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Civilization: Beyond Earth Mac And Linux Dev Update

By GNU Fan - | Views: 19,830
Aspyr Media has detailed in a new blog post their progress on the Mac & Linux Civilization: Beyond Earth ports.

The good news is that it's fully playable, but performance is an issue due to the new game using Directx 11 as opposed to their previous port using Directx 9.

QuoteCurrently our testers can perform full playthroughs of Civilization: Beyond Earth on both Mac and Linux, and we are able to test cross-platform multiplayer.

Our current focus is on improving performance. So far performance has been the biggest development hurdle as we’re facing an engine based on Direct X 11 vs. Direct X 9, which Civilization V was based on. This upgrade means lots of new driver issues and development hurdles for the team. This is also why our current preliminary system requirements are much higher than Civilization V or the Windows PC version of Beyond Earth. However, our development team is extremely good at what they do, and we expect to make significant strides in performance improvement over the next several weeks.


See the full blog post here.

What more can we ask for? We have a great porting house bringing us some big name games, and they are being rather open during development.

<3 Aspyr Media Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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EKRboi Oct 27, 2014
Full patch notes over there --->> CivV Steam v1.3.7 Patch Notes (10-27-14)

Linux fix #1 = Improved multimonitor support.

Awesome, Reinstalling now as that is what kept me from playing it before ^_^

On the other hand it kind of irks me they spent time to fix it for this game, but when I brought up a multi monitor issue with them about the Borderlands ports they basically said they wouldn't spend time trying to fix multi monitor issues with the games because it was a minority case

EDIT* HAHA, whoops! Pay no attention to me I got my games mixed up. In other Aspyr Civ news, CivV received a game update today
Segata Sanshiro Oct 27, 2014
QuoteThe good news is that it's fully playable, but performance is an issue due to the new game using Directx 11 as opposed to their previous port using Directx 9.

Why not just develop directly with OpenGL? What are the benefits of DirectX today? In the long run, it just causes more work for the devs (or third parties like Aspyr). Hopefully we'll be rid of it soon so we can have true multi-platform development, but until then Microsoft's "standards" will just be a hurdle towards progress, like IE was for web developers for many years.

Kudos to Aspyr though for keeping us up-to-date with things.
Hamish Oct 27, 2014
Quoting: Segata SanshiroWhy not just develop directly with OpenGL? What are the benefits of DirectX today? In the long run, it just causes more work for the devs (or third parties like Aspyr). Hopefully we'll be rid of it soon so we can have true multi-platform development, but until then Microsoft's "standards" will just be a hurdle towards progress, like IE was for web developers for many years.

Well, posting about that here is very much preaching to the converted I am afraid, when it is Firaxis and the like that really needs to get the message there.
Segata Sanshiro Oct 27, 2014
QuoteWell, posting about that here is very much preaching to the converted I am afraid

Yeah, sorry I was just venting my frustrations :P

I think in time, developers will get the idea. Old habits die hard.
drmoth Oct 28, 2014
OpenGL 4+ has pretty much all of DirectX11 covered iirc. It's a question of upgrading their OpenGL engine (which will probably require some R&D...)
edqe Oct 28, 2014
Quoting: Segata Sanshiro
QuoteThe good news is that it's fully playable, but performance is an issue due to the new game using Directx 11 as opposed to their previous port using Directx 9.
Why not just develop directly with OpenGL? What are the benefits of DirectX today? In the long run, it just causes more work for the devs (or third parties like Aspyr). Hopefully we'll be rid of it soon so we can have true multi-platform development, but until then Microsoft's "standards" will just be a hurdle towards progress, like IE was for web developers for many years.

Kudos to Aspyr though for keeping us up-to-date with things.

Probably experience, tools and drivers are big reasons for that. DX12 will bring MS platforms even more near to each other. Porting games between Windows <-> XBox One will be even easier than now.

http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?108072-Civilization-Beyond-Earth-Overcoming-Linux-GPU-Driver-Problems&p=448970#post448970

http://richg42.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-truth-on-opengl-driver-quality.html
Pinguino Oct 28, 2014
Quoting: drmothOpenGL 4+ has pretty much all of DirectX11 covered iirc.

Wow, is that true? And I, in my layman ignorance, thought OpenGL was still years behind DirectX feature-wise. Nice to know. :)
kozec Oct 28, 2014
Quoting: wleoncio
Quoting: drmothOpenGL 4+ has pretty much all of DirectX11 covered iirc.
Wow, is that true? And I, in my layman ignorance, thought OpenGL was still years behind DirectX feature-wise. Nice to know. :)
OpenGL was always far before DX. Always. But most of advanced stuff is (was?) available only as extensions, making developement little problematic. That may be one of reason why many games sticks with nvidia-only support.
Nezchan Oct 28, 2014
QuoteHowever, our development team is extremely good at what they do, and we expect to make significant strides in performance improvement over the next several weeks.

So my earlier guess of "end of November" was too much optimistic. Mid-December at best, maybe? They did say "Holiday season" before.
compholio Oct 28, 2014
So... was just going over the Aspyr "guess the secret game thread" and ran across this:
QuoteI have a confession to make team Linux.

In addition to the super secret project that shall never be named;), there will be 2 more Linux projects coming from Aspyr over the next 6 months. One of them you dont know you love yet...the other, you already do.

Its going to be a great year for Linux and Mac gaming.
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