@DJ-RK
That's the idea i wrote....if the fix is made by 2 or 3 modders, the post will have 2 or 3 donation buttons. For example, in the case of Crysis 3....should put 2 donation buttons (DSS and I).
DSS have made a lot and very importants contribution, cracking down some engines that make possible to fix a lot of games....so in the same model, the donation button of DSS will be all over the blog, same with mike....that scenario will bring more donation (because people see an actual fix)...this is a more commercial model....look the amount of views when a alpha or a beta are released....a lot!! and look the amount of new views when a new version of 3Dmigoto or a new feature is released...a few (actually this matter to modders **those updates are VERY important btw**).
@DJ-RK
That's the idea i wrote....if the fix is made by 2 or 3 modders, the post will have 2 or 3 donation buttons. For example, in the case of Crysis 3....should put 2 donation buttons (DSS and I).
DSS have made a lot and very importants contribution, cracking down some engines that make possible to fix a lot of games....so in the same model, the donation button of DSS will be all over the blog, same with mike....that scenario will bring more donation (because people see an actual fix)...this is a more commercial model....look the amount of views when a alpha or a beta are released....a lot!! and look the amount of new views when a new version of 3Dmigoto or a new feature is released...a few (actually this matter to modders **those updates are VERY important btw**).
I see the topic of putting a donation button on the fixes themselves has come up. I'm not sure of the best way to handle that - it seems to me that there is a much higher risk of ambiguity there.
You're right, if a fix was made by multiple modders then it's clearly unfair to have a donation button for just one modder, so it would either have to be everyone involved, or none at all.
But I think, if we post links to donation pages on the blog at all, then it starts becoming really messy, since even if I wasn't involved in a fix directly, some of my work may have been used and the modder might not be sure if they should link to it or not. I don't think that would be fair, so right now let me say this:
[color="orange"][b]If you use some of my work in a fix you are free to attribute me, but DO NOT link to my donation page - it's simply too ambiguous and unfair to do otherwise.[/b][/color]
And that leaves the question of whether I post the link to my donation page in a fix that I did by myself using my own tools and techniques. Even this is still a little ambiguous - I can't fix a DX9 game without the work that -=Helix=- did, and regardless of how much code I have personally contributed to 3DMigoto to enable the fix I can't fix a DX11 game without the work that chiri and bo3b have also done on it, so even I am standing on the shoulders of giants.
And then there's still the risk that someone will want to donate to the community as a whole and not pay enough attention to realise that it's a personal donation link.
So, at the moment I'm sort of leaning against that idea, or at the very least making sure that it's NOT prominently displayed in any place that might be mistaken for something other than a personal donation.
So, I'm thinking I'll only post the link in places that are clearly attributed to me personally, like my signature on this forum, my website, my steam profile, my 3d-fixes github repository, twitter, facebook, maybe youtube. And the only time I would post it on the blog is if someone specifically asks about donations in a comment on one of my personal fixes.
But, at the moment I still want to hear everyone's opinions on this. There definitely should not be anything posted on the blog without consensus from the community.
I see the topic of putting a donation button on the fixes themselves has come up. I'm not sure of the best way to handle that - it seems to me that there is a much higher risk of ambiguity there.
You're right, if a fix was made by multiple modders then it's clearly unfair to have a donation button for just one modder, so it would either have to be everyone involved, or none at all.
But I think, if we post links to donation pages on the blog at all, then it starts becoming really messy, since even if I wasn't involved in a fix directly, some of my work may have been used and the modder might not be sure if they should link to it or not. I don't think that would be fair, so right now let me say this:
If you use some of my work in a fix you are free to attribute me, but DO NOT link to my donation page - it's simply too ambiguous and unfair to do otherwise.
And that leaves the question of whether I post the link to my donation page in a fix that I did by myself using my own tools and techniques. Even this is still a little ambiguous - I can't fix a DX9 game without the work that -=Helix=- did, and regardless of how much code I have personally contributed to 3DMigoto to enable the fix I can't fix a DX11 game without the work that chiri and bo3b have also done on it, so even I am standing on the shoulders of giants.
And then there's still the risk that someone will want to donate to the community as a whole and not pay enough attention to realise that it's a personal donation link.
So, at the moment I'm sort of leaning against that idea, or at the very least making sure that it's NOT prominently displayed in any place that might be mistaken for something other than a personal donation.
So, I'm thinking I'll only post the link in places that are clearly attributed to me personally, like my signature on this forum, my website, my steam profile, my 3d-fixes github repository, twitter, facebook, maybe youtube. And the only time I would post it on the blog is if someone specifically asks about donations in a comment on one of my personal fixes.
But, at the moment I still want to hear everyone's opinions on this. There definitely should not be anything posted on the blog without consensus from the community.
2x Geforce GTX 980 in SLI provided by NVIDIA, i7 6700K 4GHz CPU, Asus 27" VG278HE 144Hz 3D Monitor, BenQ W1070 3D Projector, 120" Elite Screens YardMaster 2, 32GB Corsair DDR4 3200MHz RAM, Samsung 850 EVO 500G SSD, 4x750GB HDD in RAID5, Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming 7 Motherboard, Corsair Obsidian 750D Airflow Edition Case, Corsair RM850i PSU, HTC Vive, Win 10 64bit
I for one, have always felt a bit guilty for not being able to give something back. (other than my one fix to the community which is not quite complete, due to my lack of knowledge to fix some lighting issues)
I have also received a new found appreciation about what goes into these fixes.
I admit too dreading the scenario that any of our current prolific modders get tired of all the work for no gain and an at times rude community (mainly new people uneducated to how things work around here. demanding or whining for fixes.)
I would be taking advantage of this and giving something back to DSS. Especially in light of personal time and assistance you have given me, as well as all the work both directly on fixes and behind the scenes with work on the wrappers and such.
I for one, have always felt a bit guilty for not being able to give something back. (other than my one fix to the community which is not quite complete, due to my lack of knowledge to fix some lighting issues)
I have also received a new found appreciation about what goes into these fixes.
I admit too dreading the scenario that any of our current prolific modders get tired of all the work for no gain and an at times rude community (mainly new people uneducated to how things work around here. demanding or whining for fixes.)
I would be taking advantage of this and giving something back to DSS. Especially in light of personal time and assistance you have given me, as well as all the work both directly on fixes and behind the scenes with work on the wrappers and such.
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Don't forget 4everAwake (like the name says is always awake) ^_^. I saw countless DX9 games that he fixed and still counting;)
My opinion:
I think the best way would be to make a general pool for the 3D VIsion community. People can donate to it;) The fixers then can buy new games using this fund and fix the new games;) This way is more like an investement;)
We give, the normal users give;) This will probably require a common Steam/Origin/Gog/etc common account;)
This way everyone is happy I imagine;) This is just a thought and idea... so don't take it TOO personal;) If people want to donate to individuals they still can;)
I don't know...what do you guys think about it? (It would look more like a fund-raiser than anything else...)
