=VG= SemlerPDX

I am unable to properly function, so I'm copying a note I sent to a few of my oldest friends here at VG:
I can't login, I can't think. I can't even process life right now.  I've been in a stunned shock since Sunday (Dec 31st) evening.  In moments of clarity, I am reaching out to those I can think of - I consider many of you real friends, and I just want you all to know what has happened and why I'll be absent.

On New Years Eve morning, my brother took his life.  We were extremely close our entire lives almost like twins, but he had cut off contact with us all and moved far away for over a year.  He had been struggling with mental health issues including audible hallucinations (hearing voices) that berated him and tortured him "verbally", as well as addiction problems, and we all have to just accept that he felt there was no other way to stop it all and escape.  He was a talented musician and a knowledgeable composer.  If any of you have watched some of my old gaming videos on YouTube, you've heard my brother's music in the background.

He will be cremated and released to us around the 12th, and I will be spreading his ashes at Wahclella Falls near or around then, presuming it is accessible this time of year, and we will hold a private Celebration of Life rememberance in our home somewhere around the 17th.

I may not come around for the next couple weeks, or until these matters have concluded, as I do not feel sociable at this time.  Certain individuals can reach me when I am offline if there is a technical emergency, so contact =VG= m823us if there is a matter that requires my attention, and I will resolve it if/when I am able, and if not, it will go on the top of the "to do" list for when I am feeling better.  I've already noted that I will be helping Oniblood work with the ARK Survival server as he expressed interest in that, and those who knew I was developing weekly PR event "team workshops" with custom maps should know I will continue with that project before too long.

I feel like I'm walking around in a daze, like a bad dream, and my time is filled with moments of painfully deafening silence and extreme grief, and the rest of it spent with family and friends, as people I've not talked to in years come over to express condolences.  Hearing others talk about this all sounds like I'm listening to a commentary of my own life and it is too surreal to tolerate, so much so that my family now hushes up if I'm walking by when re-telling someone who has not yet heard, out of respect for my feelings.

I will eventually return because hanging out with friends online will help me to move forward and be strong, but I am having a hard time using the phone at this time and it's most comfortable for me to text for now - messages through this website or facebook are just fine if friends need to contact me.

Thank you all for understanding, and for being my friend.

Wot I been up to:

Crafting the new VG Wiki using our database forms system, to allow any old joe with little to no editing experience to create or edit great looking Wiki pages in a very VG themed style.  All entries feature an automated Contents menu linking to any section with content, little 'edit' buttons next to any section that open the editor and jump to the part of the form containing that content, a Summary Box panel that sizes automatically with content (up to a certain min/max width), and up to 64 sections with optional inset image panel (with subtitle) which uses simple logic to stagger left/right on odd/even numbered sections.

Once the form/system is set, I'll be able to create additional categories, and even category-specific fields such as a standardized format for the Summary Box on a per subject/topic basis.  Permissions can be set separately for who can create new pages/entries, or who can edit, so we can create a roadmap of 'stub' entries that can be filled in by users of specific group(s) that we dictate (such as Jr. Officers and higher only, etc.).

This is also being used to learn about custom CSS and HTML, and IPS logic, as it pertains to in-page links that jump around the same page (such as the proposed 'Back to Top' button for this website, globally).  Like, I thought I knew a little about HTML and certain tags/properties like <a> and <div>, but this project has had me diving in much deeper requiring me to create my own custom <div> classes.  The little white square brackets around the in-page links like [edit] are custom CSS added before and after the parent class, and ended up looking a lot more concise than three <span>'s in a row all with their own style dictated any time they were used.

the difference being:
 

<div class="vg-wiki-edit-link"><a href="./?do=edit&#subsection-{$vg_wiki_section}"><span>edit</span></a></div>

instead of this ugly mess:

