Steam Next Fest Feb 21-28th
https://store.steampowered.com/sale/nextfest
Still waiting to purchase my steam deck.
Valve is testing native Linux games to decide if the native version runs better than proton.
https://www.techradar.com/news/steam-deck-will-run-native-linux-games-where-it-makes-sense
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/02/valve-clarifies-how-they-test-native-linux-or-proton-for-steam-deck/
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/valve-is-testing-native-linux-ports-for-the-steam-deck-in-addition-to-proton/
GPU prices showing signs of normalizing
https://www.techspot.com/article/2418-gpu-pricing-2022-update/
Hacker steals 1.7 million worth of NFTs from Opensea customers
https://www.techspot.com/news/93481-hacker-steals-over-17-million-worth-nfts-opensea.html
Master Chief’s face to be revealed in new Paramount+ series
https://www.techspot.com/news/93479-gaming-icon-master-chief-face-revealed-new-halo.html
Nobara Project
https://nobaraproject.org/

Contact Us
Discord - https://discord.gg/CddBwcFs
Send us an email at CrowbarKernelPanic@pm.me

Music from this episode
"Bit Quest" and "Basic Implosion" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

News

Humble Bundle “Humble Trove” dropping Linux support - https://kotaku.com/latest-humble-bundle-change-leaves-mac-linux-gamers-ou-1848356728
Valve squeezing more battery life out of Linux drivers - https://www.pcgamer.com/valves-tweaking-linux-drivers-to-squeeze-more-battery-life-out-of-the-steam-deck-on-steamos-30/
Microsoft set to buy Activision what does this mean for Linux gamers? - https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/18/microsoft-acquire-activision-blizzard/
Microsoft's New Metaverse - https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/01/25/microsoft-activision-blizzard-isnt-metaverse-play/
Sony to buy EA? - https://www.techspot.com/news/93143-sony-could-respond-microsoft-acquisition-activision-blizzard-purchasing.html

Amazon Luna Testing

Luna+ - 5.99
Ubisoft+ - 17.99
Family - 2.99

Games I played on Luna

• Control
• A Plague Tale
• RE: biohazard
• Blair Witch

Distro Testing

Linux Mint the clear winner
I have been testing a ton of games with a ton of distros lately on my new laptop and the results speak for themselves Linux Mint just came out on top.

Games I tested

• Horizon Zero Dawn - There was a fix for the messed up grass and sound crackling during my testing so I went back and tested this one again and is now actually mostly playable on every distro except Garuda and ZorinOS.
• Witcher 3 - This game had a lot of stuttering under anything but Linux Mint.
• Metro Exodus (Linux Native and Proton) - Linux Native was not playable on any Distro I tried due to being half cut off of my screen or severe stuttering. Proton on the other hand was not too bad for the most part but Linux Mint still was the smoothest.
• Halo CE Anniversary - Played mostly smoothly with some stuttering on the arch distros but was totally playable on all the Ubuntu distros.
• Splitgate - Has some general Linux issues when comparing it to Windows but is playable on Linux with over 200 FPS on my system just some stuttering issues.
• Valhimne - Playable on all distros except Garuda.
• Project Zomboid (This game ran fine everywhere I tested probably due to low system requirements)

Arch Distros I tried

• Manjaro - Was mostly fine but had some glaring issues such as multi monitor issues and gaming performance issues.
• Endeavor - had some fairly deal breaking bugs like OBS and Screenshots not working with Plasma and generally more stuttering than on most other distros.
• Garuda - Just plain didn’t work out of the box with its dragonized plasma desktop.

Ubuntu Distros I tried

• Ubuntu Gnome 21.10 - This statement goes for all but Mint but basically stuttering was very prevalent on all distros except Mint. Other issues I had were getting optimus to work properly.
• Kubuntu 21.10 - Other issues I had were, games not popping up on the right screens I wanted and super + shift + arrow keys did not help.
• FerenOS - Same kinda issue as Kubuntu with games not working on the right screen
• Zorin OS 16 - Extreme stuttering in most games even with graphics set to low
• Linux Mint 20.3 - Once vulkan shaders were compiled ( which I allowed every distro to compile that I tried) The games ran smoothly with little to no stutters or slowdowns. Even my laptop fans are controlled correctly on mint out of the box. Caveat to that is I do have to set the speed profiles under windows but once thats set mint uses the correct settings.

