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Latest Comments by dmantione
Multiple statistics have shown Linux market-share doing better than ever
7 Jan 2017 at 9:25 pm UTC Likes: 3

5% on which stat website? Except for W3Schools, 5% looks a bit out of range to me. I would be very happy with 3% on Netmarketshare end 2017.

Multiple statistics have shown Linux market-share doing better than ever
7 Jan 2017 at 8:58 pm UTC

The websites that do show Linux and ChromeOS separately, show that the ChromeOS share is quite small compared to Linux, so therefore I would not expect ChromeOS to cause the Linux rise on websites that do not show ChromeOS separately.

The Steam Winter sale is now live, prepare your wallets
22 Dec 2016 at 7:50 pm UTC

Hehehe.... More games to available than ever, but yes, the more choice you have the harder it becomes to choose.

The Steam Winter sale is now live, prepare your wallets
22 Dec 2016 at 7:25 pm UTC

The wallet is ready for votes for more Linux ports

Editorial: The Nintendo Switch will use Vulkan, why that doesn't suddenly mean more Linux ports
19 Dec 2016 at 10:49 pm UTC Likes: 8

Anything that reduces the cost of ports helps. As long as we are small, the economics of a port play an important role. Growing helps, cheaper ports help.

VK9, the open source project to implement d3d9 over Vulkan reaches another milestone
19 Dec 2016 at 2:18 pm UTC

A very important question is: Can this bring the DirectX9 API to Linux? If yes, it can decrease the cost of a port a lot, and at the same time work better than the now proprietary DirectX to OpenGL translation layers.

If not, it could still be usefull as a component in Wine, which has the potential to become better than the current DirectX to OpenGL in Wine, so still interresting, but as Wine is Windows gaming and not Linux gaming, makes it a lot less attractice.

Best Buds vs Bad Guys is another game that has been delayed for Linux
10 Dec 2016 at 2:24 pm UTC

On the hand, for many game developers, it has been as easy as build and test. There are good reasons for healthy skepticism, but neither there is reason to assume that every game that has a slight delay will be canceled.

AMDGPU-PRO 16.50 actually released, with FreeSync and wider GPU support
9 Dec 2016 at 7:36 am UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: artvandelay440So as a long time Nvidia devotee on Linux, can someone explain to a relative AMD outsider- are their cards ready for no-fuss Linux gaming support? Is the driver install process as simple as Vvidia? I ask as someone looking at alternatives for my next GPU upgrade.
We are getting there. With open source drivers there is no install process at all, your Linux distribution does the work for you. Just out of the box good gaming performance. Big step for Linux on the desktop!

However, we are not completely there yet:
* Some users will want DAL for 3 monitor support, Freesync, HDMI audio etc.
* Some users will want Vulkan support
* Some users will like the better performance of the properietary stack

At the moment, unless you have a supported Linux distribution, AMDGPU-PRO is the "compile your own stuff" user experience.

I am currently in the process of migrating from a HD6670 to an RX460. That it is a process rather than an event says a lot: PC's are disgustingly complex devices and you run always into something. You encounter all kinds of small issues, some not at all related to software, for example, an unpleasant surprise was that my DVI-I cables, perfectly capable of handling digital signals, don't fit into the RX460. But also the software config with my 3 monitor desktop needs DAL and therefore work. That's more than just drivers, things like installing a newer kernel, also fall into this category. So during the last weeks, I had my HD6670 inside during weekdays when I needed my computer and during the weekends tried to make the RX460 setup acceptable. Getting there, this week was the first week that I used my RX460 completely.

But it all depends on your needs. For many users the full open-source stack provides everything they need and then there is the "zero fuss" experience. If the open-source stack doesn't provide what you need, there is, unfortunately, still some fuss, but it's also smoothing.

AMD working on an updated driver that will support FreeSync on Linux and wider GPU support
7 Dec 2016 at 12:27 pm UTC

The full GPU-PRO driver is on my to-do list, but it is rather tighyly coupled to the supported Linux distributions at the moment. You can't just install the rpm's. I haven't been able to make it work for now, but will try again.

AMD working on an updated driver that will support FreeSync on Linux and wider GPU support
7 Dec 2016 at 11:34 am UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: boltronicsI'll be very upset if FreeSync is only supported by the proprietary stack (which most AMD users on GNU/Linux rightfully no longer use anyway, based on the hardware survey here). It would be a stupid move by AMD, but I'm quite sure the intent is for it to arrive on the free software stack once the DC arrives and this won't be a problem.
You can use it today, because all DAL code is open source and available and it works too. You just need to do a bit more work to use it at the moment. The easiest way is to download the GPU-PRO driver. It contains the source code for the amdgpu kernel driver, but with DAL support. Compile this amdgpu kernel for your own kernel, i.e.:

cd /lib/modules/4.4.27-2-default/build/
make modules M=/usr/src/amdgpu-pro-16.40-348864/
make modules_install M=/usr/src/amdgpu-pro-16.40-348864/

That is all, there is no need to replace anything else, the open source drivers happily work with this amdgpu driver, that's the advantage of a shared kernel driver. Then everything from Freesync, HDMI audio etc. starts to work.

I had to do this myself because I have 3 monitors, and apparently without DAL, you can use max 2 monitors.