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Latest Comments by x_wing
A look at the Penumbra Collection on Linux with Mesa in 2020
24 May 2020 at 9:22 pm UTC

Quoting: PublicNuisance
Quoting: CyrilStill sad to see that GOG have not the Linux versions of the Penumbra games... I send an email about it this month and still no answer.
This is just my theory but I think issues like these are why it is not on GOG. To be more specific from what I have gathered GOG is very strict about providing the same support to all potential customers. For instance on the CRPG Beautiful Isolation the Linux version was late being on GOG but the developer mentioned that this was because on Steam they could simply choose to not support those that used AMD CPUs and GPUs on Linux as they had a bug on those setups at the moment. GOG would not allow them to do this and had they released the Linux version on GOG they would have to support all customers not just certain ones. Now luckily that bug got fixed and the Linux version for Beautiful Desolation is now on GOG but it makes me wonder how many Linux games that are not on GOG are due to not being able to blacklist customers like Steam allows them to. Again, just a theory.
I doubt that it works that way. Beautiful Desolation still has a bug that makes the game unplayable on Linux with Mesa drivers (unless you want to cheat). Whatever restriction or problem they have with GoG is probably completely unrelated with the current state of the game on Mesa.

A look at the Penumbra Collection on Linux with Mesa in 2020
22 May 2020 at 11:45 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: HamishSo this is interesting. When going back to try and provide the core dump that x_wing requested I discovered that Overture no longer crashes when you leave the fishing boat, even when using the stock lib32-mesa package supplied by Arch Linux.

Downgrading the package reveals that the fix was introduced with lib32-mesa-20.0.7-2 built on May 15th. A couple of days after I first started drafting this article.

Black Plague still crashes when attempting to flatten the coin in the vice, however. Here is the backtrace:
#0  0xf537355b in ?? () from /usr/lib32/dri/r600_dri.so
#1  0xf4e90e77 in ?? () from /usr/lib32/dri/r600_dri.so
#2  0xf4e927ca in ?? () from /usr/lib32/dri/r600_dri.so
#3  0xf502629c in ?? () from /usr/lib32/dri/r600_dri.so
#4  0xf50280fa in ?? () from /usr/lib32/dri/r600_dri.so
#5  0x083f42a1 in hpl::cSDLTexture::CreateFromBitmapToHandle(hpl::iBitmap2D*, int) ()
#6  0x083f5609 in hpl::cSDLTexture::CreateFromBitmap(hpl::iBitmap2D*) ()
#7  0x08381716 in hpl::cTextureManager::CreateFlatTexture(std::string const&, bool, bool, hpl::eTextureType, hpl::eTextureTarget, unsigned int) ()
#8  0x083794ec in hpl::cMaterialManager::LoadFromFile(std::string const&, std::string const&) ()
#9  0x08379c8a in hpl::cMaterialManager::CreateMaterial(std::string const&) ()
#10 0x082f8790 in hpl::cParticleEmitterData3D_UserData::LoadFromElement(TiXmlElement*) ()
#11 0x082f11fd in hpl::cParticleSystemData3D::LoadFromFile(std::string const&) ()
#12 0x08395cab in hpl::cParticleManager::CreatePS3D(std::string const&, std::string const&, hpl::cVector3<float>, hpl::cMatrix<float> const&) ()
#13 0x0835584a in hpl::cWorld3D::CreateParticleSystem(std::string const&, std::string const&, hpl::cVector3<float> const&, hpl::cMatrix<float> const&) ()
#14 0x08324561 in ?? ()
#15 0x0857d482 in CallSTDCallFunction(unsigned long const*, int, unsigned int) ()
#16 0x0857da17 in CallSystemFunction(int, asCContext*, void*) ()
#17 0x085a0e4d in asCContext::ExecuteNext() ()
#18 0x085a38ce in asCContext::Execute() ()
#19 0x085632ce in asCScriptEngine::ExecuteString(char const*, char const*, asIScriptContext**, unsigned long) ()
#20 0x0841da38 in hpl::cSqScript::Run(std::string const&) ()
#21 0x081a5879 in cInit::RunScriptCommand(std::string const&) ()
#22 0x0827bf65 in cGameWheel::RunCallback(eGameWheelState, eGameWheelAction) ()
#23 0x0827c2ab in cGameWheel::Update(float) ()
#24 0x082a7764 in iGameEntity::OnUpdate(float) ()
#25 0x082076ef in cMapHandler::Update(float) ()
#26 0x08322a97 in hpl::cUpdater::Update(float) ()
#27 0x0831f0f3 in hpl::cGame::Run() ()
#28 0x08246628 in hplMain(std::string const&) ()
#29 0x083e7cab in main ()


My Radeon HD 6870 still uses the older r600g drivers by the way. I do in fact have a Radeon RX 460 on order so that I can upgrade to amdgpu and gain Vulkan support among other things, but it has not arrived yet.
Indeed, that build is related to the removal of the linker optimizations with gcc 10 [External Link]. I'm not sure if the issue is related with gcc or mesa (seems that it is the former as the opened ticket on mesa gitlab are closed now) but I think this is a good example of why Debian or other distros prefer a slower path regarding package upgrades :P

BTW: the game ships debug symbols?? Weird that they didn't strip the binary on release

A look at the Penumbra Collection on Linux with Mesa in 2020
22 May 2020 at 3:34 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: mosPS if Hamish's pc info is up to date he must be also using radeonsi, so it could be down to how Arch builds its mesa by default
Amish list a HD6870, which uses radeon driver. But now that you mention Arch builds, you made me recall of this issue:

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/issues/2973 [External Link]

So the issue is not with gcc optimization level but with link-time optimizations:

https://git.archlinux.org/svntogit/packages.git/commit/trunk?h=packages/mesa&id=3deacbde16a2a03b5a5e4c69052f4f95b8922a4f [External Link]

EDIT: Worht mention that this is an issue with gcc 10, with gcc 9 Mesa can be compiled with lto without any problem.

