Latest Comments by Hamish
What Can You Do For Linux Gaming?
22 Nov 2014 at 11:59 pm UTC Likes: 5
22 Nov 2014 at 11:59 pm UTC Likes: 5
I do feel I need to intercede here with respect to one point, as I am more than a little concerned at the implication being expressed here by some that Linux deviancy from the norm is something that needs to be rooted out and stifled in order for acceptance by a mainstream majority. If such a view is to be taken then I could not help but feel that the existence of Linux gaming as a whole would then become utterly pointless, as by accepting one marriage of convenience we might as well all just become betrothed to the greatest of them all, namely restricting ourselves to playing our game titles on Windows or one of the larger established Console platforms.
With that being said, I do not actually dispute the idea that game developers can set certain limits for themselves with regards to what platforms or setups they are willing to support. If a developer does choose to only offer support to certain distributions or drivers, then as long as that fact has been clearly communicated to the buyer beforehand, that is within their right. By taking the road less travelled one does admittedly also have to take on the burden of isolating themselves from many of the established and traditional forms of support as well.
I game from an Arch Linux setup and only use free software drivers. Whenever I have encountered a problem I have often found community solutions to solve those problems; there are plenty of resources available that are independent from the original game developer, provided by proud statistical outliers like myself. During the few times that I have had problems with my graphics driver I have also gone to the trouble of reporting them to the freedesktop.org bug tracker, and have found the developers there to be very quick and helpful in responding to my complaints. There are independent support structures available for those of use who do not want to fall in with the crowd.
The fact that the burden is on us to solve our own problems in these cases I do not dispute. What I do find offensive is the idea expressed by some that people such as myself are harming the platform or need to be expunged for the sake of their own narrow conveniences; such a sentiment betrays such an utter lack of solidarity that those expressing it should be immediately ashamed of themselves. The strength of Linux comes from its diversity; there is a reason that we are not all happily using Windows to play our games. If we are ever to forget that we might as well just write off the whole thing as one large sick joke; the success of Linux as a gaming platform would then cease to have any meaning to anybody.
With that being said, I do not actually dispute the idea that game developers can set certain limits for themselves with regards to what platforms or setups they are willing to support. If a developer does choose to only offer support to certain distributions or drivers, then as long as that fact has been clearly communicated to the buyer beforehand, that is within their right. By taking the road less travelled one does admittedly also have to take on the burden of isolating themselves from many of the established and traditional forms of support as well.
I game from an Arch Linux setup and only use free software drivers. Whenever I have encountered a problem I have often found community solutions to solve those problems; there are plenty of resources available that are independent from the original game developer, provided by proud statistical outliers like myself. During the few times that I have had problems with my graphics driver I have also gone to the trouble of reporting them to the freedesktop.org bug tracker, and have found the developers there to be very quick and helpful in responding to my complaints. There are independent support structures available for those of use who do not want to fall in with the crowd.
The fact that the burden is on us to solve our own problems in these cases I do not dispute. What I do find offensive is the idea expressed by some that people such as myself are harming the platform or need to be expunged for the sake of their own narrow conveniences; such a sentiment betrays such an utter lack of solidarity that those expressing it should be immediately ashamed of themselves. The strength of Linux comes from its diversity; there is a reason that we are not all happily using Windows to play our games. If we are ever to forget that we might as well just write off the whole thing as one large sick joke; the success of Linux as a gaming platform would then cease to have any meaning to anybody.
Postal Redux Coming From RunningWithScissors, And It's Confirmed For Linux With UE4
16 Nov 2014 at 9:08 pm UTC Likes: 2
http://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/gamingonlinux-reviews-postal-classic-and-uncut.1114
And when it comes to using UE4 for the game, considering the fact that all of the developers at RWS are now familiar with using UnrealScript and have extensive experience with the Unreal tools, not to mention the need for proper cross-platform support, I can see why UE4 would be very attractive for them.
16 Nov 2014 at 9:08 pm UTC Likes: 2
Quoting: edoPostal 1 never worked in my case, I killed everyone and then I couldn't access to any map :( Thats was annoying, because I tried several times on linux and windows.Yet another person bit by the infamous “F1” key design problem:
http://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/gamingonlinux-reviews-postal-classic-and-uncut.1114
And when it comes to using UE4 for the game, considering the fact that all of the developers at RWS are now familiar with using UnrealScript and have extensive experience with the Unreal tools, not to mention the need for proper cross-platform support, I can see why UE4 would be very attractive for them.
Frozenbyte's Platformer Splot May Not Come To Linux It Seems
10 Nov 2014 at 12:36 pm UTC
10 Nov 2014 at 12:36 pm UTC
Well, I can still definitely say that I got my money's worth when I purchased the Humble Frozenbyte Bundle for Trine and Shadowgrounds alone, but this is still rather disappointing.
Postal 2 No Longer Being Worked On By Icculus, RWS Taking It In-house
10 Nov 2014 at 12:17 pm UTC
10 Nov 2014 at 12:17 pm UTC
Thanks for the clarifications. :)
I will however say that when it comes to GG my impressions do not really come from the mainstream press but rather from my connections in the Indie gaming industry, although I do admit to not really following the matter all that closely so I may indeed be missing out on some of the subtleties.
Still, I can assure that you that none of this has affected my support for RWS as a developer.
I will however say that when it comes to GG my impressions do not really come from the mainstream press but rather from my connections in the Indie gaming industry, although I do admit to not really following the matter all that closely so I may indeed be missing out on some of the subtleties.
