Computer geeks, step inside

[GR11M]

People complain about Windows but you have to realise it's designed to run on so many different systems, with so much backwards compatibility, it must be a nightmare to develop. Linux servers might run the world but their desktops are still so far behind because there's so many distros people insist on developing. Apple on the other hand support a much smaller scope of hardware, sacrificing compatibility for stability, leaving you pretty much limited to what hardware Apple offer.

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[MaskedRacerX]

People complain about Windows but you have to realise it's designed to run on so many different systems, with so much backwards compatibility, it must be a nightmare to develop. Linux servers might run the world but their desktops are still so far behind because there's so many distros people insist on developing. Apple on the other hand support a much smaller scope of hardware, sacrificing compatibility for stability, leaving you pretty much limited to what hardware Apple offer.

Oh yeah, I'd pretty much agree with every one of those points.

i.e., Windows is more "hardware open" that introduces some issues - Linux is clumsy on the desktop - MacOS is specific to a limited hardware selection (with better H/S integration).

I'd say without question if gaming is one of your major use cases, Windows hands down (personally, I prefer a console, but that's a different conversation )

 

[GR11M]

My last console was a Dreamcast and my last gaming PC was when my 2x 1080TIs were the latest and greatest. Now I sit on car forums debating computers

 

[MaskedRacerX]

Mac-user and a console peasant, that's two strikes

For real though, the M1 simply doesn't have the grunt I'm looking for in even a mobile processor. AMD's 5000-series exists. You could argue the power/watt comparison. I think it's irrelevant given that I'm not seeing the M1 scaling to a higher TDP anyway.

Yeah, I just don't dig on futzing around - for fun - with anything that's work-ish, so if I can fire up a current gen console on a nice big 4K TV, with a 1500w Atmos system, and kick back on a comfy sofa with the family vs. sitting in front of a computer - that's my jam

I've probably got more Windows instances running around the house than most people (rack upstairs), I just greatly prefer the Mac experience from the OS, to the hardware design and support channels - I stay in terminal all day, have 40-ish apps open 24/7 (current uptime is like 140 days ...), the whole house integrated with HomeKit (and I run some custom servers/services), I have a ton of automations, terrific dev tools, containers for some local services, hell, I even run a Parallels VM for a few Windows services I prefer to have on my machine.

The initial M1 release was an entry level product, and certainly the P/W ratio __was__ the primary engineering target. M1X and M2 will really start pushing the performance, I'm seriously thinking of an extra "backup" machine if they release a 14" with a 32GB / 16-core GPU option.

My last console was a Dreamcast and my last gaming PC was when my 2x 1080TIs were the latest and greatest. Now I sit on car forums debating computers

I kid you not, there's a Dreamcast sitting on the main AV rack right now, 2 controllers/VMUs, mint - connected to the AVR with a little composite to HDMI converter/upscaler, and I even picked up some controller extensions.

Why?

No idea, I guess the little G wanted to play the old school Sonic and I thought it would be a fun throwback kind of thing ...

I was so wrong

 

[GR11M]

Too bad SLI doesn't exist anymore.

They acquired the technology from 3DFX anyway, remember the Voodoo cards ?

 

[GR11M]

Actually it's not all gone, I have a Raspberry PI 4 running Retro PI

 

[MaskedRacerX]

They acquired the technology from 3DFX anyway, remember the Voodoo cards ?

Yes, I have one of those in a box of random shit up the server/gear closet

(with a Zip and Jazz drive, some old SCSI gear ... oh god, all sorts of old crap ...)

It only worked with Voodoo specific drivers, so for your regular non Voodoo video, it used a little loopback cable to pass video through from your regular graphics card.

 

[GR11M]

I remember when they were selling up all their stock really cheap, I got a Voodoo 5 5500 from Electronic Boutique and when I plugged it in it was dead and when I returned they had no stock left

One of my old bosses used to collect them, he even had one of the Voodoo 5 6000 that never went on sale.

 

[MaskedRacerX]

I've got a gaming ready rig hooked up to my 70" with 7.2.1 surround in front of our couch. The sound bar took more "futzing" to set up than the computer. It ain't 1996 anymore, shit's hella easy these days. Hell, from, what I've heard, consoles are getting pretty fiddly.

I pretty much do almost nothing with the consoles, they’re set to auto update and they just run - and I like that they’re kind of “transparent” (if that makes sense). Every few years, we upgrade a couple of years after the initial release, when the catalogs get better.

Honestly, we don’t even play all that much. We like really engaging stories, usually with a mix of horror/survival, nothing online, so games like The Last of Us (1 and 2), Ghost of Tsushima was a pretty special experience, we’ll get into those really intensely for a few weeks then everything gathers dust for months. The little G plays a few anime themed games, Zelda, we play some other Switch stuff together.

We’ve been getting into a lot of board games over the last several months like Mansions of Madness (and the expansions), Castle Panic (also expansions), Mysterium, those are fun, and collaborative - I picked up Dead of Winter when it was on sale at Amazon, haven’t even opened it yet!

Anyway, video games are low enough on my priorities, that consoles are the perfect amount of cost and effort to satisfy our occasional desire to play something.

 

[Dfeeds]

The only console I've bought in the last decade+ is my Switch. Great little machine. Needs a bit more power though. Not necessarily for graphical fidelity. Take Breath of the Wild, for instance. It runs better emulated on PC than it does on the native hardware. Emulation should never be the better experience.

