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Steam Deck Previews are up, plus dbrand announce Project Killswitch
8 Feb 2022 at 2:57 am UTC Likes: 7
8 Feb 2022 at 2:57 am UTC Likes: 7
Quoting: mark348I wonder what are the sales numbers for the deck.Well, until Feb 25, technically zero.
Indie store itch.io comes out swinging against NFTs
8 Feb 2022 at 1:11 am UTC Likes: 1
A loopy president can declare anything he wants. Doesn't make the problems with trying to use Bitcoin for normal transactions disappear.
8 Feb 2022 at 1:11 am UTC Likes: 1
Quoting: ArtenBitcoin alredy established as legitimate curency. It's legal tender in El Salvador. Another country reportedly make it legal tender this year.Yeah, I heard about the El Salvador thing. So . . . does anyone actually use it as legal tender? Go into the supermarket and pay with crypto? Lay a smidgen of a bitcoin on a street vendor for some tacos?
A loopy president can declare anything he wants. Doesn't make the problems with trying to use Bitcoin for normal transactions disappear.
Indie store itch.io comes out swinging against NFTs
8 Feb 2022 at 1:08 am UTC Likes: 2
I will agree that cryptocurrencies are useful if you're trying, as either a government or an individual/business, to get around American sanctions, which is certainly the case for Venezuela. But I suspect that advantage is going to seriously attenuate soon. The effectiveness of American sanctions in the first place is based on the single point of control that is the Swift international transaction system, which is controlled by the Americans. But it seems like various actors who are getting increasingly worried about that, such as China and Russia, are in the process of making systems that can bypass/duplicate Swift. If countries can use those, they might not have nearly as much use for crypto.
8 Feb 2022 at 1:08 am UTC Likes: 2
Quoting: ertuquequeFirst of all, cryptocurrencies are not (yet) mainstream because most 1st world countries don't have any significant problem with their money (yet) and 1st world countries' opinion are the ones that matter between themselves... You don't have to explain the usefulness of cryptocurrencies to an Argentinian, Venezuelan or a Greek, they very well know that cryptocurrencies are far better than their FIAT money and their government cannot seize it as they can do with USD and other FIAT money.Uhhh . . . the fiat currency of Greece is the Euro, which is a serious problem for Greece's economy in various ways, but I wouldn't think would be a problem for individual Greeks, or have any weird problems with transaction costs or anything.
I will agree that cryptocurrencies are useful if you're trying, as either a government or an individual/business, to get around American sanctions, which is certainly the case for Venezuela. But I suspect that advantage is going to seriously attenuate soon. The effectiveness of American sanctions in the first place is based on the single point of control that is the Swift international transaction system, which is controlled by the Americans. But it seems like various actors who are getting increasingly worried about that, such as China and Russia, are in the process of making systems that can bypass/duplicate Swift. If countries can use those, they might not have nearly as much use for crypto.
Heroic Games Launcher for Epic Games on Linux gets some more fixes
8 Feb 2022 at 12:54 am UTC Likes: 2
8 Feb 2022 at 12:54 am UTC Likes: 2
Quoting: melkemindYou mean like, this toaster? [External Link]Quoting: robertosf92Tim Sweeney's comments came about at a time when he was battling apple for the right to distribute software in places other than the App Store. I don't think he cares about linux tbh.Right. He cares about money. If he thinks there's money to be made with the Steam Deck, he'll probably consider supporting it. He'd probably consider supporting a toaster if it could make him some cash.
Indie store itch.io comes out swinging against NFTs
7 Feb 2022 at 10:27 pm UTC Likes: 4
7 Feb 2022 at 10:27 pm UTC Likes: 4
Well. I watched that whoooole video. It was good. Seems both cryptocurrency in general and NFTs in specific are significantly worse than I thought. Which is impressive since I didn't think much of them. I mean, I used to think cryptocurrencies were things that didn't work as currency and have therefore become mere empty vehicles for speculation. And it turns out that's just at best . . . there's all the layers of scams, failure to function, dominance by the richest and earliest, and a certain inherent Ponziness due to the inability to cash out unless new people are bringing cash in. Not to mention that the tech base is poorer than I thought, and probably fundamentally incapable of operating at the scale of real currencies.
Meanwhile, I thought NFTs were just, y'know, ridiculous and stupid in the sense that they're giving someone "ownership" of an image or something that anyone can just copy. I didn't realize, for instance, that you generally don't even get the original, it's hosted some random place and what you've bought is a url. And I didn't realize the depth of scamminess and gullibility. And I didn't realize how useless the other potential functions seem to be, given the really bad security. And I didn't realize how deep the inherent lack of privacy was. This stuff isn't just amusing, it's toxic.
