maceman.info

In a not-so-recent patch, Blizzard increased the background FPS of World of Warcraft from ~4 to 30. They also changed it so this FPS will take effect when the window is not in focus. Previously, it only activated when minimized. There are many potential reasons to be unsatisfied with the first change. Lets say you have a weak computer and can’t multitask with WoW anymore.

To change the background FPS, you may either change the maxfpsbk value in the config.wtf file or with a line of text in-game.

Type
/console maxfpsbk 8
to set the maximum background FPS to 8. This can be any integer, so you can set it higher than 30 if you wish.
(Note: It cannot be set lower than 8. If you try to set it lower than 8, it will still run at 8.)

For the longest time, I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with my Unreal Tournament 3 setup. Every time I entered a game of any type, the loading screen wouldn’t appear. Instead, it would say “Precaching” in red with a black background. I figured out the reason why it was doing this is because I had the “-nomoviestartup” command line option set. “-nomoviestartup” eliminates movies of all types, not just the startup movies. Loading screens are considered movies. There are campaign movies, too, and you’ll miss out on those with the command line switch.

There is a way to turn off the start-up movies in a non-destructive way. Find your “My Documents\My Games\Unreal Tournament 3\UTGame\Config\UTEngine.ini” file. Open it with a text editor, such as notepad, and search for “[FullScreenMovie]“. Directly below it, add semicolons before all the sections that say “StartupMovies”. It should look like this:

[FullScreenMovie]
;StartupMovies=Copyright_PC
;StartupMovies=EpicLogo
;StartupMovies=MidwayLogo
;StartupMovies=UE3_logo
;StartupMovies=Nvidia_PC
;StartupMovies=Intel_Duo_Logo
;StartupMovies=UT_loadmovie1

Congratulations. You have disabled start-up movies and/or restored your loading screens!

Is the “Dualview” option not showing on your NVIDIA control panel?

Short answer: Restart your computer.

Explanation: I have two monitors that I was trying use with my computer, and I encountered a particular problem. I’m running Windows XP Pro SP3 with NVIDIA graphics. I tried to set up the monitors in a primary/secondary configuration, allowing each monitor to have a different resolution, and my task bar to fill one screen. I had a problem because despite the help literature describing the option, I had no ability to select “Dualview”. After searching the web for a solution, some more brutal than others, I tried a simple one. It was suggested that I restart my computer. The reason being that the NVIDIA control panel or my operating system can’t detect both my monitors at a low level unless the operating system is started with both of the monitors connected. Since I didn’t plug in the monitor until after the system was up and running, it hadn’t been started with both monitors. Restarting the computer fixed this problem because it allowed the operating system to detect both monitors at start up.

This is a brief review for the Logitech Classic Keyboard 200 USB.

Pros:

• Compact. Only has one “Windows” key, the margins of the keyboard are small, and the “Home End Insert Delete” row is 2×3 instead of 3×2. It doesn’t take long to get used to.
• Responsive, relatively quiet keys.
• USB.
• Has the ability to press several keys simultaneously. It’s no gaming keyboard, but it’s close.
• Cheap

Cons:

• Sometimes doesn’t get recognized by my BIOS unless it’s the only USB device. Note that it always works once the OS starts. I’m not sure if this is a problem with my computer or the keyboard.
• No built-in USB hub.
• No built-in volume control (note: this could be a pro for some).
• Keys aren’t loud, but they aren’t silent.

Overall, I give this keyboard a 4/5. Definitely a good buy if you are looking for a minimalistic keyboard that isn’t huge. I use it for gaming all the time and it works fine for me.

My idea of a dream VoIP program would have a lot in common with popular VoIP programs. Server-side presence information, firewall transversal, video, etc. I’d like a program that degrades gracefully. Popular programs try, but it seems that transmitting video can interfere with graceful degradation. Also, the lower limit on bandwidth and jitter is too high for my preference with many of these programs. I’d like a program that could transmit video and audio in conditions as low as dial-up. I’d like it to have an auto-reconnect preference to resist connection drops. I’d like a quality setting to allow the user to throttle their bandwidth usage. Maybe I’ll start a project like this someday. One can dream, eh?

Recap of my dream VoIP program:

• Text chat
• Low-latency audio
• Video
• Group chat, group audio, and group video calls
• Free internet-to-internet calls
• Robust back-end network
• Peer-to-peer for most operations (increases efficiency)
• Firewall transversal, when necessary
• File transfers
• Username-based identification. No confusing IPs or ports to work with
• Optional offline LAN-only mode
• Graceful quality degradation
• Audio and video usable in dial-up or GPRS conditions
• User-configurable quality setting
• Optional auto-reconnection for dropped calls
• Silent reconnection. The program stays hidden when it’s not called by the user. No pop-ups saying “THE NETWORK CONNECTION WAS LOST”.
• Extreme resilience to packet loss and jitter. I’d like audio to work in 50-80% packet loss. Maybe some extreme forward error correction would do the job.

