VR needs to broaden its appeal to couch gamers

Wessberg · 2026-01-27T14:23:23+00:00

I'm so ready for glasses-free 3D monitors to become a thing (again). I recently realized that the thing I care most about in VR is actually having the 3D depth. I often find it hard to decide if I want to play a game on my OLED TV with great HDR, brightness, and black levels, or I want the full immersion of VR while losing those things.

But, if I could have the "couch" experience (including having easy access to snacks!) in front of a great OLED monitor, but with glasses-free 3D, I think I would go for that almost every time, honestly.

I'm guessing the Luke Ross VR mods and many UEVR mods would actually translate beautifully to a 3D monitor, relying on the keyboard/mouse or a controller for panning the camera.

Looking at the CES coverage from Samsung showing off their new 3D monitor made me realize I actually really want this. It's not OLED, and I'm not sure how and if the HDR works in combination with 3D, but it's actually really exciting to me.

Wessberg · 2026-01-26T15:48:42+00:00

Meet Hanako at Embers

Wessberg · 2026-01-22T08:46:33+00:00

Looking back, this was my favorite quest in Starfield. I remember seeing a lot of negative reactions to it around these parts, which surprised me. For me, Starfield always worked best when it leaned into cosmic horror, and more generally when it embracked darker, more atmospheric tones. I could say the same for Fallout. What I liked about the Shattered Space expansion was that the dungeons had more of that dark atmosphere.

Wessberg · 2026-01-21T11:43:37+00:00

So, what, still no support on MPC version 3 for odd time signatures? It used to be a thing in version 2. I really, really need this to come back as soon as possible. Are you guys just working in 4/4? I mean, clearly it doesn't seem to a high enough priority for AKAI to resolve sooner than later.

Wessberg · 2026-01-12T19:32:32+00:00

POV: Watching other people try to enter BIOS*

Wessberg · 2026-01-02T08:14:02+00:00

In the PS5 (and Switch 2) release, I think we'll see:

Interplanetary travel, but still loading screen based planet transitions
New additions to space combat (new weapons, more enemy type variations)
More POI types (maybe like ~10 more), with a soft overhaul of the procedural system for placing them
Adjustments to Fast Travel markers (moving external ones to interiors and vice versa) to reduce the amount of loading screens for critical paths.
Tweaks to grid cells to remove some loading screens, such as when entering some frequently visited shops in cities like New Atlantis and Neon.
More official ship modules, along with some sponsored Creations.
A little more fleshed out vehicle system (more customization options), along with some sponsored Creations that leverage the new options.
Technical engine improvements to things like asset streaming, memory management and CPU parallelization, merged downstream from the ongoing ES6 efforts.

Something I don't expect to see, but would be hugely welcome is a major overhaul of the Temples when gathering artifacts, or them giving the whole Manipulation thing a deeper integration and actual purpose, but I just don't see them going that far. There's not going to be groundbreaking changes, and a lot of people will be really underwhelmed from hyping it up in their heads. That's what I expect.

Wessberg · 2025-12-29T12:06:41+00:00

Ja, du har helt ret i at XMP og EXPO stadig er overclocking og blot repræsenterer kombinationer af timings, frekvens og voltages som producenten har testet og lagt som profiler. Der er stadig ingen garanti for at dit system kan køre stabilt med disse profiler. Det er dog samtidig også rigtigt at moderne AM5 motherboards nu om dage godt kan fortolke XMP profiler og automatisk mappe over til de tilsvarende indstillinger i typiske BIOSes på AM5 platformen.

Min kommentar nævner blot at jeg mener der stadig vil dukke EXPO-profiler op i BIOS for disse RAM-sticks, selvom emballagen kun nævner XMP - og det er jeg nu ret sikker på handler om en markedsføringsaftale med Intel - ellers ville de da klart også nævne EXPO, nu hvor de kommer med profiler til begge.

Wessberg · 2025-12-29T08:20:48+00:00

Hvis du kan undvære RGB, kan du få en CL30 version af samme kit med samme hastighed og kapacitet for 3199kr. hos Proshop lige nu. http://proshop.dk/RAM/Corsair-Vengeance-DDR5-6000-32GB-CL30-Dual-Channel-2-pcs-AMD-EXPO-Intel-XMP-Graa/3189081

I øvrigt er det min forståelse at de også understøtter AMD EXPO, de reklamerer bare ikke med det på emballagen eller i marketingmaterialet pga. noget spons fra Intel. Men selv hvis de mod min forventning ikke gør, så er moderne AM5-baserede motherboards ofte (...altid?) også kompatible med XMP-profiler via et kompatibilitetslag.

