Sons of the Forest’s default NPC companion, Kelvin, is nothing short of a survival game revelation. As a dedicated helper, Kelvin can be commanded to complete menial tasks like gathering sticks, chopping down trees, or snatching fish out of the river with his bare hands. Once he puts his mind to something, he will not stop until asked otherwise. One Kelvin is an unstoppable force. So imagine, then, what one could accomplish with a small army of Kelvins?
You can thank modder CallMeSlinky (opens in new tab) for making it possible with a mod that enables the debug console in Sons of the Forest (you’ll also need this Unity framework mod (opens in new tab) first). Reddit user jrm850 (opens in new tab) then quickly discovered that, with some quick javascript editing, you can spawn in as many Kelvins as you want. Once the debug console is in place, you can use the “addcharacter Robby 1” command to conjure a Kelvin (we’re thinking Robby is an old name for Kelvin used by the devs). Though, jrm850 notes not to get carried away in the cloning process.
“I can put as many as I want in theory, but if you put too many it can start to cause FPS issues. I didn’t experience any real issues with just 4 or less, worked great in multiplayer with other people,” jrm850 wrote in a YouTube comment reply (opens in new tab).
The extra Kelvins will listen to your in-game notepad commands and even seem to work harmoniously together on building projects. Features producer Chris Livingston spawned in a squad of Kelvins and enlisted them to build a log cabin. They work pretty well as a unit, almost as if multiple NPC helpers was a planned feature at some point. Chris says his only hiccup so far came when one of his Kelvins toppled a tree (accidentally, he hopes) onto another Kelvin, but nobody was permanently injured.
Kelvin and all of his clones remain staunch pacifists, so don’t expect extra help fighting cannibals, but the same duplication process is possible for Virginia, too: the command is “addcharacter virginia 1”. Virginia will fight with you and can even use guns, so spawning in a bunch will probably make you unstoppable.
(Image credit: Endnight Games)
The debug console also enables loads of commands and cheats, which is an exciting prospect. Just glancing at the command list, it’s seemingly possible to change the weather, spawn in any items, and summon enemies. Of course, be sure to employ these mods with caution: as CallMeSlinky notes, using the debug console “can ruin your game save, so make a backup or be careful!”
Reduce the risk of Kelvin mishaps by not going full Sorcerer’s Apprentice (opens in new tab) on Sons of the Forest, and you should be OK.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1677528403_You-can-clone-Kelvin-and-other-NPCs-in-Sons-of.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2023-02-27 19:40:212023-02-27 21:41:15You can clone Kelvin and other NPCs in Sons of the Forest with this simple command
You’ll need Sons of the Forest keycards to access several bunkers on the cannibal-infested island. As you might expect, these valuable items aren’t left just lying around: For starters, you’re going to need the shovel—a tool that requires you to have already found the rebreather and rope gun—so expect to put in a bit of legwork first.
There are three keycards to find in total, all of which are located at the green pips on your GPS, and each one is found in the northwest part of the island. You’ll want to obtain them in the order listed below:
Maintenance keycard
VIP keycard
Guest keycard
Make sure you’re stocked up on food and supplies before you set out. Once you’re ready for an expedition, here are the Sons of the Forest keycard locations.
(Image credit: Endnight Games)
Where to find the Sons of the Forest keycards
Make sure to tackle the keycards in this order, because you’ll need the maintenance keycard to access the VIP keycard, and the VIP keycard to access the guest keycard.
Head to the spot marked on the map above and look out for surveying equipment and golf carts. If you search around the dirt between them, you should find a shovel icon. Equip the shovel and start digging to reveal a square hatch labeled “Maintenance A”.
Once you’ve removed most of the dirt from the surface, you can open it and head down the ladder inside.
You should find yourself in a long, dimly lit corridor. Keep going until you reach an open door on your right. Amongst the seemingly extravagant furnishings, you’ll find a desk on the back wall, along with a 3D printer.
The orange maintenance keycard belonging to Carl Planter is lying on top of a magazine here.
Sons of the Forest VIP keycard location (Virginia’s keycard)
Look for a narrow cave entrance next to a golf cart in a fairly open area of the forest. Once inside, start heading downwards and follow the cave tunnel until you reach a square hatch in the floor. Climb down the ladder inside turn to your right at the bottom.
