ROCKFISH Games have now launched EVERSPACE 2 and it looks awesome! One of their original Kickstarter promises did not make it though, with Native Linux support being cancelled as they will support it with Proton instead.
Despite repeatedly mentioning a Native Linux build would come, even as recently as mid February, they decided not to go through with it. Why? They said Vulkan support in Unreal Engine 4 is "broken and incomplete" and it gave between "50% - 80%" of the performance compared with just running the Windows version in Proton. There were other issues, like VRAM leaks causing crashes. After they spoke with Epic Games, they said it's clear Unreal Engine 4 won't get fixed up with the focus now on Unreal Engine 5 and ROCKFISH don't have the time to fix up the game engine.
They shared a screenshot as a quick example showing the Native build with Vulkan, their Windows build with DXVK and the Windows build with VKD3D-Proton and the performance difference speaks for itself really:
The good news is they plan to ensure it does work well with Proton and they will continue to optimize it there. Any Kickstarter backers not happy can request a refund too which is good to see.
As for Steam Deck, dedicated optimizations for it are also still planned.
For players on other stores like GOG, it does make things more complicated, since Steam is the only store to officially support a translation layer like Proton. However, you can try with Heroic Games Launcher.
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The game does not reach 60FPS, at least in WQHD with a 67xx XT, even with DXVK/Proton. Is the performance the same under Windows? How are things on the Deck? As a German, I would like to support the studio. Unfortunately, we don't have that many in Germany (any more).
2 Likes, Who?
While it works fine on Proton, this really is quite annoying and I would have probably not Kickstarted it without the promise of native Linux support. Lets hope they make good on their promise to fully support it through Proton at least (which arguably might be better in the long run anyway).
Ah and for those that never received their Steam keys... apparently they did send out keys to backers in August 2021, but like me many people seem to have never gotten them; Yes I did check my spam folder... So you can ask on the Kickstarter comment section and they will send a PM through Kickstarter with the Steam key.
As for initial impressions: it does capture the Everspace 1 feel quite well, even though it isn't a rogue-like anymore. Personally I would have preferred them sticking to the Everspace 1 game-play formula, but it seems decent enough anyway.
Ah and for those that never received their Steam keys... apparently they did send out keys to backers in August 2021, but like me many people seem to have never gotten them; Yes I did check my spam folder... So you can ask on the Kickstarter comment section and they will send a PM through Kickstarter with the Steam key.
As for initial impressions: it does capture the Everspace 1 feel quite well, even though it isn't a rogue-like anymore. Personally I would have preferred them sticking to the Everspace 1 game-play formula, but it seems decent enough anyway.
7 Likes, Who?
It's a shame... If it were native I would bought it, but with proton... probably on a sale some day (or not).
10 Likes, Who?
Tthe first game was very good and I specifically joined the KS because of Linux support. We still have it I guess, but not as promised. I don't think I'll be doing more KS projects from now on.
5 Likes, Who?
Yet another Kickstarter lie. Why did they never say or change their stance on it until literally release week if it was so problematic in development that they had to drop it? They kept promising it up until release.
8 Likes, Who?
Idk,
I get that they promised a native build. But, i guess you have to decide what is more important: a native build for Linux or proper support for the platform. Granted, you have to decide what “proper support” means, but at its basic is “make the game run well on Linux”.
The mere fact that they have a comparison of the proton vs Linux build indicates that they have been indeed working on it, and have decided that the best performance comes via proton. So, this does bird feel like they are abandoning Linux or lying or whatever. It looks like they are trying to make it work well.
My takeaway from this is that — once again — Epic Games is playing a role in the quality of Linux gaming.
Last edited by shawnsterp on 7 April 2023 at 12:30 pm UTC
I get that they promised a native build. But, i guess you have to decide what is more important: a native build for Linux or proper support for the platform. Granted, you have to decide what “proper support” means, but at its basic is “make the game run well on Linux”.
The mere fact that they have a comparison of the proton vs Linux build indicates that they have been indeed working on it, and have decided that the best performance comes via proton. So, this does bird feel like they are abandoning Linux or lying or whatever. It looks like they are trying to make it work well.
