Civilization: Beyond Earth Mac and Linux Dev Update #7

written by Russ Looney on December 11, 2014 in Development Diaries

We’re back! And to make up for last week’s somewhat mixed news, we’ve got some new revelations to share that will hopefully bring a smile to your face.

Mac Status

So as you may have seen, the Windows PC patch was released earlier this week, knocking cross-platform multiplayer out of sync. The good news? The Mac patch is releasing today! We were able to overcome the initial difficulties of implementing the patch sooner than we expected, and so all Mac players now get the benefit. (Yes, this means that cross-platform multiplayer is working again.)

You can check out the full patch notes on Aspyr’s Support site.

Linux Status

Last week we mentioned some problems we were having on the Linux version with graphical issues on AMD and Intel GPUs. Fortunately, our partners at AMD and Intel are totally awesome, and with their help, we’ve managed to greatly improve the gameplay experience on those chipsets. They were able to spot a setting in our code base that behaves completely differently on Linux vs Mac, and magically several of our worst bugs disappeared. While we still have a ways to go before we are officially supporting both chipsets, we can confidently say that both are in a very playable state, and official support will be rolled in ASAP.

A big, big shout out to the guys at AMD and Intel for helping us here, and we look forward to working with them even more closely in the future.

We were also able to successfully implement the aforementioned patch into the Linux version just in time for launch. And the launch should be very soon. We have now submitted the Linux version of Civilization: Beyond Earth to all parties for approval! Assuming all goes well, Linux users will be colonizing new planets just in time for Christmas (possibly as soon as next week).

Wrapping Up

With the Linux launch close on the horizon, this will likely be our last (or next to last) entry in our Beyond Earth Dev Update series for some time. We’ll certainly continue to provide news on any updates, patches, or DLC, as they come along, but with much less frequency than leading up to the game’s Mac and Linux launches.

We know it’s sad to hear, but you can always keep up with the latest news or send us questions by finding us on your social media platform of choice (assuming you choose Facebook, Twitter, or Google+), or through the various online forums that we gamers congregate.

This Dev Update series has been a great experience for us at Aspyr, and the community feedback has been nothing short of fantastic. As such, you can expect similar approaches to some of our future projects!

Thanks again for your feedback and participation, and we hope you enjoy Civilization: Beyond Earth as much as we do!

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Cristian Beroiza

Just great!, i want to play this new Civ game on my Linux box so bad… hope to keep reading more dev news in the future. Many Thanks!.
Ivan

Nice job devs! Loved the updates too!
jaron

Just in time for the winter sale!!!! Ive been fighting with myself to buy it but ultimately im waiting so u guys get the mone and credit for the linux port. Thanks for all thr hard work u do to help bring gaming to linux!
Gob Weldon

I really appreciated the updates – this is how it should be done! Excellent job.
kek

nice, very nice
cant wait to play the game on linud
Andrew

It’s been great having you guys post these updates. Really looking forward to seeing more of them in the future with the DLC and whatnot.

Thanks to you all and here’s looking to loading up CivBE on Linux
Tomaz Fekonja

You did such a great job with Civ5 that I just had to wait for the port in order to express my support with buying it directly off you guys. Thx for supporting gaming on Linux.
Ancurio

Could you please elaborate what that faulty setting on Linux was?
Przemysław Lib

One more question:
For AMD will you support Catalyst only or also Mesa+Radeon (kernel driver)?

Humble user of r600g.
Silviu C.

Nice to see AMD and Intel stepping up for their customers. It sucks to be left out and it’s not like there’s too many of us Linux users anyway.

Thanks for the dev blog posts Aspyr. I hope to see another series in the future.
Christine

Can Civilization Beyond Earth be played in Mavericks?
- Russ Looney
  
  Yes, as long as you’re playing the Steam version. Mac App Store is Yosemite+ only.
sonofa.45

Much improved patch catchup over the lengthy Civ V version mismatches between PC and Mac. Appreciate the hard-work it took to get to this stage, and the communication. Next step: simultaneous patch releases!
corwin78

I am looking forward for this Christmas present
James Whiteley

Is there still the problem with the unit models layered over each other when upgrading units? That’s the only ‘problem’ I’ve had with the Mac version of Beyond Earth, and it’s not changing any game mechanics and doesn’t show up in map view so isn’t a major issue… It only shows up in the upgrade screen, and is especially noticeable when I have a late-game unit model with early-game soldiers poking out of its sides…

Otherwise this is fantastic news that I’ll be able to play with my PC friends.
Mac Player

Hello, Thanks for the great work! Any chance there might be a boxes edition for the Mac version of the game? It feels better to offer a Box for Christmas than a Digital Download…
- Russ Looney
  
  No, no Mac boxes available. We’re strictly digital these days. Since the game supports Steam Play, though, you could technically just buy a WinPC version box, and it will provide access to the Mac version.
Ctrunk514

Very happy to hear the Linux version is coming soon. Can’t wait!
Arivarun Anbualagan

Hi, 2 small things to say:

1) When is the patch going to arrive on the AppStore?

2) When I finish a CivBE game and quit I can no longer access Mission Control and Launchpad via Multi-Touch Trackpad Gestures until I reboot my computer. But the game itself runs perfectly with zero la and the problem only happens after I leave CivBE. I can toggle in and out of the game with Multi-Touch if I leave the game running in the background. Please help?
Christine

I want to report several bugs that happened to my computer as a result of installing and playing the game. My computer met all the game requirements and play well on my mid-2010 Mac Pro. Here are the bugs:

1. While the game was running in the background my screensaver would not engage. Even if I hid the game, it still would not engage. I set up a new profile just for Civilization: Beyond Earth and my screensaver would not engage on my main profile even though the game was not open. The only way to finally get my screensaver to engage was to remove the game completely from my computer by deleting the separate account and removing it from mine. The screensaver now engages with no difficulties.

2. Within a couple of hours of installing Civ: BE, I started to get a recurring message that stated a graphics problem had been detected. Although this is a known issue ( https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6596475?start=45&tstart=0 ), I have never had it happen to me before installing the game. Most times just before this message popped up the computer would freeze, get the spinning beachball and sometimes the game would quit unexpectedly. However, even when the game was not open, I would still get this message and the accompanying freezing. The freezing is well described at the link I posted earlier. Once I removed the game from my account, I have not had this error message.

3. Monitor not waking from sleep – since installing the game my monitor would not wake from an extended time asleep. Although this is also a known issue (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2182798?start=45&tstart=0) it did not happen to me before and has since stopped once I removed the game from my computer.

If you have any questions please let me know. As of right now, I am not playing the game. I will wait for a bit until there are some more updates to the game and to Yosemite. I am disappointed though.
- Russ Looney
  
  Thanks, Christine. Any bugs or other technical problems you run into should be reported to Aspyr Support (http://support.aspyr.com). They’ll properly log bugs for us to review and may even be able to help you get some things fixed in the process.
  - Christine
    
    I have reported the bugs to Aspyr. Thanks!