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The state of Linux gaming in the SteamOS era
Quote:
After 14 months in beta, where does Valve's new platform push stand?
For decades after Linux's early '90s debut, even the hardest of hardcore boosters for the open source operating system had to admit that it couldn't really compete in one important area of software: gaming. "Back in around 2010 you only had two choices for gaming on Linux," Che Dean, editor of Linux gaming news site Rootgamer recalls. "Play the few open source titles, Super Tux Kart and so on, or use WINE to play your Windows titles."
Ask anyone who was involved in the relatively tiny Linux gaming scene before this decade, and you'll get a similar response. "For a long time, it was just me porting games, and I did my best, but an industry that has an employee pool of one isn't a big industry," said veteran Linux programmer Ryan C. Gordon, who has worked on over 75 Linux gaming ports over the last 15 years. "It was slow for years on end with only a few decent commercial releases becoming available," Gaming on Linux site editor Liam Dawe agreed.
That began to slowly change around 2010, when The Humble Indie Bundle launched with an insistence that every included game come with a Linux option (thanks in no small part to the fact that Linux players were some of the most generous in the bundle's pay-what-you-want scheme). It also didn't hurt when services like Desura and Ubuntu Software Center appeared around the same time, giving Linux gamers a few user-friendly centralized repositories to purchase and organize their games.
A company as big as Valve putting its weight behind Linux—and behind a specific distribution of Linux, to boot—had a clarifying effect on what used to be a tough market for even willing developers. "I've long thought that we needed a base Linux distribution to tell developers to 'just target that,' and SteamOS is the perfect candidate for it," Dawe said. "Time and time again the same thing developers ask me is how the hell do they get their games to work across all distributions, and [now] you don't need to."
While Valve has unquestionably built a viable Linux gaming market from practically nothing, the company's lackadaisical development timeline might be holding the market back from growing even more. In the last year, the initial excitement behind the SteamOS beta launch seems to have given way to "Valve Time" malaise in some ways.
Full Article (which is worth a read if you're interested in Linux gaming) at Ars.
What are your thoughts on SteamOS, Steam Machines and the current direction of gaming on Linux?
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Thoughts? Well, it has taken a lot to get to where it is at. One shouldn't forget prior attempts that failed at what Steam (so far) has been successful at:
Loki Software was one failure that comes to mind.
Wine and things like Codeweavers, are mixed results (not total failures, and I wouldn't call them outstanding successes, either), nor are the attempts to get people to use OpenGL over directx.
There was even a recommendation years ago, by I,Cringley, that Microsoft could help both itself, and Linux (in turn as a gaming platform), but turning Windows, into a desktop, on top of a Linux base, the way Mac OS, became a desktop interface on a BSD based core.
Because Gaming on Linux wasn't there, there are people like me, who left behind gaming for other interests.
I'm sticking with nVidia and/or Intel on Linux and so far have played only "Game Dev Tycoon". All the rest which I like runs only on Windows (I didn't dare to re-play Portal2).
Waiting now for March 10 for "Cities Skylines" - from what I understood that one is supposed to run on Linux and if it does it would my first AA game played directly on Linux.
I'm impressed with borderlands 2.. Side by side it seems to run far better on Linux (tried mint and openSUSE) but unfortunately, aside from going over old ground there's not much else
I have 80 games in my Steam library, 66 of them have Linux versions, for a few of the remaining ones a Linux port was already announced. I recognized that from the games I own that are only available for Windows I play only two anymore, Skyrim and Avernum: Escape from the Pit, and both work great in Wine (Avernum needs the CSMT patches for Wine, otherwise you will have occasional slowdowns in battle), so I ditched my Windows partition back in January and don't miss it at all. When I have some spare money I will go for Pillars of Eternity (released on the same day as the Windows and Mac versions and working well, according to the GamingOnLinux review, thanks Obsidian!) and I am also waiting for the port of Divinity: Original Sin.
For me, gaming on Linux works great.
@dugan: I wouldn't do it so broadly, there are games that work great on AMD cards, even with the OSS driver, but honestly, I replaced my Radeon HD6870 with a Geforce GTX760 and am finally free from any driver problems. Seeing the very poor performance in games like the Metro Redux series or Bioshock Infinite (which ironically is a part of AMD's Gaming Evolved program, which should be embarassing for AMD) I am happy that I made that decision.
The next version of OpenGL is based on Mantle, which was designed by AMD.
Personally, as a Linux gamer (with an NVidia card) I don't feel underserved at all. With GOG.com setting their games up with Wine, ScummVM, and DosBox, Wine running almost anything that isn't an Xbox One or PS4 game perfectly, native Linux versions now being the norm for new indie games, and triple-A developers now experimenting with ports of high-profile games, it's a pretty good situtation.
The next version of OpenGL is based on Mantle, which was designed by AMD.
Sadly, there is no Mantle for Linux, and given the current driver quality they deliver and the development speed of AMD I won't expect to much from that. I hope they prove me wrong, but I can't see that. Meanwhile, Valve has developed a Linux driver for Vulkan on Intel chipsets (yes, you read that right, they have developed an Intel driver just because they can and they want to open source it) and even Imagination Technologies, infamous for their PowerVR GPUs and handling of open source drivers for them, showed demos using Vulkan on their GPUs, while we see and hear nothing from AMD, and for that matter, Nvidia (though Nvidia always has done development behind closed doors and more or less silently introduced new things to the drivers).
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I'm not much of a gamer but I did, in the end, decide to try Steam. I like Goat Simulator and will likely buy the old TFCs rather than try to play the latest on my laptop. So, yes, Steam means I do buy games.
I did accidentally buy one of the Fallout series thinking it was available on Linux though and I am as annoyed at Valve for selling it to me on my Linux Laptop as I am at myself for not paying enough attention. Sadly it seems it won't run on my laptop under Windows either but that's my fault also.
Sorry, back on topic I love that it is now possible to mainstream game on Linux.
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