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: Glog78Quoting: Mohandeviryes -> http://i.imgur.com/pOrWxfO.jpgQuoting: 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...
Yeah, sorry... Clicked Post too fast.
Btw, there's something I don't understand... VP would be working for Feral? What about the Feral Radar signal that confirmed Bioshock for Linux? Feral are not doing their own ports?
Sorry for my ignorance I just need to fill the gap.
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Just one simple question here: Why should they release a game with a DirectX 10/11 wrapper if their DirectX 9 wrapper still has so many performance issues? I mean, DX 10/11 needs a LOT more resources, so I really doubt it's EON.
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If the dev doesn't want to comment on this, just leave it that way. When the game arrives, we'll see how it works. If the port is shit, we still have enough time to flame :)
And if it works fine, who'd care about it being an EON port or not?
And if it works fine, who'd care about it being an EON port or not?
4 Likes, Who?
Quoting: DissCentJust one simple question here: Why should they release a game with a DirectX 10/11 wrapper if their DirectX 9 wrapper still has so many performance issues? I mean, DX 10/11 needs a LOT more resources, so I really doubt it's EON.
That is no reason to doubt it is EON. They may have attempted a port despite potentially broken and/or experimental DX11 support in their wrapper or downgraded Bioshock Infinite to DX9 for the port.
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I played BioShock Infinite on Windows.
It's a fantastic game imho, and it would be a shame to "port" it via eON!
It's a fantastic game imho, and it would be a shame to "port" it via eON!
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Sorry but it doesn't make sense, the Virtual Programming employee doesn't have the right to tell what games they are working on but I bet he doesn't either have the right to tell the games they are not working on. So "No comment" was the only possible answer.
Also eON have problems on some graphic cards configurations but a lot of natives games have similar issues (ProTip : Linux users should all have a NVidia card).
Also eON have problems on some graphic cards configurations but a lot of natives games have similar issues (ProTip : Linux users should all have a NVidia card).
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TW2 issues (even with an Nvidia GPU) could be pertaining to single threaded CPU performance. Liam, don't you have an 8350?
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Quoting: n30p1r4t3TW2 issues (even with an Nvidia GPU) could be pertaining to single threaded CPU performance. Liam, don't you have an 8350?
No, i have the top end latest gen intel i5.
1 Likes, Who?
oldrocker99 Dec 8, 2014
I agree that the eON wrapper for Witcher 2 was pretty disastrous when first released, even with my nVidia card with the newest drivers. Virtual Programming, to their well-deserved credit, worked diligently on the wrapper to the point that the game runs very well indeed. I'm still wandering around Flotsam and environs, which is certainly still pretty early in the game, after the prologue (which is pretty long in itself), and I have had zero crashes or other problems. Once they got the wrapper fixed, they sent the updated, working, version to GOG.com (owned by RedProjekt, the developers of the game) and made the wrapper available to anyone who had already bought it. This is what I call good customer service.
The very worst "Linux" port lately has been Eador:Masters of the Broken World, which used a plain, untweaked wine wrapper, and has not (after several months) been fixed, and is not even listed as a Linux game any more on Steam. I give a lot of credit, after Eador:MOTBW's crapola "port," to porters who actually try to please the people who, you know, bought the game, and I have come to place VP in that company.
No, they aren't Feral or Aspyr, but they did do some serious work to fix their wrapper, and, if it means that Bioshock:Inifinte is playable on Linux, I'll be a happy camper. I bought it back when I was still dual-booting, and it is indeed one heck of a game, and I'd sure like to finish it. If the wrapper works as well as I think it does for W2, I will have no problem. I've played lots of games at ~30 fps with inferior graphics cards, and they were still playable.
So there.
The very worst "Linux" port lately has been Eador:Masters of the Broken World, which used a plain, untweaked wine wrapper, and has not (after several months) been fixed, and is not even listed as a Linux game any more on Steam. I give a lot of credit, after Eador:MOTBW's crapola "port," to porters who actually try to please the people who, you know, bought the game, and I have come to place VP in that company.
No, they aren't Feral or Aspyr, but they did do some serious work to fix their wrapper, and, if it means that Bioshock:Inifinte is playable on Linux, I'll be a happy camper. I bought it back when I was still dual-booting, and it is indeed one heck of a game, and I'd sure like to finish it. If the wrapper works as well as I think it does for W2, I will have no problem. I've played lots of games at ~30 fps with inferior graphics cards, and they were still playable.
So there.
4 Likes, Who?
Quoting: Nyamiou(ProTip : Linux users should all have a NVidia card).
Before I'd use the proprietary drivers (and the nouveau drivers are no option ;)) I'd quit playing, so I'll pass and stay with AMD for the next generation(s) unless nvidia invests into open source :)
All my games (apart from The Witcher 2 and Dead Island) run perfectly fine with my 3 year old AMD card and the open source drivers. So I see no reason to switch (back) to Nvidia (I never was a fanboi for a graphics card manufacturer, but currently I'd buy AMD no question!)
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