This is pretty off topic, but this reminds me of a weird thing that happened to me:
Over the weekend, I rearranged the furniture in my computer room in my home, and had just settled in to this new layout. Everything was working fine: my computer and my internet connection were all good to go. I booted up Counter-strike to play some rounds. However, the in-game server browser failed to find any servers. I closed the game and checked my internet connection: everything was fine. Maybe the master server was down? I went to bed.
The next day, I tried it again, and the same thing happened. No one else reported an issue. I tried playing TF2, and the same thing happened: all online functionality was nonexistent. It seemed like it must be a router configuration issue, but I hadn't messed with that in a while, and my games all worked fine last week.
I was able to play the same games on other computers without any issue. But as soon as I loaded up a game on my primary computer, I noticed the internet would go out for every system in my room. Maybe it was something with Source engine games? I tried a completely different game (some 2D indie puzzle game), and the same thing happened. Every game! The internet would go out, and turn back on as soon as I closed the game. It wasn't Steam either: non-Steam games did the same.
And it ONLY happened with games. Almost every other application worked fine. I was about to reformat, but I first tried booting into a separate OS on my computer and the SAME THING happened.
Finally, I noticed it failed with Unity and also with Photoshop. These programs all had one thing in common: they were GPU accelerated. How did that affect anything? Well, it only started happening after I rearranged my furniture. I had moved my router to sit on top of my computer. I moved it away by 1 foot, and then everything worked fine. It turns out, my laptop has Nvidia Optimus, which toggles between the discrete GPU and integrated graphics chip. When I launched a GPU accelerated program, my GPU would kick in, and I guess its operation emitted some electromagnetic field that interfered with my router.
Back when I lived in the dorms in college, I had a metal loft bed. My desk, with computer and monitor, was underneath it.
At the end of the year, I gave back the loft. The next time I turned on my monitor, the screen was messed up. Distorted with purple waves. I stared at my monitor for a few moments, baffled.
Then I hit the degauss button, and everything was fine. My monitor had been normalized to the presence of a metal frame around it, distorting the magnetic field.
Sometimes even in a room made of wood no large metal objects nearby and then moving a CRT monitor 90 degrees is enough to mess it up requiring it be degaussed.
I'd say the metal frame had ferrous metal in it which is magnetic your monitor was affected by it, I can't see if fixing it. Once removed the source caused your monitor to require degaussing because a large source of nearby magnetism was removed.
As to why it wasn't affected right away when it was new my guess is a lot of monitors have built-in degaussing each time it is powered on, so gradually the metal nearby was affected by the degausing coil in the CRT monitor. When metal bed frame was removed the loss of such a large piece of nearby magnetism was too much for the normal start-up automatic degaussing to handle.
Most new fans use brushless DC motors which have much less EM noise than most older brushed ones (also tend to be quieter). If the motor of the fan is brushed that would explain another source of EM interference.
Did you have a self-assembled machine? This is one of the big reasons for all the shielding in big-brand computers: mitigating the potential for weird interference like this.
Well, when I work on my game, it doesn't feel game-like at all. I'm just coding pretty abstract stuff about voxels and packing cubes for 8 hours. Nothing really feels gamey (yet). It's still a joy to come home and play a few games to relax.
Comments
This is pretty off topic, but this reminds me of a weird thing that happened to me:
Over the weekend, I rearranged the furniture in my computer room in my home, and had just settled in to this new layout. Everything was working fine: my computer and my internet connection were all good to go. I booted up Counter-strike to play some rounds. However, the in-game server browser failed to find any servers. I closed the game and checked my internet connection: everything was fine. Maybe the master server was down? I went to bed.
The next day, I tried it again, and the same thing happened. No one else reported an issue. I tried playing TF2, and the same thing happened: all online functionality was nonexistent. It seemed like it must be a router configuration issue, but I hadn't messed with that in a while, and my games all worked fine last week.
I was able to play the same games on other computers without any issue. But as soon as I loaded up a game on my primary computer, I noticed the internet would go out for every system in my room. Maybe it was something with Source engine games? I tried a completely different game (some 2D indie puzzle game), and the same thing happened. Every game! The internet would go out, and turn back on as soon as I closed the game. It wasn't Steam either: non-Steam games did the same.
And it ONLY happened with games. Almost every other application worked fine. I was about to reformat, but I first tried booting into a separate OS on my computer and the SAME THING happened.
Finally, I noticed it failed with Unity and also with Photoshop. These programs all had one thing in common: they were GPU accelerated. How did that affect anything? Well, it only started happening after I rearranged my furniture. I had moved my router to sit on top of my computer. I moved it away by 1 foot, and then everything worked fine. It turns out, my laptop has Nvidia Optimus, which toggles between the discrete GPU and integrated graphics chip. When I launched a GPU accelerated program, my GPU would kick in, and I guess its operation emitted some electromagnetic field that interfered with my router.
Back when I lived in the dorms in college, I had a metal loft bed. My desk, with computer and monitor, was underneath it.
At the end of the year, I gave back the loft. The next time I turned on my monitor, the screen was messed up. Distorted with purple waves. I stared at my monitor for a few moments, baffled.
Then I hit the degauss button, and everything was fine. My monitor had been normalized to the presence of a metal frame around it, distorting the magnetic field.
Sometimes even in a room made of wood no large metal objects nearby and then moving a CRT monitor 90 degrees is enough to mess it up requiring it be degaussed.
I'd say the metal frame had ferrous metal in it which is magnetic your monitor was affected by it, I can't see if fixing it. Once removed the source caused your monitor to require degaussing because a large source of nearby magnetism was removed.
As to why it wasn't affected right away when it was new my guess is a lot of monitors have built-in degaussing each time it is powered on, so gradually the metal nearby was affected by the degausing coil in the CRT monitor. When metal bed frame was removed the loss of such a large piece of nearby magnetism was too much for the normal start-up automatic degaussing to handle.
It might be the fan. Do more experiments and report back. You can also purchase Em field detectors or make one yourself.
What do you think the fan would do?
Some fans tend to be noisy ;)
Most new fans use brushless DC motors which have much less EM noise than most older brushed ones (also tend to be quieter). If the motor of the fan is brushed that would explain another source of EM interference.
Did you have a self-assembled machine? This is one of the big reasons for all the shielding in big-brand computers: mitigating the potential for weird interference like this.
I didn't assemble it, but it's not a big-brand computer - it was hand assembled by a small shop.
The router is cheap though.
The universe is telling you to stop playing games and do something useful.
But that's my job :(
Then the universe is jealous.
are you a games journalist or a youtube/twitcher?
No, but I make games, and playing them is a part of my "research".
The perks of being a game developer: having the "I'm doing research" excuse along the venerable "my code's compiling"
I wish I could tell everyone I wasn't wasting time I was researching.
I am sure if I made games the last thing I'd want to do is play them in my spare time.
Well, when I work on my game, it doesn't feel game-like at all. I'm just coding pretty abstract stuff about voxels and packing cubes for 8 hours. Nothing really feels gamey (yet). It's still a joy to come home and play a few games to relax.