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The Witcher 3 For Linux Remains Officially Unconfirmed

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Despite the ad which briefly appeared on the Steam front page announcing that Witcher 3 is coming to SteamOS, we now received an official answer that it is not confirmed.

In the interview on Gamescom 2014 which consisted of questions collected from the Witcher community on CDPR forums, Environment Art & Level Design Producer Michał Stec of CD Projekt Red was asked whether Witcher 3 is coming to Linux and the answer was not very encouraging:

QuoteQ: Will Witcher 3 be coming to Linux?
A: It’s too early to say, we’re focusing on releasing it on PC, Xbox One and PS 4, same quality, same experience to all the players. We’ll see after that, Linux, Mac I guess it might be planned but I do not know about it yet.


Source (at 06:29 in the interview):
https://youtube.com/watch?v=QTzMelOeKEw#t=6m30s

Unfortunately no reason was given for the SteamOS ad on Steam that caused a lot of confusion, and no details about whether any work on supporting OpenGL in REDengine has started so far.

The Witcher 3 is a highly anticipated action RPG developed by CD Projekt Red and scheduled to be released in February 2015. While the question about Linux support was raised many times, CD Projekt red never gave a definitive answer about their plans before, until the confusing SteamOS ad appeared on the front Steam page. It was removed within a day and many were left wondering whether it was legitimate or not. Neither Valve nor CD Projekt Red officially commented on that event, but it is clear that Linux users should not expect the Linux version at release time if they are to make any pre-orders now.

If you want to show your interest in the Linux version of the Witcher 3 you can add your vote to this entry in the GOG wishlist. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Action, Adventure, RPG
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31 comments
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Teal Aug 18, 2014
I dunno but there's no reason why an Environment Art & Level Design Producer would have any idea if there's going to be a Linux/Mac release or not as far as he's concerned, it's all PC (the controls, resources, delivery, are all the same).

It's like asking an interior designer of BMW about engine options of their next model. He's not one to really know.
vulture Aug 18, 2014
Quoting: berillionsActually, it's a good thing even if it's unconfirmed...

The Linux/Mac version is planned after the Windows release, i'm completly sure and it's absolutely certain. Why ? Because instead of to say "No Linux version planned for this game" to , Michał Stec said "It’s too early to say", "We’ll see after that" -> CDPR wants to take out a version but has not begun the development yet.

blue pill effect?

i'm also guessing you'll buy it to play on wine since it *cough* might *cough* show up. one reason why they avoid no is exactly these false sales they get
vulture Aug 18, 2014
Quoting: FutureSutureWith GOG taking ages to add Linux clients of games it sells that have Linux clients elsewhere, with the absolutely devastating launch of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings on Linux, and now this as well, I am leaning more and more toward just buying the games I want on Steam. Steam may not be open source, it may offer DRM, but it is treating Linux like a first class citizen and has improved the Linux ecosystem tremendously. Steam on Linux is what started and is continuing to advance the movement to make Linux a capable operating system for gaming. Perhaps it is time I offered it the attention it deserves instead of hoping for GOG to meet demand with supply.

anti-DRM-store only supporting main-pro-DRM-pusher should be enough of a clue. if they were anti-DRM as they claim, GOG should be driving gaming on linux, not Valve

although, since they also opened for linux now, i decided on giving them a little slack and wait. it's just games are expensive as hell there, not to mention they only have 50 8-bit like games only, which is not my cup of cake
Shmerl Aug 19, 2014
Quoting: TealI dunno but there's no reason why an Environment Art & Level Design Producer would have any idea if there's going to be a Linux/Mac release or not as far as he's concerned, it's all PC (the controls, resources, delivery, are all the same).

That's a valid point, I'll ask the interviewer to clarify how much Michał Stec is involved in development of the engine.
edqe Aug 19, 2014
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: MayeulC
Quoting: edqeTime to drop legacy and open source driver support for now if Linux wants to be competitive with consoles and Windows.
Oh, god, no ! The open source devs are making so much progress recently, I wouldn't be too surprised if we reached 4.5 (or at least 4.0) in less than 1 year. The BIG chunk of work is GLSL 1.50 (which is required by UE4 anyway).
Indeed - now is the time devs should be supporting the FOSS drivers.
The #1 thing developers should be doing though is supporting core profiles. Going from GL 3.3 to 4.x isn't that big an effort either, though brand new engines should probably focus more on 4.x (side note: Mesa already supports some of the 4.x AZDO stuff, and it definitely should be used).

Supporting core OpenGL 4.5 profile is what I tried to say. If CDPR just concentrates to make TW3 for OpenGL 4.5 core profile it shouldn't be a problem in long run since the open source drivers are catching up fast anyway. If they make their engine according to current state of open source drivers and OSX to me it would keep Linux gaming behind other platforms

I just hope Linux version performance and graphical fidelity is at least par with Windows Direct3D 11 version - of course even better. I'm afraid that Linux and especially SteamOS is going to be known as a gaming platform that has very small amount of games, much worse graphical fidelity compared to consoles/Windows and games runs worse.
toni Aug 19, 2014
Quoting: OrkultusI am just worried that they are going to make this engine all filled with DX crap.
Man, dx is not the only problem when facing a multiplatform game. I would even say it's not the hardest. And the engine is already system agnostic as it's ported to ps4. I think they will face more issues regarding ogl drivers than anything related to dx. And Probably they don't invest in linux developers as much as valve does.
Plintslîcho Aug 20, 2014
@ minj, Spl-it Ah, so I'm not the only one after all who was a little… "surprised" by that statement.

When I read "PC, Xbox One and PS 4, same quality" the first things that came to my mind where QTE, stupid spawning of enemies, predefined path in a game that pretends to be open world and rolling around like a lunatic monkey on steroids™, which we already have in Witcher 2. ^^
Shmerl Aug 22, 2014
@Plintslîcho: Witcher 3 will have proper fencing pirouettes, not roly poly doging. Also, for those who are annoyed by it in the Witcher 2, there is this mod.

View video on youtube.com
Shmerl Aug 24, 2014
http://gamingbolt.com/the-witcher-3-tech-interview-ps4xbox-one-performance-challenges-dx12-redengine-3-mods-more

QuoteRashid Sayed: Are there any plans to use Mantle or DX 12 features in The Witcher 3? May be post launch?

Balazs Torok: There are definitely plans for exploring different graphics APIs, post launch. Right now we are concentrating on providing the best possible game for the majority of our players.

Sounds like any additional APIs (which can be OpenGL 4.x) are planned only post launch, which indirectly confirms what was said in the interview.
Shmerl Aug 25, 2014
If you want to ask some technical questions to CD Projekt Red, you can do it here. So far they didn't confirm they'll answer any, but ask good questions, and they'll hopefully answer what they can.
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