Did you know we have a Forum? Come and say hi to the wider community!
Latest Comments by melkemind
Survival Racer 'Distance' Is Now More Awesome With The 'Revamped Reality' Update
7 Oct 2015 at 8:07 pm UTC Likes: 1

Honestly, all I ever do in this game anymore is trackmorgify. I can't get enough of it - typing in random things to generate custom tracks.

As far as performance goes, I do notice some improvements, although still not quite at Windows-level frames per second.

Cities: Skylines - After Dark Patch & Expansion Released, Some Initial Thoughts
25 Sep 2015 at 11:15 am UTC

Quoting: liamdaweYeah I have a habit of trying to build everything possible, without thinking about managing my economy, oops.
Just think about it like a real city. If you build houses for people, the people need jobs, so build industry. That gets the economy going. Let some money flow in and then slowly expand. Make sure you're making more money than you're spending. I went to dinner last night and forgot I left the game running and came back to find a huge amount of unspent money.

Cities: Skylines - After Dark Patch & Expansion Released, Some Initial Thoughts
25 Sep 2015 at 11:11 am UTC

Quoting: Stupendous ManI agree. I would expect at least 30+ fps for any kind of game to be playable. Certainly, any FPS should run at 60+ to be smooth, and I can accept slower paced games to run at less fps, but why don't the developers investigate why their game suddenly runs worse at release? As usual, we Linux users are 3rd rate customers, and that saddens me; I don't expect them to drop everything in their hands to solve this, but the game has been out for what? 6 months?
I guess I'll continue holding out on buying this game.
I've not seen it go below 30 fps, but I also have a GTX 970. The issue with Unity seems to be some specific aspect of it. I don't know if it's shadows, lighting or what, but it can get very high FPS depending on the scene, but then dip low in others. It's not consistently low. It's definitely Linux (or OpenGL) specific. Windows performs much better.

Cities: Skylines - After Dark Patch & Expansion Released, Some Initial Thoughts
24 Sep 2015 at 10:21 pm UTC

Quoting: EmazzaPerformance is a bit poor on a i7/32GB/980GTX with a city of 100K habitants...
Still, great game!

Cheers!
Yeah, it's a Unity3D engine game. Performance is going to be poor until the people behind Unity decide to fix whatever is wrong with it.

Regarding running a city, I've found if you tend to splurge, you will always be in the red. You have to pace yourself and make sure you just don't spend more than you make (kind of like life). Patience is a good thing, and this game is very relaxing.

Steam Reaches Over 1,500 Linux Games, It's Not Enough
22 Sep 2015 at 11:11 am UTC Likes: 3

It depends on how you look at it. From the perspective of Linux gaming as a whole, there is a long way to go. From the perspective of Steam Machines set to launch in a month or so, they're looking pretty good compared to consoles. Xbox One, for example, had about 22 titles available at launch.

Don't Count On Any EA Frostbite Powered Games On Linux
12 Sep 2015 at 10:06 pm UTC

Quoting: HalKadoThird point, the minute the ROI starts to improve (as it most certainly will as steambox's launch) I fully expect penny pinching companies like EA to rapidly change their tune.
Just to add to that, I think it's important for people to understand that EA is not really in the game development business. A lot of the small developers who make Linux versions of their games have people on staff who know enough to make Linux versions. EA is a huge publisher with lots of subsidiaries. As I pointed out before, they don't even port all of their games to Windows. The reason being, they acquire developers, rather than developing themselves.

If a development team they acquire does not have PC devs on staff, they're probably not going to go out of their way to hire them. The same is true for Linux. Granted, they could hire third-party porters, but when they're raking in money the way they are, they have no motivation. There is no conspiracy with Microsoft and no animosity toward Linux. EA doesn't have a personality, contrary to what some laws might suggest [External Link]. It's a faceless, heartless corporation driven by numbers.

Honestly, even if Steam machines take off, I doubt we'll see EA games on SteamOS any time soon, until EA makes some acquisitions that involve Linux development. They won't hire an in-house Linux dev team. That's just not something they do, as far as I know.

Looks Like Grid Autosport Could See A Linux Release Soon
12 Sep 2015 at 5:24 pm UTC Likes: 1

On Windows, you can max this game out at 1080@60fps on mid-range hardware. It'll be interesting to see if players can get similar results with Feral's port, especially considering the non-native port of Showdown from VP was so good. This is also one of the few games that supports dual monitors. You can choose what you want to be on the second monitor. Unfortunately, there's a fullscreen bug on Windows that they never fixed. I hope Feral can fix it on Linux.

Don't Count On Any EA Frostbite Powered Games On Linux
12 Sep 2015 at 5:19 pm UTC

EA is a console-oriented company. Back when I was a kid, and they used their whole name (Electronic Arts), they were very much PC oriented, but these days, there are games they don't even port to Windows, let alone any other PC OS (I'm looking at you, Madden). It's probably more apathy than anything deliberate. They just sit back and count the money.

The Source 2 Powered Dota 2 Reborn Exits Beta, Now Just Standard Dota 2
11 Sep 2015 at 1:28 am UTC

I wonder how this game with play with the steam controller and if it will give people a competitive edge, hindrance, or be just the same.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown Free Weekend & XCOM 2 Available For Pre-Order For Day-1 Release
11 Sep 2015 at 1:21 am UTC

As often as Valve makes mistakes on their website, I wouldn't be surprised if it's just an oversight that Linux users can pre-order. Since it's a third-party port, they would have to wait until the original devs finish before they start porting. Unless Feral chimes in here and says it's a day-one release, I wouldn't believe it.