#like slower than a reverse sonic slow

[bee-birb]

I DID IT GUYS

i finished the fic! (or at least phases 1 & 2, 3 & 4 will be in the sequel which im already starting).

IF YOU WANNA READ SONADOW BEING STUPID IDIOTS AND SLOWLY REALIZING THEIR FEELINGS AND THEN SHADOW GETS KIDNAPPED THEN UH

here link

[verygayandverytired]

and thats metroid prime 2 refinished. god i forgot just how bad that zero suit samus model is

very fun and enjoyable game, and my first 100% in a prime game (well, more like 99% since i missed one scan SOMEWHERE????)

i think that the potential for getting 100% on an unguided playthrough with little or no prior knowledge/memory is a testament to good design for placing all the items you can get. this one is definitely a bit better at that than prime, due to much more consistently having the relevant hints placed for the scan visor to pick up. there were a few moments in 1 where you seemingly were just expected to know to use a power bomb in an otherwise innocuous place, and though i tried to be as a thorough as possible, i dind’t quite hit 100% in that one like i did here and in dread 

the bosses were overall better than 1′s as well, but a few were just painful. like the spider ball guardian. even here on trilogy, which has the morph ball jump you can do instantly rather than the slower bomb method that was the only option on the gamecube. i’m also generally not a huge fan of the large morph ball puzzles/fights, which this one had quite a few more of than 1. though i did like the spider ball boost jumping from rail to rail, that was a neat expansion on the mechanics of these puzzles. i definitely liked the emperor ing fight a bit better than the metroid prime fight, but they both have some glaring issues. the first phase of metroid prime is just “shoot the matching color” and then the second phase is just “stand in a puddle and shoot it.” emperor ing’s first phase with killing the tentacles and trying to hit at the exposed spot was a lot more fun, but the final phase leaned towards metroid primes color matching a bit too much (and in reverse). it was also frustrating any time i had to hit it with the dark beam, but couldn’t land a shot because the dark beam is so slow. i eventually realized i could use the annihilator, but by then i was almost done with the fight. the final dark samus fight was also a bit... bleh. the first half you just shoot her while she’s not got the invincibility shield going on, and then in the second half you just spend a bunch of time waiting for her to do the one attack where you can suck in the phazon you need to damage her a few times.    

gameplay wise, i did actually like the beam ammo system. i thought it gave some depth to choosing how to deal with enemies, and its a lot easier to get ammo back than a lot of people make it out to be. i also liked the selection of beams better than 1. in 1, the wave beam and plasma beam were both great, but the ice beam was even more painfully slow than the dark beam (or at least it felt like it). the charge combos were also way cooler, though still not nearly as useful as they should have been, a problem that was in 1 as well. the ice charge beam was strong, but slow and not very visually interesting and i literally never found one good place for the flamethrower. the wave buster was great though, and absolutely melted metroid prime any time it was purple. in 2, the dark burst and sun burst are way too slow to be useful most of the time, but visually they fuck so hard. especially the dark buster. i wasted so much dark ammo firing out those black holes to send enemies to super hell. the sonic boom was neat too, and actually useful since it’s instant rather than a slow projectile, but it felt a bit underwhelming? it just kind of lacked punch. also the light beam’s range was so annoying in that it was definitely shorter than it felt like it should be, but also due to the way the perspective is you also can’t really get a good look at what that range is. it functions the same as 1′s plasma beam, but i feel like the plasma beam hit like at least 1.5x further

the game was also a fairly noticeable visual upgrade over the first in a number of ways, but i could not stop getting distracted by the very low rez textures on the arm cannon for the light and dark beams, and the very framey animations they had. also just the visual designs for the cannon with each beam were a little lackluster i feel. they pretty obviously just reused the models and stuff for the beams from 1, and slapped altered textures over them, which seemed a bit unimaginative. i know that retro studios were super rushed on 2′s development, which also explains why so many of the enemies also very clearly reused models from 1, and it’s not the end of the world of course, but i feel it was a missed opportunity for some really sick looking beams. publishers and development management teams stop fucking rushing games please

[spaceexp]

The Latest Look at "First Light" from Chandra

NASA - Chandra X-ray Observatory patch. Aug. 27, 2019

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has captured many spectacular images of cosmic phenomena over its two decades of operations, but perhaps its most iconic is the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. Located about 11,000 light-years from Earth, Cas A (as it’s nicknamed) is the glowing debris field left behind after a massive star exploded. When the star ran out of fuel, it collapsed onto itself and blew up as a supernova, possibly briefly becoming one of the brightest objects in the sky. (Although astronomers think that this happened around the year 1680, there are no verifiable historical records to confirm this.) The shock waves generated by this blast supercharged the stellar wreckage and its environment, making the debris glow brightly in many types of light, particularly X-rays. Shortly after Chandra was launched aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999, astronomers directed the observatory to point toward Cas A. It was featured in Chandra's official “First Light” image, released Aug. 26, 1999, and marked a seminal moment not just for the observatory, but for the field of X-ray astronomy. Near the center of the intricate pattern of the expanding debris from the shattered star, the image revealed, for the first time, a dense object called a neutron star that the supernova left behind. Since then, Chandra has repeatedly returned to Cas A to learn more about this important object. A new video shows the evolution of Cas A over time, enabling viewers to watch as incredibly hot gas – about 20 million degrees Fahrenheit – in the remnant expands outward. These X-ray data have been combined with data from another of NASA’s “Great Observatories,” the Hubble Space Telescope, showing delicate filamentary structures of cooler gases with temperatures of about 20,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Hubble data from a single time period are shown to emphasize the changes in the Chandra data.

A Tour of the Latest Look at "First Light" from Chandra

Video above: Credits: NASA/CXC/RIKEN/T. Sato et al. The video shows Chandra observations of Cas A from 2000 to 2013. In that time, a child could enter kindergarten and graduate from high school. While the transformation might not be as apparent as that of a student over the same period, it is remarkable to watch a cosmic object change on human time scales. The blue, outer region of Cas A shows the expanding blast wave of the explosion. The blast wave is composed of shock waves, similar to the sonic booms generated by a supersonic aircraft. These expanding shock waves produce X-ray emission and are sites where particles are being accelerated to energies that reach about two times higher than the most powerful accelerator on Earth, the Large Hadron Collider. As the blast wave travels outwards at speeds of about 11 million miles per hour, it encounters surrounding material and slows down, generating a second shock wave – called a “reverse shock” – that travels backwards, similar to how a traffic jam travels backwards from the scene of an accident on a highway. These reverse shocks are usually observed to be faint and much slower moving than the blast wave. However, a team of astronomers led by Toshiki Sato from RIKEN in Saitama, Japan, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, have reported reverse shocks in Cas A that appear bright and fast moving, with speeds between about 5 and 9 million miles per hour. These unusual reverse shocks are likely caused by the blast wave encountering clumps of material surrounding the remnant, as Sato and team discuss in their 2018 study. This causes the blast wave to slow down more quickly, which re-energizes the reverse shock, making it brighter and faster. Particles are also accelerated to colossal energies by these inward moving shocks, reaching about 30 times the energies of the LHC.

Chandra X-ray Observatory. Animation Credits: NASA/CXC

This recent study of Cas A adds to a long collection of Chandra discoveries over the course of the telescope’s 20 years. In addition to finding the central neutron star, Chandra data have revealed the distribution of elements essential for life ejected by the explosion, have constructed a remarkable three dimensional model of the supernova remnant, and much more. Scientists also created a historical record in optical light of Cas A using photographic plates from the Palomar Observatory in California from 1951 and 1989 that had been digitized by the Digitized Access to a Sky Century @ Harvard (DASCH) program, located at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA). These were combined with images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope between 2000 and 2011. This long-term look at Cas A allowed astronomers Dan Patnaude of CfA and Robert Fesen of Dartmouth College to learn more about the physics of the explosion and the resulting remnant from both the X-ray and optical data. This recent study of Cas A adds to a long collection of Chandra discoveries over the course of the telescope’s 20 years. In addition to finding the central neutron star, Chandra data have revealed the distribution of elements essential for life ejected by the explosion, clues about the details of how the star exploded, and much more. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science and flight operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2018 study: https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.06992 Read more from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2019/firstlight/ For more Chandra images, multimedia and related materials, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/chandra Image, Video (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/RIKEN/T. Sato et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI/Text Credits: NASA/Lee Mohon. Greetings, Orbiter.ch Full article

[stereochromatic404]

James Bond Movie Ranking

#1. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) [8.2/10] The best Christmas film that isn’t It’s a Wonderful Life. oh and Bond actually falls in love this time!

