Latest Comments by CatKiller
Valve talks performance of the Steam Deck, Big Picture UI being replaced and Gamescope
26 July 2021 at 1:52 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: subWhen it comes to compatibility, that Kotaku article has this interesting bit:
The parenthetical part was Kotaku editorialising.

Alexis Kennedy of Weather Factory puts out open letter against Failbetter Games
26 July 2021 at 1:35 pm UTC Likes: 5

The allegations are that he was the kind of person to threaten people if he didn't get what he wanted, with what he wanted being, historically, allegedly, sex with co-workers and potential co-workers.

Some time after the fact, he's decided that he wants the personal details of the people that already think that he's harassed them so that he can harass them some more. And if he doesn't get what he wants, he's (publicly) threatening to get everyone put in prison for two years.

It doesn't seem that he's painting himself in the most positive light here.

Reminder: Update your PC info for the next round of statistics updates
26 July 2021 at 11:46 am UTC Likes: 3

Quoting: Liam DaweOpen to suggestions.
When it's actually out, and especially if the segment takes off, having "handheld" as an option along with "desktop," "laptop," and "sofa/console PC" would make sense, along with renaming that last option; a PC plugged into the TV isn't the same as a PC that's in your hands.

Actually, wasn't there someone here that said they were already using one of the existing handheld PCs for gaming? Not as their main, as I recall, so it wouldn't have shown in the stats before now.

Valve talks performance of the Steam Deck, Big Picture UI being replaced and Gamescope
26 July 2021 at 11:37 am UTC Likes: 5

Quoting: HoriAlso really nice to see an FPS Limiter built-in.
They'll probably put something in the game's Properties UI for it, but otherwise it's just gamescope -r 30 -- %command%

Reminder: Update your PC info for the next round of statistics updates
26 July 2021 at 10:31 am UTC Likes: 5

In a year's time I can see there being more than the one person using SteamOS as their main Linux gaming distro.

A chat with Joshua Strobl of the Solus Linux distribution
26 July 2021 at 8:05 am UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: Nanobang(Once I do that I'm gonna write a how-to-use Github for people like me.) ;)
Don't forget to put your Github guide on Github so that people can help you improve it.

Ryan Gordon and Ethan Lee on Proton and the Steam Deck
25 July 2021 at 12:36 am UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: denyasisIt's a Shame Valve isn't more specific on the VPU and GPU, unless I missed something on the website. Then we'd have a way to compare possible performance.
The particular combination doesn't exist yet; it's new. The CPU is Zen 2 with four cores, which is... fine. There's a whole bunch of similar CPUs in gaming machines all over the world. The GPU is RDNA 2, AMD's latest architecture, which is very performant, but it's only 8 compute units; that's similar to the numbers used in previous generation APUs, but way fewer cores than you'd get in a dedicated GPU. That combination, only much bigger and with way more power and cooling available, is used in the PS5 and the current Xbox. The RAM is brand-new LP-DDR5 with 88 GB/s bandwidth, which is pretty impressive and should help performance a lot. The whole thing has a power limit of 15 W.

The combination of older stuff and unreleased stuff, and the particular configuration, and the power limit, means that you can't rig up something that's the same. There are videos where people have made things as close as they can, but it's very much pinch-of-salt territory.

The tech specs are here, and before it officially became the Soc in the Steam Deck it was codenamed Van Gogh.

Ryan Gordon and Ethan Lee on Proton and the Steam Deck
24 July 2021 at 9:36 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: peta77
Quoting: CatKillerto the Deck's 1280×800 @ 30 fps

Actually the display does 60Hz according to their current specs on its homepage.

It does, but that's not their target.

For my desktop gaming rig I wouldn't be satisfied with a framerate that's less than the refresh rate, but that's not their required performance level. If it can hit 30 fps (especially if it's a locked 30 fps) that's good enough by their metric, the same as the consoles.

Ryan Gordon and Ethan Lee on Proton and the Steam Deck
24 July 2021 at 5:47 pm UTC Likes: 3

Quoting: denyasisSo what's the target audience and game type? Indie titles? Older titles? Hobbyists? Kids?


All of the above, as well as people deeply into PC gaming that want to play away from a desktop, TV, or permanent flat surface.

QuoteI mean I don't think say, CyberPunk 2077 is gonna run on it. What about The Witcher 3, or Total War: What ever we're up to?

Total War is going to be limited by form factor rather than performance. You could hook it up to a monitor and mouse, but then you might as well use a different device.** All the rest will be fine. C77 would be particularly good if they made a native version, since the Stadia version was said to be the best one of the bunch.

The hardware is solid; the big constraint is the 15 W power/cooling limit. While modern games are chasing high resolution and high refresh rates they'll scale down to the Deck's 1280×800 @ 30 fps target fine; if modern games switch to chasing the pretties they'll be using more compute shaders, which are expensive, and the Deck will run bang into its power limit.*

It's also a handheld Steam Link for those titles it doesn't have the grunt to handle itself.

* Some numbers to clarify what I mean. Let's say that the next gen's "standard target" is 4K @ 120. The Deck's aiming for ~one eighth the resolution and a quarter of the framerate, so it only needs to squeeze out 1/32 of the work. That's largely doable. If, instead, the next gen is aiming for the absolute prettiest 1080p30 image they can generate with their massive power budget, the Deck still needs to do around half of that with its teeny tiny battery. Not gonna happen.

** Information-dense games that rely on very precise mouse movements won't be a great fit because of the small screen and lack of mouse. First/third person games, platformers, fighting games, racing games, and games that only need loose mouse control will be fine. Basically, anything you could expect to play on a console you can now play on the toilet.

Faster Zombies to Steam Deck: The History of Valve and Linux Gaming
23 July 2021 at 6:15 pm UTC Likes: 6

Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: Alm888
Quoting: CatKillerPeople have already experienced what it's like to have the whole industry under Microsoft's control, and I don't think they're keen to have that continue indefinitely.
Honestly, IMO, most people do not care about underlying technology.
I think CatKiller was referring to developers, not "most people".
Yes. Well, the ecosystem.

People don't seem to generally use Windows because they like using Windows, but because it's where developers put their applications and because it's what came with their computer. Historically, Microsoft were ruthless about maintaining those pillars and making sure that no competitor was visible or viable. For them it was a virtuous cycle, and for everyone else it was chicken and egg.

Microsoft fought the Browser Wars so hard because they knew that if people wrote applications for the Internet then Microsoft would lose its platform grip on developers. And that's what happened, albeit later than it could have been. On the hardware front, Microsoft made sure that they got paid for every purchase - whether it used their OS or not - to prevent anyone else being able to compete on price. They managed it with PCs and phones.

Microsoft of the 90s seemed undefeatable; Microsoft now seems like they've already lost. But it might all be wishful thinking.

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