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Linux marketshare on Steam dropped again in October, as China takes a massive chunk of the market
By g000h, 3 November 2017 at 1:30 pm UTC Likes: 3

Quoting: BrisseThere's no reason someone who pirated Windows wouldn't have a legit Steam account with a few legally owned games on it. The world isn't that black and white.

Here's some Black and White for you..

You play legitimately bought games on pirated Windows - you're a pirate.
You play pirated games on pirated Windows - you're a pirate.

You play legitimately bought games on free Linux - you're not a pirate.

F1 2017 released for Linux as Feral Interactive’s first Vulkan-only title, here’s a port report
By Liam Dawe, 3 November 2017 at 1:27 pm UTC

Also note, Phoronix benchmarks were wrong: https://github.com/phoronix-test-suite/test-profiles/pull/7

Feral sent a pull request to fix them. Essentially, a bunch of options were totally wrong.

So, take Phoronix results with a huge bag of salt.

F1 2017 released for Linux as Feral Interactive’s first Vulkan-only title, here’s a port report
By MasterSleort, 3 November 2017 at 1:18 pm UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: ArdjeHmmm, still can't buy it on steamos... It gives this nice "An error occured" when I try to go to the product page. At least it means the site is probably sharding, as all other games are buyable.

I have SteamOS as well, but haven't checked whether I could buy the game there. You could buy it from ferals store and then activate the key on SteamOS. That way Steam also doesn't take its share from the price, and therefore more money goes into Ferals pockets ;)

F1 2017 released for Linux as Feral Interactive’s first Vulkan-only title, here’s a port report
By , 3 November 2017 at 1:17 pm UTC

Quoting: BrisseThe answer depends on whether you are running GNOME on Wayland or Xorg.

Well that's one possibility. But pre-wayland I had experienced what i perceived to be slower performance on some titles. There does still seem to be discrepencies based on what DE you are using, even when the compositor is disabled for fullscreen windows.

F1 2017 released for Linux as Feral Interactive’s first Vulkan-only title, here’s a port report
By Brisse, 3 November 2017 at 1:14 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: meggermanCould it be Gnome again ? I have experienced slower performance on select games under Gnome, it's one of the reasons i moved away from it. Phoronix testing was done under Unity AFAIK and that uses compiz, ubuntu-unity(compiz) is still the default recommended platform for most linux titles and id imagine many are tested on there.

Does Gnome desktop really take it's hand off the compositing fully ? If so how does the full screen hot key to mode work so seamlessly to grab the game window and present it in overview mode. Perhaps now Ubuntu has moved to Gnome, future games can be developed and tested on Gnome.

The answer depends on whether you are running GNOME on Wayland or Xorg.

GOG Connect adds more games, act quick
By MagicMyth, 3 November 2017 at 1:14 pm UTC

Quoting: cRaZy-bisCuiTYou just have to own them and you need to set you Steam profile to "public". Also, you need of course to connect your GOG and Steam accounts for it to work.

Ah nuts. Thats why its been failing on me of late. I forgot the profile needs to be public :'( Thanks for reminding me.

F1 2017 released for Linux as Feral Interactive’s first Vulkan-only title, here’s a port report
By Ardje, 3 November 2017 at 1:13 pm UTC

Hmmm, still can't buy it on steamos... It gives this nice "An error occured" when I try to go to the product page. At least it means the site is probably sharding, as all other games are buyable.

F1 2017 released for Linux as Feral Interactive’s first Vulkan-only title, here’s a port report
By , 3 November 2017 at 1:11 pm UTC

Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: fatriffFeral recommends using the NVIDIA 384 driver series for now when playing this game as there are some current regressions with the 387 series up through 387.22.

Phoronix is getting 133FPS on Ultra VS your 80FPS on the same card..
As already stated in the article and in the comments, I tested both driver versions and the difference was negligible.

I'm currently going through more tests to see if I can find any reason for me to possibly have lower than expected performance.

Keep in mind with Phoronix, his CPU is overclocked at 1.7GHZ faster than mine.

The linked Youtube be benchmark is also using a 1GHZ faster processor.

The base clock on mine is only 3GHZ, which could account for a lot of it.

