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Serious Sam Fusion 2017 [Steam] the massive update from Croteam is now available for Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter [Steam].

The Fusion update to Serious Sam will enable all games to support Linux plus Vulkan, 64bit, Multithreaded rendering and more!

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To get access, you have to buy Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter and it will later be rolled out to Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter and then Serious Sam 3: BFE and the VR versions.

It will show up as an additional game in your library under "Serious Sam Fusion 2017 (beta)", as Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter by itself is not on Linux, but it is with the Fusion update (which will cover all of their Serious Sam games, as mentioned).

I've tested it out and it works really well! Performance with the Vulkan option (not the default) seems to be really, really good. You can easily switch between Vulkan and OpenGL in the graphics options, no need for command-line junk here. I've only had a small amount of time with it due to other commitments right now, but I will be testing it out some more later on.

Major issue: Right now loading a saved game while using the Vulkan API might crash and possibly freeze up your system. I've seen it myself now as have others reporting it on the Steam forum.

Here's a video of my first attempts having never played it before while hyped up on caffeine! It makes my twitchy aim even worse, which I didn't think was possible!
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We will likely livestream this on our Twitch channel tonight for a bit, so keep an eye out. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Beta, FPS, Steam, Vulkan
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Cpukiller Mar 21, 2017
Quoting: Osirix7Serious Sam 2???????
Yeah... Missing that one too. Was a great game :( but since it never got an hd update it wont be rereleased for linux i think...
dubigrasu Mar 21, 2017
Quoting: tuubi
Quoting: dubigrasuVulkan is with about 30 FPS faster than OpenGL, but eventually I switched back to OpenGL since vsync on Vulkan doesn't really work.
The current build of Talos is fine and tearless for me on Vulkan with Nvidia's full composition pipeline enabled and the in-game frame limiter set to 60. I didn't really miss vsync. Assuming SS Fusion runs on the same engine, does this not work for you?
Well, it does work but it also adds a periodic slight stutter unfortunately. Is a bit more hard to spot it though when playing with a mouse or a Steam Controller due to more fast movements. But with an gamepad for example I can apply a smooth slow camera rotation and then it becomes very visible. Is like a one frame jump at few seconds intervals.
I do use it when watching Netflix etc, but gave up on it for gaming.
Not sure if is my specific system to blame or I'm just too sensitive to every little glitch, I'll probably need to test it on different hardware/distro to be sure.
Thanks.
coeseta Mar 21, 2017
Quoting: Cpukiller
Quoting: Osirix7Serious Sam 2???????
Yeah... Missing that one too. Was a great game :( but since it never got an hd update it wont be rereleased for linux i think...

That is sarcasm right? SS2 was the worst part of them all, because they had to scale down everything only to make it compatible with the weak consoles in the past. Because of that the maps were super small and the monster hords were also a lot smaller in number. To top it all of they thought a super colorful almost cartoony look would be a good idea. I think Croteam tries not to think about SS2 anymore.
lejimster Mar 21, 2017
Finally got to try the radv driver on my R9 270. Seems smooth enough on the Fusion update, only getting a small boost in performance over OpenGL, but it runs nice enough.
Grimfist Mar 22, 2017
Did a quick run of the first two levels yesterday (still knowing all the secrets, yay :D ) and it runs friggin smoothly with everything on ultra setting with well over 100fps, OpenGL or Vulkan doesn't matter here. Only thing I have with Vulkan, is some strange micro stuttering, only noticable when moving slowly (which is practicaly never in SS :D), but it is there. So I switched back to OpenGL and everything runs fine.
dubigrasu Mar 24, 2017
For those puzzled by the lower perf with Vulkan vs OpenGL, check if shadows are working correctly in OpenGL mode.
At least on my system in OpenGL mode they seem to work at random (most often not).
robotman5 Mar 25, 2017
Awesome!
g000h Apr 1, 2017
Just feel it is worth sharing with the GOL community - Croteam is offering the full Serious Sam catalogue for very good price indeed, on Steam:

Serious Sam full catalogue at 91% off (£8.62)

I don't know, because I already owned the bundle myself, but chances are that the Fusion 2017 update is included meaning Vulkan and Linux support for the titles. So far, "Serious Sam: The First Encounter" has made its way into the new Fusion release. More are to follow.

Serious Sam 3: BFE was one of the native Linux titles, from before the Fusion update and that can be bought separately here:
Serious Sam 3: BFE at 90% discount (£2.99)

Although I'd recommend going with the full bundle and getting all the titles on Fusion as they appear.
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