My takeaway from this is that — once again — Epic Games is playing a role in the quality of Linux gaming.
Last edited by shawnsterp on 7 April 2023 at 12:30 pm UTC
7 Likes, Who?
No linux version is a shame... :/
But did they improve the ship's controls over the first one? Mainly using gamepad... I played on PS4 and hated the flight controls.
But did they improve the ship's controls over the first one? Mainly using gamepad... I played on PS4 and hated the flight controls.
0 Likes
But did they improve the ship's controls over the first one? Mainly using gamepad... I played on PS4 and hated the flight controls.
AFAIK no. It is a very mouse driven input style, like the old Freelancer.
Last edited by Julius on 7 April 2023 at 1:52 pm UTC
2 Likes, Who?
One less game to play.
Thanks proton.
More. One more game to play, thanks to Proton. Because as you can read from the article, the game wouldn't be
Edit: Thanks dpanter...
Last edited by scaine on 9 April 2023 at 12:35 pm UTC
6 Likes, Who?
EagleDelta Apr 7, 2023
While it works fine on Proton, this really is quite annoying and I would have probably not Kickstarted it without the promise of native Linux support. Lets hope they make good on their promise to fully support it through Proton at least (which arguably might be better in the long run anyway).
In this case, I blame Epic for refusing to fix UE4. If we pulled crap like that - keep "selling" a product after a newer one is released, but refusing to update it, we'd be hemorrhaging customers.
6 Likes, Who?
One less game to play.
Thanks proton.
More. One more game to play, thanks to Proton. Because as you can read from the article, the game wouldn't be released for Linux at all were it not for Proton.
I enjoyed Eeverspace1 without problems on Linux native.
Ue4, opengl, good performance.
Tested the same under proton, worse performance.
Both are running over UE4.
5 Likes, Who?
with Native Linux support being cancelled as they will support it with Proton instead.
I'll skip this one then
3 Likes, Who?
I'm not happy about this. I trusted them because they have xp from Everspace 1. I don't think i support Everspace 3, if they try go with it on kickstarter...
4 Likes, Who?
I really enjoy Everspace 1, so I immeadiately bought this when it came out of Early Access.
But then again I don't really care if it's native or Proton. If it runs, it runs and this is supported by the devs, so I don't see why I should care.
Last edited by Beaky on 7 April 2023 at 4:21 pm UTC
But then again I don't really care if it's native or Proton. If it runs, it runs and this is supported by the devs, so I don't see why I should care.
Last edited by Beaky on 7 April 2023 at 4:21 pm UTC
4 Likes, Who?
EagleDelta Apr 7, 2023
with Native Linux support being cancelled as they will support it with Proton instead.
I'll skip this one then
Did you read the full reasoning? They couldn't get the game to work well in Linux with Vulkan due to Vulkan bugs in UE4. They reached out to Epic and Epic said that had no intention of fixing the issues, so they had to abandon Linux support.... can't change a game engine on launch day
6 Likes, Who?
EagleDelta Apr 7, 2023
I'm not happy about this. I trusted them because they have xp from Everspace 1. I don't think i support Everspace 3, if they try go with it on kickstarter...
The problem is related to bugs in UE4 and Vulkan that Epic refuse to fix because they've "Moved all focus to UE5". This is not something Rockfish could've planned for.... especially if Epic originally told them they planned to fix those bugs.
Everspace 2 is fundamentally different from Everspace 1, so while the experience of porting on Everspace 1 is valuable, it may not be 100% transferable either.
7 Likes, Who?
The game does not reach 60FPS, at least in WQHD with a 67xx XT, even with DXVK/Proton. Is the performance the same under Windows? How are things on the Deck? As a German, I would like to support the studio. Unfortunately, we don't have that many in Germany (any more).
I'm running a 6800xt and getting pretty poor performance with 3440x1440. Normally I can run most anything on high/ultra, but definitely not here. Definitely seeing low fps as well as stuttering.
Then on top of that, every single cutscene completely crashes the entire game. Seems the vram overflows and crash. So I have to skip every single cutscene. I can rewatch them in the menus but still. The optimization is REALLY bad here in linux.
Hopefully give it a little while and a few patches might fix things up.
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