Good news folks the guys at Virtual Programming aren't leaving us high and dry on the Linux port of The Witcher 2. They are working to try to improve eON for Linux, as if it's to be used in future ports then it does need to get better. A lot better.
This comes from a community bug tracker that was setup for Linux gamers to submit issues for The Witcher 2's Linux port.
Peter Mulholland, Virtual ProgrammingWe are looking into the performance issues as a serious task, as obviously this will affect any other Linux games we do as well as Witcher 2. Despite various claims made, we want to get the best performance we can!
Source
So, it seems they may be doing other ports to Linux as well using the same technology.
Peter Mulholland, Virtual ProgrammingWe believe our method for implementing multithreaded D3D9 may not be as optimal as we thought it should be. We are using shared contexts, with one GL context per thread, to handle it. This seems to be the root cause of the problem - and the reason WINE's CSMT patch makes such a difference.
We are looking into implementing a similar serialization system to improve performance. Currently we have no time estimate on this.
Source
It's also sad that in the same thread Peter feels I have personally attacked him & VP, but I just think they need to relax a little and take valid criticism from people who paid for a game they cannot play.
It's great to see them reach out to the community on a public bug tracker setup for them, so kudos to them for engaging the community.
No matter what people say about this eON tech if they fix it up enough that performance is the same as Windows then that's great. I really want to be able to play The Witcher 2, so I am holding out hope they manage to sort it out.
As I said in an editorial recently I don't care if it's made with a toaster, the technology to me doesn't always matter, but what matters more is if it's playable or not.
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Because face it many old games will be ported using wrappers
I'd rather they'd contribute to Wine in that case, Wine being FLOSS and all.
Wow Liam, you seem to have made quite a name for yourself on being a heck of a nuisance
I for one thought Liam was pretty...milquetoasty. So I'll apply for being "worse cop".
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Did anyone see - Civ V on Linux now?
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Yep! But I have no space left on my steam partition to try it :D
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I can say I'm glad that they take a look under the hood now. Never forget that this was their first AAA title to be ported, and within that the first AAA engine to support. I agree on the voices that it was poorly tested, and shouldn't have been released in that state. Though, nothing you can't fix, but it brings bad publicity and angry customers.
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@liamdawe
"It's also sad that in the same thread Peter feels I have personally attacked him & VP, but I just think they need to relax a little and take valid criticism from people who paid for a game they cannot play on the chin."
I am not sure if you noticed that Peter Mulholland is a former Runesoft employee who worked on some linux ports. Now, he has changed the company, and he start working on something similar to Wine. How it is possible? I do not understand it.
"It's also sad that in the same thread Peter feels I have personally attacked him & VP, but I just think they need to relax a little and take valid criticism from people who paid for a game they cannot play on the chin."
I am not sure if you noticed that Peter Mulholland is a former Runesoft employee who worked on some linux ports. Now, he has changed the company, and he start working on something similar to Wine. How it is possible? I do not understand it.
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Seriously, there is a bug where the keyboard config were wrongly saved in two different config files, and the latter would override the changes made by the config tool, leaving the keyboard non-functional without manually deleting the lines in the second config file. It's *that* broken.You know you could report that bug to them if you didn't already.
And seeing how this is the case, you simply can not be too harsh on them. This version is a travesty, it was nowhere near ready for release.
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People yapping about support while pointing fingers at one company really live in different world then i do.
You find this everywhere
Dead space case - (google "camera spinning"). zillion bug reports on this problem. not even one official answer of bugfix. only way to fix it is manually creating file
Dead space 2 - same problem still exists, same workaround still works, still no official response or bugfix.
You find this everywhere
Dead space case - (google "camera spinning"). zillion bug reports on this problem. not even one official answer of bugfix. only way to fix it is manually creating file
Dead space 2 - same problem still exists, same workaround still works, still no official response or bugfix.
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Give them some time... Most important thing is, they will work on that port and they wanna learn from their mistakes. If it worked for Macs it should work for us - the difference is, Macs always come with NVIDIA card on board, so it is a bit more standarized platform than Linux (install on any hardware, yay!)
And if you think that CDP is not involved, you are probably wrong, because I doubt that Virtual Programming would fix their Witcher port for free, out of kindness. The guy above is right about support in big companies. It is often much easier to contact actual developers than publisher.