Don't forget 4everAwake (like the name says is always awake) ^_^. I saw countless DX9 games that he fixed and still counting;)
My opinion:
I think the best way would be to make a general pool for the 3D VIsion community. People can donate to it;) The fixers then can buy new games using this fund and fix the new games;) This way is more like an investement;)
We give, the normal users give;) This will probably require a common Steam/Origin/Gog/etc common account;)
This way everyone is happy I imagine;) This is just a thought and idea... so don't take it TOO personal;) If people want to donate to individuals they still can;)
I don't know...what do you guys think about it? (It would look more like a fund-raiser than anything else...)
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etc
I have removed my username from the game list page - I know at least one person saw that and mistakenly thought I was in charge of the whole blog, and I don't want that kind of misconception if they might then go on and find my donation page.
I think the idea of a shared fund-raiser between shaderhackers is a reasonable one, but I'm not really sure how we could make it work in a fair way.
There would be the question as to who gets access to it, and while some names like 4everAwake, Mike, bo3b, DHR, helifax and myself instantly come to mind, but looking at the blog we are far from the only active fixers. At what point do we accept that someone has started fixing enough games that they are entitled to a piece of the pie, and how much? And should we include retired fixers in the list as well - I've played many games that eqzitara and Helix fixed and would be happy to include them for instance.
The shared account idea is a nice way to avoid having to decide the how much part of that question since everyone will either have access to all the games in the shared accounts or none of them. There are some logistical issues (and possibly terms of service violations) here though - most of those services do not allow the same account to be logged in simultaneously from multiple locations, and while Steam does now allow that, it does not allow the games from one account to be played on multiple computers at the same time.
I've been known to spend 48+ hours sitting in a game staring at the one effect trying to work out how to crack it (the ray-marched light shafts in Dreamfall) before moving on, and that might limit the usefulness of a shared account if only one shaderhacker can use it at a time. Plus a lot of the games we fix we do actually need to play all (or most) of the way through to make sure we got everything - if I total up the hours I've spend in every game I've fixed it comes to well over 1000 (of course, not all of that was spent fixing the games, but you get the idea).
We might still be able to make it work - offline mode might be able to allow us to use the shares accounts simultaneously (with some exceptions), and we don't all share the same timezone so there might be less clashes thanks to that.
If we do want to go for this approach through paypal, I believe we would have to set up a not for profit organisation, otherwise using one of their donate buttons is a violation of their terms of service and risk the funds being frozen (and there are real stories of this happening, which is one of the reasons I went with Patreon since it caters for individuals - although I believe I still have to declare donations as taxable income in Australia).
I have removed my username from the game list page - I know at least one person saw that and mistakenly thought I was in charge of the whole blog, and I don't want that kind of misconception if they might then go on and find my donation page.
I think the idea of a shared fund-raiser between shaderhackers is a reasonable one, but I'm not really sure how we could make it work in a fair way.
There would be the question as to who gets access to it, and while some names like 4everAwake, Mike, bo3b, DHR, helifax and myself instantly come to mind, but looking at the blog we are far from the only active fixers. At what point do we accept that someone has started fixing enough games that they are entitled to a piece of the pie, and how much? And should we include retired fixers in the list as well - I've played many games that eqzitara and Helix fixed and would be happy to include them for instance.
The shared account idea is a nice way to avoid having to decide the how much part of that question since everyone will either have access to all the games in the shared accounts or none of them. There are some logistical issues (and possibly terms of service violations) here though - most of those services do not allow the same account to be logged in simultaneously from multiple locations, and while Steam does now allow that, it does not allow the games from one account to be played on multiple computers at the same time.
I've been known to spend 48+ hours sitting in a game staring at the one effect trying to work out how to crack it (the ray-marched light shafts in Dreamfall) before moving on, and that might limit the usefulness of a shared account if only one shaderhacker can use it at a time. Plus a lot of the games we fix we do actually need to play all (or most) of the way through to make sure we got everything - if I total up the hours I've spend in every game I've fixed it comes to well over 1000 (of course, not all of that was spent fixing the games, but you get the idea).
We might still be able to make it work - offline mode might be able to allow us to use the shares accounts simultaneously (with some exceptions), and we don't all share the same timezone so there might be less clashes thanks to that.
If we do want to go for this approach through paypal, I believe we would have to set up a not for profit organisation, otherwise using one of their donate buttons is a violation of their terms of service and risk the funds being frozen (and there are real stories of this happening, which is one of the reasons I went with Patreon since it caters for individuals - although I believe I still have to declare donations as taxable income in Australia).
2x Geforce GTX 980 in SLI provided by NVIDIA, i7 6700K 4GHz CPU, Asus 27" VG278HE 144Hz 3D Monitor, BenQ W1070 3D Projector, 120" Elite Screens YardMaster 2, 32GB Corsair DDR4 3200MHz RAM, Samsung 850 EVO 500G SSD, 4x750GB HDD in RAID5, Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming 7 Motherboard, Corsair Obsidian 750D Airflow Edition Case, Corsair RM850i PSU, HTC Vive, Win 10 64bit
I like this idea and I'd be happy to contribute, but I'm going to hold off on pledging to it until there's a bit more of a consensus from the other fixers. I could see this getting a little messy if everyone's not on the same page.
To build on helifax's suggestion, a communal account like that already exists, though there's not a lot in it right now. In terms of sharing an account between fixers, a more fiddly but far more versatile option would be multiple communal accounts on a per-game basis. With a single account, only one person can work on one game at a time. With multiple accounts, everyone can work on something different simultaneously. It also means we could be a bit more open with who's allowed access, as there's a higher availability in this scenario. Credentials could be shared amongst fixers using a Google doc. Family Sharing would even allow a fixer to log into the desired game's account on their PC, then share it to their primary account for play/fixing there. If that's something people are interested in, I'd be happy to oversee that. Particularly given the information below.
I have the ability to purchase and gift games on the Russian Steam store. Generally speaking, games are less than half the US price there+. Just Cause 3 is $19US, MGSV is $20US, Witcher 3 is $15US, Fallout 4 is $29US. Using my own wishlist as a reference point, it would take the cost of buying all 47 games on it from $1001US down to $357US. When Steam sales hit, the prices get crazy good. I'm happy to use this to facilitate cheap games for fixers, either individually or for a communal account/s.
The only games where this doesn't work are Ubisoft titles, as they usually grant Russian-language-only versions. But it's often possible to get UPlay keys on the cheap if you shop around, so we could do something similar there. I picked up AC Syndicate for $20 the other day.
I like this idea and I'd be happy to contribute, but I'm going to hold off on pledging to it until there's a bit more of a consensus from the other fixers. I could see this getting a little messy if everyone's not on the same page.
