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Latest Comments by ShabbyX
User submission: Vulkan tutorials now up on github
14 July 2016 at 1:49 am UTC Likes: 1

Thanks for all the positive responses, guys! I'm happy I managed to inspire a few. :)

Like all free software, do feel free to point out errors, imprecisions, or send pull requests.

8 out of the 10 current most popular Steam games support Linux
7 June 2016 at 4:16 am UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: NyamiouAs for OpenGL it can actually be more powerful than Direct3D, why do you thing DOOM is done with OpenGL?

Completely true. A few months ago some apparently famous guy was showing equal performance between vulkan opengl 4.5. Opengl is very powerful, it's just terribly used. Vulkan is just a more modern reimplemention of the same stuff as opengl.

Quoting: NyamiouAnd Vulkan was created to beat and destroy DirectX 12.

Completely false. DX12 was microsoft's feable attempt to get their own "vulkan" out before the real vulkan. DX12 development started after Vulkan was announced. In fact, if I recall correctly, microsoft was part of the vulkan group just until before releasing DX12, and the fact that they are so similar makes one wonder how to call it anything but stealing.

FPS game Insurgency and the Day of Infamy WWII mod updated
31 May 2016 at 12:55 am UTC

Quoting: Guest
Quoting: hardpenguin
Quoting: GuestCan confirm it's quite a great game. The biggest issue with it is the AI on your team is absolutely horrible. Expect to have a very difficult time winning when playing solo. Fortunately, there's co-op.
Or just play PvP like a real man :P

I'm not, so it's okay!

Boooom

User Editorial: A different approach to calculating the popularity of Linux gaming on Steam
2 May 2016 at 11:34 pm UTC

Quoting: Nyamiou...There is a lot of Steam users that only play one game, and often it's a free to play game, those guys don't matter much...

An excellent point. I wonder how many of the steam users just play Dota, Counter Strike, or Team Fortress and absolutely nothing else.

I was in fact wondering why so many games continue to get ported to Linux even though all indications show 1~2% market share!

New Linux Gamer Survey For December
2 December 2015 at 12:58 am UTC

I'm pretty sure you would have a considerable drop in the number of participants if you require login to do the survey. Especially that you don't let us log in with open id, or our google account etc, many will be uncomfortable creating an account just for this site trusting that you can keep the information securely, or simply may not be bothered to remember that one account they are supposed to log in to once a month for the survey.

I strongly advise against requiring login for the surveys. In the very least, you should have an "anonymous" option.

My Thoughts On SteamOS After Some Time With It
16 November 2015 at 12:26 am UTC

QuoteYou will see it reboot a few times as it updates Steam... .

Trying to be windows?

Steam Machines, Steam Link & Steam Controller Officially Released & SteamOS Sale
11 November 2015 at 3:34 am UTC Likes: 1

Also, while I am somewhat disappointed about how silent today went, I am also kind of relieved.

We know that OpenGL is too old for modern gaming and we have been having performance problems for it. I was certainly hoping Steam Machines would come out after Vulkan is released. I guess they didn't want to delay that so much, so they didn't build the hype either. Once Vulkan becomes common-place, who knows, maybe they start building the hype too!

Either way, good job Valve, we love you!

Steam Machines, Steam Link & Steam Controller Officially Released & SteamOS Sale
11 November 2015 at 3:31 am UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: ricki42
Quoting: Mountain ManI know from personal experience that Steam for Linux throws up the survey request far less frequently than it does on Windows. I went nearly two-years without a single survey request in Linux, but I would get one every couple of months in Windows, which was ironic considering that at the time, I booted into Windows only occasionally and used Linux almost every single day. I've heard from a number of other people who have had the exact same experience.

I'm starting to wonder if the bolded is exactly the reason. For a bit over a year, I've been running Steam almost daily on my gaming PC, I got the survey once early on. Today, I started Steam on my laptop, just to check out the sale, I don't use it much to play anymore. And of course, the survey pops up. Both run Linux, Ubuntu on PC, Fedora on laptop. Maybe the hardware survey has a higher chance of coming up when Steam notices some change compared to your usual setup, rather than polling people completely at random. Valve anyway knows what OS you're using to connect, they don't need a survey for that.
Don't know, just a suspicion I have. If anyone here has a second Linux machine that they don't usually use for Steam, maybe even with a different distro, try starting Steam a few times to see if you get the survey, would be interesting if this is reproducible.

This seems to be exactly the reason. I had never got the survey, until I switched daily gaming to Linux and very few times that I went back to windows I got asked to do the survey. Not sure how "time" plays in this, but anyway, last month I changed my graphics card and sure enough, in the beginning of this month I got asked to do the survey on Linux. It does actually make sense for valve to be interested in knowing your "new" hardware, not just random sampling.

Why Are We Still Dual Booting?
12 March 2015 at 5:31 pm UTC

Linux user first, gamer second.

I dual boot generally for other reasons than gaming. First of all, probably today (I recently upgraded to 8GB of RAM) I can easily run a windows on VM, but have you ever tried to install windows? Every damn driver and software should be downloaded from a different website, go through a different installer which often try to install crapware alongside. It's a hassle I don't want to go through again. That is, I'd rather keep a 30GB partition to boot to windows rather than have to go through the trouble of installing it again (in a VM).

That said, it's true that Linux satisfies most of my needs. However, there are some things you just have to do in windows. Not because you can do them better in windows, no no no. But because they usually involve somebody else involved. Some examples are:

- You need to fill a doc file for your university/company/whatever. The doc file is made with MS word and every other word processor shows it weird (I wouldn't be surprised if MS word is rendering contrary to what it says it's rendering in its files, just to screw with competitors). You can't go through a bunch of busy non-technical people and keep talking about free this and that, Linux and that they shouldn't have used MS word. You just got to open it with MS word, fill the damn thing and send it to them.
- My parents use Skype. I hate its guts. It works terribly under Linux. I don't use it any more except occasionally (Telegram anyone?). But I have tried Google Hangouts, Viber, Firefox Hello and others, and with bad internet, usually Skype happens to better get through (no thanks to MS). I can't lecture my parents to use an alternative that is at times unbearable and have an unpleasant conversation over crappy video if I win. In this situation, I would just f*ck it, boot to windows, talk with them and boot back.
- I like to play games with my little brother (I'm 29, he's 25, so not particularly "little"). He is a totally different person, and playing games brings us together. We play battlefields (I don't even particularly like the game), a compromise on both our ends. I can't be an a**hole and limit his options to the Linux titles (very few of which are AAA) which he would never play. Doing that would be like these annoying religious people who keep trying to convert you. I just boot to windows, have fun with my brother (even though I don't like windows, I don't like origin and I don't like EA), and get back to Linux immediately afterwards.

So while I'm all for gaming solely on Linux, I doubt I would stop dual booting, just because in a windows world, sometimes using windows is inevitable. I wouldn't use a VM because I don't want to deal for a second with installing another windows.