krankes_hirn wrote:
Really? So that's why whenever I google solutions for game crashes I get near-zero results, because it RARELY happens. That's also why tehre are never any posts on Steam's support forums. And of course it happens as often as close as I think because what I think is based on what has happened to me + what has happened to other pc gamers I know + what I've seen going on when I try find a fix on the internet. And, yeah, most of them have fixes and workarounds, but those are quite time consumming. And ever since I got a job, I really don't feel in the mood to spend whatever time I've got left to play in trying to get the game to work. S in that sense, console gaming is much, more practical than PC gaming. That's a shortcoming of the PC, so deal with it.
Check your PC, then. It aint always the game. Like I've stated a great many times in this place, gaming is my central hobby, my core interest, and the thing I spend most of my time on. In addition to this, I have the free time that most others here do not. AKA, nothing BUT free time.
This means I play ALOT of different games. I seriously cant even overstate that. This is increased by the fact that I'm an impulse buyer with no practical spending limit. Something shiny I wanna play? BAM! Bought. Price typically doesnt matter, provided I even notice it. I dont focus well on a single game at a time, so I'm always trying new ones. Which means..... that if these problems are oh-so-frequent, I'd be running into them EXTREMELY often.
On top of all of THAT, I am the most amazingly impatient individual you'll ever meet. It's one of the reasons why I loathe story elements in games, which is because they make me sit through them. Doesnt matter if they're all of 10 seconds long.... that's 10 seconds I could be using to charge into battle. In other words, I wouldnt even come CLOSE to having the patience necessary to fix these damn games if they were always bugging out all the time. I also have a VERY short fuse, and can fly into a rage over stuff like this..... or I would, anyway, if I ever really had to deal with it.
Simple fact though? I dont. It's very rare that I have anything resembling real trouble running something. I keep all of my games updated, all of my drivers updated, the machine is always virus/adware free, I keep track of whats running in the background and disable stupid things that dont need to be there.... and so on. PC maintenance is important regardless of what you're doing with them, be it gaming or something else, but for gaming, it has more of an impact. In the end though, it saves alot of time. Also.... if you're not finding solutions via Google, search harder. I know from LOTS of experience that Google isnt as bloody great as it's cracked up to be, and there are times when the horrid thing cant even find rather SIMPLE bits of info on a given subject. Frankly, I hate it. Usually if I say "google it" I usually mean it as more of a generic term meaning "search/research".
An inherant shortcoming of PCs, you say? No. If it was, I *would* have to deal with this. That I dont, while having such extreme numbers of games of all different levels, is proof in it's own right that it's a very intermittent problem, and that it has more to do with the user, and moreso their specific machine, than anything else. In my case, I've been using these machines for as long as I can remember.... hell, I started learning programming at age 7, back in the DOS era.... so I generally never have problems dealing with these things and can do stuff very quickly.
No, the problem is usually more a matter of PRICE. If you're using a less powerful machine.... yeah, you're GOING to run into this stuff more. For many, that IS the source of the trouble. It dont happen on mine much because it's as top-of-the-line as it gets. My extreme impatience with errors/problems/everything is one of the reasons why I spent that much on it. When you do have a good machine built for gaming.... then indeed, it's as I say. Not many problems. I'm speaking more of potential capabilities in my posts, as opposed to "every machine ever can do it easily". Stronger machines can, though.... But the price for entry is high.... very high. I never said it wasnt. THAT is one of the major downfalls. And it IS pretty major.
Oh, and dont use Steam's forums to figure this stuff out. Just trust me on this. They're NOT a good source of info. They ARE a good source of screaming. You have to go find different places if you wanna have a good chance at fixing things. Proper dedicated forums (as in, not Steam) for the game in question are usually a good place to start, but dont think for a second that they're the ONLY resource. I like Steam well enough, but those forums..... eeeehhhhhhh. I prefer to avoid them.
Oh, and a general tip: If a game on Steam is giving you trouble, consider forcing a file validation. Steam will, every now and then, when downloading or patching a game, manage to corrupt a file or two within it, producing all sorts of goofy errors when the game in question is run. File validation should be your FIRST attempt to fix it. After that, THEN you go search for answers.
