Latest 30 Comments

@logge:
At first I didn't even understand how this could work, but they have a good documentation and are very helpful on the LVRA discord. Once you see it's like a client-server-like thing, it becomes easy. Yet, setting up Envision can be a bit tricky. You just have to try and learn while testing around. It's a bit of a learning curve, eventually once it's setup is done, it just works.
Unfortunately not all games work with Monado (for OpenXR) and/or OpenComposite/XRizer (for OpenVR), but here you can check the protondb-like vronlinux database. It has entries per game for Steam VR, Monado, WiVRn and ALVR.
I do see though that Envision is not made for the average user, but which Linux user is this "average user" anyways, hm?

edit: Ah yeah, for me it doesn't matter if I start Envision or Steam first, at least I didn't run into any issues so far, and I have started it in arbitrary order many times. But before starting Monado via Envision, VR controllers and basestations have to be turned on. They are working on detecting them on the fly, but for now you have to start up things before the software itself.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

Kernel updates come at least on a weekly basis ...

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

I played it on the Switch.
The game itself is pretty good. The requirement to be logged in with a Ubisoft account is horrible.

I cannot recommend the game therefore.

(On Switch, at least, you could work around the login-requirement by disconnecting from the internet. I don't know if that's an option on PC.)

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

One question, could we not just sign the linux kernel and other parts, so that the anti cheat program would know that nothing has been altered? I am thinking about something like steam hosting a list of trusted hashes and that any company that is trusted by steam can push new hashes for theier compiled linux kernels there.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

WRC generations started working, and perfectly out of the box now at that! Hell yeah!! Too bad this happens one day after Assetto corsa rally came out but it's still a great game.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

I may seem like an amateur, and I am, but why not create a specific linux kernel for this kind of games ?
An other option is that when you enter the steam gamemode, and a game is launched, the steam environment with the game is sandboxed.
Third solution: reimplement user kick voting

These only try to fix the symptoms, not the problem. The problem isn't that they cannot keep all the cheaters out. Cheaters will always exist. The problem is that we cannot control the servers and kick them ourselves. And the solution to that is dedicated servers.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

Kernel Anti-Cheat is generally a sign of a game you'd be better off not buying/playing in the first place.
Linux users can't play Battlefield 6? Good for them!

The only difficulty is just that sense of exclusion, I think. "Everyone" plays yearly release shooters and the like.
It's like being excluded from TwitX. Yeah, it has a massive presence and you'll see people talking about a service you can't use. But you'll realistically avoid a lot of drama and misery that comes with using it.

Besides, remember why GOL doesn't promote games with AI content: There's an inexhaustible supply of excellent games without AI. The same goes for games without Kernel Anti-Cheat.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

I realize most Linux folks don't like the Ubi launcher

Not only Linux folks. Ubisoft Connect was the bane of my existence and one of the more annoying things I had to deal with when I was on Windows. It needed updates every goddamn time I wanted to play R6 Siege. And it was obnoxiously amensic, asking me for my credentials in what feels like every single time I have to launch it to play the game, the 'Remember me' button didn't work. Not to mention the extra 1-2 min I'd have to sit for it to initialize or steal my data or something before Siege properly launches. The overlay is also garbage as it's very slow and unresponsive at times.

Probably the shittiest launcher out there as I had better luck with the likes of EA launcher which was notorious itself but admittedly less so recently, as they must've gotten their shit together.

I haven't used the Ubisoft launcher in months, so all of what I said could very well be outdated by now.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

Yeah, it's eXtended Reality. Basically slotting in an X to mean either A (augmented) or V (virtual), since it does both.

VR terminology is baffling. Monado vs SteamVR vs OpenXR, all with their own quirks and compatibility.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

I may seem like an amateur, and I am, but why not create a specific linux kernel for this kind of games ?

Because, how else are these clueless devs going to lie to their players and tell them they addressed cheating ?

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

@Corben: This is amazing! I struggeled a bit with envision / monado, but getting it to work really is worth it! Performance gain is outstanding - from mere diashow to fluid running!

Monado seems to be quite picky right now - feels like SteamVR a year ago.

--edit--
Just found out that envision / monado needs to be started before steam, or it will hang with "Starting...." - is this a solvable problem with my setup?

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

I may seem like an amateur, and I am, but why not create a specific linux kernel for this kind of games ?
An other option is that when you enter the steam gamemode, and a game is launched, the steam environment with the game is sandboxed.
Third solution: reimplement user kick voting

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

Completed the resources. I wonder what rewards we will get with that? merit points or whatever.
Honestly haven't had that much fun playing multiplayer game for a while. Never been into Extraction games before either.
But this game just oozes with atmosphere and amazing gameplay.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

This is a triumph.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

That's the part I miss from these modern games - by making matchmaking and server infrastructure dependent on the publisher, we lost so much

Yes, so much yes. I had lots of fun in CoD 1 and 2. Until some... Black Ops 2 maybe? ... was doing automatic match making. Bye FPS.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

I honestly feel spoiled for choice in games... I understand why some devs want to use kernel level rootkits anti-cheat mechanisms, but personally I don't find any competitive gaming that interesting anymore, these days.

