Friday Facts #408 - Statistics improvements, Linux adventures | Factorio
factorio.com
Hello, welcome once again to the world of facts.

For me, it’s Factorio.

a game in which you build and maintain factories.

It even has Wayland support!

(Version 1.1.77» Fri Mar 03, 2023 3:44 pm)

Graphics

  • Added support for Wayland on Linux. To enable it, set SDL_VIDEODRIVER=wayland in your environment. (thanks to raiguard)

What’s yours?

EDIT: Great Linux ports* not like some forced ports that barely work or don’t.

      • 9bananas@lemmy.world
        6·
        6 months ago

        the DLC are pricey, but they’re also proper, old school expansions adding lots of content that actually enhances the game.

        it’s perfectly playable without the DLC, and there’s a LOT of DLC-sized mods on the workshop!

        kind of a fundamental problem with modern DLC: they generally don’t get cheaper over time (remember when that was an actual thing? not just sales, but actually lower prices for older games?).

        if you keep up with the releases it’s super okay at about 20/25€ once a year, maybe twice, bur if you’re late to the party it’s a whole lot of cash all at once!

        exactly why paradox introduced a subscription for Stellaris’ DLCs at 10€/month… honestly kinda worth it, if you know you’re just gonna play for a while and then move on…still wish stuff would just get cheaper at some point again…

        • Psyhackological@lemmy.mlOP
          3·
          6 months ago

          So it’s a biiiig rabbit hole, then.

          Well, Factorio price policy says that they will never have a discount for their game. Full price only so you’re committed.

          it’s super okay at about 20/25€ once a year, maybe twice, bur if you’re late to the party it’s a whole lot of cash all at once!

          Yeah, exactly.

          exactly why paradox introduced a subscription for Stellaris’ DLCs at 10€/month

          I didn’t even know there was such a thing. Sucks, though.

    • Avatar_of_Self@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      6 months ago

      It is also DRM free on Steam. You can copy the rimworld folder to a PC that’s never had Steam on it and play it as an example.

      You can also do that to sort of save a snapshot in time of Rimworld when they are releasing a new version that will likely break mods for a long time/sometimes forever.

  • Liome@pawb.socialEnglish
    31·
    6 months ago

    Minecraft, Stellaris, and Valheim were already mentioned so I’m gonna add Neverwinter Nights.

      • apotheotic (she/her)@beehaw.orgEnglish
        5·
        6 months ago

        I think that farewell and the c-sides are some of the most enjoyable, challenging, and rewarding gaming experiences I’ve ever had. Keep it up!

        • Psyhackological@lemmy.mlOP
          2·
          6 months ago

          This game always amazes me with “fuck, no I cannot do that”, but after trial and error I get better, and I know I overcome my skill issues.

            • Psyhackological@lemmy.mlOP
              1·
              6 months ago

              Yeah, but the default keyboard controls suck. And I think there is somewhere in the game “every time you fall and die - it’s a progress” or something like this.

              • apotheotic (she/her)@beehaw.orgEnglish
                1·
                6 months ago

                I can imagine the keyboard controls sucking.

                And yeah, those messages are exactly the thing that makes the vibe so cozy. You’re failing again and again and the game keeps encouraging you, believing in you.

    • Father_Redbeard@lemmy.ml
      5·
      6 months ago

      I did not know that. Might have to double dip. I have it on switch, but encouraging Linux game ports with my wallet seems worthwhile. Plus it wouldn’t be the first time I bought a second copy of a game…

      • Psyhackological@lemmy.mlOP
        7·
        6 months ago

        I had many copies of the same game now on Steam when I committed 2 years ago for Linux gaming. I preferred GOG back then, but with Proton and much friendliness of Valve, I prefer Steam now.

  • Rez@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    301·
    6 months ago

    I was going to say Factorio as well! :D Hollow Knight has a native port and is a fantastic game, but my favorite games are ones like OpenMW or DevilutionX where the entire engine is remade from the ground up and open-source

    • samc@feddit.ukEnglish
      22·
      6 months ago

      Its all about how an application goes from “I would like to display X on a screen” to how X actually gets displayed. Wayland is effectively a language (technically a protocol) that graphical applications can speak to describe how they would like to be drawn. It’s then up to a different program more deeply embedded in your OS to listen to and act on those instructions (this program is called a Wayland compositor). There’s a lot more to it (handling keyboard input monitor settings, etc), but that’s the general idea.

