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Get cripto right once and its cypher punk life for life. Nothing else you can do in life will make the kind of money crypto can make without even breaking a sweat. The VR existence is basically unlimited social interaction at big parties indefinitely. It spreads past that and leaks into real life eventually where you will be in contact with all kinds of people around the world in cliques that never would have existed before. Networking potential is sick especially if the game industry starts to have a bigger role in the VR space. Threads like this wont even need to exist, you will just go to the right parties and meet the right people and probably get a job doing something within a week. As a metaverse game developer you will likely be a very well known person in the community and gain the kind of treatment you probably expect a celebrity would experience. Nothing combines our job with socializing in the way this medium does. Literally your avatar will be a signifier that you are someone of stature. Your resume can be a place people actually visit. And if you are someone who contributes you get treated like a rockstar. So this can go dystopian black mirror or it can go sci-fi novel amazing. It comes down to how the tech gets used. At the moment everything is wild west so its a sneak peak into the future might be like. If its decentralized and nobody controls it then its just an extension of humanity. If it get centralized then its going to be heavily controlled and it will suck and probably die as nobody will use it.

This in my opinion is a proper abstraction of reality that is Counter-Strike. Overall there is a lot of expression from the base design, it does not rely on props or textures. I think this is a step in the right direction for the game; rather than try and mimic reality there is an artistic abstraction of it instead. Overall I would say the art design is great, and deceptively simple. I suspect people will struggle to emulate this style of mapping for a time to come.

I bet if you set out to do it, you could make this scene photorealistic. Remove the fantasy scaffoldings, make the water less blue, reduce the bloom, replace the cartoon grass with grass thay looks like real grass, and undo the Instagram filter. They definitely weren't going for realistic here. And you can't make the excuse that the technology isn't there yet.

Dexter New Blood was a decent throwback at the then hit show.

I am hoping this social/metaverse won't gain traction. The fact that the barrier to entry is so high is comforting. It's just scary imagining all these people plugged in like in the Matrix, pursuing virtual shit that don't matter. Seems a way to just rob people of everything. The repercussions of socials are already well known, force feeding dopamine boosts to people seems like sending lemmings over the cliff. In a sense it was cool the gaming we've experienced growing up, it was an equalizer, it didn't matter who you were, if you could afford to wear Nike at school or not, in game we were all the same and just the skill mattered... now with NFTs and all this personalisation content we are just recreating the clique aspect of the school playground. If I'm immersing myself in a virtual world is to get a break from the real one... are we gonna get people hustling to sell you shit, like those on the side of the street? @Castle where do you find all that time to spend in VR, I've got a child to feed and educate, I can hardly message family when I'm looking after them. And when I see friends I want to hug them and share food with them... even if I could afford a VR kit, I just wouldn't have time.

Yes im also hoping for source 2 dev tool release, last time source 1 tools released with counter strike source soo i imagine with half life 3 or cs source 2 or portal 3 or something they will release the tools. ay poofoge you might be interested in zombie panic $550 prize map contest https://steamcommunity.com/app/17500/discussions/2/3192489172307273962/

Age is the biggest component imo. This is something I used to tell already back when I was moderating the Italian gaming forum, and that's many years ago: if we are realistic, we are not the target audience. Most AAA revolves around these live service that we, as working professionals, in stable relationships, maybe mothers and dads, haven't got time for! I'm sure we have all seen stuff that looks like it can tickle our interest, but it's just too big and becomes offputting. CliffyB was right when, responding to criticism to Gears of War, talked about the pros of shorter but more polished experiences. It's a shame we don't diversify more, for example I'd buy most COD games within the launch year, if they sold the campaign on its own at 1/3 1/2 of the price. On top of time, themes are a big thing, there's not really much to connect nowadays for a mature audience. I'm so glad I played Last of Us only last year, I think it triggered some emotions I would have never felt before becoming a dad.

man I wish I had enough money to buy it.. but first saving money and work is important!

