sp3ctr4l
@sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- Comment on "I’m Canceling My Subscription": Xbox Players Call to "Boycott" Game Pass "Hard" Over 50% Price Increase As Microsoft’s Website Crashes from Mass Cancellations 11 hours ago:
So, I actually used to work for MSFT a decade ago.
The uh… Xbox people and the corpo business people were, once upon a time, wildly different kinds of people, literally problematic 90s pc gamer dude bros vs ex IBM stodgy walrus people.
Basically, the walrus people won, made all the big boy business decisions, and things rather rapidly went to shit in terms of the business decisions being just insanely corpo.
Like uh, at the time Xbox Live came out… well there was this whole other paradigm for online video gaming set by Valve, but uh… lets just say you shouldn’t talk about Gabe Newell while standing on or sitting in a Microsoft campus.
I didn’t really have that important of a role, but lets just say I knew that half of Xbox 360s were coding 3RR or faulty in some way that necessitated a complete replacement (they’d just swap your hardrive into a new model and claim they refurbed it LOL) … yeah I knew that about a decade before that became wider public knowledge.
But anyway, here we are about 20 years later, Valve is having MSFT’s cake, eating it too, and the remaining husks on the gaming side of MSFT absolutely know they are fucking cooked, and are fully in the ‘suck all the money outta this shit while we still can’ phase, before the entire concept of MSFT gaming basically transitions to more or less a legacy system.
They’re rapidly headed toward just being a B2B oriented company, maybe they’ll use their hoard of IPs to effectively liscense out game dev, but when ‘everything is an Xbox’, fucking nothing is and they know that.
Game server uptime isn’t as profit able as business server uptime, either pump those numbers up or your branch of MSFT goes the way of the Windows Phone and Zune.
- Comment on "I’m Canceling My Subscription": Xbox Players Call to "Boycott" Game Pass "Hard" Over 50% Price Increase As Microsoft’s Website Crashes from Mass Cancellations 12 hours ago:
Counterpoint:
Do you remember Xbox Live?
- Comment on Data Shows That AI Use Is Now Declining at Large Companies 3 days ago:
The use case for AI is pumping up the stock market.
- Comment on Steam Deck LCD 256GB on sale for 20% off ($400 -> $320) 1 week ago:
Ah… damm.
Not… from not Amazon, no.
But maybe you can find this somewhere else?
Behold… I call this thing… the DockStand.
www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0BRXZDWDV?psc=1
Somehow, a kickstand, and a sort of bare bones dock, at the same time.
Currently under $25.
It has worked flawlessly for me.
It is …yeah, barebones, but quite functional.
Gives you an HDMI port, 2 usb A 3 ports, and an additional microsd slot, which only works when the power is run through the dockstand, and also … does not have a spring release mechanism, it is literally just a slot, and the properly seated card just sticks out a little bit.
Janky? Yes.
But also, cheap, and functional.
Particularly if you are like me and spend a lot of Deck time basically just using it as a big phone to watch videos on… the kick stand is good for that lol.
Like, you can find just kickstands alone, with no dock like capabilities… for about the same price.
I ended up pairing this with i think a jsaux replacement power adapter that also came with a 90 degree joint adapter mabob for the usb c power source… I had been using the power adapter that came with the deck so much that i managed to start destroying the cable.
Also, at least with my… I guess average sized hands for a dude? … I have never had a problem with the DockStand getting in the way of my hands and the controls while playing.
- Comment on Steam Deck LCD 256GB on sale for 20% off ($400 -> $320) 1 week ago:
Yep, thats definitely a whole very neat thing too hehe!
- Comment on Steam Deck LCD 256GB on sale for 20% off ($400 -> $320) 1 week ago:
Ahhhhhh i need to my ham sandwich or something!
jfc jojo is a fucking fever dream
- Comment on Steam Deck LCD 256GB on sale for 20% off ($400 -> $320) 1 week ago:
Well thats what I get for being in like 5 simultaneous discussions on different parts of lemmy, lol.
- Comment on Steam Deck LCD 256GB on sale for 20% off ($400 -> $320) 1 week ago:
Yes!
That is all correct or likely correct as far as I can tell, I was not trying to dispute you, just trying to add in other relevant details/context.
- Comment on Steam Deck LCD 256GB on sale for 20% off ($400 -> $320) 1 week ago:
Correct, no notes.
- Comment on Steam Deck LCD 256GB on sale for 20% off ($400 -> $320) 1 week ago:
Oh no need to apologize, I too very much prefer the OLED for my own most common use cases…
… but yeah, just wanted to point out that if you maybe want a pretty rock solid mobile gaming device ma bob that is also a laptop when you plug K+M into it, maybe also your existing desktop mon if you have one…
$320 bucks is a fucking steal, if you are maybe, price concscious, in these uh, economic collapse times, yeah, dont go for the premium model, black out your windows and play under the bedsheet like the good ole days rofl!
- Comment on Steam Deck LCD 256GB on sale for 20% off ($400 -> $320) 1 week ago:
I’ve managed to get BotW working at basically just a bit worse than the performance level of a Switch 1.
