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After the BioShock Infinite SteamDB entry was found by Linux users we've been debating who's going to be behind the port and it might very well be Virtual Programming. Prepare for some speculation.
To be clear with you guys, this is an editorial, meaning that it's an opinion piece. Please treat it as such.
A Virtual Programming employee has hung around on our IRC channel from since The Witcher 2 was released. During the past few days he also participated in the conversation about the BioShock Infinite port with some cryptic comments, which seem to indicate that Virtual Programming and their eON wrapper have something to do with the Linux port.
Following screenshot is from a conversation that took place on the 7th of December at half past 5 PM Finnish time.
Notice: we didn't "leak the story" unlike some people seem to think. All of the information available to us regarding the BioShock Infinite port was public. We can thank SteamDB and Reddit for that.
Some of these lines seem very odd to say the least. When asked about involvement with the BioShock Infinite port the developer stuck mostly to “no comment” line with an occasional smiley in the end. That alone wouldn't say much of course but used this way “no comment” can almost be interpreted as “yes”, especially if we contrast it to Aspyr Media's response regarding the port:
Source
The developer also mentioned that he doesn't wish to do or say anything that would damage their relationship with 2K. This is where I got extremely suspicious. “No comment” is still an understandable answer but why would someone bring up relations to a publisher if they have nothing to do with it? He has also made numerous remarks about Steam depots and the space requirements of BioShock Infinite which would suggest that he either checks the disk space usage of games basically by random or he has recently installed the game / worked with it.
But the oddities don't end here. A GOL user Daverball noticed that the Steam depots for BioShock Infinite look similar to the ones for Witcher 2 and Stronghold 3, the two Linux wrapper ports Virtual Programming has done so far. Aspyr's Mac port uses a separate depot, which contains both the binary and the data while the Linux depot shares game data with the Windows build. It could be argued that sharing the game data between builds makes sense, but Aspyr (and Feral) have in the past shipped their own data alongside with the binary. I believe Feral actually re-encoded some video files of XCOM: Enemy Unknown to better suit Linux.
After the Witcher 2's rather catastrophic launch Linux gamers have been very careful with AAA ports. For example the recently released Dead Island port was a topic of debate for a short time when people suspected that the unusually large binary file might contain a hidden compatibility component and was not really a native port. The game ultimately turned out to be a native game, with the binary being inflated by debugging symbols that were, for some reason, left into the release build. But this shows the amount of distrust Witcher 2 caused when it was released in a barely playable state and even today after numerous patches to eON by Virtual Programming the game runs with bad performance for many people who have hardware configurations that exceed the requirements mentioned on Steam and GOG. Personally I have nothing against the idea of using compatibility layers such as Wine or eON to ship some games, especially older games with lost source code, but so far I haven't been all that impressed by eON's performance. And I'm not just bashing either, we've had months to test and tweak with Witcher 2 and Stronghold 3 and the performance is just objectively bad and for some people just completely unacceptable.
So, will BioShock use eON to run on Linux? I don't really know. This article is mostly just speculation and I might just very well be paranoid and completely wrong here. But I do suggest that you remain cautious about AAA ports when the person/company porting it is shrouded in mystery. In this day and age broken ports are not rare and the “buy it before it's out” mentality seems to be going strong.
What are your predictions of the port? Will it use eON and most importantly, will it matter if it does? Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
To be clear with you guys, this is an editorial, meaning that it's an opinion piece. Please treat it as such.
A Virtual Programming employee has hung around on our IRC channel from since The Witcher 2 was released. During the past few days he also participated in the conversation about the BioShock Infinite port with some cryptic comments, which seem to indicate that Virtual Programming and their eON wrapper have something to do with the Linux port.
Following screenshot is from a conversation that took place on the 7th of December at half past 5 PM Finnish time.
Notice: we didn't "leak the story" unlike some people seem to think. All of the information available to us regarding the BioShock Infinite port was public. We can thank SteamDB and Reddit for that.
