Kevin_Walter

So this issue is incredibly annoying and I've been experiencing it for quite some time. While running a game on my primary display, my secondary display will drop to about 1fps. This is especially annoying when trying to use an application like OBS, which has the preview window for monitoring, as well as trying to watch videos and such while gaming. It doesn't do this for all games. For instance, Diablo 3 doesn't cause this. I frequently watch youtube videos and play that. Both fullscreen and borderless windowed modes work fine. Then there are games like Fallout 4, which cause this issue whether I'm running fullscreen or windowed. All I can find online is stuff related to Windows 8 and power settings. Though many of those issues seem to have been fixed with a Windows 8 update. Unfortunately, I'm running Windows 10, and yes, everything is up to date. Windows 10 i5 6600k @ 4.3 GHz R9 390 16 GBs RAM Both monitors are connected to my GPU via DVI. This issue doesn't seem to affect recording. The recordings turn out fine. It's just the stuff that's displayed on the second monitor. And here's a nifty little video showing this issue when trying to record Stalker. Sorry for the potato quality, I'm pretty sure the camera in my tablet is a literal piece of shit.

Ah. That makes sense.

The average seems to be about a 300% increase on mechanical drives. 500 GB HDs cost around $50-60 on average. Meanwhile 500 GB SSDs cost in the neighborhood of $150+ Is there a compelling reason as to why exactly this is, or is it just a "because they can" kind of thing? I mean it's not like SSDs are cutting-edge technology anymore. They've become pretty common over the last several years.

You should disconnect them from the 4-pin extension and plug them into the fan headers on your motherboard. They're usually found around the outer edges of the board. If you're already using all of the fan headers on your board, you can just plug the fans into an available 4-pin connector on your PSU, however, the fans will run at 100% if you do this, and will probably be pretty loud. Personally, I removed the upper fan (my heatsink gets in the way anyway), and use two front intake fans and the rear exhaust to maintain positive pressure and help guard against dust, but it's really up to you. Curious why you thought they would already be connected to your PSU though. lol

>considerably cheap >on-board wifi Pick one. I have the Gigabyte Z170X Gaming-5... but it doesn't have on-board wifi and it's like a $150 mobo.

So I have a mysterious "Extended Partition" on one of my drives and I'm not quite sure where it came from or if it's safe to delete. Attached a screenshot. Disk 0 is the drive Windows is installed on, Disk 1 is my basic storage drive and where I install games and such, Disk 2 is my Linux drive. As you can see on the right, the Windows partition is 224 GBs with 13 free, which is reflected in the partition manager. So I'm not really sure what that Free Space partition is. Since it says that it's free space, and I seem to have no way of accessing it, shouldn't is be safe to delete it and then expand my Windows partition? Because all of the boot and system stuff is obviously on the Windows partition anyway. The only thing I can think of to explain where this partition came from... is it may be empty space left over from when I had Ubuntu installed on the same drive as Windows. Though it's been a long time since I've done that...

Funny... it was already in my Steam wishlist. I probably saw it at one point and added it because it looked kinda neat. Same reason I played Nosgoth, actually. Unfortunately, it sounds like the game has been abandoned and is left a mess, from what I'm reading.

I don't think you're talking about Nosgoth, or maybe you're a little confused on the time. The servers were taken offline entirely back in May. You can't even download it anywhere... except maybe a torrent or something... but who would seed a game that can't be played?

Well that's just it... there IS NO last server. lol The game is completely dead and gone. Though I can't say I'm surprised. The game had some issues and I think that's one of the things that drove people away. It was fun, but matchmaking had trouble, there were a few balance issues, and there was little motivation for players to actually spend money considering the only things you really needed to buy were cosmetic. Not to mention, Legacy of Kain had a cult following that wasn't huge, AND Square Enix did a pretty crappy job of marketing the game. It was sort of a perfect storm for low player counts. I mean, you're going to have to give me a little more to go on... the dude has like 900 videos. lol

I'm trying to fill the void left by Nosgoth. For those who don't know, Nosgoth was a game based on the Legacy of Kain series that was shut down entirely earlier this year after being in development/beta for around a year or so. Basically, there weren't enough players to justify further development or even maintenance... plus Psyonix went on to have great success with stupid Rocket League... Anywho, the game was a F2P 4v4 PvP game where one team played Vampires and the other team played Humans. Within these two factions, there were several classes and they all played differently and had different strengths and weaknesses, not just between the classes themselves but within the factions. For instance, humans in general were ranged attackers who were pretty squishy while vampires relied mostly on melee, had more health, could heal themselves by eating corpses, and could climb on walls. I can't think of any games like it. There are asymmetric PvP games, sure... Evolve is one of them. Left 4 Dead is another. But these kinds of games aren't really the same kind of gameplay as Nosgoth, which really focused on the PvP element whereas most others seem to have other objectives and aren't so much focused on unique faction battles. So... does anything like Nosgoth exist?