So tempting to try and get one. So many other things need money for... if I get the new job I'm interviewing for and a decent bump, I just might reward myself

The biggest acquisition in gaming yet: $12 billions!!! https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/10/22876184/take-two-interactive-zynga-acquisition-deal How is Zynga more valuable than Bethesda, it seems unreal... but I guess working on mobile/social games has a much higher ROI when you strike right. It's not even mentioned in the article that Zynga has acquired overtime many mobile-casual developers, and more hardcore companies like Natural Motion, the latter originally created the physics engine used in GTA4 and other R* games, and then they moved to the casual space with successful series like CSR Racing.

I hadn't followed the plans for the Season Pass, so comes a bit as a surprise that it's all a revival of the previous 3 chapters. You'd want this content to go along those games, and use the DLCs to expand on the characters of the latest iteration? Just me? That being said, the type of gameplay is the type of thing I like, good for shorter runs and blow some steam.

Looks like DL2 will get the DL1 treatment

Valve Set to Start Shipping its Steam Deck in February

When you work on games for a living, most of the smoke and mirrors that works for the average gamer won't work on you. So I find getting immersed is harder now than before

Yeah I was talking to one of the level designers at work about this today. I'm finding it harder and harder to find a game I can really stick with and put a lot of hours into. Whereas 10+ years ago there were quite a few games that I would really enjoy and put many hours into. Now some of this is probably down to me getting older, having less time to play, my friends not playing as much and my tastes changing. But then I think about Battlefield 2042 and how bad that's been received. Before it came out and all we had were trailers I was pretty hyped for it. I wanted a modern day Battlefield like BF2, BC2 or BF3 but with modern graphics and that's exactly what the trailers looked like. Obviously, that never came to pass and I cancelled my pre-order after playing the beta. But if DICE/EA did release a modern day BF2 I reckon I could really dedicate some time to it. Now, I guess we're in the minority since the games industry is pulling in some serious cash. The masses must be loving it but I guess most of the money is going into a small number of franchises (COD, LOL, Pokemon, Mobile games etc). I dunno, maybe when we can't progress with graphics any more without a significant jump in graphics power the games will get better and we'll focus on the gameplay instead? Old man shouts at cloud!

Honestly I'm not sold, this has been tried a dozen times and sometimes with a hardware user bases larger than fakebooks current Rift base. Remember Playstation Home, had a user base of what, 40 million people, dead. Second life, dead. Those weren't VR, but is an even steeper barrier to entry. Plus VR chat currently exists for the actual innovators/first adopters of this tech (which is critical for something to grow) and that even though its available on Index/Vive/Rift and windows mixed reality has a tiny user base. I guess time will tell but right now, this is in the fad column for me. To be clear, i am sure VR gaming will continue to grow as the technology becomes more accessible, but I don't believe social VR will catch on and become mainstream.

