00:01 <DerpyBot> New post on Equestria Daily by Sethisto: My Little Tale - Episode 5 - Soured Sweet Salts [ http://tinyurl.com/y4qhs4vq ]
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02:01 <DerpyBot> New post on Equestria Daily by Calpain: Nightly Discussion #2285 [ http://tinyurl.com/yy4ohbno ]
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03:01 <DerpyBot> New post on Equestria Daily by Makenshi: Community Classic Remix: Omnipony - Dragon Greed (Karise Murisu Remix) [Dubstep] [ http://tinyurl.com/yyalfmle ]
03:44 * PrincessRainbows falls out of the sky onto Ali and flap flaps
03:45 * Ali squeaks loudly at PrincessRainbows
04:05 * PrincessRainbows looks up at Ali like any little filly and grabby hooves. Huggles?
04:06 * Ali grabs PrincessRainbows and huggles her so much.
04:07 <PrincessRainbows> Yay! Such a good pony
04:47 * Ali nuzzles PrincessRainbows, unicorn never feels like a good pono
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06:10 <PrincessRainbows> I used to feel like that a lot, still do, but given my situation that'd be god-tier
06:20 <PrincessRainbows> Actually nobody ever wants universally good, they really mean 'whatever suits my desires'
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06:27 *** ChanServ sets mode: +o ConfusionRift
06:27 <ConfusionRift> Hello everypony.
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06:53 <Golden> Hm
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07:16 <ConfusionRift> Hmmmmmm...
07:21 <Finwe> Lt Cdr HmmmmmmRift.
07:21 <Finwe> o7
07:23 * Finwe hats on Ali.
07:23 * Ali squeaks at Finwe
07:30 * PrincessRainbows whimpers and grabby hooves at ConfusionRift a lot
07:31 * ConfusionRift grabbies PrincessRainbows and pets. :P
07:32 * PrincessRainbows boops ConfusionRift with her horse plushie and whinnies
07:44 * ConfusionRift booples PrincessRainbows back.
07:45 * PrincessRainbows giggles and whinnies more because horse
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07:58 * PrincessRainbows grabs her pacifier and plushie then curls up with Ali for sleepies like a good little pony. Nini
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08:08 * ConfusionRift booples Ali with Megaman ZX. :P
08:08 * Ali blehs, not a ZX player.
08:10 <ConfusionRift> Understandable. It ain't the best, though I do like it. Even thought it complicates how everything is.
08:12 <ConfusionRift> Not to mention getting lost. Not the best map ever.
08:18 * Alice awakens.
08:18 <Alice> I liked the ZX games a lot.
08:23 <ConfusionRift> Not sure why, but I feel they have a bit of a rough start on normal. But not something that makes it overly difficult, just a bit rough. Nothing like Zero 1. (sighs) Nothing like that mess.
08:25 <ConfusionRift> I do have a bit of a complain about the Megaman Zero/ZX Collection. Just like the other Megaman Collection, it immediately applies that nasty pixel filtering. You can easily turn it off... till you notice pictured cutscenes have it on all the time.
08:25 <Alice> The Zero games are good, too, just, they were messed with, in regards to the whole ranking system.
08:26 <ConfusionRift> I hated the mission system in Z1.
08:26 <Alice> Meanwhile, other Megaman-like games to check out are...
08:28 <ConfusionRift> There's 20XX, but it's more a rogue-like. Still very much following the formula of the X series.
08:28 <Alice> Mighty Gunvolt Burst(NES-style graphics, includes characters from multiple series, and plays a lot like a megaman NES game.), the Gunvolt series(Closer to Zero and ZX series in graphics, mechanics are... interesting.), and...
08:28 <Alice> Dragon Marked For Death
08:29 <Alice> That said, 20XX and 30XX, if you have a set seed to work on, do count, yes.
08:29 <Alice> Especially if you write down the seed, and keep playing the same one over and over.
08:29 <Alice> Devs really should add a "Level select" mode, though.
08:29 <Alice> Akin to the games they're based on.
08:29 * ConfusionRift nods.
08:30 <ConfusionRift> That made it a pain most of the time.
08:31 <Alice> Mm, the way the progression is done limits the game a bit.
08:31 <Alice> Also, all the other games I mentioned are actually done by the same company. The same company that also handled the Zero and ZX games. :P
08:33 <ConfusionRift> Inti Creates... this explains a lo- waaait...
08:34 <ConfusionRift> Huh, they also worked on Blaster Master Zero 1-2.
08:34 <Alice> Yeah.
08:35 <Alice> They also did Mega Man 9 and 10
08:36 <Alice> They were also responsible for Mighty No. 9, which was a bust from what I understand.
08:36 <Alice> That said, they seemed to have learned from that.
08:37 <Alice> Mostly, anyways. Apparently, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 was not as well-received as the first game.
08:37 <ConfusionRift> A lot of... things... happened with Mighty No.9. And still haven't checked the second Curse of the Moon.
08:38 * Alice looks at bank account as she takes a long siiiii- Her eyes go wide.
08:38 <Alice> That's... more than I was expecting from OSAP.
