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Jackbox Games emailed in to notify us of something big: they've worked with game porter and FNA developer Ethan "flibitijibibo" Lee to port their engine to Vulkan and SDL2 and you can try it in a Beta for The Jackbox Party Pack 7.

This huge upgrade should make The Jackbox Party Pack 7 (and so hopefully future games too), compatible with Wayland. Jackbox Games mentioned there's now a "linux-beta" branch on Steam for owners to try out:

The new launcher should detect if the Vulkan drivers are installed and run that version otherwise it should fallback on using OpenGL. We currently require 2GB video memory to use the Vulkan renderer, but this is subject to change as we figure out how much we can get away with based on the engine’s memory management. If the PC falls below this it should gracefully fall back to OpenGL.

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They mentioned that it works well in their testing, but they want more configurations and users to jump in to help and see how it runs now. You can comment your findings on this article or file issues on their support tracker which would be ideal for them.

How to test:

  1. Right click on the game on Steam
  2. Go to Properties
  3. Betas on the left panel
  4. Select "linux-beta" from the dropdown and update

Find The Jackbox Party Pack 7 on Steam.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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5 comments

const Apr 21, 2021
Big fan of the packs and it's nice to see that they continue to care.
Actually, it's like I owe those guys for keeping me sane in these times, so I'll just buy it now :)
Ehvis Apr 21, 2021
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I don't really see these games needing the performance that Vulkan could bring. Makes me wonder if their intent might be to go Stadia as well.
const Apr 21, 2021
Quoting: EhvisI don't really see these games needing the performance that Vulkan could bring. Makes me wonder if their intent might be to go Stadia as well.
Well, Vulkan might not be needed, but why not. SDL2 is where I start to care.
Purple Library Guy Apr 21, 2021
Quoting: EhvisI don't really see these games needing the performance that Vulkan could bring. Makes me wonder if their intent might be to go Stadia as well.
I assume it's also about going forward; this is the proof of concept, but it's the engine that got the upgrade. Presumably from now on their games will have Linux almost for free, using up to date tech that won't be getting sidelined any time soon.
const Apr 22, 2021
Quoting: GuestThis is nice, but what their games really need is translations.
Quiplash has an interlashional edition. Me and my friends tried it but just went back to normal Quiplash2 as we found the translation took away on the flair and fun. If someone doesn't understand a question, she/he asks for help. For those games that prompt to write text, we just write german words whenever we are missing the english translation and that doesn't disturb us at all.


Last edited by const on 22 April 2021 at 9:24 am UTC
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