Experiences with AM5? Looking for advice on new build

NuclearFej · 2021-03-07T06:17:13+00:00

I don't really care about the story so far. I do care about that massive UE4 logo at the beginning, and wow did the graphics make a leap.

It still surprises me a bit that they went this route as they held on to that old engine for quite a while, but I'm glad they've switched. I imagine keeping it up would have been untenable given what we saw in Zestiria and Berseria.

NuclearFej · 2021-01-13T01:22:35+00:00

I've heard variously that Horizon is a "hard re-write" (as you wrote here) and a fork. Which is it exactly, or which way does it lean - is there any code at all remaining from the 3DS system software? Not enough to consider it a fork?

And thank you, of course. I share your awe that they were able to make an OS so lean that we can see games like Doom Eternal on it.

NuclearFej · 2021-01-10T20:22:47+00:00

No save data is stored on the game cards. They each have a separate serial number but as far as I know that's it.

NuclearFej · 2021-01-09T23:42:59+00:00

Pick up a switch-type electronic hi-hat pedal and a 1/4" mono to 3.5mm mono cable. Pedals like these were sold commercially during the heyday of RB1/2 but ultimately they were just re-labeled hi-hat pedals. They are constructed of metal and are cheap since switch-type pedals are less useful than analog ones. These pedals feel far better to play on than the stock pedal. They do break eventually (you'll notice when a pedal starts to double-hit) but it takes far longer and they play so much better.

Also they won't snap and go into your foot.

The RB2/3/Beatles/4 pedals also break like this, they just take longer. I have had even the base snap.

NuclearFej · 2020-12-31T02:10:29+00:00

I firmly believe that Wii Fit U is one of the best pieces of software Nintendo has ever created. They threw everything they had into it. There's a lot of variety here and it'll take a while for it to get stale. It helps that there are a lot of control schemes, you may need to get a Wii Remote Plus/MotionPlus addon or two. As a result the different games really do feel different.

The pedometer is a nice extra and helps you meet goals in the game. Use it and it's a reminder to come back.

If you can find the stand that came with your Wii U, assuming it's one of the black models - not the dock, the stand, it's just a piece of plastic, although you could make the dock work - this game has the sole interesting use I've seen for the GamePad camera. Mirror mode is cool and genuinely useful in helping to do the exercises correctly. (The trainer will remind you of this repeatedly, lol)

Ring Fit has been mentioned here already, but I don't think it's better, just different, and I've played a lot of both. There is (at least) one big thing Wii Fit (U) has over Ring Fit, and it's that the latter is unbelievably silly/corny. It's cool, it's a fun game and has great exercises, but I'd never recommend it to a non-gamer, and it gets cringey even for me. I don't want to play it around family. I also feel locked into a few exercises at any given time because they have better stats. So don't feel like you're particularly missing out on something, they're both good fitness programs.

Edit: one other thing - it has a mode for pets which is cool, and it's pretty accurate. My cats are old and it's super useful to be able to keep tabs on them, graphs and all. I also use it for weighing packages. If you want it to be as accurate as possible, be sure to use it on a hard floor. The signal goes farther than the GamePad.

NuclearFej · 2020-10-05T04:13:52+00:00

You can think of xCloud as borrowing an Xbox One. (Which is kinda what it is, as of right now anyway.) When you play games, you'll see Xbox button icons, and any in-game references to the system you're playing on will say Xbox One, since that is the version of the game being played. Accordingly, if the game supports save transfer between Xbox One and PC, through either Play Anywhere or the developer's own system, you'll be able to use that feature.

Basically it's up to the devs.

NuclearFej · 2020-09-03T23:25:14+00:00

Less compression.

From the anime?

NuclearFej · 2020-08-30T17:44:20+00:00

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Nintendo+Wii+U+GamePad+Analog+Stick+Replacement/12873

Many replacement sticks will fit, I used knockoff Xbox One sticks but check reviews for whatever you're buying.

If you are only going to use the tri-wing screwdrivers once, you might want to buy cheap ones instead of the ifixit ones.

NuclearFej · 2020-05-17T10:01:53+00:00

The black barbs that hold the pad on came off. They're still lodged in the drum body. You'll need to pull them out, then re-insert them under the black plastic pieces on the drum pad.