Well, I managed to experience a third option on this front at this point. Triple AAA industry to Indie game dev to decentralized finance / web3 / metaverse content creation. Been doing this for awhile now and its a completely different beast. I almost feel like its impossible to really even explain it at this point. I think a defining definition of this space is that its currently out of reach from most people in both concept and practice. Even then I am too frank when I discuss this topic which has a strong tendency to spook people. There are a large number of people in the game industry that have yet to even grasp an NFT at a basic level and the vast majority of the crypto and metaverse space are so extremely cutting edge that its impossible to really predict where things will go next. Overall I know what is going to happen though. We are all going to be in this space eventually and the people who complained, spoke out against it will be railed by online shills who have financial incentives for their crypto and NFTs to hold value. Its a losing battle, don't bother. I have been living a full blown black mirror episode for about 5 years now. I am as deep in this as it is humanly possible and I fully see now how its going to change the internet and humanity. There is not really a bullet pointed list I can create like my older post. The post I created before this one was made right before I was fully drawn in. Mind you I was in crypto at around 2014 but had no solitary idea on how this would come together in a "metaverse" scenario. Facebook, Microsoft, Apple and various other corporations are absolutely gung-ho after this space. Most people still have absolutely no idea why, but these companies do and they are fucking serious about it. They are deadset about capturing a chunk of this space and nothing is likely to really stop them. Its remarkable as ultimately speaking web3 is actually a disadvantage for these types of corporations and they will likely end up restructuring as a result to better leverage the space. Everything is going to change very soon. Virtual reality by itself is a gimmick that will never gain traction by itself. This is also true for NFTs. Are NFTs a scam? They absolutely are at this time. But that wont matter. Crypto, virtual reality and NFTs are just ingredients, separate pieces of a larger puzzle with many moving parts. Alone they come off extremely pointless and almost like a bad joke. The real magic wont happen until you combine these ideas in a specific package. The brutal and honest truth about this is that unless you experience this for yourself and garner some time in the metaverse and gain some actual lasting relationships with others in the space it will be extremely confusing as to what all of this is even about. So for this to be on topic regarding getting into the game industry. The metaverse is going to create an explosion of development similar to what Id software did to multiplayer online gaming in the 1990s. You will experience two types of platforms in this space. The most common is likely to be the standard non-proprietary development environment. Unreal 5 or unity based platforms will likely function this way. These environment will eventually mold themselves into the proprietary development environment. This transition from standard older development environments to fully in engine environments will occur for a host of reasons. Metaverses have a tendency to act like a black hole where the the survival of the platform will be predicated on forcing content creation to utilize proprietary toolsets making it harder to bring content outside of that metaverse. A metaverse is going to include visual scripting / logic systems similar to unreal blueprints and the nodes will be 3d objects. There is going to be an explosion of new metaverse platforms as well. You are going to see a strong push for open source platforms because decentralized finance has extremely strong ties to trustless environments. Most development will be done in virtual reality. But it wont be done the way you might be thinking. The basic idea will be that everything is built on top of these platforms. Everything comes to the metaverse and stays in the metaverse. You have a social environment then on top of that people will build larger projects on top of it. Even single player games will likely be playable while in a social VR environment. The metaverse is the platform and all games and content are built inside and on top of the core platform. The most important and difficult piece of the puzzle to grasp is that these are going to be hyper social environments. You need to get this otherwise you will not understand the core function of how this all comes together. Mark Zuckerberg describes this as the "feeling of presence". Your experience in virtual reality with other people is almost identical to your experiences in real life. You can know someone only in virtual reality for multiple years and then meet them in real life and the experience is completely organic with literally zero downtime. The feeling of presence is extremely important. The feeling of presence you gain in virtual reality in a social platform is the glue that binds every single facet of the experience as a whole. Without it, none of this stuff will make sense. Without the feeling of presence then NFTs make literally zero sense. Corporations attempting to push this idea are absolutely flubbing the entire concept by trying to make NFT collectibles. Its a complete waste of time. Nobody is going to care about NFTs unless its part of a popular metaverse. The moment you own something that has real world value and its tied to your online persona in some way in an environment with a true feeling of presence is the moment it all clicks. Konami releasing some Castlevania nfts makes literally zero sense. Most people are absolutely clueless about how or why any of this works. Its tonedeaf as hell for Square to release FFXIV NFT collectibles. It does not make sense! Nobody is going to know or even care about you owning these things if its not part of a highly social environment! Shoutouts to people who have experienced the following. - Experienced a job interview while at a concert. - Experienced a job interview at a bar or nightclub. - Experienced and landed a job interview while drunk. (The interviewer was also drinking) - developed content entirely in VR and only understand less than half of how it works because everyone who helped were persistent about doing it for you. - People talking about 2nd Life like it was the Roman empire. - Has been to a public pug. - "Is there a mirror I need to calibrate" - Communicate with hundreds of people in a single night and remember who most of them are. - Fell asleep while in VR. - Literally un-phased by partying 5 days a week and it still feels like a job. - Sometimes prefers to sleep in VR. - Your right arm is slightly sore from constantly holding up a 3d camera while streaming or recording videos. - Full body tracking. - Dancing while in full body. - Facial tracking. - Cant properly experience a night without trackstrap plus. - Know or have met ThrillSeeker. - You know who ThrillSeeker even is. - "Maybe I should open up my own night club" - Know someone who became crypto rich off of an absolute shitcoin. - Absolutely un-phased by male voices from female avatars. - Absolutely un-phased by furry avatars. - Absolutely un-phased by some of the weirdest shit on the internet. - "Metaverse is ruined, the real term is Virtual underground or The Nexus" - A large proportion of your friends communicate in a special VR only ASL. - Have said "I might have a drinking problem." while talking about game development. - Refer to some of your friends as "mutes" - "Furniture just clutters up my play space" - "I knocked a wall down in my apartment to increase my play space" - Has ever flexed your play space by walking from one side of it to the other in full body. - Experienced a job interview while inside of your portfolio that is also housing 40+ people. - Modded clients, everyone has one nobody wants to openly admit it. - MOVIE NIGHT WITH FRIENDS! - Movie worlds silently begin dominating your time watching movies. - "X other virtual reality platform is going to take over" (it never does) - More than half your friends are trans. - More than half your friends are DJs. - "There is only 20 people here, where is everyone?" - "Oh shit one of the devs is at the party." - Knows someone or has personally received a full body lap dance. - "CHEERS!" - Has ever suggested someone swig water as a "water shot" - Experienced someone getting upset when you tell them you are only drinking water tonight. - Has ever felt sad when someone is only in "desktop" mode. - A well known streamer or content creator has ever passed out and is snoring in your world. - Has done at least one IRL meetup. - It literally takes a half hour to scroll through your friends list. - Has met the same person multiple times but both of you were blackout drunk at the time. You commence to meet them again while blackout drunk.

