Nick Hoddinott ᯅ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

@hunvreus When you look at the accounts of people shouting loudly about doing this, they're almost always selling a course, an ebook, a newsletter, a consultation.

Talking to smarter folks than me, I'm convinced many of the AI folks in my timeline are full of shit. Nobody is "running 20 agents over night" and building stuff for actual users. Maybe some are building internal tools or disposable software. Maybe. But building software people like using? That doesn't get hacked on day one or blow up after the 3rd user? Nope. I don't even understand what that's supposed to look like. Do you work out a 57 pages document that perfectly describes what you want to build and then summon 14 agents and have them run wild for 6 hours? And what comes out on the other end isn't a broken pile of shit? Nope. Not buying it. PS: it may also be that I have an IQ of 82 and can't figure it out.

@arian_ghashghai Those proclaiming that everyone will just vibe code their own software and cancel their SaaS subscriptions should remember that people pay extra for pre-ground coffee and pre-sliced mushrooms. People will pay to make even the mildest of inconveniences go away.

if current VC discourse is to be believed, it's probably a great time to start a SaaS business the insight: regardless of how much SF might think otherwise, most people don't want to make and maintain their own software (if they did, open source would have killed SaaS long ago)

@Heaney555 I think about this a lot actually. It's probably one of the best examples I can think of that demonstrates that many, many corporate jobs are performative nonsense, and that society, as a whole, isn't nearly prepared for the tidal wave of AI coming in the next few years.

Remember when "the experts" declared that Musk's layoffs would cause Twitter to shut down forever (for vague technobabble reasons)? And how the tech media uncritically parroted it? And everyone made goodbye posts? And how most tech journalists learned zero lessons from this?

@arian_ghashghai Strong agree. They get a mic and it's like "AI will replace humans doing ____ within ____" tourretes for these mfs.

imo general sentiment on AI would be orders of magnitude better if just Sam Altman, Dario and Mustafa Suleyman were barred from speaking publicly the tech is amazing (and speaks for itself really), yet for some inexplicable reason they feel the need to poison the well anytime they get in front of a microphone

@mixedrealityTV The Pimax facebrick design has never seemed appealing, and I tried them at CES. Dream Air has me interested though.

Serious question for simmers: Would you trade FOV + brightness for a smaller, lighter headset? After testing Crystal Super 50PPD vs Dream Air in MSFS 2024… I’m not convinced bigger is already dead. Full comparison here: youtu.be/CqBaZOSpOYc?si… #pimax #crystalsuper #dreamair #msfs2024 #comparison

@WILL_TheGame Is this Unreal Engine? Looks like it would be great in VR with the UEVR mod.

🕯️ Seeking a game that combines deep storytelling with breathtaking visuals? ❄️ WILL: Follow The Light offers a unique adventure through harsh northern seas and emotional highs. 🎮 Wishlist it now on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/3144860/WI…

@GAMERTAGVR Would love if they were added to Amazon Music too!

Not really a fan of checking analytics but the Gamertag & Bradley podcast currently sits at 45k views combined with only 3 episodes and we hit 7.5K impressions on Spotify and we now have 507 followers. It’s all starts somewhere. Thanks to everyone in vr who enjoys it.

@ASychov Generally I think claiming that people are "virtue signaling" here is unfair. I get why the mod was taken down, legally speaking. I also get there's a conversation to be had around whether paid mods *should* be allowed, as they are in other similar niches, like flight sims. Both of those things can be true.

@Shodah10 @nickhoddinott 100%

Message to all the virtue signaling people protecting VR mode of Luke Ross.

@Shodah10 @ASychov No, that's why I said "I get that CDPRR have a legal claim that it forms a "derivative work". Seems like you haven't understood what I wrote, so I'll leave it there.

@nickhoddinott @ASychov So it's not the same as what Luke Ross has done, is it.

@Shodah10 @ASychov Yes, that's why I said "Microsoft and Laminar (X-Plane) are fine with this."

@nickhoddinott @ASychov Flight sim paid mods work because the platforms explicitly allow and support that ecosystem. MSFS and X-Plane bake paid third-party content into their licensing and tooling. That’s not true for most AAA games

@Shodah10 @ASychov Yes, that's why I said "I get that CDPRR have a legal claim that it forms a "derivative work"

@nickhoddinott @ASychov Also, “not redistributing assets” doesn’t automatically mean “not derivative” in copyright law, especially when the software only has value by interfacing with the protected work.

