Quoting: Comandante ÑoñardoAnd the technical purpose of the banana is....????

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/banana-for-scale [External Link]

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Quoting: rustybroomhandleI have 9 cats to support

I'm using that line the next time I ask for a raise!

(Also, wtf? I had one (1) cat, with her own room and own queen size bed, and she was impossible to control. Nine!?)

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Quoting: BeamboomIt's a program that takes user input, writes a shitload of data to the screen and often utilise the network interface. What goes on from one game to another should in principle be pretty much the same, as far as the system libraries goes? Architecturally the programs should share far more than they diverge from each other. As far as I can understand...!

So what on earth could it be that this game used from a system library that all the other games don't?

So, from a skim of the changes in git, one of the things Forza 5 needed was Performance Counters. These we're technically not required, but the stubs for the functions was changed to return true instead of false to make the game happy.

I have no idea if the game uses those for error diagnostics, or to adjust performance settings during runtime so the game is actually missing some feature?
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/wine/commit/ed0d3339339b397b305ef218c6dcec46f789101e [External Link]

Another thing was speech synthesizer support. Again, not fully implemented but stubbed in Wine, and again, no idea if that's something the game actually uses. GPS directions maybe?
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/wine/commit/822c137a52117c03f205ad6b0af71d765983f724 [External Link]

🎵🎵 The APIs themselves keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions they can whizz
As fast as it can be implemented, at the speed of light, I read
Twelve million lines a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is 🎵🎵
(Sorry MP [External Link]

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I'm guessing most of you already knows this, but here's a simplified turn of events for Proton/Wine development that's hopefully not altogether incorrect:

The story of Game.exe

Game.exe is released but crashes on start in Wine. It requires Foo() and Bar() library.dll. Foo and Bar are implemented by someone reading the API documentation from Microsoft. Bar isn't really used by the game so a minimal version is added to fulfil the dependency for the game. The game works.

The sequel Game2.exe is released but crashes on start because it needs the full implementation of Bar. Bar is implemented in Wine, the game works.

An update to Game2.exe is released and crashes on start in Wine. Turns out that Game2.exe now calls Bar with NULL instead of the expected integer value. This is undocumented behaviour but works on Windows, so the behaviour in Wine is changed to match Windows. The game works again.

Game3.exe for Windows 11 is released. It crashes on start in Wine. It requires library2.dll to run. Someone figures out that if the game runs on Windows 10 the older library.dll is used instead, a game specific hack that reports version 10 for Game3.exe is added and the game works.

Now multiply this for all the dlls and functions a game need to run and things get complex fast.

(The movie rights to this original short story have already been acquired by Sony Pictures Entertainment™)

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Quoting: Beamboomwhat are really the odds of this particular game using a part of a given API that NONE of the other hundreds of games, massive complex AAA included, has not used?

Pretty big.

Try grepping the Wine sources for things like "stub", "unimplemented" and "FIXME".

Edited to add:

There might even be a bigger chance of this happening with big AAA releases. There's a bit of a mono-culture in gaming these days. Most games will use an existing engine like Unity or Unreal. This is good for Wine since adding support for one such game usually means many others will be supported inadvertently.

An AAA title might mean a totally new engine, or something very customized. It might very well use other, previously untested parts of an API or use it differently and trip up Wine.

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Quoting: NameHereI often see this sort of thing and wonder: are these general fixes to proton that have been missed?

It's mostly incomplete or unimplemented functions and libraries with a few hacks mixed in.

You can grep the changelog for FH5 to see what was needed:
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/wine/commits/experimental_6.3 [External Link]

Some of it will probably be merged in upstream Wine, some will not.

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Quoting: Purple Library GuyI dunno about being a Beholder. When you're a Beholder, people will kill you just to get the beauty in your eye.

Well, better a beholder than a bee holder. That's a vocation that stings!

On a more serious note, I hope the release of the sequel goes well. Giving away games must surely give publicity and bring in sales at some point, because everyone seems to be doing it. All the time.

I made a rough estimate, and I have picked up close to 100 gratis titles so far this year. That's just from GOG/Steam/Epic and only redeeming the games that look at least mildly interesting.

And, ooh, look, while writing this, another giveaway, SteamWorld Dig 2 on GOG! [External Link]

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PPSSPP - Sony PSP emulator.

I read the name of that emulator out loud and every cat in the neighborhood showed up!?

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I loved the demo, have been looking forward to the full release, but... 20 euros for what is reported to be 3-4 hours of play time seems a bit much.

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Quoting: chelobakaAll above titles work with Proton Experimental bleeding-edge beta.

That is interesting, can confirm that GRID 2 works with bleeding-edge beta, but not the normal Experimental.

Any idea what git branch bleeding-edge corresponds to?

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