#2. Goldfinger (1964) [8.2/10] “Shocking. Positively Shocking.”

#3. Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) [8.1/10] A Villain that’s actually relevant? Strong Women Characters? No Convoluted Personal Vendettas? Sign me up! (Also the Bike Chase OST really sounds like the Bon Voyage Charlie Brown motif in places.)

#4. The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) [8/10] The real Go Everywhere, Do Everything Bond Movie. Also it has a Submarine Car. And Jaws.

#5. Octopussy (1983) [7.5/10] Nothing illustrates the absurdity of Nuclear War better than Bond in a clown suit trying to stop a nuke blowing up.

#6. The Living Daylights (1987) [7.1/10] Bond is as cold and professional as he has ever been, but beneath that exterior is a human element that Timothy Dalton allows to shine. Bond and Kara Milovy’s onscreen chemistry is electric. Whitaker and Koskov are entertaining villains as well.

#7. Dr No. (1962) [6.8/10] This film launched a Billion Dollar Franchise. A Single shot of this film launched a multi Billion Dollar Swimwear industry, and accelerated a multi Trillion Dollar cultural revolution.

#8. Moonraker (1979) [6.6/10] Bond hijacks a rocket into space to stop Not Elon Musk from razing the earth with some Laserbeam thing. It’s dumb, and stupid, and fun. Also Jaws gets a girlfriend.

#9. Casino Royale (2006) [6.5/10] A lot of it is good, though it is rather convoluted, and the poker is only surface level entertainment. Good ending though.

#10. No Time To Die (2021) [6/10] Having Bond die at the end of the film really kills a lot of the mystique around him. It’s not a sign of a healthy franchise.

#11. From Russia With Love (1963) [5.9/10] When people say they want back to basics Bond, this is what they’re asking for. it’s got fights, stealing, more fights, fights with belly dancers, and Rosa Klebb with a shoe-knife.

#12. Live and Let Die (1973) [5.8/10] This film is hard carried by Paul McCartney, Sheriff J.W. Pepper, and the stunt team. Most of everything else is a miss.

#13. Goldeneye (1995) [5.6/10] If you thought this was good, wait until you play the game!

#14. You Only Live Twice (1967) [5.5/10] Plot is decently serious and compelling. Perhaps if it were adapted later it could have aged better.

#15. The Man With The Golden Gun (1974) [5.4/10] The reverse of YOLT. Terrible Plot, Scaramanga is a great Villain, and the Bond Girl is especially useless.

#16. Diamonds are Forever (1971) [5.4/10] Has a good theme song and very little else.

#17. Skyfall (2012) [5.3/10] In a World, where Bond stops nuclear annihilation on the regular, they really dedicated an entire Villain arc to killing off their best M (kidnapping her in TWINE wasn’t enough, apparently)

#18. Licence to Kill (1989) [5.3/10] I only remember the good bits of this film, of which there are not many.

#19. Thunderball (1965) [5.2/10] Much slower than Goldfinger, and has most of the same drawbacks with almost none of the positives.

#20. Die Another Day (2002) [5.2/10] “I’ve Got you now, Faker!” no but really it is just Sonic Adventure 2 but with Bond. it really is. The VR Moneypenny segment is hilarious though.

#21. Quantum of Solace (2008) [5.1/10] Would have been a decent film with a good plot if it was edited with any competence.

#22. A View to a Kill (1985) [5/10] Dull, static and slow. Walken as Max Zorin cannot save it, aas hard as he tries.

#23. Spectre (2015) [4.8/10] You can tell something’s wrong when none of the best scenes in the film involve Bond at all. Also Blofeld is Bond’s long lost brother now. Also Also, Spectre are suddenly responsible for the the plots of the previous three films because reasons???

#24. The World is Not Enough (1999) [4.4/10] Every single homage to other films feels cheap and forced, especially when it’s crammed with so many (at the expense of everything else). Somehow they managed to plonk Bond on a Nuclear Sub for 2 films in a row.

#25. For Your Eyes Only (1981) [4.3/10] Roger Moore can’t do cold and emotionless. The henchman is an boring Jaws clone that skis a lot, and the Bond Girl with the Ice Skates makes 2D-era Princess Peach look strong and independent. 

[perfectirishgifts]

Netflix Rolls Out Playback Speed Control—So Who’s The Real Director During Our Ambient TV Era?

New Post has been published on https://perfectirishgifts.com/netflix-rolls-out-playback-speed-control-so-whos-the-real-director-during-our-ambient-tv-era/

Netflix Rolls Out Playback Speed Control—So Who’s The Real Director During Our Ambient TV Era?

The company is letting viewers go warp speed

This past summer it was reported Netflix NFLX was experimenting with the ability to control the playback of any show or film— from 0.5x slower to 1.5x faster.

While the feature was primarily tested on Android mobile devices, the feature is now being spotted on desktops across the country.

The creative community has been pushing back since the rumors. Judd Apatow, an outspoken critic, replied to the early headlines, ”Distributors don’t get to change the way the content is presented. Doing so is a breaking of trust and won’t be tolerated by the people who provide it.” He added, “Don’t make me have to call every director and show creator on Earth to fight you on this. Save me the time.”

Aaron Paul also joined early, “There is NO WAY Netflix will move forward with this. That would mean they are completely taking control of everyone else’s art and destroying it. Netflix is far better than that. Am I right Netflix?…I love Netflix. Always have. Always will. This simply can not be true.”

It is.

Paul’s tweet is now unavailable and close to 195,000,000 Netflix subscribers will soon be getting a taste of this control.

In a previous statement from Netflix, Keela Robison, VP of Product Innovation, justified the test, “It’s a feature that has long been available on DVD players – and has been frequently requested by our members. For example, people looking to rewatch their favorite scene or wanting to go slower because it’s a foreign language title.”

The context of controlling speed on a DVD player is different than our present moment. Culture changes. We’re in a market landscape where Netflix infamously “competes with sleep” in addition to now HBO, Hulu, Apple and Disney. This is about being able to better understand a foreign film as much as it’s about crunching more consumption numbers for shareholders. “Are you still there?”

How do you increase viewership metrics quarter-over-quarter, year-over-year? Approaching the equation by attempting to increase subscribers is myopic. Saturation is tough. You also can’t increase the time frame for people to watch Netflix, there are only so many hours in the day. But what you can do, and what Netflix has done, is shrink the content to fit more of it within subscribers’ existing time frames. Same timespan each night, but more content watched… all without growing subscription numbers. Brilliant… for the stock.

Netflix is signaling: Consumption volume is prioritized over artistic intent. What’s disturbing yet unsurprising is that we’ve mistaken the figure for the ground. Where metrics were once leveraged to understand the resonance of a piece of work, we’re now solely optimizing for the metrics themselves, forgetting why we’re here. We’re undermining the material for stats. Have we really experienced the work, or have we merely seen it?

For Team Human, author and media theorist Douglas Rushkoff shares, “Any art that asks its viewers to slow down or, worse, pause and reflect is hurting a market that depends on automatic and accelerating behaviors.” Netflix doesn’t want to play in the slow and ambiguous space. However for the creatives, it’s the deal with the devil.

This figure-ground reversal is what Apatow and Paul are concerned about. The distributor, Netflix, now controls the priority: numbers over art. This means Netflix also controls the watch experience—or at least empowers viewers to control their own watch experience, different than that of what was intended. Fairly, who are we to make such directorial decisions over Apatow, the creator? If he wanted a shorter film, his editors would have done so. And as any fan knows, that’s not what Apatow wants.

The trigger for all is that we’re beginning to widely remix an established and sacred medium: film. The chaotic spirit of TikTok is getting mapped onto the nearly 100-year-old Motion Picture Association. Or better yet, YouTube’s existing playback controls can now be applied to a Best Picture.

This is 2020—power dynamics are changing. The crowd now determines if Sonic the Hedgehog gets re-animated, or which actors get canceled. Further, with the pandemic, films like Wonder Woman 1984 are bypassing bottleneck theaters and hitting laptops first. In this relationship, it means Sam gets to decide how they want to view the blockbuster: on their iPhone or at 1.5x the speed. After all, they are the one paying. No one needs to flash their B.A. in Cinematic Arts from USC to sign up for Netflix.

Defenders of the feature flaunt the benefits for the deaf and blind community, in addition to many others requiring such accessibility options. Longer time to read subtitles, or quickened audio for those who can’t see well, allows freedom. It’s applaudable and overdue. But can this truly be the fundamental motivator? Netflix wouldn’t have first tested on Android, but first fostered a PR-worthy partnership with the American Council of the Blind. Or at least that’s how they should have framed it.

