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Beyond a Steel Sky gets a big upgrade with newer Vulkan support

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Beyond a Steel Sky, the sequel to cult classic Beneath a Steel Sky continues seeing some big post-release support from Revolution Software with a big engine upgrade. See also: some previous thoughts on it.

Quite a lot came with this new version include Cloud Saves on Steam, Moving from Unreal Engine 4.24 to 4.26, NPCs should no longer block you in the Aspiration Gala, an issue with Alonso "rolling his eyes into his head in snarky / possessed ways" was solved, snappier loading times, much better gamepad support and so on. A big maintenance release to improve the adventure game. Oh, saves actually have timestamps now too which is useful.

For Linux users, this is an important update. As Revolution said:

Do we have an update for you. Don't be mad!!! But due to the new Unreal Engine version not supporting OpenGL anymore, this is a Vulkan only club now, including brand new support for Vulkan ES3.1 which runs way quicker on low spec machines and brings your Linux experience on par with Windows & Mac gamers!

Update: Since the wording on Vulkan "ES" there was a bit confusing (there is no Vulkan ES), they cleared it up in their Discord:

I think you're right in that I could have phrased it better. I checked with our Linux devs who assured me that it's an emulated feature level and still Vulkan, but using a pared back feature level for better performance.

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Really great to see it continue to get fixed up, as a sequel to such a huge cult adventure game, it deserves to be played. Sounds like it's getting closer to a truly great experience now.

You can buy it from GOG.com in addition to Steam.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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9 comments

kokoko3k May 3, 2021
Nice since i've not yet played it.
jordicoma May 3, 2021
I have this game, and it's great. But unforunatly I have a gf660 and in some places goes "slow". I will try this with the new update if it goes faster.
But droping opengl support it's bad, we should be able to choose the rendering engine.
I didn't know that Vulkan ES existed. I only know Opengl ES.


Last edited by jordicoma on 3 May 2021 at 10:52 am UTC
tuubi May 3, 2021
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Quoting: jordicomaI didn't know that Vulkan ES existed. I only know Opengl ES.
Yeah I think they might be mixing up their backends.
Liam Dawe May 3, 2021
Quoting: tuubiYeah I think they might be mixing up their backends.
Yeah, it's definitely using Vulkan. Have asked them about it.
kokoko3k May 3, 2021
Does that mean vulkan backend for UE4 is finally mature enough?
Yes, looking at you, Everspace 2!
kaiman May 3, 2021
Already played it a few weeks ago, and it did have some graphical glitches on occasion. Sometimes reloading the save helped, sometimes it didn't. I have the feeling that either nVidia are having issues with their memory management, or 2GB VRAM start being inadequate for modernish 3D games.
PublicNuisance May 4, 2021
It hasn't hit GOG yet but that doesn't worry me as updates can take an extra few days sometimes.

Disregard, it's out on GOG now !


Last edited by PublicNuisance on 4 May 2021 at 3:48 pm UTC
Liam Dawe May 4, 2021
From what they said in Discord about Vulkan:
QuoteI think you're right in that I could have phrased it better. I checked with our Linux devs who assured me that it's an emulated feature level and still Vulkan, but using a pared back feature level for better performance.
Shmerl Jun 2, 2021
Just tried GOG version. It OOMs in the intro (eats all RAM). Did anyone encounter this memory leak in the game? Basically unplayable.
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