#low spec gaming i guess

[brightgreendandelions]

frolicking around in the brain of a dying god is fun and all, but why does every room have to take 2 seconds to load?

[mysteryshoptls]

SSR Idia Shroud - Room Relaxation Vignette

"Happy Birthday"

[Mister S's Mystery Shop]

Idia: …Hrrm, I can't find the 15th Anniversary special Star Rogue diorama.

Idia: I told Sam-shi I'd look for it myself, so I wouldn't have to deal with him talking to me, but… There's way too much stuff here to look through!

Idia: And I came all this way 'cause I wasn't fast enough to get it online.

Idia: I can't go back empty-handed after telling Ortho that there's no way I wouldn't get my hands on one as a number one fanboy!

Idia: Oho? This shelf over here has a ton of specialty figures and other hobby stuff… EEHHHH!?

[products fall of shelf]

Idia: OUCH! OW OW OW!!

Jack: Woah!? That was close! Some of the falling goods almost scraped by my nose…

Idia: I-I-I didn't do anything! They just fell off on their own since they were thrown haphazardly onto the shelf!!

[Idia runs away]

Jack: Huh? No one said it was your fault or nothin'…

Jack: …What the, he's already gone! Idia-senpai… He looks slow and frail, but is he secretly actually pretty nimble?

Jack: Oh, man, and he just left everything on the ground. Ugh, I guess I'll have to…

Jack: …Hm? Isn't this box the one Ortho mentioned today…?

[Ignihyde Dorm – Idia's Room]

Idia: …Haah. And in the end, I just ran away… Without a Star Rogue diorama…

Idia: It's all because they sold it first-come-first-serve, instead of pre-order... Not my fault what happened earlier…

Idia: If I went back now, that terrifying beast of a man from Savanaclaw might still be there. I'll try again tomorrow…

Idia: K. Now that I've decide that, time to get all the annoying dorm work stuff done!

Idia: Uhhh, so, the notices I have to give the other dorm students are… Oh, right, the equipment replacement schedule, and the AC inspection time.

Idia: Just in case, I'll add "Important", "Good News", "Response Required", and "Read Immediately" to the subject… K, sent.

Idia: It sure is hard work bein' a Housewarden. Thought it's not that bad since I implemented a chat app once I became Housewarden.

Idia: Efficiency above all! No face-to-face meetings! Conserving my own energy is the best way to do things!

Idia: Finished all my Housewarden tasks, and even took a shower, as annoying as it is. I'm awesome. I'd give myself 100,000,000 points out of 100.

Idia: Nice, so… It's finally me time!

[Ignihyde Dorm – Idia's Room]

Idia: Ah, I got a message from Ortho… He's spending the night in the first year rooms, huh.

Idia: Then, I guess I can just game all night by myself! Fheeheehee!

 [beep, beep!]

Idia: Hm…? What's with this reminder…? Man, right when I was getting into things.

「Survey on Quality of Life Improvements for the Student Body」

Idia: Ugh.. Right, that was a thing. You don't really see paper surveys anymore. Let me think, it should be around… Yep, here it is.

Idia: Uhhh, so what, they want to know what I'd like improved? I mean, kinda late to ask a third-year, isn't it? I can't really think of anything.

Idia: Sides, there were stuff I used to not like about the dorm, but I already made upgrades to all that stuff.

Idia: We soundproofed the walls and floors, installed commercial-grade AC, and the dorm-wide servers are of my own technical specs.

Idia: To live the perfect shut-in life, we can't not have walls that can't take loud shouting, or ACs that can't keep overclocked PCs cool, so～

Idia: …Ah, wait a mo'. I just thought of one issue I got. "There's not enough electrical outlets"!!

Idia: This kinda stuff needed specialized qualifications to do, so it's not like I coulda bought the parts and DIY it.

Idia: I'm using a power strip for now 'cause I have to, but I hate how the wiring just looks like spaghetti. Even a master wiring tech like myself can't stand a sight like that!

Idia: Oh, I just thought of one more thing. "I want to have the low-capacity breaker replaced"!

Idia: It's so weak that the breaker flips just 'cause I try to have 4 computers, the server, a 3D printer, microwave, and electric kettle all plugged in at once!

Idia: I mean, I'd set up a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) system in case of emergencies, so my computers and server was fine, but...

Idia: Because of that, my plan to add an AC unit and a refrigerator in my room went out the window. That was a nightmare. Oh, and…

Idia: …Dyehehe. I said I couldn't really think of any, but it's hilarious how the ideas keep flowin' out.

Idia: I'll attach some of the numbers we have on the cost of estimated damages by having Ignihyde students continue to use those useless breakers.

Idia: The Headmage is pretty much influenced by profits, so. If I explain how it's necessary to get better equipment, then he might listen to improvement suggestions.

Idia: Nice, mission clear. Time to watch some new anime episodes while grinding levels in my gams.

Idia: See, nothing beats watching anime while mindlessly leveling… Ooh, I pulled a rare one!

Idia: I thought I'd be bored of this anime 3 episodes in, too, but it's actually starting to get interesting!

Idia: Well, now that the mood's getting good, I just gotta let loose! TIME FOR A SNACK PARTY!!

Idia: …Huh? I'm out of my favorite snack. Ugh, I completely forgot to re-order some more when I ate all of it last time.

Idia: If only the Mystery Shop had 24-hour delivery service… Maybe I should add that to the survey?

Idia: Nah, nevermind, I should just focus on the anime. NOTHING'S GONNA BRING ME DOWN!

Idia: Woah, the animation's clean…! They're all movin' so smoothly… Maybe the production team changed this week?

Idia: I'm getting pretty into the main theme song, too! Heehee, fheeheehee…!

[Ignihyde Dorm – Idia's Room]

Idia: Urrghnn… Aaarghh…

[～♪]

Idia: Gah! Urgh, what's that noise…? What time is it right now…?

Idia: Urk! Everything's so bright, I can't see anything… How's it morning already…? Wait, before that, where'd that noise come from…!?

Idia: Huh…? Ortho…? Weren't you spending the night with the other first years…? Oh wait, is this just a message…?

Idia: "HAPPY BIRTHDAY"…? Oh, right, today's my birthday! I completely forgot, since there wasn't anything to look forward to…

Idia: I'll just write back… Thanks, Ortho.

Idia: Urp…! But now I feel a bit sick…! And my whole body hurts…!

Idia: I fell asleep running my games, and I'm just stiff all over. Can't I just go move to my bed and go back to sleep?

Idia: Nah, if I end up crashing and forget to login and get all the birthday login voice lines, I'll never recover. Gotta wash my face or something…

Idia: Woah, I can see how crazy my bedhead is reflected in the monitor! I think this every time, but why does my hair end up this bad whenever I fall asleep at my desk?

Idia: Kinda looks punk, but that's totally a different vibe from my usual, lawl.

Idia: Meh, my hair can be whatever. Not like anyone looks at me, anyway.

Idia: It's a pain to go all the way to the washroom… I'll just use magic like I normally do. I'll chill the water, then.

[splash!]

Idia: WHEEEEW, THAT COLD WATER HITS JUST RIGHT!!

Idia: Normally, I'd just leave it here, but… My face feels so dry after pulling that all-nighter.

Idia: But I'm all good. I'm a functioning nerd, so I know how to fix it.

Idia: Ta-da～ I don't really get it, but here I go with the number one most popular all-in-one cream～

Idia: Putting on lotion and moisturizer one at a time is a waste of time. Just plap it on, and ta-da, done. Next is my clothes…

Idia: Nah, nevermind, I'm not gonna change. Now all I have to do is to jump into all my games and collect the birthday login voice lines. Fheeheehee.

