http://bit.ly/2uX6d5B Ian Taylor, the Douglas Adams-esque writer of Spindle, Mt:G judge, original WWG lore/rules/organized play dude, and handsome Australian man, is Kickstarting Widget Ridge until April 27th. It’s already funded, I’ve backed it, and if you’ve found your way here, I think you’ll want to too. Coal-Powered Battle Corset on Wheels Widget Ridge is a … Continue reading Widget Ridge (+ Epic Updates) via Tumblr Widget Ridge (+ Epic Updates)
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I’ll update this link when this story is inevitably written and becomes cannon (even if I have to do it myself for my own headcannon)! Also, support the inspiration. via Tumblr The Coal-Powered Battle Corset on Wheels Runek, Dark Duelist Draft: Always AcceptableConstructed: Tier 8 Bad in constructed because it’s too small to race Wild, it has no evasion against Evil tokens, and it doesn’t provide any additional value (even though it does survive on-turn board clears). It is the only Ambush Ritual of Scarra enabler, but that’s not unfair enough to … Continue reading Runek Laughs at Turn-One 0-Cost Blitzer, Dark Eyes Laughs Back via Tumblr Runek Laughs at Turn-One 0-Cost Blitzer, Dark Eyes Laughs Back Foreword It’s taken me a while, but I’m finally getting around to writing up my thoughts about the final two Pantheon packs, since my first reaction video on Twitch timed out and I’ve had some time to think about and/or test these cards. I also decided to break these out into smaller chunks (because I … Continue reading Final Pantheon Card Reviews (First 4 of 24) via Tumblr Final Pantheon Card Reviews (First 4 of 24) It is no longer my intent to maintain the PlanetSide 2 section of this site. Contact me if you are willing to take over this responsibility. Important Announcement syndicated from https://reloadedpcgamespage.wordpress.com/ via Tumblr Important Announcement At the end of November 2018, I received a weird e-mail saying that Daybreak Games wants to send me some holiday gifts, and requested my shipping address. The e-mail didn’t come from Daybreak Games itself, and the person on the other end wasn’t anybody I knew from PlanetSide 2 team. And as an owner of a small, but steady website, I receive a pile of spam and scam email every week. I also made a few enemies over the years. So I was quite suspicious, and reposted the e-mail to PlanetSide 2 reddit, but later was assured by Roxxly there was no foul play involved. And indeed, today I finally received the package. Inside was a one-sided postcard, two metal mugs with “Daybreak Game Company” written on the side, and two pieces of delicious Belgium milk chocolate on a stick. Needless to say, I’m very grateful for this gift. It may be small, but the recognition from the developer team of one of my most favorite games ever is priceless, and the mugs will serve as a lasting reminder of all the fun times I had with it. Christmas gifts from Daybreak Games syndicated from https://reloadedpcgamespage.wordpress.com/ via Tumblr Christmas gifts from Daybreak Games Originally I posted this on reddit, but apparently the mod team has lost all objectivity and removed it, so here’s an exact copy: My Take on PlanetSide Arena Announcement syndicated from https://reloadedpcgamespage.wordpress.com/ via Tumblr My Take on PlanetSide Arena Announcement To properly function, any computer system must be able to accurately measure time. A typical Windows PC has several ways to do so, and using HPET – high precision event timer – is one of them. HPET is most precise timer available to the system, but whole generations of CPUs are affected by what’s been called “HPET bug”: for them, accessing HPET takes ~7 times longer than it should. Similar to Meltdown and Spectre, this is a hardware issue, and cannot be fixed entirely. Skylake X and Kaby Lake X have the worst of it, but it seems to also affect Threadripper, Coffee Lake, and Ryzen. You can read all the technical details in these articles:
By default, HPET is simply on the list of the available timers in Windows. Different timers will be used for different purposes, which is the best case scenario. However, certain pieces of software, such as Ryzen Master and potentially anything related to overclocking, benchmarking or monitoring hardware, can force HPET to be the only timer used by the system. This may be necessary for the normal operation of that software, but on the systems that are affected by the HPET bug, it can lead to a decrease in performance, sometimes quite significant. HPET ConfigurationHPET can be configured in two places: 1) On some motherboards, HPET can be Enabled or Disabled in BIOS. 2) Windows Command Prompt can Force HPET to be always used as the only timer, or you can set Default Settings. So there are four total combinations of these settings: 1) Enabled in BIOS, OS uses Default Settings: HPET will be used as necessary. This is the desired configuration. 2) Enabled in BIOS, Forced in OS: HPET is always used. If your system suffers from the HPET bug, this is where performance problems occur. 3) Disabled in BIOS, OS uses Default Settings: HPET is not available at all. 4) Disabled in BIOS, Forced in OS: HPET is not available at all and there could be a performance impact. It is not recommended to keep HPET Disabled in BIOS, as it can cause stability issues. Additionally, if HPET is Forced in OS and Disabled in BIOS, it can result in skipped frames or otherwise impact your performance. How to configure HPET through Windows Command Prompt:
