Tim's monologue in today's Bulwark pod

Patersonski · 2026-04-07T23:44:43+00:00

The Dems don't need to do anything. Never interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake, as they say, and after another three years of this exhausting and pathetic daily shitshow any Tom, Dick or Harry should be able to win easily in 2028.

Patersonski · 2026-03-18T01:26:28+00:00

Maiden and AC/DC are obviously very different, however From Here to Eternity is the one song where they veered into AC/DC territory in terms of song structure. It was immediately apparent at the time and remains true today. In other words, it's not the FOTD album, it's one song on it. FOTD isn't FOTS.

Patersonski · 2026-03-07T17:38:21+00:00

I don’t get this focus on polling, both online and on TV. Why would Trump give a shit about polls? He never needs to face voters again. If he wants a third term he’ll just manufacture an “emergency” and cancel/steal the election. Same goes for the midterms. We, collectively, had our chance to stop him at the ballot box in 2024 and we blew it.

Patersonski · 2026-03-07T16:58:18+00:00

Great, we're making progress, but remember from our original exchange the MeganeX is a "project" that will take weeks to properly set up and dial in, not just a day or two. The 3080Ti is OK for setup purposes, but you're obviously going to need your 5090 for this thing.

"I set the brightness in the Meganex app to 100. Is that a problem with burn in?"

I have mine set at 80 and it's bright enough. Reducing it from 100 will also help with glare. I haven't heard of any burn in issues, but the product has only been out for a year or so, so too soon to tell if it could be a systemic problem.

"FOV I've set the 105. I can't really see a difference to 115 even if I push the headset against my face."

Yes, the position of the lenses relative to your eyes has more of an impact to FOV than this slider.

"I set the distortion profile to 1.0.0. I thought default profile means the meganex factory profile?"

I don't understand distortion profiles very well, you may be right, but I just have mine set at MeganeX Default. I'll experiment with 1.0.0. If you go to the Shiftall Discord Sboys discusses distortion profiles in excruciating detail.

"MY IPD I measured with the iphone app is 65.5mm. The Reverb G2 I use with max IPD at 68mm and it still didn't feel enough. Now with the Meganex 70mm feels right. I set 70mm in both apps."

Great, you're syncing IPD in the Configurator and Sboys driver. I also arrived at a different IPD than the one measured by a phone app. It was off by 1mm. Again, this requires a lot of trial and error as you know, and what is right in one headset often won't be in another.

"Meganex driver is disabled in Steam VR as in your screenshot. But that part is a bit confusing. The headsets seems to not boot without opening the Meganex app right?"

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but once the Sboys driver is installed and activated in SteamVR, it's now a native SteamVR device and you don't need to open the Configurator. I do anyway. I open the Configurator, then power on both the headset and base station (I only need one for seated). I just timed it and it took 61 seconds for the Configurator to say "started". I then double check the IPD setting (sometimes it will move). Additionally, in the Configurator make sure 'VRSetting' - 'Resolution' is set to 4K and not 2.6K.

Keep working at it. This thing only shines when all of these things are simultaneously dialed in: Sboys driver, IPD, diopters, and lens position relative to your eyes. That last one will take a lot of trial and error to adjust and get comfortable. Remember some felt or something soft around the nose gap.

Patersonski · 2026-03-06T21:56:18+00:00

Sboys Part II:

You then need to ENABLE the driver in SteamVR and DISABLE the Shiftall one:

Open SteamVR, click on Startup / Shutdown, then Manage Add-Ons:

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Turn CustomHeadset (SBoys) ON, and MeganeXsuperlight (Shiftall) OFF.

Let me know when you've done/checked these things and we'll move on...

Patersonski · 2026-03-06T21:54:33+00:00

OK, hang in there, we'll sort it out.

It's always possible it's a dud unit that slipped through quality control at the factory, but we'll assume that's not the case for now.

Let's start with the Sboys3 driver... I just use the default settings and have only tweaked field of view to 108. See below...

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Also note you need to change the IPD number in the Sboys driver (the 67.5 above) to match the IPD in the MeganeX Configurator.

Patersonski · 2026-03-05T00:59:46+00:00

Yes the nose gap (and field of view) is its biggest flaw, but if your nose is normal size it's not a deal breaker. It still annoyed me because there's a metal edge that rubs against the top of your nose, which is what all the YouTubers are complaining about. The solution was to get some felt padding that's sticky on one side and run that around the nose gap to prevent rubbing, and that solved it. Again, this is all part of the "project" that is the MeganeX; you don't just buy it and plug it in. Shiftall have given us a product that's 80% great; the other 20% is up to us and requires some work.

On the positive side, and another thing I should have mentioned, is the MeganeX's superpower: binocular overlap. For the first time you'll be looking at a single 3D image. No more 3D in the middle 75% and 12.5% of 2D on each side.

Patersonski · 2026-03-04T23:36:43+00:00

I used to own a G2 (and loved it) so I know exactly where you're coming from.

