#no one needs more than 30 fps

[azuresage]

Boy, Monster Hunter Wilds sure looks great on the Steam Deck!

[xxplastic-cubexx]

now i aint ever had no one on the enemy team call me out.... lol ...... abysmal they say this right as the mvp screen pops up too.....

[awkward-teabag]

You know what, I'm going to add to this after all. Ray tracing is a gimmick and infamous for how intensive it is on hardware where it updates in real time, such as in video games. Before it was considered at all feasible outside rendering CGI, there were other methods of simulating light that were far easier for hardware to handle and, honestly, the difference between them (I can't remember what the name of the algorithm is) and ray tracing is minimal.

Adding to the problem is video card manufacturers pushing it while not increasing the VRAM on cards that are now expected to handle ray tracing, NPC scripts/AI, all other graphics, and stream encoding at the same time. GPUs have not seen a meaningful increase in VRAM in years despite the push of 4k graphics and ray tracing.

Oh and handling generating in-between frames to increase FPS/hide poor optimisation and up-scaling from 1080p to 4k or 8k. Sometimes both at the same time (in addition to the rest).

Further compounding it is consoles using stripped down versions of GPUs but not allowing users to upgrade them or other hardware. At least not in an easy way that doesn't void the warranty.

There's only so much that can be off-loaded to other components and it is a Choice™ to decide not to include an option to disable features that minimally improve the graphics (I specify graphics since more than one game has been released where turning off ray tracing wasn't the first thing recommended to turn off if you wanted to hit 30+ FPS) but can and do overwhelm GPUs.

Mandatory Ray Tracing should be banned in games. Genuinely absurd to think the majority of consumers are running high performing RTX graphics cards.

[ganondoodle]

watching a video of someone playing an older game (not even THAT old) and constantly having to hear them go 'omg can you imagine how much more pretty and good this would be if it ran at 60+ fps with highest end graphics of the current modern games and in 4k???' over and over while also commenting on some graphics looking slightly muddy and how ugly and shitty 30 fps is

and i just cant help but get incredibly annoyed at that, cant you just appreciate the game for what it is?? the constant focus on smoother everything and graphics so detailed it looks faker than the real world is such a limited view on games- more polygons and higher res textures doesnt equal better ffs

i, and i might out myself with an unpoluar opinion here, but remakes are in my opinion often rather unecessary, just rerelease the old game, just make it avaible for people, officially, you dont have to reprogramm the entire thing!! maybe upscale it a little so it doesnt get stretched into a blurry mess if possible but even that i will work with no problem!! there are cases where its pretty much an entirely different game (FF7?) and i get seeing one of your fav old games get some new paint can be really cool, not arguing against that- what i dont like is that those remakes replace the original as that isnt made avaible, only the new version- like i wish i could play windwaker on my switch, but i cant stand the "HD" remake of it and i know if it ever were to get ported it will only be that version like the original doesnt exist anymore and my earlier point that many people consider more fps, more polygons, more resolution as automatically better

i dont need games to be running at 60+ fps, 30 is enough, sure id like it to run smoothly on that without huge drops, but when its stable 30, why would i need more? more often than not i prefer simplified graphics bc they often focus on the most important parts of what they are trying to achieve or work with an interesting style to compensate and i LOVE THAT, also id like to not have to download 100+ GB even when i would turn it on its lowest settings anyway, save me the space- and that is if i even got hardware that can run it at all, my computer struggles with slime rancher and i dont have the funds to buy the newest consoles nor computers

im not against remakes per se, but the fact that the old will more often than not disappear entirely and remain unavaible forever and that higher end graphics are automatically seen as better drives me nuts

[ladyaldhelm]

Making Gifs Part 1 - Capturing Video

I am making this for @errruvande but I thought maybe others could use this guide to. This is my own personal workflow on how I make my gifs. Everyone has their own way of doing it, and there is no right or wrong way, but I have found this works best for me, with my limited tools and since I do not have photoshop.

Please note I am not an expert lol! There are people out there making far better gifs than me, and many other gifmaking resouces on Tumblr that are probably better than mine.

Keep reading below >>>

So there are two ways that I have found that work for capturing video. If you have the discs like I do, using a program like Videobyte BD-DVD Ripper works really well to grab video clips from Blu-Rays and DVD's. I recommend only using Blu-Rays if you have them. since DVD's are much lower quality.

However I have noticed the videos I captured with this program tend to be dark and have some compression artifacts, even when rip to an MKV with high quality settings. So I use a different method which I feel produces higher quality video captures.

I use Windows Screen Recorder (I have Win11 but this will work for all versions of Windows) with the quality settings set to High. In order to do this, go to Settings > Gaming > Captures and set the following:

Make sure the Video Quality is set to High, set your Screenshots folder, turn off Audio (you don't need it), and keep the frame rate to 30 fps.

For Windows 11 press WIN + ALT + R to activate the screen recorder. There is usually a bit of a delay so make sure you start a few seconds before the scene you want to capture. And try to keep the length of the capture below about 90 seconds; the shorter the better.

______________________________________________________________

Capturing Sequential Caps

So, for those of you with Photoshop, you can import your video directly into the program and make your gif from there. But I found that Photopea really does not like videos, and will stall and crash if I load a video directly. So I have to capture sequential screencaps to make my gifs.

I use VLC Media Player. There are a few others out there that take sequential caps, but I have not been able to get them to work myself.

Download and install the latest version. Then go to your settings to set up the Sequential Caps function. They have a great guide on their website here but I will reiterate it in this post.

Go To Tools > Preferences and then at the bottom of the screen select the All radio button to show all settings.

Select Video from the left menu. Scroll down about halfway until you see the Snapshot section. Choose the folder where you want the caps to go.

3. Then, under Video on the left, expand the Filters list.

4. Check the "Scene Video Filter" from the list.

5. Then scroll down on the left menu under Filters and click on Scene Filter. This will open up the settings for that particular filter.

