Comment by nolok | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nolok | Hacker News Reader

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I agree with your point that the current VR solution are a huge burden in space and setup, too many cables, too much room needed, too many tinkering ...

However I disagree with this:

> However maintaining a gaming rig is another issue entirely. I frequently have to spend 20-30 minutes getting the sound to work correctly after windows updates, iTunes updates, vive updates, steam updates, etc etc. It's almost comical and I wonder if this is an indication of the PC gaming tool-chain issues, or something as simple as Steams VR software is shit. And honestly I don't care, I just want it to work.

I have no idea how that could happen to you, if you have super exotic hardware or if steam vr doesn't work.

I maintain 3 "gaming" computers, and they basically never have issues. The "everything need to auto update once a week" is getting boring pretty fast sure, but nothing gets broken; sound, video, gsync, keyboard/mouse, network ... It's actually quite impressive how reliable all of it is. Hell, ever since moving to networked laser printers even the scanning/printing chain doesn't fail randomly anymore.

Compared to even ten years ago in the late XP days, windows and the modern drivers available for it have become incredibly reliable.

The frequent updates are a minor annoyance if you use the gaming computer regularly, but if used infrequently they all happen at once. It makes booting into Windows to play games feel like a chore.

This has been exacerbated for me because initially I only allocated ~20GB for the Windows boot partition, which is plenty for Ubuntu but apparently nowhere near enough for Windows. Even at ~30GB, I have to do things to reduce the amount of space Windows uses (like disable hibernation, manually compact WinSxS, etc) so that those big named updates can complete.

In short: Windows is too high maintenance for infrequent use.

To be honest, I think that's just on you for allocating too little space. 20 GB is listed as the bare minimum for a windows 10 64 bit install [0], and only 10 GB extra for apps & updates isn't much.

[0]: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-specifica...

For those of us in an area without good broadband, it doesn't matter if you have plenty of hard drive space. If I sit down to play videogames one night a month and I have to sit through hours of updates, it's infuriating.

Just don't update then. Do it overnight after you're done playing.

Good luck doing that with data-caps.

My programs/games were all on a separate partition, though. 30GB was _just_ for Windows and drivers.

I didn't check the minimum requirements, but if I had I would have been even more annoyed when 20GB wasn't enough to complete updates.

30 GB seems painfully small for gaming now that gaming companies are releasing games that by themselves are 20+ GB.

20+GB years ago. Some modern games (especially with uncompressed textures) can be >100GB after installation.

Yup, GTAV (as an example) is a 65GB download (larger on disk).

Elder Scrolls Online is a 99 GiB download.

Plus, there's a bug in the installer that requires a full re-download.

> for the Windows boot partition

That was just for the OS. He obviously has a separate data partition to install games on (unless he only likes retro 8bit type games).

The frequent updates are a minor annoyance if you use the gaming computer regularly, but if used infrequently they all happen at once. It makes booting into Windows to play games feel like a chore.

Yes! I have two machines I use for VR stuff, and I face this every time I come back to VR! I even have the full hard drive allocated, not just a 20GB partition.

Same here, for a while I just kept my machine in stand-by just so I don't have to deal with all the updates and things randomly breaking. Looking forward to a solution that just always works. VR is evening after-work entertainment for me, which happens at a point when I'm done solving problems after 10 hours doing just that.

Yea I boot to Windows maybe once a month and it seems like every time, it’s: “oh you weren’t planning on gaming tonight we’re you? You have 3 updates to apply, pal!”

I think part of this is the often dual use nature of these machines. Gaming consoles have updates every couple of months, which might be more often, but the systems are also left on or left in a low-power mode where they will still check for and download (and possibly apply?) updates, depending on how the power settings are set.

If you used a gaming console the same way you are using your main computer (booting it into a separate OS for most the time, until you all of a sudden wanted to play a game) you might also find that there's updates waiting to apply, and some games require the OS update before they'll play, etc.

I feel like I'm the only one that still shuts off the PS4 after I'm done. Why would I let my console run idle for days, consuming power that I don't need? If I want to game, I turn it on, make my dinner, go to play.

I get the same thing with my ps4.

Yep, I miss the PS2 days when you just put a disk inside and play for the whole time you're in front of the console..

Put yourself on the semi-annual targetted channel (for business) + defer updates by a few months. Then the only updates you'll really be bothered with are the occasional critical patches, and any feature updates will have been tested in the field by millions of others way before you get them.

Personally I think they've really nailed this.

That does sound great, thanks. Is this the feature you're talking about?

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/update/w...

> This has been exacerbated for me because initially I only allocated ~20GB for the Windows boot partition

Ouch! Watch out for the coming Win10 fall update (October). It might brick your setup, as it needs (supposedly) minimum 20 GB free space.

Note/disclaimer: Not sure how true this is, couldn't validate it personally. That said, I'll definitely ensure all of my Win10 system boot partitions have at least 30 GB free space.

My gaming rig is an Alienware box, I don't have the model handy. I'm not running anything other than Steam/SteamVR on it. My buddy bought the same setup and has the exact same issues I have and often txts me to find out how I fixed it on my setup.

Well then alienware must have had major loss of quality in their component choice in the last few years, because gaming series laptop (asus rog, msi g series, alienware, ...) are usually very well supported and all pretty much include the same components.

Anyway, I maintain that this part of your experience is anecdotal and not representative of the general experience.

I use an Alienware 15 R3 as my main Windows gaming machine (since I game a lot at various locations) and I don't have any of the issues you describe. Sounds like you got a lemon. Their warranty support is excellent, so you should probably ask them about it.

Just wondering, are you running steamVR and/or Vive? My hunch is it's a SteamVR thing as my other PC gaming friends have all said the same thing (aka never have any of these issues).

>> Their warranty support is excellent

This was not my experience at all with Alienware. I'll never buy anything from them again (yes I know they're part of Dell now)

No. This is wrong. I have built a handful of "gaming" rigs for Windows 10 over the last couple of years, and every single one of them had egregious, stupid problems with the hardware. I hate this bullshit "Nothing is wrong with Windows" thing when there are clearly an increasingly substantial number of people hitting catastrophic issues with brand new versions of Windows and regular, everyday hardware. I have been building computers for a quarter of a century, and I know what I'm talking about. Windows 10 has problems with mundane hardware. Onboard ethernet NIC, sound, wireless adapter, and of course the GPUs. Windows 10 has had problems with all of it. Even when Windows is "working correctly" it's hosing people's setups. Or are you going to deny that MS pushed forcible updates that bricked customer machines, too?

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