No Man's Sky from Hello Games had a pretty iffy launch, with many not happy with it but Hello Games stuck at it and continued expanding it. They’ve announced more huge free updates coming and it works very well on Linux with Steam Play.
Screenshots of it on Ubuntu 18.10, click to enlarge:
Sadly, OBS Studio dropped the performance too much for me to record any decent amount of it.
The first-load was a little long, as the game was making a shader cache but subsequent loads were fine. I was honestly surprised at just how smooth it was. By default it locked it to 30FPS which didn’t look or feel good, a quick in-game option change there and it’s beautiful. To be clear though, it does have a few random drops when new areas are loading in, which a lot of games both native and Steam Play often have issues with.
After exploring for a few hours, I might be a little bit in love as a huge space-nerd. So much to do, so much to see and every single planet you visit looks and feels very different to the one before it's absolutely magical.
As for what they’ve said is coming next, it’s called No Man’s Sky: Beyond which will be arriving sometime this Summer. A free update, just like the previous upgrades were and it’s going to include what they’re calling No Man’s Sky Online. This new online update will have “a radical new social and multiplayer experience” which sounds pretty fancy.
Additionally, a second part of the Beyond update is No Man’s Sky Virtual Reality and it’s not an additional mode, Hello Games said it’s just going to be part of the game. Considering other VR games work in Steam Play, those who can afford the pricey hardware will probably have a good time.
A third major feature is coming to the Beyond update, which they haven’t detailed yet.
It’s working so well on Linux thanks to Steam Play, with a one-click install procedure and no other special adjustments needed it’s quite impressive! I will take another look when these big updates arrive, to let you know if the situation with Steam Play changes at all.
It’s also 50% off on Steam right now, good time to pick it up.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Quoting: PatolaI don't understand all the fuss. When we buy a Windows game that plays through proton, we pay valve, we contribute to proton development and it even shows as a Linux sale to the developer, supposedly helping leverage linux gaming mindset. Why are people complaining? I thought we already established that we are an almost meaningless minority in the gaming universe, and proton seems the best way to increase our importance -- voting with our wallets, and at the same time making developers notice linux.In my opinion voting for Linux with your wallet through proton is kinda like sending mixed messages. "I'm here give me games" but also "I'll take non-native games so don't bother porting."
Having said that, X4: Foundations is still superior to No Man's Sky... (I know, I know, like comparing apples to oranges) Being that Liam is a space games fan, I wonder why I feel him not too enthusiastic when speaking about X4. Or am I the one who's overly enthusiastic? :P
Note: if Liam implemented a filtering system, I would definitely skip articles with "retro" or "pixel art"...
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Just to add my $0.02 to what others (including Liam) have posted with which I agree, No Man's Sky is one of those "big" titles (along with things like Witcher 3, the GTA series, etc) that people wanted to make sure ran on Proton in the beginning. I think it for a while was in the top tier of ProtonDB reporting numbers, so the interest is there. For those people who say, "I wouldn't consider Linux for gaming unless [fill in the blank] runs," NMS is probably one of those big titles and, happily, it does, and I see nothing wrong with highlighting that...
BTW: Now that things like Elite Dangerous, EA Battlefront, and Star Citizen can run on Linux, I was racking my brain thinking of what titles I'd even put on my wishlist anymore that *can't* be made to run on Linux. The only one I could think of was Planetside 2... Quite terrific progress has been made...
Last edited by iiari on 26 March 2019 at 6:39 pm UTC
BTW: Now that things like Elite Dangerous, EA Battlefront, and Star Citizen can run on Linux, I was racking my brain thinking of what titles I'd even put on my wishlist anymore that *can't* be made to run on Linux. The only one I could think of was Planetside 2... Quite terrific progress has been made...
Last edited by iiari on 26 March 2019 at 6:39 pm UTC
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Quoting: PatolaHaving said that, X4: Foundations is still superior to No Man's Sky... (I know, I know, like comparing apples to oranges) Being that Liam is a space games fan, I wonder why I feel him not too enthusiastic when speaking about X4. Or am I the one who's overly enthusiastic? :PHonestly, they really are completely different.
