Quoting: lejimsterWith the next gen consoles just around the corner containing Navi 2. Ray tracing could be a thing finally on AMD. Also, we saw a Ray Tracing demo on Vega 56 [External Link] quite some time ago.. And since Google are using Vega in their Stadia servers (last time I checked)... It's not impossible that they'll support it.

Yeah, not impossible.

For Nvidia's part they did everything fine: the DirectX and Vulkan paths are vendor-neutral and open spec, they've structured the paths similarly to make it easier to use whichever, they've provided tools to automatically go from DirectX to Vulkan, and they've even provided a GPL tech demo for people to play with to get familiar with how it works. They don't actually care if people use DirectX or Vulkan, though, since they push things forward and get the cred either way, so it's down to what the game devs prefer, and lots of them like using DirectX.

Hopefully AMD will release something with hardware acceleration for it, game devs will implement it in their Vulkan (and Linux-native) games, and VKD3D will get round to doing the translation for the DXR ones, and then we'll all get to play with all the toys.

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I'm sure that there's stuff that's really exciting, but the part I find most interesting is this:

Versions of the Vulkan Specification have been generated that results in VUIDs being visible within the specification text. Errors from the Validation Layers included with this SDK will provide links to the appropriate VUID section within this VUID annotated specification. This improves usability of deciphering a validation error. The specifications are included with the SDK documentation online at vulkan.lunarg.com

That just seems like a really good idea.

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No One Lives Forever [External Link].

With the Moderniser mod and using dgVoodo2/DXVK it's working really well except that the framerate is terrible when zoomed in, so I might be playing NOLF Troubleshooting rather than NOLF itself.

Plus whatever the little one wants to play. (edit: the verdict is in for this category. Contraption Maker [External Link] it is.)

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Quoting: TheRiddickI wonder if we will be able to play Cyberpunk 2077 WITH RTX when that comes around via proton? will be interesting.

It's unlikely.

They're using Vulkan for their Stadia build, but Stadia uses AMD hardware so there's no reason to make it work.

If they were going to release a Linux-native version (which they won't) they could put the effort in to use Vulkan's ray tracing extensions for that.

If they use Vulkan on Windows (I haven't managed to find anything that says they will) then the Vulkan ray tracing stuff will pass through, and it should work.

If they're using DirectX on Windows it won't work. VKD3D doesn't translate those extensions yet, and it doesn't seem to be a high priority. Maybe at some point.

So if they release a Linux-native version and/or use Vulkan on Windows then maybe. Otherwise no.

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Quoting: omer666Actually I was referring to firmware updates through LVFS.

Ah, then yes: companies that use LVFS 👍 Companies that don't 👎

It would be really good if Nvidia got on board, since GPUs often benefit from a firmware upgrade, but Nvidia gotta Nvidia.

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One idea they came up with, which appears to be integrated into elementary OS 5.1.5 'Hera', is the removal of needing to enter the admin password when you're doing updates with the AppCenter.

Ubuntu already did this, somewhere around the 12.04 cycle.

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Quoting: omer666I thought it was only for wireless desktop mice though, not gaming peripherals, like my MX518 Legendary. Either way, never had a problem with it. My former Rival 300 had to be updated because it froze 1h after boot.

If the "it" here refers to Piper, the supported devices [External Link] are not restricted to wireless mice. I've used it for both my old Rival and my current Rival 310.

They list an MX518, but I don't know if it's the same model as your MX518. If it is different you could help them to add your device.

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Quoting: NanobangThanks for the link, though a little explanation of why you were sharing it would have been much appreciated at my end.

Snaps are sandboxed; they can only access resources outside the sandbox through a connected interface. The interface that controls file access outside the home directory is that removable-media one, which allows access to the directories listed on that page.

I think that the snap side of the interface has to be enabled by the snap maintainer, but the user side of the interface needs to be enabled by the user. I understand from what people have said elsewhere that you can enable the connection through the snap store, but I've never tried it, as well as creating the connection with the snap command, which I also haven't tried.

The link was to show you both the existence of the restriction and the existence of the mechanism for creating the connection.

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Quoting: rustybroomhandleGood thing there might be a native version on the way. I hope they manage to make RTX work with it like the Windies version. Not sure if the Stadia build had that.

AMD hardware on Stadia, so no, not functionally.

I'd like the Linux version to have it, but I don't think it will - at least at release.

There is already a compiler (provided by Nvidia, I think) that will take DirectX ray tracing shaders and output Vulkan ray tracing shaders, so it's not necessarily a big job to do it.

The standards are in transition now, though, between vk_nv_raytracing and vk_khr_ray_tracing. They'd probably want to target the latter rather than the former but, since the vendor-neutral extension hasn't been finalised yet it can't be used in non-beta drivers. So it wouldn't work yet.

So a post-release patch that enables it, after the specification is finalised, seems possible, provided sales for people that would make use of it are high relative to the effort involved.

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Quoting: tuubiAnd if you want to convince them that snaps are a good thing

For the record, I have no intention of doing that. I don't use snaps myself, and I'll happily tell people how to avoid using them. I've done so, in fact, on this site.

Containerised applications, in general, serve a purpose, just as distros serve a purpose, but I don't really care about which containers or distros people choose to use, or not use.

What I do care about, though, is people wasting our time and energy on cannibalism, which harms our chances of achieving our objectives as Linux gamers. There's plenty of reality-based discussion to be had about the challenges we face as a community. We don't need to make up more.

As a concrete example, Phoronix has some useful stuff, but you can't send people there in case they accidentally read the comments. I don't want gamingonlinux to be like Phoronix. I'd rather Phoronix wasn't like Phoronix, too.

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