08:38 <ConfusionRift> Hello MX1 callback.
08:39 <Alice> Hmm?
08:39 <ConfusionRift> There's a section in sector D that's a callback to the intro stage in Megaman X1.
08:41 <Alice> Ah, yeah, that.
08:41 <Alice> Meanwhile, regarding the Gunvolt series. I said it's like Zero and ZX in graphical style, and that it's mechanics are interesting.
08:41 <Alice> It's a ranking-based game, like the Zero series, but the system is a lot easier to manage.
08:43 <Alice> I don't recall them off-hand immediately, I'd have to boot up the game(Which I may do, since I really do want to finish that series), but it's mostly based on the damage you do and how you do it.
08:44 <Alice> It builds up a combo counter, that is reset under various conditions, the one I am most certain about is the respawn points. If you touch them(They're visible), your combo is reset to 0 from that point on.
08:45 <Alice> Exceptions to this are stage transitions, which also act as respawn points.
08:45 <Alice> But they don't reset the combo counter.
08:46 <Alice> Essentially, it just amounts mostly to "You have to go through the entire stage in one go, while killing as much stuff as possible, in as many different ways as possible."
08:47 <Alice> Speed helps, but is not as critical as it was in the Zero series. You build up a multiplier as you kill enemies within certain time frames.
08:47 <Alice> As for what the ranking does, it mostly affects the after-stage items you get, which are used to craft restoratives, upgrades, etc.
08:47 <ConfusionRift> Oh no... the filter is on the FMVs.
08:48 <Alice> Are you sure you're seeing a filter, and not a side effect of animation and cutscene pictures in which anti-aliasing of sorts is applied to create a smoother image on raster screens?
08:49 <Alice> Because that is legitimately a thing. Drawings and animation generally don't need the compositing that a 2D video game needs. So they can be smoothed out a bit along the edges and such as part of the process.
08:51 <ConfusionRift> Trust me, it's a filter.
08:53 <Alice> Mmm. In any case, I really don't care in the regard of cutscenes. It's an infrequent thing, so..
08:55 <ConfusionRift> This is kinda how it should look without. https://images.gamersyde.com/image_stream-41612-4422_0002.jpg And this is with the filter. https://news.xbox.com/en-us/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/08/ZX_AreaD_EN.jpg?w=940&resize=940%2C528
08:58 <ConfusionRift> The filter works more like an interconnection of pixels, to smooth them. The problem is that on screen it all looks like smeared messes where pixels should be.
09:00 <ConfusionRift> There's an uneven smoothness between the dialog boxes and what's going on during cutscenes. https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Q1or1OFd-mI/maxresdefault.jpg
09:00 <ConfusionRift> Then agaaaaaain... me being picky.
09:01 <Alice> Huh.
09:01 <Alice> I didn't notice that. Odd.
09:01 <ConfusionRift> That is not native to the original.
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09:02 <Alice> Heh, and I was actually just about to double check and do my own comparison.
09:05 <Finwe> Double-checking requires the other one to be discovered, right?
09:05 <Alice> Heh.
09:08 <Alice> Anyhow, let's see. Gunvolt 1's ranking mechanic is...
09:08 <ConfusionRift> Yeah, can't find a good example.
09:09 <Alice> You destroy an enemy using various methods, you get points added. It appears after a certain number of points, the point multiplier starts to increase.
09:10 <Alice> Ideally, to get the best amount of points, you want to destroy the enemy, or enemies, in the best manner for the situation. You get bonuses for stuff like destroying enemies while in the air, or destroying multiple enemies, or doing a "Full Strike" which involves hitting an enemy with 3 darts first.
09:11 <Alice> You can have up to three darts total hooked up to stuff.
09:11 <Alice> So, for example, you have a group of 3 separate flying enemies? Best way to get points is to hit each one with a dart, then jump and use electricity to kill them all at once.
09:12 <Alice> You'll get extra points for the Aerial kill, and for getting multiple kills off the same electrical burst.
09:14 <Alice> That said, Full Strike is +10 points, Aerial is +30, Double/Triple are +100 or greater. I haven't gotten a triple yet, though I assume it's worth more than a double, which was +100.
09:14 <Alice> Meanwhile, things that reset the score...
09:15 <Alice> Touching respawn points, and, depending on the setting you can choose before a mission starts..
09:15 <Alice> You have Gutless, which lets you keep your score even if you get hit. Probably best approach to work with, when you're practicing.
09:16 <Alice> Since you still get items anyways if you get a low score anyways.
09:16 <Alice> Then there's the middle-of-the-road option, I forget the name, which resets the score after you take damage 3 times.
09:16 <Alice> Then you got Fearless, which is "After getting damaged even once."
09:17 <Alice> You're probably best using the lowest for practice. Then, when you decide to try for a higher score, go with the middle-of-the-road option. Fearless is only for when you're looking to get the absolute best ranking, or extremely rare items.
09:19 <Alice> You are also ranked based on speed, but it appears to be particularly generous.
09:19 <Alice> Even at 5:42:53, it gave me a 4 out of 5 star ranking.
09:20 <Alice> And I also took a lot of damage. So my final rank overall was B.
