Quoting: Liam DaweMost of what you're saying isn't different to what I am saying, other than splitting hairs over the exact way to word it.

Yes?

That the .0 stable releases get support and the dev releases don't is a distinction that I didn't think was conveyed by your wording which, to me, made the yearly releases seem like another point release. So I flagged it up, with caveats in case I was wrong, so that you could consider alternative wording, or so that it would at least be clarified in the comments. Both of which, I assume, have now been done.

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I'm posting it as a comment rather than a correction because I may well be completely wrong, so I'd welcome discussion, but

Once a year or so, all the development is bundled into a stable release.

By my understanding, this is actually backwards. My understanding of the Wine development process is that they produce a major version at the beginning of the year, which may get a handful of maintenance updates. Every two weeks Wine gets a point release that's moving towards the major release at the start of the next year. So it's not that the major version bundles up the changes, but rather that that release was the target for the previous year's development work. Much like the non-LTS releases of Ubuntu are test versions for the next LTS. release. But I could be wrong.

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Quoting: ShmerlDLSS is DOA being Nvidia only. AMD are working on cross GPU solution that will work everywhere. Once that is ready may be Wine can pick it up.

I think it's this: https://www.amd.com/en/technologies/vsr [External Link]

I think you're right that AMD are working on some kind of upscaling thing, but that isn't it. That's rendering at higher resolutions and then scaling down - "get the clarity of 1080p and the framerate of 4K!" - rather than the other way round, which is what people want.

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Quoting: fabry92we only miss dlss now right?

Depending on how you count it, we either already have it, or we're never going to get it.

It's been included with Nvidia's driver for ages, so Linux-native games on Nvidia hardware can use it, no problem. Except we don't get many Linux-native games that are so desperate for the performance and the pretties that they'll use it, and it's hard to justify spending much dev time on something that can only be used by a subset of ~half of a tiny market. Maybe Metro Exodus will use it?

The far bigger market is Windows games running through Wine, and that's not going to happen. Nvidia could put it into Wine, since they can control which parts they disclose, but the Wine devs can't sign an NDA and then put out open source software based on what they learn even if they wanted to.

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Quoting: ronnocWondering if it would be easy to launch Steam in BPM from within Kodi? I haven't used Kodi in a while, but am looking to make a Linux streaming / medium gaming box for the family room. In my use-case, I'd rather boot into Kodi and launch Plex and Steam from there.

When I set my HTPC NUC up a few years ago it was pretty straightforward. I got an add-on for Kodi that runs a script to stop Kodi, launch Steam BPM, and then relaunch Kodi when Steam exits. The particular add-on I used stopped working after a recent Kodi version change, so I can't point you to a particular one; I'd been gaming exclusively on my desktop for a while before that so I haven't looked at the particulars but I'm sure someone could adapt existing solutions to current versions, and I suspect that somewhere someone already has.

I control Kodi with my TV remote control through HDMI CEC, and used my Steam Controller to control Steam. There's no mouse or keyboard attached - I administer it over SSH, generally from my phone - which is why it's been a low priority to look at again. But it worked well in the past.

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Quoting: helloCLDWhile these look super cool, I'd be extremely concerned with the weight. I imagine it takes some pretty clever engineering to fit the LEDs, battery and comm circuits inside the die AND make sure they roll just as randomly as your typical die does.

According to their page the dice are heavier than light dice and lighter than heavy dice. They also got a dice-rolling robot to check that they were as fair as other dice. Plus they're waterproof in case you wanted to float them in salt water.

I don't back Kickstarters and I don't need snazzy dice, but they do seem pretty neat.

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Quoting: lelorrainWell, fine for people who want to use ONLY Steam ...

From the article: It takes things a step or two further though, including plenty of extra enhancements for emulators and non-Steam games with their special tools like Steam Buddy.

Personally, I do not like to have someone in the background recording all I do.

If you put Steam into Offline Mode, it doesn't track anything.

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Quoting: sgtnasty369So if I have a Windows 10 PC running steam, I can play via my Laptop/Linux

You already could, as well as Linux <—> Linux. But you needed to install the Steam client and have a Steam account. Now you don't.

but I need a Steam Controller?

You don't need a Steam controller. They don't even make them any more.

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Quoting: TuxeeBack to Portal 2: It improves on the first one in every aspect - storyline, mechanics, content. (Naturally the whole portal idea was not new anymore.)

I disagree, actually. Portal 2 is undoubtedly a much bigger game than Portal, but I wouldn't say that it's a better game.

The first game was a brilliantly honed tiny gem. It benefitted greatly from its deliberately limited scope and defined purpose.

By contrast, the sequel is sprawling and unfocused. It has you wandering around to find the place to make your own puzzles, so you can solve the puzzles, and go back to more wandering. Whereas the original was really funny, the sequel is grimdark and sardonic. Stephen Merchant, whose role is to be really annoying, succeeds very well at being really annoying.

Portal is a perfectly-executed figureskating routine,and Portal 2 is a cross-country ski.

All of which is to say that everyone should definitely play both.

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Quoting: amataiSure. But transitioning from "no tux, no bucks" to "no tux, bucks" will take a few year more for me before feeling natural.

I've mentioned it before, but for me Proton can mean "no Tux, some bucks." Without Linux support there's no way they're getting full price, but if they haven't made their game not work in Proton then there's a chance they could get a couple of quid. More if they've committed to keeping it working, rather than having it work by accident and stop working at some point in the future by accident.

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