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Latest Comments by Dunc
pyLinuxWheel and Oversteer, two open source tools for managing Steering Wheels on Linux
14 Aug 2019 at 1:25 pm UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: M@GOidOne thing that really piss me off to no end is the gearing noise and micro-vibration of Logitech wheels.
Heh. The only force-feedback wheel I've ever used :( was in the arcades, years ago. So long ago I don't actually remember what the game was, but it was obviously pretty early because I got the impression that the activation was digital, either on or off. And it both felt and sounded - above all the racket of an arcade, remember - like someone jamming a crowbar into the mechanism. Turn a corner, and... CLUNK! FOOOORCE-FEEEEEDBAAAAAACK!

Horrible. I wonder if that experience is what's put me off buying a modern wheel (which I'm sure would be much better).

NVIDIA have released the 435.17 beta driver with Vulkan and OpenGL support for PRIME render offload
14 Aug 2019 at 1:12 pm UTC

Quoting: MrKiasu
Quoting: DuncI wish there was an equivalent to PRIME render offloading on desktops. I have a GPU here on my motherboard that's literally never been used.

(And yes, I know it's an architectural limitation and there isn't really any way of using it and a PCIe card at the same time. But it's annoying all the same.)
It can work. I don't think any of the codepaths actually care if your machine is a desktop or laptop. In my case, I've got a new turing GPU and I configured the BIOS to enable both the external and internal GPUs (Every BIOS I've ever seen has supported this)...
I'll have to check, but I'm pretty certain mine doesn't. And I have to say, I don't think I've ever seen one that does; that was part of the “architectural limitation” I was referring to. EFI, yes, but not an actual BIOS. (Maybe I should have been clearer on that. Having never owned an EFI machine, I tend to forget it exists even though it's more or less universal now. :) )

Thanks for the info, though. I'll have to look into it further.


You know what? I did look into it further, and after poking around my BIOS a bit, I discovered that yes, it does support both GPUs being enabled. The way it's worded in the menus is what confused me, but you're absolutely right and I have to eat my words.

Saying that, it turns out to be a 7000 series which isn't supported in the proprietary driver any more and it probably isn't worth trying to get it to work anyway. But still, I stand corrected.

Steam Play Proton 4.11-2 is out, upgrading DXVK and FAudio
13 Aug 2019 at 8:25 pm UTC

Quoting: slaapliedjeHeh, yeah my testing was being in a station, looking around, leaving the station, and then going back into the station. My system jumped to crazy framerates when I was out in the black.
I could understand if that was the case here, but the trouble is that mine jumps between three-figure and single-figure rates in the station.

Curious what your hardware is? I'm running an i9-9900k, 2080 RTX, 32gb of ram.
It's in my profile: FX-6300, GTX 960, 8gb. So, not even close to yours, but above the recommended spec. and, as I say, when it works it works well enough. My crummy 1280x1024 monitor probably takes a bit of the load off the system. A friend of mine ran ED for years on basically the same setup under Windows. (In fact, I'm using his old CPU and GPU.)

Ha, bleeding hearts and all, would be great if I didn't have to boot into Windows...
Fair point. :)

NVIDIA have released the 435.17 beta driver with Vulkan and OpenGL support for PRIME render offload
13 Aug 2019 at 8:15 pm UTC Likes: 2

I wish there was an equivalent to PRIME render offloading on desktops. I have a GPU here on my motherboard that's literally never been used.

(And yes, I know it's an architectural limitation and there isn't really any way of using it and a PCIe card at the same time. But it's annoying all the same.)

Steam Play Proton 4.11-2 is out, upgrading DXVK and FAudio
13 Aug 2019 at 1:41 pm UTC

Quoting: slaapliedjeFunny thing on my hardware, at least with the 2d version, it's about 50fps less on Linux than Windows, but that means it's like 190fps vs 240fps. So it isn't like it's noticeable.
Hmm. That figures. The framerate on my hardware isn't great. Or at least, as I've said before, it's extremely unstable, varying from about 130 down to as low as 16 sometimes (for, to be fair, very short periods), for no readily apparent reason. It's not as if it can be related to a lot of scenery or ships on the screen; sometimes, even navigating the Station Services menus is like wading through treacle. It's almost as if the entire game is running slowly, rather than a simple framerate issue. Really strange.

