Crytek Ports CRYENGINE To Linux Support Ahead of Steam Machines Launch 132
probain was the first to submit news that Crytek has officially announced the port of their CRYENGINE game engine to Linux and will be demoing it at the Game Developers Conference next week. Quoting: "During presentations and hands-on demos at Crytek's GDC booth, attendees can see for the first time ever full native Linux support in the new CRYENGINE. The CRYENGINE all-in-one game engine is also updated with the innovative features used to recreate the stunning Roman Empire seen in Ryse – including the brand new Physically Based Shading render pipeline, which uses real-world physics simulation to create amazingly realistic lighting and materials in CRYENGINE games."
Re:Is gaming on Linux actually going to take off? (Score:4, Informative)
> Really, all you have to do is kick the X11 and all the craziness from the window managers
SteamOS is doing nothing of the sort. It's little moe more than a bespoke version of Debian. It is essentially SteamBuntu.
Re:Linux sales figures (Score:5, Informative)
Currently Valve does this, and there are mechanics from within Steam to facilitate this. Games can have "Steam Play", which means if you can install Steam on that machine - you should (in theory) be able to play the game on that machine.
Any game you buy that has "Steam Play" enabled lets you download whatever version appropriate for your system. For example, Portal 2 is (or has been) releasing for Linux recently, and if you've bought the Windows version, you do not need to now go and buy the Linux version, you just click to install it while on your Linux box.
I'm really hoping developers will use this - even for their years-old games, because the point brought up a few replies back by DoofusOfDeath is true. I really hope some of the first newcomers to the Linux marketplace won't be turned off because a port of their 7 year old game didn't sell as well as their Windows counter-part did.
Re:Linux sales figures (Score:4, Informative)
Wouldn't it be nice if you could go and download all the ported games that you originally bought for Windows?
With Steam you can do that. If you bought a game there, Steam gives you all the different OS versions there are and all the languages the game was released in. There are other shops (most annoyingly GOG) that won't give you a Linux version, even if it's available, but as long as you bought the game is on Steam or activated it on Steam with a key you'll be fine.