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Latest Comments by Anza
Descent 3 has been made open source
18 April 2024 at 6:16 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: Kirtai
Quoting: NathanaelKStottlemyer
Quoting: Gamall
Quoting: NathanaelKStottlemyerDon't mean to be rude, but only Decent3? What about 2 and 1!?! I can't play them out of order!!!

They already have fantastic open-source ports.

https://www.descent2.de/
https://www.dxx-rebirth.com/

I think those are game engine remasters, while this one is the actual game. I could be mistaken though.
There's also Chocolate Descent at https://github.com/InsanityBringer/ChocolateDescent
I was very disappointed when I followed that link and there was a suspicious lack of anything about chocolate.

So it went downhill fast.

PS: bit more seriously though, probably the name comes from Chocolate Doom and even has same purpose.

Linux continues to be above 4% on the desktop
10 April 2024 at 8:05 pm UTC

Quoting: BlackBloodRumI might have to find a less mainstream OS, this is becoming uncomfortable.

There's plenty of obscure ones to try out, HaikuOS has even some recent activity. Didn't check what software actually runs on it.

BSD:s might be boring as there's plenty of software already patched to run on it. Might be too similar to Linux though, so it's better to stick with the obscure ones.

Escape Simulator adds VR support in the latest free update
4 April 2024 at 9:39 pm UTC

Quoting: toorThe status of VR on Linux is REALLY sad. Especially considering Valve Index is supposed to be "officially supported".

I'm using Kisa Mesa, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, with an AMDGPU 6750 XT and I tried different combinations:
- Native / Proton
- Latest stable SteamVR / v1.14
- With/Without async reprojection

And none works the way it should.

Native -> No VR at all, not even implemented
Proton & latest SteamVR -> launched in VR, but no possible async reprojection, and it's so stuttering that it makes you sick
Proton & v1.14 -> no stuttering, but doesn't launch properly in VR, and you have the old interface

I'll just continue to use VR on Windows… this is just ridiculous

I can imagine it's even more infuriating when you compare it to Windows. I don't as I don't dualboot and all my Windows machines are for work. To me it seems that it's in state where you can say it works, but quite lot of niceties are missing. There are some hacks that add some unimplemented stuff, like turning off the beacons automatically.

Quoting: EhvisSteamVR defaults to OpenXR now instead of OpenVR like it used to. And you won't find any VR dependencies in the Linux version since they're only in the Windows one.

For me enabling the setting that uses SteamVR as OpenXR implementation (or I think that what the setting was called) fixed Beat Saber. I had to install SteamVR beta to see the setting, though it might be also in stable as I'm affected by bug that causes instability that breaks the settings screen.

I don't know if the setting is now changed for fresh installs. Would make sense if OpenXR requirement is more widespread. I haven't had a reason to dig down deeper if I have more of those games.

Escape Simulator adds VR support in the latest free update
4 April 2024 at 2:23 pm UTC

Quoting: toorI wasn't able to run the VR mode from Linux

Do you have OpenXR enabled?

Stop Killing Games is a new campaign to stop developers making games unplayable
3 April 2024 at 1:57 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: CatKillerLegislators getting involved in what you can and can't include in your game, and how a company runs their online infrastructure years after the fact is going to get quite messy, with companies still pushing boundaries and finding edge cases.

Full automatic refunds for every copy when a company kills the game is much simpler, and removes most of the financial incentive for that undesirable behaviour (you've still given them an interest-free loan, after all).

That sure will make any kind of games where players can't host their servers financially unsustainable. Not necessarily bad thing, though will cause major changes in the market.

I'm not sure if that kind of change is easy to push through.

Just knowing when the support ends might help like with phones. If you know that you get two years of support, you know not to buy phones that area close to end of their support period unless you know you can replace the stock OS with something with longer support.

With games things can be bit fuzzy, but at least some kind of minimum support period would be good. Especially with multiplayer and games with mandatory online component. With single player games if DRM allows, there are more workarounds.

Escape Simulator adds VR support in the latest free update
3 April 2024 at 1:35 pm UTC Likes: 1

At least demo worked with Proton. Probably for me what helped is that I enabled OpenXR with Steam VR beta.

