TheHellsLord
Member
I have one big criticism with the article and that is that it says that UWAs can only be installed through the store. This is not true of Windows 10 right now. If you enable sideloading in system settings a simple installer script can install/update a UWA that has not originated on the store. Downloading games and running an installer file however isn't how games are distributed today but it would be doable by alternate stores.
The question that needs to be asked however is wether the state of UWAs will remain that open even if the UWA model gains traction.
Modding is in a different place. The issues arising there aren't even due to Microsoft trying to lock down gaming but much rather due to software being locked down for a variety of other reasons. App models for example restrict access of software to locations that they need to interact with for privacy and security reasons (why does a game need access to the Excel files containing your bank statements, etc. - Win32 does not care about stuff like that). UWAs also don't use shared libraries where one tool installs one version while another requires another one and this then leads to issues because only one can be present at the same time. UWAs need to package everything they require aside from the system runtime together with the App and have their exclusive copy to use/update. This however makes it difficult to inject alternate libraries that change behavior (something lots of mods do).
Some features I'd guess we'll see support for in the future on a system level (especially stuff like FreeSync/GSync).
With stuff coming through the store however the additional issue for modding might arise that libraries are being signed when being delivered. This to a certain degree makes sense as it prevents injection of malware however it also breaks stuff when it's being modified by the user.
All in all there seems to be little incentive right now for regular users to opt for the UWA version of a game if it's also available in other stores (price is only consideration there). However I don't see it as that terrible a thing that a game you'd be interested in should be avoided at all costs just because it's implemented as a UWA.
Telling companies however that you'd like to see missing settings, etc. in the UWA version is definitely a good idea - most of all due to the fact that those settings being unavailable mostly isn't down to the App being a UWA.
The question that needs to be asked however is wether the state of UWAs will remain that open even if the UWA model gains traction.
Modding is in a different place. The issues arising there aren't even due to Microsoft trying to lock down gaming but much rather due to software being locked down for a variety of other reasons. App models for example restrict access of software to locations that they need to interact with for privacy and security reasons (why does a game need access to the Excel files containing your bank statements, etc. - Win32 does not care about stuff like that). UWAs also don't use shared libraries where one tool installs one version while another requires another one and this then leads to issues because only one can be present at the same time. UWAs need to package everything they require aside from the system runtime together with the App and have their exclusive copy to use/update. This however makes it difficult to inject alternate libraries that change behavior (something lots of mods do).
Some features I'd guess we'll see support for in the future on a system level (especially stuff like FreeSync/GSync).
With stuff coming through the store however the additional issue for modding might arise that libraries are being signed when being delivered. This to a certain degree makes sense as it prevents injection of malware however it also breaks stuff when it's being modified by the user.
All in all there seems to be little incentive right now for regular users to opt for the UWA version of a game if it's also available in other stores (price is only consideration there). However I don't see it as that terrible a thing that a game you'd be interested in should be avoided at all costs just because it's implemented as a UWA.
Telling companies however that you'd like to see missing settings, etc. in the UWA version is definitely a good idea - most of all due to the fact that those settings being unavailable mostly isn't down to the App being a UWA.