To the console matter - it is possible to release on consoles, just not through official Godot tools. There are several issues on side of console makers which Godot really can't do anything about (OS project is not a company, NDA on provided code and tools from console maker). In Godot docs there is a link to http://www.lonewolftechnology.com/ [External Link] who do porting, so it is possible, but I have no clue on how much does it cost...

I would be interested in how to port to Switch, but I don't think I would pay a third party to port my game (if I ever finish it).

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Quoting: Purple Library GuyAnyone have any idea just how competitive Godot is at this point with other engines?

In 2D very, not so much in 3D. From what I read it lacks occlusion culling (= low fps in heavy scenes), many people miss FBX (common 3D format), some issues with physics (faster, but more buggy because of use of float instead of double), performance issues with high number of nodes, main language - GDScript - is very slow (it's unusable for e.g. voxel stuff, but you can use C# or C++; that said for majority of indie titles it is sufficient), support (docs, many bugs) of other languages is not great, no direct support for many platforms (e.g. Switch and other consoles). Oh, that's not only 3D stuff, but also general issues, sorry.

I would say that for small and medium (maybe even big) 2D games Godot is great, for some time was even top (not sure how it is now, probably on par), for a small 3D games it's alright.

I have high hopes for the Vulcan renderer and they are aware of those issue listed above, so I think in a year or two Godot will be much more viable alternative for small and medium pro teams.

PS: Take this with a grain of salt, I only work in Godot for a short time (over a month on half time).

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> So in this case you might call it Late Access.

I get the joke, but wouldn't this imply that it is near launch? :D

- - -

Anyone know reason(s) why they switched engines? I always find interesting reading about tech. details behind such dramatic changes.

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Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: monnef

Quoting: LinuxwarperWe talked about Valve adressing anti cheat. Could the Trust match making be the answer?
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5966-WKLC-4172 [External Link]

One of Valve's plan for 2019

Steam Trust: The technology behind Trusted Matchmaking on CS:GO is getting an upgrade and will become a full Steam feature that will be available to all games. This means you'll have more information that you can use to help determine how likely a player is a cheater or not.

So if it's effective in stopping cheaters and devs use it, problem solved?

Well, until it is allowed to run outside Steam (which all Valve stuff related to Steam aren't IIRC), I don't think so. This locks game hard to one store, so I don't think devs/publishers will use it, unless they firmly decided they want to release only on Steam, so closing their options not only for release, but for the future as well.

Couldn't they use it on Steam and something else on other stores?
No, never mind, I guess if it's a matchmaking thing that wouldn't work.

If they could use something which runs everywhere (and the Trust wouldn't be a matchmaker), what motivation for using Valve's solution they have? It is much easier and cheaper to just use one solution which runs everywhere.

Of course as Linuxwarper wrote, there is (I think slim) possibility that Trust won't be tied to Steam. Then things could get interesting.

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Quoting: LinuxwarperWe talked about Valve adressing anti cheat. Could the Trust match making be the answer?
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5966-WKLC-4172 [External Link]

One of Valve's plan for 2019

Steam Trust: The technology behind Trusted Matchmaking on CS:GO is getting an upgrade and will become a full Steam feature that will be available to all games. This means you'll have more information that you can use to help determine how likely a player is a cheater or not.

So if it's effective in stopping cheaters and devs use it, problem solved?

Well, until it is allowed to run outside Steam (which all Valve stuff related to Steam aren't IIRC), I don't think so. This locks game hard to one store, so I don't think devs/publishers will use it, unless they firmly decided they want to release only on Steam, so closing their options not only for release, but for the future as well.

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I think the company is shooting itself in the foot. While count of Linux players is not high, they still bring money (by some statistics much more per player than Windows users). I think Blizzard had some issues with WoW and OW, yet they managed to update their anti-cheat to work with Wine.

