Category Archives: Gaming

Gaming on a variety on consoles, platforms, and services

Gaming, Technology

First Week with the Rokid Max AR Glasses

NOTES ON ROKID MAX AR GLASSES:

1. While the glasses appear to be darkly tinted, your external vision is still quite clear and just fine when wearing the glasses. The transparency is so great that it’s actually distracting to see both the environment and the display if you don’t have the brightness higher than the ambient/environmental lighting.

2. The USB cable that connects the AR glasses to your device appears to be proprietary. None of my USB 3.1, 3.2, or 4.0 cables will work with it, but it might be due to cable length. Rokid tells us that the power consumption of the glasses means the cable cannot have too much resistance. I would think USB 4.0 (240W) cables ought to work with it, but they don’t. I’m awaiting an update and a couple more cables from Rokid this week or next.

3. The audio is very decent, supports Dolby Atmos, but still doesn’t compare to dedicated earbuds or earphones. I recommend a good pair of ear buds if you want high-fidelity sound with Dolby Atmos or THX certification.

4. The brightness is superb. At 600 nits, full brightness is enough to overpower bright ambient lighting. Keep it set between 3-4 to match ambient brightness or turn it up to 6 to have a bright display that stands out against the environment.

5. You’ll quickly learn to look “past the display” when looking through the glasses to talk to others or interact with your environment, refocuses your eyes on the display when watching, reading, or gaming. Sometimes the environment can be distracting, but you can correct for that by turning the brightness up or putting the dark shades over the translucent lenses.

6. 120Hz display, color gamut, brightness, dynamic range, and performance are all outstanding. Gaming, watching movies, surfing the web, reading, and coding has been so much fun these past few days.

 

COMMENTS

Mike Bargeron
I have monocular vision (little to no vision in my left eye), I wonder if they’d work on me.

Ken Foreman
Mike – With my prescription and fairly large difference in prescription strength between my eyes, I was able to use the diopter dials above each lens to adjust it, so it matches my prescription.
I’m not sure how much you can adjust it by, whether you can adjust the diopter on the left eye to such an extent that you’d get some good use from it or whether you’d need to primarily rely upon your right eye.
For reading and coding, I found I really needed to adjust the diopters for my vision so that it didn’t look blurry, out-of-focus, or double-vision. While wearing it, I slowly adjusted each dial, periodically closing one eye and then the other, and then seeing how the image looked through the eye alone, and then both eyes together. Once finely tuned, it was quite nice and very useable.
Gaming, Slice-of-Life, Social Commentary/Observation, Social Media

Modern Social Phenomena? NEET vs Hikikomori

“Recovery of an MMO Junkie”, Morioka Moriko, NEET

Unlike the hikikomori, a NEET can enjoy a social life, like going out often and visiting their friends. Though in certain cases, a NEET can also be considered a hikikomori.

A hikikomori is a social recluse–someone who doesn’t willingly venture outside the comfort of their home.

NEET, an acronym for “Not in Education, Employment, or Training”, refers to a person who is unemployed and not receiving an education or vocational training.

NIH argues this is a cultural phenomenon specific to Japan:

I’d disagree. I think social withdrawal and interaction solely through gaming or the internet is also common in the United States and Europe as well as Asia.

From the Article:

A form of severe social withdrawal, called hikikomori, has been frequently described in Japan and is characterized by adolescents and young adults who become recluses in their parents’ homes, unable to work or go to school for months or years. The aim of this study was to review the evidence for hikikomori as a new psychiatric disorder. Electronic and manual literatures searches were used to gather information on social withdrawal and hikikomori, including studies examining case definitions, epidemiology, and diagnosis. A number of recent empiric studies have emerged from Japan. The majority of such cases of hikikomori are classifiable as a variety of existing DSM-IV-TR (or ICD-10) psychiatric disorders. However, a notable subset of cases with substantial psychopathology do not meet criteria for any existing psychiatric disorder. We suggest hikikomori may be considered a culture-bound syndrome and merits further international research into whether it meets accepted criteria as a new psychiatric disorder. Research diagnostic criteria for the condition are proposed.

I need to continue watching “Uncle from Another World” (Netflix), and add “Recovery of an MMO Junkie” to our Crunchyroll queue.

 

Gaming, Valve SteamDeck

Work-in-Progress: Discord Rich Presence on the Steam Deck

I’ve been updating and working on Python scripts under SteamOS on the SteamDeck.