<a target="_self" href="./?do=edit&#subsection-{$vg_wiki_section}"><span style="color:#bababa;font-size:12px;">[</span> <span style="color:#dba901;margin:2px;font-size:10px;font-weight:bold;">edit</span> <span style="color:#bababa;font-size:12px;margin-right:15px;">]</span></a>

Got some pics - first is day 1 proof of concept, then day 2, then day 3... coming right along, a lot of the work now is in the system/editor as opposed to the front end "look" of the Wiki pages:
(*images and text, and subsection titles etc. are placeholders for visualization purposes, of course)

Teamspeak is having issues, keeps restarting every hour or two.  At first, the bottom two channels would disappear when it restarts, now we're missing tons of channels.  For some reason, it reminds me of this crazy fantasy movie I saw in the 1980's called Never Ending Story -- the world is slowly disappearing into a mysterious fog because no one believes in the world of imagination anymore. 

Working on a DIY project right now between other things; "wireless TrackIR TrackClip Pro"

I have an old TrackClip Pro with several broken plastic pieces, so I'm using it for all sorts of testing and feasibility checks before cutting up my new working TrackClip Pro.  I want to use a small modern Lithium Ion battery and have the ability to charge it through USB micro-A connection, with a charging circuit, and a power on/off switch, but a few of the batteries I've tested so far have me scratching my head.

If this simple 3x LED device normally operates on a USB 5V 1A connection, I really only need to replicate that.  But I've already had little success with the batteries I have around my house.  I may have to purchase a battery specifically for the project, as well as the charging circuit.  It all needs to be very small and lightweight.

I've read several DIY forums where people already did this exact thing, so I have plenty of ideas for products and procedures.  I'm very patient and I'd rather spend a few extra dollars if it can be a little more sturdy or look a little better, so time will tell how this turns out.  Will take pictures once there's something worth taking a picture of.
 

Been doing some extreme overclocking today with my new nVidia ASUS ROG STRIX RTX 2070 Super - for the last 14 hours or so....  

I set a number of 1st place Overclocking records in 3DMark in my class:  i5-4690K / RTX 2070 Super -- including a 3rd place ranking in FireStrike against i5-4690K's OC's to the super extreme of 4.4-4.7GHZ!!  I can only get mine at 4.3GHz even without overclocking my RAM, so I run 4.3GHz on my CPU and OC RAM @ 2133MHz (4x4GB)

I was able to get stable at a GPU OC @ 2130MHz and VRAM OC @ 2000MHz (16GHz total across all 8x1GB GDDR6!)

It seems I won't hold all those first places for long, though, guys like Raymanauto77 could knock me out with CPU alone... lol. Cheers, Ray! Love your CPU!

I was super proud to place 43rd IN THE WORLD and 12th place in USA for Time Spy Extreme in the same class (i5-4690K) against ALL GRAPHICS CARDS and was also cool to place just inside the top 100 in the USA for a Port Royal and Time Spy (v1.1) each at 94th place.  Super fun to be able to swing around this card in it's extreme levels, took a ton of testing and work, will have to post up some pics in a blog post or something later.  The Turing GPU has some quirks and an overclocking guide with my experiences using this Super version card might be cool to have around.

For now, after a full day of this, it's time to call it a day.  Pics to come.  Fun fun!
https://www.3dmark.com/newsearch#advanced?test=...TimeSpyExtreme..i5-4690k..RTX2070S..

WOO HOO! 

Holy crap .. I won something!  WOOT!

Gotta take a sortof 'life pause' right now, put my Twitch Streaming project goals on hold for another week while I take care of life.  Using the time to develop ideas, and reflect on input from friends - I've decided to make a 'video framework' in my Sony Vegas program so I can drop in video footage and easily edit it down for content and upload to YouTube and this will be a better way to cater to any audience I may attract with a Twitch stream as I may not be able to stream as regularly as some people are able.
While I handle things, I've been spending my time learning Java for games development.  My goal is to make a small game (2D game like the old NES or Atari stuff) that will be an exercise to teach me the different bits that make up a game in Java and how to program them.  If I do it right, my 'first game' may be a decent framework for me to make other little games out of in the future if I want.

