=VG= SemlerPDX

I really enjoyed both those maps. We had to work hard as infantry to beat back the bots coming to stop us from capping, and they still had the ability to smack us off a cap and retake it. I'll let the other frequent players rate the difficulties and manner of Bot offenses, I just don't play PR enough to gauge that properly. So, I guess my perspective is one of those players on the server who don't play as often as others - less aware of the Botley-ways. They felt very playable, I didn't feel that the vehicle squads were "eating all the kills", and the Bot infantry was still a bit of a challenge in CQC because they seemed to come from more than one direction, as well as spawning in the very buildings we were trying to cap. I liked that a lot! To Melon, I'd like to personally apologize for mentioning the Forest/Bush factor regarding the Bots during one assault. I read the brief, I forgot, and I bitched a little when we all got wiped out in a forest that we had previously flanked due to the bots seeing us first in the brush. Sorry bro! I can totally accept that limitation that the bots can see through brush, they do it on Arma as well - I'll be even more mindful of what I say next time. I still had fun. Thank you for all your hard work, Melon! And for getting OPFOR Friday's working once again!! Let me know ahead of time before the next test if you run one, and we'll do a lot more to promote the test through MOTD's in-game and a longer (more accurate) website Announcement. For Events, 2 weeks is best, but for work like these tests, a shorter notice is understandable and I feel a week is fine. I'd also like to apologize to our regular players, particularly asquirrel -- when the event was first announced I was still very distracted with family issues, and didn't notice that it would preempt a very popular OPFOR Friday that had not happened in awhile. If I had noticed sooner that overlap, we might have discussed altering the test date, but I didn't notice that until we were literally hearing asquirrel let us know that he (and I'm sure many silent others) did not appreciate having to leave the OPFOR Friday that they were very much enjoying. Sorry guys! We will definitely watch out for such things in the future and we are very happy you all are enjoying the new Maplist Rotation System here at VG!

Would you like to use the DEV #3 PR Server so we can keep the default PR server running? I feel like if the primary PR server was off, though you may see more people in your Test Event, you'd have far fewer fuck-off players and more players interested in the "goal" of testing and providing feedback as opposed to screwing around and needing a kick... Let me know. I'll be there either way, for sure.

Ah yes, the highly under-rated Tactical Blob formation (with APC variant) -- a very common formation indeed!

I'll be there (if I am not camping)

I'll be there if I'm in town. I will know closer to the date. On a side note: FINALLY, TEDF shared his secret family recipe for Salty Salted Salt!! MMMMMmmmmm... saaaaalt!

Awww.... is it really that bad? I'm no artist, and I can barely use GIMP and PS, so when I had to make some sprites for a Java programming lesson, I jumped into MS Paint and got crazy with the pixel level drawing. It worked for those purposes, I didn't care that it looked very retro - in fact, I think it added a "charming" factor to the little "Rancher Bob" guy I made. MS Paint saved my butt by making it easy for me to whip up a sprite sheet for the Java lesson. RIP MS Paint! Anyone got any ideas of what we plebs could use to replace it once MS Paint is history? Anything that can do that sort of simple pixel level painting? Just for fun, figured I'd share a nostalgic throwback video & sprite sheet of an animation test from when I got funky with MS Paint: (if someone wants to actually see this Java programming lesson in action, here's the game at this stage - run the .jar executable to start the "game") https://www.dropbox.com/s/7zt3e6shbe1ej7o/SemJavaGameTEST.rar?dl=0

Thank you, CobaltUK!! Your admin work for the VG BMS Server does not go unappreciated! We are grateful to have your help maintaining this server, and I personally appreciate the help very much!

...and maybe something like the ShackTac HUD mod for Arma 2/3 so we can actually tell where our other squad mates are due to the difficulty of managing inter-personal distances on a computer monitor and without a sense of touch, etc:

Congrats, bro! Great to hear!

my bad, missed that bit at the top with the MoBo designation, and made a poor assumption based on his first post. Now for more assumptions! j/k Since he's got a desktop with a PCIe slot, he could buy an older GFX card and slap it in there to at least get it working in PR -- I'd look for a 5000-7000 series ATI card or a a 500-600 series nVidia card for a cheap but capable card for PR. And I second the notion to install 64-bit Windows if you can, you're gonna need as much RAM as you can muster for running Windows 10 Pro and a game at the same time, not that PR is RAM hungry; also, you should consider getting very pro-active with your Windows 10 install to maximize it for your own uses, and not Microsoft's uses -- so many things you can disable or uninstall that you will likely never use that can improve performance by lowering the RAM footprint of background applications, minimizing boot times, and maximizing disk access times and capacity. See my article on the Home page for How to make Windows 10 Look and Act more like Windows 7, it includes many bits that could help you get more control over your Windows OS.

ouch... yea, it looks like it's gonna try to use the CPU to process graphics, and with 2 cores/2 threads, it may struggle even at the lowest graphics settings to run Project Reality. Well, PR is free, and you can always try it, but beware that your laptop may get excessively hot, lowering it's lifespan and potentially damaging internal components if the airflow intake ports are blocked in any way, which happens naturally over time from dust and tiny debris. I used to replace a lot of laptop heatsink and fan components, people don't often respect how little heat dissipation is possible in a laptop and how important airflow is. Serious PC Gaming on a laptop such as that is not advised if you want to respect the health of the laptop.

No, I am the one who is sorry. In no way did I mean to discount your advice or to minimize the importance of what you state. I very much understand that heat buildup is a major issue, particularly in confined spaces with little airflow. I completely respect your many decades of experience, I only had some questions and differing opinions based on things I have gathered from articles and posts I've read over the years, and reports from utility programs on my own PC (which of course may differ greatly from other PC's). Please accept my apology. I did not intend to make you feel that your advice and your post is unwanted or not helpful when I asked those clarifying questions about SATA and M.2 port speeds. I was merely confused thinking we may not be on the "same page", and often times, bits of knowledge we gain is by asking other professionals in the community who may in return raise our level of understanding. I cannot possibly know everything, and I've only been working with computers seriously for half the time you have been -- there is much I can yet learn. I will be more mindful of how I state my opinions or current understanding of a topic, and iterate where I would like clarification or correction in what I know to be correct. I was only asking the clarifying question about the SATA/M.2 port speeds as I thought M.2 was >=32GB/s and SATA III at 6GB/s MAX and SATA II at 300MB/s MAX. On my motherboard, I could install an M.2 drive, but it would nullify 2 of the SATA III ports (out of 6 total on this board), decreasing the number of storage drives it can support. In my setup, I use a 2-disk RAID-0 array, a Documents Drive, a Programs Drive, and a Recording Drive. Obviously, the M.2 would/could take the place of the 2-disk RAID-0 array and perform 60-80% faster, but the price per GB is just a bit too high (or was at the time I built this) for me consider that huge speed increase as a fiscally responsible option based on the budget of this disabled American with a kid heading for college. I considered it, for sure, but in the end I spent that additional money on other options (I believe it allowed me to go for the 80+ Gold Certified option for my PSU at the time - a component that may survive more than one PC build over 5+ years). Also, I felt it appropriate to present some data regarding the installation of my storage drives with regards to their physical installation during the system build and OS installation because I did not understand that I may be doing something wrong by installing them all at once pre-OS install but after my RAID-0 array was defined in the BIOS. If your method as described in your post is a preferred method for "x" reason, I very much want to know the value of that "x" reason so I can learn something new perhaps. We very much value the experience of others here, and if anything I wrote seemed less than a question or opinionated statement and more like some kind of slight against your post, I deeply apologize. I went back over my post and added a few EDITS to clarify my meaning as text is so terrible at conveying inference in the manner which one intends. I want to know more, and wanted to keep the discussion going regarding the health & performance quirks of SSD drives. I was under the impression based on the info I provided that given standard airflow, SSD's should have no problem with overheating, provided that the case is frequently cleaned and the blanket of dust is removed from the components inside. I also have an important question that only an expert such as yourself may be able to answer, and I don't always trust my google search skillz: I most certainly should update the firmware on my Samsung 850 Evo's, and regarding the pair in the RAID-0 array, I wanted to ask if I should be concerned at all about damaging the array or any data on those drives by applying a firmware update? I understand that the firmware data is not necessarily occupying the same data blocks as my drives use for storage, and my array is backed up very frequently, but still I wanted to confirm that there is no probable risk as I have never updated the firmware of SSD's in a RAID array before. I had presented a temperature report during a nearly full load after 30 minutes on this PC so that an expert such as yourself may provide insights as to why my temps may manageable now, as your post makes me worry that I may have more heat issues to deal with if there is something else I may be missing. If I understand correctly, you are recommending that SSD's not be used for PC Gaming as additional drives, and based on what I know now I understand SSD's to be helpful in decreasing load times and increasing performance of data streaming off the storage drive as textures load to RAM, etc. and if what I know is wrong, I would most definitely like to know why so I can spread that more correct knowledge than what I currently understand (which again, is that SSD's are good for PC Gaming) as I do not want to spread mis-information. Arma 2 and 3 particularly stream a large amount of data from the programs folder, whatever drive that may reside on - and we were seeing decent performance increases in that game (where it is difficult to get greater than 45FPS and avoid dips below 20FPS during high action scenes - even on rather capable gaming PC's). Again, being that RAM of a size/configuration capable of holding that game with overhead to run it would cost more than a fast SSD (and these days, an M.2 drive) made it the thing to recommend to our gaming friends here. Many of us have these SSD's now for PC gaming, and I am concerned that some may not be monitoring their temperatures and may have the problem you described with smoke literally coming out of the PC as the first notification that something is wrong with this method of improving our PC gaming experience. I wonder if you've seen fried drives of all sizes and brands, or if it was a set of brands in particular that were so badly overheating. Am I safe with this Samsung 850 EVO brand? As shown, I have consistent temperatures under load and during gameplay for hours on end and they've been in service for 2 years now. Am I just one of the lucky ones? I really want to know, because I do not always keep AIDA64 running, as I started to feel safe with my setup. I definitely want to know if I'm just lucky, or if I'm holding a false sense of safety and security with these Samsung EVO's. You are MORE than welcome to post up in any of these forums, and just because a young buck such as myself has questions or differing opinions or knowledge, that is no reason to pack it in. I appreciate someone with more experience passing along new knowledge on the topic, I was just under a different impression regarding the use of SSD's for PC Gaming, the speeds of SATA ports, and the delicate tipping point of SSD heat tolerance. Once again, sorry if my post made you feel unwelcome. You are most welcome, and we all value advice on these topics, and we do want to discuss it and present what we may have thought was the case, and you should feel free to point out where that may be incorrect or outdated knowledge.

To answer that question, go here, click the Download (run the .exe -- it is safe, a one time assessment that opens a website when finished to see your results) http://www.userbenchmark.com/ It will rate your computer, and provide you with a link you can share here. *I can tell you now, as long as you have an internal graphics processor or dedicated graphics chip on that laptop, you will likely be able to run Project Reality. It is not that demanding of a game compared to current games these days. Processore?! What the hell is that?!!?!! (just kidding)

Are you sure that your motherboard supports SATA 3 speeds that can allow your SSD to reach 6GB/s? If so, are you sure your SSD is connected to a SATA 3 port on your motherboard? I ask because SATA 2 ports are a 300 "megs/sec" speed range which is close to what you are reporting. The ports look the same, but some motherboards color the SATA 3 ports differently than the SATA 2 ports...

I thought the big draw of the M.2 SATA was speeds around 32GB/s (or more) and SSD SATA (3) port is 6GB/s -- with some motherboards still having a few SATA 2 ports at 300MB/s. Maybe I'm reading the above sentence incorrectly. I don't have the money for an M.2 SATA drive myself, I use 2x120GB 850 EVO SSD's in RAID-0 for my OS and another much larger 850 EVO SSD that holds all my games. I run ALL of my games off of my Programs SSD, and it's decreased my load times immensely, and with the OS on the RAID-0 volume, I get boot times of less than 12 seconds. My case is an NZXT S340 which has very decent airflow, but the only liquid cooling is on my CPU. My SSD's never have a problem with heat outside the acceptable range, and they don't have any special cooling or anything. In fact, my 500GB SSD holding my games is in the lower bay of the S340 with less airflow than the main body of the case where the other two SSD's sit (the RAID-0 volume). The main body is certainly cooler, as the lower bay contains the PSU and 2 other HDD's. I installed my 2 RAID-0 SSD's first and created my RAID-0 volume in the BIOS, then shut it all down and connected ALL other drives, SATA II and SATA III SSD programs drive, at the same time. Then I booted from USB to install Windows 7 (then again recently, Windows 10 to take advantage of the Touch Control games of Oculus Rift CV1). (*EDIT: I have the PSU disconnected from the A/C wall outlet during this part, but...) I took no extra steps in removing the powerline of any of my drives during any installation, it was all connected at once after my RAID was built. Not sure about all these extra steps you have listed regarding the installation of storage drives to the motherboard... I'll re-read it again after I write this, but I'm confident I am confused (*EDIT: but I would like to know more, to know if and/or why I may be doing this wrong). I'm also a PC Tech, had my own business for years until I retired back in 2010. Never had to take so many steps to install a multi-drive system in Windows; all drives visible by Windows OS when I tell it to install on the RAID-0 array. I do understand what you are saying above, and that heat can certainly be an issue -- and I'd love to have enough RAM to run a proper RAM Drive for the execution of some of my more demanding PC Games, but I cannot afford 4x16GB or 4x32GB to make it large enough for the overhead and still have space for the game. My main games are too large to be feasible at this time; Arma 3, Fallout, and Skyrim are between 30-40 GB, GTA V is a 70GB game, ARK Survival Evolved is a 50GB+ game (and constantly updating each damn week as they push new models instead of fixing bugs), and the rest are so old and small that they already perform tip-top with no excess heat from the SSD's running them. For my less demanding games like Falcon BMS or Project Reality, I'm not sure a RAM drive would benefit any increased load times or even streaming data from the RAM instead of SSD's as these games are already performing optimally with FPS over 100 FPS at Ultra High settings. I could see a maximum of 144 FPS with this 144Hz monitor, but only older games come close to this. Not a super-system, by