How does the shader cache compare into one created by just playing the game? Does it just brute force every possible variant producing tons of compiled shaders not actually used by the game or does it have a way to avoid the combinatorial explosion? I guess the record option could help, but then you would need to play the game with stutters first to gather the data and it would help only if you need to recompile after that.

Of course, but I meant Valve could be willing to help GOG to integrate Proton into Galaxy if they start contributing to development.

Galaxy is just for automating installation and updates and implementing cloud saves and achievements. The installation is identical to one made with standalone installer and can be launched from the executable without running Galaxy client. Already installed games can be imported to Galaxy library.

Proton is kinda tied to Steam, but UMU already replicates those dependencies so you can run it outside Steam client, so GOG could do something similar and I doubt Valve would object cooperation if GOG wants to participate developing Proton.

I wish it was like this. But instead were getting tickets with barely a title. Or there’s a report that the application misbehaves ones or twice per month with no reproduction steps, fix it. Or the delivery schedule is set, but there are no feature roadmap or milestones to track what is yet to be done and if we are on track. Or the project manager has got their position because they sucked at coding and the company couldn’t figure out what else to do with them and you have to keep explaining basic technical decisions over and over to them. And everything will come back haunting you as long as you are in the company. One ticket keeps being resurrected for you because client keeps changing their mind on how it should work or keeps finding more esoteric edge cases. Or you’re roped in to some legacy project over and over again, because you managed to do a minor fix for it two years ago and you’re the only one left who has ever touched it.

Because as Terry Pratchett astutely notes in the Hogfather belief is what makes the human society possible. We invented justice, mercy, duty, laws, money etc. They exist only because we believe in them. Some beliefs make the world better, other ones worse, and we should try to emphasize the former and minimize the latter.