Feral Interactive have released an absolute whopper—Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is now actually available for Linux. This is a seriously good game! Initial port report now included.
Warning: AMD and Intel cards are NOT supported. If you wish to play the game using an AMD graphics card, you should update your graphics driver to version Catalyst 15.7 or higher. You should be able to run the game without experiencing stability issues or graphical glitches, but you may still experience poor performance.
As a big fan of the Tolkien universe this pleases me beyond words, and I can’t tell you how excited I am to have a game of this calibre on Linux.
Shadow of Mordor is an open world, action RPG with some excellent graphics. It has easy to manage combat with several fun abilities, parkour climbing (think Assassin's Creed) and a very interesting boss system.
The “Nemesis” system is the real killer in this game, as you have Uruk captains that command a bunch of soldiers, and defeating them can give you special upgrades. However, if they defeat you, they will get a lot stronger. This makes dying more interesting to the point of making you be careful about who you go after.
You can also have random events that happen between captains, as there’s a lot of in-fighting in the Uruk camps. You can chose to take part in these events, and favour one captain over another. There’s lots of fun little quests like that, and it’s part of what makes me love the game.
We will be giving it the full review, and no doubt the GOL Cast treatment on this one as it’s such a big (and extremely satisfying) title. Just give us some time to pump some hours into it to get a real feel for how it is.
We are downloading it now, please wait for the port report to be done. Feral kindly gave me a key, so we just need my internet to go into overdrive.
The early port report
Intel i5 4670k, Nvidia 970, 16GB RAM, 1080p resolution
Performance on Ultra was quite smooth, ranging from 40-70FPS, but sadly after a while it did crash to the desktop. Booting it up again gave me an error message that suggested I revert to lower settings. This is expected, as Ultra needs a lot of VRAM, and more than the Nvidia 970 has. I guess I need to invest in something even better...
Trying it on one notch below at Very High was fine performance wise, but I still encountered a crash bug. I was killed by a captain, and afterwards it refused to show me the captain screen where they move about and level up, so I had to force quit it. I have not since been able to reproduce it.
FPS wise on Very High settings it gave me a minimum of 46FPS and I saw it top off at 100FPS when not being able to see much going on, but the average is around 50-60FPS. It’s very much playable for the 970 on Very High, and that has me rather happy, as it looks fantastic.
What I do find very interesting, is that the game will seamlessly switch the on-screen prompts between gamepad and keyboard depending on what you last pressed. I’ve never seen that before, and it’s really quite a nifty little feature.
The game isn’t kidding about full controller support either, as my Logitech F310 has been utterly flawless. It’s incredibly responsive, and I couldn’t imagine playing it with the mouse.
For a brand new AAA game on Linux, to have only one real crash bug in two hours of testing is pretty incredible. The wait was worth it for sure!
Intel i5 4670k, Nvidia 560ti, 16GB RAM, 1080p resolution - For lower end users.
On very high settings the game was giving me an average of 20FPS, so it wasn’t playable at all.
On High settings it was between 27-36FPS, even with it dropping below 30FPS it was still surprisingly playable, not perfect, but still reasonable for such a demanding game. I know people will argue with me on it, but if the FPS counter was off, I wouldn’t be able to tell personally. It did crash once while alt+tabbed to the desktop, so that could be a window manager or driver issue.
On Medium settings there wasn’t much difference at all to high settings. It stayed around 30FPS a bit longer than on high settings, but it never went lower or higher than it did on High.
I would say it’s perfectly playable on Medium/High on a 560ti, so that should give the lower end guys something to go by performance wise. It’s worth noting that Mordor is only supported on Nvidia 6xx and up, so this lower card I tested is below their minimum requirements.
On Low settings the game went between 41-60FPS, with it mainly being around 50FPS. I honestly think the game still looks visually pleasing on Low settings, and it's a perfectly playable FPS for a rather old card now.
About the game (From Steam)
Fight through Mordor and uncover the truth of the spirit that compels you, discover the origins of the Rings of Power, build your legend and ultimately confront the evil of Sauron in this new chronicle of Middle-earth.
System Requirements
OS: Ubuntu 14.04.2 64-bit / SteamOS
Processor: 2.6 GHz
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: 1GB NVIDIA 640 or better with driver version 352.21 or later
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Hard Drive: 47 GB available space
RECOMMENDED:
OS: Ubuntu 14.04.2 64-bit / SteamOS
Processor: 3.4 GHz Intel
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: 4GB NVIDIA 9xx series card or better with driver version 352.21 or later
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Hard Drive: 47 GB available space
Check out Shadow of Mordor on Steam now.
