"Civilization: Beyond Earth" Will Reportedly Come To Linux

[SangeetKhatri]

Looks like Civilization is getting a reboot and it's called "Civilization: Beyond Earth". The great news is that multiple sources are stating Linux is a platform of choice now for Firaxis.

The scope of the game just sounds massive and it's not set on Earth, it's set on an alien planet.

 

...

...

 

Kotaku, and various other sites all reporting Linux as a platform too.

 

Update : This news is now officially confirmed by the developer himself. More about this on the article linked below.

 

Looks like things are bright for us Linux users with newer and awesome games like Civilization and Star Citizen and a few more making their way to Linux. Also with the newer gaming engines like Unity, Unreal Engine, CryEngine, etc having support for Linux, things are going to get even better.

 

Never had been a better time to be a Linux user. I am really happy to see this. Looks like there are more people than what I expected who want to end Microsoft's monopoly on the gaming industry. Good move Valve. Others will follow.

 

http://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/firaxis-games-new-ip-civilization-beyond-earth-will-reportedly-come-to-linux.3474

[rashdanml]

-squeals like a teenage schoolgirl-

[TechFan@ic]

Reportedly the game will also support Mantle.
http://www.gametrailers.com/news-post/73123/sid-meiers-civilization-goes-sci-fi-with-beyond-earth

[Equlix]

Manly tears were shed for this trailer... my body is prepared.

[Amer]

Reeeeeeeeeeeepost. I sound like a Mexican lol. http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/138937-new-civilization-game-announced/

[Khraft]

Reeeeeeeeeeeepost. I sound like a Mexican lol. http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/138937-new-civilization-game-announced/

 

I wouldn't say this is a repost; Johners never mentioned that it would come to linux, which is what this topic is about.

[Humbug]

the number of Indie titles available was already Good. It looks like now the AAA titles are starting to roll in. apart from the valve games we have the witcher 2, project cars, start citizen and now civilization. So by the time the steam machines finally launch and steamOS comes out of beta the Linux situation should be Good.

[SangeetKhatri]

the number of Indie titles available was already Good. It looks like now the AAA titles are starting to roll in. apart from the valve games we have the witcher 2, project cars, start citizen and now civilization. So by the time the steam machines finally launch and steamOS comes out of beta the Linux situation should be Good.

 

Also Ubisoft has plans for Linux launch on it's future titles. Most of the GOG games are being ported to Linux. Metro Last Light is already there so we can expect more games from that developer.

There are already many AAA titles here including the Valve ones. The only publisher which hates linux is EA, but they will have to do that one day I guarentee that.

[wpirobotbuilder]

YES! Thank you Sid.

 

I would make my gaming PC into a Linux one in a heartbeat. Set up a separate workstation with Windows for the occasions I need to simulate something or do real work.

[Mr. Rabbit]

PC gaming is growing so much in the last 2-3 years. And Linux is starting to grow too.

To some it might not be that important, but Linux growing and becoming actually relevant in PC Gaming is amazing. It would give users an option over Windows and maybe force Microsoft to step up their game.

Either way its a win. Shame that most devs still dont do games for Linux. And shame Adobe doesnt have a Linux version of their products...it would also help Linux grow for sure.

[rashdanml]

In addition, Valve's toGL should make it easier to port older games (running on DirectX 9.0c) to Linux, which should increase the Linux game library by a significant amount. 

[Apach3]

i was originally planning on setting up a Windows 8 virtual machine for gaming on a Linux platform, but the more i hear about big-name games and development tools being made for Linux, the less significant that idea becomes.

[SangeetKhatri]

i was originally planning on setting up a Windows 8 virtual machine for gaming on a Linux platform, but the more i hear about big-name games and development tools being made for Linux, the less significant that idea becomes.

 

Also Wine currently is better than ever. You can run almost all DirectX 9 games on Linux under Wine and they work just fine. It is just that games under Wine perform like 20% less than what they do on Windows because of the overhead caused when translating instructions from DirectX to OpenGL, but yeah most games work really well. Skyrim, Starcraft, GTA Games, etc they all work great.

[Apach3]

Also Wine currently is better than ever. You can run almost all DirectX 9 games on Linux under Wine and they work just fine. It is just that games under Wine perform like 20% less than what they do on Windows because of the overhead caused when translating instructions from DirectX to OpenGL, but yeah most games work really well. Skyrim, Starcraft, GTA Games, etc they all work great.

 

i strangely never had much luck with Wine. i tried to run a simple Windows-based IM program and it was doggedly slow. it may be because i didn't configure or install it correctly, but i can't imagine what a similar hit to games would be like...

[1funnygame]

Reportedly the game will also support Mantle.

http://www.gametrailers.com/news-post/73123/sid-meiers-civilization-goes-sci-fi-with-beyond-earth

i'm more excited about that than the silly Linux support why should OS even matter when all you do is game?

