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Latest Comments by lucinos
Mesa 17.1 release is now scheduled for May
10 Mar 2017 at 7:18 am UTC

Quoting: TheRiddickMost gamers on Linux are using NVIDIA cards, I can't remember the exact percentage but its pretty high. So saying open-source drivers are the most important thing for Linux gamer is kinda misleading given that fact.

Basically its the most important thing for YOU, but the rest of the world just wants a good gaming experience under linux and could give a crap about open/closed drivers.
Gamingonlinux statistics are saying 75% are using closed drivers. I am not saying people should avoid nvidia and closed drivers. In fact I am actually using them on my desktop that for some reasons is not my main machine. But people should care about having choice. Open source are not important to me to be better in every way but it is important to be viable choice. Having choice is good so if nvidia drivers would stop existing somehow that would be bad (unless of course mesa had become better in every way). But not having mesa would be terrible much worse. So while I am not against nvidia drivers, in this sense I say mesa is more important than nvidia.

Mesa 17.1 release is now scheduled for May
9 Mar 2017 at 8:23 pm UTC Likes: 1

I have just seen this http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=8-march-radeonsi&num=1 [External Link]

Although mesa is still behind nvidia it seems it is finally competing as equal.

An explanation of what Mesa is and what graphics cards use it
7 Mar 2017 at 10:41 am UTC

An other way to put it is that there exist practically two type of drivers, open source (mesa) and close source (nvidia).

There are pros and cons but generally mesa is better for desktop and nvidia is better for games.

If someone wants close source drivers, he should definitely choose nvidia gpu and if someone wants open source, he should definitely avoid nvidia.

Open source drivers on nvidia gpu do exist (nouveau) but are worse than amd and intel and nvidia should be avoided if someone wants to avoid close source drivers.

Amd is also ...complicated... but it is generally best to just stick with open source drivers. If someone wants to go with close source he should just had nvidia.

Mesa although still behind from nvidia for gaming is getting better with every release and is already very competitive.

Khronos working on an '3D Portability Initiative' to enable portable development across Vulkan, DX12 and Metal
2 Mar 2017 at 10:11 am UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: GuppyObligatory XKCD;
The statement is very vague so I do not know. Of course we do not want another standard, we just want vulkan to win here. It is that simple. But if the 3D Portability Initiative is just a name for projects like HLSL -> Spir-V these are obviously good projects that will help everyone. So I do not know if that obligatory XKCD is relevant. It depends what are their goals and the statement is unclear.

Steel Division: Normandy 44 RTS announced by Paradox & Eugen Systems (UPDATED)
2 Mar 2017 at 10:02 am UTC

Quoting: liamdaweUpdate: It turns out, someone at Paradox ticked the Linux box without checking and it is in fact not coming to Linux [External Link]. I was told the system icons were a 'placeholder'. Helpful, really helpful.
I am very disappointed. :( I was not that interested on that particular game but Paradox was supporting linux on every recent game...

Steel Division: Normandy 44 RTS announced by Paradox & Eugen Systems (UPDATED)
2 Mar 2017 at 9:58 am UTC

Quoting: nateIs this another "RTS" without base building? I don't like it when games without base building are described as being "RTS." It just seems like the "RTS" genre has been massively dumbed down during the last 10 years or so (with a few exceptions, like StarCraft 2 and some indie titles).
Yes If there is no base building, it is a very different kind of game, so these details matter or we do not know what we are talking about, but a game is not dumbed down if not having base building! A game may just focus on different strategic and tactical elements and base building may also get in the way of these and dumb it down. "RTS" can vary a lot to the point of that they should get different category but a different category does not mean worse or better.

Khronos announce 'OpenXR', their new standard for virtual reality and augmented reality
1 Mar 2017 at 3:41 am UTC

Quoting: elmapul"This always happens with new, emerging tech. A useful technical standard simply can't be written until there is some sort of a consensus on how the technology is supposed to work."

that is why we have khrnnonos group to discuss and create standards, OSVR came with the same proposal, bring the industry players togheter to discuss an standard, i cant understand why we need an workgroup to discuss an standard if we are already doing that
As I understand, the goals of OSVR and OpenXR are different. OSVR is doing a "true" API (a real platform). OSVR is "competing" with the others and of course it would be good for once if an open platform wins. OpenXR on the other hand is not doing the same and is not a competitor against anyone as it only facilitates as an abstraction layer.

Khronos announce 'OpenXR', their new standard for virtual reality and augmented reality
28 Feb 2017 at 3:25 am UTC

Quoting: Purple Library GuyI just hope it doesn't end up with
The goals of OpenXR seem very moderate (at least as I understand for now). It does not look like trying to be "one true standard" but for the moment it seems to me something more like a useful middleware that abstracts the API. So the goal is very moderate as it does not replace the other "standards" but does not make things worse in any way. (it is not "competing")

SuperTuxKart is trying to get on Steam, be sure to give it a vote
24 Feb 2017 at 1:03 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: cRaZy-bisCuiTIt's Open Source under the GPL. They could charge for it as long as the source code is free but I highly doubt that they will do so.
Yes, interesting point. The game itself will be always free, but the GPL does not prohibit for selling steam keys.

Wine 2.2 released with even more Shader Model 5 instructions and work towards Direct3D command stream
18 Feb 2017 at 8:30 am UTC Likes: 1

In my case wine was pretty unimportant. For some years I was dualbooting with windows so wine was irrelevant. Also I have not been gaming on windows a lot. Almost all of my games are either old MS-DOS games or are new Linux-native games! Wine has been useful mainly to be able to run random EXE files and the funny thing is that this executables had compatibility issues with new versions of windows :P
For some years now I only use wine for playing LackeyCCG.

DOSBox and SCUMMVM have been way more important for my gaming than wine.

Also I consider games that use wine as a porting tool as _native_. This is a simple idea that should be very encouraged for old games. It is of course a terrible idea for new games (remastered games are also new) for a lot of reasons one of them is that windows is a moving target and Linux should not chase. I will not install wine version of steam to play games but if a game simply runs without doing a sepparate steam installation it really does not make any sense the technology behind for the end user.