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The Linux port of space action game 'EVERSPACE' is sounding a bit iffy now

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I was seriously looking forward to getting some space combat action with 'EVERSPACE' [Steam, Official Site], but it's sounding like the developers are having major issues.

I follow a lot of posts on Steam, so that I can keep up with promised ports and a developer just said this about it:
QuoteI'm not that much involved, but here is what I gathered from meetings: Several mouse cursor issues (Mouse always getting set to the center when we turned drawing of the system mouse cursor off, mouse offset when changing window size, mouse position being clamped and not being able use the whole screen), fullscreen not working non-natively, massive flickering and shader precision issues because we're using a unit setup that is apparently too big for OpenGL (but works like a charm on DirectX). Many of these issues could be fixed, but there remain massive lighting issues when materials appear too dark or bright and everything is white. Not sure if and when these can be solved, it is tedious.

Their wording is sounding less and less likely as time goes on.

This sadly seems like something we see all too often. A developer promising a Linux version, but not doing enough early testing. They said back in March in would be on Linux (and promised on the Kickstarter), then in September we were told it will hopefully be on Linux before the month is up. It's now November and we are still waiting.

Considering Linux support was a stretch-goal on their Kickstarter, they already took the funds to make it. I hope this doesn't turn into another crowdfunding sore spot for us. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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28 comments
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Shmerl Nov 14, 2016
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: ShmerlUnreal now is almost ready with Vulkan support. Can they use that?

From the list of issues given, it wouldn't help any. In fact, I'd say it'd cause them more problems due to the additional complexity in getting it to work. If they're having shader issues with OpenGL, there's a good chance they'd need GLSL anyway (though maybe an experimental HLSL compiler is in there, I don't know) and so they'd be suffering the same problems.

Hoes does Unreal handle shaders for multiple platforms in general? Don't they need to provide API specific shaders either way, so they are already using GLSL I assume?


Last edited by Shmerl on 14 November 2016 at 6:12 pm UTC
Shmerl Nov 14, 2016
Quoting: GuestUses a HLSL -> GLSL conversion, but I don't know the details. If they've got issues as a result of that conversion process though, they're going to have them with Vulkan as well.

Just depends what the actual problem actually is. More info needed.

Translation sounds far from ideal, I don't think anyone has a complete HLSL → GLSL or HLSL → SPIR-V translator so far. There is this effort, but it's only WIP:

https://github.com/KhronosGroup/glslang/issues/362
https://github.com/KhronosGroup/glslang/issues/200

Anyway, why can't they develop shaders in a unified fashion, and just export them into HLSL, GLSL, SPIR-V or whatever? What exactly are they using for creating shaders to begin with?


Last edited by Shmerl on 14 November 2016 at 6:28 pm UTC
F.Ultra Nov 14, 2016
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Quoting: meggermanIm starting to think a lot of these issues are not so much that Linux is complex, but that these 'developers' are artists / designers / basic coders with lots of engine specific experience. i.e they are not traditional 'programmers'. A slight spanner in the works outside the sandbox that they work within and it's just straight faces all around.

As people have said Vulkan will help with this, but so would hiring someone who understands programming and computers as a whole into the game studio. It often seems this is an Achilles heal of Linux development, many don't even have a Linux test rig. A few proper desktop/OS level programmers could send bug reports and have things fixed upstream for other studios & the FOSS community to benefit from too.

Feral interactive seem to have a good bit of this concept sorted. So its not Linux as much as it is inexperience and poor resourcing.

That and also that they all start with the Windows version first (and only ever have programmed for Windows). In my experience (as a systems/server programmer and not a game dev mind you) I have found it much easier to create a project in Linux first and then port over to Windows with a few changes and compiling under MinGW so one still uses GCC than writing it in Windows first and then trying to get it work in Linux.

There are lots of situations where the same code runs fine in Windows while segfaulting in Linux leading many to first blame Linux before recognising that the bug is actually in their own code and that Windows where simply shadowing the problems (i.e the libc memory functions have much more protections than the Windows counterparts, this one bit me extremely hard when I switched from Windows to Linux some 17 years ago). Which is also why many people who port over to Linux fix several bugs in their code that they didn't know existed before.
Edmene Nov 14, 2016
Sad, out of the wishlist at least for now.
stevemcsteve Nov 14, 2016
i kickstarted this because of the linux stretch goal.

wonder if i can get my dolla dolla bills back.
TheRiddick Nov 15, 2016
Probably need at least another year or two of driver evolution for Linux to stop becoming a major issue for these ports. I know allot of people will argue otherwise but I have tested BOTH sides of the fence now and yeah, too many issues still coupled with MAJOR performance regressions/problems. Even the NVIDIA proprietary drivers have some annoying issues still!
crt0mega Nov 15, 2016
At least they are honest. I'm fine with the delay and still plan to buy the game next year.
lejimster Nov 15, 2016
Quoterockfish_andi [developer] 8 hours ago
Maybe my English was a bit confusing. With "many of these issues could be solved" what I was trying to say was "we were able to solve many of these issues". The mouse cursor thing for example, but thanks for the "unclutter" tip.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/396750/discussions/0/333656722966793785/


So in reality, they've fixed a lot of the problems, but it's still not in a releasable state, but they do plan to release a version for Linux at some point. Much patience is needed as always when it comes to Linux ports.
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