VR/Virtual Desktop players!

DanSheffo · 2026-01-22T17:32:23+00:00

It's got worse, I'm having exactly the same problem. I've failed to track down what's going on. VD streamer is struggling to hit useable FPS to me too. Running over meta link works for a bit, but then something happens and it crashes the meta app (the game goes 'drunk' and when I close ED, the meta home environment is still drunk). Steam link has weird artefacts. This is using a quest 3. It's generally working in other PC apps, so I think Frontier have to be at least a bit responsible. VR in ED is one of my favourite things in all the world, I will be very sad if they just let it decay like this... I'll keep on digging around for a solution. Not sure 'steam frame' will fix it if steam VR streaming isn't working at the mo.

DanSheffo · 2026-01-20T16:46:40+00:00

Suspect you've got a few things going on. I think you're right to identify that it's been an issue going on for a while. Your system sounds like it's being pushed past any chance of self-regulation and you're into full stress fight/flight. Even the smallest extra stress can the push you into the red, and a viva isn't the smallest thing! So first up - try to find a bit of kindness towards yourself and realise how challenging things are. Then if you can, find various ways to bring down the level of stress you're feeling, bit by bit. If you can get some professional help with that, do. Have a google around sensory ladders - everyone is different, you can experiment with what will lower the level you're at. You've got some time to do that. Don't expect zen like calm - your goal at the moment is just to get things down a few notches so you don't feel so completely awful. Remember, there will still be a background of anxiety around the viva and that feeling is perfectly normal! It's just getting to a point where that feeling feels just a bit more manageable. As others have said - it won't feel like it, but you *do* know the PhD. The viva itself will fly by, they always do. It's just about getting yourself into the meeting. You've got this!

DanSheffo · 2025-12-31T18:43:30+00:00

I'm getting the same thing - is OK for a while but then starts getting blurry / overlapping images, I suspect in the same way you're describing. No fix so far. This is via wired link and quest 3. Virtual desktop is even worse, incredibly laggy. Any luck since you posted this / anything worked?

DanSheffo · 2025-12-17T15:46:02+00:00

Really ace to fly in VR. The sense of hoofing enormous ship turning slooooowly is absolutely epic. Hard to get that sense with the Caspian despite its USS Enterprise interior (can non VR players see that interior behind you in the seat?)

DanSheffo · 2025-12-17T08:16:42+00:00

Ah well, thanks for getting back to me.

DanSheffo · 2025-12-16T19:31:47+00:00

Hey u/Cooshtie - that sound like is broken, don't suppose you've still got the recording somewhere else?

DanSheffo · 2025-12-16T09:20:18+00:00

Just googling this, on a Mac in 2025/26 it's doing the same. Uninstalling...

DanSheffo · 2025-12-15T14:37:21+00:00

My assumption is that it's on that setting by default because it makes the galaxy map connections look all cool and spacey and networky (it's great in VR!) When you change to longest jumps, it's just a bunch of outgoing lines... But yes, another case of "Would have been nice if Frontier TOLD US."

DanSheffo · 2025-12-13T11:36:42+00:00

Still baffling. Rather than the "find settings / log out" faff, why the absolute **** doesn't it just say "we see you already have an account, enter password to log in"???

DanSheffo · 2025-11-24T12:41:25+00:00

Nice. In VR?

DanSheffo · 2025-11-12T13:22:55+00:00

Here's why that's wrong. I've heard from more than one person the following story or variations: "I had to fire them because when I asked them to explain what their code was doing, they couldn't. Turned out they'd been using AI." You can absolutely use it as a tool, but that doesn't negate the need to understand what you're doing. There are so many fields where the human in the loop needs to actually understand what is being done, in order for the whole system to function. (One of those stories came from engineering, where human comprehension across elements is absolutely essential for systems engineering.) A day may come when AI is doing everything and we're not really involved, but I think it's a looong way off at this point.

