Danie van der Merwe

Low Cost Open Source Haptic VR Gloves Work With Hacked Steam Games

Mon, 10 Jan 2022 21:03:29 +0100

gadgeteer@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

The idea is pretty straightforward; the end of the finger is attached to a cable, which is pulled from inside a sprung-loaded spool: the kind used for hanging ID cards on. The spool body can rotate, but a peg protruding from it engages with the arm of a co-located servo motor. This produces a programmable stop position.

The real work is on the software side of things, as the games themselves need to be modified to play ball with the VR glove hardware. This has been achieved with a combination of a custom steam driver they call OpenGloves, and community developed per-game mods. A few titles are available to test right now, so this is definitely something some of us (that's not me!) could build in a weekend and get involved with.

Cost is estimated at about $60.

See Low Cost Haptic VR Gloves Work With Hacked Steam Games

#technology #vr #steamgames #gaming

[IraqiGeek aka Lucas VRTech] has made some significant progress with building force-feedback type haptic gloves for use with steam VR games. The idea is pretty straightforward; the end of the finge…

technology opensource gaming VR

Wordle Is the Moment of Zen We All Need Right Now - It’s free, fun, and feverishly addictive

Fri, 07 Jan 2022 17:54:02 +0100

Danie van der Merwe

gadgeteer@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

The gambit is simple. You have six attempts to guess a five-letter word. With each entry, Wordle lets you know if your characters are in the right place, if they’re in the wrong place, or if they don’t appear in the word at all, until the player pares down their vocabulary into a solution. (For example: You might start with “OUIJA” and move on to “HINGE,” before eventually deducing “TIGER.”) There is only one new Wordle puzzle a day, and old Wordles are not archived on the site.

I see it's on mobile as well as a desktop browser based version. I got today's word on the 4th guess, but it certainly makes your brain think, as it's no good just trying to brute force it, and your attempts have to be real words. The other nice thing is, it won't chew your day up, as a new word only appears once a day. The competitive aspect, too, makes it fun to compete with friends and family.

See What Is Wordle, the Word Game People Can’t Stop Playing?

#technology #gaming #puzzles #wordle

It's free, fun, and feverishly addictive.

technology gaming

How to run Windows software on Linux easier with Bottles

Thu, 30 Dec 2021 15:00:43 +0100

Danie van der Merwe

gadgeteer@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

Running Windows programs on Linux can be confusing and complicated. That’s where Bottles comes in. This program can make running Windows programs much more straightforward. Here’s how to use Bottles on your Linux PC.

I see it has support built-in for Lutris, Proton, DXVK, and VKD3D, which should all make free standing Windows games a lot better on Linux. Note if you already use Steam Games with Proton or Proton GE activated then you don't need to use Bottles.

See How to run Windows software on Linux easier with Bottles

#technology #Linux #bottles #gaming

Running Windows programs on Linux can be confusing and complicated. That's where Bottles comes in. This program can make running Windows programs much

technology Linux bottles

An analysis of how good the Unreal Engine 5 demo of The Matrix Awakens playable demo really is, and what it means for cinematography and gaming

Sat, 18 Dec 2021 13:57:58 +0100

Danie van der Merwe

gadgeteer@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

It's not yet quite perfection, but this analysis does really unpack some of the depth of meaning behind the playable demo, and makes you more fully realise how mind-blowing this really is. It's one thing to just fake some special effects and do pre-rendered graphics for a movie or a game intro, but quite another thing to have that level of realism actually generated in real-time (and on today's console hardware).

Watching the recently released Epic Games trailer was impressive, but this video really explains what you should be noticing from watching it, and gives some idea of the amazing games we're expecting to see in the near future. Chances are, that the same technology may well be seen in real movies too.

See https://youtu.be/gry36cT3TdI

#technology #gaming #cinematography #unrealengine5

technology gaming unrealengine5

The Matrix Awakens is an unmissable next-gen showcase of the incredible realness of Epic's Unreal Engine 5

Sat, 11 Dec 2021 21:27:35 +0100

Danie van der Merwe

gadgeteer@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

This is just a "demo" but likely the best we have seen so far of what this gaming engine can produce. Make sure to crank up the video quality to be able to appreciate it. Even the body movements etc look so real.

Although it's a demo, it is a fully open world equivalent to 4 km x 5 km with 260 km of roads, 7,000 buildings, and 35,000 simulated MetaHuman pedestrians. It's a proof of concept demo designed to showcase how close Unreal Engine 5's cutting-edge systems are to showtime and to prove once and for all that these systems are capable of running on the new wave of Sony and Microsoft simples, albeit at capped at 30 frames per second. If performance can look somewhat inconsistent, that's because the entirety of the character rendering demo at the beginning and indeed the cutscenes with the chase shoot-out, all render at a 'cinematic' 24 frames per second.

The entire open world project with all of its assets will be distributed to Unreal Engine 5 users to experiment with as they wish.

