Sep 29, 2021

Conqueror's Blade - Kaeden

The stage is set, the soldiers are prepped, the only thing missing is YOU! MY.GAMES is pleased to present the second official CBL tournament of this year: Fall Fight 2021! From October 14 to October 20, 16 teams of 15 players from all regions will compete for bragging rights, epic prizes, and the glory of being ranked among the greatest warlords in Conqueror’s Blade.

Registration is now open until October 3 23:59 CEST, so assemble your team and prepare for battle! If you’re not quite ready to take part in the action, you can still catch all the fun on Twitch.

Signing up via the registration form does not guarantee entry to the CBL: Fall Fight 2021 Tournament. Participation in the tournament must be earned during the play-in period. During this time, matchmaking wins from Siege Battles by all registered teams will be tracked, and the teams with the most victories will secure entry to the tournament.

The top four teams from the CBL: Wolves of Ragnarok Tournament will receive automatic invites to compete without needing to participate in the play-in process.

Only one team can claim the ultimate prize of an exclusive Champion Player Title, Emote, Avatar, and a whole host of other rewards. The champions will also go on to battle on a global scale against the winners of a Tournament hosted by Booming Tech (more details coming soon)!

CBL: FALL FIGHT 2021 TOURNAMENT DETAILS

SIGN UP: Click here to register for the CBL: Fall Fight 2021 Tournament
RULES: Check out the full tournament rules here
SERVER:GAMES Tournament Server
TEAMS: 16 teams of 15 players each (with three substitutes)
REGIONS: All regions supported by MY.GAMES are eligible to enter
GAMEPLAY: Siege Battle, Field Battle

MAPS

Siege: Harbour City, Valley Fortress, Wall Fort, Heilung Fjord, Augolia, Continopolis
Field: Grassland Assault

PRIZES (PER PLAYER)

1st Place: CBL Exclusive Hero Attire, Champion Player Title (Exclusive), CBL Avatar, 5,000 Sovereigns, Backflip Emote, 1,000 Blades, 50 Wyrmbane Armour Attire Boxes
2nd Place: Runner-up Player Title (Exclusive), CBL Avatar, Backflip Emote, 3,000 Sovereigns, 800 Blades, 35 Wyrmbane Armour Attire Boxes
3rd Place: Third Place Player Title (Exclusive), CBL Avatar, Backflip Emote, 2,000 Sovereigns, 500 Blades, 20 Wyrmbane Armour Attire Boxes
4th-8th Place: Top 8 Player Title (Exclusive), 1,000 Sovereigns, Backflip Emote, 300 Blades, 20 Wyrmbane Armour Attire Boxes
9th-16th Place: Backflip Emote, 5 Random Epic Artillery Chests, 5 Wyrmbane Armour Attire Boxes

SCHEDULE

September 29: Tournament registration opens
October 3: Tournament registration closes
October 4: Play-in period begins (00:01 CEST)
October 8: Play-in period ends (23:59 CEST). The qualifying teams will be verified and announced on October 11 via Discord and Twitter.
October 14: Round 1 (four matches)
October 15: Round 1 continues (four matches)
October 18: Round 2 (two matches)
October 20: Rounds 3 and 4 (two matches each)
October 27: Tournament round-up and winners announced

WHERE TO WATCH

Tune in to Conqueror’s Blade on Twitch for match coverage and commentary over the entire tournament!

Sep 29, 2021

RetroArch 1.9.10 released!

RetroArch - Gadsby

Read very important linux changes!

RetroArch 1.9.10 has just been released.

If you'd like to learn more about upcoming releases, please consult our roadmap here. The next version of Lakka (with an updated RetroArch 1.9.10 version) is scheduled to be released very soon!

Remember that this project exists for the benefit of our users, and that we wouldn't keep doing this were it not for spreading the love to our users. This project exists because of your support and belief in us to keep going doing great things. If you’d like to show your support, consider donating to us. Check here in order to learn more. In addition to being able to support us on Patreon, there is now also the option to sponsor us on Github Sponsors! You can also help us out by buying some of our merch on our Teespring store!

Highlights

RetroArch is now finally on Steam!

On September 14, 2021, RetroArch finally appeared on Steam (available here). It is available right now for both Linux (SteamOS) and Windows. See our initial release article here. Since then, we have already had over 100K+ downloads on Steam and over one million visits. Thanks to you all! We aim to make RetroArch the very best it can be.

What you need to know:

New cores are coming as DLC additions.
There is no macOS version available on Steam yet (but we'd like to!)
Remote Play is supported. We make no guarantees as to how well this will work.
Steam Cloud sync should be supported for save files.
There is work underway on automation - the idea is that both cores and RetroArch on Steam would be updated automatically.

