The Giant Beastcast: Episode 281 - The Giant Beastcast

We must protect Jeff and the GB crew at all costs

Here is hoping the best for all of you. It must be immensely stressful right now.

Jeff "burnt hand" Behaulwk-alar

As a future feature request, Alex playing Monster Hunter with TOOL please.

Vinnies camera is so hi res I can read his mind.

Is says that this was uploaded 6 hours ago, or is that when the upload began?

Vinny's issue in Squadrons is that the deadzone was too big - it was locked in at 20% even if you tried to change it in the settings. This meant that you had to move the stick around a lot to move the ship (as he described) which made flying with a joystick feel very floaty.

Apparently they dropped a patch to fix it today but I haven't had a chance to try it yet:

https://twitter.com/EAStarWars/status/1314274875964624896

To interesting times.

Some reading for Vinny regarding liquid metal thermal interface material:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galinstan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallium

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_metal_embrittlement

I think I got my first tube of gallium/galinstan around 10 years ago, so it's been used as a TIM in the enthusiast PC space for at least that long. I think my first couple tubes were devoted to dissolving old aluminum heatsinks, lol. Basically soaks into aluminum and eventually it's as brittle as chalk. Adding water to this mixture causes it to rapidly oxidize and give off bubbles of hydrogen. Lots of youtube videos covering this now.

Non-toxic, very thermally conductive, electrically conductive, trickier to apply than typical silicone/ceramic pastes, difficult to clean, catastrophically destructive with some metals. Including it in a product like this feels weird, imo. The only times it matters are in cases when you're already at the ragged edge of overclocking stability.

@hannibal127: I feel like the issue isnt deadzone as such, but the input curve. (which is also mentioned in the fix)
Its no linear, so half way on the stick isnt 0.5 input, it´s like.. 0.1.
So you´re forced into doing these tedious "all the way to the extremes" motion for adjustments, instead of just moving the stick a little bit.
A deadzone kills all the input within it, a exponential curve just makes it less sensitive near 0

• Adjusted the default input curves for Flight Sticks, which should make controls feel more responsive

a keyboard stream and community lol that was horrific bakalar

I'd like to play Ace Combat with Tom Cruise

Thanks Bakalar. I am now going to make my own keyboard, awesome. :)

Today marks an alarming milestone. The Beastcast is no longer a safe haven from kink shaming.

Jeff Bakalar - The "resident keyboard fucker"

I love GB and especially the Beastcast and I don’t like to post negative comments, but I’ve been kinda bummed with the show over the last few months. This year has seen the release of so many awesome smaller games and it feels like the beast crew plays like 1 new game a month? It just feels like some of the crew is burnt out and it’s a bummer. Don’t know if I’m the only one that feels this way, but a big part of the show was always talking about the new games they played and lately it feels like there’s rarely something new and exciting despite some amazing releases.

FWIW, I 100% rather they talk about keyboard fucking than some odd indie game.

Poor Jeff, always getting hazed.

Squadrons seems like the perfect game to pick up through Game Pass once it becomes part of the EA online thing. It's one of those titles where I wouldn't mind just dicking around for an hour or two but nothing more than that.

Just to throw a few more resource out there to the person who wanted to get into PC stuff.

Pauls Hardware on YouTube has some build videos where he picks parts from certain price points.

JayzTwoCents has several beginner videos he has iterated upon throughout the years where he shows how to build a PC from scratch. These videos are aimed at people with little knowledge of PC Hardware.

Hardware Unboxed has some lovely Australians doing really good reviews, and their benchmarks are second to none. I don't think they sleep very much.

If you want hardcore in-depth videos Gamers Nexus got you covered. If you really want your eyes to glace over Buildzoid does motherboard/GPU PCB analysis. Roman or "der8auer" does some crazy stuff as well.

I went down the keyboard hole myself a while back. I built a KBD19X kit from KBDFans with ZealPC Zilent switches since I love the feel of tactile switches but didn't really want a loud clacky keyboard.

People look at you crazy when you have more than one mechanical keyboard.

