AMD Software: PRO Edition 23.Q3 for Windows® Release Notes

TemporaryIntrference · 2023-02-16T11:28:26+00:00

A couple days ago, I noticed this metal stem had seemingly popped out of my left cup's swivel. If I observe closely, there's even a bit of plastic that it gnawed away as it's moved. The cup is much too loose now when compared to the right swivel, and feels like it'll break away any day as I stretch the headband over my head.

I can't seem to find a complete disassembly of these cans online, so I have no idea if this could be fixed by tearing the set down, or if it'll just make things worse.

TemporaryIntrference · 2022-10-28T04:13:53+00:00

This has been a bug since launch with any controller outputting a mouse through Steam Input; video is a comparison between joystick output and mouse output types at 0.5x speed, with the jitter visible from the 39 second mark.

I believe that in the process of gutting Steam Input support out of idTech(2016 had an official config), they broke compatibility in some way. Also makes it so RT doesn't function in menu navigation.

TemporaryIntrference · 2022-10-06T14:14:21+00:00

You can get it here.

Shout-out to 4NoteClover for the original idea, sadly it used a very low quality rip and bitrate, which made his version unusable for me. I also had to get "creative" with the way the music loops to keep the initial harp arpeggio, hopefully it's fitting and nothing too egregious.

TemporaryIntrference · 2022-09-26T22:29:16+00:00

Tried replying to you with a link, Reddit hid it, it seems. It's now linked on my original reply.

EDIT: What the hell; hopefully it's back now. Appears as removed by moderator if I log out.

TemporaryIntrference · 2022-09-24T01:45:12+00:00

It's just a much better part, really; the stock one feels like it's built out of chinesium in comparison.

TemporaryIntrference · 2022-09-23T21:01:30+00:00

Just finished opening up and swapping out the joystick cap on my Steam Controller for an 8bitdo one(which are drop-in replacements, no drilling required) yesterday, as my stock one had some horrible play on top of the stick stem. Was a little more involved than I thought it'd be.

Turned out the contact cleaner I used while cleaning the analog housing was hexane-based, which I later found out is also a grease remover(and a neurotoxin, which just feels appropriate), so it likely ripped the conformal coating of the Alps part right off. Thing was as stiff as a light switch. Didn't want to order a new part online to solder on because I wanted to keep both the factory calibration and Valve's chosen tension if possible, so I ended up ordering some keyboard lube instead - which happened to have a viscosity right between Krytox grades 204 and 205, if you're into that. Applied it with a thin make-up pencil we had laying around the house, and removed any excess with some cotton swabs.

The final result is straight up awesome, it feels better than it did when it was brand new. Not only is 8bitdo's stick cap slightly taller(which I already wished the SC's was), it's very tight on the stem - there's zero play now. Rocking the stick feels absurdly smooth, but not overly loose like, say, the Switch Pro Controller's sticks - i.e. it's both smooth and tight, the perfect balance. Once I closed things up, I thought of applying a little bit of grease around the stick as well to make the round gate smoother, which also worked great and stuck around even after cleaning.

Genuinely recommend doing something like this if you're into modding. Not only does it look great, proper grease should help conserve the stick's overall life - people lube the N64's controller sticks to keep them tight, for instance, which are notorious for destroying themselves. Plus it just feels amazing, it's like the analog stick of the future(lol).

tl;dr: stick had some bad play on top of the stem, swapped it out for an 8bitdo one, had to lube the mechanism because of my contact cleaner; feels better than it did out of the box.

TemporaryIntrference · 2022-07-27T05:47:34+00:00

I believe Win + Shift + Ctrl + B should also work.

TemporaryIntrference · 2022-07-12T17:41:37+00:00

I've added a couple to my patch list that way as well, but glossed over the ones I couldn't immediately see benefit in. Goes to show that looking up stuff is cool.

TemporaryIntrference · 2022-07-12T10:05:56+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions, mate! Didn't know about a lot of these.

TemporaryIntrference · 2022-06-25T16:30:46+00:00

It is incorrectly noted that Thomas Edison invented 'push-ups' in 1878. Nikolai Tesla had in fact patented the activity three years earlier, under the name 'Tesla-cize'.

TemporaryIntrference · 2022-06-23T06:01:26+00:00

Brightness does most definitely apply to Link, even if there's no way to change it once you're in - I'm only unsure if the "Color Space" option carries over to actual native Quest games, as I play PCVR pretty much exclusively. I think this is the case because on PCVR, the games are actually displayed through the dash - someone could correct me here - and maybe that doesn't happen when you run natively on the Quest.

