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A reader asked me to reach out to Stardock about their Linux plans, specifically for Galactic Civilizations III as they said they would port it with Vulkan. I didn't get an answer on that specifically, but Vulkan has put them in a better position to port.

I asked a simple question "I noticed your developers stated GCIII would come to Linux when Vulkan was available, just wondering if this is still happening or if the Linux version is now not happening?" and here's the answer:
Brad Wardell, StardockHi Liam,

With Vulkan's arrival we're in a position to do more with our games being on Linux in the future. We don't have any date when that might be however.

Thanks for your interest,

Cheers

It's sadly a bit of a non-answer, but the good news is that Vulkan is keeping the possibility of porting their games to Linux.

They aren't the only developer taking a closer look at Linux thanks to Vulkan and this year we will see a few Vulkan releases. Don't go nuts though, it's going to take time, we aren't about to explode with Vulkan games this year. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Vulkan
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voyager2102 10 Mar 2017
Last time I asked one of their devs in a GC III Twitch session he said that he hadn't heard anything about them planning to port GC to Linux (about 3 months ago). He suggested to ask Brad (Wardell) though.
chepati 10 Mar 2017
Other than The Talos Principle, is there another game (Steam or GOG hosted) I can try now, not in the future, that has a working Vulkan renderer? I just set up Vulkan on my PC (NVidia card) and want to verify that it works. It's akin to learning to play the piano, without the piano, at the moment :-)
Eike 10 Mar 2017
  • Supporter Plus
Other than The Talos Principle, is there another game (Steam or GOG hosted) I can try now, not in the future, that has a working Vulkan renderer? I just set up Vulkan on my PC (NVidia card) and want to verify that it works. It's akin to learning to play the piano, without the piano, at the moment :-)

Well... DOOM? *whisper* It's on Windows, though.


Last edited by Eike on 10 Mar 2017 at 11:00 am UTC
MayeulC 10 Mar 2017
Other than The Talos Principle, is there another game (Steam or GOG hosted) I can try now, not in the future, that has a working Vulkan renderer? I just set up Vulkan on my PC (NVidia card) and want to verify that it works. It's akin to learning to play the piano, without the piano, at the moment :-)

Well, DOTA 2 has a Vulkan renderer as well, and I think that's all for now. (There are some games that use the experimental Unity Vulkan renderer, I think, but I don't know which ones, and that's still experimental).

Now, I really like Stardock games. I hope they will start porting them!

I wouldn't mind a wine port for their older games as well. Sins of A Solar Empire runs quite well with it, if I recall correctly.
Could you ask them in a follow-up, Liam? I guess I could also do it myself...
chepati 10 Mar 2017
Well, DOTA 2 has a Vulkan renderer as well, and I think that's all for now. (There are some games that use the experimental Unity Vulkan renderer, I think, but I don't know which ones, and that's still experimental).

Ah, forgot about this one. Already downloading and will try it when I get home tonight.

Thanks!
Mountain Man 10 Mar 2017
They've been promising to support Linux for years. [Brad Wardell at one point all but promised that GalCiv 3 would get a Linux release](http://steamcommunity.com/app/241990/discussions/0/613937942951572333/?ctp=5#c613937943144071447), but we're still waiting for that one, so I'll believe it when I see it. Stardock used to be one of my favorite developers, but I've pretty much written them off until they show they're serious about supporting Linux. I'm surprised they haven't jumped on it already, to be honest, because being a small, independent developer selling niche games, they would benefit the most from supporting Linux.
edo 10 Mar 2017
And who is the one that claims than vulkan usage isn't a good news for linux? Directly like on this case, or indirectly like on wine, it helps.


Last edited by edo on 10 Mar 2017 at 4:11 pm UTC
femtomatic 10 Mar 2017
I played a lot of GalCiv2 when Windows was all I knew and would really love to have GalCiv3 under linux, but I'm not holding my breath.

Part of Stardock's business model is to sell [customization softwares for the Windows desktop](http://www.stardock.com/products/), I don't know how it compares to their game sales but I'm pretty sure it has increased significantly since Win8... So to be realistic, I doubt they would spend a significant amount of money and energy cater to linux users unless they see a potential for meaningful profits.

Or they could see us as potential customers for their other products "Look, we made Windows as customizable as KDE! All you have to do is pay us a fee to be able to modify a software that you already paid for..." God I'm glad I switched to linux!
Liam Dawe 10 Mar 2017
  • Admin
And who is the one that claims than vulkan usage isn't a good news for linux? Directly like on this case, or indirectly like on wine, it helps.
I imagine that is aimed at me, due to my post about the Switch possibly supporting Vulkan.

There's a big difference between the two. This is an actual developer directly mentioning Linux, not a random platform having support for it.