Then again keep in mind that it might not be that ..

Quoting: pete910Arguments aside, Vulkan is awesome.

1440p ultra settings. CPU barely braking a sweat. How it should be on modern CPU's ;)



Could it be Gnome again ? I have experienced slower performance on select games under Gnome, it's one of the reasons i moved away from it. Phoronix testing was done under Unity AFAIK and that uses compiz, ubuntu-unity(compiz) is still the default recommended platform for most linux titles and id imagine many are tested on there.

Does Gnome desktop really take it's hand off the compositing fully ? If so how does the full screen hot key to mode work so seamlessly to grab the game window and present it in overview mode. Perhaps now Ubuntu has moved to Gnome, future games can be developed and tested on Gnome.

Linux marketshare on Steam dropped again in October, as China takes a massive chunk of the market
By Brisse, 3 November 2017 at 1:10 pm UTC

Quoting: g000h
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: g000hI think what annoys me about this news is the fact that most of the copies of Windows being used in China are pirated. Previous news stories estimate 90% of Windows in China is pirated. A few years ago, Steve Ballmer stated it being the case. It is clear that Chinese do not want to pay for software, probably because typical earnings are not great and probably because they can get away with it without fear of repercussions.

The thing is... They could be using Linux instead, and for FREE. And no WannaCry or other malware that has gone through Windows installs over there. Imagine the boost to Linux if all those Chinese had not been pirating...

What makes you think that Chinese Linux users would bother to pay for the games?

Answering your question: Anyone who pirates operating system software is just as likely to pirate games or application software. In the case of games which don't have an online multiplayer component, e.g. playing The Witcher 3, Skyrim, Dark Souls, then I'm sure that piracy is rife.

However, games which use a gamer id to login to an online multiplayer game, e.g. Overwatch, PUBG - Then the publishers can identify pirates and ban them. In these cases, I expect there are game purchases being made. Also noting that these are Steam statistics, so I expect the game has been bought (or the steam key acquired fraudulently) for the pirate to play it.

There's no reason someone who pirated Windows wouldn't have a legit Steam account with a few legally owned games on it. The world isn't that black and white.

F1 2017 released for Linux as Feral Interactive’s first Vulkan-only title, here’s a port report
By Brisse, 3 November 2017 at 1:03 pm UTC

Quoting: JahimselfThere must be something with Liam's setup or some regression, or it's on phoronix side who have too much perf?
Phoronix Bench on ultra at the bottom of the page:
Phoronix Bench

Guru 3D Bench, bottom of the page:
Guru 3D bench

The game performs better than on windows if we take those two benchmarks. Can those difference be explained by the CPU side? Does Vulkan perf benefits more from the cpu than dx11?

Phoronix was using a faster CPU clocked much higher. There's your answer.

Also, I don't think we can compare with Guru3D. That's like comparing apples versus oranges. If you want a comparison to Windows, it must be done on the same machine using the same settings like liamdawe did.

F1 2017 released for Linux as Feral Interactive’s first Vulkan-only title, here’s a port report
By Jahimself, 3 November 2017 at 12:50 pm UTC

There must be something with Liam's setup or some regression, or it's on phoronix side who have too much perf?
Phoronix Bench on ultra at the bottom of the page:
Phoronix Bench

Guru 3D Bench, bottom of the page:
Guru 3D bench

The game performs better than on windows if we take those two benchmarks. Can those difference be explained by the CPU side? Does Vulkan perf benefits more from the cpu than dx11?

F1 2017 released for Linux as Feral Interactive’s first Vulkan-only title, here’s a port report
By jens, 3 November 2017 at 12:05 pm UTC Likes: 4

I have spend some time now with the game. My verdict: Really a cool game and a very strong port from Feral. Thanks a lot.

Settings are maxed out, FPS seems around 60 (3440x1440) within a race, this is absolutely fine for me. Responsiveness to input is really good. I'm using a Logitech G25. Force feedback etc works just nice. Note that I had to adjust the steering saturation to 50 to have a better match between the in-game wheel and my wheel.

I had some texture glitches (stripes on the tarmac, very greenish grass), these issue were resolved with downgrading my nvidia driver from 387.22 to 384.90. It never crashed, seems rock-solid.

