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Portal Released For Steam On Linux

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Re: Portal Released For Steam On Linux

#51

Post by sendob »

fps wrote: post #44
sendob wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think may be referring to products such as: http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-mice/razer-naga-epic "System Requirements PC or Mac with USB port Windows® 8/ Windows® 7 / Windows Vista® / Windows® XP (32-bit)/ Mac OS X (v10.6-10.8)" I enjoy the ability to fully utilize my right hand and minimize the amount of movement I do to and from the mouse, both for work and general computing. Depending upon what you want from you…

I have the Naga, and under linux you can program the buttons of it and any other mouse using imwheel. Then your macros are in a file on a disk, not on NVRAM on a mouse.

good to know, thanks!

Re: Portal Released For Steam On Linux

#52

Post by w1ntermute »

fragsworth wrote: post #32

Steam is now the de-facto "app store" of the PC as far as games go, which was no small feat. It took them more than 10 years to get to this point and it's now in jeopardy. With Google and Apple already controlling the mobile app stores, various console manufacturers controlling their own ecosystems, and Microsoft attempting to abandon their "open" Windows (so they can run their own app store) - the industry is shifti…

I don't think that Valve is at danger at all. The types of games on Steam are COMPLETELY different from what is on app stores, and so are the prices and consumer behavior. People will pay large sums of money on Steam, in a way they won't in a mobile app store. And you can trust that you're getting a quality game.

Re: Portal Released For Steam On Linux

#53

Post by chongli »

w1ntermute wrote: post #52
fragsworth wrote: post #32

Steam is now the de-facto "app store" of the PC as far as games go, which was no small feat. It took them more than 10 years to get to this point and it's now in jeopardy. With Google and Apple already controlling the mobile app stores, various console manufacturers controlling their own ecosystems, and Microsoft attempting to abandon their "open" Windows (so they can run their own app store) - the industry is shifti…

I don't think that Valve is at danger at all. The types of games on Steam are COMPLETELY different from what is on app stores, and so are the prices and consumer behavior. People will pay large sums of money on Steam, in a way they won't in a mobile app store. And you can trust that you're getting a quality game.

They are in danger should Microsoft ever gain a significant foothold with the Windows Store. Microsoft can turn off "side-loading" of software in Windows and lock everyone into their walled garden. If Valve hasn't successfully migrated away from Windows by that point they will be completely screwed.

Re: Portal Released For Steam On Linux

#54

Post by zanny »

spacelizard wrote: post #45
fragsworth wrote: post #32

Steam is now the de-facto "app store" of the PC as far as games go, which was no small feat. It took them more than 10 years to get to this point and it's now in jeopardy. With Google and Apple already controlling the mobile app stores, various console manufacturers controlling their own ecosystems, and Microsoft attempting to abandon their "open" Windows (so they can run their own app store) - the industry is shifti…

>The software industry is heading in very bad directions, and this is at least a glimmer of hope. I don't buy this -- Steam is just another walled garden app store with the same conflicts of interest that we're used to seeing, such as giving top billing to their own products on their store, using DRM, promoting itself as an advertising space, etc. The problem I have is: where are all the GPL'ed games? The Torque Engi…

> The problem I have is: where are all the GPL'ed games?

All the id engines have gone GPL. Ogre3d is a popular engine base.

A lot of game studios use some derivative of Unreal 3, which Epic will never GPL because they make money selling rights to it.

Most other engines, even beyond that, will have some proprietary inclusions that they don't hold licenses over, such as with the JK launch.

The lack of community FOSS game engine projects from the ground up is strange to me. It seems it would make a lot of sense for major industry players to band together and develop a really rock solid engine in the FOSS world to minimize the costs of engine development, even if in the short term they lose the benefit of being able to license their engine or profit off specialized graphics or gameplay tech they put in it.

Re: Portal Released For Steam On Linux

#55

Post by zanny »

hdra wrote: post #25
rinon wrote: post #10

Now if we can only get semi-stable, long-term graphics driver support for Linux to be able to play these games. I think there may be light at the end of that tunnel, since hardware vendors seem to be providing more support for Linux now.

when that day comes, I am sure many would switch to Linux, especially among the developers. In the past few years using Windows, I have stopped thinking about device drivers at all, I just expected them to work. I am looking forward to the day where this comes to desktop Linux.

