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Latest Comments by Shmerl
Wine 3.4 released with more Vulkan support
18 Mar 2018 at 2:48 pm UTC

Quoting: LakortaDo you have an example for a source wrapped game/program using wine? Or is that just a "theoretical" possibility?
I didn't really research Wine wrapping usage. From the officially supported Wine wrapped versions I remember Two Worlds for Linux by TopWare and The Witcher for MacOS (CDPR / VirtualProgramming). You can check whether they are source or binary wrapped. In the end, developers would probably pick what's easier and I expect binary wrapping to be more trivial than source wrapping. Source wrapping can provide some benefits though, since they can adjust things more directly if needed, but naturally it's more work. See: https://wiki.winehq.org/Winelib_User%27s_Guide [External Link]

Wine 3.4 released with more Vulkan support
18 Mar 2018 at 12:45 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: smnI don't think you got what he said. If the linux users already bought it because it ran well in wine then the developer won't see any extra money from them by going through the effort of porting as they already bought the game.
Some Linux users. Others prefer a supported version. That's the only difference, and same applies already now and applied for a while, since Wine can run many games for a long time already. That didn't stop porting (i.e. releasing officially supported versions) as above.

Wine 3.4 released with more Vulkan support
18 Mar 2018 at 12:38 pm UTC

Quoting: sbolokanovInteresting! Which ports by Feral are binary wrapped? Asking only for scientific reasons…
Feral use source wrapping. VirtualProgramming use static translation (binary wrapping). Wine allows both methods for the reference. Performance wise, there isn't much of a difference really. It's just swapping the translation from compilation to dynamic linking.

Wine 3.4 released with more Vulkan support
18 Mar 2018 at 6:57 am UTC Likes: 3

Quoting: jensThis long way will be disturbed when statistics claim that earning money on Linux ain't possible (since Linux gamers will buy the windows versions of games anyway due to wine/dxvk progress).
Same could be said about DX9 for a long time already, that didn't stop porting. Some actually used Wine itself for exactly this purpose. It's just catching up for DX11 now, that's all. Surely, if they don't release Linux version on day one, some will play it in Wine without official support. But if they do, they can play an official version... in the same Wine :) The difference is, that Linux users will more likely buy a supported game.

Wine 3.4 released with more Vulkan support
18 Mar 2018 at 6:37 am UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: jensYes, but it wont be enough value to let the average Linux gamer wait for a Linux release.
Ease of porting makes day one release way more accessible. So why should they wait for who knows how long?

Quoting: jensThis is may be true for a few indie titles, but certainly not for the big productions.
This is true for everything. When something becomes a commodity rather than rarity, you don't need to spend a lot on it. Market is more accessible and you focus on the result, rather than the tool.

In this case, tools and effort (engines and porting) are becoming increasingly commoditized. I think it only increases the prospects of more Linux games, rather than the opposite. Sure, there can be more competition among those who do the porting work, but there is nothing wrong with that. The way it's all heading is, that porting would become easy enough that most will be doing it in house. And the rest will be using engines with cross platform support to begin with (i.e. native games).

Wine 3.4 released with more Vulkan support
18 Mar 2018 at 6:28 am UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: jensYou are missing my point. Sure, porting would get a lot easier. But no game dev/pubslisher will do this anymore because they won't make any money with it anymore
I wrote above. Officially supported version is still better than unsupported one, so there is added value.

Quoting: jensThere is simply no market anymore for (Linux-) games (wrapped or native) on Linux.
You can make the same claim about current closed wrappers from Feral and VP, i.e. they supposedly hurt the market of native games. Yet we see the opposite, major game engines are improving Linux support, and increasing amount of native games are coming out these days.

Wine 3.4 released with more Vulkan support
18 Mar 2018 at 3:07 am UTC Likes: 4

Quoting: LeopardBut seeing so many people have it , dev would simply say : You already bought it , sale is done. Why should i bother with it and put effort for supporting it?
Because supported version is still better than unsupported one. That's self explanatory.

The impact of Wine and dxvk won't be less ports, but hopefully more ports that will use them, instead of closed wrappers from Feral and the like. I don't think it will have any additional impact on native ports which were always more expensive to make. Native ports will come from engines that gain Linux support (which is happening anyway).

Quoting: jensWhile wine (and dxvk) are technically astonishing I do share the anxiousness that we, the Linux community, are shooting ourselves in the foot when trying to compete with the few companies that are earning money with games on Linux..
And you are wrong, the progress is very welcome, since it actually makes porting (wrapper style one at least) a lot easier for developers. Feral and Co. can adapt to this shift in the technology. They can as well compare their wrappers to Wine and dxvk, and if the later are better (and I see no reason why they can't become such), they can just use them, instead of reinventing the wheel. That's the power of FOSS.

There is always value in expertise itself. Studios can of course find experts in house, but some could prefer to hire external contractors to do the work. And why should it make any difference to them whether such contractors (like Feral) use Wine+dxvk or their own closed wrapper? As long as they get a good result - that's exactly what they needed.

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire delayed until May
15 Mar 2018 at 12:17 am UTC Likes: 9

I don't mind the delay. Obsidian are professionals.

Slime Rancher's big Mochi's Megabucks update is out, fixes Linux blackscreen issues
14 Mar 2018 at 12:44 pm UTC

Thanks for pinging developers about the GOG build.

Slime Rancher is another Unity game to have black screen problems on Linux, here's a temp fix
14 Mar 2018 at 3:02 am UTC

Quoting: CheesenessToday's Slime Rancher update resolves this issue.
Is it coming out on GOG too? The last update there was in 29th November 2017.