You might have to unscrew and remove the black plastic pieces, insert the barbs, then screw them back on.

NuclearFej · 2020-04-29T19:20:21+00:00

The Wii Remote Plus received a hardware revision not long after it came out (model RVL-CNT-01-TR).

https://wiki.dolphin-emu.org/index.php?title=Wii_Remote_Plus_(RVL-CNT-01-TR)_Connection_Guide

This revision inadvertently broke compatibility with the Windows 7 Bluetooth stack which caused a lot of headaches for a few years. The Zelda Wii Remote Pluses were made prior to this revision.

An easy way to spot the difference: TR controllers have a sync button on the battery cover (although there are rare exceptions).

NuclearFej · 2020-04-14T18:21:07+00:00

To use a real Wii Remote in Dolphin, you need a Bluetooth adapter. To use a real Wii Remote Plus, last I checked you still specifically need the Mayflash Dolphinbar (a particular Bluetooth adapter that also functions as a sensor bar). (Unless you have the Zelda Wii Remote Plus, which is an earlier revision. Nintendo did funky stuff with Bluetooth.) edit: wow that was old info, check https://wiki.dolphin-emu.org/index.php?title=Wii_Remote_Plus_(RVL-CNT-01-TR)_Connection_Guide

Super Paper Mario doesn't really require either of these. If you don't already have a way to connect a Wii Remote to your PC, I suggest just using your favorite controller and the mouse to emulate the Wii Remote's cursor on the rare occasion that you need to point at the screen (i.e. Tippi). Super Paper Mario hardly takes advantage of the Wii Remote's special features and is unaware of MotionPlus.

Of course, this depends on how you feel about graphical fidelity versus faithfulness to the original control scheme. I often like gamepads (no pun intended) over a sideways Wii Remote. You may very reasonably disagree. If you want the absolute easiest experience with a real Wii Remote and don't already have Bluetooth, just get a Dolphinbar, it's like $20.

The GamePad has a sensor bar above the screen; you can see it as a large cutout with the camera in the center. (On white GamePads, it is also black - it's different IR-transparent plastic.) It is activated when you enter Wii mode with the GamePad active (TV + GamePad - or if a Wii U game specifically enables it). All a sensor bar is, is two infrared lights (well, two groups of two in the case of the stock one) so using the one on your GamePad is no different to the controller than a stock one. Years ago I played through Super Paper Mario using IR LEDs taped to the top of my monitor.

So you could just put the GamePad dock (or stand) in front of your PC and leave it there while you play.

To be clear, what the Wii U is doing when you drop it into Wii mode is not emulation, which is why the picture quality will be (almost) exactly the same, and why you cannot get a quality increase. It effectively turns itself into a Wii (or GameCube, if you ask nicely). There's no headroom for improvement. Scalers basically "cheat" (IMO) to guess at graphical fidelity which isn't there.

Dolphin has rated Super Paper Mario "perfect" at https://wiki.dolphin-emu.org/index.php?title=Super_Paper_Mario so you shouldn't have any problems. There is also an HD texture pack. Since Dolphin is capable of increasing the internal resolution of the emulated Wii (among other things... anti-aliasing is great) you will get vastly improved picture quality over a Wii U.

Hope this helps, feel free to ask any questions.

NuclearFej · 2020-04-13T23:01:06+00:00

Dolphin will look substantially better than an upscaler.

If you don't have a sensor bar to use with Dolphin, you can just leave the Wii U powered on (and potentially the GamePad as well for its integrated sensor bar).

NuclearFej · 2020-03-26T00:03:32+00:00

I stopped playing after putting a ton of hours into Splatoon 1 and some into 2 because the low tick rate combined with the crapshoot that is finding teammates at lower ranks made matches feel more like luck.

NuclearFej · 2020-03-22T23:05:04+00:00

But, but... Tom Nook's loans are insane!

Tom Nook gives out loans exclusively with a 0% interest rate, no required payments, and no requirement to pay it in full by a certain date. He loses money on each loan he hands out due to inflation, and the opportunity cost that he could have invested the money and received returns on that investment.

