The problems with this hardware are not minor

Dec 4, 2014 07:57 GMT  ·  By

Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth is in the works and it's being ported for the Linux platform by Aspyr Media. The devs have encountered some problems with the Intel and ATI video cards and they are considering dropping the support for this hardware.

This is not the first Civilization game ported by Aspyr Media for the Linux platform. The previous one, Civilization V, was a real success and everyone was surprised to see it on Steam, but since then 2K has ported a number of other titles as well. When Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth was announced, the Linux OS was also mentioned, although it had no launch date.

One of the biggest differences between the two games is in the technology used. Some users might remember that Civilization V was capable of running in DirectX 9 and DirectX 11.

This allowed the devs to port it without any major problem, not to mention the fact that it was already available for Mac OS X and the bulk of work was already done. Civilization: Beyond Earth, on the other hand, is a DirectX 11-only title, so it's a much more difficult title to port.

Dropping Intel and ATI support can be a solution

The guys from Aspyr Media said that the porting process had been progressing nicely, but it looks like they hit a wall when it comes to getting the game to work properly on ATI and Intel video cards. The AMD driver support is not stellar on Linux (to say the least) and it looks like Intel is also having some problems.

"Like the Mac version, we’ve been working on implementing the new patch into the Linux version prior to release so that it’s fully up-to-date when it goes live. However, we’re seeing some of the same problems as on the Mac. And like the Mac version patch release, this may cause a delay in the full game’s release on Linux."

"Additionally, we’re seeing some graphical problems with Intel and ATI cards on Linux. The performance is good (i.e. no slowdown or chugging frame rates), but there’s still lots of graphical tearing and other anomalies that make it practically unplayable. Though not official yet, it’s likely we’ll drop support for Intel and ATI graphics cards on Linux platforms prior to the game’s launch on Linux," reads the official announcement made on Aspyr Media's blog.

The devs said that the Linux version is two, three weeks behind the Mac OS X one, which has already been released. One thing is for sure, Intel and AMD users won't be happy if they are not be able to run the game, although it's possible that the drivers will be improved in time or that the devs will continue to work on this issue even after the launch.

Civilization: Beyond Earth (10 Images)

Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth main menu
Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth world selectionChoose your civ in Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth
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