Virtual Programming, one of the companies that are porting games to the Linux platform, has announced that is working on a few new titles, although the term ‘new’ might be loosely used.
Virtual Programming doesn’t have the same fame as Aspyr Media or Feral Interactive, but they are doing pretty much the same thing. The only difference is that they are using a different technique, which wasn’t all that popular with Linux users, when it was first used. The company has a technology named eON, which is somewhat similar to Wine.
Some are calling it a wrapper while others are saying that it’s a translation layer. The result is that Windows games are running on Linux, albeit with some performance penalties, which, of course, can vary.
The game that sparked the interest of the Linux community was The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, which was released to Steam, but no one mentioned that it’s not a native port.
A lot of people were unhappy with the performance of the game, but Virtual Programming has improved the performance of the game tremendously since its launch.
Other games that have been brought to Linux with this technology include Bioshock Infinite, Dirt Showdown, Spec Ops: The Linux, and King Arthur II. None of these releases has had major issues, and it looks like Virtual Programming has been honing its skills.
New games are being ported
Some of the titles mentioned above are relatively new, but the new ones that are being ported are Overlord I and Overlord II, Saints Row 2, and Saints Row 3 (presumably with the expansions).
Two of the games are from Codemasters and two from Deep Silver, so it looks like multiple publishers are looking for the services of Virtual Programming. All of these titles are still in Alpha and Beta stages, so it will take a while for them to show up.
Valve is preparing to launch the Steam Machines consoles on November 10, so all of these games might be ready until then, just in time for the official launch.
Via Softpedia