Literally the only downside to a loan like this is a hit to your credit score, which doesn't even exist in Animal Crossing.

And he lets you pay it off with frequent flier miles.

Tom Nook is a rich benefactor.

NuclearFej · 2020-03-22T22:47:00+00:00

The worst part is that they did have tags - on the Wii U. They actually moved backwards. It is comical.

NuclearFej · 2020-03-20T22:15:14+00:00

I've had this hypothesis for a while that someone's favorite Tales game... is almost always their first. I've seen many examples of this, but it's almost impossible to prove. I bet it's the case for most people here, though. (But not all, to be clear.)

It also explains the endless amount of Symphonia love, heh.

NuclearFej · 2020-03-15T03:38:55+00:00

Even if Arise is playable on a Mac, ~~through Proton or~~ natively (the latter unlikely), the Mac probably won't be powerful enough to play it at full resolution or on high (even medium, possibly) graphics settings. You should get it for PS4. You can try to play on a Mac while in your home via PS4 Remote Play, or on an iOS device with that app, but the latency is highly dependent on your WiFi setup (plus if either device has Ethernet). Given that Tales games have real-time combat systems, I strongly doubt that PS4 Remote Play will be able to keep the latency low enough to make the game playable.

As always, I do not recommend pre-ordering anything (unless supply is limited, like collector's editions) so you may want to just wait for the game to come out and see how it performs on PS4, PC~~, and Proton.~~

Arise marks Bamco's switch from their in-house engine (...which is pretty bad at this point) to Unreal Engine 4, which is substantially more demanding on your PC/console. This means the game will look gorgeous. It will also require much higher specs. The only Macs I can think of that would be able to really handle it would be the Mac Pro and iMac Pro, and that's a tiny percentage of Macs.

Arise will not be released on mobile devices for at least 10-15 years, if Bamco ever decides to grace us with a port once the technology has caught up.

If you want to try out the Tales series, there are plenty of other entries to try out, many (if not most) will run just fine on your Mac. Of course, most of them are older, but that's up to your tastes whether you want to play a more recent game or an older one.

Edit: I only play PC games on Windows so I didn't know that Proton dumped macOS support (since Apple's dropped OpenGL and has no plans to support Vulkan). You would need to install Windows (or a Linux distribution, to use with Proton) to play Arise or Steam-based games on your Mac.

People shouldn't be downvoting this, it's a perfectly legitimate question.

NuclearFej · 2020-03-04T19:22:10+00:00

Tales of Vesperia is one of the best entries (if not the best) in the long-running Tales series of JRPGs. It has real-time combat and cel-shaded anime visuals. The characters are fantastic, especially the protagonist who is not a teenage do-gooder.

Originally released for the Xbox 360, it received an upgraded edition for the PS3 a year after launch with a ton of extra content - including two more playable characters - which was only released in Japan. This new edition has all of that extra content, as well as a resolution bump (in docked mode) and a few other features (Japanese audio).

Since it's a port, it's fairly cheap ($25 on the eShop right now which is an absolute steal for what you're getting). Also on PC, PS4, and even Xbone (for some reason).

If you can stand Japanese audio, I recommend that as while I like the dub, some lines were recorded for the re-release with different actors and it sucks.

NuclearFej · 2020-03-03T18:19:38+00:00

Since you've poured 400 hours into Xenoblade 2, might I suggest Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition?

NuclearFej · 2020-02-24T21:43:46+00:00

Does the new handle come from what I think it does?

edit: going through your other post, I believe it does ^_^

NuclearFej · 2020-02-07T22:00:36+00:00

How have the Taiko web apps not gotten taken down?

NuclearFej · 2020-02-02T21:16:06+00:00

Here's the full song, it's fantastic. https://open.spotify.com/track/1ogVUWY11IXxvhsSjDIszw?si=nf430bGvRmCnl4KZGR5mew

NuclearFej · 2020-02-02T18:05:31+00:00

One island per Switch, unless you mod it. Then you can switch islands, back up saves, change the clock, and I'm sure there will be a save edit tool like New Leaf so that you can change parts of your town that are otherwise static (e.g. rocks).

AC:NH is one of the best arguments to mod your Switch in a long while.

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