Apolyton Can Play CivBE?

[Aeson]

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/04/civilization-beyond-earth-linux

Sid Meier’s next Civilization game, titled ‘Beyond Earth’, will be available on Linux at launch later this year.

The space-based game trades the historical trappings of previous entries in the series for a futuristic sci-fi feel, one similar to the 1999 critically acclaimed strategy hit Alpha Centauri.

Firaxis, the studio behind the game, officially announced the game, and its support for Linux, during a panel at PAX East 2014 on April 12.

I think Civ V plays on Wine, so no real surprise ...

[Aeson]

More about technical capabilities:

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/civilization-beyond-earth-amd-mantle,26540.html#xtor=RSS-997

Not many exact details about the game are known yet; however, a new announcement has shed some light on a non-gameplay related feature of the game: It will have support for AMD's Mantle API.

Being a strategy game, having support for AMD's Mantle API is quite the bonus. Strategy games are known to be particularly CPU intensive, therefore limiting performance on systems with weaker CPUs. AMD's Mantle API significantly reduces the CPU overhead in games. Thus systems with weaker CPUs will experience a notable performance boost over using DirectX. Of course, to make use of this API you must be running a more modern AMD Radeon graphics card.

[Lorizael]

I've got a 3 year old laptop that plays Civ5 only at very high temperatures and most certainly does not have a graphics card made with Mantle in mind. Between now and fall, my laptop might accidentally fall off the desk. We'll see.

[Aeson]

I'll have to get a desktop ... but a roof first. I think there's enough time for both luckily.

[self biased]

i just upgraded this winter, so i should be good to go.

[Nikolai]

Both my laptop and desktop can play the game.

[Lorizael]

Which means you really only need one of the two...

[Nikolai]

The laptop is permanently stationed at my mum's. She uses it when I don't need it.

[Lorizael]

Darn. Because I thought for sure if I just asked nicely enough you were going to give one of your computers to a perfect stranger.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

He's not perfect, Nik, but you really should.

[Lorizael]

Here's an amusingly jargon heavy blog post from Firaxis on why Mantle is the end all be all of graphics APIs (apparently).

http://www.firaxis.com/?/S=5845faeea69df1fb3c3a75a2c7c3b2beb5f6cb11/blog/single/why-we-went-with-mantle

3. What Does This Mean to the Player?

By reducing the CPU cost of rendering, Mantle will result in higher frame rates on CPU-limited systems. As a result, players with high-end GPUs will have a much crisper and smoother experience than they had before, because their machines will no longer be held back by the CPU. On GPU-limited systems, performance may not improve, but there will still be a considerable drop in power consumption. This is particularly important given that many of these systems are laptops and tablets. The reduced CPU usage also means that background tasks are much less likely to interfere with the game’s performance, in all cases.

Finally, the smallness and simplicity of the Mantle driver means that it will not only be more efficient, but also more robust. Over time, we expect the bug rate for Mantle to be lower than D3D or OpenGL. In the long run, we expect Mantle to drive the design of future graphics APIs, and by investing in it now, we are helping to create an environment which is more favorable to us and to our customers.