If the command you entered has successfully changed something, you will get “operation successful” message. If the command was already active, then you will get an “error occurred” message. My Benchmark ResultsI’m using a Core i5 7600k, overclocked to 4.4 GHz on MSI Z270 Gaming M3 motherboard. I ran two sets of benchmarks, one with TimerBench – a benchmark produced by Overclockers.at to specifically demonstrate the performance impact of the HPET Bug. I also ran a primitive benchmark in PlanetSide 2 – I just drove a Prowler near a tower in VR Training and fired HESH shells and Gatekeeper bursts for a minute, using FRAPS to record frametimes and these graphics settings. As you can see, on my machine the performance impact of the HPET bug is quite significant. According to that article from Overclockers.at, how much your particular system is affected by HPET bug – if it all – will depend on your specific hardware and what kind of games you’re playing. The impact seems to be most noticeable when your game is CPU-bound – paired with an overly powerful Graphics Card, in other words. This is a fairly common situation for PS2. CreditsHuge thanks to /u/Oottzz for bringing this issue to my attention and to /u/DastardlyCoxcomb for his input in the same thread. HPET Bug and PlanetSide 2 Performance syndicated from https://reloadedpcgamespage.wordpress.com/ via Tumblr HPET Bug and PlanetSide 2 Performance I haven’t posted anything on this topic for a while, but there were actually a lot of customers asking for help building a PC for PlanetSide 2 and other games.
Depending on the amount of money they were willing to spend, I would offer them one of these typical builds, and then adjust it based on their wishes. Here they are, from cheapest and worst performing to most expensive and best performing. Notes on listed prices:
Finally, keep in mind that prices and recommendations are actual as of July 2018, and will no doubt change with time. UltrabudgetRyzen 2400G BuildApproximate build cost: $420 USD This is the cheapest build that can run PlanetSide 2 at all. It will require a lot of fine tuning and overclocking to squeeze the most performance out of weak hardware. There will be some tough compromises to make in terms of graphics settings, but you might squeeze more or less stable 60 FPS out of it. The heart of the build is Ryzen 2400G CPU, which has 4 cores / 8 threads and comes with an integrated Vega 11 GPU and a stock cooler. This is the second generation of Ryzen CPUs. The first generation featured a lot of cores and threads for considerably lower price than what Intel was offering at the time, and at first AMD razed some hell for sure, but gamers quickly realized that 1st gen Ryzens had poor per-core performance, and most games don’t benefit from multi-threading THAT much. So Intel remained better for gaming, while Ryzens offered a lot of cores for professional applications that benefit from such things. The second generation of Ryzen CPUs (2000 series) improved upon many imperfections, and flagship Ryzen CPUs are a much better competition to similarly priced Intel CPUs. Unlike Intel CPUs, Ryzens don’t typically come with integrated graphics, but 2200G and 2400G are exceptions. They use a cut-down version of the Vega GPU, which is the best GPU currently offered by AMD. Typically, integrated graphics solutions are looked down upon by gamers, and rightfully so, but AMD was having none of that. Integrated Vega GPU is several times more powerful than iGPUs from Intel, and you can actually do some gaming on them. It’s not quite enough to run PlanetSide 2 well, but it will work. Here is a testimony from a player with a similar build. Entry-level GamingCore i3 8100 / Ryzen R3 1200 + GTX 1050 Ti / RX560Approximate Intel + nVidia build cost: $550 USD This is the cheapest build that can run PlanetSide 2 at minimum settings with actually decent performance. Aside from intermittent performance bugs, you’re guaranteed stable 60 FPS no matter what, and you could potentially even turn certain settings up so the game doesn’t look that terrible. Intel + nVidia build offers better performance out of the box, and doesn’t require overclocking or any additional