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The Official Graphics Card and PC gaming Thread
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harvrdguy
Senior Member
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7. June 2009 @ 23:54 |
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It's my effort to keep it under control. Wednesdays - about 15 hours worth, lol. (btw - do you have a microphone - it helps with the teamwork)
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 7. June 2009 @ 23:56
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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8. June 2009 @ 00:01 |
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As a matter of fact I do :) worked pretty well with the speech programs, when I had the kinks worked out. You and the team will have to be picky, so I know how it is at the other end.
I'd sure hate to have it crash during a critical moment. Im considering installing it to a different system(XP). How will steam take that. Its not gonna be a prick in any way about that is it? That the same serial has been activated twice?
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harvrdguy
Senior Member
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8. June 2009 @ 01:39 |
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Yeah, we'll help you test the microphone. Sometimes people come in a little loud and have to reduce the gain. Other times - people come in perfect.
Will steam be a prick? absolutely not, dude. You can take your user name with you to anybody's computer. You could have YOUR steam L4D game installed on 10 computers at the same time, for example. Under shaff's user id, he's got the game at school, and also at his house. His brother was on one time, using Shaff's id. Good player! The advantage is you don't have to have the physical disk with you when you're at a buddy's house and you want to play one of your steam-registered games.
I know you have the walmart disk, but let's say you buy some other game off steam. And then you decided to do a dual boot. You could run under the other operating system, and then log in with your user name. When you go to My Games, if the game does not show local content - steam will start loading it for you - that's all there is to it. (You can always pause the download - for example if you were gaming and you didn't want all your bandwidth being used for the download.)
So if you decide to try XP, which I believe is rock solid steady no kinks whatsoever for the game (I don't know if the game runs on xp 64 - for sure on regular xp) then under xp, like I say just log in with your user name, and go to My Games, and your game will be re-installed. Or just re-install it from your walmart disk (faster) and then register it again with steam, so they unlock the content and put it in your My Games list.
Rich
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AfterDawn Addict
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8. June 2009 @ 02:06 |
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Well...it acted unusual LOL! It didn't like my password, even though I only have two, and I never change it LOL! All better now though. Its about to finish installing now. I feel good about this. I didn't like how windows 7 would automatically turn the volume down after each area was completed. VERY irritating.
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
AfterDawn Addict
15 product reviews
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8. June 2009 @ 04:01 |
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Actually I can argue for disabling background processes. Even on my machine, for some reason, disabling a few unneeded things helped a lot with loading speeds and FPS drops in Crysis. Maybe it's just all the stuff I run but it certainly did help.
Right now I have 38 running processes. When I'm gaming, 25 give or take depending on the game and if it's in Steam or not.
You'd be surprised how much some stuff can affect gameplay. Maybe it's a difference in memory management or something technical like that. But I know leaving something like Peer Guardian running WILL cause FPS drops. I've repeated it numerous times with the same results. Dropping PG while I play consistently provides a slightly smoother experience.
Of course every computer is unique so everyone's is affected differently.
@ Rich,
EndItAll is a very old friend of mine. The first PC I ever played games on was a 2.4GHz Celeron D with 512MB of RAM and a 128MB 5700LE PCI :P
EDIT:
Mind you I'm still almost exclusively XP until Windows 7 goes final.
AMD Phenom II X6 1100T 4GHz(20 x 200) 1.5v 3000NB 2000HT, Corsair Hydro H110 w/ 4 x 140mm 1500RPM fans Push/Pull, Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5, 8GB(2 x 4GB) G.Skill RipJaws DDR3-1600 @ 1600MHz CL9 1.55v, Gigabyte GTX760 OC 4GB(1170/1700), Corsair 750HX
Detailed PC Specs: http://my.afterdawn.com/estuansis/blog_entry.cfm/11388This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 8. June 2009 @ 04:04
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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8. June 2009 @ 04:17 |
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I like windows 7 A LOT! Its too bad that XP is currently smoking it LOL! At least with Left 4 Dead. And I almost wonder if its bugs are my fault. One day I was exploring the .wav files in the program folder, and moved at least one, rather than copy pasting, and perhaps I didn't put it back in the right folder. Long story LOL!
Sam, Jeff, rich. I have a problem LOL! Louis seems to anger me really badly LOL! I swear the SOB, is a medkit, pills pimp LOL! in that he always has to have them. I have literally shot him on purpose because he's made me so angry at times. I fear that I might lapse into a memory and shoot one of you LOL! Nah...I'll stop doing that LOL!