There’s a doorway ahead of you but ignore that and look for another door with a blue panel to the right, at the far end of the kitchen area. You’ll need the Maintenance keycard above to get in here.
Head through several rooms of hydroponic gardens until you reach a dark corridor. Follow this around to the left and down some stairs and you’ll find yourself wading in water. Continue through several more flooded rooms and before you emerge from the water, clock the open door on the left side of the hallway.
Enter that door and proceed through more waterlogged hallways until you reach a security surveillance room. The yellow VIP keycard for Virginia Puffton is on the desk ahead of you.
Look for another narrow cave entrance at the location marked on the map above. Head inside and follow the tunnel until you reach a corridor with a room at the very end. There’s a bed and a 3D printer in here, but you want to continue along the corridor to the left towards the bright light.
You’ll need the VIP keycard above to open a double door in the bright hallway here. Once inside, you’ll head through a gym and then a dim orange room full of saunas and into a room with double staircases. Head upstairs and through a pool room and look for the bar and nightclub area.
You’ll find the purple guest keycard for Arnold Crand on a circular glass table with several dead bodies around it.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1677532196_Here-are-all-three-Sons-of-the-Forest-keycard-locations.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2023-02-27 19:23:042023-02-27 21:40:58Here are all three Sons of the Forest keycard locations
I feel compelled to lay my cards on the table here. I’m a history and English major with an interest in the history of rocketry and a poor-to-terrible grasp of practical math, engineering, and physics. I’ve read half of Gravity’s Rainbow, seen Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise, and own The Race for Space on vinyl. I’m the lumpenprole rocketry enjoyer, chasing a digital version of that hole that forms just above your stomach when the plane takes off.
Kerbal Space Program 2 (opens in new tab) gives me that feeling, but at this stage in early access, there’s truly little else on offer for anyone other than diehard kerbonauts.
Kerbal Space Program 2 is heavy on its simulation elements, and at launch light on game modes. There’s no budgeting, no tech trees, just a gigantic list of parts broken down into categories. As a casual KSP1 player who got quite good at satellite launches and one-way trips to the Mun, I naively thought my history with the first game would be more than adequate for jumping straight into rocket construction.
Kerbal Space Program 2’s overhauled Vehicle Assembly Building humbled me, as my first aerospace vehicle “Zanzibar 1”, a ramshackle hodgepodge of engines, solid fuel boosters, and space plane parts, suffered a catastrophic failure on the launch pad. My first hard lesson in rocketry was on the subject of staging, and an over-eagerness to decouple and ignite the next series of boosters when things weren’t going how I wanted saw the Zanzibar’s spaceplane module decoupling on the launchpad and tumbling down onto the detached and unspent fuel tanks. I’ll need to send flowers to the grieving widow.
Laid low by basic engineering, I decided it was time to hit the training center and get my space legs back. Kerbal Space Program 2’s simulation is a lot more in-depth than its predecessor, where it was feasible for any wannabe Goddard to punch through the atmosphere with overwhelming thrust. Here, the balance between thrust, weight, and how those two interact with rocket staging is critical to the success of even the most modest missions.
I’m a little sad to say that my first real takeoff was with a preconstructed tutorial rocket, an elongated cylindrical booster with an in-built RCS module and small control fins on all sides. In classic Kerbal Space program fashion, it’s no looker, but gets the job done.
(Image credit: Private Division)
In-atmosphere plane and rocket flights currently feel awkward when using the mouse and keyboard, as the rocket’s orientation will always level out based on the craft’s center of thrust and mass, respectively. I was disappointed to see a lack of HOTAS support in the input menu, as the twist of a stick and ease of use of a throttle would immediately alleviate any of the minor control issues I had.
When things go according to plan launches are breathtaking, hiccups and all. The sputtery belching of the boosters gives way to this cacophonous, desk-rattling roar. New to Kerbal Space Program 2 is a countdown launch, where a Kerbal announcer will count down to zero in gibberish numbers, backed by some whimsical bohemian strings and horns. Whenever I spent any significant amount of time retooling my craft in the Vehicle Assembling Building, I’d typically sit back and watch the whole countdown, anxiously awaiting the moment of lift-off.
