A voxel sandbox game on Linux: native, Vulkan, a round planet

Is there a native voxel sandbox for Linux?

New 3D games rarely ship a native Linux build on day one, and most voxel games lean on a compatibility layer or a heavy runtime. What's rare is a sandbox built natively for Linux from the start, on Vulkan.

Openworld is a voxel sandbox on a whole, round planet — walk straight and you come back to where you started — under a real sky with Moon phases and eclipses, all the way to the Sun, by way of the Moon and the planets. It runs on Linux, Windows and Mac (native Apple Silicon), and the Linux build is a first-class citizen: same version, same day, same servers.

Where do I get the Linux build?

From the official site only: one .tar.gz, no package repository, no store.

Install on Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora or Arch

The download is the same for every distribution: one archive with one executable. That program is the updater: it installs the launcher, the launcher installs the game, and from then on everything updates itself.

1. 1

   Extract the archive

   Download it, then in a terminal: tar xzf Openworld-linux-x64.tar.gz.

2. 2

   Run it

   ./Openworld — if it refuses, chmod +x Openworld first. The first run copies itself to ~/.openworld/updater/ and adds Openworld to your applications menu, with its icon.

3. 3

   Account, code, PLAY

   The launcher opens and installs the game. Create your account, confirm your email and pick your username. Then PLAY.

tar xzf Openworld-linux-x64.tar.gz
./Openworld

The packages, by distribution

The game is linked statically: it only asks your system for the C library, libcurl, zlib and the Vulkan loader, plus your GPU's Vulkan driver. Most desktops already have all of it. If not, one line per family (NVIDIA's proprietary driver brings its own Vulkan support):

sudo apt install libvulkan1 mesa-vulkan-drivers vulkan-tools libcurl4

sudo dnf install vulkan-loader mesa-vulkan-drivers vulkan-tools libcurl

sudo pacman -S vulkan-icd-loader vulkan-tools

vulkaninfo --summary

Graphics card, Vulkan and settings

Openworld draws with Vulkan 1.0 — there is no OpenGL fallback. Recent Mesa drivers (AMD and Intel) and NVIDIA's driver both qualify. Then it's a matter of settings, as on the other systems: Graphics quality (Options → Display) goes from Low to Extreme, and Render distance is the slider that weighs the most on integrated graphics.

• x86-64the Linux build
• 1.3the Vulkan version you need
• 5system libraries it links to, nothing more
• 2.38the newest glibc symbols it may use

• X11 or Wayland: the game's window layer (SDL) loads either one when it starts. Nothing to choose.
• Laptop with two GPUs: the game takes the first graphics device Vulkan offers it. With Mesa, DRI_PRIME=1 in front of the command asks for the other one; on NVIDIA Optimus setups, distributions provide prime-run for the same purpose.
• Press F3 for the frame rate, F11 for full screen.
• Controls are keyboard and mouse, remappable in Options → Controls. There's no gamepad support yet, which also means the Steam Deck isn't a target for now.

Where the files go

Everything stays in your home folder; nothing is written outside it, and no sudo is ever needed by the game itself.

• ~/.openworld — the updater (updater/Openworld), the launcher, the installed game versions, your settings, worlds and screenshots.
• ~/.local/share/applications/openworld.desktop and its icon in ~/.local/share/icons/ — the menu entry.
• ~/.config/autostart/openworld-updater.desktop — quietly updates the launcher when you log in. Don't want it? Untick Start Openworld with my computer in the launcher's Settings.

To uninstall: delete ~/.openworld, the .desktop files and the icon. That's the whole footprint.

Host a server on your Linux box

Linux is also home turf for servers. Openworld has a dedicated server for Linux, Windows and Mac, downloadable from the launcher, with an online mode (players sign in with their Openworld account) and an offline mode for a local network. Everything is explained in how to host your own Openworld server on Linux. And to bring your Mac and Windows friends in, read playing with friends on other platforms.

What's waiting on the planet

• A round planet you can walk all the way around: how a voxel world can be round.
• Caves with coal, iron and rarer ores: the underground guide.
• Nights with monsters: how to survive them.
• A real sky: Moon phases and eclipses, and the trip to the Moon in a rocket you build.
• Voxel building, 25 cm at a time: the building guide.

First steps? The beginner guide covers your first nights.