Photo Mode: Space Truckin'

I'm ready go tonight. There's a party, alright. We don't need the raisin for joy, oh yeah. Tick down to midnight.
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Delthazar
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Photo Mode: Space Truckin'

Post by Delthazar » Mon Jul 23, 2018 4:21 pm

Futzing around in No Man's Sky, and specifically poking at the photo mode they added at some point, made me think maybe we need a thread for us to show off our virtual travelogue shots and whatnot.

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Lots of games on the nicer end of the visual scale have pretty great photo modes these days. Other than No Man's Sky, there's a fantastic one in Horizon Zero Dawn and pretty solid ones in (I think) both of the recent Uncharted games. It would be weird if the modern Tombs Raider don't have 'em but I haven't checked. Some like Yakuza 6 even have character selfie modes. But anything that lets you turn off the UI for screenshots is at least a start.

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Re: Photo Mode: Post Yer Prettiest

Post by Falcon Critical » Mon Jul 23, 2018 5:49 pm

Ooh nice! I'll have to look through my steam screenshots.

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Re: Photo Mode: Post Yer Prettiest

Post by Delthazar » Wed Jul 25, 2018 3:10 pm

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Me and my preorder whip.

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New volumetric clouds, improved lighting, and tess'd textures go a long way.

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Imagine four balls on the edge of a cliff.

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:stare

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Re: Photo Mode: Post Yer Prettiest

Post by Falcon Critical » Wed Jul 25, 2018 6:48 pm

Wow that glow... call them luminorbz.

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Re: Photo Mode: Post Yer Prettiest

Post by Falcon Critical » Fri Jul 27, 2018 4:45 pm

I should probably look at my graphics options and see if I can't dial them up a bit, but here's a couple shots from last night:

Some Plants that looked like people
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My seriously NOT pretty ship, but a cool shipwreck in the distance
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Unfortunately even though that planet was pretty it was wracked by CONSTANT boiling rainstorms. Like it rained more than it didn't
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Re: Photo Mode: Post Yer Prettiest

Post by Delthazar » Fri Jul 27, 2018 7:19 pm

Oh man I've never seen boiling rain. Or... rain period, come to think of it.

I think my ultimate goal is to find a nice green forest world, maybe with rings, definitely with sentinels dialed all the way down to Relaxed or Passive, and weather patterns that aren't trying to kill me. Your boiling rain planet looks like it's almost there, but... yeah. :pac

Big screenshot dump from my last couple nights of wandering. Really starting to get into the photo mode filters and stuff.

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Big iron on his hiiiiiiip...

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Remember to take a peek underwater for more stuff to analyse.

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On approach to my new freighter, which I named Eldridge, as I've done with a ton of ships in the past.

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Leaving Eldridge on assignment.

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A herd of goat dogs. :3

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Going for that Nevermind shot.

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Trees grow laaaaaarge now. It can be hard to nail the scale in a still.

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Falcon Critical wrote:
Fri Jul 27, 2018 4:45 pm
I should probably look at my graphics options and see if I can't dial them up a bit[/img]
I'm running with AA off and shadows/reflections at low, so that's maybe a good starting point. It feels stable enough for me now that I can afford to pump up textures and postprocessing without taking too much of a hit. My fans might disagree though. 'course it's a hot summer over here, too.

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Re: Photo Mode: Post Yer Prettiest

Post by Falcon Critical » Sat Jul 28, 2018 12:41 am

Continued exploring the system I was in, was flying around a toxic planet which had a constant acid drizzle with pretty frequent storms. For the most part the surface was barren and just ugly plants... decided to look inside a cave and it suddenly got super lush
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Then I was hanging out and updating my look, when someone came running over and waving at me. Someone apparently Cursed by Tharja. I emoted back but wasn't quite sure how to communicate. I turned on my mic but I don't know if this cursed explorer could hear me.

