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Witcher 2 got pushed out for Linux few days ago and I decided it would be wise to cover this ASAP considering how big this release is and how much conversation there has been about its performance. So, let's start it up and check what's inside!
The Witcher 2, as you may already know, is an action RPG developed by CD Projekt RED with Linux version handled by Virtual Programming. In it you play as the witcher, genetically enhanced monster slayer, Geralt of Rivia who has gotten himself into a tricky situation after getting framed for killing his king Foltest. Now his mission is to track down the real assassin and clean his reputation.
Sadly this “port” wasn't a very good one. Like the Mac version, this one uses Virtual Programming's wrapper called eON, which ties the Windows libraries together and interprets the game for other operating systems. This would in my opinion be completely fine but sadly eON doesn't really cut it for this game. The performance is bad overall with low framerates and the game has a tendency to crash occasionally.
The game itself is really good. It's pretty, the combat is complex and requires plenty of skill and the story seems rather nice too. The RPG elements aren't exactly clear, as three of the four skill trees are locked at least for the first few hours of gameplay, but this doesn't decrease the enjoyability.
However, regardless of how good the base game is, the wrapper is quite bad. Some people are reporting decent performance, but personally the performance hasn't been too stellar. With my GTX 760 and Intel i5 2500k it's playable but I definitely expected more. Others are having even more problems than I am and for example our beloved Liam can only make the game run at 10 FPS, which is absolutely unplayable. In addition to that the developers are discouraging AMD and Intel graphics users from playing it, as the game not officially supported on them.
So all in all, I would suggest that you wait for them to release updates and performance fixes before buying it, as it's in a quite horrible state for many people at the moment.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
The Witcher 2, as you may already know, is an action RPG developed by CD Projekt RED with Linux version handled by Virtual Programming. In it you play as the witcher, genetically enhanced monster slayer, Geralt of Rivia who has gotten himself into a tricky situation after getting framed for killing his king Foltest. Now his mission is to track down the real assassin and clean his reputation.
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Sadly this “port” wasn't a very good one. Like the Mac version, this one uses Virtual Programming's wrapper called eON, which ties the Windows libraries together and interprets the game for other operating systems. This would in my opinion be completely fine but sadly eON doesn't really cut it for this game. The performance is bad overall with low framerates and the game has a tendency to crash occasionally.
The game itself is really good. It's pretty, the combat is complex and requires plenty of skill and the story seems rather nice too. The RPG elements aren't exactly clear, as three of the four skill trees are locked at least for the first few hours of gameplay, but this doesn't decrease the enjoyability.
However, regardless of how good the base game is, the wrapper is quite bad. Some people are reporting decent performance, but personally the performance hasn't been too stellar. With my GTX 760 and Intel i5 2500k it's playable but I definitely expected more. Others are having even more problems than I am and for example our beloved Liam can only make the game run at 10 FPS, which is absolutely unplayable. In addition to that the developers are discouraging AMD and Intel graphics users from playing it, as the game not officially supported on them.
So all in all, I would suggest that you wait for them to release updates and performance fixes before buying it, as it's in a quite horrible state for many people at the moment.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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It seems GOL got linked by kotaku australia: http://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/05/the-witcher-2-just-made-a-bunch-of-linux-gamers-very-very-angry/
My god that comment from the editor at the end of the article is just...and having to bite my tongue here....terrible.
NO, we should not be thankful for terrible "ports" that do nothing other than hurt gamers. If we had a ton of AAA games that where all terrible ports, but ran perfectly well on Windows who does that look bad on? LINUX. It makes Linux look like it can't handle the games and pushes people away from sticking with it to game.
What a terrible, terrible comment from that editor.
Quoteit took years before the game found its way to the platform — and gamers using the operating system should be thankful they have something at all.
My god that comment from the editor at the end of the article is just...and having to bite my tongue here....terrible.
NO, we should not be thankful for terrible "ports" that do nothing other than hurt gamers. If we had a ton of AAA games that where all terrible ports, but ran perfectly well on Windows who does that look bad on? LINUX. It makes Linux look like it can't handle the games and pushes people away from sticking with it to game.
