tal
@tal@lemmy.today
- Comment on Public invited to pick Sycamore Gap tree artwork 20 hours ago:
My understanding is that the felling didn’t actually kill the tree. There were apparently spouts coming up from the stump.
- Comment on Asset reuse in videogames is essential, and we need to embrace it, says Assassin's Creed and Far Cry director: 'We redo too much stuff' 2 days ago:
I don’t know what the situation is for commercial games — I don’t know if there’s a marketplace like that — but I do remember someone setting up some repository for free/Creative Commons assets a while back.
goes looking
It’s not highly-structured in the sense that someone can upload, say, a model in Format X and someone else can upload a patch against that model or something like that, though. Like, it’s not quite a “GitHub of assets”.
I’m sure that there must be some sort of commercial asset marketplace out there, probably a number, though I don’t know if it spans all game asset types or if it permits easily republishing modifications.
- Comment on The RAM crisis could completely change how developers make video games 2 days ago:
You mean because indie games tend not to have high minimum memory requirements, like?
- Comment on Asset reuse in videogames is essential, and we need to embrace it, says Assassin's Creed and Far Cry director: 'We redo too much stuff' 2 days ago:
Or, to put it another way…if you aren’t spending your assets on modeling and texturing and animating a bear for the thirtieth time, you can be off modeling and texturing and animating a space squid or something new, and having both it in game as well as a bear that looks kind of like bears in other games.
- Comment on The RAM crisis could completely change how developers make video games 2 days ago:
I think that you have two factors here. GDC isn’t specific to PC gaming, and a lot of titles will see both PC and console releases.
For a game that is intended to see only a PC release, my guess is that that that might affect system requirements of the game, whereas for games that see console releases, things like “is the Playstation 6 going to be postponed” is a big deal if you were going to release a game for that hardware.
- Comment on The RAM crisis could completely change how developers make video games 2 days ago:
The title is a little more dramatic than the body — in fact, the article is mostly more of a “yeah, this is something that we’ve seen before, more-or-less” take — but it is interesting to get some actual perspectives on impact from the developer side on what the likely changes are. It does also confirm that some studios are working on reducing the memory requirements for their upcoming games.
- Submitted 2 days ago to games@lemmy.world | 38 comments
- Comment on Xbox just revealed Gaming Copilot is coming to "current-generation consoles" later this year 4 days ago:
As it currently exists on other platforms, Gaming Copilot lets you ask guide-like questions about the game you’re currently playing. Microsoft’s official site offers an example question like “Can you remind me what materials I need to craft a sword in Minecraft?”
I haven’t used consoles for a few generations, but historically, switching between a game and a Web browser on a console wasn’t all that great, and text entry wasn’t all that great. I dunno if things have improved, but it was definitely a pain in the neck to refer to a website in-game historically.
On Linux, Wayland, I swap between fullscreen desktops when playing games, and often have a Web browser with information relevant to the game on another desktop. If it helps enable some approximation of a workflow like that for console players, that doesn’t sound unreasonable.
There are other objections I’d have, like not really wanting someone logging what my voice sounds like or giving Microsoft even more data on me to profile with via my searches. But it sounds to me like the basic functionality has a point.
- Comment on Explain it like I'm 5: Why is everyone on speakerphone in public? 5 days ago:
I care less about speakerphone than I do Bluetooth headsets or regular phone speaker use near me.
The speakerphone makes more noise!
Yes, but people already have conversations between each other in public where we can hear both sides. We train ourselves to tune those out. A speakerphone is analogous to that.
What I find most disruptive about phone conversations near me versus listening to two other people talking (which I can tune out) is that the speech pattern of a phone user is to say something and then pause. The problem is that that is exactly the signal that someone has said something to you, and that your attention is required. I have a harder time ignoring those one-sided conversations than turning out a conversation where I can hear both sides, because it’s basically constantly giving my head the “you just missed something and need to respond” signal.
Now, the article does also reference someone turning a speakerphone way up, and that I can get, if you’re playing it louder than a human would speak. But that’s also kinda a special case.
- Comment on Android: sideloading blocked and open source updates withheld to twice a year 5 days ago:
I don’t presently need to use any service that requires use of a smartphone. I’ve never had a smartphone tied to a Google/Apple account. I don’t even think that I currently have any apps from the Google Store on my phone — just open-source F-Droid stuff.
