Savage 2 Ships For Linux

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Naib · Post by **Naib** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 12:38 pm

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=a ... inux&num=1

S2 Games has today announced the availability of the Linux client for its "Savage 2: A Tortured Soul" game. Savage 2 is a fantasy-themed game that is a combination of a first person shooter, real-time strategy, and action role-playing game. This is the sequel to "Savage: The Battle For Newerth", which was also ported to Linux some years ago.

Need4Speed · Post by **Need4Speed** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 8:06 pm

Just bought it and downloading now! This game looks really great. They even have 64bit binaries!

Would be nice to have an ebuild though..

Mekoryuk · Post by **Mekoryuk** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 4:03 am

I was a huge fan of the first Savage game. It's awesome to see they still support us penguins! Alas, I tried writing an ebuild, but it's a miserable failure. I hope someone can come along and show us the way...

nutbar21 · Post by **nutbar21** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 12:05 pm

Hmm, I was wondering if this was ever going to be released. Time to try the demo

TinheadNed · Post by **TinheadNed** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 10:01 pm

I have no ground when in the commander's view. A quick look on the S2 forums indicates that it's a "known problem" for ATI cards (but not my nVidia?). I would say "other than that" but it's a bit unplayable without the ground. The first-person bit works though.

Need4Speed · Post by **Need4Speed** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 11:47 pm

TinheadNed wrote:I have no ground when in the commander's view. A quick look on the S2 forums indicates that it's a "known problem" for ATI cards (but not my nVidia?). I would say "other than that" but it's a bit unplayable without the ground. The first-person bit works though.

It's also a known problem with nvidia. You need to set your shader settings to low.

kmare · Post by **kmare** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 12:18 am

TinheadNed wrote:I have no ground when in the commander's view. A quick look on the S2 forums indicates that it's a "known problem" for ATI cards (but not my nVidia?). I would say "other than that" but it's a bit unplayable without the ground. The first-person bit works though.

there's a problem with nvidia cards.. set gl_nvDXT5BugWorkaround to true in ~/.savage2/game/startup.cfg and it should work. Although you better lower the shader settings a bit.
refer here for more information about known issues with the linux client: http://forums.s2games.com/showthread.php?t=9649

btw: it's really a great and original game, the developers are awesome (they actually answer you in the forums) and they play the game (that should tell you a lot).

WhiteDwarf · Post by **WhiteDwarf** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 3:45 am

kmare wrote:there's a problem with nvidia cards.. set gl_nvDXT5BugWorkaround to true in ~/.savage2/game/startup.cfg and it should work

That's just for the nvidia driver DXT5 texture issue (same one that gives striped textures in UT2K4, etc) and is unrelated to the ground not showing up. If you are affected, you'll see a number of places where textures are striped black and white. Best not to use it if you don't have to as that disables texture compression for most of the textures.

Hyper_Eye · Post by **Hyper_Eye** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 5:19 am

TinheadNed wrote:I have no ground when in the commander's view. A quick look on the S2 forums indicates that it's a "known problem" for ATI cards (but not my nVidia?). I would say "other than that" but it's a bit unplayable without the ground. The first-person bit works though.

This should be fixed in the next patch. For now, as someone else said, you can fix this by changing your shader settings while commander.

Hyper_Eye · Post by **Hyper_Eye** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 5:23 am

Mekoryuk wrote:I was a huge fan of the first Savage game. It's awesome to see they still support us penguins! Alas, I tried writing an ebuild, but it's a miserable failure. I hope someone can come along and show us the way...

The first Savage is still going strong. It is now free and has had a major community patch release that has improved many things including balance, added some elements to the gameplay, and has added new advanced graphics features to make the game look even better. Works on Linux, OS X, and Windows. You do not have to have ever purchased it. You can download the full game patched to the latest SFE version here:

http://www.notforidiots.com/SFE/

kmare · Post by **kmare** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 12:42 pm

WhiteDwarf wrote:
kmare wrote:there's a problem with nvidia cards.. set gl_nvDXT5BugWorkaround to true in ~/.savage2/game/startup.cfg and it should work
That's just for the nvidia driver DXT5 texture issue (same one that gives striped textures in UT2K4, etc) and is unrelated to the ground not showing up. If you are affected, you'll see a number of places where textures are striped black and white. Best not to use it if you don't have to as that disables texture compression for most of the textures.

yeah, you're right. I guess i turned on the gl_nvDXT5BugWorkaround flag and at the same time lowered the shader settings so i thought the dxt5 option did it. Let's hope for a fix soon

TinheadNed · Post by **TinheadNed** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 3:55 pm

I got it working by turning off shadows which I won't exactly miss. Then when I got an account and logged in it updated from 1.3.99 to 1.4.0, haven't checked if that's fixed it.

