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Latest Comments by omer666
Looks like Evolve might still come to Linux & SteamOS
20 Feb 2016 at 8:12 pm UTC

Also, this game was crushed by other AAA games. It's a different game, and nowadays, the gaming market has very little place for games like this one. I mean, Call of Duty can sell up to $200 worth of DLC and nobody cares.

The Talos Principle now has a Linux beta build available with Vulkan
20 Feb 2016 at 11:14 am UTC Likes: 1

It was stated from the beginning that Vulkan would be an API with a steep learning curve. I'm glad the performance hit isn't so bad actually, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out with time.

This Total War: ATTILA comparison video shows SteamOS/Linux holding up against Windows
20 Feb 2016 at 10:27 am UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: maodzedun
Quoting: omer666The 20 to 30% performance hit you see here has nothing to do with companies not working hard enough to bring a decent gaming experience to Linux users. It has nothing to do with being entitled to anything. It has to do with technical constraints nobody can do anything about until multiplatform development and/or Vulkan becomes attractive enough for developers.

That's what happens in that case:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eab2UI1Iq2w [External Link]
That is hardly the best of example. It's been some time now but I recall that x4 vs x8 SSAA is far from the only difference between the Windows and Linux version of the game. I have a clear memory of seeing an .ini file comparison with some features on Linux either turned off or missing by default. Also this [External Link]
As far as I know, there's no 8x SSAA on Windows, it wouldn't run on any machine anyway. The only difference I know of is the lack of tessellation and FXAA that is either very light or not present at all. I'd be interested if you could share this comparison.

Still, Metro Redux runs very well on Linux and seems to be more stable.

About Ars Technica, well it's been extensively discussed in here and it's clear they didn't understand the technical facts I mentioned earlier. On a side note I would also add that testing this on an Intel Pentium is clearly suboptimal, but that's only my opinion.

This Total War: ATTILA comparison video shows SteamOS/Linux holding up against Windows
20 Feb 2016 at 1:47 am UTC Likes: 3

Quoting: PangachatThose are simply not good ports. Good ports performing equal with their DX counterparts, sadly those ports are the minority.
Looks like you didn't read the entire post...

This Total War: ATTILA comparison video shows SteamOS/Linux holding up against Windows
20 Feb 2016 at 1:02 am UTC Likes: 6

I think that, as much as we may be disappointed to see good ports still getting a 20 to 30% performance hit when compared to Windows running DirectX, we may as well note that performance running OpenGL is way better on Linux. So the real problem is not drivers or the efforts put in the port, but the fact that games are ported from an API to the other.

There's nothing new in these facts actually, and there's no wonder why so many people are waiting for Vulkan so eagerly, as it's the best chance we've got to avoid such annoyance in the future - but that's only if Vulkan actually succeeds as a reference cross-platform API.

Game engines have always been developed with technical challenges in mind, and several tricks are used in order to render what the devs have on their minds on actual computers, some of which rely for a great part on the API it's been originally coded. In some cases like the famous Carmack's Reverse, it relies on OpenGL and we get sometimes better performance than Windows, but games we get to play nowadays rely heavily on DX9 or DX11 technologies and that's why, among other things, many games are having a hard time with multi-threading on Linux.

The reason I am writing all these things you most probably already know is that some comments seem misleading to me. Yes, I was one of those who were very unhappy with the Witcher 2 port when it was released for example, but the game was actually unplayable.

The 20 to 30% performance hit you see here has nothing to do with companies not working hard enough to bring a decent gaming experience to Linux users. It has nothing to do with being entitled to anything. It has to do with technical constraints nobody can do anything about until multiplatform development and/or Vulkan becomes attractive enough for developers.

That's what happens in that case:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eab2UI1Iq2w [External Link]

Cities: Skylines - Snowfall released
19 Feb 2016 at 1:10 am UTC

On my rig last update improved performance a great deal.

This XCOM 2 video shows Linux and Windows very close in performance
19 Feb 2016 at 12:24 am UTC

With all the "literature" about ports I got to read lately, I'd argue that nobody really knows what's going on. I mean, so many people state on Steam that this or that game is a port (even on Windows) for so many crazy reasons - like mouse sensitivity problems or aspect ratio (true story).

So if you look closely, many players consider any game released on computer (no matter the OS) after 2010 is a port from console. Are Linux ports ports of Windows ports or are they ported straight from console? Is the PS4 version a port of the XBone version (or the contrary)? In that case, is the Linux port a port of the Windows port ported from the PS4 port ported from XBone (It could carry on like this for so many hours...)?... And we're lucky that there aren't that many different platforms these days...

So where's the truth?... Well as soon as the game's available and is good enough (game-wise and bug-wise), I don't care :p

Dying Light patch released
19 Feb 2016 at 12:05 am UTC

It launches and plays great on my Fedora 23 box. But it froze on quitting the game...

Earth 2160 strategy game released for Linux, powered by Wine
17 Feb 2016 at 11:24 pm UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: rea987How about cross-platform multiplayer? Has anyone tried it? There is no indication of cross-platform multiplayer in the store page.
It is cross-platform by design because it uses the Windows binary.

Earth 2160 strategy game released for Linux, powered by Wine
17 Feb 2016 at 11:08 am UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: gojulWell if it is the same as Eador : Legacy of the Master Thief or even Baldur from GoG I just skip them, not working well unfortunately
I indeed had some bugs with Earth 2160, but it's nowhere as bad as Eador, which promised a Linux port to begin with and just released the game bundled with Wine without even checking if it was compatible at all, or contributing to the project. Also I bought Flatout 2 from GOG and had no problem whatsoever, they've been doing great as far as Wine wrapping is concerned.

[Edit]: I read a bit quickly, I think you mean Eador: Masters of the Broken World, don't you? (A game I now call Eador: Masters of the Broken Port)