PlzGivHugs

joined 1 year ago
[–] PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works 3 points 20 hours ago

Episodes 1 and 2 are now also bundled in.

[–] PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works 1 points 20 hours ago

Well, they implemented some graphical improvements and options, as well as workshop mod support so now would be a good time for a replay.

[–] PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works 20 points 1 day ago

Technically, it can and has been done already. The problem is that AI is very bad at creating new ideas and even worse at understanding what it has created (as is required for plots or jokes). As a result, any writting created with heavy AI influence tends to sound like a child's stream of thought with an adult's vocabulary, and any jokes rely purely on randomness or on repeating an existing well-known joke. Similarly with art and animation, because the AI doesn't understand what it is creating, it struggles to keep animation of elements consistant and often can't figure out how elements should be included in the scene. Voices are probably the strongest part, but even then, it can be buggy and won't change correctly to match the context of what is being said.

None of this is to say AI is useless. Its very good at creating a "good enough" quick-fix, or to be used to fill unimportant or trivial work. If used to help clean up scripts or fill in backgrounds, it can speed up the process greatly at minimal cost. It's a tool to be used by someone who knows the field, not to replace them.

Who even thinks this is a big deal? This screams boomers being upset about violent video games all over again.

While its not a big deal, at least for Gmod specifically, they really could use some further moderation. I've seen some pretty reprehensible stuff there. The most recent example that comes to mind is "Burning Ukrainian Soldiers" on the front page (complete with combat footage to compare against and racist description of Ukranians), but that sort of thing is not rare at all.

[–] PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

In general, I agree, but I think you underestimate the benifits it provides. While ray-tracing doesn't add much to more static or simple scenes, it can make a huge difference with more complex or dynamic scenes. Half Life 2 is honestly probably the ideal game to demonstrate this due to its heavy reliance on physics. Current lighting and reflection systems, for all their advancements and advantages, struggle to convincingly handle objects moving in the scene and interacting with each other. Add in a flickering torch or similar and things tend to go even further off the rails. This is why in a lot of games, interactive objects end up standing out in an otherwise well-rendered enviroment. Good raytracing fixes this and can go a really long way to creating a unified, but dynamic look to an enviroment. All that is just on the player's side too, theres even more boons for developers.

That said, I still don't plan to be playing many RTX or ray-traced games any time soon. As you said, its still a nightmare performance wise, and I personally start getting motion sick at the framerates it runs at. Once hardware catches up more seriously, I think it will be a really useful tool.

[–] PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works 16 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

A couple of major factors:

Users who expect low prices - This partly because of the history of mobile games being smaller and/or ad-funded but also because the vast majority of people playing games on their phone are looking for a low barrier to entry, time waster, not specifically a game.

Lack of regulation or enforcement - other gambling heavy fields tend to be at least somewhat regulated, but mobile games are very light on regulation, and even lighter on enforcement. This allows them to falsely advertise their games and how they function (both in terms of misleading ads, and lying about chance based events and purchases in-game).

Monopolistic middlemen - On other platforms, theres more direct competition (IE, Sony and Microsoft's generally more direct competition) or companies that prioritize long-term growth and stability (IE Steam or Itch.io). Apple and Google, on the other hand, largely compete on brand perception and hardware specs. These means that their app stores, where they make most of their money, have zero competitors. Seeing as they have no reason to make the stores better, they can instead promote whatever makes them the most money; that being exactly these manipulate, sketchy, virtual slot machines.

[–] PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 days ago

I think it is technically possible - with the Valve Index you can read the camera input like a webcam, and I'm sure theres some way to do it with the Quests (although probably not easily). That said, as others have noted, between the bulkyness of the headset, the lower quality of the cameras, the risk of losing tracking, and the natural shakyness of people's heads, it likely wouldn't be an improvement. Try watching VR footage from someone who doesn't stream/video it regularly and you can get an idea of how hard the footage can be to follow, even before the lower camera quality.

[–] PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 days ago

It would be anywhere between 2 and 5.

[–] PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 days ago

Either physical or digital. And I have access to a PC (with a bunch of emulators) or mobile phones.

 

I have Trivia Murder Party 1&2, which are great, but was hoping to find a couple other options to play with friends, esspecially those that have specific catagories you can choose to play or to include.

[–] PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 days ago

Exactly what everyone else said, regardless of how much troubleshooting they did. Lol

[–] PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Literally just a 3.5mm headset plugged directly into the mobo. As simple as can be.

I hope I can switch some day, but I doubt a lot of my actually specialized software will work any time soon, even if the audio issues have been fixed (or my computer replaced) so I don't expect to any time soon, unfortunately.

[–] PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (4 children)

I think it was about a year ago. I have given up since then, but I have yet to find anyone capable of getting my audio to work properly, despite many hours of trying and help from multiple people from the Linux support subreddit. It might have been fixed since then, but I don't have the disk space nor the time to attempt the switch again, and if I can't even get audio to work, then I can't use the OS.

