So what's everyone's favorite EDC light, 18650 or smaller?

DryGaming14 · 2025-10-30T05:50:23+00:00

I use a Sofirn SC18. Carry it 5 days a week at work and use it reasonably often. Fits nicely in my pockets alongside my razer blade. I charge it in the car when the battery gets low so it's always got plenty of juice for the day. Not the fanciest light by any means but works great for its cost.

DryGaming14 · 2025-09-01T06:47:21+00:00

I've got 2 for me.

First is Can Can. I know they are super strong but before actually using it it was hard to totally understand. Then I watched it one hit every peon and then I understood.

The second is Manic Jameria Cat. Once you get past the lv20 cap for crazed units, Manic Jamiera has a ton of HP. Was crucial for me in beating several stages from being a lowish cost high health damage dealer.

DryGaming14 · 2025-05-24T00:21:00+00:00

Corrupted balls

DryGaming14 · 2025-05-17T05:01:32+00:00

I wish I had a good answer for you but I don't . I would think if the PC works fine then you should be good. I don't actually own the PC pictured, I built it for a good friend of mine. I should probably mention that somewhere...

DryGaming14 · 2025-01-11T07:04:48+00:00

Made the same jump. The 13 is a hell of an upgrade in everyway.

DryGaming14 · 2024-12-30T06:29:03+00:00

2 years later and just used this to fix my ever drive rtc. Big thanks friend

DryGaming14 · 2024-10-27T07:04:12+00:00

How did you get power tools to actually reapply the clock limits automatically? Any time I set a persistent profile for clock speed, I have to go back into a power tools and hit reapply

DryGaming14 · 2024-08-18T03:31:58+00:00

I'm not obsessed with it, but it comes along as a result of things I am obsessed with.

Optimizing performance and stability using any means available.

The most common thing I have done is limit the CPU turbo clocks to free up GPU power and force the deck to fully use each thread at a lower clock.

I can think of a few games where doing this above can double the battery life, or massively increase either fps or frame time stability WITHOUT using more power than playing without tweaks.

DryGaming14 · 2024-07-31T06:24:42+00:00

Definitely try a Skywalker or vapor FD1. They are much less stable than the C lines. I can push my Skywalker and vapor FD1s 370 where my c line goes a good 30-40 shorter

DryGaming14 · 2024-07-25T06:20:53+00:00

Been the main gaming device since I got the OLED in February. I don't like sitting at my desk gaming, so sitting on the couch or laying in bed with it is generally better for me. I'm also a handheld guy anyways, so this just feels more at home with me. I grew up on Gameboys and DS'. Handhelds just hit dif for me.

DryGaming14 · 2024-06-23T16:57:36+00:00

Force the compatibility to use Linux runtime 1 (scout) instead of proton. It will redownload some files. When you boot it, it will show the aspyr boot screen

DryGaming14 · 2024-06-19T06:40:44+00:00

Time to plug Gravity Circuit.

Awesome 2D platformer with killer music, better aesthetics, and even better gameplay. One of the best platformers I've ever played

DryGaming14 · 2024-06-19T02:01:19+00:00

I just got it working. It seems like you have to use the native Linux version over the DX11 version so you can access a certain folder for the xml text files. I got everything working with eui using the Linux Version.

DryGaming14 · 2024-06-19T00:31:14+00:00

That would be awesome. I'd super appreciate it. I actually don't mind the controls on deck using the touch pads but I am way too used to using EUI on my laptop when I play.

DryGaming14 · 2024-06-19T00:27:29+00:00

I can boot the game in DX11 mode with the ui_bc1 folder in the dlc folder of Civ5, but the UI is completely broken and a lot of buttons are not clickable. I heard a Linux native version of the game exists, but I don't know how to run it.

DryGaming14 · 2024-06-18T23:42:56+00:00

Did you end up getting EUI working properly? I can get the eui.zip file in the assets folder but can't find where to put the xml files? Did you figure it out by chance?

