#not that i need a $4k computer. that's just the cost of a build with my dream case that looks like stained glass | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

into-control · 3 years

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Into i need help. I bought a oculus quest 2 right and i tried to connect it to my laptop and it wont work so I realized i needed and actual pc gaming setup you know, problem is idk anything about PCs and i dont wanna get scammed. Can you help me? Ive looked online and idk wtf im looking at tbh. Can you give like advice and shit lol 😂 love you into 💕

well i'm not a professional at pcs by any means but i've always had a huge fixation on them so i can try to help as much as possible and i'll even try to put it in simple terms. fair warning, i talk A LOT in this post because i love rambling about computers :') i tried to use the simplest terms possible since you seem confused but if something doesn't make sense just ask and i can try to reword.

it all depends on what you want out of your pc. and do you want to build one or get a prebuilt one? if you want my advice i recommend building one. getting a prebuilt pc is the easiest way to get scammed because retailers tend to overcharge and they think they can get away with it because they stuck a flashy high end graphics card and colourful lights in it even though it has shit airflow and they cheaped out on the motherboard and power supply or something like that. if you're going to get a prebuilt pc make sure you look at allll the specs and consult some online reviews to see if they're any good, and figure out if you're going to be overcharged. now i'll talk about building one. a lot of this will still be useful if you're considering buying a prebuilt though.

the very first step is deciding your budget. idk where you are but in USD the typical amount to spend on pc parts is i think like $1000 - 1500 (you can spend less but that's if you don't have a lot of money to spend and are still desperate to have a gaming pc). i'm spending around $1700 CAD (before taxes, eugh) on mine bc i want to get into more demanding games eventually. it sounds very costly but computers like these can last you a decade and are very multifaceted. figuring out your budget first instead of going right ahead and buying stuff is important because each component should take up specific percentages of your budget. another important thing to consider when deciding your budget is if you want RGB (the colourful lights as previously mentioned), because components with that capability are slightly more expensive.

after deciding your budget, your first move is deciding what graphics card (GPU) you want. the GPU is responsible for processing and presenting the visuals on your screen. theoretically it should take up between 35 - 40% of your budget because it is the powerhouse in a gaming system. you have two developers to choose from here: NVIDIA or AMD. from what i've seen people tend to prefer NVIDIA but AMD cards aren't bad and they definitely compete in performance. i'll talk about nvidia though because that's what i know more about. by searching up the oculus quest 2 system requirements it tells me you at least need an nvidia geforce gtx 970. this card came out in 2014 and is by no means bad however it is actually the same base price as a lot of newer cards. if you want to go better than the minimum requirements, first consider what your monitor is capable of. if you don't have one yet, consider what you want it to do. monitors are not considered a part of the budget i keep mentioning by the way. idk how much this matters to you since we're talking about the oculus quest 2 but i'm just kind of assuming you're going to use this pc for other games too. the main two things to take into consideration are max resolution and refresh rate. my monitor has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 and a 144hz refresh rate. what the resolution means is that there are 2,073,600 pixels in the screen, and can go up to a resolution of 1080p in video games. the refresh rate means the monitor can refresh the picture on the screen 144 times a second, therefore can show a max of 144 frames per second in a video game. to put that in to perspective, most screens have a refresh rate of 60hz, such as regular laptop screens, iphone screens, etc.. monitors come in mainly 60hz, 75hz, 144hz, and 165hz, and for resolution they mainly come in 1080p, 1440p, and 4k. seeing as i don't have any plans on upgrading my monitor any time soon, dropping extra money on a GPU that can achieve more than 144fps and 1440p/4k would be pointless. but forget about the monitor, the oculus quest 2 has a max refresh rate of 120hz and its resolution lies somewhere between 1080p and 1440p. if you know what kind of games you're going to be playing, look up how they perform with different kinds of cards. i'm fairly certain anything above an nvidia geforce rtx 3070 would be pointless because of your display limits, and anything below the nvidia geforce gtx 970 simply won't be enough for the system. you can look at all the GPUs ranked here. after deciding which GPU you want you need to figure out which brand of it you want (NVIDIA themselves, asus, gigabyte, evga, etc), because they all perform at slightly different levels, although the difference is usually only a few frames so it's better to save money. something to watch out for is the quality of the fans in the GPU because if they aren't good, it will overheat and underperform. i'm aiming to get a 3060 or 3060 ti, if that helps. the only problem is that there is currently a worldwide GPU shortage due to covid, tariffs, and the cryptocurrency mining boom (gpus are used in bulk to mine). fortunately there is currently a crypto mining crackdown happening in china, where majority of mining in the world happens, so the demand for GPUs will hopefully start going down soon. you wont be able to build your pc right away but the market is looking better than it has in awhile. this is just about the only argument i have in favor of getting a prebuilt pc, because they have GPUs in them and are more readily available. i don't think that's a good enough reason though especially since part of the reason i'm building my pc is because it looks fun lol. another thing to note is that you should not overspend on your GPU. the shortage has caused a lot of GPU prices to skyrocket into the $2k-3k range but none of them should be above 1k except the highest end ones. when deciding on a GPU, search up the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP). cards made by brands other than AMD and NVIDIA will almost always cost a little extra, but do not pay hundreds of

extra dollars. but anyways!! the GPU is now out of the way and is definitely the longest paragraph here because it's the most important part.

next up is the central processing unit (CPU), which you should be spending about 20 - 25% of your budget on. its job is essentially to retrieve instructions from the RAM and execute it. i suppose you could call it the brain. again you have two developers to choose from, this time between intel and AMD. i've had two laptops with an intel CPU and my current one has an AMD CPU and both are very good, however the general consensus is that you can get the same performance for less by going with AMD. CPUs have cores, and each core can run its own process. the more cores you have, the more your pc can think about basically. you can get CPUs will all sorts of amounts of cores but for gaming, 4 or 6 cores is all you really need. 8 is actually already a bit overkill. so you really don't need to get the best CPU out there. the one you get should depend on what GPU you get (hence choosing that component first). you don't want to bottleneck your GPU by getting a CPU that isn't good enough for it, but bottlenecking your CPU with the GPU by a small amount isn't as big of a deal because the goal is to allow your GPU to be used to its full ability. another detail about CPU is clock speed, which determines how quick it can complete tasks. the higher the faster, obviously. my (non gaming) laptop's CPU clock speed is 2.30 GHz and has 4 cores. the cpu i have for my build is the AMD ryzen 5 5600x. it has a base clock speed of 3.7 GHz but it can be maxed out to 4.6 GHz, and it has 6 cores. the oculus quest 2 has a minimum requirement of the AMD ryzen 5 1500x or the intel i5-4590, which is a little low on the performance list. but like i said the CPU should depend on the GPU. all it takes is a google search for which CPU goes best with the GPU you've chosen and you can find several answers depending on if you want the best possible performance, best budget performance, etc.. a nice little fact about choosing AMD over intel is that most AMD CPUs will come with a stock cooler, which is absolutely necessary otherwise your CPU will overheat (this is another thing prebuilts will cheap out on). this only adds to the whole price-to-performance thing. the stock cooler will most likely do unless you push your pc or want the build to look prettier.

next on the list is a motherboard, where all the parts come together in unity. you should spend 8 - 10% of your budget on this baby. it's easy to over and underspend on a mobo. the most important thing when it comes to choosing a mobo is that it supports your CPU. you cannot use the same mobo for intel and AMD CPUs. fortunately the product page will straight up tell you which CPU brand the mobo is meant for and will typically have two versions of the same board. it's important to note that motherboards don't always have onboard wifi, meaning it wont be able to connect to the internet via wifi and instead needs an ethernet cable or an external wifi adapter. if you can't get an ethernet cable to the room where you want your pc, you're going to need onboard wifi, or a wifi card/usb. onboard wifi mobos tend to be more expensive so it's up to you, but i personally bought one with wifi included so i wouldn't have to worry about it because our ethernet cables are in the basement and i'm upstairs. another very important thing about motherboards is that their BIOS version (operating system i guess?? idk how else to describe it) doesn't always support your CPU out of the box and must be updated before using it. this can present as a problem if you don't have another CPU to perform the update with, however some motherboards allow you to 'flash' the BIOS with a only usb drive as long as it's hooked up to power. there are plenty of step by step youtube videos about how to do this. i will have to do this with my motherboard when the time comes because it doesn't support ryzen 5s out of the box. don't let this deter you from getting a certain board as long as it has a BIOS flash feature. next up is what I/O ports you want, which are the ports (usb ports, headphone/mic jack, hdmi port, etc) you'd find on the back of any desktop computer. that is the side of the motherboard. basically just be aware of how many of each ports you want, and remember that there will probably be even more ports on the front of the case you get. the last thing i can think of right now is making sure your motherboard has all the headers (where you plug components in) you want it to have but i'll get to that later.

next up on the list is RAM, aka random access memory. this stores short term data. the amount of RAM you have kind of determines how much your pc can multitask. RAM sticks typically go up by some multiple of 2GB. most standard laptops and desktops nowadays will come with 8GB of RAM, which is enough for day to day use. it can be enough for mid and low end games however it cuts it pretty close most of the time. 16GB of RAM is the sweet spot for gaming and anything above that is pretty much overkill (and once again a waste of money) as long as you don't have a billion unnecessary background processes. a large amount of RAM is typically needed for video editors or computer programmers. you should always make sure your motherboard can support the amount of RAM you want although any good motherboard will support 64GB or even 128GB. the best option is to get a 16GB RAM pack, which will include two 8GB RAM sticks. splitting RAM between two sticks will increase efficiency. this is called dual channel. i also recommend getting DDR4 RAM, which is simply faster than DDR3. a good speed to have is around 3600 MHz. make sure your motherboard supports DDR4. you also want to be weary that your RAM is compatible with your CPU brand because they do have to interact for your pc to function.

next is storage. there are three-ish options here depending on how much you're willing to spend. generally you should spend 8 - 10% of the budget here. you can always get a good ole hard drive for the cheapest, however they are the slowest and physically biggest option, meaning whatever you put on it will take a bit longer for your pc to retrieve and open (they can load about 100-200MB of data per second). the next option is a solid state drive. they are a little more expensive but can load as much as 600MB of data per second and take up less space. the last and most efficient/expensive option is an m.2 nvme drive. these things are physically absolutely tiny and can load up to 4GB of data per second. anything you put on these will open very very quickly. the fairly standard solution for this is a combination of two of these three. personally i'm using one m.2 drive and one hard drive. the hard drive i have can store 2TB while the m.2 drive can only store 256GB. funnily enough these two drives are roughly the same price. the idea here is to install your operating system on the faster drive. this makes it so it only takes like 8 seconds tops for your pc to start up. you can also put any other programs you use most often on there (like your main browser and favourite games) and they will open very quickly, while the bulk of your games and other files will go on the bigger drive. that's all there really is to say for storage, just make sure the reviews are good on the drive you want to get, but that goes for any component.

next is your power supply (PSU). very very important to not cheap out on this. 6 - 8% of the budget should go to this. the function of the PSU is to do exactly what its name implies: supply power to all the components. this is where the website pcpartpicker can come in very handy. not only does it help you build a list of parts that are all compatible with each other, it will also estimate how much wattage you will need to run your pc. 600W is usually enough for a normal gaming pc. PSUs are ranked, and you should never really go below a bronze ranking. you can also choose between non-modular, semi-modular, and fully-modular PSUs. non-modular PSUs have all the cables permanently attached. this can be desirable to people who are confused by what cable is plugged in where but also undesirable as unused cables cannot be removed and make cable management harder. fully-modular PSUs come with the cables all in a separate bag so you choose which ones to plug in. semi-modular power supplies have the necessary cables attached and the rest can be attached need be. it all depends on preference and how much faith you have in yourself. i have an 80+ gold certified fully modular 750W PSU because the thought of unnecessary cable management makes me sick lol. corsair is pretty much the most trusted brand for power supplies. be careful because this is another place prebuilts will cut corners.

