Ross Scott

On 1/5/2019 at 10:49 PM, Presence said:

Very good, although I think you got Youtubed; there's a couple of patches of heavy compression in the early bits.

 

Man, the airboat still makes me want to hurl. I think I'll need to watch those sections windowed.

I announced it IMMEDIATELY after it got processed for 1080p.  If I could manage things better (maybe someday), I'd let it sit on Youtube for 24 hours actually, I've noticed the color is more accurate for videos after it's had more time to process.

Ask questions or suggest topics in the link here on reddit to be talked on for the next videochat at 5:00pm UTC on January 12th at twitch.tv/rossbroadcast.  I'll have an update on The Movie (short version is it's absolutely still happening, but I'm not as far along as I'd wanted to be by now), and I'll detail some misc. plans I have to try and get more done this year.  Freeman and misc. videos I've been wanting to do are what's planned next.  I have Game Dungeon stuff I'm looking forward to, but that's unlikely to happen this month since I've neglected FM for a long time due to the recording situation last year.

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Freeman's Mind returns!  I never intended to have this long a gap between episodes, but with my recording situation upended for a good chunk of past year, that was the sole reason for the delay.  Things have stabilized though and this year I hope to make up for the relative lack of Freeman.  This one was a longer episode where I would have normally split it into two different ones, but I figured with there being such a long absence, it would be better to push it farther.  It kind of showed in production to be honest, since I think I had to deal with more individual bug fixes than any other episode (though not as serious as others I've encountered before).  That's the magical Source engine.

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RaTcHeT302: While I'm aware of tonal or presentation differences between some episodes, I can honestly say I'm not aware why this one wouldn't live up to the style, while something like Revenant would.  Maybe I'm forgetting things, but I don't recall much of a difference in my approach.  The main difference I can think of is the content of the game itself is more vibrant in Revenant with the colors and the music really has top notch tracks in that one.   In that case, there's not really anything I can do on my end aside from covering different games, but I thought this one was worthy and as I got deeper into it, it kept surprising me.

 

I've found a similar feeling from some Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes.  Some movies are so bad even the cast can't save them compared to ones that are more enjoyably bad.

Merry Christmas from the Game Dungeon!  Maybe someday I'll actually have a Christmas episode out a few days in advance, but that's not happening this year.  I think this one came out pretty well for what I had to work with.  It certainly is a game.

Freeman's Mind will be coming ASAP, but it will still be a few days due to me prioritizing this video to make it out in time.  I hope to have streaming of something on my birthday on the 28th and a play session with fans (probably of Planetside 2) on Saturday 29th, but things are still a bit tight at the moment. 

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I always hate having these before I have a new video released, but here's the latest videochat with fans.  More rambling as usual, nothing too important, except I'm hoping to have two more real videos out by Christmas.  We'll see what actually happens, but more videos are coming soon!

Also, I got sidetracked in the chat, but I meant to add the movie Heavy Metal 2000 has a great soundtrack.

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Ask questions or suggest topics in the link here on reddit to be talked on for the next videochat at 4:30pm UTC on December 15th at twitch.tv/rossbroadcast.

My apologies about the videos running late, but I have a lot of good stuff coming, starting this month.  Freeman's Mind and a Christmas episode are still looking to come on time.

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Here's the November videochat with fans.  Has the usual rambling; one of the most voted questions for me was about the survival of mankind and capitalism.  That one took me a while to answer, otherwise normal session.  I also said Asmodeus when I meant Ozymandias.  More Freeman's Mind coming!

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Next videochat with fans will be at 3:30PM UTC on November 18th at twitch.tv/rossbroadcast. You can ask questions or topics to bring up in the link below.  Currently my air situation is good, but requires constant maintenance.  Still working on getting my recording setup better, hope to have Freeman's Mind out later this month, regardless, a lot of Freeman's Mind is what's next.

Ask questions here.

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This is just a minor update to let people know there may be a short delay on the next videos, but Freeman's Mind should be next.  I almost wasn't going to make this post, since people might think I was making it up.   The short version is the mold returned.  We almost sure it's because of humidity (it hit 91% a couple days ago and it's been 81% in our apartment despite having windows open).  We have JUST had a dehumidifier delivered which I'm hoping solves things.