6. Set the Image Format to PNG.

7. Then for the Recording Ratio, change to "1". The Recording Ratio is the frame interval. So for example, if it was set to "300" (with a 30fps video), then it would take one cap every 10 seconds. Setting it to "1" will make it take a cap once per frame.

8. None of the other settings need to be changed.

9. One more important setting, otherwise this will not work! Close the menu, and go back to Tools > Settings and leave it on Simple. Go to the Video section and MAKE SURE the output is set to "Automatic". This is important because if it is not on Automatic the Scene Filter won't work!

Then just open your video with VLC. VLC will automatically take the screencaps while the video is playing. If you pause the video, it will stop taking caps.

NOTE: For smoother gifs, change your playback speed to be slower. Go to the top menu > Playback > Speed > Slower (fine). The more you click this the slower the video will playback, and that means more caps will be taken over that time frame. I usually set it to 0.75x, but if you want even smoother gifs for really short clips, you can set it even slower than that.

Your screenshot folder will look like this:

Then we are done with this part and onto Photopea! Which I will go into detail in another post: PART 2

[scaviogifs]

On the subject of framerate...

All of the animations created were intended for 60fps, but .gif as a file format is limited solely to 50fps.

As a result, you end up with animations that are slower than in-game with large files that need to be shrunk down to fit within Tumblr's 10MB-per-image limit.

One potential alternative is that instead, I could output a .gif at 30fps and skip every even frame. This would allow for higher resolutions and closer to in-game accuracy, but it would have more jitter compared to its 50fps predecessor.

For comparison —

50 fps, lower resolution (current process):

30 fps w/ even frames skipped, higher resolution (proposed process):

[magicalwarriordiamondheart]

Guide for the first 7 eps i posted from discord for helping with Chandra's run:

so the guide doesn't get specific for the first 7 eps since its a linear story, but a lot of FP gain is done in those so this is what i picked in my run

ask directly

go all out (+guts)

should tell them

mushroom pasta (doesn't matter i just tend to side w Sophie early anyways)

comfort clover

i wouldn't like that (doesn't matter but again to just keep the rest of the team high in AP lol)

apologize

defend her

hug Zacharie (only one that gives +FP iirc)

its fine but...

accept the offer (hanging w Chandra in e9 gives her AP, but hanging w the guys gave me more FP, i ended the run with 105FP in the no e9 version so its worth skipping that hangout imo)

tag along

ask Alex how Liam got his powers

follow Amy (doesn't matter i just always pick her)

don't worry

what about Liam

[entire rest of liam arc goes here. he needs to be recruited of course lol]

I also hung out with Clover and Liam during e11 and pretty much sided with Liam for the most part (the only choice that gains FP is "that wasn't his fault") and helped clover cook at the end since refusing her loses FP. then in e12 pick dare for +Guts and ask clover who she'd switch lives with for +FP. and in e13 i think "Aren't you scared?" gives one more point of AP to Chandra than the other (it's like 2 vs 3 points or something its not THAT big of a deal, and i picked the "its nothing" one in my own file) and at the very end saying "just one more thing" to set off the necklace flag

Because of this ☝🏽 I also made some changes to the point requirements.

If you don't play with her in E9, getting her to the 30 AP required was almost impossible. I never intended for her E9 to be required though, so to fix that, she only required 25 AP in exchange for the other seniors needing 50 AP. If you did hang out with her, she would require the full 30 AP and the boys would require 45 AP which was a requirement that was just too difficult to reach without following a specific play style. Prioritizing her shouldn't make it harder to unlock her lol. and I want players to be able to explore a variety of options beyond what the guides recommend while in the common route,

so I lowered the boys point requirement to 40 AP for cases where the player hangs out with Chandra in e9, which should be much more reasonable to obtain and still retain Chandra's difficulty as a character

Guide was adjusted to fix the missing choices and reflect the point adjustments.

[petermorwood]

This popped up on my YouTube the other day and not to brag, but...

Oh, why the hell not? It's a small brag, but satisfying. :->

I posted about refilling the Pilot Vpen (IRL-UK) / Varsity (US) - and adding how-to links - about 4 years and then again a year ago.

Here are the how-to links; I'm glad to see they're still active.

This one, like the video, calls for pliers and suggests removing the nib:

This one doesn't use pliers or separate the nib from the feed.

*****

Bragging aside, I'm pleased to see Brian Goulet of Goulet Pens giving this hack a higher profile (and Kudos for it, too - as a retailer it's more in his interest to sell them than refill them!)

His reason is very sound: those cheap little pens (usually about 3-to-4 local currency units whether €, $ or £) are ideal for FP-curious newbies or as no-loss-worries when travelling or no-damage-worries loaners.

They also have much better nibs than the price would suggest. Indeed that seems common to all the inexpensive Pilot pens I've tried, which includes every nib size of MR / Metropolitan.

In addition, IMO the notion of "disposable" fountain pens goes completely against the principal FP virtue, where once you've bought the pen, all you USE is the ink.

*****

I should mention, for completeness, that some "starter" fountain pens have prices not much more than these disposables and, refilled by "proper" ink cartridges / bottle-refill converters, don't involve anything like this trouble.

Just saying...

*****

It just so happens that one of my two Vpens was about due for a refill, so here are some pics of the process.

I scrubbed the markings off the barrels a long time ago so I could see what was inside, since refills mean the ink in the pen often has nothing to do with its colour-indicator cap.

First, disassembled and washed in changes of warm water until the water stays clear.

Here's the nib and feed: they've always come out of both Vpens as a single unit, with no need for pliers. Since the nibs show no desire to come off I've no desire to force the issue and maybe break something; those little ink-guide fins are delicate.

The filler is a small syringe begged from our local vet. I also use it to refill cartridges with custom ink colours (yup, I sometimes roll my own...)