Quoting: PatolaNote: if Liam implemented a filtering system, I would definitely skip articles with "retro" or "pixel art"...You will soon be able to do so.
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Quoting: PatolaNote: if Liam implemented a filtering system, I would definitely skip articles with "retro" or "pixel art"...Haha, now that's one filter I'd use too! I'd rather 100 emulator/Proton posts than a single pixel art article :) :P To each their own...
It reminds me of a trend in auto fandom online. There's a car aftermarket trade show called SEMA and many of the vehicles displayed run towards the, ah, garish. Each year, all the major car blogs, websites, etc dutifully cover the many SEMA intros, and for a solid 4-6 days we're all inundated by photo after photo and article after article about these garish SEMA creations. It's soul killing. I'd estimate a solid 60% of car readers just check-out for that SEMA week and come back later, and there's always a big argument on site forums about whether these sites should cover SEMA at all, with passionate pro and con debaters every year...
I guess Proton is our SEMA (or maybe it's pixel art)...
Last edited by iiari on 26 March 2019 at 7:28 pm UTC
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Quoting: GuestQuoting: ScooptaIn my opinion voting for Linux with your wallet through proton is kinda like sending mixed messages. "I'm here give me games" but also "I'll take non-native games so don't bother porting."
It's voting against Linux support, really, because you're showing them that you're on Linux but will pay them regardless for a Windows game and regardless of the fact they aren't supporting Linux, like you said.
Paying for Proton games directly hurts you by not giving you support like normal gamers get, and it sends the exact wrong message and discourages future Linux support because you're decreasing the number of gamers willing to pay for Linux support by paying for Windows support instead.
May be in the short term, but think in the long term. If gaming on Linux wants to go anywhere it needs visible market share. You may say what you want about the Steam statistics and its flaws, but I think it holds more truth than one might think. The position of the bigger studios towards Linux may start to change only when we reach ~ 5% or more. How do you get there? By offering simple solutions that allows people to take your favorite (present and future) games with you from Windows to Linux. Proton is that tool in my opinion (*). Purchases for Proton finances the Steam Play tooling and tells developers that Linux should be worth a consideration in the future, even if they don't consider it now.
I don't mind how I play a game on Linux, but I want to be certain that my money is seen as money from a Linux user.
* I still think that Proton users are also the beta testers for Valves upcoming streaming platform, which is absolutely fine for me, win-win for both. I could be very wrong though ;).
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Quoting: jens* I still think that Proton users are also the beta testers for Valves upcoming streaming platform, which is absolutely fine for me, win-win for both. I could be very wrong though ;).I think (more like hope?) that you're right as well. A Stadia like streaming service that also happens to include your entire existing library is super appealing to me...
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Quoting: mao_dze_dunIf we let the purists have their way, Linux would have no GUI. Nobody is forcing you to play Windows games on Linux. I believe in the utilitarian approach - if it works then it's good. Liam should probably add some filter on the home page, so the "no tux, no bucks crowd" can only read about native games and then all will be happy. For too long the Linux community has been held back by having to cater to OS hardliners and their politics. The more Linux can do - the better.OK, I have no problem with the article, but this is just nonsense. It's intentional nonsense actually--the writer is clearly trying to conflate two groups (people who like command lines and FLOSS people) in order to smear one of them. So, what Aristotle would call false rhetoric, a sophist trick, and what moderns would call dishonest bullshit.
In any case the truth is pretty much the opposite--had there been some way to just emulate the Windows desktop, and the anti-purists had their way, Linux would have no GUI of its own. And then every time Windows changed its GUI, the Linux one would have broken. And then Windows would have regularly made little changes to its GUI that were just enough to fuck us over. It would have been oh so pragmatic.
There is actual practicality in the world, but when people parade their practicality or pragmatism as against ideology or politics, they are generally being neither practical nor pragmatic. Nearly everything that is practically good about Linux is a result of the politics behind Linux--Free, open source, indeed copylefted software and its philosophy. If it were not for that, Linux would phone home, and/or it would be a walled garden, and/or it would get warped to work with only the maker's hardware, and/or it would spy on you, and/or it would come with masses of preinstalled spyware, nagware and general annoyingware, et cetera et cetera. It wouldn't be adaptable or fixable or have spawned the Beowulf cluster or run on Raspberri Pis. Proprietary Linux would not be Linux and would not be nearly as practically, pragmatically useful. That's why all the proprietary Unixes died.