To build on helifax's suggestion, a communal account like that already exists, though there's not a lot in it right now. In terms of sharing an account between fixers, a more fiddly but far more versatile option would be multiple communal accounts on a per-game basis. With a single account, only one person can work on one game at a time. With multiple accounts, everyone can work on something different simultaneously. It also means we could be a bit more open with who's allowed access, as there's a higher availability in this scenario. Credentials could be shared amongst fixers using a Google doc. Family Sharing would even allow a fixer to log into the desired game's account on their PC, then share it to their primary account for play/fixing there. If that's something people are interested in, I'd be happy to oversee that. Particularly given the information below.
I have the ability to purchase and gift games on the Russian Steam store. Generally speaking, games are less than half the US price there+. Just Cause 3 is $19US, MGSV is $20US, Witcher 3 is $15US, Fallout 4 is $29US. Using my own wishlist as a reference point, it would take the cost of buying all 47 games on it from $1001US down to $357US. When Steam sales hit, the prices get crazy good. I'm happy to use this to facilitate cheap games for fixers, either individually or for a communal account/s.
The only games where this doesn't work are Ubisoft titles, as they usually grant Russian-language-only versions. But it's often possible to get UPlay keys on the cheap if you shop around, so we could do something similar there. I picked up AC Syndicate for $20 the other day.
[s]I, here, am a nobody. So, I perfectly understand if nobody is interested in the opinion of a nobody.
Still, I can't stop myself revealing how happy and also how sad I am after this topic.
I'm happy because I'm imagining (most probably naively) that this might shake a little the big game companies and NVidia. If there's still some sort of human morality left in them, they should be able to see and appreciate, including financially, what you guys have done for them too and not just for us, the 3D addicts.
First, I believe that, judging by a number of posts in this community, a lot of people (including myself) wouldn't buy any more a game which is not real 3D (and I exclude here NVidia's fake CM, which, similar to the fake 3D movies, is in fact -in my opinion- a deterrent for newcomers into the 3D world).
Secondly, I find really hard to believe that people, in this big companies, are not making use of your fixes. I can't be convinced to believe that, after years of development, they are happy to see and enjoy the result of their hard work in just the bleak 2d. As much as I love you CD Projekt Red and Bethesda, I'm pointing at you too.
I am sad because I am aware that, too many times, money can break good things. I'm sad because, not once, that Romanian proverb -"Money is the devil's eye"- proved to be actual. I'm sad because I fear for the future of 3D gaming.[/s]
In any case, I thank you again DarkStarSword and all of you great 3D fixers for everything you have done. I have but a huge respect for you.
Edit:
Woke up to find it overly pathetic...
(Note to the future me: never drink and "write" again!)
I, here, am a nobody. So, I perfectly understand if nobody is interested in the opinion of a nobody.
Still, I can't stop myself revealing how happy and also how sad I am after this topic.
I'm happy because I'm imagining (most probably naively) that this might shake a little the big game companies and NVidia. If there's still some sort of human morality left in them, they should be able to see and appreciate, including financially, what you guys have done for them too and not just for us, the 3D addicts.
First, I believe that, judging by a number of posts in this community, a lot of people (including myself) wouldn't buy any more a game which is not real 3D (and I exclude here NVidia's fake CM, which, similar to the fake 3D movies, is in fact -in my opinion- a deterrent for newcomers into the 3D world).
Secondly, I find really hard to believe that people, in this big companies, are not making use of your fixes. I can't be convinced to believe that, after years of development, they are happy to see and enjoy the result of their hard work in just the bleak 2d. As much as I love you CD Projekt Red and Bethesda, I'm pointing at you too.
I am sad because I am aware that, too many times, money can break good things. I'm sad because, not once, that Romanian proverb -"Money is the devil's eye"- proved to be actual. I'm sad because I fear for the future of 3D gaming.
In any case, I thank you again DarkStarSword and all of you great 3D fixers for everything you have done. I have but a huge respect for you.
Edit:
Woke up to find it overly pathetic...
(Note to the future me: never drink and "write" again!)
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Oculus Rift with Touch controlers
I'll throw in a little pun (in the end it's all about having fun)...was your wife behind this DarkStarSword??
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@DSS, don't worry i'm not going to do anything until we get a consensus.
[quote="DarkStarSword"]You're right, if a fix was made by multiple modders then it's clearly unfair to have a donation button for just one modder, so it would either have to be everyone involved, or none at all.[/quote]
Totally agree with that....is everyone involve, or none at all.
We can put a DONATION button in the blog, inside that page we can put all the donation button of modders.
[img]https://forums.geforce.com/cmd/default/download-comment-attachment/67531/[/img]
@DSS, don't worry i'm not going to do anything until we get a consensus.
DarkStarSword said:You're right, if a fix was made by multiple modders then it's clearly unfair to have a donation button for just one modder, so it would either have to be everyone involved, or none at all.
Totally agree with that....is everyone involve, or none at all.
We can put a DONATION button in the blog, inside that page we can put all the donation button of modders.
As a long-time Ignition user recently migrating to this community and forum, I truly appreciate the multi-faceted talents of the unique team contributing to helixmod.blogspot (and 3dsurroundgaming) game fixes. I would certainly support some type of equitable donation approach, in recognition of the countless hours involved in diverse areas like complex shader analysis and repair tools, matrix projection modification, and so on.
In the spirit of equity, I hope that NVIDIA also somehow contributes to this evolving donation site/approach, given the more expensive hardware purchases made by these forums users for 3D gaming (more revenue for NVIDIA). Especially since NVIDIA stock is up more than 60% this year. Many of these purchases would not be made, if this 3D support did not exist. See [url]https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/903540/3d-vision/3dtv-play-tv-compatibility-and-help-with-card-choice-/?offset=2#4756790[/url], for example. I certainly would NOT have purchased a 980, and two 980Ti's this year, if 3D Vision was dead...
As a long-time Ignition user recently migrating to this community and forum, I truly appreciate the multi-faceted talents of the unique team contributing to helixmod.blogspot (and 3dsurroundgaming) game fixes. I would certainly support some type of equitable donation approach, in recognition of the countless hours involved in diverse areas like complex shader analysis and repair tools, matrix projection modification, and so on.
In the spirit of equity, I hope that NVIDIA also somehow contributes to this evolving donation site/approach, given the more expensive hardware purchases made by these forums users for 3D gaming (more revenue for NVIDIA). Especially since NVIDIA stock is up more than 60% this year. Many of these purchases would not be made, if this 3D support did not exist. See https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/903540/3d-vision/3dtv-play-tv-compatibility-and-help-with-card-choice-/?offset=2#4756790, for example. I certainly would NOT have purchased a 980, and two 980Ti's this year, if 3D Vision was dead...
I like putting coin in to a tin cup now and then, it makes me feel good.
I like the idea of a place to toss a game for the collective.
Make sure you have your disclaimer - at your own free will, as we don't take requests
There will be some snot nosed whiner at some point, just going to have to ignore them.
Without what you guys do, I just have a frigg'n expensive space heater...
