Linux Game Cast 496: Dunk’n’Lube

Steam Deck replacement parts will be available from iFixit! Intel desktop GPUs scheduled for spring, Arthropods invade multiplayer voxel RPG Veloren, and recording multitrack audio with OSB on Linux.

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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
05:01 iFixit authorized Steam Deck parts seller
09:31 Introducing Proton 7
11:37 Apex Legends on Linux?
13:26 Proton Experimental
18:25 ProtonDB 2022 updates
22:35 BIG update for Zigurat 2
25:45 Geneshift infinite shifting
32:58 32:58 Intel Arc release dates
38:28 Bottles WINE manager update
40:54 Bash launcher gets a single exe
43:54 RPG Veloren 0.12 update
46:44 Multitrack recording with OBS
48:53 Review: Quest of Graal
01:01:40 Emails

Colour key: Venn Jordan Pedro

Steam: News

Fix yo shit (pennywise)

https://twitter.com/OnDeck/status/1493650345632821251?s=20&t=kQw5J9HqGobA3F-det5OOg

So that’s a ‘no’ on replacement unit stock then
They will be one of the authorized sellers.
I still want a parts list to see what the common failure points are as determined by Valve.
iFixit did a video where they did the complete teardown, and the only thing that marked down the score was how hard it was to get the battery out.
If that little foil jacket around the SSD comes with the EMMC module and can be repurposed for an aftermarket 2230 NVMe SSD, we’re good!

Proton 7

OK now EA turned on EAC for squadrons
- I guess our lesson here is to stick with official announcements.
Also apparently it needed to be turned on in proton
The performance optimizations from experimental are now in mainline
Still waiting for it to show up.
- It showed up.
8yr old racing game runs like a champ.
So VALVe needed to do more stuff on their end for Proton to EAC.
I look forward to seeing what other games enable this in the coming weeks.
Seeing that the GabeGear supposedly comes out on the 25th and starts shipping on the 28th.

Experimental

Since the big 7.0 update rolled everything up, now we get a fresh new experimental to play with.
Starting with the new DXVK and VKD3D.
Squadrons will stop complaining about out of date drivers
There’s some space saving sauce here too. Handy cuz of finite storage on the deck

ProtonDB2022

Copyable Launch options.
Yes, streamlining the questions is very good.
More than once I found myself having to go back and edit previous answers because I’d said the same thing in multiple fields.
Having native reports is nice, especially if you need some cli magic to get a game running
Anti cheat support is now derived from game data

Steam: Game Updates

Zag

Everybody gets 4 new weapons including myeh-myeh
Photo mode
Adjusted a bunch of unpopular perks to make them more interesting.
- So all but 2 of them?
Several times I find myself asking the question “Do I really have to pick one? I don’t like any of these.”

Infinite Shifting

This is not about how long they plan on remaining in Early Access.
That’s a mighty impressive changelog.
I keep wondering why we never play it but I think the last two times something was jacked up with the game.

News:

ARC dates

Sometime between April & June for desktop GPUs.
I don’t know if I will be able to resist the temptation to buy a $300 GPU with a $400 markup for another two months.
Still no word how much cash I can expect to fork out.
- Celestial is aimed at the YOLO pricing segment but that’s not until 2024.
Even an MSRP gives you a ballpark once you tack on about a 150% mark up.
Outside of that compute benchmark there hasn’t actually been much in the way of leaks.
Q2 starts after the end of next month, chop chop.

Enhanced Bottles

I like the task manager and its ability to nuke from orbit.
One-click installer.
Using XDG_DATA_HOME for default Bottles paths.
Still like that they shoved everything into a Flatpak.

Monolithic

A utility for generating shell scripts that contain all the necessary stuff to launch a game so you can more easily stick it in lutris or steam?
Now with added self contained-ness
“Alerts user if the program fails to execute (if a game’s launch parameter settings checking fails)”
- You’d think that’d be expected functionality in <current year argument>

Pixel Oink 0.12

Aka the waterfalls and wallrunning update
But at what cost! They changed the yeti loot table those bastards!
Now they have sailing, talking rivers, ridable pets, and fk mothering arthropods!
That’s probably why you need wallrunning, which has been added as well.