Lastly, we hope that new users can be understanding of the fact that RetroArch’s UI might have a bit of an initial learning curve. We are a small team, and we definitely intend to simplify the UI at least for beginners in the coming months, but we are simply not ready yet. So we hope people are understanding of this and appreciate the swiss knife flexibility and power of RetroArch in the meantime instead of focusing on the overall complexities or whatnot of the UI/UX.

The Steam version should be updated to 1.9.10 soon.

High Dynamic Range fixes for D3D11/D3D12!

Fixed contrast to be more correct - now scales from 0-10 linearly and behaves more the way you'd expect it to - changed name to ditch legacy settings users may have
D3D11/HDR: Fixed D3D11's blend, rasterizer and topology states not being set to the sames when using HDR and leaving the menu - caused issues with PCSX2's Shadow of the Colossus
Added ability to skip inverse tonemapper to the shader via the constant buffer using 'inverse_tonemap' - set to 0.0f to skip
Fixed potential bug when swapping between HDR and SDR and the bit depth not being set correctly

Filters

1.9.10 adds a new Picoscale_256x-320x240 video filter. This uses a number of high quality, high performance algorithms developed by irixxxx for Picodrive standalone to upscale 256x224, 256x239 and 256x240 content to 320x240 (content of any other resolution is passed through unchanged).

Much like the existing Upscale_256x-320x240 filter, this is intended for use on platforms/devices with native 320x240 resolution support, where it greatly reduces aliasing while producing a significantly sharper image than conventional (hardware) bilinear filtering.

Three filter variants are provided:

Picoscale_snn_256x-320x240: 'Smoothed' nearest neighbour
Picoscale_bl2_256x-320x240: 2-level-bilinear with 2 quantized weights
Picoscale_bl4_256x-320x240: 4-level-bilinear with 4 quantized weights

Essentially, both image 'smoothness' and performance requirements increase in order of snn -> bl2 -> bl4.

Go here to see several screenshots demonstrating the output of each filter type: (click for full-size images)

These filters are highly efficient. Tested with the Snes9x 2005 Plus core (a lightweight core which is nonetheless at the upper limit of many low powered handheld devices), we see the following increase in total performance overheads when each filter is applied (note that the existing Upscale_256x-320x240 filter is included for comparison):

Filter

Performance

overheadbl2

+13%

No filter

+0%

snn

+8%

bl4

+30%

upscale_256x_320x240

+27%

The performance overheads relative to the existing Upscale_256x-320x240 filter are:

Filter

Performance overhead

snn

-69%

bl2

-45%

bl4

+14%

Thus SNN and BL2 in particular have very little performance impact.

All credit goes to irixxxx - many thanks for giving us permission to use your work in RetroArch!

In other video filter news, the Switch/libnx port now also has video filters support!

Playlist Manager - New 'Refresh Playlist' option

The manual content scanner provides a quick and easy method for generating playlists - but there exists no convenient way to update playlists that already exist. If a user adds content to a ROM directory then they must go to the trouble of reconfiguring and re-running the manual scan (including selecting the ROM directory, system name, default core, etc.); if they have simultaneously removed some files, then they are also obliged to go to the relevant 'playlist manager' menu and 'clean' the playlist. This is time consuming and tedious.

1.9.10 adds a new Refresh Playlist option to the 'playlist manager' menus. When selected, the current playlist will be re-scanned with the manual scan configuration that was last used to generate/edit the playlist. 'Refreshing' a playlist also populates all entries of the Manual Scan menu - so it is easy to tweak values should the user wish to update the allowed file extension list, etc..

In addition: a new Validate Existing Entries option has been added to the manual scan interface. When enabled, any existing playlist is checked before commencing the content scan; entries referring to missing files, or files with invalid extensions, are then removed.

Validate Existing Entries is disabled by default, but automatically enabled whenever a playlist is refreshed. Thus selecting Refresh Playlist will both add new content and remove missing/invalid entries.

Note:

This functionality will not work with playlists generated before this commit, since they will lack the required metadata. It will be necessary for the user to re-run a 'normal' manual scan for any playlist they might want to later refresh; thereafter, the Refresh Playlist option will appear in the relevant 'playlist manager' menu and maintenance becomes a one-button affair.
We can only 'refresh' playlists created via the manual content scanner - not the database scanner. When performing a database scan, there is no practical method for extracting all required metadata for a repeat operation.