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
AfterDawn Addict
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8. June 2009 @ 04:23 |
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LOL, you know what i'll also do, is only give him pills, and never the medkit LOL! I know, im bad!
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
AfterDawn Addict
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8. June 2009 @ 04:26 |
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A missing sound file could indeed cause crashing. Every time it tries to load that file, it won't find it. Then it will encounter an error and yes, possibly crash the game.
AMD Phenom II X6 1100T 4GHz(20 x 200) 1.5v 3000NB 2000HT, Corsair Hydro H110 w/ 4 x 140mm 1500RPM fans Push/Pull, Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5, 8GB(2 x 4GB) G.Skill RipJaws DDR3-1600 @ 1600MHz CL9 1.55v, Gigabyte GTX760 OC 4GB(1170/1700), Corsair 750HX
Detailed PC Specs: http://my.afterdawn.com/estuansis/blog_entry.cfm/11388
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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8. June 2009 @ 04:35 |
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LOL, EXACTLY!!!
I love it when the witch is near the gas pumps LOL!!!
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
AfterDawn Addict
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8. June 2009 @ 05:29 |
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Well usually everyone blows the gas pumps the second we get there. But I've personally always saved them for the tank. You can still get in the windows above the dumpster without climbing on the debris. There's a ladder right there on the dumpster.
AMD Phenom II X6 1100T 4GHz(20 x 200) 1.5v 3000NB 2000HT, Corsair Hydro H110 w/ 4 x 140mm 1500RPM fans Push/Pull, Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5, 8GB(2 x 4GB) G.Skill RipJaws DDR3-1600 @ 1600MHz CL9 1.55v, Gigabyte GTX760 OC 4GB(1170/1700), Corsair 750HX
Detailed PC Specs: http://my.afterdawn.com/estuansis/blog_entry.cfm/11388
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AfterDawn Addict
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8. June 2009 @ 08:05 |
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wednesday, what time?
MGR (Micro Gaming Rig) .|. Intel Q6600 @ 3.45GHz .|. Asus P35 P5K-E/WiFi .|. 4GB 1066MHz Geil Black Dragon RAM .|. Samsung F60 SSD .|. Corsair H50-1 Cooler .|. Sapphire 4870 512MB .|. Lian Li PC-A70B .|. Be Queit P7 Dark Power Pro 850W PSU .|. 24" 1920x1200 DGM (MVA Panel) .|. 24" 1920x1080 Dell (TN Panel) .|. |
AfterDawn Addict
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8. June 2009 @ 08:34 |
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AFAIK there is no time. When he says Wednesday he means ALL of Wednesday, lol. I'm sure any time is fine :P
AMD Phenom II X6 1100T 4GHz(20 x 200) 1.5v 3000NB 2000HT, Corsair Hydro H110 w/ 4 x 140mm 1500RPM fans Push/Pull, Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5, 8GB(2 x 4GB) G.Skill RipJaws DDR3-1600 @ 1600MHz CL9 1.55v, Gigabyte GTX760 OC 4GB(1170/1700), Corsair 750HX
Detailed PC Specs: http://my.afterdawn.com/estuansis/blog_entry.cfm/11388
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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8. June 2009 @ 10:42 |
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The volume change can be turned off according to one of my mates who used Win7 and got cheesed off by that.
I'm the complete reverse with stuff like Enditall, I take pride in the fact that I don't need to turn off loads of programs in order to play games properly.
Steam is fully file redundant. Load up your steam on another PC and it will let you install the games from new. Get corruption or accidentally delete a file, go 'verify game files' and it repairs the damage itself.
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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8. June 2009 @ 13:31 |
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Thats an excellent feature sam. I was OBVIOUSLY unaware LOL! Thank you much! :D Im gonna have to try that today. Cause there is a slight chance that I moved a file by mistake. See...I ran a windows search for the wav files, and dragged it to a folder and was like SHOOT
! LOL! I had gotten ahead of myself, when I should have copied/pasted it to the folder. A lot of the sounds from the game trip me out. Especially the tank, and smoker :D
XP is extremely smooth. There are very small hiccups, but thats probably being overly picky ;) I think ultimately, windows 7 is still not ready for me :O But I do enjoy it A LOT!!! Xp just looks so basic now. And my computer can handle the eye candy without so much as flinching. Can't wait til release.
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
AfterDawn Addict
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8. June 2009 @ 14:11 |
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Usually, missing sound files don't cause any major problems, but you will see errors listed in the console about them being missing. However, if you moved a whole folder, that might be different.