You can also get it directly from the Feral Interactive store, and support their porting directly.
If you pick it up, be sure to come back and tell us how it runs for you and include your system specifications so we can get a rough idea.
You have my sword Feral, and my axe. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Warning: AMD and Intel cards are NOT supported. If you wish to play the game using an AMD graphics card, you should update your graphics driver to version Catalyst 15.7 or higher. You should be able to run the game without experiencing stability issues or graphical glitches, but you may still experience poor performance.
As a big fan of the Tolkien universe this pleases me beyond words, and I can’t tell you how excited I am to have a game of this calibre on Linux.
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Shadow of Mordor is an open world, action RPG with some excellent graphics. It has easy to manage combat with several fun abilities, parkour climbing (think Assassin's Creed) and a very interesting boss system.
The “Nemesis” system is the real killer in this game, as you have Uruk captains that command a bunch of soldiers, and defeating them can give you special upgrades. However, if they defeat you, they will get a lot stronger. This makes dying more interesting to the point of making you be careful about who you go after.
You can also have random events that happen between captains, as there’s a lot of in-fighting in the Uruk camps. You can chose to take part in these events, and favour one captain over another. There’s lots of fun little quests like that, and it’s part of what makes me love the game.
We will be giving it the full review, and no doubt the GOL Cast treatment on this one as it’s such a big (and extremely satisfying) title. Just give us some time to pump some hours into it to get a real feel for how it is.
We are downloading it now, please wait for the port report to be done. Feral kindly gave me a key, so we just need my internet to go into overdrive.
The early port report
Intel i5 4670k, Nvidia 970, 16GB RAM, 1080p resolution
Performance on Ultra was quite smooth, ranging from 40-70FPS, but sadly after a while it did crash to the desktop. Booting it up again gave me an error message that suggested I revert to lower settings. This is expected, as Ultra needs a lot of VRAM, and more than the Nvidia 970 has. I guess I need to invest in something even better...
Trying it on one notch below at Very High was fine performance wise, but I still encountered a crash bug. I was killed by a captain, and afterwards it refused to show me the captain screen where they move about and level up, so I had to force quit it. I have not since been able to reproduce it.
FPS wise on Very High settings it gave me a minimum of 46FPS and I saw it top off at 100FPS when not being able to see much going on, but the average is around 50-60FPS. It’s very much playable for the 970 on Very High, and that has me rather happy, as it looks fantastic.
What I do find very interesting, is that the game will seamlessly switch the on-screen prompts between gamepad and keyboard depending on what you last pressed. I’ve never seen that before, and it’s really quite a nifty little feature.
The game isn’t kidding about full controller support either, as my Logitech F310 has been utterly flawless. It’s incredibly responsive, and I couldn’t imagine playing it with the mouse.
For a brand new AAA game on Linux, to have only one real crash bug in two hours of testing is pretty incredible. The wait was worth it for sure!
Intel i5 4670k, Nvidia 560ti, 16GB RAM, 1080p resolution - For lower end users.
On very high settings the game was giving me an average of 20FPS, so it wasn’t playable at all.
On High settings it was between 27-36FPS, even with it dropping below 30FPS it was still surprisingly playable, not perfect, but still reasonable for such a demanding game. I know people will argue with me on it, but if the FPS counter was off, I wouldn’t be able to tell personally. It did crash once while alt+tabbed to the desktop, so that could be a window manager or driver issue.
On Medium settings there wasn’t much difference at all to high settings. It stayed around 30FPS a bit longer than on high settings, but it never went lower or higher than it did on High.
I would say it’s perfectly playable on Medium/High on a 560ti, so that should give the lower end guys something to go by performance wise. It’s worth noting that Mordor is only supported on Nvidia 6xx and up, so this lower card I tested is below their minimum requirements.
On Low settings the game went between 41-60FPS, with it mainly being around 50FPS. I honestly think the game still looks visually pleasing on Low settings, and it's a perfectly playable FPS for a rather old card now.
About the game (From Steam)
Fight through Mordor and uncover the truth of the spirit that compels you, discover the origins of the Rings of Power, build your legend and ultimately confront the evil of Sauron in this new chronicle of Middle-earth.