Linux marketshare on Steam dropped again in October, as China takes a massive chunk of the market
By g000h, 3 November 2017 at 12:04 pm UTC

Quoting: Guest
Quoting: g000hI think what annoys me about this news is the fact that most of the copies of Windows being used in China are pirated. Previous news stories estimate 90% of Windows in China is pirated. A few years ago, Steve Ballmer stated it being the case. It is clear that Chinese do not want to pay for software, probably because typical earnings are not great and probably because they can get away with it without fear of repercussions.

The thing is... They could be using Linux instead, and for FREE. And no WannaCry or other malware that has gone through Windows installs over there. Imagine the boost to Linux if all those Chinese had not been pirating...

What makes you think that Chinese Linux users would bother to pay for the games?

Answering your question: Anyone who pirates operating system software is just as likely to pirate games or application software. In the case of games which don't have an online multiplayer component, e.g. playing The Witcher 3, Skyrim, Dark Souls, then I'm sure that piracy is rife.

However, games which use a gamer id to login to an online multiplayer game, e.g. Overwatch, PUBG - Then the publishers can identify pirates and ban them. In these cases, I expect there are game purchases being made. Also noting that these are Steam statistics, so I expect the game has been bought (or the steam key acquired fraudulently) for the pirate to play it.

Observer is a fantastic brain-hacking horror adventure, my thoughts
By jens, 3 November 2017 at 11:57 am UTC

Quoting: Alm888Rest assured, you've understood my comment just right. :) No need for apologies.
That was my assumption too.. though it would be a nice gesture if you would answer my question.

Observer is a fantastic brain-hacking horror adventure, my thoughts
By Alm888, 3 November 2017 at 11:52 am UTC

Quoting: jensI'll offer my apologies if I understood that original comment wrongly.
Rest assured, you've understood my comment just right. :) No need for apologies.

F1 2017 released for Linux as Feral Interactive’s first Vulkan-only title, here’s a port report
By Brisse, 3 November 2017 at 11:46 am UTC Likes: 4

Quoting: niarbeht
Quoting: GrazenI bought it but frankly after reading this I'm going to run it in Windows. I have a GTX 1060 and based on this report it will run closer to the performance of a GTX 950 in Linux. I see no reason to suffer through horrible framerates and crappy performance just to support Feral's crappy port.

I see no data to support these wild assertions.

Michael over at Phoronix averaged 117fps with a GTX1060 at 1080p Ultra, so yeah I don't see why a GTX1060 wouldn't be excellent while running the Linux port :)

F1 2017 released for Linux as Feral Interactive’s first Vulkan-only title, here’s a port report
By niarbeht, 3 November 2017 at 11:38 am UTC Likes: 6

Quoting: GrazenI bought it but frankly after reading this I'm going to run it in Windows. I have a GTX 1060 and based on this report it will run closer to the performance of a GTX 950 in Linux. I see no reason to suffer through horrible framerates and crappy performance just to support Feral's crappy port.

I see no data to support these wild assertions.

F1 2017 released for Linux as Feral Interactive’s first Vulkan-only title, here’s a port report
By Ehvis, 3 November 2017 at 11:22 am UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: edddeduck_feralWe worked with Fanatec to get full support for their wheels on Mac and Linux starting with F1 2017, this includes Force Feedback, LED shift support and speed details on the LED display if you have an F1 style wheel.

That is quite a revelation to me. While this is great, it would be much more helpful to have drivers included in the kernel. Any chance of sharing the contacts so that could be discussed?

F1 2017 released for Linux as Feral Interactive’s first Vulkan-only title, here’s a port report
By x_wing, 3 November 2017 at 11:16 am UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: skinnyrafI am aware of this discussion. It's just that this up to 40% penalty in the review is much higher than expected. It's good that neither dubigrasu nor Phoronix confirm that. 10% gap is great, 15-20% is acceptable, >30% is not acceptable.

The acceptable point would be to get over 60 fps. In all the benchs we can see that when we put more quality in the game, the gap gets little, so all the result should be analized with caution.

