I worked more on one of my next videos today, this one will take me longer than the others. It’ll be more than just gaming footage… I may work on some Linux based videos before releasing this one. I think I finally found something that gives me reason to touch Source Filmmaker again.
Then throughout the day I kept getting sucked back into Quantum Break, now on the 5th episode in the game. This game has definitely done a good job keeping my focus, the story is a captivating one. Though I’ve always had a thing for time travel myself. :trollface: And my god… you can tell this game was funded by Microsoft, different versions of Windows adorning many computers throughout the game, Microsoft phones in various scenes and areas, a Microsoft surface floating in mid air during a time stutter. I’m surprised I didn’t find any Mountain Dew or Dorito’s scattered throughout the game.
But as I’ve said this game has done a good job keeping my attention, in fact I’m up later than I should be as a result… Good thing I don’t work tomorrow.
I know I’ve been talking about Linux lately, with the latest install, Steam’s Proton,, Vulkan among other things, but I’m not alone. Even someone at Forbes has been getting on the bandwagon. This is the second article I’ve seen there, and this time he interviewed the owner of Gaming On Linux, another website that I read quite frequently. They discuss the myths, pros and cons of using Linux vs Windows and its a really interesting read.
So how many games are actually available to play on Linux today? “That’s a little tricky, considering the amount of different stores that actually sell Linux games like Steam, GOG, itch.io, Humble Store and so on,” Dawe says. “Take Steam as an example, specifically looking at just games for Linux it shows me right now there’s 4,800 whereas Windows has 23,882. So on Steam specifically, we have about 20% of the library, which is incredible when a few years ago that was a big fat zero.”
In the last five years I too have seen a multitude of changes. I still remember when I made it into the Steam Linux Beta (I still wear my official TF2 Linux shirts with pride), I remember when there were only a few GoldSource games in my library and not much else, there was no way to really record your gameplay… but it was a starting point. As things progressed we soon found more and more games being ported, game recording programs such as SimpleScreenRecorder came onto the scene and eventually OBS started developing for more than just Windows; known back then as OBS Multi-platform before being known as OBS Studio as it is today, and now we have programs like PlayOnLinux and Lutris for us to play and use our non steam games. Wine has made great improvements over the years, we have DXVK now for running DirectX 11 and 12 via Vulkan, proper audio and video software to showcase our games just as we can under Windows. It isn’t perfect, and they even say that in the article, but Windows wasn’t always the godly OS for gaming. There was once a time when Direct X sucked, and eventually when it did improve they ignored PC users for several years in favor of their precious XBox.
The unofficial Steam Play Compatibility website has been tracking the testing of every Windows game now playable on Steam for Linux. To date, more than 3200 titles have been tested. Of those, nearly 1300 have received “Platinum” status, meaning they not only launch with the simple click of the “Install” button on Steam, but they also have Windows-level performance and framerates.
If you go with a distro like Mint, Ubuntu or a few others they make it really painless for you to get set up compared to how it used to be. This isn’t the case for everything under Linux, after all I did have to research what PPA to download my graphics drivers from, fortunately that information has become easier to find.
I’m seriously considering doing some video tutorials for people who might be interested in playing games on Linux, and Linux videos in general on top of the other videos I crank out. More people need to know that an alternative to Windows might be waiting for them, or at the very least to try dualbooting between Windows and your Linux distro of choice to see how you’ll fare under it. As I’ve stated quite a few times I’ve been staying more in Linux lately, in fact I only went into Windows once this week to do some Photoshop and play a couple games that don’t quite run well under Linux. Am I ready to ditch Windows 10? Not even close, but with the way things are going we may get there someday, or at least scare Microsoft enough to pull their heads out of their asses and make another Operating System that’s on par with WinXP or 7. :trollface:
Microsoft is coming up with new and inventive ways to confuse the hell out of the consumer base. Plans for two different XBoxes are being drawn up under the codename Scarlet; One being the XBox One type that most of us think of, and a slightly cheaper model that does nothing but stream games, known as Scarlett Cloud.
