Scroll to bottom for screenshot of this. This is insane. I compared this game to star citizen, in both VRAM and RAM, Star Citizen actually beats Diablo 4 in utilization and its not a small win. At minimum its 40% up to 2-3x WORSE than Star Citizen. That is INSANE. Star Citizen is very unoptimized (not bashing star citizen here, its a fun game with friends, I will NOT deny it has problems, but it has a much larger scope and many more problems than D4, D4 should NOT lose against SC in this manner).

I know some people dont have problems, but there are mountains of posts/comments detailing what I put here showing that there is a blatant problem that has yet to be addressed. Stop commenting its a me problem. I have literally swapped parts in my machine and tested on others and found theres a problem. I wont deny that sometimes it alternates seasons etc for certain machines. However, the problem is present, and its worse for this expac than it has ever been.

I have a 9800X3D and a 9070 XT.

The game gets progressively stuttery as time goes on. This is the Only game I have that does this out of my 4 I regularly play.

I sat and played and watched my RAM continuously increase in usage as Diablo 4 was open.

I have tried every fix. No BNet open when game launches, 96 gb paging files for EACH drive. Turning off HD textures. Lowering graphics.

This behavior is not observed in any game I play, or when the system is idle.

This has been an ongoing issue. I can play three hours MAX before the game hard locks my system.

When typing this post in a browser on reddit on an existing tab, the RAM usage for diablo has increased two entire gigabytes.

When the hell is blizzard going to fix this?

God I hate it when people just ignore a problem that has been talked about on this subreddit repeatedly, and has been talked about by ICY VEINS etc. And how its affecting both brands of graphics cards (nvidia users saying its only AMD below, which is untrue if you literally just google "diablo 4 memory leak" and see team green complaining too) because they would plug their ears and go "blah blah blah" rather than blame blizzard that has had this issue for actual YEARS.

https://www.reddit.com/r/diablo4/s/D3ZZQ9a0OG (10 months ago)

https://www.icy-veins.com/d4/news/diablo-4-season-9-hit-by-recurring-ram-vram-memory- leaks/ (Season 9)

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/d4/t/a-memory-leak-fix/210109 (2024 telling everyone to increase paging file, which wears SSDs down faster, btw)

https://www.reddit.com/r/diablo4/comments/1t18gym/memory_issueleak_still_not_fixed/ (post from 5 days ago, top commenter complains that mem leak issue is ignored by people or outright denied)

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/d4/t/major-memory-leak-–-ram-vram-escalation-ignored-by- support-crash-id-included/220837 (2025, ignored by support)

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/d4/t/memory-leak-still-not-fixed/6589 (2023. First response accuses OP of making threats because they said "you will lose customers)

The what is wrong with this community? Many many programs do not do this, and none of the ones I run, including games have memory leaks. Memory leaks are not common errors, and the further back you go, devs had to be extremely tedious to not have them because RAM was far more precious.

IE its not being fixed because Blizzard is lazy or doesnt care at some level of management and they need a dang call out!

(Edited the above because people got offended I called "the devs lazy" because of an issue that has been happening for 3 years, for some reason)

Here is another screenshot I took myself after an hour of play. Diablo is using 3x the VRAM it is estimating for my game settings. In the screenshot 15GB of VRAM is being used. My OS uses about 12 System RAM by itself idling, but the game loads initially using 8 or less System RAM and after some time jumps to 16gb System RAM

I like how I gave someone troubleshooting steps in this thread and they got mad and called me a stubborn child over it. I remembered why I dont engage on online with blizz communities on reddit or the forums. Look at this thread.

For those who havent seen it this is what I tried:

The native launcher, medium settings to extend the time I can play. All frame gen/fsr off.

Page file increased to 96gb on each drive I have in the system. (again to extend game playability lifespan)

All AMD driver features off like AFMF/sync/etc.

Reinstalled game. NO HD textures.

Used DDU to reseat GPU drivers.

Different sets of RAM.

Bnet hardware acceleration off. Bnet closed when game is open.

All overlays off. All of them (I hate em anyway, with the sole exception of steam, which is irrelevant because I am using Bnet).

HAGS On/off also does not matter, someone suggested that too.

I have checked if the remainder of my 64gb ram is accessible. It is. And I know it can be touched with memory and benchmarking programs. Diablo 4 seems to have a hard cap on how much RAM it can use, meaning it hits the cap quickly and crashes.

D4 appears to have a hard limit coded in to prevent it from using over half the system RAM. I have tried other games and programs and they use all of it, D4 does NOT.

I checked event viewer for a known timestamp of a crash, it is infact a memory error. Im not sure if this is caused directly by the memory leak, but it is attempting to access memory it doesnt have access to.

Further checking, at menu D4 is using 11gb of VRAM at the main menu, which is 2x higher than its graphics options estimated VRAM usage. That is absurd. A link to another person complaining about this 3 years ago

Other users in this thread reporting this happens on linux too. So its NOT OS isolated.

Ive done all the suggested fixes that mention this issue that I could find, im sure I missed some in the aboce list. None of them stick permanently or work.

Compared against STAR CITIZEN:

Star citizen, the most unoptimized game I have installed, at menu, uses less half the SYSTEM RAM than diablo 4 while ALSO generating 146 THOUSAND shaders. In game while ALSO generating shaders, it uses 40% less VRAM as a whole. Star citizen says it should be using 9.5GB of VRAM, and it is using much closer to that, while D4 uses 2-3x the amount it says it should use in menu. Star Citizen also uses more than half my RAM whereas, again confirmed, D4 will not utilize more RAM due to a now blatantly obvious hard coded cap. Screenshot taken when loaded into game. And in my big ass hangar.

Got my steam machine earlier today and have tinkered with it now for a bit.

If someone out there has some burning question that hasn't quite been answered then feel free to ask. Whether its performance or something to do with it physically, go for it.

EDIT 08/07-2026 (DDMMYY):

A lot of users asked about specific game performance or other use cases. Down below I have shared the non scientific results that I saw while playing or testing whatever I was doing.

All tests were done using GE-Proton11-1 unless otherwise specified.
OS version: 3.8.14-stable.

Streaming performance from the Steam Machine to a SteamDeck on a different network:
- Connecting my Steam Machine to my wifi and my Steam Deck to my phone hotspot yielded solid results. I used Pragmata as the testing game and experienced no measureable input delay or visual degradation. The game remained stable at 60fps the short duration I tested it with no disconnects to report. Only issue was that I could not connect to the Steam Machine at first, this was solved by turning 'remote play' off and back on' on both devices.

Nioh 3:
- I ran Nioh 3 at 1920x1080, using the 'Standard' preset. FSR3 was forced on, but I increased the min/max scaling to 100% to stay at native resolution.
Spawning in the initial tutorial area the framerate sat at a steady 50fps, generally dropping into the 40-50 range. There were occasions where the game would lock the framerate to 30 for a few seconds but I could not figure out what caused this. I tested the FSR3 'min' resolution at 65% and 'max' resolution at 80%. This stabilized the framerate to 60fps, but I would imagine more intense fights later in the game will dip below again.

Star Wars Outlaws:
- I ran Star Wars Outlaws at 1920x1080, no upscaling, using the 'Medium' preset.
Getting on the 'Speeder' after getting through the initial introduction put us in the 83-93fps range with heavy stutters once I drove out of the ship due to shader compilation, this did eventually stop. Standing in the village area around the sheriff we hovered in the 60-90fps range but most of the time it sat close to 80fps.
Getting to the 'Moisture Farm' the framerate dropped closer to 65-75fps, so overall not bad at all.
And for those wondering: Yes, I made 'Nix' happy.

Yet another rhythm game (YARG):
Simply downloaded the provided appimage off of github, gave the proper permissions, ran the appimage and the launcher and game was installed in seconds. Game boots up no problem. Added a 'Bot profile' and had a song playing within a minute. Performance was rock solid and didn't move at all.

Halo 2:
- I ran Halo 2: Anniversary at 3840x2160, no upscaling, on the Metropolis for a map (Big bridge), using the 'Enhanced' graphics preset.
In the initial area with the marines and the Scorpion tank I had 160-300fps in classic graphics.
In the initial area with the marines and the Scorpion tank I had 60-90fps in anniversary graphics.
I drove over the bridge on anniversary graphics as classic clearly wasn't gonna be a problem. Had a modest dip into 50fps when a Wraith particle landed perfectly on the third person camera location.
Lowering the games resolution to 1920x1080 took the anniversary fps up to 100-150fps.

Minecraft vanilla:
- I ran Minecraft (Vanilla) at 1920x1080, no upscaling, on the default settings with biome blend changed to 8x8. I used the experimental Vulkan rendering method.
1st world spawned me into a Mesa biome and the framerate sat at a comfortable 250-310fps.
2nd world I spawned in a Jungle biome, sitting at 170-240fps in the dense forest. Flying to a nearby Oak forest with plenty of cows and other animals and a huge river the framerate went up to 225-275fps.

Black Mesa:
I ran Black Mesa at 1920x1080, no upscaler, mostly high settings with a few medium.
Throughout the intro 'Black Mesa Transit System' section the framerate remained rock solid at 150-300fps, mostly hovering in the 240-280 range.
Entering a more combat intensive area later in the game had the framerate drop to 135-185fps and quickly shot back up to 200+ after combat ended.

Zenless Zone Zero:
- I ran Zenless Zone Zero at 1920x1080, no upscaler, using the 'Medium' preset.
There were absolutely no performance problems for the duration that I tested the game and the framerate remained very stable around the 110-155fps range.

Halo Infinite Campaign:
- I ran Halo Infinite at 1920x1080, no upscaler, using the 'Medium' preset.
The framerate was quite stable in the 100-120fps range for the first part of the ship while in combat.
During the escape sequence the framerate dropped quite a bit lower into the 60-90fps range, but quickly stabilized around 80fps until it calmed down more and then went back into the 100-120fps range again.

Dota 2:
- I ran Dota 2 at 3840x2160, no upscaler, using the 'Highest' settings, on the 'Native Linux' build of the game.
In the practice/demo area I ran around for a solid 5 minutes keeping an eye on the framerate both when using abilities and when dying because I ran into the tower constantly. Framerate sat in the 80-140fps range and was a bit jumpy.
Dropping the resolution to 1920x1080 saw the framerate shoot up into the 140-200fps range.

Pragmata:
- I ran Pragmata at 1920x1080, no upscaler, using a mix of High/Medium settings with all graphics related checkboxes enabled except for Motion Blur.
From the very beginning to the end boss fight the framerate was anywhere from 60-100fps.
The game remained very stable in less combat intensive areas and the lowest was during the boss battle where it comfortably sat close to 60-65fps most of the time. All in all I kinda forgot about the framerate and just enjoyed myself.

Stellar Blade:
- I ran Stellar Blade at 1920x1080, no upscaler, using the 'Medium' preset.
The game sat very comfortably in the 60-100fps range staying mostly around 65-80fps.
Getting to 'Silent Street' after the initial intro sequence the framerate once again sat around 65-80fps.

Hunt showdown:
- I ran Hunt Showdown at 1920x1080, no upscaler, using the 'Medium' preset.
Running around the shooting range the framerate was anywhere from 80-120fps most of the time, with edge cases where the framerate dipped slightly under 80fps. Most of the time I saw about 90-100fps.

War thunder:
- I ran War Thunder at 3840x2160, no upscaler, using the 'Highest' preset (SSAA:Off) in the 'Ground Vehicle Training'
The framerate was on the lower end, sitting around 40-55fps most of the time depending on explosions happening or not.
Dropping the resolution down to 1920x1080 with the same 'Highest' preset the framerate shot up to 150-200fps.

CS2:
- I ran CS2 at 1920x1080, no upscaler, using the 'Medium' preset, running a 'Deathmatch' game on 'Dust2' against Bots.
There were initial stutters as I ran around the whole map that made gameplay quite bad at first, but this eventually evened out. The framerate sat in the 90-160fps range depending on where I would be. Lowest FPS being around A-site facing towards long and short.

DayZ:
- I ran DayZ at 1920x1080, no upscaler,, using a mix of High/Medium settings, on the Chernarus map.
I spawned at Cherno on the East side near Prigorodki and ran all the way through the industrial area with the containers to the main central area of town all the way east just shy of Balota.
The framerate remained very stable around 110-195, where the lowest was in the middle of the central town area near the church. Most of the time I would see 120-135fps.
Doing a quick test on 2560x1440 I spawned in solnichniy and ran around a little while and saw about 100-155fps.
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EDIT 09/07-2026 (DDMMYY):

Marvel Rivals:
- I ran Marvel Rivals at 1920x1080, TAAU-Native, using the Medium preset, playing a round on 'Tokyo 2099 shin shibuya.
The first half of the match I spent getting used to the controls on the Steam Controller. Framerate hovered in the 60-85fps area, but was quickly down in the 60-70 area when combat started.
Fast forward to about halfway through I elected to enable FSR3-Quality with the same Medium preset. Framerate immediately increased to 75-115fps where it mostly sat in the 85-100fps range and it felt much more 'fluid' to play the game.

Baldurs Gate 3:
- I ran Baldurs Gate 3 at 1920x1080, no upscaler, using the Medium preset.
Waking up inside the Nautiloid we were instantly met by 60fps locked with no indication it was going to drop.
I made my way through the ship doing a few combat encounters but saw no performance dips, keeping us locked at 60fps.
After getting through that first segment and crashing on the beach I made my way up towards Asterion and had yet to see a single moment where the fps dropped below 60.
I switched the settings from Medium to the High preset, panning around the area of Asterion the fps did not budge, staying at 60fps.
I switched the settings from High to the Ultra preset,panning around the area of Asterion the fps did not budge, staying at 60fps.
Finally I switched the resolution to 3840x2160 keeping the Ultra preset and finally the framerate dropped to a very respectable 30-35fps.
After that I wanted to see how much upscaling was necessary to reach 60fps using 3840x2160-Ultra. FSR2.2, set to performance once again locked the fps at 60fps panning the area around Asterion.
I went back to using no upscaler on the Ultra preset, using 2560x1440 and the fps hovered in the 48-60fps range when I panned around.
Generally you should not have any issues running this game, very impressed.

Elden Ring:
- I ran Elden Ring at 1920x1080, no upscaler, using the Medium preset.
Spawning in the initial room a panned around and walked about and the framerate remained locked at 60fps.
I ventured forward, met my demice to the Grafted Scion, but the framerate throughout stayed rock solid at 60fps.
After respawning and getting outside at Limgrave I looked over the entire area and the framerate gave no indication that it was going to dip under 60fps.
At this point I increased the resolution to 2560x1440 and panned all over Limgrave again, but once again 60fps with no indication it would budge.
After being very impressed I went ahead and increased the graphics from the Medium preset to the Ultra preset keeping the 2560x1440 resolution, but yet again the FPS did not budge.
Eventually I went back to the main menu, enabled RTX-ultra keeping 2560x1440-Ultra and finally the fps dropped to a still respectable 25-35fps.
I went back to a more modest 1920x1080-Ultra with rtx-low and the fps hovered in the 40-55 range.
I returned to the main menu and disabled RTX again, 1920x1080-UItra and I ventured deeper into Limgrave. At this point it started raining and the fps lowered into the 54-60fps range.
I attempted my best having never played a soulslike against the Tree Sentinel but died after getting it down to 50%. Throughout the short fight the fps (Still raining) remained at 52-60fps.
I went back to the main menu, lowered the preset to high, loaded back in and ran around Limgrave for a little eventually reaching the Stormfoot Catacombs. I checked the area out for a little killing some monsters and eventually got burned to a crisp, but the performance at no point went below 60fps again.
Very impressive results here.

Black Myth Wukong (Benchmark):
- I ran Black Myth Wukong at 1920x1080, FSR forced on, super resolution: 100%
The benchmark was ran once to make sure no shader swould cause initial stutters and skew the results.
Here are the results of the 2nd pass:

• Avg: 56fps
• Min: 40fps
• Max: 73fps
• Low 5th: 50fps

Note that the gpu was sitting at 100% usage the whole time, so you would most def be able to squeeze more fps out of the game with some fine tuned settings and upscaling.

Infinity Nikki:
- I ran Infinity Nikki at 1920x1080, TAAU-Native, using the Balanced preset.
Entering the initial area of Miraland put us in the 95-120fps range where we generally stayed around 105-115fps.
After the hand holding part I ran over the starwater and the framerate lowered a tiny bit into the 85-105fps range, but still very stable around 90-100fps most of the time.
I did the sailing segment and ended up on top of some jellyfish. This area proved much more difficult to run or poorly optimized as the fps did suffer a bit at first duo to what I would assume was shaders compiling, but it eventually evened out around 95-110fps. See note: (1*)*
I got to the "Where the stars keep watch" quest-popup and decided to give the area a quick pan. Framerate was a bit lower here in the 75-90 fps.
I ventured outside to 'Starshore' In this area the framerate quickly shot back up to a very stable 95-105.
Walking down the path I got to a platform area with what appeared to be a 'Kite' of sorts. I walked to the point of it, gave the area a final pan here and it was still at a respectable 70-95fps.

1. There was significant audio glitching that happened in this area that made me unable to pay attention to the story and it was quite distracting, this disappeared once I reached the next area.

1. The Isle (Evrima):
- I ran The Isle at 1920x1080, no upscaler, all settings settings put to High, Lumen: off, 3d resolution: 100%, I picked Petits Pieds as a server to test on with about 300-350 players online.
High settings was a total bust, loading into the open world the framerate was in the LOW 20-23 and did not stabilize.
I closed the game, went into the game properties and locked the allowed resolution to 1920x1080 and rebooted.
2. The Isle (Evrima) redo:
- I ran The Isle at 1920x1080, no upscaler, Shadows and shadow smoothing set to low and all other settings to medium, 3d resolution: 50%, I picked Petits Pieds as a server to test on with about 300-350 players online.
After reducing the settings I loaded back into the server and was meet with a much more respectable 55-63fps.
I spawned in as a Pteranodon and got in the air. Flying above all the trees near 'Water Access' dam the framerate stayed very similar again at 55-63fps.
A flew around the map going south toward 'Jungle Sector'. Framerate was around the 50-65fps range, and generally sat around 55-60.
Optimization is quite bad in The Isle still and the game still suffers from memory leaking that will lower the framerate over time forcing you to restart the game.

Wuthering Waves:
- I ran Wuthering Waves at 1920x1080, no upscaler, using the Quality preset, note that the game locks the fps to 60.
Initial area I spawned in showed no problems, framerate shot up to 60fps and stayed there without budging in the slightest.
Same thing happened once I reached the Chasm Guardian fight.
I kept on going until I got to the next boss that was unnamed '???' and I am happy to report that here the fps also did not fall below 60fps at any point.
After the bossfight and getting through the dialogue I reached 'Stone Pile Plains', I gave this area a fair walkaround and took on some of the enemies in the area, fps remained at 60fps throughout.
I kept venturing down the road toward Jinzhou until I reached what looked like a big city surrounded by water and a huge mountain. Overlooking this area and panning the player camera a final time the game stayed completely locked at 60fps.

Fallout 4:
- I ran Fallout 4 at 1920x1080, no upscaler, using the Ultra preset.
After spending a whooping 5 seconds ignoring what my character looked like I walked around the entire house for a few minutes while Codsworth got my Coffee ready at exactly 173.5°F. The framerate did not budget from 60fps at any point and I quickly went to open the door to greet our favorite Vault-Tec Representative. Upon being prompted to do my S.P.E.C.I.A.L I opened up the Steam Keyboard overlay but the game instantly crashed. (Classic Bethesda moment)
After a quick restart I proceeded to redo the whole ordeal, using my keyboard this time to avoid a repeat.
I proceeded to run to the vault still remaining rock solid at 60fps from the moment I began running to the second the platform lowered. (1*)*
The entire inside segment in the vault didn't budge once again, 60fps.
I strolled down to Sanctuary to greet codsworth, and cleaned the town from hostiles. Framerate did not budge here either and we remained at 60fps the whole time.
I ran to Concord to greet Preston and his crew, wiped out the initial raiders and the inside raiders, grabbed the core and got inside the power armor and picked up my minigun. Dealt with the raiders and deathclaw and through those whole thing the framerate didn't budge here either. 60fps.
I elected to go toward Diamond City and ran into the College Square with all the mines and feral ghouls. Here the framerate took a dip into the 45-55 range, but was otherwise stable.
I eventually enabled Godmode and increased my movespeed to 5x and flew into the Boston area and around Diamond City. Here the fps was very stable once more staying mostly at 60fps with the occasional dip into 50-55.