This feature also signals what television’s role is in the zeitgeist. Markets once proclaimed the arrival of “Second Screen Viewing”, where phone screens accompanied the big screen and acted as the outlet for Tweet reactions and live group chats. However, there’s been another reversal. The TV is now the second screen. The real attention is on the phone: TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and YouTube is the foreground. Netflix’s Emily In Paris, dubbed Ambient TV, runs in the background. Many approach their Netflix shows as they would a digital Yule Log, a calming stream of colors and sounds to fill the void.

“At its core, Ambient TV is about modulating our split attention,” says Sean Monahan, founder of the new trend consultancy 8Ball formerly of K-HOLE. “Speeding up certain content for focused turbo-ingestion or lowering the complexity of plot so it can be more ambient background noise are two sides of the same coin. Split attention isn’t only a workplace problem. We also multitask while we consume entertainment.”

Our debate shouldn’t be about the speed and length of an Apatow film, but what Ambient TV and a speed feature symbolizes: our content glut, and how we can’t seem to escape it. Every nook and cranny is filled with content. We multiply our screens to get through.

Entertainment—or even better, art—is now framed as a task to complete hastily, defeating its primary purpose: timeless escape. Our watchlists have become Sisyphean. There is no progress. Yet there’s still a mirage of completion. Our new 1.5x speed can get us there. Or so we hope.

What we need is a movement, a figure or organization, to declare: we don’t need to watch, read or listen to it all. This is that early and modest rallying call.

We are suffocating in content, all competing for our attention—family, friends and co-workers meanwhile attempt to prioritize the list on our behalf, only making it worse. Completed content has become our all-access social pass. Your opportunities for conversation accumulate as hours slept shrink.

But are we watching because we want to or because we feel compelled to?

If we’re watching at 1.5x speed, missing nuance and timing all while disrespecting the creator, perhaps we truly don’t want to. And that’s okay.

From Media in Perfectirishgifts

[pokefan531]

Legacy AMD APU Llano laptop for Emulation - Part 4

Radeon HD 6520g GPU Emulation tests

Since I covered the CPU for emulation, let's test out the GPU. The Radeon HD 6520g. It is based on Terascale 2 on lower HD 6000s. It supports DX11, and OpenGL 4.5. Like many Terascale 2 cards, it doesn't natively support FP64, so it's emulated. That means advanced tessellation performance is not good, and Mesa Drivers doesn't have the emulation yet, so it's stuck at OpenGL 3.3 for now. You can force OpenGL versions on games and apps that doesn't need FP64. It's best to try OpenGL 4.3 or 4.4 from commands.

We are gonna test out emulators on graphic scaling, shaders, and effects. To not have CPU bottleneck, there are few methods. One is to run a light game that only uses software rendering on the emulator, like SNES or Genesis, and use less accurate emulator or setting. Two is to find something that has a lot of things on screen that doesn't affect the speed of the emulator from CPU bottleneck. Third is to always use overclocking to reduce or remove any CPU bottleneck. For putting effects like SSAO, Per-Pixel, or traditional anti-aliasing, it may be rarely use since it's from the first gen APU. I couldn't guess the performance for A4s since I don't have any lower APUs than A6-3420m. For A8s or new gen APUs, I can guess they are faster than the results below, in most situations. My laptop comes with single memory slot, with DDR3, and unlikely be a bottleneck.

Shaders: I am testing out shaders and loading Sonic 3 and Knuckles. We're using 320x224 game to have enough pixels for low res games. We are upscaling the screen at 3x since I'm using a 768p monitor with Integer scaling, which many shaders looks better with. Some shaders will have a + on the fps for having a dynamic that goes faster on more simple details and slower on many details on screen. I let the shaders play out, and find the lowest fps. Tested on Retroarcch without vsync, audio sync, and put on Threaded Video.

720p or 768p: None: 400.0+ Bicubic: 330.0+ xBR-lv2: 174.0 xBR-lv3: 160.0 xBR-lv3-multipass: 268.0 xBR-mlv4: 158.0 Super-xbr-2P: 158.0 Super-xbr-3P: 126.0 xbrz-freescale: 75.0+ xbrx-freescale-multipass: 170.0 4x-xbrz: 50.0+ fxaa: 10.0 (set at 1x: 47.0+) smaa: 170.0+ ddt: 290.0+ crt-geom: 167.0 crt-royale: 64.0 mame-ntsc: 54.0 gtu: 100.0 lcd-grid-v2: 200.0 pixellate: 290.0+ motionblur: 174.0 nedi: 81.0 nnedi3-2x-luma: 70.0 nnedi3-2x-rgb: 35.0 omniscale-legacy: 24.0 scalefx: 193.0 scalefx-hybrid: 157.0 scalefx-rAA: 63.0 4xScaleHQ: 155.0 hq4x: 234.0 adaptive-sharpen: 11.0 (set at 1x: 85.0)

At HD Ready resolutions, a lot of the shaders play well from 320x224 at 3x. Scaling shaders like Bicubic runs well. xBR series runs pretty good, and multipass is preferred for faster results. Fixed xBRz is not at fullspeed. FXAA should be set to 1x since it's only postprocessing an image and not scaling higher. Somehow, it's still slower than SMAA. Could be how the shader is ported or something? Many CRT shaders works pretty great. Even crt-royale standard works over 60fps, but some crt shaders may not look fine at 3x or 720p resolutions. Hyllian, geom, or cgwg looks fine. Mame-crt one is the most demanding. LCD shaders plays well, and same with sharp upscales at non-integer like Pixellate runs fast. NNEDI3 upscale works fullspeed with only luma, but don't use anything above like RGB, higher neurons, or 4x. Omniscale are pretty slow, and legacy was less than half. ScaleFX worls pretty well. The hybrid and rAA looks similar, but hybrid is preferred for prerendered game for performance. Adaptive sharpen should be set at 1x. Not sure why few shader presets above doesn't use 1x for pure postprocess shaders that has nothing for upscaling. Overall, many shaders runs pretty good for 720p or 768p. It really looks good.

1080p: Bicubic: 179.0 xBR-lv2: 85.0 xBR-lv3: 78.0 xBR-lv3-multipass: 147.0 xBR-mlv4: 95.0 super-xbr-3p: 79.0 super-xbr-6p: 36.0 xbrz-freescale: 41.0+ xbrz-freescale-multipass: 92.0 ddt: 221.0+ crt-royale: 37.0 crt-royale-fake-bloom-intel: 48.0 gtu: 54.0 lcd-grid-v2: 100.0 pixellate: 199.0 nedi: 57.0 nnedi3-2x-luma: 52.0 scalefx: 137.0 scalefx-hybrid: 115.0 4xscaleHQ: 115.0 hq4x: 162.0 jinc2-sharper: 125.0

At 1080p, many of the shaders holds up well from 720p or 3x to 1080p or 4x. xBR family plays at fullspeed, especially the multipass presets. Super-Xbr ones works great at 2x with 3 passes. Trying to do 4x with six pass preset is almost down to half fullspeed. crt-royale is the chore for great crt shader. I tried the one with fake bloom and for intel windows driver, but it's still below fullspeed, and royale is mostly made for 4k. Gtu is also below, but the rest of the crt shaders should perform fine, and some that don't look as good at 720p should look better at 1080p. Nedi and NNEDI3 also loses their speed for reaching 60fps. Scalefx performs pretty good. Default scalefx scales at 3x. Generally, many shaders above still performs at fullspeed. For fast forwarding, I would choose faster alternative, like the multipass presets of a targeted shader for more speed. It's amazing how the 6520g performs good with shaders. It was a bit lower when I used to use glsl before Retroarch has slang and DX11 and glcore video driver. It's a big improvement from gl driver with glsl shaders and cg shaders, to glcore (linux) and DX11 (Windows) with slang shaders.

Since I want to compare my Tegra K1 tablet, I'll force 5x on 1080p display, and with 5x, it will crop parts of the top and bottom, almost to how most CRTs crops the image.

