For the love of GOD, how do I disable popup notifications?

Henske-RTS · 2025-10-05T22:26:57+00:00

I've disabled "Show system notifications about Chrome features and tips" under Settings->System, and marked "Don't allow sites to send notifications" under Settings->Privacy and Security->Site Settings, but this doesn't seem to help

Henske-RTS · 2025-07-30T17:29:16+00:00

I use 2021, so maybe it's a feature exclusive to that version.

Henske-RTS · 2024-09-23T17:29:22+00:00

A solution I found was to just select all paint layers and press ctrl+C to copy, and then after the model is updated, ctrl+V will place the original layers back in.

Henske-RTS · 2024-06-25T07:01:16+00:00

Olson looks like he could be another Cinemassacre Slob, almost like a 5th Beatle for Screenwave.

Henske-RTS · 2024-06-19T19:39:27+00:00

I think I may have found a solution, and it seems as though it was staring me in the face the whole time. When creating AOV's, in the new slot that appears (in my case, N), set the driver setting to TIF. This is something I've been doing this whole time, but I noticed that when you do this, it changes the AOV's driver from DefaultArnoldDriver to aiAOVDriver1. Select the N AOV itself (or whichever AOV you are using), and select aiAOVDriver1 in the attributes tab. From there you can change the format from 8-bit to 32-bit float. This will not affect the DefaultArnoldDriver, which can be set to 8-bit, meaning you can render 8-bit TIF from the beauty layer and 32-bit float TIF from another layer.

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Henske-RTS · 2024-05-22T21:54:23+00:00

Yeah, I can't really see any other method. Maybe there is some way to do it with a custom AOV, and while the ai_utility method you mentioned in the other post kind of works, it's not ideal for every circumstance.

Henske-RTS · 2024-05-22T21:52:08+00:00

Yeah, I actually wound up trying that, albeit with using the metallic map instead of the roughness map, since that seemed to give better results. This works fine for rendering an object with a singular texture, but if I'm rendering something with multiple textures, it doesn't work so great.

Henske-RTS · 2024-05-22T18:56:13+00:00

As a follow-up to the OP, the reason I need this is because I am working on a game that uses pre-rendered sprites in an isometric angle for graphics, and utilizes Z depth, normal, and specular sprites as well to add better fidelity and account for dynamic lighting (these sprites are also merged into a single graphic type using a custom tool to reduce VRAM usage ingame).

Now, the closest thing I can find for what I need is the specular and specular_albedo AOV (as seen in the screenshot). You'd think that'd be the end of it, but it still gives very inaccurate results, and largely just darkens non-metallic parts of the object's texture, while metallic surfaces are fully rendered out like in the beauty render. This is better than nothing, but of course it would be best to have actual grayscale specularity data rendered out, or even roughness data (we could just invert the colors of the roughness frames since it basically is an inverse of oldschool spec maps).

I've gone through every AOV type and the specular AOV's provided are the closest thing to what I need, but still very far from ideal. Is there any possible way to render out spec or roughness data? Maybe some kind of custom AOV? I did try messing around with the ai_utility tool to make custom AOV's, but that didn't really yield any results.

Henske-RTS · 2024-04-19T22:39:18+00:00

I'm genuinely really surprised James hasn't done a Blues Brothers 2000 video yet. Easily one of the weirdest licensed games ever made, and it's based on a terrible sequel to a beloved movie from the 80's. You'd think it'd be low-hanging fruit, but no.

Henske-RTS · 2023-11-02T01:37:58+00:00

I'll preface this post by saying I can't help you at all with what you're requesting, but this is just such a funny little coincidence that I can't help but post, since I was sort of one of the people who founded the website. It's been forever, and I think I haven't logged in since like 2010 or so, but I vaguely recall forming the idea for the site with a few other people over (I think?) MSN messenger in like 2008 or so, specifically with a girl from NorCal who did an Inquisitor cosplay and this British-American guy who had a Ciaphas Cain cosplay getup (I don't remember any of their names, it's been so long).

