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Latest Comments by Corben
May the Fourth be with you - a look over what Star Wars games are playable on Linux
4 May 2020 at 4:00 pm UTC

Believe it or not, even the new Star Wars: Battlefront (the EA one) works on Linux. I tested it with the current Lutris Origin install script, and played the coop missions with my little son. You just have to disable the Origin overlay, you can create the party from within the game and accepts invites there, so the overlay is not needed.
Even online sessions are possible, but I haven tested them much.

Maybe even the new Star Wars: Battlefront 2 works, as it doesn't have easy anti-cheat. Well, as it's still EA, so they might ban you anyways just because you use wine.

Valve drops support for SteamVR on macOS to focus on Linux & Windows
2 May 2020 at 6:22 am UTC

Oof, RIP SteamVR for macOS.

I'm curious if this will shift the focus of developers, or if VR on macOS wasn't in their interest at all. Though I have still have a MacBook Pro from 2011, I never tried VR as I think its hardware is way too weak. There were already a handful of native VR games on Linux since the beginning of VR, but I was not aware of any native macOS VR titles.

In the Steam Hardware survey macOS has a higher share than Linux, and it was (almost) never an issue for devs to support macOS... so might this be the start of the end for games on macOS? Maybe mac gamers are switching to Linux, as Windows users apparently didn't with the end of the support of Windows 7.

Though I'm a big fan of having the freedom of choice, and dropping support for a platform is limiting choice, I have to admit, that I'm happy it wasn't the drop of Linux support.

Open-source OpenXR runtime for Linux 'Monado' gets an improved compositor - runs Blender VR
1 May 2020 at 3:09 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: EhvisHow did you get it to work properly? I tried the native, which kinda works but the 3d scale seemed wrong and the controls didn't work. On proton I couldn't get it to work at all.
It's tricky, not officially supported, and still has an input issue with the mouse.

I posted how I got it running in the Everspace Steam Forum [External Link]

I think the most important launch option was -mode=vive -vr. Haven't tried it in a while. I remember though, that centering the mouse cursor helped against the input issue.

Quoting: PatolaHow is Elite: Dangerous even playable in VR? It has a bazillion keybindings, I can't imagine how that could translate to the limited Index controllers' buttons.
HOTAS ;) Sure, it's best to learn the controls before you start playing in VR, but I played Elite Dangerous for quite a while (200 hrs) and knew the controls. Then it's really really good in VR.

Open-source OpenXR runtime for Linux 'Monado' gets an improved compositor - runs Blender VR
1 May 2020 at 12:40 am UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: Ehvis
Quoting: PatolaAmazing to see this the day my Index got here. And since we're talking about VR, anyone has a solution to the dizziness and nausea? 15 minutes of gameplay make me need at least 1h of rest!
Which game, how did you play?
Indeed, that's depending on the game and the movement it offers.
E.g. in Beat Saber you're mostly standing in the same spot all the time. Only the blocks you slice are moving (there are some pretty awesome custom maps, where they do crazy stuff with walls though). Here nausea should be at a minimum.
Pistol Whip, Synth Riders and OhSape have moving environment, but it's constant (speed and direction) and you have e.g. a non-moving platform you're standing on as a reference, which should barely cause nausea.
In Half-Life: Alyx you have the choice: Teleportation (with a blink or with a dash), which barely causes nausea. Or locomotion, where the ground is moving below your feet. This causes nausea to me after a while.
Boneworks only offers locomotion (nausea), as well as Subnautica, but Subnautica you play seated. The Solus Project has dash and locomotion, but since the last update they have a fixed height of the HMD above the ground, meaning that if you are standing on a rock in VR, and do a step IRL, your VR height is changing, which again can cause nausea.

You can also train your "VR legs", it takes time, don't overdo it, but you can mitigate the nausea. E.g. I got instantly motion sick, when I tried Everspace in VR. Due to its faced paced action packed nature it's requiring a strong stomach. Elite Dangerous was perfectly fine, as it's more the simulation type of game. In the mean time, I can now play Everspace in VR way longer.

Fun fact, if the brain get's contradictory inputs of eyes and body, it is in our genes, that we must have eaten something wrong. And thus makes us wanna throw up, like being really sick ;)

Google confirm EA games coming to Stadia, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds out now and free for Pro
28 Apr 2020 at 7:15 pm UTC

What? PUPG natively on Linux? Without Easy Anticheat, as you cannot cheat on Stadia? Or how does that work? I mean if you connect to the PUPG servers, they are checking if the client runs EAC, aren't they? Maybe the Linux native EAC client.
But the PUBP devs already said, no native Linux support, at least not for end users... so I guess they won't release it on Steam.