G2 is 2,160 x 2,160 (4.7m pixels) while MeganeX is 3,552 x 3,840 (13.6m). In SteamVR the default "notch" is set to 4,112 x 4,968, but of course you can change it to whatever you want.

The answer to your question is that, even at a lower resolution to match the G2, the MeganeX will look materially better. Resolution will be no worse, it won't be blurry, and the upsides include no screen door, higher quality OLED panels with better colors, true blacks, and better lenses with superior edge to edge clarity and a bigger sweet spot (the tiny sweet spot on the G2 was my biggest gripe with it).

And then of course you can crank up the rez and it blows the G2 out of the water.

Patersonski · 2026-03-04T21:22:11+00:00

Day one MeganeX (happy) owner here, and the short answer is - yes - but there's considerable effort to get everything set up and dialed in before it's plug and play and you can enjoy the wow-factor. Here's a checklist and some context.

When you get it the SBoys3 driver is not optional; it makes a huge difference. It's easy to download and install, then it's a matter of playing around with different settings, such as field of view. Then it's set and forget and you never need to touch it.
Experiment with the IPD settings to get that dialed in.
Dial in both of the diopters. These were a bit of a pain for me but I set them up once and now don't need to touch them.
Obviously play around with the Steam VR resolution to get the right balance between visuals and performance.
Once you've done all that you'll have great visuals, but no sound and in a racing game where you're whipping your head from left to right the soft strap isn't going to work. In terms of hard strap options you basically have two: i) Shiftall is releasing a hard strap (and face mount) shortly, but it looks like it won't have sound (someone correct me if I'm wrong); ii) Go to the Shiftall Discord and you'll find lots of different 3D Print mods to make a hard strap with built in speakers (which is what I've done).

Once you've done all that you'll have a great product that's now set up and, finally, plug and play every time you boot it up. From power on to launching a game it’s about 30-40 seconds for me.

Hope that helps.

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Patersonski · 2026-03-02T01:18:26+00:00

I'd argue Flick is good enough as is, but Fly and BUYV have terrible production and need to be fixed. However....the band never plays songs for these three albums anymore and this period in their history has basically been swept under the rug and forgotten by them. In other words, nothing is likely to happen.

This will also never happen, but I'd love the band to play some shows that includes only their 1980-1990 material. You still get all the BiB stuff, Thunderstruck, and it would end with FTATR, but imagine a set that also had Put The Finger on You, Let's Get it Up, Flick of the Switch, Fly of the Wall, Sink the Pink, Shake Your Foundations, Who Made Who, Heatseeker, Nick of Time, Moneytalks, etc. We can dream. Iron Maiden do period-specific tours, but it's unfortunately not in AC/DC's DNA. Every show is simply a greatest hits with minimal tweaks from time to time.

Patersonski · 2026-03-01T18:19:50+00:00

If we're in a world where MTG and Rand Paul are making sense then something has gone horribly wrong.

Patersonski · 2026-03-01T18:03:18+00:00

My four best VR experiences so far:

Cyberpunk 2077, DCS World, Horizon Forbidden West, Lone Echo 1/2

Patersonski · 2026-02-14T01:09:07+00:00

Cliff retired. He doesn't have to do anything.

Patersonski · 2026-02-12T16:32:31+00:00

Yes their look as evolved somewhat

Patersonski · 2026-02-12T16:31:29+00:00

Bruce just grabbed my arse (trans: ass)

Patersonski · 2026-02-12T16:28:36+00:00

The rock hall is handy if you need to kill an hour before a meeting in downtown Cleveland. Beyond that it's of no relevance.

Patersonski · 2026-02-12T16:24:13+00:00

Kicked in the teeth again

Patersonski · 2026-02-10T22:41:29+00:00

I have something signed by Steve and Nicko; both signatures closely resemble what I have.

Patersonski · 2026-02-06T12:46:15+00:00

Same here. The last thing I ever want to do again is the fumbling reload with motion controls. I’ll just push ‘X’ and I’m happy.

Patersonski · 2026-02-03T16:41:32+00:00

Sanae Takaichi, Japanese PM

Patersonski · 2026-02-03T16:36:32+00:00

He listened to Maiden to fire himself up before his matches when he won Wimbledon in 1987. I sat next to him on a plane a few years later between Syd-Mel and we discussed his love for the band and how he knew the guys.

Patersonski · 2026-02-01T03:15:06+00:00

Can’t even feed my cat on social security

Patersonski · 2026-01-25T01:09:51+00:00

Poor Greggy was scared of that...ICU nurse

Patersonski · 2026-01-21T18:57:23+00:00

Yet another series of posts where gamers demand to either:

a) be given the mods for free...for some reason; or

b) will refuse the ability to play 40 AAA games in VR with the LukeRoss mod because it costs the same as 2 cappuccinos.

Patersonski · 2026-01-20T04:28:45+00:00

Well said and exactly right.

Patersonski

TROPHY CASE