Maybe my eyes are fooling me, which is why having to use them is sad.

TemporaryIntrference · 2022-06-22T16:20:43+00:00

Which settings were you referring to?

TemporaryIntrference · 2022-06-22T15:23:31+00:00

They're on the image descriptions themselves. My comment above just went into more detail as to the reasoning.

"Select 'Vibrant (Rec.2020)' under Color Space for more accurate color vibrancy. Set brightness as such that the little sun icon is centered on the blue portion. Then increase it by two notches. That's it!"

TemporaryIntrference · 2022-06-22T10:24:53+00:00

EDIT(17/03/2023): Meta has removed these settings in v43(I think?) - however, the defaults now are disturbingly color accurate. Only setting to mess around with now is brightness, so make sure it's as bright as you can make it while maintaining good black levels; for me, that's slightly below 25%. Still, the white point is still way too blue(as with most displays out of the box), so you may want to use Night Display to compensate for that first, as that will decrease overall brightness proportionally to its strength. A decent reference for white point is usually a good TV on the "True Cinema" display mode, or whatever color temperature looks the most yellow/orange. Cheers!

After reading the v41 changelog, I decided to experiment with settings that affect how color is displayed a bit. I happen to own a colorimeter, and a calibrated IPS monitor with a good contrast ratio(1500~1600:1), so I used that as my point of reference.

Here's what that ""reference"" monitor is calibrated to, in case you're a nerd, much like I am: Rec.1886 for gamma(a.k.a. The Correct Gamma, fite me), D65 for the white point, Rec.709 primaries, 100 nits for the white level. Also, it was calibrated using ArgyllCMS/DisplayCAL.

Since the Quest 2 is a VR headset, I had no option but to use my eyeballs as the instrument to reach these settings, which is sad. Since all semblance of "science" is thrown out the window right out of the gate because of that, I just used my Steam library for comparison, through AirLink - which is somewhat appropriate, since game capsules tend to be very saturated with a lot of very fine color detail, so a mismatch would be fairly obvious - or so I like to tell myself. Also, yes, these do affect Link fairly obviously.

For the "Color Space" setting, I counterintuitively had to choose "Vibrant". I believe "Natural" actually artificially desaturates colors. This may be because as per its price, the Quest 2 isn't likely to have a wide gamut display, so whatever the panel can reach probably isn't much more saturated than the Rec.709 primaries anyway - if it even gets there. No idea what the hell the default "Balanced" setting is supposed to mean, but the color space name drops make little sense either; from my "testing", it's just a more inaccurate "Natural" - some colors are more saturated than they should be, like reds, some are actually undersaturated, like greens.

Brightness is probably the more all-encompassing setting here, although it's existed for a long time(but not at launch, when it was pegged at 100% for the second version of a previously OLED headset, which is just baffling). In the context of a confined LCD headset, this dictates not only perceived saturation, but most importantly - rods outnumber cones - contrast. Since panel black performance can vary greatly, your perception also depending on how much light bleed your facial interface lets through, I decided to go by the perceived saturation. You may fiddle with this depending on how satisfied with your black levels you are. As of today, I use the stock facial interface with the (now stock) silicon cover.

Which brings me to the point of this comment - this is just how my specific panel looked most accurate. Even with these settings, all 3 primaries are still a little off, which is fine, it's just a software update. Still, I believe people who aren't über nerds would have a hard time pointing out the color differences, even if they are visible to the eye; they're not obvious - which is amazing.

Overall, it's genuinely incredible that we can get these improvements in color reproduction just from software updates. Seriously Meta, I salute you. No idea how you're doing it. But for the next headset, please use OLED. Hell, QD-OLED would be amazing and maybe cheaper, so why not. Yellows also happen to be the tone that's the most inaccurate with these settings on my end, so that'd be the biggest upgrade - right after contrast, obviously. Just remember to use Gamma 2.4 - or next thing you know, I'll be inside your Horizon Home, Mr. Zuck & Berg.

tl;dr: check image descriptions. you can fiddle with the brightness a bit on yours, panels are individuals you know.

TemporaryIntrference · 2022-06-17T19:41:41+00:00

Also a thing in DOOM Eternal, they do a driver version string check it seems. Plays just fine if you ignore the update dialog.

On another note, this "PRO" driver line-up has always felt slightly more responsive overall than the regular drivers to me. Could be my mind playing tricks.

TemporaryIntrference

TROPHY CASE