The Mind Of OverlordTomala
Gaming4

Valve just made Linux Gaming a little more attractive

If you’re on Linux this is an option now.

Good news everyone! Steam just rolled out an updated version of Steam Play for Linux users!

 

  • Windows games with no Linux version currently available can now be installed and run directly from the Linux Steam client, complete with native Steamworks and OpenVR support.
  • DirectX 11 and 12 implementations are now based on Vulkan, resulting in improved game compatibility and reduced performance impact.
  • Fullscreen support has been improved: fullscreen games will be seamlessly stretched to the desired display without interfering with the native monitor resolution or requiring the use of a virtual desktop.
  • Improved game controller support: games will automatically recognize all controllers supported by Steam. Expect more out-of-the-box controller compatibility than even the original version of the game.
  • Performance for multi-threaded games has been greatly improved compared to vanilla Wine.

At present I’m installing DOOM 2016 under Mint, that is actually one of the games that has been added to Valve’s whitelist of games that will work under Steam’s version of Wine: Proton. As a result you can now purchase any of these games under Linux if you don’t already own them:

Some of the titles can already run on Linux natively; such as early ID Software titles either in the Linux version of DOSBox or Sourceports of games that you can either download from a repo or compile from source. However, in order to even obtain the files to run them natively you had to either have a disk for your desired game or have the files already available in some other method. If you’re running a pure Linux system the only way to previously buy any of these games was to either run the Windows Steam client via Wine, run Windows in a VM, or do what I do and Dualboot. Seeing games like Tekken 7, DOOM 2016 and NieR Automata is already sounds impressive. Of course if you’re an enthusiast and want to try getting a game not listed on the whitelist running under Proton that is also a possibility with the built in compatibility tool.

Naturally I expect that these games won’t have the same level of performance as Windows, at the same time it shouldn’t matter if your game can run at your display refresh rate or above. I’ll be experimenting with games in my ridiculous library, if anyone here has any suggestions for what you want me to test under Linux feel free to float me a comment. I already have some ideas. :happy:

All in an Overlord's day / Gaming2

OBS Recording woes

I’ve been plagued with a weird problem in OBS as of late, and I even thought I had it nailed down today… but during a livestream I decided to do tonight OBS decided to go tits up. It’s been doing this thing lately where it won’t stop recording, and I have to terminate the process via task manager. In most cases it corrupts my video making it impossible to watch. I’m thinking that I should probably switch from mp4 to mkv as I’ve read that file extension has a better chance of survival. After all Shotcut can read mkv files so it’s not like I have to remux my recording for proper import.

But tonight while recording and streaming it just decided to come to a screeching halt, and when I tried to stop and start it decided to hang; resulting in me terminating the process and restarting my stream… annoying. Reading around online doesn’t seem to give me much info. One of the tricks someone recommended was running OBS in administrative mode but so far that seems to do fuckall. Now I’m going to experiment using the h.264 codec for recording instead of h.265 to see if that makes any difference. I haven’t had as much time to record gameplay lately, and it’s bad enough that I keep losing data because of these random hangs.

If this continues to persist I’ll consult the gurus over at the OBS forums. I think I have an account there from years ago. I do also have my laptop setup to receive my desktop stream if push comes to shove, but I prefer to leave that for Vulkan and DX12 based titles rather than be the ultimate solution. In most of my cases my desktop is more than powerful to handle games like Skyrim and Okami while both streaming and recording from the same system at the same time.

All in an Overlord's day

Late Night Open Thread

I had a calm day off. I made a nice omelet with a homemade tomato sauce using a pepper wine I made recently. Over the last couple days I chipped in and cooked a couple things. I made a homemade mac and cheese with Cheddar, Parmesan, and Amish Blue with prosciutto with corn on the side; and last night I made a greek tomato and shrimp sauce that also used the pepper wine. It’s basically sherry wine fused with the essence of serrano peppers for about a week, really compliments the tomatoes or almost any soup you cook it in.

The weather was nice enough that I went out for a walk, town was still a bit hazy but at least I didn’t smell any smoke today. I tested Obduction on my new hardware and it’s much more tolerable. The only complaint I have now is the LOD issue when walking in between areas. Then I tried to play some Saints Row 4 with Yutram, but there was no success. We ended up going into Quake Champions together for one frag match before bed.

On that note, goodnight.

Entertainment / Gaming

OMG Metal Gear Movie

It was recently announced that a Metal Gear movie was being planned. With no surprise I have mixed feelings on the subject, just as I did when Ghost in the Shell’s live adaptation hit theaters and completely fucked the story. I could be wrong, perhaps the movie will be a shining example of how to adapt a video game into a good movie as the Metal Gear series is cinematic in its own right going as far back as Metal Gear Solid. At the same time that presents another problem. Each game is like a movie on its own, how are you going to take elements from each title in the series and make something coherent? Dune the movie was based on the Dune book series, and it is known for being notoriously bad due to trying to cram as much of the series into one film, and if they’re not careful this title could meet a similar fate.