09:22 <Alice> Looks like on that stage, my best time was... 3:22:19. I don't know what the unit of the third number is. It's sub-second precision, anyways. My rank is S, and the score in the 250,000+ range.
09:22 <Alice> Let's see how badly the score multiplier is modified via gutless mode.
09:24 <Alice> Ah, okay. Normally, the multiplier starts at x10, and at 100 points, it jumps to x20 then builds from there.]
09:24 <Alice> Gutless mode, it starts at x10, but at 100 points, it starts to build from x10.
09:28 <ConfusionRift> Yeah, just checked. The cutscenes match the dialog box. So... odd thing to do, for them to filter the cutscenes.
09:29 <ConfusionRift> Now I remember why I kinda avoided Gunvolt. The ranking system, even with fairness, I know it's gonna be an issue at some point.
09:30 <Alice> I just used Gutless mode, and messed up a lot of jumping, attacks, etc.
09:30 <Alice> I still got an A rank
09:30 <Alice> I got a HIGHER rank than before.
09:30 <Alice> That said, as stated, you still get items even with a low rank.
09:30 <Alice> So, it's not really like, critical to worry about it.
09:31 <ConfusionRift> I wonder if they locked something on easier modes.
09:31 <Alice> Nope.
09:31 <Alice> According to the help dialogue, the only thing that changes is the multiplier starting value at 100 points.
09:32 <Alice> Gutless starts from 10x, the middle-of-the-road is probably 15x, while Fearless is 20x.
09:32 <Alice> And the multiplier can build past 20x on the other modes.
09:33 <Alice> The ranking only seems to affect how many items you can get at the end of a mission.
09:33 <Alice> Not the rarity or anything.
09:33 <Alice> B rank gets 3. A rank gets 7, S rank(and higher, if there is one) gets all 15 items.
09:33 <Alice> I assume, anywyas.
09:35 <Alice> The only other factor is speed. Finish a level faster, you get a multiplier to the score at the end of the tally.
09:35 <Alice> As for Gunvolt 2, and Luminous Avenger(A game that takes place in the same world, only following a different character), I have no idea.
09:36 <ConfusionRift> They reason why I wonder is because both MMZX and Advent lock an item at easier difficulties. I believe one is an e-tank, and the other is health.
09:38 <Alice> Outside of the mechanic switch, the only other difficulty is hard mode, which actually locks you out of a lot of stuff, making the whole point system useless.
09:39 <Alice> Which I think was actually an extra mode added for the Switch release.
09:40 <Alice> Yeah, it disables item synthesis, so you can't get any item-based upgrades. Your HP is reduced considerably, and spikes are instant death.
09:42 <ConfusionRift> Hmm.
09:47 <Alice> So, a new Monster Hunter was announced.
09:47 <Alice> We got Monster Hunter Rise for the Switch, and Monster Hunter Stories 2.
09:47 <Alice> One of these days I'm going to complete a Monster Hunter game.
09:48 * ConfusionRift sigh. "I wish to do the same."
09:48 <ConfusionRift> Well, aside from Freedom 2 Portable.
09:48 <Alice> Rise seems to be a middle ground between Old World and New World, in terms of visual style AND gameplay.
09:49 <Alice> And you can now get doggies instead of kitties.
09:49 <Alice> Plus, new weapon apparently.
09:49 <Alice> Switch only, though, from what I've seen.
09:51 <Alice> Anyhow, yeah. Gunvolt's not as hard on the player as the Zero series is, ranking-wise.
09:54 <Alice> As far as I know, there's no extras from getting a perfect rank, just more items, maybe a better chance for some rarer items, though whether that's because you got more items or not is unknown.
09:55 <Alice> About the only thing "unlocked" from a high ranking, if you can call it unlocking, is the music.
09:56 <Alice> When you get above 1000 points, the music for the stage changes to a vocal track sung by one of the main characters referred to as The Muse.
09:57 <Alice> https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL90WFwE-70gvQwccfL0tYTGuQKTQu2mzV Which, really, you can just listen to on Youtube.
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10:01 * Golden flops. He has finished Persona 5 Royal.
10:12 * Ali rolls around, this new train network and pre set circuits on the inserters confuse her greatly.
10:33 <Alice> Hum.
10:33 <Alice> I want a Japanese keyboard.
10:36 * Lumindia flops on Ali
10:36 * Ali squeaks at Lumindia
10:36 * Lumindia squeaks back, brushes
10:41 * Ali leans into brushies but falls asleep
10:41 *** Quits: Ali (Ali@Pony-m36oor.4nua.5fca.1702.2600.IP) (Quit: Leaving)
10:51 * Golden yawns, and heads off for bed.
11:02 <DerpyBot> New post on Equestria Daily by Calpain: Morning Discussion #2058 [ http://tinyurl.com/y3gc3hto ]
11:02 * Alice orders a new SD card. Her Switch uses a 128GB card which is getting full.
11:05 <ConfusionRift> Yeah, and tehre aren't that many memory options for the Switch.
11:05 <Alice> You can go upwards to 1TB, these days.
11:05 <Alice> But that's like, $300+ right now.
