LinuxGameCast Weekly 289: Dangerously Furry

The Smash Z returns from the dead! WINE presses the Vulkan button, 3D Realms releases a new game and Valve kills DX12. Then Tesla vs. Lovecraft faces the CHAIRQASITION! All this plus your hate mail.

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Colour key: Venn Jordan Pedro

Steam News:

Vulk
http://store.steampowered.com/news/37575/

Hope nobody went out and spent all the $$$ buying Gl/VK conversion software.
What role did VAVLe have in this?
In all fairness Apple created Metal because AMD (mantle) and Khronos (Vulkan) were dragging arse at the time.
- Do you think Apple’s gonna pull a Canonical and ask devs to start migrating to Vulkan eventually?
Mapping Vulkan calls to Metal and DX12 will simplify cross platform coding a ton.
So the industry has decided to standardize on Vulkan and are providing tools to make that the case, regardless of what OS vendors would like you to believe. This is a good thing
I’m also positive that many mobile game developers are ecstatic about this.
The cynic in me says this is going to make fuck and all difference in the amount of games not being ported to Linux.
If for nothing else than the fact no one uses Metal, or DX12.
The kinds of developers who make Windows and Mac only versions of games seem to lack the chops/willingness to worry about low level APIs.

Backup
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2018/02/steam-linux-backup-tool-slsk

tar cjvf config-backup-$(date +”%y%m%d”).tar.bz2 ~/.*
THis throws a nice gui and has a community driven DB for more esoteric save file locations
Steam Cloud sync is a thing, but for whatever reason some devs don’t enable it for stupid reasons.
We need to get this in the Steam store and set it up with cloud save.
Also, if your game does not have cloud support in 2018 you are a bad developer and you should feel bad.

BATTLELATE
https://steamcommunity.com/app/637090/discussions/0/1693788384146305062/

Now they did originally say the Linux release would be “about 3-4 months” from the initial release.
The won’t be too bad if there’s a sold single player campaign ready to go
That said, if it drops, the only people linux gamers will be able to find MP games to play in will be from other linux users.
When and if it comes out for the Linuxes I’ll give it a bash.

FukU
http://store.steampowered.com/app/795490/FukTopia/

Score – each player has his score to try as much as possible
- Yes
I’m reminded a little bit of charlie murder, but I feel that this game won’t have as much personality
This is what happens when a developer has a vision and he couldn’t come up with a title.

HOF on a budget
http://store.steampowered.com/app/780580/Lost_in_the_Dungeon

What I imagine a Artifex Mundi Hand of Fate game would look like.
I’m thinking more Eye of the Beholder meets Hearthstone, but it’s pretty much the same. Use card mechanics instead of traditional gameplay mechanics
This has that Android game look to it.

Free tanks
http://store.steampowered.com/app/782660/Armada_Modern_Tanks/

Man, we sure have a lot of P2W tanks games on the Linux.
- At least it isn’t early access
Only has server in EU and Asia
Massive pop-in.
Those mostly negative reviews, though.

Hipster-pixel Maiden
http://store.steampowered.com/app/562860/Ion_Maiden/

Getting some OG Shadow Warrior vibes from this one.
Wait, this thing is using the BUILD engine?
- Based on Eduke32, so it’s not as bad
Those system requirements tho
Is this going to be the “hipster pixel platforming” of FPSes now?
I’m not as sick and tired of hipster pixel FPSes yet, so I’m all for this trend.

BASIC Game
http://store.steampowered.com/app/767240/BASIC8/

10 Speaking of hipster pixel, is this hipster pixel programming?
20 Steam distributed BASIC IDE with some game dev tools cooked into it. Make some old looking games
30 GOTO 10

Foxy lady (foxy)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/581360/FoxTail/

Dangerously furry.

News

Forget what we said last week
https://wccftech.com/rumor-nvidia-gtx-2080-2070-ampere-cards-launch-march-gtc-2018/

Wicked-cheap hella-powerful mining cards?
- AMD and Nvida really need to start pushing these
- Although they’re making out like gangbusters, so they really don’t have much incentive other than trying to push even more units
$1499 price for the 2080 is being speculated.
I just hope by the end of 2018 I will be able to yoink a 1070Ti on the cheap.
And yes, at this point, $500 would be considered cheap.
So what happened to Volta? Wasn’t Volta supposed to be the new Consumer variant GPUs?

Smach Zagain
https://liliputing.com/2018/02/smach-z-handheld-gaming-pc-specs-finalized-ryzen-v1605b-8gb-ram.html
https://wccftech.com/smach-z-most-powerful-handheld-ever/

2’nd (3’rd?) hardware revision for a product that does not exist.
Man, the original backers of this must have really purple faces right now, what with holding their breath for so long
THe thing is this will never sell anyways,
$689,263 USD raised in 2016.
“SMACH Z will be present in the next Embedded World, from 27th February to 1st March. The final specifications of the console will be announced and an Alpha version will be shown in the booth (it won’t be available to play it).”
- To the surprise of no one.
Do they still manage to get anyone to invest in this?
You’d think at this point people would be going “Shit or get off the pot!” before even considering put money up front on it.

LLAP WINE
https://www.winehq.org/announce/3.3

Support for game controllers through SDL
LLAP support*
Symantec Norton 360 installer reports ‘This product is not compatible with this computer’s current operating system’ (RtlVerifyVersionInfo doesn’t handle major/minor/service pack condition mask properly)
CSMT and Multisample textures are enabled by default with this one.
- Good!

