6 ms·

Amazing how low the bar is for FOSS games on Linux.

by declan_roberts 3y ago

thomond 3y ago
There's usually no bar for FOSS games. It's sort of the point, the makers are doing it for themselves.
dmonitor 3y ago
open source doesn’t really mesh well with artists, so most open source games just have terrible graphical assets
- anthk 3y ago
  Yes, like Flare, sure. Saying that it's like saying every AAA game it's like an unoptimized Ubisoft crap.
  - coldtea 3y ago
    A handful of counter-examples don't change a statistical reality...
- boarnoah 3y ago
  The same problem occurs with almost any of the hundreds of "rev-share" or "lets build a game together" projects that show up, its quite difficult to find motivated professionals to work on some else's idea especially long term. Games require a lot of consistent output and theming in their assets to make it work, not exactly suitable for piecemeal contribution built with different asset pipelines and quality. What is interesting to see is how a lot of fan remaster projects have this problem to a much lesser degree. Having the touchstone of a shared love for the original makes it much easier to organize and get people to stick around and agree to someone's vision.
  - midoridensha 3y ago
    >What is interesting to see is how a lot of fan remaster projects have this problem to a much lesser degree. Having the touchstone of a shared love for the original makes it much easier to organize and get people to stick around and agree to someone's vision. Well that makes sense: in a remaster, the "vision" is really just "let's modernize this old game". So everyone knows what it's supposed to look like, basically, because they can just look at the old game itself.
anthk 3y ago
One of the most sold games ever has blocky graphics not much better than a boosted SNES on 3D. Do you realize this graphics settings are done on retro purposes? Go check Flightgear videos with ALS settings and graphics to the max. It might not be MSFS, but for something that also runs under an HD3000 iGPU/UHD600, the graphics are astounding for a community based project. Also, MSFS gets rendered assets and maps from Bing maps, something Flightgear did with Google Maps with a custom build... 10 years ago.
nativeit 3y ago
It sounds like an excellent platform for artists who might not have a lot of coding skills to contribute graphics toward. Kind of the point, in my mind.
- anonymfus 3y ago
  I believe it looks and feels like this because of limitations of SDL 1.2, and not because of the lack of art contributions.
  - anthk 3y ago
    SDL 1.2 could call GL just fine. And it does. No, the game was done like that on purpose, on being light and playable. Any serious libre gamer with a big graphics card to test would just launch Flightgear at 4K with the ALS effects on, real time weather and a crazy draw distance over 30 kms with all the shading FX' on. And lots of tweaks that made clouds looks like clouds and not fancy textures or barely recreated shaders.
alpaca128 3y ago
Right now one of the most hyped Battlefield alternatives is Battlebit which looks not very modern but apparently plays so much better than whatever EA put out in recent years that people happily play it. Amazing how low the bar is for AAA games in terms of gameplay and fun.
- avereveard 3y ago
  But battlebit graphics while low fi is excellently executed, it's 90s in look but 2020 in functionality and concept.
- mrguyorama 3y ago
  Except battlebit uses perfectly modern rendering techniques, technologies, and features, just with cuboid player models. It looks rather nice. This on the other hand is rendered clearly with 90s systems, it looks phong shaded.
- jkim1258 3y ago
  Great point & example, but I'm curious how well that translates to simulation games, where immersion is a large part of the selling point, as opposed to fun & tight game mechanics full of balanced flow & fiero.
  - anthk 3y ago
    I watched my younger cousing playing the new Rainbow Six. Compared to the fist one, they are completely "arcadized". Just a narrow step down from Urban Terror on "cinematic gameplay". "Realist", but not so much. Graphics, yes. But the actual gameplay... a joke compared to the first Rainbow Six and tactical matches on SWAT3.
  - CuriousCosmic 3y ago
    Isn't one of the main aspects of immersion that it feels like the real thing? That's far harder to do right than graphics and it's going to have a bigger impact on how immersive the game is. You can always improve graphics down the line but getting the mechanics and handling right is a lot more important and will be a lot harder to change later on.

Amazing how low the bar is for FOSS games on Linux.

thomond 3y ago

There's usually no bar for FOSS games. It's sort of the point, the makers are doing it for themselves.

dmonitor 3y ago

open source doesn’t really mesh well with artists, so most open source games just have terrible graphical assets

anthk 3y ago
Yes, like Flare, sure. Saying that it's like saying every AAA game it's like an unoptimized Ubisoft crap.
- coldtea 3y ago
  A handful of counter-examples don't change a statistical reality...
boarnoah 3y ago
The same problem occurs with almost any of the hundreds of "rev-share" or "lets build a game together" projects that show up, its quite difficult to find motivated professionals to work on some else's idea especially long term. Games require a lot of consistent output and theming in their assets to make it work, not exactly suitable for piecemeal contribution built with different asset pipelines and quality. What is interesting to see is how a lot of fan remaster projects have this problem to a much lesser degree. Having the touchstone of a shared love for the original makes it much easier to organize and get people to stick around and agree to someone's vision.
- midoridensha 3y ago
  >What is interesting to see is how a lot of fan remaster projects have this problem to a much lesser degree. Having the touchstone of a shared love for the original makes it much easier to organize and get people to stick around and agree to someone's vision. Well that makes sense: in a remaster, the "vision" is really just "let's modernize this old game". So everyone knows what it's supposed to look like, basically, because they can just look at the old game itself.

anthk 3y ago

One of the most sold games ever has blocky graphics not much better than a boosted SNES on 3D. Do you realize this graphics settings are done on retro purposes? Go check Flightgear videos with ALS settings and graphics to the max. It might not be MSFS, but for something that also runs under an HD3000 iGPU/UHD600, the graphics are astounding for a community based project. Also, MSFS gets rendered assets and maps from Bing maps, something Flightgear did with Google Maps with a custom build... 10 years ago.

nativeit 3y ago

It sounds like an excellent platform for artists who might not have a lot of coding skills to contribute graphics toward. Kind of the point, in my mind.

anonymfus 3y ago
I believe it looks and feels like this because of limitations of SDL 1.2, and not because of the lack of art contributions.
- anthk 3y ago
  SDL 1.2 could call GL just fine. And it does. No, the game was done like that on purpose, on being light and playable. Any serious libre gamer with a big graphics card to test would just launch Flightgear at 4K with the ALS effects on, real time weather and a crazy draw distance over 30 kms with all the shading FX' on. And lots of tweaks that made clouds looks like clouds and not fancy textures or barely recreated shaders.

alpaca128 3y ago

Right now one of the most hyped Battlefield alternatives is Battlebit which looks not very modern but apparently plays so much better than whatever EA put out in recent years that people happily play it. Amazing how low the bar is for AAA games in terms of gameplay and fun.

avereveard 3y ago
But battlebit graphics while low fi is excellently executed, it's 90s in look but 2020 in functionality and concept.
mrguyorama 3y ago
Except battlebit uses perfectly modern rendering techniques, technologies, and features, just with cuboid player models. It looks rather nice. This on the other hand is rendered clearly with 90s systems, it looks phong shaded.
jkim1258 3y ago
Great point & example, but I'm curious how well that translates to simulation games, where immersion is a large part of the selling point, as opposed to fun & tight game mechanics full of balanced flow & fiero.
- anthk 3y ago
  I watched my younger cousing playing the new Rainbow Six. Compared to the fist one, they are completely "arcadized". Just a narrow step down from Urban Terror on "cinematic gameplay". "Realist", but not so much. Graphics, yes. But the actual gameplay... a joke compared to the first Rainbow Six and tactical matches on SWAT3.
- CuriousCosmic 3y ago
  Isn't one of the main aspects of immersion that it feels like the real thing? That's far harder to do right than graphics and it's going to have a bigger impact on how immersive the game is. You can always improve graphics down the line but getting the mechanics and handling right is a lot more important and will be a lot harder to change later on.