CRYENGINE Finally Lands On Linux 57
An anonymous reader writes: CRYENGINE, the video game engine from Crytek, will run natively on Linux starting from version 3.8.1. Other improvements include the ability to run on the Oculus Rift, support for OpenGL, 8-weight GPU vertex skinning, and improved POM self-shadowing. Here are the full release notes. They've also added Game Zero, a full blown example game that demonstrates how various features of the engine can work.
Star Citizen? (Score:1)
I can haz Star Citizen?
Re:Star Citizen? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Star Citizen? (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, this is the release with VR support, which has already been confirmed as being the last version of Cryengine they're going to merge in. As for the work involved, Cloud Imperium Games didn't hire away half of Crytech's engineers and open an office in Frankfurt for nothing.
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I don't expect it either. But in the past they wouldn't rule it out and intimated that if cryengine supported it they would add it.
Now they can't blame someone else. We'll see...
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I see what you did there, and it makes me sad. How does that make you feel? - Counselor Deanna Troi
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What does a game engine "runs on", if not the CPU+GPU+display? Granted it's confusing the way it's written, but still.
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I took it to mean that games based on the engine will run on a strong enough CPU and GPU in a mode suitable for output to a particular display geometry.
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The summary badly rewords the not so well written original. The actual article states, "With CRYENGINE’s update to version 3.8.1, the company adds support to Oculus Rift"
But will it run Crysis ? (Score:5, Funny)
Sorry dated joke.
Valve is the lever moving the PC gaming world (Score:5, Insightful)
The Windows Store has Valve running for the exit before Microsoft turns Windows into a walled garden with a 30% tax, Apple style. Steam leaning on Linux to provide high-performance gaming experiences is going to transform the reputation of the OS for the mainstream.
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Re:Valve is the lever moving the PC gaming world (Score:5, Informative)
Valve mostly uses the Source engine and it already supports Linux, so a lot of Valve games are already Linux+SteamOS games. [steampowered.com]
The Linux port of CryEngine does not mean however that the existing CryEngine games get a Linux port overnight as it requires further work on the game developer's side (at the very minimum a recompilation but I guess there will be lots of small things and also it may be a problem if they use any third-party lib that does not support Linux)
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Re:Valve is the lever moving the PC gaming world (Score:5, Interesting)
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Can't tell if you're willfully ignorant on this or just trolling.
Valve doesn't have a lot of games on Steam. 3rd Party development houses chose to use Steam as a Distribution/DRM platform. Valve has not one iota of power (yet) to dictate that games developed by 3rd parties must also have Linux Binaries. The only binaries that are in direct control of Valve are games that Valve has developed. This is not to say that at a point in the future where Valve believes that Steam as the sort of clout that all
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Steam leaning on Linux to provide high-performance gaming experiences is going to transform the reputation of the OS for the mainstream.
Yes, and Taylor Swift is going to get tired of dating all those rich famous guys and realize that a dumpy, poor, smart guy like me is what she REALLY wants.
I mean, while we're dreaming, may as well aim high.
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Dude, I haven't seen you, but I am pretty sure you can do better...
If you must, buy a cafe in france with cheese, like Rene Artois..
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I don't see why they should be working. Windows can't remove the ability to install 3rd party software without breaking basically every piece of legacy (non-windows-store) software that exists. As long as you can install 3rd party software in Window, which will probably be available for a long time to come, Steam has nothing to worry about the Windows store stealing their market away. I could see why they might have been worried when Windows RT was a thing, and it only allowed store apps to run, but that's
Windows RT and Windows Phone (Score:2)
Because you can't sell apps to people outside the Windows Store. Nope. Impossible.
This is in fact true of Windows RT and Windows Phone. Sideloading on these platforms requires a developer license, whose terms are generally restricted to testing purposes. But on the other hand, I wouldn't expect the devices that run these Windows variants to run any recent CryEngine games.
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Yup
Once the number of games that will run on Linux reaches a tipping point, a lot of gamers, who build their own rigs any way will start moving to Linux because Windows is a ball-ache to keep clean and is an unnecessary expense. There is a reason MS is giving away Windows 10 for free for a year and it is not because of any altruism. They are trying to cock-block Steam from succeeding in their Linux push.
Gamers are about the last portion of the home PC market that MS has locked in.
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Steam leaning on Linux to provide high-performance gaming experiences is going to transform the reputation of the OS for the mainstream.
Heh. You sound an awful lot like a girl I used to talk to while trapped in the friend zone. "He can change!" Hehe.
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Bitter, are we?
Re:Can finally make that multi-million$ game on Li (Score:5, Informative)
No-one is going to make a multi-million-dollar game for exclusively for Linux, but releasing on Linux as an additional platform can be worth it if the extra effort to support Linux is small enough.
Re:Can finally make that multi-million$ game on Li (Score:5, Informative)
releasing on Linux as an additional platform can be worth it if the extra effort to support Linux is small enough.
Why? So you can spend a fortune porting it, only to be hit with:
If the engine already supports Linux, porting the game won't cost a fortune.
a) the fact that most Linux users are cheapskates and rarely pay for software
The sales stats from the Humble Bundles suggest that Linux users do in fact pay for games.
b) the complaints that it only works on X and Y distros, as opposed to the thousands of others
Games typically ship with their own versions of all the libraries they need, so they don't depend on the way a distro packages libraries. In any case, this is something that would be handled in the engine, so it's not a burden for the game developer.
c) the stupid-ass Stallman hippies who complain that it isn't open-source
Any game developer that can't deal with people complaining won't stay sane long... ;)
Besides, real Stallman followers don't use the term "open source"
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a) the fact that most Linux users are cheapskates and rarely pay for software
The sales stats from the Humble Bundles suggest that Linux users do in fact pay for games.
Not only do they pay, on average they pay more than Windows or OSX users: Humble Bundle All Time Stats [cheesetalks.net]
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Humble Bundle all time stats [cheesetalks.net]
Looks like windows users are the cheap skates...
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Not only that, but what happens if Microsoft actually makes their platform more expensive? Gamers would have the choice of buying the more expensive version or the cheaper Linux version. This assumes that the support is there, which I keep reading more and more about. I run Windows for games, but I absolutely love KDE and Linux and would switch in a heartbeat (on my desktop, I run Linux everywhere else) if the majority of my games ran in my favorite environment.
Re:Can finally make that multi-million$ game on Li (Score:5, Interesting)
Linux has such a small share of the market it is silly to target that platform specifically, I mean Linux is only ~1.5% of the steam deployments. But if you can grab that 1.5% of extra sales for only a few weeks more work, why not?
Opportunity cost (Score:3)
But if you can grab that 1.5% of extra sales for only a few weeks more work, why not?
Because of opportunity cost. Spending "only a few weeks" to port a game to X11/Linux for 1.5% of extra sales means you can't spend "only a few weeks" on something else that could provide equivalent earnings to 4.5% of extra sales.
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The only way it makes sense to grab that extra 1.5% sales that Linux *MIGHT* represent is if you can get it at absolutely *NO* extra cost. And that 1.5% is a theoretical maximum, assuming an extraordinaly high penetration level across all Linux users. In practice, the penetration will be just a tiny fraction of even that amount. Sure, the studios will take the Linux market when they can get it for free, but it's generally not something that a studio is going to want to invest effort in. Ultimately, tha
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Unfortunately, yes. The money they invested in paying the developers and QA team for making and verifying the Linux port inevitably lowers the studio's ROI. Sure, it can represent some number of additional sales, but because of how small the market is, the royalties from those few additional sales (assuming that you even see any royalties... many of the games
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Or maybe they understand long-term thinking. Only producing for one platform means you lock your fate to that platform. By supporting multiple platforms, you increase your bargaining power, goodwill from customers (who are often evangelists willing to spend more than others).
Also, maybe people like making games, like people playing them, and want more people to do that, and want to give their customers what they want, even if it's not the best way to directly make money. That will produce more goodwill and
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Obviously a game company should evolve to meet a changing platform market... but for now, in 2015, the market for Linux games is simply too low, and the royalties won't justify the money spent on making them.
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Someone is butt hurt.
I think both GoG and Humble bundle prove you wrong.