PC Gaming = World of Suck
- Thread starter Mercutio
- Start date
Howell
Storage? I am Storage!
In sofar as meth dealers get you hooked and continue to meet your need even at your own expense you are right, it would be hard to apply to apply that label to Republicans. However, meth dealers run a far more ruthless and socially destructive capitalism than Republicans. Ideas are bigger than political labels.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Saw this linked on HardOCP - Looks like a good blend of traditional FPS and Mech combat FPS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caiIamHIzBY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caiIamHIzBY
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Other than the conveniently placed open sunroofs, I like that the building interiors resemble some kind of actually functional layout.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Piixl has an interesting living room gaming PC design. Looks like an ITX board with a perpendicular-mounted 16x PCI-e slot. The chassis is supposed to be expandable to accommodate hard drives. Since it basically clamps to the back of a TV, this thing has real promise for all kinds of applications, most especially gaming.
Weird. I have numerous connections that stick vertically out of the back of my TV. I feel like this thing would get in the way of those. Looks like they sandwiched in the graphics card with the fan portion flush against the back panel. That wouldn't work well for most graphics cards even with their integrated blower flan in the back. Makes me wonder if there are specific graphics cards that they approve for this?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
The thing I worry about in that configuration is noise. They're using a ITX PSU with a 40mm fan and several slot coolers in there, and none of that stuff is what I'd call quiet. Also their pictures don't show power connections, which look like they could be messy. Obviously they need a real PSU if they're going to support real graphics cards, but even with that, how many ITX PSUs are certified to work with expensive dual slot cards?
But it's not out of the question that they could have their PCIe card on a standard ITX slot with an a ribbon that rotates the connector 180 degrees so that the card is upside down (er... right side up for the fan), which presumably wouldn't be all that expensive as far as a custom part goes.
But it's not out of the question that they could have their PCIe card on a standard ITX slot with an a ribbon that rotates the connector 180 degrees so that the card is upside down (er... right side up for the fan), which presumably wouldn't be all that expensive as far as a custom part goes.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Youtube, apparently in an effort to suck even more, has decided to crack down on "Let's Play" videos as a violation of terms of service.
The thing is, I actually LIKE Let's Play videos quite a bit. They're how I've been able to experience games like Portal and how I've learned about some other titles that I otherwise wouldn't have discovered. There's actually a pretty huge community associated with that kind of video making and quite a lot of overlap with "Machinima"-type videos that use game engines as a sort of low-grade CGI filmmaking, which makes me curious about exactly how far Youtube will carry this new policy.
It's not as big a deal to me personally as not being able to comment because of Google+, but I have to say it's disappointing as someone who uses Youtube and has enough interest to at least watch that kind of content.
The thing is, I actually LIKE Let's Play videos quite a bit. They're how I've been able to experience games like Portal and how I've learned about some other titles that I otherwise wouldn't have discovered. There's actually a pretty huge community associated with that kind of video making and quite a lot of overlap with "Machinima"-type videos that use game engines as a sort of low-grade CGI filmmaking, which makes me curious about exactly how far Youtube will carry this new policy.
It's not as big a deal to me personally as not being able to comment because of Google+, but I have to say it's disappointing as someone who uses Youtube and has enough interest to at least watch that kind of content.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Youtube, apparently in an effort to suck even more, has decided to crack down on "Let's Play" videos as a violation of terms of service.
The thing is, I actually LIKE Let's Play videos quite a bit. They're how I've been able to experience games like Portal and how I've learned about some other titles that I otherwise wouldn't have discovered. There's actually a pretty huge community associated with that kind of video making and quite a lot of overlap with "Machinima"-type videos that use game engines as a sort of low-grade CGI filmmaking, which makes me curious about exactly how far Youtube will carry this new policy.
It's not as big a deal to me personally as not being able to comment because of Google+, but I have to say it's disappointing as someone who uses Youtube and has enough interest to at least watch that kind of content.
The thing is, I actually LIKE Let's Play videos quite a bit. They're how I've been able to experience games like Portal and how I've learned about some other titles that I otherwise wouldn't have discovered. There's actually a pretty huge community associated with that kind of video making and quite a lot of overlap with "Machinima"-type videos that use game engines as a sort of low-grade CGI filmmaking, which makes me curious about exactly how far Youtube will carry this new policy.
It's not as big a deal to me personally as not being able to comment because of Google+, but I have to say it's disappointing as someone who uses Youtube and has enough interest to at least watch that kind of content.
ddrueding
Fixture
Red vs. Blue was awesome.
My new card comes with ShadowPlay which works really well. I wondered about putting some captured video of my game-play onto youtube. Now it sounds like it'll be yanked. I wonder what part of their terms of service this violates.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
From what I've read, it's apparently because some music licensing company that represents video game music composers is suing one of the major "Let's Play" video channels. Or something. The companies that actually make/own/publish the games themselves seem to be saying that they don't have a problem with the videos being there.
