Steam for Linux Confirmed!

[Pyroflea]

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=valve_steam_announcement&num=1
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/steam-source-engine-linux-mac-half-life,10412.html

Anybody else excited? Obviously only the Valve games will be ported at first, but I'm sure other game makers will follow suit with time

 

[kyeana]

That is too funny, I literally just reinstalled windows after 4 months and am watching tf2 download right now

Now if we can just get some top quality ATI drivers that support newer xorgs, I may just be in heaven.

 

[skittle]

and counterstrike hopefully

 

[Pyroflea]

That is too funny, I literally just reinstalled windows after 4 months and am watching tf2 download right now

I've needed to do a re-install for at least that long, haven't gotten around to it yet. I'll just go with Linux instead of installing W7.

 

[linux_0]

http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/05/12/1831208/Steam-Client-for-Mac-Launches-Linux-Client-On-the-Way

They're saying it should be available by the end of summer.

Semper Fi

 

[medjohnson77]

thats great news, can't wait till it gets here...

 

[Pyroflea]

They're saying it should be available by the end of summer.

Perfect, now I have something to distract me when school starts back up

 

[strangestranger]

I hope no one needs reminding of valve time. End of summer will mean end of next years summer.

 

[Pyroflea]

I hope no one needs reminding of valve time. End of summer will mean end of next years summer.

They didn't announce Steam for OS X until recently, and it's already out. I'm fairly confident that it'll come out on time; it's not a huge project.

 

[randomizer]

I have little reason to use Windows once this comes out. I don't play games much now and when I do it's usually Left 4 Dead 2. I also use Visual Studio and 3DS Max, and while I can virtualise the former I don't think the latter would perform well enough.

 

[Pyroflea]

I have little reason to use Windows once this comes out. I don't play games much now and when I do it's usually Left 4 Dead 2. I also use Visual Studio and 3DS Max, and while I can virtualise the former I don't think the latter would perform well enough.

I'm in the same boat. I've essentially stuck with Windows all these years due to the fact that I used to game on PC quite a bit. Lately, I've been gaming on PS3 though, so my PC hasn't seen a lot of gaming. Just another reason to make the switch (once I stop being so lazy).

I also use 3DS Max and Visual Studio. I am not too sure what I'm gonna do about that. Maybe just dual-boot. I don't know, I'm just rambling now

 

[randomizer]

If 3DS Max had a good OpenGL implementation it would be fine, but if you've ever tried using it you'll know that not only is it missing alot of the features that the DirectX 9 renderer has (DX10 seems to be missing things too), but its performance is absolutely appalling. Just navigating a simple scene in a viewport without shadows gives low framerates, whereas it would take soft shadows, ambient occlusion and lots of visible polygons to cause the DX9 renderer to perform the same.

Granted, I only use it for hobby purposes, so a dual boot for the sake of 3DS Max would not be a significant inconvenience. I use Visual Studio more often, but it does not need 3D support so a Windows VM would be fine

 

[Pyroflea]

If 3DS Max had a good OpenGL implementation it would be fine, but if you've ever tried using it you'll know that not only is it missing alot of the features that the DirectX 9 renderer has (DX10 seems to be missing things too), but its performance is absolutely appalling. Just navigating a simple scene in a viewport without shadows gives low framerates, whereas it would take soft shadows, ambient occlusion and lots of visible polygons to cause the DX9 renderer to perform the same.

Granted, I only use it for hobby purposes, so a dual boot for the sake of 3DS Max would not be a significant inconvenience. I use Visual Studio more often, but it does not need 3D support so a Windows VM would be fine

I unfortunately made the "mistake" of learning 3DS Max. A few years back I was interested in learning CAD, and stumbled across 3DS. While it works well enough for what I do, I am wanting to learn something more like AutoCAD or Inventor; I do a lot of Mechanical stuff, which 3DS isn't exactly ideal for. Maybe I'll look into an open-source alternative though

 

[randomizer]

Blender 2.5 Alpha 2 is out, which looks more like 3DS Max than the current stable versions (which have a horribly confusing interface). It's a lot lighter on resources too. 3DS Max 2010/2011 take years to start up even from an SSD.

I'm still no good with 3DS Max really. I can't model very well and I certainly haven't got the hang of UVW mapping

 

[cjcox]

Maybe I'm the only one, but I use Steam today using wine. Works pretty well. I have played Half Life 2 and the add ons using it. Maybe not as good as a true port, but most won't notice the difference IMHO.

 

[Pyroflea]

Yeah, Steam runs just fine under Wine, and I agree there probably won't be any amazing increase in performance. It's just one step towards more games with Linux-native installers, and just represents the beginning of a movement.

 

[zain_asad]

Having a Linux-native application will probably improve performance by leaps and bounds. Wine is good, but not perfect. But then there is the problem of DirectX and OpenGL conflicts. OSX has been suffering with poor DirectX-to-OpenGL ports, and Linux will most likely have similar problems. Nothing time won't fix, though.

 

[Pyroflea]

Having a Linux-native application will probably improve performance by leaps and bounds. Wine is good, but not perfect. But then there is the problem of DirectX and OpenGL conflicts. OSX has been suffering with poor DirectX-to-OpenGL ports, and Linux will most likely have similar problems. Nothing time won't fix, though.

It'll be in no way perfect, but it's a step in the right direction Only time will tell.

 

[mindless728]

It'll be in no way perfect, but it's a step in the right direction Only time will tell.

+1, and the DX to OGL ports well get better over time, right now it's bad, maybe when OGL gets a newer revision and some more support we may see some performance along the same line as DX games

 

[Pyroflea]

Well this is upsetting news.
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/valve-steam-linux-half-life,news-7838.html