In addition, I became suspect of my desk, which might have been harboring some of it, so I'm currently typing on stacked end tables (I actually edited Death's Hangover like this, it wasn't pleasant).  And due to me not acting fast enough, my headphone support bracket has also snapped, so my headphones are compromised as well.  If someone has access to a 3D printer with strong plastic material and would be interested in printing small parts for me, please email me, especially if you're in Europe, I can pay for shipping.  Here's a link to the 3D print model I need.

Even if none of this happened, I was planning on getting some more sound absorbent material to cut down on echo anyway, which can take time to ship. 

 

ADHD version: Ross is having a delay, could use a 3D printed part.

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I still haven't figure out the quote system.  I clicked on "quote" and it did nothing.

 

BTGBullseye: Those are awesome choices.  Jake and Elwood especially would be fantastic choices for a zombie survival story.

 

Veyrdite: I had a similar feel making it, it was originally intended to lead up to a bigger episode, instead it had to serve as its own.  I think DR2C helped tie it off, but it could be a bit of a warning for me to be more choosy about which games I cover, because the less there is of a hook for me to latch onto, the more it can turn out like this.  As for the dead game aspect, I figure I cover that on DGN, so I didn't want to hammer it as hard on RGD anymore (I almost had a line like that in the episode, but it was just a death march getting all this done.  I do have more coming along those lines however.

Welcome to the late Halloween episode that I'm actually okay with being late!  This wasn't the original plan, but this past month has been a series of mild crises + rapid plan alterations.  I feel like Halloween this year for Game Dungeon was a solid fumble that was recovered.   Here's the result!

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Here is the Halloween-Sampler-Pack-turned-Halloween-episode!  My plans got VERY derailed this year, but this is actually a very solid stand-in.  The number of small edits I had to do on this one were a bit boggling, possibly a record for the series, but I'm quite pleased with how this came out.  Anyway, while this is all I have for Halloween, since it's going to be over soon, I have something else planned coming before too long. Check back in a few days!

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October videochat with fans.  At new location.  I ramble a bit at first, but then get to the point. Halloween videos coming soon!  Freeman's Mind should be coming November!  Videos!

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Here's the first Halloween Game Dungeon!  I'm starting this far later than I intended, but expect more Halloween coming this month!  This is the first video recorded at my new location and I haven't gotten the audio ironed out completely yet, but was able to make it better with filtering.

The website is still partially completed, but hopefully this posts.

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5 hours ago, Im_CIA said:

Ross, I mentioned this on another thread, but if you're going prevent BTG from using his Data gif, then you must seriously consider the possibility of the Crystalline Entity manifesting and killing everyone on this site.

No, we're safe, that was a different episode.

I'm 10 kinds of busy at the moment (hope to have working refrigerator soon to put in perspective).  I'll just say everything (downloadable files, past articles, etc.) will come back, it just may not happen all at once.

daniel: I do remember some animated avatars being distracting, I may have to stick with static ones.

Luis: The website is going to get an awesome promotion + video later on, but not now, this is all going to roll out gradually.  The promotion will be related to a feature I have planned later that I think a bunch of people are going to like and may permanently increase traffic.

Dead Game News again! This was an episode I was undecided if I was going to make it or not, since it wasn’t too critical, but finally ended up making it. This one rounds out the previous one more than anything else and doesn’t have anything groundbreaking in it, but had some topics I wanted to expand upon. Anyway, I have a lot of videos planned for October, but I am moving in a matter of days, so I may not be able to respond to anything for a while. Additionally, the website is getting updated very soon, so you may be locked out before too long, but it shouldn’t last more than a week. If I have any updates on twitter, I’ll post them if the site is still down

Comments disabled here this time since the site may start transitioning very soon (you can still post on Youtube).
Note from 2018-10-25: This post has been restored, along with enabling comments.

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Here's the September videochat with fans. There's not a lot of changes since last time, most of the video is just me rambling, but I had a lot of good questions this time. This should hopefully be the LAST video at this location, as moving is still my top priority AND there are apartments I can rent now. After I move, focus will be on a spree of Freeman's Mind videos + maybe some Halloween ones.