now for the case! this one isn't overly difficult to choose and mainly will just appeal to your aesthetics. it's less important to stick to a precise percent of the budget for this one but you also don't want to spend more than 8%. do you want a black case? a white one? do you want a glass side panel so you can see inside your pc and admire your hard work? besides that, you also need to make sure the case is big enough for your motherboard, GPU, and PSU. most info pages for cases will tell you the max size of the GPU and PSU and what size of mobo it's meant for. you also want to make sure there is a place to put your storage drives (unless you only have m.2 drives which are installed on the motherboard). you also want to make sure it has optimal airflow abilities. a case with no airflow will cause overheating. the best ones have mesh fronts and tops to allow cool air to be pulled in and hot air out. it's even better if you can get a case that comes with fans in the front, because they are what pulls that cool air in.

next is the CPU cooler, which i briefly mentioned. if you don't get an AMD CPU then you'll need to buy a separate cooler. you can choose between air coolers (a fan and a heatsink) or liquid coolers. i don't really have much to say about them and i recommend doing your own research on liquid coolers lol.

last but not least, case fans. like i said a lot of cases will come with front fans and also an exhaust fan at the back, however you might want more, or even replace the ones you already have with better ones. pay attention to how many fans your case manual says can fit and plan accordingly. check out reviews to see if the fans you want are quiet and efficient. if you buy a three pack of case fans there is a chance it will come with a fan hub. this makes it easier to control all of them in sync because the hub will connect all the fans to one header on the motherboard. generally 3-6 fans are pretty good for a gaming pc. two or three in the front pulling in cool air, one at the back and two on the top to pull out hot air.

now that i have all the components out of the way i'm gonna talk about RGB lighting. numerous components that i've mentioned have the option of including LED lights to make your pc brightly coloured, which is always nice if you have a glass side panel on your pc. it's an extra bit of money but i personally was willing to sacrifice that because i want to show off my build lmao. motherboards, RAM sticks, GPUs, CPU coolers, and case fans are the main components that can come with RGB lighting. you can also get special LED strips and power connectors designed for PCs. if you decide to go for RGB lighting, do try to stick to one RGB ecosystem, meaning make sure all the RGB components can be controlled by one program. RGB is controlled by your motherboard. for example if you get an asus motherboard you'll probably want to use their program, aura sync. most components can be controlled by any brand's program however if the motherboard itself has RGB lighting it can only be controlled via its own brand's program, along with the GPU. if you want RGB case fans you really have to make sure your motherboard has RGB headers (the thingy on the motherboard where you plug the fan's LED lights into). most motherboards will only have two-ish RGB headers so if you're going to buy a bunch of fans make sure they come with a fan hub, which lets you plug them all into one header on the motherboard. also, never sacrifice performance for RGB. specifically when it comes to GPUs. if you have a choice between a GPU with RGB and a GPU without RGB, always take the one that has better performance (given it's within the parameters i mentioned earlier).

that's all i have to say :) if you couldn't tell i really love this stuff. i will also recommend you watch youtube videos about this, you can see the build process and the reasoning for using each component, and also tips on what to do and what not to do. i hope this helps and wasn't too confusing. i know you said this is mainly because you got an oculus quest 2 but if you're going to get a gaming pc you should definitely consider games outside of the oculus too.

#ask #anon

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3d-toonflix · 3 years

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shinglescat · 3 years

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Alright, so, ram modules that are about 3600Mhz is just enough, esp for 5xxx Ryzens. Then the more ram sticks you have, the better the performance thanks to the channels. God, my head is boiling from all this computer information.

Then Ryzen has something called Infinity Fabric, and it matters the most when it comes to AMD’s CPUs and memory; timings matter too, but seems like IF matters more. Still don’t exactly understand it, but it’ll be something to think about once I actually have the new pc.

Rant goes below.

Then there are PSUs. Man, I wanted a Fractal Design build like a dumbass I am, but... their PSUs are not so good when it comes to oscillations, and that’s a big thing apparently for stability. Looked at all the reviews about ion gold, decided to switch back to the Cougar PSU I bought last year, and then decided to switch to a be quiet! PSU because of the CPU I chose... but something tells me I may actually revert back to my Cougar and buy the second one. AAAAAAA

Then there’s mobo. The first one I picked was ASUS ROG STRIX B550-A, because good VRMs and heatsinks on them. And watercooling compatibility. Then it’s 4 gen PCI-E, but whatever, ‘cause I picked gen 3 SSD, and the video cards don’t utilize gen 4 in full. Also its heatsinks are whitish. And I’m a girl. And I want pretty things. Like an idiot, I chose the mobo based on looks, what a retard, but I can’t make myself get me one of those ugly shroud-less mobos, I’ve had enough with my current one, SO UGLY. Luckily, the mobo doesn’t seem to be faulty. Then I heard people recommend MSI B550A PRO for 5xxx CPUs. Picked one, granted it also costs 7k lower than the strix. And everything would be okay, but turns out this mobo has a lot of failures. So I went back to strix. Also, initially, a year ago or so I wanted an MSI board, something-something ace meg whatever with SLI compatibility. But they’re gone, and SLI’s dead, and games don’t really support SLI anyways. So lucky me here, otherwise I’d spend more on the mobo like an idiot I am.

Anyways. Since my mobo is white, I changed my FD case to white, lmao, it’s also couple rubles cheaper than the black one. Also note - I hate RGB stuff, and there’s not glass panel in the case I picked, it’s just solid block of metal... So why the idiot me needs a pretty motherboard? Logic, but I can’t fight it, I want me a pretty thing.

And I changed my AIO, which is FD Celsius S36 to Noctua NH-15D. Had a fight here with myself, ‘cause the AIO looks nice, and the NH-15D looks ass ugly in Noctua’s brand colors; Celsius performs slightly better than the NH-15D, and... THREE FANS. Wanted to place it in front of the case, but then... evaporation is a thing. Fuck it, went with the Noctua, esp since I found it in stock in black, yay. Then again, watercooling is good for short bursts of temperature spikes, then it equalizes and performs maybe worse than an air cooler. So Noctua it is.

Then come SSDs. Fuck me. That’s just hard to pick, there are so many drives. Initially I planned on a 512 GB Samsung 970 PRO because it’s probably last of the MLC guys when everyone went for TLC and QLC. But it’s pricey as fuck. Reliable, but pricey. With great tears I swapped it to an Aorus SSD. Same capacity, but TLC, similar speeds, similar write span, only almost 4k cheaper. But it’s new, no reviews whatsoever, kinda sus. So I just sat and thought about this all and went for a 512 GB NVMe WD Blue, ‘cause I don’t really need it besides having the OS installed on it and all that. And it’s cheaper. And I’m not going to be writing anything on it myself, it’s all for Windows.

Ha, also found some cheap memory sticks at a retail electronics store, 64 GBs of ram would cost me around 20k. 3000Mhz, low timings, could forgive it having rgb lighting. Next day I open their internet store and... there goes my el-cheapo HyperX. Send everything to hell and opted for four sticks of G.Skill RIPJAWS V 3600Mhz CL18. Gonna be fun making it marry the air cooler.

Damn, HDDs got pricey, thanks to the chia mining. Wanted a WD Gold, had it bookmarked, it was around 12 to 14 grand before, and now it’s just unobtanium with its price. Fuck it. And el-cheapo ones, a-la barracudas and blues got more expensive. But I need me some storage, for went for a 2TB WD Blue anyways... and for a Seagate SkyHawk, 1TB.

Man, I wish someone else would pick me parts and build the thing, but last time my father bought one (not for me ofc, I’m the devil child, even tho I eventually took over it), it almost fried my new shiny 2080 thanks to a cheapfuck of a PSU.

Do not ever cheap out on PSUs, ever.

Also got me a single high static pressure Noctua fan (but it’s black, ugh, and the case fans are white) for the video card cooling. Dunno if it’s going to fit in between the PSU and HDD cage in the end, but if not - it’ll have to do on the front panel in the middle of two white fans pushing air to the 2080. At least the case doesn’t have a glass panel. And finally no fans with light, I swear I hate my shitty Thermaltake fan with passion - it shines blue through the small window on the side panel of the case like a beacon it is, no way to turn it off (except for smashing it, but I ain’t no barbarian).

Low key regretting I went for the bachelor in civil and industrial engineering instead of electric stuff, would’ve been so much easier for me now, lmao.

Hoping I won’t change my mind yet again about the parts, tho honestly I really want to wait till the DDR5 hits the market, and AMD releases their DDR5 compatible CPUs, but I don’t want to wait a year, and then DDR5 will be a lot more expensive than DDR4... and I just can’t wait, I need me more power and less bottlenecks.

UWU

Fuck I’m excited for it. Also dreading it, never dealt with PGA CPUs, wonder how fragile the pins are.

Also, I’m finally excited for a game, ready to shit-piss my pants. Stalker 2 is coming next year, baby! Gotta get me that retail version of the game to put it in my Stalker collection...

#annie does rant

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softspiderling · 5 years

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five signs you’re too close to your boss | t.h.

anonymous said:

Hi may I please request a one shot of Tom with ceo au with this prompt “I’m your assistant and you just informed me that your entire family thinks we’re dating and you don’t want to let them down” please

Summary: you liked being the personal assistant of the CEO of Holland Enterprises. But sometimes you wondered if you were too close to your boss.

Pairing: CEO!Tom Holland x Assistant!Reader

Song I listened to while writing: If I can’t have you by Shawn Mendes

Author’s Note: I started out way different, and I was googling for some funny assistant/boss puns when I came across an article called ‘five signs you’re too close to your boss’ and I rewrote the whole thing. Hope I did your request justice, nonnie!

Warnings: the occasional fuck and shit

Word Count: 4k (this was not planned, I gotta be honest)

Masterlist

ONE: You call him by his first name

Balancing a tray with coffee cups, you knocked on the wooden door, waiting for a muffled ‘Come in’ before you opened the door with your elbows. You entered the room and were greeted by two men who sat across from each other at a desk.

“Good morning,” you greeted them and placed their coffees on the table. “I’ve got your latte Tom and your americano, Harrison. Mark is waiting for you in your office by the way, and the meeting with the board members has been pushed up to three pm.”

“Thank you, Y/N,” Harrison Osterfield said as he reached for his beverage, grateful for your services even though you weren’t his personal assistant.

Tom Holland, your actual boss, accepted the cup you placed in front of him and grinned. “She’s a godsend, isn’t she?”

You made an offhand gesture and ducked your head at the compliment. “I just brought you your coffee.”

“And at the same time you told me about the changes for today’s schedule. Accept the compliment, Y/N,” Tom said and you rolled your eyes fondly. You were literally just doing your job. Sometimes you really wondered what Tom would do without you.

“Alright, I better go before my assistant sends out a searching party,” Harrison sighed and got up, his coffee in his hand.

“I’ll see you later T, thanks again for the coffee Miss Y/N,” he said in a teasing tone and left the office, his dress shoes clacking against the marbled floor, leaving you and Tom alone in his office.

