A Gaming Setup That is Truly a Productivity Workstation

I make video games professionally, and I play them persistently and at the very least considerably significantly. That twin function determines how I configure my gaming workstation. I want a system that helps full growth lifecycle workflows. This contains working in engines, dealing with giant property, constructing and testing, capturing footage, making trailers, and being on calls. I additionally want to have the ability to run trendy, graphics-intensive video games on the highest high quality settings. It’s simply so satisfying to have the ability to flip a recreation to Ultra the whole lot!

This setup (pictured) is constructed round these twin tracks. Together, the ASUS ROG Flow Z13, BenQ Mobiuz, Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 Studio, and CyberPower GX Series Sine Wave Battery Backup, together with a gaming keyboard and mouse, comprise a workstation-first surroundings that additionally performs reliably as a high-end gaming system.

Many gaming setups are optimized round spectacle or a single use case. This one is designed to stay secure, readable, and predictable throughout lengthy work classes. Further, it is going to ship excessive efficiency when working demanding video games with out reconfiguration. I can use the identical system for growth, seize, communication, artwork, and play with no want for switching machines, rebuilding workflows, or compromising on graphics or sound high quality.

The Core System – Productivity and Gaming Workstation

The ROG Flow Z13 features as a premium main growth machine and gaming rig. In docked type, tethered to varied peripherals,  it operates as a full workstation, driving the exterior show and dealing with engines, seize software program, and sustained workloads. Undocked, it stays a succesful moveable system with no significant drop in efficiency. This issues in recreation growth, the place iteration, testing, and evaluate typically occur exterior a hard and fast desk surroundings. I can unplug it and stroll throughout the room to desk after desk to share a specific problem I’m troubleshooting with my colleagues, with out having to assemble a complete crew round me. The Flow Z13 offers enough CPU and GPU capabilities for contemporary engines, real-time previews, quick rendering, and shader-heavy scenes, and it stays secure below prolonged load.

Live Demos – A First Impression

At the opposite finish of the sport growth course of, you additionally finally need to attempt to promote the sport you’ve made, which normally includes getting individuals to play them. That means demos at conventions, festivals, and conferences the place {hardware} reliability instantly impacts first impressions (particularly ones from press or content material creators). Because the Flow Z13 is a laptop computer, it’s well-suited to this use case. It is light-weight, simple to move, and able to working demanding builds with out exterior GPUs or advanced setups. Setup is minimal: open the machine, join energy if wanted, and run the construct.

At exhibits, efficiency points brought on by {hardware} are sometimes indistinguishable from points within the recreation itself…and gamers/reviewers may be very unforgiving. You solely get one shot at a primary impression! The Flow Z13 reduces that threat by delivering constant conduct throughout environments.

Touchscreen Testing

Additionally, the touchscreen on the Flow Z13 offers a sensible benefit for cell and different touch-focused growth. Traditional cell playtesting requires repeated build-and-deploy cycles to exterior units, which provides friction and slows iteration. With the touchscreen, I can take a look at contact interactions instantly on the machine, enabling me to roughly consider UI conduct, gesture timing, and varied interactions’ readability with out pushing a construct to a cellphone or pill. This shortens iteration loops and retains testing near the engine surroundings. The touchscreen can also be helpful for UI opinions and interactive demos exterior strictly cell initiatives.

The Multi-talented Display

The BenQ Mobiuz is normally marketed as a monitor for programmers. Indeed, as I used to be unwrapping it, my colleague gasped, “Wow, that’s like…a really, really good monitor for writing code!” Productivity and IDE show apart, although, it additionally features extraordinarily properly as a gaming and recreation dev monitor.

It goes with out saying that for programming screens, textual content rendering should be clear and constant, in order that lengthy coding classes are simpler to maintain. As properly, UI parts of engine interfaces (inspectors, timelines, settings, node graphs, and many others.) have to be legible with out aggressive distinction or oversaturation. The display makes use of BenQ’s nano matte know-how, which diffuses reflections and mitigates glare. This permits the monitor to be positioned close to home windows or below altering overhead lighting with out fixed adjustment.

When I change to gaming, the excessive refresh price and low response time ship clean movement and responsive enter with out requiring any mode adjustments, making an enormous distinction when gaming. The identical show helps growth and gaming equally properly, engaging in glorious visible constancy and rendering conduct throughout features.

AAA Games as Intended

Together, the BenQ and the Z13 are able to working trendy, graphics-intensive video games at completely peak settings. Baldur’s Gate 3 runs fantastically maxed out, permitting lighting, supplies, and character element to current as designed. For higher or worse, you see…the whole lot.

Deep Rock Galactic runs easily at max settings, together with with on-line play, in comparison with my earlier {hardware}, the place it struggled with low body charges and stuttering.

Black Myth: Wukong is visually dense, with heavy bloom, quick motion, and excessive realism in characters and environments. This system was capable of keep clean efficiency and visible readability below super load.

