Beyond a Steel Sky, the recent big release from Revolution Software that acts as a sequel to the classic point and click adventure Beneath a Steel Sky has a most needed patch.
While an interesting and quite fun game to explore overall, the initial release was, uh—rough. On all sides, not just for Linux and there's been lots of reports about big bugs (some game breaking too). Thankfully, Revolution pushed through to support it and a first major update is out now.
On the Linux side the game should now use the correct GPU if you have a hybrid NVIDIA/Intel device and there's OpenGL support for those that need it. Looking at their launch script, it appears to default to OpenGL for NVIDIA and Intel but Vulkan for AMD. You can switch between using "-opengl" and "-vulkan" as a Steam launch option. On top of that there's "improved" transitions and cut-scenes which should fix some crashes. Speaking about the Linux updates, Revolution said:
Joost (who is so integral to Revolution, he doesn’t have a coherent title) and his old friend from his ScummVM days, TMM have teamed up and brought you these fixes thanks to the thorough feedback we’ve received from all of you!
Wonderful to see Linux dedication there!
Most importantly though, the game-breaking issue for all versions (Windows / Linux) where a certain robot was seemingly fixed to the ground preventing some saved games from continuing has been solved. I've gone back to an older save to verify and yup—works fine now.
They also confirmed Steam Achievements are coming and they're continuing to go over bugs as they come in. They plan to continue supporting it for some time.
You can buy Beyond a Steel Sky on Steam where it's discounted until July 30.
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18 comments
After the patch, the game launches in OpenGL by default for me with very poor performance and have to pass -vulkan manually. Also still caps at 60 fps despite changing the settings.
0 Likes
The game doesn't allow for a change of keyboard controls.
I happen to not live in a place on this world where QWERTY is the standard...
It has potential, I'm sure, but it needs fixing.
I happen to not live in a place on this world where QWERTY is the standard...
It has potential, I'm sure, but it needs fixing.
2 Likes, Who?
Why all of the Unreal Engine 4 games look the same!? (Is it ue4 right?)
Even Unity ones, but to a less extent.
The Wow effect is going down.
Even Unity ones, but to a less extent.
The Wow effect is going down.
0 Likes
Any news on GOG release, and how can I contact the authors about it?
0 Likes
Perkeleen_Vittupää Jul 23, 2020
Nice, now the game at least finally launches.
0 Likes
After the patch, the game launches in OpenGL by default for me with very poor performance and have to pass -vulkan manually. Also still caps at 60 fps despite changing the settings.
Hey! I'm the TMM mentioned in the post. :) I'm sorry you're getting issues with the new launcher, there are some reasons for it though! Would you mind telling me a little more about your setup and what the performance is on GL and on Vulkan for you?
Thanks!
4 Likes, Who?
Any news on GOG release, and how can I contact the authors about it?
Try here: https://discord.gg/BVyPG6
0 Likes
After the patch, the game launches in OpenGL by default for me with very poor performance and have to pass -vulkan manually. Also still caps at 60 fps despite changing the settings.
Hey! I'm the TMM mentioned in the post. :) I'm sorry you're getting issues with the new launcher, there are some reasons for it though! Would you mind telling me a little more about your setup and what the performance is on GL and on Vulkan for you?
Thanks!
Sure! I admit I'm holding off playing this at least until achievs so I'm nowhere into the actual game yet and might not be the best help. I stopped right at the beginning after reaching the city when I noticed the performance and am grabbing numbers from there.
As for my system,
i7-4790K
1080ti driver ver. 440.100
Gnome 3.36/X11 session
1440p@144hz
Fedora 32
In game video settings, all maxed, frame rate limit off. No difference between fullscreen and borderless modes that I saw.
If I run it in Vulkan, it will lock at 60FPS despite turning off any limiter. I disabled Mangohud as well to see if that was limiting it (though not set to and does not do so in any other game) and it is still locked. It seems to mostly sit there with a few quick dips to the high 50s
OpenGL is unlocked and looking at the ground I can sometimes see it go over 60FPS (opening scene/area), but otherwise it is in the 20s/30s.