I think you should add that emulation should never be a better experience around release. It would be a sad world if emulating something from a gamecube/wii u, xbox 360, or ps3 ran worse than it did way back when. It's the only reason I actually played Xenoblade chronicles X and, after the failure of my gamecube, can relive my happy memories of Custom Robo GC. I also got to dip my toes into the ps2 era ace combat games.

But I'd also argue that just because BOTW runs better on PC that it's not actually the better experience. Unless things have changed, iirc, the controllers don't work very well on the computer. I actually just borrowed BOTW from my friend because I wanna play it again. It may look better, and I already have CEMU set up on my rig, but I don't want to deal with the headache that I think I'll get.


Complete side note, I just beat Doom 2016 and have started Eternal on nightmare. Two levels in and it's one hell (hehe) of a ride.

 

[MaskedRacerX]

I totally dig not wanting the expense. Part of the hobby is assembling these absurdly expensive, LED festooned monstrosities. I often liken it to modding cars. Very similar mindset.

Eh, it's not really the expense in and of itself, hahaha, if you knew me, you'd know that's not an impasse __at__all__. I certainly get the comparison to modding cars, I'm sure you've seen my various rides posted here over the years. Sure, I have a little back-of-the-head frugality, but when it's something I'm interested in, I buy it, if it's something I really want to invest my time in, and if spending more improves the experience, I spend the money.

It's not really about owning pricy gear, it just depends on the use case. I was a partner in a company doing AR/VR work, we bought (all OOP) an extra rig just to have two different HMD/controller setups connected full time, and we both had big AORUS gaming laptops, as config'ed as you could buy [at the time], just for a mobile option, even though it stayed parked in my home office 95% of the time.

* Bonus content - see below ... !

Oh yeah, so back to rambling, I've got a 16U rack upstairs with 4 Windows rack boxes for development/storage (though anymore, only two run 24/7), hardware is no big deal, I've got dozens of cloud instances on Azure/AWS, it's also not about managing that OS.

It's really about the DGAF-ness of the whole PC "gaming scene". I don't spend money on things I DGAFA




* Bonus content:

We did an extended gig in SV, working with a pretty well funded startup (and even a little overlapping research work with G*****, multi-year NDs prevent using the full name ) I worked with the SDK / Computer Vision team, I was doing all sort of hardware/software integration, building dev tools, cool stuff, mostly worked on the SLAM stack - interestingly, when Tesla had their AI day, a lot of the image processing/vector space generation/object mapping pipeline handling was the same thing I worked on.

Neat.

 

[MaskedRacerX]

Oh, hahaha, I meant to add, if the little G does want a gaming machine, I'll make sure to post back here, she's mentioned it randomly - you know, the attention span of a 13 year old - though, she's consistently talked about a drumset.

Maybe I can push for the PC ...

 

[MaskedRacerX]

I didn't know the "scene" had a DGAF attitude. I also don't hang around aforementioned "scene", or any for that matter really. This place is basically the only "social media" I participate in.

[...]

Now, every build has a purpose, not "just because". I also try only to retain modern components. But anyway, I definitely GAF about this hobby.

Hahaha, no I mean, me personally, I DGAF, aka, I'm not into building gaming rigs. You are, that's awesome (that wasn't meant to be derogatory ... sorry if it sounded that way).

(funny enough, I did build PCs for literally decades ...)

I use the term "scene" as the idea of being into something with extra passion, that goes a little beyond the simple act of owning/using, audio gear in my mind is a scene, the act of talking about / building / selecting is as important as the nature of whatever the "thing" delivers.

I guess something like "hardcore/enthusiast" might be more appropriate.

You seemed to be trying to convince me on the idea PC > Console - don't have to, I get it, in some/many objective metrics, it is - but the objective improvements in resolution/fidelity/framerates/modularity, etc., don't translate into anything subjective I care about.

You're into the whole experience, from the build to the use, I totally get it. Enjoy

I surfed most of my life, I've been bumped/stung/bitten/cut, you may think, "Wow, I don't get that at all", I think it's an amazing experience.

 

[Dfeeds]

I mean yeah, but the Switch isn't 10+ years old. Obviously over time emulation will be able to reproduce older experiences with increasing degrees of accuracy. My point is that right now, emulation is the only way to experience a relatively new game without stutters and frame drops.

If you do try to emulate BotW, let me know about controller support. Last I heard, using an Xbox controller with emulators was no trouble at all. Supposedly a Switch Pro controller is also an option.

Related note, I wish the Pro had analog triggers. It would be the perfect controller if it did. Plus, the Switch could get proper racing games.

I never got around to playing Ancient Gods. I think I'd need to play through Eternal again to get back my Rip and Tear reflexes. Best I can muster now is probably Bruise and Irritate

Regular controller support is fine. I can use the xbox one controller with no problem but the issue is the motion controls. Some games don't use them but games like BOTW rely on them pretty heavily. So you have to set up your mouse to emulate motion controls (the wheel is used for one of the axis) and it's just... weird.

You can get creative, though. I have an old version of xpadder that can map mouse controls to one of the thumbsticks. So I have one profile that, when I hold left bumper and select, changes the right stick to function as the mouse. Then I have the mouse in CEMU set to emulate motion controls. It's passable lol.

 

[Dfeeds]

Got it. Forgot the game had motion controls at all. The only thing I can remember is the one dungeon puzzle where you basically play the game Labyrinth.

The mini "dungeons" are definitely the game's weakest part. All the small ones play out way too similar and even the major ones felt a bit off. Wind Waker is my favorite in terms of overall enjoyment.

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