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Developer breaks silence about 'The Silent Age', a point-and-click adventure for which a Linux port was promised
By Guppy, 1 July 2016 at 6:30 am UTC

Quoting: liamdaweAh the dreaded "middleware" reasoning again.

Why on earth do developers not look into first and plan ahead?

So frustrating.

The answer to that is fairly depressing I'm afraid; the reason they don't plan ahead is that Linux support isn't something that is being discusses until the game is far enough ahead that the PR department starts making noise and some suit catches wind of this here "leenuks" and sends a memo to the programmers "please add in some leenuks".

And at this point it comes down to blind luck - do the various libs ( or in marketing speak "middleware" ) have Linux ports? can we exchange for another that has?

with the typical game needing libs for;

* Input
* Sound
* VFS/assert managment
* Graphics
* Physics
* Network

and just one of them not having a port is a show stopper, well there is you answer why so many games can't have Linux versions.

Hopefully with Valve creating a bit of awareness for Linux via steamos developers will keep that in the back of their head when starting new projects as to not prematurely close the door on the Linux marked. So that titles that comes out in the next couple of years will ( or atleast can ) have Linux support.

SteamOS update 2.83 beta released, new Nvidia and AMD drivers hit
By aironeous, 1 July 2016 at 5:29 am UTC

So what is the solution?....because I just bought a Zotac Nen and it will be here in a week. I assume you can boot into recovery mode with steam OS as I have done when I tried to install it on this piece of crap old desktop amd x6 phenom 2 before I gave up. What do you guys mean by soft brick? Can you guys be more detailed? Tell us what happened, this is a forum. Should we have direct links to the steam OS forum threads here somewhere so that we do not make double threads on the same subject?

Oxenfree, an adventure game with supernatural elements, available on Linux
By boltronics, 1 July 2016 at 3:15 am UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: blukpunThank you!
Even though, i still can and will play with opensource drivers on my 280x, so it's not that bad.
Not so bad? That's the recommended way to play! The majority of benchmarks right now show Mesa beating the proprietary drivers. But the nice thing about AMD is you have a real choice. Good proprietary drivers, and good free software drivers.

Good luck trying to do GPU pass-through with Xen using Nvidia drivers! Have fun manually installing the latest drivers from the command line. AMD cards just need the microcode installed once on your system, and everything else you need is free software supplied by the distribution. Even when Nvidia does release firmware compatible with free software drivers (which knowing them will take another year to get around to), the card functionality will always be crippled compared to the proprietary drivers. Meanwhile, AMD's drivers just keep getting better and better over time.

Heck, I just purchased a Fury X this morning because they are so cheap now (a nice upgrade from my R9 285) - and it was a really hard decision because the 285 is still a really good card. The Fury X performance generally sits somewhere between a 1070 and 1080 under Windows, and we've been seeing massive performance improvements in AMD's modern GCN architectures using free software drivers. We've seen some benchmarks where Mesa is beating the proprietary drivers in Windows 10! All we need now is support for OpenGL 4.4 and 4.5 (which looks like is coming very soon) and you'll pretty much get great performance on AMD cards with just a plain distro install.

I've had such bad experiences with Nvidia drivers on GNU/Linux and business practices, that I never want to support that company again so long as they keep behaving this way. Granted AMD is no angel either (eg. the way it handled the pump noise issue when the Fury X was first launched, and both companies have previously cheated in benchmarks) but it's the one not trying to actively frustrate customers with signed microcode, paper launches, restrictions on virtualization they refuse to admit, etc.

AMD RX 480 released, AMD will possibly open up Radeon Software
By SXX, 1 July 2016 at 1:21 am UTC

Quoting: omer666This sure doesn't look good. Too bad it happens with the first really powerful open source friendly card...
Nobody should ever buy reference cards no matter if it's Nvidia or AMD. They usually have some kind of issues.

ZED by Eagre Games reaches the funding goal, developer thanks GOL and the Linux community
By Arthur, 30 June 2016 at 10:21 pm UTC

I'll try to have a look later, quite busy lately and I'm one of those sceptical of crowdfunding/preordering as I've been burnt in the past. Once bit twice shy and all that. But the screenshot intrigues me so I'll at least see what it's about once I have the time and mood for it.

Thanks for running GamingOnLinux, I think it's a rather decent community and I get to see if there's anything new that catches my interest, such as this article.

Developer breaks silence about 'The Silent Age', a point-and-click adventure for which a Linux port was promised
By tuubi, 30 June 2016 at 9:10 pm UTC

Quoting: Shaolu
Quoting: tuubi
Quoting: GuestSo really, it would force people out of their comfort zone (really, windows is about as comfortable as shirt made out of tree bark) to try something new.
I don't get this. How do exclusives force anyone to do anything at all? If a game isn't available on my OS, I shrug and move on. I certainly do not feel compelled to install Windows or buy a Console just so I can play them. Exclusives are bad, full stop. Besides, if you love Linux for the freedom it affords you, why do you feel the need to force it down someone's throat?

