DRM is bad. That said, it may not be a bad thing if Vulkan has it. The tactical issue (it may seriously harm developer uptake if Vulkan doesn't have a feature that corporations insist on) may outweigh the basic one (DRM is bad).

I mean, the way I see it goes something like this: Vulkan uptake --> Easy cross-platform development of games and other graphics-heavy things --> Fewer barriers to Linux use --> (contributes to) Eventual Linux World Domination --> Dominance of open source platform leads to greater user power and probably less DRM overall. So if Vulkan having DRM-related features is a price for its success, strategically it's probably worth it. But DRM is still fundamentally bad and I'm really not interested in contorting myself into a nuanced stance about that; any and all cases in which DRM seems like a necessary or good thing are due to broader bad things about the world we live in and how it's run. Those things should be changed.

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Quoting: jens

Quoting: Shmerl"Done right" or not, it means removing user's choice.

I prioritize "done right and just works" far above "complete freedom of users choice". Time is much to precious for me to spend hours into setting up my environment.

Because those two things are antithetical, and openness makes things work badly. Got it.

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Quoting: inlinuxdude

Quoting: TheSHEEEP

Quoting: Luke_NukemI read the whole article as "Iron Maiden"... Doh!

This comment made me realize it is NOT actually Iron Maiden :D
I was wondering the whole time how they got the license to use the name...

Do you think the band could enforce a game using that name, when the game makers could say it was just named after the torture device [External Link]and not the band? I mean, that's where the band got their name, and I'm sure they didn't pay anything..

Yeah, but "Ion Maiden" is cleverer anyway.

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Quoting: Comandante ÑoñardoI am very tired of these "retro" games with really outdated graphics that use the homage to the old school as an excuse ...

In those days, the devs did what they could with the few hardware resources they had at hand ..

Today there is no technical excuse for those archaic graphics.

You're looking at it as a technical issue but it mainly isn't, it's an aesthetic issue (even the gameplay considerations Hamish describes are ultimately aesthetic issues--a matter of what style you are interested in). It's like, there can be reasons to make a black and white movie or take black and white photographs in the modern world.
If it's not your taste then it's not your taste (it basically isn't mine either), but that doesn't mean people who have that taste are wrong. Framing it as some kind of technical failure that makes the people doing it simply at fault, is itself a category error.
De gustibus non est disputandum. Personally, the way I feel about this kind of enthusiasm for older styles is kind of the way I feel about jazz music--I think the idea is cool and wish I enjoyed the actual results more.

Meanwhile as to the game . . . cute name.

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Excellent news. Vulkan being available on Mac could have a huge impact strategically in the medium term. It will increase the take-up of Vulkan itself and going forward should make releasing games for Linux a significantly more attractive option.
And the thing is, I've gotten the impression that Vulkan has really been . . . I dunno how to put it . . . kind of on the edge between major player and also-ran, at least in the desktop computing space. How it's going to pan out in terms of adoption is still up in the air; it hasn't stalled, but it hasn't come out a clear winner either. Adding Mac as a platform is just the kind of win that can tip developers' choices and move Vulkan into the clear winner column, a major platform seeing serious adoption and delivering on its promise.
And if that happens, game (and engine) developers will be looking at a situation where using Vulkan means easy releases on all the desktop computing platforms, Windows Mac and Linux, with little reason to leave Linux out. Probably good for Mac gaming too. Plans on whether to go Mac no longer run afoul of Metal and they include a probable easy addition of Linux as a little bonus. So not only does Linux get more of the Mac stuff, but there's likely more Mac stuff to get.
Admittedly, it seems the project has some missing bits so far--but since it's both important to a moderate number of players and open source so they can do something about it, I expect those limitations to be handled at reasonable speed. I can envision a future not so far distant where the dominant answer to the question "What platforms should we target and what graphical toolset should we use?" will be "We target all three, Windows Mac & Linux, because with Vulkan it's no big hassle."

Now all we have to do is get Sony to use Vulkan. Hey, weather keeps getting freakier, we could have a cold day in Hell any time!

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Quoting: Mountain Man

Quoting: FredOIt's worth noting that your old save games will not be compatible with this new version 2. There's plenty of warnings about it when you start the game after updating. My save from 1.9 still loads, but with some strange statuses due to layout changes.

That's typical for Paradox. Save games are very rarely compatible between major updates, and they always recommend you start a new game.

Hmmm . . . maybe I'll play offline until I'm finished my current playthrough. No update problems if it can't update.

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I've always found the whole idea of the "internal", "wuwei", defensive martial arts, using the opponent's strength against them with chi and taoism etc fascinating (not that I think they particularly work in real life, any more than massive flying kicks do--they're just a cool concept). As a tabletop gamer I've noticed it can be very hard to represent well in a game. Both in tabletop and computer gaming your basic punch-harder, kick-higher, chi-as-lightning-bolt approach is much more common. So it's nice to see someone try to do a game that does the defensive style.

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Quoting: fractal

Quoting: KeyrockI'll take a wait and see approach on this one, given that Games Workshop is willing to license their IPs out to literally anyone, which has lead to a veritable deluge of Warhammer and 40K games over the last several years, 90% of which have been garbage. Hopefully this one falls into the 10%.

I'd argue that it's a sea of mediocrity rather than garbage, few games are actually bad, then again few are also actually good and yes, it's a result of GW handing their license over to anyone willing. Now this relatively recent policy (they used to sue anyone for the pettiest things) stems from GW shooting themselves in the foot with various financial decisions, namely insane pricing (55 pounds for a plastic tank c'mon GW) while shrinking their retail distribution and I'm fairly sure licensing is the only thing that kept them afloat.

A friend of mine used to be a big Warhammer player (not sure if 40K or not) and pretty much abandoned it a while ago; I seem to recall the explanation involving some sort of deliberate obsoleting of all the models he'd accumulated, and painstakingly painted, up to then. I got the impression rage was widespread among Warhammer players over this. I can imagine some financial suffering resulting.

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Quoting: noxSo many strategy games :(

So many strategy games :D

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Quoting: skinnyraf

Quoting: KandarihuI wish we could point out to Paradox that the reason for the abysmally small market share in Linux is largely due to growth of Windows in Asia (particularly China) is outstripping Linux growth worldwide.

Reasons are one thing, but cost vs income balance of supporting an ultra-niche market is another thing. Which one will a publisher/developer look at when considering porting a game (or developing cross-platform)?

For a while availability of games on Linux was driven by the fact that there were so few games available, so Linux gamers were buying almost everything that was available. Now that we actually have a choice, share of Linux gamers purchasing a particular game is closer and closer to the overall Linux market share - which is sub-1%.

Generally in agreement although I'd like to qualify "market share". It certainly seems as if the market share of Linux for desktop use for purposes of browsing the web (or, ahem, watching porn) is greater than 1%, being somewhere in the mid 2% or even 3% range. It is looking like the market share of Linux for gaming in specific may be less than 1%. I've been wondering about the difference; are Linux users mostly not gamers? Are those web browsers measured by surveys mostly workstations? Are many Linux users still booting into Windows to do their gaming? Is Wine use throwing the statistics off? Some combination of factors?

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