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This is a good update for Linux Gaming fans. There was definitely uncertainty when the Steam Machines page was delisted, some even thinking this was game over f

by Zhyl 9y ago

This is a good update for Linux Gaming fans. There was definitely uncertainty when the Steam Machines page was delisted, some even thinking this was game over for gaming on Linux. Those who were there at the beginning of the Valve Linux Offensive (circa 2012) will remember Gabe Newell stating that the main driver for investing in Linux is their dependency on Windows as a platform. Valve has never been one for dependencies at the best of times (creating their own engine to replace quake, creating their own sales platform to replace retail) and having a dependency on a platform that explicitly seems to be trying to emulate the iOS/Android approach more and more is absolutely a reason to at the very least have a plan B. Having Valve come out and say that they're still invested in Linux is important, but what is highlighted in the post is also poignant - in 2012 it seemed the barrier to adoption was interest in the platform and access to a Linux machine. The solution to both of these was to create a high-profile, easily accessible form factor which was Linux by default. It turns out that this may not have actually been the right solution. Linux adoption has risen and the back catalogue of available games has increased incredibly, despite lacklustre sales. The problem now, and perhaps always was the graphics APIs and cost of porting. Valve are actively investing in Vulkan which is absolutely the right thing for them to be doing. The only downside is that it looks like they're neglecting the 'movement' they started with Steam Machines. I hope to see big things from Valve in the future. If I were them, however, I would invest in creating a truly fantastic desktop experience with seamless transition from Windows, lots of toys to play with, riced desktops etc. Hardware and the console form factor should be secondary to creating a PC desktop experience worthy of the people who created Half Life and steam.

