Patreon Logo Support us on Patreon to keep GamingOnLinux alive. This ensures all of our main content remains free for everyone. Just good, fresh content! Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal Logo PayPal. You can also buy games using our partner links for GOG and Humble Store.
Latest Comments by skinnyraf
Why Linux games often perform worse than on Windows
27 Oct 2016 at 5:55 pm UTC Likes: 4

After reading some comments I'm surprised we have any games on Linux. "It's not a port, it's a wrapper", "I won't buy anything on Steam, DRM is evil, no GOG=devs don't want my money", "companies specialising in porting are parasites", "the game crashes on my self-compiled install which is tuned for high performance with one hundred obscure compile flags".

Not only we are few, some of Linux users are so self righteous...

Why Linux games often perform worse than on Windows
27 Oct 2016 at 12:53 pm UTC Likes: 6

Quoting: MaCroX95I would really like to see Valve making Steam machines OS locked to SteamOS because this is what would give them clear proof of how many people only on their behalf use Linux-based distro for gaming... Yes it would be a Microsoft-like move but it would be more effective than letting people to buy SteamOS powered steam machines and then give them right to just put Win10 on there...
Talk about becoming monsters you're trying to fight.

So, you propose to lock down machines that were specifically created to foster openness of the PC platform? You propose to lock down machines running a system that is most often a victim to MS locking down PCs and advertised as the way to secure oneself from suffering a lock-in?

Interesting :)

BTW., Valve does not need to do this to have any "clear proof". Just put some data identifying Steam Machines and/or SteamOS in telemetry they collect anyway - or modify the hardware survey to display on SteamOS.

Game porter Ethan Lee has done a write-up of the recent SteamDevDays
27 Oct 2016 at 7:13 am UTC Likes: 4

Ethan directly mentions Rocket League getting a lot of attention, and the fact that it was running so well on a Steam Machine that people didn't really pay attention to the fact that this was on SteamOS.
Well, that's not enough. Many important titles are missing, and the best SteamOS can offer is that one game runs so well, it is indistinguishable from the same game running on Windows. Steam Machines will have a chance when games are running better on SteamOS than on Windows.

In related news, recent Nvidia drivers for Windows broke Windows 10 and the rushed patch fixed that, but broke Windows 8 :)

Cities: Skylines - Natural Disasters now has an in-game trailer
26 Oct 2016 at 11:34 am UTC

For me C:S is the sweet spot between "creative sandboxes", i.e. unlimited resources, and truly challenging games. I need to think about money, pollution, traffic, but I don't fear bankruptcy all the time.

But yeah, at heart C:S is still a traffic simulator ;)

Cities: Skylines - Natural Disasters now has an in-game trailer
25 Oct 2016 at 1:20 pm UTC Likes: 2

Definitely!

I have installed Cities Skylines recently along with Train Fever on my Steam Machine and play it on a 100'' screen powered by an overhead projector.

Somehow the best way to play it in that setup is to zoom out quite a bit and stand/walk quite close to the screen using a Steam Controller. The feeling is almost science-fiction.

Natural disasters will add some spice :)

'Sky Break', a single-player open-world action & adventure game now on Linux
24 Oct 2016 at 10:21 am UTC

Quoting: Crazy Penguin
Quoting: ziabiceSeems like "No Man's Sky" without the hype. Wishlisted! ;)
Well, it suffers from the same problems as No Man's Sky: Fancy graphics with a lack of Gameplay and Content.
With no hype and 45 Euro price difference, I think we can be slightly more forgiving :)

'Sky Break', a single-player open-world action & adventure game now on Linux
24 Oct 2016 at 7:13 am UTC

Quoting: PublicNuisanceI am actually the opposite of you. I started to prefer DRM free as my collection grew because it became more of a risk and a realization that Valve has the power to take my games away by banning my account. They may never do that but they have the power. If GOG were to cease to exist tomorrow I have all of my games downloaded in multiple locations so I would be unaffected.
Steam has explicit warnings if a game requires you to accept a third party EULA. It would be nice if they also explicitly state what DRM a game uses. Games you buy on Steam are a total mixture of no DRM (i.e. you can download and backup and never need to launch Steam to play), Steam DRM/API (you need Steam to download & play) and third party DRM (you download via Steam, can backup but then third party DRM kicks in).

That said, there are games which in addition to Steam DRM use Steam API for social aspects - they might be tied to Steam not because of anti-piracy protection but because of friends lists, achievements, chats etc.

Bastion for Linux is finally available on GOG, the game also now uses FNA
21 Oct 2016 at 7:59 am UTC

Quoting: DamonLinuxPL
Quoting: rea987
Quoting: HoriHow well does FNA perform compared to MonoGame?
Yeah, what is the difference between Steam and GOG versions on GNU/Linux?
From what I understand. Steam version use monogame and gog use fna.

Developer of fna in simple way explain what differences between both:
https://github.com/FNA-XNA/FNA/issues/8#issuecomment-178229327 [External Link]
Well, "FNA is XNA4, MonoGame is XNA5" is not a simple way :)

His answer is basically: build your project with both and see the difference yourself, then you'll understand the difference.

Let's take Bastion as an example: does the switch to FNA reduce hardware requirements or increase performance (not much of an issue, as Bastion is not really taxing the hardwre)? Does it increase stability perhaps? Or perhaps MonoGame has some dependencies which were unacceptable for GOG?

Basically, should I, as a player, care about the fact that Bastion on GOG uses FNA?

Mad Max released for Linux, port report and review available
20 Oct 2016 at 10:27 am UTC Likes: 1

Waiting for reports of performance on low frequency CPUs. Anyone with a gaming laptop equipped with i5-6400t here?