LadyCrimson

^ I think I lost most of my ability to find what many TV/films billed as comedies think is humorous, back in the early 90's.

There. I still have a few missing (non-revello) pages and conjurations, but not many. After 8 tries finally got that last broom side quest, and you know what that means - I finally have this complete outfit!

Eh, all games have a small portion of people with big issues ... maybe Hogwart's is 7% instead of 3% (the usual figures pulled from my arse) so you see more 'net complaints. Don't think it's all that bad overall vs. how many bought the game. Most of the time I get lucky and am on the doesn't-have-issues side of games - this time I wasn't. I remember initial release of FO:NV was really bad for me w/crashes too, lol. But I played for a couple hours, no CTD, felt smooth, no .ini tweaks etc. so maybe this time w/patch+the last driver reinstall etc it's finally good? Got a couple more Steam Achievements and have only 1 more side quest to get 100% in the 4 challenge categories and I assume hit max level. Of course, it's the only side-quest left and it's the final broom upgrade one. Failed it three times. Bah. I wish they had left a little more leeway re: max level/challenge completion, so there could be a few quests you could skip if you didn't like them, and still reach it. Forcing a player to do every single itty bitty thing isn't my fave method. Although ofc one doesn't have to do all that just to complete the main story. There *is* however a chr. lvl requirement to see the final short cutscene before credit rolling, which some could reach without being that level.

Yeah, that's sometimes a stopper for me too...even if it's only 8 seasons. I also don't have the patience anymore for things like "but it gets really good after 2 seasons!" I'm not watching multiple seasons just so I can understand/get what's happening in the supposedly "good" later seasons. Kinda like when people say a MMO game gets good after 100 hours. Nope.

I tried to watch Psych once. Felt too sitcom-y for me maybe or I wasn't in the mood. I might try again someday. There's also the comedic series Chuck, which someone I know loved but I never got around to trying, tho I do know who Z. Levi is because of clips and his VA role in Tangled was great/fun. Nearing the end of season1 The Mentalist. Still liking the rewatch, both with full attention/TV and as something to have on while cooking etc.

Well, it's nice to use Ansel in combat. Combat animations are still not very still-screen photogenic, however. unrelated ... wish they would allow you to look up and down while flying. Not sure why they limited that one.

--Had terrible texture issues. --DDU'd and reinstalled nvidia drivers, again. Deleted shader caches, again. --was able to restart and not crash in the first 10-20 minutes a couple times, giving me hope. Maybe I can at least play 2-3 hour sessions again. We'll see. --I no longer seem to need the Engine.ini gpu/performance tweak. It runs fine without it/gpu utilization remains high, vram use seems a bit lower, have most settings back to native High/Ultra, mostly 50-70fps, no severe frame pacing stutter even during brief dips into low 40's, etc. ...cautiously optimistic.

--got it to start again --I'd say overall fps/general performance is about the same for me, at my settings etc. --Ansel does work during combat actions now --Biscuit quest indeed fixed, the lock appeared, could rescue. --but CTD'd in about 20 minutes after casting a spell at an enemy. It's just totally random for me in the sense there is no predicting/avoiding a cause/moment. I do not CTD while fast traveling. When the CTD happens the GPU usage in task manager seems to do a sudden moderate drop then a spike to 100/max a micro-second before the crash, vs. the more typical steady-line 85-90%.

...nope, CTD'd after 10-12 minutes of randomly flying around on the broom. ...last night I turned DLSS back on and managed about 30 minutes. I had it off again after patch. ...you can use Ansel while sitting on the broom now. ...I'll restart and see if that Biscuit lock bug is fixed. Edit: oops now it won't even start. Hit Play button and the button turns blue for about 3 seconds then goes back to green/Play state again.

I saw some others on LInux posting about some crash fix, maybe it's the same one you're using. I guess it's all an argument to get rid of Winblows. I'm certainly not eager to go to Win11, but then I wasn't eager to move to any new version of Windows.

Well, that is not a promising start. Edit: ok it supposedly installed. Going to verify integrity before starting. I removed the Engine.ini config tweaks temporarily. Let's see if it starts...

Hogwart's patch: https://steamcommunity.com/app/990080/discussions/0/3789254716315683638/ Many crash related notes in there: ...I suppose that's why they feel so random... ...it says it fixed Ansel use while spells are cast and on the broom. Does that mean we can use it at those times now? ...like all patches, some say it broke the game/it's even worse, maybe especially some RT settings (at least I don't use those) etc.. I'm almost afraid to try it, lol. I suppose it can't get much worse than it already has been for me, since it started all the CTD recently.

^ Don't have a specific tool but I've used everything from screwdrivers to hard kitchen spatulas. They break quite often even then. I miss when things were mostly done with screws and metal clips but pretty futuristic designs don't work well with that I guess. Unrelated: Well, with brief testing, it would appear putting the power-target of the gpu (undervolting?) at or below 68% stops the CTD's in Hogwarts, for me. Or at least, stops them from happening at either start up and within the first 30 minutes. >.> At that low of a target (vs. 80%) I do lose 5-8fps tho. Makes me think Hogwart coding is currently doing something that triggers micro high wattage spikes for me, and either the gpu or psu or power strips or who knows what doesn't like it. Of course, that's still just a theory. ...ordered a new/different giant power strip because it's the easiest thing to try first. I bought one when we moved because the one I was using at the other house didn't have a long enough cord for wall outlet vs. middle of the room distance. And no, I'm not just concerned re: Hogwart's, I was having those spontaneous PC reboots, too.

^ "Taking this off is so easy!" in the 3 or 4 videos I watched for the PS4, I'd guess it was so easy because they'd done it on theirs several or a dozen times or more already. >.> Plus manufacture randomness. But yeah, 7 times out of 10 (not just computer stuff either) the plastic snaps break and then you're hunting for the duct tape.

One of my attempts to make a "oh this looks cool" show up in a screenshot. Oh, so that's what they look like (since you're usually so far away from them) -godmode cheat used so I didn't have to attack - Ansel works when enemies attack, just not when your chr. is doing any attack/animation

In my case it's always possible a reformat/O/S reinstall might help, or maybe it's even something hardware that more demanding games are triggering. But Hogwart's has many CTD complaints so I'm not alone with that one. That stupid hydro gpu cooler did slightly leak onto the gpu a bit, ages ago. Seemed fine but never know. >.> I haven't had any actual spontaneous reboots since doing some cleanup, and only CTD in Hogwart's and one Alpha-state game. I'm not building a new PC yet and I'm too lazy to reinstall O/S any time soon. I think the only thing I haven't tried yet is replacing the large industrial power strip much of my stuff is plugged into. One never knows.

Last of Us Episode 8 - Better then last episode, imo. I wish it had been maybe 10 minutes longer to pad out a certain early aspect/tension a bit more. ---Troy Baker playing a small role. 'Nuff said. ---With the way they have been condensing some things I'm certain they can end the show with the one episode left. One has to remember that TV is not a game with the player taking a long time to "do stuff" - the essential story can be told fairly briefly. It might've been better at 10 episodes vs. 9, however. ---I still feel like Episodes 1-3 were the best ones, with the rest falling a notch or two below. Still good.

Oh yeah, by mid-game that's not really an issue. It's just if you spent a lot of your moonstone when you get the first main RoR rooms, it might feel more significant. Had 300-500, spent a few hundred, that kind of thing. 999 is the max you can hold anyway. It's more just that some likely wasted a ton of time deco'ing before getting vivariums etc. Annoying.

"I think it's been like 5+-years, I wonder if my PS4-Pro is really dusty inside." "YouTube videos say it's easy to get the top piece off, just pull up hard on these corners." *struggles like Superman fighting Kryptonite repeatedly, break a nail, deep dents in the bottom of fingers, sit on floor, at a table, cursing the whole time* "LIARS." ... eventually hear the snap sounds, keep pulling etc. Finally comes loose - and didn't break anything! ...the fan was a little dusty but hardly worth the effort. Blew it out a bit, put cover back on. I guess I keep a fairly dust-free room. ...I am not taking the bottom cover off.

Hogwart's ever since it made me do a small patch for some reason: CTD, CTD, CTD, CTD. Sometimes it takes me 5 tries before it allows me to get to/enter the main menu. Sometimes it plays for 30 minutes, then CTD when take a step forward or I sneeze at the screen. I've tried almost everything, including copying back a backup of the older version game folder, nvidia studio drivers, deleting shader caches (several ways/times), windowed vs. windowed fullscreen, different settings in case one is bugged etc. Despite all that, and despite me saying each time I'm going to quit, since I have no life, I stubbornly keep trying, inbetween episodes of The Mentalist, and finished the astronomy tables, combat feats, and I think all that's left is 4 more Infamous Foes and total quests. I'm guessing for the side-quest collection I'm going to have to do the broom quests. I'm 39.5 and basically if you want max level you have to do EVERYTHING in the game. I wonder if that bugged Rescue Biscuit quest is going to prevent me from getting 100% re: quests completed/max clvl.... It probably sounds like I'm continually griping now, but if I didn't like the game overall I wouldn't still be trying to "complete" it ... right? It's just the technical problem rage. Or maybe I'm just a masochist. Oh, I did turn on Stray again, last night, as a break. I needed cute kitty and the "meow button" to soothe my CTD-rage. It did not CTD once, so I got plenty of Meow. Meow.

It doesn't quite end there. It's a bit of a gripe of mine, as a building-sim fan, that every time the room expands, it removes all wall deco (you do get the moonstone back I think), or suddenly anything you put on the floor may be in a weird looking spot, so there is no point in personal decorating until the end of the game. The design of it all is very nice looking tho, they did a good job with that.

I think most fables/fairy tales that are currently ostensibly for children are kind of like some of the tales in the Bible or other religious texts*. They are attempts at teaching morality lessons or behavior lessons. Philosophy or rules or "religious" lessons couched in more crowd-pleasing or relatable entertainment fantasy trappings (vs. a "thou shall not covet..." lecture) . On the flip side, you also have some that are the reverse and not punishment related (be good/bear with it and great rewards will come...even if it's only in the afterlife). Or some that are a sort of mixture of both (Little Mermaid feels like that to me - it's dark, but it's still a reward in the end since she doesn't put her life first and gets a chance to earn a soul). Whether they were originally for adults or not, who knows. Cinema has just stayed within that course, even if they then soften or give them happy ever after endings instead. *no offense to any religion/texts intended

HBOMax has all the seasons of The Mentalist. I recall liking that show a fair bit when it was airing, altho like many series I probably only watched 1 or 2 seasons. It's your fairly typical "genius observer type with a past" helps a cop team solve crimes show, but the lead Simon Baker is just so great in it that it elevates it a bit. Rewatching it, it mostly holds up. Mostly it's fun seeing the early episodes again after all this time, maybe I'll try to finish thru season 5, when I think the main chr. arc ends (the show lasted a couple more years after that but probably went very downhill). Quite a few well known tv actors from the time period sprinkled throughout as well. I had forgotten how much I liked the deadpan demeanor of the supporting chr. played by Tim Kang, too. He had the perfect face/voice for such. I looked him up and I guess he has a recurring role in that Magnum PI reboot. Almost makes me want to check that out now, or at least an episode or two.

When you finally finish all 95 Merlin Trials, see the steam achievement listed in Steam's client window. Then 10 minutes later you exit game and the PC reboots itself in the process. When you reboot/restart Steam, the Achievement is gone/not registered anymore, but you've still completed all 95 in game, so ... FUBAR. Although, maybe I could load an autosave if there's one before I did the last one. (EDIT - yeah, that worked, Merlin's Beard registered again. then the game crashed on me again. ) Oh well. At least it shows up in the game itself. Pfft. There's maybe 4 or 5 unfinished in-game collection stuff left, like astronomy tables, 10 more side quests, etc. But game is crashing more often again. I think I'm going to call it quits until they put out 5 more patches or something.

Hogwart's - if you think most of the outdoors nights or night in general are a little too bright, you can play around with another Engine.ini line tweak: [/script/engine.renderersettings] r.TonemapperGamma=1.60 ...where the 1.60 is anything you want. For me and the OLED + no fog I had to keep it pretty high (160-165) or crushed all black details (like faces/walls) etc. Others with fog on/non-OLED were saying something like 1.35 worked well for them. 1.70 seemed for me seemed to be almost the default night. ...at any rate, while unlit dungeons or covered forests were always plenty dark/black enough for me, I do like the open-sky nights being a bit darker at least, vs. almost day time with a heavy blue filter.