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Latest Comments by Mountain Man
Aspyr Media will be publishing 'InnerSpace' from PolyKnight Games helping it come to Linux
9 Mar 2017 at 5:53 pm UTC Likes: 4

So much for claims that Aspyr is abandoning Linux.

Razer looking to improve Linux support on their 'Blade' series of laptops
6 Mar 2017 at 7:58 pm UTC Likes: 1

Has Razer improved their quality? They have a well-deserved reputation for selling overpriced junk. You can get much better products for the same money.

The Talos Principle has another stable build with Vulkan improvements, much better than OpenGL
3 Mar 2017 at 6:56 pm UTC

Quoting: BeamboomIt's easy to be blinded by the AAA releases from Feral & Aspyr, but these guys here are real Linux gaming heroes and deserves every little bit of praise - and applause from our wallets - for their work.
I think you're right. I wasn't that keen on The Talos Principle having played the demo (it seemed like Portal without the humor and charm), but you're right, these guys should be rewarded for their efforts.

The Talos Principle has another stable build with Vulkan improvements, much better than OpenGL
2 Mar 2017 at 9:40 pm UTC Likes: 3

Quoting: Comandante ÑoñardoObviously You gonna have good performance with that powerfull hardware... :|
I would like to see a benchmark with a more realistic and reachable hardware: core i3 and a GTX 750ti, for example.

And I would like to see the difference against the OpenGL mode, the Vulkan mode and the DirectX mode of the windows version of the game with the same hardware, so We can have more extensive information :)
He's comparing apples to apples, OpenGL vs Vulkan on the exact same hardware, and it's clear that Vulkan gives superior performance. It would seem logical, then, that it will give similarly superior performance to lower end hardware even if the raw numbers aren't the same.

Khronos working on an '3D Portability Initiative' to enable portable development across Vulkan, DX12 and Metal
2 Mar 2017 at 4:29 pm UTC

Quoting: Guppy
Quoting: Mountain Man[...]
At any rate, improved portability between APIs can only be a good thing, so I'm in favor of it. Perhaps then we won't see cases like Civ 6 where it runs like butter on Windows but chugs on Linux.
Your forgetting that we already have a cross platfrom 3d acceleration API, having an additional one will mean just as little as the previous one if people don't use it.

Worse still if the new standard wraps/jit compiles it's competitors that will make it slower and thus be seen as worse. Sure you can run Sports franchise 2019 on Linux thanks to 'shiny API v#++' but the performance is 10% lower than on windows - conclusion; 'shiny API v#++' sucks
As long as Microsoft exists, DirectX will exist, and Microsoft spends a lot of money to make sure it stays dominant, so for the foreseeable future, a lot of Linux games are going to be DirectX first and some other API second. Since developers are unlikely to abandon DirectX enmasse, the next best thing is improved portability.

Khronos working on an '3D Portability Initiative' to enable portable development across Vulkan, DX12 and Metal
2 Mar 2017 at 1:20 pm UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: GuppyObligatory XKCD;
It's worth noting that the phrase "competing standards" is, essentially, an oxymoron.

At any rate, improved portability between APIs can only be a good thing, so I'm in favor of it. Perhaps then we won't see cases like Civ 6 where it runs like butter on Windows but chugs on Linux.

American Truck Simulator has a new beta with some major engine simulation improvements
1 Mar 2017 at 8:47 pm UTC

Quoting: KeyrockGotta love SCS, they keep tinkering with their games for years after release.
Yet Steam Controller support for Euro Truck Simulator 2 is still DOA in Linux.

Cities: Skylines - Mass Transit DLC announced, adding more transport possibilities
1 Mar 2017 at 6:09 pm UTC

Quoting: bakgwailoI wish they would focus a little more on performance (especially in Linux). Don't newer engine versions bring a lot to the table for OpenGL performance ?
Linux performance has been Cities: Skyline's bugbear since day one. It's especially frustrating because there's no reason it should be a problem.

Microsoft announces new DirectX Shader Compiler that's open source
1 Mar 2017 at 6:00 pm UTC

Quoting: niarbeht
Quoting: Mountain Man
Quoting: niarbehtHonestly, if Microsoft published their own runtime for Linux, giving effectively Wine-style functionality but more... work-y, I'd probably pay $30 or $40 for that.
No way. That could so easily end badly for Linux.
It could. Then again, it could also end really well. It could end in Microsoft just being a vendor of a particular set of proprietary window controls that a few big-name software vendors pay out money for, and everything else using standard Linux stuff (Qt, GTK, etc.). Get people on the platform, and suddenly Microsoft becomes just another vendor, instead of the platform controller.
That is until Microsoft squeezes out non-proprietary APIs like Vulkan and then suddenly ends DirectX support for anything but Windows/Xbox. No thank you.

Railway Empire simulation game announced, will support Linux
27 Feb 2017 at 12:41 am UTC

The fact that it's being released for consoles is concerning. You're just not going to find a complex, in-depth railroad sim on a console.