The cloud console will have a limited amount of compute locally for specific tasks like controller input, image processing, and importantly, collision detection. The downside of this is that it since more hardware is needed locally, it will raise the price of the streaming box but it will still cost significantly less than what we are accustomed to paying for a new-generation console which should help expand the platform’s reach.
As someone who is cursed to sell consoles and has to explain differences between platforms on a daily basis for people I can see this being a tad problematic. We already have people that buy games and automatically assume they can all be played without an internet connection. People are going to see the cheaper console, buy it, and then be pissed to find out it’s only used for their game streaming service which will also require a fee. I’m sure there are quite a few people that would have no problem going that route, but rainy days and internet outages are probably not something one would want to dwell on.
I even hate saying this, but NVidia’s streaming cloud platform makes slightly more sense because you can use it on pretty much any barebones laptop, plug it into HDMI and have your own console. But this in console form? I’m not so sure, then again I’m not the target audience. I like playing all of my games locally and being able to mod when applicable. :happy:
I would hate for there to be a future where everything has to be done through cloud computing. I can imagine certain game developers making games “Cloud Exclusive” just to either drum up business or as a means of anti-piracy. :zorak:
For transparency purposes Microsoft recently released a list of websites your fresh Windows 10 install connects to… should go without saying I have all of this shit turned off, and I’m not just saying that because I’m using Linux at the moment. :trollface:
But yeah, that’s quite the fucking list. The sad part is I know people that are perfectly content with everything Windows 10 wants to do… with their only complaint being that Microsoft’s assistant Cortana being named Cortana. :zorak: He dares call himself a fucking nerd too…
E3 is in session, and already I’ve seen some cool games and concepts that I’m already looking forward to getting my hands on. I’ve decided to compile a list from today’s findings. featuring flashy trailers!
Having played The New Order and Colossus I was filled with extreme hype when I saw them mention Wolfenstein: Youngblood. It features what I’m guessing are the daughters of B.J Blaskowitz, two specifically to represent a coop mode. My only concern being if it’ll be coop only or if it’ll feature a single player campaign like all the other games. I’d also like the idea of a local coop, for playing with someone on the couch. 😛 As another small note I wonder how long it’ll take before someone gets their knickers in a twist over these two characters for having knickers.
Skyrim is one of the most ported games in existence. You can play it on XBox360, PS3, PC Thrice, XBoxOne, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and now Amazon Alexa. No word for how mod support will be rolled out, but I imagine telling Alexa to buy things over Creation Club should be easy peasy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TXuDkGesIc
Available right now for free, some fun looking DLC for Prey that rolls out three new modes: Story Mode, New Game+ Mode, and Survival Mode which looks like it has some elements of Prop Hunt in it. Looks like it could be fun, I’ve been meaning to get back into Prey… Curse my many distractions. :v:
I loved DOOM2016, and when they announced they were going to make a sequel I was pretty hyped. The trailer seems to be set in what I think might be New Jersey. :trollface:
Then there’s Fallout 76. This one I have mixed feelings about; mainly due to the online play. I’m wondering if it will be mainly PvP, or if it will let you just play PvE with friends. They show quite a bit of gameplay, and it does look like fun. But it also looks like it could be a big trollfest if not executed properly.
Then after watching Bethesda’s presentation I ventured to my RSS feeds and found this potential cherry waiting to be plucked:
A new Devil May Cry game, something I’ve been anticipating for awhile now. It follows Dante and Nero, ready to kick all kinds of demon ass with some new friends and even new equipment. I can’t say I like Nero’s Justin Bieber look (I almost mistook him for DmC Dante), but Dante looked pretty swank with facial hair. Though looks aside the gameplay looks like it’ll be hella fun. I can’t wait to fuck some shit up with the mechanical arm.
This is another one I have mixed feelings about. While I had fun playing Tomb Raider, and Rise Of The Tomb Raider, it still didn’t feel like a Tomb Raider game to me… maybe more like Skyrim meets Tomb Raider. They do say though that this will be the game where she becomes the legendary badass heroine she is known the world over for. As usual the graphics do easily impress, and the gameplay looks more or less like the previous two games. I do look forward to it, I just hope for a less whiny Lara this time around. I forgave it in the reboot since this was supposed to be her origin story, but in ROTT there were certain points where it was too annoying for me. Also, Microsoft had better not pull that timed exclusive bullshit again. It didn’t make sense to do that with a game that has been on multiple platforms since the dawn of fucking time. :zorak:
Then of course the lovely Ori is back in Ori and the will of the wisps. Much like its predecessor it features the same graphics with some newer tweaks, and looks to have the same emotional pull as the first game.
