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Valve locking down publishing Steam builds with SMS codes due to Malware
13 Oct 2023 at 4:40 am UTC Likes: 1
13 Oct 2023 at 4:40 am UTC Likes: 1
I felt the need to return to the topic again. Requiring "cell phones" doesn't bode well with me.
Hell I'm ready to drop cellphones entirely for Satellite Phones.
The point is SMS is like "The Fax Machine" -- the government having laws to keep it around is archaic and not really good.
This is such a BIG move in the wrong direction. Cellphones don't need to be a even more mandatory part of our lives.
Literally physically mail them a encryption key generator required to update their game. The encryption key generator can cycle passwords based on the date time.
Edit: Or at the very least have the developer whitelist a ip address from which to authorize updates, or have valve put a temporary deposit in their back account between 1 and 99 cents and have them verify by disclosing the amount stated.
Hell I'm ready to drop cellphones entirely for Satellite Phones.
The point is SMS is like "The Fax Machine" -- the government having laws to keep it around is archaic and not really good.
This is such a BIG move in the wrong direction. Cellphones don't need to be a even more mandatory part of our lives.
Literally physically mail them a encryption key generator required to update their game. The encryption key generator can cycle passwords based on the date time.
Edit: Or at the very least have the developer whitelist a ip address from which to authorize updates, or have valve put a temporary deposit in their back account between 1 and 99 cents and have them verify by disclosing the amount stated.
Valve locking down publishing Steam builds with SMS codes due to Malware
13 Oct 2023 at 1:54 am UTC Likes: 1
In the future __ IF __ you are going to get malware, it's very likely that it come through video games, especially if it were Windows as Anti-Virus do not scrutinize video games the same way they do other software.
Obviously I would never recommend Windows as it already __ IS __ malware -- but having your devices be appliances and segregating your "trusted" from "untrusted" is a good habit. The same goes in Networking -- give yourself some different subnets and separate "trusted" devices from "untrusted" devices and wifi from wired.
13 Oct 2023 at 1:54 am UTC Likes: 1
Quoting: denyasisThis is probably ignorance in my part, but how is security better with Linux in this situation? We're (mostly) running these programs wide open out of the home drive.Yeah so. Not everyone can afford it, but __ IF __ you __ CAN __ -- go ahead and separate your gaming rig from your Work or Personal Desktop.
In the future __ IF __ you are going to get malware, it's very likely that it come through video games, especially if it were Windows as Anti-Virus do not scrutinize video games the same way they do other software.
Obviously I would never recommend Windows as it already __ IS __ malware -- but having your devices be appliances and segregating your "trusted" from "untrusted" is a good habit. The same goes in Networking -- give yourself some different subnets and separate "trusted" devices from "untrusted" devices and wifi from wired.
After over 80 weeks the Steam Deck leaves the top 10 global sellers on Steam
10 Oct 2023 at 9:12 pm UTC Likes: 4
10 Oct 2023 at 9:12 pm UTC Likes: 4
I bought 6, I figure most people who wanted one have got one at the moment.
I know there is chatter about a refresh, but I have to agree with Valve's employee remarks that it is not coming for a while.
It doesn't make sense for them to cannibalize their achievement, what I mean by that is increasing hardware specs will mean developers have 2 targets instead of 1 target, and it will mean that games will choose target 2 instead of target 1.
So everyone who bought Steam Deck 1 will be upset if there is Steam Deck 2 if developers don't design their games to hit that target.
So, Valve would be shooting their balls off to produce a Steam Deck 2 that increased CPU too soon. Increasing the NVME size, Screen to OLED, Battery, swapping out the Wifi card for current gen, or other non-spec things would be fine. Maybe even the Ram.
Increasing the CPU or GPU would be working against their own interests. Therefore I don't expect a real Steam Deck 2 for maybe 3 to 5 more years realistically.
It's in their best interest to cultivate a robust growing market, condition buyers to buy their products, condition developers to target specs and have generations of games that target those specs, and then when the time is right for Steam Deck 2 it's gonna explode their player-base. (Similar to PSX -> PS2, Xbox #1 1999/2000 -> Xbox 360)
But in the meantime they have to be patient. It would be okay for them to release Deckard VR in the meantime as it wouldn't compete or cannibalize but enhance their existing player-base.
