d3Xt3r @ d3Xt3r @beehaw.org

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15

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146

Joined

2 yr. ago

I just checked this page and none of the games that I'm playing currently are on it (Diablo 4, Elden Ring, God of War, Jedi Survivor etc). It's not like the games I'm playing are obscure or brand new either. Not to mention some of the console exclusives that I'm also playing, like TotK on the Switch and Horizon FW on the PS5, but of course, I understand that the cloud provider can do nothing about that.

Don't get me wrong, I'm quite enthusiastic about cloud gaming as well and looked seriously into it a while ago, because I wanted to upgrade my PC but the upgrade costs were looking pretty high (this was during the peak of the supply chain issues during COVID), also I wanted to break out of the constant and expensive upgrade cycles.

But everything I looked at had some or the other limitation, either they didn't have the games that I was playing, or the service wasn't available in my country (eg Shadow PC), or it didn't allow you to bring your own games (Stadia), or it was working out to be too expensive (Azure VM), or had other limitations such as not supporting ultra-wide resolutions at 60+ FPS. I think for me, being able to play my own games is a big fan requirement for it to work, and the pricing of things like Shadow could work out for me, but those sort of services have limited availability, and rolling your own VM on a public cloud can turn very expensive if you're a heavy gamer, as I've experienced first-hand in Azure.

Therefore, IMO, cloud gaming, while is the future, just isn't there yet.

$10

I'm assuming you're talking about GeForce Now? If so, don't they have the problem of being able to play only limited number of games?

I actually like exploring the universe, but I've been pretty disappointed from what I've seen so far. They tried to add space-sim elements to it, but did a half-assed job at it. To make things worse, the planets are mostly barren and not worth exploring either.

In saying that, it is a Bethesda gene, so I'm expecting some beefy mods that add more content and immersiveness to the game, and once that's done, I may consider buying it when it goes on sale.

In the meantime, I'm really looking forward to finally playing Cyberpunk as it was meant to be, with the new Phantom Liberty DLC.

Which is why in, say, Mass Effect it works well, because you get to explore your ship and talk to the crew between missions and that's fun, while the travel is minimized

This is exactly what I was expecting. I mean, I'm not asking of hours of travel thru endless space, they could've employed wormholes to cut the travel time, but still make the distance seem... distant, a bit more believable and immersive. It could only be a few minutes of travel if you take the wormhole into consideration, but there's so much you can do to fill that time. Like the spaceships are vast, so you could be assigned activities to do around the ship, like maintenance and minor upgrades, or maybe you could access the ship's various computer terminals to do stuff - could even have various mini games, or just a mini spaceship RPG type elements, similar to some of the Star Trek games. Just because space is vast and empty doesn't mean you're just sitting there and staring at darkness.

Or maybe I had my expectations too high and was expecting a space sim, which this clearly isn't.

That's what I'm saying here. The online circle that considers that transparency and control are the primary reason to choose software at the expense of feature limitations or poor UX is a very small niche

And what I'm saying is, why does that matter here? The argument was about whether or not the opensource world exists, and has nothing to do with how big or small this niche is.

That is important because sometimes open source devs forget about that and don't focus enough on the things that matter to consumers. And sometimes the open source community, such as it is, will excuse this or even take pride on working around it on the basis of that performative sense of belonging and righteousness. I think that's a risk for everybody, which is the part that annoys me about it.

I don't see what's wrong with that or why it should annoy you? If you disagree with the dev's philosophy, then fork the software and fix it yourself, that's the beauty of opensource - you don't need to agree with the dev or wait for them. And if you don't have the skills to fix it yourself, sponsor someone who can. Or just use a different software. No one's holding a gun against your head and forcing you here. There's no reason it should annoy you.

Could have fooled me, because I have maybe half a dozen Android installs on devices that run all the same applications and are functionally identical to any manufacturer version out there without being related to them at all.

???

there is no major concern for most people about where their Android build is sourced as long as it runs Android apps.

And that's not my point at all. As I mentioned earlier, I only mentioned Android because it's the only mainstream mobile OS which allows sideload apps and has alternative app store. Whether Android in itself is opensource or not is irrelevant in this context, when I'm discussing specifically about Android apps, as an example. Also, I never claimed it was a concern for "most" people, and again, that's besides the point.

the open source "world" is not dictated by being built on open source code and instead dictated by a label of purity based on the lack of proprietary, monetized or closed source portions then... yeah, that's annoying. It's computer veganism

Actually, it isn't. It (the motivation for opensource) has nothing to do any of the things you mentioned, but more about transparency and control for end users (and faster development lifecycles for developers). As I've repeatedly mentioned, people are increasingly getting sick of their apps being filled with ads and trackers and all the corporate spying and data harvesting, and the general enshittification of services. Which is one of the factors driving end users seeking out opensource software.