Here’s a quick list of free full games I know of.

FPS
Warsow (http://www.warsow.net/)
OpenArena (http://www.openarena.ws/)
UrbanTerror (http://www.urbanterror.net/)
Quake Live (http://www.quakelive.com/)
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (http://www.splashdamage.com/wolfet)
Combat Arms (http://combatarms.nexon.net/)

RTS
Battle for Wesnoth (http://www.wesnoth.org/)

RPG
Maple Story (http://maplestory.nexon.net/)
Runescape (http://www.runescape.com/)

Music
FlashFlashRevolution (http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/)

Racing
TrackMania Nations Forever (http://www.trackmania.com/index.php?rub=nations)

Tigole – The first raid I designed was quite naturally perfect, it was a work of art, flawless, sublime. An unending triumph equaled only by its monumental failure. The inevitability of progression is as apparent to me now as a consequence of the imperfection inherent in every human being, thus I redesigned it based on your history to more accurately reflect the varying epic-ness of your nature. However, I was again frustrated by failure. I have since come to understand that the answer eluded me because it required a lesser mind, or perhaps a mind less bound by the need for subscribers. Thus, the answer was stumbled upon by another, an intuitive program, initially created to investigate certain aspects of marine life.

Raider – Ghostcrawler.

Tigole – Please. As I was saying, he stumbled upon a solution whereby nearly 99.9% of all test subjects accepted raiding, as long as they were given a difficulty choice, even if they were only aware of the choice at the zone in. While this answer functioned, it was obviously fundamentally flawed, thus creating the otherwise contradictory term “easy progression”, that if left unchecked might threaten the system itself. Ergo, those that refused to do hard modes, while a minority, if unchecked, would constitute an escalating probability of disaster.

Raider – This is about achievements.

Tigole – You are here because the proto-drake is about to be removed. Its every user immortalized, its means of acquisition eradicated.

Raider – Bull@@!#.

Tigole – Denial is the most predictable of all human responses. But, rest assured, this will be the second time we have removed it, and we have become exceedingly efficient at it.

Tigole – The function of the raider is to return to the zone-in, allowing a temporary dissemination of the epics you carry, disbanding your guild. After which you will be required to select from the server 24 individuals to sign a guild charter. Failure to comply with this process will result in a cataclysmic system crash killing every raider on the server, which coupled with the extermination of raiding will ultimately result in the extinction of World of Warcraft.

Raider – You won’t let it happen, you can’t. You need human beings to subscribe.

Tigole – There are levels of subscription we are prepared to accept.

Radio Responses/Reports
Name (RADIO): Roger that.
Name (RADIO): Enemy spotted.
Name (RADIO): Need backup.
Name (RADIO): Sector clear.
Name (RADIO): I’m in position.
Name (RADIO): Reporting in.
Name (RADIO): Get out of there, it’s gonna blow!
Name (RADIO): Negative.
Name (RADIO): Enemy down.

Radio Group Commands
Name (RADIO): Go go go!
Name (RADIO): Team, fall back!
Name (RADIO): Stick together, team.
Name (RADIO): Get in position and wait for my go.
Name (RADIO): Storm the Front!
Name (RADIO): Report in, team.

Radio Commands
Name (RADIO): Cover me!
Name (RADIO): You Take the Point.
Name (RADIO): Hold This Position.
Name (RADIO): Regroup Team.
Name (RADIO): Follow Me.
Name (RADIO): Taking Fire…Need Assistance!

I was unsatisfied with my complicated smart mount macro; one that would mount me on my flying mount if possible, and my ground mount if not.
I discovered something immensely simple that seems to work great. For example:

/cast Swift Blue Gryphon
/cast Swift Yellow Mechanostrider

You can use any mounts, as long as the flying mount is first. Of course you do get an error message when you use the macro, but it doesn’t bother me and doesn’t cause any problems.

So you’re trying to buy emblems of triumph from Usuri Brightcoin in Dalaran but can’t because people are spamming it.

Bind “interact with target” to a key, or shift+v and right click her name.
Then use this macro since you’ll probably get “That object is busy”:

/script local function buy (n,q) for i=1,100 do if n==GetMerchantItemInfo(i) then BuyMerchantItem(i,q) end end end buy("Emblem of Triumph",1000)

Also you can use a simpler one

/script BuyMerchantItem(4, 250)