For the complainers, if the problem is: "I need more hardware for run the game on Linux", please also remember that you get extra cash when you use Linux (you save 90usd from Windows license at minimum!).

In the current situation of the market, I feel that we cannot get fanatic and ask for equal performance. We're still getting games that were designed for Windows and then adapted for Linux. In the current situation this results are amazing.

F1 2017 released for Linux as Feral Interactive’s first Vulkan-only title, here’s a port report
By Pinguino, 3 November 2017 at 11:09 am UTC

Quoting: Xpanderi have the wheel set to 540 degrees with:

ltwheelconf --wheel DFGT --nativemode --range 540 --autocenter 0

and then from the game saturation is set to 90, to match the wheel

Works perfectly, thank you so much!

F1 2017 released for Linux as Feral Interactive’s first Vulkan-only title, here’s a port report
By Eike, 3 November 2017 at 11:03 am UTC Likes: 6

Quoting: 0aTTYou and some others do not understand that not all people have the luxury to use several OS. I just have not the time and I'm very grateful to Feral now and again to get an AAA title for my platform that I have to use. Between 10 or 20% of the time I play maybe, the rest of the day I have to do something else unfortunately. And I need Linux for that. Sometimes I only play 15 minutes in between. I can not boot my entire working environment every time.

I'm glad because I've got the luxury to not use several OS nowadays, thanks to Feral and others.

F1 2017 released for Linux as Feral Interactive’s first Vulkan-only title, here’s a port report
By cRaZy-bisCuiT, 3 November 2017 at 10:57 am UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: edddeduck_feral
Quoting: wleoncio
Quoting: edddeduck_feralWe worked with Fanatec to get full support for their wheels on Mac and Linux starting with F1 2017, this includes Force Feedback, LED shift support and speed details on the LED display if you have an F1 style wheel. As far as we know we're the only game developer to have full Linux support for these wheels right now so we're pretty excited to see what everyone thinks!

That is such great news! I've been meaning to purchase a Fanatec wheel (mainly because of how easy they can be disassembled), but I wouldn't pull the trigger on such an expensive setup before being basically 100% sure it would work on all my racing games.

Right now only F1 2017 is supported with Force Feedback etc on Linux. But going forward we'll have it in our future racing games. :D
Maybe after having this implemented you could also update your existing racing games? That's why I used to love Blizzard a lot: They updated even more than 10 years old games like Warcraft III.


By the way, that about the cross platform Multiplayer in Dawn of War 3? When can we expect it?

F1 2017 released for Linux as Feral Interactive’s first Vulkan-only title, here’s a port report
By edddeduck_feral, 3 November 2017 at 10:46 am UTC Likes: 8

Quoting: wleoncio
Quoting: edddeduck_feralWe worked with Fanatec to get full support for their wheels on Mac and Linux starting with F1 2017, this includes Force Feedback, LED shift support and speed details on the LED display if you have an F1 style wheel. As far as we know we're the only game developer to have full Linux support for these wheels right now so we're pretty excited to see what everyone thinks!

That is such great news! I've been meaning to purchase a Fanatec wheel (mainly because of how easy they can be disassembled), but I wouldn't pull the trigger on such an expensive setup before being basically 100% sure it would work on all my racing games.

Right now only F1 2017 is supported with Force Feedback etc on Linux. But going forward we'll have it in our future racing games. :D

F1 2017 released for Linux as Feral Interactive’s first Vulkan-only title, here’s a port report
By Xpander, 3 November 2017 at 10:35 am UTC

Quoting: wleoncio
Quoting: XpanderBenchmark and Quick Gameplay video:

View video on youtube.com

I see your wheel is locked up nicely with the in-game wheel (i.e., turning angles seem to match). Does it also happen in F1 2015? My DFGT is not synced up so neatly on F1 2015 and I can't find a place to change this in-game. It doesn't bother me so much because steering still feels natural, but I'd still like to try and fix it.

i have the wheel set to 540 degrees with:

ltwheelconf --wheel DFGT --nativemode --range 540 --autocenter 0

and then from the game saturation is set to 90, to match the wheel

F1 2017 released for Linux as Feral Interactive’s first Vulkan-only title, here’s a port report
By Pinguino, 3 November 2017 at 10:23 am UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: edddeduck_feralWe worked with Fanatec to get full support for their wheels on Mac and Linux starting with F1 2017, this includes Force Feedback, LED shift support and speed details on the LED display if you have an F1 style wheel. As far as we know we're the only game developer to have full Linux support for these wheels right now so we're pretty excited to see what everyone thinks!

