u/jatenk

I've clocked perhaps a thousand hours into Star Fox 64, or, being from Europe, Lylatwars. But the game released nearly 30 years ago, and I replayed it twice a year minimum every single year since then, so I'm not an absolute pro, just a gamer with a lot of nostalgia for this game. When Star Fox for the Switch 2 was announced, I was as ecstatic as sceptical; a technical upgrade is absolutely what this game deserves. The game established a genre and then remained its only top tier example; nothing ever came close, including Nintendo's several own attempts. But: Since even Nintendo's attempts had failed, why should they succeed now?

There's one way in which they most certainly succeeded. Most people celebrate the visuals first, but I'm talking about the sound design. (There's no sound in space, but even The Expanse, praised for its scientific accuracy, got away with ignoring this, so we will too.) A space shooter lends itself to atmospheric, immersive spatial sound. In space, there's no up and down (other than referential). On earth, it's uncommon for sounds to emit from below our usually literal floor, and due to gravity, sources of sound are more likely than not to be close to your elevation level. In space, all sources of sound have the same likeliness to come from literally any direction.

I have a Dolby Atmos ready sound system, carefully calibrated to my personal taste and to my room, and from Uncharted 4 over Jusant to Resident Evil 2-4 (the remakes), I've played many games made with Dolby Atmos sound, so I'm used to the top edge of what's possible in terms of spatial sound complexity, and I know what sound design with height information can do in games. Nintendo has as far as I know never exchanged a word with Dolby or DTS, and still, Star Fox impressed me. Let me say this clearly: Star Fox's sound design is some of the best I've ever heard in gaming, and it will be one of the major motivations for me to keep playing now, a factor which had never even existed for Star Fox 64.

The sound design is so good that I swear to you that sounds coming from objects spatially located above me are actually sounding out from above me physically in my space, which would only be possible with true Atmos sound support (or DTS:X, which is not a thing in video games). As the Switch 2 doesn't support Atmos, this is not the case. I even have not turned on Dolby's surely powered by magic Dolby Surround upmixing algorithm, and yet, my brain intuitively places the sounds above me, which means: They're extremely well placed in their 2-dimensional flat space, and so well designed that I pick them up so intuitively that, together with my finely tuned home theatre setup, my brain just adds the missing height information intuitively. This is the same process as something tasting like what it looks like, even if it actually isn't that thing, especially if you believe that it is what it looks like = are immersed. Sound is the most essential part for suspense of disbelief, but I wouldn't expect a space shooter to be able to get me there - and yet, here we are!

Enemies I shoot whose debris flies into the camera give me an impulse to duck, I can instinctively turn towards bosses in open formation mode without having to check the radar if they make a noise, enemies approaching from behind usually do so from above and I can often tell that they'll be coming by the sound. It definitely helps that enemy spawn locations are the same as in the original, which gives me intuitive memory for them, but this is once again just another contributing factor to immersion: Suspense of disbelief is easier the less you actively have to think about what you're consuming, and if childhood gaming knowledge is enough to create enough of an immersion that my brain is able to spatially re-configure the elevation level of a sound, then that sound is doing its job so well that I have nothing else to actively process about it, I just intuitively take it in.

If you have a surround-ready sound system, Star Fox is an amazing way to test its calibration. If it's calibrated well, you'll enjoy the heck even just out of that part. If this game doesn't sound phenomenal, you got room for improvement (albeit perhaps not the agency - not all speakers, AVRs and rooms offer all the options).

Beyond all this, I also want to say: Thank you, Nintendo, for being shockingly adapter-ready with your new consoles. I tested the GameCube Controller adapter for the Wii U on the Switch 2, and it worked instantly, without complaints. Even the Wii U itself didn't do that! GC controllers won't work with every game since you're missing - and ZL, but in Star Fox, ZL and ZR have the same function as L and R, and - only changes the view mode, which I personally don't care about. The GameCube controller is still, in my opinion, the most intuitive controller out there (I won't say best - that's a matter of subjectivity); I never got myself an adapter to use GC controllers on N64 since I was already used to the N64 controllers for all N64 games, but I had always wondered. Now, with the Switch 2's surprisingly straight support of the GC controller, even in the console's main menus, I immediately started playing the game with one, and I don't think I'll ever even try to play with anything else.