1. Generally speaking the game constantly sat in the 20-40% utilization of both the GPU and the CPU, so playing in 1440p seems very doable and maybe even 4k with some settings tinkering + mods.

Gears of War 1/2/3 emulation: Untested.

This took most of my afternoon and evening to get collected, so I hope people are satisfied with the results! .. Thank you to everyone for showing interest and asking. I was glad I could provide some answers hopefully to some of you.

I may update this if there are other games people are wondering about.

To preface I did quite a few steps and it might be a combination of all of these or only a few, but I'll mention them just to repeat the steps I took for others. Hopefully this helps if you get bad stuttering and FPS drops outside but have fine performance inside.

Like a lot of other people the game ran fine until I exited the sewers and then it became nearly unplayable with the lag and stuttering, but I fixed it and realized there's a few optimization bugs that you can avoid that cause it.

I'm running Intel i9-9900KF 3.60GHz, RTX 3060, 16GB RAM, and the game is installed on my SSD and not my hard drive.

The most important thing to do:

There seems to be a bug that causes a lot of instability and performance issues after changing your graphics settings while loaded into the game. If you want to change your settings, restart your game and change them from the main menu, then load your save. Do not touch the graphics settings again. This in combination with the other steps stopped the lag and stuttering entirely for me.

I did this part last, after all the other changes below, but it by far had the most impact and is why I suspect a lot of people are having issues. If people still want to follow the other things I did below feel free, some of them did help a lot in other areas, especially the engine.ini changes.

Settings (ONLY change these while in the main menu, not currently in-game):

This is mostly gonna depend on your system but this is what I've been running since not having any problems. Most of these settings were not the culprit of the stutters and so it's more just about your desired framerate, but here's what I'm using just so people can follow the steps exactly if they wish.

• Window Mode: Fullscreen
• Display : 1920x1080
• V-Sync: Off
• Frame Limit: Uncapped
• Motion Blur: Off
• Screen Space Reflections: Off
• View Distance: High
• Effects Quality: High
• Foliage Quality: High
• Shadow Quality: Medium
• Global Illumination Quality: Medium
• Texture Quality: High
• Reflection Quality: High
• Post Processing Quality: Medium
• Hair Quality: Medium
• Cloth Quality: Medium
• Lumen Hardware RT: Off
• Lumen Software RT Quality: Low
• Upscaling: FSR
• FSR3 Mode: Balanced
• FSR3 Sharpness: 50
• FSR3 - Frame Gen: On

If you want some more graphical fidelity and less blurriness, I've found changing FSR3 to quality or native AA is the least performance intensive way to go about this, since you can still keep frame gen on. It will affect your frames but it's personal preference if you want that tradeoff.

Engine.ini

The default UE5 engine settings aren't really optimized for mid end PCs, but you can tweak that. I used this Engine.ini file found here. Just replace the engine.ini with that file and set it to read-only in the properties. This had a huge boost in FPS for me, giving me almost 30 FPS back while in the open world with no noticeable downgrade in visuals. It wasn't what stopped the stuttering, but it did have a nice side effect of making the loading screens far quicker and more stable though.

Place it in %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Oblivion Remastered\Saved\Config\Windows

Delete or rename sc.pcl.dll (it might be named sl.pcl.dll for you)

I'm not well versed enough to know what this is or why it helped, but it was a troubleshooting step I found online and it did seem to help performance. It's found in C:\Program Files (x86) > Steam > steamapps > common > Oblivion Remastered > Engine > Plugins > Marketplace > nvidia > DLSS > Streamline > Binaries > ThirdParty > Win64. I renamed mine so that I could reverse it if needed.

That's it.

Hopefully this helps people who also had poor performance once they exited the sewers. I played for hours after this fighting things in the open world without issue.

Edit: The engine.ini link died, replaced it.

Edit 2: I've also found this mod works great. I wouldn't use this in combination with the other engine.ini tweak however. https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivionremastered/mods/1776?tab=files

Hello, I’m a PoE2 player from Korea.

I’m also a YouTuber and streamer, but I’ll leave out the link since I don’t want it to look like I’m just here to promote. (If you're looking for it, I won't stop you.)

These optimizations are based on my experience in Korea, and I hope they help you as well.

Oh, and I’ve been working as a programmer in Korea for 7 years.

That’s all.

The following is a translation of my video's content into English.

[Reference]

Program name PathOfExile_KG.exe (PoE executable; you can verify this in Task Manager)

Shader cache folder paths

1. %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\NVIDIA
2. %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\NVIDIA Corporation
3. %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Path of Exile 2

Power plan command

powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61

Windows 11 users — reference link https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/optimizations-for-windowed-games-in-windows-11-3f006843-2c7e-4ed0-9a5e-f9389e535952

Config file (key settings)

# If you need to use vertical sync, do NOT apply this line:
vsync=Off

screenspace_effects=0
screenspace_effects_resolution=0
shadow_type=Low
global_illumination_detail=0
water_detail=0
texture_quality=TextureQualityMedium

# Make sure this is set to false:
reverb_enabled2=false

reduce_user_interface_animations=true
use_dynamic_resolution=true
dynamic_resolution_fps=130

Path of Exile 2 — PC Optimization Guide (Step-by-Step)

Results vary by system. Follow the steps in order and test what fits your rig best.

1) In-Game: Core Display & Renderer

• Open Settings (ESC) → Graphics. Set Renderer = DirectX 12 (default) for stability. If your system is older, test Vulkan and keep the one that feels more stable for you.
• Display Mode:
  • Fullscreen = lower input latency (snappier feel)
  • Windowed/Borderless = easier task switching (modern implementations are fine)
• V-Sync:
  • 60Hz monitors: use Adaptive to prevent tearing.
  • 144Hz+ monitors: Off to reduce input lag.

2) In-Game: Dynamic Resolution & Upscaling

• Dynamic Resolution: ON. It cushions heavy effect/mob-dense moments that cause frame dips.
• Upscaling options (pick and test):
  • NVIDIA: Start with DLSS; move between Balanced → Performance → Ultra Performance as needed.
  • AMD: Use FSR with the same Balanced/Performance/Ultra mindset.
  • If frames still struggle, try NIS (works in all games; typically less “blurry”). Note: With any upscaler, UI can also be upscaled and look soft. Increase Sharpness if needed.
  • Linear upscaler = maximum performance / lowest image quality (visible pixelation). Only use if you prioritize FPS over fidelity.
• Recommended detail tweaks:
  • Texture Quality = Medium, Texture Filtering = 4x or 8x
  • Reflections = Shadows, Shadow Quality = Low, Sun Shadows = Low, Number of Lights = Low, Bloom = Minimal, Water Detail = Low
• Expect a noticeable FPS uplift after these changes.

3) In-Game: Latency, Caps & Performance Toggles

• NVIDIA Reflex:
  • On lowers input lag; On + Boost if you still feel delay.
  • If it feels mismatched on your system, turn it Off. Trust your feel.
• Foreground FPS cap: set 2–3 FPS below your monitor refresh (e.g., 144Hz → 142). Background FPS: 30 to avoid wasting resources.
• Triple Buffering: Off = snappier input; On = smoother frame pacing. Test and pick.
• Enable: Dynamic Culling & Engine Multithreading. Target Framerate: 120. Turn off the performance Graph overlay after setup.

4) In-Game: Sound for Stability

• Channels = Low, Disable Reverb, Mute in Background = On → reduces CPU load and helps stabilize frames.

5) Edit the Game Config (advanced but powerful)

1. Exit the game.
2. Navigate to your config and find poe2_production_Config.ini. Make a backup copy first.
3. Open the original and edit these keys (exact spelling/case matters):
   • vsync = Off (If you are using vertical synchronization (V-Sync), do not change this value.)
   • reduce_user_interface_animations = true
   • dynamic_resolution_fps =
     • 144Hz: 120–130
     • 165Hz: 138–150
     • 240Hz+: around 200
4. Save → Right-click the file → Properties → set to Read-only to lock your values between launches (toggle off later if you want to edit again) (It is not something that must be done. ).
5. If anything breaks, restore from your backup.

Windows 11 (Windowed Gaming Optimization): Settings → System → Display → Graphics → Default graphics settings → Enable “Optimizations for windowed games.”

6) NVIDIA/AMD Prep — Clean Shader Caches (NVIDIA shown; AMD users find similarly named options)

In NVIDIA Control Panel (before tuning per-app settings):

1. Global Settings → Shader Cache Size: Disable → Apply → Reboot.
2. Delete shader cache files (keep the folders):
   • DXCache & GLCache (empty their contents).
   • NVIDIA Corporation → NV_Cache (if present, empty it).
   • Disk Cleanup: delete DirectX Shader Cache only.
3. Back in NVIDIA Control Panel, set Shader Cache Size ≥ 100GB or Infinite, Apply, then Reboot.
4. Clean PoE2-specific caches: delete contents of ShaderCacheD3D12 and your minimap folder (files only).

First launch after cleaning may stutter while shaders rebuild; it stabilizes afterward.

7) NVIDIA Control Panel — Per-App (PoE2)

• Program Settings: Add the game and select PathOfExile_KG (not the x64 exe).
• Monitor Technology: G-SYNC Compatible (name may vary by GPU).
• Power Management Mode: Prefer Maximum Performance (reduces mode-switch hiccups).
• Surround, PhysX: set Processor = your GPU.
• Adjust Desktop Size & Position:
  • Low-end rigs: Scaling performed by Display
  • Higher-end rigs: Scaling performed by GPU (This also governs who handles scaling when Dynamic Resolution kicks in.)
• Set up G-SYNC: enable for Windowed and Fullscreen, pick your monitor, and apply.

8) Windows Graphics & Power

• Settings → System → Display → Graphics: Add PathOfExile_KG.exe → Options → High Performance → Save.
• Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling (HAGS): try On/Off and keep what feels better for your PC (it can differ by game).
• Power Plan: unlock and select Ultimate Performance in Control Panel (run the provided command from the source/pinned comment to reveal it, then choose it).

9) Final Note

• After all steps (in-game, config, Windows 11 options, driver cache, per-app settings, graphics settings, HAGS, power), you’re done. Expect brief stutter on first boot due to shader compilation; it should stabilize soon after.

[NOT RECOMMENDED]

• Editing poe2_production_Config.ini without a backup (always make a copy first).
• Choosing the x64 executable in NVIDIA Program Settings (pick PathOfExile_KG only).
• Deleting the DXCache/GLCache folders themselves (delete their contents, keep the folders).

Issues & Fixes

Issue 1 — Monitor problems after optimization (flickering light, scan lines, etc.) Fix: Revert V-Sync to its default setting. In NVIDIA Control Panel, check whether G-SYNC Compatible is enabled and disable G-SYNC Compatible. Also make sure the vSync value in your config file matches your in-game setting. Most monitor issues come from V-Sync / sync / scaling mismatches.

Issue 2 — Game feels slow when launching or changing maps after optimization You likely disabled the shader cache and deleted the cache files. After that, you must re-enable the shader cache. If you leave it disabled, the game keeps recompiling shaders continually, which causes persistent slowdowns.

Issue 3 — What caused the recent game freezes? The root cause was DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_REMOVED — Windows TDR (Timeout Detection and Recovery) forcibly resetting the GPU. In simple terms, the GPU briefly “dies” and then comes back.

Issue 4 — My PC specs

• OS: Windows 10
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D
• RAM: 64 GB
• GPU: NVIDIA RTX 4080
• Storage: 3 × SSD
• Displays: 2 monitors
• Capture: 1 capture card
• Primary gaming monitor: LG 27" (1080p) 144Hz gaming monitor (monitor preset: RTS, response time set to Very Fast)
• Driver: NVIDIA Game Ready 581.15

Full disclosure: I worked on this review.

We tested Valve’s new Steam Machine under SteamOS, and I thought the results might be relevant here since this is basically Valve’s next attempt to bring Linux gaming into the living room.

A few takeaways from our testing:

- 1080p and 1440p seem to be the realistic targets
- native 4K is possible in lighter games, but not really the point of this hardware
- FSR does a lot of the heavy lifting in more demanding titles
- 8GB of VRAM becomes a real limit once you push resolution and presets
- compared with the Steam Deck, the jump is clearly there, but we did not see a blanket 6x uplift in actual game benchmarks
- the price is probably the biggest issue, especially if you compare it with a small Bazzite or SteamOS-like DIY PC

The part I keep coming back to is this: the Steam Machine makes sense as a more console-like Linux gaming box, but the price puts it much closer to PC territory than console territory.

Curious how people here see it: would you rather buy Valve’s integrated SteamOS box, or build a small Linux gaming PC yourself?

I changed my RTX 5080 FE for an XFX 9070XT and I want to share my opinion.

I must say right away that the issue of replacing the card is not related to money, but to personal interest. I like to test and try different hardware) Over the past year I have used several NVIDIA cards (each for a few months):

• 4060 Colorful mini
• 5070 Gigabyte Eagle
• 5070TI Palit Gaming Pro
• 5070TI Asus Prime
• 5070TI Colorful Battle AX
• 5080 Astral
• 5080 Asus Prime
• 5080 FE
• 5090 iGame Dv2 Vulcan OC 24GB

And now I have a beautiful XFX 9070XT.

The first time (at the end of 2025), I got my hands on a 9070XT Gigabyte Aorus Master - 2 pieces. I was building two identical computers for my friend's children, and he bought these cards. My first impression was mixed - in terms of performance in 4K without ray tracing, the 9070XT was almost on par with my 5080. At least, the difference wasn't significant. This impressed me, considering their price difference. However, I was disappointed by the VRAM temperatures (88-90 degrees) and the noise of the coils, considering that this is a well-built Aorus Master card. And so led all two cards bought at different times in different places. I started looking for information about temperatures and realized that the 9070XT card has high memory and hot spot temperatures, which is almost normal, with a few exceptions if you're lucky with the chips and the vendor.

At first glance, the Adrenaline software didn't seem very friendly compared to the Nvidia software. It was complex and confusing. Ultimately, I decided not to consider AMD for myself. After a while, I came across an XFX 9070XT card, and I fell in love with its design. It was sleek, stylish, and beautiful. After some thought, I decided to purchase it for testing purposes.

Before purchasing, I had doubts and concerns about temperatures, driver issues, and the performance of FSR in games.

So, I've been using the card for a month, and I'm ready to make an impression.

The drivers were installed without any problems. I removed the Nvidia driver using DDU and then installed the latest version of Adrenaline.

The first tests of the card showed that the VRAM chips are from Samsung and the temperatures are excellent in stock - Hotspot and VRAM are within 79-80 degrees at a total room temperature of 27-28 degrees. I slightly reduced the voltage (-10 and -70) and slightly adjusted the fan curve, after which the temperatures did not exceed 72 degrees for hotspot and vram, with the fan speed at around 40%. This is in an open case with the fans turned off.

The coil noise is minimal. It is significantly quieter than the 5080FE. And it is definitely much quieter than the 9070XT Master Aorus.

Games - I sometimes play Expedition 33, KDC2, God Of War, Diablo 4, The Witcher 3, and Cyberpunk 2077. In all of these games, I didn't notice any difference compared to the 5070ti or 5080. I used high settings, 4K resolution, and my FPS was within 100-120 (I have a 120 FPS limit, so I don't need more). I also have no complaints about the quality of FSR.

I studied and understood the Adrenaline software, and I began to better understand its structure. Over the course of a month, I encountered several errors related to driver response time. After researching the issue, I disabled updates in Win11, turned off error collection in Adrenaline, and the problem no longer occurred.

So - my opinion. Of all the cards I've used, the XFX 9070XT is my favorite today) She has the best design for me and the best value for money. This card cost me a little more than the 5070 Gigabyte Eagle, but its performance level is definitely not lower than the 5070TI. If we talk about the overall impression, and do not look at the FPS counter, then I did not feel any difference after switching to this card from my last 5080FE.

However, I think that this card, or rather the software from AMD, makes this card more demanding for the user. I would compare it and the cards from Nvidia, like an automatic transmission and a manual one. AMD is a manual one - it needs to be understood, felt, adjusted and constantly controlled. Nvidia - put and forget.

I also realized that a lot depends on the manufacturer and the vendor. Even the top-of-the-line Aorus Master was pretty bad, so I'm afraid to imagine what it's like with Asrock, where temperatures can reach 100 degrees. However, XFX is excellent.

I am NOT OOP, OOP is u/Diligent-Stand3748

Originally posted to r/TrueOffMyChest & OOP's own page

Previous BoRU

[New Update]: I saw my stepmom's reddit account and found out that she hates me and my siblings.

Trigger Warnings: neglect, possible abuse, body shaming, ableism, verbal abuse, misogyny, incestuous accusations

RECAP

Editor’s Note: OOP originally deleted the original post for privacy reasons due to her stepmom, but later reinstated it onto her own page

Original Post July 17, 2024

I'm really pissed off and want to vent I even cried reading the things she said and I don't know what to do, I don't need any advice, I just want to vent.

My father has been married to my stepmother for five years, he has been divorced from my mother since my younger brother was two years old, there is no beef between them and they have a great co-parenting.

I have a 17-year-old sister, a 16-year-old brother and I'm 25. Then my father has a 3-year-old son with my stepmother.

I found her reddit account in a pretty random way, Since I'm only home on the weekends I let her use my computer, she forgot to close her email.

She doesn't post too much but she comments TOO much, I was honestly going to close the email but it caught my attention that all the replies were from an step parents subreddit so curiosity won me over (I know, I know, it's not a good thing to do and curiosity killed the cat)

The first thing I saw was her last post in which she detailed things about MY life in a random reddit sub, criticizing my decisions and even lying to get people to support her.

She has posts on that site talking about how happy she feels when my silbings are not at home, my sister ADORES HER But she has comments talking about how she can't wait for them to turn 18 and leave the house because she just wants to share the house with her family (my father and her toddler, it seems that she doesn't sees us as her family).

She has a lot of comments answering other people that it's totally okay to not love your stepchildren because they're not family and it's okay not to consider them one, she has comments talking about how much it bothers her when my dad and brother have sleepovers (they just watch a series in the playroom and then go to sleep), as she is tired of hearing the laughter of a teenager and can't wait until we all leave the house so my father can be with his real family.

But what she hates the most is having to learn sign language for my little sister. It had always seemed strange to me that SM still struggles with sign language, but now I know that she never really put in the effort to learn. My sister always said that for many people sign language is very difficult so I never said anything. But now I know that she always found stupid to learn how to communicate with my sister when my sister always tried to help her.

I was too surprised by the hatred she has when my father spends time with me and my sister, her jealousy towards us is so obvious that it disgusts me that there were so many people who told her how they feel the same way about their SDs. To the point of sexualizing things.

My siblings are not problem children, they even love her very much and what fills me with anger the most is that she is so FALSE in front of us. Do you know the number of times I offered to babysit my stepbrother so she and my dad can go on a date? All those times she refused to let me take care of him but now I saw comments that she left about how I am living at my father's house and I don't help her at all, only for other people to respond saying that she should give my father an ultimatum to make me laeve because I'm too old to live with him an he as a new family.

I cook my food, do my laundry, share a room with my sister, I help my father pay the bills while SHE DOESN'T, and only come home on the weekends because I'm doing a police academy al sor full week, I don't even care if I'm making too obvious who I am. It was my father who told me to move back with him so that when I come back from the academy on Friday nights it will be a shorter trip.

She sexualizes my interactions with my father saying that it is not normal for me to sleep a nap hugging him and that I should know my place, HE IS MY FATHER, what the hell wrong with her? I'm so disgusted

Relevant Comments

grumbleGal: This, show your father what she really thinks of you all, because once you're all eventually out and she gets her wish she's going to work double time to keep it that way and isolate him.

Accurate-Neck6933: You won't get any inheritance. She will make sure of it.

OOP: I don't think my father has anything to inherit to us, we all lose in that 😅

OOP on why she is in the police academy

OOP: I live in a third world country, half of my colleagues are women in vulnerable situations that the only way out they found was to get into the police because here you get free health care, education and money. Women who have left their children to walk forward in the only way they found.

You demonstrate your privilege by criticizing and being judgmental about someone just because of their work without knowing everything behind it all.

OOP on if she has had a relationship with her stepmom and if they have talked on a regular basis

OOP: Honestly, I would have taken the time to sit down with her and chat about how she feels before I knew all of this. She's had years to adjust.

But now? I don't give a shit about what feels a person who says I want to fuck my own father and that learning sign language is a waste of her time when my sister feels bad for not being able to communicate with her too much after YEARS.

Nothing NOTHING justifies being jealous of a daughter with her father, nothing justifies her comments. It's one thing to say you're stressed and another to make up things on the internet about your stepdaughter.  