3DS - Add bottom screen idle state

Some nice QoL improvement for RetroArch 3DS users! 1.9.10 allows the bottom screen on the 3DS to be disabled when idle. On compatible devices, the bottom screen backlight is toggled.

If no core is running, the bottom screen is always idle with the backlight turned off.

If a core is running with the bottom screen in it's 'default state', the bottom screen will idle in ~6 seconds. The displayed text "Tap the bottom screen to go to the Retroarch menu" fades out and the LCD backlight is disabled.

When interacted with the screen, the backlight turns on and toggles the menu as usual.

When in the menu / paused, the bottom screen remains active.

RetroAchievements/Cheevos improvements

Don't write achievement credentials to override

Ignores changes to cheevos_token, cheevos_password, and cheevos_username when generating config override files.

While this is particularly important for not remembering a stale authentication token, not entering any credentials until after loading content, and then saving the override could lead to the actual password being stored in the override even after the authentication token is generated and put in the master settings file.

Since neither the authentication token nor the password should be stored in the override file, I believe it also makes sense to exclude the username, as having a per-override username would also require a per-override authentication token or password. If a players wants to have a separate retroachievements user for a specific core, they can still manually add the entries to the override file, but those will be cleared out any time they update the override file from within the application. A better solution would be to use separate master configs and launch using the --config option.

Disable slowmotion when enabling hardcore mode

There's already code preventing the user from toggling (or otherwise using) slowmotion when achievement hardcore mode is enabled. Slowmotion provides an advantage for the user's reflexes, so we don't allow it in hardcore mode.

This addresses an issue where the user could enable hardcore mode with slowmotion already toggled on, and it would remain on. The user would be locked in slowmotion as the toggle would be disabled, but with enough patience, it could be worth it. With this change, slowmotion is disabled when enabling hardcore mode.

Changelog

1.9.10

3DS: Add bottom screen idle state
3DS: Add unique IDs for Gearboy/Gearcoleco/Gearsystem, correct CAP32 code
3DS/SAVESTATES: Fix RAM states to file when core deinits
AUDIO/MIXER: Pad sample buffers to prevent potential heap-buffer-overflows when resampling (fixes crash when using 30 kHz menu audio files)
AUDIO/LINUX/SNAP: Add JACK support
CHEEVOS: Don't write achievement credentials to overrides
CHEEVOS: Disable slowmotion when enabling hardcore mode
D3D9: Fixed MVP matrix issue for RGUI texture (main game frame still won't show up though)
D3D11/D3D12/HDR: Fixed contrast to be more correct - now scales from 0-10 linearly and behaves more the way you'd expect it to - changed name to ditch legacy settings users may have
D3D11/HDR: Fixed D3D11's blend, rasterizer and topology states not being set to the sames when using HDR and leaving the menu - caused issues with PCSX2's Shadow of the Colossus
D3D11/D3D12/HDR: Added ability to skip inverse tonemapper to the shader via the constant buffer using 'inverse_tonemap' - set to 0.0f to skip
D3D11/D3D12/HDR: Fixed potential bug when swapping between hdr and sdr and the bit depth not being set correctly
D3D11/D3D12/HDR: Added numerous helper functions to help create the correct values to colour the UI - normally the white UI elements should be rendered at paper white not max brightness for various reasons
BUGFIX/ANDROID: Fix crash that could happen on Android with Sameboy core - would crash on rumble function
GFX/WIDGETS: New regular widget message appearance
INPUT/MOUSE: Add distinct mouse zero index label for drivers that do not support multimouse
INPUT/RUMBLE: Add generic rumble gain to input settings
INPUT/UDEV/X11: Add workaround to fix keyboard input when using X11 + Udev
LIBNX/SWITCH: Add Video Filters support
LOCALIZATION: Fetch translations from Crowdin
OPENDINGUX/BETA: Disable OpenAL
PLAYLISTS: Add 'Refresh Playlist' option
STEAM: Initial release on Steam
UWP/VFS/XBOX: Improvements and bugfixes to UWP VFS driver
VIDEO/REFRESH RATE: Automatic PAL/NTSC refresh rate switch where available - as long as the platform display server allows changing refresh rates and the display has the desired refresh rate
VIDEO FILTERS: Add 'Picoscale_256x-320x240' video filter
WIIU/HID: Fix analog inputs on HID devices

Sep 29, 2021

Autumn in World of Tanks: the Fun Continues!

World of Tanks - The Dot

Commanders!

Every season in World of Tanks is packed with action and exiting events, and this autumn will be no exception! There are a lot of interesting things ahead, and we decided to give you a little teaser of the upcoming activities.