Leenux
https://twitter.com/TimSweeneyEpic/status/968284883935166466

Yall gettin trolled.
You know that, right?
M$ knows old tim-tam will never learn how to Linux so all the posturing is for naught.
M$ don’t know what the hell VALVe is up to… but join the club.
Yeah, I’m a wee skeptical that Timmy’s reached his breaking point.
Linux on UE4 is basically being maintained by the community and Epic haven’t really made a bid to attract developers to target linux beyond “hey we support this other platform”
So what’s going to be the result of this?
A Linux convert or Gary Newman 2?

Logical Godot
https://godotengine.org/article/abandoning-gles3-vulkan-and-gles2

Turns out we were right about that wacky Vulkan thing.
OpenGL ES 3.0 is not long for this world.
MoltenVK going open sauce had a hand in this.
- Yeah, one of the big things hindering Vulkan adoption in the mobile space was Apple, but now that it’s fairly trivial to get your SPIR-V shit cross compiled to a metal compatible format we’re going to see this change.
Took’em long enough!

Bounties
https://github.com/flibitijibibo/flibitBounties

Smart Flibit is smart
This is a good way to get new people to contribute to FNA and SDL2
Get paid, get exposure and getting to keep your code is some pretty good icing on the cake
I like how he also leaves it open for his partners to help contribute to the bounties to more quickly address real world issues

Did we cover this?
https://github.com/gianluca-nitti/mx3000control

Configuration software for a mouse you can’t buy anymore.
I’m curious if this person thought about contributing to libratbag.
That project seems like a better place to put this sort of stuff
- This!
- The Razer stuff, Roccat Stuff, and SteelSeries stuff that’s current available for Linux would do well to be condensed into libratbag.
- Especially since quite a few of these developers end up burning out and let the project stagnate.

CHAIRQUISITION:
– Nooope
– Not sure if want
– Check it out
– Shutupandtakemymonies

Game: Tesla vs. Lovecraft
Webzone: http://store.steampowered.com/app/636100/Tesla_vs_Lovecraft/
Devel: 10tons Ltd.
Engine: Custom
Price: £10.99 / US$14.99 / CA$16.99

Wazzat: Tesla vs Lovecraft is an intense top-down twin stick arena shooter from the creators of Crimsonland and Neon Chrome. Play as the enigmatic inventor Nikola Tesla harnessing the static energy to power up Tesla-Mech and give the lovecraftian nightmares a lesson in horror!

Mandatory Disclosure: 10tons Ltd. sent us keys

Makes with the working

Venn-

Clean bill of health minus showing each display resolution three times.
Well, there is some tearing on the top of the screen but I’m looking into that.

Jordan-

Pedro-

Total-

Shiny / Sounds

Venn-

The graphics work but that’s about it.
I would like to see this as a Shadow Warrior FPS.
Baddies are generic as hell.
Music is a bit of alright and really helps with the action.

Jordan-

I like the designs they use for the lovecraft monster baddies. They’re very cute
The sound track was alright. I found myself really not paying attention to it while I was playing the game

Pedro-

I really liked the background music and how well it fits with the action on screen.
Sure! Hear one enemy of a type die, you’ve heard them all.
But the music is actually really well done.
The graphics are kinda meh but it’s a top down shooter.
For what it is, these graphics work.

Total-

Control

Venn-

Nothing really to complain about here.
It’s your standard top-down joint and you run backwards while shooting.
Not suited for the Steam controlla.

Jordan-

Pedro-

Hey! It’s a twin-stick which doesn’t do something stupid between the camera angle and pushing any given direction, Brigador!
It’s remarkably similar to Assault Android Cactus in how well it works with both the controlla and mouse and keyboard.
It’s also remarkably similar to Assault Android Cactus in every other way, but that’s not a bad thing!

Total-

FUN

Venn-

War Pigeon? #winning
I like the chasing down mech parts mechanic.
The RNG perks are interesting and you are forced to use them.
You can pop-in, play a round, and pop-out.
And that’s something you might need to do since each level is legit non-stop because FK YOU, that’s why!
$14.99 is a little on the high side for a bullet hell.
I should say $14.99 is a little on the high side for a bullet hell without online multiplayer.

Jordan-

You know, as far as schmups go, this one isn’t too bad
The missions are short and digestible, the maps are big and labyrinthine enough to give you a chance, especially with destructible environments and the teleport mechanic
It’s basically Serious Sam the 2D encounter, but with less jokes and more olde timey references

Pedro-

It has the pick up and play appeal to it.
Do you want to sink an hour into it, you can.
Do you just have 5 minutes to spare and want to bash through a level, you’ll probably have time for 2 levels.
And the music! Music can play a big part in my enjoyment of a video game.
I’ll always remember the first electrified rail running bit of Valley and what they did with the music to complement that.
Tesla vs. Lovecraft, cynical namesake cash-grab I thought it would be, actually surprised me with how much fun I had playing it!
I don’t really look forward to twin stick shooters and this one actually got me to have fun.
I very much enjoyed my time with Tesla v. Lovecraft.

Total-

Final –

Hate Mail:

HTPC
https://linuxgamecast.com/bradley/?KZb7M2k