5 ms·

Brilliant news. Of course Valve wouldn't want their own console to be tied to Windows, and there are definitely enough Mac-ported games (e.g. including Assassin

by mattbee 15y ago

Brilliant news. Of course Valve wouldn't want their own console to be tied to Windows, and there are definitely enough Mac-ported games (e.g. including Assassins Creed, not just their own stuff) that Linux ports must be do-able in short order. I'd hope there's some "trickle-down" effect of Steam ports- an push to sort out the knotty ball of Linux sound configuration, 3D drivers and other grimness. Alternatively it could be that you need to enable pulseaudio for title A, ALSA for title B, OSS for title C - ARRRGGHHH. Fingers crossed.

chao- 15y ago
With regards to that last bit, my first thought is that Valve could set up some guidelines, such that they will only distribute Linux versions of games that require a non-frustrating set of technologies for the sake of user experience. I will admit that it's wild speculation on my part to suggest that, though. I'm not familiar with the particulars of the Linux Sound Zoo to say whether such a decision would impart any real benefits. On the flip side though, how painful (or not?) of a restriction on the developers would it be to make such a choice?
guard-of-terra 15y ago
OSS is dead for five years or more. These days you either have a direct ALSA, or Pulse, which ALSA can stream to transparently. If you have a SDL+ALSA game you will see exactly zero problems and that's what everybody does. OpenGL support is pretty solid too.
- exDM69 15y ago
  > OSS is dead for five years or more. OSS on Linux may be dead but OSS is still the API on other free unixes like *BSD's and the API has been developed forwards. > If you have a SDL+ALSA game you will see exactly zero problems and that's what everybody does. With SDL, you're stuck with the lowest common denominator of all audio API's. I've had more than my share of problems when doing audio with SDL. If you want 3d audio (doppler effects, etc), SDL audio is out of the question. OpenAL has been pretty popular with games too, but the implementations available are not rock solid. > OpenGL support is pretty solid too. OpenGL support is pretty solid given you have a GPU that has sane drivers, which is not always the case. In particular with consumer laptops and integrated graphics on desktops. But still, OpenGL is in pretty much every way inferior to D3D if portability doesn't count. It's an awful API for the programmer and the implementer and there are plenty of pitfalls that may cause bad performance or corruptions on crappy drivers. I regret to say this, but Linux is not a very ideal platform to run games. The biggest problem, by far, is the quality of OpenGL API and implementations. Audio is not at all that bad but it's still kinda hairy.
  - guard-of-terra 15y ago
    If I'm offered a proprietary technology and an open one, I'll pick the latter 1000 times of 1000. You'll find no sympathy for D3D in me. It's a 3D technology second, a monopoly tool first (as almost everything MS ever did).
    - jamesgeck0 15y ago
      Ok, that's your choice. But that's not very useful for game developers. The open technology stays inferior to the closed one, and the closed technology stays extremely popular because it's easier to work with.
  - wladimir 15y ago
    It's an awful API for the programmer Same could be said for Direct3D. It has its own share of pitfalls. Apart from that MS completely changes the API between versions, making porting difficult, and making it hard to gracefully fall back on old hardware without supporting multiple APIs... I wouldn't say one is inferior to the other.
- throwaway64 15y ago
  OSS is NOT dead, OSSv4 is actively developed under a free license http://www.opensound.com/linux.html http://www.opensound.com/linux.html
exDM69 15y ago
> Alternatively it could be that you need to enable pulseaudio for title A, ALSA for title B, OSS for title C - ARRRGGHHH. You don't need to enable or disable anything. If you run a PulseAudio-based desktop, you can run software that uses ALSA, OSS or PulseAudio and it should work. People complain a lot about PulseAudio but it still has it's place on a modern desktop. A modern laptop might have 3 or more sound card devices (analog out, digital out and HDMI. Add a USB sound card if you're a musician). ALSA does a mighty fine job dealing with these individually, but if you want a fluent desktop experience, you need something like Pulse on top. Or you can hack your ~/.asoundrc if pulse is not what you want.

by mattbee 15y ago

chao- 15y ago

With regards to that last bit, my first thought is that Valve could set up some guidelines, such that they will only distribute Linux versions of games that require a non-frustrating set of technologies for the sake of user experience. I will admit that it's wild speculation on my part to suggest that, though. I'm not familiar with the particulars of the Linux Sound Zoo to say whether such a decision would impart any real benefits. On the flip side though, how painful (or not?) of a restriction on the developers would it be to make such a choice?

guard-of-terra 15y ago

OSS is dead for five years or more. These days you either have a direct ALSA, or Pulse, which ALSA can stream to transparently. If you have a SDL+ALSA game you will see exactly zero problems and that's what everybody does. OpenGL support is pretty solid too.

exDM69 15y ago
> OSS is dead for five years or more. OSS on Linux may be dead but OSS is still the API on other free unixes like *BSD's and the API has been developed forwards. > If you have a SDL+ALSA game you will see exactly zero problems and that's what everybody does. With SDL, you're stuck with the lowest common denominator of all audio API's. I've had more than my share of problems when doing audio with SDL. If you want 3d audio (doppler effects, etc), SDL audio is out of the question. OpenAL has been pretty popular with games too, but the implementations available are not rock solid. > OpenGL support is pretty solid too. OpenGL support is pretty solid given you have a GPU that has sane drivers, which is not always the case. In particular with consumer laptops and integrated graphics on desktops. But still, OpenGL is in pretty much every way inferior to D3D if portability doesn't count. It's an awful API for the programmer and the implementer and there are plenty of pitfalls that may cause bad performance or corruptions on crappy drivers. I regret to say this, but Linux is not a very ideal platform to run games. The biggest problem, by far, is the quality of OpenGL API and implementations. Audio is not at all that bad but it's still kinda hairy.
- guard-of-terra 15y ago
  If I'm offered a proprietary technology and an open one, I'll pick the latter 1000 times of 1000. You'll find no sympathy for D3D in me. It's a 3D technology second, a monopoly tool first (as almost everything MS ever did).
  - jamesgeck0 15y ago
    Ok, that's your choice. But that's not very useful for game developers. The open technology stays inferior to the closed one, and the closed technology stays extremely popular because it's easier to work with.
- wladimir 15y ago
  It's an awful API for the programmer Same could be said for Direct3D. It has its own share of pitfalls. Apart from that MS completely changes the API between versions, making porting difficult, and making it hard to gracefully fall back on old hardware without supporting multiple APIs... I wouldn't say one is inferior to the other.
throwaway64 15y ago
OSS is NOT dead, OSSv4 is actively developed under a free license http://www.opensound.com/linux.html http://www.opensound.com/linux.html

exDM69 15y ago

> Alternatively it could be that you need to enable pulseaudio for title A, ALSA for title B, OSS for title C - ARRRGGHHH. You don't need to enable or disable anything. If you run a PulseAudio-based desktop, you can run software that uses ALSA, OSS or PulseAudio and it should work. People complain a lot about PulseAudio but it still has it's place on a modern desktop. A modern laptop might have 3 or more sound card devices (analog out, digital out and HDMI. Add a USB sound card if you're a musician). ALSA does a mighty fine job dealing with these individually, but if you want a fluent desktop experience, you need something like Pulse on top. Or you can hack your ~/.asoundrc if pulse is not what you want.