[Khraft]

... why should OS even matter when all you do is game?

[SangeetKhatri]

i'm more excited about that than the silly Linux support why should OS even matter when all you do is game?

 

It surely matters as the Linux gaming library is currently building up and it is building great and games like these make the gaming library great and this would surely help to achieve the goal to make Linux as a viable gaming platform.

The best thing about Ubuntu is that it is free, so if there are good games on Linux then you could just skip spending 100 dollars on buying Windows and spend that money populating your Steam library instead. 

[SangeetKhatri]

i strangely never had much luck with Wine. i tried to run a simple Windows-based IM program and it was doggedly slow. it may be because i didn't configure or install it correctly, but i can't imagine what a similar hit to games would be like...

 

You should always search the WinqHQ database where people submit their tests for Windows applications and many times, you can find patches from there which might help run the game. Of course it is not as easy as installing games via Steam, but after a little bit of work the time invested finally pays off. Also in a few years Wine has developed a lot. I mean seriously a lot. It is one of the most active projects and patches are done within a few days and added to the beta release within one or two weeks.

Wine shows us all the strength of how active an Open Source project is.

[Apach3]

You should always search the WinqHQ database where people submit their tests for Windows applications and many times, you can find patches from there which might help run the game. Of course it is not as easy as installing games via Steam, but after a little bit of work the time invested finally pays off. Also in a few years Wine has developed a lot. I mean seriously a lot. It is one of the most active projects and patches are done within a few days and added to the beta release within one or two weeks.

Wine shows us all the strength of how active an Open Source project is.

 

i'm not doubting the open-source community, although i do admit i had little technical knowledge of Linux at the time, being primarily a Windows user all my life. it also didn't help that i used it on a laptop with a first-gen Core i3. i know call me silly... besides, i think having a virtual Windows environment would be easier in the long run. i gotta occupy my 16GB of RAM with something...

 

i am curious, however, what the performance difference would be between Wine and a virtualized environment.

[SangeetKhatri]

i'm not doubting the open-source community, although i do admit i had little technical knowledge of Linux at the time, being primarily a Windows user all my life. it also didn't help that i used it on a laptop with a first-gen Core i3. i know call me silly... besides, i think having a virtual Windows environment would be easier in the long run. i gotta occupy my 16GB of RAM with something...

 

i am curious, however, what the performance difference would be between Wine and a virtualized environment.

 

On games that run fine, you are looking at like 15-20% overhead because translating instructions from DirectX to OpenGL slows down things a bit.

[Apach3]

On games that run fine, you are looking at like 15-20% overhead because translating instructions from DirectX to OpenGL slows down things a bit.

 

i guess i would use it for older games like the original Half-Life (assuming i knew how to optimize Wine), but considering i have an AMD-based laptop and desktop, 15-20 percent may mean the difference between playable and frustratingly choppy.

[Humbug]

i guess i would use it for older games like the original Half-Life (assuming i knew how to optimize Wine), but considering i have an AMD-based laptop and desktop, 15-20 percent may mean the difference between playable and frustratingly choppy.

half life series runs natively on Linux. No need for wine.

[Misanthrope]

i was originally planning on setting up a Windows 8 virtual machine for gaming on a Linux platform, but the more i hear about big-name games and development tools being made for Linux, the less significant that idea becomes.

 

Honest question: Is there a virtual machine that's capable of 3d acceleration? Last time I checked (to be fair at least 5 years ago) that was basically out of the question for visualization.

[Khraft]

half life series runs natively on Linux. No need for wine.

 

Along with a lot of other Valve titles, Dota 2 is the only one so far that uses that translation layer though, all others use OpenGL natively.

 

Honest question: Is there a virtual machine that's capable of 3d acceleration? Last time I checked (to be fair at least 5 years ago) that was basically out of the question for visualization.

 

VirtualBox had direct3d acceleration (Windows Host & Client only) but it was not anything special.  Using a maxfps config I got Team Fortress 2 to run at a playable framerate.... until you walked out of spawn.  It is there though, and I'm sure it might work better on a paid solution, but it's still going to be nowhere close to running things in wine / natively.

[Misanthrope]

Along with a lot of other Valve titles, Dota 2 is the only one so far that uses that translation layer though, all others use OpenGL natively.

 

 

VirtualBox had direct3d acceleration (Windows Host & Client only) but it was not anything special.  Using a maxfps config I got Team Fortress 2 to run at a playable framerate.... until you walked out of spawn.  It is there though, and I'm sure it might work better on a paid solution, but it's still going to be nowhere close to running things in wine / natively.

 

I think with optimized fast boot everyone plus 2 ssds dual booting is the most painless option, you can just go get a beer while windows boot and go take a leak while you quit game and reboot to Linux  B)