The game seems interesting, but alas, it seems to be Windows-only. I've been happy with linux, and don't ever plan to buy a copy of Windows again. Has the game been proven to run properly under Steam Play or Wine or some other 'play windows games under linux' method? If so, you should add that to your requirements notices. Also, does the game really require a minimum of HD 4000 graphics, or is that just the oldest graphics version you've tried it on? I think my gaming system only has HD 2500. If it can play L4D2 adequately (at least at 800x600), surely it can play a turn-based game.
I've read somewhere, I think it was in the Steam forums but I can't find the topic, that a person had reported to have launched the game successfully on Linux using Proton, which I think is a middleware tool created/supported by Valve to run Steam Windows games on Linux. the person said that the game launched but hadn't tried the game yet. I'll try to find where the topic was brought up. We will look into Linux support in the future, Mac as well, by the way. However, for the time being it is Windows only, but maybe it runs on wine or via this Proton tool, however I cannot guarantee Linux support officially at this stage. \Edit: You have this article, but I think I have read that elsewhere. The author says:
We had a post on Steam say everything worked on Linux except the initial intro movie. It is not officially supported but seems to work. I can try to find the post again if needed.
Yes, that's what I recall the person saying as well. However, I think I remember the person saying to not have tried playing and to only have checked to see if the game launched and reached the main menu, but I can be conflating thoughts here. I tried searching for "Proton" and "Linux" on the Steam forums but couldn't find the topic.
For Linux users reaching out this topic in 2021+. The game (1.3..3 from GOG) is playable with Wine 6.3. However, there are some caveats. 1. The animated colony visualization is all white (however control UI renders ok). DXVK installation helps, so there is a chance that with never Wine - with native Vulkan drivers support - it would be also ok. 2. Lost of focus after ALT-TAB to an other application and back - keyboard and mouse doesn't work anymore, game has to be restarted hard. 3. No intro displayed, just unpleasant sound (however, sound effects and music in game work in general). However, a colony ship landing scenes render fine. 4. Drop-down with terraforming options (in a colony view) doesn't show anything (just empty fields). Luckily, there are tooltips working and it makes it possible to choose desired terraformation. Having change to verify that with never Wine version, I plan to report those problems to the Wine development team.
Hi Starling, Linux is still not officially supported, I'm afraid. And, at this stage it is not clear if it will ever will (the same goes for Mac, by the way). So, while we understand some people, like yourself, are running the game on Linux via Wine / Proton, we know there are some issues, like the ones you report above, and there may be probably others. Some of these issues may be fixable, but that would require a level of support that is currently not feasible for our very small team and the quality standards of Praxis Games. So, right now, the game is officially Windows-only, I'm afraid. I'm sorry, I'd love to offer a Linux build, and we did do a few exploratory tests in the past and everything seemed to be more or less ok. However, we realize there are some issues and we simply do not have the staff to offer the level of support that operating system deserves, especially to the level of quality we require. I hope you understand. Anyway, thanks for reporting these issues and for confirming you could run the game on Linux using GOG's 1.3.3 version using Wine, although not without any issues, as not unexpected.
I probably wasn't clear enough why I put my response here. That thread had only some gossip about a person who knows a person who saw a person trying to start ISG two years ago . For me, a Linux user, thinking about buying a game - and having no demo to test - it was quite a risk (luckily GOG has a nice refund policy). Now, people visiting that thread should know more about their chances (i.e. game is playable with minor caveats). As the game works fine in Windows, the problems I described are Wine related and the Wine developers should try to fix that. Once confirmed with the latest Wine, I will report they. However, having no demo available, it would be probably problematic for them to reproduce it, and eventually fix. Btw, I also plan to add ISG to the Wine database to make it (somehow) more recognizable among the Linux users.
Yeah, and I thank you for reporting your experience as that may help others who wish to try the game on Linux. However, I had to make the hard disclaimer that the game does not officially support Linux, so that people don't have incorrect expectations about on what to expect as there can be way more issues than the ones you report on that system. I will not stop you from doing that. So long people realize Linux is not officially supported that's all fine. I just wanted to add that I'm no stranger to Linux. I did all my college years and some of my professional career on Linux. I know how a great system it is, and can also be great for gaming with the right support. Initially, we had plans to support Linux, even natively. However, with time we realized we'd need more resources to be able to provide the level of support it deserved. So, we can't do that ourselves, at least not for the time being. However, if people report being able to play the game via wine or proton, and if wine or other emulators can be updated to support it better, then that's all good.
Hello there, for what it's worth I'm also not a Linux expert, but I have ISG working very well on a Linux laptop that I can tell you about. Laptop: HP 17-y054na (cheap laptop, about 5 years old, with one of the slowest quad cores ever made and a Radeon R5 mobility GPU) OS: Manjaro Linux (64 bit Budgie Desktop build) Kernel Version: Linux 5.11.4_rt11-1 Linux video driver: amdgpu, not the default of radeon Steam Proton version: 6.3-5 ISG version: GOG version imported into Steam The main thing I had to do out of the box was switch Linux from using the radeon driver to the amdgpu driver, which is required to make AMD GPUs work with Proton it seems. There are guides for switching over manually, but Manjaro comes with an optional package amdgpu-experimental which did it for me. Note: I listed my kernel and video driver specifics because that's what I got it working with... but people can use whatever settings they like instead, so long as they confirm that Proton is generally working with other windows games. You probably have to make at least one native Steam game work with Proton before trying with non-steam ISG, because Steam downloads a bunch of extras the first time you use it. I did this with Monster Train. Result: The only issue I get is a static test screen instead of the intro FMV, apart from that I would say the game runs flawlessly. I am on low video quality because of the specs of this laptop but performance matches what I would expect if I were running windows.
Hi, thanks for your feedback on this topic and for sharing your experience on running the game on Linux for you. Much appreciated. Even if we don't officially support Linux, this may be handy for others who may wish to try running the game on their Linux PC/laptop.