today's money, I could spend about $800-900 to rebuild this entire system from scratch - but it is a well optimized gaming PC with well thought out parts and configuration. Here's a live report from AIDA64 of my temps as I play GTA V on HIGH settings, driving around in dense traffic during a cop chase in the rain - plenty of explosions going on, reflections, particles, smoke, etc - a most demanding live test, more applicable to this gaming system than any virtual test program such as 3DMark -- FTR my ambient room temp is 21 C (70F): (*EDIT: In my setup,) SSD's don't seem to have any issue whatsoever with temperatures, and I don't see why they would. (*EDIT: I don't see what I've done so differently to achieve such manageable temperatures when as stated SSD's run unreasonably hot). When I use ALL of these drives during a video rendering, the MOST demanding task this system can perform, renders that take upwards of 6 hours at times with my CPU usage pinned over 90% and data streaming to or from all drives, they barely add 5 degrees of heat, again with ambient temperatures at a reasonable 21C (70F). SSD Heat is certainly a factor to monitor, I fully agree with you on that! I've just never noticed SSD overheating to be a such constant problem, or one that requires as much attention as, say, GPU overheat (usually due to dust bunnies in the fins). An SSD for decreased load times, and increased texture loading performance, is much more affordable than a RAM set that can run a RAM drive capable of holding these modern games that tend to be at least 20GB and up to 80GB. SSD's are more affordable than RAM, and they perform way better for PC gaming than HDD's. (*EDIT: I would love to learn more if I am mistaken in this understanding - I don't want to promote mis-information as I recommend to my friends that they get an additional SSD to hold their PC games for decreased load times and possibly increased data streaming performance for games that stream a large amount of data from the storage drive during gameplay)

No, that is not the ultimate solution, and yes, we can prevent legislation from getting passed. We don't take that sort of apathetic attitude towards this sort of legislation, and if we did, things would be a lot worse than they are now. We need to act, and not just scream and shout about it - we need to shout to the right people, and that is what this thread is all about - raising public awareness to take action.

Yep. That's pretty much what we do as Americans - us "little guys". But one step at a time. THIS legislation needs to stop here and now, and only Americans can do it. *I appreciate our discussion here, and I respect our differing views. I don't mind. Of course, we never discuss politics publicly on our forums here for good reason, but I'm glad none of us are going too far off topic or devolving into what some of these crazy people get like. It's probably best to keep it light. No public leader is going to read our words here, and not one of us is going to win or lose any significant battle for the success of the human race in this little forum here, we're merely trying to help spread the word about this issue to our fellow American gamers in this community who most certainly all support our current Net Neutrality rules and the protections they extend in an effort to motivate them to act before it is too late. Too much legislation roles through unnoticed, gets passed without input from those it effects, and many times that is the actual plan of those proposing it. Remember, this is the goal of this post. Not necessarily to debate the rights of these poor, unfortunate internet service providers and their struggling business models. When you ask yourself how I can say so confidently that every American gamer here in the VG community is against repealing our Net Neutrality rules, just ask any one of them if they would like to pay more money for their internet bill to keep if from slowing down from their currently rated Mb/s Up/Down. Again, remember, this is DIFFERENT that paying more for faster speeds - we already do that. This is getting us coming and going!