Wonder if there is a way to make sure the donations are anonymous? Give to give, not to receive.
Thank You, Again! :-)
I like putting coin in to a tin cup now and then, it makes me feel good.
I like the idea of a place to toss a game for the collective.
Make sure you have your disclaimer - at your own free will, as we don't take requests
There will be some snot nosed whiner at some point, just going to have to ignore them.
Without what you guys do, I just have a frigg'n expensive space heater...
Wonder if there is a way to make sure the donations are anonymous? Give to give, not to receive.
Thank You, Again! :-)
After talking with pirateguybrush last night I wanted to go into some more detail about where I'm coming from with this, and some of the goals I would like to achieve beyond just funding games. I did add some of the info on goals to Patreon already, but it seems like it only shows the first unmet goal (and there's info here that I don't particularly want on the Patreon page).
I believe that last time someone on the forum started a thread asking about donations the idea was shot down immediately and they were shunned for even suggesting it since most of the fixers have not wanted to accept donations in the past and this situation seems to have become accepted as the status-quo. I don't recall if I commented in the thread or not (I think it had been shot down before I saw it), but I did not particularly feel like I was represented in that discussion as I have never said that I would not accept a donation, only that I share the same concerns as the other fixers if I were to.
The truth is, I have been thinking about setting up some way to accept donations for a while now (and my wife has been pressuring me as well), and was prompted to finally do it after being asked about donations again on the Steam forum after I released the latest Dreamfall update. I knew it would be a bit of a can of worms to do this, but I figured that if it was one of the fixers starting the discussion this time it might be a little more constructive than the last time.
I also wanted this to not be a hypothetical discussion for once - by setting up a Patreon page this is a lot more real this time. If everyone objected, or we decide that there is a much better alternative I still have the opportunity to shut down the page before the end of the month when they charge all the patrons.
I'm going to go a little into my financial situation here (without using specific numbers, which would be a violation of my employment agreement). This will probably come across as a bit of a whining gen-Yer (which is fair, because I am one), and I don't particularly want people to read this and donate out of pity (I'd much rather people donate purely as a way to say thanks, and only if they already wanted to do so), but it is relevant to the discussion and to explain where I am coming from, so here it is:
As many of you know, I recently moved to a larger city for my wife's new job - but really that was much more about her career advancement and job security (there was a lot of uncertainty as to whether her contract at the university would be renewed each year, and it was looking very doubtful, especially given the current Australian government's anti-science stance) than it was for any financial reasons, and from a purely financial perspective it made no sense. She did get a pay increase out of it, but that was not even enough to cover the 2.25x increase in our rent, let alone all the other ways Sydney is more expensive to live in than Canberra for two people.
We have also recently had a rather large financial set back that has wiped out well over a full year of our savings all at once. I don't want to go into too much detail (ask me privately if you want to know), but we judged that loss made more financial sense in the long run than the alternative.
Before the move and that setback we were realistically looking at the housing market in Canberra with the intent to put a deposit on our first house (at least, we would have once all the Mr Fluffy handouts dried up to make it possible for a first home buyer to enter the market again), but now that's just a pipe dream and it will likely be many years before we might be able to realistically consider it again.
The result of all this is that I am now a lot more reluctant to spend money on any of my hobbies - I still am to some extent (I'd probably go crazy otherwise), but I'm even passing on a lot of deep discounts on titles I am genuinely interested in, and buying a new AAA at the time of release is largely out of the question (I'll likely make an exception for Far Cry Primal regardless of the outcome of this). If I'm accepting donations and that is covering some of these costs it means I won't have to feel guilty about spending our savings on it, which will mean I'm more willing to buy new titles (AAA or otherwise) to fix them sooner, and if someone is unable to use 3DMigoto on a new game or has hit a brick wall trying to fix it I can justify buying a copy of the game for the sole purpose of helping them (and perhaps these would be good candidates to add to a shared account).
The next goal which isn't showing up on Patreon yet, is to buy a new SLI gaming rig. It's become fairly apparent to me that a lot of our fixes have issues in SLI and right now I have no way to test the fixes on SLI or analyse the problems. I tend to be the kind of person who can tolerate low framerates and will push my gaming rig for as long as possible on outdated hardware before I finally upgrade (and the last time was because the GPU on my previous laptop had died needing to be baked at 200 degree Celsius for 10 minutes to revive it for another couple of months, and to get in before Windows 8.0 hit and it became impossible to buy a laptop still running Windows 7), so upgrading my gaming rig without donations is likely to be at least another few years away. If I were to get an SLI gaming rig sooner, it would allow me to analyse the problems people are hitting in SLI in depth to understand the cause and hopefully find some solutions.
The ultimate goal (and this is probably just a pipe dream) would be to allow me to reallocate my time to devote more time to this community than I currently am able to spare. The majority of my time is currently divided between my day job, my wife and this hobby.
I'd love to be able to spend more time on this hobby than I currently am able to (I may or may not already be borrowing time for it that I probably should not be). Now, obviously I can't take any time from the second, which leaves my day job. Obviously I can't just quit it and work on this full time - our cost of living is simply too high to support on either of our salaries alone, but I could potentially reduce the number of hours I work or switch jobs. If I switched jobs I'd probably want to find a job in the gaming industry, but from everything I've heard from my contacts in the industry, that would likely leave me with less free time instead of more, and a lower salary to boot (plus my current employer is happy for me to work on this in my free time - switching employers is risky since they like to own everything you do whether it was for them or not).
On the other hand, switching from full time employment to part time is a realistic possibility, so long as I can find a way to make up for at least part of the lost income. It wouldn't necessarily have to match, but I couldn't make that change for nothing. I doubt that donations would ever amount to enough to make this possible, but there it is anyway - the ultimate goal.
So there you have it. There's my reasons and my situation. Now, hopefully you understand a little more where I'm coming from with all this.
After talking with pirateguybrush last night I wanted to go into some more detail about where I'm coming from with this, and some of the goals I would like to achieve beyond just funding games. I did add some of the info on goals to Patreon already, but it seems like it only shows the first unmet goal (and there's info here that I don't particularly want on the Patreon page).
I believe that last time someone on the forum started a thread asking about donations the idea was shot down immediately and they were shunned for even suggesting it since most of the fixers have not wanted to accept donations in the past and this situation seems to have become accepted as the status-quo. I don't recall if I commented in the thread or not (I think it had been shot down before I saw it), but I did not particularly feel like I was represented in that discussion as I have never said that I would not accept a donation, only that I share the same concerns as the other fixers if I were to.
The truth is, I have been thinking about setting up some way to accept donations for a while now (and my wife has been pressuring me as well), and was prompted to finally do it after being asked about donations again on the Steam forum after I released the latest Dreamfall update. I knew it would be a bit of a can of worms to do this, but I figured that if it was one of the fixers starting the discussion this time it might be a little more constructive than the last time.
