Escape Simulator drops the Linux build to focus on supporting Proton
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In a decade, most games will be cross platform but compiled for
windowsproton and people will have forgotten why. Then somebody or some group will come up with "cross platform compilation" and the circle will start a new only to return to proton or some form of it. -
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At my studio we maintain a native Linux version with a custom game engine, and it indeed takes a lot of time. I don't consider Proton a viable option as we lost the ability to integrate with Linux-specific stuff such as Wayland APIs or better input, but I can definitely see the appeal of switching to Proton... if your team uses Windows.
If you have some developers on Linux, you naturally get a Linux build (if using cross platform APIs ofc) and it's actually faster to cross-compile a Windows build every once in a while (skip the slow ntfs I/O) and ship that. But it requires getting more of the team on Linux
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Please don't do this
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Please don't do this
wrote on last edited by [email protected]It makes perfect sense to do this. You have no idea how much extra work it is to maintain a Linux-native version that works predictably across the entire range of Linux machine configurations. Factorio has one guy, raiguard (hallowed be his name), in charge of the Linux build, and he wrote a blog post about the unique challenges of supporting the Linux native build.
Proton is already known to be perfectly capable of running most games as good as or even better than Windows. Game developers can defer the issue of compatibility and focus on developing the game instead of having to implement client-side decorations for GNOME users.
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Please don't do this
Do you like the half-maintained and rarely updated Linux builds more? I sure don't.
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"Drops the Linux build to focus supporting proton" makes as much sense as "drops the windows build to focus supporting direct x in wine"
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As much as I would love Linux native builds of games, this also makes a lot of sense. I consider it a completely acceptable solution to the problem.
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Please don't do this
Do you remember the days before proton? Like the time I couldn’t play Terraria for months because they didn’t have anyone in their dev team who could update the Linux version to keep it working. The workaround was to get the windows version working through wine.
Using wine to play windows games is something we have done for years before proton made it easier. It’s a very Linux thing to do. Even some old ports were just using wine wrappers.
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At my studio we maintain a native Linux version with a custom game engine, and it indeed takes a lot of time. I don't consider Proton a viable option as we lost the ability to integrate with Linux-specific stuff such as Wayland APIs or better input, but I can definitely see the appeal of switching to Proton... if your team uses Windows.
If you have some developers on Linux, you naturally get a Linux build (if using cross platform APIs ofc) and it's actually faster to cross-compile a Windows build every once in a while (skip the slow ntfs I/O) and ship that. But it requires getting more of the team on LinuxBut it requires getting more of the team on Linux
Get them a Steam Deck and target only Steam Linux Runtime 3.
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It makes perfect sense to do this. You have no idea how much extra work it is to maintain a Linux-native version that works predictably across the entire range of Linux machine configurations. Factorio has one guy, raiguard (hallowed be his name), in charge of the Linux build, and he wrote a blog post about the unique challenges of supporting the Linux native build.
Proton is already known to be perfectly capable of running most games as good as or even better than Windows. Game developers can defer the issue of compatibility and focus on developing the game instead of having to implement client-side decorations for GNOME users.
You have no idea how much extra work it is to maintain a Linux-native version that works predictably across the entire range of Linux machine configurations.
Because in this day and age targeting a billion different configurations is stupid. Steam Linux Runtime exists to remedy exactly that.
Proton is already known to be perfectly capable of running most games as good as or even better than Windows.
And then an update comes along and breaks compatibility. News stories about this are frequent.
instead of having to implement client-side decorations for GNOME users.
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Games usually run full screen.
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SteamOS doesn't use Gnome.
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Native Linux games targeting only Steam Deck's setup are still a better experience than Windows games under Proton aren't integrated with Gnome either because Valve doesn't care about Gnome.
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You have no idea how much extra work it is to maintain a Linux-native version that works predictably across the entire range of Linux machine configurations.
Because in this day and age targeting a billion different configurations is stupid. Steam Linux Runtime exists to remedy exactly that.
Proton is already known to be perfectly capable of running most games as good as or even better than Windows.
And then an update comes along and breaks compatibility. News stories about this are frequent.
instead of having to implement client-side decorations for GNOME users.
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Games usually run full screen.
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SteamOS doesn't use Gnome.
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Native Linux games targeting only Steam Deck's setup are still a better experience than Windows games under Proton aren't integrated with Gnome either because Valve doesn't care about Gnome.
And then an update comes along and breaks compatibility. News stories about this are frequent.
A proton update? Just use the last version.
If you mean game update, this dev is targeting proton. As in their "linux support" will take the form of making sure they don't break anything on their end.
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You have no idea how much extra work it is to maintain a Linux-native version that works predictably across the entire range of Linux machine configurations.
Because in this day and age targeting a billion different configurations is stupid. Steam Linux Runtime exists to remedy exactly that.
Proton is already known to be perfectly capable of running most games as good as or even better than Windows.
And then an update comes along and breaks compatibility. News stories about this are frequent.
instead of having to implement client-side decorations for GNOME users.
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Games usually run full screen.
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SteamOS doesn't use Gnome.
