Quoting: pete910

Quoting: Samsai

Quoting: Lancabanwith everything saifd about the Linux kernel and different versions and hackabiltiy etc. yet it plays on Android, even on 3rd party Roms and Kernels just fine.

Would that not have the same exact issues and from a significantly larger player base than desktop Linux users?

Right now I can take my phone, root it, throw on a different Rom, and even use a different customized kernel, and still play Fortnite. This has been done, proven, viewed, tested, and seems to be OK.

Theoretically yes. I think the overriding issues are that Android is a market big enough to take the risk and generally speaking tech illiterate enough that the likelihood of someone installing a custom ROM to cheat in Fortnite is so unlikely, that it doesn't register as a realistic risk.

Think you've just shot your own argument in the foot there.

It's a given than 99% of cheaters have no clue on how to write a cheat let alone a kernel driver on windows, Which also would be true for Linux side or the deck.

So the entire premise fails as a result of that theory.


The simple fat is that he has no intention of allowing fortnite on the deck. Am sure if the deck had been produced by say Samsung it wouldn't have been an issue.

Quoting: F.Ultra

Quoting: EagleDelta

Quoting: Samsai

Quoting: Lancabanwith everything saifd about the Linux kernel and different versions and hackabiltiy etc. yet it plays on Android, even on 3rd party Roms and Kernels just fine.

Would that not have the same exact issues and from a significantly larger player base than desktop Linux users?

Right now I can take my phone, root it, throw on a different Rom, and even use a different customized kernel, and still play Fortnite. This has been done, proven, viewed, tested, and seems to be OK.

Theoretically yes. I think the overriding issues are that Android is a market big enough to take the risk and generally speaking tech illiterate enough that the likelihood of someone installing a custom ROM to cheat in Fortnite is so unlikely, that it doesn't register as a realistic risk.

From everything I've read, they do try to prevent custom ROMs from playing the game. Even when those Custom ROMs do get it running, they have to have root disabled, play services must be installed, and safetynet must pass its checks, among other things.

So, it still requires a fairly locked down Android OS to run the game.

So in other words, they manage to implement some safeguards even when run under the evil Linux kernel :-)

Exactly. They just don't want it (Fortnite: Battle Royale) to run on their direct competitor's platform (i.e. the Steam Deck)…

Quoting: pete910

Quoting: Samsai

Quoting: Lancabanwith everything saifd about the Linux kernel and different versions and hackabiltiy etc. yet it plays on Android, even on 3rd party Roms and Kernels just fine.

Would that not have the same exact issues and from a significantly larger player base than desktop Linux users?

Right now I can take my phone, root it, throw on a different Rom, and even use a different customized kernel, and still play Fortnite. This has been done, proven, viewed, tested, and seems to be OK.

Theoretically yes. I think the overriding issues are that Android is a market big enough to take the risk and generally speaking tech illiterate enough that the likelihood of someone installing a custom ROM to cheat in Fortnite is so unlikely, that it doesn't register as a realistic risk.

Think you've just shot your own argument in the foot there.

It's a given than 99% of cheaters have no clue on how to write a cheat let alone a kernel driver on windows, Which also would be true for Linux side or the deck.

So the entire premise fails as a result of that theory.


The simple fat is that he has no intention of allowing fortnite on the deck. Am sure if the deck had been produced by say Samsung it wouldn't have been an issue.

Quoting: areamanplaysgame

Quoting: fearnflavioThere is one solution: ship a cloud version of fortnite. Not the best solution but depending on how it is implemented could work.
Several games on the Nintendo switch are cloud based like Control and Kingdom Hearts. There are companies that port your game to the cloud.
Not the best solution, still a solution.

Cloud gaming requires a pretty robust internet connection, though (significantly more internets than you need to simply connect a locally installed game to a server). But given that Fortnite already is (was?) available on mobile platforms, I guess Epic is not particularly worried about delivering a suboptimal experience for their very popular digital clothing store for ten year olds.

Quoting: eridanired123

Quoting: RCLTo all people saying that not trusting the client or moving the game to the cloud is the solution - you seem to ignore the existence of network latency.

False.

Gforcenow latency is pretty fine on LOL, GW2 and BDO which are the competitive games I've played. I can assume other gaming clouds to have similar results. And I'm not a resident of a first world country by any means.

Those calling for Fortnite: Battle Royale to run "out of the cloud" have obviously never been to Australia... Australia's "high-quality" broadband struggles with Fortnite; Battle Royale in its current form; I'd hate to see how bad the experience would be if the entire game was run "out of the cloud". 🙄

Quoting: EagleDelta

Quoting: Guestwhat I don't get about this whole article... is how does the heck Fortnite for Android works? and I think there's enough android "distros" out there, that have plenty of different kernels. Did google let them run a proprietary module on their kernels?
I'm sorry if my question is too stupid I simply ignore this.

They will detect if you are running with root, or running with an unlocked bootloader, or try to see if you're running a custom ROM and block those things.

Quoting: slaapliedje

Quoting: Guest

Quoting: emphyFor someone who pretends to be doing stuff "for the good of the industry", Sweeney is displaying a remarkably short-sighted stance.

Sweeney couldn't care less about the industry, he sued Apple because they are a bunch of whiners. Apple ofc did the right thing, any app that wants to take control of your wallet looks SUS to me. He is just a Tencent puppet and he'll do the Tencent "dance" or anything they'll ask. At this point if you consider Sweeney as someone "neutral" and with "fair" opinions, I'm sorry to tell you, but, unfortunately you are being played. He is just a snake oil salesman and a puppet, the opposite of being independent (like ie an indie dev).

The whole thing was about Epic wanting to be able to have their own store within the game that didn't use Apple's payment methods (thereby skipping giving Apple a cut).
I am on the fence about this, as for one it is about two greedy bullies trying to figure out who should get all of the kids lunch money they are picking on. Think of Apple as the mob racket, and Epic wanting to move into their territory without paying their cut on the new 'service' they provide.

There is a solution to this Fortnite business... Valve should work on a better game! Guaranteed if something similar enough, but better comes along, Fortnite will be left in the dust, and 20 years from now when the kids that enjoy it get nostalgic, they will have recreated server side software to be able to play it themselves.

This is what I would like to see...

Believe it or not, I only started playing Fortnite: Battle Royale late last year ('The Last of Us: Factions MP' is usually my go-to multiplayer game) and it is primarily these three things which appeal to me in the game:
* The "battle royale" concept (start with "x" players and no weapons, scavenge for weapons and fight your way down the the last player), which I've never seen in a game before;
* The expansive maps, which change every couple of months to offer new challenges / content / quests;
* The difficulty of the game, which seems to be "just right" (not too easy, not too difficult), so that one can play and not always win or lose (in comparison, I find that most other multiplayer games are usually either too easy or too difficult).

These are things that could easily be implemented in another game, so an alternative to Fortnite: Battle Royale is not entirely out of the question... Who is up to the challenge, and wants to get a head-start on the Steam Deck?

Quoting: Shmerl

Quoting: Cyba.CowboyCouldn't they just implement anti-cheat software on the server instead?

Correct me if I am wrong, but I would imagine that this would be easier to maintain and it would be far more difficult for potential cheaters to bypass...

They could. But it's equivalent to investing into sophisticated enough AI. They don't want to spend on it. It's cheaper to push spyware junk on the user.

Ah, so the real reason Fortnite: Battle Royale won’t come to the Steam Deck anytime soon is because Epic Games is to cheap and lazy to implement server-based anti-cheat stuff?

Got it.

Quoting: Shmerl

Quoting: RCLBut it is more reactive than preventive.

No one said you need to have a preventive anti-cheat. Or to put it differently, the elephant in the room is that you don't need it to make the game good enough. But good reactive anti-cheat is a hard and expensive problem to solve. Not impossible.

Well a Steam Deck would be tied to a particular ‘Steam’ account and presumably there’s some sort of hardware identifier (a serial number or something) that’s sent to Valve Software’s servers or is readable by software running on the Steam Deck… So just ban those ‘Steam’ accounts and / or identifiers that are known to be cheating.

Even if server-based anti-cheat software was reactive rather than preventive, this’d be a possible solution.

What I don’t understand, is how there are so many online games throughout the world – including for many, many Linux-based operating systems – that operate their own, respective solutions to prevent cheating… Yet Epic Games is adamant that there is absolute no possible way they could do the same?

As has been pointed out by loads of people, this says an awful lot about their anti-cheat solution and I think the real question is (albeit off-topic), is why would a developer even want to consider their anti-cheat solution now that we know how inadequate it is?

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Couldn't they just implement anti-cheat software on the server instead?

Correct me if I am wrong, but I would imagine that this would be easier to maintain and it would be far more difficult for potential cheaters to bypass...

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It's no big loss... Feral Interactive do horrible ports, and having a low-quality port available for Linux-based operating systems sends the wrong message to new Linux gamers.

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Wow, this is a great tool. ProtonDB is more informative; but this is handy if you just want a quick overview of how things are going.

According to a recent interview with Gabe Newell (I can't remember where I read it...), Australia is supposedly a top-priority for the next region in which to release the Steam Deck, so I will be watching this website very closely...

My library (2 /3 of which is random crap) - 10% Playable+

• Verified: 6 Games (4.23%)


• Playable: 8 Games (5.63%)


• Unsupported: 1 Game (0.7%)


• Unknown: 127 Games (89.44%)

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Quoting: HamishYou do realize you are replying two months after the fact, right?

I am glad they got that resolved though.

That may be true, but it's not something they just fixed... It's been listed as "Linux compatible" for a long time now (several years).

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Quoting: twinsonian

Quoting: HerrLangeWhere is Commander Keen?

https://www.gog.com/game/commander_keen_complete_pack

Windows only... I'll pass.

Quoting: bradgy

Quoting: Hamish

Quoting: HerrLangeWhere is Commander Keen?

More to the point, will Linux now get a release for Crystal Caves HD?

It already has! Been playing it on my laptop with ubuntu.

https://www.gog.com/game/crystal_caves_hd (not advertised as such but comes with the Linux installer as an extra)

Um, it quite literally says that Linux-based operating systems are supported...
"Works on: Windows (7, 8, 10), Linux (Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04)"

Quoting: PhlebiacThis sure looks similar to (how I remember) Duke Nukem 1 and 2; probably the same engine. Looks like GOG doesn't have *any* Duke Nukem games, surprisingly.

Quoting: Liam Dawe

Quoting: PhlebiacThis sure looks similar to (how I remember) Duke Nukem 1 and 2; probably the same engine. Looks like GOG doesn't have *any* Duke Nukem games, surprisingly.

Pretty sure Gearbox had them removed.

This.

They used to be on GOG.com, but they were removed ages ago... If you had already purchased them (as I did), they're still in your library; if not, you miss out. Apparently they're not on Steam anymore, either.

F#%k Gearbox, they're like a slightly less-evil version of EA.

Quoting: ixnari

Quoting: HerrLangeWhere is Commander Keen?

Probably in recovery after going through this shit. Thankfully, Zenimax seems to have scrubbed every mention of this "game", so Keen might get a remake yet!

What the hell did I just watch? Please tell me that's not actually an upcoming game?

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Quoting: bekoAnd VR on Linux is a niche in a niche.

Not really. At least in the commercial space.

Until a little over a year ago, I worked in the largest family entertainment center ("arcade") in the Southern Hemisphere and approximately 80% of their machines - including their ~AU$150,000 VR systems (they had two different systems, from two unrelated companies, during my tenure) - ran a Linux-based operating system... It was almost always Ubuntu, though occasionally you'd see Red Hat, Linux Mint or Debian.

On a side note, even Microsoft's "Halo" arcade machine ran a Linux-based operating system... It runs Ubuntu, I'm not even kidding! Looking back, I wish to god I had recorded footage of the boot-up proving this on my iPhone, because this is one of those facts that people would hear and be like "There's no way that's true!"

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Quoting: kon14Couldn't care less. I lost all interest in CDPR and GOG after the TW3 and Galaxy linux releases were both silently dropped.
I'd rather buy (possibly) drm'd games from Steam and support Valve's efforts in revolutionizing the platform rather than pay a single cent to a company that treats me like a second class citizen even though I'm paying just as much as everyone else.

They literally redesigned Galaxy and still ignored Linux, thus I'll ignore them, at least until they fix their mess and start supporting us properly.

My gripe with them is that a couple of years back, they made this big song-and-dance about how they were going to have this big push into the Linux Community... And for a brief period of time, that was true - we ended up with quite a few high-quality Linux titles almost overnight.

Since that time, 90% of the "new" Linux titles are "shovelware" and probably one out of every ten "new" Linux games is actually worth buying... If that were not enough, they refuse to make even most of their own titles available to Linux users (such as Cyberpunk 2077).

Quoting: PublicNuisanceTo all those who refuse to buy Linux games from GOG due to them not releasing Linux versions of their client or newer games: do you buy Windows games on Steam ? Just a curiousity........

Nope.

As they say, "No Tux, no bucks".

Quoting: GuestFor myself, the convenience of GOG is that it doesn't require some extra client to download the games - I can grab them directly from the website and use stand-alone installers. I prefer this personally, where available.

Actually I would really rather there not be a GOG Galaxy client if it meant that games started to require it. I would also much rather an open source client as well.

This.

If The people want a "Galaxy" client, give it to them (especially since GOG have repeatedly promised that it's coming) - but I absolutely don't want it if it's going to become mandatory at some point, which is what I suspect will happen... I prefer to install my games manually, not with a custom front-end.

Quoting: GuestThe only upside of GOG.com is the DRM-free installers, and they already started to hide these in favour of their Galaxy malware.

And this is quite literally the only reason I shop at GOG over other stores, where ever possible...

Quoting: GuestThe lack of a Linux build of Galaxy is the only thing preventing them to add DRM-gated features to the Linux games they sell.

This is what I fear - that "Galaxy" is a discreet way to move people towards a "controlled" installation... Granted "Galaxy" is not DRM in the traditional sense, but like with Steam, it gives GOG a way to "control" installations and indirectly "secure" games (to a point).

You get people comfortable with something like that, and it'll be much easier to completely "lock" people to a platform like they do with Google's Android and Apple's iOS / iPadOS / macOS / tvOS / watchOS (and Microsoft I suppose - they have an app store in Windows, don't they?)...

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Quoting: ProtektorI don't even buy ebooks from Humble because there are so many places these days to get DRM free books. DriveThru RPG has tons of DRM free gaming books and even some free books. Kobo and Baen Books have tons of DRM free ebooks and even free books with no DRM. There is Comixology has free comics and DRM free comics and there is also DriveThru Comics as well with DRM free comics.

*Cough cough*

Just strip the DRM from your "Kindle" eBooks or ComiXology comics... It's easy enough to do, and takes just seconds.

*Cough cough*

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Quoting: GuestHumble used to be something quite different, and I stopped being terribly interested in it quite a while ago. Sure I've made the odd purchase, but rarely for games and instead ebooks.

Equally I'm not jumping up & down about it. It once was something I liked, now it's not, and that's really about it. Meh.

I much prefer to use patreon, itch.io, and purchases directly from developers these days.

This.

Admittedly, I still buy most of my games from GOG.com, but occasionally I will make the purchase via Patreon... Haven't really looked into itch.io, but I probably should, because people are always going on about it.

Quoting: tuubiI actually expected something like this to be announced sooner after they were acquired by IGN.

Humble Bundle are owned by IGN? I didn't know this...

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