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I say “another” because I class Distance as an awesome survival racer, but DiRT Showdown is much closer to a real racing game for us.
Note: I purchased a key to it myself when I saw it was released (by accident), but was later given a key to unlock a beta to help test it. Really liking Virtual Programming’s turnaround in attitude here, I absolutely applaud it.
About the game
Race, crash and hoon your way through a world tour of motorised mayhem in DiRT Showdown! Crowd atmosphere, social gameplay and accessibility are all ramped up in this turbo- injected shot of driving delirium. Smash down the accelerator and earn the adulation of frenzied crowds at hyper-energised events at iconic locations. Trick, speed and smash your way to victory, then do it again.
My thoughts
Port issues - Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first.
Sadly, it’s not perfection yet.
The game will hang sometimes and not recover, VP don’t know exactly what’s causing it and my logs aren’t providing the answers yet. They have tried to fix the bug, but it still happens. Hopefully more reports will help them find why it’s happening. Please do send your logs to them if the game hangs for you. The eon.txt file can be found in the games install folder. It’s a rare bug that’s hard to nail down, so more people reporting it will get it fixed easier.
The game’s audio (OpenALSOFT) is locked to whatever the default current output is. If you plug in a USB headset, the game will not switch to it, or even allow you to switch to it in PulseAudio Volume Control. You need to load the game with the audio device you want set as the current output for it to work. This does not affect normal jack output for headphones. Not a major issue really. You can make it possible to move audio devices by using this file, and simply place it in your home directory under the name “.alsoftrc” and set “allow-moves = true”. Do that at your own peril, I’m not responsible for breakage, but it works for me.
If you have multiple monitors, you can force the game onto a monitor using this:
Quote--eon_force_display=*monitor*
Where *monitor* starts at 0
Gamepads can be a little strange, but my F310 mostly works fine. I say mostly as now and then I need to rotate both sticks around in the menu, and then it's somehow calibrated again.
Performance and gameplay
The first thing to note is performance, which really can’t be far off Windows, as it’s really quite impressive. It’s not really a question of if it’s close to Windows or not though, but the fact that even my old 560ti I dusted off to test was completely playable on High settings. It goes without saying how well it runs on my 970 really. If you’re interested, my previous benchmark article is here.
Note: You will want to turn the announcer audio down, it will only let you go down to 50%, but you will thank me. Most annoying thing to have in a racer, ever.
DiRT Showdown is more about smashing your opponents to put them off than simply racing around. Some game modes are even just all out car smashing battles, and I have been enjoying it rather a lot.
I’m a little torn between which is my favourite mode right now. Elimination is probably one of the most intense, as you are on a timer, and each time it reaches zero the person coming last is knocked out. That really does get your heart going a little bit, and I enjoy it every time.
I think my second favourite mode is probably 8-Ball, as the race has sections that overlap, and crashes will be plenty. There’s nothing like smooth sailing in first place, to be utterly annihilated by an oncoming car from your right, and then you’re last. It’s hilariously frustrating! It’s more amusing to be coming second, and see first places get literally swept off the track by an oncoming racer, and you sail past into first place.
One thing which really annoyed me was the particular event type called “Smash Hunter” that has you driving around a concrete area, and all you’re doing is knocking over coloured blocks. Who in their right mind thought “this is awesome”, I want them fired. Nothing about that game mode is fun, but the rest of the game really is.
My other critique is the choice of colours: why can’t I have a pink car in every class? The limited customization isn’t a major issue, but it would be nice to have and it would make the game feel a bit bigger.
Another annoyance is the score counter in the “Rampage” game-mode, you’re constantly crashing into others to get points, and the counter is constantly going. It sounds like there’s a cricket constantly in the room.
Final thoughts
Honestly, each time I boot it up I completely forget that it’s not native, and I just enjoy it. That’s exactly how it should be, this game has somewhat changed my mind about non-native porting solutions. It will completely change my mind when the issue of it hanging at random points is fixed.
Is it worth the £9.99 asking price? Absolutely. I've already put 13 hours into the beast.