It’s true that hypothetically, you could depend on a service that does require you to use an Android or iOS app to make use of it. There are services that do require that there. Lyft, for example, looks like it requires use of an app, though Uber doesn’t appear to do so. And I can’t speak as to your specific situation, but at least where I am, in the US, I’ve never needed to use an Android or iOS app to make use of some class of service.
But I will say that services will track what people use, and if people are continuing to use other interfaces that smartphone apps to make use of their services, that makes it more likely that that’s what they’ll provide.
I can’t promise that somewhere in the world, or in some country or city or specific place, someone might be required to use an Android or iOS app, or if not now, down the line, and not have an alternative. They can, at least, limit their use to that app, rather than using it more-broadly. I don’t make zero use of my smartphone now — like, when I’m driving, I’ll use the open-source OSMAnd to navigate. I sometimes check for Lemmy updates when waiting in line or similar. I don’t normally listen to music while just walking around, but if I did, I’d use a music player on the phone rather than a laptop for it. But I try to shift my usage to the laptop as much as is practical.
- Comment on Android: sideloading blocked and open source updates withheld to twice a year 5 days ago:
I don’t intend to get rid of my smartphone, but I do carry a larger device with me, and try to use the phone increasingly as just a cell modem for that device to tether to.
That may not be viable for everyone — it’s not a great solution to “I’m standing in line and want to use a small device one-handed”. And iOS/Android smartphones are heavily optimized to use very little power, and any other devices mean more power.
However, it doesn’t require shifting to a new phone ecosystem. It also makes any such future transition easier — if I have a lot of experience tied up in smartphone software, then there’s a fair bit of lock-in in, since shifting to another platform means throwing out a lot of experience in that phone software. If my phone is just a phone and a cell modem, then it’s pretty easy to switch.
And it’s got some other pleasant perks. Phone OSes tend to be relatively-limited environments. They’re fine for content consumption, like watching YouTube or something, but they’re considerably less-capable in a wide range of software areas. A smartphone has limited cooling; laptops are significantly more-able to deal with heat. Due to very limited physical space, smartphones usually have very few external connectors — you probably get only a single USB-C connector, and no on-phone headphones jack. You’re probably looking at a USB hub or adapters and rigging up pass-through power if you want anything else. Laptops normally have a variety of USB connectors, a headphones jack, maybe a wired Ethernet connector, maybe an external display jack. Laptops tend to have a larger battery, and it’s reasonable to use the laptop to power external devices like trackballs/larger trackpads, keyboards, etc.
- Comment on The price of oil is skyrocketting. People in Alexandria, Virgnia, are worried about bike lanes 6 days ago:
Glancing at that still in the thumbnail, it also looks like she doesnpt have a parking lot.
- Comment on Ubisoft could rely heavily on microtransactions and live-service Assassin's Creed games 1 week ago:
I never really got into the Assassin’s Creed series, but I did enjoy Saboteur, which I understand is somewhat similar, albeit getting a little long in the tooth these days. I don’t think that there are going to be any new games in that series, though. Users might consider taking a glance at it.
On another note…the live service elements going in also highlights one major concern I have with games purchased on platforms like Steam or on console download services or whatever. Publishers can push updates. So, normally you sell a game once, and there’s no future revenue from it. But…if you go out of business or just want to sell the rights, you can sell it to someone else, who now has the ability to push updates to the software to the computers of people who own the game, and can include, say, ads, data-harvesting, live-service stuff, microtransactions, or whatever else might generate money.
Traditionally, that’s not how games worked. A player buys a game on physical media, he can always use that game. It won’t be worse in the future.
- Comment on AI datacenters may gulp NYC's daily water supply at peak 1 week ago:
Yeah, there’s some nuclear power plant here in the US that uses sewage for cooling. It’s out in the middle of the desert, Arizona or New Mexico or something, somewhere where it’d be a pain to bring in a bunch more water.
searches
Arizona.
en.wikipedia.org/…/Palo_Verde_Nuclear_Generating_…
The Palo Verde Generating Station is a nuclear power plant located near Tonopah, Arizona[5] about 45 miles (72 km) west of downtown Phoenix. Palo Verde generates the second most electricity of any power plant in the United States per year, and is the second largest power plant by net generation as of 2021.[6] Palo Verde has the third-highest rated capacity of any U.S power plant. It is a critical asset to the Southwest, generating approximately 32 million megawatt-hours annually.