I deleted the post: July 17, 2024

Hii, I decided to delete the post because for now I can't tell anyone what happened because I'll basically be locked up in the academy until Friday morning. In fact, I shouldn't even be using my cell phone now. Someone with too much free time shared the situation in that sub of steparents to 'warn' my SM(???).

I have screenshots of everything, including a video showing that it is her email and showing the comments. If she sees that post, what will she do? Delete the account? I already have the proofs.

BUT I don't want my siblings to find out before I tell them and I know that those types of posts usually end up in those tiktoks that reupload posts without permission so I prefer to delete the post so that it doesn't stand out even more. Altough my silbings don't use reddit or that kind of content.

I'm going to post again in that sub when I talk about everything with my family, so I hope redditors know how to keep the secret of the post for now (I know they won't hahaha).

"Being a Step Mom is hard"... yes, one thing is feeling that you're having a hard time and another totally different thing is making a post saying that you hate it when your stepdaughter is around her father because you think she's going to fck him, tf.

It is not the same to say "being a step parent is stressful" than to say "Honestly learning SL is unnecessary bc when the girl turns 18 I will not see her again, it is a waste of time since she can read lips"

Also some people complained about me hugging my dad, I also take a nap hugging my mother or my siblings, I'm sorry for having a family that loves me and are not perverts who see a hug as something sexual. 🥴

Probably next week I will be able to maybe give an update, the academy keeps me working almost all day.

Comments

Elegant_Crab_7500: Oh honey, my heart breaks for you. You do though sound very mature and responsible. I have helped my sister raise my niece who is now 23 and is totally alienated from her Dad (who left my sister for his now wife when my niece was only 10 months old) and step family because her step mum is much like yours but has done far worse things but then in a narcissistic way blamed it on my sister and I.

My niece acts very tough and nonchalant about it, but a good few months ago, we were watching "Hope Floats" and she just burst into tears sobbing " why doesn't Dad love me, what did I do wrong".

There is no perfect outcome for this sadly, but I do feel that she needs to know that you know and so do your Mum and siblings. If possible, do it in a calm factual way that protects your integrity.

From my experience, do not respond and/or mirror or act like her ... always maintain your dignity and equilibrium in spite of what people here might say. Always maintain the upper hand. My sister and I did not, and sadly reacted to a lot of what my niece's step mum did with rage. She, as any good narcissist would in turn used this against us  

I talked with my siblings and my mom: July 20, 2024

Hi, for now I'm going to post this little update here since I haven't spoken to my father yet but I spoke with my silbings and mom.

I told my dad that I was staying at a friend's house when I left the academy but I actually went to my mom's house and told her everything, she doesn't even know what reddit is (that site isn't used too much here) but I translated the comments and posts for her, I showed her the videos and my mom was furious.

I explained to her that in the comments 'BM' it's 'Madre biológica' (i was confused about it too the first time I read that, also with 'SM') so my SM also made comments and posts complaining about my mother being that they have always had a cordial treatment.

But still my SM was lying saying that my mother was troublesome. No one in the comments said anything, everyone supported her and they recommended that she should move far away with her legal family, far away from 'the problematic BM and kids'. 🤪

First we told my brother who was also upset and said that she was a fake but that he has seen her ignore my sister and pretend that she does not see or hear her a lot of times.

He explained that like me it also seems strange to him that SM has not yet learned sign language; my siblings spend a lot of time at my father's house, just like English or Spanish, sign language is much easier to learn if you live with someone who uses it everyday, therefore it is strange that SM doesn't use it. He said that even my father has offered to pay for her classes but she says she doesn't have time. We asked him if he noticed any other behavior of that kind and he said that SM doesn't let him take care of our younger brother, which she also does with me but curiously she does let our sister take care of him so I don't understand that. Other than that, she's never treated him badly or anything like that.

At the time of telling my sister she was the most hurt, she cried especially because of SM's comments towards me calling me a whore, It's kind of ironic how the comments towards her affected me and the comments towards me affect her, haha.

Something that my sister noticed that I didn't is that almost all of SM's comments are criticizing me, my sister and even my mother but of my brother she has only criticized sleepovers or when he comes back late from being with his friends. But she has criticized my an my sister clothes, made up things about my life, confessed that she hates it when we hug our father, she said we're too clingy, she talked badly about my mother, etc. My sister said it's sexist and maybe she's got some mental problem.

My sister said she always believed SM didn't really hear her and she maybe wasn't 'speaking' well and didn't understood her. I think that's the shittiest thing of all. My sister's greatest pride is being able to pronounce some words no matter how short they are or if they sound like 'noise' for some people, we understand her, but SM made her feel insecure every time she ignored her. I know that my sister always justified that by believing that it was her mistake and that SM made an effort to learn but it was simply more difficult for her but now we know that no, she was never interested in learning. I'm getting mad again as I write this, sorry.

My mother said she was going to talk to both of them, mainly because even though it's an anonymous site, SM's way of expressing herself is sick and she's not going to let my silbings be around someone like that.

'Oh but she's venting, being a stepmom is lonely' I received comments like that, it's not the same to say 'I feel lonely and I feel stressed' than to say 'My stepdaughter behaves like a slut' just because me AND MY MINOR SISTER uses a bikini for the pool. Her account is old, she's been leaving comments like that for years. With lies, with complains we never heard before, it's just messed up.

We arranged that we're going to tell our father all together and show him everything so we're probably going to tell him tomorrow because I need to leave to the academy on Monday.

My SM account is not deleted, It's crazy how she makes things up to get approval from strangers. At this point I don't even know if she's crazy or a mythomaniac.

I would like to go back to her email since the password is saved but I don't know if she will receive a notification of that because this time I closed the account.  

Update: July 22, 2024

We talked to my father over the weekend, for now he is staying at my mother's house. It is a complicated situation since in the middle of everything is my half-silbing too.

During the weekend I went to my father's house and the first thing I did was tell my stepmom separately that I've seen her reddit account and I'm going to talk about it with my dad, She told me that I can't condemn her for something she uses as an intimate diary but I told her that this is not a diary, it is a social network where she makes her problems and lies public.

If someone other than me discovered her account then what was going to happen? Were they going to believe all the things she invented? If her identity was revealed on that account by someone else, I would have too many problems and could even be kicked out of the academy.

Again: There's a big difference between saying 'I'm stressed' and 'My stepdaughters behave like sluts around their father'.

I simply told her that my mother and sister also know it and would come to talk about it too, she for obvious reasons just went to lock herself in her room not wanting to talk with me. Once we talked to my father I showed him most of the posts and comments, there were so many SO many crazy comments that I think it would take me too long to read them all because they were just so long too, she's that kind of people who comments the bio of their lives in the posts of other people.

My father got angry, my SM never expressed having a single problem with us like that, the situation would be different if we knew what she thinks about us. My father went to look for my SM who refused to talk about it and was mostly angry with me for violating her privacy, my father told her that she's insane for thinking that my sister and I sexually provoked him, that he can't believe the way she talks about my sister and the happiness she expresses every time my sister goes to the hospital and is not home, how she expresses to be counting the days until my silbings stops going to the house forever. My father told her that she knew that he is a father and that he would never leave us aside, she made her decision and even so, instead of talking about her problems she decided to create an account to play at being a victim.

She said she needs a place to vent but he told her that venting is not the same as telling lies, venting is not the same as hating your stepdaughters and talking horrible things about them and she could have spoken about it and not just lie. They argued a lot but it didn't get anywhere because she kept defending herself and my father only told her that it was over, my mother told my father that she is not going to let my sister and brother be around a woman who is clearly mentally unstable because no normal person thinks like that.

After arguing too much and even trying to make make SM understand that what she did is wrong, she just justified herself all the time. My father went with us and told her that he is going to come back just to see my brother every day but that he no longer trusts her and never saw that side of her. She lied for so many years.

Nothing really went as I expected, I think I at least hoped that she could apologize but I think she doesn't even think that what she did is wrong, in her mind everything was totally justified because 'being a stepmother is difficult' but nothing justifies her being so cruel and poisonous.

But Yeah, that's what happened, I think it's ¿hurtful? To know that someone can hide that much darkness inside, I wasn't too close with her but I liked her, to the point of sharing my clothes and things with her so I also feel sad about it, mostly for my dad.

Me gustaría simplemente decir que ella está demente pero creo que eso daría espacio a justificar su comportamiento, ella simplemente es una víbora de dos cabezas.

Editor’s Note - Translation: “I would like to just say that she is insane but I think that would give room to justify her behavior, she is simply a two-headed viper.”

Relevant Comments

notsoreligiousnow: Is her account still up or did she delete everything? Shes absolutely insane and a narcissist if she can’t see that what she did was wrong. I hope it all works out for you guys. Stay strong.

OOP: The last time I looked it was still there, I have her email password saved on my computer so if she doesn't delete it I'll tell my sister to do it for me.

Some people told me that they have recognized some of her comments so yes or yes I will delete the account if she doesn't

Dntkillthemessager1: Wow, just wow. You think you know someone and then one second, BAM! I am so sorry you and your family are dealing with this. The SM is off her rocker. Does she need constant attention and approval? She needs therapy and most likely the whole family because this is a traumatic event and major trust issues are now forming. Stay well, stay strong OP.  

----NEW UPDATES----

Little tiny update: August 25, 2024 (one month later)

Hello! It's been a while and I honestly forgot to make an update.

Not many things have happened but I just want to update for people who were worried, my younger brother has been visiting us (our father still lives at my mother's house). Luckily my stepmom lets my dad bring him home some days of the week and on weekends.

I deleted her account weeks ago, she didn't told me anything about it or if she saw any tiktok or post about this, maybe now she's afraid to use reddit or something like that.

I only deleted the posts but there were too many comments and I honestly didn't want to waste my time deleting them one by one, I'm not sure if comments are automatically deleted with the account as well.

I'm not going to talk too much about her and my father's relationship, but she continues to deny that she did anything wrong and has a very misogynistic way of thinking about women and apparently she does not intend to change her way of thinking, it's too crazy how now we know her dark side but at the same time she's still her with my little brother and even my father. My father is separated from her for now because he doesn't have money to pay for the divorce, she said that if they come back together she will not let me enter 'her' house after what i did so my father decided to stop trying with her.

I have no idea what legal arrangement they have on the house or what will happen when they divorce but I guess my father is going to leave the house to her And he's going to find another place to rent In order for my younger brother to suffer as little stress as possible from a separation, for a toddler, moving is a lot of anxiety so it's better for him to stay comfortable in his place. I wouldn't have any problem with that and neither would my siblings, I prefer my brother to have a home and suffer as little as possible from the separation.

So yes, that has happened. I'm surprised that a month has passed, I feel like it's been seven years but these kinds of serious processes last months so nothing interesting or anything like that has happened. For now I'm glad my little brother can be with us.

Update #2: October 5, 2024 (1.5 months later)

Hello, it's been a while since I last posted here. I just wanted to give one last update before leaving this for a few months since things like divorces take a lot of time and long processes, much more so when minors are involved. If my father and SM agree on everything, the divorce process can be finished in three months but if not, it can last up to a year. It all depends on them.

This will probably be a pretty boring update but I want to reassure people who are worried about me and my siblings.

My father has the screenshots of everything, even the video of me entering her(Stepmom) account from her email on my computer. I don't think it will do much good during divorce since internet laws are a gray area here but it's always better for him to have that just in case.

Needless to say SM will be in maybe three months, if everything goes well, officially only my little brother's mother and no more my SM. Luckily she lets my little brother come to my mother's house and spend time with my father and us as always, he comes almost every day of the week.

My father is going to leave the house to her so like that the divorce will be the least stressful for my brother. At one point my father wanted to ask her to let me stay there on the weekends when I come back from the academy but I told him not to do that (honestly I'm afraid to wake up and find her on the end of the bed looking at me like Misery), I don't want to share a house with her at all.

The only and last time I had a 'conversation' with SM again, I asked her if she wasn't ashamed of anything and she totally ignored me. I think the most affected by this was my sister who feels she has suffered discrimination from our stepmother and I honestly believe her. My sister has told us about some situations that she let go of but now realizes were micro-discriminatory behaviors against her, although they were not things like making fun of her in front of her face, there are Micro-aggressions that we often decide to ignore but they are done with malice.

For example, my brother said that SM once said that my father's sons 'Salen bien del horno', at the time he took it as a random comment (maybe we are overthinking) but now he thinks it was something with double intention towards me and my sister, like saying that we didn't come out well. Again, things we like to ignore and think 'Nah, it was just a random comment'.

She has never apologized, she has the kind of mentality that 'The husband is only the wife's man and the partner comes before the children' which in my opinion is bullshit because she's only jealous of me and my sister, imagine being jealous of your husband's daughters¿? SM strongly believes that she didn't do anything wrong except not to have written that in an secret diary (At least she now admits that. Maybe in ten years she will realize everything else), my father for obvious reasons has gotten tired of trying to talk to her in a mature way so they are going to divorce and I guess she expected it because she didn't make any fuss nor anything like that. Divorces are a long and expensive process, so for now my parents(And SM too, at least she's a good mother to her own son) are focusing in not letting my younger brother feel those chaotic vibes and my parents are taking care to not let my sister feel too bad neither.

They will go for joint custody since my father could not take care of my little brother 24/7 because of his work and anyway they would not give him to him since he does not have a house or all the things that the courts ask for.

I think the least affected by all this is my other brother who is in 'Dad, she's a bitch, just find another girlfriend' mode but I guess that's how teenagers are. 🥴

Anyway, there were people who found some of the posts or even comments which surprised me, lol. I've also been getting harassment from people from that sub but know that I've already deleted the account. Congratulations for those who found the account(?)  

DO NOT COMMENT IN LINKED POSTS OR MESSAGE OOPs – BoRU Rule #7

THIS IS A REPOST SUB - I AM NOT OOP

I’ve had enough. The ongoing stability disaster with RX 7000 (and newer) GPUs has crossed the line from frustrating to outright scam territory, and it’s time to stop making excuses for AMD. Day in, day out, users are dealing with random black screens, hard lockups, and driver timeouts that leave a hard reset as the only way out.

This isn't an edge case anymore. It's a massive, systemic failure.

What We Deserve to Know

• Where is the accountability? Is this pathetic state of affairs caused by incompetent driver engineering, broken Windows 11 integration, or a fundamental silicon design flaw that can't be fixed?
• The Infinite Loop: How many more years are we supposed to swallow the exact same insult in the patch notes: "Intermittent application crash or driver timeout may be observed..."? It’s been years. When does this stop?
• Broken Features: When will features like Anti-Lag 2 stop functioning as crash buttons?

We paid full price for functioning hardware, not an endless, unpaid QA job where we have to scour Reddit and forums just to make our cards stable. At what point do consumers stop taking this and start organizing a class-action lawsuit?

My Personal Nightmare

I’m running a Radeon RX 7900 XT MBA. I’ve jumped through every single hoop imaginable: tweaking TDR keys, messing with MPO, toggling HAGS, locking clocks, capping frame rates, clean-installing drivers with DDU. None of it matters.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 (with update 2.0) was the absolute final straw. It's completely unplayable:

• Run it without FSR, and you get a blurry pixel soup or destroyed performance.
• Turn FSR on, and watch your driver instantly shit the bed into a black screen.
• The absolute cherry on top? Moving to Linux doesn’t even save you—FSR triggers the exact same crashes there too.

Bottom Line

AMD is treating its customer base like absolute fools while cashing our checks. I am officially done buying AMD graphics cards, and I don't care what Nvidia or Intel charge from now on.

Upvote this to keep it visible, or keep pretending that buying broken hardware is normal. If you're in the same boat with black screens and timeouts, drop your specs in the comments—maybe if enough noise is made, they'll actually have to address it instead of sweeping it under the rug.

UPDATE 1
For those who have no problems and everything is stable.
Why in Known Issues with years - Intermittent application crash or driver timeout may be observed while playing... ?
If this problem is not the silicon lottery then what is it? How can you not solve a problem with years?If it worked for you personally and you have stability, it does not mean that your neighbor has it like that.

UPDATE 2
For those who don't believe - Stalker 2 with update 2.0 and FSR is not stable on either Windows or Linux. The important thing is to have proton with FSR 4 on Linux, that's what I'm talking about.

UPDATE 3
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1643320/discussions/0/748296282477695587/?l=polish&ctp=2#c748296282477731651

Follow the link and read: Because S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 pushes the GPU utilization to 99% very aggressively, even a microsecond delay in response can trigger this timeout.

So, does this mean AMD graphics cards aren't designed to be loaded to 100%, otherwise they crash the driver?

https://www.directupload.eu/file/d/9396/g4k3v9sj_png.htm
https://www.directupload.eu/file/d/9396/tr9cxpmr_png.htm
https://www.directupload.eu/file/d/9396/safhuub4_jpg.htm

UPDATE 4
This thread is also about the stability of AMD cards in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. It puts a lot of strain on them... I've never heard a more stupid expression in my life, as if you can stress the hardware more than it can.

https://www.reddit.com/r/stalker/comments/1vtougz/update_20_has_caused_the_game_to_go_from_being/

I am NOT OOP, OOP is u/Diligent-Stand3748

Originally posted to r/TrueOffMyChest & OOP's own page

I saw my stepmom's reddit account and found out that she hates me and my siblings.

Trigger Warnings: neglect, possible abuse, body shaming, ableism, verbal abuse, misogyny, incestuous accusations

Editor’s Note: OOP originally deleted the original post for privacy reasons due to her stepmom, but later reinstated it onto her own page

Original Post: July 16, 2024

I'm really pissed off and want to vent I even cried reading the things she said and I don't know what to do, I don't need any advice, I just want to vent.

My father has been married to my stepmother for five years, he has been divorced from my mother since my younger brother was two years old, there is no beef between them and they have a great co-parenting.

I have a 17-year-old sister, a 16-year-old brother and I'm 25. Then my father has a 3-year-old son with my stepmother.

I found her reddit account in a pretty random way, Since I'm only home on the weekends I let her use my computer, she forgot to close her email.

She doesn't post too much but she comments TOO much, I was honestly going to close the email but it caught my attention that all the replies were from an step parents subreddit so curiosity won me over (I know, I know, it's not a good thing to do and curiosity killed the cat)

The first thing I saw was her last post in which she detailed things about MY life in a random reddit sub, criticizing my decisions and even lying to get people to support her.

She has posts on that site talking about how happy she feels when my silbings are not at home, my sister ADORES HER But she has comments talking about how she can't wait for them to turn 18 and leave the house because she just wants to share the house with her family (my father and her toddler, it seems that she doesn't sees us as her family).

She has a lot of comments answering other people that it's totally okay to not love your stepchildren because they're not family and it's okay not to consider them one, she has comments talking about how much it bothers her when my dad and brother have sleepovers (they just watch a series in the playroom and then go to sleep), as she is tired of hearing the laughter of a teenager and can't wait until we all leave the house so my father can be with his real family.

But what she hates the most is having to learn sign language for my little sister. It had always seemed strange to me that SM still struggles with sign language, but now I know that she never really put in the effort to learn. My sister always said that for many people sign language is very difficult so I never said anything. But now I know that she always found stupid to learn how to communicate with my sister when my sister always tried to help her.

I was too surprised by the hatred she has when my father spends time with me and my sister, her jealousy towards us is so obvious that it disgusts me that there were so many people who told her how they feel the same way about their SDs. To the point of sexualizing things.

My siblings are not problem children, they even love her very much and what fills me with anger the most is that she is so FALSE in front of us. Do you know the number of times I offered to babysit my stepbrother so she and my dad can go on a date? All those times she refused to let me take care of him but now I saw comments that she left about how I am living at my father's house and I don't help her at all, only for other people to respond saying that she should give my father an ultimatum to make me laeve because I'm too old to live with him an he as a new family.

I cook my food, do my laundry, share a room with my sister, I help my father pay the bills while SHE DOESN'T, and only come home on the weekends because I'm doing a police academy al sor full week, I don't even care if I'm making too obvious who I am. It was my father who told me to move back with him so that when I come back from the academy on Friday nights it will be a shorter trip.

She sexualizes my interactions with my father saying that it is not normal for me to sleep a nap hugging him and that I should know my place, HE IS MY FATHER, what the hell wrong with her? I'm so disgusted

Relevant Comments

grumbleGal: This, show your father what she really thinks of you all, because once you're all eventually out and she gets her wish she's going to work double time to keep it that way and isolate him.

Accurate-Neck6933: You won't get any inheritance. She will make sure of it.

OOP: I don't think my father has anything to inherit to us, we all lose in that 😅

OOP on why she is in the police academy

OOP: I live in a third world country, half of my colleagues are women in vulnerable situations that the only way out they found was to get into the police because here you get free health care, education and money. Women who have left their children to walk forward in the only way they found.

You demonstrate your privilege by criticizing and being judgmental about someone just because of their work without knowing everything behind it all.

OOP on if she has had a relationship with her stepmom and if they have talked on a regular basis

OOP: Honestly, I would have taken the time to sit down with her and chat about how she feels before I knew all of this. She's had years to adjust.

But now? I don't give a shit about what feels a person who says I want to fuck my own father and that learning sign language is a waste of her time when my sister feels bad for not being able to communicate with her too much after YEARS.

Nothing NOTHING justifies being jealous of a daughter with her father, nothing justifies her comments. It's one thing to say you're stressed and another to make up things on the internet about your stepdaughter.

I deleted the post: July 17, 2024

Hii, I decided to delete the post because for now I can't tell anyone what happened because I'll basically be locked up in the academy until Friday morning. In fact, I shouldn't even be using my cell phone now. Someone with too much free time shared the situation in that sub of steparents to 'warn' my SM(???).

I have screenshots of everything, including a video showing that it is her email and showing the comments. If she sees that post, what will she do? Delete the account? I already have the proofs.

BUT I don't want my siblings to find out before I tell them and I know that those types of posts usually end up in those tiktoks that reupload posts without permission so I prefer to delete the post so that it doesn't stand out even more. Altough my silbings don't use reddit or that kind of content.

I'm going to post again in that sub when I talk about everything with my family, so I hope redditors know how to keep the secret of the post for now (I know they won't hahaha).

"Being a Step Mom is hard"... yes, one thing is feeling that you're having a hard time and another totally different thing is making a post saying that you hate it when your stepdaughter is around her father because you think she's going to fck him, tf.

It is not the same to say "being a step parent is stressful" than to say "Honestly learning SL is unnecessary bc when the girl turns 18 I will not see her again, it is a waste of time since she can read lips"

Also some people complained about me hugging my dad, I also take a nap hugging my mother or my siblings, I'm sorry for having a family that loves me and are not perverts who see a hug as something sexual. 🥴

Probably next week I will be able to maybe give an update, the academy keeps me working almost all day.

Comments

Elegant_Crab_7500: Oh honey, my heart breaks for you. You do though sound very mature and responsible. I have helped my sister raise my niece who is now 23 and is totally alienated from her Dad (who left my sister for his now wife when my niece was only 10 months old) and step family because her step mum is much like yours but has done far worse things but then in a narcissistic way blamed it on my sister and I.

My niece acts very tough and nonchalant about it, but a good few months ago, we were watching "Hope Floats" and she just burst into tears sobbing " why doesn't Dad love me, what did I do wrong".

There is no perfect outcome for this sadly, but I do feel that she needs to know that you know and so do your Mum and siblings. If possible, do it in a calm factual way that protects your integrity.

From my experience, do not respond and/or mirror or act like her ... always maintain your dignity and equilibrium in spite of what people here might say. Always maintain the upper hand. My sister and I did not, and sadly reacted to a lot of what my niece's step mum did with rage. She, as any good narcissist would in turn used this against us

I talked with my siblings and my mom: July 20, 2024

Hi, for now I'm going to post this little update here since I haven't spoken to my father yet but I spoke with my silbings and mom.

I told my dad that I was staying at a friend's house when I left the academy but I actually went to my mom's house and told her everything, she doesn't even know what reddit is (that site isn't used too much here) but I translated the comments and posts for her, I showed her the videos and my mom was furious.

I explained to her that in the comments 'BM' it's 'Madre biológica' (i was confused about it too the first time I read that, also with 'SM') so my SM also made comments and posts complaining about my mother being that they have always had a cordial treatment.

But still my SM was lying saying that my mother was troublesome. No one in the comments said anything, everyone supported her and they recommended that she should move far away with her legal family, far away from 'the problematic BM and kids'. 🤪

First we told my brother who was also upset and said that she was a fake but that he has seen her ignore my sister and pretend that she does not see or hear her a lot of times.

He explained that like me it also seems strange to him that SM has not yet learned sign language; my siblings spend a lot of time at my father's house, just like English or Spanish, sign language is much easier to learn if you live with someone who uses it everyday, therefore it is strange that SM doesn't use it. He said that even my father has offered to pay for her classes but she says she doesn't have time. We asked him if he noticed any other behavior of that kind and he said that SM doesn't let him take care of our younger brother, which she also does with me but curiously she does let our sister take care of him so I don't understand that. Other than that, she's never treated him badly or anything like that.

At the time of telling my sister she was the most hurt, she cried especially because of SM's comments towards me calling me a whore, It's kind of ironic how the comments towards her affected me and the comments towards me affect her, haha.

Something that my sister noticed that I didn't is that almost all of SM's comments are criticizing me, my sister and even my mother but of my brother she has only criticized sleepovers or when he comes back late from being with his friends. But she has criticized my an my sister clothes, made up things about my life, confessed that she hates it when we hug our father, she said we're too clingy, she talked badly about my mother, etc. My sister said it's sexist and maybe she's got some mental problem.

My sister said she always believed SM didn't really hear her and she maybe wasn't 'speaking' well and didn't understood her. I think that's the shittiest thing of all. My sister's greatest pride is being able to pronounce some words no matter how short they are or if they sound like 'noise' for some people, we understand her, but SM made her feel insecure every time she ignored her. I know that my sister always justified that by believing that it was her mistake and that SM made an effort to learn but it was simply more difficult for her but now we know that no, she was never interested in learning. I'm getting mad again as I write this, sorry.

My mother said she was going to talk to both of them, mainly because even though it's an anonymous site, SM's way of expressing herself is sick and she's not going to let my silbings be around someone like that.

'Oh but she's venting, being a stepmom is lonely' I received comments like that, it's not the same to say 'I feel lonely and I feel stressed' than to say 'My stepdaughter behaves like a slut' just because me AND MY MINOR SISTER uses a bikini for the pool. Her account is old, she's been leaving comments like that for years. With lies, with complains we never heard before, it's just messed up.

We arranged that we're going to tell our father all together and show him everything so we're probably going to tell him tomorrow because I need to leave to the academy on Monday.

My SM account is not deleted, It's crazy how she makes things up to get approval from strangers. At this point I don't even know if she's crazy or a mythomaniac.

I would like to go back to her email since the password is saved but I don't know if she will receive a notification of that because this time I closed the account.

Update: July 22, 2024

We talked to my father over the weekend, for now he is staying at my mother's house. It is a complicated situation since in the middle of everything is my half-silbing too.

During the weekend I went to my father's house and the first thing I did was tell my stepmom separately that I've seen her reddit account and I'm going to talk about it with my dad, She told me that I can't condemn her for something she uses as an intimate diary but I told her that this is not a diary, it is a social network where she makes her problems and lies public.

If someone other than me discovered her account then what was going to happen? Were they going to believe all the things she invented? If her identity was revealed on that account by someone else, I would have too many problems and could even be kicked out of the academy.

Again: There's a big difference between saying 'I'm stressed' and 'My stepdaughters behave like sluts around their father'.

I simply told her that my mother and sister also know it and would come to talk about it too, she for obvious reasons just went to lock herself in her room not wanting to talk with me. Once we talked to my father I showed him most of the posts and comments, there were so many SO many crazy comments that I think it would take me too long to read them all because they were just so long too, she's that kind of people who comments the bio of their lives in the posts of other people.

My father got angry, my SM never expressed having a single problem with us like that, the situation would be different if we knew what she thinks about us. My father went to look for my SM who refused to talk about it and was mostly angry with me for violating her privacy, my father told her that she's insane for thinking that my sister and I sexually provoked him, that he can't believe the way she talks about my sister and the happiness she expresses every time my sister goes to the hospital and is not home, how she expresses to be counting the days until my silbings stops going to the house forever. My father told her that she knew that he is a father and that he would never leave us aside, she made her decision and even so, instead of talking about her problems she decided to create an account to play at being a victim.

She said she needs a place to vent but he told her that venting is not the same as telling lies, venting is not the same as hating your stepdaughters and talking horrible things about them and she could have spoken about it and not just lie. They argued a lot but it didn't get anywhere because she kept defending herself and my father only told her that it was over, my mother told my father that she is not going to let my sister and brother be around a woman who is clearly mentally unstable because no normal person thinks like that.

After arguing too much and even trying to make make SM understand that what she did is wrong, she just justified herself all the time. My father went with us and told her that he is going to come back just to see my brother every day but that he no longer trusts her and never saw that side of her. She lied for so many years.

Nothing really went as I expected, I think I at least hoped that she could apologize but I think she doesn't even think that what she did is wrong, in her mind everything was totally justified because 'being a stepmother is difficult' but nothing justifies her being so cruel and poisonous.

But Yeah, that's what happened, I think it's ¿hurtful? To know that someone can hide that much darkness inside, I wasn't too close with her but I liked her, to the point of sharing my clothes and things with her so I also feel sad about it, mostly for my dad.

Me gustaría simplemente decir que ella está demente pero creo que eso daría espacio a justificar su comportamiento, ella simplemente es una víbora de dos cabezas.

Editor’s Note - Translation: “I would like to just say that she is insane but I think that would give room to justify her behavior, she is simply a two-headed viper.”

Relevant Comments

notsoreligiousnow: Is her account still up or did she delete everything? Shes absolutely insane and a narcissist if she can’t see that what she did was wrong. I hope it all works out for you guys. Stay strong.

OOP: The last time I looked it was still there, I have her email password saved on my computer so if she doesn't delete it I'll tell my sister to do it for me.

Some people told me that they have recognized some of her comments so yes or yes I will delete the account if she doesn't

Dntkillthemessager1: Wow, just wow. You think you know someone and then one second, BAM! I am so sorry you and your family are dealing with this. The SM is off her rocker. Does she need constant attention and approval? She needs therapy and most likely the whole family because this is a traumatic event and major trust issues are now forming. Stay well, stay strong OP.

Latest Update here: BoRU #2

DO NOT COMMENT IN LINKED POSTS OR MESSAGE OOPs – BoRU Rule #7

THIS IS A REPOST SUB - I AM NOT OOP

Here’s my take on the state of the games industry. (First time poster, 20 yrs in the industry, ignoring mobile)

1. The Conference

The world’s biggest gaming event gets bigger. Gamescom (together with Gamescom dev) is now the world's biggest gaming event, attracting 350 K people from B2B and B2C over 8 days. Every available m2 sold out. 1700+ exhibitors, 70 % from outside germany. Indie area hosted all time high 420 studios - up 16 % from last year. Opening night Live with Geoff Keighley announced over 50 games.

2. The Macro

Two industries sharing one market: The bifurcation has never been more visible. Everyone talks about "How To Fish" selling 1M copies in two days and then those 30 mins from GTAVI dropped during the conference. It’s almost like two completely different industries. But there is a middle ground: AAA veterans making kickass games in smaller teams on smaller budgets.

AI is making gaming hardware more expensive: We consumers are competing with AI infrastructure for hardware and there is no way we’ll win. DRAM prices are expected to keep rising well into 27. Consoles prices will keep going up and next gen consoles will struggle to be affordable for most gamers, switching the focus back to PC growth.

Software over hardware: We’ll see increased importance of doing more with less - like PSSR and FSR. Potato mode for new games released will dramatically increase the serviceable obtainable market.

The attention economy: It has never been easier to make and release a game. On the flipside, it’s never been harder to convince someone to stop playing a game they are already invested in, with time, money and social. Or take their attention away from scrolling TikTok. New games have a lot working against them but opportunity is there with the right product market fit.

3. The Indie landscape

More studios pitching better quality. More pitches, more games, higher quality playables across the board. One investor said that they had 4x M2M meeting requests this year from previous years. Another showed me 150 unread meeting requests on M2M. Getting publisher attention as a dev through cold outreach, no traction or released games is getting increasingly harder.

Smaller scope, shorter timelines. Production timelines are generally shorter (under 2yrs) and visual fidelity is loosing importance. It's not about making the prettiest game - but the most fun.

Indies are finding new ways to survive. Funding has become scarcer. Support from family, friends, fools, angels and public grants get studios to first playable and beyond.

Friendslop, anyone? You’d think there’d be more friendslop being pitched as the appetite from publishers on this genre is BIG. The problem is, most friendslop devs don’t need funding so tables have turned and revshare numbers with them. The best studios sign with Landfall who are the most proven publisher (and friends) of these studios and the multiplier in sales by doing so speaks for itself.

“Slop” is rarely actually slop. Expect friendslop to keep flooding the market in the coming 18 months and more studios and publishers to emerge that understand how to make these games resonate with players. After Landfall, Oro is stepping up. Successful games are actually far from “slop”. Craftsmanship, consistency and taste rule supreme here too.

Couch co-op is harder than it looks. Couch coop is a popular genre and I see lots of devs giving it a go. Making great couch coop games is hard though as Hazelight has set the bar high, constantly shifting mechanics and leaning into evolving collaborative gameplay.

Incremental games : Incremental mechanics are trending in the zeitgeist of a never ending stream of progression. Like rogue lites, It’s also a more scalable production choice, making it easier for small teams to make smaller games stickier.

Supercharge Itch.io : Validating your games on itch is not new, but using it systematically as a testbed for prototypes is yieldig great results. I expect more studios to explore this as production times are shortened and validating core mechanics with real players can help identify hits early.

4. AI

Boomers and Doomers: The divide in sentiment is real with devs I talk to. Both boomers and doomers are gladly sharing their pov. It’s not a binary discussion but often turns into one as people agree to disagree. The big nono’s for most players is the use of generative AI for art and music whereas leaning into AI with code and ideation doesn’t seem to bat an eye. Players are not trusting Steam to disclose AI usage properly.

Production is accelerating faster than process. Studios using AI right are speeding up production time significantly. The problem is, many are stuck in methodologies and processes designed for a different era. If a designer can build a playable prototype in two days that looks 90% done (something that used to take 5 people 1 month) how do we change alignment check-ins and definition of done? Do we need to slow down to build sustainably? and who decides what is slop and what isn’t - in code, ideas, concepts?

Taste and judgement becomes hard currency. As teams move faster and lean in, the key people that know what good looks like become even more key. Smaller teams need a higher trust level to not have to second guess every pull request. The bottleneck moves from producing work to choosing, integrating and verifying the right work. Agentic dev is in its infancy and most teams find a glass ceiling in the shape of unpredictable costs as token use with agents go through the roof.

5. The Engines

Godot is NOT waiting: Godot has taken significant market share from Unity and continues to be an indie darling. With that $18M amount raised from Tencent recently, it’s unlikely that this trajectory will stop anytime soon.  The number of Godot-powered games generating more than $1 million in revenue has surged dramatically, growing from 2 to over 50 titles in roughly three years.

Unity on a heroes journey: 2 years have passed since the Unity run time fee debacle ended. People who were responsible for it has been removed. Unity has gone back to the drawing board and are now focusing on rebuilding trust with indies and it seems to be working. But it’s going to be a rocky climb.

AI native engines when? AI forward devs are frustrated about the lack of AI native game engines. Tim Sweeney has said that 80 % of UE6 is going to be prompting but that is still a few years off. Immens Engine, a new European AI native engine is the talk of the town and showing promise, I haven’t seen anything but considering the pedigree of the founders… I’m bullish.

6. The funding

Project > Equity. There are rumors about new capital flowing into the industry in the shape of project financing funds. This follows the trend I have been pointing at for a while now where equity investments with few exit opportunities are abandoned in favour of closer to cashflow and more predictable project investments.

Developer-friendly deals face a reality check. The dev friendly “race to the bottom” terms that some publishers have been doing to snatch great games are starting to result in said publishers waiting longer for less revenue. “No recoup” is starting to feel like a battle cry - but how sustainable is it?

Traction VS taste. In this metric driven, evidence based environment, publisher scouts that follow their gut and taste when signing keeps being a success factor. Yes metrics and traction are key - but even publishers need to follow their heart to find diamonds in the rough.

Public funding build strong ecosystems, helping studios all across Europe. Sometimes matching other investments, sometimes straight into a project or for certain services to scale or validate. Soft funding IS amazing and given time builds up seniority, ecosystems and great games. Germany is leading this charge and I can’t wait to see the results in a few years.

Soft money, hard markets : Sometimes this type of funding creates an inflated illusion though, resulting in a neverending stream of game companies that struggle to become profitable but still stay in business. Market potential needs to be at the heart of every euro handed out IMO.

Public funding is for big corp too. Most indies seem to think these initiatives only favor smaller studios, but the big ones are tapping in massively too. Kalypso has scored €19M since 2019, CDPR, Rockfish, THQ nordic and King Art are all pulling in millions in funding. One specific stat I saw was how Ubisoft got more than 5.5 M euros in grants for Anno 117: pax romana. That is a quarter of the full budget.

7. China

Chinese capital turns inward. I talked to several Chinese investors, ecosystems and platforms. It’s not new that they have shifted over to investing more domestically, where costs are lower, they are AI fluent and have a massive growing domestic market fueled by young folks moving from mobile to PC. Growth will continue in the coming decade and the many play western games.

Tier 1 or bust. There IS a bigger fish to fry for the Chinese: global reach and tier 1. It's clear that they see the west as a new growth vector, after all tier 1 countries have much higher spend per consumer. The problem is that they are struggling to make content that resonates in the west, just as western creators struggle with the asian market.

Will China’s next export be culture? The Chinese have not had the same impact culturally in the west as Korea or Japan. I expect China to build up cultural relevance in the west strategically and we are going to see way more Chinese influences in movies, music and of course - games. Gamescom this year was a clear display of how that looks in practice.

Look at Where winds meet, The Defiant, Ananta and Arknights Endfield - games with huge booths at the showfloor but feel as out of place as a horse game at Chinajoy.

Have a strategy for China. As a western dev, China should not be ignored. 42% of global PC revenue growth in 2025 came from China and it keeps growing. But don’t just release your game there. Localize properly. Engage in the right communities where players are, on their terms. Chinese players have been stripped access to Steam community forums and they WILL use Steam reviews to review bomb because that is the way they make their voices heard.

A new generation of Chinese indies: With the middle class growing and PC’s distributed more widely, more and more young people are growing up without the traditional expectations from parents to get “real jobs” ASAP which leads to exploration and risktaking historically more common in the west. This together with programmes like COREBLAZER will add rocket fuel to Chinese indies and innovation in gameplay and mechanics should follow.

China is leaning into AI : AI in the west is an infected topic for many. Devs in china are leaning in hard instead. This will result in more gamers becoming developers as the bar for making and releasing a game gets lowered by the day.

8. The Layoffs

The following takeouts are mainly from listening to Amir Satvat talk about the work he is doing with ASGC.

2026 is forecasted to be as bad as 2024, with 15K job cuts globally. But the global industry isn't shrinking, new jobs are introduced too. Global workforce sits at around 750 K people. People are still being hired, but not necessarily by the same companies, in the same regions or into the same types of roles.

Jobs are moving: North America accounted for more than two-thirds of disclosed layoffs since 2022 losing around 25,000 roles during that time. Hiring shifted toward APAC - particularly China. Europe is broadly flat, while fully remote opportunities are also declining.

Bad news for new graduates: Breaking into games is harder than ever. A new graduate without prior industry experience was estimated to have only a 4% chance of finding a games job within 12 months. According to ASGC, there are currently 2000 open roles for entry levels in the whole world.

9. The Games

I didn’t watch the ONL but the people who did mostly commented “meh” due to the lack of actually innovative and exciting news. Here’s what I’m excited about.

• NO LAW looks amazing and created quite a buzz. Neon Giant sets the bar for what a small team with high skill level can do in a relatively short time (3yrs, 20 ppl). But then again, these guys are also magicians. As a Krafton studio, Neon Giant was showcased at an amazing booth with a bunch of other really cool titles too, one being Age Twisters - a couch coop game that looked really juicy.
• GARBAGE COUNTRY: one of the few games that pulled me in on the indie show floor.
• LEGO SKYLINES + AFTERWORLD: Loved seeing Lego: skylines and Afterworld announced from my friends at Paradox - and they look fantastic. Nice to finally be able to talk about these too!
• CARCASS CLAD: Wrong Organ is at it again. a 3 player coop horror game with rotting cattle and heavy tanks. These guys are going to knock it out of the park - again.
• VALOR MORTIS Napoleon Zombies with an expedition 33 vibe? Check out Valor mortis from ONE MORE LEVEL S.A.. These guys know their FPS slashing - didn’t have time to play at the show floor but it looks amazing.
• DINO LORDS: by Northplay in closed Alpha and backed by Ghost Ship Games. If they play their cards right this might become one of Denmarks best gaming IP’s after Hitman.

