Every article tag can be clicked to get a list of all articles in that category. Every article tag also has an RSS feed! You can customize an RSS feed too!
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

EA's experimental Halcyon game engine has Vulkan and Linux support

By - | Views: 28,310

It seems EA are doing some rather interesting things with their experimental Halcyon game engine which includes Vulkan and Linux support.

During the Khronos Munich Meetup this weekend, Graham Wihlidal of EA's SEED (Search for Extraordinary Experiences Division) presented a talk about this exciting game engine. While it's somewhat surprising to see EA start to use Vulkan, it's even more surprising to see Linux actually being mentioned as a target platform:

It's not just Vulkan though, it also supports Metal 2 (early stages) and Direct3D 12. On top of that, one of their aims is to easily access multi-GPU setups. However, they do mention that they haven't implemented multi-GPU support or Ray Tracing for Vulkan yet but they say it's planned.

What's also rather fascinating about it, is that they said they can mix and match different rendering backends in the same process. They say it made debugging Vulkan easier, as one half of the screen was using DX12 and the other Vulkan. Can't say I've heard of anyone else doing that, very cool.

See the full details here including a slideshow you can view online or a PDF you can download.

To keep some expectations in check: This doesn't necessarily mean EA are going to be putting out Linux games, but if they ever do start seriously using this game engine for future games it means the barrier for a Linux port could be lower. However, it might just be a bit of fun for the engineers.

Hat tip to Janz.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Game Engine
31 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
35 comments
Page: 1/4»
  Go to:

rkfg Oct 28, 2018
Quoteit might just be a bit of fun for the engineers.
It always starts "just for fun".
Liam Dawe Oct 28, 2018
Quoting: rkfg
Quoteit might just be a bit of fun for the engineers.
It always starts "just for fun".
Well, let's remember DOOM shall we ;)
rkfg Oct 28, 2018
Oh well, I was mostly referring to the Linus' book with that title. Hope it will grow into something bigger and all. Honestly, EA is the last company I expected to move into this direction. Bethesda would have been more logical.
Shmerl Oct 28, 2018
Multi-GPU support in common Vulkan drivers isn't even ready yet, or is it?
lejimster Oct 28, 2018
Quoting: GuestWell that's cool, if EA ever recovers from their current state of being a pure and utter garbage company that can't produce any decent games anymore......

EA have always been garbage. I had the "pleasure" of experiencing it first hand when I was in game development.

Its a shame really because they've ruined great studios over the years.
mylka Oct 28, 2018
origin is for macos and they dont have much games on it, so im not very optimistic
silmeth Oct 28, 2018
As I understand it, the SEED division is pretty independent inside EA, and their aim is to experiment with various new technologies related to gaming, not focused on providing a new AAA title on tight schedule. So they eg. create (at least some of) their software in Rust, and not C++ like the rest of the industry – see eg. this tweet, and this, and repositories they fork / contribute to. I wouldn’t normally expect EA to look into new emerging programming languages, and yet it seems that’s what SEED does, so it does not really surprise me that they also investigate open APIs and Linux support.
Dunc Oct 28, 2018
Quoting: lejimsterEA have always been garbage. I had the "pleasure" of experiencing it first hand when I was in game development.
In the '80s, under Trip Hawkins? I don't know what they were like to work for, but they had a pretty good reputation among gamers back then.

Released all their internal tools, too. Not free, because that wasn't really a thing, but you could buy them: Deluxe Paint (still, to this day, one of the best bitmap graphics editors around), Deluxe Music, etc. And they were almost an unofficial first-party developer on AmigaOS. The IFF container format (on which Microsoft based RIFF WAV) was EA's work. In my Amiga days, they were genuinely thought of as being among the good guys.

I kind of lost touch with gaming during the '90s, so I don't know when or how they went downhill, but it was quite a shock to discover how reviled they'd become in the community when I got back into it 10-15 years ago. They deserved it, but it was still a shock.


Last edited by Dunc on 29 October 2018 at 1:15 am UTC
elmapul Oct 28, 2018
So, they plan to allow others to use their engine, or its for internal use?

if its for their own usage, that probably means they are planing to support linux on their future games, but if they are trying to enter the marketing of seling game engines, well, i doubt they can enter this.
Purple Library Guy Oct 29, 2018
My eyesight must be going. I could have sworn I just saw a headline saying Electronic Arts was doing something interesting with Linux.
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.