“Is there anything else you need me to do?” you asked your boss and he pursed his lips in thought.

“Yeah actually, I’m planning to take my mum out to lunch. Can you make a reservation at The Clink?”

“Of course. Around twelve alright for you?”

He leaned forward and clasped his hands. “That’ll work. A table by the window would be amazing.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” you nodded and Tom gave you a smile.

“Thanks, Y/N, that’s everything for now,” he told you and turned to his laptop, dismissing you wordlessly.

You left Tom’s office and shut the door behind you, returning to your desk. Reaching for the phone, you dialed the number of the restaurant and waited for the line to connect.

“Hi, this is The Clink. You’re speaking to Lionel. What can I do for you?” a man said when he picked up the phone.

“Hi, this is Y/N, I’m calling to book a table for Tom-“ your eyes widened, before you cleared your throat. “Uh, for Mr. Holland. A table for two at noon, and preferably by the window?”

The other end of the line is silent for a few seconds before the man returned. “Table for two, at noon by the window. Got it.”

“Perfect, thank you so much,” you sighed, bidding goodbye before you hung up, leaning your face in your hands.

You’ve never realized how you always addressed your boss by calling him by his first name. It wasn’t something you did on your own, but rather a thing Tom insisted you doing when you first started this job.

You were pretty sure it wasn’t common for an assistant to call her boss by his first name. But as long as it wasn’t hurting anyone, it wasn’t a big deal.

TWO: His mother invites you along to private lunch dates.

You’ve been working on a few drafts of the invitation of the charity gala that was taking place in a couple of months, when someone approached your desk.

Looking away from your computer, you came face to face with Nikki Holland, Tom’s mother. “Oh! Mrs. Holland, hi,” you greeted her with a smile, giving her your full attention.

“You can just go right ahead, I think Tom’s still immersed in his work,” you said, gesturing to the closed office door.

“That boy is always stuck in work,” Nikki sighed with a headshake. “I’m glad you’re here to keep him from living at the office.”

You chuckled and ducked your head. “Just doing my job.”

When the door of Tom’s office opened, you and his mother lifted your heads to see him coming out, loosening the tie around his neck.

“Hi mum, have you been waiting long?” he asked and kissed her on the cheek.

“No longer than usual, honey,” Nikki sighed and he grinned, before turning to you.

“You take a break soon, okay?”

“Why don’t you come with us?” Nikki suggested and Tom looked at his mother in surprise, before nodding.

“Yeah, that sounds like a great idea.”

You shook your head, your cheeks flushed. “No, I don’t want to impose. I know you two haven’t spent that much time together. Plus I only booked a table for two.”

“I’m sure they won’t hesitate to add a chair to the table if I ask them to,” Tom pointed out with a grin and his mother smiled encouragingly at you.

“I insist. You have to eat anyways and you won’t impose, I promise.”

With narrowed eyebrows you looked between the two Hollands, who were looking at you with expectant eyes. A lunch at the Clink sounded really good right now, and Nikki was right, you did have to eat anyway.

“Fine,” you then sighed, the corners of your mouth tugging up. “I guess if my boss’ mother tells me to do something, I should do it, right?”

Tom snorted and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his pants.

“Don’t believe a word she says, mum. She never listens to me.”

“That’s because you make really dumb decisions from time to time,” you reminded him, grabbing your coat and purse. Nikki only laughed at the bickering, shaking her head fondly.

“You two can bicker over the most mundane things, it’s unbelievable.”

THREE: He asked you to be his date for charity events.

“You look lovely tonight, Y/N,” Tom whispered as the two of you entered the building, arms linked.

“You did buy this dress, you’re aware of that, right?” you asked with a raised eyebrow and he chuckled, shrugging with his shoulders.

“I know, doesn’t mean I can’t give you a compliment when it’s due, does it?”

You rolled your eyes fondly.

“I guess. Thanks for bringing me, by the way. I’ve heard really good things about this organization.”

The organization whose charity event you were attending was taking care of providing clean water for villages in South Africa and though you were glad to support this organization you weren’t a fan of the guests that used to attend these kind of events.

They were wearing expensive looking suits and dress. You didn’t really know how much the dress cost you were wearing, because Tom refused to tell you, but you were willing to bet a horse that it cost more than a 100 bucks (then again, 100 pounds probably wasn’t a lot when it came to these people).

Long story short, this wasn’t really your scene. Expensive champagne, rubbing elbows with wealthy people and tiny food portions wasn’t your style. But Tom had asked you to accompany him and it was for the good cause, right?

“I’m going to get us some champagne, I’ll be right back love,” he told you and unwrapped his arm from yours before disappearing into the crowd, leaving you all by yourself.

Slightly intimidated, you sought refuge at a vacant table and placed your clutch on it, looking around for Harrison, of whom you knew was also supposed to attend the event.

“Did I see you come in with Tom Holland?” an unfamiliar voice asked and you turned to see a blonde in a red dress looking at you.

The corners of her lips were curled upward, though the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“Yes you did,” you replied, giving her a curt smile. “Why?”

She tapped her perfectly manicured fingers on the table.

“We had an nice… How should I put this delicately?” she trailed off, pursing her lips. “Encounter. And he hasn’t given me a call yet.”

You raised an eyebrow at her. What was this lady’s problem?

“If you’re trying to pick a fight, it’s not with me. I’m his assistant, not his date,” you clarified and her eyes widened slightly, before she let out a breathy laughter.

“Oh of course you are. I was wondering why he would be dating under his standard,” she chuckled and you narrowed your eyes at her, your cheeks flushing in anger.

“Excuse me?”

She smirked at you. “You can’t be surprised by this. You’re not exactly his type.”

You bristled at her insinuations and as you were about to open your mouth to rip her a new one, Tom joined you by the table with two flutes of champagne.

“Sorry that took so long, Y/N, the queue was insane,” he apologized, handing you a flute when he caught sight of the blonde, who turned her full attention to him.

“Hello Tom. Nice to see you again,” she said sweetly and you gripped your glass.

Tom gave her a polite smile, though you could tell he wasn’t too happy to see her. You were guessing that she was someone he picked up at a previous event and judging by his lack of interest, he had wanted it to leave it like that.

“Hello… Victoria, was it?”

“Veronica, actually,” Veronica pressed out through gritted teeth and you hid your smile, turning your head away.

“Right, Veronica. Sorry, must’ve slipped my mind. Did you need anything?” Tom asked and she fumed, though she raised her chin defiantly.

“Not necessarily, no. Just wanted to give the courtesy of letting you know that my father won’t be doing any business with Holland Enterprises. Have a good evening,” Veronica sneered and turned on her heel, obviously pissed off by how he was treating her.

“Wait, is she someone important?” you asked at the mention of her father and Tom shrugged, nipping on his champagne.

“She’s the daughter of Philip McAvoy.”

Your eyes widened and slapped his arm.

“McAvoy who you’ve been dying to get in contract?! Are you kidding me? That’s a big deal, why are you acting so nonchalantly about losing a huge client like that?” you hissed and Tom glanced at you, before he smirked.

“’Cause McAvoy signed the contract last night.”

You sighed in relief, shaking your head with a smile. “You’re unbelievable, Tom.”

“I am not going to let all the hard work go down the drain just because I didn’t give his darling daughter a call after an unfortunate night we spent together,” Tom smirked and you rolled your eyes at him, pulling a face.

“You’re gross.”

FOUR: He asks you to pretend to be his girlfriend in front of his family.

“You want me to do what?”

Tom sighed and rubbed a hand over his face.

“I know it sounds like a weird request-“

“No, getting you sushi at nine in the morning is a weird requests, having me pose as your girlfriend in front of your family is crazy! How did you even come up with such an idea?” you asked. You hadn’t had expected Tom to ask you that when he called you into his office.

“I didn’t! My parents just assumed we were dating because of pictures they’ve seen of us at events. Especially at the office’s Christmas party,” he explained and your cheeks grew hot.

“You know I had too much to drink!”

“I know, Y/N. And I wouldn’t be asking you this if it weren’t so important to me. Please?” He looked at you with pleading eyes, clasping his hands together as if he was begging.

You gritted your teeth and rolled your eyes, before relenting.

“… Fine. But I expect a bonus,” you warned him and he beamed at you, nodding quickly.

“Of course, whatever you want, Y/N. Thank you so much for doing this.”

Two weeks later, you and Tom were standing in front of his childhood home and you were feeling like you were going to throw up.

“You okay?” Tom asked as you walked up to the front door.

“If by okay you mean currently freaking out about lying to my boss’ family about dating him, then yeah, I’m okay,” you muttered, tucking your hair behind your ear.

“You’ll be fine. They’ve always liked you, even before they thought you were my girlfriend,” he assured you and you frowned.

“I just don’t feel comfortable lying to them.”

“Then don’t,” he replied and you scoffed. “Just, stay as close to the truth as you can. We don’t want to get entangled in a web of lies.”

Tom pressed the door bell and you could hear footsteps from the other side of the door before you felt Tom put his arm around your waist, pulling you close. You barely had the time to react before the door was pulled open and you put up a smile.

“Tom! And Y/N! I am so glad you could make it,” his mother greeted you and Tom let go of you to hug his mother.

“Hi mum, happy birthday,” he mumbled and gave her a kiss on the cheek, handing her the bouquet of flowers. You smiled shyly at her and reached out to shake her hand. “Happy birthday Mrs. Holland. Thanks for inviting me.”

“Nonsense!” Nikki replied and swatted your hand away, pulling you into a hug instead. You yelped in surprise before you hugged her back with a laugh. “And please, call me Nikki. You’re part of the family now.”

“Oh, okay,” you chuckled nervously and Tom gave you a look.

“Alright, come on in you guys, you’re the last to arrive.” Nikki ushered you inside and shut the door after you’ve stepped inside

“You go right ahead to the backyard, I’m going to put these flowers in some water,” she told you and disappeared into another room, the kitchen you presumed.

With a hand on your lower back, Tom guided you towards the backyard. You were so nervous to face his family, you couldn’t even react to the countless pictures of Tom throughout his childhood. You made a mental note to make fun of Tom later, but right now, you didn’t have the nerves to do so.

As you stepped out to the backyard, you were greeted with a sight of familiar people. You were relieved to see that it wasn’t an understatement when he told you it was ‘a family-only event’.

“Hey guys!” Tom greeted his family, waving in the round.

“Look what the cat dragged in,” one of the boys said and everyone came around to greet you.

“Guys, this is Y/N. Y/N, you know my dad, Dom, my brothers Harry, Sam and Paddy. And Haz, of course.”

Your eyes widened slightly at the blond sitting at the table nursing a beer with a knowing smirk. That little fucker. He had to know all about the stunt, you were sure that Tom had a discussion with his best friend long before asking you to come to the party. You were not looking forward to the endless teasing you had to endure at work that following week.

“Hi everyone,” you waved shyly. “Thanks for having me.”

“Are you kidding me? I can’t believe we’re finally meeting you as Tom’s girlfriend. How do you actually stand being around this div during work and in your free time?” Harry asked and you shrugged with a grin.

“Eh, it helps that he barely acts like a boss. Usually I’m the one making the important decisions,” you countered and Tom’s jaw dropped while the rest hollered out in laughter.

“Wow,” Tom said, shaking his head with a grin.

“I knew there was a reason I liked her,” Dom said and smiled brightly at you. “Someone needs to put you in your place when neither of us are around, Tom. Can I get you guys anything to drink?”

