LinuxGameCast Weekly EP 229 – Jerk My Mouse

Steam announces the top sellers of 2016! Haswell gets proper OpenGL support, Dune Legacy enables SDL 2, and ARK teases Vulkan. Then Silence faces the CHAIRQUISITION! All this, plus your hate mail.

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Colour key: Venn Jordan Pedro

Steam News:

Where did that come from?
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta#announcements/detail/586991182161672256

Holy Linux stuff, Batman!
The Runtime has changed to prefer distro libraries, which fixes 90% of the issues with people using Mesa.
STEAM_FRAME_FORCE_CLOSE is now enabled by default, as it should have been from the start.
The client now obeys SIGTERM, which means in certain GTK DE’s like MATE, Cinnamon and such, it should no longer delay the shutdown by whatever SystemD defaults to.
- “Should” being the operative word there, because it still does it on my end.
Fuck me for getting excited about what should’ve been inherent functionality which was missing until now, but damn!
Fixing up some of the Vulkan bits, Streetfighter in 3.. 2..
- Such optimism
And they broke the Tray icon, you can no longer click on it to get the menu in KDE.
- On Ubuntu 16.04 you need to install this extra library: libdbusmenu-gtk4:i386
- It’s included in the RUNTIME but I didn’t have it installed system-wide.
They’ve also added full controller bindings for the Xbox 360/One controllers.
- This will allow you to play games on a gamepad that don’t natively support them.
  - Also controller remapping. The hard way.

Runtime Woes
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/4768

Some good discussion about potential solutions.
Also good the see that Valve is looking to the community for advice on how to deal with it. Containerization seems like a good solution on the surface, but it can get problematic over time, specifically requiring containers for every app.
A lot of this was sorted /w the latest beta, right?

Top 100
http://store.steampowered.com/sale/2016_top_sellers/

5/12 on their platinum category have linux versions
- And the witcher 3 keeps staring us in the face
Continues to prove that indie games are pretty much the lifeblood of linux gaming at the moment.
Seeing Witcher III stings a little.
HTH did No [cis] gender males sky end up in platinum?

Dec survey
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/?platform=linux

Almost 4x the % of Linux users than VR users and the focus is where?
- But…the future….
16.04 master race! Not really
Got my third survey this Wednesday.

This ends well
http://store.steampowered.com/app/495480/

The kindle store has a big indie erotica section and authors there can make some pretty decent money for smut. Could this be the start of a similar trend on steam?
- “Could this be the continuation of a similar trend on steam?” There, ftfy.
Fully illustrated LGC fanfic incoming!

Vikings
http://store.steampowered.com/app/404590/

Diablo/Gauntlet/Forced with vikings
This looks good! Remains to be seen how it actually plays and how it’s going to perform on the Linuxes.
This could be fun if they made it so you actually feel like you’re hitting something.

ARK #LLAP
https://twitter.com/survivetheark/status/814570207113052164

And all of a sudden I have a renewed interest in Ark.
- I just can’t get into Rust /w dinosaurs.
Hell, I might even purchase it.
- I might even re-install it.
With some luck it might hit 40+ FERPS.

The horror continues (Foxy)
http://store.steampowered.com/news/externalpost/steam_community_announcements/91593954424495194
http://store.steampowered.com/app/569430/#

That first review, wow.
Oh no it’s retarded episodic….. Yeah, no.
Well, that’s leadwerks game number 2. Er…1.2, considering it’s episodic.
It seems like it actually could be interesting. Maybe this might bring some attention to Mr Klint’s effort

News:

OpenGL 4.0 Gen7+
https://cgit.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/commit/?id=e3123c8ca22e9a9337af6179dfd8383259f3ccc6

Haswell finally gets a step closer to full OpenGL compliance.
The fp64 shaders have been enabled in the current Mesa git and will provide OpenGL 4.0 support.
Which only leaves the vertex attrib 64bit extension in the way for 4.5.
And according to Iago Toral, the dude who’s working on it, the latter is a much smaller patchset and should land soon.

Dolphin progress
https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2017/01/02/dolphin-progress-report-december-2016/

They fixed a long standing transparency bug
Microphone selection is a bit more sane, for the 6 people who play games on dolphin that require one
One neat bit of progress is you can directly run gamecube demos ripped off their demo disks

Speaking of Dolphin
https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/817235485689020417

For when you want to play Nintendo games on a Sony console running Linux using a graphics API it was never meant to use.
Sort of reminds me of someone getting windows 3.1 running on dosbox on an Ipad. Good stuff
Incoming C&D in 3…2…1…
- Reverse engineering is totes legal.

Spice
http://dunelegacy.sourceforge.net/website/news.html#2016-12-27-00-00-00

If dune 2000 using openra is a bit too modern for you, why not take a trip further back in time. 10000 years in the future
They’re now on SDL2, can use mask overlays to make the old sprites look at bit better, and some new AI modes
22 new maps as well

Going Clear (Thanks Che’s twitter)
https://fossbytes.com/intels-clear-linux-distribution-might-soon-become-a-great-choice-for-gaming/

Will the first release be called Cruise or Travolta?
The whole lack of support for “dedicated GPUs” is not unexpected (because Intel doesn’t make those) but it’s also kind of a big no no for gaming purposes.
Clear is supposed to be a workstation OS, but timely updates on intel drivers are always nice. Plus some FNA stuff might actually run faster.

