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Latest Comments by Brisse
DXVK 0.96 is now officially out with CPU & GPU overhead improvements plus plenty more
27 January 2019 at 5:01 pm UTC

Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: Brisse
Quoting: WoodlandorI have a few single player games that will not work due to DRM issues.

I’m curious as to what Steam’s terms of service are on modifying the game files as there are obviously removal tools from the pirate community.

On one hand, yes you are removing a “security feature” and likely breaking the EULA of that particular game.

On the other hand, since it was purchased on Steam. The fact that you paid for that game is 100% verifiable ?

Don't think it's the same in the US, but in most of Europe you have the legal right to reverse engineer and modify however you see fit as long as you do not violate copyright. This right goes above whatever the EULA says, so if the EULA tries to prevent you, you can just ignore it because it's invalid. This also means that downloading a nocd-patch or similar for a game which you have a licence for is perfectly legal.
I believe in the US it's the reverse--the DMCA makes it actually illegal to remove "security features" or "bypass encryption measures" or like that even on something you supposedly own, making EULAs still irrelevant but in the other direction--it would still be illegal even if the EULA specifically gave you the right. I think it's insane, but that's the Digital Millennium Copyright Act for you.

Yea, I don't know the details but I've heard it's something along those lines. Pretty crazy if you ask me.

DXVK 0.96 is now officially out with CPU & GPU overhead improvements plus plenty more
27 January 2019 at 5:00 pm UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: GuestNice release! I'm still impressed how well DXVK works, how fast it has evolved and how much I use Proton(Wine) now. After Valve allowed us to install Linux games with Proton, I've started to test several additional games with DXVK and it is getting really hard to find the ones that do not run or have some graphical issues :-) Yes, BattlEye and other DRM software is an issue, but this is nothing DXVK can change and it is all up to the game developers and maybe Valve to ask for another solution.
There's something I don't quite understand about all this: These anti-cheat softwares are . . . software, right? Software that, like, runs on . . . Windows? What exactly is so special about them that makes it hard for Wine to run them? Clearly there must be something or this whole deal wouldn't be an issue, but can anyone explain to me what?

"In an effort to make copy protection more effective (i.e. resistant to cracks), the methods used by many copy protection products have become complex, difficult to understand (obfuscated), and hard to debug. In some cases Wine would need to be altered to allow for almost rootkit-like functionality of programs to get some of these copy protection schemes to work. To support copy protection Wine developers have to contend with undocumented interfaces, code obfuscation, and maintaining compatibility with *nix security models. "

https://wiki.winehq.org/Copy_Protection

Anti-cheat is probably a similar situation.

DXVK 0.96 is now officially out with CPU & GPU overhead improvements plus plenty more
27 January 2019 at 1:38 pm UTC Likes: 3

Quoting: WoodlandorI have a few single player games that will not work due to DRM issues.

I’m curious as to what Steam’s terms of service are on modifying the game files as there are obviously removal tools from the pirate community.

On one hand, yes you are removing a “security feature” and likely breaking the EULA of that particular game.

On the other hand, since it was purchased on Steam. The fact that you paid for that game is 100% verifiable ?

Don't think it's the same in the US, but in most of Europe you have the legal right to reverse engineer and modify however you see fit as long as you do not violate copyright. This right goes above whatever the EULA says, so if the EULA tries to prevent you, you can just ignore it because it's invalid. This also means that downloading a nocd-patch or similar for a game which you have a licence for is perfectly legal.

Steam Play versus Linux Version, a little performance comparison and more thoughts
25 January 2019 at 7:28 pm UTC

Speaking of Metro, they released the system requirements for Metro Exodus today. Normally I wouldn't care about such event but I did notice it had "Windows" written all over it. :><:

Some information on why Wine is not going to be using DXVK
25 January 2019 at 5:58 pm UTC Likes: 2

How to reach out efficiently:
Write something controversial on a public mailing list.
Have "news"-articles about it on websites we know the other person frequents.
Congratulations, you have now successfully established communications. :D

Steam Play versus Linux Version, a little performance comparison and more thoughts
19 January 2019 at 1:25 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: jens- Fixed possible server issue on linux emulators

99% certain they mean Steam Play. "Emulators" could just be a language barrier thing since the devs are Italian. There are lots of people outside of the GNU/Linux community who doesn't know what the Wine reverse acronym stands for.

Steam Play versus Linux Version, a little performance comparison and more thoughts
18 January 2019 at 4:39 pm UTC Likes: 13

This just proves once again that the performance disparity between Gnu/Penguin and Windows isn't in the OS, but in the game porting process.

Linux hardware vendor Entroware has unleashed Hades, their first AMD CPU desktop
15 January 2019 at 12:29 pm UTC

Quoting: CFWhitman
Quoting: GuestThreadripper CPUs are for servers and overkill for a gaming PC: best gaming cpus

This article is written from a Windows-centric viewpoint (understandably so from a mainstream site). Vulkan graphics benefit more from extra threads. However, the biggest reason to consider AMD CPUs is that they are better bang for the buck processors, and that benefit is pretty much erased if you are going to buy from a computer vendor that charges a premium like Entroware.

debianxfce is not wrong about Threadripper though. It's basically two Ryzen's slapped into the same package and it has some of the same issues that dual socket setups have with latency and scheduling between NUMA-nodes and such, and while Linux is better at handling that than Windows, it's still not ideal, and the fastest Ryzen's will mostly beat Threadripper's in games.

Linux hardware vendor Entroware has unleashed Hades, their first AMD CPU desktop
15 January 2019 at 12:23 pm UTC

Quoting: Shmerl
Quoting: Avehicle7887I think if Canonical upgraded the GPU drivers regularly things might be different.

It's surprising Canonical didn't take care of providing gamers oriented preset, where kernel and Mesa are kept up to date by default. I suppose they expect that gamers aren't going to use Ubuntu in general, and would focus on rolling distros for the most part? If this PC is oriented on gamers, may be they should sell it with a rolling distro to begin with.

Personally, I also like buying components and assembling them myself, instead of getting a pre-assembled PC. An option in between are stores which assemble a custom PC for you, based on your components specification.

This is partly why I switched from Ubuntu to Debian Sid. It's a rolling release with timely kernel and Mesa updates.

In Ubuntu's defence though, the only reason you need PPA's is the rapid development of Vulkan games and Proton. As things mature, the need for PPA's will go away and just sticking to the latest Ubuntu release, or even LTS with latest HWE should be fine. Even now it is mostly fine unless you run into issues trying to use Proton.

Grab a free copy of 'A Story About My Uncle' in the Humble Store Winter Sale that's now live
12 January 2019 at 2:45 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: jensAh, yes, forgot that the starting lvl is 8. Still very hardcore! :)

I just realised that the Deprived class is level 1. Should have chosen that instead of Mercenary. Ironically I used Deprived for my other now level 181 character :S:

Pontiff Sulyvahn is defeated. It was a major pain until I realised he can be parried and riposted and with a little help from Anri of Astora and Black Hand Gotthard it wasn't so bad after all. :D