I really think that Steam numbers are pretty irrelevant for any estimations. For example, did the percentage of Steam games with Linux versions increase or dropped last month? Did the percentage of Linux gamers who are annoyed by DRM drop or increased last month? All those factors can effect this survey. It barely reflects the actual amount of Linux gamers out there, which seems to be only growing.

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What's the story with DirectX 11 support in Wine? Is there any ETA on that?

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Great! And it's supposed to be distributed DRM free, unlike all these Steam-only titles appearing lately. I wonder what's going on with the Divinity Original Sin though. It looks like the Linux version is not coming out right away.

Didn't Shadowrun had problems because Microsoft owns the rights now? They promised a lot of things, including Linux support and DRM free. And that failed so far. What else could you expect, when MS is being involved ;)

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Quoting: KristianThey provided a major content update with gigs upon gigs of data for free to those that already purchased the regular version of The Witcher 2.

CD Projekt Red who created Witcher series s a great company indeed. And they pioneered the GOG service with its strict DRM free position.

I asked them on several occasions, whether they have any plans for releasing their future games (Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077) for Linux. But they are very secretive about their future releases, and didn't even want to talk whether their current RED engine which they use in their games supports OpenGL or not. It surely supported OpenGL for the Witcher 2, since their Mac OS X version was a native release (unlike Witcher 1 which was  Windows version in the Wine wrapper).

The only hint of their interest in OpenGL can be found here: http://cdpred.com/technical-artist-technical-animator/

Required skills & experience:

• Solid knowledge of 3D game art modeling and texturing pipelines


• Algebra, geometry and vector calculus


• Understanding of real-time shading techniques and post processes


• Understanding of DirectX(9.0-11.0+) / OpenGl (SM5.0+)


• Proficiency using 3D Studio Max and Motion Builder


• Programming / scripting experience (MaxScript and C++ preferred)


• Fluent English


• Ability to work in a team environment and under a tight schedule


• A true passion for gaming

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Quoting: liamdawe

Quoting: Quote from ShmerlFYI: GOG is going to be recruiting on GDC.

This is linked at the bottom of the article, it's the source ;)

Ah, missed that link :)

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FYI: GOG is going to be recruiting on GDC.

Quoting: Mike FrettPerhaps they are planning to release some of their wares to Steam or Desura?.

I got a feeling they are planning to create a better distribution service which offers incremental updates, to compete with Steam in the convenience aspect. Though I'm sure they'll do it in a way that won't compromise DRM free part of it. I.e. they'll still ship standalone installers / patches and whatever.

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This position was noted a while ago on GOG forums. It's a good indicator, but it's hard to speculate what it means time wise. It can take them a while to start supporting Linux. And GOG said in the past that they are interested and "looking at it". So this open position isn't surprising.

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Sounds great! Is it going to be sold on Humble Bundle or any other DRM free channels?

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Quoting: KristianThat would be treating their Linux users differently from their Windows and Mac OSX users. From everything that GOG is saying there is no way they would want to do that and why should they?

Edit:

Bumadar is exactly correct.

It's all relative. DosBox is pretty stable and available everywhere (I mean Linux distros). So there is little need to bundle it. They don't bundle DirectX with their Windows installers, don't they? Other components are less stable / have more differences across distros and it makes more sense to bundle them.

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I didn't mean one install fit all. They usually dedicate a package for each OS anyway. One install for Linux distros would work perfectly though. Simply put the game in one location, put a couple of dosbox conf files which point there and mount some iso image (that's common for CD based DosBox games), and create a .desktop file that does something like:

dosbox -conf <conf1> -conf <conf2>

That's it. They can even display a message if DosBox is missing, saying something - Please install DosBox first.

That's basically what I do with DosBox games from GOG now anyway:

1. Extract the Windows installer with innoextract.
2. Place the files in one location, delete all the bundled stuff like Windows build of DosBox and whatever else not from the game itself.
3. Adjust shipped .conf files to use POSIX path syntax and selected location (GOG usually packages 2 conf files).
4. Create .desktop file with dosbox -conf <conf1> -conf <conf2>

All that would work on any distro, I bet.

Rarely you might need adjusting some settings like from:
output=ddraw

to:
output=opengl

That's what GOG would do with dedicated conf files for each OS.

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