restart the stage or hope another cutscene triggers, since they’ll magically spring back to life in order to say their dialog (though, again, usually only seconds before they fall back into the next death pit). 

This might not be much of a problem, depending on your viewpoint. There’s not much incentive to switch between Lloyd and Lura, so once you pick whoever you think works the best, chances are, you’ll just stick with them. You do unlock special team-up attacks after beating each boss, but this just reinforces the idea that Lloyd the Monkey 2 is meant to be experienced with another person holding a second controller, as most of the team-up attacks require both characters to do something specific that the single player artificial intelligence usually can’t interpret. Regardless, the team-up attacks never seem strictly necessary to progress, so they can be safely ignored if you’re playing solo.

I understand this is a pretty negative review I’ve written here. Lloyd the Monkey 2 aims high and tries to the best of its ability to get there. I assume it was a struggle to get even this far. Making games is hard work, and like any skill, takes practice to get good at. Just because this is Lloyd the Monkey 2 doesn’t mean Noah Meyer, its developer, is automatically an expert. I'm sure he's doing his best, and, quality aside, this game has a lot of heart put into it. This isn’t something cheap, quick, or lazy. It’s really, genuinely trying, and that matters. 

I’ve said a few times here and there that I see pieces of myself in the releases of Lloyd the Monkey, and I still see them here. I remember, for an early SAGE event, I was working on a fangame project of mine called The Fated Hour. I was probably already a year or two or maybe even three deep in the game by now, and after a lot of hyping up the community, this was their first chance to play the game. I spent months and months coding this iteration of my engine, and by my standards back then, it seemed like bleeding edge technology. I felt like I was going to blow everyone's minds. 

It was a mess. Few were impressed. Even worse, the game straight up didn’t even run correctly for some people. What followed was multiple patches, and even rebuilding some entire areas from scratch. My ambitions got the better of me and I unintentionally cut corners -- not because I was trying to cheap out on doing proper development, but just because I simply didn’t know any better. I may have done the best I knew how to do, but I was running faster than my body could keep up with and I stumbled.

When I see things like the missing invisible walls in the prologue, or how easily partner characters commit suicide by accident, I think back to that demo for The Fated Hour, and how I've been in this exact place myself. There’s even a side quest in Lloyd 2 where you have to track a floating girl as she drifts through a level -- there was a nearly identical set piece in The Fated Hour, where you were chasing a robot. It’s a very strange feeling to see something like that and think, “I’ve been here before.” Like looking through a window at a younger version of yourself.

It’s true that I stumbled, but I didn’t let that stop me. I learned by doing. I kept going. Three years later, a game of mine was featured on TV, leading to more than a million downloads. The mistakes of past projects did not weigh me down and I soldiered onwards, newfound knowledge in hand. 

So where does that leave us with Lloyd the Monkey 2, then. Well, it's not exactly a game to compete with Super Mario Odyssey, but given the circumstances in which it was created, I don't think that's necessarily the point. As a learning experience clearly made for the fun of its own creation, I think it's a success. And who knows what awaits in the years to come?

[green-blooded]

Hokay, I'm starting Star Trek: Beyond. Going to rant again... maybe say some positive things here and there. Does McCoy get to be a character in this one? Guess I'm about to find out.

Summary:

(Because he did! And also other words! So there’s still some negativity here, but I liked this one best out of the three movies.)

What.... are these aliens. Why do they look like this. Why are they gargoyles. Why are they attacking Kirk. Why is this happening. Why is this in a Star Trek. Okay. I'm. Trying. Let me enjoy this. Let me try to enjoy this. I will stop being grumpy.

Haha he ripped his shirt okay you got me but if the nipples aren't out it doesn't count.

McCoy is onscreen early in a corridor walk that they could've easily left him out of, so that's a good sign? They were a trio for a second.

Why are they showing all Kirk's uniforms as the same? Where is his fat shirt? This is important to me, okay. Wait, I said I wasn't going to be picky.

