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

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

#351

Post by jchw »

reissbaker wrote: post #338
jchw wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entire point of the free software movement is to promote free software principles and software rights. What I think many Linux distributions would prefer is a model where companies who do benefit from selling software and hardware are funding them indirectly, so they can focus on continuing to promote free software in a more neutral way, without the pressures and potentially misaligned incentives that come from r…

It's really unfortunate the term "free software" took off rather than e.g. "libre software", since it muddies discussions like this. The point of "free software" is not "you don't have to pay," it's that you have freedom in terms of what you do with the code running on your own machine. Selling free software is not incompatible with free software: it's free as in freedom, not as in free beer.

Nobody in this comments thread appears to be confused by or misusing the term "free software". We're talking about free software vs (commercial) proprietary software.

> I am still surprised most Linux Distros haven't changed their package managers to allow for selling of proprietary solutions directly

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

#352

Post by userulluipeste »

allworms wrote: post #266
vladvasiliu wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Things have become crazy, indeed. I still kick myself for not buying the SSD I was eyeing in December, which has now went form 250 € to almost 400. I'm already maxed on RAM since a year ago, bought 64 GB for a fraction of today's cost. But I still feel like we're still in the eye of the storm, and things will improve. Remember late 2020 when every useless GPU would command a fortune? I remember buying a used RX 5600…

A bit of a nitpick - that's not what the "eye of the storm" is. In fact, if you perceive RAM prices as leveling off, that would be the "eye of the storm", meaning a brief, deceptive calm surrounded by... storm. Truly I have seen not even a hint of reason to believe prices would come back down in the near term. Fab allocation is booked years out, and building out new manufacturing capabilities is difficult and slow. E…

If the current RAM heavy buyers, the AI powerhouses investors, don't get the into a profitable state of business, then sustaining this rhythm "for a long time" becomes impossible. It won't matter much that "fab allocation is booked years out" if the client that expects the goods goes out of business, doesn't it? I, for one, don't find convincing hints that this free AI crazy partying will go on for long, so then what gives?

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

#353

Post by seabrookmx »

Shorel wrote: post #196
pjmlp wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing to save as long as it relies on game studios using Windows workstations, coding in Visual Studio and targeting DirectX. The goal has to be to make native Linux attractive, so that they actually bother to create native executables, using Vulkan and co. Until then it is no different from playing arcade games with MAME on Linux.

The most stable Linux API is Wine/Win32. There are many older games I can't install on Linux anymore, because they used an older SDL1 or some particular X11 version or some GPU driver that's no longer available for the current kernel. The exact same game, Windows version, can be installed and runs flawlessly on both Linux and Windows. So, native Vulkan executables? Sure, if they can continue to run in 20 years.

Valve is working on this problem for native Linux games: https://gitlab.steamos.cloud/steamrt/steamrt/-/blob/steamrt/...

This is a similar idea to flatpak/snap etc.

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

#354

Post by thaumasiotes »

account42 wrote: post #74
gamesieve wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are also a handful of games which put some additional purely cosmetic content behind an online check. That could be the start of a slippery slope, which people are justly upset about, but they then do an injustice to their cause by generalizing from those cases.

It's not a slippery slope but already full blown DRM plain and simple. Both online functionality limited to GOG-run servers and checks for cosmetic content.

Note that for Gloomhaven, the multiplayer server is one of the players' computers. That player hosts a game and everyone else joins. There are no GOG servers and no company servers.

In version 1.0 of the GOG release, multiplayer is enabled.

In subsequent versions, multiplayer is disabled (in the sense that the button to host or join a game is greyed out) unless the game succeeds at verifying you through Galaxy. (And this is a dynamic status; you can have it enabled, shut off Galaxy, restart the game, and find that it's disabled again.

But apparently that isn't DRM.

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

#355

Post by seabrookmx »

ewzimm wrote: post #206
ecshafer wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Targeting DirectX and Win32 has become targeting Linux with how good Wine/Proton have gotten. I am able to play brand new games with no Linux support absolutely perfectly through proton. These games run better than games that had linux support actually ran on linux.

Ironically, Win32 has sometimes become more universal than native Linux binaries. For example, Baldur's Gate 3 released a native Linux version only supported on the Steam Deck, whereas the Proton version is verified for Linux almost everywhere. Win32 became the stable Linux gaming ABI.

Valve has a containerized Linux runtime (ala flatpak) to solve this issue for native Linux titles: https://gitlab.steamos.cloud/steamrt/steamrt/-/blob/steamrt/...

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

#357

Post by p_ing »

efreak wrote: post #314
wlesieutre wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone know of a living successor to Silent PC Review? Was a great site back in the day but it shut down and got replaced with a marketing slop page. Great reviews back you could get cases with multi-layered sound deadening side panels instead of windows.

I never understood the giant focus on side windows. If you want to see your components while you're using your PC, why not just build inside a transparent case, or build on a workbench/open style (caseless)

ATX spec is designed for positive pressure/airflow, so you’ll generally run hotter in open air.

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

#358

Post by p_ing »

aleph_minus_one wrote: post #247
bastardoperator wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until it fully supports multiplayer which doesn't seem to be a thing for any major game or studio, it's a nothingburger for the majority of people.

Multiplayer games is only some specific sub-scene of PC gaming.

The most played game on Steam is CS2, and it requires Windows for the competitive servers.

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

#359

Post by RunSet »

bsimpson wrote: post #307
RunSet wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If native software was routinely available, launchers might not feel necessary. > But I sure as hell don't want to invest howevermany weekend days figuring out how to make games from other platforms as easy to play as Steam games on SteamOS. For games that are licensed under terms that allow it, Debian's Game Data Packager has already automated that work. And- as your comment suggests- a native port is much better…

That link is hard to follow. Does that effectively replace the .exe parts of a Proton game with an equivalent Linux engine, while letting Steam et. al. manage the artwork/levels/etc?

No, it packages open source game data (which can't be distributed because it is copyrighted) so that it can be installed and will work with the games that already have debian packages.

So in the case of quake (for example) it makes a .deb file, which when installed will create the directory structure in the correct place and put the .pak files, config files, etc. where debian's quake engine package(s)[0] will look for them. This .deb file for the quake game data won't do anything on its own. You need to also install a quake engine, which debian includes.

You can create the game data packages from the installation CD, from a working install directory, or from a Good Old Games installer.

[0] https://packages.debian.org/stable/games/quake

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

#360

Post by p_ing »

orbital-decay wrote: post #109
emsign wrote: post #14

I'm very hopeful that Linux gaming will save the open PC desktop despite big tech is coming to destroy it. Or at least keep PCs alive for another decade. Gamers are still a huge factor as hardware customers. GOG creating a Linux launcher and Steam Box with SteamOS coming out soon should benefit PC users in general not just gamers since Microslop sees Windows like a social experiment where they can test AI on unsuspec…

Most gamers don't give a shit about openness. A much more likely outcome is "big tech" following the numbers and slowly making Linux unusable by using EEE or any other tactic under the pretense of usefulness.

Of course they don’t care about F/OSS — the vast majority of games are closed proprietary software. The small minority of Linux gamers are there for anti-Windows reasons rather than pro-Linux or F/OSS reasons. Which given Microsoft is now signaling a pull back on AI and a gear to improved performance/quality in Windows, if those anti-reasons evaporate, you’ll have the more frustrated Linux gamers potentially move back.

Linux needs a positive reason for Linux rather than relying on anti-Windows reasons (and there are, but I see those reasons outside of the gaming space).

There are 1B Windows 11 devices. Granted not all are for games, but it is not an unpopular OS by the numbers alone.

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