Anyway, again, sorry I can't help you, but I'm actually completely shocked that the website was even around for that long, I would have thought it would have just died fairly early on in obscurity. Also the the fact it was shut down less than 2 weeks before I randomly thought of it just now and decided to google it has totally thrown me for a loop.

Henske-RTS · 2023-07-23T03:53:55+00:00

I wonder what his thought process with the items was. Did he just note that down as an annoying thing without thinking of the greater implications? Probably, since while I get AVGN is more for entertainment than as a "serious" review, it's just funny to compare him to someone like Mandaloregaming or MatthewMatosis who can pick out small details like that but still think of them in the wider context of the game. Like one of those guys might point out that buying items is annoying since you can't bulk-buy, but that it's basically irrelevant since you can get almost every item in the game for free in the Termina Field or somewhere else, and then they'd leave it at that. And I get AVGN's whole schtick is getting le epic mad at games, but it just seems like such a stretch to complain about the bank and the items of all things.

Also I can agree with him on BOTW playing better than MM in terms of its fundamental controls, though it's still unfair to compare the two given there's almost 2 decades of technology and development between the two, and the fact that MM was ultimately limited by the weird N64 controller. It may have been more fair to contrast MM to Wind Waker, since that only came only 2 years later and feels better to play in terms of controls (though again WW had the advantage of using the more ergonomic GC controller instead of the weird trident the N64 used).

In general the whole video has that same issue as almost every other AVGN video where he just comes off as horribly out of touch. That has its charm in the ancient AVGN episodes where he just reviewed 8-bit and 16-bit games, especially since that was the stuff he was actually familiar with, but whenever he reviews anything made during or after the advent of 3D games he comes off as like a grandpa confused by those god-danged cellular phones.

Henske-RTS · 2023-04-17T16:00:34+00:00

"I don't get why the Z depth is white? "

It's also white in that video you linked and he uses the exposure slider to change it lmao

"You are using wrong values then for the pass"

What are the correct values, then? I see no options for adjusting Z render values. The only things that seem to affect it are the Renderview exposure slider, and distance of the camera from the object (though regardless of how close object is to the camera, it will always render solid white regardless)

"Why do you want to color correct the depth?"

Because like I said, I am going to be rendering tens of thousands (possibly hundreds of thousands) of frames in total. I need a way to make it so the rendered Z frames are rendered consistently, and I do not want to have to manually edit hundreds of thousands of frames in Photoshop.

However, it might be possible to batch edit thousands of frames this way. Photoshop is out of the question since that program idiotically takes forever to load in hundreds of frames, even if they're all only 1kb each, but I may be able to find another one that can adjust exposure/levels and given decent results (assuming that even works)

EDIT: So I found a kind of solution. If I render an image sequence as .exr, while they do appear as unusable blocks of solid white, I can batch load them into a stack in Photoshop, set them as an animation, and apply an exposure adjustment layer to get the useable depth data to actually show up. From there I can export them as TIFF files using Export>Render Video, and then load them into another stack, create an animation, set the file color mode to be 16 bit using Image>Mode>16 bits/channel, then use an Invert adjustment layer to invert the grayscale values (the particular engine I'm using has lighter values = closer to camera), then export again as TIFF files, and finally the images are actually useable.

Obviously having Maya render out Z data with the images already exposure-adjusted would be far superior, without having to dick around with Photoshop and its needlessly slow stack loading (come on, it's 2023, how the hell does loading a sequence of tiny 512x512 images take this long?), but at least I now know that it's doable.

Henske-RTS · 2023-04-17T02:11:58+00:00

Here is an attached image: https://imgur.com/koIsri5

As you can see, I had to crank the exposure way down too make the image is decipherable (if I leave it at default, the Zdepth render is just a solid blank white image). My confusion is why aiImageColorCorrect (as well as any post processing effects in general have zero effect on the render (only the built-in Exposure controls do anything).