Its "needle" is plastic tubing (an empty Pilot gel-pen cartridge, appropriately enough) which fits the syringe perfectly, and a pointy end made by stretching the tube over a candle-flame then snipping to length. If it gets too stained - this is nearly there - just chuck it in the recycle bin and make a new one.

The ink could have been any of the 30-odd I have at the minute, or something mixed specially, but I chose this one - a nice dark green - for the same reason @dduane had me buy it.

It's a very cute bottle... :->

*****

And here's the "disposable" pen refilled, reassembled and re-writing.

It really does have a better nib than you'd expect from a supposedly single-use pen...

*****

It sometimes takes a while for the ink to work its way by capillary action down from barrel to nib, especially if everything has been left to dry after washing. Put the cap on the pen and be patient.

Or speed things up by taking the cap off and running a thin stream of hot water over the barrel for 30 seconds or so. This increases internal pressure, forcing the ink along the section fins.

NB, this step is only for a refilled Vpen / Varsity. Don't try it with anything else, and in case it's not obvious, do this at a washbasin or sink, because You Never Know.

Now use a bit of kitchen paper or loo roll to blot the water which has got on the nib. This has a mild "suction" effect, and when you see ink on the paper (you might need to wet the nib again) your refilled pen is ready for use.

This wet-and-blot nib step can be used to encourage any stubborn fountain pen to get back in action, but the hot water trick, once again, is Vpen only.

Anyway, done.

[mashounen2003]

Well, here it is:

Touhou: Luna Nights - Playthrough

Part 1: The Mansion of Scarlet Illusion in a Bamboo Forest

[I've copy-pasted the video's description below the Read More]

I finally found a way to record this game with enough quality and without melting my CPU, even though it's very obvious these videos are all at 30 FPS.

So... Touhou: Luna Nights. After playing some of the main Metroid titles, taking a look at other Metroidvanias, and absolutely getting a Metroid brainrot, I also got into Touhou Project, learned about its fan-made content... and decided I needed to play this game as soon as I had the chance. I know there are other "Touhou-vanias" out there –namely, the Koumajou Densetsu duology–, but I'm leaving those for later... mainly because, rather than "Touhou metroidvanias", they're Castlevania games of Touhou and I've never played a Castlevania game in my entire life, so I'd like to get a little more experience on that first.

Luna Nights could be compared with Metroid Fusion. On one hand, you can revisit areas to look for items that you missed or were previously locked and will make things easier later, and its system of Levels based on Experience Points encourages you to go back to those previous areas even if it's just to fight more enemies, gather EXP and/or jewels and grow stronger. On the other hand, the areas' structure and the position of all the items & upgrades means that, unless you resort to finding and exploiting glitches, you can only follow one path to make progress and there isn't room for any meaningful sequence-breaking (the one between 16:03 and 16:20 is probably the only one in the entire game, and that only lets you grab an HP upgrade early; that little trick of throwing knives downwards while floating to avoid losing height makes movement easier in general but doesn't break the game). Just like in Metroid Fusion, these design choices make sense since this game also tries to tell a story and follow the sequence of events in that story.

The title of each part of this playthrough comes from the title card shown upon entering each area. The one for this video (at 02:15) is 紅幻の竹林楼 [kou-gen no chikurin-rou], which I tried to translate as "the mansion of scarlet illusion in a bamboo forest".

I managed to recognize Nitori's theme upon entering her shop (starting at 09:32), but I'd really like to know which song is supposed to be playing when you talk to Hieda no Akyuu (starting from 03:44): it's so relaxing, but also kind of sad... I'd also like to know the music in the cutscene when Sakuya arrives at Remilia's pocket universe (starting at 01:04).

Timeline:

02:15 - Game start

29:10 - Boss 1: Hong Meiling

(Feel free to ignore this part: 29:50 - 30:53)

32:53 - Boss defeated

Credits:

Team Ladybug: developers, storywriters & music arrangers.

Vaka Game Magazine / Why So Serious: developers & publishers.

Active Gaming Media / Playism: publishers.

Jun'ya Outa, aka ZUN: original music composer and creator of the Touhou Project.

[decepti-thots]

not a meme question, but do you have a favorite pen? i don't know anything about them but you seem to, lol

I do, but my answer will differ depending on if you're asking my personal favourite pen or if you want advice as someone who doesn't use FPs as to what a good way to try one out is, anon! (sorry you just ACTIVATED MY TRAP CARD)

I currently have six fountain pens, five of which are 'starter'/budget pens and one of which is a mid-range 'enthusiast' pen. My favourite I own is the latter. It's my Nahvalur Original, which I own in the Spring colour, and which cost me around £45. It's a pen designed to exclusively take bottled ink with a fancy filling mechanism, instead of ink cartridges. It's not high end by the standards of fountain pens, per se, but it's solidly in the 'enthusiast' realm. (My Dad, who once owned an FP because he needed something that looked good while signing Important Work Documents, did a double take when I told him how much it was, lmao. He did not ever spend that much on one pen.) It is a hefty, lovely thing with great build quality which I can use with fancy ink and feels great to write with. Nice nib, great quality, looks awesome.

But if you have never used a fountain pen, and want to try it, you do not need to spend over £20 or your local equivalent, fwiw. Many cheap fountain pens suck, but equally, many people who have spent thirty years collecting them who own pens worth hundreds will happily tell you, many cheap fountain pens are excellent, and noone needs to spend much to get an industry-gold-standard one. My second favourite pen is my Pilot Kakuno, which is aimed mostly at schoolkids in Japan where Pilot are based, can be bought for under twenty pounds shipped in the UK, similar prices in most of the world, and writes better than multiple 'adult' pens I own. Because Pilot has incredible high quality pen nibs and the Japanese FP market is competitive. You could easily buy just a Kakuno and be set forever with a pen that is extremely good quality! And there's other similarly great options too; there's a whole section of the market that is just 'good pens for newbies'. The Lamy Safari is a very famous option from a western (german) brand, for example. (Also have one of those, it's good.)