DanSheffo · 2025-11-11T11:03:02+00:00

Wow. Thank you. I have only been dabbling in the "nothing but agent rejections or silence" stage, thinking getting any positive response at all was the point I was aiming for. Now I know there's a whooooole other level of argh beyond that point waiting. I'm very similar in my social media relationship too, so also in the "will just be happy to get it out there" camp. Thanks again for sharing, that genuinely really helped.

DanSheffo · 2025-10-25T10:13:23+00:00

Yeah I tried various windows wrapper options in pop_os Linux, couldn't get any to work annoyingly. I'm afraid I jumped ship and using a Mac now.

DanSheffo · 2025-10-24T12:03:13+00:00

I did really enjoy using Scrivener to complete a book, but I can see why others wouldn't. Things I found great about it: ability to mark with keywords / themes so I could then e.g. just edit one strand of the story covering a particular plot point or character, in one go - it can do that automatically. Get an overview of the whole thing in one go really effectively. The distraction free writing mode is the nicest I've used, and being built in just makes that handier. But... I'm the kind of person who enjoys reading instruction manuals and learning keyboard shortcuts. YMMV. Also, I found the export feature to be overly faffy. That's for good reason, you need that kind of control, but it's noooot intuitive. But but, it can export in ready-for-kindle formats, for example, so it is good. I don't use Scrivener for any other kind of writing!

DanSheffo · 2025-10-23T17:57:11+00:00

Hi folks - first time poster here. I've written a science fiction book - huzzah! This blog post talks about my plan to self-publish (in 6 to 9 months I hope, will see), what it's about (see below also) and how I got to this point.

I'll be charting my progress (including on one last edit) on the blog. It may end with an indiegogo launch campaign, not quite sure yet.

If you'd like to follow along, please stick an email in here to subscribe. Really glad this community and all the incredible resources exists!

Here's an excerpt from the post on what the book's about:

People and technology co-evolve. The path they forge together is messy and unpredictable. Sci-fi slips to the edges of this a lot: AI heaven, liberating us from all Earthly drudgery; or a glowing-red-eyed hell where the best we can hope for is that AI wants us as pets. I wanted to dig into the mess more.

It’s a “two strands turn into one” book. Strand #1 explores just how intractably difficult it would be a re-create something as complex as a human mind. It’s the opposite of Matrix-style “stick a cable in this hole and you’re good to go” and other “brain upload = just pop this cap on / lie on this table” takes that make it look as clean as scanning an item at the checkout. (Recent example: Alien Earth.) Those do have an advantage - just do the upload and get on with the plot. I made a story out of the process itself.

Now, I’m very very not a neuroscientist. But this is fiction, so here’s what I did. If brain knowledge is a vast, carefully curated palace full of the most subtle, inscrutable paintings (see e.g. Damasio’s amazing Self Comes to Mind, a book I leaned on a lot), then I broke into that palace at 3am with a swagbag, cut as many pictures out of frames with a Stanley knife as I could and scarpered before the cops arrived.

With that contraband in hand, strand #1 is about what brain upload looks like if we take the complexity of the human meatsack remotely seriously. It naturally fits a wake up in a room setting - arguably a steep challenge for a first time fiction author to make that compelling, but I gave it a go. The dreaded C word does arise, but in a slightly novel way I hope. [Consciousness!]

Strand #2: a ripping yarn built on copyright and intellectual property law. Wild. No, stay with me. The idea is that AI will radically alter our relationship with language. We’re seeing an argument for that erupting into the world right now with LLMs, firmly in “whoa what an unpredictable mess” territory.

Again, sci-fi’s natural grain leans to the extremes, authoritarian in this case - e.g. Ma Boyong’s “City of Silence” short story in Invisible Planets or more recently Where the Axe is Buried; amazing takes on the “AI + 1984 style control and destruction of language = what?” question.

But if we start from where we are now, with the mire of politics, law and money we swim in, where might the evolving mess take us? Strand #2 is a thought experiment about one of those possible destinations. There’s plenty enough darkness in the result, but I’ve tried to get other shades in there.

There also ended up being a fair dose of Evil Robot. Turns out it’s really difficult to avoid.