I also wanted this to not be a hypothetical discussion for once - by setting up a Patreon page this is a lot more real this time. If everyone objected, or we decide that there is a much better alternative I still have the opportunity to shut down the page before the end of the month when they charge all the patrons.
I'm going to go a little into my financial situation here (without using specific numbers, which would be a violation of my employment agreement). This will probably come across as a bit of a whining gen-Yer (which is fair, because I am one), and I don't particularly want people to read this and donate out of pity (I'd much rather people donate purely as a way to say thanks, and only if they already wanted to do so), but it is relevant to the discussion and to explain where I am coming from, so here it is:
As many of you know, I recently moved to a larger city for my wife's new job - but really that was much more about her career advancement and job security (there was a lot of uncertainty as to whether her contract at the university would be renewed each year, and it was looking very doubtful, especially given the current Australian government's anti-science stance) than it was for any financial reasons, and from a purely financial perspective it made no sense. She did get a pay increase out of it, but that was not even enough to cover the 2.25x increase in our rent, let alone all the other ways Sydney is more expensive to live in than Canberra for two people.
We have also recently had a rather large financial set back that has wiped out well over a full year of our savings all at once. I don't want to go into too much detail (ask me privately if you want to know), but we judged that loss made more financial sense in the long run than the alternative.
Before the move and that setback we were realistically looking at the housing market in Canberra with the intent to put a deposit on our first house (at least, we would have once all the Mr Fluffy handouts dried up to make it possible for a first home buyer to enter the market again), but now that's just a pipe dream and it will likely be many years before we might be able to realistically consider it again.
The result of all this is that I am now a lot more reluctant to spend money on any of my hobbies - I still am to some extent (I'd probably go crazy otherwise), but I'm even passing on a lot of deep discounts on titles I am genuinely interested in, and buying a new AAA at the time of release is largely out of the question (I'll likely make an exception for Far Cry Primal regardless of the outcome of this). If I'm accepting donations and that is covering some of these costs it means I won't have to feel guilty about spending our savings on it, which will mean I'm more willing to buy new titles (AAA or otherwise) to fix them sooner, and if someone is unable to use 3DMigoto on a new game or has hit a brick wall trying to fix it I can justify buying a copy of the game for the sole purpose of helping them (and perhaps these would be good candidates to add to a shared account).
The next goal which isn't showing up on Patreon yet, is to buy a new SLI gaming rig. It's become fairly apparent to me that a lot of our fixes have issues in SLI and right now I have no way to test the fixes on SLI or analyse the problems. I tend to be the kind of person who can tolerate low framerates and will push my gaming rig for as long as possible on outdated hardware before I finally upgrade (and the last time was because the GPU on my previous laptop had died needing to be baked at 200 degree Celsius for 10 minutes to revive it for another couple of months, and to get in before Windows 8.0 hit and it became impossible to buy a laptop still running Windows 7), so upgrading my gaming rig without donations is likely to be at least another few years away. If I were to get an SLI gaming rig sooner, it would allow me to analyse the problems people are hitting in SLI in depth to understand the cause and hopefully find some solutions.
The ultimate goal (and this is probably just a pipe dream) would be to allow me to reallocate my time to devote more time to this community than I currently am able to spare. The majority of my time is currently divided between my day job, my wife and this hobby.
I'd love to be able to spend more time on this hobby than I currently am able to (I may or may not already be borrowing time for it that I probably should not be). Now, obviously I can't take any time from the second, which leaves my day job. Obviously I can't just quit it and work on this full time - our cost of living is simply too high to support on either of our salaries alone, but I could potentially reduce the number of hours I work or switch jobs. If I switched jobs I'd probably want to find a job in the gaming industry, but from everything I've heard from my contacts in the industry, that would likely leave me with less free time instead of more, and a lower salary to boot (plus my current employer is happy for me to work on this in my free time - switching employers is risky since they like to own everything you do whether it was for them or not).
On the other hand, switching from full time employment to part time is a realistic possibility, so long as I can find a way to make up for at least part of the lost income. It wouldn't necessarily have to match, but I couldn't make that change for nothing. I doubt that donations would ever amount to enough to make this possible, but there it is anyway - the ultimate goal.
So there you have it. There's my reasons and my situation. Now, hopefully you understand a little more where I'm coming from with all this.
2x Geforce GTX 980 in SLI provided by NVIDIA, i7 6700K 4GHz CPU, Asus 27" VG278HE 144Hz 3D Monitor, BenQ W1070 3D Projector, 120" Elite Screens YardMaster 2, 32GB Corsair DDR4 3200MHz RAM, Samsung 850 EVO 500G SSD, 4x750GB HDD in RAID5, Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming 7 Motherboard, Corsair Obsidian 750D Airflow Edition Case, Corsair RM850i PSU, HTC Vive, Win 10 64bit
[quote="DHR"]@DSS, don't worry i'm not going to do anything until we get a consensus.
[quote="DarkStarSword"]You're right, if a fix was made by multiple modders then it's clearly unfair to have a donation button for just one modder, so it would either have to be everyone involved, or none at all.[/quote]
Totally agree with that....is everyone involve, or none at all.
We can put a DONATION button in the blog, inside that page we can put all the donation button of modders.
[img]https://forums.geforce.com/cmd/default/download-comment-attachment/67531/[/img][/quote]
I like this. Im all in for donations and would gladly donate to a few modders and programmers(Mike, Bo3b, Helifax, DarkStarSword, DHR, 4everAwake, zayou, Flugan, forgot some1 probably sorry) whenever i feel like it. As long as everybody is onboard that is, so maybe its time to have another serious talk between you giants and put up that page on the blog? As of this moment im not getting involved in any way.
DHR said:@DSS, don't worry i'm not going to do anything until we get a consensus.
DarkStarSword said:You're right, if a fix was made by multiple modders then it's clearly unfair to have a donation button for just one modder, so it would either have to be everyone involved, or none at all.
Totally agree with that....is everyone involve, or none at all.
We can put a DONATION button in the blog, inside that page we can put all the donation button of modders.
I like this. Im all in for donations and would gladly donate to a few modders and programmers(Mike, Bo3b, Helifax, DarkStarSword, DHR, 4everAwake, zayou, Flugan, forgot some1 probably sorry) whenever i feel like it. As long as everybody is onboard that is, so maybe its time to have another serious talk between you giants and put up that page on the blog? As of this moment im not getting involved in any way.
[quote="sammy123"][quote="DHR"]@DSS, don't worry i'm not going to do anything until we get a consensus.
[quote="DarkStarSword"]You're right, if a fix was made by multiple modders then it's clearly unfair to have a donation button for just one modder, so it would either have to be everyone involved, or none at all.[/quote]
Totally agree with that....is everyone involve, or none at all.
We can put a DONATION button in the blog, inside that page we can put all the donation button of modders.