At its location in the Arizona desert, Palo Verde is the only nuclear generating facility in the world that is not located adjacent to a large body of above-ground water. The facility evaporates water from the treated sewage of several nearby municipalities to meet its cooling needs. Up to 26 billion US gallons (~100,000,000 m³) of treated water are evaporated each year.[12][13] This water represents about 25% of the annual overdraft of the Arizona Department of Water Resources Phoenix Active Management Area.[14] At the nuclear plant site, the wastewater is further treated and stored in an 85-acre (34 ha) reservoir and a 45-acre (18 ha) reservoir for use in the plant’s wet cooling towers.
- Comment on AI datacenters may gulp NYC's daily water supply at peak 1 week ago:
New York City is a port city. It has an infinite supply of salt water, which you can use for evaporative cooling, albeit with some extra complications.
- Comment on Man who wanted to be 'Welsh spokesman' for Islamic State jailed 1 week ago:
Ali told police he had first come into contact with a man called Abu Qatada, whom he believed to be an IS member fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, while playing online games such as Roblox.
As time went on, it had become increasingly difficult to determine whether other Roblox players were legitimate jihadis or law enforcement agents operating undercover.
- Comment on "Life of Black Tiger", a hilariously bad looking game that somehow managed to get a gameplay preview shared by the official PlayStation YouTube account in 2017 1 week ago:
- Comment on Plastic hinges on modern headphones 1 week ago:
The older headphones there don’t look like you can rotate the pads, yeah? I mean, it’s that rotating hinge which failed here.
I guess one could say “well, I don’t want headphones with rotating pads”, but it’s that rotation that lets the XM5 headphones fit into a fairly-flat carrying case.
I will say, though, that the XM5s probably weren’t going to last over 30 years, if for no other reason than because they use an internal battery…
- Comment on Amazon streaming movie intermittently dropping the sound 1 week ago:
It’s possible that the video had surround sound, say, 7 channels or something, and that the commercials didn’t.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 week ago:
I mean, it’s telling you to update the Address Library mod. If Fallout 4 gets an update, it may take them a bit, but they should roll it out.
www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/47327
That thing is required to know where in memory other mods need to fiddle to do stuff outside of the APIs that Bethesda provides, so it’s extremely dependent on the version of Fallout 4 — basically, it being updated means that all the other mods can rely on it knowing what the relevant addresses are and don’t have to be update itself. If Fallout 4 gets updated, you’re probably going to need to update it.
- Comment on Memory price hikes will kill off budget PCs and smartphones 2 weeks ago:
You have to have a thin client device to access the servers out on the Internet, which is…kind of what a sub-$500 low-end PC or budget smartphone would be.
- Comment on Jason Schreier says Sony is backing away from putting single player games on PC 2 weeks ago:
I also kind of think that the strongest argument for console gaming is competitive multiplayer, not single player.
The fact that the consoles are closed and locked down inherently provides resistance to cheating and such, where the open PC world tries to replicate the stuff via kernel anti-cheat stuff. The console world having (well, more-or-less) one option when it comes to hardware means that everyone playing against each other has a fairly-level playing field — same input hardware, people don’t get an edge from having fancier rendering hardware.
For single-player gaming, those console strengths become weaknesses — for single-player games, it’s preferable for the player to be able to do things like freely mod games, upgrade hardware to get fancier graphics, provide a lot of options as to what input stuff to use, etc.
If I were a console vendor and I were worried about the PC as a competing platform, I’d think that I’d try to emphasize my competitive multiplayer games, not single-player.
- Comment on We conduct affairs of state in a building that’s riddled with asbestos and mice. Can’t Britain do any better? 3 weeks ago:
The cavernous, ancient Westminster Hall, dating to 1097, where the late Queen Elizabeth II lay in state, is resolutely immune to getting any internet or mobile phone reception; highly impractical if you are arranging to meet people there who are running late and messaging you to say so.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picocell
A picocell is a small cellular base station typically covering a small area, such as in-building (offices, shopping malls, train stations, stock exchanges, etc.), or more recently in-aircraft. In cellular networks, picocells are typically used to extend coverage to indoor areas where outdoor signals do not reach well, or to add network capacity in areas with very dense phone usage, such as train stations or stadiums. Picocells provide coverage and capacity in areas difficult or expensive to reach using the more traditional macrocell approach.[1]
- Comment on Online shop's UK county selector 3 weeks ago:
I imagine that whatever shipping service the shop is using will work it out as long as they’ve got a non-ambiguous street address for delivery.
