Feral no longer porting A Total War Saga: TROY to Linux, citing less demand since Proton

The ultimate solution is already here and it's not Proton, or porting.
Current game engines are multi targeted to PC , PS4, PS5, Linux, Stadia , etc. so it should be a some amount of clicks to build the game to Linux if there will be demand for it.

Why not Feral use internal DXVK for graphics, and only port the system part of the game? It should be much faster for them to deliver a new game.


Last edited by lqe5433 on 28 Jul 2021 at 7:25 am UTC

etc. so it should be a some amount of clicks to build the game to Linux if there will be demand for it.

Unfortunately devs I've asked don't agree. They claim games simply don't work when they try to port to Linux and need a huge amount of manual tweaking and testing which consumes a large amount of time.

etc. so it should be a some amount of clicks to build the game to Linux if there will be demand for it.

Unfortunately devs I've asked don't agree. They claim games simply don't work when they try to port to Linux and need a huge amount of manual tweaking and testing which consumes a large amount of time.

lqe5433 is talking about multiplatform development, you're talking about porting after the fact. They're not the same thing.

I think this is good news, Feral ports were usually not very good: lower performance, delayed patches, additional bugs, etc.. The very idea of "porting" smells of a sub-par product.
I like to see *native* releases; it they cannot provide that, ensuring good compatibility with Proton may be better than a port.

The last Feral ports (i.e. Vulkan) run better than the proton/dxvk version. See for example [total war here](https://flightlessmango.com/benchmarks/tMCmukWXfPA) or [Shadow of the tomb raider](https://flightlessmango.com/benchmarks/GjuPA6HrFIU).

+1 this. I've tested in 2021 Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Ferral port was even faster then Windows DX12 version about ~8% which is huge difference IMO. At least on Radeon VII graphics card.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmarks:

- [Native Ferral port](https://matrix-client.matrix.org/_matrix/media/r0/download/matrix.org/XQnXqqlWciPHumWEgzUTkkmz)
- [Proton/DXVK](https://matrix-client.matrix.org/_matrix/media/r0/download/matrix.org/UUWxaURYhtryODsTgXBvRtXJ)

[Graphics settings](https://matrix-client.matrix.org/_matrix/media/r0/download/matrix.org/sQXImOeIvjiRnMAciCGoCNMr).

Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmarks:

- [Native Ferral port](https://matrix-client.matrix.org/_matrix/media/r0/download/matrix.org/XQnXqqlWciPHumWEgzUTkkmz)
- [Proton/DXVK](https://matrix-client.matrix.org/_matrix/media/r0/download/matrix.org/UUWxaURYhtryODsTgXBvRtXJ)

[Graphics settings](https://matrix-client.matrix.org/_matrix/media/r0/download/matrix.org/sQXImOeIvjiRnMAciCGoCNMr).

The Native Ferral port is not 100% the same as Windows. Some graphical parts are missing.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmarks:

- [Native Ferral port](https://matrix-client.matrix.org/_matrix/media/r0/download/matrix.org/XQnXqqlWciPHumWEgzUTkkmz)
- [Proton/DXVK](https://matrix-client.matrix.org/_matrix/media/r0/download/matrix.org/UUWxaURYhtryODsTgXBvRtXJ)

[Graphics settings](https://matrix-client.matrix.org/_matrix/media/r0/download/matrix.org/sQXImOeIvjiRnMAciCGoCNMr).

The Native Ferral port is not 100% the same as Windows. Some graphical parts are missing.

That was what i always concerned about. Would be interesting to know which exactly. Can you provide more details on this?

Feral basically used a translation layer anyway didn't they?

Yeah, they had their own version of it. From what they've said in public for the likes of the latest Tomb Raider they rewrote some rendering to get it to perform well. Can't find the link but it was mentioned in public.

However, these comparisons were taken quite some time ago. Presumably the native ports stayed where they were, Proton evolved and might yield more competitive results today.

Don't get me wrong, i like proton, and i play quite a few games with. But

1) the only bench i found just show us that the native (Vulkan) version run better.

2) as good as it is, proton is still a translation layer with (small) overhead. It's not difficult to understand that a real native version will always be better than a translation from DX (ok, Vulkan version run generally better). So point 1) has nothing special. I don't really understand why some people seem to get upset when a native version run better. (?)

3) People compare poor native version to up-to-date Proton gaming. ie. Quick and dirty native versions (openGL monothread ported in a few days) let people believe than native gaming is garbage, but it is really biased. As someone mentionned above : If Linux market share was higher than 0.9%, the situation would be different, because developpers would spend time on the native version :
4) a dev from Feral explained that on shadow of the tomb raider, specific Linux optimisations have been made in the source code, which is obvisously not possible with Proton.

In brief, native gaming is certainly better than proton gaming in term of performances but cannot be the choice right now for Valve. Valve is probably afraid of bad native versions, with poor performances, bugs, and poor support. They have no control on these versions, unlike the proton version ! The lack of confidence is in the Windows developers, not in the performance of Linux. Their choice is not a technical choice about performances, but rather a "Quality and after sales choice".

I always prefered Feral port to proton which is full of glitches and bugs. Feral port are always smooth with good sound implementation and 0 bug.

The problem is since the main member of feral left for Unity, there is only total war game, and I don't like total war series. I would buy every port if there was something to buy, but when it's not total war it's always those terrible tomb raider remakes (I bought a few of them despite I don't like).

