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      Major mod site says to keep your Pokémon content far away from Palworld

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Thursday, 25 January - 17:26 · 1 minute

    Nexus Mods says it wants nothing to do with this kind of <em>Palworld</em> content.

    Enlarge / Nexus Mods says it wants nothing to do with this kind of Palworld content. (credit: ToastedShoes / X )

    Palworld 's viral success has already drawn a lot of obvious "Pokémon with guns" comparisons . But when it comes to mods that might add actual Pokémon to the game, at least one major online clearinghouse is preemptively and proactively avoiding anything that could draw Nintendo's legal ire.

    Nexus Mods, a mod distribution site with tens of millions of registered users, said in a posted statement that it won't take the legal risk of distributing any Pokémon-themed Palworld mods. “We do think that adding Pokemon content to Palworld is a very cool idea and we understand why people would want such a thing," the statement reads. "However, we’re not comfortable hosting this content."

    Nexus Mods goes on to cite Nintendo's "consistent record of mercilessly submitting legal challenges, DMCAs, and takedowns against fan-made content" as the main reason behind their hesitation. "Given Palworld’s similarity to the Pokémon franchise as a base game, hosting content that adds copyrighted characters or assets into the game is almost certainly going to put us at risk of legal action. Palworld content that is uploaded to Nexus Mods and is considered to have Pokémon-derived characters or assets will be taken down. Our normal moderation policies will apply."

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      Why Capcom thinks PC game modding is akin to “cheating”

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 1 November - 19:34 · 1 minute

    Why Capcom thinks PC game modding is akin to “cheating”

    Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)

    For most PC gamers, the ability to update their game with a wide variety of mods is a huge benefit they can claim over most ( but not all ) console players. But Japanese publisher Capcom ( Resident Evil , Street Fighter ) says it sees unauthorized modding of PC games as a problem akin to cheating, bringing with it the risk of headaches for the company's reputation and support costs. That's according to a 50-minute presentation covering "anti-cheat and anti-piracy measures in PC gaming" that was posted to the Capcom R&D YouTube channel last week (and noticed recently by GamesRadar ).

    The presentation describes modding as an "inseparable part of PC gaming" and a reflection of a PC platform that lets you "do anything you want compared to the game console." At the same time, these facts make the PC a place "that allows you to create freely, but [where] people are also free to tamper with the game."

    “No different than cheating”

    One obviously bad form of PC game tampering, according to Capcom, is piracy. If anti-piracy tools are not used for PC titles, Capcom says, "pirated copies appear in less than a day [and] paid content such as DLC will be made free," leading to what the company calls "an immediate loss of profit." Then again, Capcom does admit that the size of this profit loss is "unobservable" because there is no suitable control case to compare it to. "We can only speculate on the cost of cheats and piracy," Capcom says, "but it's clear that if we don't do anything, the damage will surely be greater."

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      Rockstar Games acquires modding team that it previously banned

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Monday, 14 August, 2023 - 15:16 · 1 minute

    Artist's rendering of FiveM operating free and clear as part of Rockstar after years of Rockstar claiming it was "facilitating piracy."

    Enlarge / Artist's rendering of FiveM operating free and clear as part of Rockstar after years of Rockstar claiming it was "facilitating piracy." (credit: FiveM )

    Longtime readers might remember popular Grand Theft Auto V mod FiveM from a 2015 story where Rockstar Games banned the mod's developers, alleging that their work "contains code designed to facilitate piracy." Eight years later, Rockstar is taking a decidedly different tone in announcing that Cfx.re—the mod team behind FiveM and a similar mod for Red Dead Redemption 2 —is now "officially a part of Rockstar Games."

    With no apparent sense of irony, Rockstar said in a Friday blog post announcing the acquisition that it has "watched with excitement as Rockstar’s creative community have found new ways to expand the possibilities of Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2 , particularly through the creation of dedicated roleplay servers."

    But that statement ignores the distinct lack of excitement Rockstar exhibited when it barred the Rockstar Social Club accounts of many FiveM modders and others associated with promoting the project back in 2015. "Our policy on such violations of our terms of service are clear, and the individuals involved in its creation have had their Social Club accounts suspended," the company said at the time.