Still, I can assure that you that none of this has affected my support for RWS as a developer.
Postal 2 No Longer Being Worked On By Icculus, RWS Taking It In-house
7 Nov 2014 at 6:17 pm UTC
7 Nov 2014 at 6:17 pm UTC
Also, while not about this game specifically, it does still help further the real point here:
https://twitter.com/icculus/status/527288128290422785 [External Link]
And then there is also this:
https://twitter.com/icculus/status/527156136798347264 [External Link]
https://twitter.com/icculus/status/527288128290422785 [External Link]
And then there is also this:
https://twitter.com/icculus/status/527156136798347264 [External Link]
Postal 2 No Longer Being Worked On By Icculus, RWS Taking It In-house
7 Nov 2014 at 4:59 pm UTC Likes: 1
Even with all of this being accepted though, Vince Desi and the rest of RWS are not the sort of people that would end a long standing relationship over a political difference, and Ryan is indeed actually far busier than he has ever been before; work for him has been growing steadily ever since the first Humble Indie Bundle, never mind the the arrival of Steam, GOG.com, and everything else later on. I would strongly suggest we do not read too much into this.
7 Nov 2014 at 4:59 pm UTC Likes: 1
Quoting: liamdaweI asked Ryan about it, but he said he didn't know RWS supported them and he said he hopes they change their minds.Even though GamerGate is for the most part a bunch of sexist and hate filled garbage, I can actually understand the stance RWS has taken on it; in their case they have indeed suffered unfair prejudice from the media for years and have even seen the review scores for their games altered due to political convenience and unfair pressure. I can see perfectly well why they would take the stance they do, even if it is unfortunate that the aspersions GamerGate usually casts are almost always in the wrong direction.
Even with all of this being accepted though, Vince Desi and the rest of RWS are not the sort of people that would end a long standing relationship over a political difference, and Ryan is indeed actually far busier than he has ever been before; work for him has been growing steadily ever since the first Humble Indie Bundle, never mind the the arrival of Steam, GOG.com, and everything else later on. I would strongly suggest we do not read too much into this.
Postal 2 No Longer Being Worked On By Icculus, RWS Taking It In-house
7 Nov 2014 at 5:20 am UTC
7 Nov 2014 at 5:20 am UTC
Quoting: philip550cI believe you will find that to be an old, old, joke...Quoting: CimerydWait...Portal 2 is being updated? After over ten years!?! I haven't played this game since grade school, and it still gets content? Talk about LTS.Postal 2 you mean?
Basement - A Drug-dealing Strategy Game.
6 Nov 2014 at 6:10 pm UTC Likes: 1
6 Nov 2014 at 6:10 pm UTC Likes: 1
Quoting: IlyaNow on change.org: "Pull the plug on the Basement game project and apologize"Again with this stuff Ilya?
Major OpenGL Performance Improvements Inbound For Intel, Thanks To LunarG
6 Nov 2014 at 6:06 pm UTC
6 Nov 2014 at 6:06 pm UTC
Quoting: drmothI have an Nvidia card, but Intel Mesa drivers on my laptop are fast becoming a favourite. Having an open source driver makes a huge difference in terms of quality of integration and general out-of-the-box usability.With Intel's work on stuff like LunarGLASS and AMD now backing a more unified driver strategy on Linux things should also only get better for the FOSS drivers in the future.
Postal 2 No Longer Being Worked On By Icculus, RWS Taking It In-house
6 Nov 2014 at 5:20 pm UTC Likes: 2
6 Nov 2014 at 5:20 pm UTC Likes: 2
A little confusing since Ryan Gordon added it to "Doing" on his Trello page in September...
https://trello.com/b/y0wvS4ec/icculusboard [External Link]
Still, in many ways this is the best move - icculus is way overburdened at the moment and by doing this themselves RWS is in many ways just demonstrating their increased maturity as an Indie developer. Considering that the next game they do whatever it is will likely be built on UE4 anyway should also help matters greatly in this regard.
Considering this has been basically ready to go since May though, I will be very glad when the updates do finally arrive on our own fine, fair shores.
https://trello.com/b/y0wvS4ec/icculusboard [External Link]
Still, in many ways this is the best move - icculus is way overburdened at the moment and by doing this themselves RWS is in many ways just demonstrating their increased maturity as an Indie developer. Considering that the next game they do whatever it is will likely be built on UE4 anyway should also help matters greatly in this regard.
Considering this has been basically ready to go since May though, I will be very glad when the updates do finally arrive on our own fine, fair shores.
- GOG are giving away Alone in the Dark: The Trilogy to celebrate their Preservation Program
- Steam Survey for January 2026 shows a small drop for Linux and macOS
- Valheim gets a big birthday update with optimizations, Steam Deck upgrades and new content
- AMD say the Steam Machine is "on track" for an early 2026 release
- ScummVM v2026.1.0 is a huge new release with tons of new supported games
- > See more over 30 days here
- Help! Steam ignoring gamepad
- JSVRamirez - New Desktop Screenshot Thread
- scaine - Weird thing happening with the graphics
- heisasleep - Is it possible to have 2 Steam instances (different accounts) at …
- mr-victory - I need help making SWTOR work on Linux without the default Steam …
- WheatMcGrass - See more posts
How to setup OpenMW for modern Morrowind on Linux / SteamOS and Steam Deck
How to install Hollow Knight: Silksong mods on Linux, SteamOS and Steam Deck