#keyboard configuration

[jswatson]

is your phone headphone jack busted? do you not want to pay for bluetooth headphones? do you have a raspberry pi collecting dust somewhere? turns out that the solution to these 3 problems is the same! :D

this world hates me and its for good reasons

i followed this guide and used a raspberry pi 3 with raspbian lite

[coridallasmultipass]

Guys I missed the countdown by 7 minutes can we redo it?

[doom-nerdo-666]

2 videos by Dwars about how keyboard + mouse was always possible in Doom.

[xbuster]

Okay so netplay was the problem from MMAC, but they just said fuck AACC in particular

[ryanthedemiboy]

Fuck playing stardew valley with a controller. Guess I just won't play until my hand heals! Fuck me I guess!

[prismit]

<- their ass has NOT been shiny hunting mew (23 days remain)

[tears-of-boredom]

i think the way subtitles should be done, is when the dialogue is supposed to be understood by the viewer, it's translated into the language of the subtitles. but when the dialogue isnt supposed to be understood, or is intended to just be considered general "foreign language", they should write it out in the language that they are speaking in.

like, okay, im writing english subtitles for a finnish movie, i dont think meaningless small talk between some random french background characters who are not the focus of the scene should be translated. but it should still be subtitled. so instead of the captions reading like "Where is he?", id write "Il est oú?". because i consider dialogue like that to just be a fun addition if you happen to know the language. like that one finnish girlie in black widow who was not meant to be understood beyond "she's not from around here".

[commodorez]

IBM 5170 - PC AT

Left: CGA configuration, IBM 5153 monitor, Model F AT keyboard Right: EGA configuration, Amdek 722 monitor, Model M keyboard

[felassan]

Snippets. you know what about. 😊

On configuring the HUD: "Too be clear, you can't go crazy - but there are a bunch of options if you want fewer things on screen or some alternate ways of having some elements activate" [source: the Discord]

"One of the skill trees for Rogues is more focused on ranged combat, and it's pretty viable to go almost pure ranged (honestly maybe a bit OP at the moment" [source: the Discord]

Each of the 3 main classes has 2 distinct weapon types [source] (Fel note: this is written in a way that makes it sound like it applies for mages too. Apart from staff, I wonder what the other weapon type for mages is..? :>) it's bow and dual swords for rogue, 2h and sword and shield for warrior.

for the Discord Q&A, the goal is to be able to read it in writing later on. [source: the Discord]

So for classes, it's looking like this right? ^^ 3 mages: Neve, Bellara, Emmrich. Lace - Rogue in DA:I. Lucanis - Rogueyness akimbo. Davrin - sword and shield in trailer, so warrior. Taash - seems like a warrior. 3/2/2 mage/rogue/warrior.

Many of the devs that made previous games are still at BioWare. "The creative director of this one has been there since 2007, the art director since 2004, the producer since the MDK2/BG2 days." and there are tons more too. [source]

It's not huge open regions like DA:I [source]

The team took focus to get keyboard and mouse on PC feeling good [source]

A user asked about accessing more abilities and how there was a 'second layer' of mapped abilities in a previous game. Answer: The DA team is going to showcase more combat soon where they talk about that and show the full list of options for how many abilities you can use [source]

A user asked about the presence of complex fights in the game, and mentioned the Cory battle in DA2. Answer: there is some stuff in the game that takes forever to get to and then kicks your ass for a while. there is also some fixed level stuff that you need to explore to find [source]

More on exploration coming later [source]

"Pretty sure the team is primed to showcase a lot more of the combat and progression depth in the near future." [source]

The name of the game has officially been changed internally for a long while. "It just takes a lot of moving pieces to make it official" [source]

"At a proper time we will disclose more details about our composer, soundtrack and playstyle options." [source]

"I have to say that even though I knew what was going to happen, when I played the SGF Demo for the first time, in a room with full surround sound, I got several emotions." [source]

Mark Darrah on the name change: "Change can be scary but this is a good sign." [source]

Re: the game's character focus: "It's not that DA hasn't been about characters [in the past] it's more that we haven't been willing to admit it [until now]" [source]. This is the first DA to be this deliberate in its focus on characters [source]

A request for Ukraininan language localization to be added to the game was passed along [source]

[mybeanalgebra]

I use (neo)vim

I've been using arrow keys for navigation, and I decided I wanted to use hjkl instead

Someone on the internet had the idea to rebind those to jkil to make it easier to pick up

I decided I wanted to do something like that

I think I picked the most cursed option

Behold: English (US, intl., with dead keys, cursed edition)

Yes this is my keyboard layout

Yes I decided to edit xkb rather than my neovim configuration

Over the next few days we will find out what effect this has on my typing

[reachartwork]

What is Super Danmaku Maker?

