Well, vive la (oddly commercialized) revolution!!!
It looks like fun and I love the French guy urging you to rise up, overthrow evil (and buy his upgrades).
Only on my wishlist until I can just install it and go, though.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

They say they have no plans for Vulkan right now

Of course, one of the beauties of open source is that someone could step in and contribute at any time.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: minidouThey used to be supporters of DX12 but admitted they switch their focus on Vulkan earlier this year [External Link], so they might already have been working with crytek or have their own work for Vulkan.

Every time I am reminded of it, I think that Microsoft's decision to make DX12 work on Windows 10+ only was too clever by half and may actually result in Vulkan becoming the more dominant platform. They underestimated Vulkan because they've been able to pwn OpenGL all this time. So they just took DX dominance as a given, and decided to use DX12 to try to pull their user base to the newest versions of Windows. Only problem: Vulkan is at least as good as DX12, has moved pretty fast, and so is becoming viable while older versions of Windows are still a really big slice of the market. So, for all non-console games, Vulkan over DX12 is a no-brainer, and even for stuff that's going on XBox, you probably want both rather than just DX12 (since they're similar enough that it's apparently fairly easy).
Linux could reap the benefit of Microsoft's serious tactical mistake in its battle with Win 10+'s current major competitor, older versions of Windows.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Tiedemann

Quoting: melkemindIt doesn't seem like they're asking for much money. Am I just overestimating how much it takes to make a game, or does S$70,000 get you a lot more in Malaysia?

From the "Why Kickstarter" part of the page, it seems a lot have been done already:

I was thinking the trailer seemed pretty dashed slick for something that supposedly didn't exist yet.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

That seems positive. And while CRYENGINE may be less of a force than it was, it's still well enough known that the pros will notice. One would expect other engine makers to be all "Well if even CRYENGINE can do it we'd look lame if we didn't".
So this is one step on the way to Vulkan being a keep-up-with-the-Joneses, must-have checkbox. That's a Good Thing.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

First game in a while where my first reaction to the trailer is "That's so cute!"

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: elmapul" don't think it matters that much if a ton of people actually run SteamOS as their distro. It's the way it influences distro design, and reassures developers, that is important."
it will not influence the design if no one use it, even game developers will not target it, and steam runtime is proprietary.
are you really saying that the solution for the linux fragmentation is: ship proprietary code?

So, first, even if you say SteamOS "will not" have influence and game developers "will not" target it if no one uses it, this isn't a hypothetical. SteamOS exists now and isn't being used much directly now. So does it have influence, do game developers target it? I think fairly clearly it does and they do.
Second, the Steam runtime? Don't believe I even mentioned it. Forget apples and oranges, and forget comparing--I'm talking about an apple and you're trying to refute me by pretending it's a hammer.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: lucifertdarkThe last time I bought a pre-built PC it was obsolete before I'd even got it out of the store, that the PCs biggest strength & weakness, you can upgrade it but it's already obsolete the moment you decide which one you want.

Consoles are obsolete before you even buy them. But since they're not building new consoles with the components now available, this obsolescence is masked in a way it isn't with PCs.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: cRaZy-bisCuiT

Quoting: Whitewolfe80

Quoting: cRaZy-bisCuiTSo what is the user base they so actually aim for?

They have to be aiming it at console players the fact the default view drops you into big picture mode. If you are already using Linux chances are there is no way you are dropping you're distro to go to steam os.

I would say the same, but I'm not sure how this should work out. Steam Maschines will always exist with different configurations of hardware. It's not quite the Plug'n'Play these people are used to.

But it is, isn't it? Sure, you can open 'em up and upgrade 'em, just like you can install Linux on a computer that shipped with Windows. But most people never would. Steam Machines worked fine out of the box.

The reasons Steam Machines didn't sell were more a matter of polish/features on the OS side, like with little multimedia support and so forth, and price. And marketing push being too small. Perhaps to some extent lack of games, but Steam Machines could run many more games than consoles ever can at launch, and with the help of the Steam controller, many games that consoles normally can't at all, so I don't think the games as such were that major a deal. If Valve put a solid bit of work into polish on SteamOS, making sure it matched or exceeded whatever Xbox and PS do, and made some deals with Netflix et al. and made sure the results were, again, polished and transparent, easy to use, and if they then opened up the Valve wallet and mounted a major league marketing push, and if they made some subsidy deal with a big manufacturer so the price point would be right (they'd make it back from their cut on all the extra games sold on Steam) I think they would have an excellent shot at making Steam Machines a big big thing.

The other problem was talking points about games running slow on Linux/SteamOS. Likely they won't go for it again unless and until Vulkan is solidly in use for a good number of games and drivers are in solid shape, so we have some desirable games that run as fast or faster than on competing platforms.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Hmmm, combat seems to be pure broadside-to-broadside. No maneuvering to "cross the T", no stern chases wearing down the fleeing foe with your bow chasers (or trying to nail your pursuer's mast with a long nine at the stern), no competition to get windward of the opponent. But broadsides are fun.

View this comment - View article - View full comments