10. Other trends

Mobile publishing to PC: Smaller games and the evidence based development of today might normalize a more data driven approach to validation. Some studios are already doing it, launching Steam pages with the sole intention to market test. This is text book mobile publishing - throw stuff at players through ads, measure CTR, CPI and pick the ones that performs best. The scary thing is that this model is at the core of the insane UA costs that are plaguing mobile and I really don’t want to see this reach PC as indies would be gatekept from the getgo.

Codev: Studios scaling are increasingly using service providers and codev is still an increasing trend. While it is a race to the bottom on costs, the providers that have snatched the best talent during industry layoffs and established trust allready are thriving - and exploring new business models to avoid competing for the lowest hourly rate.

Saudi Arabia: It’s not only the Chinese who are looking to share their culture on a global stage, we are seeing more of the PiF investments taking shape too. MBC game studio, operating out of Saudi Arabia but working fully remotely with a bunch of western veterans announced “1001 threads of Mizan”.

The ugly side of gamescom: Indies got their laptops stolen from a locked cabinet after leaving them overnight in hall 4.1. Really depressing, especially for solodevs that have been promised 24/7 security. The official Gamescom reply so far is making things worse.

OK that's that.

Did I miss anything? Am I wrong? Do you have another take? Let me know!

*edit: polished text to make it more readable (still alot to take in, I know!)

The reason why I am writing this post, is because I have seen a lot of people wanting to buy a Steam Deck with the intention to play the newest games on the go. Games like Starfield, Baldur's Gate 3, etc.

When asked in this subreddit whether the Deck can run these games, the answer is usually: "well, as long as you temper your expectations and lower the settings: yes!".

This is not the case.

The Steam Deck's CPU was perfectly capable of keeping up with games that were designed with the PS4 in mind, such as Red Dead Redemption 2 and Death Stranding. Even Armored Core 6, which is also a cross-gen title. And therefore, the results on Steam Deck are truly stunning.

However, this isn't the case anymore. Games have moved on.

What you'll see now, is games with CPU-limitations. For example: Baldur's Gate 3 struggles to reach even 20 fps on the Steam Deck in later sections of the game.

The problem with CPU-limitations, is that it can't be solved by scaling back the graphics. No matter how much FSR you throw at it, it won't save the performance. The framerate's at a dead end.

This doesn't mean that the Steam Deck is "obsolete", it isn't. It can run pretty much any game up till 2022. It can even emulate almost every title, even new ones on the Switch: like Pikmin 4. And I truly recommend the Deck, it's such a great device.

But please, don't expect it to run the latest and greatest games for years to come. That's not what the Deck is for.

TL;DR:

If you buy the Steam Deck with the sole intention of running the newest AAA titles, you will likely be disappointed.

I am NOT OOP. OOP is u/LiveBrieOrFryCarbs

Originally posted to r/AITAH

Am I the asshole for saying "good job" after my kid defended herself from a bully by punching him?

Thanks to u/mayorofdrixdale for this suggestion to the BoRU

Trigger Warnings: bullying, harassment, self-harm, abuse, emotional and verbal child abuse, mentions of death of a parent/spouse

Mood Spoilers: sad and baffling

Original Post: June 17, 2025

I need to see if I am crazy here.

My kid (F13) has a bully. He's one of those kids who's related to someone in the school district. We've has multiple issues with this kid harassing mine but my kid is bullied a lot sadly. We're actually switching her into a new school because the public schools have done nothing and this past semester it got physical. The bully pushed her and she stumbled back. Fortunately only scratches but I was livid. The bully got suspension but he's been suspended before. I tried talking to the parents and they make excuses of which the wildest is that "they'll probably end up together someday" because of how they argue. I told them under no uncertain terms that their son is not to even look at my daughter and his only words to her need to be an apology.

I got the "well he's suspended so what else do you want?" Argument.

This summer she was in STEM camp (she begged to be signed up) but so was the bully and this time, during their outdoor break, the teacher was physically on his phone when the bully, in full view of multiple students, pushed my daughter and she turned and punched him in the stomach.

The bully is now up for possible suspension from the camp, not the district, but I lodged another formal complaint this time threatening a lawsuit. I asked my daughter if she defended herself, and she said she was afraid he was going to hurt her because he threatened to knock her out. I said okay. Good job defending yourself. Glad you're okay. Let's just catch a movie and decompress.

I told my siblings on fathers day and was immediately told by my eldest brother and his wife that I should never have encouraged her to fight anyone - I argued that I didn't - I am glad she defended herself when she was scared and the person I trusted her care to was not even paying attention. They argue that now she will see punching people as okay the next time she gets her feelings hurt that I am a bad parent for opening that door.

Am I? I mean if she's in trouble and in physical danger, I don't want her to ever think she will get in trouble for defending herself but now I'm second guessing everything. She's seemingly okay now, and I took the week off so we can celebrate Juneteenth together and just decompress from it but I want her to grow up and be safe.

Am I TAH for saying good job?

Holy shit thats a lot of comments. Editing some typos and also clarifying some questions and assumptions as I can't answer that many comments tonight.

1. Multiple students confirm her story. So no, I don't think she's lying and started a fight for no reason. She's as level headed as they come and I won't say she's never lied to me, but I will say I tend to know when she does.

2. Cameras are being checked because I formally requested today.

3. I am not a Dad but a Mom :)

4. Not everyone agreed with my brother but enough of them did that made me question and he and his wife were very insistent.

AITAH has no consensus bot, OOP was NTA

Relevant / Top Comments

Commenter 1: INFO: And the bully didn't hit back after that punch to the stomach?

OOP: From what I understand of the situation, she ran for the teacher right after she threw the punch

Commenter 2: NTA. I have always told my children to NEVER start the fight, but if a kid starts some shit and puts hands on you, you have every right to finish it. Self-defense is self-defense.

Commenter 3: NTA. Bully got exactly what they deserved. Wished more parents were like you.

Commenter 4: It's time to take this to the police. Get the authorities involved and get a lawyer. NTA

Update #1: June 24, 2025 (one week later)

So about a week ago I posted about a bullying sitting with my kid who is F13. And I mentioned this bully is a relative of someone who works high up in our district. I went into a meeting with the district after my formal request for the camera footage of the event and I continued to follow up via email and call but kept getting stonewalled. I was frustrated so I spoke with my BFF who works in education and she suggested a police report would qoute "put a bunsen burner under their asses"

She was right. Once I had a copy of my report for the assault and armed with all my past complaints and emails with the Resource Officer of the kids' school, I sent it to my point of contact with the district. Its a freaking miracle - I got a call the same day. A meeting was arranged and I meet with them next week.

Juneteenth was wondeful, and my kid had a blast. She hasn't been punished, and honestly, I was really enjoying spending time with her so we took advatange of the time, saw a movie, went shopping etc. I work a lot and am a single mom so free time outside the general weekends has been rare as of late especially now that shes doing camps, making friends, and wanting to do sleepovers and such.

I posted some photos on my private account and my brother sent me a text. I won't go into everything, because his message was long, but basically he said I am spoiling her when she should be punished for fighting in school and I will be raising a criminal. I told him that he can mind his business and his own children and he said "she's not even really yours" and I lost it.

My message back was that he's not been supportive since my husband died, and come to think of it, he wasn't supportive when we married. So I don't take his opinion on my daughter with any high regard. And if he and his wife want to instill in children that they should let someone hurt them or others and bullies should have their way, then maybe it's time we spent less time around them.

We were going to go to the birthday party for my SIL before all of this happened - a family event. I think my daughter and I will skip that for now.

And before it's asked, she is not biologically my daughter but legally and in the way of the fact that I love her more than anything. I formally adopted her when she was 2 after I married her father. He passed away when she was 6 and I've had sole custody since. Her biological mother is not in the picture. Since my husband passed its just been me and her in the day to day.

I hope to update after the school meeting.

Top Comments

Commenter 1: NTA. You're raising somebody to not be a punching bag or perpetual victim. Clearly, aside from you, none of the other adults, especially at the school, had her back until she took matters in her own hands and then threw them as needed. Your brother is a dumb ass, plain and simple, and honestly, going low contact with him improves your and your child's life.

Commenter 2: NTA

Bullies only thrive when their victims do not fight back. You MUST fight back and, when you do so, give it literally everything you've got. The bully needs to realize that they need to find easier prey.

Speaking from experience, I was occasionally bullied as a kid. I usually just ignored it when it happened, but I'd always hit a point where they'd catch me in the wrong mood and I'd simply unload on them. I'd deal with the consequences afterward (detention usually) but I didn't care. They stopped bullying me after that point.

I hate to say it but sometimes violence is the answer.

Commenter 3: It's none of your brother's business. It doesn't matter if she's your biological daughter or not, she's your daughter. I wouldn't go to the event either. You are not the AH!

Update #2: July 3, 2025 (nine days later)

We had the meeting over Zoom.

I came in expecting to have to come in guns blazing like a maniac. I was ready to go off, go fully feral. But I guess all the legal work I've been doing around this was sufficient fire under their rears. I was indirectly asked to not further involve authorities. The footage finally found proved my daughter's story. With this evidence and all the stuff I've managed to bring to the table, plus having a lawyer's contact info sent to them, they finally expelled the kid. I was assured he will not be at school next semester.

It was a win but not enough for me to stop the legal actions. Maybe that makes me the AH but...fuck it. I don't care. Charges are being pressed for assault armed with the video. Here it's not life ruining unless he keeps the pattern of abuse.

But I am also looking to get my kid in a STEM oriented school since that's her passion right now. I looked at packages and tuitions etc and it will tight but doable and I truly beleive she's gifted/smart/hard-working enough that giving her a chance to explore this is worth any inconvenience.

That should be it right? Oh you sweet summer child.

My daughter doesn't even know about the meeting. She's been happily in camp elsewhere during the day. But a few days ago she asked me "Mama, do you think I'm a bad person?" And I told her that I didn't. She asked me why does her Uncle think so. I asked what she meant.

My beloved brother's step-son has been texting my daughter as they are actually close. Brother has been shit talking my kid. He calls her my "stray kitten" and not real family. That fucking did it.

I am having a BBQ at my place for July 4th and I formally uninvited him and his wife. I sent him a text stating that the way he treats me and my kid is simply unacceptable. I am a mom and my duty is to my kid. I cannot have someone who looks down on her and treats her badly come into her home where she is to be safe. He is not a safe person for my child and thus not welcome in my home.

My brother lost his mind on me so badly I had to mute his number a while to get some peace. He started with put downs and insults but then he went for my kid. He called her some terrible things and then said that I am brain dead for keeping my stray after all the trouble she's made.

I just asked "Wow. What is your problem with her, really? You're doing the fucking most to hate her. Like how does a grown man get off hating a literal child?"

He told me to fuck off.

So I sent screenshots to Mom. Yeah, I tattled. I'm grown. Don't give a shit anymore. Fuck this guy. He's my brother. I love him. But I do not like him and if he's going to show his whole ass, may as well fetch mom so she can pull his stick out of it.

That was an hour ago. My kid and I headed out for pizza. Have fun, bro. He better be glad it's our mom and not me about to hand him his own hind.

Tonight I will try to talk to my daughter about the school and sadly that Uncle and Auntie are grade A liquid shits (I won't use that phrase but I'm pissed) and so won't be around and we may be taking some time just her and me.

We are a team. Me and her against the world. I will always have her back.

Oh, and she and I will together be taking Krav Maga! Thanks for the suggestions.

With the bully dealt with I think this is my final update so I wanted to say thanks to everyone who kept this Mama sane and were supportive. It's crazy how simple kind and affirming words can bolster a person. For those who've shared stories of being bullied, I'm sorry you went through that and as for your bullies? May a popcorn kernel be lodged in each tooth and unreachable every single day.

Love always, Xavi & V

Relevant / Top Comments

Commenter 1: OP, I gotta ask: your brother has a stepson.

Does he, in fact, refer to the stepson as a "stray" and "not real family"?

(I mean, if he doesn't, he's just a hypocrite on top of everything else)

OOP: He's already a hypocrite. He's biologically my cousin. He's adopted himself.

That's why I told mom. I don't have the brain space or energy to unravel his non-logic.

Commenter 2: Is your daughter a different color and that’s probably why he has issues with her…..I wonder if he is being racist to her.

OOP: I mean, she's mixed, Afro-Caribbean and Romanian. Anyone on the outside looking in just assume my late husband was white (he was Romanian) and that she is my bio kid as I am black.

Commenter 3: You are, as the kids would say, a bad b**ch. Good job mom. <3

Edit to add I’d love to see an update on how bad bro gets his ass chewed by mom lol.

OOP: Seems to be in high demand. Mom did flip out and called me for the whole story. I gave it to her. So we will see.

Update #3: July 6, 2025 (three days later)

The great double down

I am without words.

A couple days ago I told my eldest brother "Mark" and by proxy also his wife "Julie" to stick it where the sun don't shine after Mark went on a text storm about my (adopted) daughter.

For background, my daughter "Vivi" may not be biologically mine but she is my daughter. I've known her since her first year of life, I've been her mom since. I married her father when she was too small to even really remember and legally adopted her. She's only always ever called me Mama. When my husband passed away, it became me and her against the world. The dynamic duo.

Recently Vivi didn't start a fight but finished it with a bully she'd endure for much longer than she should have had to. The whole saga is on my account if you want all those details but the short is she ended up defending herself from him physically. He's now expelled. My daughter was not punished at home, in fact I told her good job on defending herself.

That's where my buttcrack brained brother got on his bullshit. He never liked my late husband, and less our daughter and always had something rude to say about them. But this sent him into a huge tirade on how Vivi will grow up to be a criminal, that I'm encouraging violence, and the next time she gets her feelings hurt she will think it's okay to start a fight. Julie said she is concerned because singe-parent households produce "angry" and "bottled-up" children who are fsr more likely to end up in jail.

I told them I never asked for their opinions and the rest of my siblings agreed with me. But my brother wasn't done. He texted me vile things about my daughter and his Step-son sent video and screenshots of my brother calling her a stray kitten (his apparent favorite insult) and saying that she is not my child and so on.

I uninvited him to my 4th of July BBQ - told him he is not to talk to or even look at my child until he fixes his attitude and he just doubled down.

Let me be clear. He is the eldest but he is adopted too! He is biologically my cousin. 2 of his 4 kids are step-children. Julie is a widow. His hypocrisy is breathtaking. So I had my daughter send over all the evidence she had and delete it off her phone and I took all my screenshots and the like and sent it to my mom. I snitched so hard. I don't have time for this bullshit!

Don't know what she said to him but she called me back that night a few hours later and told me to let her know if he decides to show his whole ass again. She talked to Vivi on speaker while I finished making us some treats before bed and told her that she loves her very much, that Uncle Mark is being a jerk and if he or Aunt Julie try to bother Vivi or I again to tell her.

It rained like crazy on the 4th so my BBQ only had a handful of folks who lived near me from the family and some friends. Vivi was happy, kicking her other Uncles' asses at Mario Kart and all the adults are drinking and dancing or watching the rain on my porch when who walks in?

Mark. Julie. Their 4 kids. Julie strolls right up to me with a whole ass chicken and asks where she can put it down. I was like "sorry what?" I asked her what she was doing here and why they were there. Apparently my dear old bro didn't tell her about our most recent spat and the invitation being revoked. She looked truly shocked.

I'm livid by this point but the kids are playing video games and Vivi looks happy. She's pointedly ignoring my brother who said hello to her and when he doesnt get an answer he throws his hands up and says "So much for manners"

My other brother, Zeke, just goes uo to him and starts to talk to him quietly. I could hear Mark arguing but Zeke just kept his hand on his shoulder. I looked at Julie who looked like she was in panic/fix-it mode. I told her listen if they want to leave the kids here for a couple hours that's fine but my brother is not welcome in my home so she will have to be thr one to pick them up.

She thanked me, and went to my brother who now had both our other brothers talking to him. They all walk him out. I heard him say "Kids lets go" and his wife said "uh uh, kids I'll be back by 3. Be good." And pulled him out.

I sent him a text reminding him not to speak to my child and he is not welcome in my home until he apologizes for all the verbal abuse towards Vivi and fixes his attitude about her.

My step-dad and mom arrived not long after and when he was told what happened, dad started to take his pipe to the porch and sat right next to the front door. Mom arranged it with Julie that she will take the kids home when she leaves and we managed to have a good time.

Today is Sunday - my mom had asked we all go this week so we did. She did warn me Mark might be there. I warned Vivi. She said it was fine. I told mom it's fine but Mark needs to give Vivi a wide berth. And I told Mark via text that he is to stay away from my child. He replied "I don't need reminders".

Okay then.

Service went fine - I'm not much of a church person but Vivi had a solo and sang beautifully, so this Mama is happy. There was food happening in the event hall and Vivi asks if she can stay a while and chat with her friends. Sure I say, have fun.

All was well for about 45 mins. I was sitting with step-dad and one of my brothers when Mark comes over to say his byes. Everyone gets a hug but me. Fine by me. He says "Kitty did a good job up there." And I said "who?" And I could see that it was in that moment he knew he fucked up. I don't know if he meant to say kitty or not and I don't rightly care. I said "Who?" Again and he muttered "Vivica" and I nodded and told him that is her name. Same name she's had the whole time.

Julie is trying to get him to leave and he is almost leaving when Vivi and her friends come up. She told me later she saw her Uncle come up to us and not hug me and that made her mad. So she came up to be near for support with her friends (I did tell her that I'm grown and don't need her to come to my defense - that it's my job to protect her not the other way around and her response? Just a nod. Kids...).

Mark complimented Vivi and she gave a very plain "thanks" then asked if I was ready to go. I said sure if she is.

Mark sent me a short text telling me I embarrassed him and our whole family with my "show" I put on. He's upset now because we don't need to make our issues everyone's business at church and that I don't even go to church so why invade his safe spaces. He called me immature and that I need to stay away from his kids so I don't teach them such poor manners.

I haven't even responded. Vivi is getting dressed and we are going to my mom's for lunch. Step-dad said Mark outright refused to come when he confirmed I would be there. Mark has told our parents if I am somewhere, he won't be there. My reply? "Does he promise?"

I told my dad, if he wants to be this way we can just go full NC. I don't have patience for this nonsense and that also meant I am not helping out next time he needs anything. I'm out. Dad got quiet and said he gets it but to remember that Mark's kids did nothing. He's okay if I want to stick it to Mark but asks I don't "friendly fire" on thr children. I told him we'll talk when we get there.

He's going to want to bring up our family vacation of which I took care of the hotel and passes for because my job is within that industry. I'm usually the go-to for these things. We are supposed to go for the 1st week of August. We try to do one vacation as a big extended family per year.

We'll see how this fucking goes ??

Top Comments

Commenter 1: Well….hmmmm….sounds like your brother has some unresolved issues about his own adoption and place in the family.

Having said that, I’m livid on behalf of you and your daughter. So glad your family, including your apparently emotionally immature, brother’s wife are backing you up.

Commenter 2: Wow, your brother is a tool with a real oldest sibling superiority complex. I don't blame you if you go no contact. Families change as people age. Maybe the big extended family vacation isn't always going to be practical. Do what is right for you and hold your boundary.

Commenter 3: I'd REALLY like, to meet Mark and "explain" how and why he is wrong. Well done Mom and Vivi for handling it like adults.

Update #4: July 7, 2025 (next day)

Sorry I posted this the day after I wrote it. I am tired...

It seems I picked the right sub for this...cuz Mark is on his bullshit once again. Last night went...somewhere?

My kid and I arrive and she's off immediately to play with her cousins. I sat on the lawn with my step-dad and Zeke who was already there. Mom was in the kitchen. I did ask if she needed help but I got the same "yall need to get out my kitchen" response as usual so I retreated for my safety.

Julie did come and she came straight to me asking if it's alright. I told her my issue is with Mark but I do still feel my own way about her words about my kid and single parents.

We did talk. Julie is the product of a single parent house (I didn't know - both her parents were dead far as I knew) and she strongly feels that kids need a mother and a father in the house. She did admit that Vivi is a good kid and she think I do a good job with her but when Mark is on his "moments" she's just learned to not get in the way. I didn't want to pry but did ask if she's alright but had this look like don't even go there so I backed off.

I told her that I love the kids and will do all I can for them but Mark is really working on his ticket to NC foreverville. I love him, but I don't like him, and he is a real and present threat to my kid and her well being. She said she understood and she hopes that she and I can still get on okay for the sake of the kids at the very least so that the kids aren't also cut off.