That is such great news! I've been meaning to purchase a Fanatec wheel (mainly because of how easy they can be disassembled), but I wouldn't pull the trigger on such an expensive setup before being basically 100% sure it would work on all my racing games.

Observer is a fantastic brain-hacking horror adventure, my thoughts
By jens, 3 November 2017 at 10:15 am UTC

Quoting: ArdjeActually, I am not sure if that is meant negative or positive. I know outrageously good, I haven't heard outrageously bad, and I know that "that's an outrage" is meant negative.
I'm not a native (any) english speaker, but I assumed he meant it positive.
As in: the good ports only get on Steam and not on Gog.

Good point :). I'm not a native speaker either. I'll offer my apologies if I understood that original comment wrongly.

Observer is a fantastic brain-hacking horror adventure, my thoughts
By Ardje, 3 November 2017 at 9:59 am UTC

Quoting: jens
Quoting: Alm888Just FYI, I have none.
Then why and on what grounds are you stating in public that the work from Feral or Aspyr is "of outrageous quality"? Being jealous? Are you just a simple soul that repeats random stuff read somewhere else?
Actually, I am not sure if that is meant negative or positive. I know outrageously good, I haven't heard outrageously bad, and I know that "that's an outrage" is meant negative.
I'm not a native (any) english speaker, but I assumed he meant it positive.
As in: the good ports only get on Steam and not on Gog.

F1 2017 released for Linux as Feral Interactive’s first Vulkan-only title, here’s a port report
By Pinguino, 3 November 2017 at 9:49 am UTC

Quoting: XpanderBenchmark and Quick Gameplay video:

View video on youtube.com

I see your wheel is locked up nicely with the in-game wheel (i.e., turning angles seem to match). Does it also happen in F1 2015? My DFGT is not synced up so neatly on F1 2015 and I can't find a place to change this in-game. It doesn't bother me so much because steering still feels natural, but I'd still like to try and fix it.

F1 2017 released for Linux as Feral Interactive’s first Vulkan-only title, here’s a port report
By 0aTT, 3 November 2017 at 9:42 am UTC Likes: 5

Quoting: GrazenI bought it but frankly after reading this I'm going to run it in Windows. I have a GTX 1060 and based on this report it will run closer to the performance of a GTX 950 in Linux. I see no reason to suffer through horrible framerates and crappy performance just to support Feral's crappy port.

You and some others do not understand that not all people have the luxury to use several OS. I just have not the time and I'm very grateful to Feral now and again to get an AAA title for my platform that I have to use. Between 10 or 20% of the time I play maybe, the rest of the day I have to do something else unfortunately. And I need Linux for that. Sometimes I only play 15 minutes in between. I can not boot my entire working environment every time.

I'm glad when people can use dual boot. But it is hardly an alternative for everyone. The Feral Ports have always been great. They do a good job.

F1 2017 released for Linux as Feral Interactive’s first Vulkan-only title, here’s a port report
By [email protected], 3 November 2017 at 9:41 am UTC

Quoting: skinnyraf
Quoting: [email protected]The gap is abstraction.

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/5cis3p/feral_interactives_indirectx/

There's a whole discussion on the subject at Reddit.

Feral did a good job with what they can physically do imo. Their work is fantastic.

Don't expect performance parity with Windows. That's akin to comparing native performance to emulation (although abstraction isn't exactly emulation).

I am aware of this discussion. It's just that this up to 40% penalty in the review is much higher than expected. It's good that neither dubigrasu nor Phoronix confirm that. 10% gap is great, 15-20% is acceptable, >30% is not acceptable.

Imo, if at any resolution, it clocks above 60 frames consistently - (anything from 70 to 90 consistently in all areas), i'd consider it acceptable even if the Windows or other OS versions are clocking 1000 fps.