Linux Game Cast 532: Pedro and Two Crows

Steam Deck Big Picture comes to the desktop! Linux drivers for the DualSense Edge, Deus Ex: Human Revolution gets decompiled, ODROID-H3+ is an emulation monster, and attempting to install the Intel ARC drivers on Ubuntu.

Listen:

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:52 Pedro CPU upgrade
04:27 Jordan had a birthday so don’t mention it in the comments
06:06 The double-click of danger
06:41 Trackmania Linux & Laps
06:54 Heil PRSM vs RE27 microphone
STEAM NEWS
08:26 Big Picture beta is live
12:37 Updates to pricing tools and recommendations
14:51 Valve registers ‘Neon Prime’
17:44 Proton GE 7.38 Overwatch 2 fixes
21:49 VKD3D updates
24:39 Steam hits 30 million concurrent users
29:39 Salt & Sanctuary gets cloud saves
NEWS
37:39 Installing Arc dedicated GPU drivers on Ubuntu
42:38 DualSense Edge Linux kernel drivers
46:31 Deus Ex: Human Revolution decompiled
50:05 ODROID-H3+ ultimate emulation box
55:31 How to make a rouguelike
REVIEW
59:57 Dr. Kobushi’s Labyrinthine Laboratory
EMAIL
01:11:14 Rules
01:12:58 Pipewire vs Jack

Colour key: Venn Jordan Pedro

Steam: News

Better Big Picture

You can now enable the new interface we designed for Steam Deck.
New home screen, universal search, and controller config.
Slams right into monitor #1.
It’s a wee sluggish.
I want someone to enable this on an OG Steam Machine.
A little heavy on CPU, it doesn’t seem to like scaling up to 2560×1440
It works, though!
I look forward to people getting the right side overlay menu working with FSR and all that good stuff.
Yeah, it eats a bit of poo.
It’s a start though.

Pricing Tools

Better tracking of world currency value shifts which should help VALVe rake in as much money as they possibly can while probably not making any significant difference for anyone else.
The dollar and the €uro are now effectively on par, but game devs were pricing them 1-1 long before that was the case.
So… meh.
Oooo csv support

Neon Prime

This is 100% the RGB control software for the next Index.
Oh, we’ll probably get some leaked concept art in about 8-12 years after it’s been canned
It’s listed as
- “Computer game software, electronic game software, video game software, computer game programs downloadable via the internet.”
Valve did say they had multiple games in development.
Artifact was a harsh reminder that they were out of practice in the ole making games department.
Artifact was last updated in 2018.

Egg 738

Couple of Fixes for Uncharted, perfect timing!
Shatterline no longer requires the d3dcompiler_47 override, so that’s been disabled.
Newest versions of WINE, DXVK, and VKD3D.
Apparently he included the overwatch 2 patches in this version, but don’t use it to play overwatch 2!

VKD3D-Proton 2.7

If you’ve been using experimental, you’ve already been running the pre-release version of this.
Hence the increased driver version requirements.
Apparently Proton 7.* is going to keep 2.6 as compatibility consideration, for the peeps have a GPU which doesn’t work with Mesa 22 or NVidia 510
I’m really looking forward to one day being able to take advantage of all of this cool work
An improved “magic” pipeline cache for things that don’t DX12 according to spec
DXR 1.1 works
Better compatibility with the intel vulkan driver too

30mil

30 million concurrent users is significant.
This number along with the previous charts Steam has available should allow people cleverer than I to extrapolate other numbers as well.
Get to it!
Well, I guess this is conclusive proof that PC gaming is dead
Apparently folks aren’t so hot for the new uncharted game though
30 million!?
That’s right up there with the 111.08 million Switch user… alright, not really.
Don’t look at PS4/5 and xbone numbers.
And DO NOT look at mobile.
PC gaming might be a rounding error in the grand scheme of things but it’s not something you can ignore.
Unless you’re nintendo.

Steam: Game Updates

Salt & Updates

While Salt & Sacrifice is still in Epic excwoosive limbo, a bit of an update to salt & sanctuary.
Cloud saves, but only for Windows. Fucking why?
Saves are no longer backwards compatible.
Bunch of items which were outright broken or only partially worked.
Some enemies can no longer BS teleport your character with the their grab attacks
Bunch of fixes for some bosses.
And basically the end of the current speedrunning strats for this game.