CHAIRQUISITION:
– Nooope

– Not sure if want

– Check it out

– Shutupandtakemymonies

Game: Silence: The Whispered World 2

Webzone: http://store.steampowered.com/app/314790/
Devel: Daedalic Entertainment
Engine: Unity
Price: 29.99 / CDN 39.99

Wazzat: Can you save Silence, the grim, but also serene world between life and death? Can you help Noah find his little sister Renie in this suffering world? Can you bring her home? Explore Silence and join the siblings on their adventurous journey.

Makes with the working

V-

http://www.daedalic.de/en/ homepage is 19MB.
I can’t ding you a Chair for that but goddamn.

J-

Performs very well in game as well. 60FPS@UHD on Fantastic
All the videos are 720P/30 though so they look ugly as shit in comparison

P-

Total-

Shiny / Sounds

V-

Whoever encoded that intro video should be shot, ney, stabbed in their reproductive organ.
This thing is directed like a mofo.

J-

It looks and sounds very good, but there are a few niggling issues, like the fact that there isn’t any lipsync. Which in a dialogue heavy game is super distracting
The matte paintings are really well done, however after spending copious amounts of time staring at the 3d models on the 2D background, you do start to notice things
The voice acting is really good. Even the child they got for the little girl isn’t terrible

P-

Framerate is usually something we’ll rag on during the Makes with the Working but in this case, it also very much plays into the aesthetics.
It’s jarring to see the game go from 30 FPS to 60FPS and then back the moment a cutscene starts.
Both the cutscenes and the world are beautifully designed and are about on par with one another, why would you do something like this?
The voice acting is also great, as is the script behind it, but like Jordan mentioned the lack of lipsync doesn’t really fit.
It’s not every game which manages goosebumps out of me during the intro cutscene; based solely on hand-drawn visuals and an awesome soundtrack, no less.

Total-

Control

V-

It can be real finicky about selecting targets.

J-

They have the mouse movement minigames, but they don’t capture your cursor to the screen. That’s a wee annoying
The UI has a few minor issues

P-

There’s a whole of two buttons for this game, the action/move button and the “Hints” button.
And since point&clickers are often very limited when it comes to mechanics and the controls driving said mechanics, it’s pretty hard to cock it up.

Total-

FUN?

V-

I’ve named the little girl “Food”
You GOT to let people skip the intro scenes.
Seriously, I just said “I got to sit through this bullsh*t again”
If not you at least need to nope the autosave mechanic.
Illusion of choice much?
- I just chose the exact opposite for all the questions in the reunion scene (that you made me sit through twice) and it led to the same outcome.
The cute lovable sidekick is a bit over the top.

J-

This is one of those games where you’re sitting there, listening to some dialogue and then there is a pause
The pause goes on for a strangely long amount of time. Then you realize that the game is expecting you to do something
And that statement encapsulates the problem with this game. I would totally watch a feature length movie or miniseries about this game. The gameplay elements themselves become a tedious distraction
And the waiting for your character to do something while the overly long animation repeats for the nth time is also not that fun
The story is well written, albeit a bit heavy on the tropes that it’s supposedly trying to parody/pay homage to
I was surprised how sharp the dialogue was for a kids game. Somewhat reminiscent of over the garden wall
- In fact, I’m pretty sure that was a pretty big source of inspiration for this game

P-

I’m not the target audience here.
In fact, from what I’ve played of the game so far, this is geared more towards parents of children 8-12.
It tackles some more grown-up material but with a charm and light enough mood, which could serve as an awesome aid for you as a parent to talk to your offspring about those very same subjects.
The limited control scheme and simple point and click mechanics are perfect for an introductory video game, should said offspring be on track to getting into the world of video games.
And even though I’m aware I’m not the target audience, for the first hour or so I was hooked.
Silence manages to be kid friendly but not condescendingly so, which is actually what happens with many children orientated games/media. And that means even a completely fucking jaded 30-year old asshole on the internet can find some enjoyment in it.
It wasn’t until I hit some slightly convoluted puzzles, one of which is the one I’m stuck on in the footage you’re watching, that I actually stopped and took stock what was happening.
For all my shpiels of mechanics being the driving force behind a videogame, I too can recognize that you can in fact have very good game while focusing solely on the aesthetics and narrative.
And this game does those latter two very, very well. Even if there are some nits to be picked at.
This will also be a great teaching aid, if you’d like to give your kids a crash course in patience.
Goddamn those loading screens take for fucking ever.

Total-

Final –

Hate Mail:

Clean
http://linuxgamecast.com/bradley/?3rnruck

Drive (LGC Weekly Uncut)
http://linuxgamecast.com/bradley/?e7LlPxK

Challenge
http://linuxgamecast.com/bradley/?4h4y6QC