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Latest Comments by EagleDelta
Valve and others fined by the European Commission for 'geo-blocking' (updated)
20 January 2021 at 4:17 pm UTC

Quoting: Egonaut
Quoting: rkfgThis is very bad and stupid. They basically force Valve to set the same prices everywhere, no matter how strong economic is in certain countries. I

No they don't. They force Valve and other Publishers to redeem keys all over the EU no matter in which EU country they have been bought. If Valve changes the Prices due to this, it's all up to them and not forced by anyone.

Even if the prices are set the same across region, I doubt that is Valve doing that, but the publishers putting their games on Steam.

Mad Max and Shadow of Mordor delisted for Linux and macOS on Steam
5 January 2021 at 10:47 pm UTC

Quoting: zimia_p
Quoting: MohandevirIs it just me? I feel like Steam's Linux gaming is gradually falling into a chaotic mess. Linux native ports that suddenly stop being supported... Native ports that run worse than the windows version run through proton... Windows games run only through proton... I have 2 exemples of games that got a gold rating on protondb, but just won't run adequately: Rage 2 that just keeps on crashing every 5 mins, no matter the tweaks I try and Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, that becomes a slide show when you hit the start button... Why gold?! These 2 should get a silver rating max, imo...
.

In my opinion, there are a lot of variables affecting the quality of the game i Proton. For example, I completed the "Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order" without any problems, the performance was very good. In my opinion, gold or platinum. However, that doesn't mean it will work as well on your configuration.

This. I think people somehow forget that as cool as Proton is, Valve still targets the most common desktop distros and, in reality, a different Linux distro IS very much a different Operating System as the OS is more than just the underlying kernel (not to mention some distro kernels have specific optimizations that aren't implemented in other distro kernels for whatever reason). In all honesty, chances are the further you get away from one of the "core" (popular) Desktop-focused distros, the less likely it's been tested on that distro. So, in most cases, Ubuntu, Pop!_OS, Mint, Elementary, Fedora, Manjaro, and Arch are probably OK. Beyond that, it probably depends.

Add in the fact that, for some reason, there are a lot of Linux users that want their desktop to be configured a specific way and depending on what they do and how they do it, it may not always be compatible with what Steam, Proton, WINE, etc expect causing issues. Not to mention the obvious Hardware issues that occasionally show up.

Mad Max and Shadow of Mordor delisted for Linux and macOS on Steam
5 January 2021 at 4:36 pm UTC

Quoting: undeadbydawn
Quoting: saellaven
Quoting: undeadbydawnSpeaking from harsh experience, Shadow Of Mordor is no great loss. The Linux version was so bad I never got beyond the menu screen, while it was completely flawless - including all online elements - under Glorious Eggroll. While I'm still more likely to buy a game if it offers a Linux version, I generally expect to play under Proton.

Add me as another that played through it back in the fall of 2017...

I strongly suspect there are a load of games Feral got working really nicely on Linux a few years back, then did zero maintenance. The games (and Steam itself) may have been updated, but the Feral ports have not. The result is previously flawless experiences now a complete mess.
Since Proton is being actively worked on by a surprisingly dedicated team, with Frogging and Eggroll doing amazing work in parallel, it's not overly surprising that they're taking over.

That said I had 100% positive experienced with Tomb Raider

It's probably important to remember that the way the gaming industry works, unless you're running an MMO or long term service-based game (APEX, Fortnite, etc), most of the money made is within the first few months of release of a game and/or ports. Once that is done, updates are only provided until the cost of providing updates outweighs the money coming in from said games. It's one of the big reasons Windows and Steam are popular for gaming - backwards compatibility is kept by keeping/including old libraries so old games (and software) can keep running.

Which is very different from the tech/software industry (especially the web) where consistent updates are important for security and competitive reasons.

Mad Max and Shadow of Mordor delisted for Linux and macOS on Steam
5 January 2021 at 4:18 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: sbolokanov
Quoting: Mohandevir
Quoting: sbolokanovLinux is an OS made for people who want power. If one doesn't want power, one shouldn't be playing with it.

This piece got me thinking... Why is Valve still supporting Linux, at this point, if it all comes to this?

It's an additional market. As small as it might be. Just because we are not the average user, it does not mean that we do not play games.
Plus it gives them an edge when interacting with Microsoft. So they can keep them in check.

By the way, Proton is not an official flag for supporting titles on Linux. It's just that tool that gives users the option to play games via WINE with a single click (or at least that's what they claim).
And unless the publishers keep track for who play via Proton, one is possibly counted as yet another Windows user.

