Little Racers STREET FNA

At long last, it's my 60th Linux port! There is now a beta branch on Steam for Little Racers STREET called 'osx_linux_test', which you can opt into right now.

This game is somewhat notorious for having a Linux/macOS version that suffered from pretty severe bit-rot - it was made during the REALLY early days of MG-SDL2, but it didn't actually use MG-SDL2; it was a really slimy mashup of MonoGame and some of the SDL2 bits I had just finished making, and in 2020 it definitely showed.

I had a little bit of time and I knew FNA could handle it, so I bothered Milkstone about a 7-year-old game that was way past its tail and probably nobody but me cared about anymore. They were very kind and let me give it a try anyway!

The new FNA port is completely from scratch, I threw out all of the previous port work and started directly from the original XNA build. Minus some Win32 API calls, the usual half-pixel nonsense, and a very odd INF/NaN bug in the effect parameters, there wasn't very much to do. All in all it was about 2 days of work, and I think you'll quickly notice how much better this build is, if only for the dramatically improved dependency tree (no more GDI+, yay!). Every feature is there, including all of the graphics options and the exact same audio engine as the Windows version (only one WaveBank had to be recompressed).

If you give it a try, let me know! If you're feeling extra generous, look at the GitHub Sponsors page below. Being an incredibly old game with a port already available, with absolutely zero chances of generating revenue, I opted to do this port for free, which I usually don't do unless I end up doing no real work on a project. So, if you want me to get paid, that's up to you, the users!

GitHub Sponsors!

I'm happy to announce that I am now in the GitHub Sponsors program! This means that anyone with a GitHub account can now subscribe to a monthly payment system that will allow me to continue my work maintaining the numerous FOSS game development projects that I maintain, including FNA and FAudio.

You can find my sponsorship profile here.

If you're on the fence about this, I'll give you quite the incentive: Microsoft has offered to match my first year's funding! They have offered up to $5000USD for the first year, and are also skipping all payment processing fees, so in addition to taking extra money out of Microsoft's pocket (which I think my audience will take some joy in...), everything you pledge will go directly to me. A slight change of pace from Patreon's usual scams, hm?

I've been very vocal about the poor state of the crowdfunding ecosystem, and I think the GitHub Sponsors program is very much what we've all been looking for. I think you'll agree, and I hope you'll pledge what you can!

Want a Linux game?

I'm now officially back to working on Linux games full-time! I have my own hit list as always, but I'm always looking for more projects! Now's a really good time to hit me up while it's on my mind. Don't forget, whether you're an indie developer or an independent developer, there's a good chance I can accommodate your needs!

Love, flibit
flibitijibibo.com

Bill's Hat

Turn a minimal Fedora installation into a SteamOS box!

1. Write Fedora Workstation NetInstall ISO to a USB drive
2. Boot USB image, install Minimal configuration with standard partition layout matching SteamOS'
3. Set root password, create a user called 'steam', set a password for it
4. Reboot, log in as root
5. A whole bunch of commands:

dnf group install hardware-support
dnf install Xorg xorg-x11-drv-evdev libglvnd-egl vulkan-loader.x86_64 vulkan-loader.i686 lightdm flatpak NetworkManager-wifi kernel-modules-extra bluez
dnf config-manager --add-repo=https://negativo17.org/repos/fedora-steam.repo
dnf install steam steamos-compositor steamos-modeswitch-inhibitor.x86_64 steamos-modeswitch-inhibitor.i686
setsebool -P allow_execheap 1
systemctl enable sshd.service
systemctl enable lightdm.service
systemctl set-default graphical.target

6. Edit /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf:

pam-service=lightdm-autologin
pam-autologin-service=lightdm-autologin
user-session=steamos
autologin-user=steam
autologin-session=steamos

7. Create /var/lib/AccountsService/users/steam:

[User]
Session=steamos
XSession=steamos
Icon=/home/steam/.face
SystemAccount=false

8. Reboot, should work now!

9. Additional steps for NVIDIA users:

dnf config-manager --add-repo=https://negativo17.org/repos/fedora-nvidia.repo
dnf install kernel-devel dkms-nvidia nvidia-driver-libs.x86_64 nvidia-driver-libs.i686
reboot # Should be using the NVIDIA driver now!

Wait, a "plan"?

Well, this is a .plan file, so here's my TODO. Expect nothing from it, ever.

In Progress
    Little Racers STREET Public Testing
    Codename BlackHole
        - Playables have been sent
    Codename StonedTachyon
        - Playables have been sent
    Codename AcidBath
        - Probably Valgrind fixes

Waiting Room
    FNA Tutorial
        - Leaving this alone for a bit
    SDL_GetAudioDeviceSpec
        - Oh god I don't even know dude
    Codename FullCircle
        - Need some backend access first...
    Codename CityVessel
        - Not even finished yet, whatever
    Codename SpinnyTokelau
        - Assessment coming up in... uhh...
    ScoreRush PC
        - Graphics, AppAdmin, strings for PC settings, blah blah blah
    Zeboyd Catalog
        - Possibly no source, really just need AppAdmin access tbh
    MommysBestGames Catalog
        - Just need a source drop to do an assessment
    FAudio GStreamer
        - Decoders are terrible, need to send test data when requested
    64-bit Panic
        - Waveform repo :/
        - They Bleed Pixels middleware :/
        - Gotta rebuild all MojoSetup packages (F you Canonical)