The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt Confirmed For Linux & SteamOS

W3 comes out on PS4 so they already have OpenGL version.

Not necessarily. On PS4 it can be using PSSL.

"if you're lucky it will run nice, if not... you're screwed"

For what it's worth, I never expected my old Athlon 64 X2 6000+ with 4GB RAM and a GeForce GT 630 to run Witcher 2 smoothly.

With all options dialed down, it is barely playable, though, at least the tutorial. I seem to be getting about 20 FPS (maybe a bit lower, I have high tolerance for low FPS). It dips down to annoyingly low during the Geralt close-up while speaking to the soldier/knight person. And when the mage appeared during the final arena battle, I died because my system needed several seconds per frame. Interestingly enough, the mage before the final battle didn't provoke that.

I'm not aware of any wrappers which can translate DX11 into OpenGL 4 at the moment.

I expect they will have a fallback renderer based on an older DirectX version, and that one will be used when wrapped through eON.

making an inferior support for Linux is not in their interest at all.

I think they made quite clear that having proper Linux support is not in their interest at all. Not "financially feasible" and all that jazz. Which was uttered by both GOG and CD Projekt RED people alike.

One of the reasons I'm still sceptical about GOG's Linux plans. I still half expected them to even do stupid things like wrapping a Windows build of ScummVM in Wine or something like that.

Yes, I am that cynical, thank you very much.

perhaps restrain their emotions just a tad where Eon is concerned

I reject the whole idea of eON, out of principle. Even if all games would run smoothly and rainbows would fart out of my monitor, I'd still reject it. I only barely tolerate Unity's Mono stuff or games using Adobe AIR.

At lease CDProjekt did a better job with porting Witcher 2 to linux

They didn't. The eON people did.

CD Projekt RED don't give a rat's arse. They didn't even have a community person in the Steam forums. No, instead someone from Virtual Programming came in there on his own time. That alone tells you a lot.

CD Projekt RED don't get credit from me for throwing the game at Virtual Programming and then running away.

W3 comes out on PS4 so they already have OpenGL version.

I may be talking more bullshit than usual here, but weren't there news reports about how the PS4 does DirectX? Not that I have any idea about consoles at all.

No fallback mode there. Their engine requires features like tessellation and they aren't optional. So DX9 didn't work for them at all.

Since engine is intended not for them only, we should expect high performance on all platforms.

Well, we will see, I guess. Just remember what I predict; I intend to be a smug asshole about it afterwards. You're free to do the same in the unlikely case I'm wrong. :P

I need to play the Witcher 2 before I can buy this one but I am kind of excited to see it. I am considering the collector's edition but I am not sure how that'll fit in with buying it for Linux. Would I be able to use the game assets from the DVD with a Linux binary or something? ... Hmm.

I'm pretty sure you'll be able to register the game in your GOG library and download the digital version (Windows + Mac + Linux) from there when it's available. You won't get a Steam key, though.

When CDPR shares information on what kind of port it will be only then I will click the preorder button. But Witcher 3 on Linux is really good news nevertheless.

To me it seems we'e entering a phase of seperating the wheat from the chaff.
Game companies will start test-baloons to see with which shortcuts they'll get away.
For us that means that what we accept now, we'll never get rid of for a long time.

For Witcher 3 we have at this point a not too detailed promise, while recent history teaches not not fork over full price or even more for just a promise.
How the Linux version will look like is pure speculation. That's exactly why, from a Linux gamer perspective, it is a super dumb idea to pre-order this game or even buy it untested.
For all I know they might do a proper native version or try to pull some Wine cooperation or whatnot to get this running.

Porting TW2 to GNU/Linux using eON doesn't say much about any commitment. Any game ported using these new wrapper technologies are most probably experiments and maybe it's just VP trying to demo and sell their product.

Reading some say that anything is better than no port at all about TW2 makes me wish TW3 turns out to be like a crappy 8bit era game that you can waste your time on while you repeat the mantra "anything is better than nothing". :D

In what way do you mean "crappy 8bit era game"?

1) You lambast a few specific crappy games
or
2) All 8bit era games are crappy

maybe it's just VP trying to demo and sell their product

Well if it's the case they won't sell loads of it :p

In what way do you mean "crappy 8bit era game"?

1) You lambast a few specific crappy games
or
2) All 8bit era games are crappy

Option 1, of course, I couldn't even think about option 2. I had an Spectrum and loved it. :D

maybe it's just VP trying to demo and sell their product

Well if it's the case they won't sell loads of it :p

Our good, I think a closed wrapper is far from the best way to port games.