Yes, I really do have this many projects, I'm one of those people who procrastinates by starting new projects. Anyway.

Super Danmaku Maker is a danmaku (bullet hell) engine that I’m designing to be a flexible, multipurpose tool for creating any kind of shoot-'em-up (shmup) project. Whether it’s individual spell cards, full boss battles, levels, or even entire games, the goal is to provide an easy-to-use, node-based interface that caters to both beginners and experienced designers.

Computational Efficiency via Precomputation One of the primary architectural goals of Super Danmaku Maker is to make bullet patterns computationally cheap at runtime. This is achieved through precomputation: bullet patterns are calculated as compositions of mathematical transformations during the design phase using calculus. It turns out that it is useful, actually! Instead of simulating the motion of bullets or tracking them individually as objects, we turn bullet patterns into lookup tables.

Instead of performing complex calculations every frame for every bullet, the engine simply "looks up" where the bullet should be based on the precomputed data. This trades off some load time for designers and additional disk space for buttery-smooth performance during gameplay. With this approach, the engine can easily handle 20,000+ bullets onscreen at once at a stable 60+ fps during testing. For comparison, Touhou's bullet cap of 2000 bullets is easily broached and hard caps at my screen's refresh rate (144 fps).

A Spiritual Successor To An Extremely Obscure Freeware Game Super Danmaku Maker draws inspiration from Fraxy, an obscure tool for creating top-down shooter boss encounters I used to be obsessed with as a kid. While Fraxy focused primarily on designing Gradius/R-Type/Darius-style bosses, with other functions developed via some crazy hacker bullshit, Super Danmaku Maker expands the inbuilt scope significantly:

Design enemies, bosses, full levels, and entire games.

Create player characters and weapons, complete with custom behaviors and abilities.

Support for arbitrary keyboard and mouse input, making it possible to design unconventional control schemes.

The vision is for this engine to act as a highly specialized, high-level programming language (or in layman's terms - a game engine) built on top of C# for shmup creation. Beginners will find it accessible and intuitive, while power-users can push the boundaries of what’s possible with crazy wizard bullshit and advanced setups that even I can’t anticipate right now.

Node-Based Interface The core of Super Danmaku Maker is a node-based interface, similar to Blender’s Geometry Nodes. Instead of writing complex code, users will connect and configure nodes to:

Define bullet patterns.

Build complex behaviors for bosses, levels, and player characters.

Experiment with bullet path changes like speed changes, rotations, curling motions, and more.

Define bullet & entity behavior in response to arbitrary triggers (such as distance from an object, distance from the edge of the screen, timers, collision, etc.)

This visual, modular approach empowers creators to focus on the art of designing fun and challenging gameplay, without needing extensive programming knowledge.

Future Sharing and Online Play Although the exact details are TBD, the long-term goal is to enable designers to share their creations easily through an online portal. Players would be able to download and play these custom levels and games without needing to install additional tools.

Okay, that's all. Stay tuned!

[kiwie-not-kiwi]

The first snowflake of the winter ❄️

I had the joy to draw Bertolt with the tablet Artist Pro 14 (Gen 2) sent by XPPEN ! Thanks a lot to them again for this wonderful and inspiring opportunity ! 🥹💕🙏🏻

If you’re curious to know my opinion about this tablet, here is my review :

The design is pretty and modern, giving the will to work right away ! The sensations with the screen are very nice and fluid. The screen is also anti-reflective, it’s an huge advantage for people like me who have often headaches because of this

There are lots of accessories, including this remote control allowing to configure your shortcuts ! The time you save with this tool is huge, and it’s much more nice than a keyboard ! This remote control makes the using of this tablet truly professional and addictive !

I was also surprised to discover two kind of mines in the stylet case ! With the classic smooth mines, you will also find rough mines ! Preferring the feeling of the pencil on paper, I found this addition so clever and I really appreciated !

You understood I’m really enthusiast about this tablet which has lots of qualities ! I even think to integrate it in my work routine !! 🥰🙏🏻

[verynerdyelaine]

Window Managers are cool

So, I've been using Unix based Operating Systems (MacOS and Linux) for a while now but when I was just starting to use Linux there was a term that a lot of people were using and that was a "Tiling Window Manager".

What is a Tiling Window Manager?

Well, A Tiling window manager is a window manager that organizes windows into grids of tiles and not promote the overlapping of windows.

Why do you need it?

