Ryzza5

If we ignore existing games and focus on games still in active development, the main win will be to emphasise the need to design games from day one to eventually function without online services, so that developers can simply flip a switch in the game code by means of tiny patch when the time comes.

Summary
Ross Scott, a community member who 'enjoys video games' and 'owning things', has relentlessly undertaken months of research to determine the best possible course of action to challenge the growing industry practice of killing video games that rely on online servers to function, and has launched the largest campaign ever to stop publishers destroying these video games.  Parliament Petitions are being launched in multiple countries to force governments to investigate the legality of destroying these games and if consumer protection laws need refining, assuming enough participants register their support by following the helpful guides published at stopkillinggames.com


 

 

 
Quotes
 
My thoughts
While some may attempt to explain away the issues by suggesting that music or vehicle licence expirations may prevent the continued sale of video games, or that players can get their money's worth during the time that the game remains supported, this in no way should prevent existing owners from being able to continue to use the product that they purchased, even if some online features are no longer available.   It is noteworthy that Polyphony Digital provided a patch to allow the game Gran Turismo Sport to become playable offline before sunsetting the related online services.  This is especially true when games do not publicly advertise the amount of time that the product will remain functional at the time of purchase, resulting in a scenario where players are expected to 'rent' the games they 'purchased' for an unknown amount of time.
 
Sources
Website with directions and FAQ: https://www.stopkillinggames.com/

YouTube video explaining the issue and possible solutions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w70Xc9CStoE
 
Video Game History Foundation:  "87% Missing: The Disappearance of classic video games":  https://gamehistory.org/87percent/
 

Summary
Ian Bell, CEO of Straight 4 Studios (and former CEO of Slightly Mad Studios, known for the Project CARS and Need for Speed Shift racing games), revealed in a tweet some innovative work using game event triggers (such as a player scoring a goal or crashing a racing car) to dynamically form prompts to generate relevant AI commentary or pit-crew advice, influenced by real-life voices.  The work is likely to be included in an upcoming racing simulation GTR Revival.
 
This first video explains the concept, how it works, and provides a demonstration.  The game featured below is said to be Automobilista 2, which uses the same Madness game engine as Project CARS 2.
This second video demonstrates a race by internal QA tester Austin Ogonoski speaking to a virtual pit crew member, an AI borrowing its voice from Ben Collins (Straight 4 Studios Handling consultant, also famous for his role as The Stig (BBC Top Gear) and a stunt driver in recent James Bond and Fast & Furious movies).  
 
Quotes (partial transcript from first video)
 
My thoughts
It's interesting to see multiple layers of AI (text generation, conversational response, and speech synthesis) being used in video games, particularly the possibilities of assisting or coaching players.  Numerous sim-racing games support API extensibility which has allowed for community-created Pit Crew chief mods, which while not AI-based, increase immersion and allow visual HUD elements to be hidden.  This new AI-based system needs to do even better, without feeling cheap or over-done.   
 
Whilst simulated commentary has existed in many sports-based video games such as FIFA for decades, I cannot think of any racing games that feature anything at a similar level (besides background repetitive commentary in games like GRID Legends).  Some larger organised racing leagues stream or record races with live human commentary but smaller groups may not have the time or resources for this so these might be interested in this endeavour. 
 
One concern however is that a successful patent application may dissuade other studios from implementing similar features.
 
Sources
 
 
 

Summary
Oculus users are receiving email updates with new terms of service and privacy policy updates that provide further clarification about the Facebook takeover in October.
Existing Oculus users will be able to choose to retain their existing Oculus accounts in October, or they can merge them with their Facebook account.
 
A list of FAQ has been made available here:
https://support.oculus.com/424208161507635/
 

 
Quotes
 
My thoughts
 
I've never created a Facebook account before and never plan to in the future.  I'm tempted to put together a list of Facebook-owned IP Addresses that I can block in my Firewall.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11164672/list-of-ip-space-used-by-facebook
 
If I do purchase another VR device (I still have the Rift CV1) it most definitely won't be one tied to Facebook.  I do appreciate the advanced warning of their plans taking effect in 2023.
 
Sources
Email
FAQ: https://support.oculus.com/424208161507635/

That's a fair point. Duly noted.
 
RE: annual subscriptions, we will bring them back at our earliest opportunity. Dev time has been focused on other features up until this point

This is an excellent explanation of how these things work. 
 
I'd like to add that as long as the creator who gets the automated claim disputes it in a timely manner, there is no lost revenue during the period while it was "claimed". 
 
I've been down at IBM Think for the last couple of days and this thread is the first I'm hearing of this issue.. Aaaand it's already resolved. 
 
So, as far as I can tell, everything is working as it should...ish
 
We have noticed a significant uptick in copyright claims in the last couple of weeks, though, with some of them being in really really old content which suggests youtube has made some kind of change to ContentID and we've been trying to figure out how to address it.
 
We are generally pretty supportive of the creation of derivative works by our community and we want to make sure that they aren't being algorithmically claimed, but this change has caused other issues for us too. I woke up the other morning to a handful of claims made against Tech Quickie by LTT... Can't have that. 
 
I'm sure this will be resolved, but it's probably going to take some time for youtube to get their crap in order, as usual. 

Hopefully most of us are boring enough to not be worth spying on

Hopefully most of us are boring enough to not be worth spying on

https://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/cases/define-series/define-r6-black (comes in 2 colors with window / TG or solid panels.)
+
https://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/accessories/connect-d1
 
should hit most of your needs. Got no idea about pricing though. You have to check that yourself ?

I'm not sure what programs to recommend - but have you considered setting up a virtual PC for these apps?  Sounds like the perfect solution if all other system requirements are met. It'll prevent unwanted disk access as well as leaving a potential mess in the registry on your host PC.
 
https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/details.aspx?id=3702
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyper-v-on-windows/quick-start/create-virtual-machine

AUSTRALIAN DEALS
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

AUSTRALIAN DEALS
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

AUSTRALIAN DEALS
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

AUSTRALIAN DEALS
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

AUSTRALIAN DEALS
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

AUSTRALIAN DEALS
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

AUSTRALIAN DEALS
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/08/30/google-self-driving-cars-confused-by-bike-stand
http://forums.roadbikereview.com/general-cycling-discussion/encounter-google-car-today-349240.html
 
 
Discarding the news that some cyclists apparently do stop at red lights...  :rolleyes:
 
 
Both parties felt safe and found the experience humorous enough, and Google is happy that they have discovered something new to teach their cars.
 
 
 
 
 
Disclaimer, I'm not a cyclist- just stumbled on this via engadget.  I do like driving and riding motorcycles though.

I did not make it, but is is really funny.