Today’s Shadow news is brought to you by Luc the wise (Community Lead), Malte the fabulous (German CM), and That Ryan guy aka “Text to speech guy” (US CM).
As per usual these past few weeks, it will give you the latest update about COVID 19 impact on Shadow, activations (US and EU), the US university program, the US VR exploration program, updates about what’s coming next, followed by a Q&A session!
Don’t forget to check out the FAQ section on discord (updated every Thursday) and also Shadow’s blog article here (for Europe) and here for the US, as it is updated daily!
I) Activations
1) US
Shadow had to adjust their services a lot with COVID-19, activation times being a key one of that. The reason for that was that their existing users have increased their usage due to these conditions. And for that they needed to reassess how they manage everything. And so, to do that, while also at the same time not adding additional load at an excessive rate, they significantly slowed activation times down
Ryan, Shadow US CM
Currently, activation wait times are estimated to be around 5 to 7 weeks on average on all data centers. Meaning that if you were to subscribe now, you would be activated sometime in June. This ETA could change at any time, as Shadow teams are actively monitoring the overall situation and adjusting the activations rate accordingly.
2) Europe
Amsterdam data center (Germany, Netherlands)
Since last week, Shadow is on track with everything. No further news, so far, about that.
Paris data center (France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, United Kingdom)
Everyone who pre-ordered a Shadow Boost with April as a delivery date (and before that of course) should be activated by the end of April/beginning of May, meaning Shadow will soon have caught up with the delay anytime soon.
Every ex Shadow users have been activated sooner this week!
II) Extra storage
1) Europe
Same news as last week, no ETA for the resupply. Although some storage was saved for people who preordered it and are still waiting for their activation.
2) US
Extra storage was delivered last week and is still steadily available for purchase. The situation might vary over time depending on your data center.
III) No updates since last week
Here are the subject which Shadow has no updates on so far. The content here is only here to provide the last existing updates on these matters.
1) Valorant
Unfortunately, Valorant is not compatible with Shadow at this time. This is due to the nature of the game’s “Vanguard” anti-cheat and how it is installed. Since Riot uses a custom anti-cheat mechanism, this makes it nearly impossible to run on virtual machines, including cloud platforms.
This article might be helpful: https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/309320-riot-games-new-anti-cheat-system-runs-at-system-boot-uses-kernel-driver
2) iOS
Shadow is still trying to work around to see what they can do for the guidelines to get it back in the App Store. But they did push a small update for the test flight version that fixed a couple of crashes. Other than that, no further updates.
3) Shadow Ghost
No updates about a delivery date. Shadow is still in discussion with the factory in China and waiting for these to be shipped.
III) US programs
1) Shadow University program
Shadow kicked it a couple of weeks ago. They received a lot of applications, around 50 to 60 teams registered. If you want more information about it, or join in, check out this link here.
If you register your team, you’ll be able to partake in the many challenges to come which will allow you to win rewards and bonuses.
The first challenge was to create something Shadow related in Minecraft! Congratulations to Team Revenant with their beautiful creation
If you want to follow these amazing teams challenging each other, check out #US_SUP and #TeamShadow on Twitter!
2) The VR exploration program
Shadow has a lot of things coming in terms of communications but all of the testing right now is under NDA as a part of a closed beta. (that is why we don’t see or hear anything about it). However Shadow, as a company, would not be true to its spirit if it did not share this journey with you, and so it has been working on plans for that.
Expect a whole lot of news in the coming month regarding the VR exploration program ( what it takes to develop, who’s involved, the challenges and hurdles that might have caused problems etc.)
Q & A
Q: When will we get the correct IP for the Graveline data center (Ultra and Infinite)?
A: If you have Shadow Ultra and infinite and you’re not in France you have not received a localized IP address yet, which you probably know already.
The dev team as implemented the network part and the VM team will need to activate it. So Shadow is getting to the bottom of the progress but no timeline yet on the matter.
Q: What about USB over IP on macOS?
A: So far, no updates but the dev and product teams are thoroughly working on it. Check out this article: Known issues for Shadow, as it is the best place if you want to be up to date about this issue.
Q: Are Shadow Ultra and Infinite still scheduled for late summer (Europe)?
A: Right now, as it stands, we are still on track to meet the end of the summer deadline that we announced. And if we do have any news or updates regarding that, we will let you know.
Q: When will Ultra and infinite be available for the US?
A: We are launching ultra and infinite in limited volume launch in the US this summer with later availability targeted for the rest of the year, worst-case scenario in 2021.
Q: I subscribed to Shadow through Proximus, will I be able to add/remove storage and upgrade to Ultra/Infinite?
A: I don’t know because we have a dedicated project manager for that bundle deal. You should contact Shadow or Proximus support, they will probably have a better idea on this.
Q: Does Shadow support multi-monitor (2 screens, 1 device), and will it be possible to add SSD extra storage instead of HDD?
A: Currently no. But there is the extra screen feature (2 screens, 2 devices) that is available in Alpha. As for choosing SSD extra storage instead of HDD, it is not currently possible but still a possibility in the future as Shadow is always looking to improve its service as time goes by (but no promises can be made at this point)
Q: Are the activations randomly made?
A: Typically, in regular activations, it is done on a first-in, first-served basis. Although, in very rare cases (ex: the first batch of Ultra/Infinite in Europe), activations might be done by selecting a particular set of people.