If you want to try fancy fountain pen inks with special qualities like sparkle or sheen, you'll probably need to put down a little extra money for a converter- basically a refillable cartridge that refills from a little ink bottle, instead of the disposable ones most stationary shops sell. But you don't need that if you're happy with the normal ink cartridges. All cheap fountain pens accept cartridges, though the better brands do tend to require you buy their cartridges, unfortunately.

And if you REALLY don't want to risk it: buy a Platinum Preppy. Platinum are a very well regarded brand, they use the same nibs in their entry level pens as they do their £30 ones, just with cheaper gel pen like bodies- and they are like. £5. Comes with a cartridge. Writes great, I own one. Again, a Japanese brand aimed squarely at schoolkids, very cheap but genuinely good to write with.

(The one thing for fountain pens I would say is, do spend the extra little bit on a cheap notebook with fountain pen friendly paper. Same as with e.g. paints, good paper is more important than the pen a lot of the time. The worst fountain pen in the world on good paper is better than a £500 pen on shit paper. Here is a guide; I use Clairefontaine.)

anyway sorry maybe you didn't want all of that. but if you think fountain pens sound Interesting and are curious, i'd encourage you to try one, but buy cheap. many cheap pens rule. and fountain pens are great- they are better than almost every other kind of pen for doing longform writing, because they don't cause wrist strain when doing it for long periods. i would definitely recommend a fountain pen over other kinds if you want to use it to write for long periods, no matter what pen you get, tbh!

[superthatguy62]

Things Final Fantasy III does not tell you about Final Fantasy III.

When it comes to RPGs, information that the player has is far from a guarantee. Some games will tell players practically everything about their systems and leave it to the player to use that information. Others will leave some mechanics in the background, quietly applying them without the player's knowledge. The Final Fantasy III remake falls into the latter category, as there are some mechanics that the player may not realize even exist unless they look outside of the game. Here are seven of them.

This is based on the Future Press Official Strategy Guide. As far as SGs go, it seems pretty close to the Japanese SE guide (baring at least one case).

Party Member Levels (Life of the Party)

While temporary party aren't directly controllable, they seem to have their own levels and stats. Interestingly the Future Press strategy guide states that they also have stats. Though I should clarify: At this time, I have yet to find these in the Japanese strategy guide, so I am not entirely sure that these are accurate. However, the FP guide in general is close to the Japanese guide in terms of technical information, so I am willing to accept that risk.

These are:

Sara: Lv 5 (Str/Vit/Agi/Min: 6, Int: 7)

Cid: Lv 3 (Str/Agi: 5, Vit/Int/Min: 8)

Desch: Lv 10 (Str: 15, Vit: 10, Agi: 14, Int: 7, Min: 6

Aria: Lv 25 (All: 25)

Alus: Lv 30 (All: 35)

Doga/Unei: Lv 50 (All: 45)

Some observations:

The guide notes that the characters stats are usually significantly higher than the main characters' at the same levels. This is especially noticeable with Alus (The party's base stats, by compare, will be: Str/Agi: 24, Vit/Min/Int: 20)

Cid is the only party member to be weaker than the character before him (Sara), presumably due to how little time the party spends with him. He does have an impressively strong hammer, though.

Despite being portrayed as a White Mage, Sara's Int (7) is slightly higher than her Min (6).

It seems that after Desch, the devs kinda gave up with making varied stats, so Aria, Alus, Doga and Unei have the same number for all their stats.

Coincidence or otherwise, Aria's stat number also matches her level.

Doga and Unei share the same levels and stats as each other, a distinction no other party member has. For extra fun, Xande is also level 50, although his actual stats are unfortunately but understandably different.

Alus, a 10 year old boy is somehow twice as strong as Desch, a grown man.

Mognet Details (Stampin' N Stompin')

Most of Mognet's discussion usually begins and ends with it being connected to the sidequests. Because of this, there are a few features of Mognet that go undernoticed.

One particular aspect is the cards: For meeting the Legendary Smith with a mastered job and defeating the Iron Giant, the party can get cards signifying their mastery.

(I have yet to defeat the Iron Giant. I apologize for being a fraud).

In the PSP and Steam versions, these cards are mostly just rewards. In the DS version, however, they can be used as stamps for Mognet. And while the Iron Giant is purely to flaunt your superiority over the beast, the job mastery cards actually allow players to help out other players: If a player holding a signed letter runs into the Legendary Smith, she will give the player the respective job mastery item without having a level 99 job. While it doesn't break the game, due to how late it is before you can encounter the Smith, it does cut down on the grind you'd need if you wanted those items.

Encounter Frequency (Fights in the A.M. P.M. F.M.)

In Octopath Traveler, a later game by Team Asano, entering a new location will usually show you a danger level, giving you a general idea of how strong the enemies in that area are. While the mechanic is visible in OT, it was actually deployed discreetly in Final Fantasy III: Each area has a level that the guides recommend the player be at. However, the game itself uses a more subtle method: If your party is below the recommended level, the encounter rate will be higher than usual. By contrast, the further above the recommended level that the party is (up to six levels), the lower the encounter rate will be.

For example: The Nepto Shrine has a Danger Level of 10. If the party made it to the Shrine at level 7, then they will likely encounter more enemies than they would at level 10. By contrast, at level 16, they will have a chance at encountering the least amount of enemies.

Attack Types (SMASH! SLASH! STAB!)

In Final Fantasy III, elemental weaknesses are clear and easily implied by the fact that Mages have themed spells. However, the game also has a second, subtle weakness system: Attack Types, the physical counterpart.