There's two caviats with using a GameCube controller for Star Fox on the Switch 2. One is that you won't have the rumble feature. As another redditor pointed out, most modern games use HD rumble, which the GC controller doesn't have, so it would just be vibrating way too quickly and counter-intuitively (and the games can't check for the type of USB controller that's connected, so they wouldn't even be able to add special support, not that there would be relevant demand for it). Games that don't use HD rumble (like the classic games from Nintendo's Classic libraries) do use the GC controller's rumble feature, but most modern games won't, including this one. That's a bit of the shame; Star Fox 64 was the game I got the rumble pack for the N64 for and I loved it, but honestly, after my three standard Star Fox playthroughs, I didn't miss it that much.

The other is that the button layout isn't exactly the same, so your muscle memory will be a little off. Star Fox has an option for enabling classic input controls for somersaults and U-turns, which is awesome, but the Switch 2 doesn't offer button layout changes through the Wii U GC adapter. X and B are the biggest muscle memory offenders. B used to be used for bombs, while braking used to be a C-Button combination (like Somersaults and U-Turns), which worked pretty well with the C-buttons surrounding the A-button, but what's surrounding the A-button now are X and Y. Since A and B also rotated their positional relationship by 90°, the whole thing is already messing with muscle memory from the get go. Considering that, I'm happy that the only mistake I'm making is throwing bombs when I want to brake. I'm sure I'll get the new button layout into my intuition soon.

I also want to say that I'm quite happy that Nintendo didn't go down with the difficulty too much. Many Nintendo remakes had this issue where they re-configured difficulties so that the new normal is closer to what used to be easy and the previous normal is now closer to the new hard, and Star Fox is most certainly easier than Star Fox 64, but not as much as how bad it could've been. The main change is a little QoL laser path correction on normal enemies and less jank (plus literally every controller being better than the N64 controller), but hitboxes remain similar to what they used to be, as do vulnerabilities and timings. Also, enemies and attacks are more readable, but not really more patient (if anything, Andross felt sped up). Even despite well-transferring muscle memory curtesy of the remake being very faithful, I died thrice on the Red Line and once on the Blue Line, and the reasons were always me not aiming well enough and not flying required manoeuvres efficiently. I also only got two medals across all three playthroughs, in which I touched every single level, so that's what I'll be spending my next bunch of playthroughs on.

There's some small gameplay changes, some of which are just Quality of Life (mostly readability), a few of which are difficulty-related, and a handful of which were modernizations. A couple changes I didn't really understand, though, for example: Why does the pillar in Bolse not spill out lasers towards the end? Why can't I destroy the satellites and most of the ships in Area 6 anymore? Did you really have to bump the brightness in Aquas that much? There's a small number of these, but they aren't essential.

Ok, one bone I do have to pick, Nintendo. With how well you levelled up the visuals, how could you mess up the explosions? They were so simplistic on the N64, yet felt so epic and impactful. These just made me sad. They're not bright enough (same mistake movie CG explosions make), not slow enough (typical scale oversight), and not large enough (how, considering how much you drew from the modern Star Wars trilogy????). That loses so much of the impact of the most pivotal moments - a real bummer for my nostalgia. After Macbeth's Mission Accomplished explosion, when Falco said that that was our best explosion yet, which was obviously a nod to the iconic moment from the original, I didn't feel it at all. :(

Anyway. Good game, great remake, if uninventive - invention had been attempted with every previous try, and it always failed, so this is fair. Visuals are great, sound is fantastic. I recommend it. Just be aware that this is a game designed for replay, not for campaign completion. It's closer to roguelikes in that regard, without an upgrade progression system. Don't let that turn you off, the replayability, learning enemy placement, optimising movement, finding hidden paths, maximising points, those are the point. And it's a whole lot of joy to do all that.

