Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Linux Support
rysiu89
Member
Hi Intrepid,
Could you please release the game on Linux also please?
Rysiu
Could you please release the game on Linux also please?
Rysiu
7
Comments
Ashes of Creation will be released on the Windows PC platform.[262]
Console support may be added at a later point.
Native Linux support may be possible in future.[263]
I heard a bird ♫
It's a type of big cat, right?!
Isn't that the guy who hangs out with Charlie Brown and has an unhealthy blanket obsession?
Many if not all MMOs of "old" are written in C/C++...
And then it it really depended on the graphics. If you made an OpenGL game, it would be completely portable. In theory. If you chose other systems like Direct3D/DirectX, no porting was possible.
And in reality, writing truly portable code in C/C++ to run on Linux systems AND Windows without a hitch is a pain in the ass and much more than double the effort you have to put in to get it to run properly on one platform. Been there, done that. And it was horrible, even with the non-graphical code i had to do. I shudder at the thought to have to do that "properly" with any game engine that does not natively run on both platforms right from the bat.
And even though Unreal Engine and a few others basically allow you to use the same code between platforms, there are always subtle differences that drive you nuts in the rest of your code. Do not get me started on threading (running program-parts in parallel), Input/Output (Mouse/Keyboard) and security (anti-cheat). Of course, there are cross-platform libraries that make all those tasks easier, but still.
Even though I am an advocate for multi-platform gaming, I would rather like to see AoC run nicely on Windows and maybe later get ported/optimized for Linux.
AoC - no third party plugin support.
Linux - third party package paradise, home turf of the cleverrest "what security features do we have here?" people.
These are the people who hide behind 7 VPNs because - BECAUSE - they have something to hide.
Or maybe they use one VPN since it is none of your fucking business where I connect from.
I am not sure what packaging systems on an OS-level have anything to do with AoC? And if you think, Windows has no support for a metric f***ton of third party software (in packaged form...) you might want to do more research.
If anything, I can break any protective code running under Windows much faster than in Linux.
My concern is OS-level customization is lower level than engine design, plus the average linux user is more likely to be doing things at kernel level than the average windows user. True?
Dude half the reason we use Linux is because we get frustrated at Window's ability to get things done. Especially customized stuff.
If AoC was an open-source project with clear benefits for users to contribute to stronger security features, I'd be all for Linux support. But it's not.
However, it would be very good if it was Linux friendly. That is, that no obstacles are built in and you can get it to run reasonably with WINE.
For the beginning that would help a lot.
Anything else would drag out the development even more and I don't think anyone wants that.
However, it should be a long-term goal to make AOC Native available for Linux.
I thought it was a type of flightless bird....
Anti-cheat systems and graphics drivers.
Nvidia (the major gaming market) is known to not give a crap about Linux although that's starting to change now. AMD have always done a great job with their graphics drivers on Linux.
On the other hand, almost no major anti-cheat systems for online games supports Linux. There is PunkBuster but no uses it anymore. Thanks to Steam Deck, we now have EAC and BattlEye as well with EAC being the go-to anti-cheat systems for most online games.
Win10 will be my last edition and I will likely be going over to Linux Mint. I doubt Ashes will be in full release by Oct 2025.
Most of my Steam Library has Linux support.
Linux is becoming a more gamer friendly operating system...Though I understand why Intrepid might be apprehensive about spreading development resources.
I would like them at least consider the direction Micro$oft is heading and that finding support for Linux might be a worthwhile consideration.
Granted I will probably run Win10 beyond the phase out...
Unreal Engine 5 has Linux support out of the box...
The problem for intrepid is more likely networking and security adopting multi distribution platforms.
Nice assist! Here's the link for those who'd like to read more: https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Platforms
The. Only. Thing. (everything else out there is just, well ... uugghh ...)
However,
I do not, and will not, use winblows. For anything. Ever.
If there is no native linux option, or decent linux support, well then I guess ... le sigh ... will just have to keep waiting for something *real* to be actually excited about for a change.
Gaming is better on linux, from top to bottom, through and through, at every level (referring to games actually built for linux). The *only* reason/s you don't get more "serious-like* games being developed for linux have nothing at all to do with performance or "technical" reasons, and everything to do with marketing, market share and profit.
If the gamers really got behind the Free Software development community (so that they could earn a proper living from developing full time), we'd have 1000% better games with a 100 times more genuinely interesting content being constantly created.
this post is just full of absolute nonsense lol it's cool that you like Linux but there's no reason to spread stuff that just simply isn't true like this. At the end of the day for 99% of people gaming on Linux would be essentially identical to gaming on Windows. The only thing that wasn't just nonsense that you said is the fact that most games skip Linux because hardly anyone uses it for personal use and that isn't going to change anytime soon because the vast majority of people just don't want to switch.
Games would not magically be better if more people used Linux. There would not be more people making games if more people used Linux either. Using a different OS, that honestly for a "normal" user or gamer is going to be largely the same as using Windows (with most "mainstream" distros you really never need to touch the terminal unless you want to), isn't going to convince more people that they want to start developing games.
That said, I'm all for Linux ports for games. The more people that get to play more games on their preferred platform the better. I'd also love to see AoC and some other MMOs release on consoles
Id hate to have waited this many years to play AoC just to be locked out just because I run Linux.
why you don't want to use windows ?:O
This is outdated, most of the info here is based from post in 2017 to 2021. Whats going on with Linux in 2024 with what Valve has done over the past two years. Really is worth taking a 2nd look. A gaming company like Ashes really needs to step up and lead the charge. Windows rain needs to be reevaluated. Companies need to prove there is other options that not only work but frankly are a better option as a whole.
Again, Valve has only worked on compatibility. They have done nothing to prevent cheating.
I agree that Windows needs to be knocked down a step. The thing is, should that blow ever actually come, it will come from other OS developers, not game developers.
Valve hasn't yet dealt that blow, and none of the current Linux distro developers are even interested in contemplating it.
That blow, if it is to be from Linux, has to come in the form of giving application developers a reasonable assurance that their software can only be run as they intend it to be run. Linux does not offer this assurance in any form, so that keeps most software developers away.
Then just emulate Windows on a virtual server...
Using a virtualized environment is indeed becoming a great way for Linux and BSD players to run some unsupported Windows games, but this isn't easy. Between IOMMU, OVMF, and VirtIO there are a massive number of variables that will stop many people from being able to set up a fully working Windows VM with working PCIe GPU passthrough capable of rendering 3D workloads like games.
On my last trip down this rabbit hole I was able to get my test box, a Lenovo P410 workstation (Fedora Linux, Xeon e5-1650 v4, 24gb ram, Nvidia Quadro A2000) working with GPU acceleration, but ran into many issues in Windows VMs when gaming like in game stuttering, long load times, bluescreens, and no working audio.
Finally, the problem with running MMOs and other games that run anti-cheat software in this type of setup is that AC engines usually check for and prevent game launches or, like Steam's Valve Anti Cheat, can even ban the user if they detect that they are running in a virtual environment. This means that AoC is unlikely to be playable in this way.
Thanks for tempering my expectations I will be 100% honest. I really hope ashes supports Linux but I really don't think anyone risking big will any time soon.