Released back in 2011, CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher 2 is now an archaeological curiosity, buried deep in Steam libraries, GOG accounts and torrents the world over. Unless you’re a Linux gamer, in which case without virtualisation, a compatibility layer or dual-boot configuration, your opportunity to experience the moody RPG came just a few days ago. It hasn’t exactly been a comfortable ride, however, with accusations the Linux port is simply a “wrapped” copy of the Windows version… one that runs slower than playing it via Wine.
Before we delve any deeper, it’s probably best to explain what the heck Wine is. In simple terms, it’s a series of libraries for Unix-flavoured operating systems that allows Windows applications, including games, to run without actually installing Windows itself. Often it requires playing around with settings and downloading additional files (a helpful database exists to aid your efforts), but usually with enough determination it’s possible to get a wide range of applications running, sans Redmond’s finest vintage.
We all know what porting is — taking a program built for one platform and making it function on another — but “porting” is not a hard-and-fast term. Traditionally, the resulting app is made to be “native”, that is, it runs using the libraries and facilities provided by the OS. For example, a game ported from Windows to Linux would use an OpenGL renderer rather than “translating” calls from Direct3D to OpenGL.
Now, if porting would take too much time or money, the alternative is to use a “wrapper”. A wrapper is exactly what it sounds like — it encapsulates the program so that any calls it makes to hardware or software are first translated so they can be understood by the underlying platform. This is also the basic premise upon which virtualisation works.
If you’ve ever wondered how a service such as GOG can release ancient games that work well on modern platforms, it’s because they’re wrapped with DOSBox, an x86 emulator that can run MS-DOS and other DOS-like operating systems. As far as the wrapped game is concerned, it’s firing away on a 486 from the 90s, complete with Sound Blaster and VGA graphics card.
With those explanations out of the way, we can start talking about why The Witcher 2‘s Steam forums have exploded with irate Linux gamers. Not surprisingly, people who run Linux are usually savvier about what makes computers tick than your average Windows gamer.
It doesn’t take much to figure out if a program has genuinely been ported to Linux from Windows, or if it’s been wrapped. In the case of The Witcher 2, this was deduced in record time, when it was discovered the game was encased in “eON”, a virtualisation product from a company called Virtual Programming.
Adding bitterness to this growing unpalatable brew, the current version for Linux only supports NVIDIA hardware. A fix is already lined up for the next Catalyst driver for AMD users, while those on Intel gear are out of luck, though that’s hardly a shock.
Compounding the drama is a testimony from one user, “killx_den”, over at Gaming On Linux who reports the Windows build of the game running through Wine performs better than the supposed port. I haven’t seen any hard numbers comparing the two, so consider it hearsay… though damning if accurate.
A developer from Virtual Programming, “jaycee1980”, leapt to his company’s — and CD Projekt’s — defence on Steam, posting a number of replies to address gamers’ concerns, including this lengthy one:
I wish to note that while I am one of the developers from VP who has worked on this game, I am posting to this forum offering my support entirely on my own time, and of my own volition.
I’ve been asked to respond about the post concerning “WINE uses Windows drivers and we use Linux drivers”. This was a misunderstanding by a non-technical member of VP. He confused WINE with OS X Boot Camp, and has been corrected now 🙂
We are aware there’s going to be potential rough spots with our port as this is our first big Linux release, but we are looking to improve the technology wherever possible. I’ve also been authorised to explain a bit further about our eON system, and why this has been used to port Witcher 2 to Linux. So here goes.
eON is a middle ground idea between what WINE does, and a native port. It is tuned and customised to each game we port — we do not simply slap a Windows binary into it and ship the game. For example, we often customise the D3D9->GL code path in various ways to cater for the title. Shaders are often rewritten to native GLSL, etc.
There are various reasons why a 100% native port is not feasible or possible — middleware, financial and technical constraints etc. This does not mean that a non-native port is always going to be inferior. The alternative would often be no port at all.
Personally I am excited that VP are looking to help bring more games to Linux — not just because I get paid to do it!!
Rather than accept this explanation (or compromise), poor jaycee1980 has been torn asunder by the community. He’s taken it in his stride, but hasn’t had a great deal of luck placating the masses.
My perspective is that given the intelligence of Linux gamers, CD Projekt should have been upfront about how the game was to be “ported” from Windows. Instead, it now has a few pages of vitriol on the Steam forums over the debacle. One could argue that Linux does not make up a sizable portion of the developer’s audience — indeed, it took years before the game found its way to the platform — and gamers using the operating system should be thankful they have something at all.