Some of these lines seem very odd to say the least. When asked about involvement with the BioShock Infinite port the developer stuck mostly to “no comment” line with an occasional smiley in the end. That alone wouldn't say much of course but used this way “no comment” can almost be interpreted as “yes”, especially if we contrast it to Aspyr Media's response regarding the port:
QuoteWhile Aspyr is working on a multitude of Linux titles right now, BioShock Infinite is not one of them. That said, this is exciting news and we are looking forward to a great title coming to a great platform.
Source
The developer also mentioned that he doesn't wish to do or say anything that would damage their relationship with 2K. This is where I got extremely suspicious. “No comment” is still an understandable answer but why would someone bring up relations to a publisher if they have nothing to do with it? He has also made numerous remarks about Steam depots and the space requirements of BioShock Infinite which would suggest that he either checks the disk space usage of games basically by random or he has recently installed the game / worked with it.
But the oddities don't end here. A GOL user Daverball noticed that the Steam depots for BioShock Infinite look similar to the ones for Witcher 2 and Stronghold 3, the two Linux wrapper ports Virtual Programming has done so far. Aspyr's Mac port uses a separate depot, which contains both the binary and the data while the Linux depot shares game data with the Windows build. It could be argued that sharing the game data between builds makes sense, but Aspyr (and Feral) have in the past shipped their own data alongside with the binary. I believe Feral actually re-encoded some video files of XCOM: Enemy Unknown to better suit Linux.
After the Witcher 2's rather catastrophic launch Linux gamers have been very careful with AAA ports. For example the recently released Dead Island port was a topic of debate for a short time when people suspected that the unusually large binary file might contain a hidden compatibility component and was not really a native port. The game ultimately turned out to be a native game, with the binary being inflated by debugging symbols that were, for some reason, left into the release build. But this shows the amount of distrust Witcher 2 caused when it was released in a barely playable state and even today after numerous patches to eON by Virtual Programming the game runs with bad performance for many people who have hardware configurations that exceed the requirements mentioned on Steam and GOG. Personally I have nothing against the idea of using compatibility layers such as Wine or eON to ship some games, especially older games with lost source code, but so far I haven't been all that impressed by eON's performance. And I'm not just bashing either, we've had months to test and tweak with Witcher 2 and Stronghold 3 and the performance is just objectively bad and for some people just completely unacceptable.
So, will BioShock use eON to run on Linux? I don't really know. This article is mostly just speculation and I might just very well be paranoid and completely wrong here. But I do suggest that you remain cautious about AAA ports when the person/company porting it is shrouded in mystery. In this day and age broken ports are not rare and the “buy it before it's out” mentality seems to be going strong.
What are your predictions of the port? Will it use eON and most importantly, will it matter if it does? Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
Mohandevir Dec 8, 2014
Quoting: liamdaweI also dislike it when people decide to hide details like who is developing it. Fair enough that it wasn't meant to be known this early, but why continue to hide it? That to me shows a lack of confidence. I always say to developers and publishers they need to be more open, and to a technically minded audience like Linux gamers it matters even more so.
Personally, I wish 2K went with Aspyr who did the Mac version.
Let's be "the devil's advocate" and think VP for 2 secs...
"We got lynched because we forgot to mention that the Linux version of The Witcher 2 was, in fact, a beta...
If they happen to discover, before the official release, that we are doing the port, what will be the Linux community reaction? Will they buy the game still?
Maybe it's not the most transparent way of doing things, but could it be a better solution to surprise them with a good quality port and have a chance of making them forget about "The Witcher 2" episode?"
With all the hate messages they received in regard with W2, I'd understand why they are shy about confirming anything.
For my part, The Witcher 2 is my best of all Linux game running pretty well at Ultra settings with the latest nvidia proprietary drivers. eON wrapper won't stop me from buying Bioshock.
1 Likes, Who?
Segata Sanshiro Dec 8, 2014
QuoteNotice: we didn't "leak the story" unlike some people seem to think. All of the information available to us regarding the BioShock Infinite port was public. We can thank SteamDB and Reddit for that.
