Virtual Programming Have Been Busy, Looks Like They Are Doing The Arma 3 Port

I also have mixed feelings about VP. In general, I didn't have any crashes in BioShock so far (but I'm not through the whole game yet). But my critics are that the game has stuttering all the time when loading new areas or when spawning after level loading - that's really annoying. I also fear that companies just give their games to VP to bring them to Linux rather then making a real port which is always more stable and faster in performance (or at least should be, when ported good),

Quoting: DissCentBut my critics are that the game has stuttering all the time when loading new areas or when spawning after level loading - that's really annoying.

Do what Windows gamers did back in 2013, increase PoolSize:
http://forums.2k.com/showthread.php?222666-Possible-solutions-for-known-issues

My experience: from one side, flawless playthrough of SpecOps: The Line, from the other, horrible performance of Stronghold 3 Gold and Witcher 2... I guess I'll just wait for the port report on GOL ^_^

I have to say that I have mixed feelings about VP ports either. But in my opinion we have to wait with final reviews until November. It's obvious that Valve is a party that is most interested in Linux ports and they are pushing developers to make library as big as possible. It is also very important for Valve to have users that are pleased with ports quality.
Having that in mind I would say that we should wait with the final reviews until we see how does eOn perform on November. And unfortunately the most important for VP in my opinion will be how does it perform on SteamOS.
Of course our feedback should be super important for porting companies and according to Liam it is not for VP. I have to say that my issues with eOn were solved by eOn configuration changes, but in November final user will not be as forgiving as we (Linux users) are and I guess manual eOn configuration will not be an option for them.
Regarding general wrapper or native port discussion - of course we prefer native ports. But I definitely prefer wrapper version port than no game (assuming it works and it works well).
Wrapping older titles and natively port newer titles + push developers to use vulkan api = chance to make Linux good gaming platform. And I wish it to all of us.

AFAIK I didn't had any problems with Bioshock Infinite. Spec Ops didn't crash, but had that weird low fps mainmenu bug, which wasn't a big problem. The Witcher 2 is indeed unplayable for me.

I prefer native ports, but games which are out for a while are batter played through wrappers etc. as being non-playable on Linux (wine does't really count, but they are doing a great job btw).

I don't like wrappers. At all.

However ... there is no game (series) I wish to see available on linux more than Arma. A few years ago after playing Operation Flashpoint I actually gave up on gaming entirely, after that game everything else was dissatisfying, a shallow hollow experience. It literally changed the way I think about games and raised the bar so high that few games have been able to catch up. I could talk about OpFlash forever, but I'd much rather play it's sequels, I am extremely happy to know that Arma 3 will be playable on linux and that eclipses my disappointment that it's not a native port.

ARMA game series was always on the heavy side in native Windows. A eON port will have atrocious performance in Linux.

I have 3 games ported by VP. 2 of them I bought after the Linux port. The Witcher 2 have the best performance for me. It never crash and it is near the performance in Windows. Spec Ops have FPS problems and crash all the time, after 15 or 20 min. Bioshock 3 is the same.

So I'm not a fan of them, and get nervous every time a newish famous AAA game get to be ported by them. If they only used to port old games, that never have the chance to see a Linux release, it would be very nice, because the today hardware have the power to give us smooth 60 FPS even with a wrapper. But a game that is already heavy running natively in Windows, getting ported to Linux by a wrapper, is only bad news to me and the players trying SteamOS in the future. They will come spectating something at least as good as the performance they got in Windows. But will get the opposite of it and will run back to Windows as fast as they can.

I have 2 games ported by VP with eON (Witcher 2 and SpecOps) and they works well (witcher2 in this moment works OK). I don't have crash and performance problems. Obviously the games don't work like in Window$, but they are playable . Of course, I prefer native ported games, but is better a wrapped port than nothing. Personally, I love Arma and Op.Flashpoint Games, I only want that VP makes their work with respect to the saga


Last edited by leillo1975 on 1 August 2015 at 12:00 pm UTC

I don't like these eOn ports at all. Not because I'm ungrateful to see these games ported, but because they offer inferior performance. If a Windows user trying out Linux tried one of these games and were subjected to all of the stuttering, freezing and crashes one gets on these games, they'd blame Linux. They've already been convinced for one reason or another that there is something wrong with Linux and that it will never be "quite there," especially for gaming. I've seen it on all of their sites any time Linux gets brought up on their various Windoze "master race" sites. They'd see these games with their inherently inferior experience and it would be a repeat of the sort of thing we've seen for bad Windows ports like the recent Arkham game. Windows gamers are much more sensitive to performance hits of any kind than Linux users, because we don't feel entitled to our releases. eOn ports just offer more ammo for FUD spreading for new users trying these games on Steam machines or whatever. I feel like they don't do us any favors in the long run.

Oh boy, now I'm getting it for sure.