I say it again to be clear. Vulkan is great, Vulkan is good for Linux, but Vulkan does not mean Linux. I think some people got the wrong idea about what I said because i don't hype every platform possibly using Vulkan.
stretch611 10 Mar 2017
I am not happy that Stardock has not supported linux at all yet. The company was started in niche markets.

Originally, Stardock catered to the OS/2 market. The original Galactic Civilizations was OS/2 only when it first came out before the company expanded to the windows world. I still remember Process Commander from Stardock which was a must have utility for OS/2 back in the day. (Honestly, it has been so long, I forget the details on what it did; but I did buy/have it :D )
Mountain Man 10 Mar 2017
I played a lot of GalCiv2 when Windows was all I knew and would really love to have GalCiv3 under linux, but I'm not holding my breath.

Part of Stardock's business model is to sell [customization softwares for the Windows desktop](http://www.stardock.com/products/), I don't know how it compares to their game sales but I'm pretty sure it has increased significantly since Win8... So to be realistic, I doubt they would spend a significant amount of money and energy cater to linux users unless they see a potential for meaningful profits.

Or they could see us as potential customers for their other products "Look, we made Windows as customizable as KDE! All you have to do is pay us a fee to be able to modify a software that you already paid for..." God I'm glad I switched to linux!
+ Click to view long quote
From what I understand, Stardock's widgets for Windows make up the vast majority of their income. Game development is something Wardell treats almost as a hobby.
Mountain Man 10 Mar 2017
I am not happy that Stardock has not supported linux at all yet. The company was started in niche markets.

Originally, Stardock catered to the OS/2 market. The original Galactic Civilizations was OS/2 only when it first came out before the company expanded to the windows world. I still remember Process Commander from Stardock which was a must have utility for OS/2 back in the day. (Honestly, it has been so long, I forget the details on what it did; but I did buy/have it :D )
To be fair, Brad Wardell didn't intend to cater to a niche market. OS/2 was supposed to be the operating system at the time, a partnership between IBM and Microsoft, two of the biggest names in the computer industry. That is until Microsoft screwed IBM, pulled out of the partnership, and then used anti-competitive practices to force OS/2 out of the market which resulted in Windows rising to dominance. So it wasn't that Wardell was trying to cater to a niche market, he just bet on the wrong horse.


Last edited by Mountain Man on 10 Mar 2017 at 9:31 pm UTC
Purple Library Guy 11 Mar 2017
They've been promising to support Linux for years. [Brad Wardell at one point all but promised that GalCiv 3 would get a Linux release](http://steamcommunity.com/app/241990/discussions/0/613937942951572333/?ctp=5#c613937943144071447), but we're still waiting for that one, so I'll believe it when I see it. Stardock used to be one of my favorite developers, but I've pretty much written them off until they show they're serious about supporting Linux. I'm surprised they haven't jumped on it already, to be honest, because being a small, independent developer selling niche games, they would benefit the most from supporting Linux.
+ Click to view long quote

Yeah. Stardock seem like a very Windows-and-DirectX shop, despite any occasional comments to the contrary, so I won't hold my breath. Pity, I like GalCiv2 and would like to give GalCiv3 a shot, but no Tux no Bux (I acquired 2 before that was a remotely viable strategy).
Purple Library Guy 11 Mar 2017
I played a lot of GalCiv2 when Windows was all I knew and would really love to have GalCiv3 under linux, but I'm not holding my breath.

Part of Stardock's business model is to sell [customization softwares for the Windows desktop](http://www.stardock.com/products/), I don't know how it compares to their game sales but I'm pretty sure it has increased significantly since Win8... So to be realistic, I doubt they would spend a significant amount of money and energy cater to linux users unless they see a potential for meaningful profits.

Or they could see us as potential customers for their other products "Look, we made Windows as customizable as KDE! All you have to do is pay us a fee to be able to modify a software that you already paid for..." God I'm glad I switched to linux!
From what I understand, Stardock's widgets for Windows make up the vast majority of their income. Game development is something Wardell treats almost as a hobby.
+ Click to view long quote

There's an irony there . . . Stardock largely ignore Linux but near as I can figure it, their widgets basically exist to allow Windows to do some of the things Linux does.
TheRiddick 11 Mar 2017
Basically it seems any game that works with Vulkan will work mostly flawlessly under Wine/Vulkan with a 1:1 performance ratio if Doom4 results are to be considered the norm. The only issue would be copy protection perhaps? I think it would be great if developers just bundle up a wine wrapper with their vulkan releases and put it on steamos/linux in such case. (given the parity in performance).


Last edited by TheRiddick on 11 Mar 2017 at 11:41 pm UTC
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