Quoting: tuubi

Quoting: Purple Library GuyOccasionally I think I'm missing out by not owning a cell phone . . . but when I think of all this sort of issue, plus the ability to be actually alone with nobody bugging me when I'm alone, plus over the last 10 years I've probably saved at least $5000 (Cdn) not having one, which is most of a European vacation for me and my wife, well.
It's definitely good that my wife has one, but just one between the two of us seems to work fine. We're rarely both outside the house and also not together anyway.

A cell phone has been relatively cheap to own and operate here in Finland since the late nineties. We used to be ahead of the rest of the world in these things for a long while. These days not so much.

But yeah, I was the last among my friends to get a cell phone (good old Nokia 5110), and definitely the last to start using a smartphone just a few years back. And that was only because I was given an original Jolla—from a batch sent out to developers at launch, exclusive back cover and all—as a hand-me-down a few years ago. Then I got a used iPhone later (from work) which I hated, and now I'm using the first smartphone I actually had to buy myself. Don't really need one for much, as I'm never far from a computer. But it serves fine as a modem and an ebook reader I guess. :D

I really really wanted a Jolla phone. But the bands aren't supported here.
I went from a Motorola Cliq, to the N900 to the N9... and then had to go back to Android, still hate it. Lived the N9, so much easier to use.

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Quoting: orochi_kyo

Quoting: TheSHEEEPYou come off like a very aggressive fanboy here.

If that is true you come off like a very aggressive Steam hater, not the first time you show you think Steam is something despicable.

But once facts are presented people just stop replying...

And the first fact you or anyone else in this forum can not deny is that "lower cuts generate lower prices, which is good for customers" is a lie.

Exclusive EPIC games are still costing 60$, still cost the same as if it was on Steam.

The second fact is that EPIC is not investing the same it is own Store infrastructure which explains why they don't need a higher cut. Now, this does not affect you or many people around here who like in UK, EU or the USA which are being well-served not only by EPIC but other stores as PSN and XBOX LIVE with servers near to you and local prices but the damn rest of the world, countries that are not blessed of being inside the EURO protection or near the USA. You get your damn prices in Ponds or Euros, I get those prices in DOLLARS, while Steam use my local coin.

Now the lawsuit is not going anywhere, because part of the concept comes from a mutual agreement, and happens on every single aspect of a free market, as a DEV I am not forced to sell my game on STEAM, neither Steam is forced to accept my game, it is a mutual agreement and both parts should agree. EPIC has been denying to add games from devs that did not accept the Epic exclusivity agreement.

Just forget for a moment is Steam, that store some people hate that much, there are many supermarkets competing with each other and suddenly this product manufacturer does not like the agreement they have with one of these, you think the manufacturer with waste thousands of dollars on lawsuits? No, they just simply take the product off.

Big companies have been mentioned in the lawsuit but none of them as joining the legal action, because it is so obviously someone is pulling the strings, this is part of the lawsuit "acts as an artificial barrier to entry by potential rival platforms and as higher prices lead to less sales of PC Games"
Rival platforms, you mean EPIC, STADIA? If this is true this practice has been for years, why now?

BTW Games on Stadia also cost 60$, lol.

WTF? Games on Stadia are still the same price even though you literally never 'own' it?

You know what I find amusing? I can understand why people can be fans of a platform, piece of software, etc. Fine, makes sense, some people get used to a thing, and they like it for whatever reason. I can even understand if there is some friendly rivalry between platforms, software, etc. Hell, I know I have gotten into many Atari / Amiga / DOS fights in the past.

What I don't understand is the anger some people feel about something that isn't competing with their own use, and have to just constantly badger people that happened to buy a product (for whatever reasons that may have been). I have a large Steam library, but I also apparently have 400+ games on GOG. I refuse to buy anything from Epic because of their exclusivity deals are preventing me from playing some games on Linux. I have a perfectly valid reason to hate on EPIC. And the fact that they say they take a smaller cut than the competition, yet still charge the same amount just confirms what I always say, NO DEALS between publisher and developer will ever actually benefit the customers. Anyone who thinks otherwise is just being naive.

