PC. The keyboard and mouse is better than a controller for this sort of game, screenshots make good wallpaper, and there's always the potential for mod support, even if it's unofficial.
Interesting interview with Philip Rebohle, the lead developer of DXVK. As it turns out (and as many suspected for a while), he was hired full time by Valve in February this year, that's why the progress of DXVK was so rapid and developers from Mesa and Nvidia driver teams collaborated with DXVK closely to fix driver bugs that affected many games.
Interestingly, Valve asked him to focus on certain games early on, and I suspect TW3 was one of those, since its progress in Wine+dxvk compatibility was very rapid. I wonder if it's Valve's way of redeeming the early announcements of "coming to SteamOS" for TW3.
cc @volsung @M4xw0lf
Interestingly, Valve asked him to focus on certain games early on, and I suspect TW3 was one of those, since its progress in Wine+dxvk compatibility was very rapid. I wonder if it's Valve's way of redeeming the early announcements of "coming to SteamOS" for TW3.
cc @volsung @M4xw0lf
Definitely, and it's already moving in that direction, since major engines (Unreal, Unity and etc.) are supporting Vulkan already.
Still have my fingers crossed for 2077. They haven't outright denied the possibility yet, have they?
The only comment from them was something like "it will be Windows only at present". So their usual dismissive non answer about future possibilities. However CDPR didn't say anything about using Vulkan.
Pretty interesting article about recent developments in Linux gaming by Cheesiness who ported Day of the Tentacle remastered and Full Throttle remastered to Linux.
Very interesting. I just discovered this thing yesterday and at first I thought this might be the end of dual booting for people like me, but at this moment only a few games run well. The article makes an excellent point when it says that because of this, native Linux ports may be affected and Valve may become the unique source or main player in Linux gaming, for better or for worse. On the one hand they have the money and reputation to actually set trends and influence the industry but on the other, they are a company and have no obligations whatsoever with gaming in Linux.
My first choice would be for developers to use technologies that can be easily ported to Linux. My second choice is for all games to have native Linux versions. And the whole Steam Play + Proton thing, sounds good for preexisting games that would have never been released in Linux. I also like that Valve is encouraging developers to drop "invasive" DRM.
Back in the days of games like Doom 3, games with Linux versions simply required a relatively small download (an executable and some other stuff) to run and used all of the assets and files from the Windows version. Couldn't we go back there with Vulkan? There could be (and there are already I think?) companies that specialize in developing these extras and they could be downloaded at no cost either on release day or a few weeks later.
I played around with Wine+dxvk for a while already, and it's working pretty well for D3D11 games. Even TW3 is close to fully playable (pending one Vulkan feature for transform feedback that should be coming soon). I'm not using Steam, but I appreciate Valve's contribution to Wine and Linux gaming in general, because they are doing it in FOSS fashion so not only Steam users benefit.
Sure, Proton is nice. It made me play a few win games i had got trough bundles.
But if i want quality Linux builds and i end up playing the Win version trough WINE, what is the incentive for the developers to make the effort ? That was the (logical) response of a Blizzard executive to a player petition: Linux players run the Win executable anyway.
This is why i stick to my "no tux no buck" guns. It is not a reproach to devs not catering to me. They do not owe me anything. It is an incentive to devs who make quality Linux builds. Or at worst ports.
So i buy Linux games, it is the only more or less convincing move i can do.
Cyberpunk 2077 seems fantastic. Well in the spirit of my beloved cyberpunk 2020 pen and paper. IF a Linux version appears i will have a blast. Else no biggie it is just a video game.
We speculated a lot about why TW3 on Linux didn't come to fruition but at least they considered the possibility. And other successful businesses decide to make Linux builds in spite of the eventual poor monetary returns.
A thing i wonder about is their technological debt; Not only in terms of what the RED engine is but also their know how. Maybe they do not know a lot about the *nix OSes.
In my neck of the woods, all computer people are formed on *nix and also win technologies. But i sometimes hear remarks from Eastern Europe people telling basically that years of pirated windows have entrenched it as a de facto standard.
But with Vulkan maybe the cost of doing cross-platform will lower. As a personal opinion, i do not believe the marketshare of Linux rigs will improve a lot in the near future, proton and exasperation caused by Win 10 or not.
