Crytek Showing Off CryEngine On Linux At GDC

[Stebs]

CryENGINE is serious AAA business.
...
It is one of the three top tier engines out there. So the Linux status is:

[X] CryENGINE
[ ] Frostbite 3
[ ] Unreal Engine 4

But I have a feeling they will follow... very soon...

Indeed, Michael seems to have missed this announced GDC session:

Bringing Unreal Engine 4 to OpenGL: Enabling High-End Visuals from PC to Mobile (Presented by NVIDIA)
Evan Hart | Developer Technology Engineer, NVIDIA
Nick Penwarden | Lead Graphics Programmer, Epic Games
Mathias Schott | Senior SW Engineer, NVIDIA

This talk will focus on the path toward bringing a fully capable OpenGL renderer to Unreal Engine 4. It will cover the challenges of mapping to the API, cross-platform shader management, porting to Android, and the steps needed to get great performance. Additionally, well dive into the Tegra K1 processor and demonstrate how having a fully functional OpenGL path enables high-quality rendering on a handheld device powered by Tegra K1. Attendees will leave this session with an understanding of the work required to get a fully functional, high-performance OpenGL backend on a modern engine that can span mobile to high-end PCs.

http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/828317

And then I found this older news:

During a recent interview, DICE's Director, Lars Gustavsson alluded to the company officially supporting Linux with a port of the new Frostbite Engine 3.
He said that all it will take is for a single killer game (such as Battlefield 4) to be ported to the free OS and the platform would become as popular for gaming as Windows.
Gustavsson says that DICE wants to create the "Halo" of Linux, referencing the Bungie title that made the Xbox a success overnight. He said that the company will port Frostbite 3 over to Linux and that means that we could see games like Battlefield 4, and other big name titles coming to Linux machines everywhere. A big factor in this will be Valve's SteamOS which has support from AMD and NVIDIA and is needed to get the high-end graphics support needed on Linux.

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/33438/dice-says-it-will-support-linux-could-see-battlefield-4-on-steamos/index.html

Indeed interesting times to come for linux gamers. Top Engines like CRYENGINE (4), Unreal 4 Engine, Frostbite 3 Engine, Unity Engine and Source Engine (2) having Linux-support should be enough to reach a critical mass for a very bright linux gaming future.

[_SXX_]

Indeed, Michael seems to have missed this announced GDC session:

Bringing Unreal Engine 4 to OpenGL: Enabling High-End Visuals from PC to Mobile (Presented by NVIDIA)

OpenGL renderer alone doesn't mean engine will support Linux.
Unreal Engine 3 have OpenGL renderer for long time and there was no Linux support.

And then I found this older news:

During a recent interview, DICE's Director, Lars Gustavsson alluded to the company officially supporting Linux with a port of the new Frostbite Engine 3.

Proof link?

There was only one interview with him and he didn't said that:

http://www.polygon.com/2013/10/12/4826190/linux-only-needs-one-killer-game-to-explode-says-battlefield-director

[zanny]

Blizzard's WoW has OpenGL support but when you force it, it looks nothing like Windows DX11 game.

The WoW openGL renderer is for GL 2.1, it targets Macs. It takes a fully implemented OpenGL 4.0 renderer to match DX11. It also hasn't been updated much throughout the games lifetime since so many Macs still support absurdly old OGL versions.

[GreatEmerald]

What I mean is, for example, Blizzard's WoW has OpenGL support but when you force it, it looks nothing like Windows DX11 game. Valve's games on Linux (OpenGL) look almost identical to Windows counterpart (on DX I guess). I really don't know what is OpenGL and DirectX, how they interfere with drivers, how much driver support for Linux is lagging behind the Windows, etc. In the end, what I want to know, when we all see those beautiful demos from CryENGINE, will they look the same and perform the same on Linux as they do on Windows (in time, I mean) ? Can a game that uses OpenGL look as beautiful as when using DX ?

Note that whether a game looks as good on OpenGL as on Direct3D depends entirely on the effort the developer puts into it. If the OpenGL renderer is given more work, then it can be faster and look better than the Direct3D one. (By the way, Direct3D is the part that does 3D rendering, not DirectX, the latter is a framework that does a lot of different things, more akin to SDL.)

[Stebs]

OpenGL renderer alone doesn't mean engine will support Linux.
Unreal Engine 3 have OpenGL renderer for long time and there was no Linux support.

Unreal Engine may have had an internal OpenGL renderer, but it was never official and ports had to be done by others, now they have officially an multi-platform engine, imho quite a difference.

"high-performance OpenGL backend on a modern engine that can span mobile to high-end PCs". Do you really think they use this high-performance OpenGL backend on high-end PCs on...Windows (or simply not at all)?
Sure, it is no definitive confirmation for Unreal Engine 4 on Linux, but those are other times now (then a few years ago), with competitors going that way, things like Steam for Linux, SteamOS etc., it would be a strange move to make their new Engine officially multi-platform from "mobile to high-end PCs" and then focusing only on Android.

About the Frostbite 3 Interview, your source seems to be the real source? (did only a quick "Frostbite 3 linux" search), but there, the DICE Chairman also says: "We strongly want to get into Linux for a reason,"
The source I found said definitely something "stronger": "...He said that the company will port Frostbite 3 over to Linux..."
But I have no idea if this is just a case of bad journalism, or if maybe they had the original uncut interview as source.
Well, at least one could say that DICE is/was interested in Linux support.

[erendorn]

Indeed, Michael seems to have missed this announced GDC session:

...

Thanks for that, interesting times ahead!

[curaga]

If BF is coming, Origin is coming. Prepare your anii!

[_SXX_]

Unreal Engine may have had an internal OpenGL renderer, but it was never official

It's always was official and available in stable versions of UE3. E.g you was able to use it by switching renderer with one line of config file.

Sure, it is no definitive confirmation for Unreal Engine 4 on Linux, but those are other times now (then a few years ago), with competitors going that way, things like Steam for Linux, SteamOS etc., it would be a strange move to make their new Engine officially multi-platform from "mobile to high-end PCs" and then focusing only on Android.

Do you see this Crytek press release? This is real announcement about platform support.

And any news from conferences are not press releases. Though Michael will be happy to add some water and post those links on front page as he always doing.

Well, at least one could say that DICE is/was interested in Linux support.

Yes they can be interested, but DICE is EA so it's doesn't mater what their internal studio employees want.

[Stebs]

It's always was official and available in stable versions of UE3. E.g you was able to use it by switching renderer with one line of config file.

Do you see this Crytek press release? This is real announcement about platform support.

And any news from conferences are not press releases. Though Michael will be happy to add some water and post those links on front page as he always doing.


Yes they can be interested, but DICE is EA so it's doesn't mater what their internal studio employees want.

"A New Beginning

This first release of Unreal Engine 4 is just the beginning. In the C++ code, you can see many new initiatives underway, for example to support Oculus VR, Linux, Valve?s Steamworks and Steam Box efforts, and deployment of games to web browsers via HTML5. It?s all right there, in plain view, on day one of many years of exciting and open development ahead!

We have enjoyed building Unreal Engine 4 so far and hope you will join us on this journey as a contributor to the future of Unreal!

Tim Sweeney
Founder, Epic Games"

https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/welcome-to-unreal-engine-4

I guess this doesn't count for you ether because it is no "press release"?
And when there is finally a press release, I guess it will be "That engine is not interesting anyway"...