hfm

Bounced off Elden Ring yet again...  I think I may just give up on that at this point.. the amount of times I've bounced off Dark Souls 2,3 and now Elden Ring I think I should just just leave them behind and move on. I LOVED Demon's Souls on PS3 and pretty much finished Dark Souls, but something about the fomula now is just putting me off since I want to explore more than I care about redoing the same fights over and over and over.

I installed God of War and blew through that, what a game. I did try to beat the last Valkyrie (the queen) for a bit and just couldn't muster the patience to upgrade myself enough to make that fight easier after trying it for an hour or so. I got her down to around 1/4 health once, I just need a little upgrading to make it a tad easier but bah.. too much grinding UNISNTALL. There's not enough left to do in the world that would be fun enough to grind out some more upgrades. Maybe I've reached the end and I just need to keep trying until I dodge enough attacks to win. 🙂Can't wait for Ragnarok to be ported over to PC the game was fantastic.

I've now installed Horizon: Zero Dawn the other day and so far it is way better than I expected it to be, went into it not really knowing anything about it except you used a bow to fight machines. Cool story premise so far, though I'm just now getting out into the world proper after all the setup scenes culminating to you finally being granted a status to leave the "embrace" to go find your past. At least it seems the last "tutorial" part is how to get a mount and now the game is wide open. Really good so far, digging the mixing of high tech and low tech and how the world building is unfolding.

I still have yet to even install GTA V. I had a blast with the original GTA III on PS2 back in the day so groundbreaking at the time. Played most of Vice City on PS2 forget if I ever finished the story I probably did. Never tried san andreas and only played a small amount of GTA IV (probably less than 10 hours). Maybe I'll try V, I just feel like the game is old enough now and I've got so many other games to play I'll never get around to it. Lets be real when the CP2077 expansion drops I'll be playing that and when Starfield launches everything else I'm playing will get dropped for that.

2 hours ago, ryan said:

 

 

What exactly do these dll updates do performance and IQ wise? I'm pretty sure they get updated with new drivers also.  Seems risky playing will dlls. but thanks for the heads up

Definitely risky, but as long as it's from the legitimate patch it should be ok. I suppose only get them from trusted sources that provide a checksum you can validate with or validate yourself that it's been signed by nvidia. Always risk though.

I've tried these DLSS library updates before and it seems to be hit or miss depending on the game. Sometimes they play nice and add a benefit, other times the newer dll will cause worse performance with ghosting artifacts or other problems. I tended to only try out other versions if the game was already exhibiting pronounced ghosting and they haven't updated the implementation themselves yet.

I may replay WItcher 3 when that new version drops next month. I dunno so many games I haven't played sitting in the backlog.

I like to replay Doom and Doom 2 with mods like Brutal every few years.

Lol, every list like this is different for everyone, they are usually just fodder for people complaining in the comments about all the games they passed over.

SInce I have a full partitions backup I decided to blow away my Win 11 + Fedora dual boot on my Gram and I installed Chrome OS Flex on it just to see if I could get along doing that. So far it's been great, and the Linux install within Chrome OS Flex seems to work fine, I haven't tried anything advanced yet though like Docker dev env. 

My only gripe so far is that this Gram with 8th Gen CPU is just getting long in the tooth. Oh and that Chrome OS Flex doesn't support the finger print reader, but there's no driver for it in Linux either (Chrome OS Flex is just a Linux distro at the end of the day..) so that's pretty much a wash.

Though, I think for my upgrade from this Gram I'm probably going to wait to see how the M2 MBP16 looks next year. My other MBP16 is pretty much isolated for pure work related stuff, and I'd like to consider one for more personal stuff. Mostly music related stuff which macOS is just great at.

On 10/12/2022 at 9:00 AM, serpro69 said:

Damn this is very impressive for a one-person-operation... I wish there was multiplayer, I like survival games quite a lot, but "surviving with friends" takes it to the next level. I'll still check it out, thanks for the tip @cucubits! 

I'm on the other side of this one. There's so many multiplayer games like this, I'm excited to have a single player focused one.

On 7/7/2022 at 2:51 AM, LoneSyndal said:

Bloodborne: a game that has introduced many to the wonders of HP Lovecraft's cosmic horror long after Stephen King's attempts to entertain viewers via books. This game has the visceral combat, story, and setpieces I would never expect to do so well in its time. The very act of you playing or not playing the game is also a part of the tale.