Linux has some selection of games, but some genres are under-represented and many genre leaders are not on Linux at all. For example Overwatch - there isn't many similar games at all, so you can't really find an alternative even on Windows. I did try Paladins for like 20 hours and Smite for many more (hundred at least). But Paladins seemed to be quite bland to me, majority of characters not really that interesting, some felt unfinished (probably b/c animations?) and their looks not matching, overall it felt quite rubber-bandy compared to OW (maybe an issue with EU servers?). Smite, well, only game mode I was interested in playing (arena?) was not supported by developers even though it was most popular one, so I left after some time (had some fun for free, can't complain).

To the security of games being afterthought, well, maybe, but if constructing special client and mainly server costs times more (if possible at all), then it is logical to make a game with checking main cheating tools rather than investing to development of new tech costing tons of money and in the end players not seeing anything for higher price of a game (which is purely hypothetical, since gamers are not willing to pay more, so publishers would have to cut it from their money). I think vast majority of people are severly underestimating how difficult is to build a fast multiplayer action game and what hoops have to jumped through for it to feel good = responsive, you can't trade game performance for "proper" security, because who would want to pay for old-looking game with simple mechanics? I was quite stunned by all the stuff what is going on under the hood, e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3aieHjyNvw [External Link].

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Quoting: devnull

... as much as I’ve tried to get into TF2 it just doesn’t stick. TF2 feels like it has no identity, it feels…bland.

just don't see it. To me, TF2 has such a basic and uninteresting design to it. It has as much character as any other shooter out there. I mean, just look at the classes, they're extremely generic. You have a Medic, a Soldier and so on. Where's the character in that? There is none.

Huh? A Medic and a Soldier have nothing in common, how is that generic? I mean, I get you never liked TF2 but trust me there are people who do, thousands of us. TF2 meta goes back a lot longer then Overwatch.

Well, from a graphical design standpoint, they are quite bland compared to e.g. Mercy and Reinhardt (I guess similar roles in both games). I played TF2 for some time, but it seemed too much pay2win (hats and equip affecting gameplay). I too find characters in Overwatch more unique and compelling - different skills required, various hero skills, very different game-play for many heroes. Sure, TF2 has some of it too, but only to much smaller degree.

Quoting: devnull

Quoting: bgh251f2The main issue with TF2 for me is that the game really got worse after going free. It's harder and less fun.

It's been Free for a long time. I'd agree if you'd said since valve became hostile toward community servers but not from strictly being free.

Quoting: bgh251f2Also there is a complete lack of diversity among the chars. No women is really saddening. And no, Pyro doesn't count because there is no way to know that (s)he is a women.

... LOL, K. Overwatche(d) can keep that little political bombshell, it has no place in gaming. There are female models if it offends you that much :) I do know women who play TF2, gender has never been an issue for them.

Yeah, that is one thing I hate on Overwatch. Blizzard is trying too hard to virtue signal, censoring community, pro players and now it seems they are even threatening to steal (paid games from your account) if you trigger someone on twitch (so not even in the game itself). Their last lame attempt at deflecting backlash from sexism against men in Overwatch contenders/league (the "fake pro-girl") and racism on workplace (over year of racist remarks being allowed, even after weekly complaints, leading the dude to even consider suicide) with new lazy "lore", aka "look, soldier is gay ?".

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So happy to hear that. OW is one of the main reasons for me to boot to windows (which resulted in not playing OW much, because even with SSD, it is still a chore to reboot and use an OS where is nothing installed and which constantly tries to ruin your gaming session with aggressive updates, even after applying several hacks to disable them). I should finally try it under tux. :D

BTW: It would be awesome to have a tux emoji :). :tux: :P

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Nice to see fellow countrymen are supporting Linux :).

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I really don't get why developers continue using DRM. If they want to use it, just use it for a first month or so, because then you have grabbed vast majority of the money you could get from people having enough money to buy it, but would pirate it otherwise. Others will wait for a crack (only so few games weren't cracked) and now it only hurts legit customers - worse performance or inability to run it with Proton (e.g. Grim Dawn - they have a custom "DRM" which blocks your progress and the studio [Crate] refuses to do anything about it, saying Valve should fix it which is not going to happen, since it is not that popular game :( ).

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