[...]

In short: Exclusives aren't necessarily a bad thing. They're just a fact of life.
Thanks for the wall of text, captain obvious. ;) But this isn't what I was arguing against, and I certainly wasn't speaking of a hypothetical popular SteamOS of days to come. I was simply stating my firm belief that Linux-exclusive games aren't the right way to market Linux as a gaming OS today, and also protesting Kyrottimus's use of the word "force" I guess. Obviously it often makes financial sense to target the largest or otherwise most profitable segment of the market and any work towards additional platforms will yield smaller returns. True, but beside the point.

When should i386 support for Ubuntu end? Help Canonical decide
By gbudny, 30 June 2016 at 9:01 pm UTC

I think that all the comments about Linux users who use Ubuntu 32-bit because they only have the old computers don't make any sense. In my view, this is only one of the many reasons.

I want to remind you that many Linux users want to use Ubuntu 32-bit on their new computers in order to run old applications and classic games for Linux. I believe it is much easier to install those old apps and games on new versions of Ubuntu 32-bit than on Ubuntu 64-bit.

I also use Mac, and I hate the situation when Apple remove something from the system because they do not care about the old applications or classic games. Those radical changes do not help Mac become the more popular operating system among Windows users.

Why are Linux users expecting the same decisions from companies like Canonical?

AMD RX 480 released, AMD will possibly open up Radeon Software
By omer666, 30 June 2016 at 8:52 pm UTC

Quoting: DePingusI had high hopes for these cards, but in light of this impending debacle, I'm going to wait...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/4qfwd4/rx480_fails_pcie_specification/

tldr;
These cards are drawing way more power from the PCIe slot than they are supposed to.

This sure doesn't look good. Too bad it happens with the first really powerful open source friendly card...

Some essential mods to try in XCOM 2 that don't break the balance or change gameplay
By Philadelphus, 30 June 2016 at 8:39 pm UTC

Wow, I am currently subscribed to 41 mods, after going through the list a while back, and I still hadn't heard of Quick Soldier Info or Show More Buff Details, both of which sound good.

In the interest of mods that don't really change game balance, here are a few more I'm using:

1. Show Enemies on Mission Planning
This just replicates the information from the Shadow Chamber from the screen where you select a mission to the screen where you select and outfit your soldiers. If you're like me, you used the information to select a mission and then immediately forgot it when outfitting your soldiers. This mod will help your prepare for the enemies you'll be facing without a whole bunch of tedious screen switching.

2. More Maps Pack
3. World Expansion Project: ADVENT
4. Maps by Vozati
Several mods that add additional map plots and parcels to the map generation pool, just to spice up your locations a bit.

Mods that technically change balance a little bit:

5. Stabilize Me!
This mod lets soldiers stabilize a downed soldier who is carrying a medikit with his own medikit; i.e., no more bleeding-out deaths for your single medic while his comrades stand around looking helpless. I feel like this should be in the base game.

6. Haywire Protocol bug fix for turret control
According the ability description, Haywire Protocol is supposed to make hacked turrets remain yours forever, however, by default they only remained hacked for a few turns, just like mech units. This mod fixes that. Note that having a hacked turret remain yours indefinitely isn't as big of a game-changer as you might think: since turrets are stationary it's likely only get two or three (mostly ineffectual) shots off before your front moves past it and it can't help you any more. It does save you having to kill the thing when the hack wears off, though.

Developer breaks silence about 'The Silent Age', a point-and-click adventure for which a Linux port was promised
By Shaolu, 30 June 2016 at 8:37 pm UTC

Quoting: tuubi
Quoting: GuestSo really, it would force people out of their comfort zone (really, windows is about as comfortable as shirt made out of tree bark) to try something new.
I don't get this. How do exclusives force anyone to do anything at all? If a game isn't available on my OS, I shrug and move on. I certainly do not feel compelled to install Windows or buy a Console just so I can play them. Exclusives are bad, full stop. Besides, if you love Linux for the freedom it affords you, why do you feel the need to force it down someone's throat?

It takes extra development effort to make a piece of software available on another platform. I would love to see Gambas ported to MS Windows, but it's exclusive to GNU/Linux right now. The same goes with a lot of GNOME and KDE apps like gThumb and K3b. What if I want to use Nautilus or Konqueror instead of Windows Explorer? No can do.

When you're looking to develop and distribute a game commercially, targeting one platform in particular can make good business sense. It's not as though releasing a game exclusively for one title means you're holding back from hitting some switch to magically port it to other platforms. There are technical challenges involved to supporting other systems.

