Visiting Night City

This is going to be a quick update because I got my hands on Cyberpunk 2077 at a 20% discount from GOG.com. Even using US Dollars, I ended up paying 0.78× the Steam price.

I had my eye on Cyberpunk 2077 for quite a while, but have been put off from actually getting it because of the many bugs that had been reported for the game on/around launch. What made me decide that I would really get the game was the Cyberpunk 2077 speed run at ESA 2021 Winter, which showed the gameplay more extensively, and with glowing commendation from the speedrunners themselves, praising the game's story.

As I get older, I find that I actually like a game's story more than just the mechanics alone. Which was why even though I like the mechanics behind games like FTL: Faster Than Light, Into the Breach, or even Jupiter Hell (sorry Kornel), I find myself slowly drifting away from them. Mechanics make a game fun in the way that it makes the associated grinding somewhat enjoyable, that's why survival mode Minecraft is one of the most popular Let's Play type game series for streamers.

So, sometimes I just want to grind some fun game mechanics to relax. Other times I just want a good story as well, like my playing of The Outer Worlds, another AAA-title game.

Incidentally, it seems that usually only the AAA-title games have good stories (and good mechanics) in them---most indie games (like the ones I cited) have great mechanics, but are sometimes lacking in story. Heck, even the Grandfather of First Person Shooters DOOM Eternal has a somewhat passable (but campy) storyline.

The other reason for suddenly buying Cyberpunk 2077 has something to do with my sudden epiphany of how to obtain better performance for Eileen-II without running into stupid thermal limits in this horrifically hot/humid ambient condition.

Now, I have done experiments on controlling thermals by undervolting the CPU in various blog posts before. The control of CPU temperatures from Turbo Boost multiplier control and undervolting are thus well understood.

But I faced two issues. The first was almost no control on the CPU and GPU fans, even though Alienware Command Centre (AWCC) could see them.

But I couldn't control them! And more importantly, my GPU seemed to not be working at full specifications, since Minecraft using Optifine with BSL Shaders was getting like sub-30 fps on modest settings, which was rubbish.

I finally found out why from this Dell article. I've reproduced the relevant part here:

Basically when using AWCC and selecting the various thermal modes, some secret flag gets toggled in the background.

I've been running in ``Cool Mode'' all this while, which meant my GPU was secretly nerfed.

🤦‍♂️

Once I learnt about this, I switched to ``Full speed mode'', put on my QuietComfort 35 wireless headphones, and launched Minecraft with Optifine and BSL Shaders running in lieu of the Project LUMA.

What do you know... darn thing runs at near 60 fps with almost everything on.

This GPU aspect is important for Cyberpunk 2077, and once I knew that Eileen-II's GPU can handle the load, it was a no brainer.

So excuse me while I head on back into Night City. Till the next update.