I've seen several people say "I think I'll just make my own mod with motion controls". Yeah, good luck with writing a D3D12 injection system for stereoscoping rendering. That's probably some of the hardest code I could think of and I'm a 3D graphics engineer. People are failing the realise the thousands of hours that must have gone into these mods.

I really cannot wait to see all the "all mods shud B free" crowd take up the work of Luke Ross now that he's gone. He gave the VR community about five quality VR ports of AAA games a year for almost a decade. It'll be really great to see all those people who are so keen to work for free take up his mantle. Looking forward to your work.

Fwiw, it's different because cars and phones are not copyrightable works in and of themselves in the same way that games, songs, movies and books are. Physical goods are protected by patents, design patents and then copyright of logos, styling, branding, trade dress. There's no legal concept of a derivative work of a car or phone.

@EdgeyJames @mixedrealityTV @nickhoddinott So making a phone case that is compatible with a certain phone, and advertising it as such is fine? If so, then I don't see why it's any different for software. I'm being geniune here, not trying to win an argument I just haven't seen a good explanation for how it's different.

I am honestly surprised by the hate @LukeRoss_00 is getting from parts of the VR community. This is someone who enabled VR experiences for games like Cyberpunk that we would otherwise never be able to play in VR. That takes enormous time, skill, and persistence. Wanting to earn money for that work is not outrageous. It is normal. His mods are optional. Patreon is optional. If the price is not worth it to you, do not pay. That is exactly how a free market works. Nobody is entitled to someone else’s labor for free. If someone made a better or free alternative, people would stop supporting Luke. That would also be fair. The reality is that nobody else put in that level of work. The copyright argument also feels dishonest. He is not redistributing assets or games. You still need to buy the original title. In fact, many people bought these games because his mods exist. I am one of them. If we start attacking people who are actually capable of making a living building VR experiences, especially when big studios refuse to invest in VR, then we should seriously ask ourselves where this community is heading. We should be thankful for people who move VR forward, not punish them for it. Sebastian

@mixedrealityTV @EdgeyJames @SmallBaguette I think the reality is that these game companies operate with a "no paid derivative works" policy, and don't care about any nuance. Again, if it adds or modifies file in the game, they have a foothold to claim it creates a derivative work. Sucks, but copyright law also sucks.

@EdgeyJames @SmallBaguette @nickhoddinott Well, it is absolutely up to those people how they spend their money. I do not see how it takes away from CDPR, especially because VR is not part of their game at all. If it was, nobody would be buying the Luke Ross mod. :)

@JamesBME2022 @mixedrealityTV I would disagree there because Luke isn't selling a derivative work, he's selling something that will produce a derivative work when used, in copyright law terms. It's a legal grey area that hasn't, to my knowledge, been tested in court for decades.

@nickhoddinott @mixedrealityTV They don’t have “some” legal standing there. They have complete legal standing there.

I'm on Luke's "side", but that doesn't make big corporations misusing the law any less inevitable or preventable. Any app that modifies the IP of another app directly by adding files, overwriting files etc is vulnerable to a "derivative work" copyright claim, yes. Kind of stupid but the so is copyright law generally. It rarely happens with free or open source stuff, because someone not "seeking to benefit from..." weakens a legal argument. When money changes hands, lawyers on retainers for these game companies will do what they are paid to do. Interestingly Vorpx avoids this by hooking to the process in memory.

@nickhoddinott @mixedrealityTV So companies could start DMCAing reshade? Like it doesn't need to be paid for it to be an infringement in this case. I just find it wild that the community seems fine with corporations telling them what they can & can't do with software they paid for running on their hardware.

@GAMERTAGVR Best podcasts in VR right now. Keep it going guys!

Today’s upcoming Gamertag & Bradley podcast episode is a personal favourite of mine.

@PlanetaryWhisky @SadlyItsBradley Yeah hope so. It was weird that they showed simulated colour pass through in the marketing videos for it.

@nickhoddinott @SadlyItsBradley the rumors are a passthrough will be released around launch. so those who want it can have it. the point is the make the unit as cheap as possible

Those are some interesting VR (passthrough) camera settings added to the new SteamVR Beta 🤔