5x at 1080P (overscan): None: 237.0 Bicubic: 151.0 xBR-lv2: 62.0 xBR-lv3: 57.0 xBR-lv3-multipass: 119.0 xBR-mlv4: 76.0 super-xbr-3p: 65.0 xbrz-freescale-multipass: 69.0 ddt: 210.0+ crt-geom: 59.0 lcd-grid-v2: 71.0 pixellate: 173.0 scalefx: 137.0 scalefx-hybrid: 115.0 4xscaleHQ: 114.0 hq4x: 162.0 jinc2-sharper: 96.0

First of all, take a look at few framemeister videos about 5x and scanlines and integers like Phonedork. He explains about 5x integer for 1080p. My Tablet is 1200p, which shows full 5x. Anyway, Bicubic and Jinc runs pretty good. xBR multipass and xbrz has the sharpest antialiasing on the filter, and multipass versions are faster. I do recommend using lv3-multipass. Super-xbr-3p is above 60fps, but other filters are preferred. DDT performs very fast and can look a bit better than bilinear for upscaling. Crt-geom is barely, so I do suggest cgwg or hyllian for CRT shaders. LCD from 240p to 5x still performs good. Presets from interpolation folder like pixellate is still very efficient. Although AANN is very heavy, but that's for non-integer nearest scaling to see pixels. scalefx and hq4x didn't change from 4x, but 9x scalefx is too heavy. I'm surprise a lot of those shaders performs fine at 5x upscale. Although, 6520g has no support for 4k, and 1440p may be a tight minimum for 512MB of VRAM.

Let's test 480p image for measurements. Likely in Retroarch, you will play 240p games, but certain PS1, Saturn, N64, and many Dreamcast games have 640x480. A generic 480p image is tested for GPU measurements.

480P to 1080P: None: 189.0 Super-xbr-2p: 47.0 (without jinc: 62.0) Super-xbr-3p: 37.0 (without jinc: 45.0) ddt: 180.0+ nedi: 22.5 (without jinc: 25.0) nnedi3-2x-luma: 19.3 (without jinc: 21.0) reverse-aa: 126.0 xbr-lv3-multipass: 90.5 jinc2-sharper: 94.0

I test less shaders since it's more demanding for 480p image to 1080p. I only tested a simple image for shaders. Super-xbr shaders seems to perform all right. By default, it will perform lower than 60fps from 480p. I removed jinc from the last pass and let bilinear scale from 960p to 1080p, and I do get a barebones on 2 pass one. The three pass still is under 60fps. This results can vary on Super-xbr on media players, such as MadVR or MPV. MadVR uses 2P, and Super-Xbr hasn't been looked for MPV, but outperformed by Ravu. I would love to test Ravu on Retroarch, but it doesn't have it. Super-xbr performs more like default 2p one on media players, even without jinc. Back to shaders, DDT performs pretty high, and it does make some edge lines more smooth. NEDI and NNEDI3 are below 30FPS, and they aren't useful for media players based on my tests. Reverse-AA performs pretty good, and it can make digitalized 480p games look good. However, pixelated areas will stay pixellated, so you will get mixed look on reverse-aa, but can look decent. xBR with multipass will help out 480p images that has little to no antialiasing that are prerendered, and it can look pretty great on early 480p games. Letting xBR upscale from 480p to 1080p is not integer scaling, so use 2x on xBR and let bilinear scale it. jinc2 shaders performs fast enough that it delivers high quality scaling than bilinear, bicubic, and lanczos. Overall, the shaders above can make 480p games look great, depending on the content. Likely, you would use super-xbr, nnedi3, and jinc to upscale 480p content, but as for the 6520g, go with jinc2 or reverse-aa.

Since we covered the shaders for Retroarch, let's go to internal resolution on emulators.

PSX: PCSXR-PGXP will perform really good on 1080p screen, especially using PGXP will make the polygons look even better. Shaders on Pete's OpenGL2 2.9 and Tweak works very well. Although when installing tweak version, make sure you find the ini file on ini folder of PCSXR directory, and change scaling from 8x to 4x. 8x heavily tanks the performance due to 512MB VRAM limit, but 4x is very fine on any situation.

N64: Using GlideN64 4.0 (Linux) at 1080p with default setting, except using 3-point filtering, depth buffer to 0 for CPU performance, no MSAA or FXAA, and testing the very far and wide view of icy mountains of hailfire peaks from Banjo Tooie. By using the settings, it goes to 36fps (22) on the screen, and I know it should look less demanding, but with framebuffer effects being more accurate, it involves GPU limits. Turning on Legacy Blending and set frame buffer mode to 1 (VI origin) goes up to 47fps (28), and it's still not fullspeed. 3-point filtering has no effect. However, lowering the resolution to 3x native resolution to 720p, or playing it on my internal 768p monitor, it gets me around 54fps, even with the said setting changes on the scene. For 480p or native resolution that you find in Angrylion, it goes to 60fps, as long as you at least have FBE to VI origin. Don't use MSAA, because it is much more demanding than just going few times the native resolution. It should play fine overall. Many games should run fine at 1080p, but demanding parts on late big games can get tricky. Go down to 3x or 2x if you have to. Using Project64 with Jabo's D3D8 will not have any GPU bottleneck due to its age. Glide64 is the same thing, if you can ignore the CPU bottleneck caused by Glide wrappers for Glide64.

Saturn: I have test a little bit of Yaba Sanshiro, but the APU's tesellation performance is not really great, so I'd use perspetive correction. At 1x and 2x, they perform identical. At 3x (720p), I do see it perform a little bit slower, so it will be more slower at 4x or higher. RBG is set to default for performance reasons. GPU Tesellation usually performs the fastest, but when you have a GPU that doesn't have native fp64 or uses two fp32 to emulate fp64, it would either perform slower than cpu tesellation or won't show any polygons, or quads on screen.

Dreamcast: Old deprecated NullDC can run at higher resolutions just fine. Reicast's fork, Flycast, can run at higher resolutions fine, but don't use Per-Pixel since it's not good for 6520g. If the game you're playing runs at fullspeed on the APU, you can play at higher resolution on the standalone Flycast. Redream only allows higher resolution on paid versions, but it can run fine. I haven't encounter any GPU bottleneck for Dreamcast yet.

PS2: PCSX2 can have GPU go high, even at 1x. Often, the CPU is the main bottleneck that even native res or play with hack presets couldn't show the GPU bottleneck as often. However, whenever the CPU isn't demanding for a certain game that is pretty light, the GPU becomes the bottleneck, and even cases on some 2D elements. If the game is pure 2D, use software rendering if it helps more. I tried lowering the settings of GS2X settings, and no improvements.

Gamecube/Wii: Haven't tested much on the laptop, but I'd advise to use 1x resolution, and don't use ubershaders. It's not enough for 6520g, so use skip drawings to avoid shader compilation stutter. Although, for light games such as Animal Crossing and Sonic Gem Collections, you can use higher resolution.

PSP: PPSSPP allows internal resolution increase. On God of War, not it's only CPU demanding, but it's also GPU demanding too on my laptop. GOW's titlescreen is slow when you are on higher resolution, even at 2x. Frameskipping may sound ideal, but it can produce glitches and input lag. You can't use frameskip for general use. GOW runs fine at 1x, but we're left with CPU, with overclocking, and default settings on graphics, to encounter small slowdown with fighting several enemies onscreen at the beginning of the game. For the rest of the PSP games, they can run fine at 2x. 2x runs fullspeed in most games. 3x can run fine on some games, but other games can go below fullspeed. 4x is mostly slower and shouldn't be used. 2x is the safe resolution for many PSP games to play. As for Shaders, the last three on the list are the only demanding ones I found for 6520g. 5xBR-lv2 plays around 41fps, Video Smoothing is around 21fps, and Supersampling AA one is really low to around 11fps. The rest plays fine at 1080p. It's only tested for native resolution, so higher resolution can changed a bit for other shaders, specifically scaling ones like 5xBR and 4xHQ.

NDS: As mentioned on CPU testing on A6-3420m, Software is faster than OpenGL, even using native resolution, and using software graphics to high settings. On any Desmume builds, using at least 2x will become slower. It's not worth testing Desmume for GPU performance since it all relates to CPU bottleneck. On MelonDS, it does a good job increasing performance when using OpenGL renderer, but as for increasing resolution, I haven't gone through with it yet. The emulator is still bottlenecked by CPU performance. However, you almost get same performance when you increase internal resolution when playing 3D games, and not become slower that Desmume has as a problem.

Citra: Since it is CPU demanding on the laptop, it won't reach GPU bottleneck until you choose 2x or 3x, but mostly 2x you find the bottleneck, even using hardware shaders and two accurate options turned off.

Overall, 6520g is a decent iGPU for retrogaming, and very good for retroarch shaders. The benchmark is made for test purposes and to show how the 1st gen APU perform in graphics. I didn't test old windows games since I don't have that much of them installed on the laptop.