Dealing with a couple of bitter asshats about the AtariVCS lately, where they don't own the machine, don't plan on owning the machine, and were hardcore saying it was a scam, and everyone who backed it was a fool, and it'll never see the light of day! Like the fact that a crowdfunding campaign existed at all, and that the Atari name belongs to a company now (no matter how inept their management may be, it's not like the old holders of the Atari name were geniuses) just gets sand in their vagina. They legit keep arguing that even if the physical system is made, people who bought it are enjoying it, people are learning things by hacking it in a similar way to how people are learning and doing all sorts of things with the Raspberry Pi (someone even connected a GTX 1060 via the mini-PCIe slot to it), that it'll never succeed, and people will never pay XX for it, because you can get some mini-PC with he same specs, and blah blah blah...

Anyhow, back on topic. Let's look at 'abuse of power'
Valve: they have Steam, which is the first online game store that was really successful, and they had years of zero competition, but finally others started to pop up. Due to this they also started to make great improvements to Steam. It was kind of crap there for a long time. Accused of price fixing somehow...
Microsoft: Literally strong armed OEMs into not selling BeOS, have lobbied for multiple laws to be passed, including one that requires every computer sold by a company has to have an operating system included. (Some would include FreeDOS to get around it).
Apple: Requiring every app to use their payment method, giving them a slice of every transaction. Not allowing any alternative stores, nor sideloading.

So I'm curious; how the hell is valve abusing any power? There are other stores, Literally people are not 100% to use it, unlike what happened with Windows, or with the Apple App store.

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Quoting: Whitewolfe80

Quoting: slaapliedjeI can never understand why in the last few years especially, companies would still make a mac port, but not a Linux port. Even people I know who are diehard mac people buy Windows machines so they can play World of Warcraft.

Mac still a bigger market than linux last count its 8 percent versus our 1.25 percent thats why

One thing i missed in all this really Take2 just let gearbox go surprising.

Sure, when you look at supporting mac vs Linux. The problem is when you're looking to a minimal hardware for running your game, a huge amount of that 8% aren't going to have the hardware to even play your game. You're still going to get like ~1%. And most of the users that have the hardware to play games are going to be the 'Pro' people who don't game on their mac.

Not to mention the sometimes subtle hostility Apple has toward gaming and APIs on their non-iOS devices...

Ha, probably something I'll just never get why you'd support Mac, but not also Linux, as that'd give you the 1/2% of mac gamers to 2-3% with mac gamers and Linux gamers.

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Quoting: tuubi

Quoting: slaapliedjeAnd apparently someone ported SailfishOS to it. Too bad I haven't had the time to set it up...

It's an official port. Jolla made a deal with Sony to support Sailfish X on the Xperia 10, 10 Plus, X and XA2. Meaning you'll need a proper paid license from Jolla to get the full Sailfish X package with Android emulation and all. You can read more here [External Link].

Too bad you can't even buy these phones anymore, and no support has materialized for the newer models. I fear the day when my current phone inevitably breaks down. I think I'd rather just go back to a dumb feature phone than use Android. I dislike it just as much as I dislike Windows, with the added bonus that I'm not a big fan of smartphones in general.

Not to my EXACT phone, which is the Sony Xperia XZ2. So not quite an official port, sadly.

There are a lot of requests for them to do so though. https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/gnu-linux-3-4-0-24-sailfish-os-for-xperia-tama-devices.4008681/ [External Link]

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I can never understand why in the last few years especially, companies would still make a mac port, but not a Linux port. Even people I know who are diehard mac people buy Windows machines so they can play World of Warcraft.

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Quoting: Cyba.Cowboy

Quoting: LinasHas Sony done anything out of kindness of their heart ever?

Sony has had their "You Can [External Link]" program in Australia here, to recycle mobile phones and donate the relevant proceeds towards youth cancer... It looks like the program has finished-up now, but I'm skeptical it's the only Community-focused thing Sony has ever done.

If you're specifically referring to the Open Source and Linux Communities, well a quick search online shows that Sony have contributed towards making Open Source software available for renewable energy [External Link], they have various Open Source projects for the film industry [External Link] and they've been especially passionate about making the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) work with some of their mobile devices (in fact, they've probably put more effort into this than all of the other "major" manufacturers!).

And that's just the stuff I could find on DuckDuckGo in the space of two or three minutes; I'm sure there's plenty more.

Granted Sony is far from perfect, but this is not the first time they've done something like this...

Sony doesn't get enough credit for their phones. I bought one as it had a 3d modeler in it before Samsung did, and while I hate stock android, they have provided more updates than Samsung does. And apparently someone ported SailfishOS to it. Too bad I haven't had the time to set it up...
Still waiting for my Librem to appear..

