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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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Quoting: mmstickI don't think users should be supporting products that aren't ported natively, regardless of whether they perform okay with some annoying bugs. This just sends the message that it's okay to keep porting more games in this manner, and we will only have less and less native ports. There's a lot that can go wrong with non-native ports throughout the course of time, and judging by their past history, I doubt they'll ever fix their broken games, nor will the developer re-port their games in the future.Would you prefer that Virtual Programming stopped releasing Linux ports then? And none of their games come to Linux? When have you tried Witcher 2 last? Works great for me here, and many others. This new port works very well. And Virtual Programming has shown they work on their games after the initial porting (look at the github and their betas for examples).
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.
In regards to AMD, the open source drivers are perfectly fine, and even now support OpenGL 4.2 in the impending Mesa 11 and LLVM 3.7 update coming to a bleeding-edge distribution near you. The performance matches, if not exceeds, the Catalyst drivers in all games, and as demonstrated earlier, using Wine with Gallium Nine provides a lot of benefits for games being executed in that manner.
Also, eON is a bit in the middle between native and a "wine"-like wrapper. If the game works well and is well supported, how much does it matter? Personally, the problem becomes when a developer releases a lazy wine wrapper (wrap and done, no support), instead of going native or a wrapper like eON.
These eON ports can also give metrics for the developers and publishers who contract them out. As in, if they do well, they may decide to do an in-house native port next time.
Also, native ports have their own problems as well sometimes. Aspyr released KOTOR2 with a bug that broke the game when using with workshop mods. Shadow of Mordor was released with AMD having major issues. Both are either fixed or being worked on, and I think those porting teams are great, but no port will ever be perfect, native or no.
Last edited by d10sfan on 17 August 2015 at 9:59 pm UTC
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Quoting: d10sfanQuoting: mmstickI don't think users should be supporting products that aren't ported natively, regardless of whether they perform okay with some annoying bugs. This just sends the message that it's okay to keep porting more games in this manner, and we will only have less and less native ports. There's a lot that can go wrong with non-native ports throughout the course of time, and judging by their past history, I doubt they'll ever fix their broken games, nor will the developer re-port their games in the future.Would you prefer that Virtual Programming stopped releasing Linux ports then? And none of their games come to Linux? When have you tried Witcher 2 last? Works great for me here, and many others. This new port works very well. And Virtual Programming has shown they work on their games after the initial porting (look at the github and their betas for examples).
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.
In regards to AMD, the open source drivers are perfectly fine, and even now support OpenGL 4.2 in the impending Mesa 11 and LLVM 3.7 update coming to a bleeding-edge distribution near you. The performance matches, if not exceeds, the Catalyst drivers in all games, and as demonstrated earlier, using Wine with Gallium Nine provides a lot of benefits for games being executed in that manner.
Also, eON is a bit in the middle between native and a "wine"-like wrapper. If the game works well and is well supported, how much does it matter? Personally, the problem becomes when a developer releases a lazy wine wrapper (wrap and done, no support), instead of going native or a wrapper like eON.
These eON ports can also give metrics for the developers and publishers who contract them out. As in, if they do well, they may decide to do an in-house native port next time.
Also, native ports have their own problems as well sometimes. Aspyr released KOTOR2 with a bug that broke the game when using with workshop mods. Shadow of Mordor was released with AMD having major issues. Both are either fixed or being worked on, and I think those porting teams are great, but no port will ever be perfect, native or no.
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.
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I can see both sides to this - on the one hand we are getting games that only two years ago would have needed wine which is great! But there is a worry that it will become the norm and native ports won't be made 'because the wrapper version sells as well'.
I hope that enough games are sold for us to become a viable (if maybe niche) market and we get native versions of all the AAA games made. At the moment I'm just making hay whilst the sun shines - hopefully things will just get better when the Steam consoles go on market.
I have been and will continue to support devs that release Linux games - even one or two that i might not play - though that now is fading as we are getting some awesome stuff!
Just my 2 cents so to speak. :)
/edit
and maybe windows framerates are better - that will no doubt improve with time and for the moment I've not played a game yet that was too slow to enjoy...
Last edited by Slackdog on 17 August 2015 at 10:09 pm UTC
I hope that enough games are sold for us to become a viable (if maybe niche) market and we get native versions of all the AAA games made. At the moment I'm just making hay whilst the sun shines - hopefully things will just get better when the Steam consoles go on market.
I have been and will continue to support devs that release Linux games - even one or two that i might not play - though that now is fading as we are getting some awesome stuff!
Just my 2 cents so to speak. :)
/edit
and maybe windows framerates are better - that will no doubt improve with time and for the moment I've not played a game yet that was too slow to enjoy...