See https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2021-the-matrix-ue5-demo-is-incredible but watch the video at

https://youtu.be/WU0gvPcc3jQ

#technology #gaming #thematrix #unrealengine5

technology gaming

The original PUBG (PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds) is going free-to-play starting January 12th

Fri, 10 Dec 2021 13:00:19 +0100

Danie van der Merwe

gadgeteer@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

Despite fierce competition, PUBG: Battlegrounds has remained popular, having sold 75 million copies since its release, Krafton creative director Dave Curd told The Verge in an interview. And on mobile, PUBG is one of the biggest franchises around; the free-to-play PUBG Mobile has been downloaded more than 1 billion times, and Krafton recently released a second free-to-play mobile PUB game, PUBG: New State.

See The original PUBG is going free-to-play

#technology #gaming #PUBG

Play the battle royale hit for free starting January 12th.

technology gaming PUBG

A 5-hour-long Unreal Engine 5 Beginner Tutorial - Makes you want to create your own 3D virtual world and explore it

Tue, 07 Dec 2021 20:37:19 +0100

Danie van der Merwe

gadgeteer@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

The Unreal Engine is used to create those vast virtual open worlds for games (and anything else). Version 5 especially is a thing of real beauty and detail (as the intro to the video shows).

It's a lengthy tutorial, but does take you through all the beginner steps to get going and create your world. It's a great tool to unleash unlimited creativity, whether for a game, or to share with friends, or to have a place to escape to that is better than the real world.

It's completely free to use (until you exceed $1 million in gross revenue for a game you've published), and there is even multi-user editing, where you can connect multiple instances of Unreal Editor together to work collaboratively in a shared editing session, building a single virtual world together with your teammates and colleagues in real time.

See https://youtu.be/gQmiqmxJMtA

#technology #gaming #unrealengine5 #tutorial #virtualworlds

technology gaming virtualworlds

Clever perspective puzzler Moncage is now available on Android (and on Steam Games)

Tue, 16 Nov 2021 18:44:27 +0100

Danie van der Merwe

gadgeteer@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

Optillusion is a new indie developer that just released its first game today, and it's a doozy. This game is called Moncage, and it's a drop-dead gorgeous puzzler that offers a uniquely interesting mechanic.

You see, the whole game takes place in a cube that you can rotate, and each side offers unique imagery. In order to solve the game's puzzles, you'll rotate this cube to line up the perspective of the cube's imagery. The goal? To collect photos of your perfectly aligned imagery, which reveals the story of the game. Moncage is an interactive optical illusion puzzle game, and not only is the presentation superb, but the gameplay is also a hoot that's perfect for play on a touchscreen.

It's also available on Steam Games for desktops.

See Clever perspective puzzler Moncage is now available on Android

#technology #gaming #puzzles #Moncage

Indie dev Optillusion's promising debut, now pocket-size

technology gaming puzzles

Valve Says SteamOS 3.0 (Arch Linux with KDE Desktop on Wayland) Will Be Available for Everyone to Download and Install

Tue, 16 Nov 2021 16:14:11 +0100

Danie van der Merwe

gadgeteer@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

When Valve announced Steam Deck, they also revealed the fact that it will be running SteamOS 3.0, based on Arch Linux and the KDE Plasma desktop environment running on Wayland. As you could expect, the community wanted to download SteamOS 3.0 and install it on their PCs, but there isn’t anything to download yet.

Today, during the Steam Deck Development live steam, Valve finally gave us some good news and said that SteamOS 3.0 will be generally available for everyone to install on their computers. They also revealed that SteamOS 3.0 will have an immutable root file system to prevent unauthorized access and use PipeWire for audio.

The video also shows the most 'compatible' hardware right now, based on the Steam Deck, could be a mini-PC using an AMD CPU, so there are other options too. But of course, most desktop computers should also work fine (because Linux is not Windows 11). Either ways, it may well also boost the use of Arch Linux quite a bit, especially for Linux gamers wanting to play the widest variety of top-end games on Linux.

See Valve Says SteamOS 3.0 Will Be Available for Everyone to Download and Install - 9to5Linux

#technology #Linux #gaming #SteamDeck #ArchLinux

Valve's SteamOS 3.0 Arch Linux-based distribution for Steam Deck will be generally available for everyone to install on their PCs.

technology opensource linux gaming

South African game developers won’t publish in their own country — Due to the frustration and cost involved with applying Film and Publications Board (FPB) age restrictions to their work

Sat, 06 Nov 2021 13:19:36 +0100

Danie van der Merwe

gadgeteer@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

This is according to Pieter Koornhof and Nick Hall from Interactive Entertainment South Africa (IESA), who appeared before the Competition Commission as part of its Online Intermediation Platforms Market Inquiry earlier this week. Koornhof is the chief operating officer at 24-bit Games and Hall is the business development manager at Renderheads. Hall told the Competition Commission that the process of being FPB approved is incredibly frustrating for many developers.

With 99% of the market being outside of SA, and it being easier to publish, this is why they are publishing outside of SA. Once again, restrictive bureaucracy and costs constrain, rather than encourage, local innovation. Imagine Tesla having to try to flourish globally from within SA...

See South African game developers won’t publish in their own country — here’s why

#technology #southafrica #redtape #restrictions #gaming

Interactive Entertainment South Africa recently met with the Competition Commission to discuss the state of South Africa’s video game industry and the challenges it currently faces.

technology gaming southafrica