Virtual Programming might just redeem themselves and their Eon technology yet. A new beta (today) for The Witcher 2 has been put onto Steam, and with it some performance fixes.
In my own personal testing the input lag is almost gone now, and in general it doesn't feel so sluggish anymore, but I cannot give an exact FPS comparison with the last beta as GLXOSD seems to make the game instant crash now. If you do manage to benchmark it at all be sure to let us know if the FPS is any better for you.
Looks like the game might be playable by the end of the year.
The new patch contains this:
- Optimised shader compilation to link OpenGL programs in waves, instead of one by one, which makes it possible to speed it up using threaded shader compilation on some cards.
- Drawing of fullscreen quads optimised
- Optimized out some memory barrier commands from OpenGL command queue
- OpenGL rendering never lags more than one frame behind commands given by D3D, which should reduce mouse lag.
- Added better reporting of missing extensions in game log, to make it more visible when the game is slow due to OpenGL not supporting various features.
- Undid the regression of fullscreen monitor selection support - this should now work correctly again
- OpenAL used for sound instead of SDL, so it should improve sound drop-outs
You can see the full info on the unofficial github page they are using to publish the info.
Check out The Witcher 2 on Steam if you dare to dip your toes. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
0 Likes
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
All posts need to follow our rules. For users logged in: please hit the Report Flag icon on any post that breaks the rules or contains illegal / harmful content. Guest readers can email us for any issues.
I have the same issue as you do with GLXOSD, but I took the time to play through the starting missions and with my underpowered machine it seems to be a lot less lag.
Though, I do have occasional input lag which I can't reproduce, just "seems to happen" (but like once in 30 mins).
The FPS don't seem to have tremendously increased, but I did not experience the huge fps drops I had before which put me below 10 fps (I played to the scene where I got the highest FPS drops in the past - The Cauldron, Vergen), which seemed to be pretty smooth or a lot smoother than before. I'd guess for the inn it's the optimised shader compilation, since we do have a lot of different light sources in a dark environment there.
I'm still trying to get a benchmark out of it though...
Though, I do have occasional input lag which I can't reproduce, just "seems to happen" (but like once in 30 mins).
The FPS don't seem to have tremendously increased, but I did not experience the huge fps drops I had before which put me below 10 fps (I played to the scene where I got the highest FPS drops in the past - The Cauldron, Vergen), which seemed to be pretty smooth or a lot smoother than before. I'd guess for the inn it's the optimised shader compilation, since we do have a lot of different light sources in a dark environment there.
I'm still trying to get a benchmark out of it though...
0 Likes
So I've finally gotten around to play this game, and I gotta say: For me this game runs just fine on "high spec" settings.
Of course, I don't know how the frame rate is compared to the windows version or other performance issues, all I can say is that it runs and plays just fine, looks good and feels like a working product - only thing is that it always crash when I exit the game. But that doesn't really matter.
I just wanted to mention it, since it so often is hinted at this game being unplayable/broken when this game is mentioned on this site. It may not apply to you.
Of course, I don't know how the frame rate is compared to the windows version or other performance issues, all I can say is that it runs and plays just fine, looks good and feels like a working product - only thing is that it always crash when I exit the game. But that doesn't really matter.
I just wanted to mention it, since it so often is hinted at this game being unplayable/broken when this game is mentioned on this site. It may not apply to you.
0 Likes
@Beamboom well, it does play pretty acceptable if you do have a good graphics card. The 7xx versions of NVidia seem to be pretty okay, on lower cards you really get low fps.
I did play it through 3 times on Linux with a GTX 555 on low settings, so it was playable for me too. Though, in general it was way worse performance than I did have on Windows. I would not complain, but in Windows i played with 60+ fps on high graphics. In Linux with 10-22 on low, which can be a pain.
I think it's good they do improve the port / their product, and I think they can improve the eON toolkit for porting other games using TW2 as example and our feedback. I actually very much pay them credits for doing this, even though, they "use" us to improve their porting layer, if it will bring us more good playable games in future I will accept TW2 as their learning courve and PoC for their product.
I did play it through 3 times on Linux with a GTX 555 on low settings, so it was playable for me too. Though, in general it was way worse performance than I did have on Windows. I would not complain, but in Windows i played with 60+ fps on high graphics. In Linux with 10-22 on low, which can be a pain.
I think it's good they do improve the port / their product, and I think they can improve the eON toolkit for porting other games using TW2 as example and our feedback. I actually very much pay them credits for doing this, even though, they "use" us to improve their porting layer, if it will bring us more good playable games in future I will accept TW2 as their learning courve and PoC for their product.
