Quoting: GroganI built that the other night after seeing the new commits, and it was poo... periodic hitches (display, input, audio, everything). I tested his 7-27 build too and it was the same. My previous build I did on July 10 is good.

Following up, on what I said here, simply because I don't like to shit and run. I found out the real reason that was happening to me (it wasn't just GE Proton 7-27 but current Valve's too)

I'm not sure which (too many to cherry pick) but some of Valve's Wine patches seem to have made it so it doesn't like actually being able to get the priority it requests.

I took away my user's ability to lower nice (back to scheduling priority (-e) 0... ulimit I mean) and that cleared up the contention with current Protons.

(and the problem is the same for me with PREEMPT_RT kernels and normal ones, I had tested it with a normal kernel too... it's the niceness)

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I built that the other night after seeing the new commits, and it was poo... periodic hitches (display, input, audio, everything). I tested his 7-27 build too and it was the same. My previous build I did on July 10 is good.

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I bought this tonight. I need a new relaxing, wandering type game, with escapism (I mean, something for me that makes me feel like my problems "won't find me here" lol)

It doesn't run half bad, for an Unreal Engine 4 game. I'm using a recent Proton-GE build. (and I haven't needed to install mediafoundation libraries)

On the PC, do remap any controls that may cause you strain. It recommends a "game pad" but I see no reason why that would be advantageous, for someone used to keyboard and mouse.

The default control scheme for keyboard isn't exactly designed by a panel of ergonomics experts. It had me holding Shift to run, using WASD to move, and having to hit Left Alt at the right times to attack, while running and avoiding these fat, rat-like scavengers. T'was then that I had to change the controls. That Left-Alt was causing strain after only 3 retries of that sequence.

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... and this is one reason why Microsoft is buying out major game publishers, they'll want to control the games through the Microsoft Store interface. That, and they'll want to stop Vulkan.

I'd put money on the next version of DirectX not being easy to translate into our APIs, too.

Starting soon after Windows 98 SE, Microsoft practically banished OpenGL to the point that it got stripped from Microsoft supplied graphics drivers. If you bought an OpenGL game, you had to go and get drivers from your video card vendor (which any reasonably savvy gamer would know to do anyway, but it's an obstacle for some)

It was a rare occurrence that I was absolutely speechless when Microsoft acquired Bethesda. I felt more numb than angry. I don't care about Activision (I already detest and don't buy) but Bethesda hurts.

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I just started buying Unity games again. I had been staying away from them for some years because games that updated their Unity engine (I think it was Unity 5) all started causing lockups for me, with game devs telling me to "upgrade my driver" (devs that don't really understand Linux... in other words, wave my magic wand and upgrade to non-existent kernel and mesa drivers).

It wasn't the games, it was the engine. Suddenly "Sir you are being hunted" (I still had a Windows install back then and that game did it there too... it was the first one I noticed), "Layers of Fear" (also tested on Windows with same lockups), and "The Signal from Tolva"... all Unity games had started doing this. I always thought it was a crappy game engine, but that cemented it. I certainly did have the latest "drivers" in the Windows installation I tested them on. It seemed more like a CPU threading issue anyway.

That problem has long since been fixed and Unity games have been OK. What now, the next time Unity games update their engine, ads are going to start showing, or some new rubbish they introduce becomes unstable for me?

Sigh... back to not buying Unity games. I simply can't trust that engine.

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Sometimes I do have to modify binaries to nul some AVX instructions or something. It was a good thing that Cyberpunk 2077 didn't have anti-tampering when they broke it for me.

I have also used modified binaries that had Games for Windows Live patched out.

Also, back around 2008'ish, Mass Effect had one of those asshole copy protection trojans (SecuROM if I recall correctly). One fine day, SecuROM started causing Explorer file manager to crash if SecuROM had been initilialized. A binary "patch" (is it a crack if I'm not using it as such? :-) fixed that for me, it hexed out securom.

Another game I liked several years ago (well, two games), "The Chronicles of Riddick Escape from Butcher Bay/Assault on Dark Athena". That had Tages that needed patching out. I have a GoG version of that now that doesn't have anything like that, but unfortunately it does not run through translation.

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Quoting: GuestAnything that uses Unreal engine, EOS and /or EAC, Denuvo or was an Epic Exclusive is a pass from me. With a lifetime boycott of the developer/studio and publisher to boot.

I felt that way too, but nearer to the beginning of the pandemic, I had time, needed a new game and the only thing I didn't have was will power. So I bought Borderlands 3. I had played all the previous Borderlands games for more bloody hours than a man should, but I was resisting Borderlands 3 because of Epic store exclusivity. I very much resent that.

I would not discount any game just because it uses Unreal Engine though. I have enjoyed many games based on Unreal 3. Epic isn't one of my favourite companies though... still mad about Unreal Tournament 3.

Unreal Engine 4 games tend to be sluggish and all tend to use that video API plugged in to directx for embedded video in game, and logos. I detest it.

Nay to anticheat/antitampering software for me though. I just play single player games, so I can avoid those titles.

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Yeah, I'm giving this one a pass. Denuvo, another kludgy Unreal Engine 4 game, needs mediafoundation bollocks, and bloated, ugly textures etc. just like Borderlands 3. I fight with that every time I want to upgrade my Proton runner (I had to quit using Valve's Proton for that game... forced updates not within my control)

Not this time.

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Happy Birthday! I only recently starting coming to this site, but I check most days to learn about games I'd not otherwise be aware of, and related Linux news. I appreciate the effort. I'd give you a thumbs up emoji, :thumbsup: if there was one :-)

P.S. It seems that I can after all, so: 👍

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Quoting: scaineBloated how? Rubbish how? No, it's definitely not lightweight - not sure that comment was aimed at me, but I never said it was lightweight. Indeed, I agreed it's a kludgey interface. It's a long-way from a perfect user experience, for sure.

As for library changes breaking, I'd suggest changing distro - I also had lots of weird stuff on Manjaro, to the point it barely lasted a fortnight on my PC before I moved on.

Yes, the comment was in reply to you. I'm not used to quoting people, but that's necessary here (I'm more used to forums where everybody knows each other and reads threads etc.... these posts are more like site comments)

No, it's not Manjaro's fault (or my fault... I actually maintain those packages from source, it's a heavily customized Manjaro). Steam bundled an older harfbuzz library to make the Chrome UI work, but not freetype. The freetype API changed, the harfbuzz they shipped was no longer compatible.

Chrom(ium) is fragile. I built and used that for years until enough was enough. They were better off with the mozilla code based they previously used for the client UI.

All that, just to display my game library.

I did not mean "fragile" in the sense that it crashes. The only time Steam ever crashes on me is sometimes if I've had it running and quit a few times during a session, it might crash on launch once. Then it just briefly verifies the client and launches normally after that.

I also use Steam for most of my games, going back decades in Windows. Before Proton I used Steam on Linux for the few native titles that were available. I very much like Steam as a service. I just hate that software client.

I should have quoted the original comment I replied to. Mine was in context of complaining that Steam wasn't open source. It was somewhat facetious, but it was meant lightly in terms of "the code base would be a ruddy mess" and having the source code to all those components they cobble together into the Linux Steam client wouldn't be of much use to you.

Of course, if we had the complete source code, someone could implement their protocols and make a better client. But they could do that too, it's just easier to carry on and keep sewing more arms onto the octopus.

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