The Witcher 2 Performance Rises Again For Linux Gamers

[glxextxexlg]

^
(yeah, linux gaming market is small).

Its a chicken and egg problem. You get a significant number of good AAA titles ported to linux, you get more linux gamers for sure. Besides the thing about steam and linux is mainly about SteamOS and SteamBox, without them we would not have linux ports of games in the first place. When steambox will get released and gains ground, developers and publishers will go crazy to hire OpenGL programmers to work on porting their engines. Hence the importance of R&D..

[Guest]

Its a chicken and egg problem. You get a significant number of good AAA titles ported to linux, you get more linux gamers for sure. Besides the thing about steam and linux is mainly about SteamOS and SteamBox, without them we would not have linux ports of games in the first place. When steambox will get released and gains ground, developers and publishers will go crazy to hire OpenGL programmers to work on porting their engines. Hence the importance of R&D..

That is not true, windows people won't switch unless they see advantage in doing it OR they are forced to because linux comes preinstalled on their computers (at home, in work...).
Being on par with windows performancewise just isn't enough to justify switch, because people don't wanna learn new things.

[smitty3268]

I think you underestimate the importance of R&D. When a company ports a game engine natively to linux it develops the necessary means, tools and know-how to port future titles to linux. If it sticks with wrappers then it means the later ports from that company will probably suck too.

This is an old game with an old engine that isn't being used anymore - The Witcher 3 has a new engine. So I imagine talk about spending lots of money on R&D for this to help port future titles would mostly be met with blank stares from the guys writing the checks.

[glxextxexlg]

This is an old game with an old engine that isn't being used anymore - The Witcher 3 has a new engine. So I imagine talk about spending lots of money on R&D for this to help port future titles would mostly be met with blank stares from the guys writing the checks.

You're right. I hope cdprojekt does have a different approach to red 3 engine and this time port it completely to opengl. Mac support will be a bonus.