Whoa, McCoy has a second scene already!!!!!!!! Oh they're having a whole interaction oh no it's cute. WHY IS McKIRK THE ONLY THING I LIKE IN THESE MOVIES? "You know me, Mr. Sensitive." Oh no he's so cute.

MCCOY'S CONTINUING TO BE IN SCENES AND ARGUING WITH SPOCK. It's still about nothing because these movies don't do deep conflict, but. Y'know. There was a tiny trio moment again. I'm being positive.

Okay, those were a lot of establishing shots for Yorktown, so I hope it's actually important...

MCCOY IS IN ANOTHER SCENE WOW.

Oh yeah this is the one where they kinda let us know Sulu's gay? I forgot about that.

Oh no don't make me cry about nimoy please i don't want to deal with real emotions watching these movies. :(

Some of this does feel vaguely Star-Trek, even though it's still taking place in such HUGE environments that it throws me off. Every room is so POINTLESSLY huge.

Um... we're leaving Yorktown so I'm continuing to wonder if those establishing shots meant anything...

The CMO is on the bridge where he belongs, thank you.

Oh, did they let the lady characters have rank now? Soooo progressivvvve.

Do we really need to completely destroy the Enterprise in every movie? Like. Gosh. Where is Kirk's weird sexual attraction to his ship that makes him want to keep it safe? He's sexually attracted to everything ELSE in this version.

Oh my god are Spock and McCoy getting to do something without Kirk there???!!! ARE THEY CHARACTERS????

Everything is so spaced out on the bridge that Kirk has to be standing at the nav station to talk to someone in another part of his ship???

Newer versions of Star Trek keep putting the "evil" aliens in five hundred pounds of latex and makeup... you don't have to make the aliens less humanoid to make them threatening if you just... write better. Also maybe stop creating evil aliens.

I really have no emotional reaction to seeing the Enterprise being destroyed two movies in a row. I don't even have any emotional attachment to this version of the ship because it looks so stupid inside.

... We couldn't get the red alert sound right? Really?

Too much action too much action too much action. Please give me a story so I can care about what's going on.

Once again the gravity situation shows why the Enterprise shouldn't have such huge interiors... I know I'm going on about that a LOT, but it's one of the stupidest design choices in these movies.

WHY DO THEY THINK WE CARE ABOUT THIS VERSION OF THE ENTERPRISE WHEN THEY HAVE MADE NO EFFORT TO MAKE IT FEEL LIKE HOME OR EVEN A SETTING IT'S JUST A BUNCH OF STERILE LIGHT FIXTURES.

Pointless action sequence with Scotty just... getting out of his escape pod. Cool.

Why put Uhura with an alien race where she could use her linguistic skills and then just have them know English? Sigh. Oh well, at least she's getting a scene to herself. Like she's her own character or something, wow.

Hello Spock and McCoy interacting! Thank goodness for small mercies. But a little less exciting when they have no established relationship to this point, but it's fine.

Oh wow they're having a conversation that could be considered somewhat philosophical. Someone saw a Star Trek episode before writing this!

The hot alien lady seems like a D&D character, but that's fine.

I appreciate McCoy yelling at Spock for collapsing in pain. But like, a caring kind of yell. Good job Urban.

I really do keep zoning out during action scenes. I barely know what's going on in the Kirk scenes because it's just a ton of action that doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Like... the character who has already lied... lied again. Wow.

I really would like to have some emotional reaction to characters running around the wreckage of the Enterprise, but I don't. :(

Goodbye pointless alien who screwed everyone over a lot.

"Federation has taught you that conflict should not exist." No, these movies are just really bad at it, latex face alien.

Ooookay, we established Yorktown so we should care that this alien guy wants to destroy it because he hates unity or something. Cool.

Spock and McCoy scene okay. And we directly mention philosophy! Blunt, but cool. Again... it's just hard to get into it because there's nothing established with these characters, since these movies are more into action than character. But that was a good moment between them. Like... McCoy saying he'd throw a party if Spock left doesn't work because we have seen hardly ANY of the banter between them. It's relying on what we've seen in TOS... But Spock laughing was cute.

I like Jayla a lot. She's definitely a Star Wars character, but it's fine.