For both, the cursor in the menus is slightly choppy/slow. Shadows are often a glitched mess despite the setting.
If I can be of any help please feel free to reach out for more.
4 Likes, Who?
After the patch, the game launches in OpenGL by default for me with very poor performance and have to pass -vulkan manually. Also still caps at 60 fps despite changing the settings.
Hey! I'm the TMM mentioned in the post. :) I'm sorry you're getting issues with the new launcher, there are some reasons for it though! Would you mind telling me a little more about your setup and what the performance is on GL and on Vulkan for you?
Thanks!
Sure! I admit I'm holding off playing this at least until achievs so I'm nowhere into the actual game yet and might not be the best help. I stopped right at the beginning after reaching the city when I noticed the performance and am grabbing numbers from there.
As for my system,
i7-4790K
1080ti driver ver. 440.100
Gnome 3.36/X11 session
1440p@144hz
Fedora 32
In game video settings, all maxed, frame rate limit off. No difference between fullscreen and borderless modes that I saw.
If I run it in Vulkan, it will lock at 60FPS despite turning off any limiter. I disabled Mangohud as well to see if that was limiting it (though not set to and does not do so in any other game) and it is still locked. It seems to mostly sit there with a few quick dips to the high 50s
OpenGL is unlocked and looking at the ground I can sometimes see it go over 60FPS (opening scene/area), but otherwise it is in the 20s/30s.
For both, the cursor in the menus is slightly choppy/slow. Shadows are often a glitched mess despite the setting.
If I can be of any help please feel free to reach out for more.
Thanks! Is there any chance you could test with Nvidia driver version 450.57 (the current latest one) with GL? We haven't seen such a large performance delta on our test machines but we have seen random crashes and some minor display corruption on the vulkan drivers.
Thanks a lot!
0 Likes
Thanks! Is there any chance you could test with Nvidia driver version 450.57 (the current latest one) with GL? We haven't seen such a large performance delta on our test machines but we have seen random crashes and some minor display corruption on the vulkan drivers.
Thanks a lot!
Sure, just tried that. For OpenGL it bumped up by about 10 FPS, so in the 30-40s in the city entrance. With both that and Vulkan, I am no longer seeing the corrupted shadows on the ground. I can't tell if Vulkan performance changed since it's still capped at 60 for some reason.
0 Likes
Thanks! Is there any chance you could test with Nvidia driver version 450.57 (the current latest one) with GL? We haven't seen such a large performance delta on our test machines but we have seen random crashes and some minor display corruption on the vulkan drivers.
Thanks a lot!
Sure, just tried that. For OpenGL it bumped up by about 10 FPS, so in the 30-40s in the city entrance. With both that and Vulkan, I am no longer seeing the corrupted shadows on the ground. I can't tell if Vulkan performance changed since it's still capped at 60 for some reason.
Thanks a lot! That delta is still prettyl bad but because of issues with the vulkan drivers on older Nvidia hardware we may leave it like this. 30-40 fps for this game seems at least acceptable. Correctness for everyone with an option to switch to vulkan for people with the skills to do it seems acceptable to me. UE4's Linux support leaves something to be desired it turns out... :-/
Last edited by TMM on 24 July 2020 at 10:02 am UTC
3 Likes, Who?
UE4's Linux support leaves something to be desired it turns out... :-/
That's what I was afraid of really. Any idea about the framerate cap under Vulkan? That's honestly my biggest headache as I prefer to bump some settings down and have that higher.
0 Likes
UE4's Linux support leaves something to be desired it turns out... :-/
That's what I was afraid of really. Any idea about the framerate cap under Vulkan? That's honestly my biggest headache as I prefer to bump some settings down and have that higher.
I'll check it on my 5700XT, it should be able to do 60+fps. I'll get back to you!
1 Likes, Who?
Any news on GOG release, and how can I contact the authors about it?
*edit* Sorry, Windows only at the moment.
Now on GOG, too:
https://www.gog.com/game/beyond_a_steel_sky
Last edited by Eike on 19 March 2021 at 5:16 pm UTC
2 Likes, Who?
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