ShrubOfRegret's recent activity
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Comment on What is the most profound impact a dream has had on you? in ~talk
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Comment on How did deepfake images of me end up on a porn site? in ~life
ShrubOfRegret Link ParentYeah, I'm not entirely sure why people pick the "requirements" they do. They act like if you can't generate a 4k image in less than 30 seconds that it doesn't work at all. I've played around with...Yeah, I'm not entirely sure why people pick the "requirements" they do. They act like if you can't generate a 4k image in less than 30 seconds that it doesn't work at all. I've played around with image, voice, and text AI. The only one that I truly needed better hardware for was the text AI because those models are huge.
As far as image AI/Stable Diffusion, like I said, an old 4GB Nvidia laptop GPU is working well enough for me. The setup is different, but you can get AMD cards that support ROCm working. Even then if your card at least supports DirectX 12, Windows has DirectML (DML) as another option. Then failing everything else if you have a decent CPU that can work too.
There are tons of ways to get Stable Diffusion working. It's just that anything other than the easiest route isn't well represented.
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Comment on How did deepfake images of me end up on a porn site? in ~life
ShrubOfRegret Link ParentYou were talking about hardware, so that's what I addressed. Despite the requirements people often repeat, you don't even need a GPU if you don't care about it being slow. You're right that setup...You were talking about hardware, so that's what I addressed. Despite the requirements people often repeat, you don't even need a GPU if you don't care about it being slow.
You're right that setup for AI could be easier. There's no single click setup, and, if there is, it isn't the first search result or even on the first page of results. The tutorials for what we do have aren't good; if you're in a terminal on Windows you're doing it wrong. All the pieces are there for someone to make an easy automatic deepfake program, but for right now it still requires a bit of effort.
However, I'd say this is similar to the saying that locks exist to keep an honest man honest. We still have a lock on the door, but anyone inclined to actually look at it is going to realize it's unlocked.
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Comment on How did deepfake images of me end up on a porn site? in ~life
ShrubOfRegret Link ParentI think you're overestimating. For Training AI you need something beefy. For Running AI an old laptop might be good enough; I've been using a 6-7 year old Ideapad for Stable Diffusion without too...I think you're overestimating. For Training AI you need something beefy. For Running AI an old laptop might be good enough; I've been using a 6-7 year old Ideapad for Stable Diffusion without too much trouble. Looking at cheap Nvidia cards on Newegg, there are a number of options in the $120-$150 range that should be enough to get by. That's not insignificant, but it's an order of magnitude less than the top end.
Not only that, but most AI can be run in CPU only mode. It's definitely slower. But in my experience, it's less slow than you might think.
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Comment on What game, in your opinion, has the best graphics? in ~games
ShrubOfRegret LinkMy gaming history is a really weird patchwork, so I'm just going to point out a game I think is notable. The Complex: Expedition is realistic to the point that it can be mistaken for actual...My gaming history is a really weird patchwork, so I'm just going to point out a game I think is notable. The Complex: Expedition is realistic to the point that it can be mistaken for actual footage at times, and that sort of perceptual blurring really works well given the subject matter.
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Comment on The sensory overload of Half-Life: Alyx points to the promise and problems of VR in ~games
ShrubOfRegret Link ParentI largely read the article the same way. Half way in it seemed like they were just saying "I felt this way about it, so everyone else must have too." On top of that they really do fail to be...I largely read the article the same way. Half way in it seemed like they were just saying "I felt this way about it, so everyone else must have too." On top of that they really do fail to be specific.
One thing I would have liked them to expand upon is HL:A throwing "so many details and dynamic game mechanics at players at the same time." Did it, really? In my experience it was all very straightforwards. It basically has a full level dedicated to players getting used to moving around and picking stuff up. The level after that has a slow trickle of enemies so the player can get used to shooting. Hacking is introduced somewhere in there, and they're just basic minigames. I fail to see the issues that others might hit, not to say they aren't there.
As for motion sickness, it's something I completely lack perspective on; I cannot recall a time where I have ever been motion sick. That being said, I've heard some anecdotal evidence of "VR legs" being a thing. Perhaps people just aren't used to the medium yet. It's something I would be interested in research on. However, like you said, they really fail to explore the problem.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
ShrubOfRegret LinkLast night I beat Half Life: Alyx. It could be a sort of recency bias talking, but I think it might be my favorite game of all time. When I first started HL:A I wasn't too sure about it. It came...Last night I beat Half Life: Alyx. It could be a sort of recency bias talking, but I think it might be my favorite game of all time.
