Content Moved to My Own Website

A lot of content has been moved to my own website - 

https://alinuxuser.com/

Remaining content will be slowly migrated. This blog will receive no further updates. 

Cat School Gear Upgrade Diagrams - Part 2 - Enhanced Feline Trousers Bug

This is a bug you could encounter if you are using the Fast Travel From Anywhere mod.

In order to find the Enhanced Feline Trousers, you will need to go underground through an iron grate on the floor in a house in Oxenfort, however but the grates are closed. This is because a cutscene that was supposed to trigger after the Get Junior main quest, was skipped because I used the fast travel option out of the compound in Novigrad.

As far as I can tell, there is no way to trigger it once it is skipped.

The only way to finish Cat School Gear Upgrade Diagrams - Part 2 treasure hunt at this point is to use the game's debug console to add the Enhanced Feline Trousers diagram, and manually set the quest status to complete.

Here is how it is done.

NOTE - Ensure that you got all the other items before you attempt this.

1. Enable debug console

- Go to E:\GOG Games\The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt GOTY\bin\config\base
- Edit general.ini file
- Add the following line - DBGConsoleOn=true

Enabling debug console in The Witcher 3 (PC)

2. Start the game and load a save game

3. Hit the " ~ " key

4. Enter the following commands in order -

additem("Witcher Lynx Pants Upgrade schematic 1", 1)
addfact(th1003_fdb_pants_upgrade1_explored)

This will add the diagram, and set the status of Cat School Gear Upgrade Diagrams - Part 2 to Completed.

Here are some screenshots -

How To Remove Files & Folders From an SVN Repository

Disclaimer - I am not an expert on SVN. After struggling for many hours to figure out the exact process, I narrowed it down to these steps. There may be an easier way to do this, but I couldn't figure it out. These particular steps work all the time for me. If there is a better way to accomplish this, feel free to post it in the comments section. 

This is an example on removing a folder from an SVN repository without deleting it from the disk. Doing this incorrectly will lead to the parent folder showing the modified icon.

Consider the following repository - C:\svn_repository\trunk\java\removeThisFolder\removeThisFile.txt

We wish to remove - removeThisFolder\removeThisFile.txt from the SVN repository.

The directory and the file inside it need to be removed

Right click on the folder and click on Unversion and add to ignore list and then select the folder

Commit the changes

Navigate to the parent folder, and click on SVN Update

Now Commit the changes

This would make the Modified icon disappear

Setup a simple website using a Namecheap domain and XAMPP

Disclaimer - I am not a web developer and I do not have any authority on creating web content. This was an exercise for me on learning how hosting works. I couldn't find a tutorial online that explained all the steps I needed to so, so I am putting together this tutorial. 

Here are the steps to setup a very simple website using xampp and a Namecheap domain.

1. Obtain your external IP address

Go to http://whatismyip.com and get "Your IP" address

Take note of the external IP address

2. Configure URL forwarding

Go to the URL forwarding section in Namecheap domain configuration. 

Now set the values for the IP Address/URL and Record type as follows - 

A (Address) - Your IP
URL Frame - http://<your_ip>:8080/mysite

URL Forwarding section in Namecheap domain configuration

3. Obtain your internal IP address

Open the command prompt window and type - ipconfig and hit enter

Identify your network adapter and take note of IPv4 Address

4. Configure port forwarding

Log into the router configuration by going to this address in the browser - http://192.168.0.1/

Go to the Port Forwarding section, and add an entry to forward HTTP traffic for port 8080

Router port forwarding configuration

5. Configure Apache to serve on port 8080

Open the Xampp control panel, and click on Configure and then on Apache (httpd.conf)

XAMPP Control Panel

This should open the config file in notepad. Change the line Listen 80 line to Listen 8080

Apache httpd.conf 

After this change is saved, restart the Apache server. The control panel should now look like this -

XAMPP Control Panel after listen port change

6. Create your website directory

Now, create a folder called mysites in the server directory. The path will be as follows - 
D:\Program Files (x86)\xampp\htdocs\mysite

mysites folder in htdocs

7. Access your website

Now try accessing in the following URL in the browser -

http://localhost:8080/mysite/

Website access on the local server

This should display the index.html in the browser

Now access your Namecheap domain. For me, its www.patchrowcester.com. This should serve the index.html page in the server directory. 