EDIT: Okey, you actually can still slay the satellites and the larger ships in Area 6, I was just being bad, and the hit feedback actually is bad, as people have pointed out. Also I forgot another grievance: Why doesn‘t the escape sequence after Andross II require me to boost anymore? That was so tense, and I don‘t think it would‘ve taken away from the new tone they gave that moment! (Also my muscle memory for Andross‘ real form still holds as well once applied correctly - amazing.)

EDIT 2: Apparently, the pillar in Bolse also actually does spill lasers everywhere on its last legs. I‘m a dum dum.

Hey all,

I recently had a Daily Deviation feature, my first ever, and am trying to contextualise the numbers. I'm at 1.6 million views, which seems dazzyingly high for someone who's never ran a promotional campaign for their art and isn't a content creator, but I'm at 5 comments, which from my amateur knowledge of the internet suggests 100-1000 real views and 10.000-100.000 impressions with the standard statistic of a loose 1% per level change of engagement, with room down and up depending on the content's enticement level.

That 1% number is super flexible, and it's very possible my picture just didn't land very well with people, but 1.6 million views, even if it's just impressions, would still suggest ~16.000 direct engagements and ~160 comments. My real number of 5 comments is 3% of that, that's almost one full extra calculation step down.

So I'm wondering: What actually is counted as a "View" on Deviantart? Is it the amount of times the image has been loaded, is it the amount of real eyes that have seen the image, is it the amount of times the page has been loaded, or the amount of times real eyes have seen the real page? What seems likeliest to me is that it's impressions of the image file - because then a count would just be a load of the Daily Deviations category page even by web crawlers, preview loads by web browsers, archival sites and caches. That would make mathematical sense to me.

Does anyone know what the method of calculation is here?

I recently converted my Samsung NX3000 for infrared myself, and it was easy enough that I'm sure I can do it again without causing damage. Since the NX3000 is a solid camera still - bodies still go for 50-100€ on Ebay - and infrared is a niche market, I'm wondering if it could be worth it to sell converted bodies. I know conversion services charge 200-300€; I'd be selling a body, not just a conversion, but without replacement glass.

What do y'all figure I could ask for for such an offer? Could I get 200 for it? Then it'd be worth it, but if I can't get more than 100€, it probably wouldn't be worth the hassle.

Der Bund arbeitet an einem Gesetzesentwurf, welcher u.a. ermöglichen würde, Verhaltens- und Gesichtsanalysen an öffentlichen Plätzen durch KI durchführen zu lassen. Es ist bereits erforscht worden dass diese Analysen keine Verbesserungen mit sich bringen, von den Unternehmen manipulativ und falsifiziert beworben werden und statt objektiver zu sein bestehende Vorverurteilungen sogar verschlimmern, da diese KI-Prozesse auf existierendem, realen menschlichem Verhalten trainiert sind und das reproduzieren.

Am 20., nächsten Samstag, gibt es eine Demo dagegen in Hamburg. Der HVV plant mehrere Anpassungen der Sicherheitskonzepte; über die von vielen von uns bereits wahrgenommene gestiegene Präsenz von Sicherheitsdiensten und Fahrkartenkontrollen hinaus ist KI-gestütze Verhaltensmuster-Analyse von Videoüberwachungen ein Pilotprojekt, das durch den genannten Gesetzesentwurf legitimisiert werden würde. Wer etwas gegen den Einsatz solcher Technologien zur Überwachung hat ist auf der Demo sehr willkommen.

Treffpunkt Samstag 20.6. um 14:00 auf dem Hansaplatz (danke Philipp)

Ich mags wenn Unternehmen den Cringe embracen. Die line deliveries hier sind super weird, aber honestly trägt das nur bei. Thumbs up von mir! 😃

I‘m watching The Poughkeepsie Tapes on Blu-Ray right now, and the audio gives me heavy ADR vibes. Sometimes this can be a weird audio codec issue throwing the lip sync out of whack on my AVR, but this is really rare, so has anyone had the same impression from the film‘s audio?

