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About Linux games being delayed: A chat with several game developers and porters
By natewardawg, 21 April 2017 at 1:31 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: CybolicI'm not trying to be harsh here, but I do believe that the perceived relevance of the "Steam Hardware Survey" as any sort of metric for the number of Linux users is largely useless and ultimately harmful for our community.

Not to mention it seems to me that Linux users tend to be more likely to buy DRM free games than those on Win or macOS, meaning they don't go to Steam at all, which would further skew the numbers.

Saints Row 2 is currently free on Steam, other Saints Row titles on sale
By GustyGhost, 21 April 2017 at 1:19 pm UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: BdMdesigNOn GOG its free, too.
As clearly stated in the article, GOG do not have Linux versions.

Grabbing (GOG connect) anyways just in case the sloths at GOG eventually decide to add the Linux builds.

Saints Row 2 is currently free on Steam, other Saints Row titles on sale
By adamhm, 21 April 2017 at 1:00 pm UTC

I found that running SR2 in Wine works better than the official Linux release: https://www.gog.com/forum/saints_row_series/saints_row_2_for_linux

Feral Interactive have released a new teaser for a Linux & Mac port to come
By Mohandevir, 21 April 2017 at 12:49 pm UTC

Quoting: Guest
Quoting: Eike
Quoting: MasterSleortJoking aside (for some other joking...) Now we have to come up with excuses as to why they haven't leaked it yet. It could be that they want to be sure that Feral can actually deliver. Imagine they went out and announced The Witcher 3 for Linux again and then failed to deliver once again. Better to keep it a UFO at Feral and let it disappear in the hopefully very unlikable event that it (whatever it is) could not be ported to Linux.

That gave me an idea: Feral is giving hints so widely interpretable in their radar so that they can relate them to another game if the current port doesn't work out. :D

They don't give widely interpretable hints. It's obviously Nier: Automata.

1) It would be the first Japanese Square Enix game to be on Linux. This explains the Japanese symbol.

2) The letter 茶 is the title from a Nier: Automata subquest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KoM4C8jAfQ

3) Feral Interactive loved working with Square Enix at a recent time (Deus Ex, Tomb Raider, Life Is Strange, Hitman, Thief,..)

4) Nier: Automata is the best game ever made for many people.

"I don't do reviews; probably going to be my only steam review ever. I estimate exactly 4 people will ever read this. But just putting it out there; this is one of the most beautiful experiences in life I've had so far. Literally nothing I've read, watched or played has actually made me cry, truly; but after finshing ending E, I cried, simply for how beautiful this work of art was."

"Quite possibly one of the best games I've played ever. Definitely sitting comfortably at my GOTY spot until MAYBE something comes along that might dethrone it. But after looking through the rest of the titles that come out this year, highly unlikely that's happening."

"Rare are the moments when I am compelled to take time out to leave a review for a game. In fact, I think I've written only one or two reviews in the 8 or 9 years I've been on Steam. And yet, NieR: Automata has compelled me to leave one. "

I must admint that I wasn't serious with The Witcher 3. Just found the "coincidence" amusing.

This said, I don't know what is Nier:Automata but if Feral could team up with Square Enix to port all of their games over to Linux, that would be awesome! Square Enix has many awesome games.

Looking at all their latest collaborations, it's heading in the right direction, at least. :)

Saints Row 2 is currently free on Steam, other Saints Row titles on sale
By Ardje, 21 April 2017 at 12:09 pm UTC

SR 2 is awesome, and the fun part, while being the port of the windows port, it behaves a lot better than the windows version assuming any windows version < 10.
You do need to install the audio pack (see github), as some of the audio cannot be played.
VP got a black box to "port", the original sources are *lost*, even the studio that owns the game does not have the sources anymore.
So yes, all the windows bugs are expected, but they are exhibited less than on windows.
I was sad when I finished the story :-(.
SR4 worked on fglrx, so I assume SR2 works on that too, although I replaced my intel/ati steam desktop with a dedicated steam machine (nvidia), and that seems to work even better. (wine doesn't really work on steamos :-( )
SR2 works fine with a steam controller.

Saints Row 2 is currently free on Steam, other Saints Row titles on sale
By linux_gamer, 21 April 2017 at 11:34 am UTC

I played all other SR titles with Linux support, but this was neglected for too long. Currently I'm on Black Mesa but this one will be scheduled!

Jonathan Blow's next game looks like it might support Linux
By Luke_Nukem, 21 April 2017 at 11:31 am UTC

Quoting: silmethgave actually not a single argument against using Rust… (and not that there are none – eg. ecosystem is still a bit immature, but games written in Rust still start appearing on Steam right now.

Rust is fucking excellent for game dev, and I will choose it over any other language every single time.
The only downsides are;

Some projects such as rust-sdl2, glium, glutin etc, are still a little immature; however, they are absolutely entirely useable right now, and it's pretty darn easy to keep on top of updates and changes.