      Wayland is a (relatively) new way of thinking about this process, that tries to take into account the wide variety of input and output devices that exist today, and also tries to mitigate some of the security risks that were inherent to previous approaches (before Wayland, it was very easy for one application to “look at” what was being displayed in a completely different app, or even to listen to what keys were being typed even when the app isn’t focussed).

      Thing is, change is hard, doubly so in the consensus driven world of Linux/FOSS. So, until the last couple of years or so, adoption of Wayland was quite slow. Now we’re at the point where most things work at least as well in Wayland, but there’s still odd bits of software that either haven’t been ported, or that still rely on some features that don’t exist in Wayland, often because of the aforementioned security risks.

      • Jarix@lemmy.world
        9·
        6 months ago

        Thing is, change is hard, doubly so in the consensus driven world of Linux/FOSS.

        … So if im reading this right

        Move fast and break things

        Move slow and fix things?

        • vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de
          23·
          6 months ago

          more like "move glacially and declare things as "will not support’ so technically we had nothing TO fix!"

    • Psyhackological@lemmy.mlOP
      11·
      6 months ago

      I see X11 and Wayland as display protocols that tell to render things on the screen, for example to Desktop Environments like Gnome or KDE Plasma. X11 wasn’t originally designed for this purpose, and its codebase is very messy and ‘hacky,’ which led to the development of Wayland.

      X11 Wayland
      Legacy Modern
      Many issues due to being legacy Many issues due to being Modern
      Old New
      Stable Experimental

      in short.

      • EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        2·
        6 months ago

        Ah, so it’s like DirectX11/12? That makes sense! How come it’s never (presumably?) used on Windows?

        Also…

        Many issues due to being legacy

        Many issues due to being Modern

        Lol.

         

        Edit: Okay, looking it up, it’s apparent that X11 is not the same thing as DirectX11. Lol.

        • Psyhackological@lemmy.mlOP
          5·
          6 months ago

          DirectX is a set of APIs for game and multimedia development on Windows, whereas X11 and Wayland are display protocols that manage how graphical applications are rendered and interact with the desktop environment. DirectX is more similar to Vulkan in terms of providing a low-level API for high-performance graphics rendering or OpenGL.

    • Vik@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      6 months ago

      it’s a newer display server protocol designed to replace X11, focusing on improved security, simplicity, and contemporary display technologies such as multi-display variable refresh rate and HDR (eventually).

    • vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de
      34·
      6 months ago

      it’s when devs of a graphics stack just suddenly feel the need to protect your own computer from itself, so they say fuck you to any features that they deem “insecure”, including accessibility features (they will claim they fixed this, but it’s opt-in per app. old apps will just be completely unusable for some people with special needs.)

      But they eliminated tearing on the desktop! woo!!!

  • IsoSpandy@lemm.ee
    21·
    6 months ago

    Factorio is so amazing on linux. Like the devas actually care about Linux. They care so much that went on to shit on Gnome for no client side decorations. Absolute legends. Wish more studios wer like them.

    • Klajan@lemmy.zip
      17·
      6 months ago

      In fact Linux is the superior version of Factorio, since you get to have asynchronous saves that don’t pause the game

        • Psyhackological@lemmy.mlOP
          13·
          6 months ago

          One of the reasons why the native Linux version is better than Proton.

          Asynchronous saving

          Many of you might not be aware that Factorio has support for saving your game in the background, without freezing while it does so. This feature is tucked away in the hidden settings and only works on macOS and Linux. This is one great example of taking advantage of a platform’s features to benefit the game, which would not be available to us if we simply went through Proton.

          Asynchronous saving works by using the fork syscall to essentially duplicate the game. The primary instance - the one you interact with - continues playing, but the newly forked child runs the saving process then exits on completion. I have used it for many years and have never had issues, but the setting remains hidden because there are a few unsolved problems with it and it requires a significant amount of RAM to work.

          I would love to promote this feature away from its hidden status in 2.0. If you are playing on Linux or macOS, please enable asynchronous saving (ctrl+alt+click Settings -> “The rest” -> non-blocking-saving) and report any issues you find. I am particularly interested in reproducing a seemingly random freeze that occurs at the end of the process. Thank you in advance!

