If they perfect their wrapper I think they might soon be the leading company to port games to Linux. If it is a lazy and quick solution that does the job, even big companies would happy with it.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Maelrane

Quoting: maodzedunWell, this gave me the idea to try out the OS drivers for AMD for the first time. Last night I added the PPA for the latest version of the open source driver and also updated my kernel to 3.19. I've to say the performance on my 290x was surprising. Although the max fps seem to have dropped, the minimum have increased and the games seem to be running more consistently now. Hand of Fate sticks to about 45fps, while before it was all over the place. Torchlight II seems to perform about the same as before. Borderlands II actually increased in performance, but sadly, probably due to lack of official support of AMD hardware by the port, it's still too choppy to play properly. I'll check out Dead Island later tonight and get back with an update.

1) Please tell us about Dead Island. Can't get it to work on my HD6950 since the last update (that works for everyone but me it seems)

2) Borderlands 2 and TPS both run at no less than 45FPS on my outdated HD6950 (2GB version) with Mesa and the open source drivers. May be due to Arch and some other components?

What Mesa version do you use? Your 290x is _FAR_ stronger than my graphicscard, but I can play both games just fine (1920x1200 [yes, more than full-hd] resolution and most things maxed out)

3) Yes, the open source drivers run perfectly on AMD. For me they run _MUCH_ better than the proprietary ones. I get less stutter, more fps and as a bonus no problems during x-server-updates with my rolling release distro :D

Sadly I couldn't play it. The game starts, the intro works but when I hit continue it loads and then as it seems just when it's about to start - crashes. When I ran Steam through terminal this is the error I got:
LLOG: len=0; max=2560000Segmentation fault (core dumped)
The driver I use is: OpenGL version string: 3.0 Mesa 10.6.0-devel and I'm using Ubuntu 14.10 with kernel 3.19. I'm open for advice :).
It seems its not a problem particular to me, though - I see other people posting it on the Steam forums. Overall, I get the impression that 290(x) support is bad both for the proprietary and the open source driver.
Anyway I'll try Witcher 2 to wrap up the heavy AAA games I have for Linux. Might try some game in PlayOnLinux in the following days, too.

UPDATE: Age of Wonders III doesn't even start and Witcher II runs pretty bad with about 30fps and stutter at medium settings.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Well, this gave me the idea to try out the OS drivers for AMD for the first time. Last night I added the PPA for the latest version of the open source driver and also updated my kernel to 3.19. I've to say the performance on my 290x was surprising. Although the max fps seem to have dropped, the minimum have increased and the games seem to be running more consistently now. Hand of Fate sticks to about 45fps, while before it was all over the place. Torchlight II seems to perform about the same as before. Borderlands II actually increased in performance, but sadly, probably due to lack of official support of AMD hardware by the port, it's still too choppy to play properly. I'll check out Dead Island later tonight and get back with an update.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Orkultus

Quoting: sub

Quoting: OrkultusIn 1999, i gave up pc gaming to use Linux. (...) Also PC gaming wasn't all that big back then.

You must be kidding. :D

Haha nope. I have been way involved with Linux for so long. Side by side with Amiga for a long time (Until my system died) R.I.P Amiga. I only learned windows in order to fix it. I get shit from all my friends who want to play games but i cant because i use Linux. I just tell them "hey, all the games i enjoy playing are on Linux, and i wont ever use anything from Microsoft". It's just the way i have been. I like a learning experience more than entertainment. Even today with all these games on Linux, sometimes i just stare at my steam collection, and im like "dont feel like today". This is also goes with me working alot, and always being tired. I know it sucks trying to get more games to come to Linux from stubborn developers, but every time a new one comes out, it's like the most exciting news of the day.

I think he war referring to your statement that PC gaming wasn't big in '99.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Who cares - Pillars of Eternity comes out in 10 days. Wooooo :)))

View this comment - View article - View full comments

[quote=crt0mega]

Quoting: EKRboi

Quoting: mao_dze_dunHow do I fix that in Windows - download a SweetFX preset I like, install it, launch the game and activate SMAA through RadeonPro - all in less than 3 minutes. It's definitely something I'd like to see in Linux.