 

I wish Sony/From would port this to PC already, seems Sony is on a tear putting out great content for PC so I hold out hope we'll see it. I think the change of setting would probably get me back into the "souls" formula.

On 11/11/2022 at 2:28 PM, cucubits said:

Question for those who played the game...

 

I'm still getting ready to dive in and I'd like to give myself the best chance to get through it all. In know generally in all souls games the build type doesn't matter too much but I have seen some boss fight videos from Elden Ring and I'm slightly worried. I'd like to assume all the rage quits and screaming in youtube videos are fake and only for entertainment purposes, but some of the fights do seem pretty unfair.

 

Having said that, I like OP strength builds with huge weapons, sneaking up on enemies, and one(few) hit kills. Would something like this be viable in Elden Ring? If yes, can I get some tips on what early items to go for? Am I setting myself up for pain with some of the faster bosses?

I'm probably not exactly the right one to answer as I've only every played through the first two (Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, I got so far into DS1 I call it finished.. I was hours away) but it seems like one of the most important moves you can make is rolling to evade/dodge, which takes stamina and speed. 

The souls-likes are pretty much about practice, practice, practice. Reaction speed and learning the puzzle of the enemy. Given that I would imagine you can make any build work, but in my past experience anything that had a hard time keeping up stamina for a lot of evasion was difficult to play.
 

I'm sure an expert will come in and tell me how wrong I am lol.

I tried to get back into it again after someone suggested I stop trying to beat the big dude that jumps down from the arch and the crossbowmen and just use the horse to run past it all instead. I did that and got into a better place but I have since stopped playing it again at that point.

The game pretty much tells you which direction to go when starting out as you are compelled to follow these breadcrumbs to the quest you get, but I suppose you can run off in any direction. I just automatically assumed that as a char just starting out running off in some random direction would be suicide as encountering things you have no business of fighting yet by running off in a direction has been a staple of the series.

I'm not sure how I plowed through Demon's Souls and Dark Souls somewhat effortlessly, not without challenge for sure, and have been bouncing off their stuff since. Maybe as I get older my patience is just wearing thinner.

I never have played any Total War games, I'm trying to get into the Warhammer series. I have usually bounced off 4X/grand strategy games over the last 5-10 years but I'm having a little fun slowly learning this series. We'll see how long it lasts.

On 5/19/2022 at 10:19 AM, RS4 said:

The Anti-glare coating looks like proper matte finish and there is that matte screen look to it which some may not like. What do you say @hfm

I do prefer the clarity of less matte, but I don't usually have the sun shining on the panel so it's plenty bright enough for the environments I use it in. I guess I don't care too much either way as I'm still fine with my 2019 model not looking to buy the new one.

On 4/28/2022 at 5:48 PM, FredSRichardson said:

 

Wow!  Only problem for me is the size - over 20" x 24".  That's not going to fit in the right places...

 

The SFF idea is addictive though - really like all the amazing things people have come up with.  And that's even with the performance tradeoffs compared to a big box with plenty of air (and/or liquid) flowing through.  I don't mind undervolting a bit or running less powerful CPUs.  The GPU I'd like to get over a 3060TI if I can (I noticed that is a max for some of the small cases).

What are you going to use for a monitor as you are carrying it around? Hotel TV or already a monitor at your destination?

still making my way through AC:Valhalla. Just continually in awe of the art direction and audio in that game.

13 hours ago, ryan said:

why would anyone want to play such a dated game....old graphics crap story simple mechanics

 

 

kinda like putting spinners on a horse and carriage

lol wut. Playing through Doom 1 and Doom 2 with the brutal doom mod is pretty much required every few years...

14 hours ago, extremecarver said:

are there any updates yet? I haven't found anything. Bit strange Korea is so quiet...

The Korean preorder program that came with a free Gram+View monitor was supposed to end on Apr 21, not sure when they were actually shipping, have they started shipping to customers in Korea?

On 4/14/2022 at 1:45 AM, Sandy Bridge said:

Dell U2412M.  24", 1920x1200, 60 HZ, E-IPS (6-bit color, but IPS angles), matte.  $300 new in 2011.

 

I use it for everything, but mainly web surfing, gaming (primarily strategy), and software development.