Accordingly, if SteamOS ever got popular enough that a game studio could make a healthy profit supporting it exclusively and then worry about porting it to other platforms later, I don't see how that's a bad thing. As you said yourself, it's not *forcing* anyone to use GNU/Linux. It's just giving incentive to those people who will try a whole new system just to play one game. This in turn means a greater install base for SteamOS and accordingly more incentive for developers to support GNU/Linux commercially.

Obviously what would be better is if you could write once, run anywhere, for everything. But that's effectively just creating a single platform anyways. If there really was no effort involved at all in supporting multiple platforms, then you're not truly supporting multiple platforms but rather a single monolithic cross-platform platform--and considering how those kinds of efforts have gone in the past (e.g. Java) that approach potentially has its own drawbacks.

In short: Exclusives aren't necessarily a bad thing. They're just a fact of life.

A new Civilization VI video shows off England, they aren't talking about the Linux release for now
By slaapliedje, 30 June 2016 at 8:10 pm UTC

I've been playing Civ since the original one on my Atari ST. Played the hell out of that and the second one. Civ 3 never caught my attention much, and I only have maybe finished a single game on Civ IV and V. The problem is the games last too long and I just don't have the time to dedicate to them.

But it saddens me when they remove a bunch of features that you could do in the earlier games. Then the fans complain, so they add them back in for expansions, which aren't free...

Kind of the sad thing about Paradox's strategy games. They tend to have WAY too much DLC.

Nightdive Studios aren't sure when the Linux version of the System Shock remake will be available
By DrMcCoy, 30 June 2016 at 8:09 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: liamdaweThis is why I find their earlier comment about no one in their dev team doing Linux, how did they do their previous Linux testing?

Contractors.

ZED by Eagre Games reaches the funding goal, developer thanks GOL and the Linux community
By neowiz73, 30 June 2016 at 7:45 pm UTC Likes: 1

congrats, nice to see recognition for GOL community.

Nightdive Studios aren't sure when the Linux version of the System Shock remake will be available
By thykr, 30 June 2016 at 7:40 pm UTC Likes: 1

Not supporting this. Having Linux support as a stretchgoal on a crowfunding site is the lowest you can get.

Especially when they refer to Windows as "PC". These guys are awful. Not worth trusting at all.

Developer breaks silence about 'The Silent Age', a point-and-click adventure for which a Linux port was promised
By tripy, 30 June 2016 at 5:38 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: BreezeWhat do these developers mean by middleware? Are they talking about network, database, keyboard/controller libraries? There are tons of platform independent libraries for those.

I middleware is a piece of software that does a part of the job you need done.
.Net devs usually calls this "components"
Could be network related (multiplayer protocol for a game), anti-cheat in multiplayer game, graphic (handling 3d, or simply image display methods) or any other part of an application...

Rather than developing the solution themselves, the game studio bought a license to use some code another firm have developed.
It spares them some work, but it introduce a bit of software they have no ability to alter.
You usually don't get a middleware source code, just a library to integrate in your project.
So, if the middleware you use is not compatible with another system than windows, then you cannot use your game binary without re-implementing what the middleware does, and in a compatible way.
They just don't want to invest that much time in it.

What irkes me the most tough, is the "if" in that sentence:
QuoteWe haven't looked at it for a while, but if and when we return to it, we'll let you know.
They are just simply walking away of they're previous statement that a Linux version will be available.

Nightdive Studios aren't sure when the Linux version of the System Shock remake will be available
By Plintslîcho, 30 June 2016 at 5:26 pm UTC

For some reason, System Shock has never appealed to me. While I do find the story interesting I was never interested in the game (I watched a friend of mine playing it back in the day). Maybe I found the controls awkward already back in 1994.

Anyway, I might have given an updated and modernized version of the game a try (albeit I do find the graphics of the remake a little too colourful for my taste). But without a confirmed Linux version I’m not interested.

I might check again after the game has been released- if it is released for Linux as well, that is.

Nightdive Studios aren't sure when the Linux version of the System Shock remake will be available
By Mountain Man, 30 June 2016 at 5:24 pm UTC

This says to me that they're not planning Linux support from the start, which will only mean problems later on when they try and port it. In other words, the developer is basically admitting that they won't make good on their promise if the stretch-goal is reached.

Nightdive Studios aren't sure when the Linux version of the System Shock remake will be available
By Kristian, 30 June 2016 at 5:17 pm UTC

Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: thelimeydragonNightdive in the past have released 1 (maybe 2) games that were released on Linux where they rewrote the game engine from scratch and then open sourced it.

So they do deserve some praise.
This is why I find their earlier comment about no one in their dev team doing Linux, how did they do their previous Linux testing?

AFAIK Night Dive isn't developing the game themselves in this case. So that may play a role.

