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Latest Comments by anth
Act fast to get Payday 2 plus some DLC for $1 from Humble Bundle's 72 hour bundle
27 January 2017 at 6:04 am UTC

Can anyone confirm if the DLC works on Linux? The page on Humble says it does and much of it is just masks which should be fine, but on Steam the DLC from May 2016 on shows the SteamOS logo while those for up until February 2016 only show Windows. That roughly lines up with both the Linux release and the developer taking over publishing too, with the change of publisher reflected on Steam for those DLCs too, so I'm hoping it means that everything works but the original publisher didn't bother ticking the required boxes when Linux was added.

SteamVR support for Linux looks like it's getting close
14 January 2017 at 7:20 am UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: GuestI'm not buying a 900€ gadget if i cannot play big games like ... Fallout
Fallout 4 is being worked on for the Vive and is expected this year. Unfortunately it'll be a surprise if anything from Bethesda comes to Linux.

Quoting: WorMzyGranted it was a couple of years ago now, but it was still a proper headset experience.
It probably seems like moving the goalposts, but I think you need to have used one of the consumer versions including tracked controllers (ie Vive or Rift+Touch). Just the headset won't give the full experience, and the Oculus dev kits 1 and 2 were too limited even without considering input.

Valve expects to sell 1 million Steam Controllers by early 2017, will allow configs for other controllers
16 October 2016 at 6:40 am UTC

Those of you concerned about regional availability might be interested to know that the link in the first paragraph of the article appears to be the slides and text of the Steam Dev Day talk and includes:
QuoteSince their launch, Controller and Link sales have been limited to the US, EU and Canada. We’re now expanding that to Eastern Europe, SE Asia, Latin America and Oceania. The first of these new territories are already online, and the rest will be there over the next few months.
Being from New Zealand I'm a bit disappointed that the "Territory Expansion" slide doesn't have here coloured in, though I bought a Steam Controller from Amazon a few months back.

A general guide for the best practices of buying Linux games
7 October 2016 at 7:59 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoteso long as the game has a playable Linux version. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t have a SteamOS icon, if it has a Linux version, the developers will see a sale for it
Actually it'll be seen as a Linux sale even if there isn't a Linux version available, provided it is brought using Linux and not installed elsewhere for two weeks. For example The Stanley Parable had Linux sales before it was ported, and other developers have made similar comments.

Of course at that time there probably there probably isn't an agreement in place for the porter to get paid so this is just a technicality.

QuoteIt doesn't really matter what operating system you buy your game on when it's directly on Steam, the main thing that counts is where it's first installed and played on for the first two weeks.
If you buy but don't install during that period then the platform you brought with will count. The Steam mobile client counts as the default ie Windows. If you install then that platform will override it. If you play then the platform with the most play time at the end of the period will be counted. This means that a gift to a Windows user can count as a Linux sale if you keep it in your inventory for two weeks.

It is also worth noting that the discussion about buying from third party stores only matters when the porting company becomes another publisher for that game such as with Aspyr or Feral. If the port is done in house then the money goes to the same company anyway and Steamworks will tell them where it was installed.

You have no excuse not to own Company of Heroes 2 now, Humble Bundle Company of Heroes bundle is live
5 October 2016 at 10:36 am UTC

Quoting: mcphailDoes it count as a Linux sale for Feral?
It doesn't look like it.

As has already been noted the under "Choose where your money goes" for this bundle the only publisher listed is Sega.

That is a bit disappointing as the page for COH2 on Humble Store lists Feral as one of the two developers and publishers.

Unless we're told otherwise by either Humble or Feral I'll be avoiding this.

SC Controller, the open source driver and GUI for the Steam Controller is making lovely progress
13 July 2016 at 10:57 am UTC

Quoting: AryvandaarSeems a bit odd that Valve tries to market their steam machine but don't let people in certain countries order the steam controller.
They're still not available to me according to the Steam store, and aren't in shops here, but getting Amazon to ship to New Zealand was no problem.

Razer announces the HDK2 VR headset, will support OSVR and SteamVR
18 June 2016 at 10:48 pm UTC

Quoting: N30NOculus/Facebook are paying them to develop the games.
We've known since January that Valve and HTC are also providing funding to VR developers but do not require exclusivity. From more recent comments it seems that Valve are providing advances to be paid back from Steam sales and HTC are seeking equity.

Offworld Trading Company looks like it may come to Linux
3 April 2016 at 4:05 am UTC

Quoting: Purple Library Guyit seemed like Stardock was a very Windows-centric, DirectX kind of shop
They haven't always been that way

Linux usage on Steam is better than people think
19 March 2016 at 8:45 am UTC

Quoting: SeegrasBuying a game before its available for MacOS X or Linux counts as Windows sale.
No it doesn't. For example The Stanley Parable had Linux sales before it was ported, and other developers have made similar comments.

If that was ported by a different company their contract may only have them paid for sales after the release but that is a separate issue. That won't affect those of us who only play on Linux anyway, as there is no reason to buy a game that we can't use.

GPUOpen has launched, AMD open up more to the community
9 February 2016 at 10:34 am UTC

Quoting: vulturethis one is tied to GCN and features not exposed in APIs
That probably refers to things such as async compute, features of Vulkan/DX12/PS4/Xbox1 which aren't in OpenGL or DX11. That feature at least isn't GCN specific; Nvidia's claimed support hasn't worked so well in practise but their upcoming generation of GPUs may do better,