Give me them likes...

I wonder if we’d have the same reaction from a blind test. I’m looking at this on my phone, I’m sure a random person on the street would think why I’m looking at desertic caves photos. What’s this weirdo into? One thing that hasn’t been mentioned, but it’s a big component to achieve photo realism, would be the general simulation/rendition of air dust. Those city shots look very detailed but clearly CG because of that reason, IMO. It’s something I never noticed until I went for a hike in Canada at 1200+ meters: the air was so clean, the pictures I took up there look so detailed, almost as if I used a different camera or lenses. ~ All of this looks great, and it’s very exciting in a way… but from a gaming standpoint I dunno how much I care: I always felt the real “next gen” would be when the AI would actually make the world feel more immersive, when systems are more interconnected and allow for long term consequences and make the player feel they really had an impact.

Yeah, lighting is an art form, more important than ever! Lumens is amazing, but you still need to know how to squeeze it's juice.

It all depends on the artist and what asset quality/megascans they use. One artist could use medium quality meshes/materials or wrongly set up parameters, and the scene automatically looks artificial/phony. As with any engine/tools, Nanite/Lumen tech is there in UE5, it's how you use them. Here's another batch of shots from another artist:

Probably not. There's only one that I know of, that's planned to be a standalone release. Other than that, who knows.

Last "Dying 2 know" episode and trailer before release COOP gameplay as well as gameplay from PS4/PS5, XBOX One/Series X is shown (in the episode video not the trailer below)

I miss a lot of Half-Life 2 total conversion such as Neotokyo, Zombie Panic! Source, Fortress Forever and so more. Back when the Source SDK was realized you could do everything with it and make into a fun game! When Half-Life Alyx came out and bring up a another golden age of the valve community which I'm glad it's still strong. I was wondering if we're going to get more sourcemod mps in the future Man the good old day (Bonus: can't wait for sbox!)