Civilization: Beyond Earth Likely To Drop Intel/AMD Linux Support

[Nille]

If Linux version require OpenGL 4 capable chips then they can say: *OpenGL 4 software/hardware with proper drivers*

In The Blog someone ask about the OpenGL Version that is requered. The answer was "Many different versions actually." And the Game should run with the FOSS drivers, so a OGL 3.3 should enough

In both cases they should just note *The latest drivers may be required to play* and that is about it

What is the latest Driver in this case? The latest Package in the Distribution? Upstream? Where to get from the Distributions the latest drivers? Backports? They are not very useful. The thing "use the latest driver" wont work on GNU/Linux if the driver is in the mainline tree.

[dungeon]

In The Blog someone ask about the OpenGL Version that is requered. The answer was "Many different versions actually." And the Game should run with the FOSS drivers, so a OGL 3.3 should enough

OK, then it should be *OpenGL 4 hardware with OpenGL 3.3+ drivers* untill someon approve it works on non DX11 hardware, like older then AMD Evergreen or Intel Sandybridge.

What is the latest Driver in this case? The latest Package in the Distribution? Upstream? Where to get from the Distributions the latest drivers? Backports? They are not very useful. The thing "use the latest driver" wont work on GNU/Linux if the driver is in the mainline tree.

I said in both cases, for example on Windows version few days after release people needed beta catalyst driver (and it is still in beta) to get Mantle version working - that means game developers had a driver, but users does not .

In Linux case, i have today radeon driver stack self compiled, that is my reallity and my thing of course , but according to you developers test only on old opensource drivers what some Ubuntu/SteamOS tprovide by default, that sounds like nonsense to me

[dungeon]

The thing "use the latest driver" wont work on GNU/Linux if the driver is in the mainline tree.

I don't use Ubuntu or SteamOS, but i tried to check what is latest mesa drivers in their main repos:

That is 10.1.3 for 14.04:

http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty-updates/libgl1-mesa-dri

and 10.1.6 for SteamOS:

http://repo.steampowered.com/steamos/pool/main/m/mesa/

But what i think if not mainline and not Ubuntu at least SteamOS because it is gaming OS should provide way to latest stable drivers in main for their users, there is 10.2.9 and 10.3.4 releases currently available

[Nille]

OK, then it should be *OpenGL 4 hardware with OpenGL 3.3+ drivers* untill someon approve it works on non DX11 hardware, like older then AMD Evergreen or Intel Sandybridge.

The game runs on my Windows Laptop with a Core 2 Duo and a Mobile Radeon HD3650 (6-15 FPS in the later gameplay :/ ). Thats old DX10 Hardware with a ancient Driver (Note that AMD dropped the Support for pre EG hardware long ago and thats a Laptop GPU and get only drivers from the Vendor. In This case, after release they forget the device).

I said in both cases, for example on Windows version few days after release people needed beta catalyst driver (and it is still in beta) to get Mantle version working - that means game developers had a driver, but users does not .

They get the drivers directly from the Hardware vendor with which they cooperate. In this case it doesn't look like that they communicate with Intel or AMD until this Blog post. In case from AMD i hope they get someone that reliable.

In Linux case, i have today radeon driver stack self compiled, that is my reallity and my thing of course , but according to you developers test only on old opensource drivers what some Ubuntu/SteamOS tprovide by default, that sounds like nonsense to me

Why do you think that? None of the developer that i know don't want to mess with the platform. They don't want to compile System Libs and why should they? They have a target and Plattform and cant tell a user to use a ppa or the cheap excuse "Update you drivers" on a highly integrated system.

This problem gets really troublesome if amd start to rollout there FOSS Kernel driver and Mixed-user space only way for newer cards.

[Nille]

OS should provide way to latest stable drivers in main for their users, there is 10.2.9 and 10.3.4 releases currently available

Thats a problem. New Intel or AMD Code comes with new Kernels. So they have to Back port the drm Code or use a very recent Kernel. The Userspace is only a Part from the Driver. And thats not only for SteamOS also for Ubuntu thats a Target-Platform.

[gutigen]

Once our ATI issues are ironed out, you shouldnt have any issue on FOSS.

Quote from Aspyr from comments under that blog post. Can we stop bitching now and just wait till Civ is out (and eventually bitch then if needed)?

[dungeon]

Why do you think that? None of the developer that i know don't want to mess with the platform. They don't want to compile System Libs and why should they? They have a target and Plattform and cant tell a user to use a ppa or the cheap excuse "Update you drivers" on a highly integrated system.

Well Linux taken different development approach right from beginnig (opensource kernel model on GPL2 only wings), it is not like other propertiary kernels and with no stable API...

This problem gets really troublesome if amd start to rollout there FOSS Kernel driver and Mixed-user space only way for newer cards.

That is how you make drivers if you really supports the way linux do things . If you wanna use so to be depend on nvidia and nvidia blob, you (or xyz developer like this one) actually does not support linux way but nvidia way, blah, blah

Thats a problem. New Intel or AMD Code comes with new Kernels. So they have to Back port the drm Code or use a very recent Kernel. The Userspace is only a Part from the Driver. And thats not only for SteamOS also for Ubuntu thats a Target-Platform.

Oh that is not problem at all, only "binary only_third party_out of tree_graphic drivers" does not like that - what you call "a problem" is usual way to made and maintain any linux kernel driver in tree

[asdfblah]

In the Blog someone say that this doesn't matter. They target Ubuntu 14.04 and there is a "old" Mesa Version and older drm Modules. So even if the foxes land Upstream, thats doesn't help now.

There is https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack (but there is no mesa-lts-utopic/vivid or whatever, not yet at least), so they could target newer releases. I don't get it, why don't they do that?

[Nille]

That is how you make drivers if you really supports the way linux do things . If you wanna use so to be depend on nvidia and nvidia blob, you (or xyz developer like this one) actually does not support linux way but nvidia way, blah, blah

Black and White .... Some Years Ago the gpu drivers was developed Out of the kernel Tree and the kernel version was not a problem.

Oh that is not problem at all, only "binary only_third party_out of tree_graphic drivers" does not like that - what you call "a problem" is usual way to made and maintain any linux kernel driver in tree

I'm not sure if you are serious or no one tells the distributions how Linux works. Lets see the Current Situation. Drivers in Steams Target Platform are outdated and don't get a upgrade. The same for the Kernel.

[dungeon]

Black and White .... Some Years Ago the gpu drivers was developed Out of the kernel Tree and the kernel version was not a problem.

Well i remember that, that came with UMS to KMS switch ~7 years ago . So of course all KMS drivers naturaly depends more on kernel then UMS drivers, that is nothing new