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Latest Comments by soulsource
Atari VCS games really are just plain Linux desktop builds
29 Dec 2020 at 11:57 am UTC Likes: 8

Quoting: const
Quoting: soulsourceNot surprising.
The Xbox One is just a desktop Windows machine with a fancy console interface and mandatory cryptographic signatures for all executables. The PS4 is just a regular BSD with a fancy console interface and similar restrictions. Why should the Atari VCS be much different?
Thanks for your in depth analysis of current console architectures and software ecosystems. Will you hold a talk on next CCC, showing us how to run PS5 games on BSD? Looking forward to it. Year of BSD desktop.
Thanks for the nice and polite reply.

Of course it's not that simple - especially since the Xbox and PS4 make heavy use of AMD's HSA, and of course the cryptography is implemented in both ways - the executables built ny the respective toolchains won't launch on a system that fails to authenticate properly. But that was not the point I was aiming at.

I just wanted to point out that also the big console manufacturers are not reinventing the wheel but build on top of existing technology.

Atari VCS games really are just plain Linux desktop builds
29 Dec 2020 at 10:58 am UTC Likes: 5

Not surprising.
The Xbox One is just a desktop Windows machine with a fancy console interface and mandatory cryptographic signatures for all executables. The PS4 is just a regular BSD with a fancy console interface and similar restrictions. Why should the Atari VCS be much different?

The best Linux distros for gaming in 2021
27 Dec 2020 at 10:16 pm UTC

Quoting: Mountain Man
Quoting: prosoorAbout Gentoo and some less common like Mandriva or even weirder package system I should rather not. I have no time even to read about them, less to try them.
I used Gentoo many years ago when I had more free time to invest in maintaining my system. Since everything is compiled from source code, the initial install was an all day (and overnight) affair. Even something as simple as installing an office suite could take several hours to download and compile the source code. Of course this was on an older, slower single core CPU, so things may not be as painful these days, but I really didn't mind it at the time until I was in the middle of a college course, and a routine update completely broke my system (not an uncommon occurrence for Gentoo). Since I didn't have the time to recompile an entire Linux install from scratch, I used Kubuntu as a temporary solution to get back up and running quickly and was so pleased with how fast and easy it was that I've never looked back.
Strange, my experience was the exact opposite. Ubuntu was rather great, until they started shipping Unity. Then it became comparable to Windows 95 regarding stability - frequent crashes. The LTS versions remained somewhat usable, though still noticeably worse than any Ubuntu version before, but the non-LTS versions turned into a crash-fest, with the X11 session dying every second minute or so.
That drove me away towards Debian, and I never looked back.
Since 2016 I'm running Gentoo - mostly because I wanted to try it and got stuck because its Rolling Release scheme never required a re-install, so I had no incentive to switch ever since. Gentoo has been an extremely smooth ride for me - except some minor things that could be fixed by a simple package downgrade.
(To be honest, I had one more involved issue with Gentoo, but that was because I had some ~arch - untested - packages unmasked, so it was clearly a user error.)

The latest big free Civilization VI update is out with a slightly less annoying AI
22 Dec 2020 at 10:38 am UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: Eike
Quoting: soulsourceI wonder if granting demands still _lowers_ the AI's opinion of you, or if this has finally been fixed?
Hm. :)

Of course it doesn't make sense from a tactical point of view, but if I - which I herewith do - demand a hundred bucks from you, and you would actually grant it, it would really lower my opinion of you. :D
Also if I would make a smug comment like Süleyman frequently does: "I suppose I can do this in the spirit of almsgiving."
:tongue:

The latest big free Civilization VI update is out with a slightly less annoying AI
22 Dec 2020 at 9:20 am UTC

I wonder if granting demands still _lowers_ the AI's opinion of you, or if this has finally been fixed?

The best Linux distros for gaming in 2021
15 Dec 2020 at 6:58 pm UTC

Quoting: Micromegas
Quoting: soulsourceThere is an important piece of information missing regarding Ubuntu: People should imho only use LTS versions. The non-LTS versions are horribly unstable (bordering being completely unusable), and will only lead to frustration.

My personal recommendation would still be Debian Stable. Apart from the installation process (Debian has by far the superior installer) it's like Ubuntu, but a lot more stable. And I really mean _a lot_ more stable.
It seems that it's always a trade-off between latest drivers and updates (and the freedom to install newer software versions) versus a very reliable, stable computing environment. For me Mageia hits the sweet spot here as a very stable distribution for the non tech savvy user with lots of testing by the distribution maintainers and with major upgrades every 1.5 years. But I totally see that users have different needs, like a user of Void or a user of Debian (very) Stable. :happy:
Yeah, personally I am using Gentoo, which is for me also right at the sweet spot between stability and usability. The stability of the stable packages is amazing, in my opinion much better than what any Ubuntu release since 2012 offered, while untested packages (~arch) can be enabled on a per-package basis, allowing easy installation of the very latest graphics drivers and such.
However I would certainly NOT recommend Gentoo to a beginning Linux user - it's either for people who want to spin their own distribution based on it (*cough* ChromeOS *cough*), server admins who want 100% control over which version of which library/program is installed, or tech enthusiasts.

The best Linux distros for gaming in 2021
15 Dec 2020 at 12:03 pm UTC Likes: 4

There is an important piece of information missing regarding Ubuntu: People should imho only use LTS versions. The non-LTS versions are horribly unstable (bordering being completely unusable), and will only lead to frustration.

My personal recommendation would still be Debian Stable. Apart from the installation process (Debian has by far the superior installer) it's like Ubuntu, but a lot more stable. And I really mean _a lot_ more stable.

Kerbal Space Program 1.11 will let you fix up your craft during a spacewalk
26 Nov 2020 at 9:40 pm UTC

The new textures naturally raise the question if they managed to fix the texture quality setting issue that prevented Linux users from selecting any texture resolution other than "medium"...

Edit: This is the bug I'm talking about: https://bugs.kerbalspaceprogram.com/issues/24306 [External Link]

Them's Fightin' Herds getting real close to Linux support, with macOS to follow after
7 Oct 2020 at 5:08 pm UTC Likes: 2

There is one thing I am often wondering about:
If the game has working OpenGL rendering support, why even invest the extra amount of work to maintain Direct3D rendering?
If multi-platform support is known to be a requirement right from the start, why even bother implementing Direct3D support?

Go on a journey to find riches in Silk Roads: Caravan Kings out now
3 Oct 2020 at 9:04 pm UTC

I've been playing it for a few hours today.
The game itself is great, but it's still a bit buggy. For instance, resting over the winter only works properly if you start it during December. If you start it during January or February, you're resting a whole year...
Some events also don't seem to have proper prerequisites set up, like playing the lute at a tavern, which triggers also if you don't even own a lute.

But yeah, the game has something for it. Great mood, and captivating gameplay. Despite it being a completely different genre, it reminds me of Crusader Kings, with the events telling the story.
I can definitely recommend this game, hoping that the developer irons out the few bugs.