Learning curve - the fucking borrow checker. But honestly, this is overcome fairly quickly once you understand how it works, and why it works that way. It does seem to lead to better understanding of how to use pointers in other languages and a larger awareness of the problems they can cause too.

Saints Row 2 is currently free on Steam, other Saints Row titles on sale
By UltraViolet, 21 April 2017 at 11:27 am UTC

Not into the Saints Row games, but, being that it's free I'll give it a go

Saints Row 2 is currently free on Steam, other Saints Row titles on sale
By Corben, 21 April 2017 at 11:22 am UTC Likes: 1

You can also redeem your SR games you own on steam on gog via http://gog.com/connect.
Maybe they will ship the Linux versions in the future, too.

About Linux games being delayed: A chat with several game developers and porters
By wintermute, 21 April 2017 at 11:12 am UTC Likes: 1

QuoteHaving Linux support fall behind other platforms is a sad reality that I think Linux users need to be understanding of. If a game is already released on another platform, then I'd have more respect for a developer who gives priority to existing customers over customers they don't yet have - the opposite only suggests that we'll be treated poorly when we are finally supported!

Except in the case of Kickstarters we're all existing customers, so we're already being treated poorly.

About Linux games being delayed: A chat with several game developers and porters
By Arehandoro, 21 April 2017 at 10:50 am UTC Likes: 2

QuoteThis wasn't what you were asking; mostly I'm just telling you that I'm really bad at Capitalism. I understand why being a good _consumer_ demands that we demand same-day releases, but being defined by what we swallow and how quickly we get to choke it down is just not a way I want to live.

THIS.

About Linux games being delayed: A chat with several game developers and porters
By Cybolic, 21 April 2017 at 10:45 am UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: LeopardNetmarket Share statics is doesn't mean anything. They're all looking to Steam Survey and that is right thing to do. Not every user play games on Mac and Linux also even Windows.
Sorry, but no.
The Steam Survey is first of all a survey, not a statistic, and secondly, it's a hardware survey, not an operating system survey.
It has two uses:
  • What hardware does a random selection of Steam users have?

  • What internet speed does a random selection of Steam users have?

Neither of these are a statistic for the number of Linux users on Steam.
Now, granted, it does mention operating systems, but it's not the focus and it's well known that the numbers are skewed, and not in Linux's favour (less Linux users are asked and SteamOS is not counted at all).

I'm not trying to be harsh here, but I do believe that the perceived relevance of the "Steam Hardware Survey" as any sort of metric for the number of Linux users is largely useless and ultimately harmful for our community.

Saints Row 2 is currently free on Steam, other Saints Row titles on sale
By LinuxGamesTV, 21 April 2017 at 10:26 am UTC

Quoting: buckysrevenge...
It's also on GOG connect along with other SR games

You can get it for free, without to buy the other SR Games, but it's Windows only.

Saints Row 2 is currently free on Steam, other Saints Row titles on sale
By buckysrevenge, 21 April 2017 at 10:17 am UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: BdMdesigN
Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: BdMdesigNOn GOG its free, too.
As clearly stated in the article, GOG do not have Linux versions.

Yes, i read it to late. ^^

It's also on GOG connect along with other SR games

F1 2016 won't be coming to Linux, as sales of F1 2015 weren't strong enough
By Ehvis, 21 April 2017 at 9:55 am UTC

You have to be realistic about F1 games. They're a niche in itself. If you look at the sales numbers on Steam, you see that most are around the 150k mark. If Feral can only get 1% of that for a Linux port, then it's going to be really hard to justify the investment.

Jonathan Blow's next game looks like it might support Linux
By silmeth, 21 April 2017 at 9:50 am UTC

Seems he is doing this game to prove that his upcoming laguage Jai is good enough to make a complex game in. And when you want to interest programmers interested in modern programming languages, you have to show that your code runs on Linux and macOS (and, preferably, other Unixes).

So it makes sense that he will build this game for Linux just to show it is possible, so that his language cannot be rejected by his audience on the presumption that it’s Windows-only. It doesn’t mean he starts loving Linux or he will do anything beyond this proof-of-concept on Linux ever.

Also, I’ve just read a few things about Jai here – I don’t have time to listen to Blow’s own presentations on Youtube right now to verify correctness of this source – and the section called WHY NOT USE C++/RUST/GO/D/SWIFT/HASKELL/LISP/ETC? gave actually not a single argument against using Rust… (and not that there are none – eg. ecosystem is still a bit immature, but games written in Rust still start appearing on Steam right now.

But, anyway, the Jai language itself looks quite nice for somebody who just wants a little bit more polished C, with a little easier (but still very manual and pretty cumbersome) memory management (and certainly better than C++ in that regard).

F1 2016 won't be coming to Linux, as sales of F1 2015 weren't strong enough
By Pinguino, 21 April 2017 at 9:40 am UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: daconmat321As somebody who is a major fan of these games, I'll give some insight as to why F1 2015 never sold well and why not bringing F1 2016 to Linux is a bad call from Feral.