onli 9y ago
You and they are probably right. Investing in Vulcan and the attractiveness of non-Windows platforms in general is the most important thing they can do. The many games that are now available for Linux are what makes Linux a good gaming OS, not the steam machines that were never sold. Still, it is a bit sad. Steam machines could have worked, but they were severely flawed. Buying a steam machine did not guarantee that one would get a machine actually capable of playing current games, they were very different and often underpowered. Linux-compatibility alone is then not enough. I think they could be great if they had been more controlled: Define a form factor, define the minimum cpu and gpu power needed, buy those in big quantities to be able to give a discount compared to buying a PC manually. Release it at the start of a gpu-release cycle, so it does not need to be updated that soon. Pre-install SteamOS on a machine like this and add a starter game (Portal) and one would actually have an upgradeable gaming console developers could target games for.
shrewduser 9y ago
Steam machines biggest flaw was they eschewed the biggest benefit of a game console, being a common hardware Target for devs. They should have a rolling release built around a good Apu and move from v1 through to v2 etc revisions of the hardware every couple of years. Maybe throw in a pro version of the hardware for people with money to burn
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- bryanlarsen 9y ago
  SteamOS / Linux releases are always and always will be afterthoughts. The games are developed for Windows and consoles. No significant effort is put into the Linux port, it's released because it's easy to do. So a common hardware target would do absolutely no good. No games would be developed specifically for that target.
  - aaron-lebo 9y ago
    Don't see why that's a given. Had Valve really thrown their weight behind it, devs would have followed. Just because the market is a certain way doesn't mean that's out of necessity. There are large markets in developing economies that would benefit much (as would everyone else) from getting out of MS's grip.
    - bryanlarsen 9y ago
      Devs aren't the problem. There are a huge number of games available for Linux on Steam. Linux gaming on Steam is a success, well beyond the expectations of most. Steam Machines are the failure. Making them even more expensive would not have helped.
      - aaron-lebo 9y ago
        It seems to me that the reason why they failed was because they were too expensive due to a reliance on OEMs like Alienware who inevitably put out overpriced junk. There were too many options. That's not how you win the market. Not sure they were really interested in doing so...it was more of a hedge against MS.
m_eiman 9y ago
Those who were there at the beginning of the Valve Linux Offensive (circa 2012) will remember Gabe Newell stating that the main driver for investing in Linux is their dependency on Windows as a platform. I see a problem that is just as big, or probably bigger, here for the (PC) game industry: the near-monopoly of Steam. I try to buy non-Steam versions of the games I buy, because I dislike Steam's online DRM and their client, but it seems that Steam is the new Windows when it comes to gaming. "Everything" is released on Steam first, and it seems a lot of times only on Steam. Which means that we're one focus shift or stolen password away from not being able to run the games we've bought and paid for. gog.com has a better offer, IMHO, by being DRM free. Are there any other similar competing services? Humble Bundle seem to be selling Steam keys these days, so they're a subset of Steam.
- baud147258 9y ago
  For Ubisoft, there's Uplay. But I don't think you'll like their client either. Also, Origin, EA's shop, carries non-EA games.
  - maccard 9y ago
    Uplay is the worst of them. UPlay has modal ads for other games in the store when you close a game, or if your game crashes!
    - baud147258 9y ago
      The worst is when you're forced to use Uplay in addition to Steam.
  - masklinn 9y ago
    GOG is probably the sanest competitor to steam, especially since they launched Galaxy so that you can manage your local installations without having to download and run individual installers. Next up is probably itch.io. UPlay, Origin and whatever the hell Blizzard's client is called these days are just lock-ins from their respective publishers.
mAritz 9y ago
The biggest issue I've faced when it comes to playing games on Linux that have good support (for example CS:GO) is that mouse handling in linux is not easy to configure and vendor mouse drivers are often atrocious if they exist at all. Specifically for first-/third-person games this means getting the right sensitivity and disabling mouse-acceleration (or setting it in a very specific way for some hardcore quake pros supposedly). Last time I checked, disabling mouse accelleration is a huge hassle and no working UI exists. The average gamer will not go into config files of the OS to try and find the right formula that makes their mouse move the way they expect it to. This isn't really an important issue in normal desktop usage or point-and-click games. Thus support by linux developers is understandably lacking.
- headsoup 9y ago
  It does seem unfortunately that the best method is to install the mouse on Windows somewhere and save the config to the mouse itself. This obviously requires the mouse have on-board memory, but it works at least.
- asfdsfggtfd 9y ago
  Have you tried rtfm? man xset
  - nhaehnle 9y ago
    Aside from the unnecessary snarkiness, here's my main reason for downvoting you: Even somebody who is familiar with the concept of man pages would have no chance of knowing that xset is the one to look for. Discoverability is super important. Luckily, the kind of desktops people actually use tend to have a System Settings app in which mouse acceleration can be figured.
    - e12e 9y ago
      Didcovdrability isn't great, but eg: "apropos input" suggest "man xinput" and a quick search points to acceleration along with a pointer to the "xset(1) man page". Unfortunately it looks like the path from "apropos mouse" might be a bit more convoluted.
imjustsaying 9y ago
>The problem now, and perhaps always was the graphics APIs and cost of porting. Perhaps some special financial incentives from Valve to big studios would be able to get the rock moving down the mountain? Temporary discounts perhaps?

by Zhyl 9y ago

onli 9y ago

You and they are probably right. Investing in Vulcan and the attractiveness of non-Windows platforms in general is the most important thing they can do. The many games that are now available for Linux are what makes Linux a good gaming OS, not the steam machines that were never sold. Still, it is a bit sad. Steam machines could have worked, but they were severely flawed. Buying a steam machine did not guarantee that one would get a machine actually capable of playing current games, they were very different and often underpowered. Linux-compatibility alone is then not enough. I think they could be great if they had been more controlled: Define a form factor, define the minimum cpu and gpu power needed, buy those in big quantities to be able to give a discount compared to buying a PC manually. Release it at the start of a gpu-release cycle, so it does not need to be updated that soon. Pre-install SteamOS on a machine like this and add a starter game (Portal) and one would actually have an upgradeable gaming console developers could target games for.

shrewduser 9y ago

Steam machines biggest flaw was they eschewed the biggest benefit of a game console, being a common hardware Target for devs. They should have a rolling release built around a good Apu and move from v1 through to v2 etc revisions of the hardware every couple of years. Maybe throw in a pro version of the hardware for people with money to burn

