Escape Simulator drops the Linux build to focus on supporting Proton
Escape Simulator drops the Linux build to focus on supporting Proton
Pine Studio released a new update for their popular game Escape Simulator, dropping the Linux version to focus on Proton.
Fair. I'll take a working Windows build with proton over a janky Linux port any day of the week
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 :)
But it requires getting more of the team on Linux :)
Get them a Steam Deck and target only Steam Linux Runtime 3.
Ah, yes... if only. I've upgraded internally SLR 1.0 -> SLR 3.0 but we can't deploy it until a bug is fixed in the Steam client that causes, when we enable SLR 3, all Steam Decks to run the Linux build. Yes, Steam Decks run the Proton version, solely because the save file has different letter casing (yes I know it's so annoying haha). We've spent quite some time on this and there's no way to fix this without some folks losing their saves, and that is absolutely not an option. Soooo for now desktop Linux is stuck on runtime 1.0, and Steam Deck users are stuck on Proton. "fun" :/
Linux is pretty easy too release something for, the real fucking pain is MacOS
Every month xcode updates and breaks everything. Every two years I have to cycle a million certs that have different names depending on what apple docs your are looking at. Apple is pain
Apple can stuff eucalyptus tress up their asses.
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.
Why do people attribute decisions like that to the competence of the programmers? This is a business decision, nothing else. Most likely, some MBA looked over the numbers, saw a few hundreds or thousands of hours logged for tasks related to supporting Linux, and decided that Proton was good enough. Most likely, no programmer was even asked whether Linux support should be dropped.
And yes, even if you know what you are doing, every build going out to tens of thousands of active players needs to be tested, and that costs time and thus money, which is something every experienced cross platform developer should know.
Why do people attribute decisions like that to the competence of the programmers?
Because supporting multiple platforms, especially in gaming, isn't magic or rocket science and almost always comes down to the setup of the toolchain.
This is a business decision
Very possible. But I go by their actual statement: "maintaining the native build across many distros was taking time away from developing new content". My point is regarding the "maintaining [...] across many distros" and not the "taking time away". A good toolchain would make these differences extremely minimal.
hundreds or thousands of hours logged for tasks related to supporting Linux
Extremely unlikely. That would mean more than 10 developers working fulltime purely on Linux support since the release of the game. According to their team page on their website they have 7 developers in total.
every build going out to tens of thousands of active players needs to be tested
This is why experienced developers decouple the game from the platform specific stuff and test them separately.
The game is made in Unity so most of the platform specific stuff should already be production ready. Unity literally markets their engine as "Industry-leading multiplatform support" with the motto "Create once, ship anywhere".
So my argument still stands. And as I said, it's not a bad thing. The only thing I dislike is the indirect implication of Linux being a hassle when it would be nicer if they would take more responsibility for it.
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:
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.
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.On the one hand, it's a shame in general, as Proton has truly been a pesky thorn on the foot for Linux gaming. There's a world of difference between having native, first-class support, and basically running every game on an emulator that is on a lease.
It's not an emulator it's an abstraction layer for the DirectX API etc. They're similar in ways but not quite the same.
As for the difference in native support, well actually having such a later might mean longer support. Some older native games may not run well on future systems as libraries and the kernel change, whereas so long as proton runs, the older games should continue to work.
Proton also adds functionality that wasn't really in the native Windows, i.e. superior suspend and certain input mapping features.
Yeah, it's annoying to not have it native, but having Proton also means there's just one thing to maintain support for. If a major system library changes you patch Proton, not a thousand different games and programs.
Until Linux gaming starts making use of some form of standardized containers or maintain proper LTS environments there will always be a need to keep each game updated individually to maintain compatibility when old libraries gets deprecated. About time somebody gets that going (and no I definitely do not just mean flatpack)
Edit: apparently there's a Steam Linux runtime based on containers, maybe if we can get that standardized it would help
Yes, its such a thorn being able to finally drop windows and play all my games on linux.
God won't someone save us from this terrible miscarriage of justice. If we cant have perfection, then we don't deserve anything at all!
"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.
I don't own this game, but twice I have switched positive reviews to negative for doing this.
Then your an absolute moron. This should be praised, they could have said fuck linux entirely but instead they said "hey native is costing us too much time, so instead we will just work on making sure our windows code is proton compatible"
That should be the goal, tired of worthless native purist assholes pushing developers away from Linux entirely by being little bitches about it. Game working is game working if proton is the easier path for the developer then cheer them on.
Why? Proton works really well nowadays. As long as it runs, who cares if it's native Linux?