It is foolish and impractical to forget the practical importance of the politics underlying Linux. That's how you lose what we have. So-called pragmatists of this sort are not being pragmatic, just too mentally lazy to think about the implications of their stance, so they go with what's easiest today.
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 26 March 2019 at 8:14 pm UTC
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grumpytoad Mar 26, 2019
Quoting: LinasI understand the importance of Steam Play and Proton, but is this really Linux gaming newsworthy? I personally don't think so, but I'd like to hear other options.
I must admit that was one of the first things I thought when seeing the title. I spend most of my gaming time through wine, but I don't think proton-enabled games should be promoted unless they've been whitelisted by steam, or they've made contributions to the wine codebase, or perhaps comparisons/bug fixes between the proton and native versions.
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I love posts about SteamPlay!
Because there was no single title over 6 months released on Linux I had interest.
I also think that googles Stadia will be successfull - they have the money, the resources and manpower. Valve will get hard times soon.
Should google be successful NO one will need a gaming rig anymore... you simply buy a cool and big TV and their "Stadia" client comes preinstalled!!!
This is the future and as long as I KNOW that all this runs on Linux (and Debian) makes me feel happy/comfortable.
These are my 5 cents.
Last edited by johndoe on 26 March 2019 at 8:29 pm UTC
Because there was no single title over 6 months released on Linux I had interest.
I also think that googles Stadia will be successfull - they have the money, the resources and manpower. Valve will get hard times soon.
Should google be successful NO one will need a gaming rig anymore... you simply buy a cool and big TV and their "Stadia" client comes preinstalled!!!
This is the future and as long as I KNOW that all this runs on Linux (and Debian) makes me feel happy/comfortable.
These are my 5 cents.
Last edited by johndoe on 26 March 2019 at 8:29 pm UTC
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Quoting: GuestThat thought completely ignores the fact that you only pay for the game if it works on Linux.Quoting: ScooptaIn my opinion voting for Linux with your wallet through proton is kinda like sending mixed messages. "I'm here give me games" but also "I'll take non-native games so don't bother porting."
It's voting against Linux support, really, because you're showing them that you're on Linux but will pay them regardless for a Windows game and regardless of the fact they aren't supporting Linux, like you said.
Nobody would pay for a Windows-only game planning to play it via Steam Play if it doesn't run via Proton. Or they do, notice that it won't run and refund - no money lost in that case.
Either way will show both Valve and the developer that their game is being used (or at least tried) on Linux. Which is an infinite amount more than what would have happened without Wine (or rather Proton), in which case the dev never would have known Linux even existed.
It also ignores that the ONLY way for Linux market share growth (within gaming) is supporting as many titles as possible. And for a user thinking about using Linux for a change, and most already using Linux, it doesn't matter in the end HOW that happens (which is why services like Stadia are an interesting take as well).
Natively, this will simply never happen. There will be the odd natively developed game, as it has always been, and that's cool, but that has never lifted the Linux percentage by any significant amount.
In the end, all that matters is that you get to play the game. Convenience wins, usually.
I'm certain we'll see (hopefully before 2030 in Valve time...) some statistics by Valve showing what effect Steam Play had.
I do not see a single possible negative outcome of it. Even if it resulted in fewer native games, the number would be offset incredibly by the amount supported via Steam Play. The whitelisted games alone would probably already have that effect.
Quoting: GuestPaying for Proton games directly hurts you by not giving you support like normal gamers get, and it sends the exact wrong message and discourages future Linux support because you're decreasing the number of gamers willing to pay for Linux support by paying for Windows support instead.That is incredibly theoretical to the point of irrelevance.
What support are you talking about? The vast majority of bugs are game logic related or appear on other platforms as well. The other kind of bugs will give the ProtonDB rating a lower score so only very few people are going to "fall for it" anyway.
Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 26 March 2019 at 8:32 pm UTC
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