Valve noted a long time ago that games played using Proton count as a Linux player, not a Windows one.

Lutris game manager starts off 2021 with a sweet small update
5 January 2021 at 4:12 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: Pendragon..so do we need to update the ppa repository string in order to pick this up? That seems to defeat the point of having a ppa at all..

I just looked again, they've updated the package for 18.04, 20.04, and 20.10

That said, several PPAs use non-version specific packages instead of building for each individual, though those kinds of PPAs are still far less common than ones that build for specific versions of Ubuntu.

Lutris game manager starts off 2021 with a sweet small update
5 January 2021 at 3:28 pm UTC

Quoting: borisetoHuh, is for some reason not updated on their Ubuntu repo? Cause I didn't see the .1 update either, besides this one.

It's there, they stopped appending the "ubuntu<version>" string to the end of the package. Since 5.8.1 they just create a single DEB file now. I definitely 5.8.2 there.

Mad Max and Shadow of Mordor delisted for Linux and macOS on Steam
4 January 2021 at 7:48 pm UTC Likes: 4

Quoting: rustybroomhandle
Quoting: EagleDeltaI don't think anyone posted this yet, but both games are based on movie properties rather than being standalone IPs

Totally not related. This is entirely just Feral's license to the ports that have expired.

Sorry, that's not entirely what I meant. What I was trying to note is that Feral probably had to enter into a more restrictive and time-limited license because they are based on file franchises rather than that the license was terminated because of that.

While these port license issues do happen from time to time, I don't think I see them as often in general gaming as I do in games based on other properties.

Mad Max and Shadow of Mordor delisted for Linux and macOS on Steam
4 January 2021 at 4:57 pm UTC Likes: 1

I don't think anyone posted this yet, but both games are based on movie properties rather than being standalone IPs made specifically for gaming. On top of that, this being WB Interactive, their licensing model is probably a bit more restrictive due to the tie to the Movie Business.

Hollywood companies are extremely protective of their "property" and I'd expect anything tied to a movie license to be quite a bit more complicated than a normal porting license. In fact, if the original gamedev is not the IP holder, such as EA with Star Wars, they probably cannot hand out licenses to port anything to platforms EA doesn't support without the permission of Lucasfilm/Disney. While this is less complicated as WB owns WB Interactive, there are still weird organizational separations that make it even more complicated.....

DOSBox Pure for RetroArch aims to make retro DOS gaming real easy
23 December 2020 at 5:32 am UTC

Quoting: denyasis
Quoting: EagleDeltaAnyone running into issues with:

 
[INFO] [CORE]: Loading dynamic libretro core from: "/home/dhollinger/snap/retroarch/423/.config/retroarch/cores/dosbox_pure_libretro.so"
[ERROR] Failed to open libretro core: "/home/dhollinger/snap/retroarch/423/.config/retroarch/cores/dosbox_pure_libretro.so"
Error(s): /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.29' not found (required by /home/dhollinger/snap/retroarch/423/.config/retroarc[INFO] [Environ]: SET_PIXEL_FORMAT: RGB565.


Granted I'm on Pop!_OS and not Arch, and am running the Snap version since the Flatpak one has some issues.

Do I need to build retroarch from scratch?

I guess the easiest question is do you have glibc installed at the correct version? It looks like it's asking for 2.29. From a quick Google, it looks like glibc provides libm and is running 2.32 most recently.

I'm not near my computer, but hopefully the newest version will satisfy that dependency.

Small edit: looking at the online Ubuntu repo, looks like the package is libc6. I think pop_os is based on Ubuntu, so I'd check for that package and update.

I was able to get it working. I had to install from PPA instead of Flatpak or Snap

DOSBox Pure for RetroArch aims to make retro DOS gaming real easy
22 December 2020 at 5:50 pm UTC

Anyone running into issues with:

 
[INFO] [CORE]: Loading dynamic libretro core from: "/home/dhollinger/snap/retroarch/423/.config/retroarch/cores/dosbox_pure_libretro.so"
[ERROR] Failed to open libretro core: "/home/dhollinger/snap/retroarch/423/.config/retroarch/cores/dosbox_pure_libretro.so"
Error(s): /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.29' not found (required by /home/dhollinger/snap/retroarch/423/.config/retroarc[INFO] [Environ]: SET_PIXEL_FORMAT: RGB565.


Granted I'm on Pop!_OS and not Arch, and am running the Snap version since the Flatpak one has some issues.

Do I need to build retroarch from scratch?