Thanks to pointers from our community member xpander69, we have found that Dying Light can be played almost acceptably on Linux with some messing around with the files. I have personally tested this, but your performance will vary, and we accept no responsibility for breakage, do this at your own risk. You've been warned, but we hope no one manages to break anything. If you do, you can probably verify the cache on Steam to re-do the files officially.
Here's what we have found so far, if you unpack the Data0.pak in ~/.steam/steam/SteamApps/common/Dying Light/DW/ using your favourite file archive program and place it into the "/DW/out" folder, you then get access to the "varlist_performance.scr" file where you can turn certain features off like this:
QuoteVarFloat("f_lighting_range", 50.0)
VarInt("i_shadows_sun_on", 0)
VarInt("i_indoor_on", 1)
VarFloat("f_alpha_test_value", 0.0)
VarInt("i_clouds_shadows_on", 1)
VarInt("i_lighting_sun_on", 1)
VarInt("i_render_reflection_on", 1)
VarInt("i_out_buffer_on", 1)
VarInt("i_simple_shadows_on", 0)
VarInt("i_shadows_sun_hq_on", 0)
It seems having the files extracted, the game will use the extracted files over the .pak by default.
Setting it like that gave me a performance boost of around 20FPS, and it's extremely noticeable how smooth it now is. There isn't any fancy lighting from the sun, or any shadows, but it is slightly playable now.
It's still not completely acceptable, as we imagine there are other rendering issues, but it's a small find.
So it seems having "VarInt("i_shadows_sun_on", 1)" is what tanks the FPS on Linux.
We haven't yet found a way to turn off the sickly motion blurr yet, as the menu option doesn't work, but we will keep trying. It gave me a very bad headache last night, so I still can't play it with that permanently jacked up. We tried setting every blur option we could find in all files to zero, and it is still permanently turned on.
We have updated our support ticket with the developer in the hopes that it helps them track the issues down for Linux & Windows users, as it affects us all.
The only word we have out of them, is that Linux issues will be sorted in a "future" update.
Update
Techland requested some very detailed system specs from me including "printenv" and details from "hardinfo", looks like I got their attention.
Update #2
I've sent them even more details, and screenshots now too of our missing graphical options, and they replied with:
QuoteThank you for the screenshot. We're working on the performance issues.
They are being responsive, and the Linux "depot" on SteamDB has seen activity for a patch, so fingers crossed. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Well, one of the incoming patches has added changes to the Linux "depot" on Steam, so it looks like the first patch will do something for Linux.
Hoping my detailed reports them has helped. Come on Techland, don't let us down!
Hoping my detailed reports them has helped. Come on Techland, don't let us down!
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Quoting: liamdaweWell, one of the incoming patches has added changes to the Linux "depot" on Steam, so it looks like the first patch will do something for Linux.im with you..been updating my ticket constantly with fresh info, logs, lshw, printenv, apitraces etc
Hoping my detailed reports them has helped. Come on Techland, don't let us down!
hope to get things solved so i can finally start really playing it
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Hopefully that first patch at the very least fixes the inability to secure safe houses on Linux. While not being able to secure safe houses (except the ones that are part of scripted events) isn't a showstopper, it does limit you in gameplay a good bit, particularly if you plan to do night missions. I think that, along with and CTD or locking up the machine issues should take priority over performance fixes.
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"The only word we have out of them, is that Linux issues will be sorted in a "future" update."
I'm afraid Linux will stay as a third class citizen for a long time. Especially if the scenario happens where developers makes the games for PlayStation (GNM and GNMX) and Microsoft products (DirectX 12) and other platforms uses wrappers.
I'm afraid Linux will stay as a third class citizen for a long time. Especially if the scenario happens where developers makes the games for PlayStation (GNM and GNMX) and Microsoft products (DirectX 12) and other platforms uses wrappers.
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So far my experience with my Radeon HD 7870 and AMD FX 8150:
- Mesa 10.5 with llvm 3.6 on Kubuntu 14.10 64bit and Linux 3.19 rc6: Game launches but during loading it crashes (segfaults). I can't get to a point where images / intro video / etc. are shown. (see http://steamcommunity.com/app/239140/discussions/0/613948093894856905/?tscn=1422572819#c604941528473747137)
- Fglrx omega with Kubuntu 14.04 64bit (with stock Linux 3.13): Game launches correctly and doesn't crash but only a white screen is shown when intro video and main menu should be shown.
Sigh...
- Mesa 10.5 with llvm 3.6 on Kubuntu 14.10 64bit and Linux 3.19 rc6: Game launches but during loading it crashes (segfaults). I can't get to a point where images / intro video / etc. are shown. (see http://steamcommunity.com/app/239140/discussions/0/613948093894856905/?tscn=1422572819#c604941528473747137)
- Fglrx omega with Kubuntu 14.04 64bit (with stock Linux 3.13): Game launches correctly and doesn't crash but only a white screen is shown when intro video and main menu should be shown.
Sigh...
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They requested more details from me today, including asking me to adjust an option Linux doesn't have, so I was keen to point this out to them that Linux is missing graphical options.
I have also pointed out, again, that MB is forced on for Linux, as they asked me to turn it off.
Edit: I showed them a screenshot of the options of what I have, and they literally just replied with:
I have also pointed out, again, that MB is forced on for Linux, as they asked me to turn it off.
Edit: I showed them a screenshot of the options of what I have, and they literally just replied with:
QuoteThank you for the screenshot. We're working on the performance issues.
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Quoting: MaelraneA rather "stupid" question, but does the filesystem you use change anything? For some games *I heard* it's bad to use anything but ext4. (Although I'm not sure how or why you would optimize stuff for a certain filesystem.)
I personally am running btrfs exclusively since a few months. May this be a problem with dying light?
Yeah, btrfs and steam are a bad mix. I had a problem where updates took forever and locked the system due to the copy on write nature of the fs. The trick to get around it is;
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/1737
See the chattr commands. You will need to either purge/move old data and then move it back in. Only affects updates afaict though.
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