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
bryanlarsen 9y ago
SteamOS / Linux releases are always and always will be afterthoughts. The games are developed for Windows and consoles. No significant effort is put into the Linux port, it's released because it's easy to do. So a common hardware target would do absolutely no good. No games would be developed specifically for that target.
- aaron-lebo 9y ago
  Don't see why that's a given. Had Valve really thrown their weight behind it, devs would have followed. Just because the market is a certain way doesn't mean that's out of necessity. There are large markets in developing economies that would benefit much (as would everyone else) from getting out of MS's grip.
  - bryanlarsen 9y ago
    Devs aren't the problem. There are a huge number of games available for Linux on Steam. Linux gaming on Steam is a success, well beyond the expectations of most. Steam Machines are the failure. Making them even more expensive would not have helped.
    - aaron-lebo 9y ago
      It seems to me that the reason why they failed was because they were too expensive due to a reliance on OEMs like Alienware who inevitably put out overpriced junk. There were too many options. That's not how you win the market. Not sure they were really interested in doing so...it was more of a hedge against MS.

m_eiman 9y ago

Those who were there at the beginning of the Valve Linux Offensive (circa 2012) will remember Gabe Newell stating that the main driver for investing in Linux is their dependency on Windows as a platform. I see a problem that is just as big, or probably bigger, here for the (PC) game industry: the near-monopoly of Steam. I try to buy non-Steam versions of the games I buy, because I dislike Steam's online DRM and their client, but it seems that Steam is the new Windows when it comes to gaming. "Everything" is released on Steam first, and it seems a lot of times only on Steam. Which means that we're one focus shift or stolen password away from not being able to run the games we've bought and paid for. gog.com has a better offer, IMHO, by being DRM free. Are there any other similar competing services? Humble Bundle seem to be selling Steam keys these days, so they're a subset of Steam.

baud147258 9y ago
For Ubisoft, there's Uplay. But I don't think you'll like their client either. Also, Origin, EA's shop, carries non-EA games.
- maccard 9y ago
  Uplay is the worst of them. UPlay has modal ads for other games in the store when you close a game, or if your game crashes!
  - baud147258 9y ago
    The worst is when you're forced to use Uplay in addition to Steam.
- masklinn 9y ago
  GOG is probably the sanest competitor to steam, especially since they launched Galaxy so that you can manage your local installations without having to download and run individual installers. Next up is probably itch.io. UPlay, Origin and whatever the hell Blizzard's client is called these days are just lock-ins from their respective publishers.

mAritz 9y ago

The biggest issue I've faced when it comes to playing games on Linux that have good support (for example CS:GO) is that mouse handling in linux is not easy to configure and vendor mouse drivers are often atrocious if they exist at all. Specifically for first-/third-person games this means getting the right sensitivity and disabling mouse-acceleration (or setting it in a very specific way for some hardcore quake pros supposedly). Last time I checked, disabling mouse accelleration is a huge hassle and no working UI exists. The average gamer will not go into config files of the OS to try and find the right formula that makes their mouse move the way they expect it to. This isn't really an important issue in normal desktop usage or point-and-click games. Thus support by linux developers is understandably lacking.

headsoup 9y ago
It does seem unfortunately that the best method is to install the mouse on Windows somewhere and save the config to the mouse itself. This obviously requires the mouse have on-board memory, but it works at least.
asfdsfggtfd 9y ago
Have you tried rtfm? man xset
- nhaehnle 9y ago
  Aside from the unnecessary snarkiness, here's my main reason for downvoting you: Even somebody who is familiar with the concept of man pages would have no chance of knowing that xset is the one to look for. Discoverability is super important. Luckily, the kind of desktops people actually use tend to have a System Settings app in which mouse acceleration can be figured.
  - e12e 9y ago
    Didcovdrability isn't great, but eg: "apropos input" suggest "man xinput" and a quick search points to acceleration along with a pointer to the "xset(1) man page". Unfortunately it looks like the path from "apropos mouse" might be a bit more convoluted.

imjustsaying 9y ago

>The problem now, and perhaps always was the graphics APIs and cost of porting. Perhaps some special financial incentives from Valve to big studios would be able to get the rock moving down the mountain? Temporary discounts perhaps?