A nice way to end the week, Stardock have given some more updates on Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation for Linux and they said something rather interesting.
Firstly, Stardock gave an update at the end of December to mention how the game engine is now "compiling under Debian Linux and running via Vulkan" which was quite exciting to hear for those that missed it.
A few hours ago, they continued dishing out more information on Steam and it's sounding quite positive with this post:
I don't want to make any promises but...it's looking more and more like Linux will be arriving this year.
So here are some of the issues we have to deal with:
1. Performance. Vulkan on linux (driver wise) is...not very mature.
2. There are some differences in how memory management works that we're having to step through.
BTW, I want to send a shout out to AMD who helped us with the Vulkan Linux support.
But the good news is that it's compiling at least.
While that's interesting by itself, what they said next was even more interesting. When asked which AMD driver they were testing, they replied with:
No idea. I’ll try to find to find out. I’m a total Linux novice myself.
There is a lot of industry interest in Linux right now as a game platform. I am not at liberty to explain why but Vulkan is a real game changer.
I'm very curious what they mean by the "industry interest", especially since they're not giving out real details on that.
I'm personally excited. I'm a huge RTS fan and I've been itching to play Ashes for along time now. The fact that they're talking more about it and quite openly too is a very good sign.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: NeverthelessQuoting: TheRiddickIf games use vulkan then it kinda makes it real easy to port to Linux/Mac/Switch/PS4++ The only platform I know of atm that has a issue with vulkan is the xbox.... does it support vulkan? pretty sure they blacklisted it!
Guess so! Is Vulkan availlable on PS4 by now?
Xbox and PS4 doesn't support Vulkan.
Quoting: NeverthelessWhy there is a lot industry interest in Linux gaming is a mystery to me, but I would guess it's not our current 0,8% on Steam! ;-)
Streaming? Game consoles could one day be just thin clients with games being streamed from datacenters running Linux.
Nevertheless Jan 6, 2019
Quoting: BrisseQuoting: NeverthelessWhy there is a lot industry interest in Linux gaming is a mystery to me, but I would guess it's not our current 0,8% on Steam! ;-)
Streaming? Game consoles could one day be just thin clients with games being streamed from datacenters running Linux.
Maybe, but I guess it'll take some time until net infrastructure is ready for VR in 4k..
Maybe it's the beginning of more commitment from the gaming industry, that would be really great. My personal theory is that it has something to do with cloud gaming : running game rendering servers on Linux means better integration with Linux stack that are already there, and removes the need to pay for those pesky Microsoft licenses. But that's just a theory at this point.
Also, good to know that the industry is excited about Linux right now. It isn't just us. :)
Nevertheless Jan 6, 2019
Quoting: eldakingI am not very interested in this game in particular (completely opposite style of RTS for me), but Stardock has plenty of strategy games I would love to see on Linux - GalCiv and Fallen Enchantress/Sorcerer King don't run well on Wine.
Also, good to know that the industry is excited about Linux right now. It isn't just us. :)
Yes, but let's rejoice carefully! Google was also excited about Linux when they created Android...
Quoting: GuestQuoting: NeverthelessQuoting: eldakingI am not very interested in this game in particular (completely opposite style of RTS for me), but Stardock has plenty of strategy games I would love to see on Linux - GalCiv and Fallen Enchantress/Sorcerer King don't run well on Wine.
Also, good to know that the industry is excited about Linux right now. It isn't just us. :)
Yes, but let's rejoice carefully! Google was also excited about Linux when they created Android...
I didn't want to dampen enthusiasm either, but if "the industry" was doing something, it wouldn't be super secret. Perhaps Stardock and some they internally talk with are, but that doesn't represent the (gaming, presumably) industry as a whole.
Don't get me wrong, Stardock doing this work is great, but just keep expectations in check. Ultimately, nothing was really said.
If some developers are excited, it is probably due to stuff we already know, or at least stuff we suspect. Vulkan is looking good, Valve is pushing Linux again, this kind of stuff. If there are any "secret plans" (NDA stuff), it probably isn't that big, at least not yet.
QuoteI'm very curious what they mean by the "industry interest", especially since they're not giving out real details on that.
I suspect something like this: https://gpuopen.com/presentation-porting-engine-to-vulkan-dx12/
Quoting: rkfgI'm sad anyway every time an abstraction leaks, in this case the driver/Vulkan abstraction. If you thinkg about it, most of the bad things in our world happen due to some interface not being sufficiently abstract from the implementation.
Vulkan doesn't enforce memory allocation approach for example. And that can have a huge impact on performance. So I wouldn't say it's leaking driver abstraction.
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me