As a gamedev I never saw this as a big issue. Just run Debian Oldstable on your build server, link whatever you can statically, and you are good.
(However, I am talking on a purely theoretical level here - we only released one Linux game, and that was before I joined the company. I will explain our actual reasons in a separate post.)
That would kinda mean you deliver every single dependency yourself, which kinda defeats the purpose of shared dependencies, which in turn proves my point that linux distros are fragmented to fuck. It also means you have to put actual effort into building your game for a userbase that was less than 1% before the steam deck came around.
So my point still stands - proton is the best thing that could’ve happened to linux gaming because it lets windows games run on linux with the dev putting only minimal effort - or even no effort - into making the game run on linux with near native performance. Hell, at times even with better performance.
Because for decades Microsoft has yielded to Linux’s superiority with unethical anti-competitive behaviour. E.g., it’s hard to compete with hardware that comes pre-installed with Windows.
Also for decades, Linux has had awful drivers for graphics cards (among other things) and godawful usability. It’s not like Linux would have taken over the desktop computer market in 1998. Have you ever tried installing a vintage distro? It’s a nightmare.
Not been my experience at all. Or am I misunderstanding and you’re saying that’s a past problem? Because I’ve used both AMD and Nvidia drivers on Mint and they’ve both been fantastic.
They’re a lot better these days, but I remember 15 years ago I had to spend hours in a command line just to get Linux to recognize my video card, much less utilize it properly. It’s definitely come a long long way but still far from perfect
That’s harder to implement. Suddenly you need to store that extra state somewhere and don’t mess it up. The last save should already have a timestamp and is immutable. A lot less likely to get bugs that way.
The state “the game is paused” is different from " the game is paused and saved". Sure that could be another key in some atate machine but like above: it’s the “not mess it up” part that is harder.
Plus all the lines to update the state, when the menu is closed, when the game is closed (i.e should it be true or false at startup), when the game is saved obviously.
That’s at least three more lines plus the one you mentioned for no extra value. And again it’s easier to screw it up e.g. while refactoring.
I think we write our code in different enough ways that we’re not seeing eye to eye.
Tracking the state of the game being paused, when the menu is open and when the game is saved can all be a single match statement on a current “game state” variable which just holds “running/paused/paused and saved/exit” and when it becomes exit, it checks the save time. Only 2 lines of code and adding an enumerated state to the variable to add this functionality. Since the variable is enumerated, it’s really difficult to mess it up when refactoring because if you can’t pass the wrong code or else your game doesn’t save or close
Ok, I mentioned a state machine in another sub thread. It’s not as bad if you already have a state machine.
It’s still adding more complexity though - again when the value is updated. You still need to change the state when saving. You need to decide which state to use when starting the game.
There is still risk of screwing that up when refactoring. And still the value is nearly none.
Regarding state mchines, it’s a complexity in itaelf to add random flags ro the state machine. Next time you want to add another flag you need to double all the states again, e.g. PAUSED, PAUSED_AND_SAVED, PAUSED_AND_MUTED, PAUSED_AND_SAVED_AND_MUTED. I would never add mute to the logic of the menu but that’s the pnly example I could come up with. Maybe you see my point there, at least?
Complexity being added at updating also feels wrong to me. Let me pseudo code some rust (just the language I know best off the top of my head right now) at you, cause it feels like maybe I’m just not understanding something that’s making this seem easier than it is.
<span style="color:#323232;">Enum Game_State
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> Paused
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> Paused_Saved
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> Running
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> Loading
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> Exit
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="font-style:italic;color:#969896;">///Technically you could make Menu() part of the enum but I'd probably leave it elsewhere
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Match Game_State
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> Paused </span><span style="font-weight:bold;color:#a71d5d;">=></span><span style="color:#323232;"> Menu()
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> Paused_Saved </span><span style="font-weight:bold;color:#a71d5d;">=></span><span style="color:#323232;"> Menu()
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> Running </span><span style="font-weight:bold;color:#a71d5d;">=></span><span style="color:#323232;"> Main_Loop()
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> Exit </span><span style="font-weight:bold;color:#a71d5d;">=></span><span style="color:#323232;"> Exit()
</span>
And then your other functions always return a game_state. You’re right that adding that return would be a huge undertaking if it’s not handled in the initial building of the game, but it’s a QoL for the user that’s easily maintainable and is therefore worth doing IMO. But these two things, defining the possible game states and then always routing decisions through that game state, makes this kind of feature relatively doable
I’m sorry I don’t getting your point . You start off by agreeing that you don’t like the extra complexity that the update statements give. Then do some pseudo code of something entirely different where we all already agree is not an issue.
Then at the end your conclusion is that it is totally feasible. Why? You still didn’t adress the problem of updating the state
My point was “are state machines really that complicated? Isn’t it just something like this pseudo code and a return value from your functions?”
