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.  


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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!


Verdict:

Venn:
Jordan:
Pedro:


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