Looking at the hypothetical best case of using an NFT to hold, like, a deed to property or something. We already have deeds to property. This would be solving a problem I don't have. Just, solving it very badly. To take just one basic problem: NFTs are unique . . . within one particular blockchain. So, every different cryptocurrency supporting NFTs can apparently have its own separate "unique" example of the same thing. So, if I had an Ethereum based deed to property X, someone else could have an Ethereum-Variant-A based deed to the same property, and someone else could have an Ethereum-Variant-B based one, and there are a lot of Ethereum variants . . . Plus, the actual deed to the property probably would not be in the NFT token thingie itself, it would be hosted somewhere else, and if someone got access to that somewhere else and swapped the "deed" file out for one that said "Thanks for the nice house, sucker!" why, that would be what my NFT now gave me ownership of.
Meanwhile, I thought NFTs were just, y'know, ridiculous and stupid in the sense that they're giving someone "ownership" of an image or something that anyone can just copy. I didn't realize, for instance, that you generally don't even get the original, it's hosted some random place and what you've bought is a url. And I didn't realize the depth of scamminess and gullibility. And I didn't realize how useless the other potential functions seem to be, given the really bad security. And I didn't realize how deep the inherent lack of privacy was. This stuff isn't just amusing, it's toxic.
Looking at the hypothetical best case of using an NFT to hold, like, a deed to property or something. We already have deeds to property. This would be solving a problem I don't have. Just, solving it very badly. To take just one basic problem: NFTs are unique . . . within one particular blockchain. So, every different cryptocurrency supporting NFTs can apparently have its own separate "unique" example of the same thing. So, if I had an Ethereum based deed to property X, someone else could have an Ethereum-Variant-A based deed to the same property, and someone else could have an Ethereum-Variant-B based one, and there are a lot of Ethereum variants . . . Plus, the actual deed to the property probably would not be in the NFT token thingie itself, it would be hosted somewhere else, and if someone got access to that somewhere else and swapped the "deed" file out for one that said "Thanks for the nice house, sucker!" why, that would be what my NFT now gave me ownership of.
Stadia continues the slow downward spiral
6 Feb 2022 at 8:40 pm UTC Likes: 3
The way people who dislike the idea of electric cars think batteries will work, is not the way they actually work in practice. In practice, you plug the thing in every night when you get home, or after you go shopping or whatever, and it's full next morning. I haven't even bothered getting a fast charging station, I just charge the thing on normal house current, because "incredibly slow" is fast enough. And you never have to worry about gas stations again.
Even road trips are fine, the only time it gets annoying is if you have to wait behind other people while they're charging. But that's not the technology, that's just the state of the infrastructure, just like it's annoying if there are no gas stations where you need one.
6 Feb 2022 at 8:40 pm UTC Likes: 3
Quoting: jarhead_hCloud gaming is like electric cars - sounds great until you get the MAJOR stumbling block of the entire thing. With electric cars, it's still the exact same problem that has plagued them since the Baker Electric launched in the 1890's - the batteries. With Stadia it's the REQUIREMENT of an internet connection.Mmmm . . . nah. I have an electric car, it's fine. Analogy fails.
The way people who dislike the idea of electric cars think batteries will work, is not the way they actually work in practice. In practice, you plug the thing in every night when you get home, or after you go shopping or whatever, and it's full next morning. I haven't even bothered getting a fast charging station, I just charge the thing on normal house current, because "incredibly slow" is fast enough. And you never have to worry about gas stations again.
Even road trips are fine, the only time it gets annoying is if you have to wait behind other people while they're charging. But that's not the technology, that's just the state of the infrastructure, just like it's annoying if there are no gas stations where you need one.
New Unity developer needed for Inscryption, work may include a Linux port
6 Feb 2022 at 6:24 pm UTC
6 Feb 2022 at 6:24 pm UTC
Quoting: scaineWell, to be honest I was indulging some mild sarcasm just now. My opinion about all that is, well, in my post at the end of the thread. I don't actually think there's anything wrong with what you said.Quoting: Purple Library GuyWow, talk about bad timing, eh!! I don't think I'm particularly zealous in the native vs proton argument, however, but mentioning that I'd wait for this game to go native, in this article, straight after that argument, is indeed really crass! I do buy a LOT of proton games, but these tend to be both AAA and stupidly discounted.Quoting: scaineThisQuoting: Purple Library GuyThat doesn't sound good... but I actually don't know what you're referring to!?Quoting: scaineI played the Steam demo and it's excellent. Reviewers do give it a hard time for its second act, but apparently it recovers well in act three.Uhhh . . . according to a bit of thread involving Liam a few days ago, aren't you, like, not allowed to say that?
I'd have bought it already if it was native, but it's one of those games that gets a pass from me exactly because it's not. It's a Unity game and his previous two titles were both available for Linux (Pony Island and The Hex)... indeed many of his Itch.io projects even support Linux too, so I was gutted when this didn't.
