Game Making & Editing FAQ/Q&A

WARNING: disabling/enabling lid autoboot only works for Intel based MacBook Air/MacBook Pro's, performing the below may disable Arm 'M' based devices, preventing them from booting altogether.

To disable MacOS Autoboot feature when the lid of a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro is opened, do the following;

From the Dock click LaunchPad then Other. Here, click Terminal (alternatively open Finder and browse to the Terminal in /Applications/Utilities/).


In the Terminal, and at the % prompt, type (note the number is zero, zero not 'oh oh');

• sudo nvram AutoBoot=%00

Press Return/Enter to complete. Confirm account access in the User popup that appears (Admin rights/access).


To (re)enable AutoBoot so the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro (re)boots on lid open, type the following at the Terminal (the number is zero, three);

• sudo nvram AutoBoot=%03

Press Return/Enter to complete. Optionally confirmation may be required in the Account Access/User popup that appears (Admin rights/access).

Problem
SoundCloud app on Android device opens (and can be closed/forced stopped) but does not respond to any User input when attempting to sign in. Action described here "I'm having trouble signing in through my Android device" do not work. So;

• Tapping 'create account' or 'sign in' results in no activity (app does recognise if User is online/offline however).
• Uninstalling and reinstalling the SoundCloud app does not solve the problem (uninstall/reinstall can be done without issue).
• Clearing app cache in Settings > Apps > SoundCloud > Storage > Clear Cache similarly does not fix the problem.

Solution
A possible solution to SoundCloud app being unresponsive is to first log into an appropriate SoundCloud account using a web browser, Chrome, Brave, Edge etc., on the same device as the SoundCloud app and then (re)opening the SoundCloud app. Upon doing this the app may 'find' that account and attempt to automatically login with the credentials used during the web browser session, showing the 'Home' page as confirmation. Or alternatively the 'sign in' prompt may then become functional.

Problem
When using Blackberry Hub to manage Gmail emails the following error may occur when setting up an account;

Access blocked: authorisation error.

You can't sign in from this screen because this app doesn't comply with Google's secure browsers policy. If this app has a website, you can open a web browser and try signing in from there.

The error occurs intermittently, and depending on the device used, age not necessarily being a factor.

Solution
Instead of using the 'auto-setup' feature provided by Blackberry Hub;

• Step #1: add the email address to be accessed in the initial Account setup screen and tap the Manual Setup prompt.
• Step #2: set the Account type in the following screen; POP3, IMAP or Microsoft Exchange Activesync.
• Step #3: for IMAP, in the 'setup' page that appears after tapping the IMAP prompt, add/edit the Incoming server settings to correspond to Googles defaults for Gmail as outlined here - "Gmail Email Settings: POP3, IMAP, and SMTP Servers". Crucially set the Security type to SSL/TLS (Accept all certificates).
• Step #4: in Outgoing server settings set the Security type to SSL/TLS (Accept all certificates), or optionally to STARTTLS (Accept all certificates). Disable (clear the checkbox for) Require signin.
• Step #5: set the Account options and press Next to complete setup.

If the account is still blocked make sure 'IMAP' is enabled in Gmail, and/or try swapping the Security type options between SSL/TLS and STARTTLS (with or without 'accept all certificates') for both incoming and outgoing mail.

Setting up PNG Puppeteer

Basic instructions for setting up PNG Puppeteer with OBS.

Image Setup

The setup for PNG Puppeteer [alt Git respository] is a little more involved than other PNG Tuber apps but is still flexible.

Download: Puppeteer v 0.0.3.zip (mediafire)

To set up PNG Puppeteer make sure to have at least four source images, typically;

• Eyes open; mouth open.
• Eyes closed; mouth open.
• Eyes open; mouth closed.
• Eyes closed; mouth closed.

Each image needs to be specifically (re)named as follows (either PNG or JPG files);

• Eyes open; mouth open - "1_EO_MO.png"
• Eyes open; mouth closed - "2_EO_MC.png"
• Eyes close; mouth open - "3_EC_MO.png"
• Eyes close; mouth closed - "4_EC_MC.png"

In Windows/MacOS file explorer, right-click and Rename, or slow-double-click and type the corresponding label above.