When I first started HL:A I wasn't too sure about it. It came out basically right after I beat Boneworks, and the two games have different philosophies on how to handle VR. I prefer the freedom of Boneworks, so the limitations in HL:A really stuck out to me. As an example, while hunting for ammo in HL:A I thought to check a large trashcan, but was stopped a solid foot away by an invisible wall; in Boneworks I could have gotten my entire body inside that trashcan without issue.
Aside about Boneworks
If you haven't see it, and don't care about any potential spoilers, I would recommend watching a speedrun of Boneworks. It definitely isn't 100% accurate to how the game is supposed to be played, but it's a good showcase of the freedom I'm talking about.
However, as time went on, HL:A drew me in enough that those issues just didn't matter a whole lot to me. What really sold it for me was the atmosphere. Valve definitely knows how to craft environments. In particular I would say the last half of the game was phenomenal. This is definitely a game I'm going to be playing again.
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~science
ShrubOfRegret LinkThis is one of those situations with a relevant XKCD. Randall's talking about a baseball moving at 90% the speed of light, but I imagine this is roughly the same situation if not worse. The main...This is one of those situations with a relevant XKCD. Randall's talking about a baseball moving at 90% the speed of light, but I imagine this is roughly the same situation if not worse. The main problem being this:
The ideas of aerodynamics don’t apply here. Normally, air would flow around anything moving through it. But the air molecules in front of this ball don’t have time to be jostled out of the way. The ball smacks into them so hard that the atoms in the air molecules actually fuse with the atoms in the ball’s surface. Each collision releases a burst of gamma rays and scattered particles.
Going that fast near anything else just doesn't sound like a good idea.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
ShrubOfRegret LinkAs I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I'm very slowly working on a rewrite of Arx Fatalis. So far, I think the most interesting thing to come out of this is seeing how little some things have...As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I'm very slowly working on a rewrite of Arx Fatalis. So far, I think the most interesting thing to come out of this is seeing how little some things have changed. In retrospect it makes sense; it's probably a combo of backwards compatibility and "if it ain't broke."
For example, the way that Rust's
winitwindow event loop works had me worried. It only allows handling a single event at a time, so I thought I might need to write my own input buffering code. Then it turns out that the way a window's event loop works hasn't changed much since at least 2002. Arx Fatalis also needed to work off of this, so when I get to this part no significant changes will be needed.Also, there are more oddities I've found within the source code. One I'm trying to figure out right now is this visible paranoia surrounding the initialization code. Any time something is initialized it's deleted first. Like, one of the very first functions called, even before the window is created, nulls and zeroes out all of the minimap's memory. It has me really wondering if older versions of C++ had issues with uninitialized memory creeping in.
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Comment on Bethesda never understood Fallout in ~games
ShrubOfRegret Link ParentStill Spoilers I didn't mean to imply that they should be left alone. My question was if the solution with the best outcome was actually blowing up the Institute. The human population of the...Still Spoilers
I didn't mean to imply that they should be left alone. My question was if the solution with the best outcome was actually blowing up the Institute. The human population of the Institute seemed pretty small or at most equal to the synths they employed, why not start a rebellion? The older models could be given a virus or otherwise reprogrammed, and the new ones could be convinced to change sides. Most in the Institute refused to even consider that synths could be sentient, so that type of organization might take them by complete surprise.With how much potential for actual good the place held, blowing it up felt like it should have been the last option instead of the first and only.
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Comment on Bethesda never understood Fallout in ~games
ShrubOfRegret LinkI can't really comment on the older games; I've never played any of the ones before FO3, and the last time I played FO3 was many years ago. However, I've always said that Fallout 4 was a decent...I can't really comment on the older games; I've never played any of the ones before FO3, and the last time I played FO3 was many years ago. However, I've always said that Fallout 4 was a decent game, but a bad Fallout game.
Part of the reason for that is what was talked about here. The whole game was basically just a beeline from quest marker to quest marker for me. That wasn't a conscious decision. With nothing truly new to find out in the ruins, I just instinctively ignored them. I suppose there's also something to be said about fast travel systems here. It's amazing how much of the map you explore and memorize when fast travel is disabled.
The biggest problem I had was with the overall storytelling. FO4 just felt like I was going through a story that Bethesda wanted to tell instead of making my own. The joke about FO4's dialogue options just being "yes," "yes," "sarcastic yes," and "maybe later" exists for a reason. Even if the end result was the same, the skill checks of the past games really made your character unique and their build matter to the story.
Going through a static story like this isn't inherently bad, but it's not what the past games did or what I wanted out of FO4. Still, even judging it as it is, I'm not happy with it.
FO4 Ending Spoilers
I wasn't a fan of how the Institute ended. You're basically just handed the position, and the game's even somewhat self aware about that. Then once everything is said and done it's implied that your character just picks up where Shaun left off.
