I see a new Steam client beta just dropped, with this interesting note:

Added support for developers and Valve testing specifying default Proton configuration options for games even if they're not yet white-listed

Nice.

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Nice. I prefer appimages myself, but it's all good.

There's also an official 10th Anniversary “theme park” map [External Link], released yesterday. It's rather fun, with puzzles and easter eggs galore, and some genuinely breathtaking builds. (Honestly, it's the sort of thing that should have been included in the main distribution years ago. The console versions have tutorial worlds, and they really add to the game.)

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Quoting: EhvisTried it for two minutes yesterday. Since I have no history with minecraft at all, I just had an "is this it?" moment.

I remember having the same reaction way back when word-of-mouth was just beginning to go around about it, and it sort of dropped off my radar for a couple of years. Then, when it got big (it was the XBox 360 version that did it for me, really), I went back to it and got totally hooked.

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Quoting: pmstroexOh boy, Settlers on the Amiga... I can still remember the music :D

It always struck me as one of those tunes that even the first time you hear it, you're sure you've heard somewhere before.

I still play the original occasionally in DOSBox (because the DOS version could run at a higher resolution), but nothing beats split-screen with two mice on the Amiga.

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Quoting: gurvYou might want to try with proton: I get a solid 50-60fps in 1920x1080 with high settings on the planet (GPU limited).

It has crossed my mind, but I haven't got around to trying it yet. Interesting to hear that, though.

EDIT: Okay, I just tried it and... it's the opposite now. :huh: The tutorial level is fine, but I'm on single-figure framrates in the main game. I think I'll stick with native.

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Quoting: liamdaweDown to one FPS?! Holy cow and I thought it performed badly on my end.

In the tutorial, yes, although it varied wildly and that was absolutely the worst case. On the planet it's okay. Not great, but okay.

I assume it's because the tutorial is basically built entirely from construction parts. They seem to be where the problem lies (a Ehvis says, it doesn't seem to be culling properly, so what you're actually looking at bears no relation to what framerate you might expect).

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Performance in the Linux version is also not good, at all! With model quality, shadow quality, texture quality all to low and basically everything else on low or turned off, it struggles badly to even remain at 40FPS often dipping well below.

I recently started a new game. In the tutorial, the framerate dropped to around one frame per second at some points. A couple of years ago, I had no trouble at all running it on an older graphics card and CPU, with less memory. It's simply not ready for release.

Even in its current state though, with some optimization it would be decent enough. Not a “must play”, but interesting if it's the sort of thing you like. Maybe it didn't live up to the crowdfunding hype (and I can understand backers' frustration at that), but performance issues aside it's not a bad game. I've had a lot of fun with it. But right now... no. It shouldn't be leaving Early Access in this state.

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Quoting: LinasIt's almost like Epic are trying to undo everything Valve has done for us. Hope they run out of money before any significant damage is done.

Putting my tinfoil hat on, I can't help wondering how much encouragement Epic are receiving from Microsoft. Oh, I know it's a bit paranoid, but I've watched over 30 years of Redmond skullduggery. I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them.

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Honest question: what does Vivox provide that Mumble wouldn't? Servers?

(Bl**dy h*ll, their website is absolutely awful. All style and precious little substance. That would be a red flag to me before I even started.)

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£900? Yikes. Certainly the technology is an improvement - it looks like it could become the new “gold standard” for those who can afford it, which would be good news for Valve - but what VR really needs to take off is a breakthrough on price and this clearly isn't it.

To this day, the only VR I've ever actually used is Google Cardboard. And it's been more or less abandoned. Which is a pity, because although it was little more than a tech demo, it wouldn't take much to make it viable in some situations. I know there are solutions that kind of work on Windows, but if I could stream PC games to my phone in its little viewer I'd be more than happy, even with the poor quality.

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