Anyway, went down to the third planet in the system, which happened to be a molten world. Wasn't actually all that bad once we got there, a balmy 60 celcius. There were some firestorms though. I tried using photo mode to take some pictures:
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But it drained a lot of the colour which was weird, so I took a non photo-mode screenshot too:
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I am sure I took a screenshot of us sitting on top of that freighter, but apparently Steam disagrees. I then got a phone call and had to go grocery shopping.

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Re: Photo Mode: Post Yer Prettiest

Post by Delthazar » Sat Jul 28, 2018 8:42 pm

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I couldn't quite manage a good shot of us scaling the crashed freighter. :pacdown

I have voice chat off 'cause I never know what kinda temperment the randos might have when they occasionally wander through my systems. Plus I always have podcasts on in the background. Still have dozens of hours of Hardcore History to work through.

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Dog birds.

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Big boy season.

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Spotted my first S-Rank Exotic starship. Note the fancy ornate elements. Owner wanted about 17M for it... way out of my range right now, but at least I have a target to shoot for - but chances are I'll end up spending a lot of that budget on expanding my freighter's defense fleet.

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Re: Photo Mode: Post Yer Prettiest

Post by Falcon Critical » Sun Jul 29, 2018 2:08 am

New day, new system. This one only had two planets...

A desert with this big softie
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And a radioactive hellscape... with cute cactus spiders!
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Re: Photo Mode: Post Yer Prettiest

Post by Delthazar » Mon Jul 30, 2018 7:37 pm

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Just realized my freighter came in Shanghai Dragons colours.

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:stare

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You can land on the deck of your frigates and walk around.

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I found the butterflies. Fuckin' internet.

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New system. Sometimes the starbases will spawn very close to planetary rings.

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Re: Photo Mode: Post Yer Prettiest

Post by Falcon Critical » Sun Aug 05, 2018 3:21 am

Okay time for a tour! This planet is Anita, in the Haia system. It's an icy world but it has nice sunsets.
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That ringed planet looks great in the sky, and I thought these might be the pesky last fauna on this planet which was evading me. Turns out these are plants.
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Speaking of that ringed planet, those rings are huuuuge.
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Welcome to planet Valeria of the Haia system. I mentioned this one before:

VALERIA
Climate: Sweltering Damp
Sentinels: Passive
Flora: Ample
Fauna: Abundant

I love the animals on this planet, so much that I have a spoiler zone at the bottom of this post! In the meantime I found a nice view to build my first serious base.
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It does have superheated rainstorms, which to me is an advantage. I love standing inside when it's raining and I waited this long to have weather in The Sims, so I'm not gonna pick a no-weather planet! Screenshot has the interface because I liked the extra redness that the screen brings because I'm burning up. 100ºC rain (boiling point for water) that's gotta smart.
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Then, I might have found a planet for you Del:

UNNAMED
Climate: Balmy
Sentinels: Standard
Flora: Frequent
Fauna: Generous

The first thing that stood out to me was these rad mountains, the planet is pretty flat otherwise but has these huge mesas that stick up around the place.
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Okay, Del checklist: Green grass = check, no environmental hazards = check, sentinel status = not ideal, rings = no... but can I interest you in RED SPACE/NIGHTTIMES.
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Ignore me choking in the foreground, it's safe here... honest!