Pleased at having received his father’s approval, you ducked your head. “A water is fine, thanks.”

“I’ll just have a beer, dad.”

Taking a seat at the table while Tom’s father poured you a glass of water, you nipped on it but not without sending a glare in Harrison’s direction, who was sitting across from you.

“Hey, where’s Tessa?” Tom wanted to know when his brother handed him a bottle of beer and Harry pointed towards the green bits of the backyard.

“She’s been digging for half an hour. Didn’t even hear you ring the bell.”

Tom took a big swing of his beer before letting out a whistle. “Tessa!” he called out and jogged towards the lawn, leaving you to fend for yourself with his family.

“So, how long have you guys been dating?” Sam asked as soon as Tom was out of earshot. You blushed a bit, and shrugged with your shoulders.

You internally cursed when Tom’s mother joined you, hoping you wouldn’t say anything that would make them suspicious.

“A couple months, give or take? I’m not too sure about it,” you replied, keeping it as vague as you could.

“I’m really glad you guys got together,” Nikki said and you looked at her in surprise. “He always looked at you like you hung the stars, it was really obvious that he fancied you.”

“Yeah, it was nauseating,” Harrison piped up and hid his grin behind his beer bottle while you narrowed your eyes at him. You weren’t sure if he was messing with you or not.

“You guys should have seen them at the office Christmas party. He was smitten,” he told Tom’s family, wincing when you kicked him in the shins.

“Oh we’ve seen pictures. That was why we pestered Tom about her and he admitted that you’ve been dating on the downlow,” Paddy said. “Though I don’t understand why he would keep that from us. He knows we’ve always liked you.”

“I think he was probably worried about what people would think if they found out he was dating his assistant,” you explained, defending Tom. You didn’t want his family to resent him for keeping a relationship from them if it wasn’t even a real one.

“What are we talking about?” Tom asked when he returned with Tessa by his side.

“About you being head over heels for Y/N, and not telling us you were dating until we asked you,” Harry teased and his older brother flushed.

“Well, I should be head over heels for her, she’s my girlfriend,” he pointed out and you opted out of the conversation by turning your attention to Tessa who sniffed curiously at your hands. She was the only member of his family you hadn’t met yet. You know, considering she was a dog she wasn’t really allowed into the office.

“Hi pretty girl,” you cooed to her, scratching her behind her ears. Tessa yapped and wagged enthusiastically with her tail, bumping your hand with her snout.

“She likes you,” Tom told you quietly, suddenly standing by your side. You glanced up at him before you returned your eyes to the Staffordshire.

“Everyone in your family likes me,” you pointed out and he gave you a look, crouching down next to you to pet Tessa.

“Maybe a little too much. I can’t believe you made fun of me with them,” Tom muttered and you snorted, rolling your eyes at him.

“Don’t be a baby,” you teased him and he looked at you with a soft smile. You’ve never noticed how much his eyes crinkled when he does that. And did he get more freckles on his nose?

“Jesus, you two are way worse in real life,” Sam commented and the two of you broke apart flushing. You hadn’t even realized how close you’ve been standing.

“See what I have to deal with at work every day?” Harrison joked and you and Tom glared at him.

“Shut up Haz.”

The rest of the evening passed in a blur, between having dinner, getting to know Tom’s family better and them teasing you and Tom mercilessly.

Their jokes got you thinking about the relationship you had with him. The work relationship, that is. You knew that you two were very close, maybe even closer than an assistant and their superior usually are. Sometimes you wondered if it bordered the line of being inappropriate, considering all they’ve been saying was somewhat true.

You found him very attractive and you liked him a lot. Even though he was in a higher position than you were (obviously, since you were his assistant) he still treated you with respect.

And since you were only human, you sometimes wondered what it would feel like to be by his side as something else than his assistant. Admittedly, you had a small crush on him. But who wouldn’t, right? A successful businessman, CEO of his own company, he achieved all of that in his twenties and he looked like that.

But you’ve always respected the boundary that was between you and him, allowing yourself the daydream now and then, but nothing more. But you never knew or even asked yourself, what he was thinking.

You knew about his occasional hook-ups, including Victoria McAvoy. But you’ve never heard of a serious girlfriend. At first, you’ve thought it was due to his busy schedule and the fact that he always threw himself in his work.

Now however, you weren’t too sure about it anymore.

It was later that night, when Tom was taking you home in his car. A comfortable silence was settled over you and you were leaning your head on the window.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” you suddenly said and he glanced over at you before turning his attention back to the street.

“Yeah of course, what is it?”

“Do you like me?” you blurted out and he swerved the car, cursing.

“Shit, Y/N, you can’t just ask me something like that!” he yelled and you stared at him, frowning.

“Why the tell not?”

Tom groaned and shook his head, pulling over. Turning the car off, he ran his hand through his hair before turning to look at you.

“Well?” you asked impatiently, narrowing your eyes.

He sighed. “I do like you,” he admitted and your eyes widened. You did not expect that.

“I didn’t want it to be weird for you, because I’m your boss and I don’t want you to feel like you’re obligated to date me, if you don’t like me back? I don’t know. It feels weird to have this kind of power over you which I don’t want to abuse that?” Tom groaned, hiding his face in his hands. “I guess I did pressure you into pretending to be my girlfriend in front of my family, but I promise I didn’t do it to make-“

Before Tom could continue to ramble on, you had dragged him by his shirt and put your lips on his, effectively shutting him up.

“Oh,” he sighed softly against your lips, his own curling into a grin.

FIVE: You almost fall off the bed at night.

You were still tired when you woke up, and judging by the darkness in the bedroom, it wasn’t time to get up just yet. Stifling a yawn, you reached for your phone that was charging on the nightstand to check the time, nearly blinding yourself by the brightness of the screen.

2:17 am

With a groan, you put the phone back down and wondered why the hell you woke up, when a nudge in your waist almost sent you falling off the bed.

Right.

Even though you’ve fallen asleep at your respective sides of the bed, Tom had somehow managed to sneak all the way over to your side and wriggled himself into your body, pushing you to the edge of the bed.

“Tom,” you hissed, jabbing him ribs.

“Wha-?” he murmured out, cracking an eye open just to frown at you.

“Don’t give me that face! What did I tell you about scooting all the way up in my space!”

His eyes fluttered close and he wrapped his arms around your waist.

“You’re comfy,” Tom mumbled and you sighed, shoving him a few inches away from you.

“You could pull me in your arms instead of pushing me off the edge,” you pointed out and snuggled up against him, smiling when he settled his head atop of yours.

“Shhh, sleep time now,” he said sleepily and you rolled your eyes, before shutting them to get some more sleep.

You really were way too close to your boss.

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mdogggames528 · 4 years

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gamingra984 · 4 years

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Some people could possibly look at the Microsoft DOS (MS-DOS) era as the golden age of Computer gaming. That is when games like The Secret of Monkey Island, Ultima VI: The False Prophet, Doom, SimCity, and a bunch of other retro-tastic titles emerged. Unit-e, the very same firm that constructed a giant (and functioning) NES controller that doubles as a coffee table, is hoping to recapture some of that magic with a pint-sized Pc.

SHIELD wireless controller has a substantial constructed-in rechargeable Li-ion battery for hours for immersive gaming. With up to 40 hours of gameplay on a single charge, you can use the SHIELD wireless controller for quite a few play sessions without the need of getting to charge it back up. A single hour of charge provides up to 8 hours of gameplay. The controller charges from empty to complete in much less than 5 hours.

With all the relevant templates and options any very good gaming web-site will need to have, HugePixie is a solid WordPress theme for gamers. London, UK ten January 2019 - Green Man Gaming right now announced its 2018 Year in Overview highlighting crucial gaming trends based on information from more than five million buyers and community members worldwide.

This UK based gaming community website is confident to amaze you with its quirky critiques and features on the trending on the web games. Obtain also curated columns and interviews that give you each detail about your pick. As Google Play and the Apple iOS App Shop celebrate ten years of delivering applications to smartphone users, gaming technologies for mobile devices continues to increase in leaps and bounds.

Why we like it: The video gaming podcast usually focuses on indie titles, because that is what the hosts are personally interested in, but from time to time they also bring a wider assortment of games to the table for discussion. Idle Thumbs is a thoughtful podcast that puts a bit a lot more emphasis on design and criticism when analyzing the games. If Idle Thumbs” clicks with you, you can also verify out the podcast Three Moves Ahead” about war and technique games, it was created by the same guys.

Preserve in thoughts that whilst lots of ladies gamers are simply casual players, many extra are involved in the gaming world beyond basically picking up a mobile game or two. Ladies are interested in both games and gaming influencers, and tend to take recommendations from mentioned influencers relatively seriously. In fact, they account for 30% of YouTube gaming video views alone, and the quantity is only growing. In addition, 39% of female gamers appear to the advice of good friends and family members when thinking about a new game, so word-of-mouth is important as properly, even if the games they are playing tend to be far more of a solo endeavour.

ACTIVITY And Love - How They Are The Same

AppReal-VR is a virtual reality development corporation with a globe of practical experience in VR gaming With a highly experienced group specializing in both Unity and Unreal game improvement engines, it is the Hobby gaming blog one particular-cease shop for all your gaming challenges. Green Man Gaming has produced important improvements in terms of web-site experience and interaction design, with the support of Practicology, to deliver the subsequent stage of development for the enterprise.

We use our GeForce Knowledge servers to identify the greatest high quality settings primarily based on the user's CPU and GPU, and target larger frame rates than 'normal' optimal settings to assure the lowest latency gaming encounter. These settings are automatically applied when the game is launched so gamers do not have to be concerned about configuring these settings themselves.

A single of the initially phones obtaining this feature was the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium. Its battery went low two instances quicker when a 4K video was running. To assistance this technology, a mobile device requires higher processing power otherwise there may well be uneven screen backlighting due to its inability to deal with millions of pixels at a time. In addition, mobile phones powered by 4K technologies have not develop into preferred yet mobile gaming development does not contain this feature on their roadmap. Very simple as that.

The SteelSeries QcK+ Gaming Mouse Pad doesn't truly appear noteworthy until you run your fingers across its gaming surface. That's the only time that you will notice just how amazingly thick its rubber base is. This is a pretty welcome function given that it steadies and stabilizes the SteelSeries QcK+ on your desktop, stopping slips and unnecessary movements. It is completely suited for LAN games, giving you absolute handle of your mouse so you get much more precision controls. The QcK+ is also unusually huge. Compared to conventional mouse pads the SteelSeries QcK+ measures about 15.7 inches wide and 17.72 inches lengthy.

Here, I've produced the list of some of the best free of charge gaming WordPress themes that come with incredible capabilities and functions. The theme consists of gorgeous designs that will assistance you to create an awesome looking web site simply. It is a trustworthy internet site offering gaming podcasts, testimonials, and videos. Collectively with news updates, Kotaku is amongst the first to bring its customers leaks and rumors from the gaming world. Website's original content material is normally quoted by other gaming platforms.

Big Fish Games is a properly-known name when it comes to online gaming. For years, they have presented cost-free and paid games to play on the internet or download in a multitude of genres, for each Windows and Mac. Along with the arcade, they supply valuable reviews and news on online gaming. The channel is named MiniPCPro but they refer to themselves as Mobile Geeks and assessment a lot of the most current mobile items including smartphones, tablets, ultrabooks and portable gaming devices.