KSP veterans will doubtlessly be familiar with the performance issues that come with realistically simulating 3,000 tons of atmosphere-breaking space flight but once your bootleg Soyuz gets into orbit, those performance issues quickly disappear, at least from my early playtime.
What hasn’t disappeared in my time with the game are the frequent bugs. I’ve had random stuttering fits that throw the whole physics engine into disarray, FPS drops to single digits, and I’ve been hard-locked out of clicking any UI options. Whenever these issues pop up, my flight path is typically altered (and in some cases prematurely ended), as I have no real course of action aside from waiting for the strained game engine to catch up. Still, for all its technical trouble, it’s an incredibly impressive near-scale simulation of our own solar system.
Grand beginnings
(Image credit: Private Division)
Kerbal Space Program 2 really sells an atmosphere and mood of unlimited discovery and achievement. The deep blacks and blues of space are eerily beautiful, and watching the atmosphere fall away around you as you rise through the clouds is nothing short of awe-inspiring. As annoying as a lot of the aforementioned issues were, I couldn’t stay mad at it—not when I was floating in a sea of stars.
With an elementary understanding of prograde and retrograde thrust in my tool belt, the Zanzibar 1 underwent a dramatic refit. Once I got to grips with it, the Vehicle Assembly Building effectively translated my mental sketches and loose concepts into functional (if not practical) rockets. In this case, a 4-by-4-by-4 steel truss with solar panels and satellite dishes bolted onto each surface, sandwiched between a manned command module and the hull.
The first of my real spaceflights was, in hindsight, a bafflingly inefficient operation. The expedition, as I had planned it, would practically apply the knowledge I gleaned from the tutorial. I would launch, begin my turn eastward at 10,000 feet, ditch the boosters, and full throttle just before I hit the apoapsis (the apex of your flight arc, basically). Once I was 70 kilometers above the surface of Kerbin, I’d detach the satellite, initiate a retrograde thrust with my reserve booster, and hopefully touch down without a hitch.
Turns out you’ll always touch down without issue, as re-entry and heat effects are currently not implemented. As morbid as it sounds, I was pretty keen on burning up some command shuttles on re-entry, and it’s a shame to have such a major component of actual space flight be omitted.
The cause of many of my in-flight headaches was a deeply flawed approach to design. The tutorial expertly teaches the hows and whats of rocket flight, but at this stage in early access, Kerbal Space Program 2 really can’t explain the whys, leaving new players to meander around its sandbox aimlessly. With no budget restrictions, research grant obligations, and a buffet of instantly available rocket parts, the Zanzibar 2 was a melting pot of contrasting design philosophies, a manned satellite delivery platform built in ignorance of the concept of “unmanned launch.” Still, we can only launch the rockets we have, and my imaginary private aerospace company was teetering on the edge of an imaginary default line, so the operation had to proceed. As absurd as the design and philosophy underpinning it was, the orbit and payload release went disappointingly smoothly.
With none of the aforementioned pressures and stressors, I found making rockets that don’t explode was actually quite a simple task. Necessity breeds innovation, innovation needs creativity, and creativity requires risk, but with no framework for progression, no budgets, deadlines, or competitors, I found that there was rarely a need to take risks beyond the idle curiosity of seeing what would happen. More than any minor feature from the first game, I miss the campaign.
Without the skeleton of a campaign or progression present, Kerbal Space Program 2 can often feel like being in the middle of an ocean, clinging to a hunk of wood. It’s got depth you can drown in, but no easy way to navigate it without the (assumed) support of its community.
For people who just want to get right into the fine details of advanced rocketry with an updated physics engine, Kerbal Space Program 2 will likely satisfy. Amateurs and weekend rocketeers should try the first game’s campaign mode instead.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1677576206_Kerbal-Space-Program-2s-early-access-launch-is-only-for.jpg6721200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2023-02-27 19:06:372023-02-27 19:06:37Kerbal Space Program 2’s early access launch is only for seasoned astronauts
Survival games can be a grind—just ask anyone who’s ever tried to craft a splint for a broken leg while baking in the sun, dying of hunger, and suffering from intestinal parasites. Not that survival fans don’t love finding themselves in those kind of situations, but the trials of hardcore survival games aren’t for everyone, and some recent survival games, like Valhiem, have made those systems more appealing for players who don’t want to spend all their time managing hunger meters and curing themselves of diseases.
