Also, check out trailers for TW2. I like this one (Chopin is so good):

Hope.
View video on youtube.com

Two others:

[Love & Blood.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdAUCNuNFmU)

[Disdain and Fear.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJwYp0vfTuE)

Quoting: ShmerlYes, and if you didn't play the first yet - play it as well (Wine). I like it even more.

That's a bit of an issue for me. I simply refuse to pay for a game that isn't available on Linux, regardless of how well it runs in wine. That being said, I don't like pirating games, especially from a developer like this. And yes, I'm well aware that piracy is wrong. I've only done it for a handful of windows-only games, a few of which later became available on Linux and I now own.

I don't care if a game is wrapped in wine. I've purchased games like that before. I just expect a developer to put in the effort themselves. I want to know that I can contact the developer for assistance. I don't mind fixing problems myself, just not for anything I paid for.

I pretty much feel like this about most things. I used to pirate music before I used Spotify, convenience beats everything. Even those games I did pirate were before Steam for Linux. With so many games out now, I can't really be bothered. Still, having only the second entry in a trilogy is frustrating.

I prefer DRM-free stores for music (Bandcamp), plus I like to always buy it in FLAC. Spotify is DRMed, and I avoid such distributors.

Regarding TW1 - ask around. It's often on sale or available from some bonuses and etc. People have free keys for it, so someone can give you one. I gave away a few keys for Witcher games in the past.

Anyway, there is a point not to buy Windows only games, if there is a chance developers will release it for Linux. But when such chances are low (like in case of old games) - it won't do anything. So you can as well buy it. And while they released TW1 for OS X using eON wrapper, I doubt they'll release it for Linux.

Also, if you don't want to consider it as purchase for Wine, you can buy TW1 to help project Xoreos: https://xoreos.org

I bought the first two Witchers as a bundle in a sale ages ago, I think I paid somewhere around 10 € for them. I'd never buy a Windows game just to play in Wine though. I promise I'll give TW1 another try as soon as it works with Xoreos, but the first time I did I just couldn't get into it. I'm sure the story is fine, but at least in the beginning the gameplay just wasn't as good as in the sequel.

Quoting: tuubiI'm sure the story is fine, but at least in the beginning the gameplay just wasn't as good as in the sequel.

Rhythmic combat is said to be confusing to some, but you can get into it, and it's not that bad.

The trick to TW1 combat is to switch to Group Style (only fight groups!) and spam click. Everything magically falls down dead.

Not really, if you are playing on hard especially. Group style produces less damage. The trick is to time your attack to get powerful combos.

It wasn't the combat. The timed attacks stuff is pretty much universal nowadays, and I can handle it just fine. I don't enjoy it, but I didn't enjoy the combat much in TW2 either. Or in Shadow of Mordor. I can live with it though. (I wish someone was brave enough to develop a modern open world RPG without any combat at all.)

I didn't intend my comments on the game as criticism. More like sharing my personal experience. I might enjoy it more now that I've played the sequel and read some of the literature. Maybe if I run out of actual Linux games to play? Won't be soon though...

Quoting: ShmerlNot really, if you are playing on hard especially. Group style produces less damage. The trick is to time your attack to get powerful combos.

Group style has a weird bug that seems to stack damage if you spam it, so enemies will die very quickly.

Quoting: tuubi(I wish someone was brave enough to develop a modern open world RPG without any combat at all.)

Well, I don't know about modern exactly... A Tale In The Desert is an open-world mmorpg without combat, it's been around for over ten years though it has changed iterations during that time. I played it way back when in the beta, not exactly my type of game, but assuming they stuck to their core ideas it might be perfect for you.

http://atitd.com

Quoting: Grifter

Quoting: tuubi(I wish someone was brave enough to develop a modern open world RPG without any combat at all.)

Well, I don't know about modern exactly... A Tale In The Desert is an open-world mmorpg without combat, it's been around for over ten years though it has changed iterations during that time. I played it way back when in the beta, not exactly my type of game, but assuming they stuck to their core ideas it might be perfect for you.

http://atitd.com

Thanks, never heard of that one. I don't do MMO though. I should have specified single player. But I guess the "modern" is optional, I'd be fine with an old-school, top-down rpg as well.

Ressurectuing this thread, as I've just started playing Witcher 2 :)

Any idea what I'm doing wrong with Witcher 2? I have set it to High, and then customized a bit, but my framerate is still choppy. Running around Flotsam gives me about 14-20 FPS, while going outside at the harbour will at "good" spots give me about 20-25.

Game-graphics cutscenes and conversations are so-so, a bit choppy, but not terrible. However, cinematics, like the comic book ones and the intro cinematic are very choppy, and the audio is stuttery with "static" or "interference" noises.

My impression, according to what I've seen reported elsewhere (e.g. [this chap](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Kv9quUSeSk), posting on [reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/5bcsrv/amd_rx_480_performance_preview_on_mesagit_linux/?st=jezdk08o&sh=e7b0926e)), is that this is really below what I should expect with my hardware now. Is there any performance difference between the GOG and the Steam versions? Is it as simple as my system not being able to handle the game at High? I've tried searching for solutions, but all I've found was that setting it to "beta" might be worth it, but I dunno if that's even relevant any more.

System:
Intel i5 6600K
AMD RX480
Steam-install with linux_public_beta enabled for W2.
Kubutnu 17.10 with backports.