Note: images need to have transparent backgrounds or the background needs to be a solid colour, primary green for example, if they are to be used as an overlay - transparency excludes the background, a solid colour allows for 'chromakey' removal.

PNG Puppeteer Setup

In the installation directory/folder for PNG Puppeteer (where the app was installed/extracted) create a new folder, e.g. "Avatars" [1]. If several avatars are to be swapped out, create additional folders for each tuber avatar inside the parent folder ("Avatars"), e.g. "beenz", "tankie", "tubz" and so on, for example;

• D:\Program Files\PNG Puppeteer (default installation)
• D:\Program Files\PNG Puppeteer\avatars (main avatar folder)
• D:\Program Files\PNG Puppeteer\avatars\beenz (avatar folder)
• D:\Program Files\PNG Puppeteer\avatars\tankie (additional avatar folder)

Inside each 'avatar' folder should be another folder labelled "Normal", and a file called "myavatar.ava" [2] - to create "myavatar.ava" add a standard 'Text Document' and rename it "myavatar.ava". Only the name matters so the file should be blank if opened;

• D:\Program Files\PNG Puppeteer\avatars\[avatar name]\Normal
• D:\Program Files\PNG Puppeteer\avatars\[avatar name]\myavatar.ava

Once this structure is in place the png avatar images can be dropped or copied into the "Normal" folder ready to be loaded into the app.

Loading Avatar into PNG Puppeteer

Providing images are correctly named, per the above, they should load automatically into PNG Puppeteer, in the correct order, and into their respective slots. To do that, click in the Load Avatar button upper-left [3], browse to the "myavatar.ava" file [4] that corresponds to the avatar image-set to be loaded and click "Open" bottom-right [5] of the file browser. PNG Puppeteer will load the images and place them in the appropriate slots based on their file names.

Puppeteer Audio Settings

Once the images have been loaded, to use set the microphone input in Microphones [6], click the Start button [7] and then slide the Mouth Open Threshold option [8] until the mouth opens and closes appropriately in response to audio/mic input.

PNG Puppeteer & OBS

Once everything is set up in Puppeteer, to use the loaded avatar with OBS; create a new capture instance in Sources by clicking the + button [9] lower-left corner or the panel. Select Browser [10] from the list. In the overlay that opens set the URL to http://localhost:65000/viewer, this is the local, system, resource address for previewer in Puppeteer. Set Width and Height to match the dimensions of the png avatar images e.g., Width: 640, Height: 640. Click OK to confirm.

The avatar should then appear in the Preview window. If the overlay cannot be moved (no red adjustment lines appear/shown) make sure Preview is unlocked, right-click and select Lock Preview from the menu (Lock Preview locks and unlocks). And then click-drag the overlay to move it and/or click-drag or Shift-click drag a corner or edge marker to change the overlays dimensions. The avatar should then be ready for use.

Ever wondered what's inside a 'replica' Seiko 5 Sport's (Field Sports) watch from China? As it happens, not a lot.

First things first, how do you tell the difference between counterfeit Seiko 5 Fields Sports and the real thing.

Notwithstanding the price difference - $20 versus $200+ (assuming the buyer hasn't been truly conned, Ed.) - it's immediately apparent by the fit and finish, the initial tell being the sharp edges around the casing, barely polished out flashing from what is a stamped part. The dial of the fake has flat printed numbers whereas, depending on the model, they should stand slightly proud of the surface, so too will the branding and logo.

The back, while it might be stainless steel as is the true Seiko, the wrench grommets on the fake are poorly defined. Taking this off however, is where the lack of magic truly sucks all the light from the room, its little more than a collection of thin plastic parts and small circuit board with a battery - the one of two metal parts are primarily springs and retention brackets.

The dial facia is stepped, the minute marker being a band glued in place with crazy glue. The date and day wheels are thin printed plastic. Taken as a whole it's remarkable something with so many critical parts are made from relatively fragile plastic - if the watch works it's likely to have a very short shelf life as a result.