Linux

[HellsBells]

One of the coolest things about this initiative, I think, is the day one Linux compatibility NVIDIA is promising. However, I'm a bit confused since it's stated that you must have the original game installed in order to completely unlock the game. The original game is not supported on the Steam store on Linux. Is there a plan to Whitelist it? Can we only access the full game by enabling Steam Play for all games? (For the record, Quake II does run under Proton). Are Linux users just stuck with the shareware content?
I'm only asking because I try to game on Linux whenever possible, and install whitelisted games on my Manjaro partition so that I can easily remember what games are where.

[MASTAN]

I think you can use Steam Depot downloader to download game files.
But I agree that this is port seems to be not user-friendly.

IMO they should've done it like Serious Sam Fusion, ie:
Quake 2 RTX - free game with 3 shareware levels.
Full game DLC - free for owners of Q2 in Steam.
Ground Zero DLC - free for owners of Mission Pack: Ground Zero in Steam.
The Reckoning DLC - free for owners of Mission Pack: The Reckoning in Steam.

And of course leave ability to import data from retail CDs. (probably can be done even in Linux with unpacking installer files instead of running installer exe)

And maybe throw in some other nice things that usually remastered games do - achievements, steamworks multiplayer, optional hires texture pack DLC etc. so that even non-nvidia users would prefer it(after all, it still has OpenGL render).

[HellsBells]

^NVIDIA/iD: hire this man!
Hopefully we'll get more clarification prior to release. I would think that it would be automatic for those that own the game, but I guess not

[Aaron]

(NVIDIA Linux developer here)

Unfortunately, we can't include the full game as DLC because NVIDIA doesn't own the rights to it. That's why you have to purchase it separately from the official Quake II page.

We can't add achievements (or other calls to Steam libraries) because the modifications to the game engine will be open source and available on GitHub.

For Linux users, my recommendation would be to do what HellsBells suggested: use Steam Play to download the original Quake II data and then import it in to Quake II RTX.

[HellsBells]

Thanks for the clarification! But in that case why is there even a linux port? Proton simply allows for installation of the windows files: meaning that if we use Steam Play to install it we install the windows version, then install the windows Q2RTX and point it to the Windows Q2 files.

[HellsBells]

Unless I misunderstand, and all that's needed is to move certain files from Q2 over to the Q2RTX folder. In which case, would that list be made available?

[Aaron]

When you start the game from Steam, it'll prompt you to tell it the path to the retail Q2, and it'll copy the assets from the baseq2 folder over to ~/.quake2rtx/baseq2/. If you don't, then it'll just pick up the shareware pak files from the Steam folder instead. That's really all there is to it. It doesn't really matter whether the retail baseq2 folder comes from Steam or the old CD or some other store.

[MASTAN]

Originally posted by HellsBells:

Thanks for the clarification! But in that case why is there even a linux port? Proton simply allows for installation of the windows files: meaning that if we use Steam Play to install it we install the windows version, then install the windows Q2RTX and point it to the Windows Q2 files.

I doubt Proton supports raytracing extension already.

[NV_Tim]

Just want to re-post "Aaron's" answer to this question, while we get him set up with an Admin tag.

"Unfortunately, we can't include the full game as DLC because NVIDIA doesn't own the rights to it. That's why you have to purchase it separately from the official Quake II page.

We can't add achievements (or other calls to Steam libraries) because the modifications to the game engine will be open source and available on GitHub.

For Linux users, my recommendation would be to do what HellsBells suggested: use Steam Play to download the original Quake II data and then import it in to Quake II RTX."

On the subject of Linux

When you start the game from Steam, it'll prompt you to tell it the path to the retail Q2, and it'll copy the assets from the baseq2 folder over to ~/.quake2rtx/baseq2/. If you don't, then it'll just pick up the shareware pak files from the Steam folder instead. That's really all there is to it. It doesn't really matter whether the retail baseq2 folder comes from Steam or the old CD or some other store.

[PhrostB]

could you do something like this? my friend got a steam key from the dev for this half-life mod.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/261980/HalfLife_Before/

it's not being sold as a full game, but instead a mod that requires ownership of half-life. similarly, you could setup some sort of system with steamauth where you login to a page, it checks ownership of quake 2 appid, and gives you a steam key for the full version of the RTX mod. i think everyone would be happy with that

[MASTAN]

There's also free for owners of Half-Life 2 standalone game
https://store.steampowered.com/app/290930/HalfLife_2_Update/

But as I understand(correct me if I'm wrong) problem is that source code of Q2(and everything that is based on it) is GPL and they can't change that and can't include non-GPL code there like Steam API. See https://stackoverflow.com/a/529040

I remember that when iD released sources of Doom 3 BFG, they removed all Steam integration there.

Valve games may have special conditions for distribution of full-fledged mods based on them in Steam. Don't know details.

[PhrostB]

Originally posted by MASTAN:

There's also free for owners of Half-Life 2 standalone game
https://store.steampowered.com/app/290930/HalfLife_2_Update/

But as I understand(correct me if I'm wrong) problem is that source code of Q2(and everything that is based on it) is GPL and they can't change that and can't include non-GPL code there like Steam API. See https://stackoverflow.com/a/529040

I remember that when iD released sources of Doom 3 BFG, they removed all Steam integration there.

Valve games may have special conditions for distribution of full-fledged mods based on them in Steam. Don't know details.

yea there's a lot of examples like that.. mods on the steam store/workshop. if we don't get steam integration stuff like achievements it's really not a big deal, but it would be nice to have a permanent full copy in my library at the least :)

[HellsBells]

Agree with Phrost, but this is actually much easier than I was afraid it would be. Since my gaming rig is a dual boot setup I wont even have to use Proton, I'll just temporarily mount my Windows partition and pull from there

[毕贤胜[Linux]]

Originally posted by MASTAN:

Originally posted by HellsBells:

Thanks for the clarification! But in that case why is there even a linux port? Proton simply allows for installation of the windows files: meaning that if we use Steam Play to install it we install the windows version, then install the windows Q2RTX and point it to the Windows Q2 files.

I doubt Proton supports raytracing extension already.

actually proton does support NV_VK_ray_tracing already.... I've been running the Q2VKPT windows binary build with Proton for a few months on the steam release of Q2......but this q2rtx release is much better

[Mark]

Please add Steam Auto Cloud support! No need to use an API for that!



Read here:

Steam Auto-Cloud is an alternative to the Steam Cloud API that allows apps to use Steam Cloud without writing code or modifying the game in any way. It only requires that you specify the file groups which you want persisted to the Cloud.

https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/cloud#steam_auto-cloud



Please add Cloud support!