OBS Shortcut / Hotkeys Stopped Working [Fix/Workaround]

Just a quick fix/workaround for something I bumped into with OBS this past few days - for some reason, the Hotkeys (Shortcut Keys that you press to start Recording, Take Screenshots, etc) seemed to stop working once you took the focus off of OBS itself. For example, if I started OBS, then started a game, and hit the keyboard key that was configured for OBS to Record (while it was in the background), it didn't do anything (eg. / to start recording). I did figure it out though, it was a real easy fix for now; so I wanted to share it here.

There was a Windows Update recently [for me] and so I thought maybe OBS needed more Permissions or something; so I just ran OBS in Administrator Mode - and it worked!

All you have to do is Right-Click the Icon that starts up OBS and choose "Run As Administrator" (possibly under More > Run As Administrator, for example, if using the Start Menu for launching OBS). That's it!
Now you should find that you can start up a game and/or ALT+TAB to the game, leave OBS running in the background, and OBS will faithfully start Recording/Taking Screenshots/etc again. 

Sorry I haven't posted for some time now; my own illness (not COVID) has been acting up this year. A lot. Anyway, HTH

~T

And More: It's Not Just You™ - Windows Desktop Icons Sometimes Loading Small Versions Of Themselves For No Reason At All

[Windows Related] Although not really anything 'new' - this is something I have been experiencing off and on in Windows for years now - I wanted to mention something here (just in case it might help others too) that today is, for some strange reason, the first time I am submitting Windows Feedback on an aging issue: where the Desktop Icon images sometimes (for unknown reasons) load as wee-little versions of themselves - intermittently showing smaller images of the 'normally-256x256-or-higher' resolution images - and if you are experiencing this too, It's Not Just You™...

For the last few versions of Windows, I have been seeing, at random times, Desktop Icons loading - not their nice, large representations of their games, both alluring and alluding to the fun to be had in the games 'behind-the-mask' - but loading wee-little teeny-tiny versions of themselves, squishing the pixels in merciless transgression, giving my normally-full-of-icons Desktop scattered pimples of picturesque perturbation. One example of one of these perpetrators, is below:

As you can see, the [lower] Warhammer 40k Icon I created/assigned, has loaded 'full size' (Windows Large Preset Size), whereas the Vindictus Icon [on top] has loaded a 'smaller size' of its' normally larger self today - for no stated reason at all. No message, no little exclamation mark on the corner of the image, to indicate "something went wrong", leading me to troubleshoot what might be the issue. Indeed, I can do nothing, but try to ignore my pimple-popping urge to fix these intermittent occurrences to my Desktop (temporarily, by replacing the Icon image with something else - the only repeatable 'workaround' I have come across so far).

And so, after many years of finger-in-the-dam work on bypassing this little problem [pun not intended], I have finally mentioned it to Microsoft, via their Official Windows Feedback Hub, found in Windows 10...

The Official Windows Feedback Hub personally thanking me for submitting my feedback about icons loading smaller sizes of themselves, randomly, for no reason whatsoever other than to make me notice that game that I haven't played in years but still have installed, taking up space on my drives, which is already at a premium due to my screenshot and clip hoarding tendencies

As many of you already know, MS has been trying very hard to really listen to Users these last few generations of Windows, implementing Suggestions and continually collecting Feedback on a myriad of topics that have to do with Windows, from how it operates, to how it simply looks. Today, I finally got around to telling them about this little virtual thorn of mine. Perhaps someday, they will find out why this happens randomly [to different icons each time!] and I may one day feel relief in my virtual lion's paw... Good Luck, Microsoft - I think you'll need it; and if you, dear reader, are experiencing this too, remember - It's Not Just You™...




Addendum:
Just a quick note that I have been creating/editing my own Windows Desktop Shortcut Icons for some time now, from multi-layered compositions (with added sun flare!) to simple crops from game boxes or ads (like the one shown above, for Warhammer) - someday, I plan on sharing these Icons with you, my dear readers, here at The Blog. I have no idea when, but it's safe to say that I will be able to collect them up, polish them down and pack them in a Zipped-up File and share them sometime around 2025... Soon™

Quick Tip: Fallout 4 - TAB Key Stopped Working And Not Bringing Up The Pip-Boy? Here's A Possible Fix [Text-Only]

I have been having a ton of fun playing Fallout 4 lately [again, building up my Settlements too much and ignoring the Main Storyline!] and ran into a 'small-but-game-stopping' issue where the TAB key appeared to stop working. "Hitting TAB wasn't bringing up the Pip-Boy anymore..??"