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Native Linux games targeting only Steam Deck's setup are still a better experience than Windows games under Proton aren't integrated with Gnome either because Valve doesn't care about Gnome.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Your dogwater arguments boil down to "it should support this specific configuration and fuck everyone else". How is that different from a game being restricted to Windows? And how exactly does that solve the issue of still dedicating significant effort to support an even smaller set of devices?
(edit) Actually, don't answer that. Your comment is proof of your remarkable ignorance on the topic and anything else you have to say is a waste of everyone's time.
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Your dogwater arguments boil down to "it should support this specific configuration and fuck everyone else". How is that different from a game being restricted to Windows? And how exactly does that solve the issue of still dedicating significant effort to support an even smaller set of devices?
(edit) Actually, don't answer that. Your comment is proof of your remarkable ignorance on the topic and anything else you have to say is a waste of everyone's time.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Your dogwater arguments boil down to “it should support this specific configuration and fuck everyone else”.
No, because Steam ships Steam Linux Runtime in all configurations. Everybody with some insight in that topic knows that.
How is that different from a game being restricted to Windows?
Windows is an entirely different operating system, duh. Game updates break Proton all the time, take longer to load, on installation they execute super slow installation scripts, etc. If your so knowledgeable as you claim with your condescending tone, you'd know that.
And how exactly does that solve the issue of still dedicating significant effort to support an even smaller set of devices?
Steam Deck is the market leader in PC handhelds and 3rd parties like Lenovo adopt SteamOS.
Actually, don’t answer that.
I opt to ignore that order you're in no position to give.
Your comment is proof of your remarkable ignorance on the topic
You confirm that you have absolutely no clue about Steam Linux Runtime and how that is a more stable than an ever changing cat and mouse game of Windows updates, Proton updates, and game updates.
and anything else you have to say is a waste of everyone’s time.
Nobody forced you to reply to me. Next time, I suggest you read up on Steam Linux Runtime and Windows games braking Proton with updates.
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As a cross platform developer I consider this incompetence.
That's not necessary a bad thing. The world is full of less experienced programmers. But they're making it look like it's a hassle to release for Linux when in reality you can foresee and plan for this from the start, without much overhead down the line.
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And then an update comes along and breaks compatibility. News stories about this are frequent.
A proton update? Just use the last version.
If you mean game update, this dev is targeting proton. As in their "linux support" will take the form of making sure they don't break anything on their end.
A proton update? Just use the last version.
I meant mostly game updates because developers get lulled into the belief that "Proton just works, don't need to test anything". Wine and Proton developers are not a huge team either. There is no guarantee that Proton will always work. That's even spelled out in the license. There were rare occurrences of a Proton update breaking a game. Granted, they are very rare but I had to switch to an older Proton release for a game once.
As in their “linux support” will take the form of making sure they don’t break anything on their end.
Their previous Linux support consisted of "maintaining the native build across many distros" instead of targeting only Steam Linux Runtime. Of course targeting a big number of Linux distributions is more work. Valve didn't release SLR for the lulz. It's a stable environment, based on Debian Stable.
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"Drops the Linux build to focus supporting proton" makes as much sense as "drops the windows build to focus supporting direct x in wine"
“Drops the Linux build to focus supporting proton” makes as much sense as “drops the windows build to focus supporting direct x in wine”
They could target WSL for Windows compatibility.
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Do you remember the days before proton? Like the time I couldn’t play Terraria for months because they didn’t have anyone in their dev team who could update the Linux version to keep it working. The workaround was to get the windows version working through wine.
Using wine to play windows games is something we have done for years before proton made it easier. It’s a very Linux thing to do. Even some old ports were just using wine wrappers.
Do you remember the days before proton?
The days before Proton are the days before Steam Linux Runtime because Proton runs on top of Steam Linux Runtime. It doesn't run on top of the host Linux libraries.
The problem with Linux ports isn't Linux, it's sloppy ports. The 1.0 Scout runtime wasn't properly containerized back in the day, so games could call host libraries. That changed with 2.0 Soldier (using Bubblewrap, the same tech used by Flatpak) but Valve made it hard to target 2.0 because game developers had to request its use from Valve. That changed with 3.0 Sniper last year.
Only the Escape Simulator developers know why they didn't switch over from "maintaining many distributions" to requesting SteamRT 2.0 Soldier years ago.
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As a cross platform developer I consider this incompetence.
That's not necessary a bad thing. The world is full of less experienced programmers. But they're making it look like it's a hassle to release for Linux when in reality you can foresee and plan for this from the start, without much overhead down the line.
But they’re making it look like it’s a hassle to release for Linux when in reality you can foresee and plan for this from the start, without much overhead down the line.
They have the overhead to support macOS, though:
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Fair. I'll take a working Windows build with proton over a janky Linux port any day of the week
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But they’re making it look like it’s a hassle to release for Linux when in reality you can foresee and plan for this from the start, without much overhead down the line.
They have the overhead to support macOS, though:
Linux has proton, Mac OS doesn't.
If they give half a shit about it then supporting the gam through proton is a lot less effort than making an actually good native linux version.