fine tuning. Heart of the build is Core i3 8100, a budget 4-core / 4-thread CPU. GTX 1050 Ti is middle-of-the-road budget graphics card. It is said to be able to run many modern games at medium settings at 60 FPS, and it handles PS2 just fine. The Ryzen R3 1200 is similar to Core i3 8100. It too has 4 cores and 4 threads, but worse per-core performance and doesn’t include an internal GPU. However, it is cheaper, and with some overclocking – which can be done with stock cooler and on cheap B-series motherboards – it can almost reach the performance of i3 8100. This build makes more sense if you plan to upgrade to a more powerful Ryzen CPU in the future. The RX560 offers about the same performance as GTX 1050 (the non-Ti version). Depending on current prices and availability, it can potentially make a more economical choice. AMD Graphics Cards can be preferable if you use or plan to use a monitor that supports FreeSync technology. PlanetSide 2 SpecialistCore i3 8350k + GTX 1060 3GBApproximate build cost: $700 USD This build tries to achieve the best PlanetSide 2 performance while spending as little money as possible. It can easily run PlanetSide 2 at mostly maximum settings and with 100+ FPS, but there are significant tradeoffs in terms of future proofing and convenience. The i3 8350k has 4 cores and 4 threads, and it can be overclocked by multiplier, significantly boosting its per-core performance. It’s one of the most powerful 4-core CPUs out there, like a small racing car. Exactly what PS2 needs. However, it’s not optimal in a lot of other ways. It doesn’t have a stock cooler, costs almost as much as 6 core i5 8400, and requires a more expensive Z-series motherboard in order to be overclocked. i3 CPUs do not automatically regulate their frequency, so if you overclock the CPU, it will always run at high frequency, producing heat and noise, and drawing extra power. You should be able to mitigate this by overclocking through some software that would allow you to create a keybind that would increase or decrease CPU frequency based on what you’re doing. Which is also an extra annoyance no matter how you look at it. The GPU is GTX 1060, which is often called the best Graphics Card for 1080p gaming. The 3GB version is chosen because PlanetSide 2 barely uses 1 GB of VRAM. PlanetSide 2 faces some nasty effects when GPU-bound – weapon Rate of Fire is reduced and you can feel some input lag. Which is where the GTX 1060’s powerful processor comes in, pushing out the framerate at which you become GPU bound. The big downside of this build is that it’s not so great at playing modern and upcoming games; it’s not future proof. 3GB VRAM / 8 GB RAM / 4 CPU threads may not be enough in the nearest future. Another downside is that you will have to overclock the CPU, which is an additional step you have to go through, and it can potentially have negative effects, most notably it will void your CPU warranty. Mainstream GamingCore i5 8400 + GTX 1060 6GBApproximate build cost: $800 USD (including $300 for a GTX 1060 6GB) This build tries to reach a healthy compromise between running PlanetSide 2 and more modern and upcoming games. With more RAM, VRAM and more CPU threads, it’s much more future-proof at a little premium, and it would run PlanetSide 2 almost as good as heavily overclocked i3 8350k build above, without any need for complicated fine-tuning or using an after-market cooler. I believe this build accomplishes all you could ever want for 1080p gaming while spending a sensible amount of money. PC hardware is heavily subjected to diminishing returns; for every extra frame per second you have to pay more and more money. For example, a typical GTX 1070 costs ~66% more than GTX 1060 6GB, while offering 30-40% better performance. This is even worse for CPUs, where a i5 8400 can accomplish in gaming 90-95% of what can do an i7 8700k, which is twice as expensive. So past this point it’s better to invest into quality peripherals and other components, such as SSD and case. Typical PC Builds I recommend for PlanetSide 2 syndicated from https://reloadedpcgamespage.wordpress.com/ via Tumblr Typical PC Builds I recommend for PlanetSide 2 Just as a heads up, my Toolbox is updated to the latest patch and now includes new Flash weapons, as well as Doku Battle Rifles. Toolbox updated syndicated from https://reloadedpcgamespage.wordpress.com/ via Tumblr Toolbox updated |
GameDust
I have been a game tester for about 3 years and make great money testing games. I make a full time living just from my game testing job but I would like to try my hand a product creation so that's what I am researching now. Many might think that the fever of online games has died down, but they couldn't have been more wrong. In fact, online games are most popular today in comparison to what they were a few decades ago. Personal Links |