Doom 2016 supports Vulkan and at GDC this year developers from id Software talked a little about it, including how easy a Linux version could have been.
In response to this question from Alon Or-bach (Samsung) around 45:40 in the below video: "One of the hot topics around Vulkan in terms of cross-platform and how much benefit do you find of having one API that's targetting both mobile and desktop platforms".
Dustin Land, a developer at id Software said this in reply:
"So we did Linux dedicated servers for Doom 2016 and a few of us who are Linux heads in the studio decided, let's take it the full way. All we had to do was change the surface that we are creating for the Linux version and it just ran, out of the box and performance was equivalent. Having a small driver actually helps a lot there."
This does beg the question: Why isn't it actually on Linux, if it worked as well as it sounds? Most likely a management decision from someone within id Software or ZeniMax Media. However, it's also possible the developers didn't pitch it of course. We just don't know, either way it's a real shame.
You can see the full video below:
Direct Link
What are your thoughts? I would absolutely buy a copy of Doom if it was on Linux.
Slightly related, on the topic of Vulkan: In these slides from Khronos Dev Day: The Vulkan Sessions, when showing off games using Vulkan a bunch of them are actually from Feral Interactive. It even includes the upcoming Rise of the Tomb Raider as well as their previous Linux ports which have Vulkan support. It's pleasing to see Feral get more recognition for their hard work both in terms of Linux gaming and using Vulkan.
Thanks for the tip mirv!
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Luke_Nukem Mar 25, 2018
Quoting: GuestValve is going to shutter soon if they don't get behind a non-crypto-mining spec box.Are you serious? With the cash they're raking in, their hardware efforts are largely irrelevant. Which explains the lack of a proper push.
Even if/when MS clamps down on third party storefronts, Valve will survive. Not unscathed, but at least they don't have to play it safe to appease investors due to being privately owned.
Quoting: BeamboomOh dear how much ridiculous speculation I find here, presented as facts. I don't even know where to start, but an idea doesn't automatically transform into reality, guys.Have you never been to the Intertubes before? It's the magical place where every Dick and Jane is an expert, and opinions
Quoting: JahimselfSo I guess at the head of zenimax there are some weird people.
Donald Trump's brother - Robert S. Trump - sits on Zenimax's board of directors.
Fun fact: Donald Trump blamed brutal computer games after the last gun rampage.
After displacing Christopher Weaver from ZeniMax, the company is run by old people who have nothing to do with computer games. These people are experienced in business and do many things right, I think. But they have no real love for Games I suspect. I think they work in a similar way to the big film studios. They give the makers (Bethesda) a lot of freedom, but always make strange decisions.
Quoting: 1xokQuoting: JahimselfSo I guess at the head of zenimax there are some weird people.
Donald Trump's brother - Robert S. Trump - sits on Zenimax's board of directors.
Fun fact: Donald Trump blamed brutal computer games after the last gun rampage.
After displacing Christopher Weaver from ZeniMax, the company is run by old people who have nothing to do with computer games. These people are experienced in business and do many things right, I think. But they have no real love for Games I suspect. I think they work in a similar way to the big film studios. They give the makers (Bethesda) a lot of freedom, but always make strange decisions.
That sounds about right. I had no idea Trump's brother was on the board, that does explain things.
As you say - they are good business people with no love for games...and yes the film industry is run like this too.
Sad.
Sad that some people are buying the game to play it on Wine. They won't miss your money.
Quoting: berarmaPreviously, they would just release the binaries without any marketing/business fuss and it worked great that way.This is why I don't understand all the people trying to defend them for marketing reasons. They've done it before, and it absolutely would increase sales.
I still have my retail DOOM3 CD's which are windows only, and I happily purchased it because the Linux binaries were downloadable online.
Plenty of games have released for Linux with the mutual understanding between the developers and the community that it isn't going to really be supported and anyone who buys it for Linux is basically "on their own". It's not a new concept.
Last edited by ison111 on 25 March 2018 at 5:31 pm UTC
Quoting: mondalaciI played a lot of id games on Linux, and would love to support them, but I'm unwilling to give them a dime until they do Linux ports.
legally you can't play them on linux. You have to buy them on steam for the data files (as I did because I no longer have a CDROM so I can't read my old discs).
Then you can play gzdoom, ecwolf, darkplaces, dhewm3.
What I really don't get is Skyrim. They can easily port that to mac and linux. Yet they still shit on me...
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