Access website using domain name

ASUS ROG Swift (PG278Q)

Purchase Process

I ordered the ASUS Rog Swift (PG278Q) from B&H Photo on January 17, 2015 for $799.

At the time, my only options were B& H Photo and BestBuy. I did not like the shipping options on BestBuy and decided to see what B&H has to offer.

I was very pleased with their free expedited shipping, but having never purchased anything on this website, I hesitated. It also appears that it is only possible to check out items at specific times during the day. This is the first time I've ever encountered a website have some kind of business hours for purchasing items. Attempting to check out during "non business" hours would result in a cryptic error.

Error when trying to check out an item from B& H Photo during "non business" hours

At this point, I sent out a tweet to the company, and a representative informed me that check out resumes at 6:15PM on Saturday.

Response from a B&H Photo representative

I thought this was very odd, and decided to wait for the item to be available on Amazon. However, my patience ran out by that evening, so I decided to take a chance and purchase it from B&H Photo.

Once I completed the purchase, it was the usual routine. I was given an order confirmation, and soon enough my item was shipped and it was delivered on time. 

Unboxing

General Impressions

I am very satisfied with the monitor. The pixel density is obviously higher, and this makes makes everything in Windows look really sharp.  

Also, one feature I thought was very nice was the response when the power button is pressed to turn on the monitor - the image comes up almost immediately. I have not seen this in any of the other monitors I have previously used. This may not mean much, but I like the fact that exists. 

Games look absolutely amazing. I would recommend turning off anti-aliasing because at this resolution, I do not find any noticeable difference in games (this is of course subjective), and the performance gains with AA off is fairly significant. I am using EVGA GeForce GTX980, and this card struggles to keep up at times in BF4 multiplayer (64p conquest). Turning off AA gave me much better frame rates. 

Here is a video of footage Battlefield 4 multiplayer on ultra settings. The frame rate counter is on the upper right 

On certain maps like Operation Firestorm 2014 and Pearl Market, the frame rate dips into the 40s when playing with AA on. So now I run the game with all settings on Ultra except with AA and Ambient Occlusion, which are turned off. This is giving me excellent performance with frame rates going up to 120 on certain maps. 

GSYNC

I noticed the biggest impact of GSYNC when frame rates tend to drop between 50-60 fps. When the fps drops below that, GSYNC doesn't really do much, at least from my experience. 

Final Thoughts

I personally feel this monitor is worth the money I paid for it. The reason for buying a new monitor in the first place for me is because I needed to setup a work machine. I thought about buying a very cheap monitor from craigslist, but on second thoughts, I decided to buy a new monitor instead. The reason for this being, my Acer P243WAid monitor which I purchased in March 2009 is still functioning perfectly. So I figured if I purchased a high end monitor and if it lasted for the next 6 years, I would absolutely get my money's worth. Therefore I started researching monitors late last year, and the general consensus in the gaming community is that the ROG Siwft is about as good as its going to get for gamers right now. 

After having used the monitor for a few days, I think I agree. This is an excellent monitor, and I think my money is well spent. 

If you are looking for a high end gaming monitor, and price is not particularly an issue, then I definitely recommend the ROG Swift. If you are not particularly discerning about refresh rates etc., but want the extra real estate, then I wouldn't recommend this monitor, instead one of the Korean made monitors which cost probably less than half the price will do the job just fine. 

Battlefield 4 Launch Fiasco

[MIGRATED] 

 

 The launch of Battlefield 4 was very disappointing. It felt as if those who pre ordered the game were paying to beta test it. It was such a broken mess at times, that I find it hard to believe they released it in such a state. Problems in the beta are present in the release version. Makes me wonder what the beta accomplished.  

