Unreal launcher for linux?

[Tomza]

@Sslaxx;452375

How does the Unity Editor under Linux compare? I’ve never managed to get that working properly here, but I’m curious to know if its asset store is accessible from the Linux version. Certainly this line “The asset store window cannot be docked into the main editor window” on their release notes thread - http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/unity-on-linux-release-notes-and-known-issues.350256/ - makes it sound promising.

Frankly, I was surprised to see Unity Technologies even making the effort to port their editor to Linux. But it appears that they may have (slightly) more interest in seeing the editor working on the platform than Epic does with UE4. Its marketplace is important, and keeping it out of the reach of Linux users comes across as cutting of their nose to spite their face.

Unity Technologies made the effort because they had been under our strong pressure. We wrote the script for running the Unity 3D Windows version on Linux and this topic was very hot on the Unity forum for a long time. They saw how many people wished to use Unity 3D on Linux. Unity Team’s love to Linux seems false. Only two people work over Unity 3D on Linux and Windows 10 is being promoted all the time. I don’t use Unity 3D any more because UE4 is much better for my job, but hopefully the project will be developed for other users who run Linux on their computers. The binary version is really good and is improving all the time. My dream is Epic Team will do the same with UE4.

[anonymous_user_307fa041]

@;452414

Unity Technologies made the effort because they had been under our strong pressure. We wrote the script for running the Unity 3D Windows version on Linux and this topic was very hot on the Unity forum for a long time. They saw how many people wished to use Unity 3D on Linux. Unity Team’s love to Linux seems false. Only two people work over Unity 3D on Linux and Windows 10 is being promoted all the time. I don’t use Unity 3D any more because UE4 is much better for my job, but hopefully the project will be developed for other users who run Linux on their computers. The binary version is really good and is improving all the time. My dream is Epic Team will do the same with UE4.

Oh, I have no illusions about Unity Technologies harbouring any love for Linux, have no fear of that, though it’s amusing they have double the number of people working on Linux than Epic. It’s just that they made a bit more effort than Epic have with their Asset Store which I noticed.

[anonymous_user_e955dac61]

@;444413

We’re not working on a Linux launcher. We’re doing a lot of high-priority platform work which will take precedence over any consideration of this for most of 2016 before we have a chance to reevaluate. It’s actually a harder problem to solve on Linux than PC/Mac because the binary compatibility differences on Linux are more extreme.

Looking beyond convenience, is the lack of a Linux launcher blocking any critical functionality for game development with UE4? Developing workarounds may be more practicable than building a fully compatible launcher.

Hi ,

What exactly are you referring to when you mention binary compatibility differences? It’s a common misconception that a program compiled on one distro won’t run on other distros - on the contrary, it usually runs just fine. If you are referring to different versions of system libraries present, yes, that can happen.

However, in the case of a large piece of software like Unreal Engine, you could simple redistribute most libraries with the engine - Steam, for instance, commonly does this both for itself and applications provided through the software.

As for the launcher, without an official distribution method for both marketplace assets, the engine itself and related learning assets, the engine comes across as a strictly hobbyist program meant for those who live their lives inside a terminal (a description which, I admit, hits home for a lot of Linux users, but one that certainly isn’t representative of the engine’s target audience). Having an official launcher on Linux would improve adoption considerably for those who don’t like handling the source code of the engine, or fiddling with compile-time quirks that would not be present in a binary build.

In any case, something which would solve a lot of the aforementioned issues would be to simply pick a distribution and solely develop and support for that distribution. It will eliminate any potential problems with library versioning (an issue I would argue is largely nonexistent) and allow Epic to have stable knowledge of what will and won’t be present on the system, greatly reducing development complexity. This is not just in terms of a launcher, but for the engine as a whole.

Personally, I’d suggest Ubuntu as the default distribution - it’s one of the most common distros out there. It’s often the first distro people come in contact with, and it’s the default distro for many other gaming projects, such as Steam. Not only that, but Ubuntu has a number of derivations which support the exact same functionality, many of which hold a large installation share in the Linux world (Linux Mint, all the *buntu variants, etc).

