It seems EA are doing some rather interesting things with their experimental Halcyon game engine which includes Vulkan and Linux support.
During the Khronos Munich Meetup this weekend, Graham Wihlidal of EA's SEED (Search for Extraordinary Experiences Division) presented a talk about this exciting game engine. While it's somewhat surprising to see EA start to use Vulkan, it's even more surprising to see Linux actually being mentioned as a target platform:
It's not just Vulkan though, it also supports Metal 2 (early stages) and Direct3D 12. On top of that, one of their aims is to easily access multi-GPU setups. However, they do mention that they haven't implemented multi-GPU support or Ray Tracing for Vulkan yet but they say it's planned.
What's also rather fascinating about it, is that they said they can mix and match different rendering backends in the same process. They say it made debugging Vulkan easier, as one half of the screen was using DX12 and the other Vulkan. Can't say I've heard of anyone else doing that, very cool.
See the full details here including a slideshow you can view online or a PDF you can download.
To keep some expectations in check: This doesn't necessarily mean EA are going to be putting out Linux games, but if they ever do start seriously using this game engine for future games it means the barrier for a Linux port could be lower. However, it might just be a bit of fun for the engineers.
Hat tip to Janz.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
I'm familiar with EA building some mobile games using an external company's game engine, which subsequently went bust.
GustyGhost Oct 29, 2018
TheRiddick Oct 29, 2018
They should really just focus on making great games then release DLC with WANTED micro's later on. And grinding buffs are NOT wanted in full priced games at all, leave those for MMO/F2P games....
Last edited by TheRiddick on 29 October 2018 at 2:22 am UTC
slaapliedje Oct 29, 2018
Quoting: GuestQuoting: lejimsterQuoting: GuestWell that's cool, if EA ever recovers from their current state of being a pure and utter garbage company that can't produce any decent games anymore......
EA have always been garbage. I had the "pleasure" of experiencing it first hand when I was in game development.
Its a shame really because they've ruined great studios over the years.
EA has not always been garbage, EA did not start out as garbage. EA was a good company in the 80s and 90s, and a decent company until 2008 or so where they started going noticably fast downhill. Sure they managed to kill some great studios by then, but they were publishing really good games (at least mostly) until then.
They started declining so fast in 2008 however that they have not managed to release a single good game since ~2010.
Some of the EA games for the Atari 8bit / c64 were some of the best around. If only they still published the Ultima games...
Quoting: Guest...They started declining so fast in 2008 however that they have not managed to release a single good game since ~2010.Not a fan of the Battlefield games? I like them.
Last edited by Scrumplex on 29 October 2018 at 1:19 pm UTC
rustybroomhandle Oct 29, 2018
appetrosyan Oct 29, 2018
That being said, no origin for Linux, no Linux support in any of their games, and increasing popularity thereof in Indie game development. Maybe they’ll win us over with some original game... that doesn’t skin your wallet.
Quoting: GuestTo be honest I wonder how the company is still standing with so few titles supporting it. It's no wonder they end up burning great studios, they can't afford to keep them, because they're not making enough money, they blame game devs for not making enough money, when the reality is that EA itself is the reason they're not making enough money, they're getting in their own way.Hmm, am I missing some news? Where does EA blame their own developers for financial loss?
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