#tweaked and upscaled

[classyinfur]

[cowbot-lumberjane]

Every time I see a fucking "AI Machine learning upscale" mod that aims to make either a 20 year old game with low res textures or gods forbid a game with pixel art "HD" I die a little inside before going a absolutely feral.

I'm eternally fucking infuriated with how the ever growing movement of "graphics = quality/value" chokes the life out of art within the video game landscape. Modern conceptions of art have cheapened certain things to a frankly disgusting degree, so much so that I've genuinely heard someone say "it feels like they couldn't afford real art so they used pixel art" with their real human mouth. The idea that the more high fidelity something is the more value it inherently has both as art and as a project is reductive at best and fucking stupid at worst.

So many of these fucking mods and texture packs and filters and "remaster" projects create vapid facsimiles of whatever they're trying to "improve" or just flat out look like shit. The 20 year old texture you tried to replace with something a shitty AI site you paid for threw up has things like depth and shading built into it to assist with the limitations of its time as well as to match the game's art direction. All you've done is take a fucking butter knife to it and made it a flat confusing mess that barely looks like what it's supposed to anymore.

Look, I'm not against giving beloved old games new coats of paint. Texture packs and overhaul mods have always been a thing. But until recently they were made by people who fucking understood the inherent value of the art they were working with, and either aimed to give a new angle on it or change it all together into something new. And that's good! It's creativity! It's expression! What ISN'T either of those things is smoothing out all the beautifully placed pixels on a sprite from a super Nintendo game and going "ah yes now it looks like real art! So HD! So smooth!"

You cannot reduce the value of such a complex piece of art as a video game down to "well it's got 4K textures and 3D models with tons of polygons" to do so is insulting to the entire medium and the history of technology and skilled developers and artists who created them.

[yourqueenb]

She works with food and this is her reaction to eggplant Parmesan ?

[rheya28]

The Crown [ Lounge + Bar] ♥ The Sims 4: Speed Build // CC

Welcome to The Crown, a haven of refined indulgence that seamlessly shifts from an upscale morning restaurant and lounge to a sophisticated evening gentlemen's club. In the daylight hours, experience culinary delights in an ambiance of polished dark wood accents, moody lights, and soft jazz.

As the sun sets, The Crown transforms into an intimate and stylish club, where discreet luxury meets thrilling entertainment. With an emphasis on sophistication, The Crown offers an unforgettable fusion of exquisite dining and sensual experiences in an atmosphere of opulence.

➽ Speed Build Video

➽ Rheya's Notes:

● In order for the adult club function to work, you must download the wicked whims mod [Download at your own risk]. ● This build does not have to be a club, it can be set as a restaurant, a lounge, or a bar. ● I am not 100% familiar with wicked whims so I will not be answering questions regarding the mod. However, I played around with it and did some playtesting as a club owner and everything is functioning correctly on my end. I advice that you look up tutorials if you're not sure to how this lot type works.

● Please make sure to turn bb.moveobjects on! ● Please DO NOT reupload or claim as your own. ● Feel free to tag me if you are using it, I love seeing my build in other peoples save file ● Feel free to edit/tweak my builds, but please make sure to credit me as the original creator! ● Thank you to all CC Creators ● Please let me know if there's any problem with the build

Sim's Featured in the video are by the talented @rhdweauni0 <3

➽ LOT DETAILS

Lot Name: The Crown Lot type: Gentlemen's Club/Str*p Club [Can be set as a lounge, restaurant or bar] Lot size: 30x30 Location: Windenburg or San MyShuno

➽ MODS

● Tool Mod by Twisted Mexi ● Wicked Whims by Turbodriver [optional: This is only required if you want to set this lot as a club] ● Functional Pool Table by Utopya

➽ CC LIST:

Note: I reuse a lot of the same cc in all my builds, specifically cc's from felixandre, HeyHarrie, Tuds, and Pierisim so if you're interested in downloading past, present, future build from me i suggest getting all their cc sets to make downloading a little easier! other creators include Sooky, Charlypancakes, Sixam, Thecluttercat, Myshunosun, awingedllama, Peacemaker. This will also ensure that the lots are complete and are not missing any items upon downloading ! CharlyPancakes ● Miscellanea [books] ● Soak [ Floor pattern, wall lamp] Amelie ● Vintage Art print #3 Severinka ●Aura Bedroom - Ceiling lamp V01, V03 ● Ceiling lamp Alpha ●Industrial Light II Ceiling B, Ceiling D Sooky ● Dark Academia Victorian Oil Paintings 01 ● Horizontal Oil Painting - landscape ● Horizontal Oil Painting - Still Life ● Vertical Oil Painting - Landscape ● Vertical Oil Painting - Portrait ● Vertical Oil Painting - Still Life The Clutter Cat ● Dandy Diary pt 1, 2 ● Hello Horses FelixAndre ● Chateau [all ] ● Berlin pt 1 ● Colonial pt 2, 3 ● Florence pt 2 ● Gatsby ● Georgian ● Grove [ all ] ● London Interior ● Paris pt 2, 3 ● Soho pt 3 House of Harlix ● Harluxe ● Livin Rum ● Orjanic Harrie ● Brownstone [all] ● Baysic ● Brutalist ● Coastal pt 2, 3, 8 ● Klean pt 3 ● Kwatei ● Octave pt 2 ● Shop the look pt 1, 2 ● Spoons pt 3 ● Jardane Kiwisim4 ● Block house dining [dining chairs] Lilac Creative ● The classic Collection Little Dica ● The even Grander Piano Myshunosun ● Garden Stories [patio lights] ● Lottie [candle] ● Simmify pt 2 [book clutter] Pierisim ● Coldbrew pt 3 ● Combles [chair] ● David Apartment pt 1, 2 ● Domain du close pt 2, 3 ● MCM pt 1, 3 ● Oak House pt 4 ● Tilable ● Winter Garden pt 1, 2 ● Wood Land Ranch pt 3 Plush Pixels ● Parisian Apartment [coffee table only] Simcredible ● Bossa Nova Ceiling lamp Simplistic ● Rusticlife area rug Sixam ● Boho Bathroom [floor tiles] Taurus Design ● Lilith Chilling Areas MycupofCC ● The Modernist [wall lamp] Tuds ● Ind Syboulette ● Ratatouille [Sign ] Utopya ● Pool Table [mod]

● DOWNLOAD Tray File and CC list: Patreon Page ● Origin ID: anrheya [previous name: applez] ● Twitter: Rheya28__ ● Tiktok: Rheya28__ ● Youtube: Rheya28__

[simplyanjuta]

Enhancing Sims Thumbnails 🖼️🔍👀

So I have received some questions regarding this post and had another look at the ThumbnailConfig.ini file to see if there is anything else worth tweaking to enhance sims thumbnails.

I also decided to share my settings (though not sure if this is a good idea, I'll see how it goes). Disclaimer, that what works well for me/on my screen, might not be the best solution for you and you might be better off with the default settings. Also remember that generating higher resolution thumbnails can slow down your game. I think that visually the settings (only) make a big difference if you play on a larger screen and/or with an upscaled UI (game accessibility settings).

You can try my settings or use the info shared below (I might update it in the future) to experiment with the settings yourself. You can find examples on how to edit the file in my previous posts here and here and you can use any text editor like Notepad or Notepad++ to do so.

Download and details below the cut ⤵️

Below you can see what I changed (marked in green) and for what purpose as well as what resolution settings there are in general. I only looked at sims thumbnails and ignored everything else. I also think some settings should not be messed with, like the ones affecting pictures that are uploaded to the Gallery (exception is if you wanna extract these pictures for editing purposes) and there are a few settings that are not relevant for gameplay. Some settings I'm not sure about (feel free to share any info).

