So I still play quite a bit of StarCraft online.  I am not great at it (low Diamond league) but I am good enough at it to know when I'm playing a Smurf.

A Smurf is someone who is deliberately playing in a league far lower than what they should be in and they really ruin the game experience.  

Smurfing isn't specific to StarCraft and there really isn't much that can be done about it that I can think of.  But it is one of those things that helps remind me as to why I don't want to develop games that rely heavily on competitive multiplayer.

If I play 10 games of StarCraft the breakdown is something like this:

2 games will involve Smurf accounts outright

1 game will probably be a smurf but can't tell because they immediately quit

1 game will involve some sort of obnoxious cheese strategy (as you go up in rank, this becomes less common ironically).

1 game will involve griefing. This isn't "cheese" per se because they aren't really trying to win as much as make the game unpleasant for you.

1 game will involve a ton of BM that forces me to mute the player.

4 games will be actual, legitimate games.

The only thing that saves StarCraft is that even though only 4 of the 10 games are real games, those games represent the vast majority of actual play time.

But the % of games that involve some sort of social-path spectrum player is sufficient to make me wary of ever wanting to make a game for that genre. 

When developing the new Star Control game, we had an opportunity to see how far along the Vulkan and DirectX 12 tech was.  The answer, at the time, was not as far as we would have liked.  

In the end, Star Control: Origins shipped using only DirectX 11 because there just wasn't enough of a difference between DX11 and the new APIs even though the game sure could have benefited, especially on the planet, from the features of DX12 and Vulkan.

You might be wondering, what is the big deal about DX12 and Vulkan versus the old DirectX11?

There are a lot of differences but the big one is that DirectX 12 and Vulkan can have multiple threads sending commands to the GPU at the same time.  This means that complex scenes can be composited in various threads asynchronously so that you get the most out of your video card.

Now that most of us have several cores on our CPU, there's no reason to have only a single core talking to your graphics card.

The goal of this benchmark is to help users and our friends at AMD and NVIDIA and Intel to see how well their GPUs are doing with DirectX 12 and Vulkan.  Over time, we hope to see the DX12 and Vulkan scores pull away from the DX11 scores (and we'll be updating the benchmark as new DX12 and Vulkan improvements come in).

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

With screen resolutions getting higher and higher there are many people who would like to have a bit more control over their mouse cursor.

If you don't already have CursorFX, try it out. www.cursorfx.com.  Stardock is currently working on a major new version of it but it will be compatible with the existing cursors here.

Here are a few of the most popular cursors here on WinCustomize:

Visit https://www.wincustomize.com/explore/cursorfx to check out the CursorFX gallery.

I just got the Surface Pro 7 and I'm loving the power of USB 3.1 gen 2 (the USB-C port on the side).

I have everything connected via a single USB-C dock including two more monitors.

My main workstation is in the lower level.

We are looking for some volunteers to help improve WinCustomize's news delivery.

Our mission is to bring you the latest, greatest news on everything related to the Windows user experience.  

Back when we were starting, what we now call "UX designers" were called "skinners" (not surprising that as what we do here got more respectable a more refined name would be used).

What are the kind of things we want to cover? Here are 3 examples.

1. Interesting designs created around the net.  Example: this by this person.
2. Interesting new Windows specific hardware like this review of the Surface Pro X.
3. Interesting things created by the WinCustomize community you want to draw attention to.

Requirements:

1. Must have had an account here for at least 90 days already.
2. Must be a good writer.

If you're interested, DM me.

Cheers!

If you're interested in UX design, you will definitely want to keep up with what Microsoft is update to.

https://www.microsoft.com/design/fluent/#/ 

Fluent is the name of Microsoft's new design language for Windows.

Here is an example of Fluent design in action.

As we get up for a major WinCustomize revamp, we are going to be taking cues from this design language to make the site more accessible, faster (much faster) and more modern.  Stay tuned.

If you like animated backgrounds we have good news for you.  Stardock is in the process of updating its DeskScapes dream files to support MP4 (previously MPEG2) which should result in far lower CPU use and no additional codec downloading for Windows 10.

You will be able to see the updates here: https://www.wincustomize.com/explore/dream/search/Stardock+Design

## Contents ##

• Editorial: Recruiting in Michigan
• Surface Pro and TouchTasks
• The right device for your trip
• Hunter Prey
• The Object Desktop 2020 wishlist thread

by Brad Wardell

## Editorial: Recruiting in Michigan ##

It’s 9 degrees (-13C) outside, there’s 6 inches of snow on the ground, and it’s only November. I’m pretty sure my beehives aren’t going to make it. We're hiring up on engineers and artists here, but my lies about Michigan weather aren’t going to suffice this time. 

The best weather lies always have a little truth in them, like: Did you know that Southeastern Michigan is the same latitude as Northern California? So…in a way, it’s like being in California but way less expensive…! Yeah, that’s not going to cut it.

So…move to Michigan for the fun and the snow to work on amazing new stuff! Visit www.stardock.com/jobs to join us!

## Surface Pro and TouchTasks ##

I love my Surface Pro. Unfortunately, I had a problem with my type cover which forced me to use it as a tablet for awhile.  It was not a great experience.  It takes too many taps to get to the things I want to do compared to, say, my iPad Pro. The Stardock team had a great solution: let’s take advantage of the Surface’s bezel area.

It’s not commonly known that the touch-sensitive area of a tablet extends a bit beyond the visible screen. As a result, we were able to make a program that lets you assign functionality to taps just off screen.

What a game changer this has been for me - both when I’m using my Surface as a tablet, as well as just normally.  For instance, changing brightness is just a single tap away. I have Chrome set to come up with a single tap in the top left.  I even have a quick launcher come up when I tap on the left, which only has my most frequently used apps, shown nice and huge:

While it’s definitely a niche program (you need a touch screen), if you have a Surface Pro (or really any touchscreen), it’s a must have. 

It’s been interesting watching how people use it around the office (we have a lot of Surface Pros here). While not something we’d boast about on the website, one of the most common uses for it is to simply have 3 of the touch areas reserved for launching a specific website (for instance, Office.com (https://www.office.com/launch/word?auth=1), Google Drive, or Outlook) or a specific app (Zoom, Skype, Teams, etc.).

Anyway, if you have a touchscreen this really is something you should get for yourself.  It’s literally the first thing I installed when I got the Surface Pro 7 (and we’re working on a Surface Pro X version too for ARM64).

www.touchtasks.com

## The Right Device for a trip ##

Among the multitude obsessions I have is a fixation on trying to travel as optimally as  possible. I try to travel as lightly as possible without sacrificing utility. If there’s a popular piece of travel luggage for business people, odds are I have it.  The same is true for mobile devices.

Back in my OS/2 days, my kit included a ThinkPad T series (oh ThinkPad 760, I loved you so much even if you weighed 6lbs) and my trusty engineering pad. Later, I switched to the MacBooks (Pro and Air) because they were lighter and still let me get the job done.

Once I could merge my engineering notepad with my laptop, I switched to a Surface Pro until the iPad Pro 12.9 came out.  The Apple Pencil is, indeed, slightly better than the Surface pen (even if the pencil is missing the bloody eraser!), but the real difference is the available software.  The iPad Pro had two world class note taking apps – Notability and GoodNotes 5.

I’ve been surprised that Microsoft hasn’t put more effort into investing in developers making Surface software.  I know Stardock would love to develop an app with the best of Notability and GoodNotes 5, but for Windows (X86/Arm64). It’s a chicken or egg thing – there isn’t enough of a user base for us to fund such development ourselves.  So when it comes to note taking, it’s the iPad Pro.

Having picked up a Surface Pro 7, I am delighted to say that the new Intel CPU in it really does nail instant on.  It’s as fast as the iPad Pro for me in coming back to life.  They also nailed the power management with Icelake (the code-name to the new Intel CPUs). 

While reviews fixate on battery life in use, most people who use these know that the real killer for these devices is the battery drain when it's just sitting there.  My previous Surface Pros would always lose a ton of battery over night.  Not so with the Surface Pro 7. I have it sitting around and when I come back to it after a weekend and it’s ready to go (and no hibernation needed).

I tried the Surface Pro X.  In short, I didn’t find it ready for prime time yet.  It’s no better at instant-on than the Surface Pro 7 (which is more a credit to the new Intel chipset) and the battery life is comparable.  They weigh the same and the Pro X lacks a SD card slot, which means I can’t get a cheap 512GB SD card with demo assets or whatever to quickly put on.

This brings the right device for my trip down to either the iPad Pro 12.9 OR the Surface Pro 7.  The winner turned out to be the Surface Pro 7, but not for the reasons I expected.  The Pro 7’s integrated kickstand (with any variation in angle) and much better keyboard/trackpad support won the day. iPadOS helps, but it’s still not an effective productivity device for me. 

So there you have it: the closest to ideal travel device I’ve used is the Surface Pro 7. 

## Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation - Hunter/Prey ##

Stardock’s massive real-time strategy game is getting a new expansion that goes out shortly after I write this.  It’s called Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation - Hunter/Prey and includes a bunch of new units (for the Substrate), and a bunch of new defensive structures (for the Post-Humans).

The way the new defensive structures are implemented is something I found interesting. They’re done as upgrades to existing structures.  For instance, the Artillery Post can be upgraded into a Nova cannon which wipes out the shields of Substrate units.  This means you wouldn’t build it against a PHC unit because they use armor instead of shields.  This sort of dichotomy is something I think players will enjoy because it makes the weaponry more specialized.

My favorite new Substrate unit is the Clutch of Eggs.  When destroyed, it turns into a bunch of robotic spiders that swarm over the player.

If you already have Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation, this is a must-have expansion.  If you don’t already have the game, then I’d say if you like RTS games you’ll like it.  If you liked Total Annihilation, you’ll love it.  But it’s definitely aimed at the core PC gamer demographic.

https://www.ashesofthesingularity.com/store

## Object Desktop 2020 wish-list thread ##

Many of you reading this are familiar with Object Desktop already.  We’re currently planning the biggest update we’ve done to the suite in many years for 2020.  We’d like to hear from you on what you would like to see changed, added, and improved.

To join the discussion, go here: https://www.stardock.com/news/497581/object-desktop-2020-wishlist-thread

This past year we've been recruiting developers to begin doing some major updates to Object Desktop over the next year.  

First, I'm going to post what our thoughts are on what to focus on but then we want to hear what you would like to see updated.  As always, our choices are determined by a combination of factors including technical challenge and market demand.

Definitely getting big updates next year

Fences

CursorFX

SoundPackager

Keyboard LaunchPad

DeskScapes

New Apps

We have three new programs for Object Desktop slated for release next year

Maybe getting big updates IF there's demand

Multiplicity

Tiles

Start10

On the bubble (for getting major update)

WindowBlinds (usage of desktop skinning is becoming less common and skinning  has gotten more and more complicated). What would go into v11?

IconPackager (making icons today is a lot of work due to resolution and most people don't bother changing them anymore)

What are your thoughts?

What do you use Object Desktop for and what sorts of things do you want to see updated as well as what new things do you think people would like to see?

Let us know in the comments area.

Version 2.9 of the award-winning massive-scale RTS, Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation goes out this week.

This version is the biggest AI update since the original release.  It also has numerous visual improvements including higher resolution textures.

Let’s take a look…

This is one of the Hunter / Prey expansion turrets.  In v2.9 you can rapidly drop down Emergency Turrets.  They can now be upgraded into a Machine Gun Turret (pictured here) or a Shotgun turret.

You may also notice a general refresh on the terrain in this shot.

This shot is mainly to just show off the updated terrain texture.

Same here:

Structures blend in more nicely and the terrain itself has a bit more punch.

Here I have a bunch of the new Nova Towers and Minos Cannon towers.  They are very vulnerable to air but are great anti-turtle siege weaponry.

Subtle but important new feature in v2.9: Hold position.   The previous command “Stop” did indeed stop.  But you still ended up with the unit AI occasionally wandering towards unwanted objectives.

Version 2.9 will be released on November 14 at 1pm EST.