I’m starting to feel like I woke up in an alternate universe, especially after reading this.
SAN FRANCISCO – November 16, 2016 – The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit advancing professional open source management for mass collaboration, today announced that Microsoft has joined the organization at a Platinum member during Microsoft’s Connect(); developer event in New York.
Like most of Microsoft’s involvement in other projects I wonder how long till take for them to destroy Linux? 😛
Over the last couple of days I’ve been trying to setup OBS Studio on my laptop. What’s really strange is that even if I maintain my gameplay above 60 FPS my output is below 30 even when specified at 60. I thought something was up with the NVidia codec, so I upgraded to the latest driver.
That was my first mistake…
After that I ran OBS Studio and the graphics card wanted to eject itself, then if I did anything else that would utilize my GPU the system would lock up solid. So I tried going back to the version before it, no dice. Then a couple restarts later Windows decided to put in it’s own driver and prompted me to do another restart. I restarted and got stuck in an infinite load cycle. After running System Restore everything was back to normal (even though Windows said it failed, gotta love Microsoft’s consistency in being totally accurate!). Then tried to install/uninstall my drivers only to find I couldn’t. After some dicking around I got it to install, but I had to use the device manager instead of NVidia’s installer, fabu…
After more testing I confirmed that OBS Studio for whatever reason sucks on my laptop. Meanwhile Classic OBS runs just peachy. So I guess if I record anything I’ll have to use Classic instead of Studio, which isn’t that big of a deal to me TBH. I just wanted to have OBS Studio on both systems for the sake of consistency. But NVENC works fine on Classic.
I’ve been playing with the idea of recording my gameplay during lunch (when I can) and turning it into vlogs. Maybe about why I played that particular game, what I like/hate about it, what I had for lunch, what form of insanity unfolded to make me play such a thing, food, etc.
Speaking of YouTubing, I did another Classic Tomb Raider Stream earlier this evening.
I have a local copy to go through in my spare time, as I’m sure there are a few highlights I can pinpoint within that long run of film, or I would at least HOPE there would be something in over an hour and a half’s worth of footage. 😛
It seems like the only real consistent thing about Microsoft is their ability to shut down games and programs that people use. This time XBox Fitness is the next target.
“Given the service relies on providing you with new and exciting content regularly, Microsoft has given much consideration to the reality of updating the service regularly in order to sustain it,” Microsoft’s Erica Bell wrote in the announcement. “Therefore, the decision has been made to scale back our support for Xbox Fitness over the next year… While our team is saddened by this news, we couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve accomplished in the past two and a half years.”
I don’t know why people continue to support a company that has this sort of a track record, other than blind fanboyism and people who don’t know shit from shinola about Microsoft’s history. But as long as they continue to support such a flake of a company it’ll keep happening and happening.
Microsoft’s attempt to get people into their Applesque walled garden hasn’t exactly worked as well as they planned. So Spenser saying this would only make sense:
“I look at Steam today, it’s on an incredible growth trajectory,”
Yeah, and you guys don’t own it in any way, shape or form. Bet you guys are really kicking yourselves in the ass over that.
“It’s a massive force in gaming; a positive force. I think it will be bigger a year from now than it is today. And five years later it will still be bigger again. I look at Valve as an important [independent software vendor] for us on Windows. They are a critical part of gaming’s success on Windows. I don’t think Valve’s hurt by not having our first-party games in their store right now. They’re doing incredibly well. We will ship games on Steam again.”
Translation: You guys totally hate GFWL 2.0, so we’re going to get you guys to buy our products on Steam.
Nevertheless I an intrigued, how is Microsoft going to go about this? And what MS requirements will they hook into a Steam version of whatever the hell it is they want to sell? After all Ubi and some Origin games call for accounts, nothing is stopping Microsoft…