📥Download:

Sim File Share Last updated: February 27th, 2025

📒How to install:

This override does NOT go into your mods folder. Instead, you need to replace the original game file with it which you should find somewhere along a path like this:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 4\Game\Bin\res

The path might be slightly different for you and depends on where the game is installed on your computer. You can check the location in the EA app. To do so, select The Sims 4 ->  “Manage” -> “View properties” (there should be a similar option on Steam):

Locate the file ThumbnailConfig.ini as described above.

Save a copy of the original file somewhere on your computer in case you need to go back. (However, you can also run a game repair to restore the settings if needed.)

Replace the original file with the override (either with my file or with your own version).

Delete the file localthumbcache.package (see info here), so that the game can generate new thumbnails, then restart the game.

Note that you will need to repeat the steps/redo the changes whenever this file is overriden or updated or by the game.

Current game bug (not a mod/config issue):

It seems that the game currently is regenerating thumbnails each time you restart the game, even when the thumbnails already exist in the file localthumbcache, thus unneccessarily slowing down the game and bloating up this file. I tested this with no mods, with basegame only, in a fresh save, with the thumbnail config file reset to factory settings and it’s still happening. Also added my findings to this bug report. If you noticed the same issue, please hit “me too”.

[deepdreamnights]

Using Vidu to Make Character Turnarounds

Disclosure: I am in the Vidu Artist Program.

Having (at the very least) front and back reference greatly improves the quality of character image prompting. And very often, one finds that they were lazy and only got a couple of bits of character reference. Or they have tons of it in the wrong art style.

A character like Wally Manmoth requires some good reference to work right.

Now, it's not that hard to prompt up something that matches close enough and then modifying the stuff manually until it works, such as I did with TriceraBruce and DeinoSteve:

You can tell Steve's the bad boy because he's got a cool rip in the back of his jacket.

But for Wally, I decided to try out Vidu as a means of getting turnaround frames.

So I loaded Wally's front-view pic (above) into the image-to-video feature, and prompted with:

vintage traditional animation scene (1985) humanoid mammoth/furry elephant wearing a red hawaiian shirt and blue shorts, by filmation and sunbow productions, 90s colors, friendly on green background, streamlined black line art with cel shaded vintage cartoon color, official media, character design fullbody shot on green background. The mammoth-anthro starts facing the camera, turning around to face away from the viewer, providing a view of his back.

I gave it two shots at the 720x quality setting (12 points per, total of 24), and got:

Huh. Weird it happened twice, etc.

This demonstrates both that the tech is viable for this use, and the reason you'd want to have that multi-view reference. The robot clearly assumes that a luau shirt would have a large print on the back, whereas wally's is a more basic print. That's ultra easy to fix, though.

I started by exporting the last frame of each (or close to it, picking the one that looks cleanest)

While its image editing features and often touch-and-go, one thing the Midjourney edit feature has going for it is it's utility as an upscaler. You load the image in, make your tweaks (just a little bit of background if you're just upscaling) and then upscale and at the very least you have 2048x2048 worth of resolution.

I used the midjourney edit process, that got those two images to the following state, as a test.

The results are good, but getting the large trees to erase-and-replace out took several attempts, and just doing it in photoshop then using the editor to upscale would have been faster.

This is why we do tests.

I went with the slightly-at-an-angle one for the main reference sheet. I'll be keeping the straight-on-back-shot in case it winds up being useful for specific scenes down the line.

In photoshop, I touched up the shirt print, made sure the colors where consistent, and simplified the hair coloration to something more period-plausible.

No more giant trees on the back! On the other hand, I think the feet sprouting toes on the heel is going to be something I'll be fixing frame-by-frame until there's another revision.

Human characters will induce these issues less often. I just stick with my genre of choice.

Midjourney was not cooperating with TyrannoMax (it really doesn't like giving him the proportions I like, preferring to make him a weird big-head salamander), so I went the same direction, resulting in this stage 1 front/back:

Only Midjourney refused to work with it, at all. Declaring everything that came out of it too lewd for its internal censor. Apparently, this hunky relative of cheesasaurus rex is too sexy for general consumption. Nevermind that it's a cartoon lizard in a shade tangello orange.

The workaround is too dumb for words.

Slam the hue slider until it's off anything that could be perceived as a human skintone.

Then make the modifications. Here I had to rework the leg several times, and do a lot of tweaking to remove-overinking. Then I popped it back out, droped it back into lineart, re-colored it, and and composited it back together:

And voila, a front and back for Max. I shortened his tail, as the longer tails have been causing problems with confusing the image prompting systems. The armor skirt has scallops to accommodate the tail, which looked better more consistently than the flaps folding around the tail.

The results are, thus far, encouraging.

Of course, if the back of your character has any unexpected details, you're going to have to add those in after the fact or include them in the prompting, and you're going to be making a lot of edits regardless (as you should).

Oh, and Max has a sword now.

A blade of amber crystal with a fossilized femur grip and a faceted dino-eye that should be far enough away from the Eye of Thundera for safety. A roleplay-toy friendly trademark weapon, usually a sword, was a must-have for 80s action-adventure lines despite the fact that you'd never see it used on anything that wasn't a robot, living statue, or skeleton.

Thus the sword's gimmick is it cleaves through non-living matter with ease but anything BS&P doesn't want subjected to a stabbin's is encased in amber crystal: locked in place if partially encased, put into suspended animation if fully encased. A nice, nonlethal use for a magic sword.

It's proportioned like a gladius, but is generally interpreted as larger, approaching a broadsword, in keeping with the generally ridiculous blade sizes of kidvid fantasy. They're just more fun when they're stupidly huge.

Is "Sword of Eons" too on the nose?

[userpeggycarter]

TOPAZ AI TUTORIAL

i was asked to do a tutorial for Topaz AI (a software that enhances screencaps), so here it is! :)

[tutorial under the cut]

i’m going to gif a 720p YouTube video from 12 years ago as an example. it’s the bottom of the barrel when it comes to image quality, but in the end, you won’t believe it was once so shitty. here’s the gif, without any editing:

THE APPLICATION

Topaz AI is a paid software for image enhancement. you can download it for free, but your images will have watermarks. here's a random link that has nothing to do with this tutorial.

you can use Topaz AI as a Photoshop plugin or use the software separately. i will explain both methods in this tutorial.

USING SEPARATELY

it’s the way i do it because it’s more computer-friendly, the plugin can take a toll on your PC, especially when you’re dealing with a lot of screencaps. 

you first take screencaps as you normally would (if you don’t, here’s a tutorial on how to do it). open Topaz AI and select all the images. wait a while for the software to do its thing.

on the left, there is your screencap untouched. on the right, is your edited version. if you click the edited screencap and hold, Topaz will show you the original, that way you can compare the versions even better than just looking at them side by side.

Topaz AI will automatically recognize faces, if any, and enhance them. this can be toggled off, by disabling the “recovering faces” option in the right panel. it’s always on for me, though. you can tweak this feature by clicking on its name, the same thing for the others.