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harvrdguy
Senior Member
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8. June 2009 @ 14:24 |
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There you go straight from estuansis - he's used EndItAll for years - and he finds that certain background processes can slow you down no matter how many cores you've got. Sam, on the other hand, has it worked out that he doesn't have to do that. But Sam agrees that with my single processor, I have no choice. But the way I look at it, why not use EndItAll and shut everything down if you know you're gonna be in a gaming session for a couple hours. What will you have lost - nothing AFAIK. Christ, you can do a one minute boot later and bring everything back, right?
Haha, Kevin, no don't give Louis the pain pills - save those for - like Jeff says - "the heat of battle." And I agree with you, don't shoot Louis. I mentioned to one guy, "I have 1 life right now, I should have you guys kill me so as we enter the safe house here I'll come back after reload with 50 life." I wasn't really serious but promptly he auto-shotgunned me dead! Hahaha. But I do think that's a bad habit to get into - shooting teammates - the guys say "Kill the bot and get his health pack" and I always say "No don't do that."
However, here's what one esteemed forum buddy said on that subject:
Originally posted by sam:
rather than wait until they arrive and risk being tanked, shoot them to incap them
LOL
On another note - did you guys read today's headlines: Originally posted by AP 2 hours ago:
Chinese authorities have quarantined New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, his wife and a security guard in Shanghai after another traveler on their flight from New Jersey exhibited suspected swine flu symptoms.
Swine flu nothing - those chinese saw the l4d2 trailer and figured out that New Orleans is infected all to hell!
Originally posted by Rich saying "Yep - ALL day":
(Shaff, Jeff is right - ALL of Wednesday. Pacific Coast time 8:00 am to 12:00 pm, more or less, with a couple of lunch breaks, lol. If I can get the damn message indicator to work - Sam says it's so loud it bugs him, but I don't think mine works. I'm gonna leave my other computer on and maybe by forum posts or email - I get email within a couple seconds.)
Wow, Sam, I didn't know that! Excellent info!Originally posted by sam regarding Steam:
Get corruption or accidentally delete a file, go 'verify game files' and it repairs the damage itself.
Rich
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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8. June 2009 @ 15:09 |
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Well...it may have repaired something. Im not sure what. when it finished, it said finished downloading Left 4 Dead. I compared the the MAIN sound folder on XP, to the sound folder on Windows 7 and they're virtually identical. Whether they were in the right location, im not sure LOL! I imagine im just gonna keep the gaming to xp for now. Xp has been tried, tested, and marketed LOL! Windows 7 is merely short of perfection, but its still not approved.
Giving Louis the pills, when I have a medkit for him is like teasing LOL! Like I said, im trying not to do it now Ha ha! :D
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 8. June 2009 @ 15:10
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harvrdguy
Senior Member
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8. June 2009 @ 16:36 |
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Teasing the bot - Kevin you're out of control, lol.
Yeah it will be fun on Wednesday - I'll watch your back. Let's try to hook up.
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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9. June 2009 @ 04:38 |
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Rich,
I may have to practice on my dual core tomorrow(Haven't played death toll much). I have a lot of computer processes to accomplish tomorrow. Im fooling with the x264 codec. And it would appear that even my quad is gonna experience long encode times :( But it seems to only average 60% cpu useage. Man I would love a Dual AM2+/AM3 socket motherboard LOL! But then, if the software doesn't support it, what would be the point? Ho hum, its never good enough is it LOL!
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
AfterDawn Addict
15 product reviews
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9. June 2009 @ 10:47 |
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Well I'm about due for a somewhat fresh game review. Been playing Mass Effect a lot lately so why not do that one? No matter if it's been out for a while.
My first comment is that if you want to play Mass Effect on PC I strongly suggest you get the Fixed No-CD Crack exe. Not only does it eliminate the need for a disk(which I do own), it fixes a lot of issues with the game. The developers got a bit lazy with the port so it has some rather stupid problems. Namely you lose the capability to save the game at all after you reach the Citadel and you can't access the star map on the Normandy. The fixed crack fixes both of these bugs.
Graphics: 7.5/10
The game boasts some pretty nice character models and environments. Everything looks really good and generally "shiny". There are definitely a few ugly textures here and there but overall the game looks solid. Also, being an Unreal 3 game, it does not support AA at all. But this is mostly masked by the film-grain effect on the screen. There are a few jagged lines at 1920 x 1200 but not bad at all. They could have done a lot more as far as graphics but the whole game is still pretty pleasing to the eye. The lack of AA is the only reason this doesn't get an 8/10.