The four attack types are

Unhanded: Despite the name, Claws are also included

Blow: Weapons that focus on slamming or bludgeoning the foe

Cut: Weapons that actually cut the foe, like Swords

Stab: Weapons that stab or have a stab-like effect, like Arrows

Interestingly, some weapons aren't mutually exclusive: Axes count for both blows and cuts, Knives count for both stabs and cuts and Unarmed counts for both Unhanded and Blow.

Hands (The Hands of Fate)

The Hand stat is a secret stat that the game silently keeps track of for each character. The hand stat represents how many times a physical attack has been made with a particular hand, the hand getting 3 XP for each use. Much like job levels only one hand level can be gained per battle, regardless of how many points are racked up. Theoretically, if you can have hands of different levels, although given how much III encourages dual-wielding, it's unlikely.

The FP guide recommends using the Ranger's barrage if you want to build up the hand stat, as that is a multi-hit attack that nonetheless counts each hit for the hand.

Weight (The Weight of the World)

Weight is not a new mechanic to Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy V, in particular has the stat help to determine who quickly a character acts (i.e. how fast the ATB bar fills up). However, V is the rare game where the game will actively inform the player of its existence. Other games in the series have it, including III (at least, in the remake).

Weight, along with Agility, determines how soon a character will act during the turn, as well as how many hits a character does (alongside the aforementioned Hand stat). This is why a Warrior with an axe will generally hit less than a Warrior with a sword, despite having higher attack. Interestingly magic also has weight to it with spells having a specific weight/cast time to it.

Boss Scripts (Script Write)

Bosses changing strategy mid-fight has been a Final Fantasy staple since at least Final Fantasy IV (Zeromus, for example, only starts to spam Meteo when he's close to dying), so the FF3 remake isn't particularly new or original for using this. Still, it's something to be aware of in case you make a particular fight harder than it needs to be.

A likely candidate for this is actually the final boss: While the Cloud of Darkness uses Particle Beam (and spams it during the last phase), it actually doesn't use the move until it's down to 80% of its HP, using the less threatening standard attack instead. This means that a player willing to take some turns to lower the danger can focus on the tentacles, which are the more immediate threat.

[onthegreatsea]

im still haunted by that stupid post that was like 'games dont need to be more than 30fps' but the one good thing about the ps5 pro reveal is we know now that 3/4s of all sony gamers consistently choose 60fps over 30fps crazy that back in the 2000s console gamers used to say 'the human eye cant percieve more than 30 fps' with a straight face

[sejianismodding]

Fret not, I found the plot: https://www.patreon.com/posts/113386094

☢️ Here's the plot: I'm trying to do some modding and this !@#$ is getting in my way. 💀 If you can't Go Offline, you can't bypass the update prompt. 👹 10/7/24 - Here's the icing on the cake!

I've spoken about EA's poorly made App and it's abysmal Offline Mode before - many, many times. Now some of us are experiencing this when we try to play in Offline Mode: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/Error-Code-204-Game-License-Expired-when-trying-to-play-offline/m-p/14134691

⚡ Oh look, here's another report: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/after-update-ea-app-for-pc-all-my-installed-games-wont-start-in/m-p/14132660#M56596

I have shoddy and unreliable internet. I don't have the time or patience for any more of this shit.

Some of you may not be aware of this, but The Sims 4 has some Always-Online problems likely stemming from EA's ill-advised and failed attempt to make SimCity (2013) Always-Online. It totes wasn't about piracy and it was totes Maxis' vision, right?! 😹😾💀

Whenever EA's servers are experiencing "technical difficulties", The Sims 4 goes to shit, literally.

Unusually long launch times? It could be your messy Mods folder but also, it's likely EA's servers.

My game is installed on a 2TB WD Black SN-850X SSD. If you're tech savvy, you'll know that's a damn good storage device. With NO INTRO installed - https://modthesims.info/d/532966/no-intro.html - my game launches in about 18 seconds when EA's servers aren't experiencing the difficulties of existing, but when they are, my launch time extends to almost 3 minutes.

Game performance randomly tanking to below 30 FPS? It could be that in-game thing with menus but also, it's likely EA's servers.

Going Offline in App and game solves this shit.

I cover a bunch of these things in my WiP Steam Guide: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3128600854

"Spore (2008) and EA's hand in solidifying piracy as a form of protest" is the name of the first section in my big attack on titan that began on March 6, 2024. It needs a formatting overhaul because of changes to Patreon but it still stings like a mother!@#$in' bee: https://www.patreon.com/posts/99833884

EA, darling, if I can't play your Single Player game legitimately simply because my net is shit and your servers are shit and your App is shit, what recourse are you leaving for me other than the one you're totes not obsessed with? Maybe what you actually need is another class-action lawsuit because the two in your past over Spore (2008) clearly weren't enough.

💀 I hadn't considered that with this broken, there goes delaying updates. If you can't Go Offline, you can't bypass the update prompt.

👹 10/7/24 - They've done it before!

Here's a whole thread from over a year ago, June 2023: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/RESOLVED-EA-app-Error-Code-EC-204/td-p/12695282

Here's a report from 3 months ago, July 2024: https://forums.ea.com/discussions/the-sims-4-technical-issues-pc-en/error-code-ec204-cant-play-offline-says-game-license-has-expired/4944345

And here's a report from 3 days ago, October 2024, where someone says they contacted EA Support and EA Support told them to post it in the Sims 4 Technical Issues forum: https://forums.ea.com/discussions/the-sims-4-technical-issues-pc-en/ec204-when-trying-to-play-offline/4979345

[sillovn-archived]

Cheat Sheet: Hybrid Sorcery

So you want to play a hybrid sorcerer? Here is a quick overview. (X) - more Cheat Sheets

This series started as a reference for planning my ER characters, and also as notes for spell types. Ive tried to keep this info dense and not just list things you can pull from a wiki/build tool.

As always, I recommend the following for detailed math and specifics...

