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Latest Comments by slaapliedje
Realm Architect looks like an awesome modern VTT
20 May 2023 at 11:44 am UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: 14Even though I play board games with a couple friends on a routine schedule, they will never play a pen & paper RPG again. We did it long ago with a DM that we didn't enjoy, and they're stuck with that memory and won't ever try it again. So, programs like this would be a hopeless, disappointing waste of time and money for me.

/saltiness
Sad. But I could see this happening for sure. Sometimes the RPG experience is just a reason for friends to get together. Boards games work as well, but I think the advantage of RPGs is you don't have to learn new rules every time you get together (unless of course you play the same board games over and over.)

Immersion Corporation sues Valve over Steam Deck and Valve Index haptics tech
20 May 2023 at 11:42 am UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: F.UltraI think that it's a bit more complicated than that, yes patent trolls use this all the time, they have no products and no employees so that they will never ever be hit by a countersuit. But then you could be a lone inventor that just invents new interesting stuff that you then license out to industry that have the capacity to create the stuff that you yourself doesn't and such a rule would hurt such individuals.
Yeah, though licensing stuff out still kind of makes you a patent troll, right? The lone inventor should be able to pitch his idea to a company that either pays him a bunch for it, or royalties, and then that company makes such things. This is how it used to happen.

Then again it used to be that you bought software and owned that copy for your usage, these days you just rent software that becomes obsolete the moment the publishers decide they don't want it to work anymore.

Nreal Air and Steam Deck together - quite mind-blowing
19 May 2023 at 4:48 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: CZiNTrPT
Quoting: Liam Dawe
Quoting: CZiNTrPTI would love to use them while plugging in a keyboard as well for a main desktop experience to code and work.

Could you try this and update once you got the dongle situation sorted out?

Thanks
Article updated. Works without issues with their adapter.

Thanks for the update, but what I want to know specifically: if you use the adapter on Steamdeck, can you still plugin another usb device like a keyboard? Because the Steamdeck only has one usb-c port and I'm using it mainly with my bespoke keyboard which hasn't wireless
You'd need a dock, or some sort of dongle.

Immersion Corporation sues Valve over Steam Deck and Valve Index haptics tech
19 May 2023 at 4:46 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: CatKiller
Quoting: F.UltraImmersion also want the court to forbid Valve from selling more Steam Decks and Index:es.
They want Valve to be prohibited unless they pay the tithe. Some fee on the units they've sold to date is much less attractive than the fee on the (15? maybe?) millions of future units, plus the fees on Deck 2/Index 2/Controller 2 in the future. They want to just kick back and collect rent; the threat of an injunction is the stick to make everyone get a licence.
This is where I'm a firm believer that the patent system needs to be changed so that if you are not making a physical product based upon a patent you have filed away, then you lose claims to that patent and it becomes public domain. It's that way for Trademarks, basically.

Realm Architect looks like an awesome modern VTT
18 May 2023 at 7:06 pm UTC

Quoting: DrMcCoyYeah, not for me. Looks far too "closed off" and limited to me. Seems to be very keyed to D&D only, everything integrated with no way to mess with any of it.

I'm very happy with Foundry VTT, because I can actually mess with it. I can write JavaScript macros that operate on the actual data structures of the entites. I can modify the databases and how it'll behave then is a known quality. I can export thing into JSON, change thing within and then import it again.

And I can host Foundry VTT, multiple instances, on my own little rented server. I don't have to host the GM client on my own home machine.
Honestly, I think FoundryVTT picked all the right elements to get people to use it. Server based, 50 dollar flat license, where publishers can either sell their content, or tHe systems are free. And it runs in a browser.

Edit: side note, this morning I did web benchmarks for some webgl info for FoundryVTT... somehow Edge installed through Flatpak was 100 points higher than Chromium and Konqueror. Firefox was about 280 less than Edge.

FX Technology tease their upgraded screen for Steam Deck
18 May 2023 at 7:01 pm UTC Likes: 3

Quoting: elmapuli rather have 800p OLED instead
Thos was my thought. OLED and maybe higher refresh potential.

Immersion Corporation sues Valve over Steam Deck and Valve Index haptics tech
18 May 2023 at 4:01 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: elmapulthos *** holes are still implying you cant use GFN on a steam deck.
Ha, Geforce Now even works on the Atari VCS...