Unless Valve succeeds with new steam machines and SteamOS becomes a convenient enough way to sell your PC games to a couch-in-front-of-the-tv audience. I.E. a new bigger market.
I do not expect a port of CP2077. But maybe future cyberpunk CPDR games of similar quality will be conceived in a more cross-platform friendly way.
But if i want quality Linux builds and i end up playing the Win version trough WINE, what is the incentive for the developers to make the effort ? That was the (logical) response of a Blizzard executive to a player petition: Linux players run the Win executable anyway.
This is why i stick to my "no tux no buck" guns. It is not a reproach to devs not catering to me. They do not owe me anything. It is an incentive to devs who make quality Linux builds. Or at worst ports.
So i buy Linux games, it is the only more or less convincing move i can do.
Cyberpunk 2077 seems fantastic. Well in the spirit of my beloved cyberpunk 2020 pen and paper. IF a Linux version appears i will have a blast. Else no biggie it is just a video game.
We speculated a lot about why TW3 on Linux didn't come to fruition but at least they considered the possibility. And other successful businesses decide to make Linux builds in spite of the eventual poor monetary returns.
A thing i wonder about is their technological debt; Not only in terms of what the RED engine is but also their know how. Maybe they do not know a lot about the *nix OSes.
In my neck of the woods, all computer people are formed on *nix and also win technologies. But i sometimes hear remarks from Eastern Europe people telling basically that years of pirated windows have entrenched it as a de facto standard.
But with Vulkan maybe the cost of doing cross-platform will lower. As a personal opinion, i do not believe the marketshare of Linux rigs will improve a lot in the near future, proton and exasperation caused by Win 10 or not.
Unless Valve succeeds with new steam machines and SteamOS becomes a convenient enough way to sell your PC games to a couch-in-front-of-the-tv audience. I.E. a new bigger market.
I do not expect a port of CP2077. But maybe future cyberpunk CPDR games of similar quality will be conceived in a more cross-platform friendly way.
Same as it always has been. To support users properly. Playing it through Wine is an unsupported method. And if some developers will decide they want to support Wine based scenario officially, I'll be OK with it too, though it's not the best option.
Proton isn't really an API. It's a customized Wine with a bunch of add-ons.
The Witcher 3 has been working with dxvk for a while, but it's still missing stream output support (requires pending Vulkan extension). This makes some monsters like rotfiends invisible. This Vulkan extension is being worked on by several Khronos members.
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The Witcher 3 has been working with dxvk for a while, but it's still missing stream output support (requires pending Vulkan extension). This makes some monsters like rotfiends invisible. This Vulkan extension is being worked on by several Khronos members.
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I knew that, but I didn't know how well it worked and if Proton made any improvements in that regard.
How much better is it than the alternative? Does it also use Vulkan? Or is that a separate thing?
I am still using Windows for gaming, but I am waiting for Linux to become (almost) as good as Windows.
Proton bundles things with Steam client itself, but it's using same dxvk that you can use without Steam. I'm not Steam user, but I've been testing TW3 (GOG release) in Wine+dxvk for a while and tracked its progress. It works very well now, except for that stream output issue I mentioned above.
Proton is simply a code name for Wine with several modifications. Such as dxvk, esync and a few more. dxvk is an implementation of D3D11 over Vulkan.
I don't think you need to wait. How good some games are depends on games and developers. Those who produce proper Linux releases are already making well performing games.
Compatibility layers like Wine/dxvk and etc. will always have some overhead. dxvk is already as optimized as it will get or close to it. So you can go ahead and use it - no point in further waiting.
Features wise though, it still needs stream output like above (aka transform feedback). It should be coming soon (first to Vulkan spec, then to drivers, then to dxvk).
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dxvk now supports pipeline state caching. It should reduce stuttering in TW3 caused by massive shader compilation.
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Thanks to very generous GOG giveaway of Shadow Warrior 2, I'm finally playing it (Wine+dxvk on Linux).
All settings on max, screen reflections on. Vega 56 works like a charm.
All settings on max, screen reflections on. Vega 56 works like a charm.