VR implementation is not as immersive as Alyx. Objects are picked up with a button, which handy as you don't have to crouch as much and you can pickup up multiple objects quickly. It just takes bit time to get used to. Index could do better as with the finger tracking, grabbing things is quite natural.

Full room VR experience is almost practical, my play area is about half of the games room size. So have to utilize buttons now and then to move. There's vignette when that happens, which might help with motion sickness.

I can imagine though that VR could be fun with multiplayer as you can do quite lot of gestures naturally (cartwheel might be one of the exceptions). You can also make quite a mess, though you can also clean up by moving things into trash.

Humble Choice for April has Terraformers, Victoria 3, The Callisto Protocol
3 April 2024 at 12:24 am UTC

Quoting: Purple Library GuyAmong those, I've just been playing Terraformers. It's pretty decent. The learning curve isn't bad, and it does have a fair dose of that "just one more turn" feel. I'm not sure how much mastery it really takes, though. After only a few playthroughs I'm feeling like I pretty much get it.

I do find one thing rather gratifying--so, like, there's this mechanic of how happy the colonizers are with things. And the game does "rising expectations" where over time, the amount of "support" you need to have increases, fairly steeply. And depending, all the little bonuses you can create, entertainment centre kind of things and tourist attractions and so forth, probably aren't going to be enough. But when you do various things that make Mars a bit more terraformed, it makes the whole population happier, giving you a massive ongoing bonus. So if you're doing a decent job at that stuff, you'll be getting the bad news that "rising expectations" are going to put you in deep, but then you bump up the heat level and the atmosphere level, plant a forest, and the penalty gets totally wiped out and you're golden again.

I have had the game even before the bundle and for me it it hold up for total 6 hours, which was time it took for one playthrough. Playing the prelude might have made the game feel bit less fresh.

Game feels bit like simplified version of Terraforming Mars, though having the board game feel and being about terraforming Mars might have something to do with it.

AMD FSR 3.1 announced with Vulkan support, upscaling quality improvements
23 March 2024 at 10:33 am UTC

Quoting: pete910
Quoting: Anza
Quoting: pete910More crap we don't need,


Instead of spending god knows how much on dlss/fsr spend it on better hardware

Problem is that the better hardware doesn't always exist.

Technology doesn't always advance in sync. Monitors first get higher resolution or refresh rate and then GPU:s need to catch up. Also GPU features like raytracing rise demands for the GPU. Dropping resolution gets the framerate back to acceptable level, but FRS and DLSS offer a good compromise.


Not really anything to do with monitors.
What I am meaning is either better hardware per tier or find ways of making the hardware more affordable at a given tier rather than £1000 odd for a 80 class card which is just **** ridiculous.
I have the money for a 4090 but be damned if I'm feeding the greed of these companies!

Upscaling should help in both scenarios. Though if money is the issue, previous gen cards might offer close enough performance. Every update doesn't always have things that are absolutely essential. New and shiny things take time to be implemented into games. Downside is that hardware becomes obsolete faster.

Also one saving opportunity is to avoid playing the latest AAA titles. Indie games and older AAA titles are less demanding on hardware. Easier said than done though, I still updated to beefier machine, though still I spend most of my time in indie games.

Proton Experimental fixes up classic EA games and fixes more regressions
21 March 2024 at 9:27 pm UTC

Did quick testing and first Command & Conquer doesn't work. It didn't work with previous experimental either and game is unstable with most of the previous Proton versions. Same was with Red Alert which I didn't retest. However, remasters are the same games, but better, so these ones don't matter that much.

Tiberian Sun stars, though starting campaign causes screen to go black. I think it should show a menu, at least I managed to click something that sounded like a button.

Red Alert 2 worked nicely. Played the tutorial without issues.

AMD FSR 3.1 announced with Vulkan support, upscaling quality improvements
21 March 2024 at 6:29 pm UTC Likes: 13

Quoting: pete910More crap we don't need,


Instead of spending god knows how much on dlss/fsr spend it on better hardware

Problem is that the better hardware doesn't always exist.

Technology doesn't always advance in sync. Monitors first get higher resolution or refresh rate and then GPU:s need to catch up. Also GPU features like raytracing rise demands for the GPU. Dropping resolution gets the framerate back to acceptable level, but FRS and DLSS offer a good compromise.