Edit: I believe this is the mobo if you want to look into things yourself. The best I every got was audio that was delayed by about a second. https://www.asrock.com/MB/AMD/AB350M-HDV/index.asp

 

Often, its asked what the fediverse or lemmy needs more of in terms of content, but are there any specific features or functionality you really feel are lacking?

 

Personally Im enjoying the War Thunder Halloween event. Its just races with weapons disabled, but its silly fun.

 

After spending the last few days, tinkering and trying to put together an HTPC for my family, I wasn't able to get a smooth enough experience to match even our old, ad-filled, laggy, Roku. In particular, every streaming service I tried needed to be controlled almost exclusively by mouse, as everything has been reduced to electron apps/websites with little-to-no keyboard or controller navigation support. As such, I'm looking for other options, although considering how quickly these platforms change and how outdated a lot of the information available on them is its hard to single out the best options.

In particular, I'm looking to be able to:

  • Use Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney+. Ideally other services too, since we tend to juggle subscriptions.
  • Control it with a remote, controller, or similarly simple device
  • Be able to cast to it from a phone

Does anyone have much experience with options for this - esspecially if you've tried multiple and can compare?

 

I'd like to switch from a smart TV to an HTPC, but trying to navigate a standard desktop enviroment regularly with no desk is a royal pain. Is it realistically possible to set up an HTPC that won't require this for regular use? I expect it'd have to be controlled with a game controller, given that there is probably better (or the same) support compared to using a remote, but thats just a guess.

In particular, I'd like to be able to use a few of the larger streaming services, my own video files, and YouTube. Are there apps with controller (or remote) support for these? I'd also like to be able to browse the web when needed, or better yet, be able to cast to the TV from a phone.

For reference of my own skill level, I'm not tech illiterate by any means, I've worked in low-level IT jobs, but when people start talking about recompiling software or that, I tend to start getting lost.

Edit: After extensive testing, it isn't viable. Almost nothing has support for non-mouse control, so I'll have to just get a Roku or something.

51
What is this plant? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
 

It grows into vines a few feet long, not very tangly, that run along the ground and don't seem to climb. It seems to grow in large numbers of smaller vines that don't seem to be connected in the roots.

Its completely blanketing my garden, choking out even other weeds, trying to expand into my lawn, and growing almost as fast as I weed it.

I'm wondering what it is, and/or if there are any particularly good ways of dealing with it. I've been tilling the ground, flipping over the soil (down to roughly a foot) and putting a layer of mulch over it, but Im still having stuff grow back.

Edit: solved: its periwinkle.

87
How do you search Lemmy? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
 

I've been trying to find any information on this at all without luck. 3rd party search engines like Google and DDG still don't have much of Lemmy indexed, and the built in search seems to just grab everything whether it matches the search or not. Is there search parameters you can use like Reddit's "title:" or "flair:", or some other way to effectively search?

 

I'm in a rental right now with a useless landlord, so I'm trying to fix the problem myself (or at least find the cause). My home's central air AC unit is working, but doesn't seem to be working well. There is cool air coming from the vents, but its less than I would expect, and when its 80f/27c outside, its rarely more than a single degree cooler. I'm looking for ideas to track down the problem. In particular, between the landlord's neglect and the last tenant's seemingly willful destruction I expect it'll be something maintenance related.

So far I have checked:

  • The unit size relative to the property (its about 2.5 tons for a 2,500 ft² property) which the internet seemed to say was fine. That said, its a bungalow with no attic and high-cielings, so Im not sure if that could have enough effect to account for this.

  • Intakes and outlets inside the out aren't blocked by furnature (although what I can see looking into them looks pretty dirty)

  • I tried removing the furnace filter (which, from my understanding, is also used by the AC inside the house) temporarily, although didn't notice a significant difference.

  • I checked the cooling fins on the unit outside the house for obstructions, but there was little more than a bit of webs

I'm not an expert on these things at all, but is there anything else I can check or try?

Edit: unfortunately there is some condensation and frost on the coil box, so sounds like its a leak. Guess I'm looking at a fight with my landlord.

 

Are there any good casual/low-stress mobile games that aren't filled with microtransactions? For example: easy puzzle games, match-3 games, low-difficulty adventure games, or clicker-style games.

So far, the only good examples I've found are Monument Valley, Suika Game, and (sort of) Vampire Survivors.

I'm personally looking for games that have more progression or variety, but any suggestions are welcome.

 

I get pretty easy depressed watching TV shows with a depressing tone or a lot of character deaths or that. If its more in the background its generally fine, but things like Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, and The Boys are a lot for the moment. How does the new Fallout show compare?

Edit: Came back after watching it. Its depressing, but nowhere near as bad as people made it sound. No main character deaths, main characters do stupid stuff but are generally good people, and while things are grim and dark, there is hope for progress despite everything.

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