All the talk nowadays if of "unification" or to paraphrase Mark Shuttleworth and Ubuntu the "availability of a single interface for all devices." And with all this talk I began to wonder why more gaming engine's aren't jumping on board.
The recent release of Unity3d 4 was all the rage because it meant that an incredibly popular engine was coming to Linux, and thus all unity3d games developed with the new engine could in fact run on Linux (granted a Linux version was released). In my personal opinion, Unity3d is great, but when compared to the more AAA engines like the Unreal, FrostBite and CDProjectRed's RED Engine just to name a few, Unity3d falls a bit flat in my eyes.
Sure it's pretty, but how does it compare to the competition?:
Then steps in Unigine, another well known Linux engine. Surprising to me at least is that the Unigine engine isn't widely used at all, even compared to Unity with lacks PlayStation support. I'm not interested in the pricing, so I cannot say if that's the issue, so someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
Back to my rant, Unigine looks amazing. From my time running the Heaven benchmark to me playing their standalone Naval RTS Oil Rush, I've fallen in love with how amazing Unigine looks. And I might add, my GTX 680 struggles to run Heaven on max settings. Ungine is, and has been a showcase into the future of PC gaming, with Linux support to boot.
Don't believe me? Then here:
Now this begs the question, why haven't Epic, EA, or CDPR ported their already great engines to Linux? The Unreal Engine as well as Frostbite (the Red engine is just a combination of other engines) are GREAT engines. And at least Unreal HAD Linux support (pre Unreal 3 days), so there's merit that gaming on Linux WAS plausible. But now with the advent of Steam for Linux and overall increasing numbers of games for Linux the re-adaptation of Unreal to Linux seems possible. But is it really? No. Unreal seems to be focused on the mobile platforms ( Android, IOS), which from a business standpoint makes sense to me (more "customers"). Which leaves us minority (but ever so growing) Linux uses stuck in the dark.
Which brings me back to my first point, if Linux had a universal Engine or even Distro (a completely different story) would Linux Gaming be in a different position today? TO me unigine seems like the answer, but yet it's not. Anyone have any ideas why? Please comment below.
I typed this from my self built Windows 8 Gaming rig. I love Ubuntu, but prefer rolling release and seamless Nvidia integration. If I get around to it this weekend I'm going to install Manjaro Cinnamon (arch based and rolling) to get back to my Linux gaming side. Or if anyone want to suggest another distro? I was maybe gonna try SUSE Tumbleweed.
Specs:
i5 3570K @4.5Ghz
H80
32GB 1866Mhz Ram
Nvida GTX 680
Samsung 840SSD
ASUS Maximus V Gene MB
Please Note: This Editorial is by a Guest and may not represent the thoughts and feelings of GamingOnLinux.com. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
The recent release of Unity3d 4 was all the rage because it meant that an incredibly popular engine was coming to Linux, and thus all unity3d games developed with the new engine could in fact run on Linux (granted a Linux version was released). In my personal opinion, Unity3d is great, but when compared to the more AAA engines like the Unreal, FrostBite and CDProjectRed's RED Engine just to name a few, Unity3d falls a bit flat in my eyes.
Sure it's pretty, but how does it compare to the competition?:
Back to my rant, Unigine looks amazing. From my time running the Heaven benchmark to me playing their standalone Naval RTS Oil Rush, I've fallen in love with how amazing Unigine looks. And I might add, my GTX 680 struggles to run Heaven on max settings. Ungine is, and has been a showcase into the future of PC gaming, with Linux support to boot.
Don't believe me? Then here:
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Now this begs the question, why haven't Epic, EA, or CDPR ported their already great engines to Linux? The Unreal Engine as well as Frostbite (the Red engine is just a combination of other engines) are GREAT engines. And at least Unreal HAD Linux support (pre Unreal 3 days), so there's merit that gaming on Linux WAS plausible. But now with the advent of Steam for Linux and overall increasing numbers of games for Linux the re-adaptation of Unreal to Linux seems possible. But is it really? No. Unreal seems to be focused on the mobile platforms ( Android, IOS), which from a business standpoint makes sense to me (more "customers"). Which leaves us minority (but ever so growing) Linux uses stuck in the dark.
Which brings me back to my first point, if Linux had a universal Engine or even Distro (a completely different story) would Linux Gaming be in a different position today? TO me unigine seems like the answer, but yet it's not. Anyone have any ideas why? Please comment below.