0 Likes
PS: Maybe we can ask eON to give us a native FPS display to test it? Shouldn't be too much effort for them. Created issue #41 for it .. as I judge they take feedback serious, so maybe there is a chance.
0 Likes
might be playable by the end of the year? lmao...im playing it maxsettings(ubber off) from beggining and now at dragon tower fight(dark mode) no problem at all, only after closing the game I get always a crash...apart that not problem at all.
0 Likes
might be playable by the end of the year? lmao...im playing it maxsettings(ubber off) from beggining and now at dragon tower fight(dark mode) no problem at all, only after closing the game I get always a crash...apart that not problem at all.
You need to remember what works for you does not always for others. There was massive complaints about it when it came out, and that's the reason they keep doing big performance patches.
0 Likes
no framerate problems for me since launch... but it feels a bit better with the new beta indeed. probably the framerate is even higher...i can see that its using 2 cores now..goes up to 3 cores sometimes.. while it was using 1 core only when it was released for linux.
all maxed. bloom sh1t off and uber off 1080p is super smooth.
the one thing that was pain when the game launched for linux was the mouse jerkyness.
which seem to be fixed with the latest beta update. all is great now.. i dont see any crashes when i exit the game either.
all maxed. bloom sh1t off and uber off 1080p is super smooth.
the one thing that was pain when the game launched for linux was the mouse jerkyness.
which seem to be fixed with the latest beta update. all is great now.. i dont see any crashes when i exit the game either.
0 Likes
might be playable by the end of the year? lmao...im playing it maxsettings(ubber off) from beggining and now at dragon tower fight(dark mode) no problem at all, only after closing the game I get always a crash...apart that not problem at all.You need to remember what works for you does not always for others. There was massive complaints about it when it came out, and that's the reason they keep doing big performance patches.
liam off-topic.
Mind Path to thalamus is avaiable in linux steam...no article until about it...maybe its out yesterday...
http://store.steampowered.com/app/296070/?l=portuguese
update: ...missing executable yet
0 Likes
You mean http://store.steampowered.com/app/296070/ which is windows only? Why would I write about that...?liam off-topic.might be playable by the end of the year? lmao...im playing it maxsettings(ubber off) from beggining and now at dragon tower fight(dark mode) no problem at all, only after closing the game I get always a crash...apart that not problem at all.You need to remember what works for you does not always for others. There was massive complaints about it when it came out, and that's the reason they keep doing big performance patches.
Mind Path to thalamus is avaiable in linux steam...no article until about it...maybe its out yesterday...
0 Likes
might be playable by the end of the year? lmao...im playing it maxsettings(ubber off) from beggining and now at dragon tower fight(dark mode) no problem at all, only after closing the game I get always a crash...apart that not problem at all.You need to remember what works for you does not always for others. There was massive complaints about it when it came out, and that's the reason they keep doing big performance patches.
And the results are good as I see it. They improve their product, and we get a more playable TW2. People sometimes forget that some of the PCs may be a few years old (as mine), which should run TW2 without problems (I bought this PC for TW2), but can't.
I do very well understand that some hardware may do not have real issues, but eON needs to push their performance if they want future ports, and TW2 is a good showcase. So it's a good deal for all of us. If they port later games which need more details and using more complex shaders, even newer hardware may would get overwhelmed soon, so it's good they do improve now rather than on later games.
2 Likes, Who?
You mean http://store.steampowered.com/app/296070/ which is windows only? Why would I write about that...?liam off-topic.might be playable by the end of the year? lmao...im playing it maxsettings(ubber off) from beggining and now at dragon tower fight(dark mode) no problem at all, only after closing the game I get always a crash...apart that not problem at all.You need to remember what works for you does not always for others. There was massive complaints about it when it came out, and that's the reason they keep doing big performance patches.
Mind Path to thalamus is avaiable in linux steam...no article until about it...maybe its out yesterday...
really strange...dev said that ue3 isnt compatible with linux...but i downloaded it in steam linux...
0 Likes
really strange...dev said that ue3 isnt compatible with linux...but i downloaded a file of 1gb in steam linux...You mean http://store.steampowered.com/app/296070/ which is windows only? Why would I write about that...?liam off-topic.might be playable by the end of the year? lmao...im playing it maxsettings(ubber off) from beggining and now at dragon tower fight(dark mode) no problem at all, only after closing the game I get always a crash...apart that not problem at all.You need to remember what works for you does not always for others. There was massive complaints about it when it came out, and that's the reason they keep doing big performance patches.
Mind Path to thalamus is avaiable in linux steam...no article until about it...maybe its out yesterday...