Basically I feel like this is a 2 step process but you seem like you either know more than I do or have a different philosophy about how this would be implemented, so I want to understand what I’m missing
Use Nexusmods and their Vortex mod manager. It simplifies it a lot, though you may have to watch a quick tutorial video or two. It’s nothing that you won’t learn, though.
Certain other games may have other mod loaders just for them, that you can use. KSPs CKAN comes to mind, or Curseforge for Minecraft. A lot of games handle mods through the Steam Workshop.
In the case of using mod loaders most of the stuff you will have to do yourself will be limited to keeping mods updated, resolving conflicts, and managing load orders (where applicable).
You’re not missing anything. Heavy modding of older games PC can be a pain in the ass.
You can usually find a somewhat coherent and structured guide that will give you a step by step process, but will still be time-consuming (and there will likely be exceptions or outdated information).
The best option is to keep mods to minimum unless you know what you are doing and it’s a game that you play on a permanent basis.
Heavy modding of older games PC can be a pain in the ass.
Sometimes the older games are the easy ones to mod, and the new games make it intentionally difficult. Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, Deus Ex are all mod-friendly.
It can also depend on how much work the mod developer puts into making it easy.
(I notice you have an MiB as your profile pic and Deus Ex’s Liberty Island skybox as your profile banner lol)
I was so confused for so long here. I forgot that Men in Black were in Deus Ex. I was just like “How the hell does Tommy Lee Jones connect with this?!”
If it’s non-standard engine (“sourceport” in Doom terminology) with its own scripting infrastructure (like GZDoom) then sure. Vanilla and Boom compatible engines are kinda tricky, DeHackEd isn’t exactly the easiest modding approach. Mapping-friendly - for sure, but modding - less so.
I enjoyed return to castle Wolfenstein when it came out and competitively played Enemy Territory for years and even made a mod for it. I have no idea how it would hold up today, however
Very few game sequels are that tied in to it’s predecessor narratively that this is an issue. I would say the vast majority of games are designed to be picked up from anywhere in the series.
Even Mass Effect, where you play as the same character throughout a multi game story arc, still has each game giving the player an on ramp, and each game having it’s own miniature arc to play through.
Mass Effect is one that while every game is independent enough, I’d still say it’s best experienced as the trilogy. You will miss out on stuff in later games
Spoiler for a game old enough to voteWrex apparently dies on Virmire if you don’t. My partner started at 2, that was her experience. She played me1 shortly after and yeah, was upset she’d missed out even though he’s not a companion in 2 or 3 outside of Citadel DLC. Wrex is a solid character, Krogan story just wouldn’t be the same without him. If I recall he’s a part of the reason Mordin changes his view on the Genophage. If you betray the Krogan and pretend to cure it (which I’ve never done, nor will, there’s a limit to how I’ll play renegade), Wrex will see through the deceit, his brother won’t.
There’s also a small misc quest with a certain recurring character in 3 that has an ending idk I’ve ever seen before that requires you to have done certain things in ME1 and not got that person killed in ME2.
There’s a point in the third game that determines the fate of 2 different species that can play out very differently based upon actions you’ve made across the series. And the “best” version depends on your completing the loyalty quests of multiple characters in ME2 before a certain trigger point.
Did some tinkering to get this working on my Linux pc last year. Only played a few hours, but seemed like a fun game (and who doesn’t love fucking up some Nazis?)
There was some kind of high resolution patch, I think? Try googling “the sabateur resolution patch”. I remember there being some jank at first, but once I got it tweaked it worked just fine.
Honestly, I don’t remember specifically, sorry. Have you tried GE Proton?
I should try this again on pc and see if it works. The game also had a tits dlc on consoles if I remember correctly but it was included in pc version? lol
IMO, the game is better than it’s reputation - at least in it’s current state. After the .ini tweak to fix the alien ai-typo makes it a bit better - afaik, I can’t remember if my group played it with the fix or not, we’ve played the campaign at least 3 times now.
The game’s not a masterpiece by any means, though. It is pretty enjoyable action game in COOP and fairly high difficulty. Sure, arguments could be made that any game is, but game still more fun than not. Now, would I play the game on my own, as single player? Eeeeeeeh, dunno… But if my gaming group asks to play some ACM, I’m down.
Some random points about the game summarized:
Pulserifle goes BRRT, alien goes splat.
Could do with less of the human/android enemies though, or at least the parts with androids felt like they dragged on for considerable time.
Quite a bit of collectible guns, they’re mostly sidegrades but they are different enough, imo.
runs on a toaster
goes for pennies on Steam sales, so gaming group funny hours per unit of currency -ratio is pretty good, imo.
Spirit island is my favorite game to play with a group. It has you trying to protect an island from colonists who damage the island with their expansions. Each player has different abilities that force you all the work together & requires a lot of teamwork to win especially some of the higher difficulties.
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