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Latest Comments by Purple Library Guy
Northgard introduces the Clan of the Snake in a new DLC
23 Jul 2018 at 12:14 am UTC

Quoting: razing32Interesting they added a new faction with new gameplay mechanics.
Would be curios how it works in practice.
Just wish they got a better voice actress for that trailer. "Capeapble" <- what was that ?
It was a bit odd. I get the impression this bunch aren't supposed to be real vikings, like they're some kind of neighbouring slavs, like Bulgars or Huns or something. I mean really, what kind of viking doesn't care about fame?

The Linux version of Civilization VI should get cross-platform online play in the next few weeks
20 Jul 2018 at 11:14 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: scaine
Quoting: KristianOkay, so you are talking specific issues with particular games? I mean I get that crossplatform-play presents challenges, but the wording "practically impossible" made me think it was almost unheard of and a major breakthrough by Aspyr.
It is a major breakthrough. Ports rarely have cross-platform multiplayer unless the port was planned for the beginning. Lots of games have cross-platform multiplayer, but very few (third party) ports do, because they're often done after the original was released, so the original game has been designed with no thought as to how other platforms might perform. I think Anza explains it pretty well.
In any case, I seem to recall that we know for sure with Civ VI that there was a problem with a closed floating-point thingie in the original Windows version that caused precisely the de-syncing problem that's been talked about here. So, as scaine wondered in the first post, how did they fix it? Aspyr had previously stated in so many words that they weren't fixing it because they couldn't. What changed?

The sci-fi mystery game 'The Station' sold around 15% on Linux with low overall Steam sales
20 Jul 2018 at 4:05 pm UTC Likes: 3

Quoting: tuubi
Quoting: GuestAverage Steam sales numbers were about 32,000 in 2015. It should be noted that now it's probably even lower due to the massive boom in Steam releases caused by Steam Direct.
A wholly unscientific steamspy.com crawl seems to indicate that "0 .. 20,000" is actually the most common amount of sales for an indie game, even for games released well before Steam Direct.
That's the thing about averages, they can be skewed badly by really big numbers at the high end, like a few AAA selling gajillions each. You get the same problem with incomes when there's billionaires waltzing around--it's why you shouldn't trust anyone telling you the economy's fine because average income has gone up, say--that could still mean most people's income has gone down, but the hyperrich have made out like gangbusters. Look for the median instead.

The sci-fi mystery game 'The Station' sold around 15% on Linux with low overall Steam sales
19 Jul 2018 at 5:33 pm UTC Likes: 5

Quoting: g000hI'm sure it's good and worth the money, but.... When I observe my own gaming..... 150+ hours of Slay The Spire, 250+ hours of FTL, 300+ hours of 7 Days To Die, 200+ hours of Rust - I paid less than £10 ($12) for each of those games, and look at the number of hours of enjoyment I've had with them (Real value!)
There's only 168 hours in 7 days, how could you have more than that in 7 Days to Die? Are you sure you weren't playing A Fortnight to Die? ;)

TUNG (The Ultimate Nerd Game) made me realise how stupid I really am
16 Jul 2018 at 8:27 pm UTC Likes: 5

A game called TUNG that twists your brain. So it's a . . . TUNG twister.

We Happy Few has a brand new trailer out
15 Jul 2018 at 4:29 am UTC

Quoting: Shmerl
Quoting: Purple Library GuyWell, it is a British game, so I'm sure there's an echo there. But it's different too; The Prisoner was this separate space from the world, this elite prison thing run by the near-infallible organization. We Happy Few is in the world, a dystopia thing where the government is doing this stuff to everyone--plus the trailer gives me the impression that, being British, it's done pretty inefficiently, so rather than near-infallible things are going to crap. Rather "Brazil"-esque.
The studio is Canadian actually. :) And yes, they said [External Link] several works were an inspiration for them including Brazil, The Prisoner, A Clockwork Orange, Brave New World, 1984 and Doctor Who.
Canadian? Well, hurrah!
It does have a rather "Clockwork Orange" feel to it too, doesn't it?

Prepare a glass for some more Wine as DXVK 0.62 is out with possible performance improvements
15 Jul 2018 at 1:30 am UTC