Build and Inventory Planner by sovietspaceship

Glintstone Staff math by Chrightt

Magic Schools Overview

Death

Stat: INT+ FTH min - Rancorcall (16 int, 14 fth) max - Explosive Ghostflame (42 int, 30 fth)

The most stat intensive magic school with few practical uses. Main strength is throwing out persistent homing projectiles (ie. being annoying in PvP). Besides this, Death spells are slow acting and deal very little damage.

Fia's Mist is a source of Deathblight. Only 1 other spell (Death Lightning) also has this.

Tibia Summons can be blocked by obstacles (the skeletons spawn where an invisible projectile lands).

Lava

Stat: high INT + low FTH min - Magma Shot (19 int, 10 fth) max - Rykard's Rancor (40 int, 18 fth)

The only fire damage sorceries, spells are slow acting and leave lingering damage effects. This school is very weak, if you need fire damage projectiles - consider using throwing pots instead.

Magma Shot, Roiling Magma are "magic grenades", manual aim works better than locking on.

Gelmir's Fury, Rykard's Rancor focus on flooding areas with damage hazards. They are also (arguably) less useful.

Claymen/Bubble

Stat: INT + ARC min - Oracle Bubbles (19 int, 15 arc) max - Great Oracular Bubble (25 int, 18 arc)

Only 2 spells, send out bubbles that drift slowly and explode on contact. Very efficient damage per FP but very slow acting; treat these less like ranged missiles and more like environmental hazards that you can prepare a fight with.

Oracle Bubbles are very weak, leaving Great Oracular Bubble as the 1 real spell in this school.

Great Oracular Bubble has similar damage to Comet, and works somewhat like a slow-motion version of it.

Both spells are found early, with no boss kills needed.

Aberrant

Stat: FTH min - Briars of Punishment (21 fth) max - Briars of Sin (24 fth)

Has many strange properties; FTH-only requirement, inflicts bleed and costs life to use.

very low fp cost, also surprisingly fast cast speed.

damage improved by many sources. Staff of the Guilty (+20%), Alberich's Armour (+6% per piece).

despite appearance, deals magic *not* physical damage.

Glintstone Staff Breakdown

Spell scaling comparison is vs. 60 INT on Academy Glintstone Staff (~304). In short, +50 points in damage stat given most classes stat with ~10 stat base.

Prince of Death

INT/FTH staff, has the most damage given infinite levels (80 INT/FTH). However, stat scaling is low up until ~60 INT/FTH. Consider for NG+, poor choice otherwise.

226 scaling at 35/35 or 40/30

Gelmir

INT/FTH staff, more usable than the above, but still very weak. This staff is drop-only and *very hard* to farm.

248 scaling at 40/30 or 35/35

Albinauric

The only hybrid staff with reasonable damage, scales Arc>Int. However! you still need INT for spell requirements; take note, even if high ARC + low INT looks good on paper.

293 scaling at 40/30 or 45/25

Guilty

Pure FTH staff, drop-only. Large school bonus (+20% damage for Aberrant spells).

271 scaling at 60 fth

Closing Thoughts

Hybrid sorcery is difficult to work with. And with good reason.

Sorcery is *very focused* on 'long range + magic damage'. The hybrid schools don't improve/widen your strategic options. Additionally, the most usable hybrid spells also tend to be the low req. ones.

Sorcery requirements overwhelmingly ask for INT and lots of it. Even if damage seems good, having less INT limits your arsenal.

Hybrid staves tend to have low damage

All this to say; 'INT+ splash stat' is the most reasonable build for (most) hybrid sorceries.

For example: 15 Fth lets you use 3 of 4 Gelmir spells. For most characters, that is ~5 levels. Additionally, school bonuses only need the staff *equipped*. In this case, you could Off-Hand a Gelmir Staff and cast with an Academy Glintstone for much more damage.

The 1 noteworthy exception? Aberrant spells. The staff damage is pretty decent with a *very large* school bonus. At reasonable levels, dual-wield Guilty Staves is the most damage (for Aberrant spells specifically and nothing else).

[luxlightly]

I talked about it with two different people lately and I really think that Quake as a series has the potential to be a far more popular franchise in today's market than it currently is, but if it is, it has to be from a shift in focus on the story and lore elements. 

Back when Quake came out, multiplayer games were not the norm. A built in arena mode at the scale Quake had was a huge draw. Now, not only is that the norm, it's completely consumed the market. People have tons of other multi-player shooters to choose from, out there. For many players interested in story and lore, it's even a turn off, suggesting that the devs might not care about their single player experience. 

I truly believe that the rich lore of the world of Quake is something that would be extremely appealing to modern audiences. Between the Lovecraftian old gods and the blending of the machine and the flesh with the Strogg, it has elements that are highly popular right now, more than ever. It’s truly “Call of Cthulhu meets Mass Effect”. This should be catnip to half the internet.

But the story and lore of Quake is fractured from a history fraught with leadership disputes, brand confusion, and passing back and forth between developers. It's a series in parts with no clear connection between them. Any benefit having two genres might provide is totally lost due to the fact there’s no attempts to organically blend them. There’s also not a lot of ways to really get at that lore, even in the single player campaigns that do exist. The protagonists are stiff and not fleshed out and focus on characters is largely nonexistent.

Now, obviously, the number of fanfictions something has on AO3 is not indicative of its success, but it is a way to gauge how much audiences are engaging with the story or world of a game. Quake, as a whole, has about 30, only a handful of which are actually centered on Quake itself. (For reference, Undertale has 62k) Despite the fascinating lore, people aren’t engaging with it.

If Quake is going to regain its cultural relevance and popularity, it has to be through a focus on story, characters, and the exploration of the lore and world building. And it has to do so in a space in which new players feel comfortable which, presently, it absolutely is not.

