Kingdom Come: Deliverance will not aim for day-1 Linux support

i'm a bit dissapointed about this whole back and forth that they wanted to cancel linux port alltogheter at some point.. but im glad thats still on the table. This was my last game i backed on kickstarter and i hope to see it on linux at some point. Hopefully its not too much after launch

I asked them about this awhile back on Google+, and they said they would issue refunds if they were unable to release for Linux. :) So there is hope.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-reYIEZ95qqw/VwZPVrJQg8I/AAAAAAAAh68/06Hq8bn2-7M9q3Ach8irmWQggjYMMDIZg/w530-h942-p-rw/Screenshot_20160407-080626.png


Last edited by Elvanex on 8 December 2016 at 3:51 pm UTC

It seems likely to me that if they aren't committed to it, it probably won't happen.

I'm not a game dev, but I studied programming at high school and I know "for sure" that letting the Linux and Mac versions for later will just make them harder and harder to work on with every new feature. Still, I'm glad they didn't drop it.

Quoting: m2mg2It seems likely to me that if they aren't committed to it, it probably won't happen.

That too. Keep happy, but don't do something crazy like pre-ordering the game now. Or even backing now that they are kind of quiet.


Last edited by OLucasZanella on 8 December 2016 at 4:00 pm UTC

I asked them for a refund which I did get, simply no hope left for a linux version on my end.

Putting cross-platformness away does not seem to me as really going for quality – they might end up with platform-specific and platform-optimized code that runs OK, but actually isn’t high-quality maintainable and portable source code.

Of course it is possible that they have well structured abstractions that make code mostly platform agnostic and just do not want to spend energy now on implementing the platform specific bits on Linux and macOS. But I don’t really believe that – if they don’t try to support at least two different platforms since the beginning they cannot be sure their approach is going to make easily portable code later.

EDIT: they ARE supporting consoles, so there is hope that they are making it easily portable and not too Windows-dependent. So I might be (and hopefully am) wrong in my comment. :)


Last edited by silmeth on 8 December 2016 at 4:29 pm UTC

QuoteNow, that sounds pretty bad if you don't read it carefully enough, but the key here is "at launch".

It's actually the most promising thing they've said about Linux in a while, however that's mostly because of their consistent refusal to mention Linux in any of their updates over the last 18 months. The 'announcement' that the beta would not be coming to Linux was on a comment on one of their updates rather than in the update itself.

QuoteI was always sceptical of a CryEngine game coming to Linux with a day-1 release, especially from a crowdfund.

The Kickstarter accounts for less than 10% of their funding - it was a crowdfunding campaign to demonstrate interest to other investors rather than for funds to completely create the game.

Hmm...not sure if I should feel optimistic or pessimistic about this. I'd certainly *like* to be optimistic, but I've been burned far to many times when I've interpreted "Windows First-Linux Later", as some kind of guarantee.

Far too often it seems like that very approach from the developers, makes the liux version much less likely to occur (choosing incompatible middleware and whatever). Nope, I think I'll continue to regard the Linux-version as officially "scrapped", until there is something really concrete that says otherwise.

Eugh...I'm getting a refund asap and just forgetting about this game. Far too late, far too complicated a development history (I think) and far too ambiguous about the linux version. Which was the reason I backed it initially. I'll keep an eye on it and at least see if it comes out for linux, but I fear it won't be for awhile.

I somehow thought they would have given up on it, so this is great news for me personally.

QuoteThank you for your email. We are very sorry that we were not able to keep our promise with a Linux version at release. This is not as it was planned as we have seen that this task is more complex in the development than we thought during the Kickstarter campaign. Right now we don´t have fixed plans regarding the Linux version, as we are strongly focused on the release and we have to look at the Linux version again after the release. This is not a satisfying answer, but the only we can provide right now.

Very disappointing :( I have a lot of doubts as it sounds like not much consideration has gone into cross-platform portability, which will likely make things that much harder. I'm going to get a refund and will consider buying it if/when a Linux version becomes available.

Now, that's really disappointing. No day 1 Linux support will definitely mean no day 1 buy and (until anything eventually happens) no recommendations of the game to my friends that are on Windows either.

Wow to garantee your high quality you are quiting the only reason i'm interessed to your title...

We must read "at lunch" not at launch...

Nice to see it coming along together. I certainly don't want them to rush the game, so I was quite sad to hear that they would cut many features. Good thing that they didn't cut the Linux version :)

I am especially sad for the horse AI, I still hope they will implement it later somehow (but my hopes aren't too high either).

All in all, I'll have to acquire new hardware to make it run, anyway. I will probably do it for the Half-life 3 release (SteamOS exclusive), so I an not in a hurry :D

I’ve found a post in Czech in their forums from one of the moderators, back from March 6th. Even though on the international threads they keep saying that they keep Linux version in mind but cannot promise anything, the post in a thread about Linux Beta says:

QuoteTak se k vám vracím s nemilou zprávou.
Linuxová verze není a jen tak asi nebude. Momentálně je to prostě technicky nemožné.

which roughly translates to:

QuoteSo I’m returning to you with an unpleasant update.
There is no Linux version and there won’t be any. At the moment it is just technically impossible.

I wonder if that’s just about beta (and what are the technical – and apparently not just manpower availability – problems) – and if beta is impossible, then how can a final game be possible on Linux.

Did they use some Windows-only middleware and are waiting for a Linux and mac versions? Did they write hard to port HLSL shaders for D3D? Are the Linux drivers and OpenGL support not feasible for the work the game requires to run decently even on high-end hardware? If so, would Vulkan help (as new version of CryEngine supports it)?

EDIT: And after a little more digging I’ve found out that they use CryEngine 3 which does not support Vulkan (nor will) – and they apparently have performance issues, so I believe not doing the Linux/macOS version is related to a difficuty of doing complex optimized OpenGL rendering (but that’s only my guess).


Last edited by silmeth on 8 December 2016 at 11:43 pm UTC

Quoting: silmethI’ve found a post in Czech in their forums from one of the moderators, back from March 6th. Even though on the international threads they keep saying that they keep Linux version in mind but cannot promise anything, the post in a thread about Linux Beta says:

That is close to what we heard "internationally":
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/kingdom-come-deliverance-doesnt-look-like-it-will-come-to-linux-any-time-soon.6809

Ultimately its up to CryEngine and their ability to get Vulkan working, and applying that to their Linux version of the engine. The guys working on Star Citizen are using the same engine but have a large enough team and money to actually do a fair chunk of the work themselves when the time comes, perhaps they will share that work at some point.