System Requirements
OS: Ubuntu 14.04.2 64-bit / SteamOS
Processor: 2.6 GHz
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: 1GB NVIDIA 640 or better with driver version 352.21 or later
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Hard Drive: 47 GB available space
RECOMMENDED:
OS: Ubuntu 14.04.2 64-bit / SteamOS
Processor: 3.4 GHz Intel
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: 4GB NVIDIA 9xx series card or better with driver version 352.21 or later
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Hard Drive: 47 GB available space
Check out Shadow of Mordor on Steam now.
You can also get it directly from the Feral Interactive store, and support their porting directly.
If you pick it up, be sure to come back and tell us how it runs for you and include your system specifications so we can get a rough idea.
You have my sword Feral, and my axe. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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linux_gamer Jul 30, 2015
I've also got a GT 650M with the nvidia-346 from the official Ubuntu 14.04 sources. nvidia-352 only seems available for me if I use the xorg-edgers PPA or the nvidia binary download, would you recommend using the Xedgers PPA?Is it mandatory to install nvidia-352 or can i get away with nvidia-331 (preferably) or nvidia-346 without issues or performance problems?
I have a GT 650M.
If you don't run at least those drivers everyone will look like smurfs (all blue), stability should be ok but those drivers are pretty old so your performance stability will vary.
I'd highly recommend using the supported drivers or newer.
I did mess up my system by the non-standard PPA once , so perfect would be a Feral PPA or if they put their recommended source of 352.22+ online.
2 Likes, Who?
Xorg-Edgers is a good PPA. All their Nvidia blobs have worked nicely.
3 Likes, Who?
I thought activating and playing the game on Steam Linux is enoughNo. You might count as a Linux user in Steams stats, but if you buy a key, that key was already sold with a platform attached to it.
to make sure Feral gets the money - no matter where you got a valid Steam key.
Best thing to do is this:
Buy direct from the Linux publisher's site, in this case, Feral's store.
Or, buy from Humble Store or Humble Widget, as they track platform and attribute money accordingly.
Or, finally, buy from Steam via your Linux client.
Don't buy from Steam using mobile - last we were told, mobile sales always count as Windows for some reason.
And most importantly, don't buy games until they're released for Linux.
2 Likes, Who?
I found it at 20$ with DLC on this site:Just buy it directly through Steam. That way you know it's legit, and it ensures that Feral gets their fair share of the sale.
http://www.bundlestars.com/all-bundles/middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor-bundle/
Bundlestars always was legit Steam reseller. And yes, that bundle includes quite a few DLCs not covered by GOTY
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edddeduck_feral Jul 30, 2015
that bundle includes quite a few DLCs not covered by GOTY
GOTY contains all the DLC AFAIK so I don't know what you mean by that...
2 Likes, Who?
Any chance being able to play this with the amd open source drivers? (Radeonsi mesa-git or even R600?)
Feral responded:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/middleearth-shadow-of-mordor-released-for-linux-we-love-you-feral-interactive.5743/page=3#41039
That is not the question I asked. AMD Cards are not supported on quite a few games and the open source drivers-support is even worse.
Maybe someone can or will try it out and I'd appreciate some feedback :)
Devs only ever mention the proprietary drivers. They never mention nouveau either and even if the open source nvidia driver's performance would be better I doubt they would recommend or test on it! Hence I ask.
they answered on reddit.
probably ?Should? work on latest Catalyst, mileage might be different per user
it needs OpenGL4.3, only extension mentioned specifically were compute shaders which is probably most complex extension of 4.3. kind of like tesselation was for 4.0, but since there was more interest in those than tesselation, work was already in progress. no one knows when it will be finished though
Nouveau without reclocking can't run this game anyway and Maxwell does not support it
Last edited by vulture on 30 July 2015 at 9:31 pm UTC
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I don't get it. Isn't a little strange that people make so much of a hassle out of whether some service ( like BundleStars*) supports Feral Interactive, just because it is cheaper... CHEAPER?
I thought you wanted to support Feral Interactive, yet you still want to cut maybe 6,6 euros (20 dollar vs. 25 euro) of the sale price from Steam. I mean this is not entirely the best way of supporting a company you like. If you want to support somebody, pay the price they ask.