Pretty much everything else is gucci, given that you run some games for a bit to allow a shader cache to build up.
- Comment on Steam Deck LCD 256GB on sale for 20% off ($400 -> $320) 1 week ago:
Sorry, but:
It’s me,
DioRailcar!Yep, yep, I’m never gonna get that baseline level of internet brain poisoning down to zero, am I. -sigh-
- Comment on Steam Deck LCD 256GB on sale for 20% off ($400 -> $320) 1 week ago:
My guess would be that they are literally just doing a clearance sale to free up some warehouse space somewhere.
- Comment on Steam Deck LCD 256GB on sale for 20% off ($400 -> $320) 1 week ago:
I mean, I am an OLED Deck owner, and at this price point, if I didn’t already have my Deck?
This is a fucking steal at this price, compare it to non OLED laptops of similar specs/capabilities, then just tack on the price of like a portable membrane keyboard or something.
- Comment on Steam Deck LCD 256GB on sale for 20% off ($400 -> $320) 1 week ago:
It has slightly different internal and external form factors in … basically only esoteric ways that only come into play if you are doing certain kinds of physical mods or upgrades to it.
But yeah, the actual internal performance specs are the same, same chip, same shared RAM amount…
I think maybe the battery might have gotten a slight upgrade, either that or the power delivery / management may have gotten a slight upgrade / tweak, but I am not 100% sure about that.
- Comment on Steam Deck LCD 256GB on sale for 20% off ($400 -> $320) 1 week ago:
Lol, better deal than a Switch 2 if you like playing more than just Nintendo games!
(Also you can play almost every single Nintendo game in existence on it)
- Comment on Steam Deck plugin adds AMD FSR4 support to improve visuals 2 weeks ago:
When I went to install this latest version of DeckyFrameGen, it only went up to 11, in DeckyLoader.
The version that has the experimental FSR4 stuff is v11.5, could only be installed manually, via first downloading the zip from DeckyFrameGen’s github.
… Maybe this has changed in the last 12 ish hours?
- Comment on Steam Deck plugin adds AMD FSR4 support to improve visuals 2 weeks ago:
Ok, I misunderstood.
So, yes, if you already have Decky installed, then yes, you can install the plugin via its GUI.
But I am pretty sure you cannot install Decky, DeckyLoader… from game mode.
Thats what I was trying to say.
Also… if you are installing a plugin from a file, into Decky… you would have had to already download that file… and I am pretty sure, you’d have to that in desktop mode.
Anyway… yeah Decky isn’t included in a … holistic instruction set… probably because its generally assumed that if you’ve had a Deck for a while, you’ve already Decky installed for a while.
And because you…can… just link to the other instructions for Decky Loader itself.
Maybe they could change with an update? And then your holistic instructions would also need to be updated.
Also the install process for Decky can be different depending on what OS your Deck is running.
SteamOS? Bazzite? Nobara’s Deck edition?
I’m sure there are more than that.
… Are you really just annoyed that there is not one single set of instructions for you to follow?
- Comment on Steam Deck plugin adds AMD FSR4 support to improve visuals 2 weeks ago:
Because there is no way to install Decky from the game view itself.
Basically, think of it as a mod, or maybe a mod manager, but for the game view itself.
… Can you install a mod for Skyrim… from within Skyrim?
Probably not lol.
Yeah, you gotta go tinker with things in the background for the foreground to get a bunch of nifty new neat stuff.
- Comment on Steam Deck plugin adds AMD FSR4 support to improve visuals 2 weeks ago:
=D
- Comment on Steam Deck plugin adds AMD FSR4 support to improve visuals 2 weeks ago:
Check the optiscaler github for a more detailed list of what games they have working with what upscalers.
- Comment on Steam Deck plugin adds AMD FSR4 support to improve visuals 2 weeks ago:
FSR is basically part of a software driver for a GPU.
FSR, XESS, DLSS (AMD, Intel, Nvidia) are all their software solutions for taking a lower resolution rendering of a video game, and upscaling it to a higher resolution.
They are all different in how exactly they do this, they all have different visual quirks, oddities, quality.
They are also all designed to work with their own hardware, primarily.
These realtime frame upscaling algos also usually come with an accompanying Frame Generator… which basically makes a ‘fake frame’ in between ‘real frame’ renders.
This can make your fps go up, but it can also introduce… weird kinds of input latency, other visual oddities, which will tend to be much more noticable and much worse for fast paced, competetive games, but is usually not a problem for slower paced, less intense games.
…
What Decky FrameGen does is… short version is that it takes a bunch of that kind of software and essentially hacks it into some games.
Each game is different, each kind of frame upscaler / frame generator is different.
Technically, Decky FrameGen is more or less just a front end to make this work easily on a Steam Deck interface.
Technically, its really pulling from Optiscaler, which is a collection of basically… video game / video driver modders / hackers.
They are writing and tweaking code so that things that should not officially work… do.
…
So… maybe think of this as a kind of very, very complicated mod for a video game… and your hardware.
lol
Also, when I say ‘hackers’ I mean that in the sense of … making things that shouldn’t work, work, not in the sense of bad guy bad person who is intentionally fucking up your shit in one or another.
