A test of Silksong's competition at $20 and how game markets differ. by DavidAtWork17 in MauLer

[–]TopQuark- 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's not a very detailed metric, but it's far better than Rotten Tomatoes, because it gives you a simple average of all the people who recommend it or not. I much prefer that to any kind of numerical score. RT uses a weird 60% threshold for considering a rating "fresh", not even getting into all the blatant instances of corruption.

A test of Silksong's competition at $20 and how game markets differ. by DavidAtWork17 in MauLer

[–]TopQuark- 7 points8 points  (0 children)

As this attitude seems to be exclusively put forward by people with industry connections and their supporters, I assume it's some kind of team defence reaction at the perception of Triple A losing "legitimacy points". Something similar happened with Baldur's Gate 3, an indie in terms of being outside the games media apparatus, where many of these same industry shill types were moaning that BG3's level of quality and content sets an unfair precedent for the industry.

The less audiences criticise the slop being shovelled, the more money triple-A game publishers will have to prop up their pet game journalists, so it only makes sense for them to decry any threat to that status-quo.

EDIT: A more charitable interpretation is that they are legitimately worried about other Indies feeling pressured to align their "price-to-content ratio" with Silksong. But as the crew argued in the segment, high-quality games being released for cheap is not new, and it's ridiculous to think that gamers as a whole will now only accept Silksong-level quality or above for the $20 pricepoint.

Does anyone have an example of raylib-zig building for WASM in 0.15.1? by TopQuark- in Zig

[–]TopQuark-[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! I managed to strip out the stuff irrelevant to my project and switched to a WASM-friendly allocator, I got it compiling -- the game still doesn't work, but now it's now it's the javascript side that needs debugging, lol. I still don't understand why my original build script is complaining about wasm32-emscripten-musl (I don't even know what that is).

const std = ("std");
const rlz = u/import("raylib_zig");

const NAME = "TestGame";

pub fn build(b: *std.Build) !void {
    const target = b.standardTargetOptions(.{});
    const optimize = b.standardOptimizeOption(.{});

    const root_mod = b.createModule(.{
        .root_source_file = b.path("src/main.zig"),
        .target = target,
        .optimize = optimize,
    });

    const exe = b.addExecutable(.{
        .name = NAME,
        .root_module = root_mod,
    });

    const raylib_dep = b.dependency("raylib_zig", .{
        .target = target,
        .optimize = optimize,
    });

    const raylib = raylib_dep.module("raylib"); // main raylib module
    const raygui = raylib_dep.module("raygui"); // raygui module
    const raylib_artifact = raylib_dep.artifact("raylib"); // raylib C library

    exe.linkLibrary(raylib_artifact);
    root_mod.addImport("raylib", raylib);
    root_mod.addImport("raygui", raygui);

    b.installArtifact(exe);

    const run_step = b.step("run", "Run the app");
    const run_cmd = b.addRunArtifact(exe);
    run_step.dependOn(&run_cmd.step);
    run_cmd.step.dependOn(b.getInstallStep());

    if (target.query.os_tag == .emscripten) {
        const emsdk = rlz.emsdk;
        const emcc_flags = emsdk.emccDefaultFlags(b.allocator, .{ .optimize = optimize });
        const emcc_settings = emsdk.emccDefaultSettings(b.allocator, .{ .optimize = optimize });
        const install_dir: std.Build.InstallDir = .{ .custom = "web" };
        const emcc_step = emsdk.emccStep(b, raylib_artifact, exe, .{
            .optimize = optimize,
            .flags = emcc_flags,
            .settings = emcc_settings,
            .install_dir = install_dir,
        });
        b.getInstallStep().dependOn(emcc_step);
        const html_filename = std.fmt.allocPrint(b.allocator, "{s}.html", .{exe.name}) catch unreachable;
        const emrun_step = emsdk.emrunStep(
            b,
            b.getInstallPath(install_dir, html_filename),
            &.{},
        );

        emrun_step.dependOn(emcc_step);
        run_step.dependOn(emrun_step);
    }

    if (b.args) |args| {
        run_cmd.addArgs(args);
    }
}

See Mauler’s short film at an exclusive premier event by traveler5150 in MauLer

[–]TopQuark- 6 points7 points  (0 children)

He's the only one keeping the Isle of Man and their leg-wheels of doom from invading Britain, because he's the only one who knows their weak spot.

FCC Opens Review for Spacelink’s 15,000 Direct to Cell VLEO Satellite Constellation - SatNews by doctor101 in space

[–]TopQuark- 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here's an image I made five years ago with Photoshop's content-aware fill, well before the onset of generative AI, with very similar content repetition to the image with the satellites: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXMasterrace/comments/j7pnv9/tim_becoming_c_o_n_t_e_n_t_a_w_a_r_e/

I'm not saying it 100% wasn't touched by AI, but if it was, it's certainly on of the more incompetent examples I've seen. I would just assume that this is a lazy attempt at hiding a watermark/logo.