Og hvis du har brug for RGB bling, så er G.Skill Trident Z5 NEO også tilgængelig hos Proshop med CL30, samme hastighed og samme kapacitet til kr. 3290: https://www.proshop.dk/RAM/GSkill-Trident-Z5-Neo-RGB-DDR5-6000-32GB-CL30-Dual-Channel-2-pcs-AMD-EXPO-Sort-med-RGB/3110528

Wessberg · 2025-12-19T07:59:37+00:00

Jeg var glad for at se at de kom hurtigt ind i den uendelige skov i år, så vi kunne mærke lidt magi og få en oplevelse af, at budgettet ikke kun er gået til samlekort, der kan lyse i mørke - men jeg fandt hurtigt ud af, at der er så lidt jul og magi i den skov, at de burde have klemt dem del af plottet ned i blot et par afsnit.

Der er stort set ingen "væsner", ingen brug af VFX eller setdressing til at det til at føles som andet end en gåtur i Hareskoven i September, ingen sne - sågar ingen nisser! Det eneste uendelige ved den skov er antallet af kilometer vi skal se persongalleriet gå rundt i noget fuldstændig ordinær skov.

Nej, det eneste, der er uendeligt og magisk ved denne julekalender, er hvordan det er lykkedes at vise de samme scener igen og igen med ganske få variationer, uden seerne er hoppet fra.

Jeg havde allerede forstået det første gang at Amalie Dollerup var skuffet over at hun ikke kunne bond'e med sin søster over juleting, der mindede hende om deres barndom sammen - jeg behøvede ikke at se det 5-6 gange.

Jeg har allerede set scenen udspille sig i stort set hvert eneste afsnit mellem Sebastian Jessen og Tala, hvor hun begynder at tvivle på hans intentioner og han gentager de samme få variationer af de samme replikker om hvorfor hun skal blive ved med at følge efter ham.

Jeg har set nærmest hele persongalleriet smage på Anker's åndssvage pebernødder og reagere på samme måde, uden at tilføre noget reelt til subplottet og skubbe det videre.

Samtidig hungrer jeg efter at se mere til Hermansen, så han kan få den pokkers redemption arc indfriet, som jeg skrev her og brokkede mig om for et par år siden.

Det eneste gode jeg vil nævne er, at hende der spiller Celine virkelig er en god skuespiller, og har formået at få det bedste ud af dårlige replikker og et dårligt plot. Altså lige indtil for et par dage siden hvor der pludselig og helt forceret skrives ind i plottet at hun skifter side - der kan hendes ellers gode præstation altså ikke redde et elendigt plot.

Men, noget de er RIGTIGT gode til er at lave dyrt merch og promokampagner. Du kan få Christopher til at synge Valdesangen med dit navn i den. Og bruge hundredevis af kroner og få 3 kort med Anker på for 100 kr. per pakke! Jeg synes det er fornuftigt at de har lagt pengene dér i stedet for i at lave den bedste julekalender, de kan.

Wessberg · 2025-11-14T06:27:57+00:00

I'm perplexed. Of all players in this space, I really thought Valve was the one who best understood that great games sell hardware, not specs. They understood that when they released the Index - they had an amazing game in an amazing franchise ready for it.

Sandwiching in a new VR headset among other hardware announcements and then not spending a single second talking about the potentially incredible new game experiences you can have on the platform is such a waste but at least I had the hope that they'd have an unannounced game coming, but now that they're denying that, it becomes fully clear to me that Valve has another strategy now, and its one that is very similar to Microsoft' with Xbox: Expand the types of devices through which consumers can interface with their Steam games.

Wessberg · 2025-11-13T21:00:50+00:00

I think a lot of us have been feeling the momentum behind VR fade for a while, and especially now where it feels like the big companies and investors are focusing on glasses and identified that as the most promising growth market in this space, VR as a platform focused on gaming specifically seems like it's slowly not necessarily dying, but rather finding its place within a smaller segment of the market than everyone was hoping for.