…
As to how to use a frame upscaler?
The resolution you set for the game is the ‘target’ resolution. Say 1920 x 1080.
What the upscaler does, is render a frame at… 90%, 80% of that resolution, and then ‘upscales’ it to that full 100% resolution.
When you see modes like ‘Quality’ ‘Balanced’ ‘Performance’ ‘Ultra Perfomance’… basically, you’re going steadily downward to a smaller percentage of resolution that is actually rendered, and then upscaled.
So, a 100% … would basically just be equivalent to… not using an upscaler at all.
This all exists so that you can get more FPS than you otherwise could, for what is, in theory, supposed to be only a small degredation in visual quality.
The problem is that the degredation often ends up being fairly drastic, and the other problem is that… a whole lot of game devs just get or already sloppy, and now their answer to ‘why does this game run/look like garbage’ is ‘buy a graphics card that supports the upscaling tech we designed it for.’
…
Now to try to wrap that all around:
If you can hack in support for games and older hardware to run the upscalers, instead… well now, you may not need to actually buy the graphics card, because now, it might kinda work on what you already have.
Apologies for how long this explanation is, but this shit is just actually really complicated.
- Comment on Steam Deck plugin adds AMD FSR4 support to improve visuals 2 weeks ago:
For what its worth, I don’t think its a ‘whoops’ that FSR 4 works on older GPUs.
AMD has stated multiple times that they would/are pursuing getting FSR4 working on older GPUs… its just that they genuinely do not know if they could get it to work, in a reliable, ‘safe’, and useful way.
Better to underpromise and overdeliver, than vice versa.
I have no idea why the writer is describing the full source code for AMD’s SDK for FSR… being open source… I don’t know why they are describing this as an accident.
Am I missing something?
Their own older article links to the github page.
If it was an accident… they would have taken down the github page.
Again… am I missing something?
- Comment on [Help] Steam Deck OLED | Windows 10 Dual Boot | How to Enable Secure Boot 2 weeks ago:
mon dieu, it works!
Thank you, lol.
- Comment on Gaming handheld prices are out of control, except for the Steam Deck 4 weeks ago:
… and then they enshittify your product.
They win either way, unless you fundamentally change the system itself.
- Comment on No Man's Sky Voyagers free update released with modular Corvette ships you build yourself 5 weeks ago:
Keep making one same game more gooder.
New people keep buying it.
They are literally in it for the love of their/the game… not making the highest possible amount of money for shareholders.
They are indie, independent, self-published.
Meaning, they did not sign a proverbial deal with the devil for funding.
- Comment on Gaming handheld prices are out of control, except for the Steam Deck 5 weeks ago:
Because public companies get a huge infusion of cash from their IPO.
This makes them a much bigger fish in the pond.
Big fish eats the little fish.
Grow or die.
The kind of core problem with a market based economy is that markets almost always tend toward consolidation over time… and you have to have a well maintained set of regulators and laws to keep up with industries to keep this in check.
But those corps tend to have so much money and influence that they just buy the government via outright bribes/corruption and PR campaigns to dupe the masses into supporting politicians and policies that will be corpo friendly.
In short… most companies actually are private. 9/10 new business fail in a year or two, largely because they cant compete in a world dominated by a small number of very well known, very big fish.
- Comment on Gaming handheld prices are out of control, except for the Steam Deck 5 weeks ago:
Ironically, leveraging this kind of tactic is what allowed Google, Amazon and Apple and Microsoft to become as huge as they did, as fast as they did.
Got a whole bunch of lines of business that can functionally subsidize other ventures, so they can make a push for market share.
But of course this doesn’t take too long to turn your whole economy into oligopoly, and thus your society into oligarchy… at best.
- Comment on Gaming handheld prices are out of control, except for the Steam Deck 5 weeks ago:
Yep, this is a good explanation of more of the nitty gritty of it in more granular detail!
When you can afford to eat some of the cost… or… you don’t have shareholders telling you not to do that… well, then you get good ole ‘how capitalism is supposed to work! ™’.
Problem of course being that uh, you can just chase the luxury market for greater profit margins, stop making shit for the poors… this can work well in the short/medium term, but in the long run… if everyone does that…
… then you destroy your customer base, and the entire economy, and probably yourself.
And that’s not even getting into how companies have their own version of ‘keeping up with the joneses’… its called going into massive debt to fund an expansion because your competitor just did that… and then going into more debt to finance a stock buyback… but hey nbd, companies can fail and go bankrupt, no problem, everyone other than those helming the ship get fucked, they get golden parachutes.
Sure would be neat if we maybe had some other kind of system idk
- Comment on Gaming handheld prices are out of control, except for the Steam Deck 5 weeks ago:
Two things massively help Valve:
Steam is a goddamned money printing machine, they are the most profitable software company per capita, per employee… possibly bar none.
Also… they’re not publically traded.
They do not have investors constantly forcing maximization of short term profits at the cost of literally everything else.
… So they can afford to … not price gauge everyone.