Flower is one of the most relaxing experiences I've had in gaming. Where most games continually demand from you and punish you when you do not adhere to their strict objectives, this unconventional title simply enables you to just be. Now we are proud to announce that Facebook Gaming is now integrated with Streamlabs OBS with complete API support. Now users with Streamlabs OBS can stream their favored games by way of Facebook with a suite of different supported characteristics faster than ever.

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gamingfestive258 · 4 years

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What kind of desktop should i get for gaming

Gaming Grabs The Higher Score On Twitter

Creating a gaming site with WordPress has never been simpler. How do companies fight back while keeping their prospects satisfied? We chatted with Danièle Thillmann, Senior VP of Fraud and Payments at Green Man Gaming. Danièle reveals how firms can confront the exceptional challenges of a digital vertical. Armed with years of experience in the gaming planet, Danièle shares how gaming corporations make a tricky and important decision: which fraud prevention resolution to use.

They provide a wide variety of digital games that their clients can play on the favourite platforms such as Pc, Mac, Sony Playstation and Nintendo. Operating directly with over 500 publishers, developers and distributors, they supply gamers in 190 nations a large catalogue of multi-platform games at competitive costs. Green Man Gaming is an official distributor of Sony PS4, Nintendo, Steam, Uplay, Rockstar Social Club and many extra Computer platform solutions.

Luca is functioning in the field of gaming for 6 years, initially as an indie one particular-man-group junior developer and, the latter 5 years, as gameplay programmer and software architect in a firm where he created video games for all primary mobile platforms, Pc, Steam, PS4 and Xbox One, as well as minor gaming consoles, growing as a experienced. Recently he founded Twin Wolves, an indie video games development studio, exactly where he's the CTO.

I got into action games late but when I did it entirely changed how I viewed gaming forever. The game which brought me round was Viewtiful Joe. Right here was a game with a deep and open-ended combat system which seemed to be built as a signifies for the player to express creativity. This method is then pitted against opponents and obstacles which had been created from the ground up to interact meaningfully with the core program. The course was fixed, but the process for dealing with that course was completely down to the ingenuity, skill and inspiration of the player. You play like you have a big audience watching and the game regularly entices you to improve the concentrate is not simply on acquiring the player from A to B, the focus is on receiving the player to play Viewtifully”.

Due to mobile game development outsourcing , the newest indie games made by compact studios or individual programmers get lots of interest and optimistic feedback from each players and journalists. With the assistance of application outsourcing corporations, every person, with proper expertise, can create and market gaming apps with out any obstacles.

Never you wish you had been genuinely sitting on a racecar seat every single time you play Forza, Gran Turismo, or any other racing game? With the racing seat design and style of the Ficmax Swivel Gaming Chair , obtaining this experience is now a reality. The totally ergonomic Ficmax is made with a totally retractable footrest to assist sooth tired reduced limbs and support facilitate the extra effective circulation of blood. It also comes with a lumbar massage help to aid avert or even manage low back pain which is really widespread amongst people today who sit in an office chair for unusually lengthy period. Our handy guide to the best ergonomic workplace chairs functions far more excellent items like this.

15 Warnings About GAMING You Need To Learn To Succeed

Paul: Our organization model is growth focused and we cover 3 key regions in the gaming market. Firstly, we're a worldwide e-Commerce store promoting over 7,500 games from 450 publishers in more than 190 nations to millions of gamers. Secondly, Green Man Gaming has a thriving neighborhood who go over and track their game achievements on our neighborhood platform. This data combined with the industrial data of the retailer offers Green Man Gaming a important depth of knowledge of our buyers. Ultimately, we have a publishing arm that assists developers publish their own games and bring them to market, supporting them every step of the way. The fusion of Green Man Gaming's e-Commerce retailer, a robust community generating billions of data points and publisher help sets us apart from our competition.

Today's games are larger, greater, and a lot more immersive than ever. You can discover unbelievable games across a wide variety of genres. Most big game franchises are offered on each PlayStation four and Xbox 1, when the Nintendo Switch gives a huge selection of games suited for kids and families. For the most realistic visual experiences, upgrade to the PlayStation 4 Pro or Xbox A single S to take pleasure in breathtaking 4K and HDR gaming. Exclusive titles are available for every console, which additional underscores the need to strategy ahead and pick up the proper method for your have to-own games. Explore the enormous collections of previously played games at wonderful deals and give your older consoles like the PlayStation three , Xbox 360 , and Nintendo Wii U continued life.

Avantura has one of the best building blocks we've seen for constructing a gaming internet site, it supports exclusive colour categories ( a have to for any serious gaming magazine), can be combined with well-known widgets, can be colour customized per web page, has numerous choices for the header and footer and it has an incredible good hunting weblog post design. Also, it has a incredibly good about the author module and some nice next and previous article hooks. On top of it all, it supports a nice mega menu with photographs.

Style patterns: To retailer information in DynamoDB, gaming businesses partition game state and other player data utilizing player ID, and use the essential-value access pattern (1:1 modeling). In circumstances when more fine-grained access is known as for, these firms use a sort key (1:M modeling). This allows them to access and update distinct properties or subsets of a player's dataset separately. This way, they don't have to retrieve an whole dataset. In this method, various items that shop different properties can be updated transactionally by working with the DynamoDB transactional API Some providers compress user data to cut down price. PennyPop, for example, makes use of gzip to compress player data and retailer it as a base64 string, reducing the player information to 10 percent of its original size.

Social media is a single of the best methods to reach out to your audience, as it aids make communication much more hassle-free by enabling comments and messages. Gamers across the planet use Facebook as a single of their major social media platforms, and it is hugely evident when you see how many likes, shares, and views gaming-related content receive on a each day basis.

Cocos2d-x is also open supply, meaning it can be customised and tweaked by the community and any developer can share their tips with others! The plan has demonstrations to help newbies along the way, and it has even been employed for such popular mobile apps as Dragon City Mobile and Big Fish Casino! Mobile gaming dominates a large section of the gaming market these days, so a suite of tools like these are only going to grow to be extra essential for the future of gaming.

You'd be surprised at just how versatile the AmazonBasics Laptop and Tablet Bag is. Offered in 5 distinct sizes, with the largest totally capable of holding and safeguarding a huge 17.3 inch ultra-high efficiency gaming laptop, this laptop bag comes with avariety of storage pockets for all of your smaller peripherals like gaming mouse, 3D pens, digitizers, and even smartphones, MP3 players, pens, and many additional. Its smallest version which is designed for holding a 7 inch tablet or a ten inch netbook is equally beneficial as it comes with the very same accessory pockets complementing its primary storage compartment.

Nonetheless, there is no need to do an net search or read the newest in anonymous game testimonials. Under, we have collected the best 30 mobile gamer blogs to enable place you in touch with the most current and greatest in gaming, along with ideas for what to azatik.online Steam pc gaming blog get subsequent, how to beat it, and what to keep away from. No matter whether for the most current iPhone or classic Gameboy, there are loads of mobile gaming blog entries for absolutely everyone.

Description: This gaming podcast is hosted by a crew of San Francisco developers, formerly of such studios as Telltale Games and Double Fine. It was started merely for fun, where random conversations between the presenters were recorded and put on the Web. It's evolved into a space exactly where the presenters get to speak about a topic they are passionate about, i.e. games - and the result is hugely enjoyable.

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gaminglummo335 · 4 years

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What i need to build a gaming pc

Caesars Casino Gaming Weblog

Enthusiast Gaming is a media and technologies company creating the biggest community of authentic gamers. Travel into a virtual world with a VR headset , where all of your senses will be treated to a barrage of stimulus from different sources. With the Oculus Rift + Touch Virtual Reality Technique , you'd have to prepare yourself for additional alaniell.site Pc gaming blog intense gameplays, far more immersive action, and a entirely new and exhilarating gaming present experience as the package already comes with six VR games that will preserve your heart pumping by means of your chest. The Oculus Touch controllers are ingeniously made for optimum and unparalleled interaction with the numerous components in the virtual world. You will will need to meet specific program needs on your pc, though. This also tends to make a ideal gift for nerds in your life.

With sophisticated style like cool blue lighting, the Lenovo IdeaPad L340 Gaming is an perfect mainstream laptop for the modern day multi-tasker and undercover gamer. Accessible in 15-inch or 17-inch models, the Lenovo IdeaPad L340 Gaming has subsequent-gen characteristics like up to the most current 9th Gen Intel Core i7 mobile processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 GPUs and jaw-dropping Dolby Audio hardwired into the laptop to take portable gaming into yet another dimension.

As technology continues to boost, with chipsets becoming smaller but more strong, we ought to get started seeing much more and more video games make their way onto the mobile platform. Does this mean that video gaming as we know it is dead, though? Far from it. With 4K capability for smartphones still a although off, as nicely as a enormous eSports following for Computer games in certain, it is tough (but not not possible) to see a future without the need of classic Computer and console gaming.

Today is the day! I will be progressively releasing the names of the prime ten gaming blogs of 2014. Searching more than this list, I am positively blown away. So lots of amazing posts this year! If you had been disappointed by the Ennies… if you consider that the genuine deep thinkers in gaming commentary don't get the consideration they deserve… properly, people, we are going to repair that.

When it comes to graphical intensity there seriously is no comparison among mobile gaming and Pc and console gaming. Though handheld devices such as the Nintendo Switch offer a mobile alternative , it nonetheless doesn't pack sufficient punch to really compete on an even field with the Pc and console industry — and the average smartphone possesses even much less graphical energy. Whilst there have been enormous advancements in mobile technologies, with new devices coming equipped with extra potent processors and RAM than ever just before, only Computer and consoles are capable to provide the energy expected for 4K imaging, the hottest new issue in gaming.

Tank is a well-optimized free of charge gaming WordPress theme that comes with a responsive layout that displays your content beautifully on phones, widescreen monitors, and everything in among. With the support of WooCommerce support, you can conveniently get started an online small business quickly. The theme comes with a impressive layout that is infused with charcoal black colour that gives the web page a quite royal outlook. This theme comes with a design and style that is unique and helps to appeal to people today with an affinity for the army and tanks in specific.

Ubisoft® and Lenovo have combined their respective expertise in software and hardware to bring you 1 of the hottest eSports titles on stylishly savage gaming PCs. Lenovo is the proud Pc partner of Ubisoft's Rainbow Six®: Siege Pro League and Majors competitive eSports series. Both partners are committed to providing their gaming communities an unforgettably immersive knowledge.

A gaming web page solely dedicated to Pc Gaming for over 20 years. The platform brings expert evaluations on most up-to-date gaming gears, introduce you to strange new mods & ground-breaking news around-the-clock. They also organize yearly events such as Computer Gaming Show & Computer Gamer Weekender which is really well-liked all over the planet. Apart from posting daily updates on video game news & previews, user can also locate incredible hardware acquiring guides and most effective gaming offers right here.

Like gaming? With the aid of a screen capture device (or a video camera) you can pass on your knowledge on a particular game (or level) and entertain persons at the identical time. Video games as a spectator sport is a somewhat new phenomenon, but immensely well-liked. Take Twitch, exactly where millions of gamers gather just about every month. Some gamers have even develop into celebrities as a result.

PenNews is a modern and clever responsive WordPress multiconcept news & magazine web page theme. It is a potent platform for webmasters across the spectrum. Regardless of market or niche, PenNews has the demos and templates to make your life easier. You never want to know any coding to operate the WP Bakery like a pro. Great post styles fit different stories, to constantly deliver the message appropriate. Gaming magazines and news blogs are a best fit for PenNews.