Last week I spoke to Joel Bylos, creative director for upcoming open world survival MMO Dune: Awakening (opens in new tab). We first saw the cinematic trailer (opens in new tab) last year, giving us a quick glimpse of Funcom’s MMO based on the Dune novels by Frank Herbert and the 2021 film (and planned 2023 sequel), which is set on a “vast and seamless Arrakis” that will be shared by “thousands of players.”
I’m not a big MMO player, but I’ve played plenty of survival games so I was curious just how deep and intricate Dune: Awakening’s survival systems are. We already know from the books and films that staying alive on the desert planet of Arrakis is extremely challenging, considering the deadly heat, the fact that everyone has to wear a “stillsuit” to recycle their body’s moisture, and of course, those darn sandworms popping out of the ground to devour anyone who takes a false step on the sand.
“We’re very focused on a few tight core survival mechanics. Like shelter: sandstorm shelter,” Bylos said. “Sandworms themselves are a giant threat in the world. If you walk on sand, they will come. If you create vibrations, they will come. So you have to think about how you approach traversal in the game world. And obviously, water. Those are our three key [systems].”
Spice is power
(Image credit: Funcom)
Those aren’t the only threats in the world of Dune. There are hazards like quicksand, and the extreme temperatures of the desert, that Funcom wants players to have to consider and prepare for, but not be overly punished by.
“We want players to feel these tensions all the time,” Bylos said. “We want them to be continually thinking about, if I’m going across the open sand, I have to think about the sandworms. If there’s a sand storm coming, I have to know where there’s shelter nearby. If I haven’t built something I need to know where I can hide where I can get away from the sandstorms. So we’re trying to create this tension. But we’re also approaching it from the viewpoint of a little more accessibility, something like Valheim, where it’s not like just gonna kill you instantly. So you have a little bit of leeway.”
Valheim successfully did a few things, as Fraser put it, to reject boring survival systems (opens in new tab) and make them more appealing for players who don’t typically play survival games. Food, for instance: you’ll never starve to death from not eating. While food remains a deeply important part of Valheim for maintaining your health and stamina, you can get by while neglecting it. That’s the sort of idea Funcom is going for with its own survival systems in Dune: Awakening.
(Image credit: Funcom)
“We’re not trying to punish the player by killing them if they have don’t take spice for a while, but we’re trying to give them good reasons to maintain their spice levels.”
Joel Bylos, Creative Director
“There are assumptions that have just been there since the start of the survival genre, because the first [survival] game did them,” Bylos said. “And everybody else sort of copied that, so we’re rethinking some of those paradigms. And so I would say that we want to create these very strong survival tensions, but we also don’t want to punish players in a ridiculously harsh way. So we’re we’re kind of trying to find a nice balance with that.”
While water is the key to life on Arrakis, Bylos said, “Spice is power.” At the start of the game, players have no strong affiliation to spice but over time it will begin to permeate their bloodstream, which will allow them to enhance their abilities and learn new skills. In some ways, spice sounds like Valheim’s food system: something important to the game but not deadly if neglected.
“So you want to stay above a certain [spice] level to keep learning abilities, you might want to stay above a certain level to make sure that you have 100% of your maximum health all the time,” Bylos said. “We’re not trying to punish the player by killing them if they have don’t take spice for a while, but we’re trying to give them good reasons to maintain their spice levels.”
Sand crafts
Crafting is another big part the survival genre, and Bylos explained how crafting will vary from how it works in another Funcom multiplayer survival game, Conan Exiles (opens in new tab).
“In Conan Exiles, you had a tech tree and as you leveled up your character, you spend points in the tech tree. And that’s kind of the traditional arc and Conan style of things,” Bylos said. “In Dune: Awakening, you’re actually going out looking for specific schematics that you can use to craft specific items.”
(Image credit: Funcom)
For example, if you have information that a botanical testing station somewhere in the desert was experimenting with a certain kind of technology, you’ll head out there to find the schematic, Bylos explained. “So the crafting is a little more bespoke, a little less [tech] tree driven and a little more exploration driven.”
