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Please update EAC and enable it for linux users as well
katsuenya
Member
Hello. I have a request for Intrepid. Would be nice if game could be playable on Linux before A2 launch. And with newest technology (thank you Valve and your push for Linux because of Steam Deck) it is possible to do it with 0 input from developers themselves.
To be short, all Intrepid needs to do is update their anticheat software (EAC) and in SDK windows put a checkmark to support Linux. That is it. Your game is playable on Linux with 0 input from Intrepid themselves.
NOTE! GAME DOES NOT NEED TO BE ON STEAM TO USE STEAM'S PROTON COMPATIBILITY LAYER!
Sources:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/group/4145017/view/3137321254689909033
https://www.protondb.com/news/steam-deck-eac-update
https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/steamdeck/proton
And here is video literally telling how much "work" they needed to do to make their game be working on Steam Deck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6UXZH_FONg
To be short, all Intrepid needs to do is update their anticheat software (EAC) and in SDK windows put a checkmark to support Linux. That is it. Your game is playable on Linux with 0 input from Intrepid themselves.
NOTE! GAME DOES NOT NEED TO BE ON STEAM TO USE STEAM'S PROTON COMPATIBILITY LAYER!
Proton supports Easy Anti-Cheat without requiring any recompilation, but it does require you to manually enable support for your build by following these steps in order:
1. Go into the SDK Configuration settings menu on the EAC partner site and enable Linux as a client platform.
2. Go into the Client Module Releases menu on the EAC partner site, choose the Unix platform, and activate a module. If you cannot find the Linux module in the status dashboards, please contact EAC support.
3. Once that's done, download the EAC SDK and find the Linux library (\Client\Assets\Plugins\x86_64\libeasyanticheat.so) for the SDK version integrated with your game, rename it to easyanticheat_x64.so, and add it to your depot next to the Windows library (EasyAntiCheat_x64.dll).
4. Lastly, on the Steamworks site, publish a new build of your game containing the new depot contents. (You don't have to make any changes to the game executable, just include the new files in the depot contents.)
Sources:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/group/4145017/view/3137321254689909033
https://www.protondb.com/news/steam-deck-eac-update
https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/steamdeck/proton
And here is video literally telling how much "work" they needed to do to make their game be working on Steam Deck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6UXZH_FONg0
Comments
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/51611/ashes-of-creation-on-linux-proton-compatibility-layer-support
You need only look at the issues people with Steam Decks (mostly just reviewers at this point) are having with games that are stated to work on it.
And this is with game using unedited game engines - Intrepid would have a world of issues getting Ashes to work right now.
once again the are people who don't even read what is written or read only title.
YOU DONT NEED TO MAKE ANOTHER PORT, you simply go to your EAC SDK panel and put checkmark so EAC recognizes linux users. THATS IT. Nothing more. It is literally 1 click button.
Unless its DRM issue or Anticheat. All games are now working on linux. Steam deck itself it a bit different story since some games has issues because of scaling UI etc.
The point is Stead Deck uses same things as linux desktop gamers, Proton compatibility layer. And games which enabled EAC works very well.
Look at elder rings, it literally worked out of box on launch and that game supposed to not even work. You can play it even on Steam Deck.
Most flavours of Linux come with a GUI.
But even without it. It's still not as difficult as you might think, and arguably easier and faster then windows.
Simple or replace apt-get with pacman depending on your Linux flavour
But yea, I hope they will use the Linux friendly version of EAC. Wine and or Proton will do the rest.
Being easy to do only matters if it is also obvious how to do it.
There is a reason Linux is still so niche.
The same holds true for installing that on Windows.
Search for the browser you want. Download the .exe. Find the download folder. Manually go through the installation Wizard.
The difference is people have been doing it like that for years.
Linux also has a GUI (a 'store' which is free of course) will be introduced to you during your first boot. You can type in google-chrome or Firefox, or whatever. And double click, it installs.
Linux is harder to use in many cases, but this is not because the OS is inherently more difficult, but because people are used to Windows due to what is essentially a monopoly, as such a lot of Software doesn't run natively, and you have to install it via wine. This used to be annoying, and time consuming. Separately installing dependencies. But Steam does these things automatically. And for non-steam, you can do it manually (hard, time consuming) or use a program to do that for you.
Now sure, it's still niche compared to Windows. And will probably remain so for a long time. So notice that nobody is asking for a native Linux port. All we ask is that it is taken into account that if you don't use your own anti-cheat service and instead outsource it (it's looking like EAC) that you take the Linux friendly version. Which doesn't effect development, it does not effect Windows users in any way. It just has libraries that allow us to play the game too.
And if AOC does decide to go for an in-house anti-cheat solution, that during its development, they make sure to white list our compatibility layer.
Edited: for typing of rather then if.
And this is why Windows still has the bulk of the market share. People know how to use it.
I don't think anyone honestly thinks that Windows can do more than Linux - because it can't. However, more users can get more done with Windows than they can with Linux, because they know how to get those things done. It doesn't matter what Linux can do, all that matters is what an individual can do with Linux.
Linux will never be anything more than niche until it's developers come to fully understand this - and people arguing about how great Linux is aren't actually doing it any favors by arguing that point rather than arguing with developers to make it more familiar to Windows users.
In other words - if you want Linux to be taken up by more people, don't argue with people that are not using it, go and argue with Linux developers to make it in to something those people would want to use.
Not in this thread, but people have asked for exactly this on these forums.
Ashes won't be making their own anti-cheat software, and honestly we wouldn't want them to. While I am no fan of EAC at all, I would rather that than an in house solution.
There are Windows-like distros out there already. But it's a band-aid solution. Microsoft sues things that are too much like their proprietary software.
Anyway, that said. Would you truly prefer something like EAC? Maybe I am just unlucky, but games using EAC are amongst the most hacked games I've ever played. But in EACs defence. It does tend to be harder to spot a botter in WoW for example.
Linux in general is at the point where the developer heavy nature of it is what is holding it back. Anti cheat software is beyond the scope of Intrepid right now. They would be foolish to attempt to put that effort in to it with only one PC game in the works right now.
The resources they would be able to devote to it would result in it being significantly worse in every aspect than even EAC - which I am no particular fan of.