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Ubisoft Connect

Awww, maaaan...
I used to own a compilation of the first 3(?) Splinter Cell games – maybe I still do have that DVD somewhere...

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What I would like to see is a way to find games I don't know about from a bit longer ago. I'm sure that there were a bunch of games released in, say, 2014 which I would like and which I don't know about. It would be interesting to have a way to browse games like that.

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What i don't understand is where the lawyers at ?

I believe the problem is that buying a piece of media and feeding it into an algorithm to create a model isn't considered copyright infringement because the result is a piece of software rather than a copy of the original piece of media. Yes, if you ask a picture generating model to generate a picture of an archeologist with a hat who uses a bullwhip it generates an image which is easily infringing on a well-known intellectual property, but then it's still not the model which is infringing. Now, machine generation of media is a tool, so creating an infringing text or tune or image isn't a problem per se. If I put a bunch of cans of paint on a shelf and then knock the shelf down and the paint splatters form an image of a familiar Italian plumber with a red hat I haven't done anything wrong. Distributing the result, however, will likely get me into hot water (if the rights holder decides to bother itself with me).

Typing this comment got me thinking, though, this kinda reminds me of software libraries. Machine generating models are basically turning various forms of media into something like software libraries from which pieces can be reused to make something new (in as far as anything can be new when, of course, all original ideas have long been had and we're just rehashing the same stuff over and over again). Back in the day software didn't have licenses and you could freely reuse things from programs made by others but those days came to an end. Maybe we'll see media start getting licensed to not allow machine generation model creation.

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This is a great idea, and I'd love to see something like that for console games too. A complete "upcoming games" list based around your personal tastes. Only problem would be finding a way to maintain privacy; way too easy to fall into the trap of selling user data.

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Why?

Why Not? It's the human way - consequences be damned!

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Why?

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Oh that's a nice new way to finding games, i like it, i think.

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@vertigo

The changes are great and all but my only concern is VRR.

I have AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE and the integrated AMD Radeon 780M in the laptop and have no problems with VRR here.

@Lofty

I can't imagine how good it would be on 6.5 ! But i don't really know of a stable distro with an upto date version of KDE?

Try openSUSE Leap, KDE Neon or Kubuntu. They get latest KDE Plasma and other software either normaly (KDE Neon) or through backport repositories you can add. openSUSE Slowroll is also an option if you are a bit more adventurous.

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If you like 2000s FPS games you should definitely check it out.

In the first moment I thought: Yes, such graphics should do 2000 frames per second - but why should I like this?!? 😋

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In The Finals they use it for the voice of the match commentators with mixed results... And most of the time you are too focused or talking to your team mates to pay attention to them.

but who's voice signature was it trained from ? would it be possible to ask the studio ? if there is no reply could you use a FOIA request to find out ? what's the law around this , does anybody know ?

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The upcoming Embark Studio game, Arc Riders, uses AI generated content in some capacity. I'm curious to know how they used it In The Finals they use it for the voice of the match commentators with mixed results... And most of the time you are too focused or talking to your team mates to pay attention to them.

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@vertigo which GPU and cable.? I'm on a 7800XT running CachyOS and Bazzite (both on KDE), using a DisplayPort 2.1 connected to an AOC monitor, and have zero issues with VRR.

@Lofty Bazzite and CachyOS are both good options. Expect CachyOS to get 6.5 soon (available already in the Arch testing repo if you want to try it now), Bazzite will be a bit later but still will get it sooner than most other distros. I'd recommend CachyOS only if you're a bit technical and don't mind ocassionally getting your hands dirty (aka using the terminal, maybe to fix something). Bazzite on the other hand is a great option if you want something that "just works™".

Avoid Ubuntu-based distros like the plague, they're always outdated and tend to break when you do upgrades.

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I really don't get why people use wordpress for static webpage content...

It's a huge attack surface to keep secure with all its features.

What's also a bit embarassing is this happening to a server managed by Canonical, as far as I understand. Linux Mint went through a similar issue years ago, but their team is really tiny.

I hope they're as swift and transparent as the Mint team on how it happened, who may have been affected, what they did to prevent new issues, etc

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The only thing that puts me off is the small screen. My eyes aren't getting any younger.

Most text in most games is around the size of text on a phone or a paperback, or bigger. The OLED screen is marginally bigger than the LCD screen.

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But i don't really know of a stable distro with an upto date version of KDE?

Kubuntu has Plasma 6.5.0 in the backports PPA.

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im using KDE 5.27.12 in Linux mint, its been almost entirely bug free and recovered from most if not all crashes. I can't imagine how good it would be on 6.5 ! But i don't really know of a stable distro with an upto date version of KDE?

Manjaro was my goto for ages, loved it. But then they were adding the 'opt-out' data collection and refused to change it. Im also wasn't keen on the arrogant denial'ist approach of some of their dev's when the community speaks out. Other flavors of Arch are pretty cool but i usually at most manage around 6-8 months (if that) before im fixing something fundamental and less than that for general hiccups.

Perhaps i should try Bazzite or CachyOS ? maybe chimeraOS ?


i do have a iso ready of Debian Siduction but i couldnt find GPG keys for verifying the iso on their website like most other distros.

the search continues.

*edit KDE is genuinely great. i was one of the love/hate users previously. Not much hate for it now. Would be nice if the themes style and transparency/blur applied to Dolphin too though

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I'm not opposed of AI gen being used for voice acting (when done right and not stealing VA)

define stealing. Outright plagiarism is perhaps easy to spot but hard to prove let alone raise an expensive legal challenge.But taking a VA and modifying it is even more deceptive. The voice isn't just an audio signature , it's the soul & passion of the artist.

back to first point .. this is how i see what's happening.