I run Arch on a GTX 285 and never had graphics driver issues. All I ever had to do was tweak on coolbits in the xorg.conf to enable fan control and overclocking (which you have to do manually on Windows as well). The lack of any support of Nouveau makes me not want to buy an Nvidia product in the future, but Catalyst really is the elephant in the room - if only AMD would ditch it, make radeon work really well and embrace the kernel people to make it as good as the Intel driver, they would be in a really good spot.

But the drivers are there. If you are running any modern distro worth its salt, your graphics will work out of the box with the FOSS driver, and switching to the proprietary one is little more than a package get. Which is even easier than on Windows where you have to manually get the graphics driver if Windows doesn't recognize the card (sometimes it does).

Re: Portal Released For Steam On Linux

#56

Post by zanny »

oceanstone wrote: post #31
hdra wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

when that day comes, I am sure many would switch to Linux, especially among the developers. In the past few years using Windows, I have stopped thinking about device drivers at all, I just expected them to work. I am looking forward to the day where this comes to desktop Linux.

Once Linux has good device drivers, someone will release a highly optimized distribution for gaming. Afterwards, I think Linux will start to become the leading desktop OS.

I have no problems with the Nvidia driver on Arch, and haven't had an issue in over a year. Everything runs rock solid, I've never had the display freeze or crash, and it runs a truckload of games in Wine.

Linux becoming a leading desktop OS is all about defaults. Unless it is sold in Best Buy on laptops as a default option, priced below the Windows variant license costs, it will always be a niche product because it requires users to go absurdly out of their way to find or install it.

The Steambox is much more likely to rectify that. Consumer Linux PCs in the guise of game consoles will get it wide deployment.

Re: Portal Released For Steam On Linux

#57

Post by [deleted] »

chongli wrote: post #53
w1ntermute wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that Valve is at danger at all. The types of games on Steam are COMPLETELY different from what is on app stores, and so are the prices and consumer behavior. People will pay large sums of money on Steam, in a way they won't in a mobile app store. And you can trust that you're getting a quality game.

They are in danger should Microsoft ever gain a significant foothold with the Windows Store. Microsoft can turn off "side-loading" of software in Windows and lock everyone into their walled garden. If Valve hasn't successfully migrated away from Windows by that point they will be completely screwed.

[deleted]

Re: Portal Released For Steam On Linux

#58

Post by zanny »

stephengillie wrote: post #18
jaredmcateer wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well steam is already on android, just no games

Right now, they have an app with which you can view Steam profiles and text chat. I'm excited for the eventual Steam Apk Store and Steam Games for Android.

I'm pretty sure Google will ban it. They don't allow competing app stores (same reason Amazon basically forked the entire stack for their Kindle devices).

Maybe Valve will distribute Steam Android devices, but that seems silly.

If Valve wants to get mobile, they need to hope for the success of Ubuntu Phone / Plasma Active / Tizen. Even Ubuntu Phone is probably going to block in the Canonical app store competing markets.

Re: Portal Released For Steam On Linux

#60

Post by zanny »

likeclockwork wrote: post #48
dmoy wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea my mouse is wonky as hell in Linux. Keyboard drivers too :( The mechanical keyboard I have at home doesn't even work in linux. Every keystroke registers as three other characters (e.g. the F1 key types out 'mij'). None of the keys work. But it works flawlessly on Windows. I realize this is as much the keyboard manufacturer's fault as anyone, but it just adds one more thing I'd have to sink hours into if I wanted…

Weird. I use a Das Keyboard and a $10 logitech mouse. I've never had any problems with mouse or keyboard on linux, ever. They have always 'just worked'. Is everyone with these stories using some obscure hardware which requires propietary windows drivers and/or some obscure distribution or something? I'm not trying to be snarky or dismissive, but I've been using Linux for the last 14 years and I've never had any of th…

I have a fancy Logitech G500 (which is odd, because this mouse started as a cheapo MX510 and RMAs made it better and better over the years... haha, Logitech tech support is amazing and I always buy their stuff) and I'm surprised KDE recognizes all the buttons out of the box.

I also converted entirely from a Windows-only XP world, to a hybrid Ubuntu / 7 for gaming setup, and now I'm just running Arch only. I always got my pointer acceleration to align perfectly between them.

Hell, even the DPI switching on the G500 works. I think it is built into the mouse, though.

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