The first big and thrilling event is, of course, "The Return of the Waffenträger”, available for all players from September 27 to October 11. Max von Krieger has returned, commanding his mighty creation – the menacing Blitzträger auf E 110. Join the Harrier squad in the challenge to defeat the dangerous genius Engineer, or take control of von Krieger’s ominous war machine and face seven fighters at once in intense battles!

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1407200/view/2898619776196855351

As the sounds of intense battles between Max von Krieger and the Harriers fade, it is time to reveal something that several of you have correctly guessed in the comments: Achievements are coming to World of Tanks Steam on October 14! This feature will bring a whole new perspective to playing World of Tanks, setting some goals for you to strive for and giving you more opportunities to showcase your mastery.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1407200/view/3029225566923307499

You will also have the chance to enjoy more of our most massive and epic game mode, Frontline, as Stage 3 will launch on October 18 and will last until October 25.

After the massive Frontline battles end, prepare to face something... supernatural. The second phase of the special military operation, codenamed Hope, begins in Mirny, an abandoned town where a major emergency has occurred. The event will last for two weeks, from October 28 through November 11, and will include new secrets, new dangers, and new rewards.

Fight the AI-controlled enemy vehicles, collect Mirium, decrypt the mystery of Mirny, and try to destroy the main target of this operation: the monstrous Immortal, the most powerful and creepy armored creature of Mirny. Check out our special event article for more information.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1407200/view/3061877729292003448

And of course, there will be plenty of various Community Activities and Events, so keep an eye on that and remember to follow the news!

You can expect even more interesting events in the future - we will soon tell you about them in more detail. Feel free to revisit this article from time to time, as it will be updated as more information about the upcoming events becomes available.

Good luck on the battlefield, Commanders!

Sep 29, 2021

Alpha 28B Update: Shearing the Goats，Animal Droppings，Multiplayer Bug Fix…

Keplerth - Taro Studio

Communication:

Steam Discussion
Email: simonchain@vip.qq.com

New Contents:

- Added to the Herder craft list: wool scissors, which can be used to cut GOAT wool;
- Animals now eat grass on the ground and defecate. Animal droppings can be used as burning fuel.

Adjustments:

- Increased the capacity of the player's backpack;
- Moved fishing rod from the Chemistry Workbench to the Handcraft production list;
- The important productions in each production list will now be marked with special colors;
- The setting that Punji Sticks will be removed after 5 damages to the target is now cancelled;
- The failure/success rate of the repaired items and the achievements related to the repair failure are cancelled. Now, the item repair will be definitely successful. Different levels of repair will also increase the additional equipment durability, and the relevant functions of the Gene Module have been modified accordingly;
- Eggs are now easier to be hatched.

Fixes:

- Fixed the bug that causes players to possibly get stuck in the wall during the battle with the final boss Marko;
- Fixed the bug that prevented the plot from being triggered normally after players enter the final boss Marko’s room;
- Attempted to fix the various abnormal bugs that may occur during the players’ battle with the Man in White BOSS in the multiplayer mode;
- Fixed the bug that prevented the Target Dummy from correctly displaying the value of damage caused when in the multiplayer mode;
- Fixed the error that indicates that the material required for manufacturing Parasect Plasma Gun is silver arrow (it should be silver bar).

Current Development Content and Progress:

[■■■■■] Achievement system (included)
[■■■■■] Equipment enhancement system (included)
[■■■■■] New guidance system (included)
[■■■■■] NPC quests (included)
[■■■■■] Map & Mini-map system (included)
[■■■■■] Trap system (included)
[■■■■■] Village decorative placeable objects for atmosphere improvement (included)
[■■■■■] More background music (included)
[■■■■■] Meco Biotech II content (included)
[■■■■■] Pet level-up function (included)
[■■■■□] Plots and stories (included)
[■■■■■] Discoveries system (included)
[■■■■□] More pet/animal interactions - storage, shearing the goats (included) *

————————————————————————————————————
[■■■■□] Multiplayer system (coming soon, internal testing in progress)
[■■■■□] Gene editing system (included, but still improving)
[■■■■□] Support of Steam Workshop for other types of mod (included, but still improving)
[■■■■□] Player Skills System (included, but still improving)

————————————————————————————————————
[■■■■□] Dungeon challenge (working on it)
[■■□□□] Mercenary system (working on it) *
[■■■■□] Events system (working on it)
[■■■■□] Weathers system (working on it) *

————————————————————————————————————
[■■■□□] NPC class differences and corresponding functions (planning)
[■■■□□] Interactions with friendly NPCs (planning)
[■□□□□] Meco Biotech III content (planning)
[■■■□□] NPC recruit (planning) *
[■□□□□] NPC working system (planning)
[■■■□□] Water & Fire system (planning) *

————————————————————————————————————
[□□□□□] Body-part editing system (Encountered many problems in R&D)
[□□□□□] Vehicles (haven't started yet)

————————————————————————————————————

- We will try to maintain frequent updates and transparency of our progress. Once again, thank you for all of your support!