Quoting: Guest
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: rkfg
Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: legluondunetIs WIne and its derivated (DVK...) the future of Linux gaming?
Game developers could find here an easy way to port their games for Linux gamers.
In the end, the only thing that should truly matter is the actual end-result. Does it work, does it work well and is it supported? If a game developer packages it with some form of Wine and you can tick those three...then it shouldn't really matter much.
We're all aware of the games that has a Windows version working better in Wine than the native version. While it's kinda shame, if you think about this for a minute it only means that sometimes Wine is worth a shot. Native versions and purity is good to have but not always an option, really. Wine is mostly considered a necessary evil because it's often cumbersome to set up and mess with the library overrides and tweaks. If the developer/publisher/porter do that for you so that your experience is the same "click the play button", does it still worry you? I think I can happily live with that. And I guess Gaben is moving in exactly that direction.
I think, though, that basically it's impossible for a thing like Wine to result in equivalent performance. This is not a problem for games where performance isn't an issue either because they're "smaller" games not demanding too much of the hardware, or older games that demanded a lot of old hardware. But when it comes to the "latest and greatest", Wine-based releases would mean Windows games would be consistently faster than Linux games, and the basic gamer position on Linux would then simply be "it's slow".
I still like Wine, though. But I don't like the idea of Wine as the default "release" method for games on Linux, no matter how good Wine gets. It would relegate Linux to a ghetto.
I guess the main reason this bothers me is that to a fair extent I see games on Linux as more of a means than an end--I want to see the Linux desktop grow to the point of being a recognized serious platform with a big share of desktop use. I want this because I support Open Source software, because I dislike monopolies, because I specifically dislike Microsoft, because more Linux desktop users means more Linux desktop development and bugfixing, and because many of the remaining problems of the Linux desktop are related to it being too small for outfits doing desktop-related things (software, hardware, standards) to have to take it into account. A Wine-based gaming solution would in theory solve the problem of game availability for existing Linux users, but with inferior performance would be less good in terms of the problem of gamers being willing to switch to Linux, so it wouldn't help grow the Linux desktop.

Mind you, there is a related issue where Wine could be a big help to Linux desktop adoption: The situation where Wine will easily play older Windows software, and newer Windows versions won't, either at all or not easily. This seems like it's going to become more and more common.
Hmm, I do dual boot and have noticed equivalent performance running some windows games using wine

Take DOOM 2016 for example, I have monitored gpu and cpu usage for it using hwmonitor on windows 10, and then the same on linux mint using psensor and cpu and gpu usage seems to check out about the same.. and an extra bonus, doom 2016 actually loads faster on linux for me
And . . . framerate?

Prepare a glass for some more Wine as DXVK 0.62 is out with possible performance improvements
14 Jul 2018 at 7:15 pm UTC

Quoting: qptain Nemo
Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: GuestI just look forward to a day where I don't dual boot to play with friends. It's the only thing I dual boot for. Plus as a bonus aged software that is no longer supported should live on for us using wine well after windows users stop being able to run it.
Well, stranger things have happened. DOSBox is around for a reason, perhaps one day Wine will be such a tool. It is an interesting thought, but we're likely thinking quite a long time in the future with that.
As far as I know it already happens. I remember hearing about people having to fiddle and struggle with games that I can play in Wine just fine.
Happened to me once, three or four years ago. I was happily playing original Starcraft on Wine, and my daughter's boyfriend thought it looked cool so I lent him the CD. He took it home, couldn't get it to work. I think probably he could have, there was like some kind of compatibility mode or something, but still.

Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War is out with Linux support
14 Jul 2018 at 7:10 pm UTC Likes: 1

I want the Hello Kitty version.

Prepare a glass for some more Wine as DXVK 0.62 is out with possible performance improvements
14 Jul 2018 at 7:04 pm UTC

Quoting: rkfg
Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: legluondunetIs WIne and its derivated (DVK...) the future of Linux gaming?
Game developers could find here an easy way to port their games for Linux gamers.
In the end, the only thing that should truly matter is the actual end-result. Does it work, does it work well and is it supported? If a game developer packages it with some form of Wine and you can tick those three...then it shouldn't really matter much.
We're all aware of the games that has a Windows version working better in Wine than the native version. While it's kinda shame, if you think about this for a minute it only means that sometimes Wine is worth a shot. Native versions and purity is good to have but not always an option, really. Wine is mostly considered a necessary evil because it's often cumbersome to set up and mess with the library overrides and tweaks. If the developer/publisher/porter do that for you so that your experience is the same "click the play button", does it still worry you? I think I can happily live with that. And I guess Gaben is moving in exactly that direction.
I think, though, that basically it's impossible for a thing like Wine to result in equivalent performance. This is not a problem for games where performance isn't an issue either because they're "smaller" games not demanding too much of the hardware, or older games that demanded a lot of old hardware. But when it comes to the "latest and greatest", Wine-based releases would mean Windows games would be consistently faster than Linux games, and the basic gamer position on Linux would then simply be "it's slow".
I still like Wine, though. But I don't like the idea of Wine as the default "release" method for games on Linux, no matter how good Wine gets. It would relegate Linux to a ghetto.
I guess the main reason this bothers me is that to a fair extent I see games on Linux as more of a means than an end--I want to see the Linux desktop grow to the point of being a recognized serious platform with a big share of desktop use. I want this because I support Open Source software, because I dislike monopolies, because I specifically dislike Microsoft, because more Linux desktop users means more Linux desktop development and bugfixing, and because many of the remaining problems of the Linux desktop are related to it being too small for outfits doing desktop-related things (software, hardware, standards) to have to take it into account. A Wine-based gaming solution would in theory solve the problem of game availability for existing Linux users, but with inferior performance would be less good in terms of the problem of gamers being willing to switch to Linux, so it wouldn't help grow the Linux desktop.

Mind you, there is a related issue where Wine could be a big help to Linux desktop adoption: The situation where Wine will easily play older Windows software, and newer Windows versions won't, either at all or not easily. This seems like it's going to become more and more common.