I'm curious to see what your thoughts are now it's available for testing. Do you think it's too bright? Or do you love the enhancements?

When I watched the DF video about it the biggest issue was that the fire was way too bright. The environment otherwise seemed like a reasonable match to the feel of the original. I'll try the demo later but, with Ravenholm being the reason I've never completed HL2, I don't expect to enjoy it that much.

Edit: to get it to work I needed to switch to Proton Experimental and use WINE_DISABLE_HARDWARE_SCHEDULING=1 %command% as the launch option. Locked 60, but HL2 isn't fun, so I stopped.

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While graphical settings will be locked at launch, you’ll be able to choose the upscalers you want, and we’re looking into providing further options in future updates.

It's a weird approach to even consider locking the settings in the first place. It would be much better to have good automatic detection of capabilities that would work on all the range of PC hardware that's out there to set the configuration automatically, and still allow the user to set things to their preference. Like most PC games have done for many years.

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@LoudTechie The thing is, their hardcore anti-tamper approach is looking at the wrong thing. You don't really care what kernel someone is using, you care what it does. So ship a cheat with your game and see if it works. Use the namespaces and process isolation that Linux already has for srs bsns for the game itself. Have a small eBPF or whatever cheat program and see if it can break those protections. If it can't, you're good to go. If someone has altered and recompiled their kernel to let cheats work then your cheat will work, which you can detect.

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The DF video where they were cooing over it showed that it comes with a separate config window you can use to adjust the settings for the renderer, so that would probably let you turn things off while still using the new assets - provided you could get it to launch with whatever the default settings are.

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However, I feel that @CatKiller is being technical and, IMO, is wilfully ignoring the point @wytrabbit is trying to make.

No, they simply have no point. Buying from GOG doesn't give you magical ownership. Their claim that it does was just wrong. There is no legal difference between buying from GOG or Epic (their initial examples), nor from Steam, nor anywhere else. There is no practical difference between buying from GOG and buying a DRM-free game on Steam, and piracy.

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But a Publisher can't just revoke your license "just because" or if they're shutting down the game.

Yes, they can.

Also they're referring to your GOG library, and nothing short of sending law enforcement to confiscate your hardware can deny you access to any games you've already downloaded. Once they're on your computer, and if they're DRM-free, it's yours to keep.

I'm sure you'll agree that "they probably won't bother to come to your house" is an entirely different kettle of fish to the total ownership that you were claiming earlier. GOG is no different legally to Epic, Valve, Microsoft, Nintendo, nor anyone else that sells you a licence to use software.

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GOG sells you an actual lifetime ownership license. The publisher cannot remove the game from your library once you buy it.

No they do not. They neither have ownership of the games, nor can they sell that ownership to you. You are licensed to use the games, and they are authorised to sell that licence to you. They reserve the right to remove all the games from your library.

We give you and other GOG users the personal right (known legally as a 'license') to use GOG services and to download, access and/or stream (depending on the content) and use GOG content. This license is for your personal use. We can stop or suspend this license in some situations, which are explained later on.

https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/212632089-GOG-User-Agreement?product=gog [External Link]

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not defending epic on this one but some devs dont trust linux because cheaters can modify the kernel to break anticheat. the only real solution for that is verified boot with a signature whitelist. that would mean you can only play on popular distros with one of their official kernels but its better than nothing

It's not the only solution, just the one that they prefer.

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If that is true, why would you choose Epic over GOG, since GOG sell games that let you own it for life? They both have open source launchers, they both have popular storefronts, but Epic offers the same licensing as Steam where you don't actually own the game just a license to play it.

GOG also only sells you a licence to play it - that's how software works. It's exactly the same if you buy a physical copy, for that matter.

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They've shown off some more footage of it, and I'm thoroughly torn on it. I love the idea of enhancing games, and the newer textures look like a big improvement while keeping the style but overall this looks far too bright and shiny and just seems like it's lost part of what made it special. Still, as another sort-of tech demo of what the possibilities are with such upgrades, it's still quite interesting.

Yeah, it's a sign of the conflict with their art direction. They've got to show that it's doing something rather than stopping at looks good, so it often dips into looks worse.

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