Quote:
Minecraft runs on Java VM, so in reality what you see as no optimization of minecraft is actually a lack of optimization on your VM's particular implementation or config. Just sayin'. And if you stick only to one video card manufacturer you will never see that happen because you have no point of comparison.
Wrong. It's been known among the community since forever that Minecraft, good though it is, just isnt made all that well.. Hell, the damn thing is practically made of glitches.... the number of them is a little extreme. It doesnt use memory correctly, it doesnt optimize (at all) by using multiple cores.... the list goes on. This is why the mod known as Optifine exists (which does nothing BUT optimize the game, and push it to where it SHOULD be), and why that mod is so exceedingly popular. The effect it has is MASSIVE. Particularly on a powerhouse PC like mine, because suddenly the game can actually USE all of that power that it literally couldnt touch before. I should almost go grab screenshots just to show the difference, because it's seriously THAT much of a difference. And that's just the graphical difference. Things like chunk loading ( a huge problem for many players) dramatically increases in speed as well, because again, the game now has access to far more power.
And if you think about it, this fact makes perfect sense. Minecraft's graphics arent exactly complicated. They are, instead, very simple, as 3D games go. But none of that matters when the game isnt even using most of the resources that your PC may have. Alot of players actually wont touch the game if they cant run Optifine on it, which means they WILL stick to older versions of the game when Optifine hasnt yet updated to the new ones.
Quote:
Yeah, you are talking as if you were the only one on earth who got a PS3 controller to run on a computer, or the only guy on earth who messed with some config files. Well, guess what? I am a software developer. My closest friends are computer scientists and three of them are game developers and the other is an intern at Google. So stop throwing your "I know about computers" BS around because you are seriously impressing nobody.
So yeah, you can get any controller to work on any OS provided you are not brain dead enought to look up some tutorial on the internet on how to do it. But... have you ever noticed how much really can you tweak those things? Or the fact that there are different profiles for different games? It is because it takes some tweaking to get a controller to play just right for any given game. Of course you can play it with deafault settings, but it always feels off, at least to me. And I always have to spend time tweaking some aspects of the input. With console games this is not necessary because most of the time the developers calibrate these inputs and test them thorughly. Again, valuable time I don't get substracted from my limited gaming time.
......"impressing" people? What in the bloody hell made you think I was out to do THAT? On that note, what makes you think that I would consider any of this to be "impressive" to begin with? What I'd like to sound impressive isnt ME, but is instead the amount of options that PCs have.
Really though, THINK before speaking. Not "put foot in mouth" and then speak. There's no reason to be an ass. I know about the damn computers, and have been doing this for as long as I can remember. I'm aware of all of your points. But that's not true of many, MANY other users.
Which, IF YOU'D THINK ABOUT IT, is the reason I explain it the way I do (in a simplistic manner, assuming no prior knowledge). Because alot of people DONT know this stuff. And THOSE people are who I am talking to. I dont give a flying fart if someone who already knows this thinks my explanations are dumb. I'm not targeting YOU, or others that are "computer scientists". Ye gods, this part should be OBVIOUS. Yet you honestly thought I was trying to be impressive? I know I sometimes aint so good at phrasing things, but this STILL should be obvious. I tend to explain things about PCs in this manner all the time, because I want EVERYONE that reads it to be able to understand it. Shouldnt someone that knows about computers understand this fact?
And do you really think people who dont look up tutorials on this stuff are braindead? Ye gods, who the heck do you think you are? THINK here. Alot of people wont think to look that up, because it wont OCCUR to them. Computers are bloody complicated things. No, I dont give a rat's ass how much YOU know or how much I know. For the vast majority of users, they are difficult machines.... sometimes VERY difficult.... to work with. Users are overwhelmed easily. And who can blame them? These things may not fit so prominently in their lives as they do to the likes of you or me. When someone is looking at an issue like this, the thought that it's even POSSIBLE to do something like connect a PS3 controller to it may NEVER come to them unless they are told by someone else. And even if they know a controller can be used, they may think they're stuck with ONLY generic gamepads or the 360 controller, not a PS3 type. And seriously, NONE of this has to do with someone's intelligence. If someone aint familiar with computers... they aint familiar with computers. What do you think would happen if someone asked YOU a pile of technical questions about the internal workings of an aircraft carrier? Would you be able to recite piles of knowledge on it? My guess is no. Does that make you an idiot? NO. Just as people arent idiots for not knowing computers well, or at all. They simply havent learned them yet..... and that's all. You call ME condescending elsewhere in this, and dont get me wrong.... I can be. But I dont say things like THAT.
Also, seriously, it's NOT that hard to make control schemes. Typically, new game, takes me 5 minutes. If that. Again, the extreme frequency of purchasing, plus my extreme preference for controller usage, means that I do this *REALLY* often. I'm used to it, I know exactly how the programs in question function, I know what functions of them I need to use, and I know just what to do to get the controller to work in just the way I want. EASY, simple, QUICK. And this is me typically using literally every button/stick/gizmo on the controller, not just preparing the dpad and 2 face buttons. And it's NOT that different from doing it on console games. Even when using consoles, setting up controls is STILL the first thing I do. Every game, without exception. I go in, I see what options there are, and I make changes I think of as necessary. It's seriously no different, except that it doesnt need a side program or something. But it's no harder or easier, either, once you have the knowledge.
But beyond that.... who gives a damn about how long it takes? If you dont like the process, dont use it. Nobody forces you to, and the entire reason I bring it up is because there are many players who REALLY dont like using keyboard/mouse over controllers. And it's not like it takes huge amounts of amazing skill and technique to set it up when it is wanted.... I got fast at it simply by DOING IT ALOT. Anyone can learn to do it quickly. Anyone. It stopped being a problem for me a long time ago, again, simply by having done it many times. There's no skill necessary. Ya do it, ya get used to it.... simple.
Really though, you might want to think about throwing YOUR "I know about computers" bit around as well. Because seriously? You're impressing nobody. As if "impressing" anyone even mattered from the start.
Quote:
And there are things that will never touch PC. And I'm not talking specific games, but whole concepts. Such as animation blending. That require very specific hardware specs and can only be developed if aligned to a specific hardware piece such as a console. So there are also risks tied to PC software development that are easier to overcome when working with a console.
That is..... wait, what? You're bringing up animation blending because.....?
I'm talking about ENTIRE GENRES here. Animation blending and other technical things dont matter worth a damn if the game doesnt even exist! And again, this is PC gaming: Games dont always HAVE to be on the absolute top of the technical pyramid as far as graphics go. Alot of them PURPOSEFULLY use very low-res graphics. Hell, I can think of MANY that still use ASCII! Some of which are favorites of mine. You think THOSE developers.... or the players that play their games.... give a flying fart about animation blending?
As for the development process.... that, of course, is up to the developers. What difficulties they do or dont go through will NOT be noticed by the players. Most of them wont know what "animation blending" is, and probably wont care if it's not there. It's up to the developers to choose the format that is right for them, and for the project they are creating and working on.
Quote:
Well, guess what? I am not a purely console gamer myself. Actually I've spent more time gaming on a PC than on any other console. I wrote my first computer game when I was 12 on Visual Basic. By then I also created custom campaigns for AoE II. I was so focused on PC gaming that I missed the whole 6th generation of gaming consoles. The only thing that kept my attention on console gaming was Kojima's MGS, which eventually lead me to buy a PS3. You don't really need to give any lecture about dealing with the hardships of using PCs. I am the kind of guy with computer spare parts lying around on my bedroom.
The thing is, that consoles have a practical value you don't really get to see until you need to see it. When I got a job, I really started loving the practical side of console gaming and started to see how much time was needed to play on PC games. Of course, If you got time to spare, you really don't see that as a disadvantage. But as it turns out, PC has some weaknesses as well, and your failure to acknowledge them comes more from a lack of perspective and fanboyish attitude rather than some solid experience on it. Because at no point I said PC gaming sucks. I just pointed its shortcomings. I ,love PC gaming, Now that I've got a more stable income, I'm saving up to build my dream-gaming PC. I am turning an old PC into a 24/7 minecraft linux-based server. I helped a friend gather information to build a map for a game based on the school we used to attend to and test it with him. The thing is, while I love it. I am not a fanboy. I can see its advantages and its problems, and that's why I embrace other options instead of just being condescending to others because I happen to know how to install mods, which, at its hardest, means right clicking some odd file to edit it with note pad and paste some line you find on the internet.