Lol they had to give us a ship older than the Enterprise to find one that looked a little bit like a Star Trek ship. Sigh. But at least they're doing it.

I love you Karl Urban for trying so hard to sound like you're from Georgia. I forgive you for, y'know, not.

OKAY AGAIN... the "Of course I care..." etc lines are good, but there is NO HISTORY BETWEEN THESE CHARACTERS BECAUSE YOU JUST MADE EVERYTHING ACTION SCENES AND THE ONLY FEELING I HAVE ABOUT THEM CAME FROM DE AND NIMOY.

He just yelled at Spock for collapsing in pain again, which is just the best.

Spock: [dying a lil]

McCoy: DAMMIT SPOCK STOP THAT

Gotta say... I did like the moment where Spock looks to McCoy when Kirk says he needs him to stay alive. All I wanted this whole time was the trio.

Okay, McCoy calling Uhura's necklace a tracking device, then saying that he's glad Spock doesn't respect him--when literally a few scenes ago, Spock said he did respect him--is kinda great. Especially since respect in this scenario is, like, a way of Spock saying he has romantic feelings for Uhura? Beyond is bringing Spones back into the picture, and it's not perfect, but I'll take it.

Scott saying "she's lost people too, Captain" was good. It was real good. There are good moments in this one, thank goodness.

Holy goodness, they're letting Scott be a character too! They're letting everyone be real characters instead of just scene dressing for the Kirk and Spock show!

I appreciate Kirk calling everyone Mr. Whatever and McCoy is just "Bones."

McCoy saying "I'll keep an eye on him" about Spock oh no. Oh no it's cute.

Wow this dumb motorcycle scene is Very CG.

The main storyline of this movie is Also Very Bad, but I can deal with bad plots when there are good character moments.That's why I can watch the worst Star Trek episodes for the most part... So Beyond is capturing the feel of a bad Star Trek episode, which is an improvement from the first two movies.

On the other hand, while I would like to try to judge these movies on their own merit, I CAN'T because they lean on the original series. The Spock and McCoy interactions are just one example where all of the emotion and development was actually in the series, but now I'm supposed to apply it to this version of the characters who have never shown any connection before now. So, I have to compare them to TOS and it's just not going to come out well for AOS in any department but special effects and budget. (And Pine being more likable than Shatner as a person tbh.) Then even the relationships they HAVE developed in the show, like Spock and Uhura, make me feel very little because they didn't develop them well. Again, action scenes take precedence over development, and it makes the entire thing weaker.

But little moments like Kirk going to save Jayla when she thinks she'll be left behind, which calls back on the moment with what Scott said about being a team... that was a good within itself because it didn't rely on anything from the original series without entirely deviating from the spirit of it! I wish moments like that weren't so rare in these movies.

Were all those establishing shots like an hour ago really enough for me to care about what's happening to Yorktown? Not... not really? I mean, it's sad, but. I don't know anything about this place. The only ones I have any connection to are Sulu's family, and that's only because I like Sulu...

AHHHHHHHHHH MORE SPOCK AND MCCOY um... do you see how easy i am to make happy like... i could have easily loved these movies if they'd done a little better

Scott and Jayla are really cute engineering buddies and this is one thing that's 100% AOS that I really appreciate.

This is how I feel when I hear the Beastie Boys too. (Not in a good way. Not a fan.)

Hey guess what I'm about to say! Guess what it is! If you guessed "This action sequence is too damn long" then you get no prizes because it's pretty much a given at this point.

.... Krall is Idris Elba? I could've been looking at Idris Elba this whole time? Stupid latex.

This... reveal makes... no sense? I mean, on the plus side, I guess this means that the evil latex face aliens weren't evil aliens, but bad Humans... Still not great that they use latex to other characters and make them more ~scary~ imo.

Also, this is... basically the same reveal as the Khan reveal, just slightly less stupid because we didn't already know this character like we knew Khan. But they literally did the "different name, and then we find out who they are" thing twice in Into Darkness... seems weird to do it a third time for Beyond.