They know there stealing
We know there stealing
They know we know there stealing

But what is a poorly paid struggling artist going to do against an army of billionaire backed lawyers ?

as @Nezchan put it there probably vacillating between litigating for billions themselves or working out how many billions they can save by wiping out large portions of 'useless' humanity using Ai

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I'm not opposed of AI gen being used for voice acting (when done right and not stealing VA) if it means indie games can get full voice going vs just text scroll. However the use of it in art work is very questionable as it tends to spit out the same crap and really isn't needed.

I guess if it was used for texture creation it can also be quite good.

People need to remember that games have been doing procedural generation for a long time before this AI craze and it is very similar sort of thing.

Wish we could identify AI slop more accurately rather then just labelling everything that uses AI in some way somewhere being bad, because it won't be long before all games made use it in some form!

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The trouble is, they're conflicted. On the one side is copyright and their ability to squeeze all the money out of intellectual property forever.

On the other, they might get to use the technology to replace all the artists, writers, actors, etc. with free robot slaves. Or worse, someone else might get robot slaves first.

It's a tough call.

ah, the old shall i be evil or even more evil thought process.

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The only thing that puts me off is the small screen. My eyes aren't getting any younger.

I'm in the same boat, unfortunately. While glasses obviously help, I've actually started using XR glasses more and more with the Deck and it's quite enjoyable and even helps avoid shoulder/neck pains from looking down as well!

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It's true that it is, in theory, possible to build good products with AI assistance. And a few people will do it. And those few people will be absolutely upset that, just because 95% of what's built with AI assistance is crap, everyone will insist that things built with AI be identified as such, and most will just use that to completely ignore AI stuff. It won't be very fair to that 5%, but that is not "the consumer"s problem.

So no, I don't think we are going to see lots of "good enough" AI projects finding their way to our wallets, because they will be tarred with the brush of all the lazy grifters making the "not good enough" AI projects, which will be the vast majority, and so nobody will even bother to find out that those particular ones are actually OK.

As to whether (generative, large language model) AI is here to stay, and whether (generative, large language model) AI is going to get better . . . It's here to stay, sort of, but it will get FAR less common for a while after the bubble bursts. All the companies making it . . . in the West, at least . . . are losing money on it at high speed. Bubble's gonna burst. And, it doesn't seem to be getting much better; in some ways it's getting worse. There isn't much larger to go in terms of the training; to get something really better they're going to need some different basis for AI, a new kind of model. That could happen, but it would be a whole different thing, at some unknown time in the future--it's vanishingly unlikely to come along in time to save the current crop of AI-related companies. And they wouldn't have the rights anyway.

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This update has been long awaited, I'm so thankful that it is finally here and excited for the changes in 2.0!

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I need this but for Unreal Engine 5

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Thanks. Installed it immediately.

Took me four guesses on the Steam front page to get a game with that warning.

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Are you really going to reject good games just because they dared to use AI in some irrelevant corner? You're in for a rough time as its use becomes the norm.

I absolutely will. If they use that garbage on something, I will just skip it. I can basically play any game up to the PS2 emulated on a PC (many PS3 Xbox 360 games too) not including the countless games already ported that run natively or though proton that don't use the buzzletters at all. I can always play something else because there will always be a market for games without AI trash in it.

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The changes are great and all but my only concern is VRR. It's been annoyingly broken since I've started using Linux a few years ago. If I have 'Adaptive Sync' enabled and I turn one of my monitors off and back on it doesn't display anything at all. I have to restart, change VRR or logout and back in to fix it. It's frustrating to have to enable and disable VRR manually depending on which game I'm playing.

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What i don't understand is where the lawyers at ?

The trouble is, they're conflicted. On the one side is copyright and their ability to squeeze all the money out of intellectual property forever.

On the other, they might get to use the technology to replace all the artists, writers, actors, etc. with free robot slaves. Or worse, someone else might get robot slaves first.

It's a tough call.

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This game is right up my alley! It's a love letter to certain FPS games and cribs a lot of their mechanics and tropes. I expected it be more like Wolf3D but it's far more like RTCW. As soon as I saw the hud with the stamina bar I recognized it as being from RTCW.

The maps themselves are what are inspired by Wolf3D. They look to be built on a [block/grid system much like Wolf3D](https://hwolf3d.dugtrio17.com/projects/hwe3.gif). The Unity shaders and block geometry make the game look very much like Nightmare Reaper in some ways.

The combat feels really satisfying, I'm a big fan of precise aim based games and the headshot and crouch aim mechanics work great. I mean, if a game offers a dot crosshair and has headshot hitsounds I presume the dev knows what's up. If I could specify custom hitsounds or even just choose the Quake 3 or CPMA hitsounds I'd be stoked.

The world has a surprising amount of depth and effort put into it. The fact that there are notes to read (more RTCW) with flavour text is an appreciated touch.

I can't say much for the story so far but it seems largely perfunctory but again, I'm still very early in the game. I love the voice acting of the hobo - his lines are funny and he delivers them well. I wonder if the VA for the hobo is the dev? I feel like this is a single dev game and you can clearly feel his proverbial voice throughout the game.

I'm genuinely surprised that this game is free. If you like FPS games you should try it out. If you like 2000s FPS games you should definitely check it out.

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The only thing that puts me off is the small screen. My eyes aren't getting any younger.

I still wish Valve would adapt the Deck technology to a laptop form-factor. A 14" or 15" screen would be great. Economically priced like the Deck, of course.

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Mike from the THRASHER dev team here - I can confirm Native Linux support! We have testers enjoying the game with ultra wide monitors on Linux :) One caveat is that Proton is required for the VR version to function on Linux, but the 2D version (with mouse or gamepad) works natively!

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