4 ms·

One thing that's important for Linux gaming is that games played under Proton on Steam are counted as Linux sales, so publishers and developers get accurate sta

One thing that's important for Linux gaming is that games played under Proton on Steam are counted as Linux sales, so publishers and developers get accurate statistics on how many Linux gamers there are. If the market is big enough, cross platform development is viable from the start.

FrojoS 6y ago
On the other hand, if the Windows version works fine with Vulcan, why go through the trouble of making a Linux version?
- imtringued 6y ago
  It's probably easier to develop proton support for a Windows than to port the entire game to Linux.
  - kungtotte 6y ago
    Sure, but my point was that this shows the value in making a game that's easily portable to begin with. This is more for future games rather than converting existing ones.
- rawfan 6y ago
  True. I've heard some devs are spending at least some time to optimize their games to work better with Proton.
  - fctorial 6y ago
    Wine/proton team could provide tech support service to firms trying to make their application wine compatible.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
  Precisely, and developing for Windows is much easier than Linux anyway because it doesn't suffer from the same "lets break userspace every 2 years" problem.
  - kungtotte 6y ago
    Yeah, there's never any issues keeping games working on Windows...
    - AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
      There are sometimes problems, sure, but compared to Linux, where an application compiled 2 years ago for the same distro often won't work on the current version, it's pretty damned good at compatibility.
      - alternatetwo 6y ago
        Age of empires 2 works out of the box on windows 10 ... The game was compiled with Visual Studio 6.0 ... Even that still runs on Win10. So yeah, it's pretty damn good.
      - account42 6y ago
        > where an application compiled 2 years ago for the same distro often won't work on the current version Ship non-system libraries with your application instead of assuming they will be in /usr/lib* and that's a solved problem. Valve even does that for you with the Steam runtime. This isn't any different on Windows - if you don't bundle your dependencies (including MSVCRT / .NET / whatever) then you will run into problems.
  - mhh__ 6y ago
    I know that games are hectic and everything but I am still genuinely confused that porting a game is this complicated. The main meat and potatoes of the game is either nearly platform agnostic (Vk, OpenGL, or emulation) or usually similar in principle (audio). Maybe I've been spoilt by only working on open source projects where people try to write good code because it's public.
    - FrojoS 6y ago
      If you see how hard of a time publishers have to get their games running on the wide range of Windows PCs, especially at release, it's easy how they don't want to add a second operating system to the requirements as well.
- gpderetta 6y ago
  As long as the game runs fine and it is supported, that's perfectly fine for me. Most ports use ad hoc emulation layers anyway that never see updates once released, while proton see continuous improvements (but of course it can also regress). The better ports use the native APIs of course, but are few and far between.
Kaze404 6y ago
How so? At the time of sale it's not clear how the user will play the game, especially considering only a few titles are available officially for Proton.
- kungtotte 6y ago
  Hm? All titles on Steam when played with Proton are registered as being played on Linux, not just the ones available officially, and if you do this with something you just purchased it will show up in Steam's statistics as a Linux sale. This lets the publishers and developers know that there's a market of Linux gamers because they can see that X thousand players play their game on Linux. So when they make their next game, hopefully they'll pick technologies that lets them release with proper Linux support and not "hope it runs under Proton"-support.
  - Kaze404 6y ago
    Do you have a source for this? I don't doubt that's how it works but it doesn't sound likely.

FrojoS 6y ago

On the other hand, if the Windows version works fine with Vulcan, why go through the trouble of making a Linux version?

imtringued 6y ago
It's probably easier to develop proton support for a Windows than to port the entire game to Linux.
- kungtotte 6y ago
  Sure, but my point was that this shows the value in making a game that's easily portable to begin with. This is more for future games rather than converting existing ones.
rawfan 6y ago
True. I've heard some devs are spending at least some time to optimize their games to work better with Proton.
- fctorial 6y ago
  Wine/proton team could provide tech support service to firms trying to make their application wine compatible.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
Precisely, and developing for Windows is much easier than Linux anyway because it doesn't suffer from the same "lets break userspace every 2 years" problem.
- kungtotte 6y ago
  Yeah, there's never any issues keeping games working on Windows...
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
    There are sometimes problems, sure, but compared to Linux, where an application compiled 2 years ago for the same distro often won't work on the current version, it's pretty damned good at compatibility.
    - alternatetwo 6y ago
      Age of empires 2 works out of the box on windows 10 ... The game was compiled with Visual Studio 6.0 ... Even that still runs on Win10. So yeah, it's pretty damn good.
    - account42 6y ago
      > where an application compiled 2 years ago for the same distro often won't work on the current version Ship non-system libraries with your application instead of assuming they will be in /usr/lib* and that's a solved problem. Valve even does that for you with the Steam runtime. This isn't any different on Windows - if you don't bundle your dependencies (including MSVCRT / .NET / whatever) then you will run into problems.
- mhh__ 6y ago
  I know that games are hectic and everything but I am still genuinely confused that porting a game is this complicated. The main meat and potatoes of the game is either nearly platform agnostic (Vk, OpenGL, or emulation) or usually similar in principle (audio). Maybe I've been spoilt by only working on open source projects where people try to write good code because it's public.
  - FrojoS 6y ago
    If you see how hard of a time publishers have to get their games running on the wide range of Windows PCs, especially at release, it's easy how they don't want to add a second operating system to the requirements as well.
gpderetta 6y ago
As long as the game runs fine and it is supported, that's perfectly fine for me. Most ports use ad hoc emulation layers anyway that never see updates once released, while proton see continuous improvements (but of course it can also regress). The better ports use the native APIs of course, but are few and far between.

Kaze404 6y ago

How so? At the time of sale it's not clear how the user will play the game, especially considering only a few titles are available officially for Proton.

kungtotte 6y ago
Hm? All titles on Steam when played with Proton are registered as being played on Linux, not just the ones available officially, and if you do this with something you just purchased it will show up in Steam's statistics as a Linux sale. This lets the publishers and developers know that there's a market of Linux gamers because they can see that X thousand players play their game on Linux. So when they make their next game, hopefully they'll pick technologies that lets them release with proper Linux support and not "hope it runs under Proton"-support.
- Kaze404 6y ago
  Do you have a source for this? I don't doubt that's how it works but it doesn't sound likely.