Starmade on Linux

[Grimson]

I run Linux so I play Starmade on it and I have noticed a few things and I wanted to know if they pertain to me only or other people as well.

The game bugs in full screen mode and instead of going full screen plays in a window. This tends to cut off part of the game window because it can't cover the Linux equivalent of the start bar and I have the resolution matching the resolution of my monitor.

The game seems to run slower in Linux than in windows the opposite of some other java games. Is this just my setup or is this repeatable on other computers.

Finally looking at these and other things the game seems to run differently on Linux than it does on Windows. The game is written in java to make it work across multiple platforms could the game run different because the java environment is different cross platforms. Or could it be that optimizing the game for Windows based java has some adverse affects on Linux based java.

This is all food for thought comments are welcomed. The main intention was to get people thinking about how the game might work across multiple platforms. In no way was I trying to insult or belittle the developers they are doing a great job and the game is one of the best I have ever played.(Just stirring the cross platform development think tank.)

 

[therimmer96]

The game doesn't run any differently for me on linux or winderp. It could be the drivers you are using not being as well made as the ones for windows. I also get the issue with the bar not being covered, it confuses me because MC (only mc because its the first Java game I could think of) can cover the bar, so schema just must have not added that functionality yet.

 

[der_scheme]

What DE are you guys on? I didn't notice those issues with GNOME when I tried fullscreen once, but it did disable my second monitor and didn't even turn it on again when the game exited. However, I do prefer windowed mode anyway.

I know from AndyP that he had far worse FPS on Ubuntu than on Windows 7 (I believe by a factor of 6), but that most likely came from the very bad Optimus support. I have no idea how this is on my system, as I didn't boot into my Windows partition for at least 1.5 years.

Fun fact: schema doesn't even have a Linux box, and I am the only tester running the client on Linux.

 

[Grimson]

I am running Ubuntu. Also the game does shut off my second monitor in full screen mode as well but it turns it back on when I exit the game. Also after thinking about it for a night this may not be the best place for this thread.

 

[NeonSturm]

I use Linux (http://manjaro.org/) exclusively.

I have no issues with full-screen. Even better it is like the only game which lets me alt-tab in and out without issues I can suspend to ram or to disk and restart my PC without issues too. (for example Dota2 with steam and http://springrts.com/ do not like this)

Could it be an issue with Ubuntu/Gnome3 which forces the app menu into it's title bar and the title bar on top of your screen?
(I really like the compatibility with commercial stuff, but not how it enforces stuff for you)

 

[rocketman221]

I don't have any problems using fullscreen other than my second monitor going black. I never had any performance problems until the update with the new lighting.
On my desktop I turn off fullscreen, turn on borderless window, and set window pos to top-left instead of using fullscreen so I can use my other monitor. I just hide my panel or make it transparent with compiz. I run Linux Mint 13 and 17 (MATE edition).
I use Nvidia graphics cards with the proprietary drivers, a GTX-560 Ti on my desktop and GTX-765m on my laptop (no optimus). If you are using the open source graphics drivers, the performance will be a lot worse.

 

[Pseudo]

Late reply, but I just overwrote my win7 with a fresh Kubuntu install last night, (after a month of windows I remembered why I jumped ship to begin with) and I have noticed a slight performance drop, (almost surely due to the difference in driver support on Intel Iris chips) I'm running Kubuntu 14.10 with KDE plasma, and the system76 driver package. Fullscreen works just fine, shadows don't work at all though. Only real issue I have noticed is that during build mode, the little block preview in the upper left of the advanced build mode menu doesn’t show up. (you know the little box that shows the orientation of the block that I'm about to lay down?) I found an easy workaround for it, just go into options and tick the box that says "Allow block preview" or something to that effect. it just allows a ghost of the block to appear at the spot where I hold the cursor. The biggest annoyance for me though is how slow my mouselook moves. the cursor speed is fine but when I go to look around it is extremely slow, even with my cursur speed maxed in options. Of course there is still a lack of driver support for my Logitech m502 proteus core mouse, and i'm sure i can fix it with a little config file tweaking. But it would be nice to have a mouselook speed setting in options along with the cursor speed setting, maybe a separate one for ship look and astronaut look? other than that the game works better than i expected on Linux vs. win7. Ill dig around and see if i can find a jerry-rig for it.

 

[kikaha]

Hi ! I only recently switched to linux (ubuntu). I find the game is running a lot slower than on win 7. I keep getting the server heavy load message although i have more than 4giga of ram allocated to the game. Its my first time ever with linux so maybe i did some wrong with setting of the computer. i got linux for roughly 10 hours now. Some insight would be welcome.

 

[rocketman221]

Hi ! I only recently switched to linux (ubuntu). I find the game is running a lot slower than on win 7. I keep getting the server heavy load message although i have more than 4giga of ram allocated to the game. Its my first time ever with linux so maybe i did some wrong with setting of the computer. i got linux for roughly 10 hours now. Some insight would be welcome.

Make sure you are using Oracle Java 7 and not OpenJDK or OpenJRE. You can get it from a PPA Here.

 

[kikaha]

mmmm tried and it did not install it seems (java -version returned opendJDK version).

 

[rocketman221]

mmmm tried and it did not install it seems (java -version returned opendJDK version).

Did you install the "oracle-java7-set-default" package after the "oracle-java7-installer package"?

 

[kikaha]

i downloaded the ppa from the page you linked. I entered this comand "sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java.

but now i have no idea what to do really....

 

[rocketman221]

i downloaded the ppa from the page you linked. I entered this comand "sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java.

but now i have no idea what to do really....

You need to install java then set it to default.

1. Run "sudo apt-get update" to reload the package repository.
   
2. Run "sudo apt-get install oracle-java7-installer" to install java 7.
   
3. Run "sudo apt-get install oracle-java7-set-default" to make it default.

Now "java -version" should return something like:
java version "1.7.0_80"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_80-b15)

 

[kikaha]

ok, i gotit installed now. Thanks for the insight and help.

But i don't see a preview of my blocks now. I tried all the options in game and can't see wich way my wedges or other pentas are facing... Very annoying for me as i'm mainly a builder...

Edit : By checking the "simple lighting" case i'm now able to see the preview of the block i'm about to put down. Not in the little yellow window on top right of the screen tho only the ghost of the block on main screen.

Edit2 : Also, not possible to switch in the fast bar between 1, 2, 3 or other by using the number on the keyboard... Have to scroll with the mouse....

 

[rocketman221]

ok, i gotit installed now. Thanks for the insight and help.

But i don't see a preview of my blocks now. I tried all the options in game and can't see wich way my wedges or other pentas are facing... Very annoying for me as i'm mainly a builder...

Edit : By checking the "simple lighting" case i'm now able to see the preview of the block i'm about to put down. Not in the little yellow window on top right of the screen tho only the ghost of the block on main screen.

Edit2 : Also, not possible to switch in the fast bar between 1, 2, 3 or other by using the number on the keyboard... Have to scroll with the mouse....

I can't seem to reproduce any of those problems in 0.19498. Maybe it could be graphics card specific, I am using an nvida card with the nvidia drivers (340.96).