Check out DiRT Showdown on Steam. I look forward to racing with some of you, and annoying you as I give you a little shunt. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I tried Witcher 2 on Linux one month ago and it still runs significantly worse than running the Windows copy through Wine with Gallium Nine. Indeed, I would very much prefer that non-native ports are abolished henceforth and never allowed onto Steam. Non-native ports are not the way, nor will they ever be. Fixing a bug in a native port is easy, but resolving a bug in a non-native port? I don't think so. Either do a port correctly the first time or don't do a port at all. No port is better than a bad port.
you do realize that you're one of minority and you don't even realize what you claim?
since you use galium nine, you're using OSS drivers. OSS drivers already have lower performance and when you stuck them with one additional layer like wine conversion of directx to opengl, you're bound to have performance problems. but, those performance claims are only valid in case like yours
galium nine avoids whole conversion to opengl. it is also only usable to people running OSS and AMD (no clue about Nouveau, if it needs recklocking then it might as well ignore it because Maxwell doesn't support even basic one).
galium nine is useless to people with
- Intel
- people with AMD running Catalyst
- people with NVidia
in short, galium nine is useless to majority of people. everyone else has much better luck with command stream or eON than with possibility that does not exist for them
Last edited by vulture on 18 August 2015 at 12:03 am UTC
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natewardawg Aug 18, 2015
Concerning non-native ports, I tried to read all of the posts in this thread and may have missed it, but I didn't see anything about the fact that pretty much all major engines (Unreal, CryEngine, Unity, etc) have native Linux ports built in. This wasn't true for any of the games that have been wine/eOn wrapped.
What I'm saying is that the wrapped games will most likely become a thing of the past because it takes significantly longer and more effort to wrap a game than to be able to just plan for a native build from the start and be able to essentially have a few platform flags in your code (mostly for save data paths) and then click a button and you have your port.
Sure, there will probably be one here or there, but wrapped ports in general are going to start costing much more time and money than native ones and probably the primary games you'll see being wrapped are those using engines that were developed in house.
What I'm saying is that the wrapped games will most likely become a thing of the past because it takes significantly longer and more effort to wrap a game than to be able to just plan for a native build from the start and be able to essentially have a few platform flags in your code (mostly for save data paths) and then click a button and you have your port.
Sure, there will probably be one here or there, but wrapped ports in general are going to start costing much more time and money than native ones and probably the primary games you'll see being wrapped are those using engines that were developed in house.
3 Likes, Who?
metro2033fanboy Aug 18, 2015
STEAM yearONE FTW! lmao!
Last edited by metro2033fanboy on 18 August 2015 at 2:19 am UTC
Last edited by metro2033fanboy on 18 August 2015 at 2:19 am UTC
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GustyGhost Aug 18, 2015
To all those naysayers, guess I'll just have to enjoy the game on my Kaveri while you're busy ranting on. Runs pretty damn flawless here. Needs GL4.1 according to a dialog window, but on Steam it lists a GL4.2 requirement - I suspect it's truly the latter. Either way, this is a solid job by VP.
I agree. AMD product must be pretty hit or miss because there are two equally loud groups who claim that AMD is either fine for Linux gaming or sub par and should be avoided. Even the monthly surveys show a near 50/50 split between those who use the open source driver and those who use the proprietary. As far as I'm concerned, AMD's integrated GCN 1.1 based APUs all run fine under the proprietary driver. I even have playlists which showcase the gaming viability of these little guys.
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If we wanted to play non-native ports then we'd just use Wine with Gallium Nine, without all these silly bugs. Even that dreaded Witcher 2 port runs better in Wine that it does the 'non-native Linux port' from this developer.That used to be true when Witcher2 was released, but is no longer the case.
As it is now the Linux port is very close to the native Windows release in terms of performance.
But the main difference is that the VP port is instantly available to Linux gamers in general being distributed and supported by Steam/GOG, while there are less people gaming through Wine and even less with Gallium nine.
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I tried Witcher 2 on Linux one month ago and it still runs significantly worse than running the Windows copy through Wine with Gallium Nine. Indeed, I would very much prefer that non-native ports are abolished henceforth and never allowed onto Steam. Non-native ports are not the way, nor will they ever be. Fixing a bug in a native port is easy, but resolving a bug in a non-native port? I don't think so. Either do a port correctly the first time or don't do a port at all. No port is better than a bad port.Can you define what "significantly worse" means in numbers?
Because I want to compare them with my numbers:
View video on youtube.com
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LinuxGamesTV Aug 18, 2015
...
Just to clarify: the issues with AMD cards are not the fault of the drivers. For whatever reason (time, experience of people involved, etc), Shadow of Mordor is just a shitty port. Like it or not, it is the fault of Feral.
And again, it's the AMD Blob driver, why FERAL don't support AMD and not SoM or the AMD hardware.
And SoM was a great port with great support and fast bugfixes.
I hope you know for what a driver is there and what he does exactly. And now why is the AMD driver behind the Nividia driver?
When a driver of a producer not that does what he should do, I would not support this manufacturer and is currently in the AMD drivers but the case. This driver does not specify what it should and this reports on forums a lot of AMD cardholders.