I got Rich Presence working under Discord using JustTemmie’s awesome https://github.com/JustTemmie/steam-presence-on-discord.

SteamOS is an Arch Linux variant.  You can install Arch packages using pacman and treat it as you would any Linux device.

It attempts to do Game ID lookups using steamGridDB, but I have it defaulting to “a game on Steam Deck” when the lookup fails.

HOW-TO: Install Arch packages on your Steam Deck

You’ll need to switch to Desktop Mode to access the GUI and Terminal:

  • If you haven’t already, use passwd to create a password for the deck user.

  • Disable read-only mode: sudo btrfs property set -ts / ro false

  • Initialize the pacman keyring: sudo pacman-key --init

  • Populate the pacman keyring with the default Arch Linux keys: sudo pacman-key --populate archlinux

  • Try installing a package: sudo pacman -S vi

NOTE:
Any packages you install will be overwritten by the next Steam Deck update.  You can maintain persistence by saving your content under /run/media/mmcblk0p1/ (your microSD card).

For example, I keep my Discord Rich Presence client, RetroArch/EmuStation, and all my content under /run/media/mmcblk0p1/Emulation and /run/media/mmcblk0p1/home/deck so that neither are overwritten or lost during SteamOS updates.

config.json

PLAYING A GAME showing game data from the Steam Deck
{
    "STEAM_API_KEY": "YOUR_STEAM_API_KEY", # You can register at https://steamcommunity.com/dev/apikey
    "USER_ID": "YOUR_USER_ID", # You can get the ID from the URL ID returned by https://steamdb.info/calculator/</code>

    "DISCORD_APPLICATION_ID": "1014501243164577802",

    "COVER_ART": {
        "ENABLED": true,
        "STEAM_GRID_API_KEY": "8a65c99870dc888583e06c3e0f377560"
    },

    "CUSTOM_GAME_OVERWRITE": {
        "ENABLED": false,
        "NAME": "a game on Steam Deck"
    },

    "CUSTOM_STATUS_STATE": {
        "ENABLED": false,
        "STATUS": "using Discord on Steam Deck"
    },

    "CUSTOM_ICON": {
        "ENABLED": false,
        "URL": "https://tayledras.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/steamdeck-logo.png",
        "TEXT": "Discord on Steam Deck"
    }
}

 

Gaming, Valve SteamDeck

Steam Deck Games Wishlist for 25-Aug-2022

Based on a handful of trusted reviews and videos, this is my current wishlist of games verified on the Steam Deck that I want to play…

(NOTE: I’ve already played and completed Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA, Stray, and Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, which all played beautifully on the Steam Deck!)

JRPGs

Tactical Turn-Based

Open-World

Simulation

FPS/Action

References

Gaming, Technology, Valve SteamDeck

Remote Management and Copying on the Steam Deck

Since SteamOS on the Steam Deck is an Arch Linux variant, you can set up sshd and remotely log into your SteamDeck to copy games, apps, data, gamesaves, and screenshots.

Gaming, HOW-TO, Technology, Valve SteamDeck

Upgrading the Valve Steam Deck from 1TB to 2TB

Upgrading the Valve Steam from 1TB (2x512GB) to 2TB (2x1TB)

I upgraded my Valve Steam Deck from 1TB (2x512GB) to 2TB (2x1TB) using a 1TB Samsung NVMe 4 M.2 SSD and a 1TB Sandisk Extreme Pro microSDXC.

The Steam Deck uses ext4 as its filesystem, which you can mount under Linux natively, or mount under Windows and MacOS using the proper drivers or kernel extension.  While there’s multiple solutions like MacFuse for the Mac, I prefer Paragon Software’s LinuxFS for Windows and extFS for MacOS to provide ext4 filesystem support under Windows and MacOS respectively.

If you’re running Apple Silicon (M1 or M2) rather than Intel on your Mac, you’ll need to boot into Recovery Mode by rebooting your Mac, press and hold the fingerprint scanner / power button until it displays the “Loading Startup Options” screen…

  1. Press and hold the power button until you see “Loading Startup Options”
  2. Click Options.
  3. Click Continue.
  4. In the menu bar at the top, Select Utilities > Startup Security Utility.
  5. Select the startup disk.
  6. Click Security Policy.
  7. Select Reduced Security.
  8. Reboot and continue with Paragon Software’s extFS for MacOS installation.