PCSXR-PGXP: 4x IR + PGXP Jabo's D3D8 (Windows): Any Resolution Glide64 (Deprecated): Any Resolution GlideN64 (Linux): 3x IR + 3-point Bilinear + Legacy Blending Yaba Sanshiro: 2x Dreamcast: 1080p (No Per-Pixel) Dolphin: 1x (Except very light games), async skip PPSSPP: 1x (GoW), 2x

As a bonus, I'll give you the average of few windows games. Shown on both native Windows and Wine with Gallium Nine DX9. Crysis GPU Demo: 38-40 Average (Low 800x600) Fortnite: 20-30 Average (Very Low 360p)*

*Although partially playable, 3.5GB of RAM is not enough for Fortnite to get rid of constant lag spikes.

Another bonus is for players like MPC-HC+MadVR or MPV can use shaders to make video image look better. I'll be testing MPV since I have Linux on the laptop as of this writing. I don't know when I'll be testing Windows to use MadVR. I feel like getting it to work on wine is challenging.

MPV Upscale from 640x360p to 1080p: Bilinear: 96.3 Lanczos: 71.8 Spline32: 71.8 Spline64: 63.9 Ewa_Robidoux: 14.3 Ewa_Lanczos: 8.0 Ravu-lite-r2: 52.0 Ravu-lite-r3: 52.2 Ravu-lite-r4: 50.0 Ravu-r2: 45.9 Ravu-r3: 45.0 Ravu-r4: 41.2 nnedi3-nns16-win8x4: 36.0 FSRCNN_x2_r2-8-0-2: 26.5 FSRCNNX_x2-8-0-4-1: 28.5

Tested common scalers and image double shaders. All tests are using gather .hook files and use bilinear scaling on luma and chroma be default. Gather shaders performs better than compute on the laptop. (Note: you must force OpenGL and GLSL version to 4.3 at least for gather to work.) No temporal scaling (motion blend) is used. Used FPS check from Gallium HUD, since MPV bar length or display stats can lower fps by few frames lower, however it doesn't happen on D3D11. Surprised that bilinear is over 90fps. Bilinear, Lanczos, and Spline performs pretty good. EWA based scalers performs the worst, and gets very low fps. On Ravu, it performs below 60fps on all of them. Ravu-lite r2 and r3 performs identical. Between r2 and r4, performance is not as different. Standard Ravu performs lower, but Ravu for 360p is good enough to use r4 on videos that are at most 30fps. NNEDI3-16, surprisingly performs a bit better than what I expected. It is below Ravu-r4. FSRCNN shaders are up. They're not useful for this GPU since they're below 30fps and can take a hit on videos that are higher resolution. However, FSRCNNX-8 performs slightly better and has more quality than FSRCNN-8.

MPV Upscale from 720x480p DVD to 1080p: Bilinear: 86.3 Lanczos: 59.9 Spline32: 59.9 Spline64: 54.0 Ravu-lite-r2: 40.7 Ravu-lite-r3: 40.3 Ravu-lite-r4: 39.3 Ravu-r2: 35.5 Ravu-r3: 34.4 Ravu-r4: 31.4 nnedi3-nns16-win8x4: 26.3 FSRCNN_x2_r2-8-0-2: 19.1 FSRCNNX_x2-8-0-4-1: 20.4

For 480p to 1080p, we see more results. Lanczos and Spline36 are identical and is borderline with 60fps. Although, bilinear should be stable and not have one framedrop per few seconds. Ravu shaders are appropriate for videos that are at most 30fps. Ravu-r4 is nearly down to 30fps, but r3 seems to be safe. r4 is better suited for 360p instead. NNEDI3 performs lower, and neither can any FSRCNN shaders give enough performance for general playback. FSRCNNX performs slightly better than standard FSRCNN again by little.

720p videos won't play well with those image doublers, so you're left with bilinear for 60fps playback and lanczos or spline shaders for 30fps or lower.

Overall, the entire laptop plays really fine with up to 5th gen home consoles and up to PSP portable consoles. It’s a really decent APU to use for emulation and it can have more tweaks with Linux. As a HTPC, it plays well on things up to 1080p. Playback is fine, but GPU performance for scaling can be basic or limiting for upscaling quality. As for games, it should play DirectX 9 era games really fine and early DirectX 11 ones too.

Previous Page on CPU Emulation tests.

[atrocitycl]

V - “Stigma” Review

(Audio)

V (from BTS) – Stigma

Reviewed on January 24, 2017

And so, although “Stigma” faces the stigma of being a slower, dramatic song and thus is disliked by many fans because of such, I argue the song is actually an excellent one. If we are critical and listen beyond the song’s style and begin attempting to understand why certain compositions are in place, we will find that “Stigma”—despite being “boring” or “too slow”—has many creative, efficient, and stunning points.  

Personal Message: As perhaps readers can guess, I am back at university and somehow already quite busy. Although this semester appears to be quite challenging, I am expecting it to be “easier” than the last as I have multiple two hour breaks in between classes and thus, my tendency to procrastinate is greatly minimized. Personally a huge issue with last semester—and this relating to the lack of reviews during that period—was squeezing all of my classes back-to-back and as a result, despite many hours of free time afterwards, I ended up wasting them away with distracting tasks. Perhaps this could be a scheduling tip to readers who, like me, are not as disciplined.

On topic with this review, I would like to thank a reader for sending in this request. I greatly apologize for not getting to it sooner, but I hope this review is still enjoyable and thought-provoking. I personally have been anticipating writing a review for this song as there is so much to discuss in terms of music. As the requester addressed, many fans struggle to listen to “Stigma”—a song that is not a title/comeback song and instead is a song included in one of BTS’ albums. Furthermore, the artist singing is just BTS’ V and thus, this creates more difficulties as it is not the usual of every member participating. But of course, the true problem is not the technicalities with members and “Stigma” not being a title song; the issue is that musically the song is hard to “enjoy.” It is not upbeat and within the pop genre as is, say, the group’s “Blood Sweat & Tears,” nor does it involve powerful dancing and a flashy music video. “Stigma” is the opposite: it is a soulful, R&B song (if correct on the genre) that—while possessing a short music video—is predominantly meant to be consumed sonically. However, given the incredibly slower pacing of the song, a lack of visual aid, seemingly overly dramatic vocals and instrumental, and a composition that appears to be quite stagnant, it truly is understandable on why fans find “Stigma” a difficult song.

Because of this interesting background, this review will be more than just reviewing the song: I hope this review becomes an example of how a listener can learn to reap enjoyment from analyzing what she is listening to—especially with a song that she may not personally prefer. Even if a listener dislikes “Stigma” ‘s style (as in my case), I hope he will still realize that at least appreciation is possible if not genuine enjoyment. And so, although “Stigma” faces the stigma of being a slower, dramatic song and thus is disliked by many fans because of such, I argue the song is actually an excellent one. If we are critical and listen beyond the song’s style and begin attempting to understand why certain compositions are in place, we will find that “Stigma”—despite being “boring” or “too slow”—has many creative, efficient, and stunning points.  

_______________________________________________________

Song Score: 7/10 (6.75/10 raw score) - “Above average”

- Vocals: 7/10

- Sections: 6/10 (6.00/10 raw score)

Introduction, Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Bridge, Conclusion (Chorus)

1.     Introduction: 6/10

2.     Verse: 6/10

3.     Pre-Chorus: 6/10

4.     Chorus: 6/10

5.     Bridge: 6/10

6.     Conclusion (Chorus): 6/10

- Instrumental: 7/10

- Lyrics: 7/10

I’ve been hiding it I tell you something just to leave it buried Now I can’t endure it anymore Why couldn’t I say it then? I have been hurting anyway Really I won’t be able to endure it

Now cry It’s only that I’m very sorry towards you Again, cry Because I couldn’t protect you

Deeper, deeper, the wound just gets deeper, like pieces of broken glass that I can’t reverse Deeper, it’s just the heart that hurts every day You who was punished in my stead You who were only delicate and fragile

Stop crying, tell me something Try talking to me who had no courage Why did you do that to me then? Sorry Forget it What right do I have, to tell you to do this or that?