Ok AMD works on his new driver model AMDGPU, maybe the performace on AMD cards and linux changed with new AMDGPU driver in the Kernel 4.2.
Last edited by LinuxGamesTV on 18 August 2015 at 3:53 am UTC
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fraghopper Aug 18, 2015
it is really sad to see the linux world completely focus on nvidia/intel.
We already have an intel monopoly and the same will happen with nvidia.
Everybody has some kind of responsibility, especially reporters - free or not.
Why? Free enterprise! Just saying ...
AMD brought this on themselves. I used to be an AMD user, both CPU and GPU. But with every release fglrx driver was getting worse and worse. Crashing, not being able to change screen brightness. Then they dropped the card from the driver altogether while the open source driver had no 3D support yet. That was the last straw -- my next machine was Intel / NVIDIA.
My suggestion to you - go sell your AMD on ebay or local and buy a nVidia card if you want the "best" linux gaming experience. It's sad, and it's not the way it should be - but it's the way it is right now. Maybe the future will be different - that's up to AMD, in the meantime I won't suffer from their bad choices.
Yep, this is what the free market looks like. Consumers reward companies that do what they want. The reason Linux users use Nvidia is because Nvidia reliably provides quality drivers. If AMD wants Linux users to buy AMD GPUs, then AMD needs to prove that they are going to support Linux as a first-class OS.
And frankly they have a lot to prove at this point. I've been burned by AMD GPUs way too often to switch to them at the first sign of interest.
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How does VP's eON compare with Feral's IndirectX library wrapper used in most (or all?) Feral ports?
From my understanding, eON is a compile-time wrapper / translation layer just like Feral's IndirectX and Valve's ToGL.
Last edited by Xaero_Vincent on 18 August 2015 at 7:05 am UTC
From my understanding, eON is a compile-time wrapper / translation layer just like Feral's IndirectX and Valve's ToGL.
Last edited by Xaero_Vincent on 18 August 2015 at 7:05 am UTC
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I got a non-reply reply:
I'll skip this one.
Last edited by Shmerl on 18 August 2015 at 8:25 am UTC
Thank you for submitting your recent request to Codemasters Customer Services concerning Dirt Showdown.
Unfortunately we cannot confirm any plans, at the moment, to release Dirt Showdown on GOG.com
I'll skip this one.
Last edited by Shmerl on 18 August 2015 at 8:25 am UTC
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Those result are representative only for Michael's system, not for Linux in general.Just to clarify: the issues with AMD cards are not the fault of the drivers. For whatever reason (time, experience of people involved, etc), Shadow of Mordor is just a shitty port. Like it or not, it is the fault of Feral.
I would have to agree with mirv, just look at Windows vs Linux benchmarks.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=mordor-win10-linux&num=2
I've no idea what is wrong with his system/setup but his Linux results seem always suspiciously low, like was the case with the recent Xonotic benchmark.
I have older and inferior hardware than his and yet I get much better results:
View video on youtube.com
Last edited by dubigrasu on 18 August 2015 at 9:35 am UTC
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Anyone there with the same problem.
All menues are not readable and black-ish.
Am I running a too old driver version? (fgrlx 15.20)
[
All menues are not readable and black-ish.
Am I running a too old driver version? (fgrlx 15.20)
[
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Where can I commit a bug report?
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Where can I commit a bug report?Watch https://github.com/virtual-programming
Sooner or later a Dirt Showdown section will appear (or you can initiate one);
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oldrocker99 Aug 18, 2015
As a non framerate-chaser, I'm happy with anything over 40 FPS. That said, it's distressing to see the poorer performance of Linux versus That Other OS.
Besides, if I suck at FPS (and I do
), I'm truly abysmal at racing games :'( .
Besides, if I suck at FPS (and I do
), I'm truly abysmal at racing games :'( .
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It's disappointing...
"Port":
Needed an half hour to configurate the game, so it runs on dual monitor. Every start the resolution is set to default and sometimes after changing it it kills the audio and drops the fps from 70 down to 14.
Beside this the game runs good on all-maxed-out with some minor struggle.
Game:
Played through in 100min on "Amateur" with the first car...
My Opinion:
It's really a AAA-game. First of all it starts with those felt-like thousands "ok" (The game uses Autosave -> ok, Connect to Blabla-Network -> ok, Select Profile -> ok, Profile bla loaded -> ok, ...).
I expected an other racing-genre, so I try to put that part of opinion aside. So far I played only Showdown and if I compare it to GRID I have to say the career mode is a cheap copy. The "maingame"-concept reminds my to FlatOut but thats 8 years older and felt much more serious. (Opinion part:) They tried to make a cheap game looking great with all those blink-blink-effects and using mainstream techniques like annotator to make the game exiting.