Multitrack Audio Recording

I made a thing.
By default OBS will record all of your audio on a single stereo pair.
What can you do if your recorded audio levels are out of whack?
Not much.
This easy to use track will allow you to fix such nonsense in post.

CHAIRQUISITION:
– Nooope

– Not sure if want

– Check it out

– Shutupandtakemymonies

Game: Quest of Graal
Webzone: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1765700/Quest_Of_Graal/
Devel: Pixel Archipel, Théo Mn
Engine: Godot
Price: £9.99 / $9.99 / $9.99

Wazzat: Race with up to 4 players in this frantic combat platformer! Dash through 20+ stages, wield magical items, and use the power of the golden statues to overcome monsters, beat your opponents, and catch the cup first!

Mandatory Disclosure: Dev sent us keys on Curator Connect

Venn:

Launch/Looks/Sounds/Control

Everything launched on the correct screen in a wee 720p window.
Option B in the settings is fullscreen.
Xclone controlla worked, kinda.
I wasn’t paying attention (as is my way) and button mashed to get in-game.
I spent the first 20 minutes trying to find a way to optimize the 2 player at the same time mechanic.
It seemed silly but I finished the first couple of stages like this.
Pressed X today when selecting a character with keyboard and had a derp moment.
P1 & P2 input bug of nopeness.
Since I was going to do it anyway I tapped that Proton button and yeah, sorted.

Fun?

Who remembers Speed Runners?
It’s a cut-throat multiplayer running game that pits 4 players against each other, locally and/or online.
Quest of Graal does mostly the same but with hipster-pixels.
Run from point A to point B while throwing shite in the way of other players.
It’s a surprisingly fun mechanic when you mix in powerups and environment hazards.
There’s even a dodgeball game that looks really fun to play.
But I hope you have a house full of people on hand because it’s local-only multiplayer with a Remote Play bandaid slapped on the tin.
Yeah, it’s local-only multiplayer.
Getting a group of people in one place has been challenging as of late because reasons.
Pick it up if you are hopeful that the end times do not in fact cometh / you enjoy playing against AI opponents.
OR you need a game to periodically test the state of Remote Play.
It’s a cute & fun game but until it gets proper online multiplayer I would skip it.

Jordan:

Launch/Looks/Sounds/Control

Launches OOTB in a very small window
Gotta turn off steam input. It borked. Not verified for deck
But I did get multiplayer working with an old ass logitech, wired 360 and bt ds4 controller and everything was happy with no steam input
The sprite design is clear, and there’s minimal character blindness.
No cloud saves

Fun?

It’s a fun little speedrunner, I’ll give it that.
It’s a little more PVP than speedrunners proper, and the addition of shared bad guys is a nice little twist
The character designs are solid, and there isn’t much in the way of character blindness
Having a goal instead of it just being a fucking ironman slog is an improvement on the formula IMO
But then there’s the elephant in the room
Holy shit people, online multiplayer. You need to include it in your multiplayer game in 2022. It’s fucking inexcusable at this point
Maybe remote play could work on a deck when you’re sitting 2 meters away from them on the same wifi (or a gabe link cable), but not in an internet setting

Pedro:

Launch/Looks/Sounds/Control

Launches out of the box
The two resolutions seem to be 720p and whatever your monitor does
Either way it’s capped at 60FerPS.
The DualShock and DualSense almost worked properly.
Enabling Steam Input with either would cause the game to receive 2 player input.
I thought this was fixed, VALVe!
The BiMonk S4 controller worked since it’s just seen as an XBox 360 controller.
The graphics and the sounds are simple but they do a good job.
Even when you can’t see your character because of explosions or other obscuring effects, you always have an idea of where it is since the camera does a pretty good job of keeping your character in the middle of the screen without feeling stilted.

Fun?

The developers really want you to play this game over Remote Play Together
I can honestly say that for a Speedrunners type of game the input latency makes that a big fat no.
You can still play it in forever alone mode with bots, or against ghosts to beat the timer but those times have to be done locally.
I was never that big a fan of Speedrunners, didn’t hate it either, but it is fun when played with other people.
And it’s a lot easier to play with other people if you can do it over the internets.
And it’s a lot easier to like a game when someone isn’t feeling the input latency.
Honestly, I don’t hate this game either but without proper multiplayer it has a very limited life.

Verdict:

Venn:
Jordan:
Pedro:

Hate Mail:

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