Nightdive have responded to reports of users being unable to play their Wine-bundled Linux build of System Shock 2.
The SteamOS icon to indicate Linux support has been removed from the store page, which hopefully will be temporary. This isn't the usual situation of a developer removing support, since Nightdive have supported Linux quite well with ports. In this case, the game was never actually ported to Linux since Nightdive said themselves they "didn't have the source code for the game".
Speaking about it, they said how they've been aware of the issue for some time now, having spent a lot of time trying to solve it and nothing they've tried has worked. They think it was an update to Steam itself that has caused it, as they've tried older versions and none now seem to work.
At this point, I'm at a loss on what to do. This version of the game was created by a third-party, well known (at the time, we were told) for their excellent WINE ports. We didn't have the source code for the game, so this was the only route we could go in.
A few months ago, we were able to get in contact with somebody who is VERY well versed in porting games to Linux (15+ year experience at this point). I asked them to take a look at the game, and they couldn't work out what the problem was. That also soured things.
They might look into a portable version of Proton and put that up if it's possible. The obvious problem with relying on Steam Play, is they don't get to advertise any Linux support until Valve eventually add Steam Play somehow on store pages.
They said they will try to fix it and they have a few options to explore. It's nice to see them really put effort into it. On that note, user dubigrasu already mentioned a fix they tried still works so perhaps they will look into that too.
See their full post here.
Hat tip to mphuZ.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Userwithaname Nov 2, 2018
Quoting: UserwithanameIs it really worth using a version of Proton that's frozen in time just to get the store to claim that it's built for Linux? It just makes it seem like the game has Linux support when it really doesn't. It's odd that the developers now have to choose between better Proton support and a Linux/SteamOS logo on their store page.Well, it's also about control isn't it and stability. If they get a version that works and works well, then ideally you want that to stick don't you. You don't want random updates to Steam Play to come along and break it a couple times a year.
Userwithaname Nov 2, 2018
Quoting: liamdaweYes, but on the other hand, what if the version of Proton they use becomes incompatible with Steam in the future? Then they will be in the exact same situation.Quoting: UserwithanameIs it really worth using a version of Proton that's frozen in time just to get the store to claim that it's built for Linux? It just makes it seem like the game has Linux support when it really doesn't. It's odd that the developers now have to choose between better Proton support and a Linux/SteamOS logo on their store page.Well, it's also about control isn't it and stability. If they get a version that works and works well, then ideally you want that to stick don't you. You don't want random updates to Steam Play to come along and break it a couple times a year.
Quoting: KayKay91I wonder if they have a source code of the game. Perhaps Icculus would make a native Linux port of it .For System Shock 2 the source code specifically doesn't exist and that's why the Wine port was made. And I think it's a case of _nobody_ having the SS2 source code, nobody apparently kept tabs on it.
Quoting: GuestAbsolutely. I think "Proton" (I _still_ can't not use quotes for that name!) is probably a good target to test against, even for GOG releases, because it is something that Valve will theoretically support, and has less chance of updates and/or changes breaking things. Plus, it is open source, so there's no reason particular release tags can't be downloaded, compiled, and used. Or official wine releases. Or both.
I just quickly tested System Shock 2 with Proton 3.16-3 using my wrapper. It looks like it works but I wouldn't recommend it as it doesn't seem to perform any differently from regular Wine except that you can't change the display gamma if it's too dark/too bright (it does this by changing the system's display gamma settings, but this is not allowed by Proton).
It's good that Proton doesn't allow the display resolution to be changed since that can be a huge PITA but it would be nice if there was some way of configuring it to still allow display gamma changes, as there are a lot of games that need to do this - even some newer games.
Here are my game launch options:
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$HOME/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/SS2/bin LIBGL_DRI3_DISABLE=1 %command%I had to add LD_LIBRARY_PATH due to some missing library. As far I can see, I have two symlinks:
libsteam.so -> $HOME/.steam/ubuntu12_32/libsteam.so
libX11.so.6 -> $HOME/.steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/i386/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libX11.so.6Worth mention: Ubuntu 18.04 with Mesa 18.2.2
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