If You Want To Be A Winner, Replace The GAMING Philosophy Now!

The tactile satisfaction of the mechanical keyboards is usually missing in membrane keyboards. It mimics the really feel of writing on an old school typewriter, like in the past. Now, this does not mean that the modern mechanical keyboards are missing characteristics. They are packed with the factors that the consumer requires for each day use and even in most instances for gaming as properly.

These historical cloud gaming services, whilst innovative, were normally somewhat niche. But will cloud gaming go mainstream any time quickly? Each Microsoft and Google have not too long ago announced forays into the sector, with trials of Project xCloud” and Project Stream” respectively. Even Nintendo, a far much more conventional gaming brand, has established some main cloud inroads on its platforms. Streamed versions of demanding games like Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Resident Evil 7 - initially developed for Xbox, PlayStation and Computer - are becoming readily available on the comparatively weak Nintendo Switch hardware. If the actions of the significant players are something to go by, gaming on demand could acquire severe traction over the next decade.

Tuned and developed for gaming sites, Arcane supplies an exquisite gaming experience unmatched by quite a few themes out there. This committed gaming WordPress theme provides you with the proper tools to build gaming communities of huge proportions. From types teams to managing tournaments, content sharing, custom user and group profiles, you can do it all with this plugin.

Of course, gaming” as a subject has a extremely broad meaning and there are various choices these days, both for the casual and hardcore PRO gamer. When consoles can offer you access to exclusive titles, which are seldom out there for PCs, this goes hand-in-hand with a greater cost of games. Consoles also feature some gaming nuances within joystick controls, as well as unique methods such as progress saving, which is optimized for consoles.

Alia Lia” Shelesh, improved identified as Sssniperwolf is the first female gaming influencer on our list. She began her YouTube profession by playing initially-individual shooter games like Contact of Duty, Halo, and Far Cry. Her account right now consists of vlogs and distinctive video games that she plays and has additional than 7 million subscriptions.

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guyawks · 4 years

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Rate My Setup

The most challenging competitive game I’ve ever played is upgrading my computer setup.

Every gamer on the planet wants a battlestation that’s worth showing off—including me and my cousin Felix. Since middle school, we’ve both been invested in the PC modding scene. After all, if you can build Lego, you can build your own computer. There’s so many cool features you can add to your gaming desk that’ll drastically improve your playing experience.

Sharing this common interest, me and Felix have developed a long-standing tradition. Even though we live in different states, every week we’ll exchange photos of our impressive gaming rigs, with one message.

“Rate my setup, cuz.”

I’ll send him a picture of my new AMD Ryzen 9-3950X processor, and a few days later he’ll send me back a picture of his freshly-purchased Intel Core i7-9700K, already installed in his PC case. Or he’ll send me a snap of his just-unwrapped MSI MEG-X570 motherboard, I’ll return a pic of my Gigabyte TRX40-AORUS board ready for installation.

The list of hardware we compete over is endless. LED SteelSeries keyboards, wireless Razer mouses, 4K Asus monitors, bluetooth Samsung speakers, and so on. At any cost, we’re determined to outdo each other.

Like me, Felix doesn’t exactly have much of a disposable income. Our families don’t come from much, so fancy PC parts are a luxury. But we both work hard to get what matters to us. Felix works his ass off at his part-time job to afford his upgrades—anything to come out with the best possible setup.

What Felix doesn’t know is that, as of now, he actually does have the superior computer out of us two. But he won’t for long.

Sitting at my cheap desk behind an overheating, obsolete laptop, I scour the Internet for pictures of expensive PC parts to send to Felix. Most of the time, I can find photos that are perfectly convincing as is. If I need to, occasionally I’ll photoshop my hand into a photo or edit one of my room posters into someone else's study.

I might’ve had to sell the PC I’d painstakingly built to pay my bills, but this plan is gonna get me a killer setup for free. With every fake picture I send my cousin of my “computer”, he’s prompted to upgrade his own $4000 PC. Before long, Felix is going to have one of the most expensive, enviable rigs around.

Then all I’ll need to do is inherit it.

It shouldn’t be too hard to arrange an “accident” for Felix the next time I see him. After all, it’s something that I’ve done countless times before using game controllers, in adventure games, shooters and sidescrollers.

Doesn’t matter whether the prize is a high score on a Steam leaderboard or a $5000 gaming setup.

Just like in video games, I’ll kill to win.

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weshallneverrevolt · 5 years

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In-Home Streaming, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Couch

I’m a longtime PC gamer for many reasons. Yes, there’s the snob factor: PC games can look better than consoles almost all of the time. But it’s also because of the customizability. You pick your framerate, your resolution, your graphical settings. But you also own a machine, not an appliance: you learn its quirks, its inner workings. It’s something you take care of. For an enthusiast, a custom built computer is like a tailored suit.

And yet, there’s something I have missed for a long time: gaming on the couch.

Couch gaming is how I grew up. Huddled with friends around a tiny TV and N64, controllers in hand, shouting and laughing. Or leaned back in a chair with a cold soda, savoring every moment of a lengthy Final Fantasy cutscene. An office chair just isn’t the same. It’s rigid and harsh. It says “at attention,” not “relax.” It was the antithesis of my ideal gaming experience.

But after I got my PC, I never bought a console. For one, I couldn’t afford them. In college my money was precious, and my computer – already cobbled together from low-end or used parts – was expensive enough to maintain. The idea of dropping hundreds on a console and proper television was out of the question.

As an adult with more disposable income and now a home of my own – complete with an awesome living room my wife put together – I wanted to have that experience again. But my budget-mindedness and graphical snobbery hadn’t changed, and my PC was upstairs on the other side of the house. What to do?

I wanted couch gaming. And I managed to get it without buying a console or moving my PC to the living room thanks to a hugely underappreciated technology: in-home streaming. Here I’ll share what I’ve learned, discuss setups, and evangelize one of the coolest tech tricks I’ve discovered in homeownership.

What is In-Home Streaming?

You’ve probably heard of Google Stadia, Google’s uh…interesting new streaming game service. The basic idea is that your console isn’t in your living room. Instead, it’s located in a Google datacenter, which streams the game as a video through the internet. It sort of works, with the hiccups you’d expect with streaming a game over the internet: lag, input delay, graphical glitches. It’s like having very, very long HDMI and USB cords.

In-home streaming is basically that, but in your house. With the distance being just a few rooms instead of across state lines, latency becomes much less of an issue. It finally gives PC gamers the one thing we were missing: the couch.

Because it encodes video in real-time, in-home video streaming is a pretty new technology, and it requires certain hardware and software. The two dominant solutions are Steam and Moonlight, and they’re different in important ways.

Steam Remote Play

Steam Remote Play is by far the simplest method. For one, it integrates directly with Steam, so there is no complicated setup. Just install Steam on both devices, boot em up and you’re good to go. It pairs well with Steam’s “Big Picture” interface for a console-like experience.

Steam streaming also runs on just about anything, including very small computers like a Raspberry Pi. This is because it uses H.264 encoding, a standard that has been around for a long time. Just about any computer made since 2008 can play H.264 video, meaning that your old laptop or a $25 PC from Goodwill can be turned into a stream machine. Encoding H.264 on the host machine also has little performance cost.

Where Steam hits a limit is in resolution. Steam can only stream games at the resolution they use on your native monitor. So if your computer monitor is 1080p, you can’t play in 4K when it’s streamed to your TV. You can go lower resolution, which is fine if you’re streaming to some laptop screens.

Steam works with all Xbox controllers, as well as the Dual Shock 4 through DS4Windows.

Moonlight

Moonlight is what I use for in-home streaming. It’s an open-source implementation of NVidia’s “GameStream” technology, originally developed for their Shield devices. My main PC has a GTX 1070, which supports GameStream.

Moonlight has a number of significant advantages over Steam. For me, the most important is its ability to stream in a different resolution than your desktop. So while my desktop monitor is 1080p, I can play games in native 4K on my TV set! For newer games that my PC can’t run at full 4K, I use NVidia’s dynamic super resolution feature to run at 1440p or another resolution, then upscale it to 4K.

GameStream can also encode in HEVC, a cutting-edge video codec that offers superior quality with lower bandwidth. There’s virtually no artifacting, and colors usually look better than with Steam streaming. There is also HDR support. Because HEVC is lower bandwidth, it’s also ideal for wi-fi streaming.

If you’ve been keeping up with all the NVidia mentions, you’ve probably figured out the most significant drawback of Moonlight: hardware exclusivity. GameStream can only encode certain NVidia graphics cards. For instance, the 10-series locks GameStream to the 1050ti or higher, so budget gamers with a 1030 or 1050 are out of luck. Good news is that the receiving PC can run non-nVidia graphics.

GameStream also supports H.264, but for HEVC you need more powerful hardware on the receiving end. So while any old shitty laptop could stream with Steam, it would choke on HEVC.

Moonlight has the same controller support as Steam.

My Setup

When I first built my setup, I set a few standards:

4K, 60 frames per second

Option for “upscaled” 4K similar to the PS4 Pro/XB1X

4K Blu-ray quality HEVC (around 100mbps bitrate)

Quiet

An unobtrusive look, like a home theater appliance

A hard-wired setup for low latency

Less than a week after we moved in, I hard-wired my house for internet. I ran an Ethernet cable all the way from my office, through the garage, under my crawlspace and into my living room. I then crimped the ends (badly) and installed a wall outlet in my office (barely.) If I were to do this now, I’d buy a pre-made 200-300ft CAT6 cable on Amazon and just run that. That said, my cable still works for what I need.

For my streaming PC, I knew that I had to go small form factor. The credenza in my living room didn’t have space for a full-size PC, and the aesthetic of most of those would offend my non-gamer wife. I considered building one, but most SFF hardware is targeted at enthusiasts and so doesn’t come cheap.

But small form factor PCs have a particular application: offices. When offices dump their old hardware, you can get it for almost nothing. I found just such a deal on reddit’s /r/buildapcsales for a Lenovo ThinkCentre m58p, refurbished from Staples for $20 shipped. It was small, simply designed, and not too flashy. But it is from 2008, and needed a few cheap upgrades:

I swapped out the dual-core E8400 processor for a quad-core Q9400 I had on hand.

I replaced the loud, slow hard drive with a small, cheap ADATA SU635 solid state drive.

For my quiet living room setting, I also replaced the cooling fan with a high-quality Noctua model.

But chief among these upgrades was a graphics card. This PC, being more than a little old, could not play HEVC video without specialized hardware. And it had to be silent, not require much power, and be able to fit inside this small case.

So I turned to the NVidia GT 1030, specifically the MSI low profile silent model. Targeted at home theater PCs and poor gamers, the GT 1030 is not gonna blow anyone’s socks off. But it does 4K, and it does HEVC, and it does all of this over HDMI so it plugs straight into my TV with no issues. One quirk with my model is that the heatsink didn’t fit in my unusual case, so I had to take a hacksaw to it.

For a truly 1%er experience, I wanted to be able to start my upstairs PC remotely. That way when I want to play, I don’t even have to walk up there. For this I used an Android app called Unified Remote, which allows you to remotely control a computer from a phone. Unified Remote is free, but I bought the premium version with Play Rewards points.

The Value Question

Let’s get the first question out of the way: if a NVidia Shield is $150, why not just buy that? A few reasons:

It has hard-wired ethernet. No matter how good your wifi is, hard-wired is better.

