Ah, Computers~
Oh yeah, one of my favorite Windows things is when it has to “install drivers” for a device I’ve connected to the machine several times before, but, it’s a different USB port this time. Because that means it’s a different device, I suppose.
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they did their best to cover that up in 10 but it’s still goofy as hell that Windows’ USB driver model works that way
I especially love when it happens when all i do it plug-in a thumbdrive, like I haven’t done that 100 times before??? I guess it’s doing something though, because last time it somehow couldn’t install the right drivers and the thing was read-only. GJ Microsoft.
oh … ok, maybe i don’t have faulty usb ports on my computer
I got a Lenovo Explorer for about 260 during christmas. I just got it set up last night for my tower. Despite being a little underspec i can run super hot pretty all right with it through Steam. Am I missing any sort of performance optimizations by running it through 2 wrappers? I try not to use the windows store at all. I also got the croteam VR pack but it’s a shame I can’t map movement to the joy sticks and instead have to use teleporting or some weird business with the touch pads in the Serious Sam VR because it’s a neat novelty. So @Felix got any other suggestions for things to do with the Explorer or tips to keep in mind to make it work better? Not necessarily games, i saw Astromech’s list but are there any other VR experiences or toys to poke with?
there’s some stuff in the Windows Store, including an Edge extension that lets you run 3D something or other on some news sites that have partnered with Microsoft, that I haven’t tried out yet; I more or less exclusively use it to launch SteamVR stuff, and Vive stuff through Revive (https://github.com/LibreVR/Revive) which has even weirder control mapping to the Windows MR controllers but works perfectly!
right now my VR games are:
plus echo arena.
it’s worth it imo! particularly given how affordable and full-featured and comfortable the Lenovo headset is!
and no, I don’t think there’s any real performance handicap from the wrappers other than the Windows MR headsets having a slightly higher resolution than the first-gen Vive/Rift and there being an assumption that you’ll implicitly bump the spec requirements up one notch on some titles (e.g. a 970 to a 980). launching different platforms’ apps from inside the headset is still pretty clumsy but I’m actually quite pleased with how trivial it is to get access to all three ecosystems.
iirc you can tweak the Revive internal spec settings a little bit (look at the Github page) to add more frame interpolation and upscaling and so on, not sure about native SteamVR stuff
really it’s just a shame that GPU prices are still outta control because we should be at a point where GPU + headset together can be had for ~$500 (say, 1060 + Lenovo) but that keeps fluctuating too much
For clarification, I’ve got a 950 in my tower and a laptop with a 1050. I’m just so barely under the suggested line on both machines but it’s nice having a serviceable VR machine on the go.
anyone played this?
it looks great, been out 6 months
OK I tried it and here’s where I stand:
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I immediately like it tons more than Isaac mainly for the graphics and music; it is very successful in its retro aesthetic even though it has the same “not quite NES” thing going on as Shovel Knight, which always left me cold
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it feels good, generally! the levels are a good length and the challenge is alright and the fundamentals are very solid!
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HOWEVER, it a) has a final boss that’s disproportionately too difficult (whom I reached on my third run with a seemingly perfect loadout, and then got obliterated by; I don’t really need them to break my balls like this when I’m reasonably strong off the blocks as-is) and b) it doesn’t seem to be incentivize variety as much as it needs to; in those three runs I had more than enough time to evaluate which weapons and perks I preferred over all of the others in almost every circumstances. this is partially down to playstyle but it’s still no nuclear throne in this regard.
I like it enough that I’m definitely not going to refund it, but I may not return to it.
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this isn’t the answer your own questions thread
how discourteous
(thank you for playing this game so i didn’t have to)
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Thanks for the suggestion.
I couldn’t figure out how to make sense of the logs. So I took the extreme step of reformatting and reinstalling Win 10. It was beautiful and good. Then I reset and all my drivers were automatically installed and updated and now it’s doing the exact same thing. System restore took me back to when I reinstalled Windows and I shut off the Internet so it can’t “fix” itself. Guess I’ll need to figure out how to block driver installation. I think it’s this suite of Synaptics input drivers that runs constantly (and the touchpad works just fine without it). I need to defeat them. Or other drivers. (Is there a way to selectively enable drivers one-by-one in safe mode or something? I can’t figure out how to do this.)
you should be able to find an older signed synaptics driver package somewhere (on microsoft’s own site is best), e.g. by using the device vendor ID from the “details” tab of device manager: https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=VEN_14E4%26DEV_4727
and if you manually install it over the one you’re getting from Windows Update, generally Windows Update won’t push out device driver packages like that between major versions.
it’s a lousy workaround because Windows’ driver handling is lousy but it should work.
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Thanks! I’ll give this a shot when I get home!
I tried searching for a gulp sports thread but couldn’t find one. However, I know we give stuff weird names but I was yearning for a space to vent a certain frustration about a certain sporting event without fear of recrimination. I know there must be other repressed sports fans here, maybe we should create a sports island where we can be free to be out in the open for a little while. Does such a place exist on SB?!
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https://selectbutton.net/t/football-thread/5589/157?source_topic_id=302
follow suit if wrong sport
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I need to get myself a headphone/microphone headset for gaming! It doesn’t need to be the be-all end-all. Do you guys have any good recommendations for mid-range headsets that will give me good value for my money? I wanna play PUBG and stuff!
I actually love these for work calls:
I don’t think they’d be considered great for streaming/etc though (which doesn’t stop me from using them)
modmic is a pretty good solution if you have a pair of headphones you like already
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