The Railroad ending makes no sense to me. The overall idea is to help the synths, no? How is blowing up the Institute the best way to do that? The Institute contains all the knowledge on how synths are made. Presumably it contains the equipment to repair/heal them. Then, there are still synths inside that could be brought to the Railroad's side. Yes, the Institute is more powerful, but is blowing up all the knowledge, all the equipment, all those people the only way to get the upper hand?
There's basically nothing to the Minute Men ending.
Never bothered getting the Brotherhood ending. I'm one of those "I can't be mean to NPC's because it might hurt their feelings, and that makes me feel bad" people, so I can't bring myself to side against the synths. However, I imagine that this ending has its own issues.
Really all I can say at this point is that I look forward to the fan revival projects that are going on out there. Skywind is looking good; Oblivion is on my list of games to play, and it also has Skyblivion in the works; Fallout 4: New Vegas is yet another one being worked on. FO4:NV is the one I've been following the closest. I'm a fan of the team just because as they go they're releasing helper mods they've built, so even if they get a C&D the community gains a bunch of tools to work with.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
ShrubOfRegret LinkSome measure of insanity and stubbornness has struck me, so I'm looking into rewriting Arx Fatalis in Rust. In pretty much every aspect I have no idea what I'm doing with this. I've never...Some measure of insanity and stubbornness has struck me, so I'm looking into rewriting Arx Fatalis in Rust. In pretty much every aspect I have no idea what I'm doing with this. I've never programmed professionally, so diving into a new codebase isn't a skill I've ever needed to learn. I've never done any proper graphics programming. Worst of all I've never really been able to get myself to sit down long enough to actually finish a project.
At the moment I'm still basically sizing up the sheer scale of this project, and, right from the start, there are a number of roadblocks. One is that the organization of the code is bizarre to me; all the module names are picked out of mythology, so the likes of
MINOS,HERMES, andAthena. There is documentation clarifying what each of these modules are, but the actual code comments are on the sparse side (also occasionally in French). Then on top of that, I don't think the original, unmodified, game can be compiled at this point. It runs off of DirectX 7, and Microsoft really doesn't want you reaching back that far.Even if I drop this before actually doing anything, reading through all old code has been interesting. Especially when there are those spots where you have to question if some obscure bug is being worked around, or if the original authors were also learning as they went. A fun example of this I found was a block of memory that, as far as I can tell, is allocated for no reason. The only direct use it has in the entire codebase is being freed in the situation that a few specific functions run out of memory and it isn't even reallocated afterwards.
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Comment on Kind Words (Tildes Edition) in ~talk
ShrubOfRegret LinkRequest: I'm not employed, in education, or training; I am a NEET. It's been this way for at least two years now. I had plans. After graduating I intended to go on this major trip. There's no...Request: I'm not employed, in education, or training; I am a NEET. It's been this way for at least two years now.
I had plans. After graduating I intended to go on this major trip. There's no reason to go into specifics, but I had intended it to be a sort of test of character or at least a shift in perspective. Then my travel buddy dropped out on me. He was lacking motivation, fell behind in his studies, and wasn't graduating. Going alone wasn't an option.
At the time I had a position as a student worker on campus. To be a student worker you need to be, well, a student. There was a path to being a regular employee, but by the time I realized my trip wasn't happening I couldn't meet any of the requirements. I graduated with all my plans ruined and no backup.
To be honest, I was already at a low point. That last semester saw me visiting one of the campus' therapists several times before everything fell apart. Ultimately the therapist made me feel worse, so I stopped. With all that, I decided I would just take a break. I'd act as if I had gone on the trip, but instead stay with my parents until my original return date.
That date came and went. For a bit I managed to stir up enough enthusiasm to get some preparation done, but I can't say it has amounted to anything. Early on my brother told me of an opening where he worked, but by the time I bothered to look into it, it was gone. Then some months later another job opened there. This time I applied, was interviewed, and promptly rejected. More recently a job opening was pointed out by extended family. I was certain I would get this job. Last week I heard from that extended family that someone else had been hired.
Now, here I am. Lost. The motivation to break out just isn't there, and every time I have tried has been a failure. I don't leave home often. I basically live in just two rooms. I have a single close friend, but it's been months since we've been able to meet in person. I'm not unconvinced that I haven't actually been depressed for most of my life. It's just that up until graduation I had some structure in place. Now there's nothing holding me up.
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Comment on A giant heat dome over Alaska is set to threaten all-time temperature records in ~enviro
ShrubOfRegret Link ParentTrump is the face of the issue, is he not? He, and those like him, are standing squarely in the way of anything being done. At best they are short sighted; they think that either the flames will...Trump is the face of the issue, is he not? He, and those like him, are standing squarely in the way of anything being done. At best they are short sighted; they think that either the flames will never reach them, or that when they do that they can be controlled. At worst, they think that all this smoke comes without fire. Either way, why do anything? They are in control, and by their reckoning nothing needs fixing.