Sep 29, 2021

Patchnotes: Hard Raids aplenty

Swords of Legends Online - [CM] Phaendar

Within patch 1.0.12 we’ll follow-up on the release of Xuanjiu Jade Palace (Hard) with the next batch of Hard Raids! Come the maintenance on September 30th, you’ll need to be ready to challenge the Waves in a Tempest and Horror of Huaixiu!

Waves in a Tempest
The entrance teleportal to the raid remains in the Shanghuai Grassland, right at the Barracks Ship Port. Gather 10 to 20 players in your raid, and challenge Jiagong on hard!

Hard

Unlocks Thursday (September 30th) at 12:00 server time
Can receive loot once per boss per week, resets Thursdays at 06:00 server time
Recommended Item Level: 75
Drops: Level 90 Gear, PvE Sealstones III, Weapon & Bracer Talisman II Recipes, Exquisite Pork with Fish Spice Recipe, new pet related materials, etc
Matchmaking: you can only enter the dungeon manually; no automatic matchmaking is available.

Horror of Huaixiu
Bring 10 to 20 players into the Huaxiu Village and confront the Wick of the Turquoise Lantern anew! Will you be able to also survive this challenge?

Hard

Unlocks Thursday (September 30th) at 12:00 server time
Can receive loot once per boss per week, resets Thursdays at 06:00 server time
Recommended Item Level: 75
Drops: Level 90 Gear, PvE Sealstones III, Weapon & Bracer Talisman II Recipes, Exquisite Salted Duck, new pet related materials, etc
Matchmaking: you can only enter the dungeon manually; no automatic matchmaking is available.

New & Returning Player Catch-Up!
Since our release in July, we’ve added a plethora of new content almost on a weekly basis, going from item level 45 gear while reaching endgame to item level 50 for the first dungeons. Then reaching 60 with the hard modes of said dungeons, only to move onto 75 with the first raids. Two weeks ago, we’ve released the first hard raid, unlocking with it the level 90 gearing set – and it’s time to allow new players to catch-up to the veterans in some more timely manner. As such, the following adjustments will be made:

Mentors & Mentees
As a Mentor, if you use the “Time passes” skill on a mentee, it will now improve that mentee’s pet item level as follows:

Players below max level: get an buff increasing the gotten experience points (unchanged)
Item level 60: progress increases by 150 (was 100)
Item level 75: progress increases by 100 (level 75 effect newly added)

Additionally, we’ve added an item into the Mentor Store which allows trading of item level 75 gear between mentor and mentee. The relationship needs to be at least level 3 between both players for this to work.Players entering the Xuanjiu Jade Palace (Normal) with an item level below 75 will automatically get the “Novice Buff”, empowering other players to help them get through it with ease. This raid was also added as a target into the Jade Helper Scroll.

Acquiring more Gear
The following changes were made to allow players to get more gear faster:

The drop rate of item level 75 gear in normal raids has been significantly increased
When getting “Mysterious Parchments (Current)” from quests or other sources, the amount of parchments received is significantly increased:
- Item level 60: get 24 parchments per drop
- Item level 75: get 16 parchments per drop
The “Demon Elimination” quest / content can now include item drops of level 65 to 75.
The weekly quests for “Instruction” and “Land of Emerald Clouds” will reward players with an item level 75 gear box upon completion.

Items

Crafting > Equipment
Designs were added that allow crafting of specific type item level 90 equipment:

Hair Accessory
Top
Legwear
Shoes

You will require various materials, both through gathering as well as from raid drops to craft these!

Gold of the Four Seas, Treasure Compass
Added the possibility to receive item level 90 gear from these contents.

Miscellaneous

Battle Pass
Please note that the current Battle Pass Season will end on October 14th, and that you’ll need to claim your rewards until October 13th. A new season will start with the server maintenance on October 14th, resetting all progress and requiring a new unlocking voucher.

Between September 30th and October 14th, you can also get up to 13 tokens per day (and more points for specific activities!) – if you feared of missing out by a couple tokens, this is your chance to get up to 30% more progress per day!

Bug Fixes

Correct Respawn location is now displayed on the Map for Turquoise Lantern boss “Five-Hundred-Year-Old Turtle”
Fixed some Localization issues