Now I just need to not suck at combat and then I'll try the five hours online. Although I don't think I'll ever be a commander as I can't work out what the hell you have to do in the tutorial to win - I played for a bit, and then after 10 minutes it asks me if I'm going to keep trying, and I assume I should have done it by then.

What's the deal with savage 1 in gentoo? It's hard masked for amd64 so I assumed it wouldn't work. Mind you savage 2 is fifteen pounds in real money so if it's good i'll buy it, rather than look back.

-=GGW=- $ol!d $n4>|e · Sun Mar 30, 2008 7:28 pm

love this game, have had it pre-ordered since they announced it would ship with a Linux client, definitely a unique and worthwhile game to play. Extremely pleasing game setting as well. One of the few unique games I've seen come around lately.

Hyper_Eye · Post by **Hyper_Eye** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 6:03 am

TinheadNed wrote:I got it working by turning off shadows which I won't exactly miss. Then when I got an account and logged in it updated from 1.3.99 to 1.4.0, haven't checked if that's fixed it.

Now I just need to not suck at combat and then I'll try the five hours online. Although I don't think I'll ever be a commander as I can't work out what the hell you have to do in the tutorial to win - I played for a bit, and then after 10 minutes it asks me if I'm going to keep trying, and I assume I should have done it by then.

What's the deal with savage 1 in gentoo? It's hard masked for amd64 so I assumed it wouldn't work. Mind you savage 2 is fifteen pounds in real money so if it's good i'll buy it, rather than look back.

Savage1 in portage is not the SFE version. Download Savage1 from the link I posted above. I wouldn't call it looking back either as SFE is a brand new version with major improvements and enhancements. Yes, I will be buying the second game very soon but I will also continue playing Savage1. It is an amazing game and the fact that it is free just makes it a must have for every single Linux gamer.

ChrisJumper · Post by **ChrisJumper** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 11:53 am

Hi!

It would be a nice game i glimpse at the Website and think about to test the demo.

But as i reading about the first part of it in wikipedia i get one question..

The first Savage is "free" like freeware?

S2Games made the game free to download on its website.

So, could i download the Game and setup a Server in Lan to play with.. or could i play online with friends for "free"?

And when its (the first one) free is there an ebuild in portage? Or did this use the Cd? I ask because i know a Linux-Gaming Shop which still sells the First game for 40 € *g*

Is the Demo of Savage2 Time-Based?

Regards Chris

Hyper_Eye · Post by **Hyper_Eye** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 1:57 pm

ChrisJumper wrote:Hi!

It would be a nice game i glimpse at the Website and think about to test the demo.

But as i reading about the first part of it in wikipedia i get one question..

The first Savage is "free" like freeware?

S2Games made the game free to download on its website.
So, could i download the Game and setup a Server in Lan to play with.. or could i play online with friends for "free"?

And when its (the first one) free is there an ebuild in portage? Or did this use the Cd? I ask because i know a Linux-Gaming Shop which still sells the First game for 40 € *g*

Is the Demo of Savage2 Time-Based?

Regards Chris

Savage2 has a time-based demo. You get 5 hours of online play. There are some units that are not available to demo accounts.

For the first one I already answered your questions in my posts above. The current ebuild is not up to date. The game is free and it is fully playable as in you can play online with your friends at no cost whatsoever. As I posted above you should get the game here:

http://www.notforidiots.com/SFE/

Dark Defender · Post by **Dark Defender** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 3:50 pm

ChrisJumper wrote:
Is the Demo of Savage2 Time-Based?

Regards Chris

You can play 5 hours online. But you can play on LAN as much as you want.

ChrisJumper · Post by **ChrisJumper** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 7:03 pm

Thank you very much for the fast answer!

My english is not the best and i just want to understand it right :)

It looks like there will be one more greate game at my next Home-LAN-Party. *g*

If this go on Linux would be go more and more attractive for Multiplayer-Gamers!