Yeah, I grew up playing deathmatches in the likes of Duke3D, Quake, UT, Tribes, etc., and yeah, cheaters suck, but... I could always switch to a different dedicated server with some obscure mods or host my own. When the server OP is watching someone obviously cheat in-game, it's easy to just ban them and move on, because these servers were (and in many cases still are!) run as a community effort, with volunteers keeping the peace.

That's the part I miss from these modern games - by making matchmaking and server infrastructure dependent on the publisher, we lost so much. So if a multiplayer game doesn't let me host my own dedicated server I can opt to password-lock to my friends, I'm honestly just not interested. Give us standalone dedicated server binaries (hell, I'm even running one right now for Empyrion via wine), and let the community sort it out, no kernel rootkit shenanigans needed.

Of course, the real reason behind all this is so they can protect their investment in microtransactions and loot box garbage, so I'm not surprised they don't want little Timmy cheating in that fancy $$$ golden weapon skin without paying them for the privilege.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

I imagine it will be super easy to either dual-boot or run a Windows VM.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

This is nice. Proton 10 is officially released!

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

I don't think it matters what anti cheat solutions Valve implements. They can already compile their kernel with eBPF(https://ebpf.io/) support. Then each game could dynamically program (or Valve could) the kernel for anti cheat. Okay, but that doesn't happen, as of yet. That's because, as game devs have stated, they just can't battle the cheaters on two fronts. Maybe one day Valve will offer a compelling solution that reduces the load of the game devs. I doubt it though, it's PC, so no matter the eco system, Windows or Linux, it's a free-for-all by design. As long as these games do peer 2 peer match making and hosting, I don't think any of this will change.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

"XR"? Extra reality? Extended reality? Extreme reality?

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

What about those multi-kernel features proposed to Linux?

We could have a dedicated kernel for running certain games with all the accesses and trust needed by the anti cheat.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

NOICE! Made it default… let's see how this goes

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

Since several comments have asked about the price of the Steam Frame, several of the "hands-on" videos that have come out since the announcement, quote Valve as saying the Frame will be slightly less than the price of the Valve Index.
The Valve Index was (before the current U.S. discount) sold at 749 USD (headset + controllers - base stations; if including the base stations, it was 999 USD), so somewhere slightly lower than that should be the price of the Frame next year.

As for the Steam Machine, they've said it's going to be priced "more like a PC" than a console, which I take to mean that it'll be more expensive than the current-gen consoles. The current average price of the different Xbox and PS models is 565 USD (with "Pro" models going up to $750), so I'd imagine the Steam Machine will be priced similarly to the Steam Frame, probably a bit cheaper.

With no more information given, those are the best ballpark-numbers I can give.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

Sorry for becoming off topic, but as your choice matched my curiosity and hesitated between those 3 distro. I'd like to thank you a lot for your detailed answer clatterfordslim. I like it leightweigt with some ease to use, I might get tempted by cachyOS or return to xubuntu, I'll decided when the SSD will be in the PC :p
Is cachyOS working easily out of the box with old windows games if you tried any?

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

I will be honest by saying that behind the anticheat on battlefield 6 lies a strategical step toward blocking valve from punishing those greedy studios in order to restrain our liberty and fullfil their secret desire of overwhelming power of people who just want to have fun freely.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

.01%

Presenting misinformation as fact because you "feel" that your exaggeration is true.

^^ Instantly loose all credibility in seconds, Do Not Collect 200 Or Pass Go. ^^

--

Regarding "Walled EAC Gardens" on Steam.
This is really simple.
Developers follow incentives.
Valve needs to incentivize developers to get their shit together.

If your game doesn't FULLY work on the new 2026 STEAM MACHINE, you are ineligible to be in the FEATURED GAMES BILLBOARD on the HOMEPAGE.

STEAM HOMEPAGE is a place for games COMPATIBLE with Steam Hardware.

PROBLEM SOLVED.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

the name station is a bit ironic

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

"Fix Steam Link freeze for users with AMD video cards ("Error 250")."

Anything that improves AMD GPU support is very welcome. I know on Windows Nvidia is defacto but on Linux AMD is much more comfortable, and Linux Steam VR has been an area in need of some Quality of Life improvements, thou I haven't tried my Index lately since I lent it out.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

The name "KOMODO STATION" reminds me of "OKAMA GAME SPHERE"

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

As my age progresses i do not play so many games anymore - I've even stopped playing on my PS5.
I just don't bother about free games anymore.
At the moment I'm playing mostly Oldschool Runescape and if I want some variety, i check what I've installed on my too big Steam Library. I have so many unplayed or unfinished games.
But yet, here I am waiting for nostalgia games like HoMM: Olden Era, Moulder, Hark the Ghoul or Mina the hollower.
I've even installed TES2: Daggerfall not long ago.
What is wrong with me?
Why am I not excited anymore?
When did I lost my passion for gaming?
It's like the games are just an occupational therapy for filling out my empty life.
Click here, work there, a new level, a new skill, oh - shiny!
(don't worry about me, I'm already in therapy.)

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment