We've known for a while that the massive and popular RPG Path of Exile was going to get a Vulkan API implementation and they would have liked to do Linux support, seems like they're continuing that line of thinking.
In a new interview done by YouTuber Zizaran, they were testing out some upcoming content and changes coming with the recently announced Path of Exile 2. While doing this they were joined by Chris Wilson from Path of Exile developer Grinding Gear Games to answer some questions.
When talking about their plans, Wilson mentioned: "We realised that if we did a port to Vulkan, which is a renderer that is used on phones and various other stuff, we get Mac support, we get Linux support, we get support for things like Google Stadia and so on - it was just worthwhile to do a Vulkan port. So we started that, because it's going to be good for Path of Exile players.".
If you're interested, you can see the full video below with the Linux mention starting around 6:40.
Direct Link
It's really great to see that Grinding Gear Games continue keeping a port to Linux in mind, while it's not confirmation it's clear they are thinking about it and porting their game to Vulkan makes that possibility a lot closer to reality.
With Path of Exile 2 due out late next year, we should hopefully hear more closer to then. You can find out more about Path of Exile 2 here.
Hat tip to NuSuey.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
MekaDragon Nov 19, 2019
Quoting: KohriasNice! It is the best ARPG out there at the moment.
Couldn't say it better myself!
Can't wait to see PoE 2 working over Vulkan!
It was fun when I started playing it, don't get me wrong, but I'm so glad I stopped, and I don't miss it at all.
All that said, it's of course good if they support the game natively on Linux. It was a huge pain to get it running half-decently -- until DXVK turned up.
"Oh we can't actually support that platform without reworking X that could've easily been avoided if we considered all targets from the start, yeah, that ain't happening just for that sliver of customers"
Actually, play it on its current build suffers from many stutters and crashs.
Quoting: Beamboom... But will they get Mac support? I thought they did not use vulkan but something else they made themselves? I thought that was the entire problem with Mac and gaming nowadays?
They probably mean translation, which is good enough for most developers who aren't interested in wasting resources on Apple lock-in.
Last edited by Shmerl on 19 November 2019 at 3:59 pm UTC
Quoting: Beamboom... But will they get Mac support? I thought they did not use vulkan but something else they made themselves? I thought that was the entire problem with Mac and gaming nowadays?
You are right that Apple developed their own graphics API called Metal. But Valve bought and open-sourced a Vulkan-to-Metal translation-layer-sorts-of-thingy. So that developers would be incentivized much more to support Vulkan (and Linux). And it seems this has worked.
Projectile Vomit Nov 19, 2019
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