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Latest Comments by CatKiller
November marked 7 months of Linux rising on Steam & 5 months above 1%
2 December 2021 at 4:10 pm UTC Likes: 6

Quoting: elmapul370 million dollars may sound like a lot, but its not, the cost of production of an modern game can go easy to something like 200~250 millions, and those companies dont make games for margins of profit lower than 20%.
not to mention that the money dont belong to a single person who might be an good person that believes in linux/free software and want to see it suceeed, it belong to a bunch of stake holders so its very unlikely we can convince all of the parties involved to support us.
For big budget games, around half the cost goes on marketing (so platform doesn't matter). The biggest chunk of the remainder goes on asset creation - models, textures, motion capture, voice recording, scripts, and so on (where platform doesn't matter). The next biggest chunk goes on the game engine, with particular emphasis on the rendering loop since it's so critical to performance. Platform doesn't inherently matter here, but some platforms have poor support for some rendering APIs. The part where it really matters which platform you're on - your compile target, how you handle files, how you handle input - is a really tiny part of it. If you're not using a platform-specific engine, then adding another platform is cheap.

What isn't cheap, and what scares people away from new platforms (other than simply being bribed for exclusivity), is testing and support costs. It needs to be clear that those costs are going to be significantly lower than the additional revenue that they'll get from the new platform, and that they couldn't make as much extra money by doing something else (like adding new languages).

November marked 7 months of Linux rising on Steam & 5 months above 1%
2 December 2021 at 11:23 am UTC Likes: 5

QuoteWe're still a while away from seeing how the Steam Deck will affect this, if at all, as it depends on how Valve will be tracking the number of SteamOS 3 devices. With their original SteamOS 2 that was for Steam Machines, it never seemed to be included.

As I understand it, it wasn't that they didn't include SteamOS devices in the survey, it was that they hadn't worked out how to provide the survey pop-up in Big Picture Mode. They'll have the unified UI framework with the Deck, so survey consent should be a solvable problem, and they do want the hardware survey results to be indicative of all the hardware that runs Steam.

PlayStation 3 emulator RPCS3 shows off big game fixes
1 December 2021 at 10:58 pm UTC

Quoting: whizseI'm not sure why they even bothered with the 64GB Deck version.
$399 price point headlines & if you use it like a Switch 64 GB internal is plenty.

KDE developer suggests Plasma needs to be simpler by default
1 December 2021 at 2:40 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: botatoDon't give your grandma GNOME people, please... For your own good!
Yep. They're all chewy and make grandma cross.

KDE developer suggests Plasma needs to be simpler by default
1 December 2021 at 2:39 pm UTC

Quoting: x_wingKubuntu is not a good example of KDE integration. Try KDE Neon if you want a Ubuntu based distro with a stable KDE.
KDE Neon is the opposite of a stable KDE. Its purpose is to push out new versions of KDE immediately.

KDE developer suggests Plasma needs to be simpler by default
1 December 2021 at 2:12 pm UTC

Quoting: botato
Quoting: CatKillerpart of KDE's UI guidelines.. is that an option is only worth having if it's worth having on by default.

I'm sure that's absolutely not a KDE guideline.
Already linked upthread:

QuoteMost people never change most of the default settings for their software. Any feature which is off by default is likely to be missed by most users. Therefore, when proposing a new feature, don't make it configurable and leave it off by default. Have confidence in your designs and features! New features and design changes should be on by default, if they should even be configurable at all.

As GOG struggles, Steam hit a new high of 27M people online
1 December 2021 at 10:54 am UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: fearnflavioI think the only games I have there are The Witcher 3 and Cyberbug which I regret it because I simply forget I have those games. Since I use only Steam and Heroic most of the time.
You could add them to Steam as non-Steam games. Which also gets you controller support for games that don't natively support controllers.

KDE developer suggests Plasma needs to be simpler by default
30 November 2021 at 9:40 pm UTC

Quoting: Purple Library GuyYeah. I'm not sure they're right about that though.
And I mean, the extra options don't have to be very hidden, it could be just you click on that fuzzy line at the bottom of any given little options page that says "more options", and it sinks down and reveals them. And if you are a serious options person, well, you can have an option to reveal them all by default.
Hey, I'm not sure that they're right either. I mentioned upthread that their policy of turning on all the taps has consequences that can be undesirable. I just mentioned that they're currently wary of the "Advanced Settings" approach. And I'm sure we can all think of examples where "users of great ego will find the basic view insulting even if it meets their needs better than the advanced view."

KDE developer suggests Plasma needs to be simpler by default
30 November 2021 at 8:00 pm UTC

Quoting: mrazsterSo maybe work a little on the defaults and then and the rework the system settings so you have "basic options" always shown. And then have the ability to expand to more "advanced options" when/if needed.

That's a pattern that they're specifically wary of:
QuoteHowever the basic/advanced paradigm does not work for grouping and separating features, especially when explicitly using the terms "basic" and "advanced" in the user interface. The problem is that different users have different needs, and what one user considers advanced will be considered basic to another user. Also, even "basic" users may very occasionally have a need to use or configure "advanced" features. Users who doubt their technical prowess will fear entering the advanced view, while users of great ego will find the basic view insulting even if it meets their needs better than the advanced view.

Ubisoft suggest posting on their forum for Proton support in Rainbow Six Siege
30 November 2021 at 5:59 pm UTC Likes: 4

Quoting: randylYou know what's silly? The 1 - 2% asking for any game support or accommodation at all, while feeling entirely entitled to being treated equally.
Of course they should be treated equally. Are games companies charging Linux users 94% less than Windows users? Or Mac users 90% less than Windows users? And the idea that minority groups should be treated worse because they're a minority is... like... really bad.

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