Idia: Perf, I've gotten them all for now. …Huh? There's another message from Ortho…

Idia: …HUH!? HE GOT THE 15TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL STAR ROGUE DIORAMA!? SERIOUSLY!?

Idia: "I was planning on picking it up in the Mystery Shop after classes, but if you can't wait, you can go pick it up whenever"…?

Idia: Well, I gotta go right now, then! That means I have to finish getting ready.

Idia: I don't really wanna go outside, but… I can't keep my poor Star Rogue waiting! Hyah!

[Idia magics hair and clothes]

Idia: K, bedhead fixed. And now, onwards, to the Mystery Shop!!

[Main Street]

Idia: Fheeheehee…! Look at this craftsmanship…! It looks just like the scene I imagined as a kid!

Idia: Ortho… Did you look for this Star Rogue diorama because you knew I was sad I didn't get it?

Idia: Wheew～ The best thing in the world is a little brother who thinks the world of his older brother, and is really good at search functions～!

Jack: Hm? Is that… Idia-senpai? Good morning.

Idia: GYAAAAAA!? J-Jack-shi…? Why are we making contact two days in a row…?

Jack: I mean, it's not really anything, but… I heard from Ortho yesterday that today was your birthday, is all.

[Idia runs away]

Jack: Happy Birthday. So, uh, did you get what you were looking…

Jack: Huh, he's already gone! Ugh, I don't get him at all.

Requested by @farfalla049.

[shrowded-eng1ma]

Sagau with a creator that has My personality (I need something to up my non existent ego, lol)

CW;Sagau, cult Au, blood, murder, Religious Themes.

Reader; Reader is gender neutral

——

Mondstadt

The people of Mondstant think your nice. Your not overly energetic but your not overly inactive

They also find your presence calming (as everyone else does in sagau) you don’t demand much of anything from them, just some food and a place to stay.

If you live in Mondstadt, you’d have at least TWO knights protecting you at all cost, along side Diluc of course.

People love you, some even begin praying to you directly. And you need to adapt to it. As much as you tell them ‘You can stop, it’s not necessary’ they’ll just keep going. So you suck it up.

You hand around vision holders most, the NPC’s are very jealous. Why them? Is it their visions? Did they pray harder or offer more things to you?

Really, it’s because you know more about them then you do the others, and your introverted by nature so it’s pretty hard to socialize, not to mention your inability to pick up on normal social clues.

You always deny people walking with you or sticking beside you all day long, it’s draining enough to just talk you don’t need to make idle chat with.. well I guess your ‘Followers’

You handout with Diluc the most, he resembles your personality the most and understands your major dislike for peoples attention.

Your least favorite person is klee. Mostly because she’s SO fucking energetic, it drains you just being around children.

You brought your phone and Nintendo switch into the world of Teyvat. And since genshin is a game, in your phone, you have unlimited battery and access to download any games or dlc’s to your switch or phone.

If your able to clone your phone you’d give it to your most trusted people, in this case it would be Diluc, and Jean.

Your relationship with Venti is surprisingly normal. Venti is an archon, he’s devoted his life to you and knows what you like and hate, so he’d be more quiet around you but still fun.

Venti would probably try to convince you to drink alcohol, but you always deny.

Liyue

Liyue is probably the most devoted to you.

Anything you want they’ll be damn sure to get it, Food? How much you want? A house? Shit you can take one if there’s. Clothing? You’ll get the best fucking clothes Teyvat has ever seen.

If your a woman, Ningguang is willing to lend you her expensive and comfortable clothing. A man, go to Zhongli, your most devoted follower to exists.

Zhongli most likely has everything you’ll ever want, he’s been alive for 6000 years. He knows every spec of you.

He’s your most ‘normal’ obsessed follower. He’s willing to kill anyone who seems to irritate you, he’s willing to lend you his clothes, anything you want, he’s your man.

Your bodyguard is Xiao, Yelan, and The entire liyue Qixing.

Your favorite person in liyue is Xiao, as in your words ‘Xiao knows how to shut up… he’s also just pretty to look at’

Xiao watches you from the distance while still killing demons. Yelan stays beside you and probably ‘Flirts Respectfully’

Yelan herself would like to train you to fight, if you don’t know how to. Others believe you shouldn’t stain your hand with the filth of those who dare attack you.

Ningguang has a special room made for you on the jade chamber, before she destroyed it. But she’d most definitely make another jade chamber specifically as your home in liyue.

In short, if you want a easy free life with low expectations, go live in liyue.

Inazuma

Inazuma treats everything you do as royalty.

If you walk, everyone will move out the way for you, if you breath, people stop breathing in fear of taking your precious air, if you sit down in a restaurant others might move away from you, fearful of angering you or some might try to talk to you.

Ei herself becomes your bodyguard, while the shogun is busy with political and military affairs, she’s beside you, making sure no one even breaths the wrong way in your presence.

And your fine with it. Ei is an introvert herself and doesn’t ask stupid questions. That and she’s pretty to look at.

You have a room in the Tenshukaku, the only ones who can enter it are you (obviously) and Ei

Ei makes sure you have the most comfortable furniture in inazuma, along with the best view of the city. She’s not only your bodyguard, but your maid.

You want a massage? She suddenly knows how to give them. You want food? She bought a mountain of ingredients and the best chief in inazuma (It’s Thoma) someone’s bothering you? She kills them.

If you believe Zhongli was obsessive you’ve seen nothing yet. Ei acts like a overprotective Yandere, she never wants you to leave inazuma, but why would you leave? What do the other nations have that inazuma doesnt?

You have a archon practically kissing your feet. You have everyone’s respect, your have the best view of the city. Why would you want to leave? Has someone annoyed you that much? Who? she’ll end them!

She’d try to convince (manipulate) you to stay. She’s terrified of losing you, she lost her friends and sister she couldn’t even bare the thought of losing her beloved Creator.

Her obsession is driven by fear of loss and just pure devotion. She’d do anything, literally anything to keep you in inazuma.

Ultimately when you leave, she extremely sad and disappointed within herself. What did she do to make you leave? She’s completely fearful that you’ll perish despite knowing that no one would dare attack you. Give her a break, she has trauma.

Once you return to inazuma she wants to hug you from pure relief, just throw herself onto you, but she just sighs and says ‘I’m glad you came back your grace’

If your able to see her, touched starved attitude you’d hug her and allow her to hug back. She’s been really nice and good to you, it’s only fair right?

Sumeru

Sumeru is the most normal.

They don’t overprotect you, just above average protection.

You don’t really have a bodyguard here. You just have admirers and follower’s. Except Cyno, he’s your bodyguard.

Nahida is your tour guide, wherever you wanna go she’ll point you at the right direction.

You’ll possibly be milked for information about where you were before you descended to them, they’d be very interesting by the idea of ‘Television, and Video Games’

Besides that, Sumeru is quite literally normal, their driven by their logic not feelings.

[incorrectjackboxquotes]

I just came up with Jackbox Games ship names and i have nowhere else to post them, and since you liked my ship name for the TMP Killer & The Keeper, Deathinition, i have decided to awaken from my Tumblr hibernation to share the fruits of my mind.

Fated Fortunes (TWOEP X Cookie)

Thoughts and Prayers (Mentalist X TWOEP)

Cake by the Ocean (Jack C. X Capt. Chuck)

Stadium Dome (Champ'd Up Host X Glargan)

Tipped Scales (Lord Tippet X Tournament Master)

Internet Cookies (Todd X Cookie)

Time Keeper (Jerri X The Keeper)

Branded Biscuits (Creepy Voice X Cookie)

Low-Poly Specs (DODE X Gene)

Bubbly Laughter (M. Bubz X Capt. Chuck)

Trashy Television (Nikolas X Rue)

Sharp Tongue (Nate X Elizbeth)

Suction Talks (Octoputtz X Talking Points Hostess)

Mothernaise (Mayonnaise X Mother [as in the one from msm, not the Earwax host, that would be M.O.T.H.E.R.N.A.I.S.E.])

DODElion (DODE X Dandelion)

Guyman (Guy X Buzz)

F.BID.I. (Guesspionage Host X Bidiots Host)

Monkey Business (Prof. Nanners [i know she's an ape] X M. Bubz)

HellLiar (Demon Relocation Specialist X Cookie)

Potato Chips (Word Spud Host X Cookie)

Pen Pals (Drawful Hostess X Todd)

Technical Mastercest (Cookie X Masterson, C.)

Lies and Flies (Cookie X Lars)

Buzzsaw (Buzz X TMP Killer)

Bombshell (Greg X Conche)

Money Hungry (Predatory Loans X binjpipe [the companies themselves, the spokespeople would be Corporate Loans]

Jackcule (The YDKJ hosts X each other)

Packcule (Hosts from the same pack X each other [ex: Packcule 9])

Startercule (TMP Killer X Tournament Master X Schmitty)

Naughtycule (take a wild guess)

I will be returning to Tumblr hibernation now, sorry, this site's graphical updates makes my eyes sting too much to use it actively.

^ That's a LOT of ships!

[simbassims]

A (brief) Look at Sims 3's Edge Smoothing Technique

TLDR: If you have a good enough GPU, this is going to tickle it just a little. But if you are having FPS problems from lack of GPU power, absolutely disable this. Over my 10+ years of playing Sims 3, going through many different computers with a wide spectrum of specs, one thing never changed: Edge Smoothing ALWAYS caused slow downs for me. Yes. This little slider. I tried looking into it, and i guess i have a bit of answer why.

So, this one in particular has always been an outlier to me. Modern, frequently used anti-aliasing techniques on games usually do not have "sliders". Either you have it on, or you have it off. This immediately set off an alarm in my head: this is not your usual FXAA, which a big majority of games use. This is something else!

The first thing i went after was finding out what tech was behind it. It had to be something with levels (low, medium, high). My first step was looking into the graphics rule file to look for more info, and our mystery almost ends here.

There! FSAA, short for Full-Screen Anti-Aliasing and varying levels (2x, 4x and 8x sample rate). But there is one small detail: no game developer, in sane mind, would actually put FSAA as an anti-aliasing method. Not even Sims 3, with all its spaghetti code. Why? FSAA works by pretty much rendering multiple times the display resolution, then downsizing it to fit your display. Meaning... if you played Sims 3 at 1440p, and used the high setting... You would be virtually playing at something beyond 8K. Yes, you read that right. Needless to say, nothing would run this. By this alone, i would rule out FSAA. But FSAA is a primitive, super performance intensive solution. There are others... Here he is: MSAA (Multisample Anti-Aliasing)! MSAA is like that younger, smaller sibling of FSAA. It uses a technique similar to FSAA, but is less intensive in consideration due to not applying calculations to every single pixel on the screen (it is a bit more in-depth than this, but i'm not going to go that far :P) This is exactly what Sims 3 uses, or, at least, the engine's implementation of MSAA. But it being less resource intensive does not mean it is a good implementation either. MSAA in Sims 3 is still slow, still costs far too much compared to more common techniques, such as FXAA, and WILL cost you some good amount of FPS. Anything rather than Low/2x is pretty much sucking your GPU in exchange for... nothing. In my tests, some scenarios had an increase of 15% to 20% in GPU usage for very little actual edge smoothing, even on low. This might seem minor, but a lot of people play Sims 3 in GPU-bound scenarios and might not notice that a fraction of their lag is coming from this. Sure, you have less jaggies, but at what cost? (anywhere between 2 to 15 FPS, if i had to guess /s) So... what should i do? Well, it is your game and computer, so it depends from case to case! Are you running Sims 3 on a notebook that is not gaming-focused? Disable it and test it yourself. You might have a bottleneck caused by your graphics chip and disabling this will let the steam off a bit, making your game run better. Are you running Sims 3 on a gaming notebook/computer/gadget/device? You are (probably) safe. Again, this is a recommendation for GPU-bound scenarios. You could always test it yourself and see if you have any improvements, but chances are, your GPU might run it just fine. But... my game has too many jaggies now! There are other methods of anti-aliasing that are far easier on the GPU. You can use something like FXAA Tool to inject FXAA into Sims 3 (this one is a bit tricky), or use ReShade and some FXAA/SMAA (or any other anti-aliasing methods, use your plugins to your heart's desire) to have similar effects. A drawback of these solutions is that ReShade generally affects UI too, and anti-aliasing UI and fonts can make them look a tad bit funky. Still, these should be easier on your computer than MSAA. MY PERSONAL TIP: Use something like ReShade and a lightweight FXAA plugin for gameplay, then you might enable Edge Smoothing to take pictures. Or just use ReShade with more aggressive AA plugins to make things smoother. Or smooth everything out in Photoshop ;) (and save before toggling between the two, my game crashed multiple times while enabling/disabling Edge Smoothing for testing. Might be just me, but better safe than sorry.)

THAT'S A WRAP!

But before i go, fun fact: the game disabled edge smoothing automatically in the config files regardless of what GPU it detects you having. Guess they are scared their technique might crash and burn your fresh RTX 4090. /s

[bodhilicious]

I tried to play Veilguard last night and had to wait an ungodly amount of time for the shaders to render (6 hours). Played it this morning and got through character creator only to have the first cut scene run at a cool 6 fps. So I bring everything to medium with done at low and reload. It takes 10 minutes to verify the shaders and the cutscene is still only at 12 fps. I say fuck it and drop everything down as low as it will go and reload. 5 minutes to verify the shaders and I could do only get it to 22 fps 😭

Went to go repair the laptop with the specs to run it, only to find we don’t have any solder, so I can’t repair it until tomorrow evening! I want to play this game so bad, but I guess I’ll have to wait

[things-about-cars-in-posts]

Any favorite Car Games™ of yours? Forza, GT, Beam, Automation, etc.?

Auto/Beam are particular favorites of mine and also i have 10,000 hours logged between them

Since I wasn't a spoiled bitch, I can literally just list all the car games I had in my childhood. All for PC that is, because since I wasn't a spoiled bitch I didn't have a console. Okay actually there was NFS Carbon: Own The City and Herbie for DS but that was it. We were saying.

Colin McRae Rally 04 You've no idea what pain I brought to those poor little cars. Frequently I got to the end of one of those 2/4m stages with the car dying every 10/15 seconds. Such a good game. It also ran without having to insert its CD, which was very cool at the time, and very useful when I was gaming on the go on Father's Dell. idk if I also played it on his Toshiba but no such memory surfaces. Man I loved Father's Toshiba. I should try to retrofit it with new internals sometime.

Colin McRae Rally 2005 Liked that one too, but memories are hazier since at one point I was no longer able to play it for reasons I cannot recall so I just moved to 04 instead.

Test Drive Unlimited Got it recommended and didn't like it much. In hindsight it was an absolutely gorgeous game structure, but I just didn't care because I didn't like the way the cars drove. It collected dust.

Race Driver GRID For a long while, by far the latest racing game I ever had. Enjoyed it quite a lot! I even submitted an absolutely incredible gameplay clip to FailRace, though unfortunately it never did get featured. Bullshit, I say. And yes, for the longest time, I think until like 2020?, I had one single game that was younger than '06. See the part about not being a spoiled bitch. <-absolutely green with envy

GT Legends Played it a little during my youth, then tried to reinstall it years later to see if it lived up to my few memories of it and if I could get more out of it then by being less of a stupid baby. It corrupted the entire operating system and made the computer unable to start. A solid "no" to both.