[/quote]
.....after all this, you say you're not being condescending? ......REALLY? After the stuff in this post, you really..... good grief. You seem to be trying pretty hard yourself to "impress". As I'd mentioned earlier, I started programming at 7, and this was during the DOS era, when Windows wasnt really a thing yet at all. Good ol' CGA graphics and everything, those wonderful 4 color palettes and all (and yeah, games were the only things I ever made, since they were my main interest back then too). You pointing out that you were doing it at 12 aint gonna impress me. Though really.... who bloody cares? Everyone's knowledge level about computers is different. For the most part, it SERIOUSLY doesnt matter. Me doing programming at 7 aint that impressive either, because you can bet there sure were ALOT of things I *wasnt* doing at 7. Focus and obsession drove me then as it does today, simple as that. But I'm plenty bad at all SORTS of other things. Oh, I will point out though, I dont consider myself knowledgeable because I "know how to click some mods". I'm one of the ones that MAKES the mods. I got into that (kinda obsessively) back when Doom was a big thing (all those years ago.... sigh), and found that I really enjoyed doing it. So I still do it. So yeah.... I tend to know what I'm talking about. It aint just "right clicking some mods" or using note pad.... good grief. Dont make silly assumptions about others.
Anyway, I never said these machines have no disadvantage. Having had to fix batshit insane technical problems for friends REALLY OFTEN, I'm well aware of the problems these accursed demon devices can have. What I'm talking about here is the overall experience that can be had on one, ONCE ENOUGH IS LEARNED ABOUT THEM. As I did, in fact, say in my post, the biggest problem for most when dealing with these is the LEARNING CURVE. And that's a pretty big problem! Not to mention the PRICE, another thing which I mentioned. That's one of the nastiest parts. Use a lesser machine, and more problems WILL be generated, particularly when using it for gaming. That's a simple fact. "Failure to acknowledge" my ass.
And again, all them problems you're having with even running the games? Like I said.... maybe your skill aint as good as you keep repeatedly telling me it is. Or, more likely, your machine aint always up to it, as noted above where I point out that it IS one of the biggest problems with the things. But when you have some knowledge and have assembled a good machine... well, I aint exaggerating when I say that I simply dont go through any of that crap. Why would I? There's no point in it. Particularly with me being the way I am. If I find something annoying, I COMPLAIN about it. ENDLESSLY. It doesnt even matter how much I do or do not like something. Hell, something like Minecraft, which I rate as my favorite game, well.... let's just say I have issues with THAT too. I could give you a 10 page rambling litany on all the things that are wrong with it. I'm an EXTREMELY negative person, which is one of the reasons why I go by "Misery". PCs aint an exception. There are times, so very many times, when I just want to launch the accursed things down the stairs.
Oh, dont get me wrong. I know I can sound bloody self-centered at times. I dont have any illusions about THAT bit. But seriously, you're sounding much the same, except alot more insulting. Might wanna think about that a bit.
Oh, and I never said consoles have no advantages at all. What I said was *I* do not use them much. Of course alot of PC gamers still use consoles. The reason I dont isnt "because PCs", it's because the GENRES that I most like tend to not exist on consoles.... simple as that. Quite frankly, I just use whatever damn machine happens to have the genres/games I like. When something DOES come out for the consoles that I want? Well, I aint gonna give a damn that it's on them, I'll bloody well buy it because I wanna play it.
EDIT: Oh, and I apologize if I sound overly angry here. Since I have such a short fuse and tend to get heated a bit easily, I dont handle debate very well. I tend to get more fired up the longer I type, even when it makes zero sense to do so. As it is, I usually end up sticking this very "edit" message at the bottom of the really long posts that I do.
24 Feb 2014, 7:35 am
) yet they still try to talk me into Madden or CoD or whatever ( and I have zero interest in Madden or Cod )