Okay time to faun over Valeria's fauna.
Spoiler :
First up we have the fantail bat. He's pretty cute and eats a plant that he needs help digesting. As the only flying creature, he pretty much does what he wants.
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Then we have the Tigoat. I'm not sure there's any vegetation around tall enough to need those tiger stripes, but maybe she can look like a rock by lying down with those glowing mushrooms. A creature with a detachable tongue that eats roots, does she send her tongue off on excursions to burrow into the ground?
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Then we have this friendly face(?) Seriously this thing doesn't have eyes, yet it's intelligent and a hybrid species. I guess the Tigoat pretended to be a rock so long that it actually melded with a rock, becoming Pyramid Head here. Maybe it's like a slowbro and dips its head in the water so long a shell attaches to his head. It says it eats flesh chunks, so maybe it has an amazing sense of smell and eats things that recently died. More on that later.
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Then there's the Braincrab. This thing is basically an Intellect Devourer, at least in appearance. It also has an interesting diet, it stalks its prey for days, but only eats the meat once it is rotten. Perhaps it has an understanding with Pyramid Head, who eats the fresh kill but leaves some for the Braincrab. Either way, this beastie is the only one that seems to be an aggressive predator.
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Then there's the Clam Mantis. Its back is like an open shellfish, which potentially catches water to be absorbed. That does kind of make sense when you consider the rest of its diet is old bones. It was at this point I wondered whether the boiling rain or some other environmental effect was in fact deadly to a lot of the wildlife. It make sense because we have a creature that eats fresh meat, another that eats rotten meat, and now one that crunches up the bones to leave no trace. The Braincrabs can't be prolific enough hunters on their own to support all three species. Also this thing was born on meteors? I choose to believe that means the species arrived by meteor rather than there are just chunks of meteor around like hives.
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Next up is the Mammasilamima, or Sweet Mamma. It's just a cheerful fun creature that lights its own way at night, and probably can stand the boiling rain better than most since it regenerates like the wolverine. Competes with the Fantail Bats for Star Brambles.
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The last land-locked minion is the Plantsman. Another plant eater, though this time they also look after the plants which is cute. The note calling them delicious is odd to me in my Korvax body, perhaps this is what the Braincrabs love to chase for days.
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Dipping into the water, we have a couple of above and below types, the first being the Wokedog. This guy loves to swim, and NEVER sleeps. I love that he eats flowers and smells with his tongue. I can imagine him coming up to the shore and flicking his tongue out to smell for lovely flowers and the go and chomp chomp em.
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Last up is the Moloch Ness, she loves to swim around and find fallen fruits to chomp. I'm imagining those glowing orbs as the fruit they chomp on, but only once it has naturally fallen from the branches and rotted a bit to get extra juicy. I don't think she goes up to the surface much, even though she still has legs so she could.
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And that's the fauna on Valeria. I do think there are natural events which cause a lot of death to the landlocked creatures, because a lot of these creatures vore the dead but few seem to actively hunt. The others are just big softies, looking after the plants and just being chill as fuck.

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Re: Photo Mode: Post Yer Prettiest

Post by True Perception » Sun Aug 05, 2018 6:02 am

I feel like a planet being that close would be impossible, gravitationally speaking. Atleast, not for very long. Does the system have enough planets for a full set of Falcon users?

Edit: Seeing those Gender descriptors made me curious if those are legit scientific gender types used to describe fauna/flora. Hello, one of those things it's impossible to Google! No, I don't want to know what science thinks about multiple human genders or nature vs. nurture.

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Re: Photo Mode: Post Yer Prettiest

Post by Falcon Critical » Sun Aug 05, 2018 1:01 pm

There were three planets, Valeria the hot one, Anita the cold one, and Belcoot the deviant. I forgot to add his image in my previous post so here he is, a barren planet with no atmosphere... but hella a t m o s p h e r e.

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NB: The whole Belcoot deviant thing is based on the old RP we did back in Falena on SuikoX, I created another Falcon fencer and she was pissed that Belcoot wasn't a Falcon 'purist' since he abandoned the Rapier. Sadly no room for Kika either, I tried to stick to ones who would have been alive at the same time.

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Re: Photo Mode: Post Yer Prettiest

Post by Falcon Critical » Sun Aug 05, 2018 2:16 pm

Regarding Fauna genders, I found a reddit thread where u/themoroncore tried to figure out what they mean.
Indeterminate: unknown gender, possibly unable to be scanned or simply not in whatever data base the scanner pulls from

Vectorised: In biology a vector is a virus that transmits genetic information into another cell. This could mean that this gender has a symbiotic relationship with virus.

The organism hosts its own genetic material in the virus, which is then transported (through sex, air, water, anyway a virus can spread probably) to a cell acting as an egg in its mate. The genetic material transfer from the bacteriophage into the empty egg cell activates its growth cycle and begins development

Radical: The counterpart recipient mate for the vectorized gender.

