Video games

Bitburner

Empire Earth II

Factorio

Ingress

Kerbal Space Program

Mass Effect

Mass effect is a deep and rich universe. It tackles some philosophical themes at a level that even Star Trek has been reluctant to grasp.

Minecraft

Feed the Beast App (FTBA) is among the easiest ways to install modpacks. On Linux installing the launcher requires Java 17, so please install it first using the instructions below.

For instructions on setting up a server, please see my Minecraft server GitHub repository.

Rules for my server

Enjoy the game and let others do the same. However, if you want to be specific, this includes:

  • Respect other players and their property
    • No PvP except between players that have agreed to it
    • No griefing
    • No stealing
  • Keep the spawn area clean.
    • Discuss with the admins before building a base near the spawn
    • No large quarries < 2000 blocks from the spawn
  • No political symbols or offensive art visible from the spawn or on the map

Installing Java on Ubuntu

Minecraft 1.16 and later are based on Java 16, so I recommend installing the latest Java from the Linux Uprising PPA.

Older versions of Minecraft are based on Java 8, and various mods are not compatible with later versions. For those, download the latest Java 8 from Oracle. Then unpack the files to the folder where FTBA can find them.

sudo tar -xf jre-8uVERSION-linux-x64.tar.gz -C /usr/lib/jvm

No configuration with update-alternatives is necessary. Open FTBA and go to Library -> your modpack -> Settings -> Java version and select the Java 8 you just installed. You should increase the instance memory to at least 4 GB, preferably more.

Using a discrete Nvidia GPU on a Linux laptop

Run the FTB App with these environment variables:

__NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1 __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia ~/FTBA/FTBApp

You can use the command nvidia-smi to check that Minecraft is indeed using the discrete GPU.

Mods

Rubidium

Rubidium can double your FPS, and it works with FTB modpacks. Just copy it to the mods folder of your client.

Oculus

Shader mod.

OptiFine

OptiFine is highly recommended for improving the graphics. Unfortunately it’s not bundled in modpacks by default due to its restrictive licensing and incompatibilities with various mods.

You can try installing OptiFine to a FTB modpack. First download the OptiFine version appropriate for your Minecraft version. Then open FTBA and go to Library -> your modpack -> “three dots” -> Open… -> Mods folder. Copy-paste the OptiFine jar there, and try starting Minecraft. If it doesn’t work, just remove the OptiFine jar from the mods folder.

FTB Beyond works only with some OptiFine versions. According to my testing version D7 is compatible, and versions D6 and I5 are incompatible.

Good shaders

Quantum Break

Steam

If you have a CPU with many threads such as an AMD threadripper, the game may crash at launch with the following error.

R_ASSERT( Havok Error (id 0xf03454fe)
Memory\System\FreeList\hkFreeListMemorySystem.cpp (100): Too many threads
)
File: Memory\System\FreeList\hkFreeListMemorySystem.cpp
Line: 100

Reason: Too many threads

When running the game with Proton, you can fix this with the launch option:

WINE_CPU_TOPOLOGY=31:0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30 %command%

Supreme Commander

Zero-K