I already know the basics of programming in a few other languages, so it's not as hard as it could be to learn, but I do need to get into some new areas for me, so it's properly challenging as well.  Had to put the 'code learning' on hold to actually draw some characters and objects (and background stuff) for this little game I'm making.  The max size of things in the world is 32 pixels by 32 pixels, so I'm using MS Paint to make all sorts of textures - grass, dirt, stone, brick, etc.  and also to make a character framework I can tailor to different in-game creatures like the Player or "monsters" or some "princess" to save, but all sharing the same style of legs, arms, head, feet - so I've made all those up, getting 2 frames that look like 'walking' when I flip between the two (will be used for animations in game).

Fun fun!

I'm spending the time to make the look good, and when it's just pixels, it's limiting - I've made my character's framework 64x64 pixels and will scale it down in-game to 32x32 pixels to fit the world, but it will retain the extra level of detail in that way.  I suppose any graphical item that needs extra detail to look good I will do that way.
Here is a little doodle I did last night, gonna turn it into a properly drawn character for my little game, it's inspired from my memories of that little mage from Final Fantasy 9 and those wizards from the Legend of Zelda game (the original NES):

Had fun, but glad to be home 

Been waiting for the Steam Summer Sale in hope that Bethesda would loosen their death grip on the $60 price tag they've held on Fallout 4 since it released near the end of 2015 - happy as hell it got a 50% off tag, and I've been playing the hell out of it.  For the most part, it seems this game tries to cover every base in the most popular gaming genres these days from survival to open world RPG to FPS action (including random IED's here and there!) with a bit of Minecrafting and base building as well as a fair amount of item and weapon upgrading.  Hell, they even got the "Zombies" genre covered in Fallout 4 with the rotten-brain ghouls and beasts.  Finally feeling a little deadly (against the normal shit, that is) and went back home to examine that old OP Power Armor Suit that I left behind.  Spent some time to fashion up some Grade-B parts for the power armor and bought some extra fusion cores - really getting into this!
Got my dog, got my Stimpacks and RadAway, got my Minuteman painted Power Armor and my Minigun - game on! 

Been loving Fallout 4, and I know it has a ton of popular mods, some that add things, some that fix things -- and I do want to just play the game through once, with no mods, as I know the game has TONS of replay value and mods only add to that.

But this issue of not knowing what my character is going to say when I choose a dialogue option is very frustrating.  Oniblood turned me on to the Nexus mod site to find the mod that shows exactly what you will say when you choose an option, and I am a very happy camper!!  Gonna keep playing the game with this one mod, and I gotta share the info for those who might not know it cuz it's just that helpful!! Huge thanks to these two modders!

Quote

Full Dialogue Interface (NewDialog English and CN-DE-ES-FR-IT-JA-PL-PTBR-RU translations) by Cirosan and shadwar

Here's a screenshot from my current mission, a long dialogue back-and-forth with the Synth Detective - and I am so happy I can see the full dialogue now:

Road America IMSA Super Car Championship races

Terrible storm is shaping up to be rather.... shapely

DIY Wireless TrackClip Pro
Haven't had time to spend on this project for awhile....  Been trying to find batteries that will power these 3 LED's, and previous tests required at least 4x 1.5V AAA Batteries which is way too large for a battery pack that will sit velcro'd to my headphones.

I just found some rechargeable Lithium Ion batteries with 3.7 Volts each in a "AAA" form-factor.  These things are great!  I tried running a single battery, but the LED's didn't illuminate in any noticeable way so I had to wire a second battery in serial, and they light up just fine.  They are 350mAh each, which is less than half the capacity of a standard rechargeable Li-ion AAA battery, but the trade-off for a higher voltage in such a small size is exactly what I need for this project.