I used Spotify's web player because adblock+ blocks the ads. Which I wouldn't even do if they didn't feel the need to play the same 2 ads after every other song... sometimes even back to back.

Alright, so this may be a bit of an odd request. I've done a bit of a cursory search, but I'm not really sure what to look for or if there's anything that serves my specific needs. My mom had a very old (15-ish years?) 100-disc CD changer hooked up to an old hi-fi receiver from like the 70s and some decent speakers. She liked this system, but the CD changer recently locked up, I have no idea how to fix it, the store where she purchased it is no longer in business, and I doubt they would repair it for her even if they still existed. So I'd like to figure out a really easy way to store her CD collection on a PC and send that signal to an old receiver without running a 100 foot RCA cable through the house from her PC to her stereo. She doesn't have a smart phone and doesn't want one. She doesn't have an MP3 player. She's going on 60 and barely knows how to use a computer. lol So basically, I'm looking for a device that can maybe connect to our wireless network and receive a digital signal that it then converts to analog to play through a receiver. Basically a wireless DAC, I guess? But preferably not something that costs hundreds of dollars...

Of course there's very little fragmentation. 1: They force everyone to upgrade eventually, and 2: Most of the people who delay updates are probably gamers, and they force updates on them by making games and apps that require said updates. Like Gears of War 4... which is the only reason why I'm even using the latest version of Win 10.

Yes I am, and the drivers on Gigabyte's site aren't helpful.

Back when I was running an AMD system I had a Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3, which was a pretty good motherboard, actually. It also came with Dolby Digital software right out of the box, which allowed me to compress 5.1 game audio from games like Skyrim and shove it through an S/PDIF cable to my 5.1 receiver, which was awesome for obvious reasons. Last year for Christmas, I upgraded my rig. My old FX 6300 was tired and I wanted to go with Intel this time, so I picked up a 6600k (irrelevant, I know), and a Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming 5. It's actually been a really good motherboard, with one exception. It states on Gigabyte's website that this motherboard uses Realtek's ALC1150 audio codec. And when you go to Realtek's website and look at the information for the ALC1150 codec, it states at the bottom under features that it has "Optional Dolby PCEE program, SRS TruSurround HD, SRS Premium Sound, Fortemedia SAM, Creative Host Audio, Synopsys Sonic Focus, DTS Surround Sensation | UltraPC, and DTS Connect licenses". I'm assuming that the reason that I can't seem to make the motherboard compress game audio and pipe it through optical is because Gigabyte didn't license one of these "optional" bits of software for their audio drivers and give owners of this board that ability, correct? Even if I am correct, is there any way I can get my hands on different drivers that will include DTS Connect or Dolby Digital or something? If the hardware is using a codec that supports these things, I don't really get why they wouldn't be included. It seems like a bit of a dick move to me. On a side note... pre-compressed 5.1 audio from sources like Blu-Ray movies works just fine. It's only an issue with uncompressed sources like games.

Battleblock Theater is by The Behemoth, the same devs that did Castle Crashers. I THINK it allows up to 4 people to play. There's also Starwahl...

I find I care more about stability than overall framerate. I'd rather play a game locked at 30fps than constantly bouncing around between 40-60. When your framerate fluctuates wildly like that it causes stuttering. Obviously, the higher the framerate, the better the experience will be (to a certain degree), but having a consistent framerate will make the experience smoother overall.

I haven't had any issues with them thus far. Other than a bit of a stuttering issue when it drops frames here and there (which is funny because with v-sync turned off, I get 120+ fps, but with it turned on, it'll sometimes drop to 58/59 and cause an annoying bit of stutter... thanks, AMD), but that just required a bit of fiddling around with the framerate cap and some v-sync settings. It's not the prettiest "remaster" in the world, but I do appreciated things like the added foliage (especially outdoors), the improved character models, and the textures that they actually changed. I certainly wouldn't call them garbage. That would require me calling the originals garbage as well, since they're essentially the exact same games.

I played the Alpha and thought it was amazing. The game blew my mind. I haven't played the beta yet though. I have to say, it does remind me a lot of Battlefront. They re-used a lot of thing. Especially controls and animations. For instance, the animation when you have your sidearm drawn is the EXACT SAME as if you're running around with a blaster pistol in Battlefront. They clearly copy/pasted that shit. That being said, I don't feel as though the game loses anything by them doing this. It is sad if the game is having performance issues now though. I personally felt that the Alpha was the most solid BF1 pre-release test I've ever played. The betas for BF3 and 4 were buggy as hell.

