Saints Row 2 is currently free on Steam, other Saints Row titles on sale

Quoting: ShmerlAs others pointed out, the game works much better in Wine, than in the "native" version which is actually a wrapper anyway.

They are practically equal in performance, I'd wish to see it working "much better" with Wine.
To be exact, I have right now both versions installed on my drive and I can see the graphical artifacts less present on Wine (those black textures I mentioned before) but also no AO present on Wine (yes, sorry I'm repeating myself).
The most annoying thing, stutter, is also the same unfortunately.

Based on these comments, it sounds like "free" is a fair asking price for the Linux port.

Quoting: dubigrasuThey are practically equal in performance, I'd wish to see it working "much better" with Wine.
To be exact, I have right now both versions installed on my drive and I can see the graphical artifacts less present on Wine (those black textures I mentioned before) but also no AO present on Wine (yes, sorry I'm repeating myself).
The most annoying thing, stutter, is also the same unfortunately.

Performance wise both will be about the same, owing to the poor state of the Windows version of the game (the game has a lot of graphical glitches even on Windows BTW - I compared with running the game on a Windows install). Still, I found that in Wine it stuttered a bit less (and wasn't stuttering like crazy during cutscenes), has fewer graphical glitches, stuff like radio music playback actually works etc.

Quoting: adamhm

Quoting: dubigrasuThey are practically equal in performance, I'd wish to see it working "much better" with Wine.
To be exact, I have right now both versions installed on my drive and I can see the graphical artifacts less present on Wine (those black textures I mentioned before) but also no AO present on Wine (yes, sorry I'm repeating myself).
The most annoying thing, stutter, is also the same unfortunately.

Performance wise both will be about the same, owing to the poor state of the Windows version of the game (the game has a lot of graphical glitches even on Windows BTW - I compared with running the game on a Windows install). Still, I found that in Wine it stuttered a bit less (and wasn't stuttering like crazy during cutscenes), has fewer graphical glitches, stuff like radio music playback actually works etc.

I did found the black textures less obvious with Wine, but honestly, I can go back and forth with both versions and the stutter is the same (maybe a bit pronounced on Wine, but I can't be really sure). As for the radio music I see no issues on the native version so far.
I would be inclined to play it with Wine though (despite the missing Ambient Occlusion), since those black textures present on VP version are terribly annoying to my eyes, but the sound is a bit botched with Wine, I have missing voices/dialogs at times during cutscenes mostly and sometimes audio dropping completely (recovering after restart).
I think that both Wine and VP tech in this case are equally able (or rather unable) to deal with this game at this point, and the differences are minimal.

The single one thing that did made a difference for me with this game was running it from RAM, which did alleviate the stutter to a point where I could somewhat ignore it:

View video on youtube.com

Try different radio stations - I found that some of them played nothing but the interludes between tracks in the official Linux release (could try running it through the Steam Runtime if you're not already?). Never had any sound issues in Wine here though, differences could be due to system configuration.

(also it looks like AO was responsible for some of the graphical glitches I was encountering in the official release)


Last edited by adamhm on 21 April 2017 at 4:31 pm UTC

Thanks for the info about the game being free to grab, as I've went ahead and got it on my Steam Library now! Also, even though it sounds like there are some glitches with the Linux port, I do appreciate that a Linux version exists at all!

Quoting: adamhmTry different radio stations - I found that some of them played nothing but the interludes between tracks in the official Linux release (could try running it through the Steam Runtime if you're not already?). Never had any sound issues in Wine here though, differences could be due to system configuration.

(also it looks like AO was responsible for some of the graphical glitches I was encountering in the official release)

You're right, on some stations there were only commercials. Found out though that it can be easily fixed by installing the "High Quality Radio mod" from https://www.saintsrowmods.com/forum/threads/high-quality-radio-mod.9515/
(basically two files to be dropped in the game's main folder)
The only way to "fix" graphical glitches for me (on the VP version) is to disable dynamic lights, which unfortunately makes the game look really bland.
All in all both versions have advantages and disadvantages though, the missing dialog/sound drops+ controller issues and the missing Ambient Occlusion on the Wine version makes it a no go for me, while the rendering issues on the VP's port are also annoying enough to avoid playing it.
If they could/would fix that it would be perfect, well...almost.

Quoting: Mountain ManBased on these comments, it sounds like "free" is a fair asking price for the Linux port.

I bought all Versions of SR long time ago.

I think this is one game that would be worth a remake. Notice I said "remake" and not "remaster". I mean actually remaking the game with the same location and story, or at least making another game that takes place in Stillwater. I think it was by far the best location of all the Saints Row games and one of the best open worlds ever.

To be honest: The game itself is not free available! There is just nothing to pay for renting another entry within the account, which itself is also not the own property. Valve is just so "kind" giving a defined amount of space on their servers, including the database.