How-To
Sometimes DIY, mostly DI-Why.
May 2023
How to set up a transparent chat overlay over webcam for teleprompter use without any additional programs.
Using a teleprompter for reading chat isn’t new, but how about mirroring your webcam underneath it so you can see what you’re doing while looking into the souls of your audience? I don’t stream regularly these days but when I did, one of the things I liked most about my setup was my teleprompter chat. It went through many iterations; from a simple phone mounted as close to my webcam as possible, to an actual beam splitter teleprompter with a DSLR camera monitor screen replacing the phone.
3 minutes
July 2021
How to use Move Transitions OBS plugin to toggle punch-in visibility with mic activity
Video Punching or zooming in on your facecams is nice and all, but if you forget to hit that hotkey, there’s no recapturing/reframing that moment except in post. Using a couple plugins on OBS, you can make sure to capture all those pogchamp moments by just screaming into your mic. Requirements OBS Studio Version 27 and up Move Transition Plugin Stream FX Plugin (optional but helpful) In lieu of the Stream FX plugin, duplicating your facecam can be done via scene nesting.
1 minute
Create a Legitimate FFXIV Account From the Philippines
They should just make it easier.
Originally posted on Reddit.. As far as Final Fantasy XIV registration goes, Square Enix believes only 3 countries exist in the entire world: North America, Europe, and Japan. If you try to create an account from any other region, not only will it fail, but Square Enix will flag your email address and lock it out from being used for 24h. This lockout refreshes every time you try, too, leading many people to believe they killed their chance at playing this cool game.
4 minutes
January 2021
On any gamepad (PC, Steam only)
Originally posted on Reddit. Greetings commanders, I recently wrote up this guide for my brother and figured why not share it with the rest of the Elite Dangerous community. Personally, I find it makes playing on controllers much more manageable when you want to do certain things like target wingmen, use heatsinks/chaff/ECM/shield cells, toggle night vision, or whatever other feature the game offers that don’t fit on the default controller bindings (even with classic context or default context controller options).
5 minutes
December 2020
Headtracking With Normal Webcams
Using OpenTrack and AITrack
Originally posted on Reddit. Now that SWSquadrons supports TrackIR, this opens up the potential to play the game using various 3rd party software alternatives to the expensive TrackIR hardware. We’ve seen one solution so far that involves pairing a paid smartphone app with OpenTrack (one of these free open source headtracking solutions), but if you already have a webcam, even one built into a laptop, you can use OpenTrack with a different piece of input software: AITrack, which is free to use.
4 minutes
ASRock X570 ITX/TB3 WiFi Issue
Intermittent connectivity due to disconnected WiFi module
Originally posted on Reddit. When I first booted up my system with this board, I noticed WIFI did not work at all, and the adapter wasn’t detected in Win10 device manager. I had read handfuls of posts by users reporting faulty/intermittent connections with their WiFi on this board, but none that say it is outright nonfunctional. The WiFi adapter was not seated properly. I had to take apart the IO cover/heatsink assembly and the WiFi module housing to see this.
2 minutes
October 2020
Horizontally Scrolling Chat Overlay
How to use custom CSS to switch from a vertically-flowing chat overlay to a horizontal one
One thing I noticed while playing and streaming Star Wars Squadrons is how much of the viewspace is taken up by the player’s ship instruments and cockpit view. I like having a chat overlay on my streams and, with this UI design cramping the precious little verticle space, I wanted a way to dispaly the chat without encroaching on the viewport. Video Requirements The only thing needed to use these lines of custom CSS is the Restream.
3 minutes
January 2018
I Made a Dice Tower for Dicecast
But it doesn’t seem to like me very much.
Originally posted on Reddit.. I followed this video to create the dice tower out of foam board and just added supports to make the webcam mount, an inch-long 1/4"-20 thread screw, bolt and washer to hold the C920 in place, and strip LED lighting to illuminate the whole thing. Now we have an actual physical dice camera for the show/stream!
