Feral Publishes Linux Port Of Total War: WARHAMMER III

[galad]

Feral main revenues are not from Linux port, I guess they just make these port because it was cheap after doing the macOS ones, but they won't go out of business even if they won't do them anymore in the future.

[Alexmitter]

After having read these comments, I'm left feeling reasonably sure that this right here is the very last Feral game port to Linux...

Which actually is a good thing for Linux gaming in general, because the various API translators are making these dribble ports thoroughly obsolete.

Feral ports were never really native either. Usually Feral gets the job to port a game, but no access to the source code of the game. They developed a slim shim per game to run it on top of linux and a own DirectXWhatever to Vulkan translator called Feral3D or DirectX to OpenGL which was called IndireX.

Are those real ports, are they any more native then running the game on Wine? The same was partly true for Valve games too that used a internal DirectX9 to OpenGL layer which you can find on Github https://github.com/ValveSoftware/ToGL.

[galad]

Feral always get access to the source, how would they recompile and ship a single executable for Linux and macOS without the source? Then they can use whatever library they made to simplify their job and still get good performance internally, but it's still different then running Wine (and reimplementing all the Windows API).

But if people are ok with Linux gaming user-space being just a Windows API implementation, all is good in the world.

[mdedetrich]

The reason they have given for this in the past is that the Total War games use a math library on windows which is incompatible with linux.
On mac / linux feral uses a different library, this would cause desyncs in multiplayer (the netcode in total war isn't great in the first place). Another thing is they take some time porting things over and so patches may not always be in sync.

This would explain a lot of things.

Unfortunately this is the issue with porting games, if you don't already make the game cross platfrom in mind you then get these problems where maths (and other libraries) perform slightly differently and as you said with slightly different maths calculations you cause bigger syncing issues with netcode.

Path Of Exile has same problem and its the reason why it doesn't have a Linux port.

[mdedetrich]

Feral always get access to the source, how would they recompile and ship a single executable for Linux and macOS without the source? Then they can use whatever library they made to simplify their job and still get good performance internally, but it's still different then running Wine (and reimplementing all the Windows API).

But if people are ok with Linux gaming user-space being just a Windows API implementation, all is good in the world.

Not sure if the access to source thing is true or not but you can just embed/wrap a Windows executable into a file, although I agree its not the best solution.

[OmniNegro]

Ultimately most native games are a problem because they are not Windows games. Strange times. Valve made a great tool in Proton that works with minimal issues.

Add to that Lutris and all manner of Wine and other such projects and we do not need native at all.

Stuff that works on Windows almost always works almost as well under Linux with minimal work required. And the fact that it does not handle co-op the same on Linux native means that the Windows version is plainly better.

Strange times indeed.

[CochainComplex]

I'm pretty sure my 5700 XT is almost two times as powerful as a GTX 1070. I guess they wrote the first AMD GPU that came into their minds and called it a day.

It also came to my mind. Sure 5700XT is not the latest anymore but as min ? I can even play CP2077 at fullhd with almost everything put to high or ultra whilst having frame rates mostly higher then 50+. AC Valhalla plus vkBasalt even almost always stable 60fps. This game must have an insane gfx.or the native version is already bad coded or the port is not really well optimised for amd.
Somehow fishy.

[skeevy420]

No it's for cross platform multiplayer. I just bought warhammer 2 to play with a friend who uses windows only to find out I had to play in Proton even though there's a linux version because somehow after 3 ports of these games they still don't have the ability to play multiplayer cross-OS. We've got multiplayer working between Sony and Xbox now, something that seemed like a dream not long ago, and yet these Windows to Linux ports can't figure it out. Mind bogglingly frustrating.

That's how Dirt Rally and F1 2017 are, too. They're basically they're own Linux exclusive games so you only get to play online with other Linux users and save games aren't don't work between Windows and Linux versions. That save game one really irks me. Please don't tell me that saving games depends on a Windows exclusive math library. Net code, engine rendering, and random calculations, sure, I'll believe that, but saving games?

middy And its funny that the compatibility layers are what is starting to make Linux/Wine/Proton a better platform than Windows; that's why a lot of us saw this coming. Like I said above, dealing with cross platform saves syncing and FUBARing my save games was enough to move my native Linux games to Proton if it's an option.

What keeps the there is the combination of Proton-GE or Gamescope with vkBasalt, Gamemode, and MangoHUD enable me to use more open source AMD technologies than the Windows GUI with my RX 580 as well as allow me to perform my most common gaming settings like vsync & scaling as well as add in effects like CAS, SMAA, FXAA, LumaSharp, and Reshade...BUT THAT'S NOT ALL...I can also monitor my hardware, turn performance knobs, set fake display resolutions...damn near everything aside from overclocking...which I don't do aside from running my ram and infinity fabric at 1900/DDR4 3800...a massive gain from my stock 1800/DDR4 3600 XMP

And then you go to play a native Linux game where it'll only have access to that stuff if it's in Vulkan and ran through the Gamescope compositor (for scaling). All these Linux tools converting to and working with Vulkan really has an effect on the gaming ecosystem. I'm really hoping that Zink or another GL to VK shim will by as efficient as DXVK and allow Native Linux OpenGL games to gain all these Vulkan benefits and use their tools. OpenGL tools exist, just been years since I've used them due to being on Proton/DXVK for so long now so I don't know if they still work well or if they're even maintained.

[Mr.Elendig]

I'm pretty sure my 5700 XT is almost two times as powerful as a GTX 1070. I guess they wrote the first AMD GPU that came into their minds and called it a day.

1. 5700xt is nowhere near twice as fast as a 1070. (more in the 30% range)
2. Total war games are generally running way worse on amd than nvidia.

[skeevy420]

They are gifted people, but they can't keep going like this. They need to become evangelists for cross-platform technologies. To do that, they need to be employed as such.
It's standard practice in the IT sector (e.g. Amazon) and especially games development (e.g. Nvidia). We all know who the employer should be, and they shouldn't waste any time.

They need to put their in-house knowledge into Zink and Wine or come up with a proprietary GLVK driver if they need a product to sell for money. I'd be willing to buy a quality GL to VK driver if it gave me full access to the rest of the Linux Vulkan ecosystem.

Michael Sorry to bother you, my mind is working overtime this morning zooming from idea to idea, but speaking of willing to buy, have you ever considered a Phoronix subscription service that gives people access to long-term benchmarks and results trends ran from single PC over a long term period from an LTS OS like Alma or OpenSUSE; one or two years? For example -- every kernel release there would be a series of benchmarks ran and the results saved. From there plot the benchmark results from release to release. Comments would be locked to subscribers only. Perhaps one Intel and one AMD PC from common devices like an mini-PC, laptop, or the Steam Deck. Tracked Proton releases, codec releases, etc might be other buzz worthy things to draw in subscribers as well.

And you could double up articles/results by using the tracked results as a basic monthly article, "And this month's Proton release improves something, something." **Insert a graphic or two from this month's results** "Phoronix Plus subscribers can go here to see long-term tracked results and in-depth benchmarking information. If you don't already subscribe, please click here to do so. Phoronix Plus is very affordable at $1 a month."

None of us here has an excuse not to spend $1 a month to support the kind of results and information tracking that can and will lead to finding kernel regressions.

OK, thinking that just made me wonder a very meta, yo dawg, question: Have you ever benchmarked the PTS itself?