Topaz AI will also automatically upscale your screencaps if they’re too small (less than 4k). it will upscale them to achieve said 4k (in this gif’s case, the original 1280x720 screencaps became 4621x2599). i suggest that you let the app upscale those images, giving you more gif size flexibility. you can change into whatever size you want if you want something less heavy to store. don’t worry though, even these “4k screencaps” are very light megabytes-wise, so you won’t need a supercomputer. it might take a while to render all your screencaps, though, if you’re on a lower-end computer. (the folder with the edited screencaps ended up being 1GB, but that’s because it contains 123 screencaps, which is a lot of screencaps for 4k giffing).

two options won’t be automatically selected, Remove Noise and Sharpening, you will need to enable them to use them. rarely i don’t use Remove Noise, as is the best tool to remove pixelization. the Sharpening option depends on the gif, sometimes your gif will end up too over-sharpened (because of Topaz’s sharpening and later your own). that said, i used the Sharpening option on this gif.

next, select all images by clicking the “select all” button. you will notice that one of the screencaps’s thumbnails (in my case, the first one) will have small icons the others don’t have. this is the screencap you enhanced. you will need to click the dots menu, select “apply”, and then click “apply current settings to selected images”. this way, every screencap will have the same settings. if you don’t do this step, you will end up with one edited screencap and the rest will remain untouched!

all things done, click “save X images”. in the next panel, you can select where to save your new screencaps and how you want to name them. i always choose to add a topaz- prefix so i know what files i’m dealing with while giffing.

just a note: if your way of uploading screencaps to Photoshop is through image sequence, you will need to change the names of your new screencaps so PS can perceive that as a sequence (screencap1, screencap2, etc). you can do that by selecting all the screencaps in your folder, then selecting to rename just one of them and the rest will receive numbers at the end, from first to last. you don’t need to rename them one by one.

here’s the first gif again, without any editing:

without Topaz enhancement but with sharpening:

without sharpening, only the Topaz enhancement:

with Topaz enhancement and sharpening:

her skin is so smooth that it is a bit unrealistic. i could have edited that while tweaking the “Recovering Faces” option and/or the “Remove Noise” option, but i prefer to add noise (filter > noise > add noise) when necessary. this way, i don’t risk not enhancing the quality of the screencaps enough.

i added +3 of noise, making the gif look more natural. it’s a subtle difference, but i thought it necessary one in this case. you can continue to edit your gif as your heart desires.

VOILA! 🥳

AS A PHOTOSHOP PLUGIN

if you have Topaz AI installed on your computer, Photoshop will recognize it. you will find it in filter > Topaz Labs > Topaz AI. while in timeline mode, select the filter. the same Topaz AI window will pop up and you can tweak things the same way you do when you use the software separately. by using the plugin, you don’t need to upload your edited screencaps or use screencaps at all, a video clip (turned into a Smart Layer, that is) will suffice. the downside is that for every little thing you do, Topaz AI will recalculate stuff, so you practically can’t do anything without facing a waiting screen. a solution for that is to edit your gif in shitty quality as you would edit an HD one and at the very end, you enable Topaz AI. or just separately edit the screencaps following the first method.

this is it! it's a very simple software to use. the only downside is that it can take a while to render all screencaps, even with a stronger computer, but nothing too ridiculous.

any questions, feel free to contact me! :)

[simdertalia]

🚀 ACNH Space Enthusiast Set 👽

52 items | Sims 4, base game compatible - As usual, all original swatches included with lots of extras added by me! ☺️💗 Not all items are from ACNH. Please keep in mind some of the items are high poly if you have an older computer. The mooncake plate item is going to be shared publicly on my Tumblr today, since it is a cultural related item for a soon upcoming holiday.

Type “ACNH Space” into the search query in build mode to find  quickly. You can always find items like this, just begin typing  the title and it will appear.

Always suggested: bb.objects ON, it makes placing items much easier. For further placement tweaking, check out the TOOL mod.

Use the scale up & down feature on your keyboard to make the items larger or smaller to your liking. If you have a non-US keyboard, it may be different keys depending on which alphabet it uses. (The launch pad item is made smaller like the models, so it can be upscaled to fit. Other items like the UFO are made larger and can be down scaled the same way.)

I hope you enjoy!

Set contains: -Alien DNA | 8 swatch | 586 poly -Alien Plant Pot 1 | 9 swatches | 972 poly -Alien Plant Pot 2 | 9 swatches | 1494 poly -Alien Plant Pot 3 | 9 swatches | 992 poly -Alien Plant Pot 4 | 9 swatches | 3702 poly -Artificial Intelligence Music Player (functional radio) | 5 swatches | 828 poly -Chair - Console | 5 swatches | 1202 poly -Confidential Files (english & simlish) | 2 swatches | 144 poly -Control Panel (table) | 8 swatches - 2 screen swatches for each table color | 2300 poly -Cosmic Board Game | 1 swatch | 828 poly -Cosmic Cards | 1 swatch | 54 poly -Cosmic Card Holder | 11 swatch | 216 poly -Helmet Decor | 5 swatches | 1110 poly -Launch Pad | 1 swatch | 2362 poly -Lunar Lander | 1 swatch | 4804 poly -Med Pod Decor | 5 swatches | 2414 poly -Meteor Jar | 2 swatches | 1328 poly -Meteor Rock | 2 swatches | 1152 poly -Mooncake Plate | 3 swatches | 1154 poly -Moon Rover | 2 swatches | 4809 poly -Moon Wall Lamp | 2 swatches | 482 poly (this item has the same vertex paint issue as the other lams I have made. Turn down the brightness if the object looks too bright) -Robot Arm | 7 swatch | 1586 poly -Satellite | 2 swatches | 2384 poly -Satellite Model | 2 swatches | 2508 poly -Shoe Rack / Table | 3 swatches | 214 poly -Space Boots Decor | 1 swatch | 820 poly -Spaceship | 1 swatch | 3184 poly -Spaceship Model | 1 swatch | 3308 poly -Space Shuttle | 1 swatch | 2350 poly -Space Shuttle Model | 1 swatch | 2432 poly -Space Suit Decor (adult & child versions) | 1 swatch each | 1198 poly each -Space Tacos Decor | 1 swatch | 310 poly -Starship Table | 2 swatches | 756 poly -Table | 4 swatches | 2409 poly -Telescope | 2 swatches | 1238 poly -Twin Star Clock Radio | 3 swatches | 2388 poly -Twin Star Clock Wall | 4 swatches | 1204 poly -Twin Star Hairclip Decor | 3 swatches each | 934 poly -Twin Star Kid's Desk | 1 swatch | 1994 poly -Twin Star Shoes Decor (adult, child, & toddler versions) | 1 swatch each | 792 poly each -UFO | 1 swatch | 3172 poly -Wall Art (Large) | 10 swatches | 92 poly -Wall Art (Medium) | 16 swatches | 50 poly -Wall Art (Small) | 15 swatches | 50 poly -Wall Button | 7 swatches | 146 poly

Build Mode: -Wall Med Bay | 1 swatch -Wall Galaxy | 2 swatches -Wall Alien | 2 swatches -Moon Floor | 5 swatches

As always, please let me know if you have any issues! Happy Simming! 💗

📁 Download all or pick & choose (SFS, No Ads): HERE

📁 Alt Mega Download (still no ads): HERE

📁 DL on Patreon

Will be public on October 8th, 2023

As always, please let me know if you have any issues! Happy Simming!

✨ If you like my work, please consider supporting me

★ Patreon  🎉 ❤️ |★ Ko-Fi  ☕️  ❤️ ★ Instagram📷

Thank you for reblogging ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

@sssvitlanz  @maxismatchccworld @mmoutfitters  @coffee-cc-finds  @itsjessicaccfinds  @gamommypeach  @stargazer-sims-finds  @khelga68  @suricringe  @vaporwavesims  @mystictrance15 @public-ccfinds

[sha-brytols]

My DA2 Modlist

was already planning on making my modlist but @abyssal-ilk was asking for mod recs so i decided to go ahead and post now ❤️ as i said last time there's a chance i downloaded some incompatible ones because i'm terrible at reading mod descs. but i haven't encountered any bugs or game-breaking conflicts so i don't think there's any need to worry. i DO recommend making sure to read the descs though just in case.

here's my origins modlist if anyone wants it

bolded are my faves/personal "can't live without" mods. italicized are mods you should be extra sure to read the descriptions carefully for.