And they haven't seen me lube the switch. xD

For the numpad, I got this at my work:

I'm always confused by this stuff recently. When the Beastcast hits my podcast app it says it came out like 20 hours before for some reason too.

I wish they’d let jeff finish his stories sometimes. Good episode otherwise.

Jeff B rules he’s the Tony B to Gerstmann’s Tony Soprano

@toxin066: SW Squadrons w Mark Hamil?

I also just got back into PC gaming and there's one clarification I'd like to make about 1440p. This is literally referring to the resolution 2560 x 1440. I have no idea why no one mentions that.

The tradeoff for 4k vs 1440p is very similar to the resolution mode vs performance mode choice you make when playing console games.

Unicomp makes modern IBM Model M keyboards. I've so far resisted buying one, but I'm starting to get weak in the knees, to turn a phrase...

I was never that wild about the buckling spring Model M, tbh.

Honestly my favorite key press action might still be the old Keytronic rubber dome switch. They were very heavy at the top of the throw (80grams), but would sharply collapse and register at the bottom (as opposed to most mechanicals that have linear resistance and actuate halfway through). They were very problematic for gaming though because of how the key matrix was configured (no global nkey rollover.)

Another honorable mention would be the keyboard on the Apple2c -- I still have the one I used as a kid, still feels great after 35+ years. Feels like a lower profile mechanical.

Right now I'm using Cherry green switches. Basically the equivalent of Cherry Blue actuation with the heavier spring of the Cherry Black. It came with o-rings, but I removed them to get more 'clack'. I don't think the greens are very common anymore.

Funnily enough I was actually lubing my new Glorious Panda keyboard switches when I listened to Jeff telling the others how he got into mechanical keyboards. Between the cases, PCBs, plates, switches, keycaps, ... there are so many ways to personalize your own typing experience.

I got into the mechanical keyboards after I got sick of my Cherry blue clicky switches during the last few months working from home. I'm switching over to the tactile Panda's to get a nicer typing experience.

As a hobby I find it rewarding and relaxing. For me one of the downsides is availability. The combination of rising interest and demand, limited stock and covid, actually getting the sought after parts isn't that easy.

Also parts like keyboards, switches and keycaps are often releases as group buys. That means when you pre-order a set of keycaps now, it will take until mid 2021 until you will actually get the item. So building your own keyboard sometimes is a long-term project.

I hope Jeff will keep us up to date and let us know how his build is progressing.

Bummer to hear that Jeff didnt make the cut. I know he wont be paid for them, but I hope he still keeps that rotating chair going for future eps.

This place is dead and gone. No exuberance, inspiration, or dedication.

abby and annie fortnite friends forever

I've been quite happy with the two Das Keyboards I bought with Cherry MX browns and they're alright for gaming. You get used to having to apply less pressure but it is still nice to have some resistance without too much noise. I think I saw some manufacturer touting analog switches (with adjustable sensitivity) when I bought the second one last year so I'm guessing that might be the next big thing (at least for gaming)?

My right wrist would probably hate me if I had a job where I had to use the mouse all day and having a proper keyboard actually makes typing less of a struggle.

Alex would totally fuck his drumkit if he could so quit the shaming :)

There was a PS4 teardown video from Sony. https://www.wired.com/2013/11/playstation4-teardown-video/

And PS4 Pro:

https://youtu.be/euBlNq5kda0

@oi_blimey: I use that vortex for work. Its one of my favorites.

@jeffbakalar go TKL and build a separate numpad. Your wrists will thank you for it. I use a 60 at work, and slide the custom numpad over for the two times a week i actually end up using it. Also, building the numpad is a good quick build to get you warmed up if you haven't soldered things in a while.

I'm at 7 hand built boards at this point. Now im just trying to find out what crazy esoteric switches i like that aren't basic b cherry switches.

@permanentsigh: Do we really? Those keyboards might be really hot.

For those curious I'm pretty sure this is the video Vinny uploaded to Youtube at 4k without anybody seeming to notice.