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Why can't we just have native support... Why do almost everyone had to go for Wine instead of native support. Gaming on Wine is painful and often break with upd

Why can't we just have native support... Why do almost everyone had to go for Wine instead of native support. Gaming on Wine is painful and often break with updates.

TulliusCicero 8y ago
> Why can't we just have native support... Because the market for Linux gamers -- especially ones who don't already dual-boot Windows -- is tiny.
- jpetso 8y ago
  I think it's interesting that tiny indie projects would often have a Linux port, when their user base isn't all that big to begin with and their Linux user base would be much smaller still. On the other hand, AAA titles which would presumably still sell tens of thousands of copies rarely ever seem to make the effort. I'm not complaining, but shouldn't it be the other way around?
  - cwyers 8y ago
    Indie titles often use either a custom game engine that is easy to port or use something like Unity that has built-in Linux support. AAA titles are harder to port because they're more complex.
  - TulliusCicero 8y ago
    AAA titles are probably more graphically complex, especially in terms of low-level shortcuts/optimizations. Whereas most indie titles have simple enough graphics to make extra optimization unnecessary.
  - bisby 8y ago
    The top reasons I've seen indie devs mention for doing linux support are either "I write the code on linux, so it makes sense to have the game work there" or "I do it because it's the right thing to do to make my passion project to more people". Never because it was financially worth it.
deadbunny 8y ago
Because developers target DirectX rather than OpenGL/Vulkan. There is the whole "commercially viable" aspect as well.
gpderetta 8y ago
Even most native ports, made by third parties like feral, use a compatibility layer not unlike Wine internally. As long as a game is supported, works well and has decent performance, it should be sufficient; everything else is implementation details. This might require shipping the right version of wine with the game itself of course which seems to be what Valve is planning to do.
- bisby 8y ago
  If you give me a black box of code, and I can't tell the difference, I don't care what is in the box. The primary things to be concerned about are A) support (which sounds like valve is covering themselves, not that they are notorious for great support), and B) performance. If something is performant and it works, who cares how it got there. If either of those things aren't there, then I could see how the frustration kicks in. In the mean time, I have a ton of friends who have been saying "I would use Linux but my games" for years now that might actively take the plunge. As proton evolves and gets better, I fully expect more devs to make minor tweaks to make their game play nicer with proton, which is far easier to do than making a full linux build. Which means overall, the games getting betters, and the tools getting better, this is great news for gaming on linux. Now I wonder how proton will play out for non steam games. If proton is basically "game-centric wine", will I be able to use it to play Overwatch?

Why can't we just have native support... Why do almost everyone had to go for Wine instead of native support. Gaming on Wine is painful and often break with updates.

TulliusCicero 8y ago

> Why can't we just have native support... Because the market for Linux gamers -- especially ones who don't already dual-boot Windows -- is tiny.

jpetso 8y ago
I think it's interesting that tiny indie projects would often have a Linux port, when their user base isn't all that big to begin with and their Linux user base would be much smaller still. On the other hand, AAA titles which would presumably still sell tens of thousands of copies rarely ever seem to make the effort. I'm not complaining, but shouldn't it be the other way around?
- cwyers 8y ago
  Indie titles often use either a custom game engine that is easy to port or use something like Unity that has built-in Linux support. AAA titles are harder to port because they're more complex.
- TulliusCicero 8y ago
  AAA titles are probably more graphically complex, especially in terms of low-level shortcuts/optimizations. Whereas most indie titles have simple enough graphics to make extra optimization unnecessary.
- bisby 8y ago
  The top reasons I've seen indie devs mention for doing linux support are either "I write the code on linux, so it makes sense to have the game work there" or "I do it because it's the right thing to do to make my passion project to more people". Never because it was financially worth it.

deadbunny 8y ago

Because developers target DirectX rather than OpenGL/Vulkan. There is the whole "commercially viable" aspect as well.

gpderetta 8y ago

Even most native ports, made by third parties like feral, use a compatibility layer not unlike Wine internally. As long as a game is supported, works well and has decent performance, it should be sufficient; everything else is implementation details. This might require shipping the right version of wine with the game itself of course which seems to be what Valve is planning to do.

bisby 8y ago
If you give me a black box of code, and I can't tell the difference, I don't care what is in the box. The primary things to be concerned about are A) support (which sounds like valve is covering themselves, not that they are notorious for great support), and B) performance. If something is performant and it works, who cares how it got there. If either of those things aren't there, then I could see how the frustration kicks in. In the mean time, I have a ton of friends who have been saying "I would use Linux but my games" for years now that might actively take the plunge. As proton evolves and gets better, I fully expect more devs to make minor tweaks to make their game play nicer with proton, which is far easier to do than making a full linux build. Which means overall, the games getting betters, and the tools getting better, this is great news for gaming on linux. Now I wonder how proton will play out for non steam games. If proton is basically "game-centric wine", will I be able to use it to play Overwatch?