This year is full of setbacks.
Unlike previous Retrospectives, this one is insanely rushed and I won't be covering everything, I will be highlighting a very few key moments throughout 2020.
Changing Plans, thanks COVID!
As you already know, I've put two projects on-hold and the plans I've had for 2020 has to be shelved or repurposed. What's the current status? Honestly, COVID-19 ruined my original 2020 plans.
Right now, "AL2009man Bad Voice Acting Reel" project is still put on hold till further notice. while I may resume "My Immortal but written by Talk to Transformer AI" next year.
I also won't be doing Livestreaming for the time being, until the covid thing blows over.
New Channel: AL2009man's Storage
I used to rely on Streamable as a way to release short-form video, mostly for bug reports or video templates but then I found out that it has a limit on how long the video will stay based on activity. Because of that, I had to launch a new channel dedicated to that. This should allow me to upload videos or clips that doesn't belong to my Main Channel and VOD Channel. For example, I found out that there's a Spanish Version of Breaking Bad (called "Metástasis"). I track down a specific scene from that show and upload it to that channel:
Twitter Suspension, for a dumb reason
Update - January 8th, 2020: Twitter unsuspended my primary account and I I got my account back. I went ahead and QUICKLY change the phone number. I hope it doesn't occur again. I will be unlisting this video, but I will keep this segment for archival purposes
Shortly after The Game Awards 2020, I made a tweet giving a short verdict about the show- while pointing out that COVID-19 made the show's presentation felt worst. That caused that account to be locked due to security. Worst of all, that account uses the Phone Number I no longer used (nor re-obtainable).
Recently, the @AL2009man account is now suspended, 10 years of my activity is gone with it, breaking emblem tweets in the process, you can already see that in Custom Stickers Collection webpage.
Look on the bright side, I have access to that account again. :)
I already contacted Twitter Support to see if they can help me unsuspend the account and allow me to add my current phone number in. But at this rate: it's pretty clear that @AL2009manAlt is here to stay.
RIP @AL2009man.
Doubling Down on Gyro Controls
Ever since I released my first Gyro Controls video (oh, and that hit just hit a 11,000 View milestone!), there's been a lot of progress in the scene:
JoyShockMapper has been getting attention as of late, Valve added Jibb Smart's Flick Sitck to Steam Gamepad Emulation.
More and more third-party titles coming to the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 (but very rare) with Gyro Aiming Support this year, either by launch or post-release patch. This has gotten to the point that during The Game Awards 2020, Sea of Solitude: The Director's Cut is announced there with Gyroscopic Support.
First Party PlayStation titles are (slowly) getting into Gyro Aiming starting with The Last of Us Part II and Astro's Playroom.
PlayStation 5 was released and DualSense has already received (early) PC Support from Valve, JoyShockMapper and DS4Windows in less than a month.
SDL 2.0.14 was released, adding Motion Sensor support to SDL_GameController .
Additional video coverage from LinusTechTips and Nerrel.
As for me: I've been focused on Gyro Controls more often than usual. Might as well do a recap:
Experimental Livestream: First Party PlayStation with Gyro Aim
Let's start with a experimental livestream: I was watching teesam's video on getting Horizon: Zero Dawn to work with Gyro Aiming, I decided to follow the steps, expect I skipped Step 2 (because I don't wanna buy a program/application) and was still able to get it working. My guesses are that DS4Windows (Ryochan7 Version) has a Virtual DS4 Mode that tricks any controller as a DualShock 4 Controller, rendering a portion of the applications useless. I handpicked 4 games: Killzone: Shadow Fall, Infamous First Light, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End and The Last of Us. From the end results: Killzone: Shadow Fall and Uncharted 4 (and The Lost Legacy I guess?) was more successful than Infamous First Light and The Last of Us. How'd I did it? Mouse Joystick. Mouse Joystick attempts to translates Analog Stick as if it's a Mouse Input. Setting it up has mixed results depending on the game.
Uncharted 4 and Killzone: Shadow's Camera Aim feels more like a Mouse Camera Input, The Last of Us feels more like a Joystick Camera (primary due to bake-in Aim Assist) and Infamous Second Son/First Light's Sensitivity is very low even in their "High" Sensitivity setting. Since then, The Last of Us Part II added Gyro Aiming as part of the Grounded Update, I think it paid off well. :)
Resident Evil and Gyro Aim on PC
Originally, this was suppose to be a sequel video to "How Gyroscopic/Motion Controls can improve the Controller." and I wanted to cover Fortnite (as it has a huge Controller vs Keyboard/Mouse problem). I already made a config and recorded some gameplay footages in advanced, elements of it is already in my RE5 Gyro Video. During the recording phases, a recent update broke "Lock Input Method as Mouse" and prevented me from , this forced me to put it on Hold for the time being. (since then, it was fixed. It took several months for it, tho)
But then, I grabbed the PC Version of Resident Evil 5 to my library and plans has changed. This is a running theme for my work.
I did my research and found a mod that allows me to get Nintendo Switch-style Gyro Aiming working on PC, by making the Mouse Aim function as a Laser Aiming Camera instead of Traditional Third-Person Aiming Camera. Alongside that, I also discovered a way to get a Light-gun style Gyro Aiming as seen in Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition and Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition's PS Move Control scheme. When it comes to coverage, only a very few created a setup for the Wiimote using GlovPie, and this is the only video (made by Mr.Welbig659) that covers it.
and I found out about it after I release my RE5 Gyro Video.
I'm surprised that Capcom didn't bring Cursor Aiming over to the Switch Version, since the PC Version is already there.
