AMD wants to improve gaming in Linux and Steam boxes

[LtMatt]

Yes please!!

Around 50 games have been developed or will be released soon using Mantle tools, with more in the works. Beyond Windows, AMD sees a vast opportunity to “reveal the goodness of gaming” in Linux, said Richard Huddy, gaming scientist at AMD.

The company has received requests from developers to port Mantle to Linux, Huddy said. AMD over time will dedicate resources to the task, Huddy said. AMD hasn’t provided a time frame for when Mantle-based games for Linux will become available

Mantle could also come to Steam boxes, which are gaming consoles with PC hardware and Linux-based SteamOS. The highly anticipated Steam boxes were conceptualized by Valve, one of the world’s largest game sellers.

“It could provide some advantages on Steam boxes,” Huddy said. “We are getting requests to deliver this high-performance layer.”

With the help of Mantle, games on Steam consoles could take full advantage of hardware features on graphics cards. Windows currently offers a better gaming experience than Linux, but Steam could change that.

Full Article
http://www.networkworld.com/article...ux-and-steam-boxes-with-its-mantle-tools.html

 

[LtMatt]

AMD put up a massive blog post about Mantle and porting, which i covered in my Gamers Guide To Mantle thread. However they did not mention Linux porting at the time.

Source
http://community.amd.com/community/amd-blogs/amd-gaming/blog/2014/05/28

 

[LtMatt]

Lt, you're such an AMD fanatic I truely believe you'd bleed red if cut

My blood is red, of that there is no doubt. I'm very enthusiastic about Mantle though. It's hard not to be when i see first hand every day the performance it offers on my setup.

 

[LtMatt]

AMD are not bound to Origin at all lol.

 

[LtMatt]

AMD have a contract with EA which can bring Mantle titles to any Frostbite games that the publisher/dev decide on. That does not forbid Mantle from expanding to other game developers or to other operating systems. I will post the Richard Huddy video interview from pcpers live stream when it appears on Youtube. Some will find it very enlightening.

 

[LtMatt]

Yes, but currently it's EA pumping out the most games for Mantle....

Because they're the main partner. They have no say on what AMD do with Mantle, they only have influence over which Frostbite games support Mantle. Sniper Elite 3, due in two weeks from now is not an EA or an Origin game. It uses the Asura engine from Rebellion and they have a lot of Mantle games in the works. It will be on steam.

 

[LtMatt]

Matt I think their point is the big mantle titles are tied to ea. As yet ea have made very little noise or efforts to get going on Linux (they have released origin for osx, if you want to play sims or sim city). So the fear may be that Linux will miss out on many of the top tier mantle titles on Linux due to ea.

Furry muff.

Mantle linux work has not even begun yet but AMD are going to be putting resources into it. I think it's going to happen. If old titles will get ported over or not ive no idea. I think Mantle will come to linux/steam os/valve though. It makes sense for AMD to get Mantle into that market.

It's not even the big Mantle titles ; PVZ.
And Rebellion? First time I've ever heard anyone post like they're an important modern developer.

What constitutes a lot of Mantle titles from them? Googling "Upcoming rebellion titles" doesn't yield much.

We are proud to announce that we will be working closely with AMD to add Mantle support to our in-house game engine, Asura.

As Rebellion's CTO and Co-founder, Chris Kingsley explains, Asura powers all of our games – from – from advanced PC titles, to mobile and next-generation console games:

"It supports more platforms than almost any other engine we can think of and has important cutting edge features, including: tessellation, DirectX® 11 Compute Shaders, AMD Eyefinity technology, multi-GPU support and more."

"As one of Europe’s leading independent games studios we're dedicated to constantly pushing our technology as far as we can, and we're excited about the possibilities that Mantle brings to PC gaming and the industry as a whole."

Rebellion CEO and Creative Director, Jason Kingsley confirms that support for Mantle will be a crucial part of our plans for the next year:

"We believe that supporting Mantle will enable us to stay on the bleeding edge of PC gaming and ensure that we don’t leave any performance on the table when it comes to offering gamers amazing experiences."

"Our first Mantle supported title will of course be our flagship 2014 game, Sniper Elite 3. And although we can’t talk about them right now we can’t wait to reveal even more titles with Mantle support in the next year."

"Supporting Mantle in all our future PC titles will play a big part in what will be a huge year for Rebellion. 2013 has been a hugely exciting year for the studio, and 2014 is lining up to be even better."

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/industry/2013/11/22/rebellion-entertainment-adopts-amd-s-revolu/1

 

[LtMatt]

So, you've taken some PR fluff, and turned it into "Rebellion have a lot of mantle titles in the wings"

Have you ever looked into Rebellion's prior games?

Every last game that Rebellion launch in the next 5 years could well be Mantle enabled, but that'd probably amount to 10 games at most

Any Mantle games are welcome from Rebellion as i enjoyed Sniper Elite V2 very much and am looking forward to playing V3 next week. Looking forward to hearing about these other games too.

https://twitter.com/Rebellion/status/469874690090340352
https://twitter.com/Rebellion/status/403568872483459072
https://twitter.com/Rebellion/status/404998942234263552
https://twitter.com/Rebellion/status/469881749565349889

I've asked them if they can tell me more about which other of their games will use Mantle.

 

[LtMatt]

I don't know they've not announced any, but they say they have plans to release more Mantle games this year. Can't see the point in making public statements about doing it if they've no plans to or are just outright lying. Depends how you look at it i suppose. As with most things here, have to wait and see if they deliver or not.

 

[LtMatt]

They did do "The Warriors". Like I say, they're not really a "At the bleeding edge" kind of developer.