Tiling Window Managers are amazing at organizing windows and keeping in track with whatever tasks that are in-front of your face. Tiling Window Managers are also keyboard centric in which you can switch between windows with just your keyboard and as I am a Neovim user i use HJKL to breeze through the windows. Tiling Window Managers also have the feature of workspaces (desktops on MacOS) in which you can designate whatever stuff you have into different workspaces.

What Tiling Window Managers do I use?

On, Linux i use dwm and on MacOS i use yabai. dwm is an amazing Window Manager due to it being highly configurable, minimal and yet simple which fits my cozy zone. yabai is what i use for MacOS due to it being 1 of 2 Tiling Window Managers on MacOS (the other being Amethyst) but yabai is much more powerful and more configurable.

Final Thoughts

Tiling Window Managers are cool and you should give them a try :3

[vimeddiart]

I DREW MY OC TOAST AAAAAA

The folks at XPPen sent me the XPPen Deco Pro (Gen 2):

XPPen is having its 18th anniversary, and is celebrating with sales and product promos, so it's worth checking those out.

My thoughts on the tablet (and purchase links) under the cut!

⭐ Review ⭐

First impressions: After unboxing the tablet, I thought it sleek and professional-looking, especially after setting it up with my PC.

The remote I LOVED right out of the box because I enjoy fiddling with buttons and wheels. The keys are super satisfying to press.

The pen and storage case are nicely complete, lots of spare nibs to switch out (though I mainly stuck to the default nib while drawing, the textured ones have a nice gritty feel similar to paper).

I had some troubleshooting when I started, as connecting to Bluetooth wasn't happening with either the tablet or the remote. I tested the Bluetooth connection with a different device and my phone successfully, but couldn't with my work PC. I was promptly helped by XPPen Support, and it turned out to be a Windows update messing things up, so I uninstalled it and Boom; I could connect both the tablet and remote, no problem. Up until then, I used both via cable, which was a convenient option!

The tablet: The XL model at 15 x 9 inches, with plenty of space to work (although you'll need space to put it, luckily I have a lot of desk to spare), and can connect via cable or Bluetooth. It also looks so dang pretty.

The tablet was so smooth, and the pressure (16k pressure levels) felt amazing to draw with. After fiddling around with the pen settings, I barely had to press down to get a nice flowy line.

I usually work on a screen tablet, so it took some getting used to returning to a pen tablet and looking at my PC screen again, but it came back to me quickly. It actually helped my posture, as I tend to shrimp-curl over my screen tablet while working.

As lovely as it was to work on, I feel this size may be too large for me, despite it being perfectly proportional to my PC screen. I like to draw quickly, and I noticed myself making more effort to travel over the surface of the tablet and tiring my arm out faster than usual. I needed to take more breaks and stretch often, although I could classify that as positive. That said, this tablet has a sloped resting area that helped. All my drawing tablets have been medium-sized, so I'm probably just conditioned to that surface area.

The battery lasted as long as it took to draw this piece and more! I didn't need to charge it the entire time.

The remote: I love this thing so much. It has ten shortcut keys and a wheel you can configure to your heart's desire. Five sets of key functions!!! That's fifty shortcuts!! I only configured four sets and struggle to memorise them, but it's very convenient. I have my keyboard right next to the tablet and would bang out shortcuts there, but this remote changed my life.

I've been using it for a month now, and it still hasn't needed charging!

The pen: Comfy to use, with a design I was already accustomed to, and one thing I noticed was that the nib wasn't scratching the heck out of the tablet. After all the drawing I did with it, not a single mark.

I LOVE popping the case open to retrieve or store the pen, and it's one of those physical things that I find satisfying and so rare with digital products. I thought it would be nice to have a pen stand too, but I have pet birds that will (and have) run away with my tablet pens, so a storage case is a strong solution.

Final thoughts: This is a solid tablet with the potential to become an essential tool for industry professionals and freelancers. I didn't think I could be convinced out of a screen tablet, but I was offered a super strong contender. I can confidently recommend it, plus my experience with support was a positive one that boosted my trust in the brand. Overall, I had a great time using this tablet and really appreciate the opportunity I've been given to try it out!

⭐ Purchase links ⭐

US Walmart Store

CA official store

[kremlin]

Traverse The Haunches

a short story written w/o keyboard

“Knight positioned ?”

“Knight positioned.”

“Index Queen”

“Preparing to index queen!” 

Oliver hesitated for a moment. Some quick mental math; he concluded it would be sensible to configure the optical collimator. It wouldn’t be getting dark anytime soon this time of year, and the absence of cacophony otherwise made by the X-Ray beam felt welcome after twelve long days of playing chess. 