So, I got to work. Alongside the regular config (which faces it's own set of challenges), I created a second config and used it to play the whole game (including Gold Edition content) as a way to ensure everything (including QTEs) works properly.
After finalizing the config, I went ahead and started working on the video immediately. Based on feedback from my previous video and my own criticisms (also COVID), I also took a opportunity to address them, primary the way how I record voiceover. Previously, the recording process took a entire week (and a half) and the general quality of it varies by dialogue record. Half-way into video editing, the later half of the voiceover is just...bad and unusable. This forced me to redo the rest of the lines from that point.
Hence, the voiceover quality differences half-way into the video.
To prevent this from happening again, I created a new voice recording pipeline that speeds up editing time. This new process allows me to redo as many takes as I want during the voiceover recording phase, if the previous take isn't good, I delete and redo it again until I got the right take and keep it in. This took me 2 days to finish recording the script (and minimum retakes) instead of a week's worth. As I was editing the video, the George Floyd Incident happened and there were a lot of protests. I was forced to delayed the video (originally meant to be released in June 2nd, 2020. in retrospect; I was doing errands during that time, which gives me less time to work on the video, I would've delayed it anyway) for a reason:
When Resident Evil 5 was first revealed, there were Racism allegations (although, RE5 takes place in freaking Africa) and I felt that it's not a good time to release the video. I was worried that I may receive comments like "Poorly Timed" If I did release it as originally planned. I even wrote a statement addressing that in case I actually released it on June 2nd. (thankfully, it didn't occurred) While the video was watchable from Start-to-Finish, I took that extra 3 day delay into polishing the video (and worked on Subtitles) and was able to release it as planned. (in a middle of a busy week for me IRL) Thus, the video is officially released:
This is where I took a small break and also bought Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 6 and applied those same techniques seen from that video to those two configs, you can apply that config right now!
The Deep Horizon of Zero Dawn
Oh boy, this wasn't planned. Long story short, Horizon Zero Dawn was the game I was looking forward to, and when it comes to PC, I was excited to finally add Gyro Aiming there. for context: Horizon Zero Dawn was released in the same week as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which relies on Gyro Controls (including Gyro Aiming). Then the PC Version came out and...there were issues. And once I hop in to the game and started toying around, I found out that not only it blocks Simultaneous Controller+Keyboard/Mouse, the Steam Input API Implementation is just bad. This becomes a big issue. This is the straw that broke the camels' back and I wrote a entire thread over it. In the meantime, I applied the same trick I've learned from my RE5 Video and apply it there. So, I quickly made a video showcasing it in action.
Once I finalized the config, I went ahead and made a entire video about it:
Ever since the release of that config, I discovered even more issues, such as Left/Right Trigger being bake-in, breaking the Melee Button in the process. This took me even more time finding a workaround. As of this writing, my thread is currently in the player-compiled Known Issue lists, and only a few Controller-related fixes has been made, but the major issues are still there.
Revamping DS4 Gyro-Optimized Configuration
Ever since DS4 Gyro-Optimized Config, the list has grown from the initial launch lineup to over 40+ game configs, and I'm still updating the configs (while learning new tricks) overtime. With the release of PlayStation 5, I've been figuring how to continue the project with two Controllers.
Initially, I was planning to expand this project beyond DualShock 4 in 2021 was I presume that DualSense's PC Controller Support will be very limited during the first year and a half (similar to how Nintendo Switch Pro Controller was handled), but I underestimated myself.
Instead, the community (and SDL2/Valve) went to work the moment the controller officially comes out in store selves, and now DualSense Controller Support is on Steam Input, minus Adaptive Triggers and Haptic Feedback.
Now, what does this mean for DS4 Gyro-Optimized Configuration project? Based on what I’m looking at, the DualSense Controller is a separated Controller Type instead of sharing with DualShock 4 Controller Type, which makes sense since DualSense has a different setup compared to DualShock 4.
However, Steam does allow you to use Other Controller Type’s Configurations and will convert to your Controller Type, and for Steam Input API-powered games, the glyphs will use either DualSense or DualShock 4 Button Icons. I can say that all of my DS4-made Configurations are Backwards Compatible with DualSense...
but there’s a catch.
Due to the way how I make configs, they ain’t future-proof in mind and that's primary 'cause is DualSense's IMU being more precise and massively reduces the amount of Gyro Drift.
I will have to import most of the existing (and new) configs over to DualSense in order to increase the sensitivity. And depending on how old the config is, I will have to revisit and update it too. NOT ALL GAMES will receive the same treatment.
Unless you plan to convert and modify my configs, I don’t suggest any of my DualShock 4-only configs for the time being. During that time, I got myself a DualSense Controller as a second pair for PC and I got to work. Right now, most of the games configs I have in the collection already supports DualSense Controller. Alongside it, I've stealthy rebranded the project (and cleaned up the documentation layout) with a new name: "PlayStation Gyro-Optimized Configuration" to cover both DualShock 4 and DualSense Controller from that point forward.
While I haven't created a dedicated website for it (via The AL2009man Website), I hope it brings a foundation of what's to come. If you have a DualShock 4 or DualSense Controller and want to try out my Gyro-Optimized Configs, here's a direct page link.*
*This only works on Desktop, it won't work on Mobile for obvious reasons
What am I going to do in 2021
Aside of resuming work with one of my projects, I can't tell you what stuffs I'm planning to do on 2021. Once COVID-19 is over, I hope I can resume to my original 2020 plans.
So yeah, 2020 is a tough year for everyone involved, but I hope 2021 is better...
I doubt it.