Anyway I'm starting the game now using AMD HD7970. I will update this later and share my experience of the performance :)
Link https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/middleearth-shadow-of-mordor-released-for-linux-we-love-you-feral-interactive.5743/page=9#41094
Last edited by sleort on 30 July 2015 at 10:49 pm UTC
I thought you wanted to support Feral Interactive, yet you still want to cut maybe 6,6 euros (20 dollar vs. 25 euro) of the sale price from Steam. I mean this is not entirely the best way of supporting a company you like. If you want to support somebody, pay the price they ask.
Anyway I'm starting the game now using AMD HD7970. I will update this later and share my experience of the performance :)
Link https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/middleearth-shadow-of-mordor-released-for-linux-we-love-you-feral-interactive.5743/page=9#41094
Last edited by sleort on 30 July 2015 at 10:49 pm UTC
5 Likes, Who?
Mountain Man Jul 30, 2015
To my knowledge, keys are platform specific, so for example, buying the boxed version will always count as a Windows sale even if you use the key to play exclusively in Linux. Since CD key resellers deal in retail keys then what you're buying is almost certaily the Windows version, and Feral will be deprived of a sale. This was confirmed by Feral:Yes. Bundle Stars is almost certainly selling Windows keys.Windows keys?
Such a thing exists?
I thought activating and playing the game on Steam Linux is enough
to make sure Feral gets the money - no matter where you got a valid Steam key.
"Unless you see an option for platform then it's most likely a Windows Key."
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/3f5hj3/shadow_of_mordor_now_has_linux_manifests_public/ctlg6a4
If your goal is to support Linux developers then always buy through Steam for Linux and only when the Linux version is actually available.
Last edited by Mountain Man on 30 July 2015 at 10:01 pm UTC
0 Likes
Bought it in an instant from the Feral store, primarily to say "Thank you, Feral!". I'm also slightly interested in playing the game ;)
Last edited by gehneo on 30 July 2015 at 10:12 pm UTC
Last edited by gehneo on 30 July 2015 at 10:12 pm UTC
1 Likes, Who?
Mountain Man Jul 30, 2015
Downloading... 2-hours to go...
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edddeduck_feral Jul 30, 2015
Bought it in an instant from the Feral store, primarily to say "Thank you, Feral!". I'm also slightly interested in playing the game ;)
Thank you so much, I really hope you enjoy the game seems that you bought it to support us!
5 Likes, Who?
Initial impressions on a GTX680: Runs like a charm, steady and high frame rate, and the game looks excellent in every way. Another quality port.
And boy - the action! I can so totally see me play this baby for a long long time. As far as I am concerned Linux got a new #1 game.
Only minor thing I find a little bit annoying with the game is that the female player skin isn't used all the way through - the cut scenes and some effects are still using the male model.
And boy - the action! I can so totally see me play this baby for a long long time. As far as I am concerned Linux got a new #1 game.
Only minor thing I find a little bit annoying with the game is that the female player skin isn't used all the way through - the cut scenes and some effects are still using the male model.
1 Likes, Who?
Thanks for streaming a bit while I'm waiting for dl to finish. :)
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Initial port report now up in the main article, will test it on a 560ti next, probably tomorrow.
Loving it.
Loving it.
1 Likes, Who?
On GTX770/i7-2600 it runs pretty good! I set the settings to High, 50-60 FPS most of the time and the visuals are absolutely amazing. I'd say, one of the few ports that combine great graphics and high FPS, moreover, almost no issues from the launch. This is another great port from Feral, go buy it without any doubts!
However, I had one crash when entered Advanced options while them being on Ultra, tried to turn them down a bit. The game was pretty slow then (~20 FPS). After restarting it was ok, so I switched to High and was happy since. Another issue is the very high mouse sensitivity but for me it's common on ported games. I tried to lower it all the way down but it was too high nevertheless. So I'm playing on the controller, it's supported fine. I have no force feedback though but will check options tomorrow, maybe it's on my end. I have perfect FF in some other games like Talos Principle and Dust: the Elysian Tail.
Overall, the game is fully playable, have astounding graphics and interesting game mechanics. Looks to me a bit like Dying Light set in a fantasy world. Though boy I wish DL had THIS good performance from the launch. No luck, it's still nowhere near Shadow of Mordor.
