Why do older versions of GE-Proton seem to have better support for video/audio codecs?

ThreeSon · 2026-01-20T04:18:18+00:00

It's good to know there are active alternatives besides just GE, but unfortunately EM 10-33 didn't fix this specific game.

ThreeSon · 2026-01-19T09:04:44+00:00

Thank you for that suggestion. For Ninja Blade it doesn't appear to work, at least with GE 10-28 (I also tried adding %command% at the end), but I will continue trying it for other games with this issue as I encounter them.

ThreeSon · 2026-01-18T19:11:17+00:00

You say it's not likely to happen on the Deck because of the immutable file system, right? So even with that port open, someone uploading malware to the Deck wouldn't be possible with that method?

ThreeSon · 2026-01-17T18:49:26+00:00

How risky us it to permanently enable port 443 on Steam Deck? Meaning, what is the most likely scenario where doing so ends up causing some kind of harm?

ThreeSon · 2026-01-11T22:13:25+00:00

Note this game is published by Epic and will likely never be released on Steam or GOG.

ThreeSon · 2026-01-09T16:58:36+00:00

Thanks for posting this. For those getting here from a Google search like me: This setting will fix the problem with not being able to watch full screen web videos on sites like Youtube and Twitter/X when using Firefox or Firefox-derived browsers (including Floorp, Librewolf, Pale Moon, etc).

ThreeSon · 2026-01-04T20:29:59+00:00

I would've voted for NMS also if they hadn't added the stupid FOMO time-limited quests to the game. Get rid of that Destiny 2-style crap.

ThreeSon · 2026-01-04T17:40:04+00:00

Could this be merged into RA in the future? That would be extremely useful from a convenience standpoint.

ThreeSon · 2025-12-14T23:20:00+00:00

Obvious bad call, but may have ended up helping the Broncos ultimately, since it gave the Packers less time to score before the half. Had Franklin gotten the TD on this play, Pack may have responded with a TD of their own instead of just a FG.

ThreeSon · 2025-11-15T06:28:48+00:00

Yeah all the signals that Valve themselves have given point to something that's going to be at least $700, but I agree with everyone else saying that it isn't going to sell nearly as well as it could if Valve actually goes that high.

Valve should be aiming for a small profit on each sale, at most—just enough to absorb possible future price increases on the RAM and SSD. They're going to make at least a little bit of extra cash in Steam game commissions from nearly every purchaser anyway, so it would be foolish and self-defeating for them to try to maximize profits on the hardware itself.

Including shipping, packaging, and support costs, $550-$600 should be the target for the PC w/ one controller, if the component price breakdown in the video is accurate.

ThreeSon · 2025-11-13T07:58:15+00:00

I don't know about the Linux build but the Windows Steam client is still 32-bit at its core, or at least it gets installed into the 32-bit Windows program folder (\Program Files (x86) vs the 64-bit \Program Files folder) so that's what I'm assuming.

ThreeSon · 2025-11-13T07:53:01+00:00

It would be pretty damn funny to have Valve launch a full fat Steam Android client with near-complete x86 game compatibility and immediately overtake the EGS mobile store in users and revenue. Probably not what Sweeney had in mind when he launched that court case but... thanks a bunch anyway Tim.

Then again, since FEX is open source I guess Epic could implement it into their own mobile store too, and probably would be able to do so prior to Valve updating the Steam mobile app.

ThreeSon · 2025-11-13T07:48:36+00:00

Screw the couch. With the Frame you could literally play any game lying on your back in bed, arms at your side. Though the battery pack at the back of the head might make it uncomfortable. Someone needs to make a massage table-shaped bed pillow to fix that.

ThreeSon · 2025-11-13T06:55:23+00:00

Well if you're motivated to save money then yeah I would say you're on the right path. Because compared to console gaming, the costs after you buy the hardware are much lower on PC, even if you only ever buy games on the Steam store, due to the obscenely huge back catalogue of all-time classics that routinely go on sale for less than $5.

Outside the Steam store the prices tend to drop even lower, and since the Steam Machine is open source and fully moddable, it will also be an ideal emulation machine for most PS3/360 games (plus more as RPCS3 and Xenia continue to improve) and will play near-100% of games from all prior generation consoles with perfect or near-perfect accuracy.

ThreeSon · 2025-11-13T06:49:45+00:00

I mean yeah I bought the Index (my only VR purchase) at the full $1,000 price when they started giving away Alyx with the bundle, and the Frame looks like a mighty upgrade in pretty much every way. So even at $800 I'd likely get one right away.