[img]https://forums.geforce.com/cmd/default/download-comment-attachment/67531/[/img][/quote]
I like this. Im all in for donations and would gladly donate to a few modders and programmers(Mike, Bo3b, DarkStarSword, DHR, 4everAwake, zayou, Flugan, forgot some1 probably sorry) whenever i feel like it. As long as everybody is onboard that is, so maybe its time to have another serious talk between you giants and put up that page on the blog? As of this moment im not getting involved in any way.[/quote]
I really don't think this would be appropriate. The HelixModBlog is not 'our' blog, it's Helix's Blog. Helix stated on numerous occasions that he was not interested in money and would not accept contributions. Putting a Donation button on his blog would be monetizing his site, without him getting value, or giving his permission.
If someone wants to contact Helix to ask for his permission, please PM me, and I will give you his email address.
DHR said:@DSS, don't worry i'm not going to do anything until we get a consensus.
DarkStarSword said:You're right, if a fix was made by multiple modders then it's clearly unfair to have a donation button for just one modder, so it would either have to be everyone involved, or none at all.
Totally agree with that....is everyone involve, or none at all.
We can put a DONATION button in the blog, inside that page we can put all the donation button of modders.
I like this. Im all in for donations and would gladly donate to a few modders and programmers(Mike, Bo3b, DarkStarSword, DHR, 4everAwake, zayou, Flugan, forgot some1 probably sorry) whenever i feel like it. As long as everybody is onboard that is, so maybe its time to have another serious talk between you giants and put up that page on the blog? As of this moment im not getting involved in any way.
I really don't think this would be appropriate. The HelixModBlog is not 'our' blog, it's Helix's Blog. Helix stated on numerous occasions that he was not interested in money and would not accept contributions. Putting a Donation button on his blog would be monetizing his site, without him getting value, or giving his permission.
If someone wants to contact Helix to ask for his permission, please PM me, and I will give you his email address.
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That's the idea i wrote....if the fix is made by 2 or 3 modders, the post will have 2 or 3 donation buttons. For example, in the case of Crysis 3....should put 2 donation buttons (DSS and I).
DSS have made a lot and very importants contribution, cracking down some engines that make possible to fix a lot of games....so in the same model, the donation button of DSS will be all over the blog, same with mike....that scenario will bring more donation (because people see an actual fix)...this is a more commercial model....look the amount of views when a alpha or a beta are released....a lot!! and look the amount of new views when a new version of 3Dmigoto or a new feature is released...a few (actually this matter to modders **those updates are VERY important btw**).
MY WEB
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My 3D Screenshot Gallery
Like my fixes? you can donate to Paypal: dhr.donation@gmail.com
You're right, if a fix was made by multiple modders then it's clearly unfair to have a donation button for just one modder, so it would either have to be everyone involved, or none at all.
But I think, if we post links to donation pages on the blog at all, then it starts becoming really messy, since even if I wasn't involved in a fix directly, some of my work may have been used and the modder might not be sure if they should link to it or not. I don't think that would be fair, so right now let me say this:
If you use some of my work in a fix you are free to attribute me, but DO NOT link to my donation page - it's simply too ambiguous and unfair to do otherwise.
And that leaves the question of whether I post the link to my donation page in a fix that I did by myself using my own tools and techniques. Even this is still a little ambiguous - I can't fix a DX9 game without the work that -=Helix=- did, and regardless of how much code I have personally contributed to 3DMigoto to enable the fix I can't fix a DX11 game without the work that chiri and bo3b have also done on it, so even I am standing on the shoulders of giants.
And then there's still the risk that someone will want to donate to the community as a whole and not pay enough attention to realise that it's a personal donation link.
So, at the moment I'm sort of leaning against that idea, or at the very least making sure that it's NOT prominently displayed in any place that might be mistaken for something other than a personal donation.
So, I'm thinking I'll only post the link in places that are clearly attributed to me personally, like my signature on this forum, my website, my steam profile, my 3d-fixes github repository, twitter, facebook, maybe youtube. And the only time I would post it on the blog is if someone specifically asks about donations in a comment on one of my personal fixes.
But, at the moment I still want to hear everyone's opinions on this. There definitely should not be anything posted on the blog without consensus from the community.
2x Geforce GTX 980 in SLI provided by NVIDIA, i7 6700K 4GHz CPU, Asus 27" VG278HE 144Hz 3D Monitor, BenQ W1070 3D Projector, 120" Elite Screens YardMaster 2, 32GB Corsair DDR4 3200MHz RAM, Samsung 850 EVO 500G SSD, 4x750GB HDD in RAID5, Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming 7 Motherboard, Corsair Obsidian 750D Airflow Edition Case, Corsair RM850i PSU, HTC Vive, Win 10 64bit
Alienware M17x R4 w/ built in 3D, Intel i7 3740QM, GTX 680m 2GB, 16GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM, Win7 64bit, 1TB SSD, 1TB HDD, 750GB HDD
Pre-release 3D fixes, shadertool.py and other goodies: http://github.com/DarkStarSword/3d-fixes
Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DarkStarSword or PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/DarkStarSword
I have also received a new found appreciation about what goes into these fixes.
I admit too dreading the scenario that any of our current prolific modders get tired of all the work for no gain and an at times rude community (mainly new people uneducated to how things work around here. demanding or whining for fixes.)
I would be taking advantage of this and giving something back to DSS. Especially in light of personal time and assistance you have given me, as well as all the work both directly on fixes and behind the scenes with work on the wrappers and such.
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My opinion:
I think the best way would be to make a general pool for the 3D VIsion community. People can donate to it;) The fixers then can buy new games using this fund and fix the new games;) This way is more like an investement;)
We give, the normal users give;) This will probably require a common Steam/Origin/Gog/etc common account;)
This way everyone is happy I imagine;) This is just a thought and idea... so don't take it TOO personal;) If people want to donate to individuals they still can;)
I don't know...what do you guys think about it? (It would look more like a fund-raiser than anything else...)
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- Raid 0 - 256GB Sandisk Extreme SSD.
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Windows 10 x64 Pro.
etc
My website with my fixes and OpenGL to 3D Vision wrapper:
http://3dsurroundgaming.com
(If you like some of the stuff that I've done and want to donate something, you can do it with PayPal at tavyhome@gmail.com)
I think the idea of a shared fund-raiser between shaderhackers is a reasonable one, but I'm not really sure how we could make it work in a fair way.
There would be the question as to who gets access to it, and while some names like 4everAwake, Mike, bo3b, DHR, helifax and myself instantly come to mind, but looking at the blog we are far from the only active fixers. At what point do we accept that someone has started fixing enough games that they are entitled to a piece of the pie, and how much? And should we include retired fixers in the list as well - I've played many games that eqzitara and Helix fixed and would be happy to include them for instance.
The shared account idea is a nice way to avoid having to decide the how much part of that question since everyone will either have access to all the games in the shared accounts or none of them. There are some logistical issues (and possibly terms of service violations) here though - most of those services do not allow the same account to be logged in simultaneously from multiple locations, and while Steam does now allow that, it does not allow the games from one account to be played on multiple computers at the same time.
