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.
Direct Link
You cant argue epic lied them, when they had engine at least 3 years in handsI give up with you. If you can't understand that a) pivoting the engine even just a year into development is a massive undertaking and that b) they were told they didn't need to pivot anyway because Epic were fixing the engine issues (and then didn't) then we're done.
The memory leak is not related to wine, it's the WebM player plugin of the Unreal Engine they are using now in the release version. The videos before started working after a while, because Valve reencoded them and shipped them via pre-cache. I think no new videos were added for a while. I think you also got a Steam key for the EA first, right? And now you are on GoG?
No, I was using GOG version (early access one) since I selected that option as a backer.
14 Apr 2023
What childish atitude?Insulting a well-established gaming studio because Epic's failed promises led to said studio not releasing on our platform. Childish.
Also, ignoring the extraordinary lengths that the studio went to trying to work around those failed promises.
There’s nothing childish, this is a consumer hobby. People paid money for an idea and didn’t get their purchase. Telling people they should just buy the game and be happy with it because “developers work hard” is childish fan talk.
Ah, no. Context is king. First, I didn't say "be happy with it". Criticism is valid and should be encouraged. I said insulting the devs is childish.
Second, there are plenty of devs on Kickstarter who absolutely took the piss. My point here is that RFG didn't. I'm getting tired of saying it, but read Corben's history of how we arrived here - RFG went absolutely above and beyond to make the Linux port and were shafted by Epic.
Either way the damage is done for me, I have a huge back log of games that run on Proton and I didn’t switch to Linux with the belief that Proton is good enough. It’s personally my choice to buy Linux native software. Microsoft and their control on gaming has hindered enough and I choose not to participate. Good for you all though!
Patreon
PayPal
How to set, change and reset your SteamOS / Steam Deck desktop sudo password
How to set up Decky Loader on Steam Deck / SteamOS for easy plugins
See more from me