A big day for the FNA project, as they've released a massive new release which pulls in FNA3D, the new modern and much more advanced 3D graphics library for FNA.
Refresher: FNA is a reimplementation of the Microsoft XNA Game Studio 4.0 Refresh libraries. It's primarily developed by Ethan Lee, who has ported a ton of games to Linux and macOS. FNA can bring games to tons of platforms and you can see a big list here. Some notable titles include: Celeste, Dust: An Elysian Tail, Bastion, FEZ, Owlboy and so on.
FNA 20.09 is a major release thanks to FNA3D, which replaces IGLDevice as the new graphics library for FNA. Thanks to that, the graphics API support now available with FNA includes:
- Direct3D 11 is now supported and is the default for Windows/Xbox
- Vulkan is now available as an experimental backend
- Metal is now the default for Apple platforms
- ModernGL and ThreadedGL have been removed
- THREADED_GL and DISABLE_THREADING have been removed
- MojoShader is now statically linked directly into FNA3D
- SDL2_image has been replaced with FNA3D_Image, which is built into FNA3D
This release also adds experimental support for WebAssembly via Emscripten and mono-wasm, and upgrades FAudio (the accuracy-focused XAudio reimplementation for open platforms) to the 20.09 release too.
Speaking about the release, developer Ethan Lee said, "Here it is, the official release of FNA3D! We now use native code not just for our platform layer and audio subsystem, but our graphics subsystem as well. In addition to providing a substantial performance improvement all around, it also adds numerous features including D3D11, Metal-by-default, built-in image I/O, and even a Vulkan beta! This is probably the biggest release since the FAudio rewrite, but not to worry: FNA3D has been extensively tested over the past 6 months, with several games on several platforms already using it in public builds today.".
Find out more about FNA on the official site, you can also sponsor Ethan Lee on GitHub.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Sure sounds good though!
I'm a bit confused, is this helping for translation layers or for developers to natively port their original game or both ?It's tech used for building games, that supports Linux on top of many other platforms. There is a big list linked in the article.
Sure sounds good though!
He did have a Patreon, a while back. I can't find evidence of it now, but I think he removed it during the 2017 Patreon controversy, where Patreon tried to move service fees to patrons, causing them to remove millions of $1 pledges. Not sure.
Nice that github is absorbing all the payment fees, I suppose, but it's still MS-owned, so not something I want to support. And at the end of the day, an extra 14% or so of zero is still zero. I'd love to show some support though, so it's a shame.
The whole thing brings to mind EGS vs Steam. Sure, EGS will take less of a cut, so it feels like a win, but contributors are already comfortable on Steam and even putting aside comfort/laziness, there's still the moral aspect of "do I want to have anything to do with EGS and their anti-consumer bullshit".
I guess sort of the way many game engines support multiple platforms, except it does somewhat different stuff than an engine.I'm a bit confused, is this helping for translation layers or for developers to natively port their original game or both ?It's tech used for building games, that supports Linux on top of many other platforms. There is a big list linked in the article.
Sure sounds good though!
Perkeleen_Vittupää Sep 3, 2020
I hate to be "that guy", but I'm not creating a github account just to sponsor Ethan. As much as I'm not a fan of Patreon, the fact that they're not owned by Microsoft is a huge plus for me. I'm sponsoring GOL, Icculus and Godot on Patreon, along with a couple of smaller indie devs, so it's a real shame I can't sponsor Ethan too, considering the huge impact he's had on my gaming (I owe him for Salt & Sanctuary, in particular!)
He did have a Patreon, a while back. I can't find evidence of it now, but I think he removed it during the 2017 Patreon controversy, where Patreon tried to move service fees to patrons, causing them to remove millions of $1 pledges. Not sure.
Nice that github is absorbing all the payment fees, I suppose, but it's still MS-owned, so not something I want to support. And at the end of the day, an extra 14% or so of zero is still zero. I'd love to show some support though, so it's a shame.
The whole thing brings to mind EGS vs Steam. Sure, EGS will take less of a cut, so it feels like a win, but contributors are already comfortable on Steam and even putting aside comfort/laziness, there's still the moral aspect of "do I want to have anything to do with EGS and their anti-consumer bullshit".
This! A hundred times. And no merch either to support as a one off :/
Please, Ethan if you're checking this thread: ppl want to support you more but the options are too limited. I don't have a GitHub account either and never will for the above mentioned reasons.
Patreon
PayPal
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