Latest Comments by BotchFrivarg
Anti-cheat will still be one of the biggest problems for the new Steam Machine
13 Nov 2025 at 9:53 pm UTC Likes: 1
Anyway that out of the way I think it is my turn to call the devs who want kernel level anti-cheat lazy, because it is the lazy solution to cheaters. Cheating isn't going away and the best you can hope for is that most people don't notice it (and think that those people who where really good where just some people who are playing at a lower rank then they are actually capable of for funsies (aka smurfs)), kernel level anti cheat just moves the cheat to hardware (a raspberry pi and some advanced image analyzing can do a lot here on the low end, a PCI-e low level RAM debug card with hacked firmware does a lot on the high end). On top of that note that really obvious cheating is pretty easy to prove even without kernel level anti-cheat, and thus that kernel level anti cheat is mostly a way for devs to go "see we are doing something about those cheaters!" without having to spend a lot of actual effort. (Also that "more linux users where cheaters than legitimate" statistic is fishy, how would you know if your anti-cheat tech didn't work? If it was just that the reports on cheating dropped maybe it was just because more linux users reported cheaters? Or some kind of placebo effect where a lot of players where like "sure can't be a cheater since they banned linux users"?)
13 Nov 2025 at 9:53 pm UTC Likes: 1
I think it's fairly likely what will happen in the next 2-3 years is they'll make EAC work on Steam OS. Essentially all it needs is to boot in secure boot mode with a signed kernel and a module that does the verification. It will piss off a lot of purists, but it can happen. It won't work on all Linuxes of course, but it can work on these devices.Without some form of remote attestation this won't prevent the kernel from lying towards user space (including to root!) that it has indeed booted into secure boot mode, and is signed. (an example in that direction is how microg bypasses the signature requirement of googleplay in that case the android rom has been modified to lie about the microg signature) On windows being closed source this is much easier to achieve since MS has tight control over who can install drivers, sure it ain't perfect but do pull something of like lying about secure boot and signatures you'd first need to find an kernel exploit.
Anyway that out of the way I think it is my turn to call the devs who want kernel level anti-cheat lazy, because it is the lazy solution to cheaters. Cheating isn't going away and the best you can hope for is that most people don't notice it (and think that those people who where really good where just some people who are playing at a lower rank then they are actually capable of for funsies (aka smurfs)), kernel level anti cheat just moves the cheat to hardware (a raspberry pi and some advanced image analyzing can do a lot here on the low end, a PCI-e low level RAM debug card with hacked firmware does a lot on the high end). On top of that note that really obvious cheating is pretty easy to prove even without kernel level anti-cheat, and thus that kernel level anti cheat is mostly a way for devs to go "see we are doing something about those cheaters!" without having to spend a lot of actual effort. (Also that "more linux users where cheaters than legitimate" statistic is fishy, how would you know if your anti-cheat tech didn't work? If it was just that the reports on cheating dropped maybe it was just because more linux users reported cheaters? Or some kind of placebo effect where a lot of players where like "sure can't be a cheater since they banned linux users"?)
New Valve trademark for 'Steam Frame', looks like we're getting new hardware
4 Sep 2025 at 9:19 am UTC Likes: 2
4 Sep 2025 at 9:19 am UTC Likes: 2
Though currently not in the market for a new VR headset/gear (the index is doing pretty well for how much I use it), I an keeping an eye on this, since if the prices is right for what it delivers it might change my calculations.
Mesa 25.1 will default to Zink+NVK instead of the old Nouveau OpenGL driver for NVIDIA on Linux
11 Mar 2025 at 4:22 pm UTC Likes: 4
11 Mar 2025 at 4:22 pm UTC Likes: 4
Does make sense, always kinda expected that one day HW specific opengl drivers would be gone (of course not sure when that day will be, might be decades in the future, might be tomorrow) to be replaced with layers like zink. Also makes sense to try this first with nouveau AFAICT that driver always had problems (of course in large part due to no or at best very limited support from nvidia), and I believe the vulkan counterpart (NVK) is in much better shape (no thanks to nvidia, as far as I know), so all in all nvidia being the first to go zink + vulkan (NVK in this case) is probably the best option to have high quality opensource drivers for nvidia cards.
Wayland Colour Management and HDR Protocol finally merged
13 Feb 2025 at 3:04 pm UTC Likes: 1
13 Feb 2025 at 3:04 pm UTC Likes: 1
Note that the current HDR/Color management code in KDE is already (partially) an implementation (ok strictly speaking a beta version, but very close to the final release, and final version has already patches ready), so at least KDE should be in a good spot to have full support in an upcoming release. The final piece of the puzzle would be actual applications that make use of it (though anything that's sRGB should already work pretty well since that will be the default for anything "untagged"). There are still some bits and pieces missing (mostly related to calibration and profiling), but those (provided you have a modernish monitor whose manufacturer didn't cheap out and/or lie in the EDID information) should only matter to people who want to do things like properly soft-proof print work.
All in all this is very good news!
All in all this is very good news!
KDE KWin may gain early HDR support for gaming
1 Nov 2023 at 11:09 pm UTC Likes: 3
Another thing is that HDR strictly speaking is not about more contrast, but about being able to display closer to true blacks, and true specular highlights.
Anyway with all that out of the way, excited for these changes, because if done correctly also like well over half way to have better color management on wayland than X ever had (and ever will have)
1 Nov 2023 at 11:09 pm UTC Likes: 3
Quoting: ShmerlAbout HDR, see also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDnbWaIMJJA [External Link]Haven't seen the video, but this isn't strictly true, though commonly (read currently all consumer available content) HDR (high dynamic range) content is also in a wider gamut (technical term for larger color space), it isn't a requirement for being HDR, strictly speaking the only requirement is that either the blacks are blacker, or the whites are brighter, than non HDR display techniques for something to be HDR (which makes it really easy for oled displays to be HDR since the blacks are really black!). It is in essence quite possible to use the PQ.2020, or HLG transfer functions with the sRGB primaries (so more dynamic range, but not more colors, also the inverse is also possible rec.2020 primaries with the sRGB/gamma 2.2 transfer).
In short it's not about making things brighter selectively, it means larger color space.
Another thing is that HDR strictly speaking is not about more contrast, but about being able to display closer to true blacks, and true specular highlights.
Anyway with all that out of the way, excited for these changes, because if done correctly also like well over half way to have better color management on wayland than X ever had (and ever will have)
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- > See more over 30 days here
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