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One sticking issue with GOG currently is GOG Galaxy, and how it has no support for Linux. Now the Comet project aims to bridge the gap.

The aim of Comet is to eventually get it to work with projects like the Heroic Games Launcher and Lutris, to get their GOG support into even better shape with Wine / Proton on desktop Linux and Steam Deck. So in a way you could compare it to Legendary for Epic Games, giving a minimal and platform agnostic SDK.

A developer reached out to note they're now after more testers to play around with it, specifically on desktop Linux with Steam Deck testing planned later on.

So Comet will provide support for the likes of achievements, stats, friends, leaderboards and more. It's not finished yet of course, with some features under development and some not there at all yet but it's impressive work and continues to be an example on how the FOSS community are showing certain companies how it's done with a little community effort.

See more on the GitHub.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: GOG, Misc, Open Source
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15 comments

RenardDesMers May 24, 2023
  • Supporter
I'm curious if the linux gog client Minigalaxy will use this too.
It seems like they know about Comet already https://github.com/sharkwouter/minigalaxy/issues/361
I hope they can start working on integrating it once it's more stable.
imLinguin May 24, 2023
I'm curious if the linux gog client Minigalaxy will use this too.
It seems like they know about Comet already https://github.com/sharkwouter/minigalaxy/issues/361
I hope they can start working on integrating it once it's more stable.

Most likely, wouter likes stuff we do :D
Marlock May 24, 2023
big question:

does it actually (aim to) allow a game to have achievents tracked and sent to GoG's cloud when played under linux?

or does/will it serve only to show what's stored there from play sessions under windows (or WINE) with GoG Galaxy itself?
WMan22 May 24, 2023
The big question here is if Comet handles GOG Galaxy's multiplayer functionality. That's the only thing I'm really missing that I'm unsure if Heroic covers already. I don't really care about achievements that much by comparison.
imLinguin May 24, 2023
big question:

does it actually (aim to) allow a game to have achievents tracked and sent to GoG's cloud when played under linux?

or does/will it serve only to show what's stored there from play sessions under windows (or WINE) with GoG Galaxy itself?

The SDK is to allow games to access those online services, like article says to enable achievements, leaderboards stats and friends in unofficial launchers.
Marlock May 25, 2023
that's very cool! thanks for making it clear
hardpenguin May 25, 2023
So Comet will provide support for the likes of achievements, stats, friends, leaderboards and more.
Yeah I think that will not work. The Linux builds on GOG.com do not have these features implemented in the first place.

Unless this project aims to support the Windows games in Wine / Proton as well. That might work.


Last edited by hardpenguin on 25 May 2023 at 11:35 am UTC
Marlock May 25, 2023
There's current windows versions of GoG games which are likely to be able to use it, and hopefully new linux builds might be able to leverage this despite not being official?
imLinguin May 25, 2023
So Comet will provide support for the likes of achievements, stats, friends, leaderboards and more.
Yeah I think that will not work. The Linux builds on GOG.com do not have these features implemented in the first place.

Unless this project aims to support the Windows games in Wine / Proton as well. That might work.

Sadly GOG doesn't provide GOG Galaxy SDK builds for Linux. The only game that does somehow has it is Stardew Valley.

Nothing we can do about it unless we convince GOG to release SDK for Linux.
Liam Dawe May 25, 2023
Unless this project aims to support the Windows games in Wine / Proton as well. That might work.
Exactly as stated in the article FYI. For Wine / Proton.
Marlock May 25, 2023
Gaming is in dire need of FOSS platform-agnostic vendor-agnostic SDKs for multiplayer, achievements, save sync, etc, somewhat like libretro did for emulation.

Maybe something modular that has a general implementation which the game interfaces with and a module that turns that into stuff each vendor-specific server-side of their SDKs can understand, plus a vendor-neutral module with a corresponding server-side implementation anyone can deploy (like NextCloud does)

And by the way libretro does do a couple of those things aleady so...

On the other end there could be modules for games that expect a vendor-specific SDK, to translate their needs into the general implementation, which could work as a compatibility layer, like Goldberg Emulator does as a replacement for Steam API

Put both together and you could use a game that has implemented Steam API over a private server or maybe even be able to make it easier for a game dev to implement a single API and not have to recode parts of the game to get it published on Steam and GOG using each platform's services.

Anyway I imagine a good chunk of the work for something like this to exist is probably doable by working atop Comet and Legendary, maybe it's possible to integrate into libretro and then apps like Mini Galaxy and etc would also have an easier time keeping several distribuition platforms in good shape in their projects, pooling efforts together as much as possible.
hardpenguin May 26, 2023
Nothing we can do about it unless we convince GOG to release SDK for Linux.
You probably can't, I worked there for 4+ years on Linux games releases and failed to convince them 😅
imLinguin May 26, 2023
You probably can't, I worked there for 4+ years on Linux games releases and failed to convince them 😅

Probably is a key word here. We'll see about that
They didn't have launcher capable of using it.


Last edited by imLinguin on 26 May 2023 at 1:42 pm UTC
ridge May 26, 2023
Nice!! I had originally kept an eye on the original Comet from some three-four years ago, gonna give this a shot as soon as I can.
hardpenguin May 30, 2023
They didn't have launcher capable of using it.
Wish that this was the issue 😛
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