ALLLLSO I'm really tired of every conflict in these movies being resolved with fighting... isn't the theme of this very movie about how conflict is something we're moving beyond as Humans?

Are McCoy and Spock still just flying around? I'm confused. Too much action has happened and I can't tell who is doing what. I only know Kirk is in danger because people keep saying he is.

Oh, okay, they were still just flying around so they could save Kirk at the last minute. Which is goofy, but okay. Gotta love Kirk continuing to give Spock all the credit when McCoy is the one saving him. GREAT LOVE THAT SO COOL.

Love that Spock's conflict about leaving Starfleet to help his people is literally the exact same in these two movies.

Oh no they're bringing back Nimoy related thing to give me emotions again. Don't do that. You didn't earn my love of Nimoy, movie.

OH NO THERE'S THE PICTURE PART THAT I WAS TOLD ABOUT OH NO MY FEELINGS. OH NO.

Oh, Karl Urban. I appreciate your accent efforts.

....... lol that look Spock and McCoy exchanged about the necklace. Um. Okay. I won't read into that, don't worry, not at all.

HEY HEY HEY THEY LET MCCOY JOIN THE KIRK AND SPOCK SHOW AT THE END WOW THANKS IT'S LIKE IT'S NOT JUST THE TWO OF THEM. AND NOW THEY'RE ALL DOING THE "THESE ARE THE VOYAGES" SPEECH. That's a nice touch.

Okay, this one was the best of the three movies by a lot. Still not. Y'know... great. But they introduced a new character I liked. They had some good Spock and McCoy moments, even if they pretended that the TOS relationship was intact. They let Uhura exist outside of Spock for a while. Scotty got some really great moments. Overall, I'm not as angry as I was while watching the other two!

But now I'm going to watch some TOS, and the next episode I have queued up is Journey to Babel, so. I'm much happier about that. (Yes, this is a call back to the gif I used up top. Look at me, tying things together like a cohesive story would.)

[xeetsh]

Deprecating AwesomeNET

Only a bit over one year after the release of AwesomeNET I’ve decided to deprecate it and close its page on the Unity Asset Store. To understand that decision please have a read and see why I’ve made AwesomeNET in the first place.

In early 2019 I was working on a TBS game that was lacking multiplayer networking. I’ve quickly noticed, that every Unity API that made such capabilities natively possible was deprecated and there were no real out of the box alternatives. A quick look in the Asset Store revealed, that tools like Proton were the way to go if you wanted to make a game with online multiplayer without writing the network code yourself. As the pay per concurrent game session system of Proton had no real appeal to me and all competing tools were following a similar model I’ve needed to come up with a solution myself.

Never having made any networked multiplayer game with unity this was quite a journey but after a few months the first prototype was working and it looked great. While working on my game I’ve added all kind of features to AwesomeNET so it would suit my needs. Finally, after the game went more and more to the background and AwesomeNET became my main project I’ve decided to post it to the Unity Asset Store as I’ve thought (and I still think this is the case to this day) if your type of game is a game that AwesomeNET supports (basically everything turn based, no real time), networked multiplayer is extremely easy to set up with second to none networking knowledge and gave you as a developer the freedom to chose whether you wanted to host the servers yourself or give the player a server application they can run themselves.

However, time has passed, and there are new, even better tools that not only work for a small niche of games like AwesomeNET does but nearly for every game you can imagine. I’m talking about tools like Mirror which is basically a newer, better version of the Unity High Level Networking Stack. It’s free and open source! Tools like this are the future of Unity networking and I see no reason to sell a product that costs more, can do less and is way less robust than libraries like Mirror.

After all, I’ve learned a lot while developing, maintaining and supporting AwesomeNET and I still would love to see the ease of use AwesomeNET offered you in any other networking multiplayer tool but I guess the more features a library offers the more complicated and unintuitive it’ll get.

In the end I want to thank everyone that bought AwesomeNET, shared their views and helped to maintain the project! There were a few nice games made with AwesomeNET and I’m proud that I could contribute to them. AwesomeNET will be free to download but will no longer be updated from this point in time.

Thank you for using AwesomeNET <3