And of course, who could forget, the Need For Speed series! In their chronological order:

Need For Speed Underground In my early childhood I didn't play it much, because I was still using the auto gearbox like a PLEB and you couldn't map controls in that game so when I got to the first drag race I couldn't figure out where the shift up key was nor could find it or remap it in settings and just abandoned the game. It should be noted as a child I was, in absolute, cosmically stupid. Later on I did pick it back up and see it to completion, loving it throughout (except for the part where you unlock the final boss' Civic you were neck and neck with on an R34 Skyline GT-R and they tell you it was stock. Sure honey now if you wait how did this bag of Fuck Off get here?). If only it had free roam, more races, a more varied environment, refillable NOS, the ability to have different cars simultaneously, and you get where I'm going with this don't you.

Need For Speed Underground 2 Man I loved this game since I started playing it at some ridiculously low age and I never stopped loving it and I was right throughout. I love love LOVE this game. I know the map by heart, the soundtrack by heart, the circuits by heart, the upgrades by heart, the starter cars specs by heart, you have no idea. This has been my childhood. This is by far and away the one I played and loved the most, even though due to the needlessly convoluted and completely obscure progression mechanics that childhood never saw me finish it - although I guess that helped me keep playing it, as when I got stuck with no way to progress further I'd just start from scratch again with no clue what to fix. I was able to pick it back up and finish it later on in life, through middle/high school, and later on still through the power of mods I squeezed and crushed and stretched that game like Tumblr did with Danny Phantom episodes. I modded it so much it crashed every ten minutes. I ran it off an iPod Nano. I messed the cars up so bad I'd essentially created new game modes. I managed to make a good desktop computer over a decade younger than the game itself run it at seconds per frame just by editing four wheel coordinates. And now you spoiled bitches can download it for free on somewhere like MyAbandonware (dot com, of course) and give it a try. And I can't recommend it enough. Literally; because if I could, friend of the blog @demoness-one would have done so by now >:(

Need For Speed Most Wanted The best Need For Speed game of all time, according to everyone. Everyone but me. I mean, I did go through it, but it looks bleak, the cars just seem to want to bounce from wall to wall, and I just don't like police chases - it's a game, why would I want a limited number of attempts? Also, they madly stressed me out, so, and here begins a funny story, I abandoned it when unable to rack up enough chase points to challenge the final boss. I picked it back up a while later to find out if it was just me being a baby, and no, I still didn't like it - but luckily I'd learned of the bug where if you park on a certain railing all the cop cars will pile up under you but never bust you, and decided to actually finish what I'd started so long before. Those points racked up, I worked myself through the good hour of bullshit unfairness of the duel with Razor (I have to win every race to win but he can win any race to win? Understandable. hey the bag of Fuck Off's back), even quitting the whole shebang three races in over a wrong input and having to start again, until, after hours of unsaveable progress, I finally was able to win the last race. And did you know that after that, just when you think you're done, you get the biggest, most intense car chase of the whole game? :) Well, I sure didn't, because right after I finished the race the game crashed and I had to do all those five races over again. :) And then I did that and it crashed again and I uninstalled the game and watched the ending on YouTube. :)

Need For Speed Carbon The takes get hotter still: I like this one more than MW. The colors got fixed, I liked the handling better (while obviously not as good as the mighty Underground 2 OF COURSE), drifting, my favorite race mode, replaced drag racing, my least favorite*, and yes, the car chases, and I may even like the soundtrack better? Nah, that's bull, I don't remember much of those two soundtracks at all off the top of my head. But I saw this one to the end and enjoyed it very much. *For the unaware, in every NFS game I played in my childhood, drag races did not give you steering control - to avoid traffic or obstacles, you tapped the arrow keys and the car would switch lanes. So you told the car to move out the way and if it did, good, if it instead took too long and/or had an unappealable loss of control and crashed automatically terminating your race, too bad.

There were also a couple other games there's not much to say about (Ford Streetracing, loved it, V-Rally 3, I think it had some issues and I never did play it, London Racer World Challenge, I recall nothing)... and now we move on to the car games I played since.

Assetto Corsa I've only ever dabbled in it a couple of times, but it's very fun when it works. My hardware is limiting on this front and I think I've some config issues, but when I'll have time to solve those I will be very glad to jump into it - especially because I really love driving simulators. Where with other games you kind of need some external validation of how hard it was to win with the tools the computer gave you -because it's not inherently cool that you beat a game, it was made to be beaten from the start- proper simulators just chuck you into an experience where no accommodation has been made for you (short of the damage level set, that is) and whatever you manage in it is your own accomplishment, not something the game let you accomplish. And on that note...

Richard Burns Rally This game is absolutely fucking incredible. "It's a 2004 game, how engaging a driving experience can it be" enough to make many still call it the best rally simulator out there and one of the best driving simulators period. Enough to motivate thousands of people to keep making a plethora of mods for it every day (which i've never been able to make work lol). Enough to make me seriously recommend buying yourself a wheel with force feedback* just to play this abandonware game (because using anything but a wheel for it is like using anything but a spoon for soup). And to be clear, this game is HARD. It just gives you a brief but extremely good rundown of how to master the driving basics and then have fun around rally stages where, again, the road has not been widened for you, the ditches not been filled, the car has not been programmed not to roll over too easily… essentially, the main way in which they are substantially easier than driving them IRL is the luxury of trial and error. So when, through however many days of trial and error it'll take you, you finally glide through those bumps smoothly enough to wipe the red off that time delta, this commercial flop the dozen-people-team from the Animaniacs GBA game developed when RAM was measured in megabytes becomes the most exhausting, intense, rewarding experience a computer has ever provided me. And a computer has gotten me laid. *I recommend the Logitech G25s, found for well under a dub, and the G27s, a small revision of the G25 with more buttons and a better shifter usually found for not much more (I found mine for 80!). They're from 2004 and 2010 respectively, and the wheel Logitech sells today is just a G27 with more buttons which says it all about how good a budget wheel it is.

TrackMania Nations Forever I hate this game, I fucking despise this game. "Alright, it's the same game we made two years ago with new tracks, and it has no story, opponents, traffic, cutscenes, or really any dynamic beyond checkpoints, a finish and a timer. But even still, there are so many fun mechanics to master anyway, like jump distance control, which you hopefully figure out you have because it's not like there is any tutorial to tell you! Or drifting, which is necessary to beat the best time in one of the last levels - you do it by pressing brake, accelerator and a steering direction simultaneously. Hope you randomly decide to do it autonomously to see what happens and find out that can be faster! And if you don't have a specialized keyboard with more than the normal 2 key rollover, hopefully something possessed you to map one of those controls to a completely different keyboard zone than all the others, or pressing all three will make only two register and you never will find this out! But at least not making any tutorials or the likes and keeping the interface absolute garbage allowed us to have the driving on absolute lock! Well, except for that bug where if you take the fastest line through a corner your car may decide to ragdoll and fuck your run. Oh and also the one where if you land a jump on all four wheels you may randomly lose your speed. Good luck!" I now get why they hate French people. Unfortunately, as for a lot of destructive hatred of mine, it manifests in yet more determination to conquer the little shit. I've gotten author times on every single one of the tracks except the last one, not because it's eight times longer than by far the second longest at an entire goddamn hour but because I wanted an effort that lengthy to be a special occasion and that never manifested. ...Maybe a stream?

Actually, I visited MyAbandonware to check the NFSU2 page and apparently they include a mod that puts the uncensored edits of the songs in the soundtrack and honestly I hella want to play it again just to hear that, so that could also be a cool stream idea if it wasn't a criminal deed to play copyrighted music on stream (I've not kept up with that whole mess, can you do it if you don't keep a VOD?). Or I could stream myself playing Richard Burns Rally and make you go "oh this is HARD hard".

