Feral Interactive Are Behind The Batman: Arkham Knight, GRID Autosport And Company Of Heroes 2 Linux Ports

I'm a bit confused. I keep seeing on this site that Batman: Arkham Knight will be a "day one" release on Linux, but the Steam site says "fall". The released date that I see for other platforms is June 2. So, either the Linux release won't be day one, or they goofed and have already revealed that the game release will be delayed like so many games are these days. :D

The only thing bothering me is that they are doing both OSX and Linux ports. that might mean lower performance and worse looks than the windows version because in the past those ports have always been limited to OpenGL 2 or 3 (e.g. Metro last light) might not be too bad for a strategy game like CoH2 but Batman and GRID could suffer from not utilizing OpenGL 4.0+.

I might be wrong, maybe OSX does support OpenGL 4.X by now i have no clue about macs but like i said i'm a bit concerned.

I like Rocksteady's Batman games, they are awesome, and I'm sure Arkaham Knight will be, so a port by Feral is a good warranty that it will be a good port.
Apart from Mordor I don't care too much about the others, but more games for linux are always good news.

Haha some spending ahead.

Despite these being AAA games, they are three instabuys for me.

That and Rome total war 2, which I will have to buy again, as I am guessing they are the ones behind the port of that one too

I’ll get GRID and Mordor, not sure about the other two as I don’t know anything about them.

Edit: assuming they work under Linux and not only SteamOS and Ubuntu, of course, because I don’t plan on using any of those two distros.

well, as far as batman was so far, if you like concept of Mordor, just replace fantasy universe from Tolkien to Marvels universe of Gotham

as far as CoH2, good RTS like any other. i don't like them the least, but i'll probably end up buying it anyway in hope of future something else more according to my taste. other 3, i'm buying because i want them.

now, Feral bring the TR and Hitman

@MightyTrollzor

it does support 4.1. problem would be how many old OSX releases do they want to support. AFAIK, those were never updated with newer core profile

Batman? STEAM dayONE 4k FTW

Me too, 4k monitor with G-sync, Gtx 970 and I7 3770.
I play all my Linux game in 4k mode, and it's spectacular, also in The Witcher 2 i can archive 30-35 fps with the recent optimization but g-sync in this case doesen't work.

Sold.

does this mean that CoH2 is native?

well, as far as batman was so far, if you like concept of Mordor, just replace fantasy universe from Tolkien to Marvels universe of Gotham

You mean DC; not Marvel.

does this mean that CoH2 is native?

Of course...unlikely to be anything else, especially from Feral.

Thanks Feral, your team now belongs in the Linux gaming HALL OF FAME

well, as far as batman was so far, if you like concept of Mordor, just replace fantasy universe from Tolkien to Marvels universe of Gotham

You mean DC; not Marvel.

correct. my bad

I am looking forward to Batman: Arkham Knight and because it's Feral I find myself tempted to pre-order. Though I wonder if it's better to order through the Feral store and not the Steam store, does Feral have a means of tracking if the games purchased from their store are from a Linux or Mac user? If so than I'll purchase it from their store if that than I'll stick with Steam and I know Valve is tracking who's purchasing/playing the games they sell.

I love these guys.

Feral Interactive, you are awesome!

Wow, they're busy, four ports right now? That is great! So far both of their ports were pretty much flawless. Can't wait for Mordor and maybe try out a Batman game, heard a lot about them being good, so this would be a great time to try one out!

The Batman games are great, I'm not interested in getting platinum trophies with PS games, but I did with Batman Arkham Asylum, it was that good

The only thing bothering me is that they are doing both OSX and Linux ports. that might mean lower performance and worse looks than the windows version because in the past those ports have always been limited to OpenGL 2 or 3 (e.g. Metro last light) might not be too bad for a strategy game like CoH2 but Batman and GRID could suffer from not utilizing OpenGL 4.0+.

I might be wrong, maybe OSX does support OpenGL 4.X by now i have no clue about macs but like i said i'm a bit concerned.

None of our ports are limited by only using features that are available on both Mac & Linux platforms. We develop a Mac version and a Linux version using the best features available on those individual platforms. We use OpenGL 4.x on Mac (It's supported OpenGL 4 for a few years now) and on Linux. However on Linux we have access to OpenGL 4.2 through 4.5 using the closed source drivers so we'll definitely use those features if we need them! Mac's have access to OpenCL built into the OS so that's an example of a Mac specific feature we might use.

The key message is we optimise per platform using the all of the best features available to make the best game for that OS. As you have alluded to if you only target features that are available on both platforms that will limit your options. The first two games we released on Linux were done after the Mac version was complete however those engines were not as complex. These games we've announced are being ported in parallel allowing us to optimise even more per platform which should be good news for Linux (and Mac) users as you both get the best possible port for your platform using every platform specific trick possible.

I already didn't think I could handle getting more excited about these games. Now this answer! Great response and great work on the previous games you've ported!

I'm a bit confused. I keep seeing on this site that Batman: Arkham Knight will be a "day one" release on Linux, but the Steam site says "fall". The released date that I see for other platforms is June 2.

Well my Steam client was saying June 23rd until tonight - now it's saying "Fall 2015". And here I was planning to pickup a copy on June 23rd... Looks like I'll be waiting now.

Still, Batman: Arkham Knights is what one would typically call a "AAA" title and having just checked-out the trailer in Steam, I can say I'm pretty impressed (I've never played any of the "Batman: Arkham" titles) - as long as the Sony DUALSHOCK 4 is supported by the game (the Linux kernel itself supports it), this could be a pretty impressive addition to my library...

Just to clarify the Steam store page has had information about the Mac and Linux versions added to it shortly after the announcement at GDC to clarify the timing on the Mac/Linux versions. I have included the link and store text below.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/208650/

Coming to SteamOS, Linux & Mac
Batman: Arkham Knight will be available on SteamOS, Linux and Mac in Fall 2015.