Deeper, deeper, the wound just gets deeper, like pieces of broken glass that I can’t reverse Deeper, it’s just the heart that hurts every day You who was punished in my stead You who were only delicate and fragile

I’m sorry, I’m sorry I’m sorry, my brother Even if I try to hide i or conceal it, it can’t be erased Are you calling me a sinner? What more do I have to say? I’m sorry, I’m sorry I’m sorry, my sister Even if I try to hide it or conceal it, it can’t be erased So cry Please dry my eyes

That light, that light, please illuminate my sins Where I can’t turn back, the red blood is flowing down Deeper, I feel like dying every day Please let me be punished Please forgive me for my sins I beg

_______________________________________________________

Analysis: For a side note, while the given ratings appear to be straightforward, I do wish for readers to know that the process to reach these ratings was far from such. I devoted much time to understanding this song (and admittedly to push aside much of my own personal biases). Also to note, this review will most likely be shorter than intended due to how busy I currently am (and on top of that, I am down with a cold).

Onto the review, as the ratings unveil, “Stigma” is an incredibly well-rounded song statistically. There are no immediate, impairing points and at worst the sections—this category having the lowest ratings—is still decent. But, of course, ratings are meaningless without explanations and more so with considering how many find the song difficult to listen to, so let us proceed with actual analysis.

With the lyrics, this category should be the most straightforward to understand. However that said, it is worth clarifying why the lyrics have scored well. As the requester of this review mentions, the background to this song is complex: it may be a part of BTS’ ongoing, fictional story or it might very much be something personal from V or perhaps even both. While all these points are interesting, these are not criterion I use for grading lyrics; instead, the lyrics have earned their higher score by being distinctive in its details—word choice, variety, imagery—and by differing with its plot. Overall, I will not spend too much time in this song’s aspect as the more intriguing discussion is towards the musical aspect.

With that covered, let us focus on the vocals and instrumental. I bring up these two aspects and not individually because both ultimately utilize similar strategies and forms, but furthermore, both are quite misunderstood by many fans. After all, the difficult aspect in the song may not be so much on how it is structured with the sections but rather how it sounds within the sections—these sounds being the vocals and instrumental.

One of the most impressive aspects to the two is how well they complement each other so that their perceived downsides are covered. Before explaining that, though, let us return once more to current perceptions on the vocals and instrumental. On a more superficial hearing, the vocals are not impressive: the vocals carry a sluggish, dragged pacing; many of the beltings are overly emphasized and dramatized and thus, the extreme pitch shifts render unappealingly—even if the singing itself is skillful; and lastly, the singing simply comes off as monotonous considering there are few changes throughout. Similarly, the instrumental can also be critiqued with those reasons: the instrumental is too plain, dull, and provides nothing more than just background.

While these are all viable points, I challenge fans to realize that these supposed weaknesses are actually, realized or not, addressed in the vocals and instrumental themselves. For example, the vocals’ slower pacing is paired with a bass line that strengthens at moments where V provides beltings. The result, then, is not vocals that are sluggish or an instrumental that remains dull; the result is that both combined lead to a rhythmic, balanced flow that sounds excellent. Another example is when considering the instrumental’s beats in relation to V’s vocals at the first verse. Both in of themselves appear to be incredibly vexing: the vocals are minimal in tune and the instrumental itself provides nothing more than just the mere foundation of the song. However, when considering how both sound when taken into account as a single unit, we realize the vocals act as a pseudo-beat and equally the beats are akin to background vocals. Lastly to note on a more technical side, another interesting composing decision about the instrumental and vocals is that both physically complement each other’s sounds. In clearer terms, I am referring to the actual pitch range covered. During moments where the vocals are adopting a middle pitch, we realize the instrumental “balances” out such by providing sounds slightly above that pitch or slightly below it. Expectedly for moments when V is singing in a higher pitch, the instrumental still “balances” out the overall sound by then providing much lower pitches—this being the most explicit example as we can hear the much deeper bass line coming in during these moments. Again, this is a minor aspect but one I find quite creative and ultimately appealing especially as “Stigma” ‘s style beckons careful, methodical listening.

Finally discussing the sections, since we have already indirectly discussed some of this through the discussion above regarding the vocals and instrumental working together, let us instead turn to addressing why—despite the solid chemistry of the vocals and instrumental—that the sections still all earn a six. Ultimately, though the sections sound fantastic and that even the progression to the entirety of “Stigma” is fluent and coherent, the main flaw remaining is that the sections lack incredibly distinctive points. And of course, I do not necessarily mean distinctive as in each section has to sound different from one another—as numerously said, “Stigma” does follow a linear format—but in terms of what each section provides for the song, there is nothing distinctive in this sense. For example, both the introduction and conclusion suffice in their roles, but in doing so neither is that stunning. Even in, for example, the choruses where the vocals are—especially in the song’s context—diverse and the instrumental is impressive with complementing such along with meshing the bass with the beats, the choruses are not composed to the point that their very composition consists of striking ideas and techniques. Now this is not to say the sections are bad at all; all the sections hold a decent score, but overall, the structure to the song individually and in whole merely provide the foundation to the song versus being the aspects that carry forth the song.

All in all, “Stigma” is definitely an above average song if we are able to pay attention to how the vocals and instrumental work. Stylistically, I do agree with many that the song is difficult to listen to and to even enjoy, but given the nature of it, I do urge fans to find enjoyment from it through analyzing it versus just listening to it. Unlike the typical pop song that is fun and easy to listen to due to being able to predict its flow or simply how upbeat and tuneful it is, “Stigma” is a song that requires one to actually pay attention to what is occurring with its sections, vocals, instrumental, and so forth. Once a listener pays close attention, most likely she will find it to be quite impressive in terms of the song’s inner workings—and if not that, at least in his attempt I hope that the song becomes worthwhile.

_______________________________________________________

To the requester, huge apologies for the delay and for poorly writing the review. I feel that I have failed to truly bring insight as to why “Stigma” is a fascinating and solid song, but I hope in the end that the review is interesting and gives some ideas as to what one could look for when listening to a difficult yet charming song. In terms of the next review, look forward to another requested review. And though this sounds silly, I will have to end this review here as I do have class quite soon—perhaps “writing-on-the-go” is not the most optimal idea, after all. Look forward to Uhm Junghwa’s “Dreamer” and until then, “I’m very sorry towards you” for not being as diligent, but I will do my best to catch up on reviews. 

[rainydawgradioblog]

Album Review: Oh Sees - Smote Reverser

Stream Smote Reverser Here

Oh sees (aka: Thee Oh Sees, The Oh Sees, Orange County Sound, ect. Ect.) have been at it for over 20 years now, garnering an intense and incredibly loyal underground following. After finding their niche blending elements of garage, punk, hardcore, and psych, Oh Sees have seen an incredible amount of both critical and fan success, becoming one of the most recognizable names in the garage scene alongside the likes of Ty Segall and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Almost every single one of their past albums and EP’s released under the Oh Sees name have brought hard hitting and abrasive track after blood-pumping and infectious track. Orc, A Weird Exits, Mutilator Defeated at Last, Drop, and Floating Coffin have all been some of my favorite albums of their respective years. Oh Sees have often maintained John Dwyer’s goblin-like vocal quality, screeching and roaring guitar, heavier than lead base, and tense drums (sometimes multiple sets of them) as the linchpin of their sound and have continually put out one fantastic record after another.

Needless to say, I was more than excited with the announcement of their twenty second studio album, Smote Reverser. The first single to drop, “Overthrown” featuring buzzing guitar, primordial drums, John Dwyer’s distorted lo-fi screamed vocals that came together to… underwhelm. The drums are flat, the bass is almost impossible to hear over the fuzzed-out guitar and Dwyer’s vocals sound completely out of place in respect to the rest of his work. While I desperately wanted to like it, I couldn’t get past the horrendous production on the track.

The next single to drop gave me hope; “C” is totally infectious, featuring bustling drums, buzzing synths and an incredibly groovy guitar – it was something I could get behind and it renewed my hope for the forthcoming release. To my disappointment, Smote Reverser just doesn’t deliver. It certainly has its highlights; the opening track, ”Sentient Oona” is a haunting and wonderfully grimy piece of perfectly blended psych and garage rock featuring marching drums, smoky whispered vocals, and a commanding guitar – legitimately one of my favorite Oh Sees tracks of all time. However, over its hour runtime, Smote Reverser fails to achieve the same level of quality after this first track and delivers a bland mix of psych, garage, noise, occasionally with elements of prog metal poorly mixed in.

