Natural Selection 2 is a great FPS game when it works, and thankfully a major Linux crash bug has finally been fixed.
The major issue preventing a lot of Linux gamers playing was that when a shotgun is fired, the game crashed. Thankfully if you look at the changelog:
QuoteFixed linux client crash when shooting a shotgun (thanks CERIBIK)
Of course there are lots of other changes; See the full patch notes here.
My only problem with NS2 is the massive load times, and it does get annoying. Let us know how it works for you now this bug is fixed, and maybe we can get some games going!
About the game
Natural Selection 2 pits alien against human in an action-packed struggle for survival. Wield devastating weaponry as a Frontiesman marine, or become the xenomorph as a deadly. Kharaa life-form. While both teams fight each other in first person, two commanders look down on the battlefield in a top-down Real Time Strategy view. These Commanders can issue orders, build structures, collect resources, research technology, and deploy abilities to help their team overcome the enemy. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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My only problem with NS2 is the massive load times, and it does get annoying. Let us know how it works for you now this bug is fixed, and maybe we can get some games going!Have you tried tweaking the res_workers cvar? (now has a dedicated GUI option too)
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Since the last update the game doesn't even start for me. Haven't been able to play this game since I dropped the last of my windows partitions.
First linux release worked, but since the community devs took over I could never play it again. Well, I miss it. Was a really great game, I had dozens of hours of fun with.
Maybe I could debug it a bit, but time... :/
First linux release worked, but since the community devs took over I could never play it again. Well, I miss it. Was a really great game, I had dozens of hours of fun with.
Maybe I could debug it a bit, but time... :/
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This means I can try it again~! =D
EDIT: LOL-NOPE.jpg Same problem as Serez, as soon as I finish the Loading Screen I crash. Turns out I had to validate game files (again). Will try if I can finally get through the tutorial (I couldn't get past spawning as a Marine before, then I couldn't get past spawning as an Alien - all the while avoiding the pistol or shotgun as firing them would crash me).
EDIT: LOL-NOPE.jpg Same problem as Serez, as soon as I finish the Loading Screen I crash. Turns out I had to validate game files (again). Will try if I can finally get through the tutorial (I couldn't get past spawning as a Marine before, then I couldn't get past spawning as an Alien - all the while avoiding the pistol or shotgun as firing them would crash me).
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Will give it a second chance. The long loading time and the shotgun bug made the game pretty unplayable on linux. Good job.
Edit: I'm a big fan of NS1 and got it working on linux. I used the ns1 source on github and ported it to linux. It's not really playable at the moment, but someone might be interested to fix it because I just don't have the time for it. Check the forum http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/128269/update-for-half-life-1-1-1-1-and-client-library-for-mac-linux
and Github: https://github.com/fmoraw/NS/tree/linux
Edit: I'm a big fan of NS1 and got it working on linux. I used the ns1 source on github and ported it to linux. It's not really playable at the moment, but someone might be interested to fix it because I just don't have the time for it. Check the forum http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/128269/update-for-half-life-1-1-1-1-and-client-library-for-mac-linux
and Github: https://github.com/fmoraw/NS/tree/linux
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Thanks for the tip, what does it do exactly?My only problem with NS2 is the massive load times, and it does get annoying. Let us know how it works for you now this bug is fixed, and maybe we can get some games going!Have you tried tweaking the res_workers cvar? (now has a dedicated GUI option too)
I haven't tried it since I got a much beefier CPU to be fair, so it might be better for me now anyway.
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abelthorne 28 Dec 2014
That's cool they fixed the crash. Now they just need to fix the locale issues and make perfs bearable and I can finally play it on Linux. Don't think it will be anytime soon, though.
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That's cool they fixed the crash. Now they just need to fix the locale issues and make perfs bearable and I can finally play it on Linux. Don't think it will be anytime soon, though.
The local issue with some games can be worked around by setting a starting option atleast :)
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I believe it uses multiple threads to load assets. They recommend to only increase it if using an SSD, but I'm getting faster load times even with a HDD.Thanks for the tip, what does it do exactly?My only problem with NS2 is the massive load times, and it does get annoying. Let us know how it works for you now this bug is fixed, and maybe we can get some games going!Have you tried tweaking the res_workers cvar? (now has a dedicated GUI option too)
I haven't tried it since I got a much beefier CPU to be fair, so it might be better for me now anyway.
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abelthorne 28 Dec 2014
In NS2's case it's more of a pretty specific keyboard issue than locale settings, in fact. On non QWERTY keyboards, you can't input numbers, which make some classes unplayable (like the Gorge, who can't build stuff IIRC). It's rather annoying.That's cool they fixed the crash. Now they just need to fix the locale issues and make perfs bearable and I can finally play it on Linux. Don't think it will be anytime soon, though.
The local issue with some games can be worked around by setting a starting option atleast :)
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The loading times are atrocious. It's not even funny. And it doesn't matter if you have a slow computer or the fastest one.
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The loading times are atrocious. It's not even funny. And it doesn't matter if you have a slow computer or the fastest one.
Does it still recompile the shaders on every map or what is the cause for this behaviour? Because it's linux specific :/
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Enabling the higher resources in the options menu meant for SSD's does in fact make loading faster for me, even on a normal HDD.
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Instead of crashing when firing the shotgun, the game now crashes when firing the assault rifle. Can't say I'm impressed.
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Instead of crashing when firing the shotgun, the game now crashes when firing the assault rifle. Can't say I'm impressed.You've got to be kidding me...
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I still crash on firing the pistol in the tutorial at the start. After firing the assault rifle and shotgun tho, the pistol doesn't crash me.
Needless to say, I am not happy I have to keep dumping this game to wait for it to be bug-free when I sunk money into it.
That said, I finally was able to go through the tutorial in one go without crashing! =)
Needless to say, I am not happy I have to keep dumping this game to wait for it to be bug-free when I sunk money into it.
That said, I finally was able to go through the tutorial in one go without crashing! =)
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If people are seeing any crash issue I would recommend nuking the entire Natural Selection 2 folder in ~/.config/ to make sure no erroneously compiled shaders, caches, bad config settings and other shenanigans that before contributed to crashes are left over from older builds.
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