Links in blue are posts of mine about the topic in question - if you liked this post, you might like those!

[blazehedgehog]

Well, what do you think of all the Switch 2 hooplah recently?

Everything we know sounds like Nintendo was very close to announcing a Switch Pro to supplement the Switch Lite. From what I remember (and maybe I'm getting some of this wrong, it's just from memory):

In the big Nvidia leak, a second driver branch was discovered for the Switch's specific brand of Tegra chip that included a new version of DLSS, the tech that upscales low resolution displays up to 4K. It was assumed this was for the Switch Pro.

It's not just that the Nvidia leak was for the Switch's Tegra chip, I believe it was for, like, a "version 2" (or even version 3) of that same chip.

Bloomberg ran a report that a dozen or so developers had Switch Pro development kits and were targeting their games for it. I don't think it's unreasonable to assume something like Mortal Kombat One and the Batman Collection were probably including the Switch Pro in their targets, and the performance problems people reported in Link's Awakening HD were probably meant to be cleaned up by the Pro. Digital Foundry also has noted that Nintendo's own trailer footage of Tears of the Kingdom appeared to be running on hardware much better than a stock Switch.

Some reports of the Switch 2 are "more evolution than revolution" and it feels to me like Nintendo is just taking the Switch Pro and maybe just bumping it up a little more. After all, they have all this work done on development for the Pro, so why not just extend the capabilities a little more?

The current target is said to be "in the same range as the PS4", right? For a portable, I think that's about right. The ignorant will moan at how behind the curve Nintendo is on hardware, but one, that's how Nintendo actually remains profitable, and two, that's kind of the limit of what a portable system is capable of.

Because we have the Steam Deck now, right. And the Steam Deck has created a market of Steam Deck competitors -- stuff like the ROG Ally and the Ayaneo. And for the current price point ($400-$700), we generally seem to have hit a limit of what's possible in portable hardware, and it's right around that "about as powerful as a PS4" spec.

The ROG Ally and Ayaneo can push things beyond that a little bit, but the added power consumption basically makes the battery on these things worthless. Which is to say nothing about system heat; the ROG Ally was famous for having an emergency ejector function that would suddenly launch the SD card from the slot like a missile under the danger that it was getting so hot it might melt.

We're simply at the boundary of what's possible in that form factor, doubly confirmed by Valve stating last year that we wouldn't see a Steam Deck 2 "for at least a couple years." For something this light, this thin, this is as stable and as usable as it gets.

I imagine the Switch 2 will be somewhat competitive in this arena, but not quite as powerful or versatile as a Steam Deck. But it won't exactly be a slouch, either. I imagine it'll be the sort of thing where a $300 Switch 2 will be "good enough" but a $400 Steam Deck will still edge it out in performance.

Will Nintendo announce the Switch 2 this year? Maybe, I guess. I always got the impression that they didn't announce the Switch Pro because sales on the vanilla Switch were way too strong and they didn't want to water down the market with too many alternate SKUs. But now vanilla Switch sales seem to be falling pretty fast and they're in a position to get this thing to market quickly, so I think they will.

[purplehanfu]

Self Indulgent Birthday Post: 2023

notes: Spoilers!, probably. Yay, it's my birthday again! Enjoy some of my finest unfinished work!

Oh? You have both my interest and attention!

Booooo.... (this disappointment brought to you by The Young Brewmaster’s Adventure, which happens to be the prequel to Blood of Youth)

Recap Recycle Bin

So many dramas and never enough time to write a full review. Read on! 

Dominator of Martial Gods

tl:dr for this drama

Each episode is 35 minutes long, feels like 3,500 minutes, and delivers maybe 10 minutes worth of story. Impressive! 

We waste a great deal of time in the first few episodes watching Qin Chen and the bootlicking alchemist refine a needle that will allow our hero to activate his bloodline. Intriguing, because you often hear dramas refer to treasures being refined into weapons, but you never see the process. There's a reason for this- it does not make for compelling viewing. But that does not stop us from standing around arguing about the specs and adding things to the oven. This process was more fun when Chu Wanning just takes you up to the lake. On a technical note, I am enamored of the way the ever present green screened background makes no attempt to be in scale with the human actors.

My Deepest Dream

Ooh, a plot with a time loop, evil birds, superpowers, getting sucked into the Marianas Trench when you just wanted to go on a scuba diving excursion and JIN HAN!!! But, as always, there's a glitch in the matrix.

Our heroine realizes she has lost a year of her life and no one has noticed. No one except the astrophysics PhD candidate turned car mechanic Wu Yu (JIN HAN!!!). Wu Yu divulges that he can read a phone screen at 10 kilometers. But mostly he uses his special eyes to keep an elaborate dossier on the comings and goings of the FL, who lives across the street from the garage he works at. Is that creepy or romantic?

don’t be silly, if it were a Marvel movie we’d be having an interminable CGI sky battle 

Till the End of the Moon

Meet Tantai Jin. As you may have noticed from his costume design, he's totally evil.

He's a goal-oriented CEO who's turned the Devil Sect into a high reliability organization that generates impactful customer experiences (annihilation). I bet he's evil enough to use six sigma. But where Tantai Jin truly shines is personal branding. You may not be buying what he's selling, but product recognition is through the roof.

Tantai Jin seen here working out of his travel office: a flaming, flying boudoir with melting skull detail. This is why CEOs should never make more than 10x what the average worker does.

Circle of Love

I can see why the Republican period was relatively short. Everybody setting fire to each other's estates, staying out late ballroom dancing, getting uniforms tailored, making sure there are enough manacles to chain the female lead to a bed... it doesn't really leave a lot of time for governance.

We start out, as we generally do, with a clean sweep of the FL's family, in this case via a big ol' raging house fire. Where is everyone? Or even anyone? Even Maid's Revenge scraped up some extras to be dead family members.

My Kung Fu Girlfriend

Slow your roll, it ain't GL.

You know what they say- it's not whether you win or lose the MMORPG, it's how you min max all your stats and then act like an ass in chat about it.

Meet Huang Xiao Yu. She clearly did not pay to win because she is the low XP real life martial sister of a kung fu champion. In this drama, she'll level up in love and life with the help of an OP MMO NPC who escapes her game and shows up uninvited in the real world.

The Antarctic Octopus

Not to be confused with the 2020 film Big Octopus. I guess that's the great thing about having an audience of over a billion people- even the most niche interest has plenty of content.

This is how you dress when you visit your Uncle Pete in Antarctica.

In this movie: monsters, explosions, a supercharged ice jalopy and a dedicated ignorance of the laws of physics usually only seen in a Fast and Furious film. But credit where it's due: The Antarctic Octopus delivers. Only 12 seconds in and we get our first tentacle!

available free on youtube although how bravely they were fighting is up for debate

Bonus Content: Superlatives

In the Day We Flipped

My post of the year!

Getting over 500 likes on a review? Unexpected.

Forgetting to add a link back to my other recaps? Priceless.

Bloody Romance

still my favorite drama

when your grandma’s a zombie and she was left in a cave to guard a tiny box with one (1) restorative pill in it and she’s suspended by her hair but her hair is also like tentacles that can kill people and she thinks you’re your mom but she still loves you. 💚💚💚 But then she starts screaming and tries to strangle you with her hair.

Heroes

2nd favorite drama

you know something’s good when you have a file called ‘sappy su mengzhen yang wuxie edits.txt’

go get your man, Wuxie!

pinboard full of recaps!

[awesomesauceme05]

Dude bros getting salty about Baldur’s Gate 3 winning game of the year is so funny to me, because the game is just THAT good, and I am proof of that.

