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Latest Comments by MayeulC
Valve have adjusted their revenue share for bigger titles on Steam
1 Dec 2018 at 9:04 pm UTC

Quoting: mylka
Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: Termy
Quoting: MayeulCWhat would be interesting for them is to take a (slightly) lesser cut if the game is cross-platform. Everyone would be happy about this, I think, especially bean counters :)
now that is one of the best ideas i've heard in a while to boost Linux-acceptance among the devs...too bad valve is not looking into this comments xD
I know for a fact a few people at Valve do read stuff here now and then :)
i am pretty sure they already thought about that. it would help steamOS, but they also would lose money
Yeah, this doesn't sound like a particularly novel idea. However, now that I think more about it, this could encourage other publishers/platforms to retaliate: I imagine Microsoft could take a lower cut if an app was UWP (windows store)-exclusive. I would be surprised if that wasn't already the case, though (with exclusivity deals; but perhaps those are not that generalized yet?).

Valve have adjusted their revenue share for bigger titles on Steam
1 Dec 2018 at 4:10 pm UTC Likes: 23

In their defense, though, their content distribution system is nothing to scoff at (plus handling the financial aspect, and some support), and sort of justifies their cut (the service is especially interesting for small, indie studios, I guess, plus there are some non-recurring costs to each game, such as storage space on the CDN, that probably get amortized at some point). The client could use some love, though (and it looks like it's getting some).

What would be interesting for them is to take a (slightly) lesser cut if the game is cross-platform. Everyone would be happy about this, I think, especially bean counters :)

Reminder: Update your PC info for the next round of statistics updates
25 Nov 2018 at 11:36 pm UTC Likes: 1

Also, there are now a couple more combinations of AMD drivers... with AMDVLK and RADV, with the proprietary LLVM fork or without, and the proprietary PRO OpenGL or Mesa... For now, open source can be either AMDVLK or RADV, as well as LLVM + Mesa.
I think the settings are fine, but there's not that much point in OSS vs Proprietary with the granularity in AMD's drivers :wink:

Classic free and open source platformer 'SuperTux' has a new alpha release out
22 Nov 2018 at 12:57 pm UTC

Quoting: Motionshot
Quoting: MayeulCRunning it on the raspberry pi would be really fitting. It's nice to see it is still being cared for! Although I didn't know it was still in alpha after all this time. This is really release-quality software, as far as I am concerned.
What are you talking about? SuperTux 0.5.1 was the latest stable release, released back in 2016. So it's not "alpha after all this time". This new alpha version 0.6.0 was only released 6 days ago.
I guess the title of the article as well as the version number scheme confused me. I didn't double check, though, my bad, thanks for pointing it out (though the beginning of your post feels unnecessarily harsh, TBF :wink: ).

To celebrate Half-Life turning 20, Black Mesa released a trailer for Xen
22 Nov 2018 at 9:15 am UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: Guest
Quoting: grigiThe original Xen definitely had laboratories on there.

And this looks really good. It has me excited, as the original Xen was by far the worst part of HL1.
I disagree. Xen was awesome.
Xen was awesome because is was really new, with interesting mechanics: low-gravity, healing pools, you get to do some sightseeing in an alien environment, see the creatures in their natural environment, etc.

@Ehvis, min my ind, Xen was actually quite colorful, with a lot of creatures that emit light, coloured walls, etc. But it was honestly quite botched, buggy, difficult to navigate, and didn't quite live up to its potential.

It seems like the guys at crowbar collective are really doing Xen the way it was meant to be. We get to explore more man-made installations, which are part of what the survey team built there.

The survey team had been there for quite some time, performing experiments, collecting fauna/flora/rocks samples already. The sample you analyse in the begging is supposedly from there (although it was actually provided by G-man to jumpstart the resonance cascade). After the cascade, the portals to Xen were closed, and the survey team was left stranded on Xen.
The portal is then reopened to allow Freeman to Xen and close the superportal from there. I don't recall if you see man-made structures on Xen in the first Half-life, but they definitely make sense, as do the bodies of the survey crew you find scattered here and there.

The half-life universe is really all about teleportation, and almost like a reflection of what happens when an isolated group is put in touch with globalization and colonization. It is difficult not to draw parallels between the combine invasion and the European colonization.