Last edited by Slackdog on 17 August 2015 at 10:09 pm UTC
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Quoting: mmstickQuoting: d10sfanQuoting: mmstickI don't think users should be supporting products that aren't ported natively, regardless of whether they perform okay with some annoying bugs. This just sends the message that it's okay to keep porting more games in this manner, and we will only have less and less native ports. There's a lot that can go wrong with non-native ports throughout the course of time, and judging by their past history, I doubt they'll ever fix their broken games, nor will the developer re-port their games in the future.Would you prefer that Virtual Programming stopped releasing Linux ports then? And none of their games come to Linux? When have you tried Witcher 2 last? Works great for me here, and many others. This new port works very well. And Virtual Programming has shown they work on their games after the initial porting (look at the github and their betas for examples).
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.
In regards to AMD, the open source drivers are perfectly fine, and even now support OpenGL 4.2 in the impending Mesa 11 and LLVM 3.7 update coming to a bleeding-edge distribution near you. The performance matches, if not exceeds, the Catalyst drivers in all games, and as demonstrated earlier, using Wine with Gallium Nine provides a lot of benefits for games being executed in that manner.
Also, eON is a bit in the middle between native and a "wine"-like wrapper. If the game works well and is well supported, how much does it matter? Personally, the problem becomes when a developer releases a lazy wine wrapper (wrap and done, no support), instead of going native or a wrapper like eON.
These eON ports can also give metrics for the developers and publishers who contract them out. As in, if they do well, they may decide to do an in-house native port next time.
Also, native ports have their own problems as well sometimes. Aspyr released KOTOR2 with a bug that broke the game when using with workshop mods. Shadow of Mordor was released with AMD having major issues. Both are either fixed or being worked on, and I think those porting teams are great, but no port will ever be perfect, native or no.
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.
Ok, so in your mind, Feral shouldn't have ported Shadow of Mordor then, with all its issues with AMD?
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LinuxGamesTV Aug 17, 2015
Quoting: d10sfanQuoting: mmstickQuoting: d10sfanQuoting: mmstick......
...
Ok, so in your mind, Feral shouldn't have ported Shadow of Mordor then, with all its issues with AMD?
Thats not a fault from Feral, it is the AMD driver.
And Feral is fast in bugfixing, because they use NATIVE linux libs.
The eON wrapper must wrapp all directX stuff to the linux libs.
So now the game self have bugs, so VP can't fix the bugs.
If have eON and the game bugs VP can`t fix it , too.
Because they dont know where to look.
On a NATIVE Port, the porting Devs can fix all bugs.
Last edited by LinuxGamesTV on 17 August 2015 at 10:42 pm UTC
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grumpytoad Aug 17, 2015
Quoting: mmstickI 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.
I don't think you can argue that Wine and the Eon wrapper are in a different technological bracket, even if one is better than the other, how does that validate your argument that a native port is better?
I don't think it makes much sense dampening the marketing momentum needed to get linux gaming into the mainstream, most of these companies would not even consider linux a few years ago, and probably wouldn't now without the potential hype surrounding steam machines.
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Quoting: mmstickI don't think users should be supporting products that aren't ported natively, regardless of whether they perform okay with some annoying bugs. This just sends the message that it's okay to keep porting more games in this manner, and we will only have less and less native ports. [...]
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.
While I agree that native is better, I doubt that the message the devs/publishers get from this is the message you're trying to send. If you download the Windows version and play it under wine you're basically sending the message that the Windows version sells, the Linux one doesn't. If they used the eOn port as a relatively cheap way of testing the market, this just tells them that in the future, they don't even need to bother with Linux. Some devs may understand your message as intended, but I think many will just look at the bottom line.
In a way, it's lose-lose for Linux users: buy it and send the message that you're willing to pay for anything no matter the quality (though it seems eOn games are getting quite good), or don't buy it and send the message that there's no market on Linux. Personally, I want to first and foremost send the message that there is a market that's worth investing in. More and better ports will follow (I hope...).
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Quoting: GuestJust 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.
Or you can stop being a fanboy for once and just accept that AMD drivers aren't there yet.
Last edited by BillNyeTheBlackGuy on 17 August 2015 at 11:32 pm UTC
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Well played it. Can you get a refund cos a game is shit? Horrible camera, dated gfx - I know the game was released a couple of years or so ago but not 1997 surely?
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Quoting: mmstickIf 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.
So, just to be clear, you'd rather pay for the Windows version of a game and play it in a non-native wrapper (Wine) and have to fiddle around with it until you get it working right than pay for a version labeled as a Linux port that is also non-native but that is officially supported so that someone else has to fiddle around with it to get it to work and that can play through the Linux version of Steam?
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