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Portal Released For Steam On Linux

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Re: Portal Released For Steam On Linux

#91

Post by forrestthewoods »

spacelizard wrote: post #81
forrestthewoods wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most good games are made by people who are paid to make them. Or people who hope to pay themselves when their game is finished and sold. It's hard to get a large volume of unpaid volunteers to collectively work together on a creative endeavor. If I'm going to spend my free time working on something creative then it's going to follow my vision and not someone else's. If you want a community driven game nothing is stop…

Whoa - I'm not advocating for people to work unpaid. Don't know where you got that idea. I just don't think anything can really honestly advertise itself as being "mod friendly" or "community friendly" unless it's GPL.

Community driven somewhat implies unpaid. At least it seems so to me? There's no proven business model for games that supports paying a staff and being GPL. Being GPL also means you can't ever release on consoles, handhelds, or mobile.

I'm not sure how you could say Source engine isn't mod friendly. Lots of great mods have been made using it.

Professional grade engines are also becoming increasingly available at very affordable prices. With Unity there's really nothing stopping anyone from making any game they want.

Re: Portal Released For Steam On Linux

#92

Post by ownagefool »

loser777 wrote: post #74
loser777 wrote: post #11

Yet another reason to lament the lack of decent mouse driver support in GNU/Linux. As long as I have to relearn how to move my mouse in order to play a game, I'm going to keep a Windows box handy for games.

Some clarifications Yes, mice often have dpi-switching mapped to hardware buttons. However, as with my mouse, this hardware switching offers very limited granularity and many dpi "modes" can only be selected in software by a proprietary driver. I'm mostly talking about RTS games (think StarCraft) as well as some rhythm games (think Osu!) where persistent mouse behavior is essential to playability. Competitive fps pla…

If you desire a consistent mouse experience, you almost always want to leave the mice at their optimum DPI value and you are very limited in choice.

RTS players tend not to care about this because they do not need the level of accuracy required to ping off headshots while moving, thus they're happy with "good enough" while manipulating DPIs in ways that'll cause all sort of sensor problems which could be a deciding factor in an FPS game.

If you care about having the best mousing experince you're really talking about using a deathadder, g400 and their kin. You are correct though, fancy macro buttons and high price tags tend not to get you the best mouse. But to think the RTS player relies on their mouse as much as the FPS player is folly.

Re: Portal Released For Steam On Linux

#93

Post by momokatte »

Nursie wrote: post #30

I played portal via steam on Linux years ago! (OK so that was wine, but it worked pretty well :)

I did too! In a little window in the middle of my screen. Sometimes the game would freeze for a second or two to load a sound effect.

Tonight I played the first half of the linux beta at 1920X1080 resolution and it just made me giddy. I'd been waiting a long time for this day.

Re: Portal Released For Steam On Linux

#94

Post by nekgrim »

zanny wrote: post #58
stephengillie wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 marke…

You can download Amazon AppStore on your Android phone, but you can't find it on Google Play, you have to download the apk from Amazon website.

Re: Portal Released For Steam On Linux

#95

Post by lmm »

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.

The nvidia drivers have been rock solid for about a decade now.

Re: Portal Released For Steam On Linux

#96

Post by ekimekim »

spacelizard wrote: post #81
forrestthewoods wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most good games are made by people who are paid to make them. Or people who hope to pay themselves when their game is finished and sold. It's hard to get a large volume of unpaid volunteers to collectively work together on a creative endeavor. If I'm going to spend my free time working on something creative then it's going to follow my vision and not someone else's. If you want a community driven game nothing is stop…

Whoa - I'm not advocating for people to work unpaid. Don't know where you got that idea. I just don't think anything can really honestly advertise itself as being "mod friendly" or "community friendly" unless it's GPL.

Minor quibble - I'd say "an open licence", not "GPL".

Re: Portal Released For Steam On Linux

#97

Post by ZeroGravitas »

stephengillie wrote: post #13

How long before Steam for Android? And Portal for Android?

I'm sure there's a presentation from Valve engineers in which they specifically talk about Linux as a staging post for porting to android.

Here's a reddit link that goes to the presentation slides but also has some comments from one of the presenters:

http://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/1bnaoh/valves_...

Re: Portal Released For Steam On Linux

#98

Post by lucian1900 »

Afforess wrote: post #47
Skoofoo wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would sympathize with Valve if they didn't completely ignore Linux before acting like the Linux community's best friend when it became apparent that they had nowhere else to turn to [1]. Like many, I'm a fan of their games and their flat management, but they have a history of being as short-sighted and callous as EA and I wish more people would see that [2]. I have a lot more respect for the people behind Humble Bu…

What? Humble BundLe totally sold out their integrity after they let THQ sell their games with the Humble Bundle brand, without linux versions and with DRM. [1] http://www.penny-arcade.com/report/article/the-humble-thq-bu... [2] http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/11/humble-thq-bundle-thre...

It wasn't named an "indie" bundle and it was marked quite well. I don't think it's selling out.

Re: Portal Released For Steam On Linux

#99

Post by davidpardo »

Joeri wrote: post #89
JonnieCache wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Microsoft can turn off "side-loading" of software in Windows and lock everyone into their walled garden. I think the EU might have something to say about that.

The EU didn't force apple to open up iOS, and this is with a near monopoly in the tablet space. Microsoft doesn't have to close down windows, they just need to make windows rt the default option for consumers wanting to get a machine that runs office and some games.

EU antitrust laws aren't against monopolys per se, but against using the power of a monopoly to gain an advantage in a new market. So, Microsoft wasn't fined for having a 95% of the PC market, but for trying to leverage that share to force its competition in the internet field out of the market. Apple tablets were born with the app store and conquered (created?) the tablet market, so, no problem.It'd have been different if they allowed people to install apps from anywhere and afterwards restricted them to the app store. So, I think microsoft would be in big trouble in the EU if they tried to shut Steam out of the market by disabling third party software on windows.

Re: Portal Released For Steam On Linux

#100

Post by notimetorelax »

chongli wrote: post #86
w1ntermute wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the importance of backwards compatibility for corporate Windows users and the history Microsoft has with the Justice Department, I find such a situation very hard to fathom. Microsoft is not Apple - they cannot use the Reality Distortion Field to get away scot-free with imposing draconian restrictions on their user base.

They'll just turn on signed side-loading in the high-end corporate version of the OS; with Microsoft providing the (revokable) signing keys as part of the corporate site license. As for the Justice Department intervention? I wouldn't hold my breath.

If pain deploying applications on Windows becomes greater than pain of switching to Linux (porting applications and training personnel) then Microsoft might have a problem.
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