For context, I am a chronic game abandoner. I have never finished any RPG I’ve started except Deltarune, and that’s because it’s short and digestible. I only even started Baldur’s Gate 3 because I saw a YouTube Short about Astarion and I was like “Huh, guess this dude is funny and a hot vampire, my favorite traits in a man. Guess I have to get the game just to romance him.”

Yet here I am 30 hours into the game because it’s just that good. The gameplay is amazing, and the amount of choices it lets you have is like nothing I’ve ever played. All the characters are so well written and interesting, even the minor ones. And even on my low spec laptop, the game is eye candy. The character creation is excellent and I made the coolest Tav with it. And yes, Astarion is a great character that I still simp for, but he was the gateway drug into this excellent game.

Moral of the story is that if this game could convert a chronically online simp like me into a gamer, then it must just be that good.

[ace-malarky]

Find the Word Tag #25

Okies I'm just waiting for my friend to get online so we're filling the time with writing with answering tags! bc it has been a Minute and also we're slamming several tags into one just bc. you know how it goes.

I'm just gonna do a blind search through the in progress folder bc why the heck not. Nothing on its own is long enough/likely to help lmao

And I'm gonna tag uhhhh @winterandwords, @zmwrites, @albatris for startle, leaf, stripe, and pot

@writingamongther0ses gave me thin, girl, help, indeed, unfortunate.

THIN (WCC, Phase 2)

 The door was humming again.  She snapped her eyes open in the darkness of the dorm room and listened to the droning hum. It drilled at the base of her skull and she was unable to ignore it.  No one else was ever woken by it. No one else ever heard it in the dead of night, while they were trying to sleep.  As her eyes adjusted to the dim room – shadows gliding across the walls, courtesy of thin curtains and the intermittent cars on the road outside – she realised that this time, something was new.  The door glowed around the hinges, the cracks where it didn’t quite meet the floor. A light still on, perhaps. It wasn’t an especially steady light; maybe someone held it.

GIRL (Soul of the Party)

“Celyn,” Carlin said, voice low. “Mother found her in the drawing room. She didn’t remember how she got there.” They paced onto the sand, hand on their sword. Selene sucked in a breath. Celyn was Carlin’s younger sister – barely out of childhood, she was a sweet girl. Liked everyone. Easy to get along with. Trusting. “Is she alright?” She’d seen her just the night before, at a small get-together that the Itakais had thrown. “She is shaken,” Carlin replied, pulling the sword from their hip and swinging it through the air. “But not physically harmed.”

HELP (Superhero Shenanigans)

Kite: we can call it that sure. more thinking like seeing who needs cover I guess Clara: So I guess we *really* just have to hope no one’s phone gets nicked? For security purposes. Kite: uh Onni: I mean its not like we’ll be blatant about it? Just “hey I could use some help @so-and-so" or smth Don’t mention specs

INDEED (the night before wintermas)

 Quentin blinks at her. “Uh… ok? I’m sure we’ll need someone with your expertise on the job, welcome aboard!” His gaze falls on the blond sitting down. “And you?”  “Tarquin Phautheringhamme the sixth,” he says, sneering. “As if you didn’t already know.”  “… Indeed.”  “I’m just the man you need for this job,” Tarquin continues, “I can promise you it will only go badly if you don’t hire me.”

UNFORTUNATE (Sacrifice)

 Sevre stopped in front of his seat – couldn’t be his seat, that was the Chancellor’s seat, he wasn’t Chancellor – and gestured to the sky, silver mist flooding from his hands. Valour sighed in envy, watching him.  “In the very unfortunate absence of our dear Chancellor Queron, I take it as my duty to announce the games – open!” Sevre’s voice was loud, and probably could be heard even far from the coliseum.  I didn’t like it. His voice wasn’t right. It sent shivers down my spine, and set my face itching. Couldn’t reach to scratch it. I couldn’t. That would be bad, especially if people found out.

@loopyhoopywrites gave me Hurt, Word, and End.

HURT (the many lives of Makaria Trapeiros)

 “Luci!” Pahzrasi pulls her over onto her back, and gasps in horror at the extent of the damage. “No, no, no…” They place a hand over the worst of it, where it’s burned through to Luci’s skin.  They ignore the fight. Trapeiros is knocked back, bleeding and the rest of the party forces him away from where Pahzrasi kneels with Luci.  Luci’s armour has stopped burning. Her skin is char and embers, burnt away. It should hurt, but the shadows were racing through her veins and that was all she could feel.  “Why?” Pahzrasi asks, their hand glowing as they try to heal the damage.  “Don’t,” Luci says, flinching back from the cold-fire feel of Pahzrasi’s magic.

WORD (Razmatazz)

 The mage laughs. “I doubt it even knows how to read. It would no doubt sooner burn it all for warmth.”  It sounds like the dragonborn hisses. “If I see a goblin in here, I will take the appropriate steps.” The words sound like a dismissal. “In the mean time, you are disrupting my research.”  “My apologies, ma’am.” The mage bows to her and walks away.

END (The Lord Vampire's Fall)

 Ariel stepped out into the sunrise at the eastern edge of the land. Beyond the harbour walls lay the sea, and beyond the sea - the crystalline ships of the nereid ring the far reaches of the fishing grounds to keep the rage of the raudkembingur at bay. None have crossed and come back alive, though there are whispers of a land apart.  The demon grinned in the weak winter light and stretched fingers to sky and toes to earth, making of itself a spear for the unwary. Hunger dwelt light within its breast, quieter now that Leira strode the other end of their grounds.  Ariel hopped up to the wall and watched the craft go sailing out; their prey was not aboard, and those small few would not bring back tribute to interest them nor their lord.

@skyderman gave me hunt, read, cover, and waste.

HUNT (so the bran rhi sings)

 Brandi tilted her head, agreeing. “Perhaps it will help you, too.”  Bleddyn snorted and swung up onto Fall’s back. “Fly well, Fair Brandrhi.”  Brandi laughed and looked up. “Hunt well, dear Puppy,” she replied.  Bleddyn bared her teeth, and Fall leapt into motion amongst the trees. One stride– two strides, and Brandi was lost behind them, and the forest was no longer a forest but the beach and they raced amongst the surf at night, kicking it up behind them.

READ (Sky's Necklace)

 Sanna opened her door to scramble out, and together they entered the cemetery.  It was much as Robin remembered it. Rows and rows of tombstones, from the oldest – weather beaten and covered in moss, some of them fallen over – right through to the pristine ones erected this year.  “They didn’t say which part of the cemetery, did they?”  Sanna unfolded the scrunched up note in her hand to read again. The print had worn off it long ago, and despite their carefulness with it, it was beginning to split along the folds.  “No. Just… to come to the graveyard.” She looked up. “Maybe we got the day wrong?”

COVER (we provide... leverage)

 Aurora stopped at the edge of the sea and puts her bag down. “Keep an eye out for anyone coming?”  Pim stood between her and the cliffs as Aurora crouched down. She pulled off her coat and then her jumper, shirt and tanktop. She found the long-sleeved top she’d cut down for this purpose and pulled it on, making sure it didn’t cover the top of her wing struts. Then her tanktop went back on, and everything else got folded into her bag.  “Alright.” She stretched, shivering slightly in the wind coming off the sea.

WASTE (forget to fall)

“Wait, are you actually tidying?” Mark leant back in. “That’s wild. Are we expecting someone to finally take that bed?” He gestured at the one Casey lay on. “I have no idea, I was just going to find all my school stuff and throw it in the bin.” Mark blinked at her. “Yeah, have fun with that.” When he left this time, he pulled the door shut in his wake. “I don’t think you should throw everything in the bin,” Casey said “That would be a waste.” “It’s not like I’m going to need half of it again.” “What about the other half?” “A compelling argument, kiddo.” Kari dropped onto the bed beside him. “This tidying up isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. Games?”