 

COMMENTS

Lots of comments! I was super busy when I made this, so I didn't have a chance to respond:

 

I was interested in how Ross' view that adding redundancy into a game at the start of development to allow it to be converted from a central server setup to allow for private servers in the future would actually work. If for example the game stored information to a database backend (such as say character customisation) would the only way to allow it to run on a private server be to remove such functionality from the game and have the game converted to an experience akin to say HL2-DM where you have 8? characters to choose from and that's that - because I could see people losing access to the core experiences of a game such as in this example character customisation being nearly as upset as if the whole game shut down.

I may address this in a future DGN video. The easiest answer I can think of would be to just keep a 1.0 version of the game with private servers on ice, release that + as much relevant source code as you can. Yes, it won't be AS good as the updated central server experience, but then you're at least left with SOMETHING at the end. Right now, you get absolutely nothing. I feel like this is a debate between whether you should get a baloney sandwich or a 3 course meal when the reality is you're starving in the desert.

 

This brings up a really important point. Who best do you try and motivate to prevent games dying? Legislation would force everyone's hand, but that's hard. Videos can take the end users and some developers. Perhaps an important missing step is trying to find out how making games not die can appear more profitable to non-devs in game companies. Target the management rather than gov, devs or users.

 

What we need is a way of encourage managers to think about archivability and.... no. I don't think is going to work. Not unless I can somehow work it into the same sentence as "open plan offices" or "downsizing". I am the embodiment of defeatism, sticking to trying to convince the public might be a better idea.

First, I'm not actually trying to get legislation passed. Not because I'm against it, but because I think that would be basically impossible for someone in my position. My plan is to enforce laws that are already on the books in countries where this practice counter to it, it's just no one is paying attention.

 

Second, I'm actually with you on the "find out how making games not die can appear more profitable to non-devs." I'm acting under the assumption that's impossible. Afterall, preserving a game would require at least SOME effort as opposed to NO effort, so you lose every time. The analogy I make is it's like somebody on the street running a rigged cup game so people lose every time. He said he would be happy to run it legitimately if he could make more money doing that. Well, since he's committing fraud, that's not really possible. The only real option left is to call the cops on him. That's the mentality I'm taking here.

 

If it's just Steam's DRM then it's really easy to crack with a program called Steamless https://github.com/atom0s/Steamless

Thanks, I'll have to mention that in a future video.

 

This might be of interest to you Ross: https://fckdrm.com/

 

CD Projekt (GOG) just made this site. Might be helpful for something.

I intend to reach out to them once I have something more concrete set up. I have to move first!

Wow. I was just refreshing the AF website man page as usual, and saw this post without the comments link at the end, because Ross didn't have time to make a corresponding forum post yet. I don't think I have ever been this early to a new video upload.

 

Given how much of this episode did you have to redo, this is probably the most pained and laboured episode so far.

This wasn't the worst, those would be ones with time pressure. I hated delaying it, but at least I had that as an option. Long episodes do get harder though. And yeah, the forum post is made automatically, but then I need to manually change the post to link to it. That's something that should be fixed on the new website. You probably did catch it in a 30 second window or so.

 

Funny you mentioning that you kind of wanted to see a Aeon Flux game, because I know about a game that was supposed to be like this at one point. It's a Playstation game called Pax Corpus, and it was made by Cryo Interactive Entertainment, the same guys responsible for the Megarace series. Never played the game (only know about it because of a Guru Larry video), but I know it was going to be a Aeon Flux game at some point but the license was canned, so they had to change a lot of stuff to sell as a original IP.

I wasn't aware of that. It really depends on the writing I think. If a videogame is only focused on the spy / combat element, I wouldn't be too interested. There's this whole weird world in Aeon Flux and the ideas they're meddling with that's the fascinating part.

 

Actually there was an official Aeon Flux video game for the PS2. It was mostly based off the animated series with a few elements from the film thrown in -- you can tell the developers were fans of the show and only included the movie elements because it was technically supposed to be a tie-in.

 

I own the game, it's actually shockingly good. Not the most amazing thing ever, but fun and faithful to the show. Right down to the fact that Aeon dies at the end of some of the levels.

That's the same as the movie based one? I guess if they got the tone right I should check it out.

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Here's the latest Game Dungeon! I ended up having a lot of delays on this one, so many I didn't report them all because I thought people would think I was making them up. I can say most of the issues related to that will be resolved once I move, which I'm hoping to take steps on towards the end of the month. On that note, between moving and working on the movie, there may be a longer than usual delay on the next video. That said, I think this one is solid "Game Dungeon" material and is closer to what I strive for in this show, although maybe not this long.