Moonlight’s interface is more flexible than the Shield’s.

This also runs YouTube with a full keyboard remote for easier searches.

I can install a Blu-ray player at some point, if I choose.

I can emulate many games on the living room PC; the GT 1030 is great for that.

It runs party games like Jackbox just fine.

This is more fun.

So let’s run a tally. I’m not counting the hard-wiring, since I needed that for my office computer anyway.

The PC itself: $20

GT 1030: $75

Noctua 92mm fan: $15

Bluetooth receiver: $10

SSD: $15

Q9400: free to me, but you can get one on eBay for like $10

So for $135 – less than a PS4 Pro or Xbox One X – I get 4K couch gaming at higher framerates and higher settings. And for certain games, like Overwatch or Cities: Skylines, I still have a killer keyboard and mouse setup.

You can easily make this cheaper, especially if you use Steam and aim for 1080p instead of 4K. A Raspberry Pi – around $60 with accessories – can do 1080p Steam streaming flawlessly. Most Intel CPUs made after 2011 can decode H.264 without a graphics card, and the 6000 series and higher can even decode HEVC. You could also go for a GT 1030 with a fan, which are usually cheaper.

So How’s It Perform?

In short: great!

I’ve played everything from The Outer Worlds to Slay the Spire to Rocket League on my streaming setup, and they all work perfectly. Sekiro – which requires extremely precise inputs – does suffer a bit from the input lag, but I can’t detect lag with most games. Visual quality is excellent with very little loss in color saturation. You will notice artifacting on grass or leaves when you’re up close, but this is less visible at 1440p or higher.

I would not play competitive games on a streaming setup. The only one I play seriously is Overwatch, and there is definitely a difference in my performance when streaming. Competitive first-person shooters also suck to play on a controller, and a proper couch desk is not an investment I’m prepared to make.

Be prepared to tweak graphical settings if you’re shooting for 4K on most setups, as the video encoding does have a slight performance cost. This is not true for older games; Dark Souls and Dishonored run at a locked 4K and 60fps. For modern games, Forza Horizon 5 runs at 1800p on High, and Resident Evil 2 is smooth as silk at 1440p.

One final tip: if you’re streaming over wi-fi, be prepared to make some compromises. I would stick to 1080p to avoid lag, or do 4K only on HEVC with lower visual quality. Also streaming basically requires 5ghz wifi, so if you have an old router you should probably cut back to 720p.

So that’s in-home streaming! If you’re already a PC gamer, it’s an affordable and easy way to achieve a console-like experience. Feel free to DM me with any questions you have about hardware or software setup.

#tech #gaming #streaming #in-home streaming #remote play #steam #moonlight #nvidia #gamestream #hardware #pc gaming #couch gaming

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sunlit-helix · 5 years

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Updates in no particular order.

Baileys back to normal.

My mom's unemployed.

Dysphoria is really hard to deal with.

My work is fine but I need more hours.

I have a therapist picked out but they have no website and apparently that's the norm so I'm mentally waiting for a good time to call because phone calls give me anxiety.

I'm building a computer for 3d rendering in the hopes that I can sell 4k stock footage,

I'm learning blender again because cinema 4d costs $4000. And it's really hard because I've only used cinema 4d for 4-5 years but my educational licence is almost out. It's bad because i need the software but I Also need the computer that can run the software, so eventually i may have to buy both.

I'm going to need to ask my boss what I can showcase on my portfolio just in case I need quit my job to move in with my dad.

I'm not being paid enough to live on my own and i don't have benefits through my job.

My neck and shoulder hurt everyday from using the computer too much and I'm getting headaches now.

Life is still better than it was in highschool or college.

#long post

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booksbyjoshr · 5 years

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Tactics vs Strategies

I recently picked up a book about publishing books and I honestly can’t put it down. In one of the chapters of the book, it talks about different tactics and strategies used by authors. Before that chapter, I viewed tactics and strategies as two sides of the same coin. Man, was I wrong, which is why I’m writing this post. Like always let’s dive into this post.

Let me start by defining both terms via the dictionary; tactics is defined as a system or mode of procedure, whereas strategy is defined as a careful plan or method. Both of these definitions come to us via the Merriam-Webster dictionary. In my opinion, these definitions sound generic and a bit confusing. Tactics can be seen as techniques used in order to achieve your goals while strategies can be seen as the plan used to achieve your goal. Honestly, they still sound very similar but tactics can change whereas your strategy is the core of your business. Let’s use my book writing as an example; A tactic I could employ to sell more books is to give users a free copy of the first volume of a book and encourage them to buy the second volume. The strategy I would use is to write a book that is captivating and will make the reader purchase more books. My tactic may end up costing me more money or it might not deliver the desired results, which means I will eventually have to switch my tactic. My strategy, on the other hand, will remain constant because it is part of my core, if I don’t follow it then I’m letting my customers down. If you still don’t understand the difference it’s alright because I will be going into more details in the following paragraphs.

I’m going to discuss tactics in an entrepreneurial/business sense. Let me first list a few that many people online recommend doing in order to build your business. Leveraging (insert social media site here), many guru’s and influencers talk about leveraging social media in order to build your audience/following. Many think this is a strategy but it really isn’t because of how often social media sites fail. Look at Vine, once it shut down the influencers had to start over on a different social media site. Even if your favorite platform stay open, what happens when they change their algorithm? The second tactic that is talked about online is to make money with (insert the flavor of the day here). Some people say make money using ads, some say using drop shipping, others say using fulfilled by Amazon that’s why I put flavor of the month. Sure you can make money from these different ideas but how long is it sustainable? In my eyes, these are business fads that people jump to and from at the drop of a hat just to make a quick buck. Why do I think this? Well, I had friends who tried all of these “amazing” opportunities and when the well dried up they jumped to the next idea. The final tactic I want to touch on that people recommend online is buying the latest (insert product or service here). You want to make YouTube videos, well you need a 4K camera and then an expensive MacBook Pro and Final Cut Pro if not then you can’t make a good video. Many people will tell you that you need the latest gear in order to run a successful online or traditional business. I’m going to tell you a little known secret, technology becomes old/obsolete in six months to a year. The phone that you just purchased so that you can vlog on the latest and greatest is going to be considered old after a new model launches in a couple of months. This is a tactic because the equipment you buy now will eventually not be able to function as needed down the road and you don’t want to become reliant on one piece of tech.

Now it’s time to go over some strategies. To keep it fair, I’m going to use the same topic as before, entrepreneurial/business. The first business strategy is to build an audience/following. Every single person reading this is scratching their heads because in the previous paragraph, I said using social media to build an audience is a tactic. That’s the magic of strategies you use tactics in order to complete them but the strategy never changes. Strategies are broad, so when you say build an audience you can do it through infinite ways because you are only limited by your imagination. You will never not want to build an audience or customer base because the bigger your following the more income you could possibly generate. The second strategy for a business is to generate a positive cash flow. This is still broad because this is your something that will not change because in order for a business to stay afloat it must be profitable. The last strategy is to make the best experience/content for your audience/customers. This is self-explanatory, use what you have to please your customers.

Like always I have to apply the post to my personal life/business, so let me do just that. The three strategies I listed above are literally strategies that I personally have for my business but my tactics are a bit different. I want to use my content to increase the size of my audience. That means having both high quality and a high quantity (not there yet) of content. This is a harder way but it’s the current tactic that I am using to build my audience. Since I refuse to run ads on my site, the only way I can generate a positive cash flow for my business is by using the tactic of increasing online sales. What do I sell? Books and the only way to increase sales is to have a larger offering. Which means I have to work super hard on this (currently have word goal and track how many words I type). My tactic to make the best experience/content is to actually produce content (which is actually very hard for me to do). If I were to search my site I can find at least ten different posts saying I’m going to do more posts and I honestly try to but it is not easy. I can sit here and list thousands of excuses but I need someone to just glue me to a seat and place a computer in front of me. Like always I’m working on this time using the knowledge from some books. Check out my GoodReads account here to see what I’m reading. Like I said tactics are constantly changing so if you read this post in a couple of months, then I may have changed the tactics that I am using. But rest assured, when I change my tactics I will do a post or a video discussing my new ones just like what’s in my bag (wink wink).

This post is pretty long and but it’s straight to the point. This post was actually going to be a rant but I decided to turn it into an informative post that is meant for two different types of people. The first is the entrepreneur/business minded and the second is those who care about Josh and The Books By Josh Brand. Thanks for reading, JR.

Remember to be successful it's your right, duty, and responsibility.

#business #entrepreneur #entreprenuership #advice

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dailytechnologynews · 6 years

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PSA: 4K 144 Hz monitors use chroma subsampling for 144 Hz

(Crossposted from r/Monitors by request)

I'm seeing a lot of user reviews for the new 4K 144 Hz monitors, and it seems like everyone mentions that it looks noticeably worse at 144 Hz. I keep expecting these posts to say "due to the 4:2:2 chroma subsamping", but instead they say "I'm not sure why" or something like that, both on here and on various forums. It seems monitor companies have done their usual good job of "forgetting" to inform people of this limitation, as most of the early adopters are apparently unaware that it is not actually capable of full 4K 144 Hz even though the subsampling was mentioned in the Anandtech article a month or two ago. In any case, I want to make people aware of what chroma subsampling is, and that these first-gen 4K 144 Hz monitors use it.

Chroma Subsampling

Chroma subsampling is a method of reducing bandwidth by partially lowering the resolution of the image.

Imagine you have a 4K image; 3840 × 2160 pixels. Each pixel is composed of a RED value between 0–255, a GREEN value 0–255, and a BLUE value 0–255. You could imagine this 3840 × 2160 full color image as three separate monochrome images; a 3840 × 2160 grid of RED values, one of GREEN values, and another of BLUE values, which are overlaid on each other to make the final image.

Now, imagine that you reduce the resolution of the RED and GREEN images to 1920 × 1080, and when you reconstruct the full image you do it as if you were upscaling a 1080p image on a 4K screen (with nearest neighbor scaling); use each 1080p pixel value for a square of 4 pixels on the 4K screen. This upscaling is only done for the RED and GREEN values; the BLUE image is still at full resolution so BLUE has a unique value for every 4K pixel.

This is the basic principle behind chroma subsampling. Reducing resolution on some of the pixel components, but not all of them.

The description above, of reducing resolution by half in both the vertical and horizontal resolution, on 2 of the 3 components, is analogous to 4:2:0 chroma subsampling. This reduces bandwidth by one half (One channel at full resolution, and 2 channels at one-quarter resolution = same number of samples as 1.5 out of 3 full-resolution channels)

Full resolution on all components is known as "4:4:4" or non-subsampled. Generally it's best to avoid calling it "4:4:4 subsampling", because it sounds like you're saying "uncompressed compression". 4:4:4 means no subsampling is being used.

4:2:2 subsampling is cutting the resolution in half in only one direction (i.e. 1920 × 2160; horizontal reduction, but full vertical resolution) on 2 out of the 3 components. This reduces the bandwidth by one third.

YCbCr

Above, I used subsampling RGB components only as an example; "RGB subsampling" would be truly horrible and has never ever been used or even considered for use, to my knowledge. In an RGB system, since each of the 3 components dictates the brightness of one of the primary colors, changing one of the RGB values affects both the hue and brightness of the resulting total color. Therefore, using one R, G, or B value on a neighboring pixel makes a very noticeable change, so subsampling would degrade the image by quite a lot.

