Scheherazade wrote on Jul 13, 2020, 01:33:
No idea why it's there, but I almost bought an Index this weekend.

Only thing that stopped me this weekend was that I couldn't choose between the Index (meh rez at144hz) and the PiMax 8kx (4k per eye at 75hz).

Since neither has both high resolution and high refresh, I didn't get anything. I know that either one will make me feel like I'm giving something up.

I currently have a 4k 120hz full chroma IPS display, 48 inch. Not VR immersive, but I don't need to compromise on clarity of fluidity of motion.

I mainly play flight sims, and I average 120+ fps at 4k on a single GPU.
With a second GPU, I could pull 120hz per eye.
As soon as someone makes a VR unit with both 4k and 120+hz, I'm buying.

-scheherazade

You can’t do dual GPU with VR unless the game is made for it. It makes SENSE, because you should be able to do one card per eye, and there’s already support for this in both Unreal 4 and Unity, but no one uses it. I don’t know of a single game that supports VRSLI.
Also VR is a different beast when it comes to refresh rate. Headsets will cut to half framerate the INSTANT they drop under the set framerate. It’s why you can force the index down to 120 or 90fps. It’s better to have a solid 90 than have 120 cut down to 60 when the game pushes too hard.

Index back on top! Nice to see Satisfactory on the list, it's a great game, even though it's currently unfinished.

The "top secret" project is likely the second VR game (out of 3) that Valve claimed to be making. I have serious doubts on their ability to deliver three top-notch VR games, although Alyx was pretty damn great.

Cutter wrote on Jul 8, 2020, 16:02:
I'll consider getting it when it hits the bargain bin and that's only if they do a historical tour for it. Love those things.

That'l depend entirely on how much historical accuracy they bothered with. Origins and Odyssey had vaguely correct locations. This game looks to be even less grounded in reality than the previous ones, although Odyssey did get pretty bonkers in the expansions.

theglaze wrote on Jul 8, 2020, 14:24:
Anyone own this?

I've been reading online about Multiplayer, and it sounds like the game DOES NOT support Steam Friends and you cannot make a party to join online public servers. Instead, you have to create your own server (and thusly port forwarding), or join a public server amd try to invite them into it.

Is that the case still?

That is still the case. This is not a team-play game, so there's little reason to build in that sort of functionality.
Easy enough to browse for a server with enough slots and then have everyone join that one.

The game itself is a blast, especially online. The vehicular carnage is incredible to watch, and on the smaller tracks, it's not a matter of if, but when. There are longer, more traditional race tracks with zero crossover points, they're....fine. Those absolutely aren't the reason to play this game though. The single player game, which is required of you if you want to unlock the absurd vehicles, is nowhere near as fun, aside from a handful of inspired matchups. In the one to get the School Bus, you have to drive a very tiny, fragile car in a 24-vehicle race. The other 23 vehicles are buses. You will know what it feels like to be a chihuahua.

Jonjonz wrote on Jul 8, 2020, 06:22:
This has to be the most inane, naive, sophomoric Op Ed ever posted here.

Yea just what we need, another Great Leap Forward, or equivalent of the the Russian Marxist revolution. Burn everything down and lynch anyone anonymously accused.

One random accusation isn't what it's about. It's about people who say things like you just did, to discredit those who have actually been accused. She never says anything about "burning it all down".
The problem isn't that there's some insane number of rapists in the gaming business. It's that these people have built a support network that keeps them in the business while turning a blind eye to what they do to female colleagues. Although really, this stuff happens in any white collar industry.

Before you guys go into "she shouldn't have had all those drinks, then", which...is true, clearly you've never gotten a "big break". If you manage to get into an industry that's new to you, at a position anywhere above "the very bottom", then you'd know that you initially feel like an impostor. So you watch your coworkers and pretty much do whatever is asked of you so that you can be accepted. While still in this mental state, they take you to an event and hand you drinks. Drinks that, if turned down, are implied to be a great insult to someone who controls whether or not you have that job anymore. And also someone who could keep you from getting another job in that industry. It's a terrible position to be put in.