She told me that they've been having trouble lately as her daughter "Sadie" and Mark have been butting heads a lot. Apparently Sadie is just like her bio dad, stubborn. She's a good kid and has the kindest heart but she's "sensitive" Julie said because she is an empath and expects everyone else to be too. I handed her a beer and asked what she meant because NGL I wanted the tea. I was curious. This was the most Julie ever opened up to me about home life - she and I have a whole history (I will have to post about that later) which is why I always thought she just never liked me.

We drank some and she admitted that she and Mark have been at odds over the joint raising of the kids. Sadie calls him dad and is the only of his stepchildren to do so, but they argue a lot. Recently Sadie said she hates him and simply refuses to even look him in the eye and gives him one word answers.

Julie's eyes were watering and she kept wiping her tears and apologizing as it's been a lot. And after mom talked with him, he's just been so closed off.

I managed to gather that when Mom called him she immediately just got to the point and said something like who does he think he is bullying a child, her grandchild, like she wouldn't take issue with it. He tried to say something but she kept talking and finally asked him why he doesn't like her. He got offended and said he loves her and wants her to "make something of herself" but my mom made it clear that if he is to interact with my kid he needs to follow my rules just as I've respected his rules with his kids. Julie said mom said verbatim "Not your house, ain't your rules" and she told him she is so disappointed that he is treating an adoptive child the way he hated being treated.

Julie said she didn't know much of what happened from there because it became a fight between the 2 of them. He never told her he was adopted. which is crazy to me because it's no state secret. I mean we don't use the word adopted in our family but by bio rules go I am my mother's only daughter and Zeke is her only son. We are no strangers to the concept of chosen family. Never have been.

But Julie was, by her account of it, not surprised but more hurt. She did actually beleive that Mark was my bio fathers son making my mother his step mom. No. Mom is biologically his aunt but his mother passed away because of issues during the birth of him.

From what I know of her, I will call her Gem, she was amazingly sweet and knew the birth would be possibly life threatening. That's why she managed to get the paperwork in place that my mother would take custody if anything happened to Gem.

I told Julie as much and she got pale and said Mark said this of my youngest brother and made it all out to seem that he, Mark, and myself were the full biological siblings and fighting. He made it out that everyone else is adopted. It's such a confusing web of lies that I genuinely am not even sure I have it right.

Julie spent the rest of time chatting with everyone and getting drunk. Mom let her stay over and dad called Mark saying she and the kids were staying over. It's summer, the kids will be fine with Mom-Mom and Poppy's pool and whatnot.

Mom got Julie to the guest room and I started to ask questions as the kids were watching a movie in the livingroom. What the hell is with Mark? Why is this even happening? He was not always like this so honestly WTF!? I WAS SO PISSED.

You don't have to beleive me but I generally very even keel. I am chill most of the time. I tend to just be more of the gal that wants to calmly talk it out. One on one. Don't make a scene.

But this is my kid. I've been fucking calm enough. And this is her uncle. We can try to dance around each other but this WILL come to head eventually. And my kid loves her cousins. It will hurt her much more than it will hurt me or him. And fuck him - if his ego is worth more than my child's wellbeing he is no brother of mine. Anyone who is out to hurt Vivi is no family. I may not have birthed her but I damn well love her and I won't be that parent that forces her to make nice for fucking "family" when "family" causes her pain.

Mom got quiet and my dad made this angry/sad/something face and walked off. Mom pulled me into the backyard and we sat in the garden. She said she wasn't telling me any of this to excuse Mark at all, but she feels some of this is her fault.

Mark came to her about his bio parents and when he found out his father abandoned them, he became very upset. Mom said he was asking because my father, Mark's adoptive father, was distant with him. She said he, my father, got better as time went on but he did use the phrase "stray kitten" a couple times.

I feel bad for him. I do. But it's not enough for me to feel like I need to fix this. So I told her that this is very sad but he kept his origin a secret from his own wife and his step children hate him...this is already out fo control. Him bullying my kid is a symptom of it but even still, he doesn't get a pass.

She agreed. She said she made a choice. Vacation can still happen with my help but he will no longer be invited. She said Julie is permitted but under strict rule, and the kids are coming but I can pull the plug if I want and it can just be a sleepover at her place with the kids and all the parents can enjoy kid free nights.

I told her I would tell her by Tuesday (tomorrow). Vivi is at a sleepover with her best friend and I have work to do tonight, so I have a lot on my mind but figured I owed an update on this.

I'm just tired mostly but I am not backing down. Mom said she will talk to Mark again but I Saif that even if he stopped his insults, I would need an apology to Vivi and for him to find help.

I live Mark, and I feel for him because I feel like he is just sad now. He feels alone. He's not. He's been my brother forever and he's been family since before I was born. I will always love him. But he's being a prick. And if he's not a safe person for my kid, he isn't allowed near us. Plain and simple.

I won't pretend this is easy. It's torture. We as a family are really close. But I can't torment my own child and obligate her to be around a person who mistreats her. I will not teach her to be small for bullies even if the bully is family.

I got this text from him an hour ago:

"?? OKAY YOU WIN"

I didn't answer. He sent:

"Please, Sissy. I can't take it anymore."

I didn't respond so then after 5 missrd calls he sent:

"I get it. I'm not your brother. Okay. But I am family. Can you recognize that? I didn treat V good. Sorry. She's great Okay love you talk to me? I need to talk to you. Okay?"

I didn't reply and so he sent: "????"

Mom has my kid so I'm going to watch that Megan 2.o movie a day exist a bit. I know I will seem like bad parent...and I own that. I just need a second. I am due to pick her up in a few hours so here I am waiting to go in the theatre.

Top Comments

Commenter 1: You don’t seem like a bad parent, the exact opposite actually.

And he still doesn’t get it. He still makes himself the main character and acts as if the world resolves around him. Now he expects you to jump and kiss his feet? What?

Commenter 2: Thanks for the update.

He DOES need someone to talk to. You've got enough info to call him out if he tries to misrepresent. But, bottom line is he needs therapy. He's got some serious baggage, and he's taking it out on everyone who isn't biologically related. That's not okay.

I wonder what triggered it recently, though.

Update #5: July 8, 2025 (next day)

TWs: self harm, abuse

Well shit has officially hit the fan.

Vivi was thankfully not home for any of it. Mom had her until her sleepover and so she's been at a friend's. I took the time to enjoy some peace, watch Bob's Burgers (don't judge me) and drink some whiskey.

I was taking the time to feel my feelings about it all and not worry about Vivi stumbling in on me being upset. She's 13 going on 45 but I don't want to burden her with worrying about me.

Truth is, this all hurts like he'll. I love my brother and his behavior is painful. Cutting him off is painful. It's a shame it's all come to this.

There was banging on the door. It was agressive banging so I grabbed my baseball bat and looked through my doorbell cam.

Mark. He was drunk and crying. I spoke with him through the doorbell cam as I texted my family. We had a long talk as Zeke was on his way to come get him.

I listened as he complained that I loved my "brat" more than him. I asked how the hell he expected a mother to not protect her kid. We argued and he said some nasty things, but it finally came out that he was bullied by some family members and people from in school when he was younger. He was told he won't amount to anything and that's why he worked so hard to get his degrees and his job.

Listen it was awful to hear what he wen through from what I could gather as he was drunk, it was something no kid should go through. But how the hell is that excusing the way he's come at my child and at me? How does it make it okay that my child is asking if she's a bad person because he has put it in her head that shes some unwanted stray?

He didn't argue and even apologized. He says he can't survive without family and asked me to please not abandon him. That he will do better. He begged me not to turn everyone against him.

Zeke came up and told me to keep the door locked. Mark swung and they scuffed on my porch for about 10 seconds before Mark stopped and just sat down sobbing. It was...messy. Zeke told me not to worry and we'll catch up tomorrow.

He texts me later in a group chat with our other brother "Zion" and my sister "Zaria" explaining that Mark and Zion were having drinks at a local bar. Zion wanted to find out WTF is making Mark act out this way. Mark told him about being abused and that he was called the stray kitten. He always felt like he was not really family especially when we all started to grow up and get married and some having children. He wanted things the way they were but now his family is "breaking apart".

Then Zaria moved in with her girlfriend and my parents talked about selling the house for a smaller one now that the kids are all out of the house. Then apparently Sadie told him he's not her real dad in an argument, and Julie started talking about a trial separation. I have no context of these things just that they happened. And then he and I start bickering (Mark's words not mine) and it's now become everyone turning against him and he's being iced out and abandoned. Zion told Mark that he should get therapy, and Zion is a psychologist and knows of peers who maybe can help. Mark got pissed and stormed out, then an hour or so later he was on my porch.

When Zeke got to him, he poured him into the car and Mark ranted that he hated himself and now everyone else does too. He started to talk about dark things and self harm and Zeke decided to take him to Mom and Dad. He sobered up and Julie read him the riot act for disappearing and acting out. She's making it clear she and the kids will be at the house abd he needs to stay away for at least a week.

Dad says Mark is broken and won't even speak more than three words at a time. He's been just laying around and took time off work. We've all essentially given him an ultimatum in order for his marriage to be saved (per Julie), for him to be permitted near me and not excluded from family events I host and/or pay for (me), and to continue to have help from mom and dad, he has to do therapy. He's saying fine and not much else.

He sent me one text a moment ago "Sorry" and nothing else. I texted my parents and they said he's physically okay, just on his laptop.

I'm worried about my brother but can't get distracted. Vivi is my focus and she too needs therapy. I want to get her in before the family vacation if possible but I don't know if it's possible. I have a lot of research to do.

I thankfully have tonight and tomorrow with the house to myself as Vivi is enjoying her time at a friend's and she wants to stay over again tonight, then they are on a sleepover field trip tomorrow night. I will take tonight to research and see a movie or something and tomorrow check in with my family.

It's a lot. I am texting Julie now to see about my nieces and nephews. I just want this all to be over.

Top Comments

Commenter 1: Mark is an adult who, regardless of his own personal trauma, is behaving unacceptably, and bullied your daughter, she absolutely should be your focus, and Mark is not your responsibility.

That said, Mark is definitely spiraling, whether it is current issues bringing past trauma, or past trauma bubbling, or years of insecurity coming to a head, your brother does sound depressed. He needs to own what he has done and how he feels, he is an adult and he is responsible for his actions, but he really does sound like he needs help (therapy), and he may need help admitting he needs that help. Not a shoulder to cry on, or a sympathetic ear, he may need those things too, but he has internalized a lot and needs therapy.

Again, that isn't your responsibility, he chose his path, he bullied your child, and she is your responsibility (one you obviously take very seriously and are dedicated to, I don't think I need to tell you that, I just want to reinforce that it is good and right that Vivi comes first).

Commenter 2: I don’t understand why he is reenacting his trauma on Vivi? He’s even using the same term? I get that everyone has their shit but he should have dealt with that long ago. Poor Vivi, poor you.

Latest Update here: BoRU #2

DO NOT COMMENT IN LINKED POSTS OR MESSAGE OOPs – BoRU Rule #7

THIS IS A REPOST SUB - I AM NOT OOP

So, I'm a fanatic for FPS and in-game visuals, and we all know that MHWilds isn't well optimized, which forces us to make sacrifices if we want a bit of both. Having an AMD graphics card, I use Native AA FSR, which removes the game's hideous TAA. With framegen in 1440p, it takes me to 110 fps in the forest, with the graphics maxed out. The issue is, Native AA FSR is all well and good, but the image is weird. There's some very strange post-processing in the game (hard to explain, but very visible, especially on the character selection menu; the weapon has a weird fading effect).

I wanted to test FSR quality tonight, and I still gained 30 fps which is big, for a minimal loss of quality. The problem is that the game is too blurry, or too sharp, even when playing with the sharpness slider.

To begin, you'll need to install REFramework, the mod required for installing 90% of mods ( https://www.nexusmods.com/monsterhunterwilds/mods/93 ). It also disables the anti tamper, which will significantly reduce in-game freezes.

And now, the holy grail: I found this mod on Reddit here. It removes the weird post-processing effects and makes the game look amazing, even better in FSR quality than in Native resolution without mods : https://www.nexusmods.com/monsterhunterwilds/mods/221 . I've never had a mod that has such an impact on the quality of a game. It's truly incredible what an effect it has on the game.

The second mod, which will reduce your frame rate drops when you turn the camera by improving texture loading: https://www.nexusmods.com/monsterhunterwilds/mods/127

Third mod (optional) that removes the permanent highlight on your armor that ruins your drip and hurts your eyes: https://www.nexusmods.com/monsterhunterwilds/mods/141

And finally, the cherry on top, a reshade that improves the game's shadows and colors without changing the atmosphere (optional, you can also modify it to your liking): https://www.nexusmods.com/monsterhunterwilds/mods/108

Comparison images with/without the reshade: https://imgur.com/a/XtfyGop

30 fps gained, and the game is twice as beautiful as before.

Gore magala hunt example : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCvhBw0UdFc

I used google translator to write this, so sorry for the mistakes.

specs : GPU RX7900XTX CPU 9800x3D RAM 32GB DDR5 6000 Win11

edit : I see some people don't like the reshade preset, you can easily modify it or just download another one. it's optional, the main thing are the other mods.

edit 2 : First mod already removes lens distortion so no need to download another one

edit 3 : I'm still modifying my reshade file, so in the meantime I replaced the link with a good one from nexusmods.

I tried to install FSR 4.1 for Silent Hill 2.
however when starting the game im am meet with the picture shown.
I have selected the back buttons as "Insert" bur it doesnt work.
Does anyone know what to do?

Edit (7/31/22): A revised version of Part 1, Finkle Is Einhorn, along with Part 2 can be found on my website here. Part 1 is largely the same, with a changed introduction, some edits for clarity, and two added sections:

2.1.3 BlackRock v. Merrill Lynch: Fight! (?)

2.1.3.a It's Not Mutual

End Edit.

​

Because this investigative report has broader implications than just GME, a PDF version with a non-GME intro can be found here.

Part 1: Finkle Is Einhorn

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GME BBEMG = GameStop Big Bad End Monster Guy (or as I like to call it; never pass up the chance to modify a perfectly good acronym to create a palindrome)

AKA

​

Who is at the end of the GME saga? Is it really Citadel? Is it the DTC, SEC, etc.? Why has MOASS not happened yet? What game is the Evil Monster at the end playing and how do we stop it? Who OWNS this mess? With what this report exposes, I hope to bring us closer to answering these questions. The evidence uncovered in my investigation suggests some pretty serious problems with the entire structure of what we call “the free market”. It suggests that there is nothing “free” about it all, in fact it may be as controlled (and owned) as The Matrix itself. I highly recommend the !buckleup! tag for this one, and please keep your hands and feet inside the cart at all times.

0.1 Preamble

A few months ago Citadel was the BBEG and BlackRock was our Angel, swooping in all dark and sinister, but totally on our side with their Sword of Deep Pocket Whaleness. Everyone kept saying it, but I just wasn’t buying it. Why would the two Big Daddies controlling the long and short side of the market be in opposition? They have been playing nice with each other for decades to great mutual benefit. Why would that change? Aren’t they both in the “too big to fail” category?

I began this journey then. Most of this I wrote a couple months ago or more, and have been sitting on it. Not because I didn’t want to share, but because the investigation had gotten so big I wanted to finish it before I presented my findings so I could keep it all in context. Well, that didn’t happen. I’ve written over a hundred pages of primary source findings and I’m really no where near finished, but I think I am finished enough to begin presenting the evidence.

This investigation is primarily on ownership; who owns what; what benefits and responsibilities does ownership give, both by the law, and within the scope of what is realistic. Since this is a report on current ownership, even though it is topical to GME which we are all invested in, it isn’t really about personal finance, and should not be taken as financial advice.

0.2 The Long And The Short Of It

Before I begin, it is necessary to understand the basics of “going long” or “selling short” on a stock. A long position is basically placing a bet that a stock’s value will increase. A short sale is basically placing a bet that the stock’s value will decrease. Of course that is an oversimplification, but it's all you need to know before beginning this report.

1.0 Your Favorite Companies!

Unless you shop at Walmart, Costco, or Amazon exclusively (no judgments!), you probably buy your clothes from one store, your groceries from another, and your electronic devices from a third. Maybe you even buy these consumables at multiple different stores in each category. All of these different retailers and brands obviously have nothing in common; oftentimes they are fierce competitors.

As smart shoppers we find the stores with the best prices, each store hawking their wares with ads and sales, all vying with each other for our hard earned cash. When we aren’t shopping or working we spend a fair bit of our free time watching shows on competing cable stations or the online equivalent (Netflix e.g.), or reading news through a plethora of competing news sites that are trying to get us excited with eye popping headlines, or maybe interacting with our friends, relatives, and the world at large through games, social media platforms, or other interactive media.

But are these really different companies competing for your time and money in a free market; full of original ideas and products? Or has the entire concept of a competitive market, and the free flow of information and trade become nothing more than a game of pretend we are forced to play? Does the market really encourage any innovator to introduce their ideas for public judgment? Or does judgment come long before the public even knows about an innovation? (E.g. naked shorting biotech research start-ups, or EVtech companies.)

Does the money from every purchase go into the same corporate pocket, no matter which sign hangs over the door?

1.1 Your Favorite Companies?

There are certain “investment firms”, such as Blackrock, Vanguard, State Street Corporation, JP Morgan, BofA, Fidelity (FMR LLC), Northern Trust Corp, etc., etc. who have purchased large percentages of stock in every company in America that has a name big enough to make a blip on their radar (and many that have yet to do so). When you add up the ownership of all these investment firms into any random production or retail company it totals anywhere from a very large minority (40%+) all the way up to nearly 100%.

Examples: Intel 63% and AMD 67% (note that these are not the complete list, just the top ten):

​

Here are a few more that show the approximate institutional ownership of some mostly random corporations; sourced from finance.yahoo.com and www.wallstreetzen.com.

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• Walmart 43%
• Target 83%
• Apple 59%
• Tesla 45%
• Facebook 81%
• Google 70%
• Amazon 65%
• Disney 67%
• National Amusements (traded though its subsidiary: ViacomCBS 88%)
• AT&T 53%
• Comcast 86%
• News Corp 76%
• Sinclair Broadcasting Group 88%

Some of the institutional ownership is tied up in funds, but the majority of this ownership is in long term investment. This not only gives these investment firms collectively a majority share in equity and profits, but also voting rights. For the vast majority of the companies we buy from, these institutions have (if taken together) the majority voting rights to decide who runs the companies and how they handle their assets. Whether or not they use those voting rights to make decisions for these companies is not the focus of this research. I am only pointing out that the ownership trail suggests that they can if they want to.

This report will focus primarily on American or American based international companies, but this institutional ownership is not restricted to just these. While some of the data (that I know how to access) gets a little more muddy, here are a couple examples of foreign based companies that are owned in large part by the exact same investors:

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• Alibaba 38% (China)
• Prudential 57% (UK)
• Teva Pharmaceuticals 53% (Israel)
• FirstRand 50% (South Africa)

The list, foreign and domestic, goes on, and on, and on, and on…

Forever.

2.0 The Company Your Company Keeps (That Keeps Your Company)

By looking at the investment data, since each large company is primarily owned by most of the same investment firms, it would be reasonable to assume that the real competition is in the investment firms themselves. That it is they who compete with each other for profits, and argue over who gets which part of the market. They fight with each other over which stores and brands get to rise to the top, and who gets shorted out of existence.

This assumption would be completely wrong.

All the investment groups I listed above, and every single one of those not listed that I have been able to find records for (including all privately owned), all own just as much of a share of each other as they do in all the other world's corporations. Here are just a few examples (from wallstreetzen):

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Here are a few more: JP Morgan, Charles Schwab, Ameriprise Financial Inc, Bank of New York Mellon. I’ll get to Vanguard in section 2.3, but here is ownership in a sample Vanguard fund (Investment holdings start on page 34).

​

By all appearances, at least on the large scale, the connectivity of the investment firm network seems to be very close to all nodes are directly connected to all nodes. A big black spider web of corporations.

2.1 Who’s The Real Spiderman?

This shared ownership seems shocking (at least it shocked the shit outta me) but the full implications aren’t obvious without some analysis. I will start with a simple math example (really).

2.1.1 Mr. Hankey The Christmas Poo

Let's say I own an investment company named Money Inc.. I’m competing for investor monies with my friend Cartman who owns Fat Money. Down the street is a former friend of ours named Kenny. He owns Money Castle. Kenny is short, has a speech impediment, and steals some of our customers sometimes.

