Quoting: tuubi

Quoting: appetrosyanSDL versions are even worse: it's the same kind of indirection, simply less flexible and far less maintainable. Why do we insist that a compiled closed-source POSIX executable is better than an interpreted foreign one?

The SDL dig doesn't make sense, but of course a closed source native build is better than a closed source "interpreted" one, if everything else is equal. ("Interpreted" in quotes because Wine isn't really an interpreter.)

A bad native Linux port VS a good wrap job is a bit different, but this doesn't mean the wrapper is the better technical solution. Using one is simpler than writing a truly portable game though, especially if you don't really know your target platform, and it might work just fine. Or it might not.

See my rationale is, Linux changes fast and by a lot. So if you want your old games to conform to a new standard, eg. wayland, if you have a very good interpreter you only need to modify it, and since wine is FOSS, that's not a problem.

If you wanted to huue a native game to conform to these new standards, you'd have to convince game-devs that it's worth it., which is considerably harder since it's extra work, without extra pay.

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Quoting: Nevertheless"Worth noting this is only on Steam of course, the native Linux builds are still available from Humble Store, GOG and itch.io."
So it will be a problem for itch.io and GOG users at least. Therefore it's not a satisfactory solution. For me it could be acceptable it it were availlable on Steam only.

The best solution, is to make the game GPL, and let the community fix it. Another solution, is to intentionally pressure GOG to support Linux as first-class:

Spoiler, click me

you see, there still isn't a GOG galaxy for Linux.

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Quoting: GuestHopefully people who bought the game for linux can get a refund. A wine script is just not as good as a native game.

In my experience, a wine script can be objectively better than a half-arsed port. Just take Doom 3, Return to castle Wolfenstein and a few older native games.

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Sad news, but it also shows why steam play is such a big thing.

It's not as simple as steam play = good, regardless of what happens. But in this case it's a positive driving force.

"They pulled a native game off steam and replaced it with an emulator, how on earth is this a good thing?". Simply put, it means that we can further reduce friction to consider Linux for gaming releases. The ROI is bigger, since with simply saying " white-list this game for SP" you get the same result as with a sizeable time,effort and money put in.

As is common, the main code base is for Windows, the Linux version is closed-source and only one game developer is eyeballing it. The end result is buggy, laggy and outwardly no better than Wine. SDL versions are even worse: it's the same kind of indirection, simply less flexible and far less maintainable. Why do we insist that a compiled closed-source POSIX executable is better than an interpreted foreign one?

I hute to see us Linux gamers being treated as second-grade citizens, but this could have been far worse. What if they kept a buggy port, and made it impossible to use Proton? what if they just pulled it, because it was more trouble than its worth?

This is a Steam Play success story, and a small uidony for the 'nix gaming community.

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So what are these games like? I played Freespace (2) when I was a kid, and loved every minute, but nevera actually had a chance to compare it against the X franchise.

What's it like?

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SC 2 through wine.

I wish blizzard would take their heads out of their rectums and finally consider us 'nix gamers.

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I love DRM free games. Sure they might not be completely FOSS, but that’s definitely a step in the right direction. Love this site too.

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Quoting: lejimsterWhen Vulkan was originally announced I was really happy to see it come to Apple and Linux. With Apple Mac having a larger market share (gamer wise) as of right now, it seemed a great thing. Then they had to go their own way with Metal. I just don't understand the thinking, they have made it harder to bring more games to their platform and potentially set Vulkan adoption back at the same time.

So this is a good development, and I hope porters/developers just target Vulkan from now on and ignore Metal as much as possible. I wonder what Feral think of this, since they have been working on bringing titles to Apple with Metal support.

The entirety of apple hinges on doing as much as possible in-house. That's why they build their own hardware, that's why you can't install Mac OS on every machine.

It does seem stupid to lock yourself away from potential revenue from, say, competing with Windows (which they definitely would have won), but that's their philosophy of doing business, and it makes sense.

The good thing is, though, that Vulkan is a cross-platform library that doesn't suck. Now Fruits and Animals can play the same games as inanimate objects.

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I guess that's a good thing.

Technically, System shock is very easy to mess up, and I'll wait as long as it takes for that not to happen.

Meanwhile, they could do something else, something no less exciting. You have to be very meticulous and crafty to make an immersive sim truly immersive, and then also manage not to be boring.

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Quoting: adamhmOlder/classic games currently on sale on GOG that I've made Wine wrappers [External Link] for:

Crysis [External Link]
Crysis Warhead [External Link]
Deadly Premonition [External Link]
Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate Edition [External Link]
Freedom Force [External Link]
Freedom Force vs the Third Reich [External Link]
Hitman: Codename 47 [External Link] (the installer for this one has been updated - will have an updated wrapper out this Friday along with some general updates for all of the other wrappers)
Hitman 2: Silent Assassin [External Link]
Hitman 3: Contracts [External Link]
Jade Empire: Special Edition [External Link]
Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Collection [External Link]
Mafia [External Link]
Mirror's Edge [External Link]
The Saboteur [External Link]
Sid Meier's Civilization IV: The Complete Edition [External Link]
STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl [External Link] (flash deal)
STALKER: Clear Sky [External Link]
STALKER: Call of Pripyat [External Link]
System Shock: Enhanced Edition [External Link]
System Shock 2 [External Link]
Total Overdose: A Gunslinger's Tale in Mexico [External Link]
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition [External Link]

Actually, I was going to ask, is there any chance that we could make this somewhat official? I mean we all know you have those wrappers because you've posted on this forum, but nobody else.

I was just thinking, since the game developers often times use SDL to port games to Linux natively, maybe they'd agree to host those wine wrappers on Steam or on GOG.com? Have you tried contacting them, and making it so that games that work on Linux actually count towards the statistics?

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