Spice harvesting is obviously going to play a major part in the player-driven economy, but crafting will be a path to player success, too. The dangerous sandstorms of Arrakis aren’t just a threat to players, but an opportunity.
“There’s a pillar of the game we call ‘infinite exploration.’ And the idea is that outside of the shield wall, the sands actually shift during these Coriolis storms, and the entire map outside of that space changes,” Bylos said. As the storm buries existing locations, like testing stations or crashed spaceships, it will also reveal new ones. If you’re the first player to visit one of these new locations, you might be the first to find a schematic no one else has found yet.
(Image credit: Funcom)
“And it’s a schematic for a type of gun that nobody knows how to make,” Bylos said. “So you take it back, and you’re the person who has that schematic. And then you can craft those guns and sell them on the exchange, and you’re the only one who can craft them until the next time somebody finds that schematic. But that not might not be for the next [storm] cycle.”
There’s still no announced release date for Dune: Awakening, but the second chapter of the new Dune film series is due out this year, and we wouldn’t be surprised if the MMO released at around the same time as the movie. In the meantime, you can sign up for beta access at the official website (opens in new tab).
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1677524753_Spice-worms-and-water-First-details-on-the-upcoming-Dune.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2023-02-27 18:58:002023-02-27 19:39:32Spice, worms, and water: First details on the upcoming Dune MMO’s survival systems
William Murray Hawkins III, better-known as Trip Hawkins, has had a long and incredibly impactful career in games. Hawkins founded Electronic Arts in 1982, and led the company through its trailblazing first decade, establishing certain specialities like sports that the publishing giant was built on. Then Hawkins went on to launch the ill-fated 3DO, a powerful console kneecapped by a high price, before founding Digital Chocolate and spending the 2000s in casual games (like Mafia Wars).
Now, Trip’s back! Don’t get excited. In a move that has strong 69-year-old executive vibes, Hawkins has announced he’s joining a Web3 startup as co-founder and strategy chief. Games for a Living (GFAL) is based in Barcelona and all about that crypto, aiming to create experiences that can compete with famous blockchain games like… err… Axie Infinity (opens in new tab) (the subject of one of 2022’s biggest crypto hacks).
Naturally the company has its own token, the $GFAL (opens in new tab), which will apparently launch in March. There will be a total of ten billion $GFAL tokens issued, yes that’s billion with a ‘b’, and as with all these things it will be used to pay for all these services and tools that do not yet exist on the GFAL network. There’s also the typical crypto promises of governance: “Users who own $GFAL will get to vote on the products and functionalities that Games for a Living will offer in the future.”
GFAL is currently developing two games, Elemental Raiders (opens in new tab) which is a generic-looking fantasy card-battler, and a match-3 game (opens in new tab) that incorporates NFTs. Wait, where are you all going?
Well, it certainly ain’t Madden. But take it away Trip:
“Web3 is the bridge to the metaverse,” said Hawkins to Reuters (opens in new tab). “And if we’re going to make a metaverse, the economy of the metaverse has to be more like the real world.”
Yuh-huh: You’ve heard of web3.0, now it’s time for web3DO!
GFAL was founded in 2021 by Manel Sort, a former King executive, and no doubt will attract oodles of silly money. All I’d say is take the warning at the top of GFAL’s website seriously: “Investing in cryptoassets is unregulated, may not be suitable for retail investors and the full amount invested may be lost.”
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1677579908_What-a-Trip-EA-and-3DO-founders-on-the-Web3.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2023-02-27 18:54:342023-02-27 18:54:34What a Trip: EA and 3DO founder’s on the Web3 Kool-Aid
Last week, Microsoft offered an upgrade to Windows 11 for previously unsupported Windows 10 PCs. As it turns out, Microsoft didn’t lower the minimum requirements for Windows 11 for older Windows 10 PCs; it was a weird (now fixed) glitch.
According to a blog post (opens in new tab), “Some hardware ineligible Windows 10 and Windows 11, version 21H2 devices were offered an inaccurate upgrade to Windows 11.” Anyone who tried installing Windows 11 on machines that did not meet the minimum requirements could not “complete the upgrade installation process.”