People on Android are on an open source OS

No they're not, at least, not by default. The Android that's pre-installed on most phones is actually closed source, the only reason I mentioned Android is because it's the only mainstream mobile OS which allows you to sideload apps and even install alternative app stores. There's regular threads here and even back on Reddit showcasing opensource apps, and even people asking for opensource alternatives.

There's most certainly an opensource world, whether you acknowledge it or not, and I don't see why it's "annoying".

People mostly just use software. Software is either good or bad. It's either monetized or it isn't.

This is true, but also, this ideology is mainly seen in Windows of macOS users - these users they just use software.

But there most certainly is a "world of open source", and you usually enter that world when you switch to an opensource OS like Linux. And the reason why it's a whole new world is because you'd predominantly use opensource software on such an OS, so you're going from a world full of mostly proprietary software, to a world full of mostly opensource software - it's a stark contrast.

So usually, at least for me, any talks of entering the "world of open source" usually begins with switching to, or trying out, an opensource OS. At least on the desktop.

On the mobile space however, particularly in the Android world, there's been a growing awareness and desire among the privacy conscious people to switch to opensource apps. More and more folks are tired of the ads and tracking and privacy issues that plague proprietary apps typically found on the Play Store, so people have been increasingly looking towards opensource apps, which are free from such annoyances, and as a result, opensource stores such as F-Droid and Droidify have been gaining in popularity.

So there's most definitely a world of open source out there, and the first step into that word usually beings with people getting fed up with corporations screwing them over, and thus looking for alternatives.

A mission might send you to the other side of the vast starmap, but the actual travel time between systems is always the same (and the poorly explained fuel system, which is actually just your range, isn’t much of a limitation). When I discovered that so much of space flight is effectively a series of non-interactive cutscenes, it largely shattered the illusion of exploring a vast universe. It’s impossible not to compare Starfield to the way you freely enter and exit planets’ atmosphere in No Man’s Sky, so it’s a bit of a letdown every time you see a planet and remember it’s just a picture of a planet you’ll never be able to reach by flying toward it. It’s something that happens a lot.

The fact that you can't fly over to planets and land, and that you get around the vastness of space by simply fast traveling, is disappointing. This seems less space-y, and more like Fallout-y to me.

As someone who isn't really into FPS games these days, I think I might give Starfield a skip.

I'm not sure about the price/performance ratio of the actual SoCs, but if you take the Pi Zero 2 W for instance ($15), it can comfortably emulate most consoles up to the 5th generation (PS1, Saturn, N64). The performance is equivalent to that of it's direct competitor, the Miyoo Mini Plus ($80). If you want to upgrade the Miyoo Mini, you'd have to buy a whole new device, but with the PiBoy you only need to update the Pi (which will only be $15). So sure, it may still need a few upgrade cycles to match the value, but if you treat the original purchase as an investment, spending only $15 for an upgrade doesn't seem like such a bad idea. Especially when you consider the resale value - the Miyoo Minis are already cheap, so the value of an older model wouldn't be much if you were to sell it off on say eBay or something, since most folks would prefer buying a newer model which can handle emulating more recent consoles. Whereas the Raspberry Pis - even older ones sell well, one reason being a perpetual supply shortage (just look at all the people in this thread treating buying a Pi like finding unicorns), the other reason being a Pi is always useful - even the first Raspberry Pi can still be used today for things like basic home automation tasks, or even as a tiny web server, as a home security system, or wherever - hundreds of projects out there which don't really need the computing power of a current gen Pi. Since the PiBoy is targeted at DIY-ers, no doubt there would be a significant portion of it's buyers into DIY stuff and could make use of a Pi around the house. As DIY-er myself, I can never have enough Raspberry Pis, and always carry a spare Pi or two around with me when I go around - you never know when it may come in handy. For instance, when I recently visited some relatives overseas, I used one of the spare Pis in my backpack to convert their old printer into an wireless printer, so they could now print directly from their phones - and saved them from buying a whole new printer. Raspberry Pis always come in handy like that at unexpected times and places, so you can never have enough of them, but if you do, there are plenty of folks who'd be glad to take the Pi off you for their own projects.

