Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

HoN on Linux experiences

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • HoN on Linux experiences

    Hi,

    I got some more experience with playing HoN on Linux (about 8 hrs total in-game time, not much). I thought I'd post it
    here, since the NDA allows for public discussion of the game now. I cannot post screenshots, since that is still not
    allowed.

    From a technical standpoint, the [64 bit] Linux client is very stable for a beta. I've only spotted a few obvious
    graphical glitches, and only rarely. Only a single time has it crashed, and that was when I accidentally invoked Compiz
    expos? while the game was running. I'm impressed, it seems so solid and nice. Maybe I'm lucky, there are probably tons
    of bugs I haven't spotted. I'm mostly new to everything and can't easily recognize if some spell is not working
    correctly, or if things are imbalanced etc. But all-in-all, thumbs up from me.

    The performance is good. I can play 5v5 matches smoothly in 1920x1200 resolution with most 3D-related settings on
    "high". No anti-aliasing, though, my GFX card has its limits, being passively cooled and only 256MB. The game does not
    support resolution change using xrandr yet, so lowering resolution to something other than native/default must be done
    manually before starting the game (if you want that). I don't need to turn off Compiz, just works fine; of course, make
    sure to unredirect fullscreen windows. The game does not seem to utilize multi-threading (it's only burning one core
    100% when running, from what I've observed).

    The game's audio support seems solid, and it's using ALSA by default. I can't remember hearing any hard glitches in
    audio output. I suspend Pulseaudio when I'm running the game, and I've selected ?plughw? as ALSA output in the game
    options, to minimize audio latency. Unfortunately, running the game through the libalsa-Pulseaudio-ALSA-pipeline
    introduces an unacceptable amount of audio latency. This happens in Ubuntu if you're just using default audio output and
    not suspending Pulseaudio. I hope it will get fixed in future releases of Ubuntu/Pulseaudio, because audio support must
    be solid for a good gaming experience IMO. This is definitely a very weak spot in most current mainstream Linux
    distributions (the usual Linux audio chaos, and the latency issues ).

    I found the game installer to be simple (MojoSetup), and it worked nicely. It actually did exactly what it should, and
    nothing more. I recommend not installing as root, since this facilitates the very nice auto patch update
    feature of HoN, which has worked surprisingly well for me.

    On the online game server side, they [S2 Games] had some serious problems after a patch update yesterday, with a number
    of hours of server downtime, but it's been back up and running nicely since yesterday evening (GMT+2). That's to be
    expected when it's in beta-stage, after all. Networking/online play has worked quite good generally, for me.

    As a person not familiar with DotA or any other such games, HoN is very difficult to get into. I've pretty much felt
    like a moron from the beginning, everything being unfamiliar to me (including DotA gamer lingo). Needless to say, I
    stick to noob-games. It's been somewhat better in later rounds (hey, I'm actually capable of learning), but my skill
    rating is still very low. Guess that's the price I have to pay for being only an occasional Linux gamer (I'm more of a
    programmer than gamer). Or perhaps I'm getting old. Nevertheless, it's still fun, just as long as my team gets a few
    wins now and then. I should mention, there is also a good support forum and community with lots of information.

    That's what I have for now. I am pretty sure I will be buying this game when it hits retail. Feel free to post your own
    HoN-on-Linux-experiences in this thread .

    Cheers,
    oyvind
    --
    System: Ubuntu Jaunty x86-64, 8GB RAM DualChannel, Intel Core2 Quad 2.5GHz,
    Nvidia GF8600GT 256MB using 185.18.31 Nvidia driver.

  • #2
    Originally posted by oyvind View Post
    The game does not support resolution change using xrandr yet, so lowering resolution to something other than native/default must be done manually before starting the game (if you want that).
    You might want to file a bugreport: Resolution changing works just fine for me.

    Comment


    • #3
      yeah.... and i got NO issues with sound, whatsoever...
      using Ubu 9.04 on a mostly intel hardware.(with gforce gfx).
      Even the sound input(mic) works... you just gotta set it from default or whatnot to plughw, but then again, if u mess with that you'll see why its needed.

      they support basically every output i didnt even know existed. o.o

      so, to me the game is perfect and TOTALLY flawless.

      good job S2 Games.

      Comment


      • #4
        no issues here. intel HD audio, same old same old.

        q6600
        7950gt (proprietary driver)
        6gb ram
        24" display

        Everything maxed except anist which for some ungodly reason has a 32 option, perfect FPS. Only issue is that i have to turn compiz off, which is expected.

        Comment


        • #5
          Game runs perfectly for me completely maxed on 64-bit Ubuntu, 16x AA, 32x AF, vsync enabled, and 1280x1024 on a 9600 GT, never seen it drop under 60 FPS. Not a big fan of the game itself though.. No offense to S2Games or anything, just not my cup of tea. I loved Savage and Savege 2 though. But all the testing I have done so far has been good on the technical side. This game will make their target audience very happy.

          AMD Phenom 8750 @ 2.8 Ghz
          4 GB DDR2 800
          9600GT with the nVidia 190.18 proprietary driver

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Yomp!! View Post
            Not a big fan of the game itself though.. No offense to S2Games or anything, just not my cup of tea.
            OK, so I'm not the only one... this game engine is wonderful, the performance and graphics are top notch on a 3.5yr old laptop (Pentium M 2.0GHz, 7800 GTX Go 256mb) and for lack of anything better than Savage 2, this game fills a great void for native linux games. The game content itself does not appeal to me though, rather bland and boring experience, but gets tiresome after a few hours. I'd love to see a full editor included with the retail package, perhaps if you got a nice mod community supporting a multiplatform engine, the possibilities could be endless.

            Comment


            • #7
              Runs great for me with my 7900GT 512MB. I've even pre-ordered it.

              Comment

              Working...
              X