I've been known to spend 48+ hours sitting in a game staring at the one effect trying to work out how to crack it (the ray-marched light shafts in Dreamfall) before moving on, and that might limit the usefulness of a shared account if only one shaderhacker can use it at a time. Plus a lot of the games we fix we do actually need to play all (or most) of the way through to make sure we got everything - if I total up the hours I've spend in every game I've fixed it comes to well over 1000 (of course, not all of that was spent fixing the games, but you get the idea).
We might still be able to make it work - offline mode might be able to allow us to use the shares accounts simultaneously (with some exceptions), and we don't all share the same timezone so there might be less clashes thanks to that.
If we do want to go for this approach through paypal, I believe we would have to set up a not for profit organisation, otherwise using one of their donate buttons is a violation of their terms of service and risk the funds being frozen (and there are real stories of this happening, which is one of the reasons I went with Patreon since it caters for individuals - although I believe I still have to declare donations as taxable income in Australia).
2x Geforce GTX 980 in SLI provided by NVIDIA, i7 6700K 4GHz CPU, Asus 27" VG278HE 144Hz 3D Monitor, BenQ W1070 3D Projector, 120" Elite Screens YardMaster 2, 32GB Corsair DDR4 3200MHz RAM, Samsung 850 EVO 500G SSD, 4x750GB HDD in RAID5, Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming 7 Motherboard, Corsair Obsidian 750D Airflow Edition Case, Corsair RM850i PSU, HTC Vive, Win 10 64bit
Alienware M17x R4 w/ built in 3D, Intel i7 3740QM, GTX 680m 2GB, 16GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM, Win7 64bit, 1TB SSD, 1TB HDD, 750GB HDD
Pre-release 3D fixes, shadertool.py and other goodies: http://github.com/DarkStarSword/3d-fixes
Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DarkStarSword or PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/DarkStarSword
To build on helifax's suggestion, a communal account like that already exists, though there's not a lot in it right now. In terms of sharing an account between fixers, a more fiddly but far more versatile option would be multiple communal accounts on a per-game basis. With a single account, only one person can work on one game at a time. With multiple accounts, everyone can work on something different simultaneously. It also means we could be a bit more open with who's allowed access, as there's a higher availability in this scenario. Credentials could be shared amongst fixers using a Google doc. Family Sharing would even allow a fixer to log into the desired game's account on their PC, then share it to their primary account for play/fixing there. If that's something people are interested in, I'd be happy to oversee that. Particularly given the information below.
I have the ability to purchase and gift games on the Russian Steam store. Generally speaking, games are less than half the US price there+. Just Cause 3 is $19US, MGSV is $20US, Witcher 3 is $15US, Fallout 4 is $29US. Using my own wishlist as a reference point, it would take the cost of buying all 47 games on it from $1001US down to $357US. When Steam sales hit, the prices get crazy good. I'm happy to use this to facilitate cheap games for fixers, either individually or for a communal account/s.
The only games where this doesn't work are Ubisoft titles, as they usually grant Russian-language-only versions. But it's often possible to get UPlay keys on the cheap if you shop around, so we could do something similar there. I picked up AC Syndicate for $20 the other day.
I, here, am a nobody. So, I perfectly understand if nobody is interested in the opinion of a nobody.
Still, I can't stop myself revealing how happy and also how sad I am after this topic.
I'm happy because I'm imagining (most probably naively) that this might shake a little the big game companies and NVidia. If there's still some sort of human morality left in them, they should be able to see and appreciate, including financially, what you guys have done for them too and not just for us, the 3D addicts.
First, I believe that, judging by a number of posts in this community, a lot of people (including myself) wouldn't buy any more a game which is not real 3D (and I exclude here NVidia's fake CM, which, similar to the fake 3D movies, is in fact -in my opinion- a deterrent for newcomers into the 3D world).
Secondly, I find really hard to believe that people, in this big companies, are not making use of your fixes. I can't be convinced to believe that, after years of development, they are happy to see and enjoy the result of their hard work in just the bleak 2d. As much as I love you CD Projekt Red and Bethesda, I'm pointing at you too.
I am sad because I am aware that, too many times, money can break good things. I'm sad because, not once, that Romanian proverb -"Money is the devil's eye"- proved to be actual. I'm sad because I fear for the future of 3D gaming.
In any case, I thank you again DarkStarSword and all of you great 3D fixers for everything you have done. I have but a huge respect for you.
Edit:
Woke up to find it overly pathetic...
(Note to the future me: never drink and "write" again!)
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G-Pat on Helixmod
2x Geforce GTX 980 in SLI provided by NVIDIA, i7 6700K 4GHz CPU, Asus 27" VG278HE 144Hz 3D Monitor, BenQ W1070 3D Projector, 120" Elite Screens YardMaster 2, 32GB Corsair DDR4 3200MHz RAM, Samsung 850 EVO 500G SSD, 4x750GB HDD in RAID5, Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming 7 Motherboard, Corsair Obsidian 750D Airflow Edition Case, Corsair RM850i PSU, HTC Vive, Win 10 64bit
Alienware M17x R4 w/ built in 3D, Intel i7 3740QM, GTX 680m 2GB, 16GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM, Win7 64bit, 1TB SSD, 1TB HDD, 750GB HDD
Pre-release 3D fixes, shadertool.py and other goodies: http://github.com/DarkStarSword/3d-fixes
Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DarkStarSword or PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/DarkStarSword
Totally agree with that....is everyone involve, or none at all.
We can put a DONATION button in the blog, inside that page we can put all the donation button of modders.
MY WEB
Helix Mod - Making 3D Better
My 3D Screenshot Gallery
Like my fixes? you can donate to Paypal: dhr.donation@gmail.com
In the spirit of equity, I hope that NVIDIA also somehow contributes to this evolving donation site/approach, given the more expensive hardware purchases made by these forums users for 3D gaming (more revenue for NVIDIA). Especially since NVIDIA stock is up more than 60% this year. Many of these purchases would not be made, if this 3D support did not exist. See https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/903540/3d-vision/3dtv-play-tv-compatibility-and-help-with-card-choice-/?offset=2#4756790, for example. I certainly would NOT have purchased a 980, and two 980Ti's this year, if 3D Vision was dead...
I like the idea of a place to toss a game for the collective.
Make sure you have your disclaimer - at your own free will, as we don't take requests
There will be some snot nosed whiner at some point, just going to have to ignore them.
Without what you guys do, I just have a frigg'n expensive space heater...
Wonder if there is a way to make sure the donations are anonymous? Give to give, not to receive.