Contact Us
Discord - https://discord.gg/CddBwcFs
Send us an email at CrowbarKernelPanic@pm.me

Music from this episode
"Bit Quest" and "Basic Implosion" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Contact Us
Discord - https://discord.gg/CddBwcFs
Send us an email at CrowbarKernelPanic@pm.me

Music from this episode
"Bit Quest" and "Basic Implosion" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Testing Ubuntu Wayland x Horizon Zero Dawn

• Ubuntu 21.10 Wayland and X Horizon Zero Dawn
  • Needs to be downgraded from 1.11 to 1.10 to avoid lsd grass. Downgrade Horizon Zero Dawn Github Script
• Ubuntu 21.10 performance * FPS between 40 and 65 roughly * Frametimes highest about 25ms
  • Gameplay seems smooth
• Windows 10 21H2 * FPS between 75 and 115 with DLSS enabled * FPS between 60 and 85 without DLSS
  • Frametimes no more than 15ms
  • Gameplay extremely smooth
• Conclusion
  • Valve and Ubuntu have a long way to go to catch up with Windows performance from what I have seen. I have tested over 20 games both Windows and Linux native games and almost always Windows pulls out ahead. This is not an issue with games that run at a high FPS (60 FPS or higher) but becomes much more noticeable when getting below 60 FPS.

Heaven Dust and Heaven Dust 2

• Dev - One Gruel Studio * Two person team from China * Publisher - Indienova
• ProtonDB - Has no reviews yet (I’ll be writing one)
• I had 0 issues or modifications to get the games to run.
• “A love letter to Resident Evil.”
• A cutsie, anime, chibi style survival horror. Our character wakes up locked in a maintenance closet. We don’t don’t know immediately who he is or why he’s trapped in this zombie infested mansion but we learn about that as we solve puzzles and make our way out of the mansion/laboratory.
• Journals * The story is told through journals in true 90s survival horror fashion. * The localization is relatively bad. Better in Heaven Dust 2 but still not perfect.
• Combat * Controller - auto aim system * Mouse/keyboard - MG:S style HD1 has an animation issue, when bitten by zombies the animation takes longer than the zombies next bit. Often leading to one bit means death. * HD2 map is a little tighter than HD1 and zombies are often hidden behind the isometric wall and bit you without any clue they are there. The rooms in HD2 are blacked out before entering.
• Puzzles * The puzzles in HD1 are fantastic and sprawling. Leading the player to run back and forth across the already explored map to find keys and items needed to inch further. The items are callbacks to the RE franchise without being spoilers to the puzzles.** Vending machines * HD1 has a vending machine system. Each section of the game has 1 vending machine that can sell the player a map, gun powder, and various magazines. * The currency is coins gained from killing zombies. * The magazines are buffs to PC.

Cold Open
OpenMW - This is bad ass!

News Items
Steam survey shows drop in gpu
steam survey Oct
Indie dev says Linux users give better reports
Valve improves DRM compat
Wimpy's Quickemu

Guild Wars 2 - https://www.protondb.com/app/1284210
Dying Light - https://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/239140/
Batman Arkham Asylum - https://store.steampowered.com/app/35140/Batman_Arkham_Asylum_Game_of_the_Year_Edition/

Notes From Gordon's Email
Launch command for Rise of the Tomb Raider
ENABLE_VKBASALT=0 __NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1 __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia %command%
Game Mode - https://github.com/FeralInteractive/gamemode

Contact Us
Discord - https://discord.gg/CddBwcFs
Send us an email at CrowbarKernelPanic@pm.me

Music from this episode
"Bit Quest" and "Basic Implosion" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Steam Summer Sale Picks
Victor Vran - Linux
Outward - Gold
Metro Exodus - Linux
Hand of Fate 2 - Linux
Last Epoch - Linux
Monster Hunter: World - Gold
Tomb Raider - Linux
Divinity Original Sin - Linux
Works better under proton (only tested on proton 4.11)
FFXIV - Gold
Dragon Age - Platinum / Gold
Doom - Platinum
Dead Space - Platinum / Gold

Contact Us
Discord - https://discord.gg/EnWTZukr
Send us an email at CrowbarKernelPanic@pm.me

Music from this episode
"Bit Quest" and "Basic Implosion" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/