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      Getting TIE Fighter: Total Conversion working is worth the hassle and the $10

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Friday, 28 July, 2023 - 11:15

    Chasing an X-Wing fighter from inside a TIE

    Enlarge / When I originally played TIE Fighter , I could not have imagined such a thing as lens flare. (credit: LucasArts/TFTC)

    It had been a long, long while since I last suited up for the Empire and shot up some X-wings. At least 25 years, really, and probably a few more. Star Wars: TIE Fighter was a high point for LucasArts, but also for the amount of time and energy a certain teenage Ars Technica writer could devote to learning the attack patterns of Rebel squadrons.

    When I saw recently that a rather massively scaled "Total Conversion" of TIE Fighter had released a new update, it felt like as good a time as any to jump back in the cockpit. TIE Fighter: Total Conversion (TFTC) is a nearly total remake of TIE Fighter , inside the more-advanced engine of its sequel, X-Wing Alliance , piggybacking off that game's own big fan-made modernization .

    TIE Fighter: Total Conversion 1.3.3 update trailer. I love living in an age where a 1.3.3 mod update gets a trailer. I really do.

    What Total Conversion promises is still TIE Fighter , but with:

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      Dozens of popular Minecraft mods found infected with Fracturiser malware

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 7 June, 2023 - 17:16

    Dozens of popular Minecraft mods found infected with Fracturiser malware

    Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

    A platform that provides plugin software for the wildly popular Minecraft game is advising users to immediately stop downloading or updating mods after discovering malware has been injected into dozens of offerings it makes available online.

    The mod-developer accounts were hosted by CurseForge, a platform that hosts accounts and forums related to add-on software known as mods or plugins, which extend the capabilities of the standalone Minecraft game. Some of the malicious files used in the attack date back to mid-April, a sign that the account compromises have been active for weeks. Bukkit.org, a developer platform run by CurseForge, is also believed to be affected.

    Fracturiser infecting Windows and Linux systems

    “A number of Curseforge and dev.bukkit.org (not the Bukkit software itself) accounts were compromised, and malicious software was injected into copies of many popular plugins and mods,” gamers wrote in a forum dedicated to discussing the event. “Some of these malicious copies have been injected into popular modpacks including Better Minecraft. There are reports of malicious plugin/mod JARs as early as mid-April.”

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      Un store de mods pour personnaliser Windows

      news.movim.eu / Korben · Thursday, 30 March, 2023 - 07:00

    Si vous êtes sous Windows et que vous voulez sortir des sentiers battus en le personnalisant un peu au-delà des paramètres prévus par Microsoft, vous êtes sur le bon site. Sur le site Windhawk , vous trouverez un utilitaire gratuit qui permet d’appliquer des mods à votre Windows.

    Capture d'écran de l'interface utilisateur du store de mods pour personnaliser Windows

    Un « mod », c’est une modification qui sera faite à Windows pour par exemple avoir un notepad avec un thème sombre, faire un clic avec le bouton du milieu de la souris pour fermer une application ouverte dans la barre des tâches, ou encore contrôler le volume sonore de votre PC en scrollant sur votre barre de menu.

    Pack de mods pour personnaliser l'apparence de Windows disponible sur le store

    La liste complète des mods proposés par Windhawk se trouve ici et évidemment, le code de chacun d’entre eux est disponible donc vous savez exactement ce que ça fait sur votre système.

    Il n’y a pas encore énormément de mods en base, mais c’est un bon début et vous pouvez proposer les vôtres.

    En tout cas, pour moi qui aime ce genre de petits hacks, je trouve que c’est une chouette idée à développer.

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      AI voice generation helps mod Fallout 4’s narrow dialogue choices

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Friday, 24 March, 2023 - 22:29 · 1 minute

    Image of Fallout 4 default protagonist with voice options, including

    Enlarge / Just because you're still alive in a retro-futuristic-post-apocalyptic Commonwealth doesn't mean you're necessarily witty. (credit: Bethesda / ProfMajowski)

    Modders can change many things inside their favorite games, but dialogue from professionally voiced characters hasn't been one of those things—at least until recently. AI voice generation could open up new modding avenues for some games, as it has already done with one Fallout 4 mod package.

