California, the biggest state in the US when it comes to both population and the sheer volume of tech companies squeezed into its borders, has just passed the country's most extreme right to repair bill in the US (via Ars Technica). It's the third state to pass such a bill, but goes further than either Minnesota or New York in...
This morning I read the article about Denuvo on Switch. What do fellow pirates think of this? Could it pave the way for that crap on other consoles as well? Is it time to become a datahearer? (⌐■_■)
Emulators typically cut a lot of corners to make emulation faster rather than make it more accurate. A truly accurate emulator would be impossible for the software to differentiate from the actual hardware.
So some 360 emulators such as Xenia allow to play games that have been installed on an external USB drive. It’s pretty easy an straightforward: install the game from a stock console and run in on your PC using the emulator. You don’t need any specific optical drive with a special firmware....
It really doesn’t. They include both anyway, there’s no reason they can’t do it as a separate download. Rainbow 6 Siege did it back in 2015 with their ultra high definition textures pack which is a 30gb download for a game that’s 60gb without it. Lots of players have no use for the ridiculously high-definition textures, it would definitely make sense to separate them from the main package and cut possibly several hours or even days of download time for some people.
It’s not that nobody wants those super high def graphics, it’s that most people have no use for them. Most people won’t be able to play a game like Starfield at maxed out graphics, so why should they have to download and store an extra 30gb of textures?
The only “pre-order” I’ve ever done was Elden Ring, and that was only the day before release because there was a small discount on it. I was definitely going to play it anyway, so I would have been spending the money regrardless. I’m usually pretty patient in terms of gaming.
What LOD does is it uses multiples of the same textures in different sizes so that it doesn’t display the larger ones if it doesn’t need to. That takes up space due to duplicates, but 4K resolution textures take up 4 times the space that 2K resolution textures do. I’m sure compression reduces some of that, but in terms of size, they are 4 times larger. So if your system can’t handle 4K textures, then why use them at all? There’s a lot of stuff that you’ll never look at close enough that a 4K texture will ever serve a purpose. For a 1080p screen, you’d have to be close enough to the object that you’re only seeing a fraction of the texture at once, and they can use other tricks to make close-up textures look better without using bigger ones.
If you have a top-of-the-line PC, it makes sense to install those huge textures, but if you’re running an old GPU with 2GB of memory, what use do you have for them? You may as well not install them at all.
It would be ridiculous to hamstring new games just because some people can’t run them at max graphics. It definitely makes more sense to make the high-requirement features optional, not to cut them out entirely. People who buy high-end hardware shouldn’t be held back by those who can’t afford it, but those who can’t afford it shouldn’t be held back for the benefit of those who can either.
Just thought I’d share something I thought was pretty interesting. I have a mother in law who is… well let’s just say she’s a stereotypical older mom who doesn’t own a computer, just an iPad. During the pandemic, she started getting into Nintendo games and bought herself a Switch. Fast forward a few years later and...
I was interested in buying a Steam Deck… Until I discovered all the (apparently) better alternatives. Asus Rog Ally, OneXPlayer, Aya Neo etc… I like the idea of an handheld console and obviously I would like to have a device that can run almost everything, so the Windows based handhelds seem better than the Steam Deck. Is it...
The Steam Deck is sold specifically as a gaming handheld. If you’re buying it to read PDFs, you’re buying the wrong device. Besides, the resolution isn’t the issue for reading documents, it’s the size of the screen. If you want to do non-gaming things, you’ll be much better served if you plug in a monitor, in which case you can even use a 4K display if that’s what you want.
I think the SD does have its issues, but I feel like the display is not one of them. At that size, it’s a good resolution to get better performance in games. A higher resolution would kill the battery, reduce performance, and due to its size it would be hard to tell the difference in-game.
The Deck’s power management features are a solid selling point. There’s no reason they couldn’t be implemented elsewhere, and it would be a boon for other portable devices for sure.
I haven’t used the Ally, but the Deck’s touchpads are just intuitive and functional, it seems so obvious in hindsight that it’s actually shocking that nobody had thought to put them on a portable until now. They work great for replacing a mouse in mouse-focused games, and for navigating desktop mode. Much more effective than navigating with a joystick.
I feel like the Deck’s 800p screen is plenty for the size, and it helps it perform better. But maybe that’s just my boomer eyes that can’t tell the difference. Though a bigger screen would have been amazing.
All of those are visually worse than rendering at native resolution though.
I think battery life is an important factor since these are high-drain portable devices. Any additional battery life you can squeeze out of it is a big plus.
I wouldn’t say I’m thrilled, I still use my PC a lot more. I’d say the dual touchpads are probably the best feature for the form factor. And I think the power management features are great, but that’s just software, and I think the other platforms should implement similar systems.
Epic Games to update Unreal Engine pricing for devs not making games (www.gamedeveloper.com) angielski
Excerpts:...
The games industry sucks (www.youtube.com) angielski
Same title as the video. Game dev writer Alanah Pierce offers her POV on the recent layoffs from Epic Games....
"Ubisoft may also request that Microsoft perform technical modifications,including to ensure that the Activision Games support emulators like Proton" (twitter.com) angielski
https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/08cb7b68-0897-43f6-8dc0-fc21b6fbac0e.webp
Nintendo switch 2 akin to PS4/XBO power (kotaku.com) angielski
Nintendo, one generation behind once again.
Games consoles are infuriatingly exempt from California's otherwise important new right to repair bill (www.pcgamer.com) angielski
California, the biggest state in the US when it comes to both population and the sheer volume of tech companies squeezed into its borders, has just passed the country's most extreme right to repair bill in the US (via Ars Technica). It's the third state to pass such a bill, but goes further than either Minnesota or New York in...
Is there a way to seed things I have downloaded but already deleted the torrent for? angielski
Just to clarify, I’m talking about thousands of torrents across hundreds of different directories.
Is anyone concer about denuvo on switch? angielski
This morning I read the article about Denuvo on Switch. What do fellow pirates think of this? Could it pave the way for that crap on other consoles as well? Is it time to become a datahearer? (⌐■_■)
Find or share XBOX 360 HDD game backups/RIPs for emulators? angielski
So some 360 emulators such as Xenia allow to play games that have been installed on an external USB drive. It’s pretty easy an straightforward: install the game from a stock console and run in on your PC using the emulator. You don’t need any specific optical drive with a special firmware....
Uncharted's Tom Holland and Chris Pratt Teaming Up for Jak and Daxter Movie Adaptation (www.gamescensor.com) angielski
Starfield install size revealed, available to preload now (www.eurogamer.net) angielski
cross-posted from: lemmy.sdf.org/post/2277558...
The Steam Deck is changing how normies think of gaming PCs.
Just thought I’d share something I thought was pretty interesting. I have a mother in law who is… well let’s just say she’s a stereotypical older mom who doesn’t own a computer, just an iPad. During the pandemic, she started getting into Nintendo games and bought herself a Switch. Fast forward a few years later and...
Steam Deck VS rivals
I was interested in buying a Steam Deck… Until I discovered all the (apparently) better alternatives. Asus Rog Ally, OneXPlayer, Aya Neo etc… I like the idea of an handheld console and obviously I would like to have a device that can run almost everything, so the Windows based handhelds seem better than the Steam Deck. Is it...