However, I had one crash when entered Advanced options while them being on Ultra, tried to turn them down a bit. The game was pretty slow then (~20 FPS). After restarting it was ok, so I switched to High and was happy since. Another issue is the very high mouse sensitivity but for me it's common on ported games. I tried to lower it all the way down but it was too high nevertheless. So I'm playing on the controller, it's supported fine. I have no force feedback though but will check options tomorrow, maybe it's on my end. I have perfect FF in some other games like Talos Principle and Dust: the Elysian Tail.
Overall, the game is fully playable, have astounding graphics and interesting game mechanics. Looks to me a bit like Dying Light set in a fantasy world. Though boy I wish DL had THIS good performance from the launch. No luck, it's still nowhere near Shadow of Mordor.
1 Likes, Who?
Is it mandatory to install nvidia-352 or can i get away with nvidia-331 (preferably) or nvidia-346 without issues or performance problems?
I have a GT 650M.
If you don't run at least those drivers everyone will look like smurfs (all blue), stability should be ok but those drivers are pretty old so your performance stability will vary.
I'd highly recommend using the supported drivers or newer.
pheew, that was a bit of scare. running older drivers because i'm on fedora 19 and planning to switch to SteamOS once it releases.
still, everything looks normal and smurf effect is actually stylish ;)
might upgrade my 340.20, just not today. today... I PLAY!!!
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My experience on an AMD setup
Initial performance
My Specs:
ElementaryOS Freya (Ubuntu 14.04LTS)
1920x1200@60hz
2x 7970HD Ghz@1Ghz
FX-8350@4Ghz
16GB memory@1600mhz
Game runs on 128GB SSD
FGLRX 15.7
Lowest Settings:
- Between 40 and 50fps
Medium Settings:
-Around 33fps (pretty steady though)
-No graphical issues/glitches at all.
-At 30fps the game certainly is playable. Even though I would like higher fps, it really doesn't break the experience.
High Settings:
- Between 25 - 30fps
Ultra:
- The game crashes
*Tesselation and DoF is NOT turned on.
*I did not test the game in Crossfire-mode turned on - not that I would suspect the game to run better because of that.
Hopefully this gives some insight and indication for some users on the (maybe?) AMD performance state in the game.
*Keep in mind that this was tested on release date (Linux ofc) and may not be correct or any indicative after a while due to patches or maybe improved drivers. The test is not done through the ingame benchmark but my experience while actually playing.
Last edited by sleort on 30 July 2015 at 10:51 pm UTC
Initial performance
My Specs:
ElementaryOS Freya (Ubuntu 14.04LTS)
1920x1200@60hz
2x 7970HD Ghz@1Ghz
FX-8350@4Ghz
16GB memory@1600mhz
Game runs on 128GB SSD
FGLRX 15.7
Lowest Settings:
- Between 40 and 50fps
Medium Settings:
-Around 33fps (pretty steady though)
-No graphical issues/glitches at all.
-At 30fps the game certainly is playable. Even though I would like higher fps, it really doesn't break the experience.
High Settings:
- Between 25 - 30fps
Ultra:
- The game crashes
*Tesselation and DoF is NOT turned on.
*I did not test the game in Crossfire-mode turned on - not that I would suspect the game to run better because of that.
Hopefully this gives some insight and indication for some users on the (maybe?) AMD performance state in the game.
*Keep in mind that this was tested on release date (Linux ofc) and may not be correct or any indicative after a while due to patches or maybe improved drivers. The test is not done through the ingame benchmark but my experience while actually playing.
Last edited by sleort on 30 July 2015 at 10:51 pm UTC
2 Likes, Who?
Added testing from my 560ti, which is below the min system requirements.
3 Likes, Who?
Mountain Man Jul 30, 2015
What I do find very interesting, is that the game will seamlessly switch the on-screen prompts between gamepad and keyboard depending on what you last pressed. I’ve never seen that before, and it’s really quite a nifty little feature.The Arkham games (also published by Warner Bros) have always done this. But, of course, they've never been released on Linux.
Last edited by Mountain Man on 30 July 2015 at 10:58 pm UTC
1 Likes, Who?
Avehicle7887 Jul 30, 2015
Excellent work Feral :-)
Happy Birthday Liam and thanks for the review. I hope Witcher 3 goes along this path rather than a quick wrapper job.
Happy Birthday Liam and thanks for the review. I hope Witcher 3 goes along this path rather than a quick wrapper job.
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