1 minute
September 2017
3D-printed joycon + smartphone grip
A 3D-printed solution to the first world problem of holding your Joycon and phone at the same time
Switching I’m a pretty big fan of 3d-printing stuff for my Switch, and when I saw yesterday’s mockup of a joycon and smartphone grip combo done by /u/CubeGuy365, I immediately wanted to try my hand at it. This wasn’t a single printed model; in fact, it’s just a quick cannibalization of some existing prints I already had: Parts Nintendo Switch Con U v2 by artobot Nintendo Switch attachable grip by Brandon Mott Moto Z Style Mod (not a 3D print, just a spare shell I had lying around) As an added bonus, those joycon grips can be slid into the Switch console itself for added versatility.
1 minute
My YouTube video showcasing how to replace the Nintendo Switch Joycon locking tab.
Video I put this video together not only because I managed to fix my joycon on my own thanks to Thingiverse, but because a couple people have experienced a similar issue with the Joycon as I have so I figured if it could help them, it could potentially help others as well. Many thanks to Shapecloud.ph for providing 3D-printing services!
1 minute
March 2017
Customized D&D character journals
I built character sheets into journals to give to my D&D party
Click for larger photos. Materials A full list of the materials used and where I got them: Vintage faux leather journals Assorted Pendants Assorted Charms Icosahedron earrings (repurposed into holders for the charms) Card stock (from local bookstore) Total cost: about $10 per journal (I made 5) Character sheet design While waiting for the items to arrive from eBay, I worked on designing the character sheet based on the paper size listed in the journal description.
3 minutes
February 2017
DIY D&D character, ability, & spell cards
Cool, cheap, and easy home-printable D&D action cards.
Click for larger photos. Step 4: Print your card design I used this card generator to generate the PDFs, which was the hardest part because you need to manually input the content (Wizards of the Coast cracks down hard on illegitimately distributed reproductions of their D&D IP). Step 5: Stick to card stock Then I printed onto glossy sticker paper and stuck entire sheets on to card stock (my printer can’t print on stock directly, but if yours can, you can skip this step).
1 minute
January 2017
Anne Pro custom lighting with sanded keycap tops
What a set of manually-sandpapered keycaps look like with per-key RGB lighting
Sanding off the top of keyboard keycaps can result in a pretty beautiful diffused RGB glow. I got the idea from Taekeyboards. One thing to note before committing to this is that the process of sanding the top coats down is very time consuming. If I knew about these at the time, I would’ve just bought them. Video Basic technique There’s not much to say about my technique; I just wrapped some sandpaper around my finger, and kind of brushed the keycap over it along the length of my finger.
2 minutes
September 2016
Thanks, JuanDip Hydroprints!
Originally posted on Reddit. Click for original size. I got this done by JuanDip Hydroprints, probably one of the best (and only) hydrodipping services here in the Philippines. It cost me PHP 1,000 and took just a little under 1 week to process (there’s multiple steps of painting including primer, dip, and clear coat, and I had to line up in their job queue). So for anyone looking to customize the look of their keyboard case on the cheap in the Philippines, I highly recommend this vendor.
1 minute
July 2016
Converted a membrane numpad to use mechanical switches
FOR SCIENCE
Originally posted on Reddit. Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3. Fig. 4. Fig. 5. Fig. 6. Fig. 7. Fig. 8. Click for original size. Membrane keypresses work when a conductive membrane bridges two contacts on the PCB. To make it work with mechanical switches, all you need to do in theory is replace the conductive membrane with the switch pins. In practice, it’s quite tricky to hand-solder switch pins to a PCB surface contact that wasn’t specifically designed for soldering mechanical switches onto - or anything, for that matter.
2 minutes
Also, can we make “shartisans” a thing now?
Originally posted on Reddit. Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3. Fig. 4. Fig. 5. Fig. 6. Fig. 7. Fig. 8. Fig. 9. Click for original size. The logical follow-up to the monstrosity r/mk loved to hate. Made for r/mtgawesome, this 100% Primo! Sculpey, hand-sculpted piece of shartisan was the result of taking a dare much too far. When working with Sculpey modelling clay, you quickly realize that this thing attracts more fingerprints than an iPad after a buffalo wing dinner.
2 minutes