Developer Ethan Lee yesterday announced the release of FNA 24.08, bringing with it preparation for the upcoming release of SDL 3 and a fun addition of Direct3D 11 support on Linux thanks to DXVK.
What is FNA? It's a reimplementation of the Microsoft XNA Game Studio 4.0 Refresh libraries. Quite a lot of games use it since it's open source and cross-platform. Games using it includes the likes of Streets of Rage 4, Terraria, Unrailed!, Axiom Verge 1 & 2 and the list goes on.
FNA release 23.05 from last year pulled in the early initial Alpha of Direct3D 11 support on Linux, with FNA 24.08 now making it properly official. The DXVK project itself merged in the DXVK-Native code way back in DXVK 2.0 at the end of 2022. What's the point of it? Even easier game porting, with it translating Microsoft's D3D API to Vulkan for Native Linux games.
Speaking about the release, Lee said in the FNA Discord:
Big surprise, it's another release that's mostly SDL3 prep and not much else. But don't be fooled, this month was huge for FNA - for SDL 3.0 the maintainers have decided to go with our GPU API, and we've even been cleared to try and get it into the first release! We've been focused entirely on GPU since then, and progress continues - we're hoping to have the API in Beta very very soon, barring any oddities from D3D12.
At the same time, FNA's D3D11 support on Linux is now officially complete and supported! Steam developers are encouraged to request the "Sniper" runtime for their native Linux versions, so users can enable DXVK support if they'd like. I expect our GPU API to be just as good at least, but it's a nice thing to have in the meantime.
It's been a graphics-heavy summer for sure, with way more crunch than any of us would have liked, but the results will definitely be worth it!
See more on the FNA website.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
could you reach out to Ethan to ask him about his thoughts? He was kinda sceptical/crtical of Proton and his future as a programmer back then.
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2018/09/game-porter-ethan-lee-gives-his-thoughts-on-valves-steam-play-and-proton/
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2021/07/ryan-gordon-and-ethan-lee-on-proton-and-the-steam-deck/
Has this changed? What are his thoughts now?
And if they want a lighter abstraction, why not use other layers on top of Vulkan like wgpu or something like that? DX11 doesn't sound like the best option.
Last edited by Shmerl on 2 August 2024 at 10:11 pm UTC
I don't get why they need to go around translating DX11 into Vulkan, can't they use Vulkan directly?
And if they want a lighter abstraction, why not use other layers on top of Vulkan like wgpu or something like that? DX11 doesn't sound like the best option.
I think that was included because you can build a xna game with fna docs so, if your older setup use DX11 you don't have to do anything else.
But I didn't went to the documentation in full, perhaps there is something more.
no_information_here Aug 3
ElectricPrism Aug 3
Liam,
could you reach out to Ethan to ask him about his thoughts? He was kinda sceptical/crtical of Proton and his future as a programmer back then.
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2018/09/game-porter-ethan-lee-gives-his-thoughts-on-valves-steam-play-and-proton/
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2021/07/ryan-gordon-and-ethan-lee-on-proton-and-the-steam-deck/
Has this changed? What are his thoughts now?
I felt a lot of compassion for his situation as he was actively contracting to port so many games.
I hope he is pleasantly surprised with how everything has turned out and has made incremental adjustments to have joy. I am curious how he is doing too.
As ^ Said, Absolute Legend! All this FNA stuff too, very exciting as always.
hardpenguin Aug 5
(..) reach out to Ethan to ask him about his thoughts? He was kinda sceptical/crtical of Proton and his future as a programmer back then. (..)That would make for an epic article. I can imagine he is trying to make the best of the situation and to keep contributing to Linux gaming in any way possible.
Has this changed? What are his thoughts now?
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