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Latest Comments by scaine
ARK: Survival Evolved plans to use Vulkan for Linux this year
2 Jan 2017 at 7:07 pm UTC

Quoting: Guest
Quoting: poisondDon't hold your breath, DX12 was coming next month for over a year :o)

Performance is not wonderful but it's acceptable for what it is.
Ugh. I don't care much about FPS, 30+ and I'm OK. But this game ... 5-20FPS in most areas is not something I'd call acceptable. And thats in addition to all the sometimes game-breaking graphics glitches that haven't been fixed in forever for the OGL renderer, the noticably inferior graphics and the game breaking input bug if you happen to not have a US keyboard.
What hardware do you have? <snip>
You can click on "View PC Info" under his avatar to see his system specs. Spoiler: he's using a GTX970, decent intel i7 chip, 16Gb RAM.

The open source itch games client has been updated yet again
19 Dec 2016 at 6:09 pm UTC

I ticked the box for sandboxing, now the client won't start. And since it doesn't start, I can't untick the option. I guess that feature isn't ready yet (although, if that's actually true, then why include it in the gui?).

Anyone know where the client keeps its config? Time for a wipe.

Mimimi Productions state that Linux (and Mac) were profitable for The Last Tinker
13 Dec 2016 at 11:40 pm UTC

Quoting: ShmerlHm. Another one of those weird "no Linux version on GOG" cases? What's wrong with it this time? I start suspecting it's some incorrect reliance on Steam that's causing it.
Also strange that Blades of the Shogun is on there, but the demo isn't?? Just seems arbitrary sometimes.

Stefan Achatz, the developer who helps get Roccat devices properly working on Linux to end his work
13 Dec 2016 at 11:28 pm UTC

I bought my first (and now my last) product from Roccat because of this guy. Won't touch Roccat again unless they have Linux support. Shame too, as their products are great. Well, barring their Kone XTD mouse which has a big issue with the mouse wheel failing (mine was dead OOTB). But the Kova replacement is excellent and my Ryos keyboard is both mechanical, customisable and pretty to look at.

I guess it's Razr from here on in? Although they rely on community drivers too, right?

Mimimi Productions state that Linux (and Mac) were profitable for The Last Tinker
13 Dec 2016 at 4:54 pm UTC

Quoting: pbI actually bought it on steam, proud to be part of the stats. ;-)

But I have a question. I will probably buy Shadow Tactics from a retail store, as it comes with some collectibles. Since it's an in-house multi-platform release, the money will go the right way, but will they know to count it as a Linux purchase? How does it "work" when companies release multi-platform - do they count "Linux sales" (as reported by stores) or "Linux players" (on Steam) / "Linux downloads" (on GOG) to know the numbers?
Presumably they can track the key they sold you to platform stats on Steam? I'm not sure though. Great question. Is it, ironically, a stronger message to buy something on steam, than it is to buy from the developers own store (porters notwithstanding, of course, since they know that their sales are because the game doesn't exist out with their efforts).

I think it will come down to the developer's own curiosity.

Quern - Undying Thoughts, a puzzle game inspired by Myst released day-1 on Linux
6 Dec 2016 at 9:28 pm UTC

Quoting: Guest
Quoting: Comandante oardoAnd.... No spanish support... No thanks..
What a shitty attitude. This is a small indie game made by a group of 4 people in the UK. You can't expect them to have the resources to translate into everyone's language, especially on day one.
Perfectly understandable though. I wouldn't describe it as "shitty". It is what is is. Some people will demand DRM-free, some will demand AMD support and some will demand language support. There's no malice, just a desire to play games.

Quern - Undying Thoughts, a puzzle game inspired by Myst released day-1 on Linux
6 Dec 2016 at 5:54 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: tuubi
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: Guppy
Quoting: Comandante oardoAnd.... No spanish support... No thanks..
A minority of a minority
According to this page [External Link], in 1999 there were 341M "first language" English speakers, and 322 to 358M "first language" Spanish speakers… Not exactly a minority!
It's still accurate to say it's a subset of the tiny Linux subset of gamers. If you need a non-English localization to enjoy a game, you've got less choice than if you didn't. This is just an objective observation, don't take this as evidence of a bias.
Pretty big minority, right enough, but as tuubi points out, a lot of games don't reflect the nationsonline.org figures. If you filter Steam by Games + SteamOS, there are just over 2700 entries. If you then include "Spanish" in the filter, you slash your options to 845, a third of the available games.

I wonder why that is? There's a LOT of Spanish speakers in the world. I wonder if the defacto "English on the Internet" is causing it.

Quern - Undying Thoughts, a puzzle game inspired by Myst released day-1 on Linux
6 Dec 2016 at 11:55 am UTC Likes: 1

This Youtube review is short and to the point and convinced me to buy it once I've finished my obsession with Warhammer Retribution (already completed Dawn of War).

It's not Linux specific, but focuses on the game mechanic which might help you decide if the game is for you.

View video on youtube.com

Our latest user survey is done, Steam Controller seems to be the favourite
5 Dec 2016 at 12:22 am UTC Likes: 2

Might be nice to get an email (or banner, like you suggested) a month or two before you drop off the survey results.

And if you do drop off, it would be nice to see that boldly displayed on your profile page, so that if you visit it, it will remind you to update it.

I really, really like not being asked to complete monthly surveys. They were getting a big "again??" by the time you changed to the profile method. Much better this way.

Heavy Gear Assault now on Linux, some thoughts after testing it
4 Dec 2016 at 12:33 am UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: c927776
Quoting: ElectricPrismWithout steam I'm easily complacent, steam makes installing easy & management easy.
Same could be said about any other "store" from Apple, Microsoft, Google, Sony etc.

Steam client is bad, steam client forces you to use 32 bit binary's. Just NOW Store/Community tab in steam client stalled on me when I tried to play youtube video and that happened on Windows, I dont know why they are trying to be a Web browser when they suck at it. Im losing authentication with steam way to often and then I get kicked from multiplayer rounds in some games, fucking DRM, if Steam API/Authentication servers are down every game that depends on them is unplayable. As a guy who plays multiplayer games 90% of the time, that is a big problem.

Please stop propagating Steam because we all will regret it very soon, insist on games that could be played without any third party dependency.
If there were an alternative, I'm sure it would at least be popular with Linux players. However, there isn't.

And the whole multiplayer angle tends to work because of Steam - look at all the multiplayer games that refuse to launch on GOG due to a lack of SteamWorks. I remember the pain of having multiple gamespy skins in the 90's and early noughts - UT, Quake 2, Half-Life, Counterstrike, etc. They all did things slightly differently and it was tedious as a result. Different friends lists, different ways to filter, some were in-game, others launched from gamespy directly (which was often slow, particularly if you were disconnected), different options to build favourites lists, master servers failing all the damn time. And Workshop offers a simple way to distribute custom server content without being stuck in a capped queue before you're allowed to play.

Lots of reasons to dislike Steam, but choosing "multiplayer" seems an odd one to focus on. It's pretty much one of the reasons I don't mind Steam's DRM. That, and the game auto-updates, in-game voice, community hubs, workshop content and regular cut-throat sales of course.

I just wished they'd get the little things right.