Even if you did install Windows 11 on a device Microsoft deems eligible, it’s not recommended because of compatibility issues. Those same machines will not be able to receive updates which could put you and your PC at risk. There have also been cases where people go to play their favorite game and find it won’t actually boot (Valorant) without all that trusted security stuff that Microsoft is so keen on for Windows 11. So it was probably for the best.
Microsoft said the “issue was detected on February 23, 2023, and resolved on the same day,” It took 24-48 hours to “propagate all the affected devices,” which required no action from the user.
Microsoft stopped selling digital Windows 10 licenses (opens in new tab) in January and had said it would stop supporting the older OS (opens in new tab) on October 14, 2025. We put together a handy little guide on how to check if your current Windows 10 PC meets the requirements for Windows 11 (opens in new tab). If you’re still on the fence about upgrading to Microsofts’ new OS, be sure to check out our coverage of all things Windows 11 (opens in new tab).
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1677521076_Oops-Windows-11-upgrades-were-offered-to-ineligible-PCs.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2023-02-27 17:54:432023-02-27 19:39:40Oops, Windows 11 upgrades were offered to ineligible PCs
The Outer Worlds, Obsidian’s satirical super-corporate first-person RPG, is getting a new, polished-up version. The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition will bring you the base game and both DLCs alongside a suite of graphical and gameplay tweaks to make it shine on the current generation of consoles. Not to worry, though, the PC version gets to benefit, too.
The new edition of the game will release on March 7, and promises “Higher resolution graphics, a dynamic weather system, overhauled lighting and environments, improved performance and load times, enhanced details on characters, an increased level cap” and “much more,” which isn’t massively informative but certainly is tantalising.
There’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that, if you already own the base game and all its DLC, you won’t just get upgraded to the Spacer’s Choice edition for free. The good news is that you will net yourself a pretty hefty discount: Players who own the whole set can nab the upgrade for $9.99 rather than pay the full $59.99 price tag. I guess whether that’s good value or not will depend on what “much more” is packing.
For the most part, we liked the original Outer Worlds around here. Tom Senior scored the game 79% in his Outer Worlds review (opens in new tab), saying it might “lack depth,” but that it was “fluffy and easy to enjoy”. It was a good example of what Tom called “Saturday morning cartoon games,” and you could have a pretty good time with it, provided you weren’t expecting to have your mind blown.
The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition already has a page up on both Steam (opens in new tab) and the Epic Games Store (opens in new tab), so you can head over to the outlet of your choice for wishlisting purposes, if you fancy it. With any luck, it’s releasing just in time to whet our whistle for more info on the upcoming Outer Worlds 2 (opens in new tab), which got announced in a very cheeky trailer back in 2021.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1677583567_Existing-owners-wont-get-The-Outer-Worlds-new-fancypants-edition.jpeg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2023-02-27 16:26:162023-02-27 16:26:16Existing owners won’t get The Outer Worlds’ new fancypants edition for free, but there’s a hefty discount
This GPU generation has introduced support for a new and exciting technology, AV1. This is a video codec that dramatically reduces the amount of data required for high quality video online, which makes it a great fit for live streaming, and now you can take advantage of it over Discord.
Discord’s latest update (opens in new tab) officially incorporates AV1 support for anyone with an RTX 40-series GPU capable of encoding it. You can turn the feature on in your settings, providing you have one such high-end GPU, and it’ll be used when you go live on any Discord server or voice call, providing everyone else has the setting enabled, too.
Discord says you’ll be able to “live stream in 4K at just 8 Mbps” with AV1 in use.
AV1 dramatically lowers the ‘cost’ of streaming (opens in new tab) in high resolutions, including 4K and 8K. It slices the bitrate requirements massively, meaning less data, and importantly less bandwidth, is required to beam detailed video across the web. Once everyone’s up to speed with AV1, we’ll see a big improvement to live streamed video content quality across the board.
However, right now, AV1 is a bit more limited in its scope due to the hardware required to run it.
