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Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix

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Re: Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix

#31

Post by danssig »

m_st wrote: post #15

I'm sure one of the reasons for a Linux client (and even a Steam console) is Windows 8 with its App Store. Soon potential customers are going to buy their software through these integrated stores rather than using dedicated clients. And since Microsoft is giving the Desktop a legacy feeling Valve has no choice but expand the reach of Steam. Which is of course good for us customers.

>Valve has no choice but expand the reach of Steam

This seems pretty unlikely. I doubt there are enough linux gamers in existance to justify what this investment will cost.

Re: Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix

#32

Post by tdr »

Lack of gaming support was (and still is) in my opinion the main reason Linux didn't get properly accepted into the consumer sector. (every gamer had to keep Windows dual-boot )

Because of that there were problems with the drivers and snowballed to other areas.

Re: Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix

#33

Post by danssig »

qxcv wrote: post #11

Looks like this is going to be reality, Phoronix just published the promised article[0] which basically claims that Valve have ported L4D/Source over to Linux already! Exciting news indeed, AAA-titles for Linux could turn the desktop OS market upside down. [0]: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=valve...

That is interesting news, but turn the OS market upside down? You can't be serious.

Re: Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix

#34

Post by onli »

danssig wrote: post #33
qxcv wrote: post #11

Looks like this is going to be reality, Phoronix just published the promised article[0] which basically claims that Valve have ported L4D/Source over to Linux already! Exciting news indeed, AAA-titles for Linux could turn the desktop OS market upside down. [0]: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=valve...

That is interesting news, but turn the OS market upside down? You can't be serious.

Why not? Missing games are the last and only "serious" issue of Linux. Well, maybe apart from Adobes product. But that's quite seriuos: Not being able to play normal and modern games is why I have Windows installed, and it's why i couldn't convince my nonexisting kids to use linux solely.

More Games means more user means more games (means better gpu-driver). It's a really old theory, and i think it's one that is sound, that linux somehow has to start the spirale and end the issue of having not enough user for games and therefor not enough games for users. Steam with some Valve-games could change that indeed.

Re: Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix

#36

Post by exDM69 »

guard-of-terra wrote: post #28
mattbee wrote: post #19

Brilliant news. Of course Valve wouldn't want their own console to be tied to Windows, and there are definitely enough Mac-ported games (e.g. including Assassins Creed, not just their own stuff) that Linux ports must be do-able in short order. I'd hope there's some "trickle-down" effect of Steam ports- an push to sort out the knotty ball of Linux sound configuration, 3D drivers and other grimness. Alternatively it co…

OSS is dead for five years or more. These days you either have a direct ALSA, or Pulse, which ALSA can stream to transparently. If you have a SDL+ALSA game you will see exactly zero problems and that's what everybody does. OpenGL support is pretty solid too.

> OSS is dead for five years or more.

OSS on Linux may be dead but OSS is still the API on other free unixes like *BSD's and the API has been developed forwards.

> If you have a SDL+ALSA game you will see exactly zero problems and that's what everybody does.

With SDL, you're stuck with the lowest common denominator of all audio API's. I've had more than my share of problems when doing audio with SDL. If you want 3d audio (doppler effects, etc), SDL audio is out of the question.

OpenAL has been pretty popular with games too, but the implementations available are not rock solid.

> OpenGL support is pretty solid too.

OpenGL support is pretty solid given you have a GPU that has sane drivers, which is not always the case. In particular with consumer laptops and integrated graphics on desktops.

But still, OpenGL is in pretty much every way inferior to D3D if portability doesn't count. It's an awful API for the programmer and the implementer and there are plenty of pitfalls that may cause bad performance or corruptions on crappy drivers.

I regret to say this, but Linux is not a very ideal platform to run games. The biggest problem, by far, is the quality of OpenGL API and implementations. Audio is not at all that bad but it's still kinda hairy.

Re: Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix

#37

Post by exDM69 »

mattbee wrote: post #19

Brilliant news. Of course Valve wouldn't want their own console to be tied to Windows, and there are definitely enough Mac-ported games (e.g. including Assassins Creed, not just their own stuff) that Linux ports must be do-able in short order. I'd hope there's some "trickle-down" effect of Steam ports- an push to sort out the knotty ball of Linux sound configuration, 3D drivers and other grimness. Alternatively it co…

> Alternatively it could be that you need to enable pulseaudio for title A, ALSA for title B, OSS for title C - ARRRGGHHH.

You don't need to enable or disable anything. If you run a PulseAudio-based desktop, you can run software that uses ALSA, OSS or PulseAudio and it should work.

People complain a lot about PulseAudio but it still has it's place on a modern desktop. A modern laptop might have 3 or more sound card devices (analog out, digital out and HDMI. Add a USB sound card if you're a musician). ALSA does a mighty fine job dealing with these individually, but if you want a fluent desktop experience, you need something like Pulse on top. Or you can hack your ~/.asoundrc if pulse is not what you want.

Re: Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix

#38

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

usaar333 wrote: post #30
TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my case, TF2 and Half-Life are the only things stopping me switching to Linux as my main OS. I can agree with you there, I want to be able to code and game on the same OS.

Both run very well in wine/crossover.

I have an ATI card D:

Then again, no amount of engineering by Valve will fix that.

Re: Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix

#40

Post by idleloops »

tdr wrote: post #32

Lack of gaming support was (and still is) in my opinion the main reason Linux didn't get properly accepted into the consumer sector. (every gamer had to keep Windows dual-boot ) Because of that there were problems with the drivers and snowballed to other areas.

As well as:

* Poor web browser (not an issue now)

* Poor flash support (better than it has been)

* No Microsoft Office (partially surmountable)

* Video and sound configuration issues (sound is still hit and miss for me)

* Inconsistent desktop UIs and administration tools

* Lack of simple point and click system control panel

And that you couldn't easily find consumer hardware pre-installed with a Linux desktop (which could have got around some of the driver issues.)

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