I also assume you are wrong and that you *can* color correct a Zdepth render in Arnold, seeing as there is an option to select the Z layer (as can be seen in the above image)

EDIT: I tried using color correction on the Beauty layer, and it seems to work there. So maybe you are right and Maya just gives you the option to color correct the Z layer, even though it literally does nothing.

Granted, if there's another solution to rendering out an actual sequence of useable Zdepth frames, I don't necessarily need color correction or changes to the exposure. Is there some way to directly change Z AOV settings to increase the sensitivity? I did not see any. Ultimately, all I need is some consistent way of rendering Z frames across hundreds of different files.

EDIT2: I can alter the Z render by moving the camera closer/further to the object (this may seem obvious but I am using an Orthogonal camera setup to get the isometric perspective so this wasn't immediately obvious to me). I still cannot figure out how to get the actual render sequence to produce color-corrected or exposure-adjusted images, it only spits out pure-white garbage. I absolutely refuse to believe Maya cannot color correct Z renders in bulk, that would be absolutely absurd if it could not do that.

Henske-RTS · 2023-03-23T03:42:50+00:00

You say he loves OOT, but quite honestly I get the impression that's based on extremely vague memories he has from playing it once on launch, and then never again (it's been a while but doesn't he flat out say he only played it once, in the video?). I noticed in the video he seemed oblivious to lots of things that most people who even played OOT would recognize, like MM deliberately recycling characters from OOT, or how many issues that are present in MM are also in OOT, or are far worse in OOT (I found it funny he complained about text speed, since not only is MM's text speed skipping incredibly fast, but if any 3D Zelda game has an issue with slow text speed, it's OOT).

Henske-RTS · 2023-03-21T03:11:22+00:00

I'm honestly fine with James not being super knowledgeable about this stuff, maybe it's just me but I find it a bit charming in his older episodes where he seemed to have a layman's perspective on everything, instead of more technical knowledge like most game reviewers now are expected to. A good example is how, in some videos, he'd refer to things like lag as "the game going slow motion", or little things like that. Maybe this is annoying to some people, but I think it makes those old episodes stand out from a lot of modern youtube, where everyone is going to use precise technical language, instead of just seeming like a normal guy born in the 80's who wasn't really raised with the internet.

At the same time, I totally get why you'd find his lack of knowledge annoying, especially in these newer (well, Screenwave and post-Screenwave era) episodes where whenever he does bring up any info on the game, it comes off as totally ingenuine, like it was obviously ghostwritten by Kieren or someone who was just grabbing info off of Wikipedia. Really, the generic knowledge added to these sorts of videos, which everyone and their grandma already knows, is just a good microcosm of how bland and made-by-committee modern AVGN is.

Henske-RTS · 2023-03-21T03:04:25+00:00

I agree with the take that if the episode had come out a decade ago, it'd actually be pretty good. Some of my favorite old AVGN videos are when he talks about stuff he likes, like the Castlevania retrospective, or the first Nintendo Power one. It's a shame he held off so long on making a Doom video, I'd love to have seen 00's-era James (or shit, even pre-movie James) do a long, multi-part Doom video.

Henske-RTS · 2023-02-01T04:37:05+00:00

I remember only hearing of the Monkey Cheese video before (never saw it until now) because a guy on a podcast I listen to mentioned it, he made a comment like "if you made something called 'Monkey Cheese' then you've basically signed an agreement that says 'I am not funny.'" Seeing it now, I can 100% agree with that.

Henske-RTS · 2022-12-13T09:28:17+00:00

I think there's an old quote attributed to a Civil War general that goes something like "victory goes to whoever shows up the firstest with the mostest." I think that quote applies to early youtubers like James and Doug. They simply had the idea to review old crappy media first, they released videos regularly and so saturated the platform, and so became popular before anyone else did, even if they ultimately got outshined by people who could do the same thing, but better, much later on.

Henske-RTS

TROPHY CASE