The feral radar has nothing on it since two years.


Last edited by Jahimself on 28 Jul 2021 at 12:34 pm UTC

Well, exactly what I wrote a few days ago:

Check out the releases from Feral Interactive. The number of ports has been drastically reduced. This is certainly also due to Proton ... because if it runs well with Proton, then you don't need a port to play a game on Linux anymore.

-> https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2021/07/ryan-gordon-and-ethan-lee-on-proton-and-the-steam-deck/comment_id=207010


Last edited by KuJo on 28 Jul 2021 at 1:03 pm UTC

A bit more mainstream coverage (referencing GoL and the comments here)

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/steam-decks-proton-a-total-war-saga

Exactly what i was afraid of, and why i can't say if Proton is a good thing or not.

on the one hand you have 1 game from feral and maybe some other devs not porting their game to linux

on the other hand you have 1000s of games you can play, including the ones they would have ported.

imho the answer is pretty clear

I mean... maybe to be a little gross. But isn't this sort of like the short term gratification of getting a hooker... but then later down the road you figure out you caught something nasty and long term are forever cursed? That's kind of what this seems like, bad things long term, for short term solution.

For me, the specific use case of Proton is for games that would never even remotely get a native port. Games that are years old, and no longer supported. Or for games that won't even run on Windows 10.

what is long term for you?
for how long gaming on linux is a thing and nothing really changed?!?!
do you wanna wait another decade? or 2? or 3?

linux needs market share, which you wont get without games/software. with a bigger market share the native ports will come back

I always prefered Feral port to proton which is full of glitches and bugs. Feral port are always smooth with good sound implementation and 0 bug.

The problem is since the main member of feral left for Unity, there is only total war game, and I don't like total war series.

Well, silver lining there: I think there's a good chance that a good Linux developer in Unity would have a broader impact making Unity generally make Linux games well and painlessly, than the same person in Feral helping to port one game at a time.

for how long gaming on linux is a thing and nothing really changed?!?!

Nothing really changed? Are you serious?

Exactly what i was afraid of, and why i can't say if Proton is a good thing or not.

on the one hand you have 1 game from feral and maybe some other devs not porting their game to linux

on the other hand you have 1000s of games you can play, including the ones they would have ported.

imho the answer is pretty clear

I mean... maybe to be a little gross. But isn't this sort of like the short term gratification of getting a hooker... but then later down the road you figure out you caught something nasty and long term are forever cursed? That's kind of what this seems like, bad things long term, for short term solution.

For me, the specific use case of Proton is for games that would never even remotely get a native port. Games that are years old, and no longer supported. Or for games that won't even run on Windows 10.

what is long term for you?
for how long gaming on linux is a thing and nothing really changed?!?!
do you wanna wait another decade? or 2? or 3?

linux needs market share, which you wont get without games/software. with a bigger market share the native ports will come back

Isn't that basically what I said? The problem is we get the short term 'fix' by using Proton. The longer term may never happen now because developers code for 'Proton-friendly' vs 'Native-Friendly.' so we're stuck with never getting the full performance of the Linux system. But instead of longer term becoming a healthy thing where people start seeing the benefits of releasing native software, they just figure they'll sell one version, everyone will buy it anyhow, and there will be no incentive to make a native (hence better performing) version for the Linux users.

for how long gaming on linux is a thing and nothing really changed?!?!

Nothing really changed? Are you serious?

Ha, yeah someone has been a little blind to all that has happened...

For me is good news! the day that we dont need ports anymore is closer! And linux gaming wont have limitations to grow. And if it grows enough publishers will care a lot that game runs pretty well on linux also :P

Still not going to get people to adopt linux even if x game runs on linux under proton 1 to 1 and there is no difference there will always be an excuse that they need windows. If someone wants to use linux they are using it already. If people dont want to use linux there will always be an excuse for gamers theres always the shifting goal post if gta 5 was avilable on linux i d switch tomorrow okay you can play it on linux and its great via proton oh well multiplayer its gotta have the multiplayer then i ll switch to linux okay the multi player works Red dead 2 when that works on linux i ll switch tomorrow and so on and so on. People like sticking to what they know its the same reason that you could order anything from a chinese restaurant but you dont you stick to the same two or three thing you know you like. People stick to windows because its the ultimate lazy boy os if you fuck up theres probably a program with a gui that can unfuck your system.

I cannot overstate how terrifed people are of the command line terminal why do you think apart from snaps and flatpack debian and ubuntu pushe deb to be the default packing for a program because its extremely similar to an exe you double click it confirms the program and you effectively have to click next and your done. windows users expect and need that because the idea of using the terminal scares the shit of out them in case they brick their system. Why mentioning this people will stick to what they know same with the steam deck theres already plenty of main stream youtube channels that are covering it saying they stick windows on it and let everyone see the benchmarks.

Or they could go on making a killing by porting to switch since it runs linux and contracts are easier to get[/quote]
You mean Feral? I hope so and wish them well... Personnally I have no Switch to benefit from that.[/quote]
Nor do i but i think its fair to say Feral has joined Asypr in the departed linux space also we lost VP as they not longer port to linux not too many unhappy about that one though. They lost their contracts with codemasters when EA bought codemasters