Audio Reliability

The Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 Studio is a major enchancment in my private day-to-day. Like lots of people on this post-COVID workforce, I spend a considerable amount of time on audio/video calls. Aside from taking conferences, a part of promoting video games includes taking interviews, streaming, recording podcasts…Without a devoted audio system setup, such conversations typically begin with stage changes and troubleshooting. “Can you hear me? Wait hold on…Now, can you hear me? I think I’m using the wrong input…”

With the Scarlett system totally arrange, the microphone enter is secure and predictable. I be a part of calls with out testing or adjusting settings, and the recorded audio stays constant.

Professional Live Streming

One expertise that illustrates the significance of getting a devoted system was once I was scheduled to livestream on Unity’s YouTube channel. They run an expert broadcast operation, so we did a full technical rehearsal the day earlier than. Most of that rehearsal (practically a full hour!) was spent working by my audio. We tried a number of headsets, microphones, adapters, and machine configurations to get my voice to a stage and readability that met their requirements. I needed to ransack my house to seek out one thing appropriate. We finally arrived at an okay answer, but it surely was clearly a compromise slightly than an excellent answer.

At the time, that sort of scenario was frequent for me. My audio system was simply not good. If I’d had the Scarlett Studio setup, that course of would have been so simple. I don’t suppose I’ll ever stream with out correct acquire management, secure enter ranges, and dependable monitoring once more.

One observe: The folding cardboard mic holder that comes with the system is purposeful, however I like to recommend including a growth arm for higher positioning and ergonomics. A dependable choice is the Rode PSA1+ Professional Studio Boom Arm, which clamps to a desk, reduces vibration, and retains the microphone positioned appropriately whereas releasing desk area.

Infrastructure Stability

The CyberPower GX Series Sine Wave Battery Backup offers uninterrupted energy to your entire setup, particularly vital throughout seize and recording classes. It prevents interrupted takes, corrupted recordings, and misplaced progress when energy circumstances are lower than preferrred.

It additionally retains audio and show gear behaving persistently. While it’s not seen throughout each day use, it’s a foundational element of the system’s reliability. So should you’ve forgotten you even have it, however the whole lot else is working fantastically, that’s the battery doing its job.

Aside from plugging the BenQ and the Z13 into it, I can think about a slew of different peripherals, both extremely helpful or completely essential, that would be a part of this setup to make it the final word gaming and recreation dev productiveness workstation. And as a result of all related peripherals (seize units, audio gear, and shows) run by the identical protected energy infrastructure, the workstation as a complete stays secure slightly than only one or two parts.

Recommended Peripherals

Making trailers and capturing property is an everyday a part of my workflow. External seize units combine instantly with this technique and permit me to file gameplay whereas the sport is working at extremely settings.

As I beforehand said, finally, there comes a time in everybody’s recreation dev journey the place they’ve to really exit and promote the sport. Devices like these permit me to seize high-quality footage for trailers, advertising property, and displays with out dropped frames or sync points.

Art and visible iteration are important elements of the sport growth course of. Drawing tablets and pen shows combine instantly into this setup for idea artwork, UI exploration, and paintovers, benefiting from the infrastructure supplied by the CyberPower battery pack.

• The Wacom Cintiq 16 for detailed illustration, the Wacom One 13 Touch for pen-and-touch workflows, or
• The Wacom Intuos Pro for a non-display pill with exact pen enter. These peripherals lengthen the workstation with out requiring a separate machine.

Summary

This setup displays how I truly work. I construct video games, make trailers, seize footage, talk with groups and collaborators, and play trendy video games at excessive constancy on the identical system. The mixture of a transportable however highly effective core machine, a multi-purpose optimized show with nano matte glare discount, clear and dependable audio, secure energy, and a large slew of appropriate peripherals helps each growth and gaming with out requiring a number of machines or frequent reconfiguration.

This near-frictionless setup permits me to concentrate on making video games, presenting them properly, and experiencing them on the stage they’re meant to be performed.

Yiyi Zhang

Yiyi (she, her, pronounced ee-ee) is a neighborhood organizer, recreation developer, artist, and human rights lawyer primarily based in Brooklyn, NY.

She is at present the PR + Community Manager at Heart Machine, an LA-based recreation studio greatest identified for Hyper Light Drifter, Solar Ash, and upcoming Hyper Light Breaker and Possessor(s). She can also be on the Board of Directors of GUMBO Collective (NYC’s largest collective of indie recreation builders) and is the Vice President of Arcade Commons (a non-profit constructing indie arcade cupboards). She can also be an advisor on the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment Digital Games Industry Council and based Women in Games NYC, an expert networking meetup group for girls/femme individuals within the trade.

In her free time, she is a graphic designer for Qweerty Gamers (an LGBTQIA+ video games non-profit), and moonlights as an legal professional serving to asylum seekers and refugees acquire security and standing within the United States.