Proud to have backed this one on Kickstarter. Failbetter Games have listened to the requests of Linux gamers, and already ported Sunless Sea to Linux. So they could take their experiences to bring us Sunless Skies on Linux too. Very nice to see this Kickstarter project being successful.

As they are coming closer to release, if streamers are reading this, there is a 10k challenge coming up, where Failbetter games is donating £1 for each minute streamed on release day, up to £10.000.

More informations can be found here: http://www.failbettergames.com/the-sunless-skies-10k-challenge/ [External Link]
On that page is a link [External Link] to the streamer pack with everything you need.

Let's help this charity, shall we? :)

View this comment - View article - View full comments

That's cool news. I'm very happy with my samsung curved monitor, and I hope it'll work with this feature enabled then.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

C'mon Micrsoft... finally do, what you wanted to do already with Windows 8. Lock down your OS so only apps from your Windows App store can be installed. People with either accept it, or... hrhr.

Valve is ready for this scenario. Humble, GoG and Itch.io too. And I bet Origin, UPlay and even Epic will adapt very quickly and release Linux versions of their store clients ;)

Other than that, yeah, I didn't expect Epic to release a Linux client of their store. Tim Sweeney might ramble about Microsoft a lot, but he has no real interest in support Linux. "We'll see :D" means nothing but delaying tactics, until real results occur. And as suspected, they don't have any plans in support Linux. So much for the great new store with a better cut for devs. Well, it might be a great new store... just not for us.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Nice article :) Enjoyed looking back to what happened this year.
I was afraid Linux gaming would get a strong setback this year, as in the beginning the Feral radar was pretty empty, Valve's hardware statistics only showing a decrease in usage, etc.

But luckily I was proven wrong. So wrong. Looks like Linux gaming is pretty solid in the meantime. Which is probably mostly thanks to Proton. But also having some big releases from Feral and Aspyr as well as some of the cool indie games (especially Everspace and Ruiner for me). So we are still good, and my anxiety is not as strong for the next year as it was last year.

Though those new stores, where no Linux version is announced could mean some problems for our gaming platform. But we'll have to see.

But I'm pretty happy what I have played and can play now on Linux... Everspace, Beat Saber in VR, Subnautica in VR, The Solus Project in VR, Ruiner and many many more.

Thanks for a great gamingonlinux year :)

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I'm wondering... does the Vulkan version (e.g. shown by the DXVK overlay) not correlate with the driver version? I thought so. And if so, it seems that the newer nvidia driver comes with an older Vulkan version?

• driver 396.54.09 shows Vulkan 1.1.85


• driver 415.22.0 shows Vulkan 1.1.84

At least I've seen this on twitch videos, and I'm not sure if I'm missing something here?

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Yeah, come on Epic. Do give you a push, do support Linux more enthusiastic.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, yeah, competition is never bad. It kicks the others bum and makes them move.

On the other hand, Valve is moving. They do things. In the background. Proton was in the works for over two years, without telling anybody. Valve tries new things, they invented Steam Machines, Steam OS, Steam Controller, Steam Link, Steam VR. But everything they do is a slow start, not hard pushing anything. This sometimes doesn't work out well. Steam Machines haven't been successful, Steam Link stopped production... I'm happy they still show commitment to Linux development, because they are the only ones really giving Linux gaming a platform. Sure there is GoG and itch. But most (Linux) games are on Steam.

So, now Epic launches their store... and why? Because they get lots of money from Fortnite and have enough money to try it. And what's their deal? Taking a significant lower cut than the other stores do. This does look appealing on the first sight, but they need to stick to it, to be successful. Also when the first start might not work out well.

Unfortunately, Epic doesn't show much commitment to Linux development. Sure, Unreal Engine 4 does support Linux. But looking at Everspace, they still struggle with each patch (atm we have to wait for patch 1.3.3). Also supporting the Linux version is still a loss-making business from them. I thought it would have sold better on Linux, but it didn't. They are far away from break even. The Mac version was way more profitable than the Linux version :-/ And Apple is even kinda working against being their platform a gaming platform.

Seeing this, I'm afraid that Rockfish might not support Linux with their next project, and probably other devs might not even consider doing a Linux build if they have to put in so much effort to create a Linux version or maintain upcoming patches.

Though reading about other "open platforms" and smilies/emojis in Tim Sweeney's tweets regarding Linux support might give hope... it's just that... hope. Afaik Valve has the biggest user base atm, so they won't struggle anytime soon. But if Epic manages to get a critical mass, devs might primarily publish on their store, and then not having a Linux client... go figure.

Linux still is a niche. Still more than 99% are not using Linux as gaming platform. Unfortunately. We can be so happy, with what we have now. But as religious and loud some Linux people are, they manage to make devs even angry so they won't consider Linux anymore.

It would be great if Epic would support Linux. For us. For those already using Linux. But I'm really afraid they won't. Please let my fear be wrong.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Wow, Feral really doesn't stop being awesome!

I hope for a day-one release of Alien: Blackout :D

But my first impression from the picture was also Darksiders. Well, there is still the unfinished port from Leszek Godlevski that never got released.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Shmerl

Quoting: CorbenThe confusion comes from, if the question in the survey to use wine is meant technically or logically.

Technically, proton is wine (with modifications).
Logically it's not, as it's run through the native Linux Steam client.

Not if you use it without Steam client. Then you run it same way as any other Wine variant.

Exactly what I wrote in the next sentence ;)

Quoting: CorbenIf you use proton outside Steam, it's more towards wine again, but it's a concious decision to use proton instead of vanilla wine.

The two questions should aim to distinguish between if you are using a compatibility layer explicitly (wine, external proton) or passively (Steam play, internal proton).

And I would even think that if it's clear that the "wine" option is meant to be using wine/proton explicitly and outside the Linux Steam client... then the second question is not needed. We are playing games on and through Steam. On Linux. Without tinkering with setting them up. Counting as Linux sales when bought. That's the "normal" way for the gamer. Just hit the install button in Steam and play the game... on Linux.

But I realize people want to point out, that they are playing now games that are using the new Steam Play feature. So yeah, another checkbox is needed. Though Proton remains a special case, as it's comparable to eON, which we don't have an extra checkbox for. The only difference between Proton and eON from a users perspective is, you are able to tinker with it and apply it to any game you want.

I haven't tried to use Proton outside Steam yet, is it easy to use? Is there a significant benefit to use Proton instead of wine?

View this comment - View article - View full comments

The confusion comes from, if the question in the survey to use wine is meant technically or logically.

Technically, proton is wine (with modifications).
Logically it's not, as it's run through the native Linux Steam client. The clueless user doesn't even know.

If you use proton outside Steam, it's more towards wine again, but it's a concious decision to use proton instead of vanilla wine.

So proton is a hybrid...

Imho the question "did you use wine" should mean, have you used any wine version from winehq.org using your own prefix or via lutris or via playonlinux? Maybe this has to be added as a footnote for clarification.

If people would like to reflect that they are using wine under the hood via proton, a question like, did you use the new Steam Play 2.0 and/or enable it for all games? Though that's more a statistics for nerds (which we obviously are) :)

For game devs it's more important to see, on which platform their games are bought. And is was possible to make a windows(/mac)-only game count as a Linux sale before proton, e.g. if you bought it through the Linux Steam client and didn't play it for the first week or so.

In the end you could argue, you won't have to check the wine question in the survey as you haven't used wine explicitly and Proton is treating games like native Linux games from a devs perspective. Technically it's different of course.

View this comment - View article - View full comments