Once you can mount ext4 filesystems on the Mac, you can use your Mac to either `dd` or copy (using Finder) your steamapps and gamesaves from the old storage devices to the new (SSD or microSDXC).

Since the SteamOS 3.x (Holo) is effectively Arch Linux, you can also switch to Desktop Mode, enabled sshd and either cp or scp files to/from your Steam Deck using your local secure shell or Terminal.  This is very useful for absolutely everything, allowing remote management and copying to/from your Steam Deck.

extFS for Mac by Paragon Software

 

Copying from the old Steam Deck storage to the new
As an Aside, Gaming, Ham Radio, Social Media

Updating my Banner Pictures (Social Media)

1500×500 pixels at 72ppi is the current “optimal size” for banner pictures in Facebook, Twitter, and Mastodon, so these are the current three pictures I’m rotating between for:

The intent is capturing my current interests in the banner picture, trying to include our Shelties, my amateur radio operations, and my love of gaming.

K3KBF (Loudoun County, Virginia, US)
K3KBF (Loudoun County, Virginia, US)
Gaming on the Valve Steam Deck
3D Printing, Dremel 3D45, Gaming

First Couple Weeks with the Valve Steam Deck

3D printed an insert tray using Acrylic Green PETG using the Dremel Digilab 3D45. It carries the charger, cable, and memories for our Steam Deck.  It fits perfectly into the side pocket of the carrying case.

Arch Linux and SteamOS 3.0 (Holo) on the Valve Steam Deck

Family, Gaming, Technology

Comparing Handheld Gaming Consoles (Switch, Steam Deck)

Comparing Heldheld Gaming “Consoles”


COMPARING HANDHELD GAMING “CONSOLES”
1) 1TB Anbernic RG552 (2x512GB, Android 11, RetroArch)
2) 512GB Nintendo Switch OLED (1x512GB, Nintendo Switch)
3) 2TB OneXPlayer 1S (2TB NVMe 4 SSD, Windows 11, SteamOS)
4) 1TB Valve Steam Deck (2x512GB, SteamOS)

They’re all excellent handhelds, and have their niches:

The Nintendo Switch OLED is definitely has most color gamut, depth, and brightness with its HDR OLED screen.

The OneXPlayer 1S has the highest resolution and best general performance as a handheld Windows gaming PC.

The Valve Steam Deck has a lower resolution screen (similar to the Switch), but a fast AMD processor and dedicated AMD RDNA 2 GPU, so it tears through graphics, textures, and processing on the 1280×800 screen. It’s really the “best of all worlds” for handheld/portable gaming since it runs most of the Steam game library at 40-60fps with medium→ultra graphics (depending on the game).

Sachiko, the Sheltie Gamer
Gaming, Our Shetland Sheepdogs, Valve SteamDeck

Three Generations of Gamers (and Handheld Game Consoles!)

❝ I am a gamer, not because I don’t have a life, but because I choose to have many. ❞

Three generations of gaming consoles:
• Kiyomi with the Sony PlayStation Vita (PSvita)
• Toshirō with the Nintendo Switch OLED
• Sachiko with the Valve Steam Deck

Family, Gaming, Home/Life

Day One with the Arcade1Up Namco Legacy Edition (Arcade Game Cabinet)

OH MY, VICTORIA! YOU ARE AWESOME! 🥰

Many wonderful thanks to my wife, Victoria, for the most awesome gift. We now have an Arcade1Up Namco Legacy Edition arcade machine!

I’ll soon upgrade it to a RetroPie with a professional/fighting-grade dual joysticks with 6-button controller so we’ll have dual controllers and over 1200 games (ROMs) on it

The twelve games the cabinet came with:
1. Pac Man
2. Pac-Land
3. Pac-Man Plus
4. Super Pac-Man
5. Pac & Pal
6. Pac-Mania
7. Galaxian
8. Galaga
9. Dig Dug
10. Dig Dug II
11. Mappy
12. Rompers

#retrogaming #retropie #arcade1up #arcade

All (XBox / Playstation / Nintendo / Steam), Gaming, Sony PlayStation 5 (PS5)

Tales of Arise on the PlayStation 5

Tales of Arise on the PlayStation 5 (PS5)

With a doubt, TALES OF ARISE on the PS5 is easily one of my favorite games this year. The graphics, gameplay, combat, story, and characters are all fantastically done.