- Comment on France's Ministry of Economy disclosed that attackers used stolen official credentials to access FICOBA, the national bank account registry, exposing data on 1.2 million accounts 3 weeks ago:
The breach occurred in late January and impacted 1.2 million accounts, including IBANs, account holder names, addresses, and in some cases tax identifiers.
I’m not familiar with the specifics of the compromise, but I’d think that this would warrant having banks create new accounts for affected individuals, so that at least the IBAN is invalidated.
- Comment on Why there's no quick fix in sight for the problem of dazzling headlights 3 weeks ago:
If only there was a standard for how high the headlights are off the ground, regardless of vehicle height. Sigh, that ship apparently done sailed though…
Can’t change it for existing vehicles, but can for new ones. The existing ones will eventually age out.
- Comment on Video games are losing the "attention war" to gambling, porn, and crypto, according to industry report 3 weeks ago:
AAA studios are doubling down on micro transactions, “performative” social justice, AI slop, and live service slop. - AC ShadowsI think that one factor driving either microtransactions, freemium, free-to-play stuff that does data-mining, or “incomplete” games with expansions is resistance to a higher initial price. I mean, if a studio isn’t making their return on the initial price, they’re going to look for alternate routes. AAA games cost more than ever to make these days. If people say — and I’ve seen plenty of people on here do so — “I absolutely will not buy a game with an up-front price of more than $N”…but then they’re okay playing freemium stuff or games with microtransactions, I mean…that’s what game studios are going to do.
I’m generally okay with an expansion model, because I like the idea of giving the studio the option to expand really popular games, and it de-risks things for both the player (you just buy the base game and get expansions if you want) and the publisher (you don’t put down a ton of money to create massive amounts of stuff for a flop), though honestly, I do agree that I miss the “just pay and get a complete game” approach.
- Comment on Video games are losing the "attention war" to gambling, porn, and crypto, according to industry report 3 weeks ago:
I don’t care about the gambling (if it’s for money — I’m fine with variable-ratio schedule reward stuff in games, like having random loot drops in games). We know that that strongly appeals to humans.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforcement
Variable ratio schedule (VR) – reinforced on average every nth response, but not always on the nth response.[16]: 88 (ex. Gamblers win 1 out of every 10 spins on a slot machine, however this is an average and they could hypothetically win on any given turn)
Variable ratio: rapid, steady rate of responding; most resistant to extinction.
…and I’m amazed that people would be dicking around with cryptocurrencies as a form of recreation, but if you put out good games that have erotica that appeals to me in 'em, I’ll buy those. There are a lot of really bad video games with erotica out there.
In just the US consumption of Tiktok is up 39m hours a day compared to pre-COVID figures.
I really don’t like short-form video, but I do appreciate that a lot of people do like it.
In the 2025, American consumers spent roughly $5bn on Onlyfans.
My suspicion is that streamed pornography is likely presently more of a subsitute good for stuff like static pornographic movies than video games, though I’m willing to believe that I could be wrong.
During this 2025 period, AI apps that allowed for “role play, erotica, and art” have soared. The latest tracked statistic for installs for this software came to just under one billion worldwide.
Well, yeah. That’s new tech.
- Comment on Rural drivers to face steepest bills under UK’s mileage-based electric vehicle tax 3 weeks ago:
The UK has very substantial petrol taxes, which approximate a mileage tax. I don’t know how exactly the funding is managed in the UK, whether the money goes into general revenue or is allocated straight to road maintenance, but the ICE vehicle drivers are ultimately paying for roads one way or another.
And I’d say that that’s reasonable — I’ve no opposition to road vehicles at all, but road construction and maintenance is an externality, and you’d want to have that priced in, if you want the market to do efficient allocation of resources.
BEVs also make use of the road (and in fact, I suspect that due to the generally-greater-weight, they probably create more wear-and-tear, if anything).
- Comment on Brazilian butt lifts should be banned in UK amid ‘wild west’ industry, MPs say 3 weeks ago:
Brazilian butt lifts should be banned in the UK, MPs have said, as a report found a lack of regulation had led to a “wild west” of cosmetic procedures being carried out in garden sheds, hotel rooms and public toilets.
If people want said procedure sufficiently, I suspect that one side effect of a ban might be a number of people simply crossing national borders to get the procedure performed in another country.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_tourism
Among the most popular destinations for cosmetic surgery include: Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Greece, Iran, India, Italy, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, South Korea, Turkey and Thailand.[19][20]