The best part is that I can rip and upload a whole CD to Youtube with absolutely no video content at all, publish it as a playlist and leave it for the world to find and it'll still be there in six months or a year, but if I make a video where top 40 radio can be heard in the background, that crap is going to get taken down and the account will get a copyright strike.
The best part is that I can rip and upload a whole CD to Youtube with absolutely no video content at all, publish it as a playlist and leave it for the world to find and it'll still be there in six months or a year, but if I make a video where top 40 radio can be heard in the background, that crap is going to get taken down and the account will get a copyright strike.
Stereodude
Not really a
So they've never heard of fair use?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
The way the system Youtube has for identifying music works, it basically flags everything it can identify and report it to a content owner. If the content owner makes an issue, it's an issue for all matching content. It's a pretty lousy system but anything less would be a piracy holocaust as far as the music industry is concerned.
Also I think we all know that the music industry will take every possible opportunity to deny the existence of Fair Use as a legal construct that they possibly can take.
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I highly recommend anyone who likes games to check out the Indie Bundle X Humble bundle. Just give them more than the average of $5.38 to get all the games. There are some great indie titles in there. Papo & yo is easily worth $5 alone. To The Moon is highly regarded. I'm probably a couple hours in and it's well-done even though the graphics are a bit classic. Hoard is a blast to play Co-op or competitive. Surgeon Simulator is a hoot. These all support Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
For those that play/played Eve Online - Huge 10+hr battle involving 2,200 players - http://games.slashdot.org/story/14/...ine-battle-destroys-200000-worth-of-starships
I don't play but I was entertained following it on reddit while it was happening. The back-story of the event is pretty interesting to follow and it's also neat that the amount of these ships that went down due to this battle is pretty glorious for an online event.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
There will be a new Duke Nukem game, based on the latest Unreal Engine, that will be announced in three weeks. Let's hope it won't be a disapointment like the previous release.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
I'll be on the lookout in 2029.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
:rotfl:
Because the last installment of Duke Nukem Forever took a VERY long time to complete. It took 15 years to complete...meaning timwhit brilliantly forecasted that the next one would be ready in 2014 + 15 = 2029.
Howell
Storage? I am Storage!
Did they name the previous one before our after the debacle?
I thought it was always called Duke Nukem Forever but I'm not 100% sure.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
They have renamed it "Duke Nukem Took Forever".
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Civilization 5 is supposed to be getting full offline play Any Day Now and coincidentally, the new Humble Bundle is all Sid Meier games. I've never heard of Ace Patrol and the bundle doesn't have either of my actual favorite Sid Meier games (Pirates! Gold or Alpha Centauri), but that is more tempting than many of the bundles that have been offered lately from one of the very few designers with name-brand respect in the industry.
Also, I just found this thing about Steam Boxes. Several of my students are really interested in that idea. I keep telling them that it's another term for "desktop PC", but looking at the options presented, I guess that's not entirely true. Not that I'd want to be stuck with a gaming system that's running on someone's IGP, but gaming is definitely one of the few good excuses to have use desktop hardware, so I'm kind of interested in what happens there, even if I remain philosophically opposed to the service.
Also, I just found this thing about Steam Boxes. Several of my students are really interested in that idea. I keep telling them that it's another term for "desktop PC", but looking at the options presented, I guess that's not entirely true. Not that I'd want to be stuck with a gaming system that's running on someone's IGP, but gaming is definitely one of the few good excuses to have use desktop hardware, so I'm kind of interested in what happens there, even if I remain philosophically opposed to the service.
I'm conflicted with dedicated an entire powerful PC system just for Steam. On top of that I have no desire to put it in my living room to play games from my couch. I like that they're trying to enter the console market in a different way (BYOPC) but I find it a difficult user-base to cater to.
I picked up Civ 5 a while back for $4 on Steam but haven't tried it yet. I hear good things.
I picked up Civ 5 a while back for $4 on Steam but haven't tried it yet. I hear good things.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I've done "Living Room PCs" a few times. My own personal bias is to make systems that are capable as media consumption systems rather than gaming machines, but I've made those as well. SteamOS is supposed to be a front end for a Linux system, and I suppose that means it will be modded to hell and back, though I'm not sure if any particular system or distribution will be moddable.
The big problems with living room gaming in general are the lack of PC games that work through a 10' interface. Yeah, Spelunky and Torchlight work and there are smatterings of Indie titles, and you can always run emulators with a decent front end (I get a lot of mileage out of the MAME plugin for XBMC, for example), but most PC games are too information-dense to work well; and gaming hardware also tends to be just too damned hot. It's hard to keep an ITX-size rig cool and quiet when it has both a desktop CPU and 150W+ worth of graphics card to cool down.