My final thoughts:
If you
- are new to the genre and on linux: Play it.
- loved FlatOut: Don't play it.
- are not sure and have knowledge in wine: Play FlatOut (1+2)
"Port":
Needed an half hour to configurate the game, so it runs on dual monitor. Every start the resolution is set to default and sometimes after changing it it kills the audio and drops the fps from 70 down to 14.
Beside this the game runs good on all-maxed-out with some minor struggle.
Game:
Played through in 100min on "Amateur" with the first car...
My Opinion:
It's really a AAA-game. First of all it starts with those felt-like thousands "ok" (The game uses Autosave -> ok, Connect to Blabla-Network -> ok, Select Profile -> ok, Profile bla loaded -> ok, ...).
I expected an other racing-genre, so I try to put that part of opinion aside. So far I played only Showdown and if I compare it to GRID I have to say the career mode is a cheap copy. The "maingame"-concept reminds my to FlatOut but thats 8 years older and felt much more serious. (Opinion part:) They tried to make a cheap game looking great with all those blink-blink-effects and using mainstream techniques like annotator to make the game exiting.
My final thoughts:
If you
- are new to the genre and on linux: Play it.
- loved FlatOut: Don't play it.
- are not sure and have knowledge in wine: Play FlatOut (1+2)
1 Likes, Who?
You're right, and even according to his own earlier tests that's not a good option for games.I've no idea what is wrong with his system/setup but his Linux results seem always suspiciously low, like was the case with the recent Xonotic benchmark.
He uses powersave cpu governor (at least on SoM and DiRT benchmarks)...
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=intel_pstate_linux315&num=3
At the same time the intel_pstate powersave governor is (if I'm not mistaken) the default governor and Michael always is using defaults in its benchmarks.
Last edited by dubigrasu on 18 August 2015 at 3:26 pm UTC
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People should stop and realise where we are today when it comes to linux gaming - not very long ago there were practically a handful of games on 'our platform' and that was about it, unless you wanted to fool around with wine/VMs. Now we have basically thousands of games, and a significant number of major titles too.
RE Native/wrapper: this debate is irrelevant, people want to play their games, and many want to give steamos/linux a try. I'm pretty sure that around November they will be checking if their games run on the platform rather than engage in ideological discussions about advantages of one porting technique over another.
Last edited by manus76 on 18 August 2015 at 3:52 pm UTC
RE Native/wrapper: this debate is irrelevant, people want to play their games, and many want to give steamos/linux a try. I'm pretty sure that around November they will be checking if their games run on the platform rather than engage in ideological discussions about advantages of one porting technique over another.
Last edited by manus76 on 18 August 2015 at 3:52 pm UTC
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So after 2-3 hours of play it seems pretty good, i got 30 -ish fps in 1080p mid settings msaa off, no graphic glitches or freezes (250X Catalyst 15.5). GG VP :D
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Ok so in my case performance-wise game looks ok. In-game benchmark gave me 31.1 avg fps and max 37.4 on NVidia 540m (355.06) , i5 2410m @2.3 GHz, 10GB RAM, Ubuntu 15.04.
I did not encounter any crash, but played only 30 minutes.
Issues I had:
- Couldn't play a game because of 0 bytes game size - solved by VP guy at day one - great support here.
- Had to do weird analogs moving to make dualshock 4 work (not solved, but they say I will have to do it only once - let's see). Still it's not cool that it happens in multiple ports.
Issues I have:
- There are no tyres in most of the cars while racing which is little bit weird...
And still - this is much worse game than DIRT 3... But anyway - better this game than no other. Not going to support Linux porting company with my money this time (Shadow of Mordor and Victor Vran already bought this month), but as I say - DIRT 3 would/will receive extra money from my side if it will be released.
I did not encounter any crash, but played only 30 minutes.
Issues I had:
- Couldn't play a game because of 0 bytes game size - solved by VP guy at day one - great support here.
- Had to do weird analogs moving to make dualshock 4 work (not solved, but they say I will have to do it only once - let's see). Still it's not cool that it happens in multiple ports.
Issues I have:
- There are no tyres in most of the cars while racing which is little bit weird...
And still - this is much worse game than DIRT 3... But anyway - better this game than no other. Not going to support Linux porting company with my money this time (Shadow of Mordor and Victor Vran already bought this month), but as I say - DIRT 3 would/will receive extra money from my side if it will be released.
1 Likes, Who?
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