Despite that I do like the concept art that was released. It looks like they’re mostly referencing MGS3 and MGS with some MGSV thrown into the mix. This also makes me wonder who they’ll bring in to play what characters? and what characters will appear in the movie? I can only think of this particular character chart someone did:

If he were still alive it would have been fun to watch him play every single character, including the women. :meeseeks: At that point it wouldn’t even matter if it were a terrible movie, people would be talking about how he played every fucking character.

In all seriousness though, I can sum up my feelings like this: You know that one episode of Futurama where the Amazonian women sentenced all of the men to death by snoo snoo? and all of them switched between faces of happiness and absolute horror?

Yeah, that’s how I feel right now.

Computing

My portable time machine

I laid out my virus prank this morning, and had interesting results. He wasn’t afraid of it, in fact it seems he wanted the hard drive to be wiped. He was bummed when I showed him that Windows was still available… and then I loaded Windows 3.11 and that still didn’t really phase him. It wasn’t until I pulled out Norton Commander that I began to hear terror in his voice.

OH THE HORROR!!!

He questioned what the purpose of said program served, and I had a fun time trying to tell him that in the old days this was a good program to do file transfers either between drives and floppies, or networking two computers together. Back in the early days of computing Windows didn’t quite take off yet, so it was either this or manually typing in each command to complete particular tasks. NC was also awesome for making a custom launch menu. I remember using this when I was younger to launch DOS games; it was this and Windows 3.1 (and eventually 3.11) that I switched between whenever I wanted to play something. You know, have to have my Skifree fix. :v:

On another note I also wore a poncho and a sombrero to work today on a dare; same co-worker said if I did so he’d give me a free lunch… I don’t think he remembered. I’ll have to remind him next time we work together. 😛

Computing

My Infected Imagination

During my spare time, when I haven’t been working, playing or anything I’ve been binge watching YouTube videos where people mess with tech support scammers, and more recently been watching old virus porn from the MSDOS to Win95 era. Then it hit me that it would be fun to play a prank on one of my co-workers using a little imagination, and a USB thumb drive with DOSBOX and a neutered virus just to see what his millennial ass will do when he encounters it… I’m a millennial, so I get to say that. 😛

I decided to download one of my favorite viruses from archive.org’s malware museum, a place where you can download and even see the effects of old viruses from a few decades ago. My favorite virus on the site is a fun one armed bandit game; in the old days if you ran this virus it would wipe your hard drive clean and store all of your data in RAM. You have a small chance of saving your data if you win the game, but if you fail you would lose all of your data and have to either rely on your old backups or have to start from scratch. In this current era the virus has been defanged and is completely harmless, all that remains is the threatening message and an addictive game… Oh! and a chance to troll my co-worker. :trollface:

I have it all setup on my thumb drive for tomorrow morning, looking forward to his reaction when he looks at the computer screen tomorrow morning. :trollface:

I also have to say this virus looks quite silly on my Amazon Fire 7 too. Yes, I have malware on my tablet… from the 90’s. :v:

Food/Drink

Hot Fucking Chocolate

I was reading this blog post over at Fucking Recipes today, and this quote as well as the subject matter caught my attention:

with hot chocolate season on the way, there are a lot of subtle ways to work a little magic into your mug! a compiled list of easy recipes to have some magic in your day

Then I looked out my window and saw fog and felt the balmy weather, and I thought to myself “hot chocolate season is right the fuck now”. So tonight after having soup and sandwiches I made some hot cocoa with cinnamon, peanut butter, ginger and a dash of FUCKING NUTMEG… because I’m not a nord who can swallow cup after cup of the stuff.

They do have some interesting ideas for hot chocolate on that page, not entirely sure if I’m on board with the lavender type but everything else sounds good.

Gaming

Sunday Evening Open Thread

A good chunk of the day was spent watching some random videos in the Gmod Cinema Server, and then a bit of No Man’s Sky. I encountered a bug where I needed to refine some materials, but for some reason they vanished one second after placing them under Input. Yutram was nice enough to donate the materials I needed. It was strange to see tons of Ferrite just vanish into the ether. I even obtained Ferrite Dust and lost it just as quickly… This game is as beautiful as it is fun, but some of these bugs make me question how this was supposed to be a $60 title, especially considering we are just NOW able to play with other people. What I’ve played so far has been relaxing up until this point. I’m no stranger to bugs, but when you reach a point where you lose your materials and need assistance from someone else it’s rather annoying.

On the brightside I did manage to customize my character. Now I wonder what would happen if I made a list of all game characters I’ve ever made. :zorak: Perhaps even a half assed story to go with each one if applicable. If I were to do that I wonder what one’s I would include… hmmmm.

All in an Overlord's day / Gaming

My Weekend Arriveth

Weekend time has begun, starting it off right by having a couple drinks PLUS a little bit of multiplayer Serious Sam (Fusion 2017). I’m not sure what I’ll do tomorrow, but I think I’ll chill and play some games… original idea I know… :v: Hope everyone else is having a good weekend.