things I'm excited for
Signed-off-by: Xe <me@christine.website>
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title: "Things I'm Excited for in 2022"
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date: 2021-12-28
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author: ectamorphic
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---
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2021 has been...a thing. However there are a lot of things that I am looking
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forward to in 2022 that I'm gonna summarize in a few categories.
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## VR
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2021 has been a really dry year for VR tech. The chip shortage has really hurt
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the budding VR industry, but there are some things that have been announced that
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I am looking forward to.
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[VR has really been one of the main things that's been keeping me sane over the
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eternal plague. It's become one of my main activities and I am looking forward
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to the improvements that come with new generations of VR
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tech.](conversation://Cadey/enby)
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### Simula One
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[Simula](https://simulavr.com/) is trying to create a VR headset that can
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function as a monitor replacement. This is something I am _really_ excited for.
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The Simula One has a lot of potential to change how people use computers.
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Right now a lot of the "working in VR" kinds of projects try to recreate the
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_experience_ of using a desktop PC in VR. This makes sense, the existing
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paridigm is already there and people are already familiar with it. However there
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is also a lot of room for ditching the constraints of the past and really
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experimenting with what computing can be if you aren't constrained by monitors.
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The Simula One headset is going to have [one of the highest pixels-per-degree on
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the market for consumer VR](https://simulavr.com/blog/vr-comparison/). It's
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going to be running NixOS and [Monado](https://monado.freedesktop.org/).
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I don't really know if it is going to take off and if the result will be any
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good, however it's very important that people try these kinds of things. Who
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knows what will catch on? They are going to open up a kickstarter in January and
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I plan to be one of the early high tier donators.
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### Valve "deckard"
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Valve has been working on the Steam Deck, but there's also a section of Valve
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that has been hard at work on a VR headset codenamed
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["deckard"](https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/29/22699914/valve-deckard-standalone-vr-headset-prototype-development).
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The rumor mill says it will have an option to run as a standalone headset as
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well as a traditional PCVR headset. Other digging into things have found a wifi
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chip (a specific wifi6 realtek one) that would allow for streaming VR gameplay
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over a network and there are also references to using
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[xrdesktop](https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog/news-and-events/moving-the-linux-desktop-to-another-reality.html)
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as a way to run "flat" applications in a VR space. There are also rumors that it
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will support "inside-out" tracking, which is also essential for being a portable
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headset.
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I would absolutely love to have such a thing. I travel occasionally for work and
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I would really love to have a quality PCVR experience on the go. It would let me
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be able to not skip my workout days when I'm in a hotel room.
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The VR space on Linux is slightly stagnated at the moment due to most of the
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investment either being in SteamVR on Windows or on Oculus' fork of Android.
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This does make sense though, there is a lot of money to be made in the VR space.
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Hopefully Valve can improve the state of VR on Linux with the "deckard".
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## Video Games
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2021 has had some banger releases. Halo Infinite finally dropped. Final Fantasy
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7 Remake came to PC. [Metroid
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Dread](https://christine.website/blog/metroid-dread-review-2021-10-10) finally
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came out after being rumored for more than half of my lifetime. Forza Horizon 5
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raced out into the hearts of millions. Overall, it was a pretty good year to be
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a gamer.
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[I was going to do a writeup of my thoughts on Halo Infinite, however I really
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want to reserve that for when I can do it co-op. From what I've heard of the
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development of Infinite there were many points where they didn't think that the
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game would ship at all. It came out though. It's decent, movement is really fun,
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but overall I don't feel it's going to be genre-defining in the ways they would
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have hoped.](conversation://Cadey/coffee)
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However 2022 looks like we're going to finally start returning to "normal" with
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development schedules. Here's what I'm the most excited for:
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### Steam Deck
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The [Steam Deck](https://www.steamdeck.com/en/) is a handheld PC that will let
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you play games. It's also likely going to be my first "next gen" console, as
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despite my repeated attempts I have been unable to get an Xbox Series console or
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a PS5.