The big problems with living room gaming in general are the lack of PC games that work through a 10' interface. Yeah, Spelunky and Torchlight work and there are smatterings of Indie titles, and you can always run emulators with a decent front end (I get a lot of mileage out of the MAME plugin for XBMC, for example), but most PC games are too information-dense to work well; and gaming hardware also tends to be just too damned hot. It's hard to keep an ITX-size rig cool and quiet when it has both a desktop CPU and 150W+ worth of graphics card to cool down.
I've grown fond of using my Roku for general media consumption that it would make a hard case for me personally to combine the two. Your idea is solid though to make more use of he hardware.
You're definitely right about the distance being a challenge. Steam seems to be taking on some of the challenge with their new controller though I've not seen anything more than a couple YouTube videos and written reviews on it. From a front-end perspective they've address some of the distance issues using the Big Screen steam interface. Neither of those still address the issue you rightfully pointed out which is related to games and interfaces that likely don't scale well at 10'+. Once nice thing about the build-your-own is that you could make a SteamBox with more efficient CPU and graphics at the expensive of some gaming performance which isn't an option when buying game consoles like PS3/PS4/XBone, etc. Since there isn't many TV's past 1080P it should be easier to get lesser graphics cards to work reasonably well. Another option would be to build some kind of radiated water-cooled setup assuming expense isn't that big of an issue. It may be possible, just not economical.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I think the dream we want to live is to get a desktop with a performance profile that's similar to or exceeds current-gen consoles at a comparable price. Without Windows that is ENTIRELY possible ($350 i3 rig + $100 *770 graphics card + goofy wireless gamepad = ~$500) and it's just going to get easier with time. Most of the grumbling on the internet at the moment seems to suggest widespread disinterest (or disgust with misfeatures) in the newest consoles anyway, but given that Steamboxes will be Linux and Linux gets maybe one out of every 10 triple-A title ported to it, I'm not sure I'm going to hold out any real hope that Steamboxes will be the future of anything.
I did see that Youtube is finally being made available on Roku devices, which for the longest time has been my biggest single problem with them.
I did see that Youtube is finally being made available on Roku devices, which for the longest time has been my biggest single problem with them.
Steam does have a large uphill battle with getting games under Linux but I hope that with PS4's adoption of freeBSD as their underlying OS that if Steam can produce a viable gaming SDK for their Linux OS that there might be a chance for easier porting of those class-A titles. I admit I don't have the first clue how one ports a game from freeBSD to Linux but if Steam does things right, maybe their SDK could allow for it.
I didn't notice that Youtube was available on Roku; I'll have to go check it out. My way around their lack of Youtube support was to just use Youtube from my mobile phone or tablet and just use Twonky to beam it over to the Roku. It worked very well and made it easier to locate Youtube content anyway. Plus you could share whatever local content on your device in the same way. I do have to say though I'm not as impressed with Twonky's recent app update. I'm finding it more difficult to use.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
IIRC, PS3's OS was also based on FreeBSD as well... but the SDK used a variation of OpenGL (PSGL) and custom input APIs very different from anything else. I would suspect the PS4 would follow suit in that regard but can't say as I haven't seen or read too much about the PS4 SDK...
IIRC, SteamOS games use SDL+OpenGL as the primary SDK for their games on Linux - which means porting between PS4 and Linux would be about the same effort as porting between PS4 and Windows (when using OpenGL as the 3D API). But noting applications built against SDL to work on both Windows and Linux (and *BSD and Solaris and MacOS X and QNX and ...) with minimal effort.
If I was doing a game at the moment, I would be targeting SDL as the underlying platform as it would allow porting between Windows, Linux and Mac fairly easy. (Main problem would be determining the OpenGL version to target, as IIRC Mac only officially offers OpenGL 2.1, but Linux/Solaris/FreeBSD/Windows can offer OpenGL 4 with the right hardware and drivers, and there are a couple other platform issues to workaround, but nothing major as SDL abstracts away the underlying platform quite well).
PS. SDL = http://www.libsdl.org/
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Youtube was rolled out for the Roku 3 just before Xmas, with promises that it would be added as an available channel to everything but the original-model Roku. I have no idea on dates, but I did see it on my uncle's Roku a couple weeks ago.
You might want to give Plex a try as a DLNA replacement. Plex is a DLNA server and it's natively supported by the Roku. I suspect the Plex channel has a nicer presentation on your STB.
The Nvidia GTX 750 Ti with their Maxwell core could be a viable option to build into a somewhat quiet and reasonable Steam box. With it's 60W TDP and reasonable 1080P gaming performance, it could be the way to go without having a ridiculously noisy setup. I think a 300-350W PSU could even suffice. I know Nvidia isn't your preferred GPU maker but the power requirements are fairly impressive for a mid tier GPU.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
I've read some of the reviews on the 750Ti, and it seems nVidia has a very nice GPU design on it's hands. (Nice to see companies looking at power envelope again).
ddrueding
Fixture
Prison Architect is available on and off steam. It is still in Alpha (but very playable, with monthly releases full of features and fixes). It has consumed an absurd amount of my time since I discovered it.