11:05 <ConfusionRift> Eeeeeexactly.
11:06 <Alice> Meanwhile, the 512 is $150 CAD.
11:06 <ConfusionRift> Got a 256, which is still resolving.
11:07 <Alice> I actually paid a little more than I should have. Officially, the Switch can only handle up to 90MBytes/sec approximately, read/write. I grabbed a higher end card that exceeds that. Whenever I finish up with that card for the future, I plan to just slot it into my laptop and add an extra 500GB to the laptop.
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11:17 * Alice also orders a wireless stereo speaker device. Not a smart one, but just a regular ole' speaker.
11:18 <Alice> I'm trying to cut down on wires as of late. Outside of keyboard and mouse, I have way too many wires everywhere else.
11:18 <Alice> Plus, this allows me to move the speaker anywhere in the house, including downstairs.
11:23 <Alice> That's it for big purchases, though.
11:23 <Alice> Rest of my money should be spent on stuff I need. New clothes, etc.
11:25 <Alice> Whelp, the 3DS is officially "dead"
11:26 <Lumindia> yep
11:26 <Alice> I'm still waiting to hear what Atlus has in store for the EO series.
11:30 <Alice> Honestly though, I'm not expecting the series to continue at this point. It'd be hard to do without the second touchscreen. I know of ways it can be implemented on the Switch, but they'd either require holding the Switch in an unorthodox orientation, or having to swap back and forth between gameplay and the map.
11:30 * Alice gets to coding for today.
11:31 <Alice> Right, so if I want to do a bullet hell game, I'll need to do some optimization.
11:31 * Schism awakens, and frowns. "It's EO. Why not just do a split-screen configuration with the visualization of the dungeon on the left and the map on the right?"
11:31 <Alice> That's the approach they can do too, yes.
11:31 <Alice> But it'd feel clunky.
11:31 <Schism> True.
11:31 <Alice> Hence the unorthodox holding method.
11:31 <Alice> Rotate the Switch 90 degrees.
11:31 <Alice> Lower half of the screen becomes the map, upper half the playing field.
11:32 <Alice> The other issue is with respect to styluses.
11:32 <Alice> Though I'm told there are some pretty precise stylus options for the Switch now.
11:32 <Alice> Optimization, optimization... Hum...
11:32 <Alice> I can use instancing.
11:33 <Schism> Plus, can always zoom in on a portion of the map for editing purposes.
11:33 <Alice> Mmhmm.
11:33 <Alice> That's usually what you do in the original games, after all.
11:33 <Alice> There's no reason we can't zoom in further.
11:33 <Alice> This danmaku game... I'm going to implement a special feature.
11:34 <Alice> It's gonna support 90-degree fill-a-16:9-screen rotation.
11:35 <Alice> Since, ye know, you can rotate some monitors, all if you have a proper VESA mount for it.
11:36 <Alice> So, instancing. Can definitely work. I'll have to use some special tricks, though.
11:36 <Alice> Luckily for me, I never friggen stop learning, even when I want to, to take a break.
11:36 <Alice> So I know what I can and cannot do these days.
11:37 * ConfusionRift chuckles. Was reminded that Darius still supports the use of ultra wide screens.
11:38 <Alice> Use a single, "default" quad. Provide a texture buffer that contains information for each quad, utilizing a sprite index, a position, a size, and rotation. Do all the math in the shaders instead of in the application.
11:38 <Alice> Turns out, my sprite renderer is limited in performance due to the application speed.
11:38 <Alice> Not rendering speed.
11:39 <Alice> Let's see...
11:42 <Alice> Sprite index is an integer. Let's just make it an unsigned 32-bit integer for ease of use. So up to 4.2 billion possible different sprites for usage. Position is floating point. Size is floating point. Rotation is floating point. Scale is floating point. Color can be floating point or integer(0-255 mapping to 0.0-1.0).
11:42 <Alice> I can't mix integer and floating point data in a texture buffer.
11:43 <Alice> So, I can either use an integer texture buffer and use fixed-point for all the floating-point stuff, which means a bit more math in the shader, or I can split into two texture buffers, one integer, one floating point. Or, I can forgo sprite index, and just add in specification for texture coordinates.
11:45 <Alice> ... Hold on, this is just the same damned thing as the approach I'm using now. It wouldn't be any faster.
11:45 <Alice> I need to figure out where most of the time is being spent in the loop, then, and optimize that.
11:57 <Alice> Knowing my luck, it's probably the buildup of the batch list.
11:58 <Alice> Constantly resizing the array and copying new data into it is expensive.
11:59 <Alice> In the interim of building this bit of code, let's take a look at a game while I wait.
11:59 <Alice> Or not, the build failed.
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12:01 <Alice> ... According to this, it's not the code that adds a new batch. It's the batch processing.
12:02 <DerpyBot> New post on Equestria Daily by Sethisto: Hope Shines Eternal Unreleased Demo Version Appears on Youtube [ http://tinyurl.com/y4q5ugz5 ]
12:07 <Alice> Optimized build, glFinish() call, no drawing, 2200FPS. Optimized build, no glFinish() call, no drawing, 2200FPS. Optimized build, glFinish() call, drawing 1000 sprites, 500 FPS. Optimized build, no glFinish() call, drawing 1000 sprites, 1400 FPS. That said, I'm not sure how accurate that last one actually is.