I typed this from my self built Windows 8 Gaming rig. I love Ubuntu, but prefer rolling release and seamless Nvidia integration. If I get around to it this weekend I'm going to install Manjaro Cinnamon (arch based and rolling) to get back to my Linux gaming side. Or if anyone want to suggest another distro? I was maybe gonna try SUSE Tumbleweed.
Specs:
i5 3570K @4.5Ghz
H80
32GB 1866Mhz Ram
Nvida GTX 680
Samsung 840SSD
ASUS Maximus V Gene MB
Please Note: This Editorial is by a Guest and may not represent the thoughts and feelings of GamingOnLinux.com. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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i left K/Ubuntu for a few reasons, but mostly it's the stuttering releases. as a gamer, tearing down my install every 6 months just isn't worth it. so Chakra really fits the bill for me, and it's an amazingly smooth implementation of KDE (my preferred DE.)
note that Chakra is more KDE/QT focused. i have no issues installing GTK on it, and i'd rather the devs focus on making KDE and the system run smoothly anyway, but if one wants a more GTK friendly distro then Manjaro may work well for you.
i spent last year on windows, but in the end i returned to Linux because i missed my freedom and, well, indies are where the action is these days. ;)
cinnarch if you want out of box cinnamon
manjaro if you want xfce (because thats the most polished from their side)
chakra if you want kde
and pure Arch with your own tweaks if you are freak like me lol :D
edit: removed distro part as that probably gone derail the discussion
as for unity3d, I think your a bit harsh on the gfx part, shadowrun looks really nice as do several other games on it, from https://aec-apps.com/app/app/unity-3d
I do believe, but I don't know for sure, that unity3d is cheaper and thus used more in all levels (from AA titles to indie) and the lower levels often spend less on gfx because they have a more limited budget and you get the idea that Unity3d can't do fancy gfx
As for why don't the others join, well why would they ? Steam right now is showing them that its just a small 1-2% in users and thus an even smaller % in buyers, so as long as that does not change then there is no need for them to port over their engines to a much less uniform platform then windows and Mac.
What linux basicly needs to get big in gaming is what consoles have, a AAA title just for that platform, something people will switch over for, right now every commercial big title coming to linux will have a Windows and/or Mac release before or at the same time, so why would Windows gamers switch over ?
it just that unity3d was first used for small indie games cause of the pricing and the free demo of the engine.
that makes many think that this game engine is not capable of pulling AAA titles.
take a look at Airbuccaneers or Guns Of Icarus for example. they look absolutely amazing and are done with unity3d
My views on unity come from my personal preference for games and their appearance. I am a graphics freak, and no, good graphics don't make a good game, but it helps. I guess from what I've seen of unity's high end, it just doesn't compare to other high end engines.
I just thought: If Valve would release Half Life 3 say 3 months earlier on Linux ...... then you would see a Steam/Linux increase you could only dream off :)
steam stats shows about 3-5M logged in at the same time. Id say that is about 20-30% of total steam users.
Lets say there are 20M total users (probably more)
Well 2% of 20M is 400k. Lets say only a 10% (probably more for the first games coming) of that people is willing to buy an AAA game. I payed 50€ for my last AAA game. Thats 2M€. Not too bad for making a port.
I payed for 3 AAA games in the last 10 years. It would had probably bought more games if they were for linux
I kina see your point tho... until steam make it happen, to gain more base, it will be hard
(just saying to remove the damn email spam on each reply)
Quite frankly? I'd rather see the percentage of GNU/Linux users rival Mac. Just that. No more, no less. A few AAA titles every now and then behind the main Windows releases, and people who are WILLING to switch. For reasons OTHER than just one overhyped game.
Let's not forget also, all those beautiful Kickstarter games that have yet to trickle in. I think we've only seen the tip of the needle so far. And like the article says, their are some good engines out there, but I think devs are having a hard time putting together teams for the Linux platform. We need to show more vocal and financial support to these awesome guys and gals.
I have also added a direct link into article reply emails to unsubscribe from, hope it helps :)
this world is doomed :D
of course, but it would not go back to the old % as some will stay. It would give windows gamers a reason to install linux for games and thus growing the market (and that is what this editorial is about) because then the % will be interesting enough for other parties. And right now it simply is not