Bug 62441

How is Hardware?
lspci -v

02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RV770 [Radeon HD 4870] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Subsystem: PC Partner Limited Device 0851
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 46
        Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
        Memory at fd8e0000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
        I/O ports at 8e00 [size=256]
        [virtual] Expansion ROM at fd800000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
        Capabilities: [58] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
        Capabilities: [a0] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
        Capabilities: [100] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0001 Rev=1 Len=010 <?>
        Kernel driver in use: fglrx_pci
        Kernel modules: fglrx, radeon

Notice I am using "fglrx" now, but I have decided to post this bug just after I have tried the game with the proprietary driver to be sure it was an issue with the free one. The game runs fine with fglrx.

What version of the kernel and mesa are you using?  Also is Bastion a 32-bit game and are you running it on a 64-bit distro?  It could be that you have an old version of the 32-bit hardware 3D driver or that you are ending up with software rendering for 32-bit apps.  Please attach your dmesg output and xorg log.

Well, that is embarassing... I use Linux Mint 14 64 bits (based on Ubuntu 12.10), but for testing the hypotesis I downloaded Linux Mint 14 32 bits (i.e. the same kernel version, 3.5.0), flashed a bootable USB Stick with the ISO, and booted in it.

Then I ran the game out of the system's hard drive. It ran at full speed most of time, almost flawlessly. There was only a minor glitch at Warner Bros. logo during startup, and a perceivable slowdown when entering buildings like the Destilary (just GUI, irrelevant to gameplay).

I am yet to revert the driver from fglrx and provide the info requested (dmesg output and xorg log), but if the radeon driver is fine (as I could atest from Live USB Stick), where is the issue? A brand new installation with functional/accelerated OpenGL should be able to run 64 bits games as well as 32 bits games, right? Where is the issue, then? In the ditribution? In the packaging? Are there missing packages that I should instal manually?

(In reply to comment #4)
> I am yet to revert the driver from fglrx and provide the info requested
> (dmesg output and xorg log), but if the radeon driver is fine (as I could
> atest from Live USB Stick), where is the issue? A brand new installation
> with functional/accelerated OpenGL should be able to run 64 bits games as
> well as 32 bits games, right? Where is the issue, then? In the ditribution?
> In the packaging? Are there missing packages that I should instal manually?

Make sure your distro provides (or you have installed) the 32 bit multi-arch packages to support 32-bit apps on a 64bit system.