Linux GPU Driver Issues Are Still Holding Up Games In 2017

Written by Michael Larabel in Linux Gaming on 21 May 2017 at 07:38 AM EDT. 80 Comments
LINUX GAMING
While Linux graphics drivers have been improving a lot, they are still not a trouble-free experience, especially when encountering new OpenGL games/workloads, even with NVIDIA's proprietary driver.

The latest is being pointed out to another cross-platform game with their Linux release being pushed back due to driver problems. ROCKFISH Games' Everspace, a single-player space shooter, is seeing its Linux release postponed because of problems with both AMD and NVIDIA Linux drivers.

Everspace is a Steam Greenlight title that is powered by Unreal Engine 4. Via Kickstarter, the game's developers raised €420,252 of their 250k goal.


The developers mentioned this week via a Kickstarter update that the Linux port was hitting issues with the NVIDIA driver. "We ran into some serious graphics issues on Linux, the biggest one being related to NVIDIA graphic cards. The problem was confirmed on their end and we are waiting for a new driver update that fixes the issue. In the meantime we are working on the other remaining issues and should the driver update not hit soon we will be able to use a workaround with reduced graphics that was thankfully provided by one of the dedicated Linux users on the Steam forums."

But it's just not the NVIDIA Linux blob. One of their developers went on to further comment on Steam Community, "we tested on AMD as well. This specific problem does not occur there - however other problems do that don't on NVIDIA - does not make things easier, it requires some patience but I'm sure we'll find workarounds that work for both." Hopefully everything will get straightened out soon.
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Michael Larabel

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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