After doing some Troubleshooting and paying attention to what I was doing and pressing... it turned out to be a very simple issue - the TAB key was 'locked' out because of how I had used it in the Console.. Let me explain briefly:

Planetside 2: First Play Game Tips, Quick Edition (Text Only)

For those who don't know, Planetside 2 is a fantastic MMOFPS with a huge scope of things to do and it is out of Beta and available on Steam, Free-To-Play. A First Impressions article is on the way Someday™ with loads of info and screenshots that I have been collecting; but for now here are some quick tips for people new to the game to help you out with your first days playing.


A quick summary of the differences between the three factions is below, then some helpful tips [that aren't immediately obvious or perhaps not explained in the tutorial videos very well]:

The Vanu Sovreignity is a cultish, technology-worshipping faction of transhumanists that use ancient alien technology and look to find more and exploit it further. They use 'futuristic' alien-influenced looking armor and weapons and enjoy listening to euro-techno (it plays in menus and when you die, take a base, etc). Compared to the other factions, their weapons do middle-of-the-road damage, but are the fastest reloading and have no drop-off due to the fact they are laser-based (tank projectiles have some). Vanu don't ask for ammo, they yell "Do you have any batteries?" (which also means if you aren't Vanu and you hear this, you know where some Vanu are).

The New Congolmerate are a group of separatists and rebels that think any ruling group will be oppressive and are out fighting all other factions in the henhouse. Their weapons are somewhat 'low-tech' when compared to the others, with the slowest firing rate and longest reload time (they have the only snipers that start out with slower bolt-action rifles), but they put the 'big-block-engines' in 'em and they have the highest damage out of all the factions. In their spare time (the menu, when they die, level up, etc) they like to listen to some gut-busting home-grown rock 'n' roll.

The Terran Republic is a militaristic nation that seeks to unite the warring factions through expression of arms and authoritative rule. Their weapons do slightly lower damage when compared to the other two factions, but don't worry you can still clean out a room as a TR soldier as they have the highest firing rate and largest ammo capacity, shooting longer than anyone before they have to reload. As befitting their 'glorious nation', they go all out and hire a full orchestra to play whenever you are viewing menus, taking a base, or give your life to The Republic in battle.