The retro fps/arena shooter genres are EXTREMELY hostile towards new players. All multiplayer games have toxic playerbases, but the retro fps/arena shooter genre is particularly bad. These games have been deified to the point where, for many, “protecting” what they see as the purity of those games is far more important than playing them. 

As much as I adore QC, it could never have achieved the mainstream popularity necessary to save the genre or franchise. A purely multiplayer game just reinforces the idea for prospective players that this isn't something that focuses on its non gameplay elements. Which, in fairness, it largely does not. It’s not meant to. But that’s exactly why it can’t do what the genre desperately needed it to. The depth of worldbuilding is there! A frankly shocking amount of consideration of worldbuilding went into every decision about mechanics and design, but it’s hidden in locked scrolls and character bios that take months of playing to unlock and have no real bearing on the game itself.

From there, the players who carried over from previous games are extremely experienced and aggressive towards people they see as entering “their” space. It can take weeks of playing before a new player is able to really engage in matches enough to fully enjoy them. And that time can be downright miserable.People don't want to put in that work for things they have no existing attachment to and the games continue to give them less and less to get attached to in pursuit of recapturing the feeling of being the one big pvp fps on campus, so to speak . 

This means that, with each iteration, it distills more and more into just the people who have been playing since the beginning and ignore or contribute to the toxicity, which further drives away more players. It's a cycle of decay that can't be broken without a huge refresh in the playerbase. New players need someone besides 30 year vets to play against and that only happens if there’s enough new players all at once. 

Since new players can’t get into the multiplayer aspects unless new players are already getting into the multiplayer, the initial interest has to be sparked from outside those elements. Which mean it has to come from a focus on cleaning up and heavily promoting the story aspects of the games. 

Solidify the timeline. Bridge the fantasy and sci-fi plotlines. Allow your protagonists to have personalities and engage meaningfully with other characters and the world around them. Give people characters and settings they can really care about. 

Give people a reason to believe they can get attached to these things without them being abandoned or discarded for the sake of multiplayer microtransactions. Give them something to think about, to write about, and to make art of, even when they're not playing. 

(And, on a personal note, please maybe not have the Strogg symbols be all literal nazi symbols; it makes it really hard to have a Strogg mug or t-shirt, etc.) 

Add single player content that actually translates to the multiplayer. Add some story objectives to multiplayer modes. Give new players something to do and to fall in love with before asking them to throw themselves into the arena. Make some tweaks to gameplay that allows newer players to not be hopelessly disadvantaged. 

Really, the main issue that the developers of Quake and all similar games face is that many existing fans will VEHEMENTLY oppose any changes to what they see as “their” games. They WILL see it as a betrayal from a game they've supported for 30 years. They no longer see these as artistic works belonging to the artists that created them. They see them as THEIRS. That those artists no longer have the right to make decisions that go against their interpretation of what they game is and they will aggressively protect that interpretation.

But the game they are “protecting” never existed. They are trying to preserve the feeling of being a child experiencing this genre for the first time. A version of the experience that only existed to them at that time because of who and where they were in their lives at that time. Ironically, by preventing kids like they were from doing the same, now.

If you made Quake, now, it would not match this perceived idea of what a Quake game should be, to them. If their childhood self started playing Quake, now, they would believe they did not belong there. In fairness, it wouldn't be Quake. Because part of what made it what it was was the fact it was unique. But setting the standard means that much of what made you unique then makes you run-of-the-mill, now.

Obviously, for true fans of the real experience of the genre and not just the nostalgia or “forum cred” of it, it’s expected and appreciated when things are done to keep the genre around and relevant as time passes. They want to have more people playing and enjoying the games more than they want to preserve their own status within a gatekept elite. But for a large number of these self appointed elites, it is more important to them to preserve that imagined version of the game and the status it grants them than it is for either the game or the genre itself to continue to exist.

As companies, the creators of these games will have to ask themselves if that's what's more important to them, too. And are they willing to risk losing what little fanbase they still have in order keep the franchises alive and to pursue their own artistic vision, as opposed to those of people 30 years ago? 

If not, then this spiral either ends with the total death of the genre, or with someone who is willing to take those risks taking the spot they once held, leaving them behind, and a beautiful part of the history of video games as an art form being lost in the pursuit of preserving it.

[mariacallous]

As horror stories of the slaughter committed by Hamas militants against Israeli civilians continue to emerge, the country’s emergency government is weighing the possibility of a ground invasion in Gaza. The death toll from the attack in Israel has surpassed 1,300. More than 1,400 people have died in Israeli retaliatory airstrikes on Gaza.

Israel’s path ahead is further complicated by an unprecedented hostage situation, in which Hamas abducted more than 150 hostages—including children, women, and older people—claiming to hold them in tunnels across the Gaza Strip.

To better understand the Israeli government’s deliberations and options, Foreign Policy spoke with counterterrorism expert Boaz Ganor, who has years of experience studying terrorist organizations and advising governments on extortion and hostage negotiations. Ganor is a professor and also the president of Israel’s Reichman University.

This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Foreign Policy: How unprecedented is this type of hostage situation for Israel?

Boaz Ganor: It’s unprecedented not just for Israel but for the world. Although similar operations have been conducted by ISIS in Syria and Iraq, this is something that hasn’t been seen in other places around the world by other terrorist organizations. It reflects a certain level of inhumanity and cruelty that even for me, a counterterrorism expert in the business for approximately 40 years, is astonishing.

They butchered babies, beheaded others. It’s inconceivable.

A word of warning to the world: Unfortunately, when it comes to terrorism, anytime Israel faces a new type of terrorism, the rest of the world is later challenged by the same practices. We have seen it with hijackings, kidnappings, with suicide attacks, and now I can almost guarantee that, unfortunately, we will see this atrocity copied by other terrorists in other places in the world in the future.

FP: Has Israel ever dealt with a situation like this, in which children or women were taken hostage?