    • Psyhackological@lemmy.mlOP
      8·
      6 months ago

      You need to set up CI for the new platform, expand your build system to support the new compiler(s) and architecture(s), and have at least one person on the team that cares enough about the platform to actively maintain it. https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-408

      And yeah, exactly. Their game seems like their life mission, and I don’t blame them. The game is spectacular.

  • WFH@lemm.eeEnglish
    21·
    6 months ago

    BallisticNG. Incredible WipEout homage, Linux native, VR compatible, runs locked at 60fps on Deck. Fun tracks, cool ships, nice lore. Physics and mechanics are by default more geared towards classic PSX games (1, 2097, 3), with “modern” physics and mechanics (Pure/Pulse/HD with absorb, barrel roll etc.) getting an overhaul in the next version.

    • Psyhackological@lemmy.mlOP
      1·
      6 months ago

      Doom

      Which one because I don’t think this Doom you meant?

      OpenRCT2

      I tried it to work on Linux but no luck so far. :c

      and Unreal Tournament

      I see 2nd mention of this game. Could you link it with the Linux native port?

      • ElectricMachman@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        2·
        6 months ago

        Nope, I meant this Doom, whose original source code is here on GitHub.

        I’m surprised you’ve not got OpenRCT2 to work - I’m fairly sure it’s in most default repos.

        You do need to have a full copy of RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 as it uses data / assets from the original game.

        I would happily link you to Unreal Tournament, but it’s no longer for sale anywhere as far as I’m aware.

        • Psyhackological@lemmy.mlOP
          1·
          6 months ago

          Ah, the classic one.

          Yeah, I will try again soon. I don’t know anything about this game, besides I bought it when discounted and it has RollerCoasters.

          Ah… what a shame.

  • herrcaptain@lemmy.ca
    18·
    6 months ago

    I guess I have to say Stellaris because it’s my favorite game in general. It also runs as good or better under the native Linux version than it ever did on Windows, so points there.

    • bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      61·
      6 months ago

      I like stellaris a lot except no matter what I do what I try, it is always a mad expansion dash all the time. The AI is relentless at expansion. So the game is just 70% me constantly expanding and exploring. It doesn’t allow for a lot of experimentation lol

      • herrcaptain@lemmy.ca
        6·
        6 months ago

        Something I sometimes do for a more relaxed game is lower the number of empires from default for map size, and bump up the number of pre-FTL so some of them will later turn into empires. I usually also turn up the number of advanced empires.

        You end up with a few superpowers, a few insignificant empires who are pawns in their games, and a little more early-game breathing room.

        To be honest, I also generally peak at the map in observe mode to ensure I have a fun/interesting start position. I play with like 200 mods, usually create several of my own rival empires, and generally play it as a story generator rather than a game to “win.”

        • gothic_lemons@lemmy.world
          2·
          6 months ago

          What do you do when a new update comes out and breaks all your mods? I think thats the biggest thing keeping me from jumping back into stellaris. I’ve been playing off and on for years. 3+ times I’ve decided to boot up stellaris, find my mod list super outdated. Spent 30 to 90 minutes fixing stuff. Then like a week later a new update comes out and a bunch of mods break. I stop playing cuz I need to wait for the mods to be updated. Love the game but the constant mods breaking makes playing a game a chore

          • herrcaptain@lemmy.ca
            4·
            6 months ago

            I absolutely know how you feel. I’ll typically go 6 to 12 months at a time without playing because of that. I then strategically find a window between patches where most of my favorite mods are all up to date. It typically takes a solid 4 hours of work to fix up my modlist, and I then play obsessively for several weeks. Despite these huge breaks, I’m at almost 3500 hours in the game, though I’ve been playing since release.

            My second fave game is Rimworld, and I follow a similar pattern there, though modding for that game seems much more resilient in the face of certain updates. Plus, Ludeon isn’t DLC-crazy like Paradox.

      • Malgas@beehaw.orgEnglish
        4·
        6 months ago

        IMO the early game exploration rush is the best part. Anomalies and archaeological digs give that great Star Trek vibe that kind of goes away once everyone is settled into their borders.

      • Kory@lemmy.ml
        4·
        6 months ago

        Highly recommend. I have finished so many worlds with and without mods and I still return to it once in a while.

          • Kory@lemmy.ml
            1·
            6 months ago

            😂 Well, at the beginning I was a bit lost and a friend played with me for like half an hour and then I knew the basics. After that you look things up that you want to know more about, but it’s not necessary to have the wiki open all the time. The game actually has a quite clear progression and hints on first playthrough.