Prime: A host for multiple complete copies of its species' genetic material. Like a queen bee, this is the only mate for other members of its species, however unlike the queen the Prime gender doesn't bear the children, and instead acts as a sort of genetic library for other mates to tap into, copy, and begin the embryonic development cycle in their respective bodies/eggs/sacs/polyps/etc...

Exotic: The reciprocal gender for a Prime gender. As stated above, this gender copies the genes of the Prime gender, and then uses that to develop its own progeny. Each progeny has a small chance to become a prime, but usually turns out Exotic.

During the transfer of genes, the genetic material is generally unprotected from UV rays, this gives the species as a whole a higher chance for genetic diversity, however, it creates an incredibly high mortality rate, so constant and large reproduction is necessary to keep the species from dying out.

Asymmetric: All members of the species are of the same gender and can perform either side of the mating ritual, depending what is needed. They can occasionally perform both at the same time.

The first mate will begin development of an egg in its own body with half of the genes. The egg is then transported to another asymmetric gender, and the received egg will fuse with the host's egg. This adds the host's half of the genes. From there the egg will begin to divide and the embryo will develop.

Rational: Like the Asymmetric gender, rational is the only gender for these species. However unlike the Asymmetric gender, the rational gender uses fractions of genes from multiple parents.

Eg; 6 species could all mate with one other rational. They each contribute 1/7th of the genes required to make a whole genome. This gives the progeny huge genetic diversity, and 7 parents in total.

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Re: Photo Mode: Post Yer Prettiest

Post by True Perception » Sun Aug 05, 2018 3:37 pm

I found some similar stuff. Why the hell would Asymmetric mean all members the same gender?! That's not what asymmetric means, at all. Every time I came across one of these, it just said "based on the name", so I'm not sure why they would come to that assumption. WOG on the subject would be nice. Not that I intend to play the game, but it would be nice.

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Re: Photo Mode: Post Yer Prettiest

Post by Falcon Critical » Sun Aug 05, 2018 5:29 pm

Asymmetric could be like bees, a Queen and a bunch of drones.. or perhaps not quite that asymmetric. It could just mean there's a 30/70 gender split (like a lot of Pokemon).

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Re: Photo Mode: Post Yer Prettiest

Post by Delthazar » Sun Aug 05, 2018 9:47 pm

Falcon Critical wrote:
Sun Aug 05, 2018 3:21 am
Then, I might have found a planet for you Del:
As it happens I found something nearly perfect last night: a nice green-blue Overgrown planet, Blissful weather, Limited sentinels. No rings or moons, and I'd prefer Passive sentinels, but we do what we can here. Limited is probably only one rung up the ladder anyway.

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It's got a ton of these mineral deposits with weird lookin' starfish-shaped formations on 'em.

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I flew around for a while looking for a good base site. Eventually stumbled upon a small lake with an island in the middle just a quick flight away from a trading post. Home. For now?

...one problem. Putting down roots updates my quest log, telling me to report to my overseer. I already put an overseer on my freighter, whom I've never actually been able to interact with for some raisin ("I should leave the Gek to his work" is all I ever see) and the game hasn't prompted me to find a second overseer for this base. So I may have gotten hosed by a scripting error. I think I've seen people post about the same problem so I'll have to go diggin'.

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Re: Photo Mode: Post Yer Prettiest

Post by Falcon Critical » Sun Aug 12, 2018 1:11 am

I really like moons. I needed to visit a Korvax system to get a scientist, so I found this one with two planets and two moons. The first moon was like our moon, no atmosphere or life.
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The other moon however, was the one where I found those Watto-looking hover-cows. It has constant extreme cold, but damn it's pretty.
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I did also discover that it has storms on top of the constant extreme cold. They're pretty cool.
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Re: Photo Mode: Post Yer Prettiest

Post by Falcon Critical » Sun Sep 16, 2018 4:03 am

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is out, that means it's screenshots time!