ARMOR/CLOTHES

Zimpra's Assorted Armours

Wesley's Ring

Amell Ancestral Arms

Dragon Knight Armour Pack

Evolving Champion Armor

Party Dress for MotA

COMPANIONS

Kirkw(All) - Poly Romance Mod

Twinception - Both Hawke Siblings Survive

Fenris' Spring Cleaning

Improved Fenris Glow

Varania Looks Related to Fenris

War Dog

Improved Mabari Model

Tougher Dog

Summon Dog (1 sec cooldown)

Elven Tallis Redux (makes mark of the assassin much more bearable when tallis doesn't look like a scary felicia day clone)

Upgrades for Tallis

Servant Outfit for Tallis (if you hate tallis' clothes like i do)

Anders Romance Dialogue Overhaul

Anders Automatic Romance Armors

Fixed Aveline's Kirkwall Armour (gets rid of the grey warden griffons from aveline's guard armor)

Isabela Pants and Shorts

Repeatable Romance Scenes

Kidnappapalooza (changes who gets kidnapped in best served cold)

Varric Dialogue Edits and Restoration

FACE AND HAIR

LOTC's Default Eye Texture (i actually. don't. like this one. i think it makes them look kind of crazy but i know a loooot of people prefer this to the og texture so i felt the need to list it anyway)

SJC's Makeup Edit

Natural Skin

Natural Hair

LOTC Skins

LOTC's Eyelashes (fix)

Bidelle's Cosmetics 2

Pineappletree's Vibrant Hair

Freckles

Black Hair Is Black

WyldTats and Skins

Chargen Revamp

Custom Female Hair Pack (some are. better than others.)

SG Beauty Shop

Better Brows

GAMEPLAY

Glowing Eyes for Hawke (LOVE this one! gives hawke glowy eyes depending on their spec, much like anders' glow if you have vengeance activated)

Easier MotA Stealth Sections

The Covert Mage

Hide Weapons

No Restrictions

Import Vault Fixes and Editable Vault (lifesaver if you're trying to figure out if nathaniel is fucking dead or not in your game)

Increased Combat Dialogue

Combat Dialog Tweaks

QUALITY OF LIFE

Female Hawke Animation Tweak (gets rid of that horrible fucking swaying hips animation)

No Paraphrases (MUST HAVE. quotes hawke's entire line for the dialogue wheel)

Reinventing the Wheel

Kirkwall Expanded (i recommend this only for people who have already played da2 and are getting bored with the gameplay loop. adds a bunch of new content to the game. new merchants, pets, mansion makeovers, etc)

Backpack Mod - Inventory Increase

Skip the Intro (skips varric's bullshit introduction with the default hawke at the beginning)

Sapphim's Dialogue Mini Mods

DA2 Epilogue Restoration and Fixes

Valuable Junk

RETEXTURES

DA2 NPC Hands

Dragon Age 2 Ultimate HD (i also recommend using the 5gb patch on da2 for this)

No More Bloody Teeth

Elves with Human Skin REDUX (takes away the weird yellow/green tints in the elves skintones)

Darkspawn Variations

Ivey's Orana (this one's kind of a mixed bag i just desperately wanted a mod where orana actually looked her age LOL)

UTILITIES

Origins Save Generator (you can make your own origins worldstate without having to replay the game)

Not-So Upscaled Game Scenes (NUGS) (makes the "movie" cutscenes look less crunchy)

[autumnslance]

Benchmark Tech Notes

Running the Benchmark

If your Benchmark isn't opening, it's an issue with the executable file, and something not completing properly on either download, or extracting the Zip file. The Benchmark is designed to run and give you scores for your potato computer, I promise.

I actually saved my Benchmark to my external drive, and it still pulls and saves data and runs as it should. Make sure you allowed the download to complete before extracting the zip.

Resolution

Check your Settings; in Display, it may be defaulting your monitor Resolution to something than you might otherwise use if you aren't on standard 1920x1080.

To check your monitor Resolution, minimize everything on your screen and right click anywhere on your Desktop. Go to Display Settings and scroll down to find Resolution and what it's set at.

You can set the Graphic Settings 1 tab to Maximum, or to Import your game settings. Display Settings tab is where you set it to be Windowed, Bordered, or Full Screen, as well as select Resolution to match your monitor in the dropdown (or customize it if needed). I speak on Resolution as some folks in my FC noted it changed how their characters looked.

The Other tab in Settings is where you can change the text output, or even check a box to disable the logo and score; I do this on subsequent plays, once I have my scores at various settings, to get the clean screenshots.

@calico-heart has a post about fixing graphics settings, with screenshots of the settings tab. Basically, change graphics upscaling from AMD to NVIDIA, and/or uncheck Enable Dynamic Resolution. Also check the Framerate Threshold dropdown.

Screenshots

The benchmark auto-saves 5 screens each playthrough. In the Benchmark folder there is a Screenshots folder to find the auto-images taken of your characters.

Character Appearance

If you want to get your current in game appearance, including non-standard hairstyles, make sure to load up the live game, right click and "Save Character Settings."

Then go to Documents/My Games/Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (this is the default in Windows 10 so mileage varies). The file will have the date you last updated their settings and be named FFXIV_CHARA_01.dat (or however many saves you have/made).

Grab those newly updated DAT files for your character(s) and copy them, then in the same base folder, go to Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (Benchmark).

Paste the copied DAT files in there, and rename to FFXIV_CHARA_BENCH01.dat (the number doesn't matter, and you may have more).

When running Benchmark Character Creation, use the dropdown menu.

If you do Create a Custom Character and Load Appearance Data, it will give you default hairstyles again. Meteor's Dawntrail hairstyle is a new default.

In Char Gen I am finding that a very pale hrothgal reflects the green scenery around her, giving her white skin/fur a green tinge. The other zones do not have this problem, or at least not to the same degree.

They added a Midday vs Evening setting in outdoor areas as well to test lighting. The lighting in the Gridanian innroom is better; not as bright as outdoors, to be expected, but not completely useless.

New voice type icons to clarifying the sounds you make.

Remember we're getting a free fantasia with the expansion, so some tweaking may be needed; Iyna I felt like I needed to adjust her jaw. Other colors--skin, hair, eyes, tattoos, etc--are showing differently in the various kinds of lighting.

Uncertain if the limit on hairstyles for the Hrothgals so far is just a Benchmark thing; they do have set styles for different head options. Everyone gets Meteor's hair though, so it may be a temporary/Benchmark limit. But which clan and face you choose drastically alters what hair and facial feature options you have access to.

Check your settings, tweak them a bit, play around with chargen, and remember this is still a Benchmark; they always strike me as a little less polished than the finished game, but so far I'm actually pretty pleased with having defined fingers and toes, the irises in the eyes, scars looking cut into the skin, and other improvements.

[classyinfur]

[pursuitseternal]

“𝓛𝓲𝓽𝓽𝓵𝓮 𝓗𝓮𝓪𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓷:” Chapter 4 to “Love Me, Hate Me”

Astarion x Tav (Katja) | E | 4.2K

🎨 by @marimosalad 🌶️ version on twt

Summary: A reward awaits Katja’s defensiveness against Gandrel, one that erodes away at her surefooted faith as a Gur.

CW: Enemies to Lovers, Cunnilingus, corruption kink, body worship, feelings catching is in the air, references to Astarion’s abuse, Astarbation

Previous ch | ao3 link | Masterlist

It was time, Katja decided, but not without some… fortification. No weapon, but a few swigs of some mermaid whiskey to steel her nerves would do the trick. Just enough to dull the race of her heart so he couldn’t gloat about it.

About how he affected her body.

Katja glowered as she scuttled in the shadows around camp back towards that pile of rose and crimson canvas. Immaculate on the outside, with its verdant plants and luxurious pillows, its gilded mirror reflecting candlelight light the lounge in an upscale bordello. She rolled her eyes. That whiskey in her gut was helping move her feet forward one at a time; good thing too. She wasn’t one to back down ever. Stubborn as a mule, more thick headed than a Minotaur, her tribe elders used to say. No. No sultry summons to his tent would make her back away. She wasn’t scared of monsters, least of all him.

At least she could think those words, even as her heart beat faster with every stride that ate the distance between her and the glow of light inside his tent.