AV1 requires acceleration in order to run so efficiently. This is delivered through specialised circuitry, requiring both encode and decode. Nvidia’s RTX 40-series, AMD’s RX 7900-series and Intel’s Arc Alchemist cards all deliver impressive AV1 support, however, neither AMD or Intel’s cards are currently supported in the Discord app.
(Image credit: Discord)
Discord notes, “more hardware support coming soon,” and I’d guess that Intel and AMD support will be incoming in the near future.
That’ll be handy for me on a personal level. Currently I’m finding the only use for AV1 on my RX 7900 XT (opens in new tab) machine is within the AMD Adrenalin package to snap short video clips. Even then, the lack of AV1 support in other video viewing and editing programs means I’m not often able to do much with these clips beyond that, so I tend to find myself defaulting to more commonly used codecs for now.
At least the popular streaming app OBS Studio supports AV1 (opens in new tab) across Nvidia, AMD, and Intel graphics cards.
We will see a much wider push to support AV1 on PCs. Unlike the most common codecs on the web today, H.264 and H.265, AV1 is royalty-free. It’s created by a consortium of tech companies called the Alliance for Open Media, which includes Nvidia, AMD, Microsoft, Intel, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Tencent, Google, and many more as members—and runs as a non-for-profit. That means no company has to pay for the privilege of using it in their software, and saving cash is usually at the forefront of any company’s mind.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1677513770_Streaming-on-Discord-is-one-of-the-better-ways-to.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2023-02-27 15:34:282023-02-27 19:49:22Streaming on Discord is one of the better ways to make use of AV1 GPU support
Journalist Kyle Orland is writing an entire book on the history of Minesweeper (opens in new tab), which I suspect is a much more fascinating topic than it may at first appear. Minesweeper is one of those games that feels somehow omnipresent now, always there no matter which PC you’re on, though its roots are in early ’90s Microsoft and specifically the Windows 3.0 era. As part of the book’s launch campaign Ars Technica features a chapter about those early days (opens in new tab), and one particularly big fan of the game.
Minesweeper first appeared on Microsoft’s internal network in 1990, where various employees quickly got (understandably) hooked. “It was, needless to say, a very well-tested piece of software around Microsoft,” said Charles Fitzgerald, a product manager for the first Windows Entertainment Pack which would contain Minesweeper.
Plenty of Microsoft employees acquired a Minesweeper habit over this period and, amusingly enough, their reports to the developers were often erroneous. One claimed it was impossible to finish on Expert difficulty. “Whenever someone claimed to have found a bug, I asked them to send me a screenshot and then I had to point out their logic mistake,” recalled Minesweeper coder Robert Donner.
Then, Minesweeper ensnared the biggest fish in Microsoft. “Bill [Gates] got addicted,” said Fitzgerald.
“Originally, I think I got a mail from Bill saying, ‘I just solved [Beginner] Minesweeper in 10 seconds. Is that good?'” said product manager Bruce Ryan recalled. “I wrote back to him, I go, ‘Yeah, 10 seconds is really good. The record for us right now I think is eight.’ (I think that was me, embarrassingly.) Apparently, the fact that the record was very close to where he was led him to make [it] his mission [to beat it].”
Gates would get so obsessed with the game that he removed it from his own machine. This being 1990 there was also an honesty system around the high score records, which were in a simple text file, whereby any new record score had to have been seen by someone else. “So it was one Sunday afternoon, and we get [an] email from Bill saying, ‘Hey, I think I just got a new high score. It’s on the machine in [then-Microsoft President] Mike Hallman’s office.’ And like, ‘What?'”
“This was early evening,” said Ryan. “So we went over there, seven at night. [Hallman] was a former Boeing executive, and he was not a humorful guy, so… the idea that Bill is sitting there after work, going into the president’s office so he could play Minesweeper, it was just weird imagery.”
Gates’ love for Minesweeper has been known of since the early ’90s, but what Orland’s book uncovers (opens in new tab) is the quasi-obsessive depths it had reached, and at a time when Bill Gates was the most important figure at what was becoming one of the biggest companies in the world. This was a guy who didn’t have time to waste.
“Melinda [French] was a level above me, but we [were] in the same group,” Ryan said. French would become Melinda Gates in 1994. She asked Ryan to do “a favor for the company… Please don’t share with Bill advances in the Minesweeper record.” Gates was playing too much and this was “not a good thing. Bill has a lot of important decisions to make, and this should not be taking up time!”