They’ve got a lot of catch up work to do if they want to even be a shadow of Forza Horizon. Both previous TDU games had absolute garbage physics, which is sort of the entire game.

eRe4s3r wrote on Jul 5, 2020, 20:11:
I got finally around to playing Titanfall 2.. and what an amazing campaign that was. Pure action, super detail level... got all the helmets and finished it on master.. in 8 hours. Man. Glad I paid only 5€ for that

I didn’t get all the helmets but it’s one of very few campaigns that I finished and IMMEDIATELY knew I’d want to play through again. Just fucking fantastic and EA murdered it by releasing it alongside the FAR more heavily advertised Battlefield 1.

If you are reading this and somehow have NOT picked up Titanfall 2, do yourself a favor and grab it during the summer sale. It’s not a long campaign, but it’s rock solid, with a couple masterpiece levels and the rest standing at well above average.

Burrito of Peace wrote on Jul 4, 2020, 21:53:
How to fix shitty wifi in one simple step:

Use a network cable.

YUP. Wifi is convenient but unreliable. You won't find any business running mission-critical devices off wifi, and in the rare case they DO, they've gone to extreme measures to make sure it works well. Apple stores, for instance, that open-area design with all-wood tables is like that FOR A REASON, and it's called "wood doesn't make a complete shitshow of your wireless signal".

Hey look it’s Soldat again.

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Jun 30, 2020, 11:53:
Hrm, Epic isn't making enough billions from Fortnite BR, to fund the Save the World mode? I was kinda interested in coop StW ... a few years ago now I guess, it'll probably be a hard sell to the coop crew to even bother trying it now. I'm sure Epic won't miss a couple sells from my group though, they will probably make hundreds of millions just from existing Fortnite players trying Save the World mode.

The main issue is STW constantly hands out V-bucks. If they remove that to let it be F2P, people who like that system will be furious.
V-bucks are entirely where Fortnite makes its money. Some Battle Royale players have figured out that if they purchase STW and play the handful of daily missions, they can get a surprising number of V-bucks for their BR cosmetics.

STW is pretty fun, but the story is done like a radio play. There aren’t cutscenes, just audio that plays when you do whatever objective you have. Some can overlap so you have multiple stories going on at the same time, which can be confusing to listen to, especially if they involve the same characters. The story is extremely funny, with great voicework, but again...no cutscenes. When playing co-op this means you’ll want to play without headsets or you’ll miss out on the great comedy.

Unfortunately the long term entertainment focuses too heavily on min/making weapons and traps, and not enough on adding new twists to combat. Due to incessant bots, the open chat has been disabled, making it VERY hard to complete the Storm Shield Defense missions that are required for parts of the progress. I’ve never finished the ones in the final zone because there’s no simple way to get three other high level players to join, and you DO need the help.

I do find it amusing that BoP is claiming the demise of something that has only been around for 4 years and is seeing only INCREASED interest. He claims he has no interest in a technology that isn’t mainstream...
While simultaneously being INSANELY defensive of Linux, an operating system that hasn’t made a dent in mainstream consciousness for three decades.

Burrito of Peace wrote on Jun 28, 2020, 22:32:

Orogogus wrote on Jun 28, 2020, 22:12:
Why is the bar set so low? It seems to me that most of the big publishers have games with minimum specifications higher than "$600 Walmart laptop with integrated graphics."

As RedEye correctly attributed, hyperbole. The point is that the barrier to entry needs to be low enough for mass adoption. It needs to be plug and go.

