God so many projects are completely dependent on it, and we have seen now while rare, there are cases where repos will be taken down. At least have one backup somewhere. I run my own forgejo and mirror a lot of them, but the owners should have a mirror somewhere
Yeah, really more open source products need to move to the fediverse through forgejo which would make them a lot harder to take down ioo.
Tired of GitHub being the Defacto despite its ties to ICE, stealing open source code through copilot, not allowing contributions from certain countries, and now this.
When will developers learn? Github is not on their side.
Yeah, GeoGuessr is an extreme example as Google basically did 95% of the work for them. Having to image large chunks of the world would mean a huge investment and I highly doubt GeoGuessr would even exist without Google Maps.
If Google would double their API pricing tomorrow there’s very little GeoGuessr can do except maybe switch to Apple Maps (they offer an API, not sure they offer one for their “street view” data though).
Companies are subject to the places they operate in and not following it could have consequences. I remember Guardian having to censor stuff due to UK court order. My gripe is that they are going diving into the military contract business that they had control over but still got into due to money.
Yeah, considering that the whole game is dependent on Google Maps, they can end it any time. I just hope GeoGuessr has a good partnership with them. I saw somewhere that they pay millions per year for the maps!
Geotastic is definitely a great alternative! If I could add another it would be https://freeguessr.com/. You can turn off street names, it doesn’t have Ads and you can play No Move or Blink Mode directly from the game.
There's a few, like Openguessr too. But they are not really Geoguessr alternatives in the same way Geotastic is, with all the community features, I also like the transparency Geotastic has with running costs, I can donate to cover my own usage without overspending for profiteering like is the case with Geoguessr now.
Amazing news! It’s great to see GeoGuessr coming to Steam! 🥰 This should make playing on Steam Deck much smoother. I just hope there’s a free option (even with ads). On the web, most people have switched to free alternatives like FreeGuessr. If they go with a monthly subscription on Steam, I’m not sure it will work.
Up front cost cannot cover the ongoing API costs they must be paying for Google Maps. So either this has to be free and just a front end for the same shit, or they’ll still end up net negative.
They are adding a "Steam pass", which doesn't let you play on the web and your web subscription doesnt let you play the Steam version. Just play Geotastic instead.
Huh, half a year after Luanti introduced volumetric lighting. I find it hard to believe that Microsoft execs watch out for what Luanti does, but maybe a whole bunch of Android re-packagings of Luanti suddenly looked a whole lot better than Minecraft and that got through to those execs…? It’s a bit of a strange coincidence, at least.
While I would love that to be the case, I don’t think it is that simple. Java edition, at least, has been experimenting with shader-like features in resource packs for a while now. It could be that Luanti convinced them it needs to be built in and not an extra pack, but I think it is at best parallel ideas, or at worst, Luanti taking inspiration from those shader-like packs and trying to do better not even knowing they are doing the same process as Minecraft.
Yeah. Luanti following Minecraft is nothing new. Mineclonia was an early pilot game for the engine.
But there hasn’t been much effort on copying Minecraft lately. Mineclonia is done, and it’s great.
We’ve had more mobs, animals, plants, textures, and such than un-modded Minecraft for a long time. (Which is unfair, as Luanti is a mod-first design.) But my point is the core Launti dev team doesn’t have to work on any of that.
The most noticeable recent Luanti updates have been to make the configuration screens much nicer, and add I think to add native support for more graphics tricks?
I’m not paying attention to graphics in Luanti. As others have mentioned, that’s not why I play it. I actually had a conversation recently about the best way to downgrade Luanti default graphics to match un-modded Minecraft.
That said, the Minecraft team taking notice of Luanti would be new, as far as I know.
Oh yeah, I wasn’t trying to say that Luanti had an incredibly original thought with volumetric lighting. There’s been (pre-resource-pack) volumetric lighting mods for Minecraft probably already a decade ago. I was rather just wondering, when the proof of concept has existed for a whole decade, why do they decide to include it now. It probably would have worked well even on weaker phones three years ago already…
On console you can get texture packs and add-ons… from the marketplace.
On other bedrock platforms (Windows or Mobile) you can install textures and add-ons from your own files. The problem is that Bedrock add-ons are significantly less capable than Java’s mods.
Bedrock makes it easier to play with friends, it also has cross-platform support (except for Linux and Mac). Console players can only play on featured servers (unless they use workarounds).
Java is better in most other aspects (I am biased for it though, since it’s what I play): you can mod it, play older versions, use custom shaders (with mods), no microtransactions, play on any server you want, (apparently) less game-breaking bugs, etc.
Yeah, it is incovenient when you play Java and other people you know play Bedrock (or vice-versa). There is a community-made plugin called Geyser that allows Bedrock players to play on Java servers (it can be buggy sometimes but it is the closest we have to Java-Bedrock crossplay).
Java is the original and Bedrock is the C++ adaptation that came about once Microsoft bought Minecraft. Microsoft couldn’t really justify getting rid of Java edition because that’s what the entire PC userbase was using at the time, and they’ve gotten very used to the features it allows for. Namely mods. However they still wanted to unify the casual playerbase and better monetize the game.
On the topic of monetization, Minecraft originally had this nasty little clause (for Microsoft) written in I forget either the ToS, EULA, or what, but it essentially guaranteed all future updates to the game for free. I believe it also made some other guarantees about no MTX, should never have to pay for servers, etc but those I’m less certain about. Around the time MS bought the game there was a lot of talk about how the only way they’d really be able to get out of that guarantee to the millions of players who already owned “Java edition” (just regular Minecraft back then) was to make a Minecraft 2.0 that didn’t have that clause. Their approach for that problem appears to have been bedrock edition which they maintain alongside Java edition. Because it’s not the version they bought, they can make changes to the legal agreements including charging for things Java Edition users have a guaranteed right to.
Those are the two main reasons I’m aware of for the two editions. I believe the majority of the PC playerbase is currently on Bedrock Edition so although they would have some backlash if they suddenly decided to axe it I think the majority of the playerbase would chug on like normal. Afaik the main reason they don’t is because anyone who purchased Minecraft before there was a “Java Edition” would have a legal claim to say Bedrock is clearly the same game under another title, they’re not getting future updates as guaranteed, and are entitled to either updates or compensation. And I can’t imagine MS is interested in litigiously pissing off millions of players.
I might not have much of a horse in this race as someone that only really plays Minecraft once in a blue moon (and normally swiftly puts it down because I’m not that kind of creative and I get too stressed out from survival mode), but honestly, I’m not a fan.
This says it all. This person should simply shut the fuck up and not be a games journalist.
I think journalists too often have way too little education and way often than not they have no idea what they’re talking about. The quality of news is often low. We need better journalism. I was thinking about exactly that just yesterday, by chance.
“You don’t need (and therefore shouldn’t want) this obviously good thing” has this connotation that the Minecraft team has been wasting their time on pointless features, when in reality first-party support for a feature is nearly always more stable than a mod.
Plus read the article, the author is a vehement hater of Minecraft. What a joke.
rockpapershotgun.com
Aktywne