If there's a Linux port in my future, it's getting bought immediately.
In my defence, I only mention it here because the article is literally about the potential for a Linux port.
Stadia continues the slow downward spiral
6 Feb 2022 at 6:09 pm UTC Likes: 1
And it seems like that would have been more or less what I got, if it weren't for Google having no interest in the concept of "moderate success" and so being in the process of trying to pull the plug, but save face by doing it slowly enough so nobody really notices.
6 Feb 2022 at 6:09 pm UTC Likes: 1
Quoting: GuestPersonally, I wanted Stadia to be a tepid success. Successful enough to keep developing the technologies, prompting developers to learn to make Linux versions of games so there would be more Linux game developers, maybe being motivated to make improvements to the Linux graphics/sound/etc stack and pass some upstream. Not successful enough to constitute anything like a major movement towards game streaming being the future, which is a really rancid concept I want nothing to do with.Quoting: t3gWhat enhancements are you referring to? Because you might be surprised to learn that Google does contribute (most directly applicable is the hlsl -> spir-v work).Quoting: GuestI did want Stadia to fail because they piggybacked on Linux and their "enhancements" never made it upstream. When the Steam Deck comes out with SteamOS 3.0, Valve's enhancements are going to be upstreamed. Plus, it was doomed to fail since they made you pay for each game on top of paying for the steaming service. If they just charged a monthly fee, then it would have been better. Especially for a service where you never really owned your games that you paid money for. This is true of digital content, but at least you can install to the hard drive with GOG and Steam.Quoting: t3gI’m glad Stadia failed so you can stop posting articles about it. Yes, it was based on Linux, but developers didn’t use that code for native ports on GOG and Steam. I thought of it like Android where it was a closed Linux ecosystem.A) you want a service to fail, a service that others use, because you....don't want to read news about it?
B) you also want a service to fail because developers aren't releasing native desktop GNU/Linux versions? Despite no company ever claiming it would lead to that (Google never, not once, claimed this, and no developer to my knowledge ever claimed this either).
It's not like Steam is an open platform. It's quite closed. So are the majority of the games you're likely to be playing. Just want to point that out.
I have my issues with GOG not providing Galaxy or a native Linux build of certain games, but you can always use Lutris to get the Windows games running and many times, it will run better with Lutris' Wine, Wine-GE, or standard Proton. Oh and I can download the .exe or .sh file on backups. I love that GOG is DRM free and why I have 400+ games in my library.
Personally I wanted Stadia to succeed so that I could play certain games that need to be always online anyway, or simply won't otherwise run on my rig. In a properly supported manner.
And it seems like that would have been more or less what I got, if it weren't for Google having no interest in the concept of "moderate success" and so being in the process of trying to pull the plug, but save face by doing it slowly enough so nobody really notices.
New Unity developer needed for Inscryption, work may include a Linux port
6 Feb 2022 at 5:31 am UTC
6 Feb 2022 at 5:31 am UTC
Quoting: scaineThisQuoting: Purple Library GuyThat doesn't sound good... but I actually don't know what you're referring to!?Quoting: scaineI played the Steam demo and it's excellent. Reviewers do give it a hard time for its second act, but apparently it recovers well in act three.Uhhh . . . according to a bit of thread involving Liam a few days ago, aren't you, like, not allowed to say that?
I'd have bought it already if it was native, but it's one of those games that gets a pass from me exactly because it's not. It's a Unity game and his previous two titles were both available for Linux (Pony Island and The Hex)... indeed many of his Itch.io projects even support Linux too, so I was gutted when this didn't.
If there's a Linux port in my future, it's getting bought immediately.
The Hand of Merlin RPG coming to Linux officially, sometime March onwards
4 Feb 2022 at 11:48 pm UTC Likes: 1
4 Feb 2022 at 11:48 pm UTC Likes: 1
See, it seems to me the current status of this game is something a lot of studios could use: It works on Linux, but since they aren't sure their ducks are in a row it's not yet "officially supported". We get what we want, pretty much, and they aren't (yet) spending staff time supporting it. I don't think anyone would complain a ton about that as an ongoing status for various games that seem to have basically concluded that while having the game run on Linux is easy enough, supporting it would be a chore, so they do nothing at all.
- Valve wins legal battle against patent troll Rothschild and associated companies
- Steam Deck now out of stock in the EU in addition to USA, Canada and Japan [updated]
- Free and open source RTS 0 A.D. release 28 "Boiorix" is live
- Widelands, the open source Settlers-like, devs plan to ban all AI generated contributions
- Kerbal Space Program spiritual successor Kitten Space Agency now has a Linux version
- > See more over 30 days here
How to setup OpenMW for modern Morrowind on Linux / SteamOS and Steam Deck
How to install Hollow Knight: Silksong mods on Linux, SteamOS and Steam Deck