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The Witcher 2 Has A New Performance Focused Beta For Linux

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The Witcher 2 now has a second beta for Linux which is aimed at improving performance for Nvidia users currently, and in future for AMD too.

QuoteWe have just updated our public beta with the first beta of our new D3D9 engine. This now employs a technique similar to WINE's CSMT patches - all OpenGL work is now done by a single worker thread, which the D3D9 engine submits commands to. This means that there is only a single GL context, and this makes management a lot easier for the driver.

So far we've seen quite significant performance gains on nVidia hardware. AMD, with fglrx 14.4 rev 2 is not quite so dramatic -we're working with AMD on that.

We'd also like feedback about the MESA radeonsi driver - we've heard that this is getting good enough to run the game, and we'd like some wider news on it.

Please opt-in, and tell us how things are. You can head on over to the Github issue tracker for the game, and post there:

https://github.com/KillaW0lf04/The-Witcher-2-Issues

Source

It's nice to see them actually try to deliver on their promises, and since we all know this eON tech will be used in future ports the better it is then the better future games will be, but we should still ideally want native ports since the performance of this will never reach native speeds. Sadly the performance of the beta for me did not seem to be any better. Low settings seemed slow, and medium settings seemed to give me a bit of input lag.

So, even with their attempts to improve performance while commendable is not enough for me to recommend anyone buying it, yet. We will keep on it, and keep testing for you! Hopefully soon we can recommend it.

Ps. How the hell do you get voglperf to build on Ubuntu/Mint to get a benchmark? Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Action, RPG, Steam
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raacoon Jul 31, 2014
With the new Patch (and Steam Overlay disabled) it runs really inconsistent between 18-40 FPS. But it does look a bit smoother than before. It's playable ... sometimes. It's still by far the worst port I've seen so far; and maybe it's just me but I can't play a game that doesn't at least run at 30 FPS.

I have set the graphics to "high spec" - the screen resolution is set to 1080p.

My Hardware configuration:

AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 965 Processor (4x 3.4GHz)
8GB RAM
GeForce GTX 760
Sabun Jul 31, 2014
Quoting: killxdenIs the Overlay always that big?

It can be modified! You can edit two config files, one being global or the other being per user.
/etc/glxosd.conf for global configuration, contains the default config
or the user specific one at the following:
~/.glxosd/glxosd.conf

You can modify the color of the text, the position, what exactly gets outputted and of course the font. You can also modify VoglPerf's as well (I've done it), but it requires messing with source code. GLXOSD is simply adjusting parameters via the glxosd.conf text files. :)

P.S: If you enjoy using GLXOSD, let the dev know on Github! I don't want him to stop working on it, it's a great piece of software. We need tools that rival Rivertuner and FRAPS.
Skully Jul 31, 2014
For me it was unplayable until today. Now it plays great for me. Not quiet as good as windows, but perfectly playable. I have it set to high quality with vsync on and texture memory size set to very large. Playing it with a wireless xbox360 controller. Played for about 4hours so far.

Witcher 3 better be a native port! I won't buy a recent title that's been wrapped on purpose.

edit: I did turn ssao off. Dunno if it helps or not, I turn it off on every game in linux if it has it.

Manjaro 64bit kde
i74770k cpu
GTX660ti 2gb 340.24 driver
16gb ram
killx_den Jul 31, 2014
Quoting: Sabun
Quoting: killxdenIs the Overlay always that big?
It can be modified! You can edit two config files, one being global or the other being per user.
<code>/etc/glxosd.conf for global configuration, contains the default config</code>
or the user specific one at the following:
<code>~/.glxosd/glxosd.conf</code>

You can modify the color of the text, the position, what exactly gets outputted and of course the font. You can also modify VoglPerf's as well (I've done it), but it requires messing with source code. GLXOSD is simply adjusting parameters via the glxosd.conf text files. :)

P.S: If you enjoy using GLXOSD, let the dev know on Github! I don't want him to stop working on it, it's a great piece of software. We need tools that rival Rivertuner and FRAPS.

Thanks for the info Liam :)
Nel Jul 31, 2014
This new beta seems to be slightly better, but, so slight i'm not even sure if it's really better. ^^

The fact remains that wine + CSMT patch is way faster, very close to windows version if it's not equal on my hardware (i5 3570 + nvidia 660).

If you want to test it, follow this tutorial :
http://www.gamersonlinux.com/forum/threads/the-witcher-2-guide.612/

Replace wine 1.7.5 with wine 1.7.4-CMST in playonlinux and add this settings in your game configuration :
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wine#CSMT_Patched_Wine_for_Significantly_Better_Performance

There are some visual glitches (small black areas here and there) but nothing that prevents you to enjoy the game.
Def Jul 31, 2014
Mint 17 64 bits, i7 4790K, 16GB ram and GTX 770. All tests with high settings.

Only tried the beginning of the tutorial but I went from 15 - 25 to a 25 - 30. Tried with low settings and it's starting to be playable with a frame rate between 40 to 60.

Huge improvements but still not enough for my taste.
EKRboi Jul 31, 2014
Well... I like the glxosd overlay im seeing here. I installed it on arch and tried adding 'glxosd %command%' to the launch properties on steam but it doesn't launch. Im geuessing because of the launcher. I can't get the game to run via command line as it complains of steam not running when it is. =( 'glxosd glxgears' does work and I can see fps though it doesn't show any gpu or cpu info.

Since I can't see my fps I don't know what it is running at but I can say it seems much smoother than before. Running on ultra -motionblur (hate it) -uber -SSAO. It 'seems' to be around 30fps give or take. Much more playable.. but ill wait til it (hopefully) gets better before playing.

Arch Linux
AMD FX-8350
8gb ddr3 1600
2x GTX 580

also the game is running from a Samsung 840 EVO SSD.

*EDIT fixed the gpu output.. had to change some paths in /bin/glxosd
*EDIT I did some file renaming in the game folder and can now launch TW2 directly from steam but its still not working. liamdawe, are you running 32bit linux? or am I missing something because the github states "32 bit applications running under a 64 bit operating system can't be injected."
STiAT Aug 1, 2014
Hmh, having ~15 FPS on a i7 with a 560gtx on low settings. And the main menu seems to be cracked (fonts).
thelimeydragon Aug 1, 2014
I haven't tested any of the open betas yet.

However on the original release I get around 15-25fps on Ultra Settings with Uber Sampling disabled.. however the game crashes a lot on that so I have to set it to high settings.. where I still get 15-25fps average..

I have a Nvidia GTX 760
killx_den Aug 1, 2014
Linux Mint 64 bit, MATE (MATE compositor OFF), nvidia 337.25
Core i7 3770k, GTX 670 OC

1920×1080, Ultra settings (no Uber, no Vsync):
before: 13 - 45 FPS (some interior maps had higher fps)
new beta: 30 - 90 FPS (some interior maps had higher fps)

Improved quite a bit for me. Though as others mentioned before the fonts in the menu are screwed up :/
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