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Latest Comments by Spyker
Jonathan Blow's next game looks like it might support Linux
20 April 2017 at 9:16 pm UTC Likes: 1

I watched the video, but still I didn't understand what the purpose of his new language. What problems does it solve that cannot be done in other modern languages ?

Flinthook, a fast action-platformer with roguelike elements releases day-1 for Linux
19 April 2017 at 8:44 pm UTC

Quoting: GrimfistBoy, the pixel art and chiptune sounds are amazing, this is how pixel art should be done in 2017! For the gameplay, I think I am out here, looks to fast for me, I am not getting younger and my reflexes aren't that good anymore.
Don't worry you can slow down the time using the hero's "chrono belt".

Canonical drop the Unity desktop environment for Ubuntu favour of going back to GNOME
7 April 2017 at 9:33 am UTC Likes: 5

As a long time Fedora user, I welcome this decision.
Ubuntu dropping Unity alongside MIR will finally bring back convergence in the Linux Desktop.
Re-inventing the wheel for business purpose was their worst call ever.

Mad Max meets Vulkan in a new fully public beta for Linux, benchmarks and OpenGL vs Vulkan comparisons
30 March 2017 at 2:46 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: edddeduck_feral
Quoting: aldyHow is the performance near Gastown? This was the most demanding area in the OpenGL version.
Quoting: BeamboomOk, wow. I am blown away by the difference. And this is no demo but a real world example. Utterly promising.

Please Feral dude, stop by and explain to us why exactly the difference is this major, even on a ported title?

For the most part Mad Max on GL is CPU bound - ie. limited by the single threaded CPU performance on the GL thread. We already use a separate thread for GL dispatch but this doesn’t mean GL itself is multithreaded.

Vulkan helps us massively here, as you can see in the graphs, and is almost always GPU bound now. If you've got the time to spec this out you could look into average GPU utilisation (using nvidia-smi) with GL and with Vulkan, and you'll see the difference.

To be clear the benchmark areas are some of the absolute *worst* cases for the CPU, designed that way so we could target the issue directly. That obviously produces some skewed results towards the best case for Vulkan, but I'd hope the jump in performance across the board proves it's not just a one off.

Other games might not get as large a boost, the exact benefits very much depend on if the game is CPU or GPU bound and why.

Quoting: elmapulwait, this is a linux only feature or windows is supported?

Linux only.

I'm wondering if such a gain could be obtained from Deus Ex. It seems the most demanding game you ever ported on Linux so far. As it already has a DX12 renderer, I believe the port to Vulkan should be easier.

Shadow of War, a sequel to Shadow of Mordor announced, no word on Linux yet
27 February 2017 at 8:58 pm UTC

I hope Feral relations with WB are still good after the Batman fiasco.
I definitely want to play this game on Linux !

Valve are looking towards Flatpak functionality for Steam
24 November 2016 at 3:27 pm UTC

Quoting: autonomouseHere you go: http://blog.dustinkirkland.com/2016/06/howto-host-your-own-snap-store.html

I don't mean any offence here, but I wanted to set the record straight. It's a company made up of some of the most intelligent, talented, passionate and idealistic people I have ever met. Oh, and me.

I like what they stand for and what they do and I don't like seeing them framed as the root of all evil when all they ever tried to do was build something for people to use.

I like Red Hat too. What I don't like is the way the companies seem to fight like an old married couple. They have far more in common than they have differences. I wish the two companies would get over it amdcollaborate more, but I guess seeing as though they're competitors in the server space, some of the debates spill over to the desktop world.

I already acknowledged that as I mentioned above... I wasn't aware of that because they provided this solution after the community complains about Snapcraft.
I also don't think the issue with Canonical is about a NIH syndrome, I think it's more about project governance.
They want to control the big projects they rely on, their controversial CLA is another evidence of their stance on that matter.

Valve are looking towards Flatpak functionality for Steam
24 November 2016 at 10:16 am UTC

Quoting: seb24Nop Snappy propose this function : https://developer.ubuntu.com/en/blog/2016/11/16/snapping-qt-apps/
And you can add use different repo and add various stores. In fact it's a nice solution for Steam because they can really easily integrate a proper Steam Snapp repo in steam.

Is this really the same ?
Flatpack's runtime have a namespace, and they can be installed in parallel, you can have different version for different apps. The system automatically remove duplication, so you only have what you need installed.
Well, for the store it seems you can setup your own, but the whole publication process seems a lot simpler with Flatpack (Flatpack repo is more like a PPA).

Valve are looking towards Flatpak functionality for Steam
23 November 2016 at 9:23 pm UTC

Quoting: seb24
Quoting: Spyker
Quoting: mehari95Does anyone know why they chose Flatpak over Snap?

Flatpack has one advantage over snap, like the possibility to bundle a runtime containing common dependencies shared between Flatpack packages. Thus Flatpack packages tends to be much smaller than snap ones. The runtime can be updated separately providing benefits for all other Flatpack apps without breakage.
Snappy have the same functionality ^^ .

As far as I know only Flatpack provides this feature...
Another drawback for snappy is you cannot set up a third party repo for it (only the one from Canonical is allowed), which is probably the biggest issue for Valve.

Valve are looking towards Flatpak functionality for Steam
23 November 2016 at 10:30 am UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: mehari95Does anyone know why they chose Flatpak over Snap?

Flatpack has one advantage over snap, like the possibility to bundle a runtime containing common dependencies shared between Flatpack packages. Thus Flatpack packages tends to be much smaller than snap ones. The runtime can be updated separately providing benefits for all other Flatpack apps without breakage.

NECROPOLIS, the third person action game from Harebrained Schemes may come to Linux
20 June 2016 at 7:55 pm UTC Likes: 7

It seems those devs never heard of the Steam Runtime.
No need to target a specific distro, just build with the Steam Runtime and your game will run basically on any Linux distribution able to run the Steam client.