 

In other news, I hope to respond to more emails and the site may go down and come back up later this month!

 

COMMENTS

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UPDATE:

I'm an idiot, the problem WAS one of the cables, I somehow tricked myself into thinking I tested multiple ones when I didn't. Have bought a new one and am resuming recording. Feel free to continue sending any advice regarding "micro pops" I can get sometimes, not sure if the source is natural or not, though that's far less critical an issue.

 

- - -

 

This is a quick update / post for advice. Last night I noticed two recording sessions I made for the next Game Dungeon episode ended up being severely flawed to the point I had to throw them out. What would happen would be my voice would be recording normally, then would suddenly cut out to drastically reduced volume. It has since stayed highly erratic. People have sometimes complained of crackling in the live video chats with fans, it's possible that was a prelude to this. You can listen to a sample I recorded here:

 

Sample of recording screw-up

 

Feel free to email me with any suggestions if you're knowledgeable with this sort of thing. I'm really stumped as to what the problem is.

 

THINGS I'VE TRIED SO FAR:

-Swapping different microphones

-Swapping different XLR cables

-Trying microphone that doesn't need phantom power

-Changing USB ports for my DAC

-Uninstalled / updated DAC drivers

-Trying different audio editors (Audition / Audacity)

 

POSSIBLY USEFUL INFORMATION:

-I am using a Focusrite Scarlett Solo DAC for my audio. I've owned it for about a year and a half.

-I've had a lot of "ghosts in the machine" with my USB ports on this motherboard in the past. It got so bad using external hard drives was simply unreliable (would reliably cause file copy errors) unless I plugged them into a different port. Whenever I plugged in a device like the webcam, I would often have to plug the device back into an old port for it to work again. It got so bad I bought a PCI-E USB 3.0 add on card, which solved the problem completely. Since I wasn't experiencing any problems with my DAC, I left it plugged in to the motherboard. Since then, I've switched to the add-on card, but the problem persists.

-My motherboard is an Asus P8P67.

-In the past I used a Xonar DX soundcard. It had great sound, but would periodically give me severe driver problems to the point that I felt like it was unusable for the long term. I haven't used it since I had the DAC

-I have not experienced any audio playback problems at any point in time, just recording.

-I am absolutely willing to buy new hardware if necessary, but I don't want to waste my money if I have good equipment and made a bad diagnosis.

 

 

CURRENT PLANS:

-If I can find the right cables, I plan to use an old pre-amp and redirect everything using motherboard audio. If that works, the sound won't be quite as good, but will hopefully be good enough to finish the next episode. If that doesn't work, I'm completely out of ideas

-This has delayed the next episode by at least a day. If I get it solved today, then I'm predicting Wednesday for its release. If not, then everything is in limbo until this gets fixed.

-In the event motherboard audio works, I don't want to do that as a long-term solution (I can hear the difference between dedicated soundcard / DAC audio v. motherboard audio). I'm certainly open to suggestions.

 

 

ADHD version: Ross is having for real audio problems. Will finish next Game Dungeon as soon as he gets a temporary fix.

 

 

COMMENTS

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Here's the latest chat with fans. I'm still working to move out of here, but that likely won't happen until the end of the month. Besides the Game Dungeon episode I'm finishing up, there won't be much in the way of videos this month since I'm going to focus mostly on the movie. Also, it's possible the website may go down at some point this month (in fact, I hope it does so it can be updated), to use the new codebase. All it means is things will be locked down temporarily, we shouldn't lose any data. I'll have more details on that later.

 

COMMENTS

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New Dead Games News episode! I realize only a minority of fans watch this, but this is the one gaming issue I just can't ignore, so I'm trying to keep the torch lit on this until I can take some actual action against it. This episode is in the new format, where I only cover a couple topics, but go much more into depth on them. There's currently been multiple events going on that don't seem very significant now, but I think are a sign of things to come. I'm noticing that I'm taking a "future history" approach on these videos. Life is complicated when you're a time traveler.

 

Next video should be Game Dungeon, I think it's the sort of game that regular viewers expect from that show.

 

COMMENTS