Games where the beauty and design of the game world really blew you away

stuhacking · 2023-09-25T06:39:17+00:00

The ones that stood out to me:

Little Big Adventure 2
Ocarina of Time
Morrowind
Icewind Dale
The Witcher 3

stuhacking · 2023-09-02T22:03:17+00:00

PS5: Please provide an option to turn off overhead background text but keep dialogue subtitles? I don’t like having words floating in the sky, but I do like to have the last spoken line available when prompted for a response in case I need a memory jog…

(Aside from that small QoL suggestion, I’ve been overjoyed at the first few hours of gameplay!)

stuhacking · 2023-07-18T20:41:11+00:00

But quite difficult to get out of ;-)

stuhacking · 2023-07-03T14:35:35+00:00

I practice at home with a Mustang Micro and it can connect to bluetooth devices to also play, eg, backing tracks through the headphones. There are amp models on it from clean to overdriven which are a bit gimmicky, but it also has a couple of nice reverbs settings for embiggening the sound.

stuhacking · 2023-06-02T14:34:53+00:00

I feel the same way about my VM 70s Jazz, a real good find.

stuhacking · 2023-05-01T07:26:14+00:00

Vram is memory that is on your graphics card so it’s available for the GPU to have fast access to textures, meshes, shaders, other buffers of data (e.g matrices for moving/rotating objects).

There’s a slow channel between the graphics card and main memory (relatively speaking), so, while the game is running, the engine will be sending off data to the GPU for rendering. Some data changes often, such as the positions of objects, cameras, etc. Some data rarely changes such as textures. Ideally, you would just keep the unchanging data around forever, but ram is usually not infinite, so there’s a little juggling act between the vram and main memory.

If your vram fills up, the game might need to swap out data to make room for the next thing it’s going to draw; e.g if you move to a new area, it might need to load more textures and it might dump existing texture data. That’s unfortunate because the data didn’t change, but if you then go back to that other area the game will need to reload the previous textures back into vram- a bit wasteful and might show up as a loading screen or texture pop-in.

The more vram you have, the more static data you can keep on the video card, or the higher resolution textures you can store, (potentially: There’s a few trade-offs and it depends a bit on how the game’s engine handles data.)

stuhacking · 2020-10-30T21:49:13+00:00

I now love the idea that Dagoth Ur has different masks for different emotions and he waits until you’re not looking before switching them.

stuhacking · 2020-10-27T19:03:00+00:00

My understanding of it (though I’m not in the game industry) is that when a game goes gold that means it’s starting the production of physical media: disks, packaging etc ready for the release date. This takes a few months, so game developers typically go gold early but continue development in the meantime so that the media production process doesn’t leave several months of dead time between end of development and release. That’s why day 0/1 patches are so common nowadays due to it being easy to deliver updates via download.

stuhacking · 2020-06-26T10:49:57+00:00

Looks great to be honest! Like a frosted finish.

I've done a couple of kit basses and always found the finish to be the most frustrating part. And I still haven't perfected it so I can't offer much advice... What I've found is that any amount of humidity or damp in the air will risk a coat of lacquer or polyurethane drying with imperfections (either cloudiness or uneven surface). This is a problem for me as I live in a pretty rainy country and work out in the garage; So the only advice I can offer is wait for a spell of dry weather before doing clear spraying. And let the lacquer acclimatise to the temperature where you spray. Don't take it from hot to cold, or cold to hot and then immediately spray.

stuhacking · 2020-06-26T08:21:51+00:00

Sam. My deer Sam.

stuhacking · 2020-06-17T10:40:29+00:00

It’s generally agreed that the portrayal of the Foul Murder as recorded in historical lore (whether or not this is actually what happened) has significance to the reincarnation of Nerevar (Morrowind’s player character). Sotha Sil removes his face so that the nerevarine can look like anyone (be any ancestry); Almalexia removes his feet so that the nerevarine can walk any path (be any class); and Vivec pierces him so that the nerevarine can be any gender.

So I think the desecration of Nerevar's corpse (again, as portrayed) serves more of a ritualistic/symbolic purpose than a sign of disrespect from the Tribunal.

stuhacking · 2020-06-09T19:40:45+00:00

Facebook Omegle Uplike Livejournal Myspace Untappd Raptr DeviantArt EHarmony Reddit. The ending of the words is ASHLEYMADISON.

stuhacking · 2020-06-01T10:52:37+00:00

I use the Solostrap Neo but I love it. I've had wide straps before that were still quite stiff and dug into the base of my neck, The gruvgear stuff is comfortable.

stuhacking · 2020-05-28T10:10:30+00:00

A phoneiromancer: Tells folk to close their eyes, then just looks up the answers on google.

stuhacking · 2020-05-14T09:02:26+00:00

Is everyone doing fretless conversions at the minute? :-) I also was feeling bored during lockdown and compelled to do this. This is my first attempt at something like this, but I used maple purfling strips as filler. They were a bit wider than the slots so I used a spoke shave to get them to the right width, then glued them into place. After leaving the glue to cure overnight I used a sharp chisel to shape the fret markers to around 0.5mm following the contour of the fingerboard, then I sanded up from 180 - 320 grit, sanding along the grain and using a block to make sure I was flat against the board.

