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The Unreal Problem
melkemind Jun 19, 2015
This is not meant to be extremely negative. I'm truly just asking a concerned question about a real problem. As many of you know, many of the titles that have been or are being ported to Linux use the Unreal Engine 3. Unfortunately, performance on Linux with this engine has not been very good compared to Windows performance. For example, Borderlands 2 on my GTX 970 still sometimes drops below 60 FPS whereas it stay well over 100 on Windows. Moreover, even the dreaded Eon ports seem to have better performance with the engine on some machines.

My question is, with Batman: Arkham Knight coming this fall, what do you think can be done (if anything) to improve Unreal performance, short of upgrading to Unreal 4 (which probably won't happen)? I know some of you out there have more experience in programming and even game development than I do. Is there anything that can be done? We know these third party porters like Feral and Aspyr try their best, so what is it about Unreal 3 that gives them trouble on Linux?
sub Jun 19, 2015
Not sure if this valid at all. Is it really UE3's fault that some of the ports are not performing great?

However, with UE4 Linux is a real target on engine level which doesn't require
porting anymore (at least in theory).
melkemind Jun 19, 2015
I don't think anyone said it was the engine's fault, but the fact that the engine was never officially given a Linux version must pose some problems for porters. I'm just looking at the evidence. If you can show me one game that runs UE3 that performs up to par on Linux, I think that would be great. Maybe we could ask the porter how they did it.

And yes, UE4 will be great when games start using it, but my question was about games that are coming out this year, such as Batman: Arkham Knight, which will use UE3. It will be a much more demanding game than Xcom or the Borderlands games. If it under performs, it might be unplayable on Linux.
Beamboom Jun 23, 2015
Quoting: melkemindIf you can show me one game that runs UE3 that performs up to par on Linux, I think that would be great.

Can you show me any game of reasonable complexity that performs up to par with Windows today?

I may be wrong but as far as I understand the only game of relatively recent release date that runs as well or better on Linux is Left 4 Dead 2. I don't think it is as much a case of Unreal engine being the challenge, but more the current state of affairs regarding Linux porting. It's at an early stage yet.
melkemind Jun 23, 2015
Quoting: Beamboom
Quoting: melkemindIf you can show me one game that runs UE3 that performs up to par on Linux, I think that would be great.

Can you show me any game of reasonable complexity that performs up to par with Windows today?

I may be wrong but as far as I understand the only game of relatively recent release date that runs as well or better on Linux is Left 4 Dead 2. I don't think it is as much a case of Unreal engine being the challenge, but more the current state of affairs regarding Linux porting. It's at an early stage yet.

I would add other Source-based games as well, such as Portal 2. I have found a few other games to have great Linux performance, such as Victor Vran. The Talos Principle seems to do well on my computer also, but I haven't tested Windows performance.

I wasn't saying that the engine itself is broken but rather that there seems to be a problem with porting games that use that engine. It seems to be a consistent problem with Unreal Engine 3. The fact that you could even cite one game that performs well on Linux and I can mention a few more shows that it is possible to optimize a game on OpenGL and get good performance. I'm just wondering if it's possible with the Unreal Engine 3 in its current state or if the engine itself needs to be ported (which probably won't happen).
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