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[Is the Steam Deck really a console? It's much more like a PC, but it's not as
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much of a console as the Oculus Quest 2 is.](conversation://Mara/hmm)
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[Let's just call it a console for the sake of
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argument.](conversation://Cadey/coffee)
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I'm excited for this on multiple levels. Valve is going to make it run SteamOS 3
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by default. SteamOS is based on Arch Linux and they have been making improvement
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after improvement to the Linux kernel and all of the software they are going to
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use on it. Valve hopes to have most games on Steam playable like they are on a
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PC running windows.
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It's also a bit of a chunky boi. It's gonna be a bit hefty, but I'm excited for
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what it is going to bring to the ecosystem. It may lead to the year of Linux on
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the desktop!
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[Isn't that every year though?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
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### Splatoon 3
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Splatoon is one of my favorite game series. It's a game where you have a bunch
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of ink guns and your goal is to cover as much turf as possible. The game feels
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like Quake in the best ways. You use your sticks to lead and the gyroscope to
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refine your aim, just like you would with a Steam Controller.
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[I'm still sad that the Steam Controller failed in the
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market.](conversation://Cadey/coffee)
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Splatoon 3 looks like it will build on the fundamentals in great ways. I can't
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wait to see what they have in store!
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### The Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild
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I have over 400 hours logged in Breath of The Wild. It is in the running for my
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favorite games of all time. The really innovative part of Breath of The Wild was
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the fact that it was a jRPG without a leveling mechanic, experience points or a
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hard-defined story path. You are dumped into the world, given tools to explore
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through it and then given free reign to do whatever you want. It is a massive
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open world (probably one of the biggest in a Nintendo game save maybe Xenoblade
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Chronicles X) and you are given the agency you need to play the game how you
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want. You can run straight to Ganon and finish the game in less than an hour.
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You can spend hundreds of hours exploring the world to solve all the puzzle
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shrines.
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Most of all though, the really great part about Breath of The Wild is the fact
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that as you play, your skill as a player improves. You learn to chain together
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mechanics to do basically whatever you want and the game doesn't stop you. You
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can do _whatever you want_ and the real progression system is your skill.
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[This sounds weird, but tying progression to player skill is incredibly
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anti-meta as far as these games go. Usually jRPGs are very tailored experiences
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where you go through the standard "fetch bread -> kill god" kind of power skill
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tree, but with Breath of The Wild you can "kill god" right out of the gate and
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"fetch bread" later.](conversation://Cadey/enby)
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I have no idea what to expect for the sequel to Breath of The Wild, but I'm
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excited as heck to see what they come up with.
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[This is going to have an article written about it once I've gotten a chance to
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play through it. This may take a week to a month. It's gonna be worth the
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wait.](conversation://Cadey/enby)
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## My Projects
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I don't really like having too many project plans ahead of time, but here are
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the biggest things I'm already committing myself to do next year. Something
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something forward looking statements something something.
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### Daily Workout Streams
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I love rhythm games. I haven't really had good rhythm games to play until I got
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back into VR. I've been playing a lot of [Beat
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Saber](https://store.steampowered.com/app/620980/Beat_Saber/) and more recently
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[Synth Riders](https://synthridersvr.com/). I've been streaming my play on
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[Twitch](https://twitch.tv/princessxen) and I have a playlist of the VODs on
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[YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJDDsMrk2tSH3nhLWqV8IZLgae1CNYurH).
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I live a very sedentary lifestyle, even before COVID, and I want to start to get
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back into shape. Doing it [dancing on the
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internet](https://youtu.be/q3F06mKP2uk?list=PLJDDsMrk2tSH3nhLWqV8IZLgae1CNYurH&t=4342)
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is fun, so why not?
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### Spellblade
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I have a bunch of unreleased material for Spellblade that I need to go in and
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edit up and post.
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### V-Tubing
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I got a webcam for Christmas that I plan to use for V-Tubing coming soon. I want
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to use it for recording conference talks as well as for doing some non-VR gaming
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streams.
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I have been working on getting a V-Tuber model hacked up out of the one that
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I've been using in VRChat, but having no idea what I am doing in Unity has
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really not been helping.
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---
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Hope this was an interesting view into what I'm excited for. This may be my last
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post for the year. Stay safe out there, things have been rough.
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