The coda to this story is rather amazing. Ryan decided that, rather than keeping the high scores from Gates, he’d work out a way to set an unbeatable one. Decades before they’d become the right hand of most MMO players, Ryan used the Windows software Macro Recorder to automatically click one corner of a fresh Minesweeper game, then start a new one. The idea was that in one particular random layout where all the mines were in the lower right corner, this macro would “clear the entire screen in one or zero seconds. You’d just have to play like a gazillion times to do this.”
“So I set it there and then went off for a day of meetings,” said Ryan, “and four hours later it had won [in a second] while I was gone. I felt very efficient having done this while I wasn’t even in the office.”
Ryan sent a screenshot of the new record to Gates, writing “Sorry, your five-second record has been eclipsed permanently because I don’t think you can beat one second.” Bear in mind that Minesweeper’s timer starts at one and not zero.
Gates’ reply had the subject line “Chairman displaced” and explained to the staff he’d looped in that Ryan’s macro had irrevocably beaten his Minesweeper record.
“My critical skills are being displaced by a computer,” Gates wrote, as recalled by Ryan. “This technology thing is going too far. When machines can do things faster than people, how can we retain our human dignity?”
Gates would go on to joke that maybe he should try intermediate difficulty.
The email’s sentiment “sounded very poetic,” said Ryan. “This is a time when most emails were misspelled and sketchy. [Gates] actually spent time thinking about this. It was like he was writing his tombstone or something.”
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1677506444_That-time-Bill-Gates-got-so-obsessed-with-Minesweeper-high.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2023-02-27 13:18:492023-02-27 19:51:01That time Bill Gates got so obsessed with Minesweeper high scores that Microsoft staff had to conjure up one he couldn’t beat
The Destiny 2 Lightfall release is almost here, taking us on a trip to Neptune’s capital city of Neomuna to fight the Witness, and his newest disciple, Calus. We’ll also be able to try out the new Strand (opens in new tab) subclass for the first time, manipulating cosmic threads to create grappling hooks, summon threadling minions, and tie up the Cabal like ragdolls.
There are a lot of changes set to arrive with Lightfall, and during year six of Destiny 2, including in-game loadouts (opens in new tab), and Guardian Ranks, which will give players more of a path through the game in terms of learning how to play. Throw in the complete mod overhaul that introduces the armour charge system, and there’s going to be a lot for even experienced players to try. Here’s when you can play Destiny 2 Lightfall for yourself, its storage requirements, and when server downtime begins.
Destiny 2 Lightfall release times
The Destiny 2 Lightfall expansion releases on February 28, which for those who already play the game, is the usual weekly reset. Here’s when you can play Lightfall for yourself:
US East Coast: 12 pm
US West Coast: 9 am PST
UK: 5 pm GMT
Europe: 6 pm CEST
Australia: 4 am AEDT (Feb 29)
New Zealand: 6 am NZDT (Feb 29)
You can also preload Lightfall a day before the actual release on February 27 (or 28th) at the same time as above. The updated storage requirements (opens in new tab) for Destiny 2 including Lightfall are 233GB needed for pre-load, while it’ll actually take up 102GB once installed. Since servers often get a bit crowded when a new season or expansion releases, you might have to wait a while before you can get into the game.
What time does Destiny 2 go down for Lightfall?
You’ll be unable to log into Destiny 2 around 24 hours before Lightfall releases, i.e the usual daily reset time listed above on February 27. When this server maintenance (opens in new tab) commences ongoing activities will end and players will be sent back to the title screen, but you will be able to preload Lightfall from then onwards. If you still have a little time before servers go down, make sure you’ve claimed:
Seasonal seals and rewards
Season pass items
Season vendor rewards
Shaxx, Zavala, Drifter, and Saint-14 rewards
Banshee-44 reputation items
All of this is advised by the most recent TWAB (opens in new tab).
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1677502807_Heres-when-Destiny-2-Lightfall-releases-in-your-timezone.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2023-02-27 12:17:152023-02-27 19:58:51Here’s when Destiny 2 Lightfall releases in your timezone
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