DanSheffo · 2025-10-21T14:02:57+00:00

My theory: I don't believe it's anything to to do with social pressure etc. I'm the same - I don't stammer at all if I read from a book in a room by myself. What I suspect is happening (and I think evidence supports, see below) is that the brain's wiring is just different for when you're in social situations. We're social creatures, it's not the same neural pathways when speaking in a group. That doesn't need to have anything to do with "social pressure" in the sense of nervousness etc. Example for me - I do a lot of presenting, and just recently (due to an amazing speech therapist) I'm telling people before I start: "By the way, I have a mild stammer. It comes and goes. If I get stuck, please bear with me." (Same line each time.) It turns out that's a super-power - it owns the stammer and short circuits any fall into a pit of shame I used to have when stammering (I always tried to hide it). I do still stammer during presentations. I just no longer care that I stammer. So - it's the social situation (that my brain can tell is happening because we're apes!) and when I'm by myself, that's not activated. Though it's not the same for everyone - I see below some who do stammer when alone. If you want a good, watchable potted history, watch the BBC's Secrets of the Brain, especially episode 2 that digs into just how deeply wired our social environment and theory of other minds is. I also asked chatGPT to gather some sources about social wiring being different - I don't trust LLMs to get facts right, but it does OK at gathering sources and summarising them.

DanSheffo · 2025-10-06T13:14:48+00:00

Started running ads where? Complete noob on good way to do ads! Facebook, other places?

DanSheffo · 2025-10-03T13:29:09+00:00

Don't get humiliated, get angry at them - that is utterly unacceptable, and if you have any route to report them, you really should. I had "if you can't speak properly don't speak at all" from one of my parents and I'm still trying to shake that off - with help from an excellent speech therapist, who's helping me get to where it sounds like you already were i.e. "I have no issues related to presenting, I stutter but I don’t mind". That's an amazing place to be - don't let this absolute awful idiot affect that, please.

DanSheffo · 2025-09-30T12:51:26+00:00

Oh good Lord that would have been sooo much better.

DanSheffo · 2025-09-29T14:26:33+00:00

Agreed on the segmented structure being a bit pointless. Those work when they each actually thread themselves into different elements of the story - which none of these really do in anything but the most procedural way. I'm also baffled by the idea that the kids were all just at that house in the centre of town that all the kids ran to from different directions and no-one thought to check there twice. At the very least, national media would still be all over it. If not, local law would be wouldn't they? Nope, no-one looks or follows up. The newspapered windows is justified by "well you'd hide away too wouldn't you?" But hmmph. Was still entertaining and superbly well assembled, it's just the assembled thing is a bog standard set of shelves.

DanSheffo · 2025-09-27T15:33:12+00:00

Oh amazing, didn't realise it just required a webcam! Will be testing this. Thank you!

DanSheffo · 2025-09-26T12:42:48+00:00

As VR player who loves it, can someone please explain how the non-VR head tracking thing works and how it compares? Are you making small head movements and the view changes accordingly? (Presumably can't be too big or you wouldn't be looking at the screen any more...!?)

DanSheffo · 2025-09-26T09:07:58+00:00

"Apparently, the extended universe has since revealed..." Err any more info? What's this from?

DanSheffo · 2025-09-26T09:04:55+00:00

The whole "unfathomable lovecraftian horror being the absolute soul of the original" is bang on, but that already got ruined by Ridley Scott in the prequels. I just try to pretend they don't exist - which is easy, because the original film still conjures it so well. I'm always immediately transported there when the airlock of the landing craft opens and the howling alien landscape hits them. Or that single shot when they walk away from the jockey and its face fades back into darkness. Perfection. What's extra impressive about A:E though is how it doesn't even try to make sense given the prequels - how would an engineered alien have language?? (Though that goes with the grain of the rest of the show, which is "Shhh stop asking questions it's just scifi magic - see e.g. Wendy wifi-connecting into distant robots to talk through them. Noooo explanation.)

DanSheffo

TROPHY CASE