Smote Reverser is laden with weird and unnecessary detours throughout much of its runtime. It is a serious step down from the blistering, raw, and visceral tracks that run throughout much of their discography. “Last Peace”, “Moon Bog”, “Anthemic Aggressor”, “Flies Bump Against the Glass” and “Beast Quest” are all fairly sleepy, slow, and redundant tracks that make up the majority of the album. Now I’m not trying say that I don’t like artists taking their music in new directions or utilizing their artistic ability to expand the sound that they are trying to produce, but Smote Reverse is laden with uninteresting and sloppy sonic turns that just destroy the listening experience as whole. A prime example of this is in the second track, “Enrique El Cobrador” which features poorly executed and disjointed soloing and keyboard fills that feel like they could have been pulled out of a Booker T. and the M.G.’s album but, you know, worse. I’ll say again that I don’t discourage bands from making an unconventional blend of genres, I just discourage it being done poorly.

The track “Anthemic Aggressor” is a twelve-minute monster accounting for over a fifth of the overall runtime of the album. It’s a total slog which features the same tedious bass and drum rhythm for nearly the entire twelve goddamn minutes. Oh Sees are more than capable of making longer, slower tracks like this interesting (see “Sticky Hulks” and “Drowned Beast”) but this is a massive waste of twelve minutes. The track “Beast Quest” accumulate in a headache-inducing hammering of the same Booker T.-esque synth chords over and over again for two solid minutes; which I suppose makes it a fitting closing track because by the end of it I was ready to take off my headphones and down half a bottle of Advil.

There is some potential for Oh Sees to explore this avenue further. They are more than capable of making these tracks so much more interesting and listenable. The few tracks I actually like would be better severed with tighter, cleaner instrumentation, and better production. Honestly, especially if you haven’t listened to Oh Sees before, listen to any of the better albums I listed above first, then come back to this if you really feel so inclined.

5/10

-Alex

[chaosmagetwin]

Random Modern OC: Lauren

Lauren Kitterwitz

Level 1: Well known and memorized

Level 2: Known and used occasionally

Level 3: Mostly known, used rarely and at greater cost

Level 4: Hypothetical, and in the process of either making the spell or learning it.

Basic Spells(All spells level 1)

Mage Hand: Spell that holds objects, and floats near the mage when not attended. Used both for light and heavy loads

Message: Speak over distance

Arcane Writ: Note written with magic. Short range

Locate Object/ Person: Requires piece of object or person (i.e. hair) Limited to ~ 10 miles

Delay: Puts a timer on a spell, so it goes off after a certain time

Contingency: Puts a requirement on a spell, so it goes often only when meant to.

Scry: As expected.

Keep at bay Spell

Barrier Spell

Light: Creates floating light

Zippo: Creates small flame at finger.

Siphon: Pulls water from the air and ground.

Terra: Pulls the nearest dirt or small stones to the casters hand.

Obscure: Blocks light sources.

Magic Missile: Creates a small arrow like object.

Shield: Protects against damage,and is the basis of all other shield spells.

Water Spells (requires water nearby, unless summoning it)(19 spells known)

1:High Pressure Beam: Able to cut through steel.

1:Seep: Pull water up from the ground, though you must pull from deeper when in dry conditions.

1:Infused Water: reinvigorating water that heals wounds slowly.

1:Water Blast: Tossed water that explodes when it hits the ground, throwing water across the environment

1:Frost: Freezes anything that is wet.

2:Purify water: Purifies water of anything that is not H20, making it impossible for electricity to pass through

1:Ice Shard: Creates a sword of ice that can be thrown at sonic speeds.

1:Shatter: Explodes ice for shrapnel

1:Ice Field: Yanks shards of ice out of the ground. Requires the ground to be wet.

2:Mist: Creates light rain that covers area with water and obscures vision

1:Pity Party Cloud: Creates raining depression cloud directly over someones head.

1:Ice Shield: A shield of ice that forms to protect the defender against physical and ranged attacks. Freezes melee attackers to the shield.

2: Cascade: Creates a torrent of chilled water that falls from the sky, soaking the area. Ice shards   form inside the cascade as it falls. The longer the cascade falls, the more of it turns to ice.

2: Water Dance: All water in the area vibrates, including any in the ground. Can create mudslides and sinkholes.

2: Rapidity: Fills allies with envigorated water, hasting them and slowly regenerating wounds.

2: Crystalline Augury: See through ice at distance.

3: Pour: Causes rain clouds to let loose as much water as possible in local area. In ritual form, can draw existing rain clouds from a distance

3:River Styx Parted: Ritual spell, quickly heals life-threatening wounds over a short period.

3:Water Beat: Channeling spell that debuffs enemies, causing them to move slower and with less strength.

Wind Spells (Requires movement of air)(19 spells known)

1:Gale: Strong force of wind that can knock people over.

1:Wind Sword: Creates a slice force at a distance.

1:Void: Rip air from a certain location. Air rushes to fill in that spot immediately. Use on heads can knock people out and harm ears and eyes.

1:Air Cannon: Fires a near solid ball of air that explodes violently on contact.

1:Control wind: Controls wind at a minor scale, for things like pushing windmills and filling sails.Also works for forges.

1:Dust Devil: Creates a small dust devil, but the inside of it is filled with wind swords.

1:Tornado: Same as dustdevil, except... much larger. Only usable on warm, humid days.

1:Down Burst: Sudden force of wind from the sky, forcing target to the ground. Flying targets crash.

1:Gust jump: Use wind to quickly leap into the air.

1:Wind Walk: Stealth and Speed

2:Wind Wall: Wall of wind that can stop slow projectiles, like arrows.

2:Fly: Like ironman.

2: Use the Force: Grabs the air around enemies, hardens it, then pulls. Knocks over enemies and can even pull them into a weapon strike.

2: Air Burst: Draws air in on an area until it is high density, then hardens it and explodes it with great force. Used most effectively as flak, but still has great use against ground.

2: Soothing Wind: Channeling spell. Slowly heals nearby allies.

2: Whispering Madness: Causes voices to appear in the minds of enemies, causing hallucinations and the like.

3: Dr. Ben Dover: Creates an extremely high pressure around the enemy, forcing air into their system and creating decompression sickness.

3: Void Tornado: As tornado, but is a vacuum internally

3: Circular Breathing: Never run out of breath.

Electric Spells (Requires charge. Hair stands on end)(12 spells known)

1:Shock: Taser like spell

1:Bolt: Lightning bolt from hand

1:Charge: Charges electrical equipment, and can be used to run that equipment for a decent amount of time, similar to the a battery. Can also reverse the flow.

1:Arc Lightning: Creates an arc of lighting between two Ion Field Mines

2:Ion Field: Charges the field with electric mines

2:Chain Lightning: Bolt of lightning that jumps between enemies.

2:Absorbtion: Can pull lightning from the clouds for charge. Requires no charge.

2:Nova: Discharges all remaining Ion field mines.

2:Lightning Ball: Like Fireball.

2:Thunder Clap: Creates deafening sound.

3:Power Coupling: Creates a rod of lightning between two walls that feeds into itself.

3: Sticky Lightning: Creates a ball of lightning that can stick to the target, shocking the target and nearby enemies.

Storm Spells (Requires charge and water)(1 spell known)

4:Storm Shield: Creates a shield of water and lightning. The lightning shocks any attackers. The water creates a small strand that links the attacker and the shield, allowing lightning to travel along it from the caster.

Lauren Kitterwitz is a 5'4” sixteen year old girl with long braided hair. Her heart shaped face is littered with freckles, her soft blue eyes framed by oval glasses. Though she is quick to grin, her slightly crooked white teeth are marred by braces. She is built coltish, with a thin and lanky frame; despite being sixteen, she didn't seem to be done growing yet. Her hands were rather large for her size, but thin and spidery, much like the rest of her. She didn't seem to have much muscle, or fat for that matter, and she was about as flat as they came; only her voice and hair separated her from a boy, it seemed. Her skin was fairly white, as if she'd rarely seen daylight, but it had freckles marring it as much as her face, especially atop the shoulders. She definitely didn't seem to have chosen this form, as some girls might have; she suffers from a somewhat rare form of Anemia known as Hemolytic Anemia.

Lauren isn't a particularly loud child, nor does she really catch the eye; she tended to stay out of the way, and her eyes often drifted outside, as if she were daydreaming, or was lost in thought. She was good in school, getting help or studying when she needed to, and she was good in groups. In gym class, however, she sat in the bleachers, and watched the others play sports and exercise. She'd tried joining a few times as well, but... they'd ended in trips to the nurses office with her passed out in the teachers arms. She ate -voraciously-, but never seemed to put on weight, to her friends consternation. Meanwhile they picked at their own food, lamenting about their diets. Outside of school, she didn't seem to do much; she had once been apart of a play, but her retainer had fallen out midway and embarrassed her to the point of no return. She'd gone on a date with one boy, a meek, normal kid who'd somehow managed to ask her out. That, too, hadn't gone well, due to a long series of unfortunate events. In one night, he'd managed to accidentally trip her, spill water on her, and find her previously undiscovered allergies to crab. She, on the other hand, had managed to trip once on her own up the stairs into the restaurant, call her waiter by the wrong name, and, once again, suffer embarrassments courtesy of her retainer. They'd ended up in the hospital after that, due to the allergic reaction, and neither of them had the courage to ask each other out again. As far as anyone normal knew, Lauren was as normal as they were, albeit sickly... and prone to misfortune.