A look at the Penumbra Collection on Linux with Mesa in 2020
22 May 2020 at 1:12 pm UTC

Quoting: F.UltraI just tested Overture on my Ubuntu 18.04 and I experienced no crashes when leaving the fishing boat, this was using the Steam version so this is most likely due to the game using the Steam runtime.
Or the issue is with radeon driver. As Hamish has to compile without optimizations, it would be great that he also keep the debug symbols and then generate and core dump with the crash. That way we would know if the crash comes from the heart of Mesa or somewhere else.

Microsoft Build - DirectX and Linux (WSL) plus more
21 May 2020 at 1:26 pm UTC

Quoting: arkheniusThis is exactly how it is used at my company. The virtualization engine is locked off in BIOS because apparently someone in the past used a VM to "hack into the computer" (I have no idea what precisely was involved in this). Therefore we have no option to just use a Linux VM, let alone a whole partition. And I am a data scientist, so I do a lot of AI/ML development, as well as general dev work; so my IT's default position to me is "Well, you can use WSL...". But if WSL2 is going to use Hyper-V, I cannot see how it can run without virtualization enabled (at which point I'll just set up a VM anyways :) ). Though I do have other personal machines running Linux and only remote into the Windows laptop as needed for some file access and stuff that has to be done on desktop Office.
That "hacked from a VM" sounds like a lame excuse. In the company I work all data scientist have a custom company Ubuntu installation. They also have the option to use Windows or Mac and I know that there are Linux VMs made by IT (and also Windows, but this is due to the covid-19). Anyway, as far I can tell all of them use Linux.

Serious Sam 4 announced for August, confirmed for Stadia (updated)
20 May 2020 at 7:06 pm UTC Likes: 7

Quoting: GuestActually the talk of just hoping it works with "Proton" is rather disheartening to me. They have a GNU/Linux native version. From the start. Buying a Windows game is just saying that they don't need to bother with GNU/Linux.

Nope - for me it's a native version or nothing.
Linux support --> I buy on release
No Linux support --> I buy when the game is for about 20-30% of the release price

I really love SS franchise, I hope that they the get back the native linux support.

Microsoft Build - DirectX and Linux (WSL) plus more
20 May 2020 at 1:55 pm UTC

Quoting: LinasAnd here I thought that Microsoft Linux was a joke. Joke's on me, I guess.

With this you could write a Linux program that talks DirectX directly. Which is where it gets weird, because then you get a Linux program which only works when running on Windows. At this point, is it really a Linux program at all?
DX12 is the first layer. What they want is to implement OpenGL, OpenCL, etc. on top of it. IMO is a way to say to GPUs drivers developers: "just focus on the DX12 driver, we take care of everything else". So if they eventually focus on a Vulkan -> DX12 layer and Nvidia and AMD jump into the bandwagon, now you can guess what will happen with the performance of our native drivers...

NVIDIA have now formally announced the Ampere GPU architecture
14 May 2020 at 5:36 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: GuestOSSing the drivers wouldn't fix anything btw, it'd only make them uncompetitive for a few years, just as it happened with amd. Plus who wants to stay on bleeding-edge just to get a driver update?
You don't have to go bleeding edge, if it's done properly you just have to get the latest drm dkms and the latest Mesa stable. It's pretty much what Nvidia does with their drivers whenever they release a new version.

Awesome looking adventure 'BEAUTIFUL DESOLATION' should now look great on AMD & Intel GPUs
10 May 2020 at 5:11 pm UTC Likes: 1

There are still some issues with Mesa that are kinda a game breaker. In my case I found that the codex doesn't show text or images, which will completely stuck you in the beginning of the game. Fortunately you can workaround the issue with "-force-vulkan" game argument. In my case I also set an env. variable in order to activate vsync (game internal config doesn't work with vulkan).

TL;DR: if you have a Vulkan supported GPU with Mesa you must set as game args this options in order to properly play

MESA_VK_WSI_PRESENT_MODE=fifo %command% -force-vulkan

If you have a radeon gpu, don't buy this game yet or wait for starting playing it! (believe me, you will get stuck in no time in the game).

Steam Play Proton 5.0-7 is officially out - Street Fighter V and more now playable on Linux
1 May 2020 at 10:36 pm UTC Likes: 5

Quoting: Guest"Proton" is basically wine with some extra patches. Much of the work (and I don't track how much) gets upstreamed to vanilla wine in the end, so the work for getting a game running on Steam will actually filter through to getting vanilla wine running the same game from GOG.
Is more than that when you include the tool in your client and make most of the setup automated.

It's not just "be able to game on linux", it is more to make it mainstream. And to do that, software install, setup and usage should follow the same or even a better experience that what any user gets on Windows. IMO that's the only way you'll be able to get gamer people to our OS.