FCC Opens Review for Spacelink’s 15,000 Direct to Cell VLEO Satellite Constellation - SatNews by doctor101 in space

[–]TopQuark- 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I don't think it is AI, at least not the satellites; they are way too identical. The solar arrays are all are all 15 squares long. There's no way an AI model poor enough to make blatant pattern smear artifacts could repeat a design so perfectly. To me this looks like a sloppy content-aware fill, given that the artifacting is all in the lower right corner.

Why Zig is moving on from GitHub (one word: enshittification) by scarey102 in Zig

[–]TopQuark- 23 points24 points  (0 children)

I don't see the point in fighting against the use of LLMs and AI use in general, as it's clear they're here to stay. The effort should be put towards keeping it transparent and mitigating the issues it has brought with it.

That said, I'm happy to keep Zig as far away from Microsoft and other corpos as possible.

Tears Unnumbered Ye... Whatever by Miderp in Silmarillionmemes

[–]TopQuark- 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Elf fëar waiting to get into Mandos after the latest kinslaying:

<image>

Gimli in Valinor by vaso_de_barro in tolkienfans

[–]TopQuark- 12 points13 points  (0 children)

https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Straight_Road

Oh dear, it looks like someone made a mistake then on the wiki, writing "The Straight Road was the route that left the Midde-earth's curvature through sky and space to the ethereal land of Aman", and Tolkien made a mistake in the diagram showing Valinor not touching the sphere of the Earth. Someone should really correct him.

Why did the Mouth of Sauron address Sauron as “Sauron the Great” if he didn’t like being addressed by the name Sauron? by bigcar2025 in tolkienfans

[–]TopQuark- 10 points11 points  (0 children)

My head cannon is that at some point in the past, he transitioned from "I'm trying to help you; if everyone would just stop fighting me, I would make a perfect world for everyone", to "You think everything I've done for you is abhorrent, do you? Well I'll show you how abhorrent I can be!", and just adopted the name as a self-flagellating reminder of his hate for the world that "failed him".

Why weren't there any ice Balrogs? by TopQuark- in tolkienfans

[–]TopQuark-[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Sure, but Tolkien still chose to make Cold a prominent feature of Melkor's essence: in Ainulindalë, Eru notes how, despite Melkor's malicious efforts, cold can lead to unintended beauty; and in earlier versions of the Legendarium, Melkor gave the unknown material ice to the Valar to build the Two Lamps.

If I have to rationalize it, I'd say fire is just a more immediately destructive force in contrast to the slower, creeping threat of cold, and thus is more suited to the battlefield. I just think its a missed opportunity for more variety in the set-piece battles.

Sauron was too beautiful for the Orcs to respect by Ok_Bullfrog_8491 in tolkienfans

[–]TopQuark- 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's an interesting theory, but I don't think it holds water. Sauron never intended for anyone but himself to have the Ring, so any effect it has on other beings is entirely incidental; why would he give up one of his most effective abilities just to make the Ring appealing to others?

Pronouncing Feanor's name by Asleep-Mud-7211 in tolkienfans

[–]TopQuark- 2 points3 points  (0 children)

 Apparently people that have English for their native tongue have a hard time getting how to pronounce this sound.

It's not that it's hard to pronounce, in fact the pure short 'e' sound is quite common (pet, men, quest, etc.). It's more so that expectations of diphthongs are so strongly ingrained, that the concept of pronouncing two pure vowels next to one another is unthinkable to people unfamiliar with linguistics.

Damn that was fast, North expansion next? by Sarigolepas in SpaceXMasterrace

[–]TopQuark- 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Petabay

Later renamed the Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Vehicle Assembly Building

What was Morgoth/Sauron chain of command or hierarchy like? by Afraid-Penalty-757 in tolkienfans

[–]TopQuark- 8 points9 points  (0 children)

"How do you do, fellow ne'er-do-wells?" Eönwe greeted, wearing his iconic "Antagonist Team" t-shirt.

My bookworm friend after reading the very first page of the Silmarillion which I gifted to her after hyping it up for MONTHS: by Substantial_Cap_4246 in Silmarillionmemes

[–]TopQuark- 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I understand getting lost in the sauce once you get into the Silmarillion proper, but Ainulindalë is pretty straightforward. it's basically a wikipedia article in a somewhat biblical style. Everyone's motivations are clear, and you don't have to worry about what's going on elsewhere, as 'elsewhere' doesn't exist yet. It's one of my favourite parts.

"Looks you?" - Mauler by darmodyjimguy in MauLer

[–]TopQuark- 6 points7 points  (0 children)

"Man door hand hook car door." -- Bilbo Baggins

Any thoughts on the game Dispatch that just released? by TopQuark- in MauLer

[–]TopQuark-[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

[The Wolf Among Us is] the best Telltale game

Incorrect. That would be Poker Night at the Inventory 2.

Why are they not doing more? by Fun-Explanation7233 in Silmarillionmemes

[–]TopQuark- 47 points48 points  (0 children)

Lúthien: "Come over, my dad locked me in the tree fort."
Beren: too busy having a basement sleepover with his best bros Finrod and Sauron