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Latest Comments by Purple Library Guy
Campo Santo, developer of Firewatch has joined Valve
24 Apr 2018 at 1:25 am UTC Likes: 4

Quoting: ShmerlAnd DRM free means, that you now can make a backup, and legally install it later, even if the store closes down.
I don't think that's what DRM means, though. Legality, while people who use DRM schemes often count on it to give teeth to their DRM measures, in itself is not DRM. If I publish an ebook as a .pdf along with a legal document threatening massive retaliation if the buyer does anything with it that might constitute acting like they owned the thing, the legal document does not constitute DRM. And, absent any DRM measures to circumvent, it cannot trigger the draconian legal penalties for circumventing DRM; it would have to rely on copyright, contract law or whatever.

Similarly if you have a Steam game that has no technical encumbrances to doing with it as you will, their policies would not constitute DRM even if they were considerably more blatant in their restrictions than seems to be the case. They would just be bad policies. If you want to say "Steam games without DRM are still hedged about by Valve's bad/questionable policies and they should not be", sure, fine. But that is a different thing from DRM.

As to Steam backups requiring the Steam client to un-backup . . . that's really not unusual for backup software. Backup tools work like that--you use the tool to back the stuff up, then you use the same tool to push the stuff forward again. Nobody calls Linux Mint's backup tool "DRM" (I've been known to call it "crap" though). It is bad if Steam's terms of use imply making your own backups is a violation, but again if there's no technical barrier to doing so, that's not DRM, just a bad policy. Maybe an intentionally bad policy, maybe just an accidentally bad policy.

Paradox has announced Stellaris: Distant Stars, a new story pack
24 Apr 2018 at 1:02 am UTC

Quoting: Philadelphus
There’s Always a Bigger Fish: Come face to face with a number of unique gargantuan creatures that exist and thrive in the vacuum of space.
Annnnd I'm sold. I picked up Leviathans pretty much entirely for the incredibly awesome Ether Drake. I love the concept of space-based lifeforms sailing through the void, looking on all our planet-based life as so many motes of dust. ^_^
You know what I could go for? Any time you encounter or start a fight with one of those Leviathan-class critters, a (skippable) cinematic cutscene showing their full glory, like.

Valve has removed the Steam Machine section from Steam
23 Apr 2018 at 3:54 pm UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: slaapliedjeSteamOS is better than Ubuntu, for a game console. There are thongs they tune for the kernel.
It's not really about how they tune the thongs. The question is, who is wearing them?

Paradox has announced Stellaris: Distant Stars, a new story pack
23 Apr 2018 at 3:49 pm UTC Likes: 5

It's funny how different features are important to different people. I can totally see that point of view, but for me I'm not really interested at all in multiplayer so that problem just doesn't hit me at all and I really like the game.

Campo Santo, developer of Firewatch has joined Valve
22 Apr 2018 at 8:59 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: tuubiI think the term DRM generally only applies to technical measures that restrict the use of a product. Licenses and legal restrictions are a related but separate subject.
I'd agree. Licenses and legal measures may be Rights Management, but they are not Digital. Although there are odd interactions--it has been pointed out that many lame encryption schemes exist not so much out of any hope of stopping anyone from accessing the encrypted content as to trigger massive legal penalties for the defeating of encryption in e.g. the DMCA.

Campo Santo, developer of Firewatch has joined Valve
22 Apr 2018 at 4:53 pm UTC Likes: 8

Quoting: Comandante Ñoñardo
Quoting: Doc AngeloI don't think so. But maybe we have different definitions of what DRM means.

The Steam client is the very same as GOG Galaxy or the GOG website.

http://steam.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games [External Link]
No! GOG Galaxy client is OPTIONAL for to download the games, Steam client is MANDATORY for to download the games...
Wait, so you're saying that software having an installer == DRM?

Campo Santo, developer of Firewatch has joined Valve
22 Apr 2018 at 4:48 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: JarnoIsn't that the developer who abused DMCA?
The DMCA needs some abusing.

The developer of Helium Rain gave an update on their sales, low overall sales but a high Linux percentage
21 Apr 2018 at 5:49 pm UTC

Bought it a while ago, haven't had a chance to play yet but it seems neat and developer seems like good people. Hope this gets found by a wider community so devs can make a bit of dough, even if (sigh) that means the Linux percentage falls some. Marketing is kind of a dirty word to me, but you play the game with the rules as they exist--want sales, gonna need a bit of that stuff.

AMD has announced 'Radeon-Rays' an open source ray tracing SDK using Vulkan
21 Apr 2018 at 1:06 am UTC

Quoting: etonbears
Quoting: elmapul
Quoting: etonbearsBest not to use UWP at all. Neither the architecture nor the market seem compelling to me.
we can avoid UWP all as we want, but how to convince developers to not use it?
Actually, I meant that comment from a developer perspective. The UWP development model is inferior to the Win32/64 model for desktop and laptop computers, where Microsoft are still reasonably strong. The whole point of UWP is to provide an equivalent to the iOS development model for tablets and phones, but that is a market in which Microsoft is almost invisible.

I'm not sure that Microsoft have yet realised that they are no longer important enough to enforce market adoption in all segments. It is quite possible that UWP will go the same way as Silverlight and countless other "innovative" technologies that were introduced more for Microsoft's benefit than for users or developers.
I certainly hope so. From your lips to the tech gods' ears, old bean.

The Vulkan-based compatibility layer for D3D 11 and Wine 'DXVK' has a new release out
19 Apr 2018 at 11:22 pm UTC

[quote=cRaZy-bisCuiT]
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: cRaZy-bisCuiT
Quoting: Purple Library GuyI am eagerly anticipating the day when this kind of graphics stuff is as boring as office software is now, because it all works smooth and fast and preinstalled.
Too banal for you to understand? Why the aggro?
I'd like to apologize, I'm sorry!
Takes a big person to say that. Cheers old bean!