I'm interested, if they bring first Witcher to Linux, too (yes, it is available for Mac already). I wanna play the whole trilogy!
And if you think that CDP is not involved, you are probably wrong, because I doubt that Virtual Programming would fix their Witcher port for free, out of kindness. The guy above is right about support in big companies. It is often much easier to contact actual developers than publisher.
I'm interested, if they bring first Witcher to Linux, too (yes, it is available for Mac already). I wanna play the whole trilogy!
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Macs always come with NVIDIA card on board, so it is a bit more standarized platform than Linux (install on any hardware, yay!)
I think that you did not to have a chance to use own Mac computer because you did not tell the truth about graphic cards. From my point of view, they sell computers with Intel, ATI, and Nvidia graphic cards. I did not notice any standardization in this case, and I say this as a Mac and Linux user.
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hardpenguinMacs always come with NVIDIA card on board, so it is a bit more standarized platform than Linux (install on any hardware, yay!)Omahgad, you are right, I just noticed that. I once was on Apple's website and all models they suggested to me were with NVIDIA on board ;3
I think that you did not to have a chance to use own Mac computer because you did not tell the truth about graphic cards. From my point of view, they sell computers with Intel, ATI, and Nvidia graphic cards. I did not notice any standardization in this case, and I say this as a Mac and Linux user.
THEN THERE IS NO EXCUSE, LINUX VIDEO GRAPHICS DRIVERS IMPROVE NOW
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gbudnyhardpenguinMacs always come with NVIDIA card on board, so it is a bit more standarized platform than Linux (install on any hardware, yay!)
I think that you did not to have a chance to use own Mac computer because you did not tell the truth about graphic cards. From my point of view, they sell computers with Intel, ATI, and Nvidia graphic cards. I did not notice any standardization in this case, and I say this as a Mac and Linux user.Omahgad, you are right, I just noticed that. I once was on Apple's website and all models they suggested to me were with NVIDIA on board ;3
THEN THERE IS NO EXCUSE, LINUX VIDEO GRAPHICS DRIVERS IMPROVE NOW
There actually is an excuse, the graphics stack in OSX is a lot different to the one in Linux, and, so to say, a lot easier and way more polished. It's getting better nowdays with AMD, Intel and Valve trying to improve the situation, but that takes time.
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You know you could report that bug to them if you didn't already.
It's obviously all over the Steam forums - including the step-by-step guide to fix it. But in my opinion that's beside the point here:
The point is that you just don't release something with a bug like that. You don't. You have a Q&A that catch such things on their first hour at work.
When you purchase and install a game, you expect the friggin' keyboard to work.
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entropyWhatever. :)
DrMcCoy might not lose his $10.
10€.
Whatever? 10€ are almost $14.
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The CIV V port took, according to the devs, a LOOOONG time and a lot of work. I have no idea how long VP worked on their wrapper, but at least they are trying to make the customers happy.
As I've mentioned already, look at Eador:Masters Of The Broken World, which was foisted on us with a plain wine wrapper, not even tuned for the game. After pages of complaints about said wine wrapper, there has not been a peep from the devs. And none are expected, either.
And, Liam, thanks for the website, your level head, and all the other things you do for the Linux gaming community!
As I've mentioned already, look at Eador:Masters Of The Broken World, which was foisted on us with a plain wine wrapper, not even tuned for the game. After pages of complaints about said wine wrapper, there has not been a peep from the devs. And none are expected, either.
And, Liam, thanks for the website, your level head, and all the other things you do for the Linux gaming community!
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The CIV V port took, according to the devs, a LOOOONG time and a lot of work.
Really? I did read something about two devs for 3 month with help of the osx team. That is not a lot but pretty cheap for a port (and usually a sign the engine was created for multiple platforms in mind). Consider the costs, it is half a year of dwvelopment, so overall costs between 70.000 to 100.000 euros. 1% of steam is a customer base of roundabout 800.000-1 million. Easily financed if only a small percentage buys for 10 euros.
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ps: ofc talking euros... in dollars 50% higher.
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It is good that they are working to improve their port. It seems even their Mac ports have had some issues: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?553563-Why-does-Paradox-still-use-Virtual-Programming-for-their-Mac-ports.
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