TinheadNed · Post by **TinheadNed** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 9:23 pm

I don't know if I'm bloody awful at it or just doing it wrong, but my kill/death ratio is depressingly bad, and I tried three different servers in the last half hour, and the battle seems to involve having to join the beasts with a bunch of other people who don't know how to play, while the higher levels all gang up on one team and we die.

The voice tips are a briliant idea but they only ever seem to tell me that i've got claws and not what the hell I should be doing. And at that point, a 30 second respawn is a bit mean when you haven't learnt how to play. The first hour could be free of that. I really want to like this game, but I'm not paying $30 just to find out that respawning quicker *may* make it more fun.

linuxkrn · Post by **linuxkrn** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 5:17 pm

I bought Savage 1 when it came out. I was happy to support companies that supported Linux. However, they not only dropped support for Linux, they left the Linux users out in the cold. Since it was an on-line only game, without current patches Linux users were screwed for months.

Then some 3rd party guys hacked it and came up with patches. This is not my definition of supporting Linux. And I won't buy from them after what they did. Besides, what is to stop them from doing that all over again?

This same issue also pisses me off about UT3. UT200[34] worked fantastic. I got UT3 because they said it would run on Linux. Well it doesn't and 5 months later it still "coming soon." (to my knowledge)

I'm tired of companies screwing customers, vote with your wallet.

ChrisJumper · Post by **ChrisJumper** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 5:50 pm

Completely Off Topic

linuxkrn wrote: This same issue also pisses me off about UT3. UT200[34] worked fantastic. I got UT3 because they said it would run on Linux. Well it doesn't and 5 months later it still "coming soon." (to my knowledge)

I'm tired of companies screwing customers, vote with your wallet.

Me too! :( I will be happy if there cames out a UT3-Client. But i am sad about the develop. I don't think its a question of guilt. Its just shit happen's... ok maybe its a fault, including game spy.

But for more fun on Lan-Partys i bought a Windows.. for dual boot. But the Performance (i got vista to take a look how awful it is - and it is.) make me unhappy :( Of course i don't like to dual boot! So i play one more time with Linux. But UT3 is great and make me much fun, it isn't so bad as i read in Forums or on the Mailing list. But the gamespy-think is really BAD! I don't know why they do this..

Regards

-=GGW=- $ol!d $n4>|e · Thu Apr 03, 2008 4:59 pm

they need more users playing, pissed off of having to choose between a server with 200 + ping, and a server with 3 people on it

Hyper_Eye · Post by **Hyper_Eye** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 10:59 am

linuxkrn wrote:I bought Savage 1 when it came out. I was happy to support companies that supported Linux. However, they not only dropped support for Linux, they left the Linux users out in the cold. Since it was an on-line only game, without current patches Linux users were screwed for months.

Then some 3rd party guys hacked it and came up with patches. This is not my definition of supporting Linux. And I won't buy from them after what they did. Besides, what is to stop them from doing that all over again?

This same issue also pisses me off about UT3. UT200[34] worked fantastic. I got UT3 because they said it would run on Linux. Well it doesn't and 5 months later it still "coming soon." (to my knowledge)

I'm tired of companies screwing customers, vote with your wallet.

I have been posting any issues I have on the forums and the guy that develops the Linux port has been personally responding to all threads about Linux issues and getting Linux fixes into the patches. Have a look at these two threads:

http://forums.s2games.com/showthread.php?t=10040

http://forums.s2games.com/showthread.php?t=9751

In both of those threads the Linux port developer responded to me and he did it always within an hour (within minutes in some cases.) Note that he is a Gentoo user as well so there is a possibility that he reads these forums. I realize that there may have been some issues with neglect of the Linux users with the first Savage but you also have to realize that Savage did not do well for them. It did not sell well and people spread the rumor that it was free long before it actually was free. People were not buying the game. That doesn't excuse them but it isn't the same as Epic ignoring the Linux users. S2Games doesn't have quite the same resources. When their only game is not selling I imagine it is trouble for the company. It appears from their forum that they are taking the Linux users very seriously and attending to their issues with this new game. I have received three patches since I got the game and I haven't been left unable to play even once. Looking at the forums it looks like they have a larger percentage of Linux players then a general mainstream game gets. I think they might make an example of penetration into the Linux gaming market. They weren't able to turn a profit from it with their first game but they got their name onto the tongues of Linux users and I think it is helping them with this second game.

I have to say... I loved the first game (and the SFE patch is really good.) The second game is a big leap forward though. This game is simply incredible.