[rednorka]

i conveniently saved this news article about some company doing exactly that!

Granted, it's a prototype and not-so-appealing-looking one at that but at least we know someone is interested in doing it...

Though for me stuff like graphics, sound and target audience were also a thing that interested me in the DS - it wasn't exactly high-resolution but it could do low-poly 3D; it could play streamed audio but most games used sampled audio; it's for both casual and hardcore gamers alike.

These are hard to achieve with a device like this, but I think it would be indeed nice to just have a DS but with better inside specs, maybe extra sensors that were GBA slot accessories before. Something like a 3DS but the kind that's even closer to the DS without losing the technical specs... essentially the alternate continuation of the DS->DSi->3DS ??? route, I guess.

Unironically I think we need just a more powerful DS again. Dual screens fuck. The amount of creativity and interactivity and cool UI that went into DS games is literally unmatched and like those things were tough as fuck too. Please hear my wish. I get that the switch is technically handheld and thus portable but also no it is not that thang is so delicate and lacks the sophistication of just being able to shut it at a moments notice to pause everything without having to hit a pause menu. Does anyone hear me. Hello. Pokémon ranger.

[blondie-inky-esaldir]

Unpopular opinion

Dragon Age: Inquisition is a great game.

Origins and DA2 are great as well, especially in their time. But I love Dragon Age: Inquisition for its open world and I actually enjoy the sub quests.

For Dragon Age Origins, I do think it has the best written plot. I also like the scheme of gathering allies. It reminded me slightly of this other game, Suikoden V, where I had to gather all 100 allies, some of which were optional and didn't even really add to the story. But I need to gather them all to get the best ending for the game. But I digress. As for Dragon Age 2, I like the relationship mechanics of the game of having 'rivalry' points and 'friendship' points, which is an interesting approach to the high vs low approval thing. It's interesting how you can still romance them even with rivalry points being high. Not that I'd ever go for a rival romance with Anders, or anyone for that matter.

Going back to Inquisition, I actually like that we can really control the Inquisitor's backstory since there's some lacking to the back story compared to the Warden for Dragon Age Origins. I like that there's no strict canon to follow and you can decide your own headcanon for them.

Finding shards and guessing the puzzles in the Astrarium was also fun. I also think all the companions are interesting. I don't like Viviene that much, or more like… I like her least of all. But I do like some parts of her personality. Particularly, I like the difference of her treatment to you when she has a high approval vs low approval after getting to Skyhold.

For the specializations, they're fun to do in the gameplay. For Mage, I love the Knight-Enchanter spec. For Rogues, I always go for 'the Tempest.' For warriors, I only tried Reaver to get interesting dialogues from the Iron Bull romance. However, my favorite is 'Champion.'

Since Corypheus is a returning enemy, I don't quite care that he was kinda downplayed. For me, he's not really the 'big boss.' As the Inquisitor didn't suffer anything personal for him, aside from getting the mark. I mean, it's not like Corypheus killed someone special to the Inquisitor or such.

It felt more like the Inquisitor had to stop the breach and get things back to normal because literally no one else can do it but them. If you compare them to the other PCs… Well, the Warden had to but they weren't the only ones who could slay the Archdemon. The plot just put them there, but there were also other Grey Wardens. That's why the game provided the option to have Alistair or Loghain make the sacrifice. Hawke is the Champion of Kirkwall, but in the first place, he's also just some guy just trying to survive and help their family (and failing, sadly. Sometimes, it's cathartic play an douche route Hawke so my heart won't break so much for them.)

Anyway, I'm rambling. I just really love this game.

[markantonys]

ohmigosh, your sims are all adorable!! and i love their stories so much :) i used to lovingly tolerate 3 bc i had a pretty low-spec computer so it was very laggy, but now i have an actual gaming laptop and 3 isn't compatible anymore, so i play 4 all the time. i've also got a ton of mods (99% clothing and hair bc i'm addicted to dressing my sims up), including the ones you mentioned - they're such a big help when it comes to gameplay, i love them <3

please don't worry about infodumping, it's so cool to meet another sims fan!!

thank you!! <33 haha yeah i remember sims 3 was SO laggy and took like 20 minutes for me to boot up every time, i still have a subconscious mindset of "okay, once i load up sims i can't exit out of the game until i'm fully 100% done playing for the day because it's not worth trying to load it twice in one day" even though 4 only takes a couple minutes to load. and i totally feel you, dressing my sims up is one of my top favorite parts of the game, and there's so much amazing cc out there!

oh, i just realised i forgot to answer your question: i'm an aging on simmer, but i think i might turn it off bc i too prefer just starting up new households rather than going through generations. i am very much an autonomy off girlie, though; i tried leaving it on, but the control freak in me likes micromanagement too much 😅 this is my last one, i promise: can you tell me if having autonomy on makes storytelling more interesting? i pick a bunch of traits that should make my sims more/less compatible, but for some reason they don't react to things the way i want them to (then again some of the traits are modded ones rather than base game ones so that might be partly the reason, they don't always seem to have an effect on sim behaviour)

you should give aging off a shot to see how you like it! i like my current system of having aging off in one save file and aging on in a different one so i can have it both ways and do my legacy challenge properly without messing with my rotational freeplay households. when i have aging off i do still age up my sims using a birthday cake, but i just do it whenever i feel like they're ready for the next life stage rather than the game having a set day that's their birthday. so it can get kinda weird if my sim is going to high school with the same teens her mom went to high school with because i aged their household up manually but everyone else is immortal djkfg but i don't usually last more than 2 generations in a single family so for me it's not much of an issue!

and i SO know what you mean about liking micromanagement too much haha i definitely still micromanage my sims even with autonomy on! so in that respect it can be challenging if you're constantly trying to stop them from doing things you don't want them to do. i like it especially for large households because if i can't keep track of everybody, having autonomy on will make them eat on their own when they get hungry etc whereas i believe if it's off they'll just die unless i specifically tell them to eat. as for whether it makes storytelling more interesting, yes and no, i also feel like traits don't have a huge effect on storytelling and autonomy on doesn't really change that too much, i don't think (besides a couple, like goofball sims keep trying to prank toilets with autonomy on, romantic sims are more likely to autonomously flirt, and i'm guessing mean or evil sims would keep being autonomously mean, but i never make mean or evil sims because i'm too soft haha).

i think social interactions are the area where autonomy on most spices up gameplay because your sim might randomly flirt with or be mean to someone you didn't expect them to (especially if they're in certain moods, being in a flirty mood makes them extra likely to autonomously flirt with someone and being in an angry mood makes them extra likely to autonomously be mean). this can be a fun way to throw in some curveballs, or it can also be infuriating if your sim decides to flirt with some rando right in front of their spouse and now the whole marriage is in shambles djkfg i would say if you're thinking of testing out autonomy on, maybe give it a go with a 1-2 sim household to start so that you can get a sense for what autonomy on is like, but it's a small enough household that it's easy to keep an eye on everybody and prevent them from going too off the rails!

[dirtmunch]

Ok I've learned the FUCK TON of game breaking glitches in Alan wake 2 are not in fact a result of a pirated copy and low spec pc, but are in fact universal to pc and console alike. I wanna like this game but man this game is way too fucking broken to be considered finish. Another example of supposedly high production games getting rushed out the door unfinished and broken I guess

[not-radioshack]

Writeup: To boldly stumble… pushing the Alliance AT3D to its limits

Yeah. We're venturing into levels of absolute jank that none have ever gone before.

This writeup is also available on The Retro Web!

Fun fact, this card singlehandedly killed Alliance Semiconductor's graphics division! All three successor cards that were planned for release after the AT3D were promptly scrapped and never heard of again. Alliance themselves would crumble not long after, and at present is a shell of its former self that manufactures only memory chips as opposed to… well, mainly memory chips and a few other things on the side.