CD Projekt RED don't give a rat's arse. They didn't even have a community person in the Steam forums. No, instead someone from Virtual Programming came in there on his own time. That alone tells you a lot.

that being said, it was friday when they released it. although that fact goes against logic, to release at the end of the week. even more so, that was a BIG mistake on their end. no dispute here

still, when one person showed after work on weekend, people ripped him apart and then you see same people yapping about no support since developers went into quiet mode fixing. but strangely, you can see quite a lot of communication from VP on git that was set up. maybe because people there actually want to communicate their problems instead of proclaiming their self importance and yapping insults instead of actual problems

there is a fine line between being demanding customer and being a$$hole.

I reject the whole idea of eON, out of principle. Even if all games would run smoothly and rainbows would fart out of my monitor, I'd still reject it.=

To be honest, my main interest is in the game working under linux, not how it works. It's a game I'd wanted to play properly under linux for a while, and now I'm closer, if not there entirely.

I guess with eON, it's a symptom of linux versions of these games being in very early days. As time goes on and more games get ported, I'd think things will improve quite a bit.

To be honest, my main interest is in the game working under linux, not how it works. It's a game I'd wanted to play properly under linux for a while, and now I'm closer, if not there entirely.

I think the same but I'm concerned that the games I buy may stop working next year or when I decide to move my gaming to a new GNU/Linux box I build myself. The complexity added by middleware wrappers like eON can make it difficult for me to run the game anywhere and when I want. Usually, wrappers add their own problems to the ones already in the game, and rarely, if ever, add any value. Of course, that's from a consumer's point of view.

I'm not demanding unlimited official support for any of this but a native and sane port will be workable to get working anywhere while insanity wrapped inside more insanity might be impossible. Indeed, that could work like some kind of (unintended) DRM.

Wine seems a better solution for me since it's opensource. This removes dependence from any company. Not saying Wine is perfect, I don't like it, still adds an unwanted layer of complexity and has its own quirks and problems, but I could get my hands in it.

The only way those wrappers would be good is they became bug-free and reduced game dependencies to a minimum without introducing any weird requirement or performance penalty. I don't see that happening. Rather see everyone starts developing games in Java.

The thing that I found interesting is this: Back when "Limbo" was released on the Humble Bundle, it had a wrapper produced by CodeWeavers, who sell Crossover, and who are also the people who develop, maintain, and improve Wine. As I recall, the Crossover-wrapped "Limbo" didn't run very well. Eventually a native Linux version of "Limbo" was released.

This may have something to do with RedProjekt's decision to search elsewhere for a wrapper. For all the haters, bear in mind that the company owns and runs GOG.com, and, for the past three years, all their entertainment programming efforts have gone toward W3, which, I predict, will have a native Linux port. Their new Steam-like service will also most likely have a native Linux port.

This Polish company knew that gamers hated DRM, so they are anti-DRM. They are learning that Linux gamers are particular about ports and wrappers.

Since the first Humble Bundle back in 2009, it has not escaped the notice of developers that Linux users want games, or the largest average payment for EVERY Humble Bundle (featuring Linux games) wouldn't have been higher than average payments from Windows and Mac users. There are a lot of games with native ports on Steam, and, personally, I'll take my game wrapped if it means that I can play it.

the company owns and runs GOG.com

The company that hasn't even bothered noting when a game uses DOSBox or ScummVM. Neither for those projects' sake, nor for the customers' sake. And I don't think I have to remind anyone about GOG's weird stance on Linux support and their justification thereof; now hopefully changed, but we'll have to see.

DrMcCoy : You're still pessimistic in your life ?

the company owns and runs GOG.com

The company that hasn't even bothered noting when a game uses DOSBox or ScummVM. Neither for those projects' sake, nor for the customers' sake. And I don't think I have to remind anyone about GOG's weird stance on Linux support and their justification thereof; now hopefully changed, but we'll have to see.

Remind others to vote for it: https://secure.gog.com/wishlist/site/show_which_games_use_dosbox_or_scummvm

DrMcCoy : You're still pessimistic in your life ?

I prefer to call it "realistic" :P

I also start wondering whether the whole thing was a prank of someone who hacked Steam's front page :) Since there was no official announcement from either Valve or CD Projket Red. And actual Steam preorder page doesn't list Linux at all.