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Latest Comments by Anza
The Linux version of Civilization VI should get cross-platform online play in the next few weeks
20 July 2018 at 8:38 pm UTC Likes: 6

Quoting: Kristian
Quoting: scaineWow, that's pretty huge, isn't it? Cross-platform play has been an issue with ports for...ever. I was led to understand that it's basically impossible (for a ported title). I wonder how they overcame it?

Why would it be basically impossible? I was under the impression that several titles have cross-platform play?

As far as Aspyr has revealed about Civillization VI porting, at least one of the big issues has been third party floating point math library and trying to behave exactly same way in all cases.

Computers are not very good at accurate floating point math, so covering all the corner cases in same way is not that trivial.

That has caused random desyncs. Which means that public release of the cross platform has been delayed quite many times.

I guess with multiplayer code difficulty varies. With clean network code platform doesn't really matter (if that wouldn't be possible, we wouldn't have Internet). But in worst case communication is done with some odd binary protocol that one of the games DLL:s just spews out.

That's something that Samba had to deal with it until Microsoft agreed to meet them half way and make things work bit more like real network protocol.

You can grab Arma 3 plus some DLC in a new Humble Bundle
9 June 2018 at 1:10 pm UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: devnullSteam Store no longer lists Arma 3 as supporting linux? :(

Might be that Linux has never been listed in the store page. Port is still experimental after all and might never get official status.

Go mad over popping bubbles in the new puzzle game Tiny Bubbles
10 May 2018 at 3:16 pm UTC

Quoting: Purple Library GuyI've been looking for something that I can play for a few minutes in between doing other things. Thing is, most of my games aren't really suited to that--like Stellaris, for instance: Once you're in, it's for a good long time. This looks like just the sort of pause-to-relax-for-a-minute thingie I'm looking for.

Actually, your Stellaris description fits good puzzle games too...I spent several hours playing Tiny Bubbles. Difference is that games like Tiny Bubbles are more suitable for shorter sessions, if you manage to keep the sessions short...

Factorio will have a price increase this month and leave Early Access soon
2 April 2018 at 8:55 am UTC

Quoting: Stratagerm
Quoting: JanneIs the game UI and components as small as in the video on Steam?

The Options/Interface menu allows UI scaling up to 200 percent. I haven't found the need to change it from the default, though, even though my eyesight isn't the best.

There is one minor occasion when poor color contrast makes something hard to discern: when placing a blueprint of a straight belt the direction arrows can be hard to see against blank terrain. I've misplaced a number of belts backwards due to this. There's a simple workaround—when a blueprint overlaps something already placed, it's shown in high contrast. Thus while placing it's just a simple move of the mouse to position the blueprint to check the belt direction. Complex blueprints don't have this problem, it just happens with simple belt patterns.

I strongly recommend buying this game, particularly before the price increase. The developers are dedicated to making the game as good as they can make it and their craftsmanship is quite apparent. Read some entries from their weekly blog and you'll see their commitment to excellence.

Few developers care as much. We gamers have seen many lackluster products shipped too early in search of income.

Wube Software is one of the best game studios around.

I have trouble all the time placing blue belts right way around. Maybe your trick should help. Must be some kind of combination of fast movement and low contrast...

As for those worrying about wasting money on game they might not like, there's Linux demo on Steam (and maybe elsewhere too, I haven't checked). That gives pretty good idea what the game is about.

Something for the weekend - Spec Ops: The Line is free on Humble Store
31 March 2018 at 4:51 pm UTC

Quoting: SchattenspiegelDefinitely a nice game.
In case someone is having problems with stuttering starting on the menu screen: for some reason loading into a game closing it completely and then and starting it a second time always fixed it for me.

I have vague memory that there was a fix that involved modifying OpenAL configuration file. I found this configuration file from my disk:

.alsoftrc

And contents are following:

drivers=alsa,pulse,oss

Those settings might help or not. That's order in which audio drivers are tried. What driver works best might depend on your setup.

I think that configuration came from Virtual Programming GitHub, but as that's no longer public, I can't really check the original source.

Humble Indie Bundle 19 is now live!
27 March 2018 at 8:25 pm UTC Likes: 1

Linux games that I don't have (except SOMA) and easy way to support GamingOnLinux? This bundle might be too good to pass...

Keith Packard's video from 'LinuxConfAu 2018' talking about Virtual Reality and Linux is up
30 January 2018 at 3:10 pm UTC

Quoting: TheSHEEEP
Quoting: AnzaBut even now, there's some cool stuff coming out because people are working to get VR working properly on Linux. Basically that was something that simplifies sharing displays on multi-seat setup much easier.

If I'm able to explain it correctly, it's way to lease the display to a program that wants exclusive (but still revocable) access for a display, while making sure that client doesn't have access to the clients running on the real X server. X server or kernel can revoke the access at any time and control comes back to the X server without any disastrous issues.
Sounds interesting, multiple separate X sessions at the same time are a really something that is missing at the moment. Not only for VR, but in general. A few weeks ago, I was in a situation where I would've really needed that...

In some form it has been possible for long time. Oldest one around is to make all monitors separate X displays. Makes things pretty cumbersome though as clients programs can't be dragged between the displays and which display programs end up is determined with an environment variable. And setup can't be really changed dynamically. Getting rid of the setup requires editing configuration file and the restarting the Xorg server.

Xephyr was somewhat more practical, it's basically a window that contains another X server, ie. nested X server.I don't think I have ever tried to play games with it though. But in theory it could be possible at it should have GLX support now. I don't think mouse is locked inside the window though, which for some games might not be practical.

Keith Packard's video from 'LinuxConfAu 2018' talking about Virtual Reality and Linux is up
30 January 2018 at 2:34 pm UTC Likes: 2

It's bit shame that video shows some cool stuff in it, but discussion deteriorated quite quickly to situation where people argue if apples are better than oranges. Even Linux game market is big enough to have games for VR early adopters and people who couldn't care less about VR. It doesn't matter if VR will eventually replace displays or not.

But even now, there's some cool stuff coming out because people are working to get VR working properly on Linux. Basically that was something that simplifies sharing displays on multi-seat setup much easier.

If I'm able to explain it correctly, it's way to lease the display to a program that wants exclusive (but still revocable) access for a display, while making sure that client doesn't have access to the clients running on the real X server. X server or kernel can revoke the access at any time and control comes back to the X server without any disastrous issues.

And no, there was no discussion about forking Xorg or Linux kernel, I think most of the changes are already upstream. Last thing that glues everything together was still worked on, so maybe not that yet.

God game 'The Universim' now has a demo to try on Steam
20 July 2017 at 8:21 pm UTC

I actually also reported the fullscreen issue in the demo announcement with even some details about the Unity bug (which has been mentioned here on GamingOnLinux few times). Luckily commenting on that wasn't restricted at all like the Steam discussions.

Hopefully they have read it as fixing should be as simple as updating Unity or disabling fullscreen for Mac OS X and Linux users.

Steam just keeps growing according to a presentation Valve did recently, UI update is coming
6 July 2017 at 8:08 am UTC

Quoting: WendigoI hope they will add the search filters from the shop page to the games library.
When searching for games that have local / online multiplayer or coop play you are forced to look up each game separately.
I have several hundred games in my library so that might take a while.
This really annoys me about steam.

I have manually made categories for that, but information will never be quite comprehensive...

Cross platform multiplayer is also important information. Though for some playing only with Linux and Mac people could be a feature :)

Search that uses tags from store would be so much better as keeping all the information up to date manually can be quite tedious.