That said, most of the time it's perfectly playable, but I'd rather have a steady 60-ish. In fact, I think I'd be happy with a steady 30.

Sadly that isn't the case in VR, where it gets all funky.
My heart bleeds. :P

PS3 emulator RPCS3 can now play Demon's Souls at 60FPS thanks to a patch
13 Aug 2019 at 1:27 pm UTC

Quoting: kuhpunktEmulation is legal. Dumping games is legal,
Jurisdictions vary. In some, even dumping firmware from machines you own is illegal without permission from the manufacturer. And this is something that we'll have to keep a close eye on in future, since it could be construed as “circumventing anti-piracy measures”.

But yes, emulation in itself is perfectly legal, and in many countries, ripping games you own, for your own use, is legal too.

Steam Play Proton 4.11-2 is out, upgrading DXVK and FAudio
8 Aug 2019 at 8:21 pm UTC Likes: 6

Quoting: slaapliedjeElite:Dangerous
Heh. I'm beginning to see why people usually miss out the colon. :D

I wish I had the hardware to play ED in VR...

What have you been clicking on this weekend?
5 Aug 2019 at 2:01 pm UTC

Quoting: F.UltraBought and launched Mad Max so I'll guess that I'll be stuck with my computer for 100-200hours. Don't know how my employer will react though...
Make sure it's using Vulkan. I haven't played it in a while, so I don't know if you still need to use a beta version, but it's well worth it. It improved my experience from “playable, but a bit rough in places” to a solid 60+fps with maxed-out settings.

What have you been clicking on this weekend?
4 Aug 2019 at 11:50 pm UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: buckysrevengeI played some Doom (using GZDoom) and A Short Hike - great light hearted game!
That's a coincidence. I haven't been playing much recently (I keep firing up Steam in the background - becuase it takes ages to load - then getting distracted and never actually starting any games), but I did feel like a bit of Doom earlier in the week. For some reason, GZDoom isn't working for me right now, so I tried Doomsday. Wow. That thing has a nice frontend. Not so keen on the graphical “improvements” (although they can be tweaked out), but it feels like a professional product. Very impressive.

Quoting: DraconicroseI've actually been playing The Witcher 3! I finally have a computer that's able to handle it. I'm so pleased it runs so darned well in Steam Play. I'd never tell it wasn't a native game if I didn't know.
So true. But say goodbye to your free time until... oh, I don't know... Christmas? :)

Steam Play Proton 4.11 released, a pretty huge release pulling in D9VK and a replacement for esync
1 Aug 2019 at 1:51 pm UTC

Quoting: jarhead_hAt this point I genuinely cannot understand why there would be any Linux gamers left who aren't on Steam. Don't talk to me about DRM, because Valve has done more for Linux's future this past year I think than any other company I can name.
I'm no fan of DRM, but here's the thing: I've been gaming for (well) over 30 years, and there isn't a single game I've ever bought in all that time which I can't play any more because of DRM. Not one. I've even lost manuals from the days of enter-a-word-from-the-manual DRM, and I've just gone online and downloaded a cracked version. (With absolutely no moral qualms whatsoever. I bought the game.)

It always gets cracked. Every time. That's really my main problem with it, in fact: it causes inconvenience to legitimate players, and it doesn't work. In that light, although I'm not trying to defend it, Steam's DRM is less objectionable than most since it's virtually invisible when you play.

What does bother me is always-online and cloud saving. I tried to play GTAV offline on my XBox 360 a few weeks ago, and it turns out a) I can't load my old saves, and b) I can't save my progress from a new game. I've got a physical copy, and it still runs. But there's no point in playing it. That's way more worrying than snake-oil DRM.