I find it kind of hilarious that there's accusations of leaks. Although I do love GOL and think it's great, we hardly have the reach and ability to infiltrate games companies and extract information from anonymous sources... We just have to rely on publicly available information, which is hardly "leaking".
4 Likes, Who?
Quoting: frostworkQuoting: liamdaweBad vibrations around eON, where to start? To put it simply it was broken at release for most, and is still terrible for a lot of people.eon witcher2 works very fine on my nvidia binaryblob system, and probably for almost all other nvidia linux gamers too.
As for the hype, well who doesn't want to be hyped for another big game to come to Linux?
I actually am an nvidia user, as noted in my posts trying out the performance of TW2. It's performance is all over the place no matter your chip.
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I totally agree with liam and many others. If it is eON i will pass. TW2 still isn't close to the performance of windows on my rig and i don't trust the VP guys to be able to make a port of a gfx intense games without a high performance hit.
eON might be a tech which can be used for very old games to move them to linux (something where the sourcecode / assets and stuff isn't available anymore).
I don't want to see or will ever advertise people to eON ports cause they represent linux in the wrong way. If you can see with your eyes a performance difference between windows and linux no gamer will want to game on linux. This is just bad advertising and the wrong signal even the games might be available on linux. Thanx for the effort VP but no thanx ... my trust is already gone.
Sidenote: I checked TW2 latest beta with a gtx 970 + a 6 core phenom 1090T -> constant 60 fps forget it ... still droping below (even with ubersampleing disabled).
eON might be a tech which can be used for very old games to move them to linux (something where the sourcecode / assets and stuff isn't available anymore).
I don't want to see or will ever advertise people to eON ports cause they represent linux in the wrong way. If you can see with your eyes a performance difference between windows and linux no gamer will want to game on linux. This is just bad advertising and the wrong signal even the games might be available on linux. Thanx for the effort VP but no thanx ... my trust is already gone.
Sidenote: I checked TW2 latest beta with a gtx 970 + a 6 core phenom 1090T -> constant 60 fps forget it ... still droping below (even with ubersampleing disabled).
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Mohandevir Dec 8, 2014
Quoting: Segata SanshiroQuoteNotice: we didn't "leak the story" unlike some people seem to think. All of the information available to us regarding the BioShock Infinite port was public. We can thank SteamDB and Reddit for that.I find it kind of hilarious that there's accusations of leaks. Although I do love GOL and think it's great, we hardly have the reach and ability to infiltrate games companies and extract information from anonymous sources... We just have to rely on publicly available information, which is hardly "leaking".
You don't have that power?! You Should feel flattered then. :)
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: frostworkI neither understand the bad vibrations around eon, nor the hype about this nonsense irc discussion. I was live in the irc channel when this was "discussed" and must say that they would have better spent some time in supporting newbies or hacking some code...
I don't mind eON at all. What I do mind is the abysmal performance I get with The Witcher 2. If I get a demo of a game working using the same platform with really good performance, I might consider buying the game regardless if it is using eON. If they manage to fix the performance of The Witcher 2 I might consider buying any future game released using eON as a platform.
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Mohandevir Dec 8, 2014
Quoting: Glog78Sidenote: I checked TW2 latest beta with a gtx 970 + a 6 core phenom 1090T -> constant 60 fps forget it ... still droping below (even with ubersampleing disabled).
Don't know why they are still offering a beta though... It's not been updated for months now... Looks like a final release to me.
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Quoting: MohandevirQuoting: Glog78Sidenote: I checked TW2 latest beta with a gtx 970 + a 6 core phenom 1090T -> constant 60 fps forget it ... still droping below (even with ubersampleing disabled).Did you try the beta that is still available? Don't know why they are still offering a beta though...
yes -> http://i.imgur.com/pOrWxfO.jpg
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From what I remember TW2 beta is currently older than the main branch, i think.
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Mohandevir Dec 8, 2014
Quoting: liamdaweFrom what I remember TW2 beta is currently older than the main branch, i think.
And it works better for me... Go figure... Bugless at least.
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