I’m trying to be a Completionist, so I’m playing all of the Main Quests and all of the Sub Quests. Completing the sub quests mostly gets you extra Gald, various points (SP, CP, EP), and often recipes. I’m still trying to find every Owl, but Hootle coos enough that there’s at least 2-3 owls on every map, some very well hidden. Wearing surround-sound headphones and listening to where the Hoo-Hoo-Hoo is directionally coming from helps tremendously in finding some of the most obscure owls.

Shionne, Kisara, and Rinwell are all my favorites. As you play the game, listen to their stories, and talk with them at Camp, each can be romanced. Shionne will grow closer to you, Kisara grows closer to Dohalim, and Rinwell grows closer with Law. It’s not entirely like Mass Effect, but each has a satisfactory story and relationship.

And don’t try to take on the Raging Mantis by the railroad tracks until you’ve beaten all Five Lords. The first Giant Zuegle Boss you encounter is actually Lvl 43, and will kill you in a single blow or two (even at Lvl 27). You need to be Lvl 39 or higher, have everyone in your party, and be well armed/equipped/stocked.

Tales of Arise on the PlayStation 5 (PS5)

Tales of Arise on the PlayStation 5 (PS5)

Tales of Arise on the PlayStation 5 (PS5)

Tales of Arise on the PlayStation 5 (PS5)
Gaming, Social Media

Join Us at Tayledras on Discord

DISCORD: Imagine A Place (Awkwafina, Danny DeVito)

Tayledras/Discord is now a Community!

If you’re reading this blog, chances are you’re family, friend, or have similar interests to us!  Join us on Discord at Tayledras/Discord to talk about gaming and join in on friendly conversations between our family, friends, and community.

What is Discord?

Awkwafina and Danny DeVito explain “What is Discord?” to people who want to know more about it.

As an Aside, Gaming

Fun Updates (PS5 Controller on PC, COSMOS on BluRay/4K)

SO HAPPY THIS MORNING!

1. Got ALL of the PS5 Controller (DualSense) features working on the PC using the new Steam Beta client, including Touchpad/Rumble and Wired/Wireless using https://www.pcgamer.com/ps5-dualsense-controller-on-pc/

2. All of my COSMOS (original/remastered, and new seasons) Blu-Ray collections arrived so I can watch Carl Sagan and Neil DeGrasse Tyson in 4K.

Gaming, Handheld Game Emulation (RG350M/RG351M)

Day One with the RG350M

Game Emulators on the RG350M

Networking and SSH into RG350M

So the Anbernic RG350M (latest-gen, not the RG350 Metal, RG350P, or first-gen RG350) is really decent.  You can use two 256GB SDHC cards with it, but you need to format them as FAT32 and not exFAT since it’s 32-bit (and doesn’t support 64-bit addressing).  It does support Nintendo DS, 3DS, Mame, PSone, Apple ][gs and N64, but you’ll need to download the apps (.opk) from https://boards.dingoonity.org/gcw-development/(alpha)-kegs-for-gcw0-apple-iigs-emulator/ and other gcw-development threads.

Networking and SSH into RG350M

Being able to SSH into my handheld and scp/sftp ROMs is ridiculously cool!

I’ll zip up all my apps, ROMs, and configs as a .ZIP file so others don’t need to start from scratch like I did.  I expect to start versioning my efforts and sharing them with others if they’re interested in using my efforts on their RG350*, similar handheld game emulators, or their PC-based game emulators.  Expect to see me share file listings and ZIP’ed files in upcoming posts if you want to download or use what I’ve been working on (and gaming from!)

Very useful bookmarks and references for the RG350M:

DevOps, Gaming, Home Office, Home/Life

Evolution of our Home Office

View from our Home Office
EVOLUTION OF A HOME OFFICE
1) I have a coffee bar now.
2) I have a subwoofer underneath the desk and cabled the room for 5.1 DTS Surround Sound and Dolby Atmos.
3) The workstation is an AMD Ryzen 9 3850X with Nvidia RTX 3080 with 10GB GDDR6X, 64GB DDR4, 2TB SSD, 12TB HDD.
4) The NAS is a 4x12TB RAID-10 for 24TB storage.
5) I have bonded 10GbE running to the workstation, NAS, and router so I’m getting 11.3 Gigabits/sec to everything in the house
6) I have a 49″ curved 5K DQHD with HDR10 monitor as my primary display, with a MacBook Pro and a Razer Blade Studio as my side displays.
7) Both my development and gaming have been ridiculously fun and quick now!
Gaming in our Home Office
View from our Home Office
Me in my Home Home
Bucket List, Career, DevOps, Gaming

Latest: AMD Ryzen 9 3950X with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

1 Comment

So this is my new 4.7Ghz 16-core AMD Ryzen 9 3950X with Nvidia RTX 3080 that is going to be my office workstation and gaming rig driving the Samsung CRG9 49″ curved 5K DQHD 120Hz HDR10 monitor, Samsung Odyssey+ 3K VR/HMD, and Dolby Atmos sound.

  • Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 3950X Sixteen Core Processor (64MB Cache, 3.5GHz-4.7GHz) 105W (Liquid Cooled)
  • RAM: 64GB DDR4 3200MHz
  • Hard Drive: 2TB NVMe Solid State Drive + 12TB 7200rpm Hard Disk Drive
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB GDDR6X
  • Motherboard: X570 Chipset
  • Power Supply: 750W Platinum PSU
  • Operating System: Windows 10 Professional x64
  • Features: Dual Side Panel Doors, Addressable RGB Control via Remote
  • Accessories: Wired LED Backlit USB Gaming Keyboard and Mouse Included
  • 3-Year CUK Limited Warranty

I’m hoping to run all my VMs for hosting Ubuntu, Docker, SaltStack, and Ansible for my daytime/weekday development while playing games during the evenings and weekends.

As much as I like the RGB keyboard and mouse that comes from Computer Upgrade King (CUK), I like my Razer BlackWidow V3 Pro and Razer Gaming Mouse better.

My view as I’m working from home…
Gaming, Technology, Virtualization (VMware)

Benchmarking 2020 Razer Blade Studio and 2020 MacBook Pro

2020 16″ MACBOOK PRO – SPACE GRAY

* 2.4GHz 8‑core 9th‑generation Intel Core i9 processor, Turbo Boost up to 5.0GHz
* 32GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory
* AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 8GB of GDDR6 memory
* 2TB NVMe SSD
* 16″ LED‑backlit display with IPS technology; 3072‑by‑1920 native resolution at 226 pixels per inch

2020 15” RAZER BLADE STUDIO – 4K

* 9th-Gen Intel Core i7-9750H 6‑core processor w/ 2.6GHz/4.5GHz (base/max turbo),
* 32GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory
* NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 with 8GB of GDDR6 memory
* 2TB NVMe SSD
* 15.6″ 4K OLED DCI-P3 100% display

PRELIMINARY RESULTS AND THOUGHTS:

Running 3Dmark and Novabench on both laptops, the i9 8-code processor on the MacBook Pro easily smoked the i7-9750H 6‑core on the Razer. For CPU intensive apps, the MacBook is easily a far more capable laptop.

For graphics and gaming, the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 8GB of GDDR6 memory on the MacBook Pro was respectable, but about 15-20% lower specs and rendering times than the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 on the Razer. The Razer Blade Studio remains a fantastic gaming laptop despite the slower CPU, but the MacBook Pro is clearly it’s equal or better when it comes to most everything else and especially virtualization.

All (XBox / Playstation / Nintendo / Steam), Gaming, Social Media

Gaming Presence and Chat Server

Toshiro: our Gamer Shetland Sheepdog

As part of my effort to clean up, consolidate, socialize, and promote my web presence, I installed Discord on many of my devices.  You can chat with me at TayledrasChi#4185 or visit us on our Discord chat server at Tayledras Discord Server. I’m usually logged in via my Samsung Galaxy Note 10+, and whenever I’m gaming on any of my consoles or devices, you should be able to see my status or join in!

As a note, I’m TayledrasChi on:

  • PlayStation Network (PSN) using a PlayStation 5 and PlayStation Vita
  • Xbox using an Xbox One X, 2021 Razer Blade Pro (Nvidia RTX 3080), 2021 Surface Laptop Studio (Nvidia RTX 3060)
  • Steam, Epic, and Blizzard using a 2021 Razer Blade Pro (Nvidia RTX 3080), 2021 Surface Laptop Studio (Nvidia RTX 3060)
  • Nintendo Online with my friend code of SW-1710-7060-1839 using a Nintendo Switch OLED

I’m a “relatively casual” gamer who prefers:

  • turn-based strategy/tactics,
  • real-time strategy,
  • first shooters,
  • massively multiplayer online games,
  • role-playing games (Japanese and American),
  • survival/horror

Feel free to add me as a friend or join me on Discord!