News - Native Steam on Linux client firming up

[IronWarrior]

Steam originally launched with only one game. The catalog will grow. Hopefully with steam on the two big *nix platforms, and some useful sales data accumulated, at least some developers will take a greater interest in accommodating its userbase.

Yes that is true, but my point is that for the big title games, they will always be for Windows.

[aidanjt]

Yes that is true, but my point is that for the big title games, they will always be for Windows.

Not even Windows will always be. Never say never.

[streetster]

So is this:

a. Having the Steam client on Linux (ie compiled explicitly rather than everyone just using wine)? What will the game library be?
b. Releasing Linux-native versions of various (Orange box?) games?
c. neither / combination of the above?

What games exist on Steam that don't currently run under wine?

[crossy]

Yes that is true, but my point is that for the big title games, they will always be for Windows.

Oooh, it's very, very difficult to say that with any kind of certitude. After all, I remember many saying that Crysis would never appear on consoles because it "needed" the extra power in a contemporary PC. And there's the flipside argument - i.e. console exclusives that never make it to the PC - e.g. Uncharted or Forza4/GT5.

Secondly, if this Steam client is a proper one (see below) and takes off, do you REALLY think that EA, Activision, etc will just say "nope, not worth doing anything for that platform, we'll pass up on any profits". Didn't think so!

On the other hand if you meant that Windows will remain the prime focus for Steam for the foreseeable future, then I'll agree 100%.

So is this:
a. Having the Steam client on Linux (ie compiled explicitly rather than everyone just using wine)? What will the game library be?
b. Releasing Linux-native versions of various (Orange box?) games?
c. neither / combination of the above?
What games exist on Steam that don't currently run under wine?

That was my point - if this Steam client is merely a Wine-compatible version of some Windows code then - imho - it's not a real Linux client.

[Zeven]

Judging by the excitement that Michael Larabel depicted with regard to what Gabe Newell was saying, it certainly can't just be a Wine compatible version, right? Gabe has much bigger plans according to Michael.

[Nzyme32]

Rather than considering this ditching windows, I'd like to think this is valve building up to their ultimate goal of making a free an open platform available on everything, once they gather enough steam (pun intended) something such as a steam console could rather just become steam integrated into any OS and device, from apple tv to a new xbox

[streetster]

Judging by the excitement that Michael Larabel depicted with regard to what Gabe Newell was saying, it certainly can't just be a Wine compatible version, right? Gabe has much bigger plans according to Michael.

I'm more fussed about the game library than the "Steam.exe" - the Steam app runs under WINE, as do a lot of games that you can purchase through Steam (notably the Half-Life francise)... Are Valve going to re-release Linux versions of these games, or is it just something going forward (or will many games simply still be the Windows version but Valve will 'whitelabel' WINE and hide it from the user?

*shrug* if Steam + WINE works for me then I'll stick to that

[shaithis]

Well, you can bet that valve will release a source client for linux.....which will make any source game work natively under linux.

[Fraz]

And remember that commercial 3D engines like the Unreal Engine already support OpenGL for OS X. I think it might snowball quite nicely if a big platform like Steam lands on Linux... it'd encourage companies like Epic to get OpenGL variants of their game engines running on Linux, and before you know it popular distros like Ubuntu will be excellent gaming platforms.

[streetster]

Well, you can bet that valve will release a source client for linux.....which will make any source game work natively under linux.

But they're currently working fine under wine as far as I can see

Unless it's just a case of changing the TARGET_ARCH when recompiling I can't see Valve wanting to put any effort/resources into re-releasing linux-flavour versions... no-one is going to pay any money if the Windows version + WINE works fine.

[Zeven]

I admit that I don't know as much about these things as I would like to, but why not go with OpenGL from the start to support Windows, Mac OS, and Linux?

[TheAnimus]

OpenGL for a while just wasn't doing anything remotely innovative, meanwhile DirectX was.

Plus Microsoft were actively engaging certain partners, so that the same concept would run faster in their ecosystem than on OpenGL.

If you look at the colourful history behind OpenGL its understandable how it became a bit unloved.

[chapelry]

If only more developers would take this route, the only reason for me to use Windows currently is gaming and video editing. I currently host all my game servers on Linux already, Windows reliability is absolutely appalling for source engine games (specifically L4D1/2).

[crossy]

I'm more fussed about the game library than the "Steam.exe" - the Steam app runs under WINE, as do a lot of games that you can purchase through Steam (notably the Half-Life francise)... Are Valve going to re-release Linux versions of these games, or is it just something going forward (or will many games simply still be the Windows version but Valve will 'whitelabel' WINE and hide it from the user?

*shrug* if Steam + WINE works for me then I'll stick to that

I hear what you're saying, but to me at least, running a game under Wine is just as objectionable as console ports on a PC are to other people. Okay, I'm not so bothered about the actual Steam client itself, but if the games themselves are running under an emulator then the Linux game player is always going to be a second class citizen - never able to fully tap the power of their hardware (because the emulator layer is getting in the way).

[streetster]

I hear what you're saying, but to me at least, running a game under Wine is just as objectionable as console ports on a PC are to other people. Okay, I'm not so bothered about the actual Steam client itself, but if the games themselves are running under an emulator then the Linux game player is always going to be a second class citizen - never able to fully tap the power of their hardware (because the emulator layer is getting in the way).

WINE Is NOT (an) Emulator

I'd like to see some up-to-date WINE benchmarks (and also some Windows vs Linux w/ ATI/Nvidia driver benchmarks for native windows+linux apps), ie is the gap in performance due to the WINE team's implementation of DirectX code, or driver related (likely both, but to what extent).

[crossy]

WINE Is NOT (an) Emulator

I'd like to see some up-to-date WINE benchmarks (and also some Windows vs Linux w/ ATI/Nvidia driver benchmarks for native windows+linux apps), ie is the gap in performance due to the WINE team's implementation of DirectX code, or driver related (likely both, but to what extent).

Okay, okay (hands in the air) - okay Wine is a translation layer - but it's still giving an overhead in doing what it does.

Reading the latest Ubuntu User magazine this morning and they've got an article on games on Linux. They also covered games that work with Wine and it was a good selection - no MW3 or BF3, but older titles like Assassins Creed Brotherhood, Pro Evo '11, MW2/BO were there.