12:08 <Alice> glFinish() flushes everything, and forces everything to be drawn AT that moment in the call. It synchronizes the GPU and CPU, basically.
12:09 <Alice> Without it, every drawing call is asynchronous. They return immediately, and drawing will happen at some point, but I'm not sure when. As a result, the FPS counter becomes inaccurate, because it's not actually counting rendered frames.
12:17 <Alice> Okay, so that's how it works. And huh, you can draw directly to the front buffer if you want.
12:20 <Alice> Hmm.
12:21 * ConfusionRift flops asleep.
12:21 *** Quits: ConfusionRift (ConfusionRi@Pony-af1.q75.95.23.IP) (Quit: Recharging the batteries. Laters! *shutdown*)
12:27 <Alice> Now that, is interesting.
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12:39 <Alice> So, drawing to the front buffer after a buffer swap while using vsync results in less "lag" in a virtual mouse cursor.
12:39 <Alice> There's still a delay, though.
12:46 * Alice hums. Is trying to figure out how to resolve the lag between input and display.
13:02 *** Quits: Golden (uid250033@Pony-98m470.irccloud.com) (Quit: Connection closed for inactivity)
13:04 <RazorSharpFang> What if you have the texture of the previous render less the cursor, and re-render the cursor over that texture multiple times?
13:11 <Alice> I considered that, but haven't tried it yet. The core of the problem is that when you enable vsync, and then do a swap buffers call, the program will stall, waiting for the vsync. So you can't just keep drawing the scene over and over, with the mouse in the new position just as it's queried.
13:11 <Alice> Once you initiate that swap buffers, everything stops.
13:11 <RazorSharpFang> Can you disable vsync between renders?
13:13 <Alice> You can actually get around it by drawing to an offscreen framebuffer, then blitting that to the backbuffer, then doing a swap when needed.
13:13 <Alice> There's still problems involved, though.
13:14 <Alice> There's no interrupt or anything to indicate when a vblank is about to occur.
13:15 <Alice> The moment you initiate that swap, you cannot do any more rendering, because it's waiting to swap the buffer. You would need to time the call just right so that the time between the call and the vblank is minimal.
13:16 * Schism randomly passes Alice a Reuben.
13:16 * Alice noms. That reminds her, she should probably eat soon.
13:17 <Schism> Not a bad idea, all things considered.
13:17 <Alice> Interestingly, the OpenGL wiki recommends that if I want to do something akin to what I'm trying to achieve, then I should utilize HPET/Multimedia timers.
13:17 <RazorSharpFang> You could always just load a custom .cur file and instruct the OS to display that when your app is in focus.
13:18 <RazorSharpFang> You know if you want to sell your soul to Microsoft again.
13:18 <Alice> Yeah, that's usually what's done, but that comes with a price.
13:18 <Alice> Besides selling one's soul to Microsoft.
13:18 <Alice> Usually, the hardware cursors have limitations.
13:18 <RazorSharpFang> You can actually buy it back for less than you sell it for if you time it right, and the market swings in our direction.
13:18 <Alice> Such as number of bits per pixel, how frequently it can be updated, etc.
13:19 <Alice> This is why some games prefer a software cursor.
13:19 <Alice> Because the functionality is improved.
13:19 <Alice> But it usually comes at the cost of having some amount of lag.
13:20 <Alice> In theory, simply drawing to the front buffer after the buffer swap should suffice, but it doesn't work right with swap intervals.
13:21 <Alice> Although, I suppose the reason it doesn't is because it doesn't take into account the cursor updates following. Hmm.
13:21 <Alice> That's probably why the timers are needed.
13:22 <RazorSharpFang> Alice, incidentally, are there good C# libraries for building a game in C#?
13:23 <Alice> Monogame.
13:23 <Alice> It's basically a re-implementation of XNA.
13:23 <RazorSharpFang> Is it compatible with Dot-Net 5?
13:23 <Alice> Should be.
13:24 <Alice> The most recent release is built against .NET Standard 2.0, instead of the old .NET Framework.
13:24 <RazorSharpFang> There's .Net Standard 2.1 now
13:24 <Alice> There has been for a while, but as I understand it, no one uses it.
13:24 <Alice> Or targets it.
13:29 <RazorSharpFang> Have you used Mono game before?
13:34 <Alice> Yes.
13:36 <RazorSharpFang> Is it straightforward enough?
13:37 * Lumindia steals Schism for hugs!
13:37 <Lumindia> o wo
13:37 <Lumindia> map night last night was AWFUL
13:38 <Lumindia> we only got seven portals out of twenty-eight maps
13:38 <Schism> I would feel sad for you, but after crowing about the past few weeks' worth of map nights, you had the law of averages coming to you.
13:39 * Schism still snugs the Lumin, though.
13:40 <Alice> Sorry for the delays.
