Quoting: g000hI revisited FTL: Faster Than Light recently for a number of play sessions.

After finally scoring all the achievements on hard mode, I graduated to the Captain's Edition mod (with the Endless Loot mod, it's FTL-meets-Borderlands). It's pretty-much FTL2.

However, due to issues with libbass, it's simpler to force it to play the windows version through proton. For the last few years, I've had lots of problems with sound on the linux-native version, but all were cured by playing in wine. Since Steam added the "force proton version" option, FTL has been painless.

Seriously, if you wear the game out, explore Captain's Edition. It's HUGE, and endorsed by FTL creator Justin Ma.
See: https://www.subsetgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=15663 [External Link]

I use the Linux-native (*cough* java *cough*) version of Slipstream Mod Manager on the Windows files, and it works fine.

FTL is the best ever.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Mountain Man

Quoting: totex

Quoting: BillNyeTheBlackGuyHe speaks to truth. If you're butthurt about it, then too bad.

Garry dosen't know anything about linux. He even blames the whole linux desktop for not being ready based on he's failed attempt to install Ubuntu 12.04 back a few years ago. He is just a noob developer who made a crappy game with unity engine. He is in no position to judge with he's lack of skills.

Honestly, if he had trouble installing Ubuntu then I have to assume that he buys all of his computers with Windows already installed, because installing Ubuntu is no more difficult than installing Windows (boot the install DVD; select from a few well-explained options; wait for the install process to finish). If he can't do the one then I really don't see how he could do the other.

He uses a Mac Pro, with Windows on it instead of OSX. My experiences trying to install Ubuntu on Apples have always been extremely unpleasant.
http://www.pcgamer.com/show-us-your-rig-rust-creator-garry-newman/ [External Link]

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: slaapliedjeBesides it crashing when I set the graphics detail to 'Ultra' everything worked. I'd like to get it working across three screens (I have two 1920x1080 and 1 2560x1080, Fallout 4 looks awesome on them, this game would be fantastic on it.)

Anyone doing much multi-monitor gaming on Linux?

Sometimes you can get this stuff working with xrandr tricks or by messing around with the Viewports in nvidia-settings. The basic idea is to trick the software into thinking you have one display which is 6400x1080 resolution.

Read xrandr's documentation, or if you have Nvidia, you can do this:
1. In nvidia settings, Make sure your left display is set as the primary display, and apply if needed. Then disable your center and right display. (For some games you need to do this, for others you absolutely need to NOT do this).
2. Click the "advanced" button, and set the "panning" for your left display to 6400x1080
3. Hit "apply", but don't confirm.
4. Launch the game.
5. Wait for the confirmation to time out. Your displays will revert to their previous configuration.

Sometimes this works. It often works better in windowed display modes. You may need to tinker with the game's config files to enable 6400x1080. Sometimes you need to confirm in nvidia-settings, set the full-screen 6400x1080 resolution in-game, then alt-tab out and revert your config in nvidia-settings. It takes some trial and error, but I can often get it working.

For Unity games, you can usually just launch 'em in windowed mode and then just resize the window across all screens.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Does anybody know if Surround Sound (5.1 or 7.1) works in the Linux port? The Windows version has it, but Feral sometimes fails to support it (works in XCOM, but not Alien Isolation).

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: pd12Apart from Kodi, I'd also really like to see what file browser, web browsers and media players (incl image viewers) are on SteamOS!

I installed using Stephenson's Rocket [External Link]. The desktop mode is a pretty bare-bones GNOME setup, with Nautilus file manager and Iceweasel Web browser (Debian's rebranded Firefox) preinstalled.

I added the Debian Jessie repos and some other stuff using ProfessorKaos64's SteamOS-Tools [External Link]. After that, whatever Debian goodies you want, including Kodi, MythTV, emulators, or even boring stuff like LibreOffice, is just an apt-get install away. There is an option in the settings menu to add any installed application from the desktop into the steam launcher. It works very well with Kodi.

Another nice thing about the desktop mode is that it spawns in another x-session on tty8. You can use ctrl-alt-f7 and ctrl-alt-f8 to switch back and forth between Steam and Desktop.

The desktop mode is totally legit (aside from the fact that I'm not a fan of GNOME3). It just feels and acts like regular Debian. In other words, it's glorious! Compilers, IDE's, editors and whatnot are all available. This is the most marvellous part: every steambox is potentially a dev kit! Honestly, I wouldn't be uncomfortable using SteamOS as a daily-driver desktop OS.

Next, I just need to figure out how to get desktop mode to use KDE instead of GNOME and I'll be all set!

View this comment - View article - View full comments

In future surveys can you please ask about audio setups? (Headphones, Stereo Speakers, 4-channel, 5.1, 7.1)? I have noticed that surround support is very inconsistent among ports to linux,

I'm curious what percentage of Linux users are affected by this. I assume that Linux desktop users mostly play on stereo headphones, but as SteamOS creeps into peoples' living rooms, this will become a bigger issue when Linux games are more frequently played on home theater systems.

Alien Isolation, Borderlands 2 and TPS, all of Valve's games except CS:GO (only quadrophonic and 5.1, no 7.1), all of Virtual Programming's EON-wrapped ports, and many others are stereo-only ports that are supported in surround sound on all other platforms.

We wouldn't put up with these games only running at 25% video resolution on Linux, why should we accept losing 75% of our audio channels? Alien Isolation is a very audio-centric game, and being stuck in stereo is totally unacceptable. Is it okay that the regularly-maintained Linux/SteamOS version of Team Fortress 2 sounds worse than the 8-year-old XBox360 version? Right now, linux gaming offers a very poor value for me, since I have a high-end audio system (which cost nearly 20x more than the display I game on).

7.1 Audio works in Serious Sam 3 and The Talos Principle, but is curiously missing from Shadow Warrior, even though they all appear to use the same engine and have the same publisher.

Also, where would be the best place to maintain a list of the audio status of Linux games?

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Port quality is a big issue here. Very few titles on SteamOS support surround sound even if surround is working on the Windows version. Even among Valve's own games, CS:GO is the only one that supports surround on Linux and it only supports 5.1, not 7.1.

This is the case with Alien Isolation. Stereo only. I contacted Feral about it and they had no idea it wasn't working because they had never tested it, presumably due to a lack of surround hardware.

Sure, perhaps most desktop gamers play on headphones, but a console that doesn't take advantage of home theater equipment isn't going to take off.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Support for 7.1 and 5.1 audio appears to be missing in the Linux version. I'm getting the same stereo output on each of my front, side, and rear channels via pulseaudio.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

"This decision was made based on the disproportionate cost, both in terms of time and money, that we incur to support Linux relative to a very small return on our investment. "

If you only read the first sentence, it seems pretty reasonable. Unfortunately, he wrote a lot more sentences than that.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

GamingOnLinux provides me with up-to-date news about gaming on the only OS worth running. It's wonderful that they cover FOSS gaming in addition to proprietary games. Best of all, they've had lots of good news to report lately.

As for Aspyr, their Linux port of Civ V has not crashed once on me in over 500 hours of play. Borderlands 2 has been rock-solid for me as well. I love being able to count on Aspyr for top-quality ports.

View this comment - View article - View full comments