Aaaaaaanyhow, let's get on with this with a quick spec-dump.

Alliance AT3D - specs

Year released: 1997

Core: Alliance AT3D, unknown manufacturing node, 61MHz

Driver version: 4.10.01.2072

Interface: PCI

PCI device ID: 1142-643D / 0000-0000 (Rev 02)

Mem clock: 61MHz real/effective

Mem bus/type: 4MB 64-bit EDO, 488MB/s bandwidth

ROPs/TMUs/Vertex Shaders/Pixel Shaders/T&L hardware: 1/1/0/0/No

DirectX support: DirectX 6 (DX 3/5)

OpenGL support: - Native: no support - Techland OGL to D3D: --100% OpenGL 1.1 compliant --12% OpenGL 1.2 compliant --0% compliant beyond OpenGL 1.2 --Vendor string:

Vendor: Techland Renderer: Direct3D (display, Primary Display Driver) KNI Version: 1.1 beta 6

OpenGL support (continued) - AltOGL OGL to D3D: --100% OpenGL 1.1 compliant --100% OpenGL 1.2 compliant (but I highly doubt it) --Vendor string:

Vendor: Brian Paul Renderer: altD3D Version: 1.2 Mesa 3.0

As for the rest of the system...

Windows 98 SE w/KernelEX (no updates)

Matsonic MS7102C

Intel Pentium III (Coppermine) @ 750 MHz

256MB PC-133 SDRAM (single stick of Kingston KVR133X64C3/512, can't extract SPD data bc system crashes)

Hitachi 4GB Microdrive

Some random Slot 1 Cooler Master CPU cooler

And with that out of the way, onto the notes!

So. Uh, yeah. The Alliance AT3D, and more specifically this AT3D, is a very... VERY strange card. Despite releasing rather late for a 3D-capable graphics chip in comparison to the competition, the AT3D is very clearly half-baked at best, and a flaming dumpsterfire at worst. I'm not sure if it's the hardware itself or drivers written by the world's worst driver dev team to have ever existed, but there is something very, very wrong with the 3D rendering capabilities that this card has.

As implied by the specs of the card from up above, the AT3D has no native OpenGL support. Or native DirectX 6, for that matter. Windows 98 just happens to like to stamp DX6 support onto cards that don't support anything higher. This card was released targeting Windows 95, and drivers for Windows 98 and up were never made available. Luckily, with how similar the two OSes are at the kernel level, the Win95 drivers are fully-compatible with '98. Yes, that is in spite of the atrocious 3D rendering.

So, anyway. OpenGL. That was what this video was intended to focus on, but between me catching Covid back in August and only finally recovering enough to begin recovering by late September, the video ultimately ended up as this congealed pile of rambling and chaos, with plenty of Windows 98 crashes sprinkled in for flavor.

ClassiCube runs... okay, I guess, if you're willing to look past the amazing rendering quality. AltOGL crashes ClassiCube 1.3.5, and though I've been told that 1.3.6 works with AltOGL, with the AT3D at least it still crashes.

So, instead of AltOGL, I am using Techland's OpenGL to Direct3D wrapper. Though intended to be a "mini-GL" for their Crime Cities game, Techland's wrappers have a decent reputation for speed and compatibility among low-end cards. Though, the AT3D is clearly an outlier on both fronts.

Minecraft itself is unable to launch with either wrapper. With the Techland wrapper, the game complains about not being able to create an OpenGL context, which isn't too surprising given how the Techland wrapper implements only a subset of the OpenGL spec. Slightly more surprising, however, is the fact that AltOGL also fails to allow the game to launch, instead resulting in an instant crash back to desktop. So, while Minecraft proper isn't able to run on the AT3D, I still would say that you could pull off some block game shenanigans with this thing if you're willing to suffer the pain of its rendering hardware screaming in agony.

Other games aside from Minecraft and ClassiCube were tested as well, or at least attempted to be tested, but much like Minecraft itself, they crashed in varying levels of severity with both wrappers. Aside from ClassiCube, the only thing I was successful in running were the 3DMark99 and 2000 benchmarks and demos.

But, this is not where this writeup ends. Oh, no. There's still a completely fresh, unopened can of worms sitting right here on the table for all of us to enjoy.

That can of worms? The card itself and its BIOS.

If you take a look at VGA Legacy MKIII's entry on the Alliance AT3D, you'll find that all of the cards shown on the website are made by a company called "Super Grace". All of them are identical.

My card, however, has a little extra something: a populated 10-pin header.

I'm not 100% sure about what its function is, but just from eyeballing where the traces lead to from the pin header suggests that this may be a header for some kind of optional TV-out add-on board. Perhaps one that outputs composite and/or s-video. It certainly fits in line with the strange video BIOS (vBIOS) that this card comes with. (Also, wow! Matching graphics core, PCB, and memory chip branding! And look at that neato peacock logo from an unknown company!)

So then. The BIOS. This card's BIOS is version 4.30.00 Build 29, whereas the version of BIOS on the Super Grace cards is 2.30.00 Build 29. The differences go beyond just a bump from a 2 to a 4, too; the "version 4" BIOS has a neat animated Alliance Semiconductor logo and banner that slides in from the right, whereas the "version 2" BIOS is a static text box with no logo or anything. However, the lack of animation does also allow the system to complete the bootup process much faster.

Below are a pair of videos demonstrating the difference:

Beyond the visual differences, the primary functional difference between the v2 and v4 BIOSes is that the v2 BIOS seems to be completely unaware of the card's seeming TV-out capability. The v4 BIOS, however, is practically hypersensitive to it.

I'll give you a rundown of what happened.

I often use a program called "VCS" to let my Datapath VisionRGB capture card pass video through and act more or less like a regular monitor. The problem, however, is that apparently, when the capture card is hooked up to the AT3D, this causes the EDID (Extended Display Identification Data) that the capture card sends to the AT3D to seemingly identify itself (to the AT3D, at least) as... a TV.

Now, normally this shouldn't be much if any issue. Graphics cards after all are meant to be able to handle this sort of connection. Heck, before the capture card, I was using an actual TV as the monitor for my testbench.

But because weird hardware seems to gravitate towards me, this was not the case for the AT3D. Whatever EDID info the capture card seems to send to the AT3D when VCS is used causes the card to trigger its "TV mode", which enables a TV features tab in the card's graphics settings and disables almost all of the regular settings for refresh rate and screen positioning available in the regular settings tab. Attempting to disable the TV features tab results in a system crash.

The solution to this? Going into the VisionRGB configuration, manually wiping the EDID information, and using OBS as a video-out from the capture card instead after rebooting both the capture system and the testbench. This finally gets the AT3D to recognize the capture card as a regular monitor rather than a TV, and makes the TV features tab go away and unlocks the regular monitor settings.

The v2 BIOS does not do any of this.

I really don't have anything else to say about this card. The AT3D alone is already known for being one of if not THE worst graphics card to ever exist, and the extra sprinkle of weird behavior that my specific card shows is more or less just icing on the terribleness cake. The lack of the ability to really do anything aside from purely-2D tasks makes it hard to have much that can be done with the card in the first place. Though, I guess Baldur's Gate 1 works pretty well since it's a sprite-based isometric 3D game that only uses 2D rendering techniques.

Anyway yeah this card is peak jank lol. Have my card's weird BIOS that doesn't exist anywhere else on the internet. The v2 BIOS is available from VGA Legacy MKIII.

Also the AT3D can run Tux Racer if you slap AltOGL on it. It crashes the whole system if you try and use the Techland wrapper, so the behavior is the polar opposite of ClassiCube 1.3.5.

Update: It appears that the Youtube RetroTechBytes also has a nearly-identical AT3D, peacock logo and all: