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."
Cryopreservation? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Cryopreservation? (Score:5, Funny)
I genuinely want to know what you think you just read.
Re:Cryopreservation? (Score:4, Interesting)
I just want some of whatever he's smoking.
Re:Cryopreservation? (Score:5, Funny)
Could this result in cryopreservation becoming mainstream and generating massively increased lifespans for people who are wealthy enough to afford it? Would you trust a for-profit corporation to not pull the plug on you in 30 or 40 years when the new board of directors takes over?
Not to mention that this greedy corporation has an unfair market advantage: they've already developed the necessary defrosting technology to re-animate all those wealthy frozen clients,. The government really should look into the activities of this "Steam" business.
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Could this result in cryopreservation becoming mainstream and generating massively increased lifespans for people who are wealthy enough to afford it? Would you trust a for-profit corporation to not pull the plug on you in 30 or 40 years when the new board of directors takes over?
Not to mention that this greedy corporation has an unfair market advantage: they've already developed the necessary defrosting technology to re-animate all those wealthy frozen clients,. The government really should look into the activities of this "Steam" business.
Is there a diff between cryotech and crytech as organizations?
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Could this result in cryopreservation becoming mainstream and generating massively increased lifespans for people who are wealthy enough to afford it?
No, but it could result in the year of the Linux Desktop!
Would you trust a for-profit corporation to not pull the plug on you in 30 or 40 years when the new board of directors takes over?
Yes, if they open source it!
I think it's time we all said... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I think it's time we all said... (Score:5, Funny)
So long as the cost is paid by Microsoft in the form of decreased OS market share, I don't see the problem.
Linux sales figures (Score:5, Insightful)
There's one issue with Linux game sales that I hope these publishers keep in mind. There are a lot of games that they're porting to Linux, where I already bought a copy of the game for Windows. If there had been a Linux version at the time, I would have bought that instead.
So I hope they don't get the wrong idea when I don't buy certain games. If in the future I know a game I want will be released on Linux within a reasonable time, I'll hold out.
Re:Linux sales figures (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Linux sales figures (Score:4, Insightful)
I agree with you, but buy the time you decide to by the ported game, they're already obsolete.
If you've never played it because it was unavailable on your platform, then it's not obsolete. It's brand new.
Reruns (Score:3)
by the time you decide to buy the ported game, they're already obsolete.
Tell that to Nintendo, whose Virtual Console prints money. And tell that to Turner Classic Movies, TV Land, and Antenna TV, television networks that specialize in reruns.
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That said, newer isn't always better.
A lot of Windows 8 users would agree with you!
Re:Linux sales figures (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Linux sales figures (Score:1)
This is why I don't switch from iOS to android
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Wouldn't it be nice if you could go and download all the ported games that you originally bought for Windows?
Look at the stats for any Humble Bundle. The Linux gamer will pay a stiff premium for the Linux port from Windows --- and never yield a return more than 1/8 of Windows sales.
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It's in the freaking HEADLINE. this is because of steambox. They want Crytek games to run on steambox. The fact that it might also run on linux is of 0 consequence to them.
RTFA: nobody mentioned Steam (Score:1)
Read the article: Steam and Steambox/SteamOS are never mentioned. Linux is.
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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:2)
Sort of (Score:3)
"Steam Play" doesn't mean that you should in theory be able to play the game on any machine you can install steam on. It means that you get a license to play the game on any OS they have a version for. Many games have a version of windows and mac, which would be available for steam play, even if there isn't a version for linux.
Also, steam runs on iOS, and can't install any games at all.
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Also, steam runs on iOS, and can't install any games at all.
The mobile Steam app (it's on Android too) clearly isn't "Steam" in the same sense that the Windows/OSX/Linux versions are.
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.
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I cut GOG some slack, because they are a much, much smaller shop than Valve, and they keep their releases for each platform as a separate cost/price in order to A) pay the publishers/copyright holders B) pay the teams that port/package those releases to the OSes they offer them for.
They just don't have that kind of bank account or manpower to be handing out free extra copies just because you run Linux AND Windows.
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GOG doesn't have to pay anybody to offer a Linux version. When it comes to modern indie games all they have to do is give developers a place to upload them. With Mac versions they already do that, which you get for free if you bought the game. Only Linux versions are excluded. With those old DOS games things are a little bit trickier, as GOG themselves would need to do the porting work, but even that isn't exactly rocket science, DOSBox exist on Linux and simply offering the game as plain old .zip instead o
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You're saying that GoG has games on multiple platforms but you only get one platform's install when you buy the game?
No, I am saying that you get two. If I buy for example Strike Suit Zero on GoG I get Mac and Windows versions. If I buy it on Steam I get Mac, Windows and Linux versions. GoG simply doesn't offer Linux versions, even if they exist and the developers are willing to provide them. GoG so far has completely refused to offer any Linux support at all, even so there is absolutely no reason to not have that in this day and age. See also this popular wishlist item:
http://www.gog.com/wishlist/si... [gog.com]
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Wouldn't it be nice if you could go and download all the ported games that you originally bought for Windows?
"Buy" a game in Steam for Windows, and your copy of Steam for Linux using the same credentials will get the port once it's published. And vice versa.
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I think there's more value than an extra sale here.
Valve is offering game developers a single target in Steam OS.
Right now a game developer has to contend with: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 32bit or 64 bit, various versions of Direct X (different versions of windows are limited to certain Direct X versions). Bug in the OS causing you grief? Submit a request to Microsoft and hope it gets fixed (hah!) or code around it. Getting customers to upgrade to the latest windows is not always feasible due to the cost.
S
Hmm (Score:1)
Re:Hmm (Score:5, Interesting)
Except the Linux community isn't expecting you to support SteamOS alone, they want you to support Linux at large
As part of the Linux community, I'll have to disagree. This also came up the last time Steam on Linux was discussed [slashdot.org]. As was concluded there, each distro can implement their own package that installs steam and any missing dependencies necessary to get it to work. Alternatively, the user can devote a small partition to Steam OS and switch out when they're done working for the day and want to game instead. In fact, the user can install SteamOS and separately install the steam client in their main distro and have them both share the same game install folder and only boot into SteamOS when a game isn't working as well as expected in their favored distro.
That said the developer can just choose to support SteamOS and leave it at that. As a *bonus* the game should work in other Linux distros.
Re:Linux sales figures (Score:5, Insightful)
Your're not wrong - but I think there's more to it than that, even.
Valve's concern is Microsoft's app store. They feel that MS are looking to lock down the platform, Apple style, and use the Ap store to charge a surcharge on any software installed, and to control what can and cannot be released. That impacts Valve both as a game developer, and as a distributor via Steam. I seem to recall they went on record to that effect not so long ago.
So Valve are throwing resources at turning Linux into a viable gaming platform. It's an investment in the future for them. And from the look of it, Crytek have come to more or less the same conclusion.
That's how I read it, anyway.
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First day (Score:1)
Not entirely true. For many titles, I might be the game on Windows if it comes up on sale for cheap. For launch titles, I'd be more likely to buy them sooner (at the full price) if they were cross-platform/linux-compatible.
From what I've seen, many others are in the same boat.
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I'm not a gamer. I have paid for games (Kerbal Space Program) because they were available on Linux.
I would not have paid for it if it was Windows only as I don't have a computer with Windows on it.
(I do have 2x HD7850's but they are for my 5 1080p monitors, not for games)
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There's one issue with Linux game sales that I hope these publishers keep in mind. There are a lot of games that they're porting to Linux, where I already bought a copy of the game for Windows. If there had been a Linux version at the time, I would have bought that instead.
So I hope they don't get the wrong idea when I don't buy certain games. If in the future I know a game I want will be released on Linux within a reasonable time, I'll hold out.
This is the engine they are currently using for upcoming/current games, not the old one they used for the older games. What it should mean is that they would have linux version of the games when they have windows (and the various consoles).
But I agree with you about porting older games.
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Remember that, in terms of Steam at least, the majority of - if not all - games that are available on multiple platforms only require a single purchase to allow you to play them on any of those platforms (much like Sony's Crossplay) so while they may not see direct "Linux sales" I would imagine that Valve provides them with stats to show which platforms the games are being *played* on, which is probably more useful here.
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I can't wait for Ryse's publisher to port it to Linux!
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Microsoft Studios? Port an Xbox One exclusive to Linux? Perhaps when hell freezes over.
Besides the only CRYENGINE game I play is Mechwarrior Online. I actually tried playing Crysis but I hated it. Star Citizen, if it ever gets launched, is supposed to use the CRYENGINE as well.
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Microsoft Studios? Port an Xbox One exclusive to Linux? Perhaps when hell freezes over.
That was the joke, yes. But I do always find it kind of hilarious when I launch Dust: An Elysian Tale on Linux.
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If you are on steam, if a game you already have is ported to linux, you will get access to the new port for free. Then you play it and the publishers can see how many people use linux... so it's almost as you really buy the linux version.
Of course, it's always preferred to buy the linux version when it is released, so the publisher can see a nice spike on sales when the linux version is released
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Is gaming on Linux actually going to take off? (Score:5, Insightful)
It almost seems like it's finally going to happen. Amazing.
Now we just need to standardize on a desktop environment, and Linux will actually be a nice OS for the masses. /cue the "But choice is good!" crowd. Yeah, choice is good, but fragmentation is FAR worse than having no choices, when it comes to operating systems.
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I think that's the point of SteamOS it will standerdize the parts that game developers care about, while leaving the user choice where possible.
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It almost seems like it's finally going to happen
Not on your distro. Sorry.
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As I understand it steam mostly ignores the distros package management, there are a handful of libraries expected to be supplied by the OS, some more supplied by the "steam runtime" and for anything else game devs are expected to bring their own.
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Which is actually the smart thing to do.
This will make it significantly easier for steam to support multiple linux versions in the future
And the (binary) games actually don't break as fast when upgrading your OS.
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Really, all you have to do is kick the X11 and all the craziness from the window managers and build your own to get Linux to be usable by the common folk. That is what Android and Steam OS are doing.
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.
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It might come with X and gnome, or whatever. But the SteamOS is actually the Big Picture mode which I assume is very portable since it runs on Windows/Linux/Mac. you might soon see the big picture in Android too.
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Windows also has a surprisingly large selection of subsystems to write applications with.
I am much more hopeful that game engines will target various OpenGL profiles directly now that native Linux + Xorg + Mesa support for all popular vendors is at OpenGL 3.3+.
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Indeed. *Provided* of course that binaries are compatible across distros, which of course also requires a comprehensive set of shared APIs for common functionality.
One of the reasons I've never done much development for Linux is that, unlike Windows, it requires making multiple packages for at least all the primary "trunk" distros, and I still get a far smaller audience than with Windows. Meanwhile if I target Windows and spend just a little extra effort to make sure it's WINE compatible, then pretty much
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Choice is a good thing.
...until it comes time to provide support:
SupportDesk(SD): Okay, click on Start.
Customer(C):Um... I don't see Start. Where is it?
SD: It's usually in the bottom left corner. What do you have there?
C: I've got a clock.
SD: Um... Okay, what's in the top left corner?
C: it's sort of a multi-colored circle
SD: Okay, click that and then click System
C:I don't see System
SD:What about a Utilities?
C: No. There's nothing but icons.
SD: I see. Is there a gear icon?
C: No
SD:What about tools, like a wrench o
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Pretty much this.
I'm probably going to start a riot by saying this but I think KDE stands as the best candidate for a "standardized" desktop environment; it's all very well built and all its components are well integrated into the KDE framework and the environment itself will probably feel the most comfortable for Windows users. Of course everyone is entitled to their preferences (the beauty of the GNU/Linux platform) but I honestly believe KDE is an outstanding environment for general desktop usage.
I used
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Perhaps XFCE would make a better choice?
Consider - user-space fragmentation is a non-issue. So long as I can grab a program and run it, my choice of GUI is irrelevant to anyone else except the tech support guy. The issue is developer-space fragmentation: a developer doesn't want to incur the extra expense of supporting a bajillion different platforms, even a handful can be a pain in the ass. And the vast majority of software doesn't actually care all that much about the OS GUI or the fancy features it ad
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Gnome 2 was perfect and is now thankfully continued by the MATE project. Before MATE, I used Xfce which felt like a lighter version of Gnome 2. I used to like KDE but its menu feels cluttered, even the latest KDE 4. Its the same mistake the Cinnamon team made.
Though, KDE does have a lot of interesting things like bindings for multiple languages such as PHP, C#, LUA, Ruby, Python etc. This open up application development to a wider audience.
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Now we just need to standardize on a desktop environment, and Linux will actually be a nice OS for the masses. /cue the "But choice is good!" crowd. Yeah, choice is good, but fragmentation is FAR worse than having no choices, when it comes to operating systems.
Maybe SteamOS (and whichever desktop it uses, currently GNOME3) will simply become the de facto standard.
And a package manager (Score:2)
That's sorta been the problem. Nobody ever stepped in and sorted out a _way_ to do common things. Sure, Microsoft's way isn't always the best. It's full of holes and quirks. But at least it's something. It's sorta like Ruby on Rails. It might not be the best way to write web apps, but it says to you: This is how we do it. Period. So you don't have to support 8 different ways of doing the same damn thing...
Beyond Awesome! (Score:1)
A 10 year old rendering engine? (Score:2)
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It refers to the latest version of Cryengine, the one which the summary points out was used in Ryse for the Xbox One.
Re:A 10 year old rendering engine? (Score:5, Funny)
No, this is CRYENGINE not CryEngine.
It's basically CryEngine 4, but they decided to drop the number and capitalise the lot, apparently because of how big a departure it is from CryEngines 1 through 3.
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People like myself who build using the CryEngine still need a version number, so we know when to update, and what version we are building to. So they may drop the number in the branding, but we almost certainly will have it as users of the engine.
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They are just listening to customers who complained at the recent trend in the media industry of adding "The" to movie titles and then leaving the number off. From the Microsoft "we listen to customers who wanted the start button back" playbook they opted to remove the number and ensure they don't get negative response by not adding "The" to the title, ala "The Final Destination".
Clearly this is the best of both worlds. No number to confuse people, and no additional bits in the title to mess with people who
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I think it's the new one:
"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.
That's what the summary says. I assume it's not that one, but the newest (which would be 4, according to wikipedia).
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No, CryEngine is the brand name. The version you are thinking of was version 1.0. The current version of the free SDK is 3.5.8, which you can download from http://www.crydev.net/ [crydev.net] It's only a week old. The version they will be demoing at the Game Developer's Conference is even newer, with Linux support and physically based shaders. It will probably be labeled version 3.6 or 4.0 because those are big additions.
Note the SDK is much bigger than the game engine. The game engine is the set of DLL's that get
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How big of a crybaby do you need to be to need a cryengine to automate if for you?
Also a cryengine with steam? Isn't that a big dangerous for your face?
Any game ports? (Score:2)
I see the engine was ported, but it doesn't sound like any specific games were ported (Ryse definitely wasn't, since it's an Xb1 exclusive). I'm always doubtful of engine ports that don't come with game ports, because without porting a game to a releasable state, you're likely to have some weird issues when that actually comes (see UE3's supposed Linux support).
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That's been a "selling point" of every engine since what, the Quake 3 engine? It's like with anything that claims to just make things work everywhere - it never "just works". UE2 was supposed to do this, then UE3 was supposed to do this. Unity was supposed to do this. None of them did it perfectly, though Unity came close.
And now we're supposed to believe that CryEngine 4 managed to do it, despite their history (CryEngine 2 basically could not run on anything but PC) and despite only one game having yet bee
Free Windows (Score:2)
Only a Matter of Time Now (Score:5, Insightful)
Linux will be the premier gaming platform on the PC and on its own console, and Valve will be the company that made it happen.
This will have nothing but positive effects on the quality of games, the tools required to make those games, the educational possibilities for developers through shared source, and there will be spinoff effects for Android and OS X.
Tremendously exciting time to be a Linux developer. Glad we stuck with it.
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Linux will be the premier gaming platform on the PC and on its own console, and Valve will be the company that made it happen.
Valve will be the ones who made it happen, but the Humble Bundles are what made it possible. The groundwork for this has been laid over a long time, by a lot of people.
Re:Only a Matter of Time Now (Score:4, Insightful)
A stable driver ABI would lead to more proprietary drivers and nobody wants that.
Proprietary drivers are usually only supported for a few years before the vendor drops them to increase the sales of new hardware.
In the meantime, almost all libre drivers in Linux enjoy support for decades, on a large number of system architectures.
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I think you're missing the point *entirely*. If the ABI is stable, it's in fact much harder for vendors to drop a proprietary driver. They just continue working, and therefore the old videocards do.
OTOH, if Linux introduces a new ABI every 6 months, a vendor can simply support that new ABI for its current products. That keeps the blame for "dropping support" of old hardware fully on the Linux side. The vendor just gets to sell new hardware without recriminations.
What is missing? (Score:1)
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I think you're thinking about it like a cart before the horse. The short answer is no, features do not have to be cut when you go to OpenGL.
What does Direct3D and OpenGL do? They expose features that are present on a graphics card.
They do not *create* features, they *expose* them. Because OpenGL is extensible (and vendors can even add their own extensions), there are zero graphical features that DirectX can do that OpenGL can't, assuming that the videocard vendor has implemented the features in the appropri
But can it.. (Score:1)