Also, the german Blu-Ray has german voice over in 5.1, but english original audio only in 2.0 - do other Blu-Ray releases have english audio with more channels?

I have 4 NX3000 bodies and tested IR conversion on one, which unfortunately damaged the sensor, because I didn't want to touch the flange-alignment screws. It turned out that that's a required step, so with a second body, I measured the screw depths with a calliper and reproduced their positions as exactly as possible. The camera works, no damage to the sensor - yey!

What's giving me some insecurity is that I'm reading conflicting information online about sensor realignment. I know what a flange distance is on a surface level, and I know it matters a little less on mirrorless cameras like the NX3000. I also know that it would be best to replace the hot mirror with an identical, clear glass, but I don't have access to something like that, so I took out the glass and its plastic mount and screwed it all back together without both.

The autofocus seems to be working - as well as I can judge in suboptimal conditions, I'll be checking again in sunny weather - but I think I may have lost infinity focus. I heard this is a common problem with sensor realignments, but I can't find clear information about by how much I'd have to re-adjust the sensor. Some sources said the sensor should be placed closer to the lens by exactly the thickness of the removed filter, some said it should be one third of its thickness, some just said "a little bit closer" - can someone who knows the optics help me out here? I have the ability to measure the screw thicknesses pretty accurately with a good calliper and solid fine motorics, so I should be able to re-adjust the distance with I think .03mm accuracy, but I can't solve the maths by myself.

Ich bin vorhin im Ohlsdorfer Friedhof an einer kleinen Filmcrew (Catering, Technik, Schauspieler*innen-Wagen (Namen leider vergessen), Beschilderung) vorbei gefahren, weiß jemand was da gedreht wird?

Gerade aus dem Konzert beim Volksparkstadion raus - noch super geflasht! Wie fandet ihrs?? Wo habt ihr gestanden oder gesessen (ich war ganz am Rand bei Block 20a, war aber echt trotzdem super effektiv), wie war die Sicht und die Experience? Wer hat noch bei Breaking the Habit geweint????

I had an account on EyeEm and was aware that the platform closed earlier this year, so when I just saw a bunch of emails about an outstanding payout of a handful of dollars I was suspicious. I checked and it‘s genuine, a bunch of people got this. Unfortunately, it went to my deadname email address which I don‘t check anymore except for once every half a year or so, that‘s why I missed those emails until now, and the deadline to claim the money on Paypal was a week ago. Is there any chance to still claim that payout? It‘s really not about the money, more about the principle.

Es geht nicht um mich, sondern um eine gute Freundin von mir, die selbst niemals fragen würde weil sie sicher ist dass sie die Antwort schon kennt.

Diese Freundin lässt sich aktuell von ihrem Ex-Mann scheiden, sie waren 15 Jahre verheiratet und haben drei Kinder (3, 6 und 9). Deren finanzielle Situation war nie gut, und ihre Beziehung auch nicht; die Kinder hat sie eher bekommen weil sie dachte dass sie "muss", und jetzt gerade erst hat sie genug Selbstvertrauen aufgebaut die Beziehung zu beenden. Gleichzeitig ist ihr klar geworden wie emotional aufreibend die Situation bei ihnen zu Hause ist, und dass das weder für sie, noch die Kinder gesund ist, also muss jemand ausziehen.

Leider hat ihr Ex-Mann nicht die Selbe Meinung was die Beziehung angeht. Er sieht nicht dass die zu Ende sein muss, er sieht nicht dass die Kinder drunter leiden, und er sieht nicht dass sie ausziehen muss. Als (für ihn) logische Konsequenz bietet er weder Unterstützung beim Auszug, noch bei dem Umgang mit den Kindern an; wenn sie mit den Kindern Zeit verbringen will muss sie halt kommen, und wenn sie ausziehen will soll sie das halt machen. (Die aktuelle Übereinkunft wird wohl sein dass beide das Sorgerecht behalten werden.) Sie hat sich nun eine kleine WG gesucht, mehr kann sie sich in der Nähe von Hamburg nicht leisten, und einen besser bezahlten Job wird sie kaum erreichen können, aber weiter wegziehen würde bedeuten dass sie kaum noch ihre Kinder sehen kann. Eine Wohnung die groß genug für alle 3 Kinder und sie wäre ist utopisch, selbst etwas weiter weg; geschweige denn dass man dann die Kinder in noch eine instabilere Situation schubsen würde, weil sie umziehen müssten - falls der Ex-Mann das zulässt.