A shadow, long and almost gangly crossed in front of the candlelight within his canvas lair. He moved back and forth, restlessly almost stalking from within.

Like an animal at the circus pacing his cage.

Tightly wound. Hostile.

As their Gith companion said, ‘Eager for battle.’

Tossing her long, neat braid over her shoulder, she took a whiskey-laden sigh, a prayer for strength in her heart, she clutched one hand around the only nice thing she kept—a Selûnite medal. The only remaining thing she had left of her parents, now her tribe. The metal warmed in her fingers, just a subtle dusting of Selûnite magic, so faint, not even the Sharran had sensed it. But then again, Katja rarely took it out from under her shirt or the wrappings that bound her pert breasts.

A deep breath, a shuffle of the wrap around her hips, and she strode into his tent. Into his glimmering darkness.

He turned slowly, the light kissing the bumps and rises of his scars casting teeny shadows on his back’s pale skin. His face quirked into that leering smirk, wicked and arrogant. His voice was that purr she began to dread… and crave. “Well, here’s my little treat with her cheeks all flushed. Happy to see me, or is it the whiskey in your blood?”

Katja huffed a laugh, swaying to rest her weight on one hip. “Huh, I only had a taste, I swear,” she smirked, repeating a line she knew he had whispered to Shadowheart when they used to feed by the campfire.

A scowl tweaked the corner of his lip for the briefest moment. “Well, you came, even if you are stinking drunk…”

Katja opened her mouth to protest, far from inebriated. But he just closed the distance, reaching to cover her gaping lips with a single finger.

“And here I was half convinced you would… pussy out. Now here you are in the flesh. Shows me.”

The gleam in his eye was downright wicked, maybe even devilish, although Katja had yet to meet a devil. Still, it made her breath catch in her chest, made her press her hand to her sternum to feel the cool tickle of Moon magic against her skin.

“I’m not one to back down,” she fired her retort.

And it only made that rakish smirk twist all the more. “Then please down on your back,” he gestured to the pile of blankets and pillows in the long center of his tent. Her eyes widened in shock at his boldness, making him give another of those looks of false innocence. “Just make yourself comfortable, won’t you?” he purred, settling down. He lounged, long legs splayed before him. As he twisted to reach for the wine bottle, the deep cut of his cream silk shirt slid open.

Katja knew she was staring, she knew she was salivating as her eyes darted from the pale skin of his chest to the supple, full lips smirking up at her. She knew their taste, just as well as she knew the way they spewed his velvet-wrapped heresies.

He took a loud, gulping swig straight from the green glass bottleneck. Those eyes glinted as he looked up at her, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, using that pink tongue to lap up the bright red drops that covered his hand.

She couldn’t look away from it, from the way he licked, that sinuous movement of his mouth as it cleaned his own skin. Fuck. His mouth smiled so wide as the tip of his tongue trailed over the vein-lined back of his hand. She could see fangs as he grinned. “Come on darling, have a seat, and let me thank you properly for today,” he purred, his voice finally cracking her reverie and making her eyes roam up to his.

“There’s no room for me,” she huffed, scanning the small empty spaces around him.

He gave a toss of his sumptuous silver curls and a cold laugh. “You’re a Gur,” he scoffed with a look of deep seated disgust, “aren’t you used to squeezing up to your victims, ready to cut their throat or their purse strings.”

He glared up at her, indulging in another loud, languid swallow of wine. Something flickered in his eyes.

Katja spread her legs and folded her arms over her chest, irritated as she fought to keep her rage at a simmer.

“Oh come now, darling,” he swirled the wine noisily in the bottle, sloshing it around. “Don’t tell me you’re not brave enough to share a bottle with me? After all,” he reached a hand to gently grab hers, “you did save my life.”

There, that look. Temptation incarnate. The angles of his eyebrows, the flexing cut of his jaw—he leered up at her with his dangerous smile and desirous hint in his crimson eyes. It made her heart skip a beat, leaping to slam right under her medal. But even as her pulse thrummed in her ears, she sat in the biggest space of his bedroll, her thigh still having to press against his as she criss-crossed her legs.

Astarion chuckled, perhaps a little mischievously, or a little wickedly. “You act like you’ve never been alone with a man in his private quarters before, my little treat.”

“My experience is not widely ranged, I’ll give you that,” she replied, snagging the bottle from his outstretched hand. Her nose crinkled in distaste, and she ignored the intense and pointed way he watched her lips wrap around the wine bottle.

Then, he smirked.

Gods, as if his shit-eating grin couldn’t twist any more rakishly. “Well, you’ll be thanking the gods mine is by the time I’m done with you…” he purred, one arm unmistakably snaking around her back. His shirt brushed her ass, nothing more, and yet it set off a torrent of heat in her veins. Her hand nearly dropped the bottle as she lowered it from her mouth. “Easy there, clumsy girl, or you’ll make the wrong kind of mess in my bed…”

Katja groaned, unable to hide the effect he was having on her. “Are you having fun tormenting me like this?” she chuffed, flustered and too aroused to be unamused.

There it was again, that smoldering look that had her damning her soul for him. Fuck.

“Why shouldn’t I?” he crooned. “It’s not like your kind is prone to amusements or pleasures of the flesh. Perhaps you’ll enjoy a little debauchery, darling.”

The way Katja visibly shivered only made him salivate more. “It’s a party, a celebration, a… reward. You did take my side against your own people. That must have taken a toll on your self righteous perfection…”

Katja stiffened as his hand brushed her back. “I just didn’t want to lose the chance to… to kill your master and claim my own right as a hunter. Besides, you’re good in battle.” She nodded vigorously, clearly having thought through every last justification.

And he knew it. He leaned in, taking the bottle and licking his tongue around that little glass hole. “Wouldn’t you miss me… just a little bit? My charm, my wit? Or maybe you’d miss staring at my mouth in that way you do.”

Shit, she cursed, her gaze snapping up from his pink tongue to his devilish smiling stare.

He set the bottle down on the wood of his pallet with a thunk. “Hmmm, now, about my show of gratitude,” he rasps, his voice suddenly somehow more silken as it purrs in his chest. “Not afraid of me, are you?”

Her hand wandered to her chest, pressing at something beneath her shirt, and only then did he notice that thin, silver chain around her neck. A single finger stole under that chain, fishing out her little, round medal. “Well, well,” he chided, honey and singsong as he leaned in to crowd her, “a Selûnite medal, if I’m any judge… which I.. am…”

“Was,” Katja corrected. “Now you’re a vampire and a rogue.”

Astarion’s smirking jaw snapped shut. “Be glad, my little Gur, that I’m no longer a magistrate. I’d have you and all your kind groveling at my feet, repenting your lawless ways…” he dropped the necklace from his fingers for it to land in the center of her chest. “And no Moodmaiden would be able to save you from me…” he tilted his head, gaze wandering over the parts of her body that were exposed to the moonlight.

Katja’s breath stuck in her chest, her words dying on her tongue in stilted, little syllables. “I… I… ah…”

“Yes, my treat?” He smirked, pressing his body against hers. “Offering me your supplication? I would be most magnanimous to accept your prayers of submission, of devotion.” His hand captured hers, twisting it softly to bring those white bite marks into view. Those cool, soft lips pressed a kiss over them, smiling as even this far from her beating heart, he could hear its thunder. “Would you allow me a drink? After the trials of the day, it’s a treat to taste you, Katja…”

Her spine tingled, arching as he purred her name, short and sharp as it was, it sounded sweeter than honeycomb on his tongue… on that wicked tongue that lapped its way up and down her vein. “Yes,” she managed to choke out.

He overwhelmed her, his presence, his scent, the way his body slid with undead grace to crowd her. Every instinct in her mortal frame screamed to run, but her body defied it, craving the rush of adrenaline and flood of arousal it was to be this close to a vampire.

