After a long wait, Psychonauts 2 has an official Linux version now

Yay!

It would be interesting to see some comparison benchmarks, proton versus native, for this.

As for the debug suggestions... I mean it's what I would do anyway, I guess. Still, it's a bit like buying a lawn mower, reading the manual and finding the suggestion to "kick it really hard" if it won't work.

The troubleshooting bit worries me... it sounds like they didn't try very hard at this port. Hopefully not a bum one that went out the door because of a technicality.

(Or a secret Microsoft plot after the buyout, insert Dr Evil gif)

ETA: Fears unfounded, despite those odd sounding notes the game runs great.


Last edited by Raaben on 25 May 2022 at 11:04 am UTC

Nice to see a native build arrive, but I think I'll wait for the price to drop a little!

Excellent, though that advice is weird.

I actually missed the Psychonauts train back in the day and never played the original until earlier this year, and then went on to play 2 via Proton. IMO it improves on practically every aspect of the original. I'd definitely highly recommend it. Though I do wonder how it would work for someone who's never played the original -- I suspect it might be weird in some unintended ways, instead of just the intentional weirdness.

Perfect, I have the day off tomorrow :-) Really really loved the first one.

Hope it works, my patience for debugging is very low.

Yes!

"The game may crash at launch or when attempting to alter Display settings such as Window Mode. Please try the following troubleshooting solutions:"

"Try our exciting new mini-game exclusive to the Linux port!"

Of course they didn't try very hard with this port. It's not even a proper GNU+Linux native version, it's the Windows version running in a wrapper iirc. And they're asking for £55 too!

Do they just distribute the game with a version of WINE/proton, or did they come up with their own wrapper (like Virtual Programming did)?

They game does seem really interesting and I also have the first game, but for this price I'd rather wait till there are videos and reports online showing how well it runs (I don't want to repeat what happened with the Witcher 2 where it took months before the port was really playable).

The troubleshooting bit worries me... it sounds like they didn't try very hard at this port. Hopefully not a bum one that went out the door because of a technicality.

(Or a secret Microsoft plot after the buyout, insert Dr Evil gif)

Of course they didn't try very hard with this port. It's not even a proper GNU+Linux native version, it's the Windows version running in a wrapper iirc. And they're asking for £55 too!

This is simply another studio doing the bare minimum possible to appease the minority of us GNU+Linux gamers.

Maybe we ought to rekindle the "no Tux = no bux" campaign and demand fully native games coded with fully native tools on computers actually running GNU+Linux?

Yes... 59.99€, it's too expensive. For this price it needs a real native version and with a proper box with manual and extras.
I like the first game, but I won't pay more than 20€ for this one.

I doubt that they are using proton or such. They are using unreal engine, which can export to Linux, right

Of course they didn't try very hard with this port. It's not even a proper GNU+Linux native version, it's the Windows version running in a wrapper iirc. And they're asking for £55 too!

Do they just distribute the game with a version of WINE/proton, or did they come up with their own wrapper (like Virtual Programming did)?

They game does seem really interesting and I also have the first game, but for this price I'd rather wait till there are videos and reports online showing how well it runs (I don't want to repeat what happened with the Witcher 2 where it took months before the port was really playable).

It was on sale on humble bundle store a couple of days ago, I got it. It runs smoothly, I just have problems if running gamescope or mangohud, so i wonder how it would work on steam deck

For what it's worth, the game via Proton yields better performance than the native version. On my system (full AMD), with the latest mesa-dev drivers and in-game FPS limiter set to 144, the native version performs between 50-70fps as opposed to Proton which hits 144fps consistently.

Another note to share: For those with dual GPU systems (i.e iGPU+dGPU), you must use the DRI_PRIME command in Steam even if you've configured the dGPU as the primary GPU in your desktop session. This is the first title I've come across that ignores that configuration and requires the DRI_PRIME command.


Last edited by r2rX on 25 May 2022 at 8:02 am UTC

For what it's worth, the game via Proton yields better performance than the native version. On my system (full AMD), with the latest mesa-dev drivers and in-game FPS limiter set to 144, the native version performs between 50-70fps as opposed to Proton which hits 144fps consistently.

Another note to share: For those with dual GPU systems (i.e iGPU+dGPU), you must use the DRI_PRIME command in Steam even if you've configured the dGPU as the primary GPU in your desktop session. This is the first title I've come across that ignores that configuration and requires the DRI_PRIME command.

50-70 fps against 144fps? Damn ... Now that sounds very bad

lol - okieeeessss... Reading that "troubleshooting" I sense the smell of yet another poor "port".
They should rather just say, "if it doesn't work then run it under Proton".


But I don't blame them. This is the reality in this. Until we have a *significantly* higher market share, these are the level of the "ports" we should expect. Those who are so against Proton and insist on "native or nothing" - this is the reality you advocate for.


Last edited by Beamboom on 25 May 2022 at 8:55 am UTC

50-70 fps against 144fps? Damn ... Now that sounds very bad

It seems that the games VSYNC implementation needs some work. After disabling it, the game is running at 144fps consistently. I tested it on and off while the game was running on the iGPU but missed trying to disable it once running on the dGPU.

Granted, this is on a Wayland session with Adaptive Sync enabled. If necessary, a third-party frame-limiter could be used to curb the max fps while the in-game VSYNC is disabled, assuming the in-game limiter doesn't work.

So, trying this on an RTX 3060 laptop. FPS limit set to "unlimited", yet I only had 55-60 fps with 35% GPU usage.
Then I disabled V-sync and it's now at 170 FPS. I have a 144Hz monitor so I guess V-sync got the wrong impression about how many FPS it should push out. Ultimately went from "meh port" to "ok, this runs good".

Thanks for testing it out (and inspiring me to check). So until a patch is released for the game, the native version should have VSYNC disabled for best performance.


Last edited by r2rX on 25 May 2022 at 9:59 am UTC

Haven't had a chance to play it yet, but from the files which have downloaded already, this is not a wrapper based port, it's a fully native one, based on Unreal Engine 4's Linux version.

For example:
Psychonauts2/Binaries/Linux> file Psychonauts2-Linux-Shipping                                                           
Psychonauts2-Linux-Shipping: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, for GNU/Linux 3.10.93, BuildID[xxHash]=74554fa8dbb34852, stripped

(Further poking around in the files confirms this isn't based on any kind of wrapper: it links to a bunch of native Linux middleware, has Linux, OpenGL, and Vulkan backends to all the various UE4 systems (like the RHI). This is very much the real deal.)

And there's no evidence yet that this is a 'lazy' port of any kind: I suspect that the issues mentioned are things which came up once or twice in testing, and are as likely to be caused by some weird DE bug as they are with the game. The mere fact that they're being mentioned shows that at least the game got some testing, which is more than can be said of nearly anything with Proton.

And there's no evidence yet that this is a 'lazy' port of any kind

I'm glad my first impression was wrong and I take it back. Aside from that mentioned vsync performance issue, it sounds like a good performer and a good effort overall. That's a relief :)

And there's no evidence yet that this is a 'lazy' port of any kind

I'm glad my first impression was wrong and I take it back. Aside from that mentioned vsync performance issue, it sounds like a good performer and a good effort overall. That's a relief :)

But then, "The game may crash at launch" didn't make too optimistic...

I went ahead and grabbed it and yes, vsync option disabled, it runs amazingly well. Seems like a great port, but I didn't play more than a few minutes in since I still need to finish the original game.


Last edited by Raaben on 25 May 2022 at 5:18 pm UTC