And Sniper Elite are 6-7/10 games at best (That said, most games I find are these days)

EDIT : Where does it say they're releasing more than Sniper Elite this year?

Not the biggest dev out there, but still another feather in the cap. A British game dev too.

Sniper Elite games were better than 6 out of 10 in my opinion.

It says it on their own website.

"Our first Mantle supported title will of course be our flagship 2014 game, Sniper Elite 3. And although we can’t talk about them right now we can’t wait to reveal even more titles with Mantle support in the next year."

http://www.rebellion.co.uk/blog/2013/11/21/rebellion-throws-weight-behind-amd-mantle

 

[LtMatt]

*Reveal*
Doesn't say anything about releasing.

Supporting Mantle in all our future PC titles will play a big part in what will be a huge year for Rebellion. 2013 has been a hugely exciting year for the studio, and 2014 is lining up to be even better."

It doesn't explicitly say 2014, but one would assume they meant that.

Regardless more Mantle games = good in my book. In your book it probably = bad, or they're just flat out lying.

 

[LtMatt]

Well, that's not my book at all, I'm just objective. More mantle titles of course is good, and since when have I said they're lying? If you can't actually debate, then don't try.
What did rebellion do in 2013?

It is your book and it's a paperback version too. I'm guessing they created Sniper Elite V2 and god knows what else. Just had a look on their website and found the few games they have made.

http://www.rebellion.co.uk/games

 

[LtMatt]

I think it's becoming obvious you can't actually directly debate for toffee.
Rebellion launched Sniper Elite Zombie 1 and 2 last year (Basically DLC standalone games). So releasing a "flagship" title would already be bigger.

You're twisting words to suit your argument and putting words into peoples mouths.

What argument? You're the one doubting they're releasing more Mantle games. I'm just showing you what they say on their website. I'm taking them at face value as I've enjoyed their Sniper Elite games and am looking forward to seeing what other titles they plan to announce in the future with Mantle support, hopefully this year as hinted at on their website.

 

[LtMatt]

How are you taking them at face value when you're not taking their words at their meaning? I don't doubt they will release new mantle titles, I don't doubt they will support mantle, what I find unlikely is those drove of games they've got in development supporting mantle (I'm extrapolating your words somewhat)

Well then you clearly thought i said something i didn't. I said other Mantle games. I never said how many as i don't know. Games would indicate at least two, maybe more. Have to wait and see, unless you have a crystal ball?

 

[LtMatt]

Which are mantle?

Star Citizen is Mantle capable and will support it. Any game that uses Cryengine will have Mantle support if the publisher/developer want it. That's what happens once you get Mantle in an engine.

But being a Mantle game doesn't mean it will be a Linux game. If Mantle came to Linux it wouldn't mean you could just install any Mantle game on Linux and play it.
They'd have to write a new installer for a start and I suspect there are other tweaks they'd have to do too. And even then it wouldn't be playable on Nvidia, Intel or AMD non-GCN GPUs. To cover all that you'd need to convert it to OpenGL, which they could've done already if they wanted to.
Or they could release them as GCN only games, just like they could release games with just the Mantle API implemented on Windows. I'm still waiting to see a game that is Mantle only though.

I also like that one of the features Rebellion mention about their engine is that it supports DirectX 11 compute shaders. Well if that isn't want we want in a Linux/Mantle engine I don't know what is!

I don't think you'll ever see a Mantle only game.

GM wait till you see the AMD Richard Huddy live stream interview on pcper. He talks a lot about Intel/Nvidia Mantle adoption, GameWorks and the problems it creates and linux support. The ball will be in Intel/Nvidia's court eventually. Will post it as soon as it's ready. Feathers will be ruffled.

 

[LtMatt]

Lots of mantle games? what are they btw other then Sniper elite v3 Which i must say i'm looking forward too as i enjoyed sniper elite v2

That's what it says on their website. Indicating they have more unannounced Mantle titles to come.

 

[LtMatt]

Yes, but not this year, nor does it say they have lots

Lol. You know what i mean. To be honest they could mean this year or not. They seem like a small dev team to be fair. However they're British so two thumbs up for that. They've made some decent games as well considering. Sniper Elite V2 and Aliens Vs Predator was good back in the day and had decent advanced DX11 graphics at the time. Sniper Elite V3 is here soon so will be giving that a thorough once over soon.

Unless he says that Nvidia/Intel have agreed to support Mantle I don't see how it's anything new or relevant to this point.

The linux part is relevant. The other part was just a teaser to get your teats moist.

 

[LtMatt]

No you didn't, and I quote ;

I class a lot as two or more.

Three if you count Sniper Elite V3.

 

[LtMatt]

Wait so it doesnt say it on the site now or it does?
Lots i mean

I've posted what it says above, but ill post it again just for you trissles.

"Our first Mantle supported title will of course be our flagship 2014 game, Sniper Elite 3. And although we can’t talk about them right now we can’t wait to reveal even more titles with Mantle support in the next year."

"Supporting Mantle in all our future PC titles will play a big part in what will be a huge year for Rebellion. 2013 has been a hugely exciting year for the studio, and 2014 is lining up to be even better."

Now that to me says a more Mantle titles coming. Lots = more than a couple in my book. The question is, 2014 release or later?

 

[LtMatt]

lol
For a minute I thought you were serious!

Martini, you were being negative about gaming, so maybe you should just stop gaming as you clearly don't like it
How can you say SEV2 is a 6 or 7 out of 10? Let us just see what Metacritic has to say about that... 66%! So about 6-7 out of 10 then...

I only said it was not a 6 out of 10 in my opinion, which it's not. Same with AVP. Put plenty of hours into both, though put more into AVP. Great fun playing that on TS.

Sniper Elite games were better than 6 out of 10 in my opinion.