But that’s no way to court goodwill and anyone, including Windows users, who visit the forums, are just going to get a heavy serving of angry Linux users, which is hardly conducive to, well, anything.
Comments
58 responses to “The Witcher 2 Just Made A Bunch Of Linux Gamers Very, Very Angry”
Why don’t you have a second hard drive with Windows bootable from it to play games properly and do all the Linux stuff for the rest? It’s a PC, it’s all quite simple.
FUCK YOU THATS WHY!
Nerd rage is most entertaining rage.
While I tend to agree that the rage that seems to be going on is probably a bit over the top, I would point out that the reason a lot of people only have Linux on their PCs and not a Windows partition is that Linux is free, whereas Windows will cost you at least $150 (AU) to install legitimately. That’s why I’m running Ubuntu on my HTPC. It’s free and I don’t need it for games or anything. Shelling out to buy another copy of Windows in addition to the one I’m running on my main PC was unnecessary.
On that basis, it would be kind of wasteful to spend $150 or more just to play a few games natively if Linux is your primary OS.
And if the game was supposed to be ported run on Linux you would expect it to work, not have to install windows or run it though WINE instead. I understand the anger. They were sold an inferior product on a platform that has been getting ‘some’ good ports lately.
Or buy a OEM copy of Windows for $100 from somewhere like PC Case Gear or Umart..
This is why you buy Windows as soon as a new version is released. I paid $15 for Windows 7, and $15 for Windows 8. Microsoft give great discounts when they’re trying to increase the install base of a new version.
That depends on what value you put on your own time. I’d call $150 a bargain to not have to screw around with third party crap just to play a game.
I paid $100 for Win 8 retail, but not from the places most people would purchase it.
I have never found Linus to be suitable for what I want to do with a computer, it either involves lots of workarounds to get my software to work or I have to use an inferior version that wastes far more of my time than I’m willing to allow.
I also find Linux so much harder to use than Windows which depending on the Linux user is either an outright lie or because Linux is so much better than Windows. So the money I spent on the OS has saved me far more valuable time over the years.
Having said that since I own a Smart phone I do run a version of Linux.
Linux, Mac OS, Windows, Oracle and any other Operating System I can’t think of are not for everyone, I suggest you find the one your happy with and enjoy it.
so 150 for an OS that you’ll get at least 5 years out of… $30 a year?
or in XP’s situation, $200 for an OS that they got 14 years out of…
I tend to reformat my computer at least three times a year. So unless I can reuse the key over and over and over (and maybe I can, I haven’t looked at legit windows since XP), then I’m rather limited in how long that $150 will last me
you can reformat your computer every day if you want to…. there is no limit to how many times you can reformat. The only minor misshap is if you upgrade some major pc components or install to a completely different pc to the one it was originally used on, you will have to go through phone activation the first time. (takes about 5 minutes).
Also im in the same boat as you… i reformat every 3 months…
Just curious: why format every few months? Never heard this before.
I tend to install and uninstall things VERY often. as such, registry gets cluttered with stuff, and performance suffers. i probably over exagerrated when i said 3 months, its usually 3-6…
nothing beats the feel of a fresh install. I keep windows on an ssd and steam/origin and all my data, as well as a folder containing all my up to date drivers on a second hdd,
oh and i also have a folder with installers for all the basics that i install every time…
IE. teamspeak, skype, steam, origin, winrar, + many others. this makes it a very quick process…
well personally I don’t use windows, because… well.. I have major concerns over the security of the OS.. but it’s also personal preference, I’m more comfortable in a terminal interface than “click.. move.. click.. wait… move click…”… but I digress, to each their own has always been my philosphy and to that effect I want to give a “Protip” you may not have heard of..
You can slipstream (yes that’s the term) all your updates/most basic tools into an install disk and have them ready to rock on reboot here’s the instructions for 8/8.1 http://lifehacker.com/how-to-slipstream-windows-updates-into-your-installatio-1562956432
and for 7 http://lifehacker.com/5894838/customize-your-windows-installation-to-create-the-os-of-your-dreams
Regarding the “free” aspect, I’d be tempted to disagree. I’ve been using Linux for 20 years, and exactly never have I chosen it over Windows because of price. While I’m sure there are those who *have* had that motivation, they are probably few and far between — after all, most all computers come with Windows pre-installed, so it’s only those who are building a system from parts who have to pay extra for Windows. Precisely the tech-savvy crowd to whom Linux has appeal, on technical — as opposed to monetary — merits.