    Roleplayer's Expanded Dialogue (RED) is listed in the NexusMods catalog as a "Massive expansion of vanilla dialogue," adding more than 300 entirely new lines of dialogue to the game. Those lines aim to solve an issue near to the hearts of fans of Fallout 1, 2, and New Vegas: role-playing. If you're playing as a ruthless jerk, a brilliant nuclear scientist, or a strong but dimwitted dolt, you'll see more dialogue options that reflect this. Mechanically, the roll-the-dice speech "checks," which are based solely on your charisma level in the default game, can now be unlocked using related traits or skills.

    They're not just new labels on existing dialogue, either. RED, created by NexusMods user ProfMajowski (and first seen by us at PCGamesN ), says it used ElevenLabs voice AI to generate its more in-character lines. The results can sometimes "sound a little 'emotionless,'" the creator writes, but "otherwise they basically sound like the real thing." Nothing your character can newly say now will change the game's mechanics or reactions, but it should sound a bit more in character.

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      Black Mesa gets shiny: Free Half-Life ray-trace mod adds subtle splendor

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Thursday, 23 February, 2023 - 17:43 · 1 minute

    Ray-traced laser cutting through a Half-Life hallway (crowbar up)

    Enlarge / The familiar hallways of Black Mesa can be made new with some generative lighting. (credit: Valve)

    Half-Life is a legendary game, a title that was ahead of its time in its storytelling, mechanics, and technology. Graphically, though, it can't help but look extremely 1998. A new, free ray-tracing mod makes the PC original a lot more compelling to revisit.

    Sultim Tsyrendashiev, working on GitHub as sultim-t, has worked on graphics upgrades and ports of many games and tools, including the Serious Engine and Quake. The Xash3D: Ray Traced project, now ready for public use with Half-Life 1 , tweaks an alternative version of Half-Life 's Source engine to add a custom path-traced renderer. The tech that moves applications from fixed to real-time path tracing is interesting and promises even more ray-traced nostalgia kicks to come.

    Release trailer for sultim_t's "Half-Life: Ray Traced" mod.

    But what most of us are interested in is how it works in Half-Life . It's very pretty, and while the effect is mostly subtle, it can steal the show in big moments (sorry, tentacle giant that needs to go). I played through the first level and a bit into the second one with the mod installed, and I visited a few other levels with map warp cheats (though I quickly died in most since I couldn't get weapon cheats to work). The textures aren't upgraded (unless you do so yourself with other mods), but modern-day lighting can make a big difference in how some of the game's areas look.

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      This modded Game Boy Pocket goes against nature by folding in half

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 15 November, 2022 - 22:24 · 1 minute

    This custom-built Game Boy Pocket SP can fold in half like a feisty clam.

    Enlarge / This custom-built Game Boy Pocket SP can fold in half like a feisty clam. (credit: Allison Parrish )

    Earlier this month, a programmer and hobbyist named Allison Parrish debuted a compact hack of the 1996 Nintendo Game Boy Pocket handheld game console. Taking inspiration from the later Game Boy Advance SP, she fabricated a custom plastic shell with a hinge so the older monochrome Game Boy can fold shut. She calls it the Game Boy Pocket SP.

    In Parrish's extensive write-up of the mod, she explains that her hack began as something of a joke. The Game Boy modding community is popular right now, and one currently trending mod involves transplanting the circuitry of a folding Game Boy Advance SP (from 2003) into a non-folding custom shell . So she thought, "If y'all can take the hinge out of an SP, why can't I add a hinge to a Game Boy that never had one?"

    Parrish, who is an assistant arts professor at NYU, built her complex folding mod over the summer using tools at her university department's ITP/IMA shop and the NYU Makerspace. Its unique clamshell design comes courtesy of a Game Boy Pocket motherboard she cut in half, along with custom-design flex PCBs (printed circuit boards) that route signals between the two folding halves. To pull it all together, Parrish designed a 3D-printed plastic shell using FreeCAD.

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