“Chess! Four Zero Nine!” Oliver shouted into the intercom, alerting his fellow Chessmen to clear the aperture area, lest they lose some digits to its mechanical contrivances. Two pairs of legs, four total feet, shuffled above in response, with such alacrity suggesting their movement was purely a reflexive and instinctual response rather than one born of Facts and Logic. 

Orange dust immediately polluted the gamesmanship compartment as Oliver furiously rotated the rusted Tulley Toggle. 

These were Chessmen. Smart, huge, and unbelievably sexy, these were the men given the honour, the responsibility, of representing the United States of America in the 4092 Olympic Games. 

Oliver had them all lined up. The Chinese team had taken their whole ass out of their pants and he was looking right at it. He had maneuvered himself and his team to this advantageous position brilliantly, turning what otherwise would have been an earlygame misstep by the Chinese into an all-out blunder. 

The opponents’ strategic objective lay ahead, soon to be threatened by Oliver and his fellow 6’8” teammates. In such a situation, it would have no safe haven to escape, nor any counteroffensive ability to thwart assailants. Oliver’s opponents were uniquely chessfucked, an idiosyncratic gameplay state the written word has no ability to succinctly describe. 

“They nearly had us” Oliver whispered to himself. 

He had done it. The United States will take home the gold in Men’s Chess. Knowing this, Oliver luxuriated for a scarce few moments before depressing the lever to the right of his position. Immediately, machine gun fire echoed as it massacred the Chinese team. 

“Game, set, match. That’s chess baby.”

[theirishwolfhound]

Wow holy shit wasn't expecting people to actually like the idea of Menace reader so here's part two! Part three in the works with a poll on the end of this one to see how it goes. Enjoy :)

Thus begins the prank war.

It would go back and forth for a few weeks, Menace constantly finding new ways to make sure they're never one upped by the other operators in playful retaliation to their pranks.

For example: they knew it was Gaz who painted "dickhead" on their helmet with glow in the dark paint, so in turn they messed with the bottoms of his boots so they squeaked with every step. When Kyle had seen Menace after the fact, he chased them down while they cackled like a hyena becauae who wouldn't laugh if the person chasing them had squeakers strapped to their heel.

Or how Soap managed to switch out Menace's body wash with a menthol infused one— so when he caught Soap in the shared restrooms he dumped ice cold water onto the man's bare back and head. Never before had Menace needed to run out of a shower so fast to the sounds of Scottish yeling, but John learned to shower whenever the Coperal was fucking off somewhere else.

When the Price and Ghost managed to inconvenience Menace by changing the keyboard configuration on their computer and unscrewed the bolts of their chair... they responded in kind by seran wrapping Every. Single. Item in Price's office when he was on a mission. Though truly this one backfired as they were called into the same office nearly an hour later— running face first into a near invisible seran wrap blockade that was hiding in the doorway, and they had to help unwrap all of their hard work.

They had even replaced all of Ghost's nice, full pens with shitty one's that are completely empty when they knew he had a lot of writing to do that day. Little did they know he kept a pen on him at all times, but they did hear soft swearing from his office when they passed by— mild inconveniences worked best on him, after all he had briefly mentioned that life was a big inconvenience as is.

It's all fine and dandy, but Menace knows they have to step up their game.

Then one of them winds up in a snare trap that Menace set on the path around the base, only for said trickster to pop out of a bush wearing a ghillie suit they stole from sod earlier in the day. They'd been waiting all day for John to spring their trap and now that they got him where they want him, what happens?

Three words.

Pool Noodle Piñata

Menace doesn't even let the man get a fighting chance before they're whacking him in the stomach, only to dart away when they realized he hadn't come alone. John and Kyle had come with water guns to find them, and they nearly yelled at the ice cold water that just barely sprayed their back.

The new idea of the pseudo guerrilla prank warfare was entertaining to say the least... and provided a good means of training for practically everyone at the base. After all, some other soldiers had gotten into the crossfire multiple times. Whether it be the salt that had been replaced by sugar, or stumbling into an office that had just been boobytrapped for someone else.

Everyone knew how to be professional when they needed to, but when they didn't have to there were the occasional nerf gun fights in the cafeteria led by none other than Menace themself, or a water balloon strike from the roof of one of the buildings.

Team building exercises they would call it others would call it an uprising. But the operators of 141 knew better, especially after realizing how Menace meant no harm— this is just who they were.

Their harmless trickster.

The same harmless trickster who comes back from a mission to find that their office had been fully gift-wrapped and the boys who had done it were hiding behind the door with swords fashioned from the sane pool noodle they used on Johnny.

Though the bottle of glitter Menace had picked up along the way came in handy since they were all in once space together. To this day everyone is picking glitter out of their hair or clothes. So who really won this time.

PT 1 | PT 2 | PT 3