… And a million pocket protectors were thrown down in anger!
Yeah… people are just complaining over nothing. I’ve been using it with Wine for around a year with no problem (at least compared to most games I’ve had to use with Wine :P). At least they’re acknowledging linux exists, better than some/most developers.
I don’t really understand. There’s almost no benefit for CD Projekt to do this, they definitely won’t see any notable profit. It’s an average port but considering it’s basically charity for people who are using a completely free system unsupported by most software companies, i’m not sure I understand the anger. I’ve seen full on windows ports that don’t get the treatment or respect CD Projekt have shown. Like most, the anger seems a little misguided.
So far as I understand it, Linux is more broadly in use in Eastern Europe than in many parts of the world. Given that CD Projekt Red is from Poland, this might explain why they attempted a port. A bad internal decision or a wish to no longer have to support an old product is probably why they out-sourced the port.
Have you ever met a Linux Evangelist, it can be an incredibly unpleasant experience.
It is absolutely not charity. I paid $20 for a product that does not exist.
Linux is only a gaming platform for the future. And only if developers support it. Until developers start making native Linux versions of their games (which they have no reason to as even with SteamOS, the Linux gaming segment is niche) it better to run a Dual Boot.
You forgot the quotation marks around “Linux Gamer”.
You can also use Linux\ Gamer
without going to the steam forum, to see what the rage is about, i can’t help but feel the linux community is doing themselves a disservice.
I use linux as my main and only OS. I am clueless on how to get it to work well or properly (everytime i need to run something non native i have to go to a forum and type a bunch of unintelligible stuf into a command line that i have no idea what i am doing)
if there are companies like VP that are porting to linux to make my experience easier, then all the better.
I actually hope this is the sort of thing that gets the ball rolling on porting other games….it will make the SteamOS library of games much nicer with some good name titles to play from in the future also.
Thankyou VP and CD Projekt Red for actually initiating such a project. i hope these ort of things happen more often and as time progresses, they get better and more efficent.
Dami
What a bunch of sooks. I run an Android phone/tablet because I think they’re much better value for money and like the customisation, but I also don’t expect to get all the support that iOS does. If you choose to use a niche product, for whatever reason, expect niche support.
(Not saying that Android is a niche product either, but iOS is definitely still the standard when it comes to the more prosumer app market)
Not understanding the down votes here unless it’s just entitlement issues?
I think its cause you mentioned iOS. As i have learned, any comment that may be totally valid becomes invalid when you mention Apple, iOS or make the notion its better than precious android. This coming from someone who owns a Nexus 5 and a iPad. I get cheers when i say i have a Nexus 5, boo’s when i say i also got a iPad and love it.
Concerning Linux debacle, cant say i feel for these guys. Most people i know have 2 systems, linux system and windows system for these type of reasons. If you choose Linux to be your sole system then accept the problems you will get like gaming. They would laugh at the person who is complaining the gaming experience is not the same on a Mac as it is on a PC, yet not when its on Linux.
That’s what I thought too but liked to think that people could be more mature than that 😛 I love Android for all that it does well, but it is ridiculous to say that iOS doesn’t have better support when it comes to a LOT of things. I work in a musical instruments shop and the hardware for iOS operated devices outnumbers Android ten to one and that isn’t likely to change any time soon.
I used to run a Ubuntu system as well as my Window’s system also- never even thought about opening a game on it though. You’re right that these are the people who will laugh at someone trying to game on a Mac and then expect PC-like support themselves.
You chose an ecosystem that has never had the same level of support for games as Windows and you’re a fool if you expect developers to devote a lot of time and money catering to the minority.
You’d think the superiority Linux users feel over Windows users would be all the satisfaction they’d ever really need.
Are you all forgetting SteamOS is linux? what kind of precedent does this set?
At the moment it’s an experiment, when there is a serious user base installed to get main stream attention than it sets a Precedent.
Was anyone actually expecting SteamOS to induce the development of native ports of three year old games from small independent developers?
CDProjektRed is by no means small.
Actually, the rage is being directed at the wrong place…. Technically it should be aimed at EA/Bioware. Since the Witcher games use a modified version of the Neverwinter Nights Aurora engine. Which had a native, well supported Linux port.