Thank You, Again! :-)
I believe that last time someone on the forum started a thread asking about donations the idea was shot down immediately and they were shunned for even suggesting it since most of the fixers have not wanted to accept donations in the past and this situation seems to have become accepted as the status-quo. I don't recall if I commented in the thread or not (I think it had been shot down before I saw it), but I did not particularly feel like I was represented in that discussion as I have never said that I would not accept a donation, only that I share the same concerns as the other fixers if I were to.
The truth is, I have been thinking about setting up some way to accept donations for a while now (and my wife has been pressuring me as well), and was prompted to finally do it after being asked about donations again on the Steam forum after I released the latest Dreamfall update. I knew it would be a bit of a can of worms to do this, but I figured that if it was one of the fixers starting the discussion this time it might be a little more constructive than the last time.
I also wanted this to not be a hypothetical discussion for once - by setting up a Patreon page this is a lot more real this time. If everyone objected, or we decide that there is a much better alternative I still have the opportunity to shut down the page before the end of the month when they charge all the patrons.
I'm going to go a little into my financial situation here (without using specific numbers, which would be a violation of my employment agreement). This will probably come across as a bit of a whining gen-Yer (which is fair, because I am one), and I don't particularly want people to read this and donate out of pity (I'd much rather people donate purely as a way to say thanks, and only if they already wanted to do so), but it is relevant to the discussion and to explain where I am coming from, so here it is:
As many of you know, I recently moved to a larger city for my wife's new job - but really that was much more about her career advancement and job security (there was a lot of uncertainty as to whether her contract at the university would be renewed each year, and it was looking very doubtful, especially given the current Australian government's anti-science stance) than it was for any financial reasons, and from a purely financial perspective it made no sense. She did get a pay increase out of it, but that was not even enough to cover the 2.25x increase in our rent, let alone all the other ways Sydney is more expensive to live in than Canberra for two people.
We have also recently had a rather large financial set back that has wiped out well over a full year of our savings all at once. I don't want to go into too much detail (ask me privately if you want to know), but we judged that loss made more financial sense in the long run than the alternative.
Before the move and that setback we were realistically looking at the housing market in Canberra with the intent to put a deposit on our first house (at least, we would have once all the Mr Fluffy handouts dried up to make it possible for a first home buyer to enter the market again), but now that's just a pipe dream and it will likely be many years before we might be able to realistically consider it again.
The result of all this is that I am now a lot more reluctant to spend money on any of my hobbies - I still am to some extent (I'd probably go crazy otherwise), but I'm even passing on a lot of deep discounts on titles I am genuinely interested in, and buying a new AAA at the time of release is largely out of the question (I'll likely make an exception for Far Cry Primal regardless of the outcome of this). If I'm accepting donations and that is covering some of these costs it means I won't have to feel guilty about spending our savings on it, which will mean I'm more willing to buy new titles (AAA or otherwise) to fix them sooner, and if someone is unable to use 3DMigoto on a new game or has hit a brick wall trying to fix it I can justify buying a copy of the game for the sole purpose of helping them (and perhaps these would be good candidates to add to a shared account).
The next goal which isn't showing up on Patreon yet, is to buy a new SLI gaming rig. It's become fairly apparent to me that a lot of our fixes have issues in SLI and right now I have no way to test the fixes on SLI or analyse the problems. I tend to be the kind of person who can tolerate low framerates and will push my gaming rig for as long as possible on outdated hardware before I finally upgrade (and the last time was because the GPU on my previous laptop had died needing to be baked at 200 degree Celsius for 10 minutes to revive it for another couple of months, and to get in before Windows 8.0 hit and it became impossible to buy a laptop still running Windows 7), so upgrading my gaming rig without donations is likely to be at least another few years away. If I were to get an SLI gaming rig sooner, it would allow me to analyse the problems people are hitting in SLI in depth to understand the cause and hopefully find some solutions.
The ultimate goal (and this is probably just a pipe dream) would be to allow me to reallocate my time to devote more time to this community than I currently am able to spare. The majority of my time is currently divided between my day job, my wife and this hobby.
I'd love to be able to spend more time on this hobby than I currently am able to (I may or may not already be borrowing time for it that I probably should not be). Now, obviously I can't take any time from the second, which leaves my day job. Obviously I can't just quit it and work on this full time - our cost of living is simply too high to support on either of our salaries alone, but I could potentially reduce the number of hours I work or switch jobs. If I switched jobs I'd probably want to find a job in the gaming industry, but from everything I've heard from my contacts in the industry, that would likely leave me with less free time instead of more, and a lower salary to boot (plus my current employer is happy for me to work on this in my free time - switching employers is risky since they like to own everything you do whether it was for them or not).
On the other hand, switching from full time employment to part time is a realistic possibility, so long as I can find a way to make up for at least part of the lost income. It wouldn't necessarily have to match, but I couldn't make that change for nothing. I doubt that donations would ever amount to enough to make this possible, but there it is anyway - the ultimate goal.
So there you have it. There's my reasons and my situation. Now, hopefully you understand a little more where I'm coming from with all this.
2x Geforce GTX 980 in SLI provided by NVIDIA, i7 6700K 4GHz CPU, Asus 27" VG278HE 144Hz 3D Monitor, BenQ W1070 3D Projector, 120" Elite Screens YardMaster 2, 32GB Corsair DDR4 3200MHz RAM, Samsung 850 EVO 500G SSD, 4x750GB HDD in RAID5, Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming 7 Motherboard, Corsair Obsidian 750D Airflow Edition Case, Corsair RM850i PSU, HTC Vive, Win 10 64bit
Alienware M17x R4 w/ built in 3D, Intel i7 3740QM, GTX 680m 2GB, 16GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM, Win7 64bit, 1TB SSD, 1TB HDD, 750GB HDD
Pre-release 3D fixes, shadertool.py and other goodies: http://github.com/DarkStarSword/3d-fixes
Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DarkStarSword or PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/DarkStarSword
I like this. Im all in for donations and would gladly donate to a few modders and programmers(Mike, Bo3b, Helifax, DarkStarSword, DHR, 4everAwake, zayou, Flugan, forgot some1 probably sorry) whenever i feel like it. As long as everybody is onboard that is, so maybe its time to have another serious talk between you giants and put up that page on the blog? As of this moment im not getting involved in any way.
I really don't think this would be appropriate. The HelixModBlog is not 'our' blog, it's Helix's Blog. Helix stated on numerous occasions that he was not interested in money and would not accept contributions. Putting a Donation button on his blog would be monetizing his site, without him getting value, or giving his permission.
If someone wants to contact Helix to ask for his permission, please PM me, and I will give you his email address.
Acer H5360 (1280x720@120Hz) - ASUS VG248QE with GSync mod - 3D Vision 1&2 - Driver 372.54
GTX 970 - i5-4670K@4.2GHz - 12GB RAM - Win7x64+evilKB2670838 - 4 Disk X25 RAID
SAGER NP9870-S - GTX 980 - i7-6700K - Win10 Pro 1607
Latest 3Dmigoto Release
Bo3b's School for ShaderHackers