Quoting: pi4630Which are the two games on Linux that use Vulcan already?

There, you killed a baby seal, happy?
It's Vulkan :D

Quoting: liamdaweBeing realistic and trying to keep everyone's hype in check is not being pessimistic. I do wish people would understand the difference. I am looking outside the box here and not giving into hyped up speculation about our future.

I am optimistic for Linux gaming as I always am, wouldn't be running GOL if I wasn't.

I really like that you didn't throw yourself in the hype. I don't want false optimism and click bait titles and I'm glad you don't do that.

I think your position made us think a bit more than usual, which is a good thing! ;)

And even if you have made the opposite, we would still have argued about it... We're a Linux community after all :D

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Clearly mobile gaming is superior to the desktop market.
But I would say it's less that the console market (because the price per game is also very different).

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Quoting: t3gIf AAA developers and publishers bring their game to he switch and are forced to learn and use Vulkan, it is a huge benefit for everyone as they may use Vulkan for their PC releases too.

Right now, even with Nintendo using Vulkan, DirectX is still more interesting. Having a graphics engine based on DirectX ensures to have a game compatible with Windows and XBox. It's like 50% of the market. The rest is mainly Sony with its PS4. That's why Nintendo announcing they're supporting Vulkan just isn't enough. But if Sony announces it, it might change the situation.

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There is still a long term effect that might be beneficial for Linux.

In big game dev studios like Ubisoft, EA, etc. engines are often compatible with different graphics API. Of course, the less APIs the better, since it represents a lot of Q&A to verify that each APIs have around the same renderings for the same performances.

15 years ago, the default graphics API was OpenGL. But Khronos didn't improve this API for a long long time, and DirectX appeared and became more and more appealing to the developers. It was obviously easier to develop with DirectX than OpenGL (and its infinite number of extensions). Then the XBox was released and there were no real incentive to stay on the aging OpenGL API. Dev studios started to port there engines to DirectX 9, and since it was compatible with Windows and Xbox, no platform forced them to support OpenGL anymore. OpenGL became a "nice to have... eventually".

The PS2, PS3 and PS4 from Sony were released, but always with their own flavor of OpenGL (especially the shaders). The same goes for Nintendo with their GameCube, Wii and Wii U. So the dev studios still didn't have any incentive to port their 3D engines to the "true" OpenGL API, they already had to port it for Sony and Nintendo. And again, the less APIs, the better.

So: OpenGL is not interesting anymore + Linux's only API being OpenGL = no game on Linux.

Now, Nintendo announces that the Switch will run Vulkan. So porting an engine to Vulkan means that it is compatible with Windows, Linux, Android and Nintendo. It's starting to be appealing.

Nintendo is... nice. But I'm not sure the Switch will work. It's basically a big smartphone that can't phone. I think that the real announce that will have a big impact in the Linux world is if Sony declares that they support Vulkan. Whether it's for the PS4 or the PS5, that could change the balance in favor of using Vulkan as the default API. DirectX would just be the API that we have to use for the XBox's.

Of course, it would be nice if Apple could stop fooling around with their Metal API...

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Quoting: GuestI don’t get these developers/publishers who wait for people to tell them they want a linux version. They’ll sell 1 or 2% for Linux like everybody else…

Simple because when you're a very small team, dealing with just the Windows bugs can be very difficult, on top of improving the game even more. I am seeing that frequently.

For bigger teams, it's another story...

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Quoting: AnxiousInfusionLinux very much needs it's own "F-Zero".

There's Super Pilot:
https://dopagames.itch.io/superpilot [External Link]

They've just been Greenlit on Steam. They don't have a Linux port yet, but they're not against it. They just want to finish the game first, since they're still adding new features.

Although they haven't made any promise, I've tried a Linux build and it worked pretty well (they're friends of mine ;)). So at least, they're not going into technical issues when they'll have the manpower to support a Linux port.

View video on youtube.com

Edit: They've added a bunch of stuff since this video: tubes, pipes, boost pads, better AI & new tracks!

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Evolve?

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Quoting: tmtvlWait a minute... "sudo gedit"? That shouldn't work. Unless you've got sudo aliased to xdg-su, kdesu, gksu, or something like that.

"sudo gedit" will simply launch gedit as root. there's no rule AFAIK against that (except maybe the security risk of using an app on top of X), but it works nonetheless.

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That being said, Mastodon is a Twitter-like while Diaspora* is a Facebook-like. So it depends on the style of posts you want to do. I personally never really understood Twitter, although I tested it for a few years, I ended up using it like a poor RSS client.

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I'm using Diaspora* for a couple of years now. I think it's the most advanced decentralized social network. And also they're developing an agnostic API so that Diaspora* is just one server/client application of the whole network. There are also Friendica and Redmatrix (and maybe others) that can connect to the network as well, as you can see here: the-federation.info [External Link].

I don't know if Mastodon is part of the federation though... If it is then yeay! else there's a strong possibility that the project won't gather enough users to be interesting.

You can ask Fla ([email protected]) on Diaspora* about the possibilities to cross-post with a PHP plugin. I'm pretty sure it exists, I'm following a few accounts that I don't think they're entering the post manually.

Edit: actually GoL is one of the few sites that makes me stay on G+, but I'd really like to ditch G+ at some point.

I'm registered on this pod: framasphere.org [External Link], it's maintained by Framasoft, a french association that promotes free software and encourages to leave the GAFAM.

In D*, I like the fact that you can write your posts in Markdown, it gives you a lot of freedom in how you present your content. You can put an image right at the top, or in the middle of your post for instance.

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