LinuxGameCast Weekly 232 – Hitler Is Not Having A Stroke

Owlboy comes to Linux! Pillars of Eternity 2 gets funded, GODOT has a new release, and Civilization VI is almost ready. Then Ellipsis faces the CHAIRQUISITION! All this, plus your hate mail.

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Colour key: Venn Jordan Pedro

Steam News:

GO
http://mashable.com/2016/09/27/eleague-csgo-major-championship/

  • 1 million dolla in prizes!
  • So that’s why I’ve been getting my ass kicked reliably over the past week.
  • All of the wannabes have come out of the woodwork to take out their frustrations on the not-so-terrible players at around my level.

Give a hoot
http://store.steampowered.com/app/115800/

  • Thanks Ethan.
  • It’s on sale, so for those of you who don’t catch the show live or don’t pay for show note access,.it’s already too late.
  • This FKR costs more than Middle-earth: Shadow of Hordor.
    • Gotta recoup those 10 years of development costs somehow
      • Dust only took 3.5 and was done by one guy.
        • Gotta recoup those 10 years of development costs somehow

Hordor
http://steamcommunity.com/app/241930/discussions/0/141136086943934779/

  • General performance improvements, particularly in CPU limited situations”
    • Ima download the 44GB just to have a look.
  • Still only getting 44 on High.
  • They removed “some” of the bottleneck, but the performance is still atrocious if you have an AMD CPU.
  • http://imgur.com/a/vpRui
    • 40 FerPS on average on Ultra and 59 on Lowest.
  • Surround sound works, now.

Secure Brad
http://store.steampowered.com/news/?appids=550

  • Ah game servers. That one bit of remote software we give an absurd amount of license to run arbitrary code on our systems. Good to see they’re at least putting a token effort forward to plug the holes
  • Mind you, the last update was security fixes as well, so maybe not so token

Gambling
https://rocketleaguegame.com/news/players-choice-crate-series-I/

  • Is it really gambling if you pick the prizes?

CAYNE
http://store.steampowered.com/app/532840

  • Cheap as free
  • I can’t think of too many games that have you play a pregnant protagonist.
    • That isn’t some weird alien or being capable of asexual reproduction
  • Unity scream of NOPE!
  • Aaaand all the option are available in-game.
  • It runs fine but I’m stuck in the first room.

Vector 36
http://store.steampowered.com/app/346460/

  • Single-player \:D/
  • Dat build number.
  • I think that’s the first OSVR compatible game we’ve seen on steam.

Dysplasia 2
http://store.steampowered.com/app/495280/

  • Big thanks to NIS America for sending us keys.
  • Poor Venn. Can't handle his grid.
  • Must…not…get….sucked….in….

NAZI WINE PORT
http://steamcommunity.com/games/224900/announcements/detail/512683056173434636

  • Oh no, it’s retarded.
  • This makes babby USS George W. Bush cry.
  • I guess we all did nazi that coming
    • B-b-b-b-ut it’s a 5 year old game, they had no other choice.
      • Shut up, Strider!

Asspyre Blair confirms HL3
http://steamcommunity.com/app/289070/discussions/0/144512942755435118/?ctp=6#c143388511230941516

  • Didn’t they already confirm the release?
  • They’re apparently running the final candidate through QA. Motherfuckers work quick
  • Something tells me they had already started the work on the Linux port when they did the Mac version, and after they got through that last hurdle it was mostly already done.

News

WHINE 2.0
https://www.winehq.org/announce/2.0

  • Elder Scrolls Online is almost playable now, if you don’t mind a few shader mishaps causing artifacts on screen.
  • Also, the performance is considerably worse now than it used to be when they still had the OpenGL renderer.

Snowing in Michigan
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/directx/2017/01/23/new-directx-shader-compiler-based-on-clangllvm-now-available-as-open-source/
https://github.com/Microsoft/DirectXShaderCompiler

  • All this really means is that it’s going to be a lot easier to convert directX HLSL shaders to GLSL/SPIR-V compatible ones.
  • Still, could be useful for projects that use technology like indirectX or togl
  • So no DX12 on linux for you just yet
    • Even though it is the future

Pillars of Linux
https://www.fig.co/campaigns/deadfire?promo=rLYAsba1x3hxrmxAb_-Nxw

  • Fig, huh?
  • They’re adding multiclassing, real time game elements, and you can import your existing character
  • Motherfuckers stole the sandbox D&D campaign I’ve been working on for the better part of three years
  • Remember kids, don’t fork out extra money for a demo, because they won’t deliver that shit to linux users.
  • I wish I could could say different but Fig just seems sketchy as hell.

Unity
https://raftsurvivalgame.wordpress.com/2017/01/22/version-1-05/

  • No more Linux support for a game I never heard of, shame.
  • A game where you’re trapped in the ocean and CAN’T drink your own pee? Pass.
  • New resource: Nail
    • Super Kami Guru nods knowingly
  • I say good riddance. There are plenty of survival games on Linux built with the Unity Engine currently on Early Access on Steam, we don’t really need another one.
  • Especially not one which the developers can’t afford to develop for all the PC platforms in parallel, like they should do from the start.
    • Linux boxes are expensive you know.
  • And if Rust is anything to go by, don’t bother begrudgingly coming back to Linux later just to bitch about how much harder your job will be, at that point.

Freeciv WebGL 3D (thank @aenertia)
http://play.freeciv.org/blog/2017/01/freeciv-webgl-3d-public-release-available/

  • Fantastic. Now you can lose productivity wherever you might be.
  • They actually have a web based PBEM mode.
  • 8FPS on firefox, 41 on chrome
  • It “works”… no idea what i’m doing.