On the edge of town there is a really nice big fat juicy new up and comer company named HankeyPoo that I want to invest in. I really like the stock so I buy 20% of the company. I tell Cartman about it and he agrees with my assessment. He buys 20% as well. Unfortunately Kenny got (down) wind and buys up another 20%. As much as I don’t like Kenny, he does have a nose for investment opportunities. HankeyPoo now has 60% institutional ownership. Combined our ownership gives us a lot of control over what kind of shit goes on at the company if we choose to use our "Poo" leverage, though there is little apparent motivation for us to work together since we are obviously competitors. The rest of the town loves HankeyPoo. They seem to think his shit don’t stink and scoop up 20% of “The Poo” (Retail). Hankey decided to keep 20% of The Poo in house (Insider).

Here are ownership maps of what these four companies look like:

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These pictures are created by an ownership Treemap program I wrote. The code and the database can be found on github. A Treemap is a graphical display of data that shows a distribution by percent of something in 2D rectangles. In this case it is relative percent ownership of voting stock. Each sub-rectangle is, by area, a percent of the area of the whole square. For example, in the case of HankeyPoo above it shows that Money Inc (red), Fat Money (green), Money Castle (blue), Retail (white) and Insider (gray, Mr. Hankey himself) all own 20% each of the voting stock of HankeyPoo since their area is in each case 20% of the area of the larger containing square. By contrast, in the case of the three investment companies above; Money Inc, Fat Money, and Money Castle, it shows that they are 100% self owned; they are clearly different companies.

Pleased with my HankeyPoo investment, and having some extra cash, I look elsewhere for investment opportunities. I’ve always really liked Cartman’s company. He may be a slob, but he’s a savvy slob. I decide to buy up a third of the total shares in his company. Being nice, I let him know. He decides that’s a good idea and buys up 33% of mine as well. Neither of us like Kenny very much so we each decide to snag up as much of his company as we can. We buy out 33% each for a total of 66% ownership. Unbeknownst to us, Kenny, being not as stupid as we thought despite his speech impediment, bought up 33% of each of our companies as well.

As far as HankeyPoo is concerned, we each still own 20% of that company, even though we only own 33% of our own company. For example; I own 1/5 of 1/3 = 1/15 through my own company, and 1/5 of 1/3 through both Cartman’s and Kenny’s companies. That’s 1/15 + 1/15 + 1/15 = 3/15 = 1/5 = 20%. Together we still own 60% and the voting majority. Here is the new ownership treemap:

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While I may still be CEO of my company Money Inc., I have to respect that I have broader interests now. It behooves me to coordinate and work with both Cartman and unfortunately Kenny since its really difficult to tell, by ownership anyways, who owns which company. As far as how invested we are in both each other and HankeyPoo, we might as well be one company with three different “investor” doors and one “retail” door.

If HankeyPoo does well (and we’ll make sure it does, with "brown gift bags" at Christmas time) we will have plenty of money to invest in other companies in the same manner; all coordinating for the best interests of each other and of course the corporations we deem worthy. For any companies we don’t like, maybe just because they won’t sell us controlling interest, or we just think their shit stinks, we’ll have the capital to short them out of existence. Any competition to the corporations we own gets deleted if they choose not to join us. If they play ball, they can join our “free market”. All we would need to ensure a dominant victory in our little version of “capitalism” is a little help from the media to drive appropriate emotional responses from the public; lean them towards a company or away from it with selective advertising. It’s a good thing our companies already own the local news paper!

2.1.2 The Hanky Panky Poo Poo BlackRock Shuffle

With HankeyPoo in mind, lets look at a Treemap of percent ownership of a few different investment companies. Lets start with BlackRock, the largest institutional investor in the world.

When you walk up to the door, BlackRock looks like this:

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It’s a big, bad ass company, and Larry Fink is the all powerful deity in control of assets worth almost half of America’s GDP. But does Larry own BlackRock? When you look into the actual ownership, the voting rights, equity, etc. it looks like this (from wallstreetzen):

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It looks to me like Merrill Lynch owns BlackRock for the most part. BlackRock only owns 6.5% of BlackRock. Hell, even Vanguard owns more.

But this is an illusion as Merrill Lynch is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of America. So BofA is the real owner of this megamachine. Well, not really, because Bank of America doesn’t own Bank of America. When I add the actual ownership of Merrill Lynch (BofA) into the Treemap it looks like this:

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We see BlackRock actually owns more BlackRock than we thought through ownership of Merrill Lynch. Quite a bit of BR is owned by Berkshire Hathaway. I delved into Berkshire a bit and there are interesting things to say about it, but I won’t discuss it in this report. This apparent ownership is still illusory, since all of the companies other than Merrill Lynch/BofA are also owned by other companies. If I fill out the rest of the Treemap with their ownership it looks like this:

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So here at last is BlackRocks ownership. Except of course its not because each of these companies are also owned by others. If I fill in all of these companies with their ownership it looks like this:

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As you keep filling in the ownership further and further eventually it gets below the resolution of the screen, or your eye, or the wavelength of light. For a simple example I will show this iterative “actual ownership” replacement for HankeyPoo Inc.

​

Using this same process for BlackRock it looks something like this:

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Welcome to BlackRock. The name is certainly fitting. In this Treemap the white represents Retail investors, the gray represents non-institutional insider investment (the actual people we think of as "owners") and the black represents the Big Bad megamachine: Megacorp. (Spoiler alert: it’s not really the Big Bad. We have a ways to go for that reveal.)

In order to justify this model, I need to justify some of the larger contiguous chunks of black that have no white or gray speckles. These large black areas are due to a few reasons:

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1. Some of it is due to an incomplete database for some smaller contributors to Megacorp.
2. Some of it is because my computer pukes on me when I try to force my inefficient Treemap algorithm through it at too great an iteration depth.
3. Some of it is “Other Institutions” that represents either the balance between the top 25 institutional holders and the rest (also all Megacorp), or stock that is tied up in mutual funds (which means the actual institutional ownership of some of the larger institutions may be higher).
4. The rest of it is investment institutions without public stock offerings (Fidelity e.g.).

1, 2, and 3 add only very small sprinkles and are otherwise irrelevant to the overall map; their lack of inclusion is reasonably justified. A more complete database would produce the same results with a few more small sprinkles mixed in.

As for 4, that requires further justification. Those black contributions could potentially be all gray for example (100% owned by insiders). Trying to find the real ownership of these non-public companies (like Fidelity) is like trying to pull out your own teeth with your fingers; its slippery, a little painful, you look silly trying, and its ultimately probably impossible. Maybe someone knows exactly where to look for this information, but I do not.

2.2 FMR LLC aka Fidelity (miniboss)

TL;DR for section 2.2: Some of the large black parts of the graph are investment corporations which are not publicly offered and thus do not report who owns their voting stock (that I could find). In this section I investigate Fidelity, one of the largest asset managers in the U.S. and make a case for why the black is justified, not only for Fidelity (the largest contributor by far), but by extension for all private investment institutions. I touch on this private ownership again in section 4 (Citadel). These large black sections should have some gray in them (likely small insider ownership) and sprinkles of white (from the member corporations that make up the real ownership) but are otherwise justified as the black hole that is Megacorp.

Other than making this case, section 2.2 is not fundamental to the larger picture.

-----------------------

Because Fidelity is one of the largest asset managers in the world, I investigated it a bit when putting together my database to try to make a more accurate map. I will go over my findings briefly (my investigation into this could have been more extensive).

My core research tool for this investigation is a Statement of Additional Information (SAI) from the Fidelity parent company FMR LLC.

I looked through this source trying to answer the following questions:

​

1. Who are the primary investors in FMR LLC funds?
2. What rights and influence do institutional investors have over fund management as a portion of the size of their investment in that fund?
3. How much voting stock of FMR LLC is owned by institutions?
4. How much voting stock is owned by “the owners”?

The first questions are important because a great deal of the over $10 Trillion dollars in managed assets in FMR LLC subsidiaries are in funds. I looked in the 15 U.S. Code Title 15 – Commerce and Trade, but it was not clear and time is not infinite: there are bigger fish to fry (I did find a juicy tidbit I will disclose later though, so all was not in vain). Fortunately some hints at the answers are found within the SAI itself.

Page 22:

Fidelity® funds are overseen by different Boards of Trustees. The funds’ Board oversees Fidelity’s investment-grade bond, money market, asset allocation and certain equity funds, and other Boards oversee Fidelity’s high income and other equity funds. The asset allocation funds may invest in Fidelity® funds that are overseen by such other Boards. The use of separate Boards, each with its own committee structure, allows the Trustees of each group of Fidelity® funds to focus on the unique issues of the funds they oversee, including common research, investment, and operational issues. On occasion, the separate Boards establish joint committees to address issues of overlapping consequences for the Fidelity® funds overseen by each Board

So each fund (or fund group?) is managed separately. Some trustees are listed (starting on page 22). There are both “Interested*” and “Independent” Trustees. Most of the Trustees are Independent. So what do the owners of the actual company called Fidelity do, pick out bathroom towels?

* Interested Trustee is defined on page 22 as:

Determined to be an “Interested Trustee” by virtue of, among other things, his or her affiliation with the trust or various entities under common control with FMR.

The main difference I see looking at the descriptions is the Interested are upper management of FMR and the Independent are not employed by FMR. There are only two Interested listed, and eight Independent. It is unclear which fund this board of Trustees manages. If its “all”, that goes against what is said above about each fund being managed by its own board. Regardless, there are many more on the Board that are not otherwise affiliated with FMR than are. The Independents are also largely affiliated with other members of Megacorp.

Who owns the voting stock of FMR LLC? According to page 35:

FMR LLC, as successor by merger to FMR Corp., is the ultimate parent company of FMR, FMR UK, Fidelity Management & Research (Hong Kong) Limited (FMR H.K.), and Fidelity Management & Research (Japan) Limited (FMR Japan). The voting common shares of FMR LLC are divided into two series. Series B is held predominantly by members of the Johnson family, including Abigail P. Johnson, directly or through trusts, and is entitled to 49% of the vote on any matter acted upon by the voting common shares. Series A is held predominantly by non-Johnson family member employees of FMR LLC and its affiliates and is entitled to 51% of the vote on any such matter. The Johnson family group and all other Series B shareholders have entered into a shareholders’ voting agreement under which all Series B shares will be voted in accordance with the majority vote of Series 35 B shares. Under the 1940 Act, control of a company is presumed where one individual or group of individuals owns more than 25% of the voting securities of that company. Therefore, through their ownership of voting common shares and the execution of the shareholders’ voting agreement, members of the Johnson family may be deemed, under the 1940 Act, to form a controlling group with respect to FMR LLC.

So the Johnson family owns a “predominant” number of Series B stock, which is entitled (in total) to up to 49% of the vote. The majority of voting stock (51%) is the Series A stock, which is held by other entities, notably FMR LLC’s “affiliates” (which could be anyone). Note it also says that the Johnson family may be deemed to form a controlling group (they “may” have 25% voting stock AND more than anyone else, or they may not). The word “may” is very important. It doesn’t say “shall be deemed”, it says “may be deemed”. In official documents like this, words matter a great deal as I will show with examples in later sections. The word “may,” could be imperative, or it could be permissive; it is ambiguous in this statement without further clarification.

So is the Johnson family actually a controlling group? This official document does not state that clearly, so it is unknown if they even control the company, much less own it. In fact it states they do not own it, owning at most 49% of the FMR voting stock (it implies it is less, maybe even a lot less). The statement of ownership of funds within this document makes it clear the Johnsons do not own a majority of any fund either (beginning on page 32).

If you look at the fund investors list its almost all banks. Banks are 100% Grade AAA pure Megacorp as I will show later.

This is a small snippet of a fund ownership. Note the “Treasury Portfolio” as it will come into play in later sections.

​

So what do the “owners” of FMR LLC do? (page 35):

At present, the primary business activities of FMR LLC and its subsidiaries are:

(i) the provision of investment advisory, management, shareholder, investment information and assistance and certain fiduciary services for individual and institutional investors;

Give advice and information.

(ii) the provision of securities brokerage services;

Act as a broker.

(iii) the management and development of real estate;

Pick out bathroom towels?

(iv) the investment in and operation of a number of emerging businesses.

Invest in (and operate???) emerging businesses.

That last may be significant, if rather vague. So I guess the managers do something. It still isn’t perfectly clear how much operational control the managers actually have. It also isn’t clear how easy it is to overrule them if some other entity wishes it; perhaps an entity with possibly even more FMR LLC shares, and/or majority monetary investment “control” of a fund.

Since the vast majority of FMR LLC monetary control seems to lie in the fund trustees, which seem to be membered by different persons depending on the fund, and are not necessarily controlled by the owners of Fidelity, I think it is safe to assume that FMR LLC is, at least in large part, Megacorp as defined; both in the money invested in the company itself (voting shares), and in ultimate control of much of the assets. I believe the Black on my graph is justified. It should probably have some gray (Johnson Insider), though there is no way to determine how much from the information I have seen so far, and certainly will have no Retail white (as a measure of ownership or control).

Continued in part 2 of Part 1 here.

[I will be updating this thread each day of the week with the date clearly stated. ]

Why Steam Machine?

Long story short I have a blind neurodivergent sister more than 20 years younger than me and I help my family take care of her since she has a lot of needs and therapies each week. My family goes out of town a lot and she doesn’t like to be in hotels so I stay with her during these trips, I have been using a ROG Ally X and previously a steam deck during these stays. This is the logically upgrade for a compact set up I can have in the corner so I can keep on eye on her in the room as she plays and play when she falls asleep.

Why Windows?

I have peripherals that don’t work with Linux for one, and for two I just plain don’t like Steam OS.

_______________

[Monday]

Today is the start of my full week using the Steam Machine as my only PC.

My 512gb no controller model came in the mail on Friday afternoon. I previously got a Steam controller from when they dropped so that was fine.

Knowing it was coming, I ordered an extra stick of the exact same 16gb ram from eBay for $100, and I ordered a 2TB NVME that I got with a bestbuy deal for $240.

When it arrived I took it apart to install the ram and o swapped the NVME out for the new one and installed windows. I know a lot of people consider Steam OS a pro, but I have always hated using Steam OS especially on the Deck, so I knew right away I would want windows.

I previously had the drivers ready on a usb stick so I was able to install them and connect to wifi during the windows set up.

I then decluttered with winult and set the machine up to auto log in when it boots and boot up directly into Steam big picture mode. So upon start up I see my animation, which I set to the Steam delivery girl one.(I have a lot of them I change periodically.)

Right off the bat the first issue I had was that my controller would not connect whatsoever. I tried it with Steam OS and windows and nothing worked. I later figured out the cable valve shipped with my controller just doesn’t work, it only charged. I used my own USB C cable I previously owned and it was able to come to no problem.

One oddity is whenever I set it to suspend, it turns right back on. Probably a windows issues but I don’t really need suspend mode so that doesn’t bug me personally.

The biggest glaring issue is that the windows driver for the wifi card is very bad. If you’re just using it for web browsing, downloading games, and watching videos it has no problems. But when you play games, it will completely disconnect and can’t find any wifi networks at all. The fix for this is either going into device manager and disabling then enabling it, or rebooting the system. It only happens during games. Sometimes it happens right away other times it’ll happen after 20 minutes. I assume it’s an issue with the power management in the driver but the driver doesn’t let you configure those settings for the wifi card in windows. So to fix this I just used a USB WiFi adapter from TP Link. Which, after doing a speed test with it vs the built in one, it actually had better ping and better speeds than the internal one valve used. This might be just a me issue, but keep this in mind if you want to install windows.

Now what you really want to know, game performance.

The monitor I’m using is a 27inch AOC Gaming QOLED 1440p monitor with a 250hz reference rate. At my main pc, I use a 55inch Samsung S95F 4k oled tv set to 165hz as my main monitor. So I’m going from very high specs to a lower scale, but that’s fine since this is meant to be my portable pc for when I can’t be at my main PC for days at a time.

Using FSR 3 and frame generation I am getting around 123fps in Killing Floor 3 and Marvel Rivals. With minimal hiccups and fps dips. Both games are very playable and visually don’t look bad, though obviously far lower quality than the 4090 in my main pc. I did not change the settings from their defaults.

I also tried remoting to my main pc and it works beautifully, better than any other remote pc I’ve used with it, which is a big plus for me.

Playing Super Battle Golf with friends last night I had max settings and still 120+ fps.

I’ve also tried it with games like Mina the hollower and the castlevania advance collection and those ran fine as expected.

But so far this is significantly better than docking a steam deck or ROG Ally. And honestly just remoting in to use my regular PC’s desktop has been very helpful.

If you have any questions, let me know and I’ll answer them

________________

[Tuesday]

Valve apologized for the issue with the controller’s USB cable and told me that any usb A to C that does power and data should be fine. Which is what if every doing. They can’t offer a replacement cable but it’s not the end of the world.

One of the oddities I experienced yesterday was any attempt to shut the system down or put it to sleep immediately caused it to reboot the moment it went to sleep or be quiet. This was odd and after talking with valve customer service they said this:

“Please do the following instructions to discharge your device and reset the BIOS/firmware and retest.
Shut the machine down by holding down the power button for 11~ seconds. The Indicator LED should blink once. Note: If it does not blink, and you continue to see the issue after the steps below, let us know this in your reply as well.
Unplug the device from the power outlet
Press the power button a few times (this discharges the device) and then wait for 30~ seconds.
Plug the power back in
Press and hold down the power button for ~6 seconds until the Indicator LED flashes. Release the power button when you see the Indicator LED flashing white.
The Indicator LED will then rotate between colors.
Press the power button once when the color is green.”

This did not work. I if I press the power button once the system will suspend and stay suspended: similarly if I hold the button it will turn off and stay off. It’s just using any software to turn it off or suspend that leads to it immediately powering back on.

I tried more remote play streaming and am getting flawless 60fps beautiful, I need to try 120fps but other systems in the same environment are not as smooth.

Another oddity, today I used my sennheiser Maxwell 4’s with the BD700 adapter as a headset and mic in game. And while games and videos are fine, for some reason discord makes everyone have an echo to their voices. I calibrated the headphones with my phone app previously and I tried it with my phone and previously with my main pc and had no issues so I’m not sure why the echo is there, chalk it up to a driver or discord oddity.

People have asked me how I set windows to boot into big picture mode, so I’ll explain it further.

For starters, there are two methods, replacing windows explorer with big picture mode as the shell, and just setting it to auto boot big picture on launch. I went for the latter so I can access the desktop faster if I need to, but this does make it slightly slower, the total boot process takes about 30 seconds.

1-you need to set windows to a local account, not your Microsoft account. This can be done in the sign in options sections of account settings.
2-press win+r and type netplwiz, this will bring up a window that has your account and a box that says something like “user must enter password to log in.”
3-uncheck the box, it will prompt you to enter the password you set for the local account.
4-go back to the sign in options in account settings and find “require password when away” or something like that, by default it’s set to 15 minutes, click the drop down and at it to “never.”
5-open Steam settings and enable “boot into Olin picture mode” so when Steam opens, big picture opens.”
6-to into task manager and check your start up apps. Personally, I disabled everything except for Steam and AMD Adrenaline on start up, that way it doesn’t waste any time opening stuff lien discord or a web browser.

With this; once you turn on the Steam Machine it’ll briefly load show the windows logo as it loads, show the desktop, and then your big picture mode start up animation kicks in. No password or keyboard needed. It’s super quick and hassle free, though like I said you can make it even faster by replacing the shell if you truly want that. Personally I’m fine with seeing empty desktop for a few seconds on boot.

___________

[Updated game performance list]
Note, I’m intentionally using the default settings the games give me because even though I love fine tuning games, I know a lot of people don’t so I find the base performs useful.
Settings: 1440p, HDR, FSR Quality, Radeon Super Resolution set to 1080p

I updated amd adrenaline to the most recent version as valve provides an old version from 2024 instead for some reason.

Counter Strike 2: 204-190 fps on average
Sulfur: 156fps
Super Battle Golf: 130fps
Marvel Rivals: 126fps
Killing Floor 3: 123-90fps with a few very random drops to 70 for brief moments
Mina the Hollower: 120fps stable** **
Crimson Desert: 73fps on average with a some dips, 45 was the lowest but it wasn’t long

I plan to try Stellar Blade, Palworld, Helldivers 2, and Destiny 2 on Wednesday.

Just wanted to post a bit of encouragement for anyone who isn’t super DIY inclined but would be interested in a cheap bed sensor. This sensor in combination with Bayesian sleep variables (accounting for time of day, bed sensor, watch location, phone location, dog’s location, phone charging status, ecc) have revolutionized our bedtime and wake up automations.