Other distributions will, in all likelyhood, be able to run the engine - there simply won’t be any official support for them.

Apart from the above, what sort of high-priority platform work are you referring to? It’s always interesting to hear about what’s going on behind the scenes

[Pavak_Paul]

This thread is from 2014, it’s 2016 now. Any luck installing stuffs from marketplace so far? I mean guys, it’s been 2 years. It doesn’t have to be the marketplace launcher way. Maybe download from the website and import them somehow. Shouldn’t be hard I think…

[anonymous_user_32422117]

Any chance the Epic Games Launcher source could get rolled into the UE4 repo or made its own repo on GitHub, and just allow the Linux Developers to build it themselves like they do the Editor?

[anonymous_user_f287f87d]

@;444413

We’re not working on a Linux launcher. We’re doing a lot of high-priority platform work which will take precedence over any consideration of this for most of 2016 before we have a chance to reevaluate. It’s actually a harder problem to solve on Linux than PC/Mac because the binary compatibility differences on Linux are more extreme.

Looking beyond convenience, is the lack of a Linux launcher blocking any critical functionality for game development with UE4? Developing workarounds may be more practicable than building a fully compatible launcher.

Hi ,
I am not a windows fan at all,I have been using Linux from past 10 years for every purpose but I moved to windows only to use UE4.

And now when UE4 is available on Linux,my question is that is there any probability that Epic may withdraw support for linux in near future for any reason like you guys are still not able to provide launcher.

I don’t mind staying on windows for UE4,but the main issue in my case is that as time passes windows start getting slow and it overall effects the performance of engine,but its not the same with linux.

Any words on this matter is greatly appriciated.

[AlexRoot]

Ok, the UE team won’t do it this year. But maybe someone in the community would do it?
We would just need a protocol description (at least me, cause I’m too lazy for reverse engineering that protocol) from the unreal staff.

[Tomza]

@AlexRoot;468994

Ok, the UE team won’t do it this year. But maybe someone in the community would do it?
We would just need a protocol description (at least me, cause I’m too lazy for reverse engineering that protocol) from the unreal staff.

Yes, it would be great - we need the launcher.

[Tomza]

The launcher is important, but I was shocked when I learned I couldn’t build for Windows. I wish to develop on Linux and my 3D app will be cross-platform and… I CAN’T BUILD FOR ALL PLATFORMS! Please to something with that. Now we have Vulkan API and it would be great to develop on Linux without limitations.

[AlexRoot]

I just realized that you can access the marketplace in your browser. No need for the launcher anymore (would be nice though)
Thank you Unreal team!

P.S. I guess the marketplace is accessible for ages but I just didn’t see it…

[kirk.clawson]

Yeah, the marketplace has always been available via browser.

Try downloading a purchased asset, though…

[Yaakuro]

Well if you press download it will try to start Unreal Launcher which we don’t have on GNUX. So the Marketplace on the web is useless. You can only buy but not download.

[Sir_Brizz]

I don’t see why not just support the most popular distribution (Ubuntu) and let everyone else live in the Wild West like they are used to? Linux users are comfortable with this model at this point.

I also want to dispel any notion that there is no value to having a binary editor on Linux. The editor takes AGES to build on my i7 with 16gb of RAM. I’m talking over two hours. This is frankly unacceptable length of time when trying to get work done. I’m glad that compiling is an option, don’t get me wrong, but it should by no means be the primary way of interacting with the engine. Freakin OSX gets a full launcher with a binary editor. Why are we two years in and Linux is still treated like the red headed stepchild even in the Windows editor where Linux cross compile is not available without tweaking?

This is additionally terrifying in light of [MENTION=35][/MENTION] 's recent comments about UWP. If Microsoft continues down that path, where are we going to go? OSX where the exact same problems exist as on Windows?

IMO Epic needs to be one of the army of developers who support Linux because it is the only alternative to closed and closing platforms. Without that support, Microsoft will have no reason to be concerned with so-called competition and your back will be against the wall when it is already too late.

[anonymous_user_9e06a9391 (anonymous_user_9e06a939)]

@;444413

We’re not working on a Linux launcher. We’re doing a lot of high-priority platform work which will take precedence over any consideration of this for most of 2016 before we have a chance to reevaluate. It’s actually a harder problem to solve on Linux than PC/Mac because the binary compatibility differences on Linux are more extreme.

Looking beyond convenience, is the lack of a Linux launcher blocking any critical functionality for game development with UE4? Developing workarounds may be more practicable than building a fully compatible launcher.

The main thing for me would be access to marketplace content. I don’t mind building the engine from the Github version.

I can purchase marketplace content through the web interface, but I can only download it through the launcher on Windows. If I could download marketplace content through the web interface, I would be pretty happy. That’s our only big piece of missing functionality. Everything else is, as far as I’m concerned, an issue of convenience.

Thanks for taking the time to respond to this thread.

[AoiGhost]

To be blunt regarding binary differences. Even adding the ability to build the engine from the launcher (and launch custom built versions from the launcher) would be a workaround if “binary compatibility” is an issue. Given that Steam seems to have it worked out though, see how Valve does it? Valve packages a base runtime of binaries with Steam for use in Linux games to ensure binary compatibility. I’m pretty sure that would work to fix this issue.

[anonymous_user_600b26f1]

Given there seems to be no intention of bringing the Unreal Launcher to Linux any time soon, could I please ask you 1 favour:
Could you provide another means for me to access the content examples without needing the Launcher, Like an old-fashioned http download link?

[rohezal]

Please provide download links in on the web shop. If I buy something, I want to download it. Not installing an costly Windows OS, install some software there, download it via Windows and copy it to linux. This makes sure I won’t buy the stuff from marketplace. You are scaring away paying customers. This is not a good bussisness model.

[system]

@rohezal;525289

Please provide download links in on the web shop. If I buy something, I want to download it. Not installing an costly Windows OS, install some software there, download it via Windows and copy it to linux. This makes sure I won’t buy the stuff from marketplace. You are scaring away paying customers. This is not a good bussisness model.

Thumbs up to that! I think giving the users the ability to choose what they prefer is way better, let the users choose what OS to use, don’t force them into anything, if we want to chose Linux what is wrong with that?

As Linux users we shouldn’t be silenced! I want to open a game studio running purely on Linux, but will something more commercial like this persuade Epic to make the launcher, say we pay more the asked 5% when releasing a game? Hopefully? I would be happy to pay more if it gets us noticed.

PS:
I made a very simple sh script to be able to update the engine from Github with one click if anyone is interested in it

[Tomza]

@erlog;534012

Thumbs up to that! I think giving the users the ability to choose what they prefer is way better, let the users choose what OS to use, don’t force them into anything, if we want to chose Linux what is wrong with that?

As Linux users we shouldn’t be silenced! I want to open a game studio running purely on Linux, but will something more commercial like this persuade Epic to make the launcher, say we pay more the asked 5% when releasing a game? Hopefully? I would be happy to pay more if it gets us noticed.

PS:
I made a very simple sh script to be able to update the engine from Github with one click if anyone is interested in it

Guys, look at it:

Beta-Launcher for Linux

[darthviper107]

@erlog;534012

Thumbs up to that! I think giving the users the ability to choose what they prefer is way better, let the users choose what OS to use, don’t force them into anything, if we want to chose Linux what is wrong with that?

As Linux users we shouldn’t be silenced! I want to open a game studio running purely on Linux, but will something more commercial like this persuade Epic to make the launcher, say we pay more the asked 5% when releasing a game? Hopefully? I would be happy to pay more if it gets us noticed.

PS:
I made a very simple sh script to be able to update the engine from Github with one click if anyone is interested in it

They definitely do want to support Linux, and they’d like to have a launcher available for Linux. It just seems right now it’s not a priority most likely due to the lack of people that want to use Linux.