Aspyr Media have quite clearly proven themselves at porting to Linux with a port that works this well, but the bigger news is that they may have more to come.
For those living under a rock, they ported Civilization V to Linux.
There's a fair bit of fun information here, so get your reading glasses out and a beer.
There was this from the Steam forum:
Source
Well now that's quite a big statement to make and I have no doubt they will delivery on it. They also did an "Ask Me Anything" on reddit about it which gave out some important info like cross-platform cloud saves may come:
This is one of the reasons I like these guys as they use something decent in the porting process:
That's why it works with my two monitors happily then...
They love SteamOS (who doesn't!):
When asked about the reception to the port:
This is probably one of the most important bits. The fact that 2K and Firaxis were supportive of bringing it to Linux just shows how big Linux is in developers minds now.
They also did some work related to the game on SteamOS directly:
The port was also mostly done by 2 people:
See the full AMA on reddit.
It's really fantastic of them to not only port the game natively, but to reach out to the community like this and actually speak to us directly. I hope other developers are looking and taking note on how to do it right.
If you need support with the Civ V Linux port then go to their support site here.
If you haven't seen it yet watch Samsai take on the world in the lastest GOL Cast on Civ V. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
For those living under a rock, they ported Civilization V to Linux.
There's a fair bit of fun information here, so get your reading glasses out and a beer.
There was this from the Steam forum:
QuoteA thread just to thank us for the port?! With comments?! We are floored you guys. Is there a smily face that has tears in it?
We honestly had no idea we would get this type of response and we cant thank you all enough for the support. Keep this up, and I can promise you will be seeing more AAA Linux work from Aspyr in the future :)
Source
Well now that's quite a big statement to make and I have no doubt they will delivery on it. They also did an "Ask Me Anything" on reddit about it which gave out some important info like cross-platform cloud saves may come:
Aspyr_BlairOnce the product is totally "finished", we will likely get steam cloud saves in. The problem up to this point is that if there is a version difference (say on the day of a patch), that save game could become corrupt.
You can still do it manually of course. I don't have the file path on hand right now, but you can do a search in the Linux gaming reddit area and find it easy enough :)
This is one of the reasons I like these guys as they use something decent in the porting process:
AspyrIanYes, we used SDL2.
That's why it works with my two monitors happily then...
They love SteamOS (who doesn't!):
Aspyr_BlairWe have a great relationship with Valve and are more than excited for the future of SteamOS!
When asked about the reception to the port:
AspyrIanI've never seen anything like it in my 17 years of programming. You are all awesome.
Aspyr_BlainTo your first question: We absolutely believe in the future of SteamOS and that is what drove us to explore its potential and "chase" the project. While I cant comment on specifics, I will say that 2K and Firaxis are AMAZING partners and has been very supportive of this whole effort.
This is probably one of the most important bits. The fact that 2K and Firaxis were supportive of bringing it to Linux just shows how big Linux is in developers minds now.
They also did some work related to the game on SteamOS directly:
AspyrIanIf we detect you're running SteamOS we turn off the option to select windowed mode to provide a better Big Picture experience (as in, windowed mode doesn't always work).
The port was also mostly done by 2 people:
AspyrIanThe Linux team is two engineers and we worked on this for months. We also had help from the Mac team, they laid preliminary groundwork. I can't get any more specific than that because I wasn't involved from the beginning.
See the full AMA on reddit.
It's really fantastic of them to not only port the game natively, but to reach out to the community like this and actually speak to us directly. I hope other developers are looking and taking note on how to do it right.
If you need support with the Civ V Linux port then go to their support site here.
If you haven't seen it yet watch Samsai take on the world in the lastest GOL Cast on Civ V. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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We should buy them a cake :)
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Keep porting guys! :D
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They seem to be a really great company with excellent communication skills. :)
Not sure you covered this:
If you use Steam on different platforms but want to support the Linux port by Aspyr, you should bear the following in mind:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/8930/discussions/0/540743758002415316/#c540743757991860509
Not sure you covered this:
If you use Steam on different platforms but want to support the Linux port by Aspyr, you should bear the following in mind:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/8930/discussions/0/540743758002415316/#c540743757991860509
Quoting: Aspyre@steamcommunityThanks for the support! It means the world to us, really.
These are great questions. Ok...here is a quick rundown of how this works. Essentially, the Steam client is very smart and does a good job at identifiying the customer and paying the developer accordingly.
- If you want to ensure you are supporting Aspyr for the Linux version of Civ V, buy it AND PLAY IT on your Linux Steam client.
- Purchases made on another platform (Windows for example) will default payment to that platform BUT if you play it on Linux for the first few weeks, the system will recognize that you are actually a Linux user and shift a portion or all of the payment to the Linux developer.
- Purchases made more than a month ago on a different platform will keep payment to the developer of that platform if the user never launched on a different platform. This is totally understandable, as trying to sift through this stuff even just a couple of months after the transaction would be a finance apocalypse.
There is of course a grey area in rare cases, but Valve has some magic formula to make sure us devs are taken care of and its always been a fair shake for all involved.
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I`d like to see Borderlands 2 on Steam OS.
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Quoting: DeformalI`d like to see Borderlands 2 on Steam OS.Borderlands 2 sucked. I'd rather see new games, or even the original Borderlands. Here's hoping the new prequel doesn't blow like the last one did.
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BioShock would be awesome, although I doubt that the older parts (1 and 2) would be ported (they were also not ported to the Mac by Aspyr - I think it was Feral Interactive, who are also working on the XCOM port right now).
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I'd be quite interested if it's possible to get a Linux KotOR port. They did do the Mac port back in the days. But now that BioWare belongs to EA and LucasArts to Disney, that might get weird.
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Quoting: DrMcCoyI'd be quite interested if it's possible to get a Linux KotOR port. They did do the Mac port back in the days. But now that BioWare belongs to EA and LucasArts to Disney, that might get weird.
I really can't see any company wasting there time porting games that are that old.
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FutureSuture Jun 13, 2014
It would be amazing if Linux not only received the same games that Mac OS receives from now on, but all past games as well. I would certainly buy them. People may argue that it hasn't helped Mac OS attain more market share, but that is really because of the financial barrier and the hardware barrier that Apple imposes, aspects that Linux fortunately does not suffer from.
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