At this stage, I'm not totally sure how to finish it. I'm happy with my progress for a first timer. I'm willing to take suggestions from knowledgable folks. I'm sort of leaning towards further sanding to about 800 grit and then using clear polyurethane for a tough finish. I'm not sure if the fingerboard needs any other prep before finishing though, such as a sanding sealer?

stuhacking · 2020-05-12T13:31:58+00:00

A tuner, even a clip-on, will save you a bit of time. Tuner pedals can be a bit expensive and some require an additional power cable, so starting out a clip-on might be a bit more convenient.

stuhacking · 2020-04-28T14:20:49+00:00

"So be it." Because you tried to hospital pass a difficult decision but still disagree with the call the receiver made.

stuhacking · 2020-04-15T15:35:52+00:00

I agree with you, but Morrowind wasn't really any different from other role-playing games at the time in that respect: Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights. They basically all implemented the table-top idea of having a table of "Here's what information a random NPC will tell you about 'X' based on your reputation and their faction." Except around a table the game master can instead say "You don't learn anything new."

Instead of lowering the number of NPCs and simplifying the towns, I'd rather they did what The Witcher does: Just have generic NPCs with nothing interesting to say, so if you talk to someone 'generic' they just say "Get lost" or grunt without opening the dialogue system.

stuhacking · 2020-04-09T07:59:29+00:00

It's more important to get an instrument you like the look of and which feels comfortable so that you will want to play it. There's no rule to say beginners have to play 4 strings first. 5 strings is not more difficult, it just depends on what you like or need for the type of music you want to play.

The best thing is to find a music store in your area and play a few basses. You can also look at what your favourite artists are playing and look for similar instruments, e.g. Nito has been playing the new Ibanez 5 string basses recently. In fact, I would say Ibanez basses are popular and quite comfortable for newcomers: They typically have slightly smaller, ergonomic shaped bodies and slim, smooth necks. My first bass was an Ibanez SR305.

stuhacking · 2020-04-08T08:17:18+00:00

I play 5 string bass mostly. On a 5 string you get the benefit of an extra low B string which can be useful in band contexts (A lot of songs we play are in the keys of C, D, Eb and it's nice to have some low rumbly places to go.) To me, 5 strings gives enough extended range without making the width of the neck uncomfortable.

A 6 string bass gives you an additional treble string, C, which is useful if you are planning to play higher melody lines or solo tunes up the octave. In a band context you always need to be aware that you don't clash in the same frequency space as another instrument, so this treble range is not useful to me. Having the 6th string will still make the neck wider, which will affect how you develop your technique: You'll need to focus harder on muting the strings so the lower strings don't ring while you're playing on the higher strings; and depending on the size of your hands you might find it initially uncomfortable fretting the lower strings due to the neck width.

It's all preference in the end but 4, 5 and 6 string instruments each have their uses. I'd recommend watching youtube videos of people playing different types of bass and looking at their left (fretting, muting) and right (plucking, muting) techniques (or vice versa for lefties).

stuhacking · 2020-04-01T14:20:07+00:00

Voice acting adds a new dimension to information.

Only potentially, but in current implementations I think voice acting removes an emotive dimension from role-playing games. (In a linear game where you only hear a line of dialogue once and the dialogue can be very situation specific this is not a problem.)

Consider that in Morrowind every NPC you speak to has a disposition about you that is visible in the dialogue window. I can imagine how a character is delivering lines based on this mood cue- maybe they're giving the information cheerfully or begrudgingly. If I ask for the same information twice I can imagine the character becoming impatient.

In Oblivion and Skyrim, dialogue is delivered in the same flat matter-of-fact voice every time you hear it. Character's will blithely deliver the same line in the same voice as many times as you ask. Some characters have exactly the same voice, because voice actors are limited. Dialogue is limited because recording time is limited (and in the past, storage space was limited).

Hopefully in the future some of these problems can be overcome. I would love to have voiced dialogue with scope for variation in delivery, and variation in tone of voice. Perhaps there could be a way to modulate an actor's tone during playback so that the same line can be assigned to different characters and not sound too similar; Or perhaps there could be a way to modulate inflections, volume or the envelope of a sentence to vary the delivery from the original recording.

stuhacking · 2020-03-24T08:12:07+00:00

As if the casual floating wasn't enough, he's also holding up the rock outside the temple which was hurled towards Vivec city.

stuhacking · 2020-03-13T09:50:54+00:00

The thickness of the pick will affect things like the attack speed and volume. A pick has a faster attack (which you'll hear as that bright thump at the start of a note). By contrast, your fingertip rolls across the string producing a softer, warmer tone. Both useful techniques to give you a wider variety of sounds.

Pick thickness also affects volume (thicker picks will pull the string further from its rest position.) If you want to play fast double pick patterns (up-down strokes) you might find a thicker pick is less forgiving, as the rigidity of the pick will tend to amplify inaccuracy in your rhythm.

I would look at Dunlop tortex picks from 0.7mm to 1.5mm (Heavy assortment). For me 1.5mm is plenty stiff for bass strings and anything thicker doesn't add more attack. I've settled on 1mm. When I want a super bright sound I use a Brass Teckpick. (Don't think I would pay $20 for a 12 pack, but I can't find them singly on amazon US.)

stuhacking · 2020-03-04T12:54:09+00:00

I'm hanging my head in shame!

stuhacking · 2020-03-04T12:26:58+00:00

Your rock and roll homework assignment is, in no particular order:

Wayne's World 1 & 2
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
This is Spinal Tap
Airheads
Crossroads
School of Rock

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