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A reader pointed out that the FAQ for the Amazon Lumberyard [Official Site] game engine no longer lists Linux support, so I reached out to Amazon to see what's going on.

Here's what it said originally:

Q. What device platforms does Lumberyard support?
Lumberyard currently supports PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. Mobile support for iOS and Android devices is coming soon, along with additional support for Mac and Linux. […]

And now:

Q. What device platforms does Lumberyard support?
Lumberyard currently supports PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, iOS (iPhone 5S+ and iOS 7.0+), and Android (Nexus 5 and equivalents with support for OpenGL 3.0+). Lumberyard also supports dedicated servers on Windows and Linux. Additional support for MacOS is coming soon. […]

I reached out to Amazon about this, since another AAA game engine supporting Linux would have been a really great thing. It seems they haven't seen enough demand for it:

Hi Liam, Lumberyard does support Linux for dedicated servers (which it didn't at the time the FAQ was written). Linux support for servers was a very important request from many of our customers.

As for a Linux-based editor / runtime support, we're keeping a close eye on what our customers are asking for. Right now, there's much more demand for a MacOS editor, which we're working on. If we get more demand for Linux for the editor and runtime, we'll definitely add it to our roadmap.

Thank you for reaching out to us and letting us know that you're interested in Linux support, I've let the team know.

I know there's a few people excited about Star Citizen, which switched over to the Lumberyard game engine, so hopefully this isn't too big a roadblock for them. Well, that's if Star Citizen is ever finished.

The silver lining here, is that not many games are actually using Lumberyard, so it's not a major issue. The most popular game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine do support Linux. I would actually be rather surprised if many developers did use the Lumberyard engine, since Unreal and Unity are so deeply entrenched in the minds of game developers.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Game Engine
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37 comments
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Leopard Oct 12, 2017
Afaik , Star Citizen team is customized the Lumberyard engine for their own use. So you can say they forked it for their own use long ago , Lumberyard without Linux support won't be an issue for them i guess.
DamonLinuxPL Oct 12, 2017
I think for (Linux community) switch from CryEngine (Linux support) to it fork Lumberyard (no Linux) is huge mistake but who know...
mishugashu Oct 12, 2017
How disappointing. Why do they expect the chicken to come before the egg? If everyone supported Linux, Linux would be a much larger target audience. I can't even imagine how many potential Linux gamers are playing on Windows because of the lack of support.
Whitewolfe80 Oct 12, 2017
Quoting: mishugashuHow disappointing. Why do they expect the chicken to come before the egg? If everyone supported Linux, Linux would be a much larger target audience. I can't even imagine how many potential Linux gamers are playing on Windows because of the lack of support.

But there in lies the rub, we need a big time publisher with a big time triple a game to do a day one release on linux so there is no advantage to being on windows. I know there are big ish publishers supporting linux with some of their titles but landing something like COD/BF/Witcher 3 or no way linux companies like Bethesda or Rockstar launching games on linux, would love to see Red Dead 2 but i doubt its even coming to pc at this point.
gort818 Oct 12, 2017
Quotethere's much more demand for a MacOS editor

I wonder how they are gauging demand, who is demanding?
natewardawg Oct 12, 2017
But, the good news is that another open source engine, the Banshee Engine, is currently adding Linux support including the editor! :)

I was just talking with the developer about an hour ago:
https://github.com/BearishSun/BansheeEngine/issues/97
g000h Oct 12, 2017
Quoting: gort818
Quotethere's much more demand for a MacOS editor

I wonder how they are gauging demand, who is demanding?

Game companies have staff who use Macs by preference. For instance, Server Engineers who like working on a slick Unix-like when they're setting up game back-end servers. Artists who favour using Photoshop on Mac. Producers who like pretty, stylish laptops that they can take into meetings. Macs are seen as luxury items with slick interfaces, and they're easy and pleasant to use too.

Also, if you are coding mobile games for iPhones or iPads - you're forced to use a Mac to create builds.
GustyGhost Oct 12, 2017
It feels so wrong to "like" an article reporting on such a cowardly backstabbing.
TheRiddick Oct 12, 2017
its a real shame, looks like the future for Linux gaming could be getting harder even while the drivers and performance issues are being sorted out. Not much can be done,
Zelox Oct 12, 2017
hmm... This is not good, really need SC for Linux. Nothing confirmed here, but Im slowly losing hope.
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