13:40 <Alice> Anyways, yes, it's straightforward enough. In fact, it's straightforward enough that I'm debating just switching over to it for this project.
13:41 <Schism> On the one hand, I should be playing FFXIV. On the other, I think that I'll be poking Disgaea 2.
13:42 <Schism> (Again.)
13:42 <Lumindia> <blip> <bleep> FoR rIFt ENergY uNnecEsSAry iT iS? oUtPut mAXimiZeD, BUg mAss pROducTiOn... <bleep> hELLo, WOrlD!?
13:43 <Lumindia> oh wow that didn't trigger the anti caps spam
13:43 <Lumindia> I thought for sure it would have
13:43 <Schism> Wasn't 60% by weight.
13:43 <Lumindia> also, I actually caught an ishgard fate
13:46 * Lumindia readies Hello World
13:47 <Lumindia> It wasn't even MY luck
13:48 <Lumindia> someone else stole all the luck from our FC
14:03 <Alice> Right, I'm done with this. I'm just gonna use the OS-native functionality to set the danged cursor.
14:06 * PrincessRainbows looks up at Lumindia like any little filly and hugs tightly
14:06 <Schism> I'm given to understand that software cursors are much more trouble than they're worth.
14:06 <Alice> They are.
14:06 * Lumindia hugs Rainbows
14:06 <Lumindia> <3
14:07 <Schism> Not least when you're trying to program a game which is meant to run on a number of systems.
14:07 * Schism noms on one of Alice's ears, randomly.
14:07 * Lumindia noms Schism's ear
14:07 * Finwe noms on Lumindia in general.
14:08 * Schism waits patiently for Alice to nom Lumindia's ear.
14:08 * Lumindia is nom'd
14:08 * Alice noms Finwe's ear.
14:08 <Lumindia> an equestrian ourboros(sp)
14:08 * PrincessRainbows licks Lumindia excitedly and boops
14:08 <Schism> Alas, the earoboros is broken.
14:09 <Lumindia> F
14:09 <Alice> The simplest solution to getting a software cursor to be snappy is to just rely on a high framerate. This involves either disabling vsync altogether, or using nVidia's Fast Sync.
14:11 <Alice> Hmm.
14:11 <RazorSharpFang> More polygons is better, right?
14:12 * PrincessRainbows offers all the horses hay
14:12 <Schism> Sure, just ask the FF14 1.0 team.
14:12 <Alice> Oh gods.
14:13 <Alice> That wasn't a polygon issue, that was more a shader issue. Though the polygons did contribute to the problem.
14:14 <Schism> Ultimately, it just wasn't coded right. I'm sure that they could've gotten away with that many polys if they had more than a year to build the damned engine.
14:14 <Schism> To build that engine around that, anyway.
14:18 <Alice> Heh.
14:20 <Alice> Anyways, the crux of the problem here is that in order for the cursor to appear snappy, you need to repeatedly poll the mouse, and then draw the cursor at the new position immediately afterwards. However, there is no way to do this when you have vsync enabled. Disabled, less of a problem, but then you have tearing.
14:21 <Alice> Of course, on a fast monitor, and with the framerate exceeding the monitor refresh rate, tearing becomes less of an issue, I've noticed.
14:21 <Alice> I've played games on my 144Hz monitor, at around 100 FPS, vsync disabled, and I don't notice the tearing as much, if at all. It's there, oh it's there, but it's just too fast for me to notice it.
14:23 <Alice> The reason the hardware cursor is so snappy has to do with low-level stuff and hardware.
14:26 <Alice> Not sure how exactly it's done, but I can make some guesses.
14:28 <Alice> The most prominent idea that comes to mind is that there's a small region of fast memory set aside for an image, a bitmask, and some informational data on the GPU or display. It's manipulated by a protocol to upload an image, and adjust that informational data. The informational data being the X and Y location to draw the cursor image onto the image that the screen is about to show. That is, drawing the cursor is handled
14:28 <Alice> entirely by the display or GPU.
14:29 <Alice> All that needs to be changed to move the cursor around on the image is the X and Y coordinates, which can be updated multiple times per frame, and what ultimately gets shown is the most recent X/Y coordinate.
14:30 <Alice> Technically what I'm doing here, so for the framerate I'm using, the positions will always be accurate for the moment the buffer swap occurs.
14:30 <Alice> But between that swap and the next, the cursor's position on the screen cannot be modified.
14:30 <Alice> So there's a visual disconnect between the hardware cursor and the software cursor.
14:31 <Alice> That said, it's clear the hardware cursors today can handle 32-bit color. I'm not sure if changing it frequently is viable, though.
14:32 <Alice> But you could definitely create an animated hardware cursor, properly scaled according to the game and it's UI scaling.
14:32 <Alice> It's just, there's no portable way to do it.
14:33 <Alice> It pretty much involves looking at the OS and GUI subsystem you're on, and using OS/GUI-specific calls to change the cursor.
14:36 <Alice> Overall, though, it's as Schism said. More trouble than it's worth.
14:38 <Alice> Guh..
14:38 <Alice> My head is pounding.
14:38 <Alice> Not a sinus headache, for once.
14:38 <Alice> ... Oop, I should take the triptan, then.
