I've been getting horrendously slow speeds on Linux Steam (~500k/s) and 5-6Mb/s on Windows, and only now found out why. There's a ticket on GitHub for this:
In short, the client is very aggressive on its DNS requests, which normally causes it to be throttled by servers, leading to really slow downloads. However, using dnsmasq allows the requests to be cached locally and offload the requests.
Even though the instructions are for Arch, they worked for me:
Install dnsmasq
Modify /etc/dnsmasq.config and add the line listen-address=127.0.0.1
Restart the dnsmasq service (systemctl restart dnsmasq.service) or reboot your machine
A mobile phone game ported for the PC? This can’t end good, right?
(Checks reviews)
…. yep.
A team of veteran developers of the FINAL FANTASY franchise, headed by venerated producer Yoshinori Kitase, brings you MOBIUS FINAL FANTASY, a mobile RPG of unprecedented quality. The PC version comes 4K visuals and 60 FPS gameplay.
Steam was one of the many things that broke with Ubuntu 16.04 because of numerous changes in package names and dependencies. Fortunately, here’s a guide to fix that. Now, back to my Dungeon Defenders :D
Looks like my weekend is going to be filled with tinkering again. ^_^;
I need to reinstall windows on my laptop as I think there must be some graphics conflict somewhere and it’s lagging when it gets taxed (didn’t normally). Most commonly, it happens when I’m playing Final Fantasy XIV, but has lagged a bit on Alice: Madness Returns and Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed. I figured it might be my connection, since FFXIV is an MMORPG, so I switched from my WiFi to my 4G connection via tethering and it still lags. I then switched from DirectX 9 to DirectX 11, amd still nothing. I even downgraded my Nvidia driver to a REALLY old version (since Nvidia ran into a huge bug with one of their drivers, if you recall), so I’m planning to run my Clonezilla backup tonight (which should take a few hours since I’m also backing up my Ubuntu install), and then run my Windows install then then boot-repair to get grub back (凸(>皿<)凸 Microsoft)
And then, I have to go through the process of installing drivers and updating Windows, though I will probably skip updating Windows since I only use it as a gaming environment. And downloading my Steam games again. Including the Heavensward expansion, Final Fantasy XIV is probably about 20-30GB. With the spikes and dips in download speed on my 4G, it’s going to take about 3 hours.
So, after finally fixing my environment, and manually having to use 3.17 kernel, I have a running environment, but Dungeon Defenders still hangs, and Dota 2 has graphic rendering issues – meaning I miss the opponents and they can creep up behind me, along with enemy grunts.
Guess I won’t be playing anything Steam-based for a while….
Steam have been running a sale with different games discounted every day. Current collection includes the original Final Fantasy VII. A classic game, although now showing its graphical age (this was during the time of the original PS1/PSOne/PSX console, and I played that game to death on my original brick/fat/phat PS2 – which I still have, mind you.) So take a look if you want.
And this is why people are now using their mobiles phones' 4G connection above home broadband…
On the top my home broadband (Sky). On the bottom, Three’s 4G connection. Guess which one I use most? And the interesting thing? Even whilst downloading Final Fantasy XIII via Steam, my connection on Three still registered in excess of 50Mb/s. No wonder my Sky connection was graded F. That’s F for fail, Sky.
With my new laptop up and running, I am happily playing several Steam-based games:
Dust (I am pretty impressed by this. It is a platformer, side-scrolling game with really nice visuals, voice-acting and insane combo options)
Dungeon Defenders (yet to start this under Steam, but played it extensively under Android)
Dota (downloading)
Wakfu (played on my old 32-bit box, but Steam refuses to start the game if you are running 32-bit arch. With a 64-bit arch, it will start)
I also have some extra games that I’m not playing or stopped playing:
Bastion (tried it and it is interesting, but I’m finding it really difficult to get into
Dungeon Hearts (slow and laggy)
Ravensword: Shadowlands (an interesting 3D, but very little customisation options)
Toribash (Appeal wore off very quickly)
Although, I have them tied into the Steam framework so I can start them up via Steam and grab screenshots, etc.
I have also looked at Fraps and Kazam – two screen recorders (Fraps for Windows, Kazam for Linux) and both perform pretty well. Fraps performs great, I got smooth high-quality video out of WoW. Kazam, I am tweaking settings. It also generates good-quality video, but I need to play with the framerate and encoding settings. Look out for some uploads at some point in the future.
