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GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

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31–40 of 421 posts

Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I guess it'll stay closed source. It's a DRM implementation. It has to stay closed source.

Why? Can't DRM be implemented in open source, and only have private keys kept secret?

If we have DRM with some private key, then I guess your idea is I download the game files and some private key and that allows me to run the game.

If I can send you the private key and the game and it allows you to run the game with no further inputs, then the DRM is trivially broken (even without open source).

If it does some online check, then if the source is open we can easily make a version that bypasses the online check.

If there is some check on the local PC (e.g. the key only works if some hardware ID is set correctly), we can easily find out what it checks, capture that information, package it, and make a new version of the launcher that uses this packaged data instead of the real machine data.

If you use a private key to go online and retrieve more data, having it be open source makes it trivial to capture that data, package it, and write a new version of the launcher that uses that packaged data.

Basically, DRM requires that there is something that is not easy to copy, and it being open source makes it a lot easier to copy.

Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#33
post #7

No. Please don't. Contribute to something like Heroic Launcher instead. Don't create something new just for GOG. Help make the existing tools better. It'll mean GOG has to do less work, and the programs people are already using will get better. Or even just sponsor Heroic so they can send more time we can working on it themselves.

Alternatively, work on developing protocols for game launchers instead. Get the Heroic Launcher devs and devs from other launchers to work on a common interface.

Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#34

Hopefully they'll somehow support Proton and Valve devices. Trying to run older windows-only games bought on GOG with launchers like Heroic is a bit of a hit or miss, despite the Steam releases of the same games having somehow a bigger chance of working out of the box. I guess there are some weird differences between the default Proton Runtime and the proton-ge/wine-ge builds.

If you have steam installed on the same machine, you can use proton runtimes from steam already.

Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#35

A lot of hate in the comments, I think it's great that companies are in a position where they think it makes sense financially to support Linux as a target platform.

They're just trying to ride the wave of Valve's deck (and they will fail). The fact is that, since I bought the Steam Deck, I bought less from GOG and more from Valve.

And this won't change a thing: it doesn't matter if they make a Linux-native frontend to the horrible GOG Galaxy. I just want my games to launch as seamlessly as they do from Valve's UI, not yet another launcher that I have to launch on top of Valve's system UI. I am already doing that with Heroic Games Launcher, which is far better than whatever they will concoct in-house and supports many other stores.

Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#36
I always make sure to not use the GoG downloader just download the game.

I don't need a client with your branding all over it, that has socials and my library and all engagement bait like that.

I figure it's one step away from putting the DRM back on so you have to use the launcher to get a game from GOG.

Just let me buy games and then shut up.

Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#37
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Off the top of my head Crime Cities on launch forced me to use Galaxy to play it. I vividly remember this because the game also ran like complete crap.

Galaxy can be required for multiplayer aspects in games, but if what you say is true for the singleplayer part of the game, GOG will consider it a bug, and will get it fixed. There's nothing in the Crime Cities GOG forum about this, nor in the various tracking threads in the main forum, and generally GOG users are extremely sensitive about anything which even reeks of forcing Galaxy, so I'd strongly expect any issue…

I think too it can be misleading since on Windows the default LNK shortcut that is created after the game installation launches Galaxy with arguments instead of being a path to the direct game EXE (which works entirely without Galaxy and how I run games).

They do this to push Galaxy for convenience I suppose as most are used to clients that handle updates but it can be confusing if some wonder why for instance their offline installer shortcut opened Galaxy instead.

Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not creating something new. They're taking their existing tool (which - for all its flaws - is still far ahead of Heroic in many ways), improving it further, and changing it to also work on Linux. If they then go add additional features like wine integration to that tool to make it overlap more with Heroic is something we're all assuming, but not actually a given.

A lot of words for "yes they will insist on fragmentation"

If you see it form the point of view of a Linux user it's more fragmentation, but if you look at it from the point of view of a gamer it's less fragmentation. Guess who their target audience is?

Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of words for "yes they will insist on fragmentation"

If you see it form the point of view of a Linux user it's more fragmentation, but if you look at it from the point of view of a gamer it's less fragmentation. Guess who their target audience is?

Guess what has been serving those gamers, actually I'll be kind: Heroic.
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