14:38 <Schism> Yerp.
14:40 <Alice> I'm starting to think I wouldn't be able to safely live on my own.
14:40 <Alice> When I get into stuff, I get so into it that I forget to take care of myself.
14:40 <Alice> Were it not for my parents and friends, I'd probably be anorexic and/or in much greater agony than I usually am.
14:42 <Alice> Hum.
14:42 <Alice> With respect to the Gunvolt games and it's scoring mechanic..
14:43 <Alice> Based on Luminous Avenger's "Demo Mode", the default, intended kudos style is supposed to be Cautious. 3 hits and your kudos are dropped to 0.
14:43 <Alice> Which means Gutless is "Easy mode" and Fearless is "You're crazy."
14:45 <Alice> Heh, that's a neat little extra in the first stage.
14:46 <Alice> Partway through the start, you have to use an elevator, but it won't move. So to start it up, you have to dart the control panel and use the Flashfield to get it going. If you continue to use the Flashfield, it supercharges the elevator and makes it move faster.
14:48 *** Quits: RazorSharpFang (RazorSharpF@Pony-i17ogc.tpgi.com.au) (Connection closed)
15:02 * PrincessRainbows whimpers and clutches Lumindia like a plushie
15:02 <Alice> Hum, I should go start up Disgaea 4 Complete+ on my PC. Yes, I bought it again for my PC. Bought the entire collection, in fact. Only cost me $60. But there's a benefit. o3o
15:03 * Alice wants to hack the save files. See if she can change classes of characters to classes not available for creation. See also: Creating characters of monster classes before they're unlocked. Wants her succubus from the start. o3o
15:04 <Alice> Betting right now that the files are encrypted.
15:04 <Alice> Or secured in some manner.
15:08 <Alice> Well, let's find out! o3o
15:13 <Alice> Ooooh yeah, definitely encrypted or compressed.
15:14 <Alice> More likely encrypted, since these two saves, outside of the "accumulated time" recorded, should be 100% identical. They aren't.
15:15 <Alice> That said, there are a lot of areas which *AREN'T* different. But I'm gonna bet that the encrypted data is likely roster data.
15:16 <Alice> I'll figure it out another day, then. Encrypted data's just too much for my head to handle right now.
15:56 <Alice> Geezus, Inti really added a bunch of new characters to Mighty Gunvolt Burst.
15:58 <Alice> Besides Beck and Gunvolt, we now have... Koro, Call, Joule, Ray, Copen, Kurona and Tenzou.
16:02 <DerpyBot> New post on Equestria Daily by Makenshi: Lyra & Bon Bon Music: Vyprae - Never Forget You [Electro] [ http://tinyurl.com/y2ucwerj ]
16:27 *** Joins: alissq (alissq@tor.sasl.alissq)
16:49 *** Quits: alissq (alissq@tor.sasl.alissq) (Ping timeout: 121 seconds)
17:02 <DerpyBot> New post on Equestria Daily by Sethisto: Comics: Hot Drink / One Stormy Night #15 / Solved by Lyra / Chaos Future #183 [ http://tinyurl.com/y4e3m9d7 ]
17:04 * PrincessRainbows whimpers and curls up in the corner. Sometimes I just wonder, why are people so mean
17:19 *** Joins: Pony|65666 (Pony65666@Pony-i454b4.cable.virginm.net)
17:27 *** Joins: Ali (Ali@Pony-n3j093.iplsin.sbcglobal.net)
17:27 *** ChanServ sets mode: +qo Ali Ali
17:28 * PrincessRainbows flops on Ali and whimpers more
17:29 * Ali eeps and hugs and pets PrincessRainbows so much.
17:38 *** Joins: Fn (Eogan@Pony-on9jbm.dip0.t-ipconnect.de)
17:40 * Alice claims the title of "Sleep Goddess."
17:41 *** Quits: FruitNibbler (Eogan@Pony-qg8efo.dip0.t-ipconnect.de) (Ping timeout: 121 seconds)
17:52 <Alice> Metal Slug, a completely nonsensical series in which you need a helmet to breathe underwater, but the POWs you rescue don't. Oh, and the enemy drops tanks on you as a way of fighting you while you're underwater. Not damaged tanks, pristine, new tanks. Yeah, let's put those resources to good use.
17:53 <Alice> Oh, and aliens, zombies, being turned into zombies and continuing to fight afterwards..
17:54 <Tirek> Anybody wanna buy daddy Tirek's soda. 4 bucks a liter, but I buy back the bottles for $2.50.
17:54 <Tirek> I got root beer right now.
17:55 <Tirek> Ingredients are locally sourced and organic. And its made using natural alchemical processes. Full of probiotic goodness that'll cleans your gut without tasting like chalk.
17:58 <Alice> I'd buy some, but it'd get stuck at the border.
17:58 <Tirek> Probably, yeah.
17:58 <Tirek> To be fair, I'm not entirely sure about the laws regarding the production of and selling of consumables.
17:59 <Tirek> But I'd want to eventually open up a local shop selling pop at some point.