Steam Play Proton 5.0-7 up for testing with a Release Candidate - Street Fighter V playable
28 Apr 2020 at 7:12 pm UTC Likes: 1

SteamPlay is so aweseome, I totally forgot over Proton that there are other ways to play games on Linux:D

But I was surprised that I can now play many of my Origin games (which I bought when I still played on and dualbooted to Windows), through Lutris. So I was really happy to see that e.g. Titanfall, Titanfall 2, Dead Space 3, Crysis 3, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 are working. Even in multiplayer. So I got Dead Space 3 running before, but that stopped working at some point, I just couldn't log in. Or Titanfall 1 wasn't connecting online at all. This all works now.
EA should also release a Linux version of their launcher and integrate Proton. Valve has done most of the work already, they should be thankfull for it.
On the other hand, EA has not been proven trustworthy. Shutting down servers for their online-only games without releasing community server packages, banning people because of using wine and not interested in fixing it, etc...
But well, when I can play it, I am indeed willing to support with my wallet.

There's now over 6,000 Linux games on Steam plus thousands more playable with Steam Play Proton
23 Apr 2020 at 6:43 am UTC Likes: 3

As soon as games using media foundation start working ootb, the number of platinum games should rise a lot again. There is a legally problematic workaround, but with Wine 5.5 and Glorious Eggroll's custom proton fork, there are games now working without any tweaks in that kind (for me e.g. finally Starlink: Battle For Atlas [External Link] works).

Another issue that might though never be solved, are games using Valve's own DRM: CEG (Custom Executable Generation). This doesn't work on Linux at all. I was able to get only one single game running with it, and that's a bit of a hassle: Aliens. vs Predator from 2010. You need to get the Windows binary on that very machine, be it downloaded on Windows directly or via the Windows Steam client and wine. Then you can replace that executable (both DX9 and DX11 versions), but also need to fake the date. But then it works, incl. multiplayer.

Unfortunately Plagman (Pierre-Loup Griffais) himself said, that CEG might never work:

Well, those CEG protected games mostly work flawless with Wine directly (A:CM, AvP, Duke Nukem Forever, etc.), so Lutris is the easy way to get those games up and running.

Also I guess getting EAC and Battle Eye working are much bigger fish to fry ^_^ Especially as I've seen, that Dying Light: Bad Blood (available for free to Dying Light owners) just works perfect, but as soon as you try to play any kind of multiplayer (even just private matches), EAC kicks you out.

Nevertheless, there are now way more games playable on Linux than you have time to play. But you can try :woot: Play them all!

Into the Breach from Subset Games (FTL) now supports Linux
20 Apr 2020 at 9:05 pm UTC Likes: 3

Funny, what a coincidence, just today Into The Breach came into my mind, if the native port will still come as the devs promised, when they said Proton would not be the kind of quality they want to deliver :woot:
Maybe I should coincidently think more often of promised native ports... a well I've used this magic now up for quite a while ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

NVIDIA have a new Vulkan Beta driver out - further polishing Ray Tracing support
20 Apr 2020 at 2:33 pm UTC

Does anyone have a gsync monitor and plays in VR (using nvidia?).
Since driver 440.44 a kind of delay or higher latency/lag was introduced, it's not happening with the previous driver (440.36) or with the previous series 435.
I guess it's related to gsync, because the patch notes of 440.44 have this entry related to VR:
Fixed a bug that caused applications running directly on a display (such as VR HMDs) to tear when a G-SYNC or G-SYNC Compatible monitor is plugged in the system.
Unfortunately this is still happening on 440.82, and I guess they will only look into it, if more people report this issue.

I opened an issue [External Link] on their forums.

Direct 3D to Vulkan layer 'DXVK' 1.6.1 release out with plenty of bug fixes
20 Apr 2020 at 2:08 pm UTC

Quoting: gojulYooka-Laylee is Linux native, isn't it ?
It is, but as Liam wrote, in this case the fix was related to the second game. But another reason why this is helpful even when there is a native Linux version, is, that sometimes the Windows version run via Proton works better on Linux than the native Linux port. Not only performance-wise. Of course this is a slap into the face of the porters, but sometimes it's just needed. E.g. Company of Heroes 2, if you wanna play multiplayer with people not using Linux... or Rocket League, when the publisher decides to cease Linux support.