Realm Architect looks like an awesome modern VTT
18 May 2023 at 3:34 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: crabelI am currently not playing at all, but I started with AD&D, went to 3.5 then and disliked 4th Edition immensely. In the mean time I played MERS,Rolemaster, Vampires, Deadlands and Hell on Earth, Shadowrun, ...

I really liked a little German system called ERPS (classless, with some houserules) and Savage Worlds. I found that I prefer mostly classless systems. But a few years ago my longtime group broke up, family, work, ... and I currently don't have the time/energy to start again.

Anyway, I guess, in case I start playing again, it will be online, so I am generally interested in stuff like this. And if there are more competing tools, that's fantastic. More options and more ideas and approaches. So, I hope, this will work out.
The thing that amuses me lately is people standing behind Alignment. They mostly dropped it in Pathfinder 2e (with it only really being required by divine characters, which makes sense with the lore, and trying to get a deity to give you special powers.) But having played GURPS for a long time, that has no class restrictions, no levels and no alignment, but has advantages and disadvantages and quirks that are a literal 'this is how you play your character, and you get points for following how you created your character' guide, it's just weird to me that people will defend using alignment that tries to put you in a 9 grid box of 'this is how you should act'.

It made sense when it was applied to factions within the universe, but just doesn't work in any other setting. Class restrictions are kind of the same for me. Like why can't you have a wizard who is good with a sword? Gandalf wasn't half bad with a blade, and most fantasy worlds are at least 80% based on Tolkien's writings. Pathfinder 2e is doing a 'remaster' after all of the OGL nonsense that Wizards of the Coast attempted to do, so that'll be interesting, but at least they're ditching Alignment finally.

Maybe we should get some of us together and pick a game to play and try out Linux based VTTs (I need a reason that I spent so much silly money on Fantasy Grounds).

Valve tries to improve Big Picture Mode on Linux for NVIDIA GPUs
18 May 2023 at 3:14 pm UTC Likes: 2

I wonder if they should work on creating a session file for big picture mode, so that you can select it on login from gdm/sddm/lightdm. I think that'd be somewhat useful, especially for setting up your own gaming PC in the living room.

Also, on my Debian Sid setup, I don't think I've had any of these issues (3080 GPU). I'll have to play with big picture mode some more though to say.

Immersion Corporation sues Valve over Steam Deck and Valve Index haptics tech
17 May 2023 at 5:40 pm UTC Likes: 4

Quoting: LacSlyer
Quoting: MayeulCIDK. Copyright ils definitely way too long, and it's absurd that it outlasts patents.

Patents on the other hand, are quite interesting, though they have been subverted with time (as with anything when lawyers get involved). They offer companies to publish their trade secrets against time-limited exclusivity. Sounds like a good deal, as it avoids "well, that is something only company X knew how to do, but they went belly up 50 years ago" situations. Also, you need to pay (more and more with time) to extend them, up to 20 years.

I'm looking into patenting an electronics circuit myself (PhD results), which is quite innovative. If the patent sale or licensing could give me a few funds to pursue more research, I'd be happy with that. In this situation, I see the patent system as "outsourcing R&D".

I'm a bit sad that you need a lawyer to draft them up though, that makes patents expensive to do for individuals like me (yeah, patenting through my lab is... complicated, and I'm not employed anymore anyway).
Also, most companies take the approach of "describing as little as you can", which is against the spirit.

And then there's patent trolls and patents of little substance. You're not supposed to be able to patent an idea, and I believe patents to last way too long for software, where time-to-market is much, much shorter than, say, the 5-10 years it generally takes in electronics or other industrial domains (not even counting the time to obtain funding if you are starting a product from scratch as a startup).

I can't really judge for this situation, maybe their claims are legitimate? I'd have to read the

Judging from their Wikipedia page I'd wager they're patent trolls. They have tens of millions in revenue while having only 26 people employed and owning tens of thousands of patents by buying up companies, particularly in the medical field. They actually worked with Microsoft in the late 90s but the sued them in 2002... Here's the kicker. They sued based on a patent they acquired from another company in 98.

This is 100% a patent trolling company.
Immersion used to be THE company people would license their tech/API out from for forefeedback joysticks. Have you seen any forcefeedback joysticks being made in a long time? The only ones still made are the wheels, flight sticks generally don't have it anymore (with some very few and very expensive exceptions). It's solely because of these ass clowns either requiring a patent deal or suing those who don't. Not sure where the Haptics come into play, but I bet they 'think' they have rights to everything that gives any sort of feedback, like vibration motors in game pads...

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