Developer breaks silence about 'The Silent Age', a point-and-click adventure for which a Linux port was promised
By Seegras, 30 June 2016 at 5:10 pm UTC Likes: 1

Naming and shaming.

Anyone who owns that software on a different platform can find out which middleware is involved, and can call out the name of the producers, so anyone knows which incompetent nincompoops are responsible, and so every other developer will know which morons they have to avoid.

Anyway, I can't see anything resembling "middleware" here. It's plain Unity with the Steamworks.NET plugin. I only see broken shaders. No idea, maybe they've been produced with that broken "middleware".

Oxenfree, an adventure game with supernatural elements, available on Linux
By blukpun, 30 June 2016 at 5:05 pm UTC

Thank you!
Even though, i still can and will play with opensource drivers on my 280x, so it's not that bad.

Space station management game, The Spatials: Galactology, is confirmed to be coming for Linux
By , 30 June 2016 at 5:02 pm UTC

I wish it was space station 13 like....That game seriously needs a native Linux version.

Nightdive Studios aren't sure when the Linux version of the System Shock remake will be available
By Shmerl, 30 June 2016 at 4:33 pm UTC

And they better avoid mistakes of Obsidian like missing capes, because they used some Uninty plugins that don't work on Linux.

Oxenfree, an adventure game with supernatural elements, available on Linux
By BTRE, 30 June 2016 at 4:29 pm UTC

Quoting: blukpunI wrote that exactly because of what i felt reading those articles and watching shiny new video from them about DirectX 12 and Vulkan. I have this card for two years and still can't make proprietary driver work with Gnome. And it seems like it will never work. Looking at the amd drivers statistics here only proves my feelings about them. Just like 'GamingOnLinux' don't believe in crowdfunding projects (if i'm correct), i just can't believe in amd anymore.

That's unfortunate, but the proprietary catalyst drivers are pretty much abandoned. AMD is directly contributing to the kernel and Mesa with its new driver strategy. Though their main focus is AMDGPU PRO and new cards, there's a common codebase with Mesa and as a result Mesa has improved quite a lot for AMD users. If you need help figuring out how to get things working right, I suggest you pop into our IRC or post in the forums.

Developer breaks silence about 'The Silent Age', a point-and-click adventure for which a Linux port was promised
By tuubi, 30 June 2016 at 4:25 pm UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: GuestObviously, there is no need for a game, or an OS, or computers for that matter. If we wanted to be literal about everything, we could all revert to a paleo-diet and live in a simple agrarian society as that would meet our "needs" sufficiently.
That's not being literal, that's being a wise-ass. ;)

Anyway, I'd argue that we do indeed need entertainment, but no single game is important enough to force us into anything, and even if it was, forcing people to try Linux is not the right way to go about it.

ZED by Eagre Games reaches the funding goal, developer thanks GOL and the Linux community
By smantz0rZ, 30 June 2016 at 4:21 pm UTC Likes: 11

Hey guys, I'm the guy quoted in Liam's post.

Didn't realize he was giving an update here (thanks!) but saw many comments today saying GoL brought them back, and decided to say hi.

Kickstarter makes use of some very neat analytical software. As of writing this, PCGamer has accounted for 12 backers and 0.52% of our support, and IGN has accunted for about the same. GoL generated 25 pledges for us, and the r/Linux_Gaming subreddit which I'm sure many of you are familiar with has brought in tons of traffic.

It goes much further than backer-generation though, you folks have given us really positive feedback and messages of support on GoL, Reddit, IRC, and even our Kickstarter page. It's been really helpful and motivating to us as creators to see people enthusiastic and supportive of the work we're trying to do bringing this to the Linux platform. As I've said in the past, I want to use this as an excuse to show developers they have no excuse not to build for Linux.

Nightdive Studios aren't sure when the Linux version of the System Shock remake will be available
By Liam Dawe, 30 June 2016 at 4:17 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: thelimeydragonNightdive in the past have released 1 (maybe 2) games that were released on Linux where they rewrote the game engine from scratch and then open sourced it.

So they do deserve some praise.
This is why I find their earlier comment about no one in their dev team doing Linux, how did they do their previous Linux testing?

Oxenfree, an adventure game with supernatural elements, available on Linux
By blukpun, 30 June 2016 at 4:14 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: blukpuni have amd r9-280x and it's first and the last amd product i'll ever buy

Quoting: BTREYou may also want to see the recent articles which are pretty encouraging in terms of support from them.

I wrote that exactly because of what i felt reading those articles and watching shiny new video from them about DirectX 12 and Vulkan. I have this card for two years and still can't make proprietary driver work with Gnome. And it seems like it will never work. Looking at the amd drivers statistics here only proves my feelings about them. Just like 'GamingOnLinux' don't believe in crowdfunding projects (if i'm correct), i just can't believe in amd anymore.