What do you think Valve are cooking up to further Linux gaming?

Personally I think we will see a continued and (hopefully) increased engagement of Valve to further develop Proton, so that it will run Windows games, even newly released ones, without Linux users noticing any difference whatsoever. I suppose getting all this anti-cheat crap software to run is probably -the- biggest task for 2021. Proton does an amazing job already, and if Valve will put in more resources to polish it, I believe that goal can be achieved.

The above hope is based on the realization, that we might not like, but have to accept, that native Linux ports of AAA titles are dead. If I am not totally mistaken, Crusader Kings III was the only AAA title we got in all of 2020. Aspyr and Feral both have moved on to other things. Interest in Linux from big brand publishers is still zero and very likely will remain so. At least as far as AAA titles go, Proton and Linux gaming are the same thing these days.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

About time, really. The Civ Diplomacy AI is so bad that it's meme-worthy and has made almost zero progress since Civ 1 where it already acted like an escapee from Arkham Asylum.
I always found it mind-boggling how the devs could tolerate such an important aspect of the game to be in a state like this, particularly when that particular use-case (make sane diplomatic requests/offers matching the given relative standing of their nation compared to yours) isn't THAT complex.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

As long as you're not going for 4K gaming, the GeForce RTS 3060 Ti seems like a winner, and would likely be exactly what I would be going for if I was going to be building a system.

Is there still a reason to go for NVidia rather than AMD these days? I am shopping around for a new system too, but have basically ruled out NVidia, because AMD seems to be the much better deal these days, and getting rid of their proprietary driver rubbish is an added plus.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

The tile-set system in Godot really needs some love. Right now, you can't even assign properties to tiles, which means that entire genres such as 2D RPGs or RTS are practically infeasible to implement with Godot. I am so happy to see that they're not just trying to catch up with the 3D leaders out there, but still improve the 2D part as well. I am really looking forward to the 4.0 release. It can't come soon enough! :)

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Arehandoro

Quoting: Kimyrielle

Quoting: dpanterBlender good.
Money good.
Facebook... pure evil. :dizzy:

Money is money, though. No matter where it's from. ;)

I guess money from slavery or child abuse doesn't matter where it comes from... ;)

I dislike Facebook with passion too, but throwing them in the same pot with the above is a little extreme.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: ObsidianBlk

Quoting: Kimyrielle

Quoting: dpanterBlender good.
Money good.
Facebook... pure evil. :dizzy:

Money is money, though. No matter where it's from. ;)

Not if there are strings attached to that money. The worry is Facebook using their money to control Blender like a puppet.

I guess the point of a -donation- is that doesn't come with strings attached. If Facebook wanted to control Blender, they could just throw a few million at the developers to bribe them into accepting a job offer...

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: dpanterBlender good.
Money good.
Facebook... pure evil. :dizzy:

Money is money, though. No matter where it's from. ;)

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: kuhpunktKinda worried about the future honestly... so much fragmentation, everybody wants its own thing.

If they overdo it, it will fail. Just like now literally every movie studio, no matter how insignificant, thinks it needs to start its own streaming service with exclusive content for $15 a month. Remember the times when Netflix had ALL content for the same 15 bucks? Netflix is already established, and Disney is big enough to get away with it, but the rest of them will just die. In the meantime the only ones profiting from the fragmentation are the online pirates...

I suppose it will go down the same road here. These services will try to handcuff customers to their service by signing as many exclusive deals as possible, so gamers will face having to subscribe to 3 or 4 of them just to get the games they want. Which is not very attractive, so they will go back to Steam where they can get everything they want in one place.

*shrug*

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: randylMicrosoft does want people to use Office 365, but I'd also say it works great in the browser especially for everyday use.

That it runs in a browser isn't really my problem with Office 365. That it's rentware is. Thankfully it's not my problem, for I haven't used any version of Office after 2007 anyway. One of the perks of no longer working for a large organization is that I can choose my own software. Haha!

I'd be down to try a Linux kernel and posix based Windows desktop. The things that annoy me greatly about Windows are drive letters, ntfs, and user file permissions. It's mostly backend stuff I'd like changed. The front end isn't too bad.

Agreed. The UI isn't Windows' biggest problem. While Win 10 looks like crap compared to 7, it's probably ok enough for most. Some of its internal designs are just flat-out cringe-worthy, though. In addition to what you named, I'd add the registry to the list, which arguably worse than any of what you listed. I guess the only reason why end users don't complain THAT much about Windows is because they never have to try administrating it. Haha!

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: x_wingWake me up when they release office.

Unlikely. MS wants everybody to use Office 365 anyway, and is very likely to make local versions less and less desirable over time, until the elbowed everybody into their cloud. The last thing they're likely going to do is add new platforms to stand-alone office.

View this comment - View article - View full comments