Technology

Upgrades!

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By the powers that be I have a new graphics card coming in the mail. I’ve managed to score a RX Vega64 to surpass my current R9 Fury. It was a toss up for me to either completely switch to Ryzen or upgrade graphics. For now I can still get by on my Xeon, and throughout the year I’ll just scout for parts individually as they get cheaper. I have a goal to completely go pure AMD on my desktop by next year. I’ve read and seen enough about Ryzen processors, with threadripper continuing to make me drool.

I wonder how many Bungholio Marks I’ll be able to score? :v:

Weird Ransomware Of The Day

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I’ve seen a lot of strange applications and joke viruses in my time, such as ones that make your keyboard sound like a typewriter or one that would shut down your system at noon for you to take a tea break; but this malware is just all kinds of WTF:

In what could only be a joke, a new ransomware has been discovered called “PUBG Ransomware” that will decrypt your files if you play the game called PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

Discovered by MalwareHunterTeam, when the PUBG Ransomware is launched it will encrypt a user’s files and folders on the user’s desktop and append the .PUBG extension to them. When it has finished encrypting the files, it will display a screen giving you two methods that you can use to decrypt the encrypted files.

You can either play PUBG for an hour (or just three seconds) or input a “restore code”. The malware doesn’t seem to be that advanced, as people have already found out that renaming any executable to TslGame.exe will also decrypt the users files. :v:

It’s unclear how this “ransomware” is circulating, but for the most part it seems rather harmless. :zorak: I wonder if this will be added to the malware museum. :trollface:

You can run the Logitech c920 at 60fps if you do the following. (OUTDATED)

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***When originally published this method actually worked, now after a couple of Windows Updates the C920 stays stuck at 30fps… Will update and make a new post if another fix is found.***

Out of curiosity I decided to search the impossible. I began pondering if it was possible to make my Logitech C920 webcam function at 60fps as opposed to 30fps. Upon doing some digging I discovered it is actually quite possible, you have to disable the “right light” setting under your Logitech Webcam properties.

Once unchecked my video was butter smooth. Of course this will be limited to the program you’re using; for example if you’re using a program that caps you at 30fps then you won’t be able to take advantage of the performance.

I’m not sure what use this will be to me, considering I mainly use VSee and that has a 30fps cap. Plus I have a rule about showing my face on the internet. It’s there if you can dig for it (albeit not an accurate representation of me today), but perhaps I can find another use.

I’m now setup to stream/record PS3 using the Elgato HD60 Pro

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Last year I acquired a PS3 for $10; this included two controllers and their cables, two HDMI cables, and a copy of GTA4 I’ll never use. I figured for that kind of money it would be worth grabbing it to play games that never quite made it to any other platform, plus it’s a first generation PS3 capable of playing games going back to the PS2 and PS1. I tend to stick to emulators still, like with Klonoa for example, but you never know… it could come in handy.

After getting my hands on it I was interested in the idea of possibly streaming gameplay on the rare chance something like that could happen. But upon researching I found that could be problematic as the console has HDCP encryption preventing you from streaming or recording to an external device unless you record via composite. Unfortunately I have an Elgato HD60 Pro which only supports HDMI, and I was not going to invest in yet another capture device, especially since I don’t really use it much anymore thanks to AMD’s AVC Encoder in OBS Studio.

But I didn’t give up! I found out through continued research that using an HDMI splitter would do the trick just fine (as seen above), but not all HDMI splitters will do the job. I picked up this model on Amazon, and that bypasses the HDCP encryption perfectly. So all you really need to get it to work with your HD60 Pro is one HDMI splitter and three HDMI cables. One to go from the PS3 to the splitter, one to go from the splitter to your monitor/TV, and one to go to from the splitter to your capture card. Definitely much cheaper than getting another unit all together.

Plus, as you can see I’ve already got a game lined up. :v:

The new Final Fantasy runs better if you pirate it

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You know, it’s pretty sad when a pirated version of a game performs smoother than the paid version.