I personally think NLA (Natural Lighting and Atmospherics) is the best ENB preset. It has a very clean look to it. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/50065/? But whatever you do, get Dyndolod. It might require you watch an installation video, but it's the best mod there is if you care at all about distant environmental detail. It'll take all kinds of roads, rocks, trees, structures, etc that you have in your load order (including ones from other mods), and it'll make low-resolution billboards for them, and then make them visible from almost any distance. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/59721/? I was running both when I took these shots. http://i.imgur.com/ehCN6Rp.jpg http://i.imgur.com/pfYgvpg.jpg http://i.imgur.com/0usYv3T.jpg http://i.imgur.com/RhKmNaI.jpg I hope you have a god-tier PC though. Skyrim can get pretty damn heavy. Oh, and if you're not liking these ENBs, check out Hodilton on youtube. He does a video on pretty much every decent ENB preset that comes out. I'm sure you can find something you like.

I swear that's exactly what flat earthers say on youtube when confronted with math... I know exactly how much control publishers have over these things. You underestimate the lengths businesses will go in order to make money. Why would they "stop caring" after simply making back their investment when the entire purpose of their business is to profit? Again, these things don't make sense in reality. Not to mention, as much as a majority of the money from preorders doesn't go to anyone until the game ships anyway, and if it does, it goes to the retailers until copies are shipped to stores. If someone gives their money to Gamestop or Wal-Mart, those stores hold onto it. It doesn't go straight into the Publisher's pocket. If someone preorders from an online retailer like Amazon or most publisher stores (such as Square Enix's), they don't take any money until the game is shipped in the mail a few days before release. So the only time a publisher is supposedly getting the money from preorders is from actual presales on Steam (I don't know if prepurchases on Xbox Live and PSN work the same as Steam, but I'm assuming they do). And it's this argument that I have a problem with. You're essentially saying Preorders = money to publishers = lazy developers = bad games. That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works. You're burning incense and screaming about fire.

None of that has any evidence to support it. Well, except for the part about preorder incentives, but most of the time, it's cosmetic bullshit. The rare instances where it's more (such as with Mankind Divided and that new Warhammer game) it's usually called out for the bullshit that it is and even changed. The rest of what you said though is pure bullshit. A game company would have no reason to lie without preorders? That doesn't even make sense. They're trying to sell their game. Whether someone buys it before release or after, it makes no difference. They're still trying to sell that same game. The date at which a person pays for a game doesn't affect the game at all. This is evidenced by the fact that the games industry doesn't even work that way. When someone preorders a game, the developers basically see none of it. It works roughly the same as the movie industry. Investors (publishers) pay for games to be made up-front. There is a budget that needs to be agreed upon between publishers and developers, and the invested money is used to pay for the various costs of making a game (such as putting food on developers' tables and various marketing/publishing fees). This is done in advance... years before games are released or even announced in many cases. When someone purchases a game, the money they spend on it goes largely into the publisher's pockets to return the investment that they made and make them profit. That's why it's called an investment. Which brings me to my next point... No. Wrong. There is no evidence to support that this is the case... or that it has ever been the case outside of crowdfunded games (where the money is going directly from investing customers to developers based on nothing but promises and goals). Circling back to my previous point a little bit, there are often stipulations and incentives in the contracts signed between developers and publishers that involve monetary bonuses paid to the development studio as rewards for meeting certain milestones. These milestones can range anywhere from metacritic scores to meeting scheduled release dates to overall profit made on the game. These bonuses come AFTER a game is released (for obvious reasons). Developers have NO REASON... none... ZERO... to be "lazy" or release a bad game. Especially not when concerning something like preorders, which doesn't affect them at all anyway because they already got their money from the publisher (the ones who paid for the steak they're eating 2 years before the game was released), the ones getting the return on their investment from preorders. Hell, if you preorder a game from a retailer (as many console players still do) like Gamestop, even the publisher doesn't see that money until a couple of weeks before the game is released. The retailer basically pockets it. So again, I will state, the only person affected by whether or not someone preorders a game is the person making that choice. It affects no one else. If you want to fight against the evils of shady preorder incentives (like Mankind Divided's bullshit ARG thing), then I'll stand right there with you. I'll sign the petitions. I'll complain about it on their forums. But this mentality that preordering = lazy developers and bad games is pure nonsense.

Preorders have no effect on the quality of a game. Preordering is a personal choice that only effects one person. The individual choosing whether or not they preorder. If someone preorders a game and it's bad. It's their fault that they spent money on a bad game. They made the choice. If they didn't preorder, then they didn't spend money on a bad game. Or maybe they bought it a day later and DID spend money on a bad game. Who knows? Either way, it doesn't affect anything other than that particular individual's wallet.

I guess. Though I could argue that the Arkham Knight thing was restricted to PC, while this apparently covers the Playstation as well...

Not really fair. Batman didn't have an issue with content or misrepresentation... it was horribly optimized on PC because of bad decisions made by Warner Brothers. Decisions that severely hurt Rocksteady's reputation... even though they didn't really deserve the backlash for what happened. As a fan of the series since Asylum, I think Arkham Knight is actually a really great game. In fact, I'd go as far as saying that it's my favorite in the series (status previously given to Arkham City). What happened on the PC side of things was shameful, but nowhere near the overall deception that occurred with NMS.