[…] The formula to make […] Game of the year is stupidly simple, but somehow it keeps on getting lost.
The studio made their game because they wanted to make a game that they wanted to play themselves.
They didn’t make it to increase market shares. They didn’t make it to serve a brand. They didn’t have to meet arbitrary sales targets or fear being laid off if the didn’t meet those targets.
Furthermore, the people in charge forbade them from cramming the game with anything whose only purpose was to increase revenue, and don’t serve the game design.
There are 2 games where windows is neck to neck or better, 3 where SteamOS is far ahead
Some doubts:
Did the author run the benchmarks few times to rule out shader compilation. 99%ile would be helpful.
I wonder if it makes sense to test DirectX10, 11 and 12 games separately to better understand where Proton has an edge.
I wonder what all settings can be tweaked in Windows to find potential fixes (core isolation, cpu boost, power profiles).
Point is Microsoft and OEMs need to do better, however not every game or subscription services work on Linux, so in the interim time users should know what they can do to close the gap better.
I think the issue here is DirectX, so unless there’s meaningful changes to how DX works internally, DXVK at this point can always be a step ahead with all the changes it can make without tech debt to worry about. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s why Series X despite being stronger than PS5 on paper, struggles to match performance in non zero count of games.
I wonder if Microsoft’s shopping spree induced FOMO in Sony and they ended up buying shit. Sony already had the best studios but they chased live service for no reason.
It ain’t powerful enough for modern titles sadly. I’m trying to say that there’s a space where Valve made steam machine with niceties of SteamOS and power of say PS5 can really thrive.