BG: Israel saw kids and mothers and elderly people hijacked, not kidnapped, in the 1960s and ’70s. But we have never seen terrorists behaving in such a shameful, inhumane way toward kids, women, and elderly people.

FP: If the conflict continues to drag on, what happens? How does it change Israel’s calculation in regard to the hostages?

BG: There are two types of extortion attacks when terrorists hold hostages. One type of extortion is when terrorists use a barricade situation, using a building, vehicle, train, or an airplane, in order to hold the people as hostages within a facility. Another type of extortion attack is kidnapping. In that case, they are taking the hostages to an unknown location.

There are huge differences between those two types of attacks, because when we talk about the hostage barricade situation, we know where the hostages are being held. While it’s very complicated to conduct a rescue operation, you still have the intelligence needed to know where they are in order to start planning a rescue operation. In a kidnapping attack, you don’t have this advantage. Usually, you don’t know where the hostages are. They are taken to a secret place, and therefore, you cannot plan or execute a rescue operation.

Israel faces a mass kidnapping attack. It’s not one or two or five people. We are talking about somewhere between 100 and 200 hostages. They are not being held in one place. They have been spread out in different places. Islamic Jihad is claiming to hold 30 of them, and Hamas is holding others, and you have other small jihadi organizations that might have their own Israeli hostages. This means that the ability to conduct a simultaneous rescue operation in many parts of Gaza Strip is close to zero percent success.

FP: What considerations are the decision-makers in Israel taking into account in this type of situation? What are the main ethical and practical dilemmas they are facing?

BG: In a typical hostage crisis dilemma, before deciding whether to conduct a rescue operation, decision-makers calculate the risk that terrorists will harm the hostages or that the rescue team will be hurt during the operation—as long as accurate intelligence, manpower, and an experienced rescue team exist.

In the current situation, an additional consideration will be the purpose and goals set by decision-makers for a military operation in Gaza. The new emergency government is deciding what to do in response. The rules of the game have changed. This is not just a military operation—this is war. This is the worst war that Israel has ever faced because 1,300 people were massacred, a number that will likely rise. The vast majority are civilians.

Israel will likely engage in much harsher bombing attacks and some kind of ground operation in Gaza. Those types of activities would not support a fast secure deal of exchanging our hostages for the convicted terrorists that they want to free from Israeli jails.

It’s a zero-sum game. Either Israel decides to say, “We are ready to have some kind of a cease-fire to reach a fast and fair kind of exchange,” or Israel decides to retaliate much more and teach them a lesson.

FP: How will the government factor the element of uncertainty—the tunnels and how densely populated Gaza is—into their decisions?

BG: The uncertainty, the density, and the underground city built in Gaza, and the amount of hostages spread in different parts of Gaza, take a rescue operation out of the equation.

It’s still possible to conduct a full-scale military operation and use intelligence aiming to free hostages there, but the possibility of doing that simultaneously and freeing the hostages unharmed is close to zero.

FP: Due to all of the complexities you mentioned, it appears that a ground invasion is the most likely scenario.

BG: I would expect to see a military operation in large parts of Gaza changing into rescue operations here and there based on new intelligence on the whereabouts of the hostages.

The consideration of the Israeli hostages will become a minor consideration. The success of the military operation and the guarding of the lives of the Israeli soldiers would probably be the first priority.

FP: How does the involvement of Hezbollah in the north impact the hostage situation?

BG: If Hezbollah decided to light up the northern border, we would see tens of thousands of rockets being launched toward Israel, and the Israeli hostages in Gaza would be a minor calculus. We saw 3,000 rockets being launched last Saturday from Gaza. If Hezbollah got involved, it would be 10,000 or 20,000 rockets a day from Lebanon. The number of Hezbollah’s Radwan forces is much bigger than what occurred on the southern border, and therefore, the nature of the war and the damage that would be inflicted on Israel would be much higher than in the last week. Because Hezbollah is entrenched and embedded within the Lebanese civilian society, the harm that would occur to the Lebanese people would be unprecedented as well, and that should be taken into consideration by all sides.

FP: There are reports that Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey have offered to mediate. What is the likelihood of that?

BG: The states mentioned are not the solution. I exclude Egypt from that, but Qatar and Turkey are big supporters of Hamas, and I haven’t heard them standing against this savage attack. They are incapable of mediating between Israel and Hamas because they took a wrong normative stance. What happened in Israel is a crime against humanity, and any state that supports these terrorists should be sanctioned and condemned.

Egypt is a different actor, and it can play a role of mediation between Israel and Hamas, and it mediates on a daily basis. Other actors such as the United Nations and the Red Cross could also play a mediation role.

FP: What is the official government policy on hostage negotiation?

BG: Israel never had this kind of atrocity, and therefore there is no policy to refer to. I can refer to the policy of holding one, two, three, or five hostages. The official policy in hostage situations was that if there was an option for a rescue operation, it would always be preferred, regardless of the price to the lives of the hostages and the lives of the soldiers. It’s always the preferred solution. If there was no possibility of a rescue operation, then Israel would be ready to get into a serious negotiation for exchange of prisoners, convicted prisoners, and return of the hostages and saving their lives.

FP: How much will public pressure in Israel influence how the government moves forward?

BG: In the past, it had a huge influence on the government’s decision. The best example is Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who was kidnapped into Gaza by Hamas [in 2006].

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly declared in every interview he gave that he would never surrender to demands of extortion by terrorists. He gave over the largest number of convicted terrorists with blood on their hands compared with any other Israeli leader in the past. This was an outcome of direct pressure by the families and the public at large on the government in Israel.

Here, the situation is different, because we are in a war situation that has an existential impact on Israel. If Israel is unable to make clear to Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran that this was foolish and counterproductive, we would see them attacking Israel again in a short period of time. Those considerations are top of mind for Israeli decision makers, much more than any public pressure right now.