GODOT
https://godotengine.org/article/maintenance-release-godot-2-1-2

  • Linux/X11: Fix crash when neither ALSA nor Pulse are installed
    • OSS/Jack users rejoice!
    • If you’re still using OSS, let me remind you support for Ubuntu 10.04 was discontinued in 2015.
  • Dozens of bug fixes
  • This is a maintenance release so don’t get too excited.
  • They finally added bucket fill preview in TileMap.
  • Improvements for WebAssembly.
  • The 3.0 release should arrive around May/June 2017.

CHAIRQUISITION:
CHAIR– Nooope

CHAIRCHAIR– Not sure if want

CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR– Check it out

CHAIRCHAIRCHAIRCHAIR– Shutupandtakemymonies


Game: Ellipsis
Webzone:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/514620/
Devel: Salmi Games
Engine: Unity
Price: 9.99 / CDN 10.99

Wazzat: Ellipsis is an action-packed Avoid ’Em Up with minimalistic, yet powerful neon styled visuals. Guide your ship through a mysterious universe while deftly avoiding hordes of roaming enemies, spikes, lasers and more.

Mandatory Disclosure: They sent us keys


Makes with the working

V-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR

  • Had to reinstall it because it could not sync with Steam cloud.
  • Fancy Unity Scream of NOPE but you can navigate it it with a controlla in Big Picture mode.

J-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR

  • Oh hai ellipses screen of nope

P-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR


Total-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR


Shiny / Sounds

V-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR

  • You need to label your menu option, Brad.

J-CHAIRCHAIR

  • You’re a circle. Avoid basic shapes.
  • Gets the job done, but no points for style

P-CHAIRCHAIR


Total-CHAIRCHAIR


Control

V-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR

  • You can use a controlla… but you going to get dead.
  • Unlike these two yahoos my gerbil input is spot on.
  • Then again I keep the speed set at 12.
  • But at the end of the day using the gerbil feels like cheating… because it is.
  • Don’t worry, I’ll explain in the Fun section.

J-CHAIRCHAIR

  • Much easier with a mouse than a controller. Don’t make the same mistake I did
  • There is a noticeable delay with mouse input

P-CHAIRCHAIR

  • That mouse smoothing is annoying.
  • There are “gravity fields” in some levels which make the mouse behave differently, but that’s not what I’m complaining about.
  • It’s everywhere else, where the mouse is either being smoothed or it’s the framerate cap causing input delay and it’s annoying!

Total-CHAIRCHAIR


FUN

V-CHAIRCHAIR

  • This game has the unnatural ability to slow down time.
  • I can be spooky good at these type games if I achieve a “flow state” or as I call it “haaamered”
  • You got some ball-organs charging double for the Desktop version of this game.
  • Yeah, that’s right… it’s on the Play Store for $4.49.
  • Guess that explains the useless stars… that I give zero FKS about collecting.

J-CHAIR

  • I really dislike these sorts of games. All the end up doing is making me super anxious
  • This one doesn’t really do anything to change my opinion of the genre
  • Shootemups I get, because at least then you can kill things
  • See point number one
  • It’s well, done, just not my bag

P-CHAIRCHAIR

  • Much like Venn, this is one of those games that after a few levels I just get “in the zone” and I’ll get through several levels in one sitting.
  • And that’s good, that is exactly the kind of experience you want players to go through in this game.
  • And they would have succeeded if the mouse controls weren’t so “floaty”.
  • In the whole Narrative, Aesthetics and Mechanics context, Ellipsis is one of those games which focuses completely on the mechanics.
  • Aesthetically, it’s neon-graphics (shorthand for we couldn’t be assed to come up with a proper visual style) and bleep bloop sounds. So there’s nothing to write home about there.
  • Narratively… Well, there is no narrative. You’re a blue neon circle avoiding the other neon colored things on the map which aren’t blue.
  • You could make an argument that’s a metaphor for racism in society but that’d be you projecting your own biases towards a completely blank slate.
  • The only thing to Ellipsis are its mechanics and mechanics are only as good as the way the player has to interact with them, aka how good the game controls.
  • And even though there’s a sensitivity slider, there’s no way to disable that completely fucking stupid mouse smoothing, and that’s what makes the controls feel floaty in this game.
  • I can see how this game would be good but I don’t want to play anymore of it.

Total-CHAIR


Final –CHAIRCHAIR


Hate Mail:

Advice
http://linuxgamecast.com/bradley/?M5bmdCc

  • Honestly, at this point I’d go with the 1060. AMD drivers have been steadily improving, but if you’d actually like to enjoy playing your games at reasonable settings, go with Nvidia
  • Points of consideration, the 1060 with 3GB is priced at around the same as the RX 480, but the RX 480 at that price has 8GB with considerably higher memory bandwidth.
    • Should the AMD drivers ever reach that much needed parity with NVidia, the RX480 would be the way to go. Would, conditional being the operative implication, here.
    • Having used ATI/AMD graphics chips in Linux from 2005 to 2014, no.
  • Fork over the extra dosh for a GTX 1060 with 6GB.
  • Or, if you’re really strapped for cash, 4GB GTX 1050Ti and buy an extra stick of DDR4 RAM to pair off that single 8GB one, with the money you saved.
  • I was aboot to say pick up a 970 but damn, those critters maintained their value.

Le Links
http://linuxgamecast.com/bradley/?jajd1Zt

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