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
fair enough
Quoting: scaineas you can read from the article, the game wouldn't be released for Linux at all were it not for ProtonBut it isn't releasing for Linux... I know, I know, but I couldn't resist.
Quoting: EagleDeltaQuoting: ArtenAtleast for me, it's not not buy game, but not support them on kickstarter. Is good idea buying game years before release from developer who proved he is not trustworthy?
Don't EVER PAY FOR ANYTHING ON KICKSTARTER AND ASSUME YOU'RE BUYING ANYTHING. Kickstarter is very, very clear in their notice that you are "Not preordering a product, but funding the possibility of that project being completed". It's on a big banner at the end of every project's campaign page. You are for all intensive purposes a "light" investor in the product and your return is a completed product rather than a stake in the company..... if it makes it to fruition. You are taking a risk on the project basically, not buying something.
Totaly irelevant. From my point of view it's just buying without legal protection from state, so everythink is based solaly on my trust in developer. Legaly kickstarter can't call it buying, but by my internal definition it's still buying.
ssj17vegeta Apr 8, 2023
Glad I didn't kickstart it, won't buy from these hypocrites.
If I get a product that's guaranteed to work as well as it can on my favourite system, in the end, that's what I care about. Using Proton - and making sure the game works as well as it can with it - is a viable option to me and at least it means that the game won't stop working in a couple of years because of ABI changes.
Also, with how Epic and Unreal tend to do things, I wouldn't be surprised if Rockfish had been told that the issues in Unreal would be fixed before the launch date, so while better communication to us backers would have been nice, I can completely see how they might have been thrown under the bus by Epic.
TL;DR: A bit disappointing, but I still get the game with official support on Linux, so I'm good.
Quoting: CybolicAlso, with how Epic and Unreal tend to do things, I wouldn't be surprised if Rockfish had been told that the issues in Unreal would be fixed before the launch date, so while better communication to us backers would have been nice, I can completely see how they might have been thrown under the bus by Epic.
If it was something like that then yeah, someone there really needs to learn proper communication. If they said before that they were running into big unsolvable vendor issues during development and might have to drop their plans, that'd be hugely disappointing but at least open and reasonable. They led on with it until the last minute then just kinda said 'nah'. That's the part that has me more upset.
As a backer, I already have a game from GOG, so whether it's native or runs through Wine+vkd3d-proton is of little concern in practice, especially when native UE4 is so buggy in comparison. I'd take a well performing game over the fact that it's native but broken UE4.
Last edited by Shmerl on 9 April 2023 at 2:58 am UTC
Quoting: tpauPorting it to UE5, would that help?
Probably, but it's a major chunk of work, so it's not worth investing the effort if it already works well enough in UE4.
Quoting: 1xokThe 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).
Performance isn't spectacular, but still good enough for me on RX 7900 XTX (Testing GOG version):
dxvk (DX11) mode:
vkd3d-proton (DX12) mode:
I agree though, that it's not high for such kind of hardware. I guess limitations of the engine show.
Last edited by Shmerl on 9 April 2023 at 3:14 am UTC
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