Regarding the display on the PiBoy, I doubt you'd want to upgrade it that many times, I mean, it's just a tiny 3.5" display used to play mainly 8bit and 16bit games, getting something like a higher resolution or vibrant display would make no difference, since most of these games are low res with a low color pallete. In fact, most of the OG displays of these handhelds had shitty displays by modern standards, so any modern display in itself is a big upgrade compared to what gamers played on back then. At the most, an upgrade which may be worth could be a brighter display or an OLED panel or similar, but even then it would be a one-off upgrade and really, it doesn't add that much value when you're mainly playing retro games on there. A display upgrade for a retro console is just one of those "nice to have if you've got the spare change" kinda deal.

Also, here's the main thing: with competing handhelds like the Miyoo Mini Plus (or w/e) there's no guarantee that there will be an equivalent upgrade. They could change the form-factor in the next Miyoo Mini, or change the material of the chassis, like say switching to a metal chassis, which may make it heavy for you. For instance see the Anbernic devices, although they've been around for a while and have released many devices, a new Anbernic may not necessarily be an upgrade for your current one, with so many different form factors to choose from. Like the RG351MP, which felt like a good upgrade on paper, but in reality, most users felt it's metal body made it quite heavy, making it unsuitable for even moderate length gameplay. So the decicison to go all metal was actually a downgrade, making the earlier plastic versions better. So companies may pull stunts like this, messing around with the form factor or changing features, and then you'd need to look for some other manufacturer who may not have an equivalent, they may use Android for instance, which may result in poorer battery life and performance, so it may not be an upgrade for you.

Also, there's the problem of support - most of the official firmware on these devices are never updated by the OEM, and they also kinda suck, so most SBC gamers prefer to use a custom firmware, like OnionOS, GarlicOS, ArkOS etc. And these community built firmware may suddenly decide to drop support for older devices, for instance, see how the very popular ArkOS dropped support for the still-popular RG351M/P devices, and users were forced to look for a different firmware. Now this is where the Raspberry Pi shines - not only are there several gaming-oriented firmware you can choose from (such as Retro Pie, JelOS etc), the fact that this is basically a full-fledged computer and a Pi means there are several generic distros you could always switch to, like the official Raspbian for instance, and then just set it up to boot directly into Retroarch or Emulation Station or w/e to get a similar experience as a custom gaming distro. And that's where the Pi really shines, it's massive community support and the plethora of software (and hardware) options. A device like the Miyoo Mini may be popular now, but it'll soon be forgotten, like the poor RG351M/P, and turn into e-waste, whereas a Pi lives on practically forever, if not as a gaming SBC then maybe as something that'll turn your coffee machine into a smart coffee machine.

That's the true beauty of a Pi - it's worth cannot be simply compared in terms of dollars.

Of course. The main advantage of this is upgradability. Say you wanna play Gen 6 consoles in the future and there's a Pi Zero 3 out, you could just swap out the Pi to upgrade your handheld. Or maybe someone comes out with a better shell, maybe even a different form factor with a 16:9 display or something, you could just swap out the bits instead of buying a whole new handheld.

https://www.experimentalpi.com/PiBoy-DMG--Kit_p_18.html ?

The main advantage is that this is upgradable. So when they come out with a new Pi, you don't need to buy the whole kit, just swap out the Pi. The old Pi can be relegated to home automation tasks or resold.

I don't see how that could be a PiBoy issue (except for the fan, but that could be caused by high CPU usage).

Slow bootup could be an issue with the RPi or the microSD card, or most likely the OS that you chose run on it.

Also, here's an alternative which uses a RPi Compute Module 4 instead, if you need more power.

Back in the "good ol' days", I've used several awesome forum software such as phpBB, vBulletin, Invision Power Board, Simple Machines Forum etc. I personally liked Invision the most, it seemed super polished and had a good set of features. phpBB was also nice but lacked features, and vBulletin felt a bit clunky to me.

There's actually not much of a security difference between the two these days, both protocols have gone thru improvements, both use AES-128 encryption, both use frame protection etc.

That pairing issue of ZigBee was addressed with v3.0, which uses random install codes for each device.

It's not a big mystery. Green tea has the most amount flavanols. Fresh leaves also have more compared to aged leaves. Also, powered forms of tea release them more quickly compared to loose leaf. However, you could just steep regular leaf tea for longer as well. The key thing to remember is to not use boiling water, as that may degrade the flavanols, so select a temperature just-below boiling (80-90C / 175-195F).

Honestly, I'm more excited at just the thought of getting a higher-specced Switch, so that I can play my existing games like TotK in all it's glory.

You could create your own custom or multi-optic by looking at the existing ones, merging them in a text editor, and hosting the file somewhere accessible, like github.

See https://trystract.com/settings/optics , the top 10k list also has a comment telling you how it was generated, so you could just create your own top 1k or bottom 3K list, just change the Discard to Boost(0)if you want to limit your results to only these sites.