Until Bioware made Neverwinter Nights 2, where they planned a later-cancelled XBOX port, When they planned the XBOX port they pulled support for OpenGL from the game engine making it DirectX only. This has led to the current situation of no OpenGL version being available (No Neverwinter Nights 2, or KOTOR/KOTOR2, or Jade Empire and possibly even no DragonAge ports.), and the game being wrapped using emulation layers.
The problem with this is simple: WINE has been out for years, is free, and runs faster than the wrapper job the developers of the Witcher 2 have done. This means that anyone who’s bothered to pay a premium price for Linux support has just been screwed, and could have just run the Windows version on Linux for a better experience anyway.
There is also an issue with the game running only on NVIDIA graphics cards, and not running on ATi at all, and with very poor performance on Intel cards. (I’ve been running Linux for approx 13 years now, and I know many of the commercial developers on the platform, including some of the guys who pioneered Linux game development.)
The way the port has been handled, they would probably have been better off just bundling the game into a WINE install. Basically though the lesson is simple: Native C/C++ + OpenGL ports of games are the only way forward for Linux gaming. Most Linux users are already running WINE and don’t expect to be paying for the privilege of doing so months to years after a game comes out. They are willing however to pay top dollar for Native ports, even years after the original game release.
There are a lot of reasons to not run Windows on a computer. A lot of people get burned between Windows OS releases. Some don’t like to use more drive space on Windows just to run one or two game titles, or hate how the Microsoft Networking Control Panel UI and Office UI changes with every single OS release. And yes some people even hate the idea of having government backdoors into their systems, or hate the idea of a proprietary OS. (For me it was Microsoft dropping support for Hardware and games I’d only bought 1-2 years before the 98 -> XP transition. Also why would I want to support a company that can’t even bother to hire the 3 guys it took to write DOSBOX. Open source developers have done more to help me play the games I like to play than Microsoft ever have.)
Comments about how people should be running Windows are silly and akin to asking someone to buy an XBOX instead of expecting their PC game to have keyboard/mouse support. None of those reasons is really a valid excuse for a bad port that claims to run on a system then breaks for at least half the customers buying it.
Having said all this, I actually own the game from Steam, and I bought it because I want the platform to succeed and every game on Linux is one less reason to boot to Windows. Star Citizen for me is the big hope I rest my gaming on. Between DOSBOX and Star Citizen, I’ll probably never bother picking up another modern game again.
Yesssss!! I am tired of people saying to just get windows. Snarf them. I don’t want Microsoft’s crappy OS on my PC. Why should i buy Microsoft windows when they have done nothing but shit on PC gamers for years. My friend bought this game based on my recommendation because I told him that the game came out on Linux. Now I feel bad about it. If they cannot make a proper port then don’t scam the customers by a half assed one. Its better not to release the game. We were perfectly happy playing the game on wine where it ran much better.
Its a dick move by the devs that they released the game without AMD support and claimed on their steam page that the game runs on AMD hardware just fine. Its a scam and they could be sued for this. Its false advertising. Snarf CD project red. I really had high regards for their pro consumer policies but this is down right scamming people.
I believe this sets an example for other devs that you just run the games on a virtual layer and get away with it. Expect more devs to follow suit soon. Its windows gaming circa 2008 all over again.
Only the first game used the Neverwinter engine – TW2 used their own REDengine.
(a nitpick only – your point is well made)
If games where made using OpenGL instead of DX, this sort of shit would not happen. OpenGL works on Windows, Linx and Mac. Yet most devs only use DX… I think a bigger look in to that should be done.
There was an article on kotaku about that. Apparently OpenGL development was a mess in the early days of 3D, and DirectX became more popular. So now, for all sorts of reasons – hardware support, developer and designer comfort – developers reflexively support DirectX first. And since – as the comments have noted – Windows has a larger install base, there’s little incentive to then move onto OpenGL and deal with the other differences OSX and the various Linux distros have (and it really needs to be planned from inception to be as easy as you think it is).
It wasnt really a mess, it was moresow that devs felt alienated and unfamiliar with it as an API. The only devs that ever really took the risk, and made some great strides at the same time, were iD Software. And that was only a result of John Carmacks persistence… If universally there was as much effort put into the development of the OpenGL api as there has been with the DX api, the benefits of OpenGL would never have been questioned.
Oh no! Not the whole 6 Linux users in the world! You poor majority!…….. (Jokes, this kinda blows)
The Witcher 2 runs on The REDEngine, not the Aurora Engine. Bioware has nothing to do with this, but by all means don’t let research get in the way of your tirade.