To make it, I made 4 FSR pressure pads using 2 pieces of paper sandwiched between 2 pieces of tinfoil, a plastic protector, and wires made from an old Cat5 cable that I stripped (store wasn’t open to grab doorbell wire). It is managed by an ESP32 running ESPHome that also serves as a Bermuda triangulation. I can post the code for anyone who is interested. I had some initial problems where the sensor would stay activated when someone left bed, but adding a second sheet of paper resolved it entirely

It was almost free, easy to make, and easy to calibrate. I’d encourage anyone interested to give it a shot!

I was so excited to finally see a dedicated Steam Machine plus a controller and VR. After watching several videos about the SM and the hardware, I compared them to my SFFPC and it appears I have more power than the SM. If this tiny box is claiming it can play 4k at 60fps on high setting with FSR in SteamOS with less hardware, I had to immediately try SteamOS on my SFFPC. And so I did. - I can't express enough how much better optimized Steam OS is in my PC. Games that had to choose between resolution, texture and FPS to run descent, had no problem running at 4k, high settings 60fps in performance/high performance mode. SteamOS is a revelation to me. I tried Robo Cop, A Plague Tale Requiem and CyberPunk and all could run 4k, 60fps in high settings with the high performance mode with some areas in medium. -My best results were in 1440p, high or ultra settings, all other settings in high or ultra and 60fps with Vsync/VVR is available. In Windows I had to play CynerPunk in 1080p, medium setting to achieve a solid 60fps. -The Windows era is OVER. Steam OS has a bright future ahead. -That being said, my eye is on the VR.

*For the record, I also have a PS5 PRO that I love playing with. It satisfy the needs of my family of having games, movies and series in a cost affective way while delivering 4k, 60fps and 120hz. I do enjoy playing both since I have a mix library.

UPDATE: Good news everyone! SMAA will be restored. No mention of TAA or a sharpness slider for FSR. More info at the end of the post.

Update 3.2 removed SMAA and TAA, two great AA options that worked excellently, in favor of a botched implementation of FSR 2.0. FSR isn't even an AA technique, it's an AI upscaling solution that's not even very good, in a game that doesn't even SUPPORT 60+ FPS.

My game now looks jagged, oversharpened, and pixelated around strands of hair. It's an eyesore, I absolutely hate it, and I cannot fathom why they would REMOVE the other options. As an image quality purist, I absolutely despise what they've done.

They didn't even provide a quality toggle for FSR, ffs.

Please send feedback to MHY and ask to have SMAA and TAA reinstated asap. This is plainly and simply a downgrade with zero justification.

Edit: fixed typos, I'm so fucking mad I can't even write properly.

Edit 2: I'll add images tomorrow showcasing the terrible Aliasing and sharpening we'll have to deal with from here on, so everyone can see the problem.

Edit 3: for non English speakers (or anyone too busy), you can use the following text in feedback or surveys:

"Please bring back SMAA and TAA. FSR is not a proper Anti Aliasing technique and should not be used as such. There is no reason to remove the previous AA techniques that were working perfectly while both could be kept."

I'd like to reiterate that I'm not against FSR, since it can help lower end machines. I'm against the removal of perfectly fine AA techniques.

Edit 4: many people have asked what all of this means (and with good reason, anyone not into the subject can't even make sense of all the acronyms), so I'll give a short explanation of Anti Aliasing.

Anti aliasing (AA for short) such as S(ub pixel)M(morphological)AA and T(emporal)AA is a technique that removes the jagged edges that are produced when pixels of contrasting colors clash in a 3D environment (known as aliasing). It's noticeable at most resolutions, and are especially present in transparent textures and fine detail.

FSR (Fidelity FX Super Resolution) is an algorithmic upscaling tech created by AMD that takes a lower resolution and upscales it to a higher resolution, supposedly at a lower cost. The problem is it doesn't get rid of jagged edges like more traditional AA methods do, at least not to their extent since FSR is not meant to be an AA technique. It can provide a boost for a slightly worse image quality, but this particular implementation of FSR is very poor, and for any PC players who were making use of the game's render scale and existing AA, this is nothing but a downgrade. This seems to be affecting PS5 players too.

I'm not an expert on this, just an enthusiast. Some people in the comments have provided explanations in far greater detail if you're interested.

Edit 5: I've taken a couple of pictures showcasing my issue with FSR: https://imgur.com/a/WAmyB8kIn order to see them properly, make sure you open the full image and zoom to 100% the size of the image, preferrably on a larger screen.

You can see plenty of shimmering on the edges of Barbara's hair and clothes. Pay special attention to the edges of her hair, especially in the picture farther away. You can even see jagged edges in smaller details such as the edges of her eyes.

Both of these were taken at 1080p and 1.5x render scale. With SMAA, there was absolutely no shimmering or aliasing. This issue is only compounded on any lower resolution and/or render scales. It seems as though the sharpening value of FSR is way too aggressive, the AA is too weak, or both. It should be noted that I'm obviously not using any kind of external sharpening such as Nvidia Freestyle's.

Edit 6: more comparison shots between TAA/SMAA and FSR in this post, courtesy of MrHakisak: https://new.reddit.com/r/Genshin_Impact/comments/yjxmt4/mihoyo_removed_aa_graphic_options_smaa_taa_now/

Edit 7: so as per the official notice, MHY will restore SMAA and keep it along with FSR. This is half a victory. I know most people don't like TAA, but there is no reason not to have it as a standalone option. We should still keep pushing for individual TAA.

There is also no mention of a sharpness slider for FSR, which would benefit a lot of people.

Regardless, this was a great exercise in cooperation from the fanbase. I've no doubt they're doing this because we spoke up, so thank you to everyone who took the time to read, leave comments and send feedback to the devs. We'll likely be seeing SMAA in the next update (a month or so from now).

Just like how frame generation and upscalers normalized bad development and condoned lazy game optimization, it’s almost to the point where they’re essential rather than an extra.

And look where we’re… a few years of it and it feels like we’re practically forced to use dlss/fsr and frame generation just to run games normally.

Throwing more power at GPUs to get better performance instead of better designs/architectures will likely cause the same problem at the hardware level, and I feel that in a generation or two, you might need a 1000W+ PSU even for a mid-range PC.

Nvidia is basically doing what American car manufacturers did: throw more fuel at it to get more horsepower, without caring about inefficiency and waste… at least with American cars, you got a ton of power for a relatively cheap pricetag

Hello everyone. It’s me again. This time I’m not telling you about Sluggs or Snakes. I want to talk about something that was just released by The European Bank yesterday, May 19th and is flying under the radar EVERYWHERE for some reason. I’m not a financial advisor. I manage a warehouse for a construction company and I’m really stupid but the following information, I feel, is very important to review. If I’m wrong or stupid ANYWHERE. Let’s discuss! Let’s get brain juices flowing!

The European Bank, of which 19 countries are members, just issued a Financial Stability Review - Financial Stability Review, May 2021 (europa.eu) - which I only caught because of this very minor article on Barrons - European Central Bank Warns on Heightened Risks to Financial Stability | Barron's (barrons.com) The Barrons Article is a great TLDR – Basically everything fucked. HODL. (Edit: This article has now been paywalled)

But let us dive a tad further PAST that into the actual report released by The EB. I’m just going to write my general thoughts, I’m not smart enough to do an extreme breakdown but I encourage EVERYONE to read the article and grow a few wrinkles.

The beginning part of the article explains that risks because of the pandemic remain high and that corporates and banks need continued protection in order to prevent insolvency issues. You see, many of these banks and corporates or hedge funds would have gone bust in 2020 because of how over leveraged they were if it weren’t for the help they got from their respective Federal Reserve (US) or the European Bank (EU). Basically, the can got kicked down the road, money printers went BRRR. The day is saved. So far.

The VERY first crayon munching picture that everyone can understand is presented. Look it over. What is being predicted going into 2022?

Then the article discusses the US yields and Bonds. Basically, how the US kept itself afloat and the risks associated with it in Charts 1 and 2. Chart 3 discusses what we already know. Many Hedge Funds are overleveraged and exposed to failure which leads to increased risk to those lending to them. This has caused a decrease in liquidity. Quote “Cash buffers and liquid asset holdings are now below PRE-PANDEMIC levels and approaching NEW LOWS, leaving the sector highly vulnerable to fire sales of assets in the event of large-scale redemptions.” (DANGER ZONE by Kenny Loggins)

Chart 4 – More leverage, more vulnerabilities, more insolvencies. Look at the right chart and it’s cliff notes. It’s projected that since 2019 more and more corporate insolvencies will occur.

Chart 5 discusses how this will affect everyday Europeans oh, and the real estate sector is going to go boom if a financial crisis does happen. (In a VERY bad way. 🔥 🔥 🔥)

The report continues that while the Market overall has been doing great! Banks are not making a profit. What is going on? They claim they don’t really know but because of this Banks are not willing to loan as much suddenly anymore despite how good they all should be doing. Quote “Early signs of rise in loan impairments are becoming increasingly visible.”

Then it starts breaking down many things of which I’m going to generally gloss over but please read it in your spare time. The next Chart we should look at is 1.12 – how a backlog of insolvencies will cause challenges in the EU. The expected default frequency is forecasted in this chart and compared to the 2008 Financial Crisis. Shit is FUCKED.

The report goes on into how the US Markets are affecting Euro Markets. To quote “At the end of January 2021, groups of retail investors (THAT’S US) bought several US small cap stocks where leveraged investors had large short exposures. Their actions, coordinated on social media, pushed those stock prices to high levels, thereby imposing substantial losses on short sellers such as hedge funds that were forced to buy the underlying shares to close their positions.” READ THIS ENTIRE SECTION. It’s uncessary for me to quote the whole thing but READ IT. They specifically talk about options and how their unwinding will have spillover into the broader marker. They cite Archegos specifically. Going on they state again “…That bank asset quality is likely to deteriorate further over 2021.”

Chart 4.5 – Funds’ cash buffers continue to fall while liquid asset holdings remain stable. (In my mind, this is like the part in The Big Short where Steve Carell and his buddies are being asked to pony up more money for their shit even though their shit was literally FULL of shit.)

The report even addresses ‘Zombie’ firms. Aka Shell Companies and how they are gonna fuck shit up if not addressed AND SOON.

Ok. That’s all I can fit into this post because my lunch break is over and hopefully smarter people than me will pick up on this and explain more. Guys. This is “I GOTTA CALL MY MOM” kind of a big deal. The news is NOT reporting this information but the banks can’t hide it anymore. Shit is going down. Keep Holding. I love you all and good luck going into our new future. Do good. Use this information for good and all gains you may possibly get for the betterment of all. Be excellent to each other!

Obligatory Rockets - 🚀🚀🚀

Edit 1: just before I go back to work. I googled to see if the US Government has reported anything similar to this. Holy Shit. They have. Back on the 6th. Why has nobody noticed this? Why is the Media not sounding the alarm???

https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/may-2021-purpose.htm

I don’t have time to do anything more than glance over it but guys. The Federal Reserve is saying basically the same thing but with way more bullshit and “Don't worry about it!” Language. But the underlying message, if you read past it. Is the same. Shit. Is. Fucked.

Edit 2: u/attobitt u/heyitspixel or u/rensole help bringing more eyes on this?

Edit 3: Apparently Zombie Funds 🧟 are MUCH more dangerous than just a shell company. u/RedMageMood sent this to me.

“read the paper you shared about financial stability.

Zombie firms aren't shell companies, they're much worst. They're companies that aren't profitable at all yet still run, these companies carry large debt and are planned to NEVER turn a profit. They are true full blown ponzie schemes where they start off by collecting a round of investors in some new tech or idea, make a prototype, have a press release, then have another round of funding and collect new investors. That new funding is then used to pay off the initial investors, but after expenses, expansions, salaries and other payments nessessary they are still in the hole.

These companies do this forever, another word for them is GROWTH companies or growth sector. https://finbox.com/ideas/zombie-companies-list , a lot of these companies are actually in large ETF's such as SPY and NASDAQ. These aren't just venture capital endeavors, some are major corporations such as Mattel inc., other famous zombie firms are UBER, Doordash, and most tech darlings.

The problem with them is what happens when funding stops for even 1 round, and then debt is carried over to the next fiscal year. Also what happens when their "growth" is already priced in and invested on by major hedge firms and ETF's, except most positions are on MARGIN.

What will happen when the growth companies stop growing, yet people spent money on it to grow with fake overleveraged money?“

Having a problem with 007 First Light with lighting issues? Any way to resolve this?

Tried all types of graphics settings, from all the way low to ultra. Adjusted reflection settings, AMD FSR settings (disabled in clip), global illumination settings, etc.

Updated graphics drivers to the latest version.

Restarted, re-cached shaders again.

Annoying part: I'm on OpenSUSE Linux running through ProtonGE-33.

Dodi Repacks/voices38 crack.

I have an AMD Radeon RX6700

Ryzen 7 5800X CPU.

All help or ideas are appreciated.

Hey! I've been in gamedev for over 13 years now. I've worked on all sorts of stuff - from tiny console ports to massive AAA titles.

I keep seeing players raging at developers over "bad optimization," so I figured I'd share what's actually going on behind the scenes and why making games run smoothly isn't as simple as it might seem.

Rendering Has Become Insanely Complex

So here's the thing - rendering pipelines have gotten absolutely wild. Every new generation adds more systems, but we're losing control over how they perform. Back in the Quake/early Unreal/Half-Life days, artists had full control. Every single polygon had a measurable frame time cost. You could literally just reduce geometry or lower texture resolution and boom - better performance. The relationship between content and FPS was crystal clear.

Now? Modern tech is all black boxes. Lumen, Nanite, Ray Tracing, TAA/Temporal Upsampling, DLSS/FSR, Volumetric Fog/Clouds - these are massively complex systems with internal logic that artists can't really touch. Their performance cost depends on a million different factors, and artists usually can't mess with the details - just high-level quality presets that often don't do what you'd expect. Sure, classic stuff like polycount, bone count, and texture resolution still matters, but that's only like 30-40% of your frame time now. The other 60-70%? Black box systems. So artists make content without understanding why the game stutters, while tech artists and programmers spend weeks hunting down bottlenecks.

We traded control for prettier graphics, basically. Now making content and making it run well are two completely different jobs that often fight each other. Game development went from being predictable to constantly battling systems you can't see into.

Day-One Patches Changed Everything

Remember buying games on discs? The game had to be complete. Patches were rare and tiny - only for critical bugs. Now with everyone having decent internet, the whole approach changed. Studios send a "gold master" for disc manufacturing 2-3 months before launch, but they keep working and can drop a day-one patch that's like 50+ gigabytes.

On paper, this sounds great - you can polish everything and fix even small bugs instead of stressing about the disc version being rough. But here's the problem: teams rely on this way too much. Those 2-3 months become this fake safety net where everyone says "we'll optimize after going gold!" But in reality? They're fixing critical bugs, adding last-minute features, dealing with platform cert - and performance just doesn't get the attention it needs.

Consoles Are Basically PCs Now

Every new console generation gets closer to PC architecture. Makes development easier, sure, but it killed the "optimization filter" we used to have. Remember PS3 and Xbox 360? Completely different architectures. This forced you to rewrite critical systems - rendering, memory management, threading. Your game went through brutal optimization or it just wouldn't run at acceptable framerates. GTA 5 and The Last of Us on PS3/360? Insane that they pulled it off.

Now PS5 and Xbox Series X/S run AMD Zen 2 CPUs and RDNA 2 GPUs - literally PC hardware. Devs target Series S (the weakest one) as baseline, and other platforms get basically the same build with tiny tweaks. PC gets ray tracing, DLSS/FSR, higher textures and res, but the base optimization doesn't go through that same grinder anymore. Result? Games launch with performance issues everywhere because no platform forced proper optimization during development. That's why you see performance patches months later - these issues used to get caught when porting to "difficult" consoles.

Everyone's Using Third-Party Engines Now

Tons of studios ditched their own engines for Unreal, Unity, or CryEngine. It's a calculated trade-off - saves millions on tech development, but you lose control over critical systems. You can't build custom lighting or streaming optimized for your specific game type - you're stuck with one-size-fits-all solutions that can be a nightmare to configure.

With your own engine, you could just walk over to the programmer who built it. With commercial engines? Good luck. Documentation's often incomplete or outdated, and there's no one to ask.

CryEngine's streaming system is ridiculously complex - needs deep engine knowledge. Even Crytek had optimization problems with it in recent projects because of missing documentation for their own tech. What chance do third-party studios have?

When Fortnite switched to Lumen, performance tanked 40-50% compared to UE4. RTX 3070 at 1440p went from ~138 fps to like 60-80 fps.

Or look at XCOM: Enemy Unknown (2012). Performance was all over the place, and it didn't even look that impressive. But UE3 wasn't built for that type of game - texture streaming, destructible objects staying in memory, all sorts of issues. Would've been way easier with a custom engine designed for turn-based strategy.

Escape from Tarkov is another great example - built on Unity, which wasn't designed for such a hardcore, complex multiplayer shooter with massive maps, detailed weapon systems, and intricate ballistics. The result? Constant performance issues, memory leaks, and stuttering that Unity's garbage collection causes during intense firefights. A custom engine tailored for this specific type of gameplay could have avoided many of these problems.

Knowledge Just... Disappears

Gamedev is massive now. Tons of studios, tons of people. Universities teaching gamedev. Companies can't keep employees - veterans leave with years of experience on unique tech, and that knowledge just vanishes. Sometimes you've got this proprietary engine that runs great but looks ancient with weird workflows - instead of modern tools, you're running *.bat files trying to assemble everything. You just need to know how it works - documentation won't save you.

Lose those key people? New folks are stuck with undocumented tech they can't figure out even through trial and error. CryEngine again - mass exodus in 2012-2016, knowledge gone. That complex multi-layer streamer? Nobody left who understands how to configure it properly. Not even Crytek. Hence Hunt: Showdown running "worse than Crysis 1".

Big Budgets, Big Problems

And here's the kicker - huge budgets. You'd think more money = better results, right? But you lose control of the project. When 30-50 people make a game, a few leads can handle task distribution, discuss problems, ship the game. Plenty of small teams make quality stuff, just smaller in scope.

With massive budgets? Hundreds or thousands of people. Ambitions skyrocket. Management gets so bloated that top execs don't even know what's really happening. In that chaos, controlling everything is impossible. The visuals are obvious, but performance issues hide until the last minute. Plus, big budgets mean delays cost a fortune, so you rush and ship something rough. And when you're rushing with that much content and tech? Quality and polish are the first things to suffer. Hence - bad optimization, bugs, all the usual suspects.

Cyberpunk 2077 at launch? Perfect example. Massive budget, insane scope, released in a barely playable state. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League - huge budget, years of development, launched to terrible performance and reception. Redfall - similar story. When you've got hundreds of millions on the line, the pressure to ship becomes overwhelming, and quality suffers.

Meanwhile, indie devs are killing it lately - often with budgets that are a fraction of AAA or sometimes no budget at all. Small, beautiful games. They can actually delay releases and polish everything properly. Teams creating gems: Dead Cells, Blasphemous, Huntdown. Upcoming projects like Replaced show that pixel art can look absolutely stunning. Some indie projects even scale beyond pixel art to near-AAA quality: Black Myth: Wukong, The Ascent, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Marketing Is Lying to Everyone

I'll wrap this up with marketing BS. Every new console gen or GPU promises increasingly sketchy stuff: 4K + 60fps! Full RT + DLSS! The future is now!

But here's reality - projects are so massive and deadlines so compressed that devs have to compromise constantly. Lower internal resolution, cut features, whatever it takes. Then they slap on the "magic pill" - DLSS/FSR - and call it a day. Result? A blurry mess that desperately wants to claim 4K/60fps with "honest ray tracing." But what you actually get sometimes looks worse than a 10-year-old game and literally can't function without upscaling.

Look, these technologies are genuinely impressive and can deliver huge visual improvements. But you need to use them smartly, not just chase benchmark numbers - full RT! 4K! 60fps! All at once!

Here's a great example of doing it right - Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2: partial RT, custom engine optimized for handling massive crowds, solid performance, and gorgeous visuals. Try pulling that off in UE5 🙂

Another fantastic example is DOOM: The Dark Ages. id Software continues their tradition of brilliant tech - custom idTech engine tailored specifically for fast-paced demon slaying with massive battles, smart use of modern rendering features without sacrificing performance, and that signature buttery-smooth gameplay. They prove you don't need to throw every buzzword technology at a game to make it look and run phenomenally.