News:

Arc on Buntu

Apparently the official Intel drivers do not make with the working.
It would be nice to know where they failed.
Kernel 6.0, latest firmware, latest Mesa, compiling Intel media drivers, and some added i386 bits for Steam.
My interest in ARC has waned to the point of passing curiosity.
Before beginning, I’d like to suggest leaving any integrated graphics enabled, as well as ensuring an SSH server is running in the event of a blank screen that could result from any number of reboots.
- Good advice in general
You’re gonna need kernel 6.0 and a bleeding edge mesa
Also gotta compile the intel media drivers as there isn’t an official package or PPA yet
All of this and you too can launch borderlands 2

DualEdge Sense

Sony’s aware people like to use the Dual Sense along with the Deck, so they decided to make the drivers for the new one available too.
Where’s Bloodborne on PC?
TIL about a fancy new dualshock controller

Dex Decompiled

It uses dxvk-native to handle DX11.
The sequel; mankind divided got a linux port from feral
Mouse look is busted on linux at the moment

X86 Emulation box

In a world of $200 Pi4s the available SBC is king.
Quad-Core Processor Jasper Lake
2.5G Ethernet.
NVME & SATA.
HDMI & DP 1.2.
Even with the cost of 8GB of RAM this comes in under $200.

Wanna make a roguelike

That’s about as comprehensive as you can get for a “starting point” type of article.
I like the roguelike genre but it is definitely one of the ones I do worst at.
The breakdown and order of priority is pretty insightful
Understanding the various subsystems at play, Making sure you have a core mechanic and even some advice on ascii art
TIL about XRLs, which are basically roguelike fanfiction games of existing franchises

CHAIRQUISITION:
– Nooope

– Not sure if want

– Check it out

– Shutupandtakemymonies

Game: Dr. Kobushi’s Labyrinthine Laboratory
Webzone: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1829450/
Devel: Symbolic Software
Engine: Ebitengine
Price: £9.99 / $9.99 / $11.49

Wazzat: A mind-bendingly challenging puzzle game that mixes homage to retro classics with funny dialogue and innovative puzzle mechanics. Over a hundred ultra-challenging pixelated puzzles will have you avoiding killer robots as you engage with memorable characters.

Mandatory Disclosure: Devs sent us keys on Curator Connect

Venn:

Launch/Looks/Sounds/Control

It launches and you better like fullscreen.
No options, none.
Alt+Enter will get you a window.
Xclone controller worked OOTB.
Looks alright for a pixel game.
Beep-boop soundtrack.
Nice to see a hipster-pixel game clock in under 50MB.

Fun?

I made it to level seven before tapping out.
This is slamming meat AI against pixels until desired result is achieved.
It’s like a hidden object puzzle game.
At some point you can say FK IT and brute force your way through it.
The way to prevent this is to offer me hints / clues or red herrings.
Something to keep me thinking about the puzzle, not the underlying mechanics.
I like getting halfway through a puzzle only to get hit in the face with a gotcha, forcing me to square 1.
That makes me a wee angry and then it’s game on.
This is one way to solve only / puzzle by numbers.
Yes, the puzzles are complex and well done but for lack of a better word, Dr. Kobushi’s Labyrinthine Laboratory lacks a soul.
By level seven it feels like work.

Jordan:

Launch/Looks/Sounds/Control

Launches OOTB on the monitor that steam is open on
There is no exit button, is there?
No options either
Controls work out of the box. You got move and reset
The soundtrack is a pretty retro loop.
The sprites are competently done, but nothing super mind blowing

Fun?

Oh man, these are some positioning puzzles
And I guess I’m a little too stupid to figure them out
You can eventually brute force them, but damn
Those little devil fuckers can go to hell
Pedro is right about the constraints of the puzzles. Gotta learn the pac man style movement to the enemies, but there isn’t enough of a carrot to get you to do that
It kinda has the opposite problem of the Lego game from last week. That had a few too many solutions. This game only has the one

Pedro:

Launch/Looks/Sounds/Control

Launches out of the box on the PC and on the Deck
Correctly VSyncs to whatever your display can do.
DualShock 4/Dual Sense work, with and without Steam Input.
Very pixely, very chiptune-y
They seemed to have nailed down the retro aesthetic they were going for
Honestly, in a technical sense, no complaints from me.

Fun?

I don’t know about fun.
It’s hard.
Well, not entirely.
The moment the training wheels come off, you have exactly one right way to do things and any deviation from that in the first 20-50 moves will spell a level restart.
It lets you fail quickly at least
And after much community clamoring they’ve introduced an undo button.
So, if you don’t find the exact right moves just keep trying, you’ll eventually figure it out.
You can only move in 4 directions barring the teleports later on, so it won’t take too long.
Imagine if someone had made a turn based game entirely around the pacman ghost movement logic.
This is kinda like that.
If you take the time to learn how enemies do things, you will very quickly learn how to progress.
I just didn’t like it enough to get to that point.
I like it when a game gives me multiple solutions to a problem and this is the exact opposite.
There is no wiggle room!