Update: To be clear, they did not actually mean Deus Ex was going Vulkan. They misspoke a bit during the livestream and they aren't saying what game it will be yet.
Note: Article updated to be clearer, with the actual quote of what they said.
I didn't expect this so soon, but it looks like early next year we may have a Linux port from Feral Interactive that uses Vulkan.
Linux gamers! We just announced, live on Twitch, that we are looking towards Vulkan implementation in the first half of next year.
— Feral Interactive (@feralgames) October 27, 2016
They confirmed during the livestream that Deus Ex: Mankind Divided will use OpenGL on Linux, but they also said:
QuoteWe can confirm that Deus Ex: Mankind Divided on Linux is using OpenGL, and we're very happy to announce that we are looking towards Vulkan implementation in the first half of next year.
So, while we are getting OpenGL for now, the possibility of Vulkan so soon is fun news.
Just remember though, Vulkan won't automatically gives us better performance. Like OpenGL it does depend on how it's used, how the original engine was designed and so on.
It will be interesting to see if Vulkan is added into any of their previous games, to see what difference it makes there. Could make for some fun benchmarking.
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The comments on this article are closed.
BlackBloodRum Oct 27, 2016
Liam,
This is not "fun news" or "good news".
This is "epicly awesome news"
Maybe now we will find out just how well Vulkan can really perform on wait hang on what OS? oh yeah. GNU/Linux!
I keep forgetting we can play games on GNU/Linux now with plenty of choice
I just can't believe how far we've come with gaming on GNU/Linux now!
(I say that as someone who's used GNU/Linux since 2003, when the idea of AAA games on GNU/Linux was insane.)
This is not "fun news" or "good news".
This is "epicly awesome news"
Maybe now we will find out just how well Vulkan can really perform on wait hang on what OS? oh yeah. GNU/Linux!
I keep forgetting we can play games on GNU/Linux now with plenty of choice
I just can't believe how far we've come with gaming on GNU/Linux now!
(I say that as someone who's used GNU/Linux since 2003, when the idea of AAA games on GNU/Linux was insane.)
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hardpenguin Oct 27, 2016
QuoteThey don't specifically state what game, and while watching the livestream they are doing, it wasn't explicitly clear if they meant Deus Ex: Mankind Divided would be updated with it, or a future port.It was announced literally a minute before you joined, Liam, and I believe they said that it's Deus Ex: MD that they are gonna look into in context of possible Vulkan treatment.
But better confirm it with our friends at Feral :)
Last edited by hardpenguin on 27 October 2016 at 6:58 pm UTC
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And it makes sense to use an existing release for large scale betatesting.
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Quoting: hardpenguinYou are right, I was in there (just didn't chat until later on) and I misheard them.QuoteThey don't specifically state what game, and while watching the livestream they are doing, it wasn't explicitly clear if they meant Deus Ex: Mankind Divided would be updated with it, or a future port.It was announced literally a minute before you joined, Liam, and I believe they said that it's Deus Ex: MD that they are gonna look into in context of possible Vulkan treatment.
But better confirm it with our friends at Feral :)
Updated the article to reflect that.
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[email protected] Oct 27, 2016
Quoting: EzyRhinoDOOM!
Funny how heavily some publishers use Linux for their business needs but don't give back.
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Quoting: cxphergmailcomQuoting: EzyRhinoDOOM!
Funny how heavily some publishers use Linux for their business needs but don't give back.
Agreed! I wish id was better about this :(
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This is awesome, if those guys know Vulkan imagine when they'll have meetings with publishers to get theirs games on Linux: "we will port the game to Linux and to Vulkan at the same time and all the Windows players will profit from this as well".
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GustyGhost Oct 27, 2016
Quoting: BlackBloodRumMaybe now we will find out just how well Vulkan can really perform on wait hang on what OS? oh yeah. GNU/Linux!
Hold up, it's still going to be just a port. We will only truly know once a game has been built from the ground up for Vulkan.
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Bit off-topic, sorry, but can anyone give me any pointers on how to use Vulkan on an Optimus laptop? I currently rely on Bumblebee, but it does not seem to support Vulkan.
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DE:MD's DirectX12 renderer only went out last month.
I wouldn't expect a Vulkan renderer right away.
I wouldn't expect a Vulkan renderer right away.
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[email protected] Oct 27, 2016
Tbh, Bethesda aren't known for being good to the community. Today, I just read that they're going to stop giving out review copies of their games to game reviewers because they aren't happy with the reviews that reviewers who received their games thus far, have been giving them.
Bethesda is like Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Bethesda is like Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
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At this point I think instead of investigating if a port of Civ IV is feasible, Aspyr should just outsource the job to Feral.
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Quoting: EzyRhinoQuoting: cxphergmailcomQuoting: EzyRhinoDOOM!
Funny how heavily some publishers use Linux for their business needs but don't give back.
Agreed! I wish id was better about this :(
Doom isn't coming to linux. Bethesda actually took the time to port Skyrim to Nintendo's NX platform.
That new console was rumored to offer Vulkan support but Nintendo went for a lock-in API called NVN.
They just don't care. Neither do I care. I bought Doom and didn't even finish it. I thought the engine
and the visuals were sub par and way behind the times. It played like a cheaply done Doom sequel.
Doom 3:BFG is a much better game.
Last edited by sr_ls_boy on 28 October 2016 at 10:10 am UTC
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Jewgeni Filippowitsch Iwanowski Oct 27, 2016
Since Deus Ex is not originally developed with low level APIs in mind, the benefit of Vulkan will at best equal the benefit of DX12 - which is performance parity at this very moment. Nevertheless the mere capacity at Feral to port games from DX12 to Vulkan makes them stand out from the small circle of Linux porting campanies. Now it's Aspyr's and the others' (how many are there, anyway?) turn.
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Actually, all it definitely says is "Upcoming Deus Ex: MD won't support Vulkan". 
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Quoting: subActually, all it definitely says is "Upcoming Deus Ex: MD won't support Vulkan".
I wouldn't be so sure. For me it was:
using NAMESPACE Deus_Ex_MD
LookForVulkanImplementation(nextyear);
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Oct 28, 2016
Quoting: srlsboyBethesda actually took the time to port Skyrim to Nintendo's NX platform.
That new console was rumored to offer Vulkan support but Nintendo went for a lock-in API called NVN.
We know nothing about NVN other than the fact it's a "Gaming" API developed by Nvidia. We've also had no new info regarding the switch (after the First Look vid) afaik, therefore for all we know NVN could be irrelevant to graphics and while I do believe that if that were to be the case we'd have probably heard about Vulkan powering the Switch as well, there's no reason why Nintendo wouldn't support an additional graphics api.
Nintendo could still add compatibility for complementary apis other than its proprietary developed one, similarly to what all other consoles tend todo.
Nintendo lost in all of the latest console wars (except for handhelds maybe?). If they want people to go out and buy this underdog thing they'll need third party game support and not every publisher is going to support nintendo unless its easy or profitable enough for them to do so. Therefore Nintendo is likely to support Vulkan as a compatibility option for pc devs to bring their games over faster (well, assuming pc devs will be using vulkan by then in any case :P )
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