17:59 <Tirek> What worries me is, that since it is a natural process, a little bit of alcohol is produced as a byproduct.
18:00 <Alice> Pretty sure it would be stopped at the border due to laws regarding entering Canada with non-native foodstuffs.
18:02 <DerpyBot> New post on Equestria Daily by Sethisto: <unspecified> [ http://tinyurl.com/yxw4pfhb ]
18:13 *** Joins: alissq (alissq@tor.sasl.alissq)
18:20 <Finwe> Mlles Ali, Alice, Filly_Nightmares, PrincessRainbows and Schism; Messrs Tirek and Starlight_Glimmer.
18:20 * Finwe doffs his hat.
18:20 <Finwe> Lt Pony|65666.
18:20 <Finwe> o7
18:20 * Pony|65666 waves!
18:32 <DerpyBot> New post on Equestria Daily by Calpain: SFM: Change of Plans [ http://tinyurl.com/y3b84upn ]
18:58 *** Joins: PinkieShy (PinkieShy@Pony-ck81je.67-212-45-net.sccoast.net)
18:58 <PinkieShy> Hihi
19:06 <Finwe> Mr PinkieShy.
19:06 * Finwe doffs his hat.
19:16 <Alice> !link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF2UwcIZ-DI Sweet geezus.
19:16 <DerpyBot> I need to ask Twilight about that one.
19:16 <DerpyBot> Twilight told me this video is about [TAS] GC Ikaruga \\\"maximum score\\\" by keylie in 21:29.4
19:32 <Schism> Tirek: So long as there's less than .5% alcohol, it can still be legally sold as non-alcoholic, if my memory of laws serves.
19:32 * Schism flops in over her break. "Oh, did you eventually watch that GalaxyTrail stream?"
19:32 *** Quits: alissq (alissq@tor.sasl.alissq) (Ping timeout: 121 seconds)
19:35 <Tirek> No, I haven't. Like I said, Strife's manner of speaking bores me.
19:35 <Tirek> Shang Mu Architect is being shown off publicly now, though.
19:35 * PrincessRainbows hugs PinkieShy really tight and whimpers
19:36 <Schism> Ah, fair enough.
19:36 * PinkieShy licks princessrainbows a bunch as he is happy to see her.
19:36 <Tirek> https://twitter.com/WhiteLilyDragon/status/1306766901595471873
19:38 <Tirek> And also
19:38 <Tirek> https://twitter.com/WhiteLilyDragon/status/1302449935380623360
19:40 <PrincessRainbows> I'm not honestly, myself I mean
19:40 <Tirek> I've been watching her build this thing for four years.
19:51 * Starlight_Glimmer feeds ice cream to Ali
19:53 <Alice> Much to the displeasure of speedrunners and TASers everywhere, it appears that the version of Super Mario 64 on the 3D collection for the Switch fixes numerous bugs, including the backwards long jump bug.
20:02 <DerpyBot> New post on Equestria Daily by Sethisto: Scootaloo's Aunts Get the Focus in My Little Pony Comic #93 [ http://tinyurl.com/y24c96kj ]
20:47 <Lumindia> Alice: It's basically the Shindou edition
20:47 <Alice> Yeah.
20:48 * Dappled is horse.
20:53 * Dappled flops. Is now on a unknown time limit to beat pokemon games. They have stopped production on all 3dS models, but who knows how long they'll keep the online portion up for games on it up.
20:56 * Dappled can only hope that they treat it like Playstation did with the original Demon's Souls. That things servers were going until a year or so ago and that was a PS3 title.
21:06 <Dappled> It wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't trying to beat like... 6 of the buggers.
21:22 <Schism> Lunchtime...
21:22 <Dappled> Lunch is a good time.
21:23 <Schism> Tis. I shall be making a large Reuben.
21:40 * PrincessRainbows whinnies at Dappled too, because also horse
21:41 * Dappled nods sagely. He should go empty the dishwasher like a good roommate.
21:44 * Lumindia makes horse noises at dappled
21:44 <Lumindia> ' v'
21:52 *** Quits: PinkieShy (PinkieShy@Pony-ck81je.67-212-45-net.sccoast.net) (Quit: Quit)
21:57 * Dappled horses at Lumindia.
22:02 <DerpyBot> New post on Equestria Daily by Sethisto: Drawfriend Stuff (Pony Art Gallery) #3465 [ http://tinyurl.com/y6sggmtj ]
22:08 * PrincessRainbows horses more because a lot of horses
22:09 * Dappled must unfortunately do the work thing. yay friday though
22:36 *** Quits: PrincessRainbows (foal@Just.A.Little.Filly) (Quit: brb)
22:39 *** Joins: LittleRainbows (foal@Just.A.Little.Filly)
22:39 *** LittleRainbows is now known as PrincessRainbows
22:39 <PrincessRainbows> huh
22:40 <PrincessRainbows> misconfigured I guess
22:41 *** Joins: Stormspark (stormspark@Pony-25m.dcd.98.172.IP)
22:44 *** PrincessRainbows is now known as MaredoggieRainbows
23:07 * Alice flops about.
23:59 * MaredoggieRainbows sniffs around for a pony to boop
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