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.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
Quoting: iiariQuoting: 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)...
Ay more car people :3
But in terms of should this be covered, I think its a waste of time to even argue about it. I think most of us are pretty opinionated and I've seen the same arguments from the same people for forever. I dont think many of us are even open for changing our minds on the matter so lets just let liam cover what he wants and if you dont like it then maybe this isnt the right news site for you.
2 Likes, Who?
Quoting: Purple Library GuyQuoting: 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.
"Mentally lazy"? Fancy way of calling me stupid. And you even used bold text! Hope you didn't hyperventilate too much.
0 Likes
Quoting: mao_dze_dunThere's a difference. Mentally lazy means you could think, but you choose not to bother. It's a moral, not an intellectual failing. Which apparently holds true again in your reply.Quoting: Purple Library GuyQuoting: 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.
"Mentally lazy"? Fancy way of calling me stupid. And you even used bold text! Hope you didn't hyperventilate too much.
6 Likes, Who?
TheRiddick Mar 27, 2019
Some people seem to think by sniffing their own farts and acting all high and mighty by not buying anything that isn't native linux will somehow change the situation for linux gamers...I'm here to tell you, IT WON'T
Until Linux gets a PLAYER BASE of %5-10, the majority of developers will not care. So I say just play what you want, how you want, regardless of native support. If anything that will get us to that %5-10 faster and only THEN will developers start releasing more natives.
Essentially when it comes to Linux, the chicken(player) comes first. Then eventually developers (egg) will come later. No amount of soap box fart sniffing will change that!
Last edited by TheRiddick on 27 March 2019 at 12:51 am UTC
Until Linux gets a PLAYER BASE of %5-10, the majority of developers will not care. So I say just play what you want, how you want, regardless of native support. If anything that will get us to that %5-10 faster and only THEN will developers start releasing more natives.
Essentially when it comes to Linux, the chicken(player) comes first. Then eventually developers (egg) will come later. No amount of soap box fart sniffing will change that!
Last edited by TheRiddick on 27 March 2019 at 12:51 am UTC
5 Likes, Who?
Luke_Nukem Mar 27, 2019
I just purchased this game because of this article.
I purchased this game because the article tells me:
How it runs on Linux doesn't matter one iota, as long as it runs. Yes I will still always prefer an actual native port, but for (many varied) reasons that isn't always possible.
I purchased this game because the article tells me:
- It's good
- It runs on Linux
How it runs on Linux doesn't matter one iota, as long as it runs. Yes I will still always prefer an actual native port, but for (many varied) reasons that isn't always possible.
8 Likes, Who?
I'm glad this was posted because my Windows gaming buddy just talked about No Man's Sky a couple of days ago and mentioned how much it has changed, and that it was fun now. He also said that there was decent cooperative play as well. That made me think, "Huh, I wonder if that runs in Wine or Proton... probably not." And I never checked. It's nice to hear that it does indeed work in Proton. I am still preferring GoG + Wine for the very few Windows titles I play, but it's nice to know there's an easy Steam option.
Will I pick it up? Well, probably not soon. My buddy and I are already trying to complete Dungeons 3 and Torchlight II before we get Division 2 on PS4. After that, perhaps.
Will I pick it up? Well, probably not soon. My buddy and I are already trying to complete Dungeons 3 and Torchlight II before we get Division 2 on PS4. After that, perhaps.
1 Likes, Who?
Be warned that for co-op you need to be on the same platform, where GOG and Steam are a different platform.
I hope they change this with the announced online variant.
I hope they change this with the announced online variant.
4 Likes, Who?
Quoting: Purple Library GuyThere's a difference. Mentally lazy means you could think, but you choose not to bother. It's a moral, not an intellectual failing. Which apparently holds true again in your reply.
Somebody get the fire extinguisher - I've been torched by all these sick burns *sarcasm*. I'd rather I end this before it gets personal and Liam has to intervene. Good day to you.
3 Likes, Who?
Quoting: TheRiddickSome people seem to think by sniffing their own farts and acting all high and mighty by not buying anything that isn't native linux will somehow change the situation for linux gamers...I'm here to tell you, IT WON'TYou have a smidgen of the truth here but you are making false deductions from it.
Until Linux gets a PLAYER BASE of %5-10, the majority of developers will not care. So I say just play what you want, how you want, regardless of native support. If anything that will get us to that %5-10 faster and only THEN will developers start releasing more natives.
Essentially when it comes to Linux, the chicken(player) comes first. Then eventually developers (egg) will come later. No amount of soap box fart sniffing will change that!
Yes, Linux needs a player base of 5-10% to get the majority of developers to care about developing for it. Yes, that means Proton is very important. Ideally, Proton should develop quickly and robustly to the point where most games Just Work on Linux, so that it is easy and painless for Windows (and Mac) users to switch over.
So it's reasonable that those switchers, if they start to materialize, should use Proton.
But that does not mean that it's tactically ideal for people who already use Linux and care about it to use Proton. All else being equal, a native game is better than a Proton game; we're trying to get to a place where all new games are made natively for Linux. To get there, people releasing native games have to find some advantage in doing so. Currently, the impact of existing Linux gamers wanting native games is not huge, but it is there--we do after all see a fair number of games released for Linux at the moment. If there were no Linux gamers buying native games, there would be no native games.
If everyone currently on Linux stopped preferring native games and just played Proton stuff, that wouldn't drive any increase in Linux desktop use--these are people who already use Linux. But it would remove any incentive to release native games.
Now it's a marginal effect, and of course it's quite important that Proton sales do count as Linux sales. I don't think it's terrible for people to use Proton, and at some point I will probably find a reason to myself. Maybe when I get a better computer. And it's good that some existing Linux people use Proton if only to get it properly tested and help drive improvement. But there's no reason to make stupid fart jokes about people who don't want to use it; no, their position is not irrelevant, you're just making a category error in imagining that existing users using Proton more will somehow drive new user adoption. The ideal for the future of Linux gaming is probably a strong but not absolute preference for native games, so there's still a reason for native releases but people are helping Proton improve.
5 Likes, Who?
Quoting: johndoeI love posts about SteamPlay!I would never give up my compute power. IMO that's just maddness.
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.
0 Likes
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me