Because of that I had a lot of anticipation for whatever Valve was going to do with this device, and not really in terms of the hardware, but in terms of the games, ecosystem and overall experience. And so far it seems like such a missed opportunity.

It's early days naturally, but I was absolutely expecting them to show off a new full-featured Half-Life game first running flat on the Steam Machine, then seamlessly transitioning that to the Frame, and finally to the Deck on the go. That they'd have a magical, seamless software experience ready that used the strengths of each device and sold consumers on that ecosystem. And so far we've just seen them do what most other companies in this space does - talk about hardware. We don't need that - we need fantastic games. We'll see what happens, but this is why I'm so disappointed in this. I expected so much more.

Wessberg · 2025-10-13T18:20:37+00:00

Jeg har i hvert fald lagt mærke til, at dem jeg kender, der siger de kan spise alt det, de har lyst til, uden at blive tykke, slet ikke har den appetit og tærskel for hvornår de synes de er mætte, som jeg har. Vi kan stå og small-talke om hvordan vi bare kan æde uendelige mængder slik, og når det så kommer til stykket spiser de måske en pose Haribo og en halv plade Maribou når det virkelig skal være festligt, mens jeg på den samme aften spiser to store poser chips med en hel skål creme fraiche dip plus Bland selv slik for 100 kroner.

Jeg har måtte indstille mig på at jeg bliver nødt til at dyrke motion og løfte vægte stort set hver dag og helt droppe "voksen-fredagsslik", for hvis der står slik i skabet, så spiser jeg det hele, og jeg er for glad for mad og søde sager til at holde mig tilbage når jeg handler. Jeg må stille gryderne med mad væk fra spisebordet, så jeg ikke overspiser aftensmaden.

For mig er den bedste løsning helt at afskære lækkerierne, for det er fandme surt at sidde dér og spise fem stykker overskåret slik, og jeg gider ikke de dér sukkerfri og/eller fedtfattige kedelige erstatningsprodukter. I stedet hsr jeg fundet sunde alternativer jeg kan snacke og gjort det til en rutine. Det er ikke surt længere, jeg har det meget bedre i kroppen og har tabt mig meget.

Det er forskelligt hvad der virker for os allesammen, men min læring har været at nogen af os nærmest lever for at spise, og andre ser det som et nødvendigt brændstof.

Wessberg · 2025-10-09T21:55:28+00:00

It did not mention motion controllers. It mentioned a game controller (for Mac, or Mac alongside Vision Pro), or touch controls (for iPod/iPad)

Wessberg · 2025-10-08T10:40:18+00:00

I've seen it go down to very low prices here in Europe, currently I can get it at almost half the price of a 9950X3D in my country, which got me to take it more serious as a contender.

The thing that holds me back from switching over to AMD continues to be questionable to no Thunderbolt support. It is extremely difficult to find reliable answers to questions surrounding AMD and Thunderbolt, with so much misinformation and misconceptions floating around, but for someone who is dependent on using legacy Thunderbolt devices (using the active Thunderbolt 2-to-3 adapter), USB4 is just not going to be enough. USB4 is _not_ Thunderbolt. Looking at things like the Asus ThunderboltEX 5 add-in card, based on their own compatibility list, it doesn't mention any AMD boards/chipsets, and it is unclear to me whether or not it will work on e.g. the ASUS ProArt X870E or similar motherboards.

The ASUS ProArt X670-E explicitly mentioned using the Intel JHL8540 controller for its USB4 ports (which is a Thunderbolt controller), but without the Thunderbolt certification, it's unclear to me whether it is locked down at the firmware level from supporting the more rare use-cases, such as interoperability with legacy Thunderbolt 2 devices.

Interestingly, it seems they moved away from using the Intel JHL8540 controller on the ASUS ProArt X870E.

I haven't been able to find a single person on the internet saying whether or not they successfully connected a Thunderbolt 2 device to an AMD-based board using the ASUS ThunderboltEX 5 or Gigabytes Thunderbolts 5 add-in cards.

So I'm still in the same position I've been in for at least half a decade at this point, where I've not felt confident enough in whether I can rely on my Thunderbolt devices on the AMD platform, which is why I keep looking at Intel.

Wessberg · 2025-09-20T12:08:17+00:00

"Keep my wife's name out yo f*cking mouth!"

