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Latest Comments by etonbears
Wine 3.9 released adding in the start of Direct 3D 12 over Vulkan support with vkd3d
27 May 2018 at 10:37 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: axredneck
Quoting: etonbears
Quoting: axredneck
OpenGL core contexts enabled by default in Direct 3D
Does it mean better performance?
TLDR; No.
...
I used OpenGL in my programs so i know core context is lower level than compatibility one. So i thought now Wine can use OpenGL more efficiently by default.
If they are defaulting to core contexts, it simply means they guarantee to no longer use any pre-3.0 API calls in their D3D->GL rendering engine. Given that OpenGL 2 is nearly 20 years old, I'm not sure what they would still be using it for anyway. The only reason I can think of to still be using OpenGL 2 is to support very old graphics accelerators.

I still see no reason to expect any significant speedup unless they have re-designed their engine as well.

Wine 3.9 released adding in the start of Direct 3D 12 over Vulkan support with vkd3d
27 May 2018 at 3:46 pm UTC

Quoting: axredneck
OpenGL core contexts enabled by default in Direct 3D
Does it mean better performance?
TLDR; No.

When the OpenGL 3.0 Specification was released, the API underwent a drastic change. The pre-3.0 API provided a high-level 3D Drawing interface using mostly a fixed set of functions provided in hardware. The post-3.0 API is a more general parallel compute environment, with few fixed hardware functions, which can be used for other purposes than just 3D drawing.

Because the change was so large, the 3.0 Specification introduced the notion of "Compatibility Context" and "Core Context". If an application asks for a compatibility context, it indicates to the driver that the application intends to use ( at least some ) pre-3.0 API calls, whereas an application asking for a core context indicates that it will use only the newer post-3.0 API calls.

In practice, all major OpenGL drivers support both types of context now, but some drivers, at least historically, would return a compatibility context when asked for a core context, which some applications/games would consider an error.

It is not actually an error, as the compatability context is a superset of the core context, but the wording and intent of specifications can sometimes be confusing. The actual purpose of requesting a core context is to tell the driver it can optimize for only the newer API, but in practice it has made little difference.

The Witcher 3 didn't come to Linux likely as a result of the user-backlash from The Witcher 2
2 May 2018 at 9:21 am UTC

Quoting: Shmerl
Quoting: etonbearsIf that is the case, the management team would be in a strong position to do what they want. Keeping the share price strong and stable would be in their own interests as well, of course.
Then I'm not sure what problem they had with Linux release. Or was it expected to mess up their stock prices?
It was suggested earlier in the thread that the bad press from the TW2 port caused a temporary stock price event. I didn't find evidence of that When I looked at the stock history.

Most likely the revenue from TW2 wasn't strong enough to warrant other ports at this time. I live in hope that their future games are built cross-platform, but would not be surprised if they continued to ignore Linux.

The Witcher 3 didn't come to Linux likely as a result of the user-backlash from The Witcher 2
1 May 2018 at 10:50 pm UTC

Quoting: Shmerl
Quoting: GuestUltimately the damage is now done. It is very unlikely CDPR will change their minds at this point.
Their management doesn't make decisions anymore. At least they can't uphold them. I suspect their shareholders run the shots there now.

See https://www.cdprojekt.com/en/investors/shareholders/ [External Link]
I would read that graphic as indicating the founders/management retain 1/3 of the shares, with only 2 institutions holding more than the 5% threshold for being identified (assuming the 4 named Polish individuals are part of the company).

If that is the case, the management team would be in a strong position to do what they want. Keeping the share price strong and stable would be in their own interests as well, of course.

The Witcher 3 didn't come to Linux likely as a result of the user-backlash from The Witcher 2
1 May 2018 at 10:21 am UTC

Quoting: Ehvis
Quoting: GuestIt's called "Signal to noise ratio". There was far more hatred than praise, even after we fixed all the problems.
Emotional nonsense. Any business that listens to that has no right to exist.
The most important considerations in a business are usually financial, but any business based on intellectual capital, or people, as they are more properly called, is ill advised to ignore their emotions.

You can now pre-order the SMACH Z gaming handheld
29 Apr 2018 at 9:17 pm UTC

Quoting: TheRiddickHows the GPU power compared to the Tegra1 and 2 chips I wonder? Is Vega 8 1TFLOP iGPU?
I assume it means 8 Vega compute units. So assuming the CPU can keep the Vega pipelines primed, just look up Vega 64 Full HD benchmarks and divide the framerate by 8.

Not something I would be interested in, but the Z-Pads look like something the Steam Controller could do with. I find the Steam controller haptic pads don't work well as intended ( for me ), and the ability to choose your own preferred sticks and buttons has to be helpful.

AMD has announced 'Radeon-Rays' an open source ray tracing SDK using Vulkan
29 Apr 2018 at 8:08 pm UTC

Quoting: elmapul
Quoting: etonbears
Quoting: elmapul
Quoting: etonbearsBest not to use UWP at all. Neither the architecture nor the market seem compelling to me.
we can avoid UWP all as we want, but how to convince developers to not use it?
Actually, I meant that comment from a developer perspective. The UWP development model is inferior to the Win32/64 model for desktop and laptop computers, where Microsoft are still reasonably strong. The whole point of UWP is to provide an equivalent to the iOS development model for tablets and phones, but that is a market in which Microsoft is almost invisible.
UWP also works on xbox
That's true. But XBox is a games console, and also has a better development model than UWP for developing games; I am not clear why one would want to develop anything much else for an XBox.

