Latest Comments by CatKiller
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion has dropped Linux support (updated)
27 August 2021 at 12:07 pm UTC Likes: 8

Since developers like this suck so much at customer service, Valve should force them to do better: give automatic refunds to affected customers, to make them whole, and withhold revenue until the cost of that has been recovered. That's what other retailers do. I'm only ever going to buy a handful of games from any particular game dev, but I buy hundreds overall from Steam; my confidence in buying things on Steam becomes less every time a developer pulls this kind of scam, which harms Valve.

NVIDIA DLSS for Proton + Linux with DirectX 11 / 12 lands in September
24 August 2021 at 11:19 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: STiATIt took me a month to figure out that I need to force full composite pipeline on nvidia cards to get less tearing and stuttering after not having had one in 10+ years. And I thought the 3070Ti probably wasn't a that good choice after all. It's doing pretty well now. And why the heck do they still require this when it's a non-issue on AMD cards?
I've never had to turn that on.

Zink Vulkan driver Suballocator lands in Mesa, certain games get 'over 1000%' more FPS
19 August 2021 at 2:50 am UTC Likes: 3

Quoting: TheRiddickValve has decided to work with AMD for making a fast lane way to get Steam Deck setup with windows. I suspect valve took a closer look at the EAC and BE situation and was like, HOLY F$%K we not going to fix this.. hope I'm wrong.
Being able to install Windows on the device is a security blanket for all those Windows gamers that they're trying to persuade to buy the thing. Saying, "nah, fuck M$, we're not gonna let you install their OS," is just going to make people not buy the device. Which means they won't get to see how awesome Linux is, and Linux won't get up to the, say, 30-40% gaming marketshare where Valve are safe from Microsoft.

Valve are OK with gamers using Windows, as long as Linux is a viable and visible alternative, so they get their escape hatch and deterrent.

Zink Vulkan driver Suballocator lands in Mesa, certain games get 'over 1000%' more FPS
18 August 2021 at 2:24 pm UTC Likes: 3

Quoting: chelobakaThere must be a good practical reason for this project if Valve puts their money in it. Upcoming Steam Deck doesn't need it so it must be something else. Well, Vulkan is supported by Android and there's no OpenGL there, but x86 emulation on ARM should be expensive... or maybe not that expensive?
I suspect partly because they want everyone to go all in on Vulkan, but they still have legacy OpenGL stuff in their store, and partly for Steam on Chromebooks. I think that things like Fex are doing well for translating x86 to run on Arm.

Valve puts up a Steam Deck trailer and the head of Xbox seems to really like it
15 August 2021 at 6:26 pm UTC Likes: 5

Quoting: BielFPs
Quoting: CatKillerIt's just visiting Netflix with Steam's built-in browser and adding a bookmark.
For you and me sure, but users will expect something similar to a android app. So you can expect someone to built an electron app with a shinny N icon on it (or maybe a flatpak), which in practice it's the same thing
The demo units they gave to journalists already had the bookmark made.

Valve puts up a Steam Deck trailer and the head of Xbox seems to really like it
15 August 2021 at 6:21 pm UTC

Quoting: ShmerlThe point of my criticism is MS refusing to join the collaborative effort when they very well knew it was happening, and pushing lock-in instead.
That would be a criticism of Steve Ballmer and Satya Nadella, not the person in charge of Xbox.

Valve puts up a Steam Deck trailer and the head of Xbox seems to really like it
15 August 2021 at 6:05 pm UTC Likes: 4

Quoting: BielFPsYou can expect youtubers making videos like "HOW TO INSTALL NETFLIX IN YOUR STEAMDECK!!!" which in practice is just they teaching how to get through some aur package.
It's just visiting Netflix with Steam's built-in browser and adding a bookmark.

Hopefully it will get Netflix and Amazon to stop sending Linux users a terrible stream, though.

Valve puts up a Steam Deck trailer and the head of Xbox seems to really like it
15 August 2021 at 5:48 pm UTC

Quoting: ShmerlThey didn't have anything even planned, let alone released.
DX12 came out in early 2014 (my mistake, it came with Windows 10 in 2015; it was announced in 2014). Vulkan wasn't released till early 2016.

Valve puts up a Steam Deck trailer and the head of Xbox seems to really like it
15 August 2021 at 5:27 pm UTC

Quoting: ShmerlHe became the head Xbox / gaming division in MS in 2014. That's before Vulkan was even announced and during the important period when Mantle was presented by AMD to the industry as a prototype design of a common GPU API. So he totally was in charge of making the decision whether to collaborate or to push lock-in. And we know what MS did.

Even if you say someone else (shortly) before him decided to make DX12 from Mantle, he totally could scrap that and make MS collaborate with Khronos on Vulkan which was still in development phase. He didn't.
So you've worked for Microsoft for, what, 25 years? Microsoft have a product already released that's they think is pretty good, and you're put in charge of the department whose primary function is to push that product. And you decide, before a competing product is even released, to say, "you know what? Our product is bullshit. Scrap the whole thing."

That seems reasonable to you?

Valve puts up a Steam Deck trailer and the head of Xbox seems to really like it
15 August 2021 at 12:19 pm UTC Likes: 16

Quoting: ShmerlGiven Phil Spencer is probably the reason MS didn't back Vulkan but pushed DX12 lock-in instead,


Not really. DX12 was a thing before he got put in charge of Xbox, and Xbox being a thing to push DirectX ("DirectX box") was a thing long before he was in charge.

Quoteit's interesting that he has some positive comments about Steam Deck which relies on breaking that very lock-in.

It's the only good move. If they say nothing about the new gaming hotness then they look out of touch with gaming. If they say something negative about their competitor then they make themselves look bad and give their competitor good publicity. By saying something positive they have an opportunity to cast themselves as the good guys while promoting their own product. Sweeney did exactly the same thing.

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