Quetzalcutlass

@Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH gets a smaller download on Steam Deck⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  There’s an old internet law about computer programs endlessly expanding to gobble up every resource as computers improve. Nowhere is it more obvious than in gaming. Textures you’ll never use, translations included in the default download for no good reason, the same files duplicated many times over because it gives a slight improvement to load times on consoles, delta patches using up an entire CPU core and taking longer than simply redownloading the whole game, ten minutes spent compiling thousands of bespoke shaders on startup…

  Ugh, shader compilation is the worst since it can ruin an entire planned gaming session. As annoying and performance-crippling as it is in its early stages, I can’t wait for ray tracing to become the default. Modern computer graphics are built on hacks upon hacks upon hacks. Ray tracing, by virtue of acting how light actually acts, cuts the Gordian Knot and vastly simplifies things. Hopefully it’ll help do away with the multitude of shaders used to imitate perfect lighting through imperfect means and we can just simply run our games again.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra's release may fall in Christmas 2025, according to the Black Panther⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I was ambivalent until the article mentioned Amy Hennig. There’s a chance this might actually be good!

  I’m still salty about that canceled Star Wars heist game she worked on.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Former Fable dev behind hit free Ultima-style RPG adds 100-floor megadungeon for a fiver⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Someone should do a roundup of what all the old Bullfrog/Lionhead devs are up to these days.

  I know a bunch of them teamed up to make Kynseed, an okay attempt to make a game that delivered on Fable’s promise of the world growing up/around your character, and which had the misfortune to compete against the sudden resurgence of life/farming sims due to Stardew Valley’s then-recent success.

  And Peter Molyneux is… around, doing Peter Molyneux things (as he is wont to do).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH gets a smaller download on Steam Deck⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I hope the Steam Deck-specific content depot gets used more often.

  I also wonder if the Steam CLI can download from it on other platforms. I’m running a 4060, so being able to trim out all the texture boat I can’t even run would be a godsend.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Sims 4's Businesses & Hobbies expansion pack will let open your own business and tattoo your Sims⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Too little, too…

  and it lets Sims open their own tattoo parlour, pottery studio or - if you have the right complementary expansion - a cat café.

  Fuck.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Dwarf Fortress has some exciting plans for the future⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Are certain features still introduced when you hit population milestones? I haven’t played since 40d, which was… a while ago, but I liked playing without worrying about nobles or the greater economy or any of the other features that complicated the game even more. Just a small band of dwarves living their brief, hellish dwarfy lives.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sun Haven is for Stardew Valley fans that want more and it now has controller support⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  At least they all appear to be cosmetics like pet skins, furniture, and outfits. I didn’t see any gameplay locked behind a paywall.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sun Haven is for Stardew Valley fans that want more and it now has controller support⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve had Sun Haven in my library for a while, but I’ve been holding off on playing it due to reviews calling out bugs at launch. Is it in good shape now that it’s had a few major updates? And how does it compare to the other juggernauts in the genre (old Harvest Moon, Rune Factory, and Stardew Valley)?

  Also, it looks like the game is being review-bombed on Steam right now. Is that just due to the deluge of DLC with the latest update, or is there something bigger wrong with the game?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨FCC explicitly prohibits fast lanes, closing possible net neutrality loophole⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  And traffic sniffing to detect hotspots/tethering, which often have limits of a few gigabytes even on “unlimited” plans, after which they charge you extra even though it costs them the same as any other traffic.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Xbox Is Shutting Down Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, And More⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Because their plan is to go all-in on Bethesda and “high-impact” titles. They don’t care if a game is good or beloved by fans if it doesn’t sell millions of copies at AAA prices.

  Starfield made a fortune based purely on Bethesda hype, despite being meh. The next Fallout or Elder Scrolls will do even better regardless of quality, so that’s where their investment goes.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨FCC scraps old speed benchmark, says broadband should be at least 100Mbps⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  For Google Fiber to have been successful, Google would have had to overturn countless local laws (paid for by the ISPs) that granted the one who laid down the lines a monopoly on their use. So even if Google had won it would have been a net win for customers, as it would have paved the way for local ISPs to compete with the national ones.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨FCC scraps old speed benchmark, says broadband should be at least 100Mbps⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Don’t want to dig, and throw roadblocks in the way to prevent anyone else from doing it (just ask Google Fiber).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Whats your favorite Main Menu music?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Arcanum’s main theme gets my vote.

  It’s weird. It’s terrible as music - just random strings with almost no recognizable tune outside of the first few seconds - but it sets a mood better than any other. It’s distilled melancholy in music form.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What moment from a video game made you cry?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  !When the last guy to attack you gets smacked down by his own men.!<

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Warframe Finally Getting Cross-Platform Save and Android Closed Beta Registration Available Now⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Most space used by games is taken up by textures and audio. Textures can be downsampled (every time you halve texture resolution you quarter the file size) and audio can be resampled at a lower bitrate without the quality drop being too noticeable on tiny phone screens/speakers.