I understand the logic of UWP for Microsoft; they can market a single development environment and pretend it makes development everywhere easier. But I really don't think it does, any more that the Java slogan of "write once, run everywhere" was ever true. The range of devices for which UWP is proposed comprise quite different sets of capabilities; if a UWP app in the Microsoft store runs on all platforms, a developer would feel obliged to write and test additional code to handle them all, even if they make no sense.

I am not suggesting that UWP is of no value to any anyone, or that no developers will find it helpful. There are probably classes of utility applications that can find common ground on multiple Windows 10 platforms, and if you want to link together multiple Microsoft-only web and Windows 10 services, you can probably benefit from UWP.

However, if you are a platform neutral developer, UWP makes sharing code between platforms far more difficult, which may be to Microsoft's benefit, but is certainly not helpful to the developer.

Valve has removed the Steam Machine section from Steam
26 Apr 2018 at 10:05 pm UTC

Quoting: qptain NemoWell, there is some extra irony in what you're saying in that the entire metric system is built on that system of time measurement. The very meter itself is defined through the second — wiki [External Link].
I think you might have misread that? It seems to say that the SI Unit was defined as a re-statement of the existing measure, in terms of the speed of light in a vacuum; defined using seconds because no-one adopted the decidays centidays and millidays proposed by the metric system :D

Quoting: qptain NemoI think ultimately consistency and good frames of reference are more important than the decimal base.

Also as someone doing graphics programming I use radians quite a lot. :V
Yep, nice simple multiples and fractions, so long as you don't think too hard about the value of PI :)

Valve has removed the Steam Machine section from Steam
26 Apr 2018 at 9:42 pm UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: etonbears
Quoting: slaapliedjeHa, using meters to represent your height reminds me of a ton of jokes that were in Super Troopers 2. Stupid USA needs to start using the Metric system like every other country on the planet.
They have been trying to go metric since 1793 apparently! It's not easy to change the frame of reference you acquire in childhood (which is why any given "society" tries to plant its ideas of religion/politics/patriotism as early as possible), so the USA has significant popular resistance to any metric change.

Even in the UK where we have long since decimalized our currency (the US currency was always decimal, of course), and officially adopted the metric system of weights and measures, we also still officially use miles for distance, and pints for beer. I grew up with both the Imperial and metric systems, and use them interchangeably, but generations older than mine still think and talk in Imperial.

In case we feel too superior about the logic/modernity of the metric system (which originates in the French revolution of 1789), consider that we all customarily use archaic measures of time (24 hrs of 60 mins of 60 seconds) and angular measure (one revolution/circle is 360 degrees of 60 minutes of 60 seconds) without a second thought. There are metric/decimal alternatives for both, but we continue to use the systems derived from the ancient Sumerian base 60 number system, some 4000 years later.:O
I'm Canadian, and we went mostly metric when I was a kid. So it can be done. But one thing I notice is that while some metric measures "took" fairly easily, some imperial stuff hung on. I think it's because, while the metric system is very rational and easy to calculate in, the imperial system (having grown up through habitual practical use by people) tends to give you numbers that are easy to think in at the scales people use. So like, it's easier to think "2 teaspoons" than "howeverthefuckmany ml", and so to this day cooking is dominated by imperial measures.
Exactly so. The driving forces behind early development of weights/measures/numbers was what made sense in everyday use. So, the inch/span/cubit were measures related to your hand and forearm, making them easy to understand, and easy to use approximately without any need for tools.

Similarly, numbers were mainly used to count and apportion commodities, for which 12 is a "magic" number, since it is evenly divisible by the small factors 2,3,4 and 6. Using multiples of 12 gives you extra factors - 24 is also divisible by 8, while 60 gives you 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 as factors.

Scientific and technical use of numbers and units needs agreement and accuracy, however. Just ask Lockheed-Martin about the Mars Climate Orbiter :D

Valve has removed the Steam Machine section from Steam
26 Apr 2018 at 7:49 am UTC

Quoting: slaapliedjeHa, using meters to represent your height reminds me of a ton of jokes that were in Super Troopers 2. Stupid USA needs to start using the Metric system like every other country on the planet.
They have been trying to go metric since 1793 apparently! It's not easy to change the frame of reference you acquire in childhood (which is why any given "society" tries to plant its ideas of religion/politics/patriotism as early as possible), so the USA has significant popular resistance to any metric change.

Even in the UK where we have long since decimalized our currency (the US currency was always decimal, of course), and officially adopted the metric system of weights and measures, we also still officially use miles for distance, and pints for beer. I grew up with both the Imperial and metric systems, and use them interchangeably, but generations older than mine still think and talk in Imperial.

In case we feel too superior about the logic/modernity of the metric system (which originates in the French revolution of 1789), consider that we all customarily use archaic measures of time (24 hrs of 60 mins of 60 seconds) and angular measure (one revolution/circle is 360 degrees of 60 minutes of 60 seconds) without a second thought. There are metric/decimal alternatives for both, but we continue to use the systems derived from the ancient Sumerian base 60 number system, some 4000 years later.:O