Current settings are:

Resolution: 1920*1080 (on a 34" 3440*1440 monitor, so it's side-letterboxed)
Fullscreen: Enabled
Ratio: 16:9

Texture Downscaling: None
Texture Memory Size: Very large
Shadow Quality: Medium
Number of Shadowed Lights: Medium
LOD Distance: Normal
Bloom: Disabled
Light Shafts: Enabled
Anti-alising: Enabled
Blur Effects: Disabled
Depth of Field (DoF) - Gameplay: Enabled
Vignette: Enabled
Wet Surfaces Rain Effect: Enabled
SSAO: Enabled
Motion Blur: Disabled
Cinematic DoF: Disabled
DoF - Cutscenes: Disabled
Dangling Objects Limit: Disabled
UberSampling: Disabled
Vertical Sync: Enabled
Decals: High spec

I agree that you should be getting more. I ran on 3440x1440 (although the game cropped it to 2560x1440) with most settings on maximum (ubersampling disabled though). Cutscenes were a bit low on the FPS due to the Depth of Field settings being left on, but the normal game ran 40-60 fps, which was perfectly smooth with G-SYNC on.

It should be better indeed. What is your Mesa version? It could be some regression, which hit Mesa 17.x a few times. Try Mesa master.

If you want to test GOG version, you can get it here (using your Steam game code): https://www.gog.com/witcher/backup

Quoting: ShmerlIt should be better indeed. What is your Mesa version? It could be some regression, which hit Mesa 17.x a few times. Try Mesa master.

Should run fine on 17.3.6 as well:


Can't hurt to test 18.0 or even latest git of course. If you're running anything older than 17.2 then I'd say it's time to upgrade anyway, IIRC mesa-glthread was a pretty big improvement for this game.

Quoting: ShmerlIt should be better indeed. What is your Mesa version? It could be some regression, which hit Mesa 17.x a few times. Try Mesa master.

If you want to test GOG version, you can get it here (using your Steam game code): https://www.gog.com/witcher/backup

§ glxinfo | grep Mesa
client glx vendor string: Mesa Project and SGI
OpenGL core profile version string: 4.5 (Core Profile) Mesa 17.2.8
OpenGL version string: 3.0 Mesa 17.2.8
OpenGL ES profile version string: OpenGL ES 3.1 Mesa 17.2.8

Planning to try the GOG version (already own it on both platforms) when I'm back from traveling.
Would Mesa master be the same as the Padoka PPA mentioned?

Quoting: GuestThe GOG version should be no different to the Steam version if memory serves. I cant remember what the last "linux_public_beta" had in it either, but I dont think it was any improvements to rendering

The stuttery audio would suggest to me you may have a problem with interrupt storms happening. I did notice this at some point during using Mesa. The latest Mesa 18 should help - you can easily get this from the Padoka PPA.

Im also not sure if GOG actually released our latest patch. If they didnt, it's here: http://developer.vpltd.com/public/witcher2_gog/witcher2-gog-20150306204412.tgz

The game, downloaded from GOG, identifies as "gog_the_witcher_2_assassins_of_kings_enhanced_edition_2.2.0.8", if that helps. I will look into installing the patch when I get back home. The "linux_public_beta" was really just some desperate move, as I expect anything that was in that channel to have been merged to release ages ago. Just had to try it.
However, is there any tricks to installing it? As I'm currently away from my desktop for a while, and only have a Macbook for traveling, I can't really attempt it atm.

I could try upgrading to the Padoka PPA (mentioned here, I assume), to see if that fixes it. From the article i linked, I trust it's a more or less stable release channel, that won't risk interfering (negatively) with my system much? (Not that experienced in Linux yet).

It did seem strange to me that it would run so bad, to I'm glad to hear you guys confirming my suspicion. Then at least I can try do something, besides pulling out my hair.

Quoting: AppelsinOpenGL core profile version string: 4.5 (Core Profile) Mesa 17.2.8

That's outdated. Try newer Mesa please.

Can't say about Padoka, I'm not using Ubuntu, but I suppose they can offer latest release Mesa and latest Mesa master (development version). So try one of them.

Okay, thanks, I'll be sure to update to a newer version as soon as I get home.

From what I'm reading now, searching for Mesa, I get the impression that whichever version of Mesa that is -it- when shipping a new version of Ubuntu, is the one you're stuck with. Is this correct? Or are they just really conservative with sending new versions to users via offical Ubuntu channels?

Quoting: Guest

Quoting: AppelsinOkay, thanks, I'll be sure to update to a newer version as soon as I get home.

From what I'm reading now, searching for Mesa, I get the impression that whichever version of Mesa that is -it- when shipping a new version of Ubuntu, is the one you're stuck with. Is this correct? Or are they just really conservative with sending new versions to users via offical Ubuntu channels?

Not true. You can add a PPA to get a much newer version of Mesa. The most well known one is Padoka.

I'll try rephrasing my question:) What I'm wondering is whether or not Ubuntu is pushing updates to Mesa via the default channels, i.e. normal updates, or if they only update it once (or twice) a year, with each x.04 (and x.10) release, i.e. "whichever Mesa is current when Canonical ships e.g. 17.10 is the version which you'll have until you upgrade to 18.04, unless you actively add a PPA such as Padoka or x-swat to get the latest updates".

PS: In other news, I'm able to run Witcher 2 on ultra on my Macbook (though I didn't try with Ubersampling enabled), which suggests that my PC should handle it like cake. Also, I'm very happy to report, Witcher 2 has managed to actually sync Steam Cloud Save from Linux to Mac! And with a Flatpak Steam at that <3

Quoting: AppelsinWhat I'm wondering is whether or not Ubuntu is pushing updates to Mesa via the default channels, i.e. normal updates

I think they don't do it well enough, that's why people rely on external repos. If you want to have up to date Mesa automatically, I recommend not to use Ubuntu to begin with, but to use a rolling distro.

Take a look also how to build Mesa yourself, and use it without disrupting system installed package: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/wiki/Building_Mesa_from_source