How would you feel if you paid for prime rib and instead received a turd in your plate? Should you be grateful then as the author of this article suggests as opposed to get nothing? The issue here is not about windows games on linux or using windows to play games as the some people here seem to believe. The real issue is the expectations of costumers paying for a product and those expectations not being met by the provider of said product.
Quoting a comment from the linked GOL article:
PS: I did bought the game and it plays decent in high settings on my GTX 750 ti so I’m fortunate my hardware configuration is not so badly affected as others seem to be.
Wrong scenario. It is more like you order prime rib in a seafood restaurant that have limited selection of beef. Probably only stock low grade beef. You get a bad quality ribs instead.
I reckon in this case, it’s more like ordering a cheeseburger, and instead of getting a freshly made cheeseburger, you get a microwaved one. The end result is little difference, and it’s so cheap anyway, only the most pedantic would bother complaining.
It is most certainly not a little difference if it is unplayable to some, even if they meet the hardware requirements to be able to play it, and price has nothing to do with it. Why you keep mentioning the price? The low launch price was a decision of the publisher, not the linux community and only lasted 2 days, now it’s 20€, but anyway, pricing is not an excuse.
Since almost everyone who is complaining about this in the linked threads bought it in the last couple of days after the Linux release was made available, they paid $4 for the game (80% off sale to coincide with the Linux release). This isn’t like the Simcity launch, for example, where gamers have paid AAA prices for a broken product. They’ve paid deeply discounted prices for something that they are merely dissatisfied with the performance of.
Not to mention that the game supports Steam Play, so if they prefer, the same $4 lets them play the Windows version through WINE. Such ridiculous levels of entitlement…
I know right! How dare we expect something we paid for, discounted or otherwise, be dissatisfied with it’s terrible performance, among other bugs such as no keyboard controls without mucking around editing broken config files! Like windows gamers never buy anything at a discount or pre-order games to pay less and don’t bitch and moan and groan even harder when a game sucks! The audaciousness! The entitlement!
Oh wait… Maybe because WE ARE ENTITLED as a PAYING COSTUMER to a release with the same level of quality regardless of platform, instead of a potato, as any other paying costumer would be. When a generic free third-party solution like wine yields better performance than a paid-for supposedly optimised port, something is clearly wrong. If you think there’s a problem on calling BS on that, you’re the one who has some kind of problem…
I paid the full 20 for the broken product.
Forgot to point out that it’s not all rage and angst on TW2’s steam forums. this thread also exists http://steamcommunity.com/app/20920/discussions/0/522728180993106963
Well I’m laughing quite a bit since all those commenting on the Linux users’ reaction would have reacted exactly the same and maybe even worse if they’d got a software like this, running an average 30fps on a brand new gaming rig with the game already being 3 years old…
As to those who got angry after jaycee1980, well there are stupid people in every user base…
That being said it’s still nice to have a great addition to Linux gaming, even if I’ve had a hard time hiding my frustration. Sluggish performance, non-working keyboard… I got around these issues, but still…
Jesus, how much do they want? They should be thankful it was ported at all. They could have left it Windows only, which would have still run fine in Wine (apparently), but instead CDPR decided to pour some money into making this happen. Now Linux nerds have another AAA game they can rattle off in the list of supported Linux games. They should be thankful, not complaining, but it has kind of reached expectations now for that community.
The gall of them to expect something that was released for their platform and they paid money for to perform as good as on on the platform for it was originally released for! Preposterous!
Why would you ever expect that? Does the Xbox 360 version of a game run the same as the PC version? No. Each platform will be different, Linux users need to learn this. If they feel the product they received does not meet the description provided, they are entitled to get a refund.
If the Linux community truly want games brought to their operating system, they should get working on better wrappers, so this issue doesn’t cause more problems. If they want to run their environment as a “community” effort, then they can only blame the community when it all goes pear shaped. If they want to pay for supported software, then the clear choice for games right now is Windows.
Because it’s the same underlying hardware? And the wrapper used was paid for and supposedly better optimized then wine, but has worse performance? Whoever decided to pour money on this port did it for the sole purpose of getting more sales from people like me, who wouldn’t have bought it otherwise, they didn’t do it out of the kindness of their hearts. It’s only natural to expect that something released for any platform would work well on that platform.