I left this thing plugged in overnight and it was off in the morning, I guess I'll time it to see how long it lasts.  Next step will be to rig a recharging circuit with a micro-A USB female plug-in for easy re-charging, and then cram it all in a small black box with a velcro strap to easily attach to my headset.  To start, I'm not going to cut the TrackClip Pro wire, and I'll leave the female USB connector shown below on the battery pack.  I may shorten the TrackClip wire near the end of this project, at least to remove the heavy USB pass-through dongle hanging off it.

We'll see where this goes, I've never done anything like this before so it's a small challenge.

I've been absent for a few days, not sure about the next few as well... Got a family member in the hospital, my elderly cousin John - the guy I was on my last vacation with, and was planning to go camping with in August for two straight weeks.  He got rushed from Washington a Complex Medical Care Medical Complex here in Portland for emergency G.I. surgery.  I'm finally picking him up from the hospital this afternoon.  I'll be keeping an eye on things, some times all I have is time, but I can't get into a game because I don't know when I have to "jump and run".  Been watching some YouTube and reading up on SSD's to be sure my brand isn't the sort that catches fire like apparently many do, though I'm still having a hard time locating a number of genuine reports of SSD's used for PC gaming catching fire or emitting smoke.

So, it's been a crappy week for me.  Busy with projects at home, and on Monday, I threw out my right shoulder (I'm right handed) and barely finished my work tasks.  On top of that, I just launched a new server for my favorite game, Falcon BMS, and I've been unable to fly in it due to the whole "so much pain I want to vomit" issue.  Been so bored between the hot tub, ice packs, and frequent naps that I made a voice control setup for Steel Ocean so I can play a game using my voice (and a dual-axis controller in my left hand for aim/look).  Sleep schedule off, I tested it successfully last night around 2am, and it works.

I have to take frequent breaks, but I'll be around here and there to game with you guys. 

So, I was reading some forum on a totally different topic, one guy suggested this CompactGUI as a tool for the Windows 10 "Compact" function.  It seems this is no new feature, but the version in Win10 is much more powerful and more optimized.

TLDNR; You can take a program, for example my ARK installation folder (>100GB) and compress the contents with little to no performance loss when running the application.  Doesn't turn it into a ZIP or RAR achive, either - we'd not notice the change as users.  It is a disk space saver, and it's very good at it.  According to the reports, my ARK could potentially turn into a ~50GB folder instead of twice that!!

Check it out, I'm gonna:
https://github.com/ImminentFate/CompactGUI

The Different between Soccer and American Football 

Been having quite a bit of fun on the VG Minecraft server with Renainn(davestrike) and his brother LionClaw, KiwiBob, Airbats, Double13, and Jaki the past few days...  Good times!

I just remade the Reputation system here on the website to include many of the ribbons from the last website.  18 Levels just like the content count ranks.  Hope people enjoy it!  Feedback and constructive criticism is welcome.

AHH!! I keep throwing money at my screen but nothing's happening!!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1051200?snr=1_41_4__42

Last fall, I bought a few more PC monitor arms to free up desk space...  I have a transforming setup now, lol.

Made this GIF to show the different ways I can set this thing up so I can, for example, play VR without punching a hole in my main monitor or knocking over my drink. 

The laptop is connected to the smallest monitor on the right, the other two are connected to my PC.  I have to hide a lot of spaghetti behind the desk, but  all the cables are well managed.

My jaw dropped at this amazing amateur cosmic photography by Thunderf00t - @11:35 Alien Mothership confirmed! (j/k) 

In Portland, Oregon, where Darth Vader rides a unicycle while wearing a kilt and playing bag pipes that shoot fire around the Skidmore district, we have a saying, "Keep Portland Weird"
 

.... So this just happened, an official local brew from Portland Brewing:

Almost done with my voice control profile framework for VoiceAttack, and the next version of AVCS4 BMS Immersive Voice Control Radios -- finishing up work on the semi-automated debugging and bug reporting system - a bit behind schedule, but pushing hard to get this into a public beta test soon:
imgur linky