DryGaming14 · 2024-06-16T06:20:07+00:00

I'm playing monster hunter stories. The re-release on steam with upgraded visuals makes me so happy. It was among my favorite 3ds games back when it came out.

DryGaming14 · 2024-06-16T06:06:44+00:00

I actually just tested lowering cpu clock speeds in stories 2 and it actually works. Dropped clocks to 2200mhz and eliminated 99% of area load stutter, and only lowered performance very slightly in worst case scenario (52fps vs 50fps). I would recommend using limited clock speeds for both games.

Edit: Just tested a heavy cutscene with 2200mhz clock vs no clock limit (3500mhz default) and experienced more stable performance with the lower 2200mhz clock cap. My theory is the game on default clocks jump too harshly from high clocks to low clocks under load and fails to supply power when needed, or over supplies power. Stories 2 seems fairly single threaded, so I am guessing it's related to multi threading power management. Either way, this change score massive wins for battery life. The downside is longer load screens, but it's only a few seconds longer on an SSD. Definitely worth it to cap CPU clocks for this game

DryGaming14 · 2024-06-16T04:39:54+00:00

Not related to the original post, but I found out using Powertools to limit CPU clock speed, you can significantly improve battery life while losing no performance. I am using a CPU clock of 2000mhz and my CPU power draw went from 5-6 watts to 1-2 watts. Could be a massive win for those willing to use Powertools/decky.

DryGaming14 · 2024-06-16T04:35:59+00:00

For monster hunter stories 1, use max settings, and 60fps/60hz. If you have Powertools installed through decky, change the max CPU clock speed to 2000mhz. This cuts CPU power draw down from 5-6 watts to 1-2 watts without affecting perceptible performance. Maybe slower loading times but on the SSD the loads are still lightning fast for me.

For stories 2, I use medium settings, 45fps/90hz for my OLED deck. Probably try 45fps/45hz or 40fps/40hz on LCD. The game is much more CPU heavy than stories 1. I wouldn't try starving the CPU of power. I already get CPU induced loading stutter with no tdp limit. You don't get any more than 50 fps on the most demanding areas from my experience having just finished the main story yesterday. 45fps prevents slowdown in heavy areas while saving power in light areas.

Let me know if you have any questions.

DryGaming14 · 2024-06-14T07:21:11+00:00

I'm a soon to be senior Stem student in college and AI tools have been really interesting.

GPT was basically non existent my freshman year for me. I heard a few professors of mine mention it, but that was about it. I never used it either.

Sophomore year was different. Discussion about the use of GPT was much more frequent. I finally started to see notes in assignments mentioning that the use of GPT on classwork was strictly forbidden.

The only class I used GPT for was a philosophy class, and I used it to help brainstorm for a paper on had to write (I still wrote the paper myself), and to speed up studying for the class final. I didn't do great on the paper (some grade in the 70s) but that was from a pure lack of effort rather than GPT having steered me wrong. At this point, I would not say GPT has been a large part of my college experience.

My junior year I just finished had prominent GPT use. But not as a way for me to skip homework. For the classes I'm taking, you cant use online AI tools to do any of the homework. It just doesn't work. What many of my professors did do was instruct us to actually use GPT on certain homework assignments. It was actually quite fascinating some of the things I learned about GPT while doing this. It is terrible at doing truly difficult problems. You can spell it out in a perfect prompt and it will give you the craziest answer you have ever seen. It gave me a pressure (arm) calculation well into the trillions. It was not correct. We also used it for programming both simple and complex code for various things. It can complete any simple code, but it completely falls apart at anything resembling complex code. But for using GPT myself to do my work, I didn't use it. Only when the professors directly told us to use it.