BTW TineheadNed, there is a tutorial as well as a practice mode. In practice mode you can learn about every unit in the game as well as fight every unit in the game. If you spend some time in practice mode cranking up the difficulty level you should find yourself getting the hang of the units. Practice mode does not effect your demo time. Also, one great feature of this game is that every single match is saved as a replay and can be downloaded for viewing (in files that are only a couple megs in size.) You can then view these replays from the perspective of any player in the game (even the com.) This goes a long way to help you learn the game. In particular, game id 29611 is an absolutely awesome game to watch and I recommend it's download. Download a replay of any match here: http://www.savage2replays.com/

linuxkrn · Post by **linuxkrn** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 7:46 pm

Hyper_Eye wrote:I realize that there may have been some issues with neglect of the Linux users with the first Savage but you also have to realize that Savage did not do well for them. It did not sell well and people spread the rumor that it was free long before it actually was free. People were not buying the game. That doesn't excuse them but it isn't the same as Epic ignoring the Linux users. S2Games doesn't have quite the same resources. When their only game is not selling I imagine it is trouble for the company. It appears from their forum that they are taking the Linux users very seriously and attending to their issues with this new game. I have received three patches since I got the game and I haven't been left unable to play even once. Looking at the forums it looks like they have a larger percentage of Linux players then a general mainstream game gets. I think they might make an example of penetration into the Linux gaming market. They weren't able to turn a profit from it with their first game but they got their name onto the tongues of Linux users and I think it is helping them with this second game.

I have to say... I loved the first game (and the SFE patch is really good.) The second game is a big leap forward though. This game is simply incredible.

First, your two post are for savage 2 not 1. I don't have any interest in giving them my money again. The first time, we (myself included) posted for months asking for even a status update. These went ignored while windows patches continued to come out. So the windows patches didn't cost them anything to create?

And don't give me the excuse they are small. How much money does it take for an employee to post a simple status update? Or even acknowledge that their customers have been heard? While I'm upset with Epic too, the bottom line is the same. Companies who just take your money and leave you high and dry should get the same treatment. Just because they came out with an improved version and promised to be nice to Linux users, doesn't mean I'm going to forget the past.

It's your money, feel free to spend it where you like. I'm going to stick with the, admittedly too few, companies who do actually support Linux. And also ones who care a bit about their customers.

Hyper_Eye · Post by **Hyper_Eye** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 6:37 am

linuxkrn wrote:First, your two post are for savage 2 not 1. I don't have any interest in giving them my money again. The first time, we (myself included) posted for months asking for even a status update. These went ignored while windows patches continued to come out. So the windows patches didn't cost them anything to create?

And don't give me the excuse they are small. How much money does it take for an employee to post a simple status update? Or even acknowledge that their customers have been heard? While I'm upset with Epic too, the bottom line is the same. Companies who just take your money and leave you high and dry should get the same treatment. Just because they came out with an improved version and promised to be nice to Linux users, doesn't mean I'm going to forget the past.

It's your money, feel free to spend it where you like. I'm going to stick with the, admittedly too few, companies who do actually support Linux. And also ones who care a bit about their customers.

Yes, my two question were on Savage2 because that is the game I am talking about. Did you read my entire post? I acknowledged problems in the past with their Linux support. The fact remains that the first game simply did not do well and there were very few purchases let alone Linux ones. They finally released the game free when it was apparent that people were just going to continue taking the game for free. I think it says a lot that they gave the SFE developers the access they needed to create the kind of patch they did. That patch, by the way, fully supports Linux, Windows, and OS X.

The bottom line is that I referred to those posts in demonstration of the strides they are taking today with Savage 2. This is a game that is fully supported on Linux, looks and plays excellently, and provides an equal client to Linux users as opposed to some stripped down version. While most game companies are pushing their games for $60 S2Games is selling their game for half that price. This game is unique and I am happy to have it on Linux.

I will do exactly as you are saying. I will talk with my wallet and the best way to do that is to buy games for Linux as my goal is, and has been for quite a few years, to help make Linux gaming a viable market. This game is fantastic and I want to see it succeed on Linux.

Savage 2 Ships For Linux

Savage 2 Ships For Linux

Purchased!

Re: Purchased!

Don't buy it

Re: Don't buy it

Re: Don't buy it

Re: Don't buy it

Re: Don't buy it