Latest Comments by STiAT
IO Interactive retains the rights to HITMAN and becomes fully independent
16 June 2017 at 11:30 pm UTC

First of all, I am glad for IOI and the developers there.

Secondly, they now have a record working with Feral, and if the ports were successful (and they don't take a huge risk letting Feral do the port, it's most likely Ferals risk), they probably will do it again.

Two Worlds II RPG delayed for Linux
15 June 2017 at 8:41 pm UTC

Quoting: Shmerl
Quoting: lucinosI can not understand why so many developers do that elementary mistake on linux. On linux developers should only support 64bit.

They made that mistake on Windows, and at the time when 32-bit Windows XP was still quite widespread. I suppose that's the reason. So I guess they just didn't rewrite the engine to support 64-bit proper.

Think so too. And while it's true that there is hardly anyone on a 32bit system on a gaming rig, especially older titles (and we can consider Two Worlds II as such) do very likely depend on 32bit engines.

Feral Interactive have released the required specifications for Dawn of War III on Linux
7 June 2017 at 7:07 pm UTC Likes: 2

@Leopard: The ports are native ports. They do have a full native vulkan graphics backend. What is true is that they do have an abstraction layer code-whise which maps D3D features to Vulkan to make ports easier / straight forward and reduce development time. That was to be expected, and I expect they had the same thing done for OGL. My best guess is that they do have files and classes named as the D3D classes are with the same functions, calling their respective OGL/Vulkan backend implementing those features. They for sure optimize the layer based on the game though.

Croteam did the same, but Croteam wants to (or did?) remove that layer. They can, Feral is pretty limited since they need it to make ports profitable. They can and do not rewrite every game and engine to Vulkan/OGL. That's simply not feasable without an abstraction layer, so they will certainly not "drop" this thing. All we hope is that they optimize the layer well enough for each game.

Note that those abstraction layers are no huge overhead. It's not like wine.

Taking a trip through Hell in 'Pinstripe', an adventure game not to be missed
30 May 2017 at 7:13 am UTC

Yea, sometimes there are real gems in the indie / smaller game sector. Sad that they're pretty rare. I felt a chill run down my spine just watching the trailer. Pretty sure I'll go for it, though, I prefer point&click adventures, this one looks very interesting.

Stardock CEO asking to see interest in Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation on Linux with Vulkan
29 May 2017 at 3:19 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: BoldosYeah, my apologies for being this expressive, but when I saw the news, I got enraged.
I already supported them by buying the game when it got released on early access (with the hopes that I will get a Linux&Vulkan RTS game some day, as was promised). And of course I'm VERY glad that Stardock is willing to go this way. But they did not keep their promise; they also act as if nothing happened... So it must be stated that their behaviour is not correct and is not clean; this is what developer studios just must not do...

I can understand your point of view. I'm not exactly excited either. It's not actually that it was delayed, or that the devs said after they had a Vulkan port done. It's not even their silence on the matter previously.
What has me apathetic is their request for interest. Maybe I'm seeing it wrong, but to me it seems like the GNU/Linux crowd has to somehow prove themselves worthy of Stardock when it really should be the other way around: Stardock must prove themselves worthy of the GNU/Linux crowd. I just don't get the impression that they're taking GNU/Linux seriously, at all.

Given some of the discussions, this is all mostly just me explaining why I'm not so enthusiastic about the news. I'm not advocating anything, it's just "meh" to me. The irony though is that I already have the game in my Steam library. It came bundled with my graphics card.
I'm incredibly surprised to see this from someone I know who's as smart as you are.

When did more and more people start being of the attitude that developers have to prove themselves to us? Prove what exactly? We are a tiny platform often not worth porting to, I really wish people would stop acting like a developer is a devil for pushing us down on their list.

We are bloody lucky to have the games we do, let's not overestimate our worth. That will harm us, not help us.

Exactly my thoughts, but:
The promising/announcing and revoking later has to stop as well. They can say "we'll look into if it's worth doing a Linux version at a later stage of development..". No harm done, we know we're a tiny platform, and we know it's probably a loss porting a game for us. And we know very well about our platforms shortcomings in the graphics stack (X/OpenGL/drivers - Vulkan still needs work as well).

I get a bit bitter as well thinking on how many games were not released or just "drawn back" after they were announced officially. It's the reason I do own TW3 (and I did install Windows on a drive just to play that one after I had bought it full-price).

That said, I think we should be fair to developers, but I expect this to be in both directions. If no definitive decision is done and/or they're still unsure that a port will release, communicate it that way. There is absolutely no harm for us knowing it's still in doubt if a port will come or not, and there wouldn't be any disappointment - since nothing was promised.

Stardock CEO asking to see interest in Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation on Linux with Vulkan
29 May 2017 at 1:51 pm UTC

Quoting: Mountain Man
QuoteIf you are interested in a Linux version, please sign here.
Oh give me break. Of course there is interest in a Linux version. Why do developers even bother asking this question?

The question is: How large is the interest? Could a port be worth it? Is it worth the risk?

Stardock CEO asking to see interest in Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation on Linux with Vulkan
29 May 2017 at 1:51 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: ShmerlPlease also vote here: https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/ashes_of_the_singularity_for_linux

I only vote once, since I only will buy it once. It's to give them an idea of the interest, so they need to know how high the interest is on those platforms to get an overall picture.

Stardock CEO asking to see interest in Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation on Linux with Vulkan
27 May 2017 at 9:05 pm UTC

Quoting: GuestConsidering how long it's been from them, how many times it's been pushed back, and what appears to be a lack of enthusiasm on their part....I don't actually care for this game anymore.

Well, that they will port it with Vulkan was pretty much what they stated since the beginning. There hardly was news of them on the item though.

I don't blame them, things like that take time, especially on new APIs which still are sure to have bugs in the driver-side implementation. And a lot of room for mistakes client-side to iron out.

Stardock CEO asking to see interest in Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation on Linux with Vulkan
27 May 2017 at 9:01 pm UTC

Yea, finally a word on this game.
Signed too, I hope they'll do it. I have had an eye on this since they mentioned they'll be looking into supporting Linux.

Parsec is another game streaming service, now with Linux support and it's blown me away
24 May 2017 at 10:04 am UTC

Certainly could become an option for me some time in the future.

I'd like to switch to a passively cooled thin client/laptop in some years, and I'll be reevaluating the situation and pricing by then.

I'd be paying about 80-100 € a month now with their pricing model. That would be 1000-1200 € / year I could spend on updating a gaming rig. I could update quite a lot for that price tag every year (which I don't).