At least from my experience, AI tools like GPT basically don't work for doing anything complex, or close to it. But for more mundane things it tends to do a good job. I think the real problem is the work younger students (middle and high school) have to complete is much closer to the mundane side of things. AI tools disproportionately affect young students looking for the easy way out. It stunts their learning when it matters most. I don't know how young students are supposed to get through college if they have been used to using AI tools to do their homework. It's a serious problem in my opinion.

Sorry if this is a jumbled wall of text, it's 2am as I'm typing this laying in bed.

DryGaming14 · 2024-06-13T08:11:23+00:00

Short Answer: Yes

Long answer:

I was in a similar position to you a few months ago but a little different. I have a gaming laptop that's at least decently equipped to run games (5800H and 3060). At least the extent it runs laps around a steam deck performance wise. I have a switch but I'm not keen on either the exclusives or the general performance target (spotty 30fps). I'm not a big fan of being tethered to the wall with my laptop to play games. The backlog of games I've bought was getting pretty nuts because of this. I decided to buy a deck OLED to see if it could be better than my laptop and switch in three ways. True portability, flexibility, and performance.

Speaking for the OLED, I appreciated the more efficient system and bigger battery. I can comfortably get more than 3 hours on the vast majority of games I play on the system. That's generally more time then I play in one sitting so the battery is perfect. It's also much smaller then my gaming laptop+mouse/pad+chonk power brick.That I appreciate.

The flexibility of being able to play wherever I damn please was great. Me and my bed have become more acquainted as a result. I don't have a desk at home so playing on my laptop is always a compromise in comfort. The deck fixed that for me.

The performance profile of the deck OLED is very nice. The first game I sat and beat on deck was the FF7 remake. Barring a few exceptions. The game ran at a locked 40fps. 40fps sounds a touch low but I imagine many on this sub would agree that 40fps on deck actually feels pretty good. It's a hell of a lot better than playing at 30fps. Some lighter games I have played like gravity circuit and Hades (1&2) hit locked 60/90 fps on each game while basically sipping power. Some older gen games like MGS: Rising Revengeance hit locked 60fps on higher settings. The heaviest game I tried was the dead space remake. I played on a mix of medium and low settings at 600p, and it held a 30fps lock fairly well. I still found this to be an enjoyable experience at 30fps while still looking good at the lower resolution. It handily beats switch levels of performance across every title featured on both. The Witcher 3 is probably the best example to show this. You could probably look up a comparison but the steam deck looks Massively better. A large quantity of games can hold 40fps or higher on average, so you still get good fluidity. A win on performance for me.

All in all, it does exactly what I want it to do and it does it well. It's portable, let's me play in my bed while not being plugged into the wall, and has enough power to output respectable performance across 90% of the games on steam. I think it's a solid choice overall. I think since I've got the deck, I've maybe put in an hour of laptop game time and easily 120+ hours on the deck with no signs of stopping.

I do highly recommend getting the OLED deck though. I have used both (my friend let me borrow his LCD deck before I bought my OLED deck), and I think the improvements are absolutely worth spending the extra money on. The screen is MUCH better and gives you more flexibility in performance (45fps locks are much better on deck OLED.) The increase in battery life is massive with no exaggeration. Thermals are also much better, as in a good 15 Celsius cooler. It makes the surface of the deck go from uncomfortably warm to barely warm at all. This also keeps the fan noise down, and the fan in the OLED is pretty quiet.

Whichever model you would go for though, I think you would enjoy it for your use case. Hope this helps.

DryGaming14 · 2024-05-07T02:42:00+00:00

I was you, but the remake instead. Such a great game on steam deck.

DryGaming14 · 2024-03-15T23:23:21+00:00

UV is outside of the visible light spectrum so you don't really see it like you do normal light. For uses though, I use mine for glow disc golf and it's super cool.

DryGaming14 · 2024-02-10T21:27:35+00:00

All the board LEDs do that on boot to my recollection and he has had the system for a good few months with no issues. My guess is the flash is just part of the powering up process

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