I know there is chatter about a refresh, but I have to agree with Valve's employee remarks that it is not coming for a while.
It doesn't make sense for them to cannibalize their achievement, what I mean by that is increasing hardware specs will mean developers have 2 targets instead of 1 target, and it will mean that games will choose target 2 instead of target 1.
So everyone who bought Steam Deck 1 will be upset if there is Steam Deck 2 if developers don't design their games to hit that target.
So, Valve would be shooting their balls off to produce a Steam Deck 2 that increased CPU too soon. Increasing the NVME size, Screen to OLED, Battery, swapping out the Wifi card for current gen, or other non-spec things would be fine. Maybe even the Ram.
Increasing the CPU or GPU would be working against their own interests. Therefore I don't expect a real Steam Deck 2 for maybe 3 to 5 more years realistically.
It's in their best interest to cultivate a robust growing market, condition buyers to buy their products, condition developers to target specs and have generations of games that target those specs, and then when the time is right for Steam Deck 2 it's gonna explode their player-base. (Similar to PSX -> PS2, Xbox #1 1999/2000 -> Xbox 360)
But in the meantime they have to be patient. It would be okay for them to release Deckard VR in the meantime as it wouldn't compete or cannibalize but enhance their existing player-base.
Unity CEO John Riccitiello is leaving 'effective immediately'
10 Oct 2023 at 12:40 am UTC Likes: 8
10 Oct 2023 at 12:40 am UTC Likes: 8
The WEFite has advanced his masters goals of normalizing a "always-online" "you will own nothing" and "rent everything forever" world.
This isn't a win. The players behind it have the 2nd largest GDP in the world and even these losses are just "chump change" to them.
It was a calculated loss for a cultural win bringing us more in line with their hellscape vision for our future feudalism under fief lords.
This isn't a win. The players behind it have the 2nd largest GDP in the world and even these losses are just "chump change" to them.
It was a calculated loss for a cultural win bringing us more in line with their hellscape vision for our future feudalism under fief lords.
Humble removing the Humble Games Collection from Humble Choice
9 Oct 2023 at 8:11 pm UTC Likes: 4
9 Oct 2023 at 8:11 pm UTC Likes: 4
Quoting: dpanterLike this comment if you didn't know Humble had a launcher application. :tongue:Is this some kind of windose launcher that I'm too loonix to get?
Diablo 4 is coming to Steam on October 17th
5 Oct 2023 at 4:57 am UTC Likes: 1
5 Oct 2023 at 4:57 am UTC Likes: 1
Wake me up when StarCraft Remastered and II are on Steam (hopefully with Workshop enabled)
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 Shreds On Steam Deck, But With Two Massive Caveats
5 Oct 2023 at 4:19 am UTC Likes: 1
--
This is the kind of game I would like to play on a long car ride or airplane -- that always online DRM garbage automatically kills any interest I have in the game.
Yeah the graphics are greatish, but honestly I wouldn't be surprised if I saw a decompiled PSX version before too long with perfect anti-aliasing, high res textures and raytracing or whatever.
It seems like the game industry is filled with people who don't know how to make things great anymore, and every game is literally 100GB
Timothy Cain Developer of Fallout did a really great video about the state of the game industry -- https://youtube.com/watch?v=LMVQ30c7TcA [External Link] ((IIUC some of the devs for Baulders Gate 3 were from Bioware and connected to Fallout I can't remember the exact details -- to show the contrast between old school devs and new devs))
5 Oct 2023 at 4:19 am UTC Likes: 1
Quoting: finaldestThank you,Same reason I never bought Resident Evil 4 -- Denuvo was a no-go.
This article has just saved me £20.00. I have refunded the game as I cannot stand persistent online requirement for single player games. Its just not worth headache.
I need to start paying more attention and stop buying games on a whim for nostalgia sake.
--
This is the kind of game I would like to play on a long car ride or airplane -- that always online DRM garbage automatically kills any interest I have in the game.
Yeah the graphics are greatish, but honestly I wouldn't be surprised if I saw a decompiled PSX version before too long with perfect anti-aliasing, high res textures and raytracing or whatever.