Jetzt stellt sich für mich, und für andere Menschen um sie herum mit denen ich auch darüber rede, die Frage: Was ist mit dem Haus bei der Scheidung? Sie waren (sind, noch ein paar Wochen) ja rechtlich verheiratet - und das hat gewisse Konsequenzen was Besitztum angeht wenn es zur Scheidung kommt (es gibt keinen Ehevertrag). Das Haus gehört ihm, sie ist nicht im Grundbuch eingetragen, aber es ist bei weitem noch nicht abbezahlt, also gehört es eher der Bank, nach seiner Darstellung. Er arbeitet auch nicht (sucht wohl). Das einzige was er an Besitz hat sind knapp 10k in Aktien, also hat er nicht nichts.

Als sie vor Monaten mal über das Haus geredet haben, wohl in einer Rechtsberatung, ist sie mit der Information rausgekommen dass ihr nichts zusteht, weil er nichts hat (da wusste sie von den Aktien nichts) und das Haus noch der Bank, nicht ihm gehört, da es noch nicht abbezahlt ist. Sie hat das akzeptiert und will nicht weiter drüber nachdenken; jetzt von den Aktien zu hören hat da nicht genug dran geändert, weil das Haus ja immer noch nicht ihm gehört. So belastend wie es aber für sie ist die aktuelle Situation mit den Kindern zu haben frage ich mich ob man da so einfach aufgeben sollte, vor allem weil ich ihm nicht vertraue und weiß dass sie ihm gegenüber sehr gutgläubig ist (es gab schon mehrere Situationen in denen sie schnell seine Narrative übernimmt und über ihren eigenen Eindruck stellt). Sie weiß aber auch dass er nicht unfehlbar ist. Wenn ich einen eindeutigen rechtlichen Hintergrund liefern könnte dass ihr doch etwas zusteht, und wie sie da rankommen würde ohne dass es den Kindern direkt weggenommen werden würde (da die ja bei ihm wohnen), dann würde das ihr vielleicht den Schub geben sich da doch nochmal rechtlich hinter zu klemmen. Hat da jemand Informationen zu?

I like to listen to Atmos music on my couch, but I don‘t need the TV for that, so I hooked the TV to a separate smart power socket and just leave it off. My AppleTV and my Denon AVR-X2800H are on permanent power; my ATV is plugged into the AVR.

I have a home automation that automatically starts my Atmos playlist, and when my TV is on, it works flawlessly (except that my ATV doesn‘t wake up from sleep from an automation, that I have to still do). But when my TV is off, the sound format is not Atmos, it‘s PCM („Multi in“); I can recognize that the song isn‘t output in Atmos, and there‘s no audio output option in my AVR that enables Atmos, I went through all of them. Why does this happen?

It can‘t be any setting in my AppleTV, because it does work when my TV is on without further input. But I can‘t imagine what it would be in my AVR either, because nothing‘s changing in its settings, and since my TV isn’t supplying the Atmos recognition, why would it have anything to do with it?

I understand that the HDMI chain reports that an end device is off, so my ATV and AVR know that the TV isn‘t running. But why would that make either of them turn off Atmos? And how would I be able to fix this, without turning on my TV every time for no reason? (Turning it back off after Atmos starts playing once it‘s on also turns Atmos back off.)

Wurden einem nicht mal Gutscheine für Hagenbeck überall hinterhergeschmissen oder irre ich mich da? Ich kann gerade nirgendwo mehr welche finden.