One surprising thing with Half-Life is how much lore there is to it. You don't realize it at first when playing, but the rabbit hole really goes quite deep; Marc Laidlaw and the valve team really made a masterpiece there (although much of it grew organically, of course). Here [External Link] is an interesting theory I came across recently (G-man's motivation is stopping the Combine from acquiring local teleportation), and it seems to make sense.

Classic free and open source platformer 'SuperTux' has a new alpha release out
21 Nov 2018 at 10:12 pm UTC

I had such a blast with my brother, around 15 years ago (didn't count), playing Super Tux on the (already) very old laptop my father gave us. It was on winXP, though. I mean, I never got to on a gameboy, and it was like super mario, but miles ahead in every regard.

Running it on the raspberry pi would be really fitting. It's nice to see it is still being cared for! Although I didn't know it was still in alpha after all this time. This is really release-quality software, as far as I am concerned.

I had a go at it the other day, though, and they added game mechanics that I don't recall. I don't find them particularly well fitting, but that's probably nostalgia for you.

I don't really agree with it needing to be modernized. Maybe polished a bit, but if you want a modern version, fork it, or use the level data with a brand new engine :)

Stoic have now removed the Linux version of The Banner Saga, in favour of Steam Play
16 Nov 2018 at 11:00 am UTC

Quoting: EhvisWhile I understand that this may be a good solution, it seems somewhat drastic to do this on the main branch because it takes away the game from those that don't read the forums. Isn't it possible to make a separate branch that lacks the Linux version so that people can turn it off by choice?
Right now, I don't think it is possible. Steam handles OS depots a bit weirdly. Basically, as soon as a a depot exists for an OS, you won't be able to hide that game in the players' library when it is set to only show games available on that OS, nor be able to use SteamPlay.

That's my understanding, at least.

Edit: maybe they could make it a "special game", freely redeemable for those that own the classic "windows" version. That could work, I think.

Reports: Valve making their own VR HMD and apparently a new VR Half-Life
12 Nov 2018 at 5:42 pm UTC

Quoting: NezchanIn fact, I'm one of those people whose brains "never got used to it". Back in the CRT days, I used to love the Half-Life games. Played them a lot, especially 2. But when flatscreen monitors came out, I found myself getting tremendously queasy after about a half-hour of play and that feeling would hang on for a couple of hours.
Mmm, if that's just CRT vs Flat screen, maybe you should try investing in a low persistence display? It's usually branded as "lightboost" or something alike ("motion blur reduction", and maybe those branded with a 1ms response time), and is basically a strobing backlight. Throw in some adaptative sync support for good measure, and higher framerates.

I'm myself pondering about whether to change my aging (10 years) display, as it starts to "display" signs of failure (flashing backlight when at 40%+).

Incidentally, most of those VR headsets have low persistence, high framerate displays. I would like to experiment with fully immersive 3D "desktop environments" when/if I get one.

Quoting: kuhpunkt
Quoting: poisondYou can aim much faster than with a mouse - just point your controller at the target.
There's touch pads you can use for movement and turning.
And I don't even know what you'd want a keyboard for in a VR game.
A mouse is faster for aiming. You just have to slightly move it to turn around and all that stuff.
Yeah, but that makes it harder to look at your surroundings while aiming. So, trade-offs. Modern combat aircraft pilots aim with their headset, while piloting with their hands.

Reports: Valve making their own VR HMD and apparently a new VR Half-Life
11 Nov 2018 at 4:49 pm UTC

Quoting: linux_gamerWhy the heck print the Logo on the PCB of a pre-series device? To me that seems to be quite negligent. The project code name and the hw revision should be well enough as only the project team and suppliers need to know.
Fair point, although that's probably better for copyright protection. I know I always write it, or the name of the company. Plys, who knows? That could be a near-final run?

I'm thrilled about this. I've been waiting for the next generation of VR experience to jump in, that sounds more like it. And I always thought a game set in the seven hours war [External Link] (other wiki [External Link]) of the Half-Life universe would be extremely interesting. I'd like to see Dr. Breen as the good guy, also, somehow.

Edit: about glasses, I am pretty sure most vision defects could be accounted for by the headset itself, by adjusting the focal point of the lenses, and the transform algorithm.

The latest progress report for the PlayStation 3 emulator RPCS3 is out, impressive stuff
10 Nov 2018 at 9:21 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: slaapliedjeI would like one emulatir for all.
I guess RetroArch is probably aimed at you, then, but I had a quick look, and it doesn't seem to have a RPCS3 core :/