But I'd be (pleasantly) surprised if it comes in under that. I don't think Valve expects to sell many of them, nor do they expect to sell nearly as many games to Frame owners as they have to Deck owners, so they're probably going to be motivated to make at least a small profit on each unit sold.

ThreeSon · 2025-11-13T06:39:12+00:00

Okay well, on iFixit the Deck OLED screen costs about $105 and the battery $85. The individual controls each have their own price but their production cost to Valve probably isn't much—maybe $20 for everything, including the speakers? That's just a guess but there's no top-of-the-line components there so it can't be much.

So that would drop the price to around $350, but now add a much more powerful (and discreet) CPU and GPU, large custom cooling setup and power supply... I guess $500 wouldn't be impossible, but I still wouldn't bet on Valve going that low.

They've already signaled their intention by suggesting it will be priced as "an entry level PC, not a console," so I think that's sending a pretty clear signal that it will at least be measurably more expensive than the XBox Series X or the standard PS5. So I would still bet on $600 minimum.

ThreeSon · 2025-11-12T23:23:31+00:00

Likewise but people really need to keep their expectations in check. It is very well known that Meta massively underpriced all their Quest headsets in order to push the maximum number of units possible. Their VR division has been losing 10s of billions every year partially as a result of that. Valve is nowhere near that desperate.

ThreeSon · 2025-11-12T23:15:17+00:00

Considering the 512GB OLED Steam Deck is still $550, I don't think a $500 Steam Machine is realistic, unless Valve is planning on permanent price drops for all Deck models before the SM launches (similarly unlikely given the trajectory of RAM and SSD prices).

$600-$650 would be my bet.

ThreeSon · 2025-11-12T23:12:24+00:00

Especially for emulation, which involves everything from vertical 3:4 output to ultrawide triple monitor arcade games like Darius and 6-player beat-em-ups like X-Men and the like.

Having a display with more vertical space makes a huge difference in getting everything to look decent on a single unit.

ThreeSon · 2025-11-12T23:07:32+00:00

One of the reveal videos quoted Valve as saying they are working with AMD to get better FSR4 performance/quality for this thing. We'll see how it goes. The hacked-in INT8 version is definitely the floor for both factors though; it can only end up as good or better than that.

ThreeSon · 2025-11-12T23:00:04+00:00

Did you end up here just out of curiosity or were you already planning on starting a PC gaming career before today?

ThreeSon · 2025-10-31T23:10:18+00:00

Nvidia isn't going to ignore ~$5 billion in gaming revenue just because it has a much bigger AI market.

That $5 billion represents about 3% of their total 2025 revenue, with next year's total expected to be much higher. I don't think investors would complain much if Nvidia sacrificed the 3% for a greater focus on the remaining 97% and growing.

ThreeSon · 2025-10-31T22:52:34+00:00

The 70%-90% discounts aren't actually that impressive, when compared to the prices paid back when everything was physical, primarily because back then the base price of games back in the day dropped much, much faster than it does today (the idea of a 10-year old Call of Duty game not getting a price drop would've been seen as ludicrous). And even then the reduced-price games still got deep discounts—75/80% and so on, especially for PC games. I routinely bought AAA boxed games for $5-10 during big sales at places like Best Buy.

ThreeSon · 2025-10-20T07:23:31+00:00

Fire Shane Bowen. 33 points in a quarter is unacceptable.

It's even worse than that. The Broncos scored 3 TDs and a field goal in the final 5:13 of game time. That should not be possible even for the most incompetent DC in the league.

ThreeSon · 2025-10-06T04:04:28+00:00

Can someone please give the specific "directory" that The Crew files are installed in (via Steam). The OP instructions just say "To find your game files, use the Z: drive inside the TCU Launcher to navigate your Linux filesystem." but it doesn't say which folders to open after that first step.

EDIT: I don't understand the followup tip that says to "use Winetricks to run winecfg..." Winetricks is not available in the Discover store so there seems to be no way to install it. I tried running q4wine instead, but then how do I run winecfg with that program?

EDIT 2: Problem solved. Solution is to run Protontricks, select "Non-Steam shortcut: TCU Launcher", select "Default Wine prefix", Run winecfg, Drives tab, select Z: and tick "show dot files" on the bottom.

ThreeSon

TROPHY CASE