Reason… sense… faith… all her defenses were so easily stripped by the way his skin smelled of citrus and his tongue bathed her vein, teasing it to the surface right up until his fangs sang into her tender flesh.

She meant to gasp, meant to hiss in pain and jolt away from him… not press closer against his good-smelling chest and moan.

Fuck.

At the noise, his eyes flashed open as he suckled her wrist again. So lazy and languid. As if he had nothing better to do and no enemies to kill and no tadpole in his brain to remove.

Crawling ever closer, Katja realized the full extent of his strength. His body was lean, composed of all muscle, not one inch of his frame was weak. It was the body of a survivor, a fighter… a predator.

A delicious crush of muscle and sinew, he slowly slunk over her, wrist still pressed insistently to his blood-slick lips. Drops of crimson fell on her own chest as he crept closer. And before fear could take a breath, his body pressed her into the haphazard pile of pillows and blankets, his knee pressing her own, hooking it to spread her wide.

Wide enough for his pelvis to shove into her own, to grind that burgeoning erection against her belly. The more he fed, the hotter and thicker he grew, and despite her limited experience with such things, Katja’s heart thundered in her ears and rapt inside her chest.

But maybe it was the blood loss again.

Nope, no it wasn’t. The moment he pulled from her wrist, her scarlet essence dripping down his chin, every single one of her belly muscles clenched. Nostrils flaring, he gave her that conceited smirk, scenting her arousal as if he didn’t feel it seeping into his trousers when he slowly began to thrust.

“Why, you little heathen, getting turned on as monster feeds from your very life force?” he hissed, dangerously wicked in tone. His crimson eyes went wide, a fake show of shock. “What would you precious Moonmaiden say? Or your elders?”

“I… I…” she stammered, unable to stop her body from rolling her own hips to match the timing of his undulations.

His laugh was low in his chest, she could feel it rumbling against her bound breasts as his blood-stained lips brushed hers. Copper brushed her tongue as he spoke. “A question for another time. Right now, as delicious as you are, I’ve a notion to taste something… sweeter.”

Those cool fingers, that icy tongue and lips caressed their way down her body, a trail of smeared blood his marking on her pale skin.

“What’s happening, what is this?” She whispered, wriggling uncomfortably. That silver around her neck seemed to burn, or was it just her imagination…

Astarion chuckled. “Consider this your reward for aligning yourself with me, for accepting my needs as greater than those hollow legends the Gur taught you about vampires.” His lips whispered against the curves of her belly, the lines of her muscle that rose and fell with increasing speed. He kissed his way lower, his shoulders now pushed her thighs wider… higher. The pads of his fingers lifted the red fabric of her wrap towards her waist dangerously high, a patch of blonde curls covering her mound. “You’ll be crying my name, praying for me to keep going, to show you no mercy…”

That silver on her neck burned for certain, the pendant at her chest weighing heavily. Katja just had to pick it up and get it off her skin. Those crimson orbs caught the moonlight that fell across them, the stripe of light slicing starkly through the gathered shadow.

His nose, his lips pressed at her mound, cool air rushing as he inhaled deeply. “Sweeter than incense, my little heathen. A fine offering for me to taste.” Long, skilled digits slide effortlessly into her slick, drawing it out, pump after pump. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move more than the unbidden rolls of her hips on his fingers as those red eyes stared at her, as his pink tongue lolled out from his lips. He flicked it once over those folds, sending her back arching—the only warning she got before he dove in deep. Lips and tongue coaxed out more arousal, she could feel it dripping, soaking the bedding beneath them. His throat made little hums. Like a predator feasting, he growled and purred as he lapped every inch of her cunt.

That flap of the tent fluttered slightly in the night breeze, the faint beam of starlight and moon glow cut through the dimness of his tent.

Unforgiving, that ray cleaved her in two, a war of light and dark. Her fingers closed around that smooth silver medal, the pendant growing heavier with every sigh that escaped her lips, every moment she didn’t fight against the vampire between her thighs. “Moonmaiden, help me,” she whispered, just loud enough for those pointed ears to twitch as he heard.

A deep, wicked laugh rumbled against her folds. “Forget your goddess, Katja, I’ll have you praying to me,” he crooned. Hands gripped her thigh, speeding her wider, fingers parting those nether lips to expose her slit for proper worship.

Gravity pulled her twitching muscles down to the bedding, her body winding tighter than she gripped her ax, more tense than ever she had felt before. Legs shook, breath caught tight in her chest. That creep wave of warmth and pleasure swirled again. It was happening more and more often each time she allowed him near her… in her.

“Fuck,” she cursed, panting as her vision blurred from blood loss and bliss.

“Fuck, who?” the Vampire sniggered, tongue out and swirling her clit even as he spoke.

“Gods… fuck me, Astarion,” she spat through her gritted teeth as something inside her snapped. That wave of heat tension burst, overflowing and racing down her veins. She mewled like a cat, thighs shaking and squeezing his head, back arching off the messy pile of pillows… and all Astarion had to do was hum and lick and suck the wet from her cunt.

Her high overwhelmed her, enthralled her—a feeling like she had never known. Better than her first kill on the hunt, better than her first stolen kiss, and far better than the first messy time she gave her innocence hurriedly in a tavern once.

This was… she struggled to think, to comprehend what happened. As she gazed down her body to see his glistening chin and smirking lips, she knew then. This was extacy. Rapture. Morning short of a slice of heaven in the middle of their hell of a trial.

And gods, did she want more. Sitting up, she pulled his face to her lips for a taste. Her tang sustained her, but it was quickly overridden by the taste of him, that slight copper of her blood and that sharp scent of citrus from his cologne covering her taste buds. It was a kiss of unbridled need, all those inhibitions and restrictions were long forgotten, left in the mess she had made in his bed. “Astarion,” she growled, half-needy and half-feral.

“Yes, darling?” he replied, tongue withdrawing from between her lips just enough to speak. “What is it?” he purred, as if he didn’t know, couldn’t smell the burning in her blood and couldn’t feel the grind of her hip on his thigh that pushed so conveniently right where she ached. “Needy thing, haven’t all your prayers been answered?” he gloated, pulling back to break their kiss to savor that wanton glow on her scarred face.

“C‘mon,” Katja pleaded, trying to force that gruff edge back down to cover her whine of desire. “You can’t be finished yet…”

Astarion’s brow quirked, those eyes roaming lazily over her bare skin as he gently pulled her skirt back over her cunt. “I’m not finished, but I’m finished with you, for tonight at least.”

“Wh-what?” Katja’s jaw dropped, her scar twisting deliciously as her face screwed in confusion.

A smug grin on his face, and Astarion sat back, grabbing for that bottle of wine once more and taking a long, deep drink. “That’s the thing about divine powers, they can choose when they intervene… and when.. they… don’t.”

Something dark flickered in those red eyes, a shadow he kept inside him, and even though those eyes gaze at her beside him, his mind is a million leagues away… somewhere long gone and yet present in the memories that haunt him.

Katja knew that look, that feeling. And she swallowed, shifting her legs beneath her as she slid her Selûnite medal back under her bindings around her chest. She let him sit there, festering for a moment as she looked him up and down, taking in the sight of his body for truly the first time. For once he was less on his guard, those scars on his back etched across the entire expanse. A gift from his Master, and already she craved the moment she would help Astarion make the bastard pay for such torture.

Tilting her head, she opened her mouth and broke the silence as only she could. “Why are you so thin?”

The question jolted Astarion out of his dark reverie. “Excuse me?” he hissed, the picture of offense. “Has that orgasm stolen your reason, or are you just insanely rude?”