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So a 'greater good' thing really shouldn't be patentable, or yes it is fine as long as it is an open patent.
Like I said before, the patent system is not at fault here. There needs to be a method for inventors to be able to get rewarded for their invention. Otherwise no one would ever invent things except by accident.
The cost to actually get a patent makes it unavailable for someone making something in their garage. So they have to go to a company most of the time to get it done, and then the company owns it and the inventor usually gets screwed.
They need to change the fees and the process.
Either way, "we put paddles on the bottom of a controller" should not be a patent...

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Quoting: Mohandevir

Quoting: slaapliedje

Quoting: Mohandevir

Quoting: Beamboom... seems I should give my Steam controller another chance, then. Try to figure out how on EARTH you can find it to actually be better than two analogue sticks :)

It's a sure thing that there is a learning curve, but when you get the hang of it, you can do a lot more stuff then what's permitted by a stick. Your trackpad settings and mine will probably differ, too... That's the beauty of the Steam Controller: fully configurable. You will have to find one that's a good fit for you. For my part, joystick as mouse or mouse are the two best preset options, depending on the game and I tweak them to my liking. Joystick emulation is utter garbage, imo, but somebody might have found a use case for some niche game too. :wink:

Edit: And don't base your gyroscope experience on the one in the Dualshock4... Quite a bad implementation, imo... It's always on and it gets in the way most of the time. The default behavior of the one in the Steam controller is activated when you touch (no need to press) the right trackpad. So, if you don't need it, it gets out of the way.

I found the same thing with the Switch's (or Switch pro), the gyroscope was more irritating than useful. I haven't really tried it with the Steam Controller.

Good to know... I couldn't speak for the Switch Pro controller (I don't have one). That's probably another advantage of the trackpad (touchpad)... I don't know how they could easily and naturally turn on and off the gyroscope with a stick... On the Steam controller, it's quite straightforward.

Yeah, I had to go into the settings of the game (in particular Breath of the Wild) to turn it off, as it's not really useful when you're laying in bed and you pull out your bow and shifting weird while laying down and you move all around and can't hit a damned thing :P

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Quoting: dubigrasu

Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: dubigrasu

Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: dubigrasuAFAIK:
They are not the same builds that you can find on Stadia, those (including Exodus) are using DXVK this time (for the record, that doesn't mean they're using Wine).

That is different from everything I've heard before. Do you have evidence that it is the case?

Well, if you download your Stadia data with Google Takeout, you'll find dxvk caches in the Metro files.
For the Metro Exodus Linux port on Steam see for example this: https://steamdb.info/patchnotes/4929373/ [External Link]
I mean, is even in the game credits:

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(this is from our friend here, Corben)

Well, sure enough. Huh, go figure. That makes me less happy about Stadia.

Well, the original Metro Linux ports were using OpenGL, so Stadia had no use for them. Whoever ported them again for Stadia (and Steam's Metro Exodus) went with dxvk instead of rewriting all from scratch.
It could be this or a very similar approach with what is described here:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2019/11/d9vk-developer-is-working-on-allowing-dxvk-to-help-linux-ports-for-direct3d-to-vulkan
If you check the links from the article is clear that it has nothing to do with Wine and is described as native.
I personally have no problems with a dxvk translator, the same way I have no problem with Feral for using their IndirectX (dx>vk translator) for their excellent Linux ports.

I should also mention that Metro is the only game using dxvk on Stadia (so far), so likely is more a porter approach than a Stadia one.

Isn't there a OpenGL to Vulkan wrapper floating about that they could have used for Stadia?

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Quoting: Mohandevir

Quoting: Beamboom... seems I should give my Steam controller another chance, then. Try to figure out how on EARTH you can find it to actually be better than two analogue sticks :)

It's a sure thing that there is a learning curve, but when you get the hang of it, you can do a lot more stuff then what's permitted by a stick. Your trackpad settings and mine will probably differ, too... That's the beauty of the Steam Controller: fully configurable. You will have to find one that's a good fit for you. For my part, joystick as mouse or mouse are the two best preset options, depending on the game and I tweak them to my liking. Joystick emulation is utter garbage, imo, but somebody might have found a use case for some niche game too. :wink:

Edit: And don't base your gyroscope experience on the one in the Dualshock4... Quite a bad implementation, imo... It's always on and it gets in the way most of the time. The default behavior of the one in the Steam controller is activated when you touch (no need to press) the right trackpad. So, if you don't need it, it gets out of the way.

I found the same thing with the Switch's (or Switch pro), the gyroscope was more irritating than useful. I haven't really tried it with the Steam Controller.

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