Gameplay: 9/10
The combat is standard shooter all the way. It works well but not much new here. The RPG leveling system is actually pretty nice and fairly intuitive. You wanna go through using only assault rifles? Put all of your weapons points into assault rifles. Wanna open new conversation options? Put points into your Charm stat. Which brings me to one of the best parts of the game, the dialogue. Every word in the game is completely voice acted and you have multitudes of ways to go through each conversation. You can be a total dick or you can be a saint. And let me tell you there's plenty of opportunity to be both. There are thousands of lines of in-depth dialogue in the game and your character is fully voice acted, word for word. There are even different romantic options depending on your gender.
Sound: 9/10
As I said there are literally thousands of lines of spoken dialogue in the game. Every single character is voice-acted and the voices are actually done quite well. The overall audio design is solid and the sound effects are appropriate for each situation. The music for the game is also quite good and gave me goosebumps at times.
Performance: 7/10
The performance is adequate but not great. The 9800GTX manages maybe 40-50FPS average at 1680 x 1050 with a minimum of about 30. It never gets choppy except in heavy scenes. The Crossfire rig, of course, is locked at the maximum 62FPS most of the time at 1920 res. Again, not great, but if you have the graphics horsepower it is relatively tame.
Overall: 8/10
Mass Effect is a great game and is fun to play. The story is good and the universe is appealing. There are some really stupid bugs with the PC version but, thankfully, they can be fixed with an 11MB crack. The graphics are good but disappointing at times. Overall a solid game though and highly recommended if you're into action RPGs or Sci-Fi.
AMD Phenom II X6 1100T 4GHz(20 x 200) 1.5v 3000NB 2000HT, Corsair Hydro H110 w/ 4 x 140mm 1500RPM fans Push/Pull, Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5, 8GB(2 x 4GB) G.Skill RipJaws DDR3-1600 @ 1600MHz CL9 1.55v, Gigabyte GTX760 OC 4GB(1170/1700), Corsair 750HX
Detailed PC Specs: http://my.afterdawn.com/estuansis/blog_entry.cfm/11388
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harvrdguy
Senior Member
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9. June 2009 @ 15:07 |
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Jeff - interesting review:
Originally posted by estuansis:
There are thousands of lines of in-depth dialogue in the game and your character is fully voice acted, word for word. There are even different romantic options depending on your gender.
Sounds like something I've never done before - you get to tailor the conversation any way you want it - total saint or total dick. Sounds imaginative. Good advice about the patch/crack.
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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9. June 2009 @ 17:27 |
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Rich, the conversation option is pretty much how any RPG has ever worked ever, perhaps that's a genre we need to introduce you to... Granted, your dialogue isn't usually voice acted, that's a nice addition but still, voice acting + different response options, very common.
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harvrdguy
Senior Member
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9. June 2009 @ 18:00 |
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Wait a second. I'm FPS, then I tried a bit of World in Conflict - that's RTS - all hell breaking loose - command of the entire battle. I'm holding off on that and I might get Company of Heroes instead. Now there's RPG - role playing? I think that's too many genres for me. I am not Shokz, lol - just one thing at a time. There's only one day a week, and there's still 6 fps games in the box that I haven't played yet.
(It does sound kind of cool, though. It reminds me of terminator one, where the robot, as he was repairing the damaged skin above his eye, was trying to sort out the best response to the guy pounding on the door - from "F**k you! Jerk-off", to "Excuse me, I can't answer the door at this moment." hahaha.)
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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9. June 2009 @ 20:20 |
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Yup that's three genres. Then add racing, simulation, puzzle and arcade and platform to the mix as well!
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AfterDawn Addict
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9. June 2009 @ 20:23 |
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played doom 1 for the first time today, on xbox arcade.... simply AMAZING!
i <3 that game!
MGR (Micro Gaming Rig) .|. Intel Q6600 @ 3.45GHz .|. Asus P35 P5K-E/WiFi .|. 4GB 1066MHz Geil Black Dragon RAM .|. Samsung F60 SSD .|. Corsair H50-1 Cooler .|. Sapphire 4870 512MB .|. Lian Li PC-A70B .|. Be Queit P7 Dark Power Pro 850W PSU .|. 24" 1920x1200 DGM (MVA Panel) .|. 24" 1920x1080 Dell (TN Panel) .|.
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