Katja’s blonde brows furrowed in confusion. “Vampires aren’t usually so… lean. All the blood from their victims should make them powerful, it gives them abilities to move with supernatural speed and spider climb up walls and grow claws and…”

“Yes alright,” he snapped, pressing a finger over her irritating lips. His teeth ground together. Eyes flickering with a light, a hint of annoyance as he pursed his lips shut, as if he tried so hard not to let his answer free. Then he gave a huff of a laugh. “Perhaps I am a bit lean, as you say, but that’s because… I’ve had this condition for nearly two centuries and, truth be told, I’ve barely had the blood of thinking creatures. Not until you, little treat. Well you and that Cleric…”

Katja’s body instantly tensed at the mention of Shadowheart… that Sharran that first let him get close enough to bite.

Astarion took note with a lecherous smirk. “Don’t worry, your blood and your cunt give me an extra powerful rush. Nothing like the taste of corrupting a Gur to go from hunting monsters to fucking them.”

Bristling, Katja’s mind still raced, looking over those lean lines of his chest and stomach. So taut but also so small compared to… well at least the stories her tribe would tell. “If you couldn’t drink from thinking creatures then…”

“You really are unflappable, aren’t you?” Astarion snapped, beyond irritated. Vexation scratched at his honeyed tone and made his voice shrill. Almost whiny. How could she not bite at those jealous barbs, those sweet little insults meant to tear her down so he could remake her with sadistic delight… No, instead she wanted to know why he was lean. Astarion laughed bitterly at it all. “Don’t get me wrong, I was sent out to seduce hundreds, maybe thousands for Cazador. Every night I’d bring him a victim, and every night, he’d invite me to dine on a nice putrid rat. That or have us tortured if we refused….”

She uttered some curse under her breath, undoubtedly calling his old master an unsavory Gur name. Katja scowled, her fists gripping into the blanket beneath her. “How dare he,” she ground out through clenched teeth. “Hard to say what is worse, starving you or torturing you.”

In that moment, Astarion was speechless. His mouth hung slack, fangs catching in that exacting beam of light. “Yes…. Well…” he struggled to recover some of that suave seduction from moments ago. “Don’t let it ruin your beauty rest, darling,” he tossed the comment off as if he didn’t have a care in the world. But as Katja stood, fixing her skirt and ignoring the wet squelch her thighs made as she waked, she gave him one last glance.

He looked tired, those shadows under his eyes were a little deeper, those crimson irises dilated too wide as he stared into the ground. His hand absentmindedly grabbing for the wine bottle for another drink, she left him to it.

Astarion waited until her footsteps were gone. He didn’t really care where. Not really. Then, he unlaced his leathers to free the aching, dripping hard erection he had been ignoring. Gods, it tingled and twitched from the pressure and the memory of her taste on his tongue. As he gave his cock a teasing stroke, he laughed. It was so easy to push her and deny her; so easy to make the little Gur pay in little ways for what her kind did to him centuries ago.

What he didn’t account for, as he started beating on his length, up and down, was the memory of her sounds in his mind. So undiluted and innocent. And yet… Fuck, the memory of her concern, that flash of… was it protectiveness… when she asked about his starvation. The memory of that look on her rounded, scowling face brought a smile to his lips as he closed his eyes and fucked his hand.

She was going to be a real treat when they found Cazador, he decided. That will be fun… he thought, his hand working more deliberately, his precum leaking to wet his cock as he beat just a bit slower, just a bit tighter in his grip. By then, she would be a force to reckon with, his force… his worshiper… Thoughts drifted to the way she looked beneath him, frightened and aroused, clinging to her faith and her medal as if anything more divine than him would save her. He could taste the memory of her slick and he could feel the warmth of her cunt… Fuck, did it make this arrangement more desirable or more devious that she was a Gur?

He didn’t have long to ponder that wisp of a thought, not as his muscles ached and tensed and pulsed as he came. That rush of release, making him nearly groan out loud as he erupted onto the bedding.

Now it was a proper mess, he grinned, eyes still shut as he savored those afterwaves of his climax. A smile on his lips that still faintly tasted of her, he held his wet cock as he sighed.

A/N: Mmmmm such spice!

I’m going totally manipulative Act 1 Astarion—cruel and calculating and yet learning.

If Katja seems a bit on the spectrum, that’s intentional. And it totally disarms Astarion’s suave charm at times (which is good for him 😂).

Next chapter, The Risen Road and more spice 🌶️

[felassan]

A new blog post from BioWare in which they talk about the PC experience for Dragon Age: The Veilguard. The blog covers display features, graphics settings and controls. "We're PC players ourselves and have a dedicated team focused on PC."

"Journal #4 PC Features for Dragon Age: The Veilguard A look into the PC Experience in Dragon Age: The Veilguard Hello everyone, Today, we want to specifically touch on the PC experience for Dragon Age: The Veilguard. The Dragon Age franchise started out on PC, and we wanted to make sure PC is a great place to play our game. Many of us at BioWare are PC players ourselves, and when testing, PCs made up 40% of our platform testing effort, with over 200,000 hours of performance and compatibility testing. Getting the PC experience just right was crucial to us and we created a dedicated team to focus on PC. We can’t wait for you to experience it for yourselves! Let’s talk about inputs first. We wanted to ensure the controls and UI are a good experience for both KBM and controllers; so we did close to 10,000 hours of user research testing to make sure of it. Dragon Age: The Veilguard will feature native support for PS5 DualSense controllers with haptics support in addition to the standard of Xbox controllers & keyboard + mouse. Additionally, you can seamlessly transition between controllers or keyboard + mouse while playing or in menus. There are many different ways to play our game; so, in order to allow you to find the most comfortable set-up, we’ve added the ability to customize class-specific keybinds that you can easily switch between. This means that your Rogue Rook can use a different set of keybinds than your Warrior Rook, if you’d like! Along with the standard resolution options, we also have full support for 21:9 Ultrawide monitors. Don’t worry; we didn’t forget the cinematics, either - just disable the option titled “Cinematic Aspect Ratio.” This will remove the enforced black bars; so you can watch the cinematics in full ultra widescreen glory. No matter what size monitor you’re rocking, you can adjust your FOV with an FOV slider in the Settings. There will be an option for uncapped framerate, as well. We’re also launching with full HDR support. Most changes to Graphics and Display Settings are reflected in real time, and you can see the impacts of those changes through the cutout in the UI. This will help you make informed decisions as you tweak your game to look exactly how you want. For a full list of Settings, check the rest of the blog below! We know a lot of you play on Steam, and we wanted to meet you where you are. We’re happy to be completely Steam Native for Dragon Age: The Veilguard! We’re already Steam Deck Verified; and with Cloud Save on Steam supported, you can seamlessly switch back and forth between your PC and your Steam Deck as much as you want, with no interruption to your progress. We also have Remote Play enabled if you’d rather play on your TV! If you’d like to utilize it, there will be a completely optional linking process to your EA Account."

"If you want to hear about a few advanced settings and options for the PC community, let’s go over that now. We support a suite of Ray Tracing features, as well as an “Ultra RT” mode for extremely high end rigs. We have several types of upscaling available: NVIDIA DLSS 3, FSR 2.2 which has been heavily modified, specifically for the game, and XeSS. We also support DLSS 3 with frame generation and NVIDIA Reflex. As we have more PC features to share, we’ll circle back on those before launch. We’re inching closer to our release date of October 31, 2024! We still have more information coming on Combat, the Companions, Exploration, and more; so keep your eyes peeled on our socials. We are eager to see your battle stations running Dragon Age: The Veilguard and the resulting screenshots. Chat soon!             — The Dragon Age Community Team"

"To summarize the above, check out an overview of the PC specs and features we’re ready to unveil now: DISPLAY FEATURES - Full Support for 21:9 Ultra Wide Resolutions  - Ability to Uncap Frame Rate - VSync, including fractional rate VSync - HDR Support - Optional Upscaling (DLSS 3, FSR 2.2, XeSS) - NVIDIA Reflex  - DLSS 3 Frame Generation - Optional Dynamic Resolution Scaling  - Cinematic Aspect Ratio (Disable this option for cinematic 21:9 ratio) GRAPHICS SETTINGS - Presets Available (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) Texture settings: - Texture Quality, Texture Filtering Light & Shadow Settings: - Lighting Quality, Contact Shadow, Ambient Occlusion, Screen Space Reflections, Volumetric Lighting, Sky Quality Ray Traced Settings*: - Ray-Traced Reflections, Ray-Traced Ambient Occlusion, Ultra Ray Tracing Geometry Settings: - Level of Detail, Strand Hair, Terrain Quality, Terrain Decoration Quality, Visual Effects Quality Camera Effects: - Depth of Filed, Vignette, Motion Blur, Post Processing Quality, Field of View Controls: - Class-specific Keybinds, Keyboard + Controller Bindings *  Ray Tracing can be “ON” or turned to “Selective”. Selective Mode enables Ray Tracing features in specific areas that can best take advantage of the feature."