It seems like the game industry is filled with people who don't know how to make things great anymore, and every game is literally 100GB
Timothy Cain Developer of Fallout did a really great video about the state of the game industry -- https://youtube.com/watch?v=LMVQ30c7TcA [External Link] ((IIUC some of the devs for Baulders Gate 3 were from Bioware and connected to Fallout I can't remember the exact details -- to show the contrast between old school devs and new devs))
Counter-Strike 2 is out now with Linux support
3 Oct 2023 at 10:33 am UTC Likes: 1
3 Oct 2023 at 10:33 am UTC Likes: 1
So i spent 3 nights trying to figure out how to convert maps from csgo to cs2 on linux and the closest I got was turning bsp map files into vmf's using a tool here:
https://github.com/ata4/bspsrc/releases [External Link]
There also seems to be a script "game/csgo/import_scripts/import_map_community.py" that can be combined with $USER installed python
`python -m venv $HOME/.python/`
`$HOME/.python/bin/pip install xyz-dependency`
`$HOME/.python/bin/python "$HOME/cs2/game/csgo/import_scripts/import_map_community_linux.py" "$HOME/csgo/csgo" "$HOME/csgo_maps" "$HOME/cs2/game/csgo" surf_ski_2_go_cs2 surf_ski_2_go -usebsp`
The directory separators need to be swapped out in the py, and the keycode for [ Enter ] to continue doesnt work for me so swapped it with 127 Backspace to run the script, and then I ran into a error of it trying to find a binary called `source1import`
Anyways -- it's been an interesting rodeo -- but I may have to try again later as I dont have a windows computer to test.
Also of particular interest is https://github.com/kristiker/source1import [External Link]
I was able to use the scripts from utils to import, I am not sure how much the file structure has changed since they were written but I suspect they may contain hints about conversion -- in my case I attempted and imported GoldenEye Source maps
https://github.com/ata4/bspsrc/releases [External Link]
There also seems to be a script "game/csgo/import_scripts/import_map_community.py" that can be combined with $USER installed python
`python -m venv $HOME/.python/`
`$HOME/.python/bin/pip install xyz-dependency`
`$HOME/.python/bin/python "$HOME/cs2/game/csgo/import_scripts/import_map_community_linux.py" "$HOME/csgo/csgo" "$HOME/csgo_maps" "$HOME/cs2/game/csgo" surf_ski_2_go_cs2 surf_ski_2_go -usebsp`
The directory separators need to be swapped out in the py, and the keycode for [ Enter ] to continue doesnt work for me so swapped it with 127 Backspace to run the script, and then I ran into a error of it trying to find a binary called `source1import`
Anyways -- it's been an interesting rodeo -- but I may have to try again later as I dont have a windows computer to test.
Also of particular interest is https://github.com/kristiker/source1import [External Link]
I was able to use the scripts from utils to import, I am not sure how much the file structure has changed since they were written but I suspect they may contain hints about conversion -- in my case I attempted and imported GoldenEye Source maps
cd "$HOME/workspace/source1import/utils/"
python scripts_import.py -i "$HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/sourcemods/gesource" -e "$HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Counter-Strike Global Offensive" -b cs2
python particles_import.py -i "$HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/sourcemods/gesource" -e "$HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Counter-Strike Global Offensive" -b cs2
python scenes_import.py -i "$HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/sourcemods/gesource" -e "$HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Counter-Strike Global Offensive" -b cs2
python models_import.py -i "$HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/sourcemods/gesource" -e "$HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Counter-Strike Global Offensive" -b cs2
python materials_import.py -i "$HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/sourcemods/gesource" -e "$HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Counter-Strike Global Offensive" -b cs2
Gearbits is one to watch for mech combat fans
3 Oct 2023 at 8:20 am UTC
3 Oct 2023 at 8:20 am UTC
Quoting: ValckIn light of recent events, it might be more important than ever to actually look at the engine that's used in a game before getting too hyped up...It took some googling, but on the you-tube page fans eluded to it being unity. My condolences to the developer.
EA expanding EA Anti-Cheat - bad news for Steam Deck / Linux
30 Sep 2023 at 1:57 am UTC Likes: 1
30 Sep 2023 at 1:57 am UTC Likes: 1
They call it "anti-cheat" -- but what it really is -- EMBRACE, EXTEND, EXTINGUISH ... namely their competitors.
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