Tomb Raider for Linux

[Swordfish II]

Apparently Tomb Raider will be released today for Linux using Opengl

 

[TrashyMG]

Yarp, It should be pretty good port if Feral Interactive did as good of a porting job as Alien: Isolation.

 

[WizardStan]

Huh. Apparently Tomb Raider has been in my library since December 2014. Well then, now I can play it I guess.

 

[thatgui]

If it only would, it comes out for Steam on Linux

 

[Klumpen]

Another DRMed game for our fine DRM-free OS.
Polluting Linux with a Steam client is so wrong.

 

[EvilDragon]

We have much more commercial software on Linux that isn't Steam, where the code isn't public domain, and the sky is blue.

So why does Steam all of the sudden make everything black?

I don't think he's got problems with commercial games, only with DRM.

DRM often installs itself into the system or contact its homeserver, without you knowing what data it will send.
You can't block it, as then the game wouldn't run anymore.
And sometime in the future, when the servers are shut down, these games won't work anymore.

I love commercial games (well, good ones), but I also dislike DRM.

I tried Steam once (as I had some codes) on Windows, it automatically put itself into Autostart and showed me annoying notifications regularly.

I hate that. If I want to play a game, I run it when I want to and I just want to play that game. I don't want to informed about any gaming hub stuff...

 

[ZXDunny]

Well, I have tombraider on the Pandora via the PS1 emulator. I wonder if this one is any better?

 

[rygD]

Well, I have tombraider on the Pandora via the PS1 emulator. I wonder if this one is any better?

I was never into Tomb Raider that much, but I remember enjoying that one. I wonder if I still have it.

 

[Gruntfuggly]

I just finished the first Tomb Raider on the Pandora on the PSX emulator last night. Really enjoyed playing again. Due to save states though I finished with so many medical packs and ammo... got all the secrets this time though.

Now to re play TR2...

 

[WizardStan]

Another DRMed game for our fine DRM-free OS.
Polluting Linux with a Steam client is so wrong.

You understand that Steam DRM is not mandatory, correct? It must be enabled by the developer. Granted, they make it incredibly easy to do so, especially with the likes of Unity and other game engines that do all the Steam work for you, but it's still the developers choice to add the DRM. There are many games on Steam which are completely DRM free: they are downloaded and started through Steam but once downloaded don't actually require Steam anymore.
So instead of complaining about Steam providing a tool why not complain about the publishers that demanded and use that tool?
I'm also actually pretty OK with Steam's DRM scheme: since it's all client-server based at runtime rather than install time, it'd be a trivial thing for them to release their server keys and let the community write their own authentication server that just says "yes" to everything.

 

[thatgui]

... it'd be a trivial thing for them to release their server keys and let the community write their own authentication server that just says "yes" to everything.

Because every rights holder would immediately say yes to that ?

 

[TrashyMG]

Another DRMed game for our fine DRM-free OS.
Polluting Linux with a Steam client is so wrong.

It's amazing how something you most likely plan on never installing pollutes Linux on you.

 

[WizardStan]

Because every rights holder would immediately say yes to that ?

Because Steam, as guardian of the gate, can do whatever the hell it wants if it's going out of business.

 

[thatgui]

Because Steam, as guardian of the gate, can do whatever the hell it wants if it's going out of business.

I damn my lack of social skills as I am unable to tell wether your comment is meant sarcastic or not. Anyway, "guardian of the gate" stupidity aside, they would be sued out of personal existence if they would do such a thing: I am pretty sure, even if the rightsholders had no chance of winning, they would bury the people they think are responsible for that in lawsuits, just to crate a statement.

 

[WizardStan]

they would be sued out of personal existence

They are out of existence. That's the point.
Valve has closed up shop. They no longer exist, everything is gone, there are no servers, no money, no people, nothing.

edit: just to clarify, there'd be nothing illegal in distributing their private key, and I can't imagine they'd actually have in their contract that they would never do that, it's kind of an obscure thing to promise: it's not in anyone else's TOS, just compare to google or paypal, try to find any mention that they'll never release their private key or anything similar.
And hey, leaks happen. Maybe in their final days of operation, security becomes incredibly lax, someone breaks into a server and finds a key and since the company no longer exists to create a new one and invalidate the old one.

 

[thatgui]

They are out of existence. That's the point.
Valve has closed up shop. They no longer exist, everything is gone, there are no servers, no money, no people, nothing.
....

That's the whole point I am getting at: Who says that they don't try to get at the people, they think, are responsible for it, just to make at statement "don't mess with our property, or will mess with you".
And there is the personal point too, if Valve ceases to exist (hard to believe at this point) the people* that worked there may be interested in staying in the industry - such a "fuzz" would surely not look good on their resume.

Curiosity knocking: Is there some (dev) documentation on how Valve facilitates its DRM, or how do you know that some keys would be (almost) all thats needed to keep things running.

* I am talking about the surely small circle of people that would have actually access to that "keys".

 

[WizardStan]

Curiosity knocking: Is there some (dev) documentation on how Valve facilitates its DRM, or how do you know that some keys would be (almost) all thats needed to keep things running.

I suppose I don't know, but that is how security works, through encrypted communication. Once the encryption is broken all that's left is understanding the communication. If people can reverse engineer MMO servers just by listening to the traffic then I'm pretty sure they can reverse engineer an authentication server.

if Valve ceases to exist (hard to believe at this point)

If Valve isn't in any danger of shutting down then the whole discussion is moot.

 

[thatgui]

I suppose I don't know, but that is how security works, through encrypted communication. Once the encryption is broken all that's left is understanding the communication. If people can reverse engineer MMO servers just by listening to the traffic then I'm pretty sure they can reverse engineer an authentication server.

But do they actually need to have certain, permanent keys fort that? Couldn't the keys be auto generated, maybe with rotating patterns, so Valve would not even know the keys, even if they wanted to ?

If Valve isn't in any danger of shutting down then the whole discussion is moot.

Now I am confused, didn't you bring this up ?

 

[WizardStan]

But do they actually need to have certain, permanent keys fort that? Couldn't the keys be auto generated, maybe with rotating patterns, so Valve would not even know the keys, even if they wanted to ?

Yes, at some level there needs to be a fixed key, something that links the client and the server together. They can use this key to form a secure connection, and then through that connection negotiate a new, entirely random key for actual communication, and this is a thing that is sometimes done, but in this case if we've got a personal server using the original key then our server can negotiate whatever it wants.

Now I am confused, didn't you bring this up ?

I did, as one of the reasons I'm less bothered with Valve DRM vs all forms of DRM that have come before and many that have come after: in the event that the authentication servers ever shut down forever, Valve has a single point of access that is incredibly easy to open for thousands of games to suddenly become effectively DRM free, where other systems are more convoluted and sometimes impossible due to physical disc requirements, and typically only work one game at a time.

 

[thatgui]

I did, as one of the reasons..

That's why I am confused - first you create and delve into this scenario and later on you cut the discussion off, because the scenario you created is impossible ? Why create it in the first place ?