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Comment on What brought you here? in ~tildes
ShrubOfRegret LinkIt's a bit fuzzy now, but if I remember correctly it was the redesign that initially brought me here. The redesign had a lot of wasted screen space, it removed sub styling, and the part that...It's a bit fuzzy now, but if I remember correctly it was the redesign that initially brought me here. The redesign had a lot of wasted screen space, it removed sub styling, and the part that really irritated me was that it wanted me to change how I interacted with content. Looking around at the time, many seemed to think the same way. Overall it was part of a trend that made it clear to me that Reddit cared more about advertisers than users.
Somewhere in the midst of that Tildes was mentioned. I saw who was behind it, and what the plans for it were. Things like Tildes not storing email addresses really sold it for me; it was just a level of care that I hadn't seen before.
On Reddit I was never a part of smaller or more quality subreddits. Before that I was never a part of any forums. The community here was a real change of pace for me. If nothing else Tildes has me actually leaving replies instead of purely being a lurker.
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Comment on Comment vote counts are now visible again in ~tildes.official
ShrubOfRegret Link ParentI've had automod delete posts before, so I did check that. Turns out the problem was just me being new to the sub. Conversation there was much slower than I expected. After a few days I had a...I've had automod delete posts before, so I did check that. Turns out the problem was just me being new to the sub. Conversation there was much slower than I expected. After a few days I had a couple of upvotes.
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Comment on Comment vote counts are now visible again in ~tildes.official
ShrubOfRegret Link ParentI like this middle ground. Seeing votes here hasn't been an issue for me, but recently I had a problem with it over on Reddit. There was a world building discussion, and I posted a snippet of lore...I like this middle ground. Seeing votes here hasn't been an issue for me, but recently I had a problem with it over on Reddit.
There was a world building discussion, and I posted a snippet of lore that I had been working on. A few hours later I went to check the thread only to find that I had no upvotes or replies. Meanwhile, a number of other people that did the same after me were upvoted.
It's hard to not take that as some kind of personal insult. Soon after I caught myself inwardly being a dick to others in the thread. I was reading through others' stuff and thinking "this isn't any good. Why were they upvoted and not me?"
Without the actual numbers I would just see that no one had replied. It might still have been discouraging, but I don't think that knee jerk negativity would have been there.
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Comment on Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild | First look trailer in ~games
ShrubOfRegret Link ParentMy memory of it isn't great at this point; in fact, I've now realized it's been at least a decade since I last played it. That being said, I really enjoyed it. If I were to rank the Zelda games...My memory of it isn't great at this point; in fact, I've now realized it's been at least a decade since I last played it. That being said, I really enjoyed it. If I were to rank the Zelda games I've played it would probably be number two on my list. Breath of the Wild takes the top spot for the moment. I might have to go replay Twilight Princess to see if that budges the rankings any.
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Comment on Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild | First look trailer in ~games
ShrubOfRegret LinkI really hope they keep the tone of the trailer. For quite some time now I've wanted a dark(er) Zelda game. I think the trailer shows that Nintendo is capable of nailing that feeling. Barring...I really hope they keep the tone of the trailer. For quite some time now I've wanted a dark(er) Zelda game. I think the trailer shows that Nintendo is capable of nailing that feeling. Barring that, I'd be happy with a more involved story and longer dungeons.
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Comment on Recommend me a game that _________. in ~games
ShrubOfRegret (edited )Link ParentI've considered getting Enter the Gungeon before, but I've been hesitant based on how bad I was at The Binding of Isaac. Twin stick shooter controls are just something I've never been able to...I've considered getting Enter the Gungeon before, but I've been hesitant based on how bad I was at The Binding of Isaac. Twin stick shooter controls are just something I've never been able to really get used to.
I have Slay the Spire, and I do enjoy it. It's just not a game that I get sucked into or play incredibly frequently. Being honest, I think I might just be a bit too stubborn for it. There comes a point when you just have to accept the game isn't giving you a single defense card this run, and there is a part of me will not adapt to that unfortunate truth.
When I was younger I had a number of precognitive dreams. One of them has always stuck with me just because I dreamed about that particular moment four of five times before it happened. Each time it was just a little bit different, like I was getting updates because something had changed so it wasn't exactly the same anymore. The moment itself wasn't even anything important or notable; it was just me on the playground at school.
If I'd only ever had one precognitive dream I could probably rationalize it away, but multiple? Is it something weird going on with me mentally? If it's real what physics/biology is going on here? Or is this some hint at something supernatural? I'm not sure what to think. It being a problem with me is unsettling, but everything else seems so implausible.