As for working on better “wrappers” that’s not to be expected from the linux “community” but from whoever makes use of wrappers to make ports. What is expected from the linux “community” is to improve the tools necessary to make native ports, and the support from hardware manufacturers to provide the quality drivers on linux. Some of them like nvidia and intel already do a great job but amd is still lacking although they are improving.
Well, inferior support will likely result in an inferior product. If you had the same hardware as an XBox 360 running Windows, you would likely have an inferior experience. Same goes with Linux, there just isn’t enough support for the platform to create a comparable product right now.
Again, if Linux wants to remain this community driven platform, then the community needs to step up here and provide this support. Make wrappers as good as commercial ones. If they don’t want to do this, they need to accept that the only solution is to use commercial software.
The over 100 commercial native games I have and Valve disagrees with you. In some cases performance is even superior to that on windows. It’s just a matter of developers giving a damn instead of pushing half-assed wrappers. Metro: Last Light, Serious Sam 3 and Oil Rush are probably the most demanding games I have on my library and all run flawlessly at highest settings. Even Unigine Heaven and Unigine Valley, the most demanding benchmarks I know, run flawlessly at 30fps in the highest settings, so please stop spreading that myth. The future is bright for linux with all the major game engines having support for it, the problem is in porting older games where some publishers just push some half-assed wrapper for a money grab. I don’t know if this will remain the case with TW2 but it certainly started that way.
You don’t quite understand the problem.
The “wrapper” used here is indeed a commercial one, called eON (in fact that’s not a wrapper, that’s an in-between, whatever…). As evidenced by many tests as of now, the community-driven wrapper, WINE, does much better, around twice the performance of the so-called “port,” so that your point is irrelevant, as the community did come up with a better wrapper.
Also as evidenced by the many ports done recently, Linux does offer the same support as Windows when it comes to gaming, DirectX calls need to be redirected to OpenGL at compile-time, or even better, games need to be developed with an OpenGL renderer.
Finally, even the ATI open source drivers have come a great way these days, and are able to run many games with great performance. I think the community is not to be pointed out in this particular case, it’s just technical choices that are not quite judicious for the time being. It may or may not get better with time, but you can be assured that the community is not responsible in any case. Many Linux gamers offered their help to fix issues, whereas commercial software is not traditionally subject to such help.
WINE already is the best wrapper available. Engineering-wise WINE is amazing at what it does. No commercial company has ever attempted something on the scale that WINE is doing. They are literally reimplementing the entirety of DirectX, and the Windows API itself on top of OpenGL/Linux. Everytime you use 3D in VirtualBox, VMWare, or VirtualPC, you are using WINE’s DirectX implementation. None of the commerical vendors has implemented a DirectX wrapper without using WINE’s. That’s why none of them support DirectX 4/5 Immediate Mode Rendering, because WINE hasn’t implemented it either.
Oblivion on Macintosh wasn’t even ported to OSX. It’s actually wrapped using WINE. WINE has even had a massive 5+ year delay when DirectX development ceased because Transgaming promised to release their closed source DirectX changes to WINE, which they reneged on, and WINE still overtook them and runs more Windows applications than any other Windows wrapper in existence.
You’re asking the community to build better tools, when they are already building the best tools that can exist. Hell there’s even a group that was working on making Native DirectX 9/10/11 support work on Linux, so the graphics layers don’t even use OpenGL to render with.
I feel sorry for the 4 people that use Linux for gaming.
A performance comparison between eON, wine, and Windows can be found here: http://imgur.com/a/NuTrl
linux ftw
This is exactly why shoddy ports are not acceptable. This article right here and all the snarky comments around here. If there was no port there would be nothing to begrudge and if the port was done right, all there would be was a really great game and a bunch of grateful linux gamers. As it stands, look at all the bad press around linux and linux gamers, despite this whole debacle having nothing to do with linux ability to run games, but the poor quality of a game port sold by some company. Like I pointed out on that quotation on my comment above.
Ports can be acceptable, using a wrapper for a particularly modern game is not. Wrapping is fine for programs and games that do not challenge today’s hardware. Witcher 2 challenges modern hardware in it’s native form, let alone when it is being placed in wrapper. It was obviously a quick and dirty way to get it to run at all in Linux. Haven’t tried it in wine, but suspect that would work a little better. What really needs to happen for gaming is a low level API that can work across all platforms, so that “porting” does not decrease quality of gameplay. Running Witcher 2 at speeds that are one tenth what my hardware is capable of, is unacceptable. This is a really bad port, maybe it will improve with patches and updates, but I won’t hold my breath.