To an extent I understand the server side problems which were taken care of as quickly as they possibly could, but some issues with the base game are hard to justify.

After their PC patch, things seemed to have gotten worse. Apart from the usual problems with the game (crashing to the desktop at random), they managed to introduce a new bug in the patch which could cause the screen to blur every time the commander deployed an EMP. So not only does EA/DICE make customer feel silly for pre ordering the game, the game now causes eye strain.

The battlefield twitter and Facebook feed is full of advertisements ranging from merchandise to review scores, apart from a few employees at DICE who have taken the time to respond to messages (my sincere thanks to them). One wonders why they didn't publicly acknowledge the problems and apologize, instead of carrying on with the shameless promotion and self congratulatory posts.

I wonder what game these "journalists" were reviewing...

After the terrible launch, instead of reaching out to the customers, EA took the classy route and advertised hoodies.

Understandably, customers were not pleased. 

This launch has validated the cynicism towards the gaming industry in general. If they were in tune with the community, they would know that the community doesn't care about when the game launched or if it beat Call of Duty at sales figures. They care about having a playable game.

I am sure this is hard for an executive to comprehend, because for them, its all about sales figures. They throw around buzz words like "seamless reality", "immersion", and best of all, "levelolution" without knowing the first thing about gaming. Publishers do not care about the what they are selling, as long as they are selling many of it, and will say anything to reach their goal - even lie to the public. Case in point, Patrick Bach's interview with Jack Frags about how the game features "improved netcode" and how people will notice the difference because its better. In reality, it was far worse than Battlefield 3.

So here is the bottomline, I will not pre order the next Battlefield game (rest assured that there will be another BF game. The series has gotten too big to not have many sequels), or an EA product. I blame myself for not waiting to see how the game turns out. They have given me no incentive to support their product (No, battlepacks aren't incentives - a working game is.)

I hope someone at EA who is in a position to change things will read this, and hopefully put out better games. Its unlikely, but no harm in trying. I also hope that we all will remember this when the next Battlefield game is announced.  

Microsoft & Sony - The Used Games Situation

For those who are unaware, here is some background:

We are at the verge of new generation consoles. The new Microsoft console - the Xbox One - has tons of DRM in order to prevent gamers from buying & trading used games. They constructed an elaborate system of blocking second hand games by tying them to Xbox Live accounts. It is not possible to trade Xbox One game discs - even for single player games because they are all tied to Xbox Live account. Its essentially like Steam on PC.

Sony on the other hard, made things a lot easier. By not having any DRM on used games.

I imagine there was a conversation between the companies that went something like this:

Microsoft: Hey Sony. We came up with this awesome new plan to make a ton of money!

Sony: Oh yeah? What is it?

Microsoft: Well, seeing as how with the current consoles, we do not get any share from second hand sales, how about we implement a system that would block them from trading games by tying them to an online account? This way, gamers cannot hand over a disc to a friend! We will make it mandatory to enter a serial code, which we are totally going to sell. This is going to bring in tons of second hand revenue!

Sony: That sounds like a great idea! You guys should totally build a system!

Microsoft: But for this to work, we both need to be in on it. This will mean a lot of money for both of us!

Sony: Oh yeah! Absolutely. We hate it when gamers decide to give their discs to their friends - like they own it after they paid for it once!

Microsoft: Yep! We are also thinking about making it mandatory for the console to have to be online at least once every 24 hours....just to make sure the gamers aren't up to any mischief.

Sony: That is a great idea! The more control we have, the less control they have! What could go wrong with that! Nothing, I say!

Microsoft: So we can count on your support?

Sony: Oh yeah man. You got it.

Meanwhile they are thinking

Then E3 happens, and Sony releases this video: 

And in their conference, they totally screwed over Microsoft in a dazzling display of capitalism:

At the end, I imagine this is what Microsoft is thinking:

And the rest of the world is thinking: