Latest Comments by Purple Library Guy
The Talos Principle updated with more Vulkan stability and performance
26 July 2016 at 9:53 pm UTC Likes: 1
26 July 2016 at 9:53 pm UTC Likes: 1
I'm thinking what you're not usually is a big "puzzle" fan. Not "pizzle", although I'm willing to believe you're not a huge fan of those either. :D
The Battle for Wesnoth, the great open source fantasy strategy game is now on Steam Greenlight
25 July 2016 at 5:45 pm UTC
25 July 2016 at 5:45 pm UTC
I quite like this game. There is one thing that annoys me about it, though. At least when I play it, the chance to hit it tells you is systematically different from what you actually get, which is noticeably lower, to the point where if I calculate roughly what will happen based on expectations from what it claims will happen, I will always find that the results are distinctly off from that, with more enemies surviving than expected, leaving me significantly exposed. If I have a unit with like a 60% chance to hit, I invariably find that in five attacks they will maybe hit twice rather than three times--40% rather than 60%. The only way to get a result approximating what the game tells you should on average be happening is by silly amounts of save-scumming. Otherwise, you have to guesstimate what your real chances are and basically ignore the game's claims except as an idea of who can hit more often.
TynanSylvester, creator of RimWorld comments on Linux
20 July 2016 at 4:14 pm UTC
20 July 2016 at 4:14 pm UTC
Quoting: mr-eggPlaying advocate hereAnd who might you be advocating for? Could it be . . . THE DEVIL??!!
GDC Europe survey shows 17% of developers plan to release Linux titles
19 July 2016 at 11:31 pm UTC Likes: 1
Well, looking up the crouton thing, I think it has potential. It's not a virtualized OS or a wiping of ChromeOS to install something else. It wouldn't be possible to do crouton on Windows, say--it depends on the kernel being compatible. And, apparently it doesn't cause speed penalties. Currently it's kind of rough-and-ready and apparently completely insecure, but it wouldn't be hard to slap some kind of convenient UI on the thing (I don't know anything about security though). The only thing is that it's kind of overkill at the moment--it basically substitutes the other OS' whole userspace, starts up XFCE or something and letting you go from there yourself. But it's a proof of concept for sure--seems like it should be possible to use the same basic idea to launch straight into individual programs meant for the other OS.
I was also interested in the other direction, but actually the solution looks like it should be fairly symmetrical--if you can do it in one direction, you should be able to do it in the other. So if you can make ChromeOS be Ubuntu, you should also be able to make Ubuntu or SteamOS be ChromeOS.
I think there are possibilities here. If something like this got developed and streamlined, then potentially ChromeOS users generally would be in a position to play light SteamOS games, and SteamOS and other Linuxes would be able to play ChromeOS games (and other programs, although since ChromeOS is so browser-centric, on a browser that's available in Linux anyway, that might not matter that much). And then Linux would have more games that run on it, some of them not runnable by either Windows or MacOS, and Steam would have a slightly bigger potential customer base (Chromebook owners), and Linux/SteamOS would have a bigger Steam market share. Everyone would be happier except Microsoft.
19 July 2016 at 11:31 pm UTC Likes: 1
Quoting: mr-eggQuoting: FinnQuoting: Purple Library GuySide question: It seems like Chromebooks have been selling surprisingly well lately. Is anyone writing games for them? Would such games run on normal Linux? If they don't, could a library be written to make a normal Linux run them (or vice versa, to make a Chromebook run games for SteamOS as long as they were lightweight enough for the little thing)? Would any or all of these things be useful for general Linux gaming?
You can already play Steam Linux games on a Chromebook via a crouton chroot. I've done some gaming on my Toshiba Chromebook 2 2014 via an Ubuntu chroot and it plays stuff like Nuclear Throne, Risk of Rain and Binding of Isaac fine. I mean, it's not ideal (don't expect anything 3D to run), but for simple 2D games it's adequate. I've actually been thinking of trying out some VNs on it.
I don't think that was what he was asking. It was not can you technically put Ubuntu on a weak chrome book and play Steam games. I think it was more can chrome games work on Linux with some fiddling/api easy on an existing dedicated gaming PC with Ubuntu on it.. because they are both Linux.
Well, looking up the crouton thing, I think it has potential. It's not a virtualized OS or a wiping of ChromeOS to install something else. It wouldn't be possible to do crouton on Windows, say--it depends on the kernel being compatible. And, apparently it doesn't cause speed penalties. Currently it's kind of rough-and-ready and apparently completely insecure, but it wouldn't be hard to slap some kind of convenient UI on the thing (I don't know anything about security though). The only thing is that it's kind of overkill at the moment--it basically substitutes the other OS' whole userspace, starts up XFCE or something and letting you go from there yourself. But it's a proof of concept for sure--seems like it should be possible to use the same basic idea to launch straight into individual programs meant for the other OS.
I was also interested in the other direction, but actually the solution looks like it should be fairly symmetrical--if you can do it in one direction, you should be able to do it in the other. So if you can make ChromeOS be Ubuntu, you should also be able to make Ubuntu or SteamOS be ChromeOS.
I think there are possibilities here. If something like this got developed and streamlined, then potentially ChromeOS users generally would be in a position to play light SteamOS games, and SteamOS and other Linuxes would be able to play ChromeOS games (and other programs, although since ChromeOS is so browser-centric, on a browser that's available in Linux anyway, that might not matter that much). And then Linux would have more games that run on it, some of them not runnable by either Windows or MacOS, and Steam would have a slightly bigger potential customer base (Chromebook owners), and Linux/SteamOS would have a bigger Steam market share. Everyone would be happier except Microsoft.
GDC Europe survey shows 17% of developers plan to release Linux titles
18 July 2016 at 11:13 pm UTC
18 July 2016 at 11:13 pm UTC
Side question: It seems like Chromebooks have been selling surprisingly well lately. Is anyone writing games for them? Would such games run on normal Linux? If they don't, could a library be written to make a normal Linux run them (or vice versa, to make a Chromebook run games for SteamOS as long as they were lightweight enough for the little thing)? Would any or all of these things be useful for general Linux gaming?
GDC Europe survey shows 17% of developers plan to release Linux titles
18 July 2016 at 11:07 pm UTC Likes: 1
Edited to add: Oh. Yeah, like JOndra91 already said.
18 July 2016 at 11:07 pm UTC Likes: 1
Quoting: EikeHm. We've got 25% on Steam, probably with more old than new games. 17% would, well... not be more than that.Steam has very little presence in games outside the desktop/laptop form factor. This survey included consoles and phones, which are huge markets. So its face value before you add the needed big chunk o' salt is that if you take all the game developers on both computers (where Linux is an option) and consoles and phones (where it basically isn't), 17% of that whole field have Linux plans. Presumably if you removed the people concentrating on consoles or phones from the sample, the Linux percentage in the remaining group would be significantly higher.
Edited to add: Oh. Yeah, like JOndra91 already said.
Kingdom Rush Frontiers coming to Linux after the initial Window launch
18 July 2016 at 10:56 pm UTC
18 July 2016 at 10:56 pm UTC
Frontiers . . . every time someone mentions that word I get reminded of this Star Trek joke:
How many ears does Mr. Spock have?
Three. One on the left, one on the right, and the final, front ear.
How many ears does Mr. Spock have?
Three. One on the left, one on the right, and the final, front ear.
Timbertales, a cross platform turn based strategy on Steam Greenlight and Kickstarter
18 July 2016 at 10:48 pm UTC
18 July 2016 at 10:48 pm UTC
As for graphics, I suppose you could make that a stretch goal--"If I get this much money, I will find someone who can do good art and pay them to do art stuff" kind of thing.
So, does this have sort of a Redwall vibe? Except in Redwall the critters tend to fight with weapons, where here it looks like pretty much tooth, claw, webs and stuff.
I tend to agree with Tuubi, that video tells me what basic kind of game it is but gives me no real clues whether it's a good one of its type--whether the tactical possibilities are interesting, whether the story associated is any good, what they're fighting about, whether there is anything about it that says "fantasy" other than there being intelligent animals having a war (which I suppose is vaguely fantastical but doesn't scream "fantasy" as a genre), so on and so forth.
So, does this have sort of a Redwall vibe? Except in Redwall the critters tend to fight with weapons, where here it looks like pretty much tooth, claw, webs and stuff.
I tend to agree with Tuubi, that video tells me what basic kind of game it is but gives me no real clues whether it's a good one of its type--whether the tactical possibilities are interesting, whether the story associated is any good, what they're fighting about, whether there is anything about it that says "fantasy" other than there being intelligent animals having a war (which I suppose is vaguely fantastical but doesn't scream "fantasy" as a genre), so on and so forth.
Dear Valve and Steam Machines OEMs, you have it all wrong
12 July 2016 at 5:42 pm UTC Likes: 1
The Steam Machine ecosystem does have various shortcomings right now. But Valve can do things about many of them if it chooses to spend resources. It can have people work on graphics drivers, on tools for Vulkan, on stuff for SteamOS like what Johners was talking about (streaming, multimedia etc), even on improving certain back-end features of Linux that relate to gaming performance and polish.
That Valve are choosing not to do much of this kind of stuff suggests they've got the Steam Machine, and Linux generally, on the back burner. Frankly, I think they've made their point to Microsoft now and they just want to keep those projects alive enough to restart at short notice, effectively saying to MS, "We're packing. We won't pull the trigger if you don't threaten our business model again."
There's an open source driver for the Steam Controller. I wonder whether at some point it will be worth forking SteamOS? They could call it "VaporOS" and start building in the things we wish Valve would do with SteamOS, all open source so Valve can use them if they want.
12 July 2016 at 5:42 pm UTC Likes: 1
Quoting: wolfyrionBelieve it or not I bet that 98% of the people will format their Steam OS Machines and install Windows on it for the obvious reason to be able to play all the popular game titles.No. The kind of people who might be interested in doing that will tend to be precisely the kind of people who can't hack the idea of manually installing an OS. Such people will either not buy the thing in the first place, or having bought it and finding it doesn't do what they wanted, they'll just sort of let it moulder in a closet.
QuoteAtm Valve cant do anything about it because developers,game engines, Vulkan API,drivers,Linux OS have to mature so Valve has to give them time to grow up.
The Steam Machine ecosystem does have various shortcomings right now. But Valve can do things about many of them if it chooses to spend resources. It can have people work on graphics drivers, on tools for Vulkan, on stuff for SteamOS like what Johners was talking about (streaming, multimedia etc), even on improving certain back-end features of Linux that relate to gaming performance and polish.
That Valve are choosing not to do much of this kind of stuff suggests they've got the Steam Machine, and Linux generally, on the back burner. Frankly, I think they've made their point to Microsoft now and they just want to keep those projects alive enough to restart at short notice, effectively saying to MS, "We're packing. We won't pull the trigger if you don't threaten our business model again."
There's an open source driver for the Steam Controller. I wonder whether at some point it will be worth forking SteamOS? They could call it "VaporOS" and start building in the things we wish Valve would do with SteamOS, all open source so Valve can use them if they want.
Dear Valve and Steam Machines OEMs, you have it all wrong
11 July 2016 at 6:36 pm UTC Likes: 1
11 July 2016 at 6:36 pm UTC Likes: 1
From the article: "Someone with more needs than that will know how to build a PC and will do it cheaper and better than an OEM."
I believe this to be true, but I don't understand why. Why can OEMs with full-time professional employees whose job it is to figure out how best to put their computers together not, you know, do it better than individual hobbyists with more limited time and resources? How is it, for instance, that out of stacks of OEMs selling Steam Machines intended for gaming, and even if the message was mixed vaguely intended as a console replacement, NONE of them apparently came up with a cheap machine whose dollars were devoted to maximizing gaming capacity?
I believe this to be true, but I don't understand why. Why can OEMs with full-time professional employees whose job it is to figure out how best to put their computers together not, you know, do it better than individual hobbyists with more limited time and resources? How is it, for instance, that out of stacks of OEMs selling Steam Machines intended for gaming, and even if the message was mixed vaguely intended as a console replacement, NONE of them apparently came up with a cheap machine whose dollars were devoted to maximizing gaming capacity?
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- NVIDIA stable driver 550.135 released for Linux
- Sony reportedly looking to acquire Kadokawa, owner of ELDEN RING dev FromSoftware
- Dungeon Clawler will grab hold of your free time now it's in Early Access, plus keys to give away
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