• As of the time of this post, when you first load into the game, no matter what faction you choose, you will be a Light Assault soldier and be dropped directly into a heated battle zone. Be ready to fight (even though you don't know what you are doing yet - as with most things in life, just follow where other people are going for the moment). You'll probably die quickly (don't get too upset about it, it's part of the game and will happen a lot) and then when you do, you can choose your Class from the list and even if you want to move somewhere else. (Spawning at your main Warp Gate and using the terminal with the Globe on it to go to your faction's VR [Virtual Reality] room to practice moving and shooting, driving vehicles and flying is a good idea. Noone can even teamkill you there. If you need to find your main Warp Gate to spawn from, you can find it on the Map (default key 'M') or the large buttons on the bottom of the menu screen - you may have to first click REDEPLOY to be able to pick other spawn points)
• The map of each of the three continents is huge and it can take a long time to run and sometimes even drive where you want to go. Use the DEPLOY buttons to respawn closer to the action - unless you actually want to drive around, enjoy the scenery and take screenshots, of course!
• To get in and out of Vehicles and access Terminals, when you walk up to them a pop-up will remind you what key you have set to use them (Default key is 'E').
• Vehicles are accessed via Terminals that have Tanks or Aircraft on the display (a picture of one, in your faction's color) and use Resources that each empire gives out periodically, more if you control more regions and less if you lose them.
• To deploy a Sunderer (an Armored Personnel Carrier that can become a Mobile Spawn Point for you and your teammates), you have to certify your soldier with the ability (training/talent tree) using Certification points. Then, under the Abilities for the vehicles, go into the Sunderer and add it under Utility Equipment. After that, when you are the driver in one that you spawned, and have driven and arrived at where you want to deploy, press 'B' (by default). Now other Soldiers on your team can spawn from your Sundy and you get XP for it!
• Certification Points are the 'talent points' of the game, that allow you to unlock abilities and weapons and vehicles. You earn a Cert Point every 250 Experience Points (and seem to earn them slowly offline as well, one every hour or less). You earn Experience Points by doing [what I call] 'interactive actions' within the game, such as killing an enemy, healing a teammate, fixing a tank or turret, sabotaging a generator, and so on. Sitting still in an area of battle does not get you XP, so get in there and help your team!
• If you use Certification Points and purchase Suit abilities or Weapon scopes, you have to go to a Terminal and access your soldier's Loadout and click on your weapon/suit and click Change Attachments and add it to the gun/suit in there. Vehicle upgrades also have to be added to your Loadout via the menu to be warped in with your vehicle. Then, simply click Resupply and you have everything you purchased ready to go when you spawn, resupplied everytime.
• The Class Abilities (Medic AOE Healing, Heavy Assault Shield, etc) default key is 'F' [I prefer mine to be 'E']. For Light Assault, you use Jump (Space Bar) and you just hold it down to use your Jetpack.
• The guns have recoil/spread but you can still fire long bursts if you compensate by dragging the mouse down/etc slowly as you fire. Practice on a wall at different ranges to see your bullet spread hits and which way you will have to drag your mouse to counter that weapons' recoil. It should be noted here, that the game engine still 'inserts recoil', so even with compensating by dragging your mouse in the opposing direction of the recoil (which works in most games with guns as weapons), there will still be some recoil effect.
• Friendly-Fire is ALWAYS ON, which is more realistic but may take a bit to get used to at first if you haven't been playing games where you can damage your teammates. Be careful to not run in front of people shooting out doors, down hallways, etc and be careful not to shoot your teammates, as after a couple warnings, all of your weapons will be locked down for a while and you will be unable to shoot anything at all. If you are a pedestrian, keep wary of tanks and vehicles to not get your teammates penalized by accident (and also avoid having to respawn again from being run over).
• You do not have to fight in the thick of combat on the front lines all the time. Bases and Outposts that are in nearby regions can be sabotaged - generators and shields can be shut down, terminals can be hacked (by Infiltrators) to spawn vehicles for your faction instead of the enemy, all of which will make the base easier to take when your allies arrive - and of course, defenses against all of these things are needed behind the front lines of combat. If you want some breathing room for a minute after taking a base, hang back and play defense, repairing and getting ready for when the other guys respawn/regroup and come up to try take the base back.  There are tons of things you can do to help out your faction in the large scope of this game. Change it up whenever you feel like it.

I saw some of these questions being asked a lot in-game and wanted to throw out some tips as well, to help anyone who didn't know these yet, especially first-timers.  Have Fun!


By the way, the game seems to have a lot of aliasing (in my opinion), even at 1080p or higher resolutions. If you want to enable AA, you can do so by forcing it in your videocard's Control Panel. 

FXAA (NVIDIA) and MLAA (Morphological, AMD/ATi) are both versions of post-processing that should work and be visible in the game. Note that these may not be able to be captured in screenshots and game recordings (Fraps, Bandicam, Dxtory, Playclaw, etc) although they will be visible while playing the game.

Another way to enable some Anti-Aliasing, is to open the UserOptions.ini file in the Planetside 2 directory (which by default, seems to be C:\Users\Public\Sony Online Entertainment\Installed Games\PlanetSide 2 .

In the UserOptions.ini file, in the first [Display] section, there is a setting called RenderQuality. By setting this to a larger number (such as 1.200000 or 1.400000), the game renders in the background at a slightly higher resolution, then displays at whatever resolution you have set in the game. This 'downsizing' upon display is a form of SuperSampling AntiAliasing, and will help get rid of the jaggies - at a performance hit/cost. Do some tests to see if the tradeoff is worth it for your system.


See You In The Game!