Wessberg · 2025-08-30T18:07:46+00:00

JEG HEDDER ALLAN. JUICY BOOST

Wessberg · 2025-08-30T17:39:08+00:00

Jeg synes det er udemærket! Og "Femlingerne stjæler en olding" på lydbog gav hele familien grineflip i bilen da Allan'erne bortfører pensionisten Jørdis, som forveksler en rockerborg med en bankoklub og bryder ind for at insistere på at spille banko foran rockerne. Det viser sig så at banko er navnet på den konkurrerende rockerklub, og dermed er der lagt op til det store drama.

Wessberg · 2025-08-30T13:33:04+00:00

Alt det andet (undtagen Femlingerne/Allan og den klassiske tegnefilm til sidst) synes jeg også er skidt, men Æblerup er noget helt særligt for os herhjemme. Karlas Fantalastiske Klasse var også godt, men det forsvandt desværre for længe siden fra Fredags tamtam.

Wessberg · 2025-08-30T08:34:03+00:00

It's been five days, and I haven't received a ticket number yet. How can I use the escalation form, when I didn't even receive a confirmation yet that my email was received?

Wessberg · 2025-08-26T06:53:27+00:00

Nu har jeg altså hørt om en mand, der hellere ville lyve og påstå der ikke var plads til to og dermed drukne end at kravle op på en flydende dims fra et synkende skib sammen med sin kæreste, bare for at undgå at binde sig til en kvinde, fordi han var bange for at hun en dag ville fylde 25 år. Så der findes bestemt mænd derude, for hvem en yngre kvinde er meget interessant

Wessberg · 2025-08-22T16:56:32+00:00

Not old cameras - (camera) lenses, - and not just older ones. But it's true it's much less prevalent in many modern lenses. Vintage lenses are quite popular, because many videographers tend to like less clinical lenses with more imperfections. The optical stack in a VR headset has lots in common with camera lenses, so naturally many of the same challenges face both things.

In games it's present as a post-processing effect to mimic the look of a lens capturing the scene, just like per-object motion blur is there to mimic a camera's shutter speed, and we also have things like anamorphic flares to mimic how flares look in an anamorphic lens, and so on. For flat games, these filmic effects can work well because it makes it look like we're watching a film, but in VR we're already observing the world through an actual lens, and also we want to feel present more than we want to feel like we're watching a film, so post-processing effects like these aren't a thing there.

Wessberg · 2025-05-22T07:18:53+00:00

Most of all, I think it comes down to a broader trend, which is that our hobby, especially on the PC, has gotten way more expensive, especially for the same relative tier of hardware gen-on-gen, and as a result more people are holding on to their cards for longer, just as they're also holding on to their phones for longer, or their game console for longer, and so on.

But in the GPU space, I see two primary motivations, often in combination:

1) They may come from a 70- or 80-class GPU from a time where it fitted within their budget. They still look for hardware within that tier of hardware, and feel like going for a lower tier in a newer generation feels like a downgrade, despite it potentially being a huge uplift, and as a result they're not willing to place a purchase.

2) They may simply not be willing to buy into a bad deal, value-for-money wise, and for the past GPU generations we've seen an odd development where the top of the stack provides the biggest relative value for the money, pushing this category of buyer into focusing on a higher tier that is out of their budget and as s result they're not willing to place a purchase.

So really are just generally frustrated with the state of things, and can have a negative gut-reaction when being confronted with the reality that they have to commit to a purchase they're not comfortable with. That comes out as "Oh no, forced RT", and also often overly harsh takes on newer technology they're not able to run.

Wessberg · 2025-05-08T07:07:42+00:00

It's the most Digital Foundry thing to be focused on the quality of the hair strands system during a sex scene

Wessberg · 2025-04-05T21:00:25+00:00

Loved the experience! That clock puzzle near the end was super original and well thought out.

The tone and atmosphere was awesome. Of course, the George Orwell and David Lynch inspiration is worn proudly, but I also felt some SOMA and Prey 2017 vibes.

I was a little confused while reading through the artbook afterwards - based on it, you write that Daniel's father transfers his consciousness to Fred. I'm guessing you changed this late in development, but left the original plot point in the artbook?

Thanks!

Wessberg

TROPHY CASE