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Important question: How many of those 50 games support Mantle and are getting a Linux port?
Mantle only (potentially, but not necessarily practically) gives developers an easier path to SteamOS if only Mantle is supported by the renderer. In cases where developers wish to target users who run Intel and NVIDIA hardware — which comprises somewhere north of 70% of gamers — they need to provide an additional rendering path (that obviously being OpenGL).
For what reasons, specifically?
It would be logical for Nvidia and Intel to adopt Mantle for their own GPUs. AMD has said already that Mantle can easily be ported directly to DirectX 12 with minimal effort. If that's the case and I was either of the two companies, if I wanted to be ready for DX 12 in 2015 and stay competitive, I'd adopt it if and when AMD makes it available. Very likely this will happen after it exits beta.
I did read the article, it answers none of my concerns.
I don't know if UBISOFT's programmers are Gameworks skill deficient, or they give less than a shit about the PC. At any rate you can still play Mantle games using the default DirectX path. With Mantle in Linux there should still be the obligatory OpenGL path available.
The thing with mantle is you can still play games in dx11 *rimshot*. I'm here every Wednesday!
With UBISOFT, it was almost like neither AMD or Nvidia could play Watch Dogs without stuttering.
I think the second option of what you said is probably more in tune with reality (but hey, never underestimate ye olde incompetence!). I understand that you can play the OTHER path if you don't have a GCN card, but that's not really the point. Mantle is bad because of its hardware lock. I don't care if it will allow other cards to use it in the future (until it does, that aspect is vaporware), the point is that I just don't trust game developers these days with multiple code path options. Hell - they cannot even manage it on current consoles and PC's. They always seem to develop for the lowest common denominator and then add on "extras" to the more powerful platforms. There have been some EXCELLENT multiplatform releases, but those tend to be the exception and not the rule.
That explains the current workflow we see today, involving only DirectX and OpenGL. It doesn't speak to any sort of fallback renderer for Mantle.
Right, so they're saying here that the port from DirectX to Mantle takes about four-to-six weeks. There's still no mention of any kind of fallback renderer for Mantle games on Linux.
So they'll spend four-to-six weeks to port to OpenGL (for everyone) and an additional four-to-six weeks to also port to Mantle (for users with AMD cards, who could already run their OpenGL port)?
They're still stuck porting to OpenGL if they want to support more than just a small sub-set of Linux users with Mantle-capable AMD graphics cards.
Win win .Just not good for gamers. (See watchdog release ran like crap on both lol)
Uh, no, I don't think that. I never said anything like that
Uh, no, I don't think that. I never said anything like that
I'm pointing out the elephant in the room. If they already have to port from DX11 to another API, and it takes the same amount of time to port to either OpenGL or Mantle, why bother porting to both Mantle and OpenGL when they can just port to OpenGL (which already runs on everything)?
If they try to cut costs by doing only a Mantle port, they lose a pile of customers and lock out most hardware (doesn't make sense, which you and I both noticed).
If they try to cut costs by doing only an OpenGL port... there's no real down-side (aside from missing out on some performance on a specific sub-set of users machines).
See? I was pointing towards the exact OPPOSITE of skipping an OpenGL port.
Uh, no, I don't think that. I never said anything like that
I'm pointing out the elephant in the room. If they already have to port from DX11, why bother porting to both Mantle and OpenGL when they can just port to OpenGL?
But seriously, last thing I remember using OpenGL was ID Software for their Doom titles. Quite sure there are other titles, but those are the ones that I remember.