Umm. If you're using mesa with gallium3d it's quite easy without installing anything.
export pp_jimenezmlaa=8
or use ~/.drirc [External Link]
no need to download or install anything..

Nah, I'm using Omega - the latest proprietary one. AMD performance is bad enough as it is for me to sacrifice more for the open source driver. Plus, I'm super lazy :). I appreciate the tip, though. It's just beyond my comfort zone. And since we're talking why people continue to dual boot, I'd actually use that as another example. I mean, hand to your heart, how many common users do you think would bother with that. The majority of people find the Windows method complicated and it involves using GUI and a pre-made preset, which often includes SMAA, so you don't even need RadeonPro.
Linux need both the support and the proper tools with easy to understand interface. The terminal should be an advanced tool for the power user, not a crutch for the average one.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Since you guys picked up the mod topic I'm up the ante by discussing shader injectors like SweetFX and ReShade (which technically includes SweetFX) as well as tools such as Radeon Pro. SweetFX is a really awesome tool(set?) to make games look often much better or at least change the entire graphical feel of the game. Heck I made myself a SweetFX for Hand of Fate because I did not care for the bleak colors and low contrast of the vanilla game. And the thing I mostly love and am completely addicted to is SMAA injection, be it via RadeonPro or SweetFX.
Why, I just tried Torchlight II in Linux - it's alright. Ran acceptable even on my AMD gpu but the game has pretty much the same graphical problems like Hand of Fate - washed out colors, bad contrast, lighting's not vibrant enough and the thing that bother's me the most - it's aliased (same goes for Hand of Fate). How do I fix that in Windows - download a SweetFX preset I like, install it, launch the game and activate SMAA through RadeonPro - all in less than 3 minutes. It's definitely something I'd like to see in Linux.
Not going to talk about proper mods - people have already pointed out that using big ones in Fallout, for example, is practically impossible through Wine. And Nexus Mod Manager sure rules them all.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

A tad late update on AMD performance. The game plays relatively nice with my 290x. The framerate is mostly 60fps with dips into the 40s. Obviously not what I'd get in Windows but honestly way better than I was expecting an AMD card to perform in Linux, so it's quite a pleasant surprise.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I finally got around to testing the game in Linux. Runs pretty crappy on 4790k and 290x. 30 fps max when zoomed in and then drops to 17-18 when I zoom out. And this is in a mostly covered map so I'm guessing things will get pretty bad once more of the map is uncovered. Playing with the graphics settings made no difference in performance - it was the same on Medium and it was the same on Ultra. Also a strange bug - the game would not allow me to enter fullscreen mode or change resolution. The resolution menu just bugs out and doesn't show anything.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: scaine

Quoting: maodzedunAnd with the direction Cannonical are taking with Unity's interface ("Let's take everything people hated in Windows 8 and put it in our desktop environment" ) there will be a definite slowdown in that progress.

Nice bit of FUD to ruin a positive comment. Care to expand which features of Unity you think are "hated in Windows 8" and therefore deserved to be included? Cos I've used both and that statement might be chicken, could be horse, but I suspect it's just bull.

Well, first of all Unity was never really my favourite desktop environment to begin with. These days its not half bad but until they allow you to completely disable the Unity bar I'll have a major gripe with it.
Enter Unity 8. Have you tried the beta of Unity 8? That hybrid desktop/tablet interface is just awful. I'm very happy they managed to convince big time phone manufacturers like Samsung make Ununtu phones but mixing desktop and mobile interface is a disaster. At least in Windows 8 I could fix that problem with 5 bucks for Start8. Honestly - of all distros I enjoy ElementaryOS' (respectively Pantheon's) interface the most but sadly it's development cycles are so sparse Ubuntu 14.04 repos will be stone age old by the time Freya hits 1.0.

PS You're missing out on Planetside 2 - the game is almost playable with an i7, now (at least 30% of my decision to get one last month :D)

View this comment - View article - View full comments