[source] <- at the source link there is also some new screenshots/clips

[snapscube]

Hey Penny! Saw on twitter you talking about it so was curious if you are playing ff7 with any mods? Been meaning to finally play it for the first time as well and looking for any recommendations

yes actually!!! i'm running FF7 through the 7th Heaven mod loader (on my Steam Deck which is possible and wonderful) for my first full playthrough and i'm really loving it. there's some great quality of life stuff in here, BUT do note that all of my mods are purely presentational. increased FPS, higher res textures/FMVs, character model tweaks/upgrades, added field ambience and sound effects. ive done nothing to the game balance or any of the actual gameplay content, as again this is my first playthrough and i didnt want it to be too intrusive. just wanted to play a sort of accumulative Unofficial Remaster.

this is my current modlist

each of them have been configured to my liking with the "configure mod" options so if u do 7th heaven yourself id recommend making sure to tweak those

and heres a quick peek at what it looks like generally

i would show off more if i had some better save files to work with LOL

some of the upscaling on backgrounds and FMVs can look a bit funky at times if you're really paying attention and especially if ur playing on a monitor and sittin close enough to notice. but, like i said, i'm playing on Steam Deck mostly and the overall increase in clarity is really nice so i was willing to make the trade-off.

so far this has been a FANTASTIC way to play through the game for the first time, i'm really happy with the experience so far as someone who has quickly bounced off of FF7 multiple times previously. i've made it further than ever before, i even passed the cutoff point where Remake stops and i'm still going strong!

[robo-dino-puppy]

so there was some interest in seeing how I set up the armor gallery shots :D and I'm happy to oblige! here's the video, and there's a bunch of word vomit from me below the cut with some explanations of why I did things the way I did.

yes I run the game windowed and small like this when I'm taking pics, because for the mod you have to have the game windowed if you want to use hotsampling (making it bigger than your screen size for screenshots). you can use the mod's "fake fullscreen" feature to... well. fake fullscreen. but since I'm on a laptop, if I turn the graphics up to where I want to them to be for screenshots, I don't really have a great time performance-wise. and since I'm sitting with my face pretty close to the screen anyway, it's just easier to keep the game at this resolution instead of upscaling (which always seems to introduce at least a few artifacts I don't like - but admittedly I'm suuuuuper picky about it) or changing my graphics settings whenever I want to take a pic.

word vomit time!

first, some background on how I chose the spots (both games). for HFW when I did the initial gallery, I was on console and there's no way to lock the camera into a certain orientation, so I needed a spot with a camera angle that was reproducable. the ONLY spot I found that would work was a campfire in the daunt, where because you spawn close to a cliff, the camera - which always starts in the same spot when you fast travel - is in front of Aloy. but! in HZD (or HFW) on pc I can use Otis_Inf's photomode mod to save camera states, overriding the game camera both in photomode and in-game, which is SUPER helpful and time saving.

howeverrrrrrr because the pose I used in HFW is not in HZD's pose options, but it IS (more or less) in the mod's "pose blend" feature, there was a problem. pose blend requires you to activate "look at camera" in photomode. but it also changes how the pose is... set up? based on which direction Aloy is looking. I'm not exactly sure how to describe it, but basically: the direction her head and torso are facing when you first activate pose blend kind of determines the range of movement you can get out of the pose when you do the head and torso adjustments in the mod.

so I needed two camera states - one where Aloy was looking more or less directly ahead, and one that mimicked the angle of the campfire camera in HFW. (this is why I chose that pose in HFW - it was the only one where I could get Aloy mostly facing the camera without changing the position of her feet, which I wouldn't have been able to reproduce reliably, and I had to leave at some point to fast travel to scalding spear to re-dye all the outfits to get all the variations...)

next problem: using the pose blend feature causes Aloy to sink into the ground in some poses, including the one that I wanted to use. and a little clipping into the ground doesn't bother me TOO much, but the first few times I tried it, it basically looked like she was standing in quicksand lol. so I had to be veeeeeeery careful and move millimeter by millimeter to find a spot where she was on some piece of gravel or something and slightly floating, so she'd be level with the ground when I changed her pose.

other problems, easily fixable on pc with the tweaks & cheat menu: time of day control and pause time of day so I don't have to keep changing the time backwards in photomode when I exit to change outfits, weather setup so it doesn't do surprise!rain and I have to wait it out, and edit player inventory to add outfits I don't own/can't currently carry without going to a merchant because with the extra outfits in the remaster there's not enough space to carry every single variation.

finally, the little overlay thing you see me use to try to match my HFW pose is called OnTopReplica and it's pretty nifty!

[tangibletechnomancy]

With the WGA and SAG-AFTRA on strike, I want to take this moment to talk about one really important thing that I've alluded to but haven't gone into depth on, and people don't like to hear because of a lot of the noise, but-

We need to also support VFX unionization efforts (everyone's with me so far right...?), and in doing so, acknowledge the labor actually involved in using new technology (not just AI, but whatever the NEXT big breakthrough is too, and the one after that, and the one after that, indefinitely) and credit the people operating it properly-

Aaaand I've lost some people, but hear me out.

Sure, it's easy to type a single prompt and get a result that looks kinda nice. "Kinda nice", however, isn't going to cut it for most productions! It's like photography that way. As ubiquitous as good-quality cell phone cameras are, anyone can just point and click with some very basic understanding of what makes a passable composition and get something that's pleasant on the eyes.

And yet, generally speaking, people aren't grabbing random people with cell phones off the street to shoot movie posters! Because even a layperson can tell the difference between the photo you get when you stop a random stranger on the street and ask them to take a photo of you and your friends together, and the photo you get when a trained professional sets up the actors in a studio, with deliberate lighting, a thorough understanding of what lens(es) to use, and so much more.

Photography is easy. To be able to get a professional quality result? Not so much. Sure, sometimes a total rando who barely knows how to use a camera will luck out and get the shot of a lifetime - but it sure doesn't happen often and you DEFINITELY can't make a whole profession out of hoping for it.

The same goes for AI.

Most singular AI pieces that are high enough quality to get people really excited take hours, and hours, and hours of work and refinement and retrying and tweaking to get right. I mean, go test out a free image generator and pay attention - you might get a lot of results that look fun just by typing in a very silly prompt, but good enough to be a major part of a movie without any alteration? ....maybe one in a million - and then you still probably have to upscale it! And the standard for "nice to look at for a moment" vs. "good enough to be a major part of a professional production" will only get stricter and stricter as things get more saturated and people see Default Midjourney Style or the like as being super boring and amateurish for anything bigger than a literal one-man production, too (which sucks on a tiny level for me personally because I like Default Midjourney Style, but that's not important).

I point this out because bringing this up in the context of unionization helps to kill the entire motivation behind using AI to undercut manual art. The higher-ups want the world to think it's just mindless, super-easy button-pushing that anyone can do, so it's fine to crunch people even HARDER than they already crunch VFX artists or outsource it to people they can pay subminimum wages, right?

It's not. It never is. It never will be. We need to cut it off at the pass before one more studio even fucking tries it.