Steam on Linux Outperforming

[Vindir]

I came across this blog post on hackernews about the L4D2 port and it reminded me of a conversation here a while back about the unassailable position of DirectX in the gaming world.

Could be that Valve is going to turn that on its head. OpenGL port of L4D2 is running at 315 fps now versus the directx implementation at 270. Windows OpenGL itself is running at something like 303 fps.


http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/13...ven-on-windows
http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/

[taggart6]

http://obamiconme.pastemagazine.com/...png?1330912071

EDIT: Wow...I could not get the image function to work on the redesign.

[James]

Awesome sauce. Let's get some good Linux video drivers.

[proxops-pete]

Looks very promising...

[ImaNihilist]

This will completely change the game if this holds across multiple configurations, and works with CS:GO.

[Timman_24]

Gabe pretty much said he believes Win 8 will be a disaster for gaming. I think that is a little dramatic, but I can see why Valve would want to head towards open source. I don't see how porting a 10 year old engine to OpenGL and it getting a modest improvement in FPS is anything to celebrate. When Unreal Engine can run on Linux, let me know. Epic Games haven't said they are not working on a Linux port, but its very doubtful. Steam pushed Mac stuff recently and it hasn't been a game changer, so I suspect this push will be pretty soft as well.

[Trunks]

Well Steam may have pushed mac stuff, but that doesn't help people with 2+ year old iMacs (ie. me) that have a 9400m and can't run any game at respectable res/quality/frame rates. It doesn't help that Macs aren't easily, or possibly, self-upgradeable.

Any real gamer has a Windows PC right now. If you give them an option with Linux, it could prompt people to dual-boot, then maybe switch to Linux completely. That's what I'm looking forward to.

[ImaNihilist]

Gabe pretty much said he believes Win 8 will be a disaster for gaming. I think that is a little dramatic, but I can see why Valve would want to head towards open source. I don't see how porting a 10 year old engine to OpenGL and it getting a modest improvement in FPS is anything to celebrate. When Unreal Engine can run on Linux, let me know. Epic Games haven't said they are not working on a Linux port, but its very doubtful. Steam pushed Mac stuff recently and it hasn't been a game changer, so I suspect this push will be pretty soft as well.

It's more of a hedge against the future. Windows 8 isn't as much a "disaster for gaming" as it is a disaster for Steam, because there will be no Steam on Windows 8 RT. Microsoft is going to be pushing their own walled garden with Windows 8, which will probably be good for gaming as a whole, just not the sort of gaming we're used to—more Angry Birds crap.

[Timman_24]

It's more of a hedge against the future. Windows 8 isn't as much a "disaster for gaming" as it is a disaster for Steam, because there will be no Steam on Windows 8 RT. Microsoft is going to be pushing their own walled garden with Windows 8, which will probably be good for gaming as a whole, just not the sort of gaming we're used to—more Angry Birds crap.

What's nice about Win 8 RT is the development tools. AFAIK, XNA will be supported for developing games. XNA offers a fantastic library. Win 8 RT won't need the ramp up in SDK development that iOS needed at the beginning to get the ball rolling, its already mature. I'll be interested in what developers do if Win 8 RT takes off. With the recent news about an iPad mini (7in), I think MS has some rough competition. Maybe Apple is going for the massive lower end market that they previously snubbed in the hopes of getting the newcomers hooked into the Apple ecosystem. That's really what Apple has been missing all these years, an entry level hook to get people to climb the price ladder.