Right from the start, the pirated version loads faster than the Steam version. The Steam version needed 30 seconds in order to launch (for the first time) whereas the pirated version was ready in just 3 seconds. The second launch (by exiting and then re-launching the game immediately) needed 8 seconds for the Steam version, whereas the pirated version was – once again – ready in 3 seconds. The in-game maps also loads faster in the pirated version (58 seconds versus 1 minute and 40 seconds). Below you can find a video with the loading times for both the pirated and the Steam versions.

I’m not advocating piracy, but this kind of DRM will most likely hinder more than help as it’s only a matter of time before someone or some group cracks through your safeguards, and once word gets out that your product delivers better performance if pirated guess what people are going to do? You might get the guilt ridden people who will buy the store version and then pirate it to get what they want, but chances are for most people they’ll pirate it straight away and give a giant fuck you for using something as shitty as Denuvo. I have a couple of games in my library that either used or still use Denuvo, and fortunately I haven’t noticed much in terms of performance. But seeing things like this makes me question if it’s even worth it for companies to place this kind of DRM into their products in the first place.

Windows 10: Store Edition

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Remember when Microsoft made a version of Windows for some of their tablets that only ran their own store apps, and people were upset when they found out they couldn’t install their regular programs? Welcome to Windows 10 S, because clearly we need to have

Microsoft expects that the “majority of customers” will enjoy Windows 10 in its new S mode, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Windows wrote in a blog post Wednesday night.

The stunning endorsement of Windows 10’s S mode—which was formally confirmed as a mode of Windows 10 just about a day ago—was made by Joe Belfiore, who told me via Twitter that he expected the transition to take place in 2019. Belfiore’s blog post set an even more aggressive timetable, claiming that customers would be able to buy a PC with Windows 10 S mode at or near the time when the next feature update to Windows 10 drops. That update, known as Redstone 4, is expected to appear on PCs in early April

Of course you can opt out of S mode if need be, and the reasoning behind this mode is to improve performance… which I can see if you consider it won’t be able to run anything outside of the Windows Store. :v:

How many licks does it take to get to the center of UWP?

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Five, apparently there are five layers that protect a UWP (Universal Windows Platform) application from being tampered with, or that would be the case if it wasn’t finally hacked by a group calling themselves CODEX. In this case they cracked Zoo Tycoon Ultimate Animal Collection, with some interesting instructions and insight.

CODEX says it’s important that the game isn’t allowed to communicate with the Internet so the group advises users to block the game’s executable in their firewall.

While that’s not a particularly unusual instruction, CODEX did reveal that various layers of protection had to be bypassed to make the game work. They’re listed by the group as MSStore, UWP, EAppX, XBLive, and Arxan, the latter being an anti-tamper system

I remember when UWP was first launched… There were hardcore fanboys proclaiming that the days of the exe were numbered. Then the drawbacks were noted, like not being able to mod, run a framerate counter, etc Even if you don’t own all of your games on Steam you could still purchase them from other places and run them via Steam if you wanted to take screenshots or use your Steam Controller. UWP was only designed for the diehard Microsoft user, and it pretty much stayed that way.

Seeing how there are five layers running its no wonder you couldn’t inject overlays or anything into their programs. Their DRM is a fucking onion. I can understand companies wanting to protect their products from theft or tampering, but things like UWP consoltize gaming even moreso. If someone wants to use a frame counter, or their favorite video capture program, or run their favorite controller with a particular program they purchased they should have the right to do so (this excludes cheating of course :trollface: ). This overboard DRM does more harm than good for consumers IMO, and while I won’t pirate the game they mentioned I do hope to hear more about the UWP platform crumbling like bleu cheese. :zorak:

Razer’s Project Valerie looks interesting, however…

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I like the concept, as someone who runs with dual screens when I’m at home, and I think it would be pretty sweet to have multiple screens for a wider view or even extra places to put chats and recording programs, but that design… The motor that deploys the extra screens will wear out eventually. If they came up with a way to connect the displays to one another as optional pieces. Then I wouldn’t have to worry about another set of failing components down the line.

Another problem I have with it is the keyboard/touchpad layout. It makes sense to me to have it in the center to make room for the numpad, why did they take it out and put the touchpad there?

Overall I say Razer has a good idea with the displays, but the implementation… I guess in due time we’ll see how it holds up.