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Steam?

Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 11:58 am
by dagon
Steam for Linux... again :roll: :
Edited: Ok, it looks kind of serious so I added a quote and one more link. It's now Steam and the Source Engine ported to Linux
Right now the game they have been working on the most for their Linux client is Left 4 Dead 2. Why L4D2? Basically because it is a stable code-base to do for their initial porting. They have plans to bring their other titles to Linux as well as lobby other game developers using Steam and the Source Engine to bring their games to Linux -- natively. They are not using the Wine library or anything in terms of their native Linux Steam/Source engine work.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=a ... deln&num=1
http://www.webupd8.org/2012/04/valvle-w ... linux.html

...I wanna see it happen first...

Re: Steam?

Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 2:24 pm
by xenopeek
This could be a major boost for Linux; considering all the users that disregard Linux for not having games. Despite Desura and Humble Bundle and such, having the of 3D games available on Linux from a major studio should be good news for Linux's future growth on the desktop. Very interesting development :mrgreen: (Though my desktop doesn't have 3D horsepower needed by these kind of games...)

Re: Steam?

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 3:19 am
by Monsta
Hmm, interesting. Well, not that much interesting for me, I virtually stopped playing any games some time ago, and I'm too lazy to either reboot into my old Windows XP installation or try to run something under Wine. :) But I'll keep an eye on this.

(a little offtopic) Still, I've donated to Wasteland 2 project. Now I have to be patient and wait for my precious Linux version to arrive in October 2013. :roll:
Next stop is Shadowrun Returns, I guess. :)

Re: Steam?

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 6:24 pm
by remoulder

Re: Steam?

Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2012 6:55 am
by xenopeek
Community idea here http://community.linuxmint.com/idea/view/2616, where you can either promote or demote (or don't care) about adding the Steam client to the default install (once it is available). Perhaps a bit optimistically early, but it is good to see an interest (though the votes are currently tied between those in favour and those not).

Steam (natively) on Linux to drive Linux desktop success?

Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2012 1:30 pm
by Kevin108
http://www.steamforlinux.com/?q=en/node/35 has a very promising article suggesting that we will soon have Steam on Linux, with Left 4 Dead 2 as the initial product offering. This could be the move that will take Linux mainstream. Steam takes the plunge and shows the rest of the biz that people are more than happy to switch to a free OS as long as their commercial software can come with them.

Of course, for gaming, part of this also relies on Nvidia and ATI being able to get comparable performance out of their drivers in Linux. Is that even an issue? I don't know, but I know that it could be. What's the experience been like for you guys with more modern hardware?

Re: Steam?

Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2012 3:59 am
by Oscar799
Two threads about the same subject merged

Re: Steam?

Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2012 10:24 pm
by toomuchcoffee
Forget it... Gamer's wont switch to a free OS to play those ancient source games.. L4D2 is well designed and quite fun but source already felt dated back when it came out. Announcing steam for Linux with such an old game is just sad. I'd be impressed if they announced Half Life 3 on a brand spanking new graphics engine.. that would be something.

Re: Steam?

Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 12:51 pm
by moorewarner
This may be quite a bit larger for Linux than just a Steam client (as big a piece of news as that would be), there was also a web chat linked to from a steam forum thread that had a Canonical rep talking about how they had been in contact with Valve to ensure smooth operation on Ubuntu. It wouldn't surprise me in the least to see Canonical involved with a Valve/Linux Client announcement.

As to Nvidia and ATI there is this bit,

"Michael: Is Valve collaborating with AMD and nVidia?
I read somewhere they gave intel some software for testing but intel didn't care.
It would be great if this pushes the driver quality (blobs) on Linux.*
Is this something you can share with us?

*) I'm using AMD open-source stack right now but I guess I have to switch to the proprietary ones
if Steam/Source will be released on Linux (unless it takes them another 3 years or so...).


I think they'd be fine with me telling those answers....

- Yes, they are collaborating with AMD and NVIDIA. Both companies have access to the Linux client and are working on driver optimizations. AMD reportedly found some code-paths on their end to improve, but in my testing of L4D2 with Catalyst 12.7 betas I had (AMD hasn't sent over to Valve any test drivers yet...), the fixes didn't seem to be in there.

- Intel not caring is bullshit. In fact, at least for the OTC developers themselves it's quite the opposite. Going through the official Intel -> Valve channels was slow for them so on the developers' behalf - at their request - I personally intervened and looks like things there are now rolling. Don't be surprised to see Mesa-related improvements coming.

- Valve has surprising interests beyond binary drivers. "

Re: Steam?

Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 12:40 pm
by Kevin108
toomuchcoffee wrote:Forget it... Gamer's wont switch to a free OS to play those ancient source games.. L4D2 is well designed and quite fun but source already felt dated back when it came out. Announcing steam for Linux with such an old game is just sad. I'd be impressed if they announced Half Life 3 on a brand spanking new graphics engine.. that would be something.
I feel like it's a fine start and a huge step in the right direction for us. I never bought L4D2 on PC because we only had the original Left 4 Dead for something like 13 months before Valve popped up saying there would be only limited additional DLC for L4D1 and that we needed to move on to L4D2. After seeing the years of updates and tons of DLC offered to TF2 customers, L4D players rightfully felt slighted by this move.

I played the L4D2 demo. There were a couple new zombies and some less-likeable characters along with pointless things like an uzi with barbed wire wrapped around it, IIRC. It felt like the sequel it was; living in the shadow of the original.

If Valve is taking a chance on we Linux users, I'll put aside my differences and support their venture into our world.

Re: Steam?

Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2012 9:32 am
by Monsta