 

Bought it because it's 16:10, matte, and had good image quality at a reasonable price, with fairly good response time to boot.  Also had a nice selection of input ports (DVI, DP, and VGA), so it worked natively with my old VGA laptop and then-new DVI video card.  Now I have a DVI-to-HDMI adapter connected along with DP and VGA.

 

Have kept it because literally nobody will make a 27" 16:10 laptop, and because it still works like it did when it was new.  I know that a 27" 2560x1440 with a moderately faster refresh rate and FreeSync would probably make sense, but for the past 6 years or so I've been thinking, "surely someone's going to come out with a 27" 16:10 two weeks after I buy a 27" 16:9", and no one ever does.  When they finally do, they can have my money.

 

Oh and also the tilt/swivel/height adjustments are nice.  Practically speaking I almost never use it in portrait mode, but Dell did a good job with their monitor stand, and they even included it with the monitor instead of charging $1000 for it.

I was seriously considering the Dell U2421E to get 16:10 and the 90W USB-C PD built in, but decided to get a higher refresh 1440p monitor with adaptive sync and the CalDigit dock ($80) instead as I already have an 87W USB-C adapter for my MacBook and the CalDigit has 100W passthru. In the end I'm glad I did as gaming on a higher refresh display (pixel density is also higher on 27" 1440p vs 24.1" 1200p) is definitely a better gaming experience and it's good enough for productivity (The MacBook even drives it at 120Hz over USB-C->HDMI through the dock, the LG Gram only 60Hz though). I'll give up the extra vertical to get a much better gaming experience. I do have 16:10 on both my laptops to compensate🙂.

19 hours ago, Steerpike said:

FWIW, all those settings are in place. Also, I verified that WinRE is in place (since that message I showed above references WinRE).  It just may have something to do with the fact I'm not in 'modern standby' mode (I disabled Modern Standby so I can get 'S3' standby back).  But logically, to me, if the device shipped with an already-encrypted drive (that's how my Dell XPS 17 arrived), I don't think the act of turning off 'Modern Standby' would have un-encrypted the drive 'on the fly' - surely it doesn't happen instantaneously (disabling Modern Standby is simply a matter of setting a registry key and rebooting).  The next logical step in my investigation would be to re-enable modern standby and see what options are available. But since I don't want it anyway, I guess I'll stop pursuing it for now; it was more a curiosity than anything. 

 

Can you just enable modern standby temporarily for science? Hah

On 4/21/2022 at 12:52 PM, Steerpike said:

The 'elevenforum' article says this: "Device encryption is available on devices (ex: tablet or 2-in1) that support Modern Standby and running any Windows 11 edition. If you want to use standard BitLocker encryption instead, it's only available on supported devices running Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, or Education. Some devices have both types of encryption." which means, it's available on windows 11 home.

 

This article says "The BitLocker security feature is available on Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions. However, on Windows 11 Home, you can use "device encryption," a limited version of BitLocker. It works identical to the full version but without many of the advanced management settings and capabilities, such as "BitLocker To Go. ..."" 

 

So this suggests there should be 'something' available in win 11, but it's not available on the LG Gram for some reason.   Since I don't want it (I was looking to disable it), this is not a big issue I'm just curious to understand why it's not there. Perhaps the SSD doesn't support it. 

 

This Asus article explains how to view status information on the feature - Run 'System Information' as an administrator, then scroll down to 'Device Encryption Support'. On my system, it says 

 

(I can't figure out how to copy the text of that message!). It says Reasons for "Failed automatic device encryption: Hardware Security test interface failed and device not modern standby, un-allowed DMA-capable bus/device(s) detected, Disabled by policy, WinRE is not configured"

I believe for that to work you have to have Secure Boot enabled, TPM 2.0 enabled, I think Data Execution Prevention (DEP) and running in UEFI mode..  I believe you also need to enable virtualization. There will be a performance hit for it, so be aware of that.

RT would really improve Witcher 3. It wasn't like they didn't do a great job to start with though. RT would just take it to another level, while also affording them the benefit of not having to hack light sources and diffusion reflection, illumination etc. Hopefully they can get the project started back up again soon.

On 4/19/2022 at 10:09 AM, GrandesBollas said:

After getting fed up with online titles such as FO 76, I've gone back to the games I've already finished like 2077, Fallout 4, Fallout 3, Outer Worlds.  I've found myself not really caring if there is any new content.  I'm just interested in finding builds that don't suck.  Replayability is an important attribute.  I have yet to really get bored with games such as 2077 that afford you quite a bit of flexibility in how you play.

 

My concern is whether developers keep messing with the game mechanics - nerfing weapons, skills, etc.

I can't wait to jump on 2077 again in 2023-2024 when we get some fresh content. I really liked my playthrough and I would imagine by then I may have finally forgotten a lot about the game hah. 

On 4/12/2022 at 6:57 AM, Eban said:

 

I may have misplaced my floppy disk 

 

Just kidding. Cool. 

Actually when they overhauled Halflife I thought of a lot of old games I would like to replay, like Crysis remastered.

I hope someone can do Wing Commander 

A wing commander reboot would be pretty cool. I think that's what Squadron 42 was supposed to be in spirit. (Withholding a lot of comments to avoid starting up 10 pages of Star Citizen talk). Not quite the same but I really liked Everspace, waiting for Everspace 2 to come out of EA to jump on that. I've also played a little Rebel Galaxy and that seemed good the hour I played so far.

Definitely not for me, but I guess who am I to judge. Nah.. I'm totally going to judge this is ridiculous. 

13 hours ago, Steerpike said:

Some quick questions and comments as I work my way through this ...

 

 

 

Were you able to change the display in batteryinfoview to Watts, or did you do that outside of the tool?  And what tool are you using to create the graphs - excel? 

 

I killed Edge and Chrome (I too have >50 tabs open, typically). I set display brightness to 60. Task manager indicates nothing else of significance running. I paused OneDrive to stop it from checking for changes. I'm still not getting below 6W. 

 

 

There are two things on my laptop that suggest an LG-specific config - one is, I had 'LG Control Center', 'LG Update Center', and 'Virtoo by LG' pinned to the taskbar on initial run, and secondly ,a boat-load of McAfee crap showing in Task Manager that I haven't even got around to getting rid of yet ... Look at all this crap! 

 

 

 

The quick way to check your 'standby' config is to open a command prompt and type 'powercfg /a'

This is what I get: 

The following sleep states are available on this system:
    Standby (S0 Low Power Idle) Network Connected
    Hibernate
    Fast Startup

The following sleep states are not available on this system:
    Standby (S1)
        The system firmware does not support this standby state.
        This standby state is disabled when S0 low power idle is supported.

    Standby (S2)
        The system firmware does not support this standby state.
        This standby state is disabled when S0 low power idle is supported.

    Standby (S3)
        This standby state is disabled when S0 low power idle is supported.

    Hybrid Sleep
        Standby (S3) is not available.
        The hypervisor does not support this standby state.

 

I haven't yet ventured into the BIOS to see what options I can change. I remember reading that Dell had completely removed S3 / standby support from its firmware, and I'd assumed LG did the same but don't know. I'll take a look in the BIOS. 

 

EDIT TO ADD: I looked in the Bios for the first time just now; wow - what a sparse BIOS! NOTHING relating to standby configs, or much else for that matter. I read there is an 'advanced' view accessed by Ctrl-Alt-F7, but that didn't work for me.  Am I doing something wrong? 

 

I would also note, Windows has a pretty decent battery report of its own - type powercfg /batteryreport at the command prompt and you'll get a pretty decent report.  There are a LOT of reports available through powercfg, actually - worth a browse. 

 

 

I will explore ThrottleStop next ... 

 

Wow, that download site 'mediafire' is a sneaky one - threw all kinds of stuff at me!   Nice little utility though! 

I would uninstall McAfee, defender is just fine.

That's cool. The only thing I could think of doing is mining ETH until it hits proof of stake, or sell the GPUs before the bottom falls out on the used GPU market.

23 hours ago, Hertzian56 said:

Well here's at least one idea as to performance of the demo, I've also read that you just get generic stuff not actual matrix characters.

 

https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/unreal-engine-5-the-matrix-awakens-tech-demo-runs-with-30-50fps-on-an-nvidia-rtx3090-in-4k/

 

Oh btw if you read the person who actually played it on their pc in the yt video they say there is no way to change or know for sure what resolultion it's at and says that the pixel density suggests 1440p or 2k NOT the 4k in the article title, sloppy research from dsog once again. No menus in it either.

 

 

Looks great, should be some good games upcoming in the next couple-few years or so.