To those apart of the spiritual world, however, Lauren was known as an up and coming offensive caster, powerful and talented, but still learning. She was being taught by Opal Drachnal, mother of Lillith, and she was a fast learner being taught by a great teacher, one who knew the ins and outs of magic, even if she herself wasn't particularly powerful. Opal taught her for three years, from the time she was 8 years old and had just learned she even had magic, until she was 11 years old. It was then that Opal died in a devastating attack by geists.

When Opal died, Lauren was hardly unaffected; her favorite teacher, her friend, and her closest ally other than her parents was dead. She turned into a recluse for a while, struggling in school, struggling at home, struggling in magic. For months, it was as though she were barely alive; she lost weight, becoming almost skeletal. It wasn't until she was taken to the doctor after feinting and requiring a blood transfusion that her parents sat down with her and forced her to talk. The long and difficult conversation helped her; the depression she was feeling, the fear, the pain of the loss, they were all things that her parents had gone through themselves. She came out of the hospital with a few pounds more and the emotional support she needed to pull herself forward. Her friends, what few there were, rejoiced in her return, even if they didn't quite understand why she had 'gone missing' to begin with. Except for one; Isabella. Her best friend. Isabella knew why she'd gone missing, yet she was barely speaking to Lauren.

She didn't find out why until almost a year later; Beatrice, Isabella's mother, had died of cancer, and Johnathan, her father, was torn up. Where before Lauren had a best friend, there was now a stranger, an angry one who lashed out where she could. Hurt, confused, and a little lost, Lauren went to ask for help from the only people who had proved themselves; her own parents. She tried everything she could, trying to mend bridges between herself and her one-time best friend, but when Isabella's father disappeared, it only got worse. It was during this time that a famous combat wizard, Ajax Cal, arrived to help her. An elderly man who'd lost an arm in a raid, he was still as formidable as he'd been twenty years ago, even if his bones creaked now. He was of the mind that the sooner they got people out fighting, the better they would get; nobody learned anything cooped up in a tiny room, after all. To Lauren, he was a god; physically fit, powerful, and combat ready. He was also old, which was more than Lauren could say about many other magicians, which meant he had to be doing SOMETHING right. However, he only stayed a week, teaching her a little before leaving again. He would show up every once in a while to teach her something new, then disappearing again.

By the time Lillith arrived in town, Lauren and Isabella were about as far apart as they could get; Lauren had almost given up, and Isabella wasn't getting any better. Soon after she arrived, however, Lauren tried one more time; she found Isabella while she was by herself, and refused to leave until they talked. It took some time, and Lauren definitely had to deal with a lot of abuse, if not physical then emotional, but she got through to Isabella somehow; the two were, at the very least, hesitant friends again. Isabella didn't change too much in relation to others, not so long as she wanted to anyways, but she mellowed out with Lauren.

Alana and Lauren didn't really become friends; they knew each other, and could hold a conversation if they needed to,but they didn't really hit it off.

Garith, on the other hand, was one person Lauren couldn't really hang out with; she had a crush on him that she'd yet to shake, and when they were younger, Isabella had teased her for it quite a bit. She bit her tongue around him, and tried not to make a fool of herself... which she almost always did. She seemed to become clumsier around him, and her tongue seemed to tie itself in knots around him; her lisp came out around him, making her almost unintelligible. Whether they were friends or not was hard to decide; they could certainly hang out around one another, but it was most likely that he thought her strange, or unintelligent.

Mark was a good friend of Laurens; he was, in comparison to Garith, easy to talk to, and funny... at least, he was easy to talk to whenever he wasn't with Garith. His prospensity for breaking rules, however didn't make her exactly happy; she often scolded him when he got in trouble, and she thought some of his pranks were simply too mean. She found a few others funny, and she'd even told him a few of her own idea's for pranks, though she never had to guts to carry them out herself.

Lillith was also a friend; the two had bonded while learning from Opal, and sometimes competed a little. When Opal died, however, both of them split to mourn on their own ways; with Lauren in another town entirely, it wasn't exactly easy for them to meet anyways. When she did come back, Lauren wasn't sure how to proceed; she opted to try and be friendly. It worked, for the most part; their relationship was definitely not the same as it had been before Opal's death. Both of the were more mature now. They still competed a little, but with their different specializations, it was hard to compare.

From the GM

Living in Lein was relatively safe and enjoyable. Your parents had jobs during the day and could hunt at night. Not every night. But maybe three times a week. Lein and area around it was maintained by Beatrice and Johnathan. Flintol. Beatrice was the younger sister to the current patriarch. They too had a couple kids. Garith . and Isabella. Garith being two years older then you and Isabella your age. Their was a few other people that were spirit hunters or dealt with them. Agra Willow was one of them. A elderly woman who was the local healer. She even knew a lot of modern medicine, with a mix of obscure medicine and could easily pass as a doctor if she wanted. She tpyically was a kind natured woman that had a more grandmotherly feel to her. Someone to badysit the kids while the parents went off hunting. The other was the Youvinsa's A brother and sister. Jack and Jill. Yoiur charcater wouldn;t know much about them till she got more involved with the spirit community. Jack had the local shop for selling Geist stones and buys epuipment. While Jill got a degree in teaching and became a teacher at the local public high school. More might be added.(Depends on the others choice of charcater and family. Early life for your character would be oretty happy and enjoyable. Your family got along with the Flintols. Bringing the kids over to play. (Again might add more when the others get charcaters.). You made your first friend. Isabella, back when she was cheerful and full of laughter. When it became apparent your character was a mage Beatrice sent a word up the Drachnal family line and found a suitable tutor for he to learn the basics. WHo none other then the patriarchs wife Opal Drachnal. Not as powerful of a mage but was incredible with the theories of magic and could honestly teach anything about magic to someone. She even had a daughter closer to her age. Lilith. She was two years younger then you and started and year before you and had gotten quite fair along (Up to you if you want to make friends with her or not.)

 Your training with Opal would last three years. (It mostly was cause of how Opal taught. She was quite talented at it.)However before she could help you move onwards to bigger things you suddenly stopped seeing Opal.That year was one of the worst years in a long time. Firstly Opal was killed in a deadly Geist attack, with some other hunters. Beatrice was diagnosed with cancer when it was in its late stages and died later that year. The death affected the family quite badly. Johnathan went down hill from there. The patriarch replaced him as the head in the area with his eldest daughter Mayla. A year later Johnathan dissappeared. Without a trace. It was speculated he ran off into the woods near town. Both Garith and Isabella changed considerbly. Garith turned more reclusive and hardly spoke. Isabella however turned very bitter, aggressive and angry. Keeping people at a distance. IN the proccess she might have burnt the friendship with you. A couple of years would pass when two other children came to town. Mark and Alana Taft. Mark was your age and a sly, silver tongue individual. Soon got the title the joker or prankster of sorts. He was the one that cracked the shell in Gariths gloom and borught in out. Alana was a small, timid girl who rarely spoke and was one year younger then you. They were not siblings but cousins from Killiam. They weren't doing well themself. Mark came down with Alana just to be with her. Acting like a big brother of sorts. Alana however was thrown out of her own home. She never did give the reason why. Mayla setted them up in a foster home of kind. Ran by The Drachnal's of course. And lastly a year (Roughly) earlier before the current day. Lilith moved to town. It was then Your character would find out that she was present at her own mothers death. WHile she was defending her no less. It also was apparent she was be neglected and abused at home and Mayla took her in to stop this. Of course your character only heard this from your parents. Lilith coming to town softened Isabella's hard exterior. Allowing a few people to get close and allow friendship.

Probably one of my more thought out characters. I wound up designing her after Honey Lemon from Big Hero 6. I wound up having to make a few sacrifices in terms of how healthy the character was in order to make a heavy hitting mage, but some decent research later and I had something workable with Hemolytic Anemia in that it wasn’t going to outright kill like most other forms of Anemia (A trait I wanted).