Quoting: amonobeax

Quoting: AnxiousInfusion

Quoting: BlackBloodRumMaybe now we will find out just how well Vulkan can really perform on wait hang on what OS? oh yeah. GNU/Linux!

Hold up, it's still going to be just a port. We will only truly know once a game has been built from the ground up for Vulkan.

Exactly.


I really hope I'm wrong but I doubt that Feral's Vulkan versions will have Doom level performances.

In order to have that kind of an impact Vulkan need to be implemented at the GAME ENGINE level, which Feral can't/won't do AFAIK (would be too costly probably). Almost all their ports currently using wrappers also indicate the same.

In other words the "Vulkan" version of the game will most likely benefit those gamers that have poor OpenGL performance (cough AMD owners) because of subpar drivers.

If I'm right NVIDIA users won't feel much perf difference between OpenGL and Vulkan, sadly

Far as I'm concerned it's not really about any of that. What it's about is:
--Feral showing that Vulkan is real and viable for real games that people really buy commercially and play
--Feral acquiring and demonstrating expertise with Vulkan, such that if anyone out there develops a Vulkan game initially for Windows only, Feral will be able to easily and cheaply tweak it for cross-platform use
--Same to a lesser extent for DX12 games, which by all accounts will be easier/better ports to Vulkan than to OpenGL

Basically, this move helps increase Vulkan's general viability and mindshare and the future efficiency of Linux ports and cross-platform development. It's not about whatever existing games they happen to port using Vulkan instead of or as well as OpenGL.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: MaCroX95

Quoting: HoriIt's unfortunate that many games perform worse on Linux than Windows but it's to be expected! We're a new platform (in the gaming industry), so it WILL TAKE TIME for developers to get used to it, for the graphics APIs to evolve to support the demand, and for developer tools to evolve as well but mostly to appear in the first place, because many needed tools are simply inexistent here.

I personally am for more ports even if they perform worse... as long as they are playable and, as you said, they offer a good experience. There's no other way!

It will not just take time, it will take PEOPLE and PURCHASES to force developers to do something good for their greedy pockets. If they prduce for a few thousand people they will never even consider Vulkan as they didn't OpenGL for games...

Well, in general I'd agree that for Linux gaming to succeed it's gonna need Linux gamers, a chicken-egg problem we keep hoping Valve will help us break.
But Vulkan is a somewhat different issue--Vulkan isn't only for Linux (as such) it's for things like Android, form factors like phones and tablets. The total market size of the non-Windows platforms Vulkan will run on and be useful to is very large and would be even if the Linux desktop somehow disappeared entirely. So, Vulkan has a good chance of success independent of Linux, and Linux gaming should be able to piggyback on that success.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I suspect it's way too hard for me, which is a pity because it looks so cool.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I know this question is kind of pointless, but . . .
Why does a crow in a dark fantasy setting shoot stuff that looks like bullets and blaster bolts and lasers and sometimes get a force field? Shouldn't it shoot, like, arrows or snapping crow beaks or lightning bolts or the energy spirits of dead bugs that home on your enemies and zap/exorcise them so they turn transparent and fade out, or stuff like that? And instead of a forcefield get surrounded by a glowy pentagram thing or something?

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Still possible. Great. But is it still plausible?

View this comment - View article - View full comments

There definitely seems to be a learning curve when it comes to porting games. Feral has gotten very good at it; as a result, they can probably do it cheaper than most big game companies who don't develop cross-platform could do it for themselves. And so it's very likely that many games Feral ports would not have been ported in-house, since it wouldn't have been worth it if developers did it who hadn't learned how and would take a bunch of time/money to get the job done.
Hurrah for Feral, what I'm saying.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: ElectricPrism

Quoting: MblackwellThe track pad is far superior to a stick for FPS.

Wut? No seriously I would like to hear your argument? For me I'm a billion times faster and preciser on twin joysticks.

Of course I know this is probably a case of "what works for me" and "what works for you" are totally different.

I have no personal experience on such things, but my understanding is that
--it depends on what you're used to and trained on, so that someone who's got muscle memory for years of twin joysticks will find them better
--but generally, for FPS those with about even experience with both typically find mouse + keyboard significantly more precise for things like aiming
--and mouse users have found that the Steam controller's trackpad mimics the mouse experience much more closely than any other controller

So, one would expect that for those with mouse experience the Steam controller would be better than a twin-joystick controller for FPS.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

While I personally don't care in the slightest about this kind of sports game, it's still good to see this kind of thing. Whatever my personal taste, the things are pretty popular and I've had the impression that Linux coverage in that genre has been pretty slim pickings, so good news.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Mountain ManI won't be backing - I'm against "crowd funding" on general principle

I haven't really thought through my position on crowd funding, since I don't have a ton of spare funds to be part of a crowd with. So, genuinely wondering, not snarking--what general principle? And, against its existence or against getting involved?

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: GuestActually it's not okay. The JA source code is available. Heck, it's posted on GitHub! So what Topware is saying is, "We won't make a Linux game with the source code we have. But pay us money for our Windows game."

So the source code is available, so what? The point is, it's an older game so efficiency doesn't matter that much--it won't be putting stress on modern hardware even if Wine adds some overhead, so big whoop--let 'em "port" it that way if it's easier. As long as we can play it on Linux and buy it as a Linux sale, there's no downside. And if their cost of doing it is lower, that means the result doesn't have to sell as much to make a profit and they're more likely to do the same for more titles than if they had to spend the money doing a real port of an old game, probably not written well for cross-platform so a pain to port, the results of which won't sell much (because it's an old game).
The perfect is the enemy of the good, man.

View this comment - View article - View full comments