You make good points, though I wonder if cutting 2016 from Linux was a decision from Feral or Codemasters. Either way, I wish Feral would say something more about it so the community can know what to do to prevent this from happening in the future.

Saints Row 2 is currently free on Steam, other Saints Row titles on sale
By Ehvis, 21 April 2017 at 9:20 am UTC Likes: 2

The game is glitchy. Performance is bad. On top of that it stutters while driving. This causing some of the optional races not to be fun.

So all in all, I highly recommend this game! :D

Provided you have enough power to offset the performance issues somewhat.

Saints Row 2 is currently free on Steam, other Saints Row titles on sale
By Anza, 21 April 2017 at 9:15 am UTC Likes: 1

As said ports are varying quality. Saints Row 2 has pretty bad performance, which is bit of shame as that one was best open world game of the available ports. What I have read is that having game on SSD or even in RAM helps somewhat. Also Gentlemans Row mod should fix some issues. I haven't tested any of that myself.

Saints Row: Gat out of Hell has audio issue: https://github.com/virtual-programming/saintsrowgat-linux/issues/1

Workaround is to restart the game.

As for continuity, now it's at least possible to play them in correct order. Saints Row IV was one of the first ported games and that makes lot of references to older games.

Saints Row 2 is currently free on Steam, other Saints Row titles on sale
By dubigrasu, 21 April 2017 at 9:02 am UTC

Quote...I wasn't very impressed with the port personally...
Indeed, this is one port from VP that I'm not happy with.
While the performance is acceptable for me (considering the state of the original Windows version) the graphics are botched in many places (bunch of textures are just black).

Saints Row 2 is currently free on Steam, other Saints Row titles on sale
By Eike, 21 April 2017 at 8:51 am UTC

Quoting: nIQnutnSR2 is very bad port, unplayable for me.
It was in a bundle, so I won't complain.

I really hope Agents of Mayhem will be available on Linux.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/304530

It seems they don't want to talk about it yet:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/304530/discussions/0/208684375407420405/#c208684375409381112

... but I do like this one. :)
http://steamcommunity.com/app/304530/discussions/0/208684375407420405/#c133262738419512556

Saints Row 2 is currently free on Steam, other Saints Row titles on sale
By LinuxGamesTV, 21 April 2017 at 8:49 am UTC

Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: BdMdesigNOn GOG its free, too.
As clearly stated in the article, GOG do not have Linux versions.

Yes, i read it to late. ^^

Saints Row 2 is currently free on Steam, other Saints Row titles on sale
By Blurps, 21 April 2017 at 8:48 am UTC Likes: 1

SR2 is very bad port, unplayable for me.
It was in a bundle, so I won't complain.

I really hope Agents of Mayhem will be available on Linux.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/304530

Saints Row 2 is currently free on Steam, other Saints Row titles on sale
By Eike, 21 April 2017 at 8:45 am UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: BdMdesigNOn GOG its free, too.

... and they offer a money back guarantee! ;)

Saints Row 2 is currently free on Steam, other Saints Row titles on sale
By Liam Dawe, 21 April 2017 at 8:45 am UTC Likes: 5

Quoting: BdMdesigNOn GOG its free, too.
As clearly stated in the article, GOG do not have Linux versions.

Saints Row 2 is currently free on Steam, other Saints Row titles on sale
By Eike, 21 April 2017 at 8:44 am UTC

I wonder how one can tell free to keep from free for some days offers on Steam...

Saints Row 2 is currently free on Steam, other Saints Row titles on sale
By LinuxGamesTV, 21 April 2017 at 8:42 am UTC Likes: 3

On GOG its free, too.

About Linux games being delayed: A chat with several game developers and porters
By Tchey, 21 April 2017 at 8:18 am UTC

Great reading, good job with this article, as with many others.

Techland claim to have finally fixed Linux co-op in Dying Light
By crt0mega, 21 April 2017 at 7:46 am UTC

@Al3s @jsa1983 @vickop:
Dying Light requires OpenGL "compatibility profiles"
Quoting: Samuel Pitoiset(...) For example,
Dying Light requires a 4.4 compat profile but overriding the version doesn't
work. More work is needed if we want to support that game.
(source)

About Linux games being delayed: A chat with several game developers and porters
By Zlopez, 21 April 2017 at 6:55 am UTC Likes: 3

Very good insight into linux game porting background.

But this
QuoteMany game developers are not even super users so getting around on a Linux distro can be a challenge to the average developer. Even translating what a Linux player has in a bug report they send to a developer can be a challenge.
makes me very sad. I'm a developer myself (not a game developer) and I can't understand how somebody can even use the Microsoft OS for developing. I tried it for a few years and I never want to go back there. Only thing that makes this system useful for developing is MinGW. But this is only a small substitute for a Linux OS.