What a terrible, terrible comment from that editor.
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Quoting: liamdaweWhat a terrible, terrible comment from that editor.
Yeah, it's utterly ridiculous but sadly that kind of attitude is very common in the games industry :/
Now I don't have any problem with developers using a wrapper to "port" old games such as these (sure, it's no problem for most of us here to set up CrossOver or Wine to play the Windows versions, but most gamers just want to install and play without any fuss), but they should make sure that they perform decently. It's stupid that TW2 performs *worse* in a wrapper designed specificially for it than it does in Wine! I think things would have been much better if CDPR got CodeWeavers to do the job instead...
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That editor comment doesn't sound that bad reading the other half of the paragraph:
Anyway now that the trolls are getting tired (I'm kind of suspicious of all those level 0 gamers) the real spirit of Linux community is coming out: LETS FIX IT on LINUX instead of complaining!, I just hope eOS or whoever on the devs side will take advantage of this.
QuoteMy perspective is that given the intelligence of Linux gamers, CD Projekt should have been upfront about how the game was to be “ported” from Windows. Instead, it now has a few pages of vitriol on the Steam forums over the debacle.
Anyway now that the trolls are getting tired (I'm kind of suspicious of all those level 0 gamers) the real spirit of Linux community is coming out: LETS FIX IT on LINUX instead of complaining!, I just hope eOS or whoever on the devs side will take advantage of this.
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It seems to be very graphics card dependent. On my GTX 580 it's only playable in the lowest stettings, and at some scenes I still have performance below 20 FPS. My CPU seems to idle, even though, one thread seems to take always 100 % of a core, which could be the issue as well.
Considering you do have a stronger graphics card and a smaller processor than I do, I guess it's a lot graphics card dependant.
Even though, it is enjoyable enough, even on low settings. Still 25 achievements to go :).
Considering you do have a stronger graphics card and a smaller processor than I do, I guess it's a lot graphics card dependant.
Even though, it is enjoyable enough, even on low settings. Still 25 achievements to go :).
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Quoting: liamdaweIn any case, I'd be willing to argue that this port is not actually anything at all. It might even be claimed that it is less than nothing. After all, the game apparently runs on Wine faster than the "Linux" version runs natively. So what Linux has been given is something less than what Linux can already do without a Linux version at all . . .Quoteit took years before the game found its way to the platform — and gamers using the operating system should be thankful they have something at all.My god that comment from the editor at the end of the article is just...and having to bite my tongue here....terrible.
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Lordpkappa May 26, 2014
Having played for a while now i think that maybe the problem it's not GPU performance but CPU.
There is a huge different in frame rate in some areas, and according to this test:
The MT performance of the engine it's very important. In linux the game use only 1 core, if the developer could share the calculation in more cores maybe the game will run more fluent.
There is a huge different in frame rate in some areas, and according to this test:
The MT performance of the engine it's very important. In linux the game use only 1 core, if the developer could share the calculation in more cores maybe the game will run more fluent.
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Ive already bought it, but ive never played the first game. can you play the second game, without having problems with the story?
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Quoting: AnonymousIve already bought it, but ive never played the first game. can you play the second game, without having problems with the story?
You don't need to play the first game to enjoy the second, but I recommend to play it anyway, since the story line is in sequence and strongly connected. Same way you don't need to read all the Witcher books to play the first game (since games are essentially sequels to the books), but if you red the books it enhances the experience quite a lot.
That's besides the fact that Witcher 1 is a masterpiece of an adventure/RPG in its own right so you don't want to miss it.
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Lordpkappa May 29, 2014
Ok now i have a more precise idea of the conversion.
There are performance issue and bugs: sure it need a patch or something like that.
i see areas with perfect frame rate, others with only decent fps, nothing that is unplayble, but sure need to improve a lot.
The game out of the jail crash a lot, so i decided to play it when a patch comes out.
There are performance issue and bugs: sure it need a patch or something like that.
i see areas with perfect frame rate, others with only decent fps, nothing that is unplayble, but sure need to improve a lot.
The game out of the jail crash a lot, so i decided to play it when a patch comes out.
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