Really interesting you see it in your linux games. In April they stated the Engine does not support it.
http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/discussion/244996887/540738050890916116/
Tried to play it?
0 Likes
really strange...dev said that ue3 isnt compatible with linux...but i downloaded a file of 1gb in steam linux...
because it has openVR for linux, which probably came with the package and they forgot to remove it.
http://steamdb.info/app/296070/depots/
0 Likes
While performance has improved, and the mouse responsiveness is better (well, the screen update to processed mouse events...that was always the frame buffering delay), but it's still not quite playable for me. Still, large gains compared to what it was like when released, so there's hope for one day enjoying it.
Still beta - let's keep our hopes up :).
1 Likes, Who?
missing executable...like witcher 2 before releasing it!Really interesting you see it in your linux games. In April they stated the Engine does not support it.really strange...dev said that ue3 isnt compatible with linux...but i downloaded a file of 1gb in steam linux...You mean http://store.steampowered.com/app/296070/ which is windows only? Why would I write about that...?liam off-topic.might be playable by the end of the year? lmao...im playing it maxsettings(ubber off) from beggining and now at dragon tower fight(dark mode) no problem at all, only after closing the game I get always a crash...apart that not problem at all.You need to remember what works for you does not always for others. There was massive complaints about it when it came out, and that's the reason they keep doing big performance patches.
Mind Path to thalamus is avaiable in linux steam...no article until about it...maybe its out yesterday...
http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/discussion/244996887/540738050890916116/
Tried to play it?
0 Likes
It is really true that GoG.com is very conservative when releasing / supporting games.
So conservative that they release games for Linux of other companies rather than publish its in-house games.
They seem to prefer to publish it on Steam either.
Crazy world.
So conservative that they release games for Linux of other companies rather than publish its in-house games.
They seem to prefer to publish it on Steam either.
Crazy world.
3 Likes, Who?
I was never able to get glxosd to run with this game so I have no numbers. The last beta made it at least "playable" and this one has improved as well. I don't feel like framerate has risen much as it still seems like 20-30fps but it does feel more responsive. It is still struggling way too much for me to have 2 gtx 580's though. Im playing on high -uber -motion blur -ssao
EDIT* oh WOW! scratch what I just said. This beta is a mega improvement! The feeling of being more responsive before must have just been placebo :S: I forgot that I had renamed the witcher bin to launcher so that steam would launch it directly instead of the actual launcher. So when it updated for the new beta and I launched it from steam it was still launching the last beta bin. It is now running at least twice the last beta's framerate and possibly even 60fps. Very pleased with these new enhancements. Kudos to CDPR for stepping up and really improving it. Just symlinked launcher to witcher bin so I don't make that mistake again :D
EDIT again* I'm able to push it up to ultra now and it runs smoothly as well.
EDIT* oh WOW! scratch what I just said. This beta is a mega improvement! The feeling of being more responsive before must have just been placebo :S: I forgot that I had renamed the witcher bin to launcher so that steam would launch it directly instead of the actual launcher. So when it updated for the new beta and I launched it from steam it was still launching the last beta bin. It is now running at least twice the last beta's framerate and possibly even 60fps. Very pleased with these new enhancements. Kudos to CDPR for stepping up and really improving it. Just symlinked launcher to witcher bin so I don't make that mistake again :D
EDIT again* I'm able to push it up to ultra now and it runs smoothly as well.
1 Likes, Who?
@Beamboom well, it does play pretty acceptable if you do have a good graphics card. The 7xx versions of NVidia seem to be pretty okay, on lower cards you really get low fps.
Runs fine on my 660ti gtx.
1 Likes, Who?
@Beamboom well, it does play pretty acceptable if you do have a good graphics card. The 7xx versions of NVidia seem to be pretty okay, on lower cards you really get low fps.Runs fine on my 660ti gtx.
Interesting, but I guess perception of people is different too what is "fine" and what is not :).
0 Likes
Interesting, but I guess perception of people is different too what is "fine" and what is not :).@Beamboom well, it does play pretty acceptable if you do have a good graphics card. The 7xx versions of NVidia seem to be pretty okay, on lower cards you really get low fps.Runs fine on my 660ti gtx.
Well I don't have a program to check FPS, but it does feel better than 40 for me on high settings. Not close to the windows version, but it's very playable.
On low settings the game performs at 60 fps for me. I don't need a program to tell me that.
0 Likes
Patreon
PayPal
How to set, change and reset your SteamOS / Steam Deck desktop sudo password
How to set up Decky Loader on Steam Deck / SteamOS for easy plugins
See more from me