A nice vista after nearly being crushed in a tomb.
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Then it's off to Peru, where they love giant stone heads.
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Also weighted physics puzzles. This place is apparently a court where the guilty are judged.
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But OH NO! Jaguars be in this here jungle! They pincer Lara in the classic "Clever Girl" maneuver!
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Lara's back gets hella scratched, it's enough for her to flashback as she tries to sleep it off. She remembers the time she pulled a Captain Spirit and hid a treasure then solved her own riddles to find it again! Also fuck this crow apparently.
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Seems safe.
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Success! The White Queen! Also this game has a photo mode with a few expressions you can pull. Clearly the best use of this is to fake the Watch Dogs 2 selfie camera. Lara started young.
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Back to the future and she still likes that wink.
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Wait, there's someone behind me? :O
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Jonah met this local lady, they seem to be hitting it off!
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So yeah I'm amusing myself by creating a selfie story with photo mode. Stay tuned.

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Re: Photo Mode: Post Yer Prettiest

Post by Delthazar » Sun Sep 16, 2018 1:56 pm

Someone on Twitter had a great observation that if you do selfie shots in photo mode with the smiling expression it makes it feel like Lara is just some random English student on a really intense gap year.

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Re: Photo Mode: Post Yer Prettiest

Post by Falcon Critical » Tue Sep 25, 2018 10:40 pm

Here's the second and maybe last set of SOTTR selfies/screenshots.

I'm like a biiird I'ma fly awayyyy :)
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Glamour shots + wearing the skin of your enemies.
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What have I dropped myself into...
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Mineral pools are great! #cleansing
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Pro Tip: Don't park your Galleon in foreign caves.
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Found a dead guy with a note about being surprised by a spear trap. Went around the corner and ... really? You were surprised by a spear trap here? It's a skull cave! That's like classic signposting!
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Research is best in dusty old libraries!
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Aand goodbye to the hidden city of Paititi! 10/10 would visit again.
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Re: Photo Mode: Post Yer Prettiest

Post by Falcon Critical » Tue Jul 09, 2019 4:48 am

Not pretty persay, but certainly pretty rare... I bagged the claw machine pie in Fallout 4!

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Re: Photo Mode: Post Yer Prettiest

Post by True Perception » Tue Jul 09, 2019 3:36 pm

That reminds me: I have some pictures/clips on my PS4. Most interesting, while playing Days Gone lately, I noticed my buddy was not only laid up in bed, like he was supposed to be, but also pacing the room... at the same time. It was early enough on, I had to scan the models and make sure they were in fact the same guy.

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Re: Photo Mode: Post Yer Prettiest

Post by Delthazar » Sat Aug 17, 2019 6:23 pm

Rebel Galaxy Outlaw ship porn.

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Buzzing one of the casino stations, playing with the photo mode filters. I haven't done much paint and decal customization to my Platypus since I'm not expecting to be flying her for very long but I did add the old Pickles decal to the side there, if you've got eagle eyes.

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Re: Photo Mode: Space Truckin'

Post by Delthazar » Sat Aug 17, 2019 11:38 pm

Upgraded to a Sonora and I'm loving it. Three forward hardpoints, a rear turret, and a launcher mount? A cockpit dash full of deep blue and purple lights? Sign me up.

Upgraded to a ridiculously oversized decal while I was at it.

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Petra's one of my favourite Three Houses characters okay. Still coming down from the Fire Emblem high over here. (Source!)

I've found that the quality of the projection increases a ton the farther zoomed out you are. I think. 'cause when I try to spray this onto the side much closer up, say to put it on the wing or top outcroppings, it comes out chunky and pixely like I mentioned before. So I suppose the larger the canvas the tighter the result? Still working out the specifics. (I still did some Photoshop editing on the source image to switch it to PNG, add transparency, etc. just to make the spraying easier.)

speaking of sprays

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d.va made it to space. Annyeong! tempted to do a full d.va themed paintjob eventually but these are early days here