To hit mass adoption, yes. To hit a level where it will at least continue to expand, no. It needs more AAA-quality games, which supposedly Valve has two more of in the works, and it absolutely needs more places for people to try it out. Corona has made that second part more difficult, but it’s a temporary issue.
As long as people are buying the hardware, developers will make games for it. The ones with rock-solid designs make money, the ones that never made it past the “imma dink around with VR” stage...don’t. Same rules apply to pancake titles.
Yes, it’s expensive. It’s not so much “need a top end computer” anymore, and later this year the new cards will push the bar to entry lower. Once a truly next-gen VR kit design comes out, original VR kits will be cheap to pick up on eBay.
I don’t think VR will replace pancake gaming. I absolutely play 90% on my monitor. VR is neat, very different, but just not suited to every game type. I’ve said it before, VR is the motorcycle of gaming. It’s not required, and most people still need a car (monitor) anyway most of the time, but oh boy is it fun when you use it. It’s a mini-luxury item that not everyone will be able to afford but enough people are into it to make it a sustainable business.

And unlike a motorcycle, you won’t die horrifically if someone else isn’t paying attention. Unless, as BoP has posited, you fall out a window.

fakespyder wrote on Jun 28, 2020, 17:15:
gtx1060 6gig that the marketing says is "VR ready". I have my doubts it can push the fps necessary, especially for more recent games.

I have a 1080, running on an OG Vive with Index controllers. The games that run badly, run badly on ANYTHING because they’re usually made by small teams who aren’t fluent enough in the engine they use to really optimize, especially for a locked 90 FPS.

Games like HL:Alyx are proof that it CAN be done, it's just probably out of reach for a lot of small teams.

This comment was edited on Jun 28, 2020, 19:36.

Gib007 wrote on Jun 28, 2020, 16:41:
Until third-party sellers sell the Valve Index VR kit, I won't be allowed to have it. Gibraltar will never be on the list of countries Valve ship to. Even Google still doesn't allow us to have Merchant accounts on their Play Store. We're like in the top 5 GDP per capita in the world.

Huh, that's odd. You'd think MORE companies would want to ship there if people are generally better off.

Cutter wrote on Jun 27, 2020, 16:00:

theglaze wrote on Jun 27, 2020, 15:54:
Just don't take away my car liveries of scantily clad hentai babes

Oh no. That's certainly next on the chopping block. There isn't anything the moonbats won't be coming after if anyone is offended in even the slightest amount. Big Brother is coming to be sure. Another year or two they'll be opening the "re-education" centers. Doubleplus good, comrade.

The confederate flag is a symbol of people who thought slavery was a-ok and were willing to go to war over it. There's a pretty big gap between that and some cartoon boobs.

This is like...the third tank arena combat game in the last few months. Tiny Tanks appears to allow more players, but looks less polished. This one looks pretty solid. For only a couple bucks, I may pick it up.

wtf_man wrote on Jun 24, 2020, 19:04:

Resolution Games, the leading VR and AR game studio behind Angry Birds: Isle of Pigs, Bait!, Acron: Attack of the Squirrels and more

Since he is joining that... I guess we can put Mr. Hall in the category of "washed up", along with the likes of Richard Garriott, Warren Spector, D.W. Bradley, etc. etc.

Ah yes, since he’s joining a company making well-reviewed titles, he’s clearly washed up.

Xero wrote on Jun 21, 2020, 14:55:
Picked up Titanfalls 2 despite not really caring much about the original and barely playing it. The reviews claim for it to be one of the greatest FPS ever so I said, 10 bucks, why not? So far, pretty good. The bullet impact, weight of the guns, and sound effects are real good. Level design has been pretty good so far but I can't help but feel it's too static. There are like no environmental interactions or physics whatsoever. Still, it's got my attention so far so we'll see how it goes.

Oh, the later levels get very interesting. One in particular is a huge standout, but to avoid story spoilers I’ll just let you discover it.

I hope bigger publishers are watching this list, seeing the Index consistently on it. Maybe we'll get some good high-end games on Steam, instead of Facebook buying them all up. Happy to see the new Star Wars game is fully VR capable. Honestly, if your game takes place 99% in a cockpit, it should have VR support. It's the easiest VR conversion possible.