Instead, subsampling is only paired with YCbCr. YCbCr is a different method of specifying colors, used as an alternative to RGB for transmission. Of course, physically speaking, every display generates an image using discrete red green and blue elements, so eventually every image will need to be converted to the RGB format in order to be displayed, but for transmission, YCbCr has some useful properties.

What is YCbCr Anyway?

People get confused about what YCbCr actually is; misuse of terminology all over the place adds to the confusion, with people incorrectly calling it a "color space" or "color model" or things like that. Really, it is an offshoot of the RGB system, it is literally just RGB with a different axis system. Imagine a two-dimensional cartesian (X-Y) coordinate system, then imagine drawing a new set of axes diagonally, at 45º angles to the standard set, and specifying coordinates using those axes instead of the standard set. That is basically what YCbCr is, except in 3 dimensions instead of 2.

If you draw the R, G, and B axes as a standard 3D axis set, then just draw 3 new axes at 45º-45º angles to the original, and there you have your Y, Cb, and Cr axes. It is just a different coordinate system, but specifies the same thing as the RGB system.

You can see how the YCbCr axes compare to the familiar "RGB cube" formed by the RGB axis set (RGB axes themselves not shown, unfortunately): https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/YCbCr.GIF

Why Even Use YCbCr?

YCbCr is useful because it specifies brightness and color separately. Notice in the image from the previous section, the Y axis (called the "luma" component) goes straight down the path of equal-RGB values (greys), from black to white. The Cb and Cr values (the "chroma" components) specify the position perpendicular to the Y axis, which is a plane of equal-brightness colors. This effectively makes 1 component for brightness, and 2 components for specifying the hue/color relative to that brightness, whereas in RGB the brightness and hue are both intertwined in the values of all 3 color channels.

This means you can do cool things like remove the chroma components entirely, and be left with a greyscale version of the image; this is how color television was first rolled out, by transmitting in YCbCr*. Any black-and-white televisions could still receive the exact same broadcast, they simply would ignore the Cb and Cr components from the signal. (*EDIT: Technically, old broadcasting used an analog system which is referred to as "YPbPr" while the term "YCbCr" is used for the digital equivalent, but it's the same concept).

Chroma subsampling also works much better in YCbCr, because the human eye is much less sensitive to changes in color than it is to changes in brightness. Therefore you can subsample the chroma components without touching the luma component, and reduce the color resolution without affecting the brightness of each pixel, which doesn't look much different to our eyes. Therefore, YCbCr chroma subsampling (perceptually) affects the image much less than subsampling RGB components directly would be. When converted back to RGB of course, every pixel will still have a unique RGB value, but it won't be quite the same as it would be if the YCbCr chroma subsampling had not been applied.

Terminology Notes

Since RGB-format images don't have luma or chroma components, you can't have "chroma subsampling" on an RGB image, since there are no chroma values for you to subsample in the first place. Terms like "RGB 4:4:4" are redundant/nonsensical. RGB format is always full resolution in all channels, which is equivalent or better than YCbCr 4:4:4. You can just call it RGB, RGB is always "4:4:4".

Also, chroma subsampling is not a form of compression, because it doesn't involve any de-compression on the receiving side to recover any of the data. It is simply gone. 4:2:2 removes half the color information from the image, and 4:2:0 removes 3/4 of it, and you don't get any of it back. The information is simply removed, and that's all there is to it. So please don't refer to it as "4:2:2 compression" or "compressed using chroma subsampling" or things like that, it's no more a form of compression than simply reducing resolution from 4K to 1080p is; that isn't compression, that's just reducing the resolution. By the same token, 4:2:2 isn't compression, it's just subsampling (reducing the resolution on 2/3 of the components).

Effects of Chroma Subsampling

Chroma subsampling reduces image quality. Since chroma subsampling is, in effect, a partial reduction in resolution, its effects are in line with what you might expect from that. Most notably, fine text can be affected significantly, so chroma subsampling is generally considered unacceptable for desktop use. Hence, it is practically never used for computers; many monitors don't even support chroma subsampling. The reduction in quality tends to be much less noticeable in natural images (i.e. excluding test images specifically designed to exploit subsampling). 4:2:2 is the standard for pretty much all movies and TV content, since it reduces the bandwidth for both transmission and disc storage significantly.

Interface Limitations - Why No Support for 4K 144 Hz RGB?

Chroma subsampling has started seeing implementation on computers in situations where bandwidth is insufficient for full resolution. The first notable example of this was NVIDIA adding 4K 60 Hz support to its HDMI 1.4 graphics cards (Kepler and Maxwell 1.0). Normally, HDMI 1.4 is only capable of around 30 Hz at 4K, but with 4:2:0 subsampling (which reduced bandwidth by half), double the framerate can be achieved within the same bandwidth constraints, at the cost of image quality.

Now, we're seeing it in these 4K 144 Hz monitors. With full RGB or YCbCr 4:4:4 color, DisplayPort 1.4 provides enough bandwidth for up to 120 Hz at 4K (3840 × 2160) with 8 bpc color depth, or up to around 100 Hz at 4K with 10 bpc color depth (exact limits depend on the timing format, which depends on the specific hardware; in these particular monitors, they apparently cap at 98 Hz at 4K 10 bpc). These monitors claim to support 4K 144 Hz with 10 bpc color depth, so some form of bandwidth reduction must be used, which in this case is YCbCr 4:2:2.

Before anyone mentions HDMI 2.1, it's not possible to implement HDMI 2.1 yet. Only the master specification has been released. I know a lot of people seem to think that when the specification is released, we'll start seeing products any day now, but that's not the case at all. The specification is the document that tells you how to build an HDMI 2.1 device; the release of that document is when engineers start designing silicon that is capable of that, let alone displays that use that silicon. The DisplayPort 1.4 standard was released in the early 2016, over 2 years ago, and we're only just now starting to see it implemented in monitors (I believe it has been implemented on only 1 monitor prior to this, the Dell UP3218K). Also, there are no graphics cards with HDMI 2.1 yet, so it wouldn't help much right now on a monitor anyway.

The HDMI 2.1 compliance test specification isn't even finished being written yet, so even if you had HDMI 2.1 silicon ready somehow, there's currently no way to have it certified, as the testing procedures haven't been released by the HDMI Forum yet. HDMI 2.1 is still under development from a consumer perspective. The release of the main specification is only a release for engineers.

DSC Compression - The Missed Opportunity

The creators of these monitors could have opted to use Display Stream Compression (DSC), which is a form of compression, unlike subsampling; it reduces bandwidth, and the image is reconstructed on the receiving side. DSC is part of the DisplayPort 1.4 standard, but Acer/ASUS chose not to implement it, likely for hardware availability reasons; presumably no one has produced display controllers that support DSC, and Acer/ASUS wanted to rush to get the product out rather than implement 4K 144 Hz properly. Note that DP 1.4 supports up to 4K 120 Hz uncompressed and non-subsampled; they could have simply released it as a 4K 120 Hz monitor with no tricks, but that sweet 144 Hz number was calling to them I guess. They probably feel marketing a "120 Hz" monitor would seem outdated, and don't want to be outdone by competition. Such is life in this industry... Still, they can be run at 120 Hz non-subsampled if you want, no capability has been lost by adding subsampling. Just that people are not getting what they expected due to the unfortunate lack of transparency about the limitations of the product.

EDIT: I forgot that these are G-Sync monitors. This is most likely why the monitor manufacturers did not support proper 4K 144 Hz using DSC, dual cables, or some other solution. When you make a G-Sync display, you have no choice but to use the NVIDIA G-Sync module as the main display controller instead of whatever else is available on the market. This means you are forced to support only the features that the G-Sync module has. There are several versions of the G-Sync module (these monitors use a new one, with DisplayPort 1.4 support), but G-Sync has historically always been way behind on interface support and very barebones in feature support, so come to think of it I highly doubt that the new G-Sync module supports DSC, or PbP/MST (for dual cable solutions).

If this is the case, it's more the fault of NVIDIA for providing an inadequate controller to the market, than the monitor manufacturers for "choosing" to use chroma subsampling (it would be the only way of achieving 144 Hz in that case). However it is still on them for not simply releasing it as a 4K 120 Hz display, or being clear about the chroma subsampling used for 144 Hz. Anyway, we'll have to wait and see what they do when they release FreeSync or No-sync 4K 144 Hz monitors, where NVIDIA's limitations don't apply.

DSC Concerns

Before anyone says "meh we don't want DSC anyway", I'll answer the two reservations I anticipate people will have.

DSC is a lossy form of compression. While it is true that DSC is not mathematically lossless, it is much much better than chroma subsampling since it recovers almost all of the original image. Considering that in natural images most people don't even notice 4:2:2 subsampling, image quality reduction with DSC is not going to be noticeable. The only question is how it performs with text, which remains to be seen since no one has implemented it. Presumably it will handle a lot better than subsampling.

Latency. "Compression will add tons of lag!". According to VESA, DSC adds no more than 1 raster scan line of latency. Displays are refreshed one line at a time, rather than all at once; on a 4K display, the monitor refreshes 2160 lines of pixels in a single refresh. At 144 Hz, each full refresh is performed over the course of 6.944 ms, therefore each individual line takes around 3.2 microseconds (0.0032 ms), actually less than that due to blanking intervals, but that's a whole different topic :P https://www.displayport.org/faq/#tab-display-stream-compression-dsc

How does VESA’s DSC Standard compare to other image compression standards?

Compared to other image compression standards such as JPEG or AVC, etc., DSC achieves visually lossless compression quality at a low compression ratio by using a much simpler codec (coder/decoder) circuit. The typical compression ratio of DSC range from 1:1 to about 3:1 which offers significant benefit in interface data rate reduction. DSC is designed specifically to compress any content type at low compression with excellent results. The simple decoder (typically less than 100k gates) takes very little chip area, which minimizes implementation cost and device power use, and adds no more than one raster scan line (less than 8 usec in a 4K @ 60Hz system) to the display’s throughput latency, an unnoticeable delay for interactive applications.

Conclusion

I know the internet loves to jump on any chance to rant about corporate deceptions, so I suppose now it's time to sit back and watch the philosophical discussions go... Is converting to YCbCr, reducing the resolution to 1920 × 2160 in 2 out of 3 components, and converting back to RGB really still considered 4K?

Then again, a lot of people are still stuck all the way back at considering anything other than 4096 × 2160 to be "4K" at all :P (hint: the whole "true 4K is 4096 × 2160" was just made up by uninformed consumer journalists when they were scrambling to write the first "4K AND UHD EXPLAINED" article back when 4K TVs were first coming out; in the cinema industry where the term originated from, "4K" is and always has been a generic term referring to any format ≈4000 pixels wide; somehow people have latched onto the "true 4K" notion and defend it like religion though... But anyway, getting off topic :3)

These 4K 144 Hz monitors use YCbCr 4:2:2 chroma subsampling for 4K 144 Hz which is a huge disappointment for me personally. The best you can get with RGB or YCbCr 4:4:4 is 4K 120 Hz with 8 bpc color depth, or 4K 98 Hz with 10 bpc color depth (HDR). Honestly that's fine to me, I'd run it at 120 Hz 8 bpc personally, I'm just disappointed they used subsampling over DSC to get the 144 Hz. Just a friendly PSA though, so hopefully fewer people will be caught off guard by this. I'd wait for second-generation 4K 144 Hz monitors personally.

#hardware #Computer #Technology #Tech #News

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