Valve and Source engine coming to Linux

[Sylvanas]

Clicky. No official Valve statement yet but according to the Telegraph and other news sites Valve has confirmed to them that a Linux native client is imminent in addition to native source based games. This follows the recent release of Steam and Source for Macs.

This is perhaps the single biggest and most important thing that has happened to Linux for quite sometime. I won't be uninstalling Windows 7 but I can think of many people who probably would. This is just what Linux needs to grow in market share- the same with OpenGL. I await an official announcement from Valve before anyone pops the champagne.

 

[Tristicus]

There was talk of this a long time ago...Linux things were found in the client or something. At any rate...that is good news I suppose.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

I think I'd wait for Valve to make it actually official, rather then taking the word of an obviously very pro-linux site and a questional one word-blip in the telegraph.

 

[Slick5150]

It seems likely at this point. The latest version of Steam does have quite a number of Linux references in the code, and if they bothered to port it to Mac then it wouldn't be out of the question to port to Linux as well.

 

[quadomatic]

It seems likely at this point. The latest version of Steam does have quite a number of Linux references in the code, and if they bothered to port it to Mac then it wouldn't be out of the question to port to Linux as well.

Yep. If the Source engine uses OpenGL and libraries on Mac of which there are equivalents on Linux (which there probably are...right?) then there's really no reason not to.

They'd be the first to provide a mainstream venue for selling games to Linux users. I'm not saying there's ENORMOUS potential there, but there's certainly something for them to look at.

 

[TheVrolok]

I'd like to see it happen. If it weren't for the fact that I still do a fair bit of PC gaming, I'd be running linux 24/7.

 

[Bateluer]

I'd like to see it happen. If it weren't for the fact that I still do a fair bit of PC gaming, I'd be running linux 24/7.

Same here.

 

[SunnyD]

Source is but one (dated) engine in the grand scheme of things. Sure we're talking several AAA titles here, but honestly, what's the last major Source-based title that came out and how long ago was it?

It's a step in the right direction, but too little too late.

 

[Cheesetogo]

Left 4 Dead 2 just came out last fall. I'd call that pretty recent.

 

[quadomatic]

Source is but one (dated) engine in the grand scheme of things. Sure we're talking several AAA titles here, but honestly, what's the last major Source-based title that came out and how long ago was it?

It's a step in the right direction, but too little too late.

Also, Steam is more than just Valve. Steam would certainly encourage game development on Linux. Also, it would imply that future Valve releases would be on Linux as well...I mean really, it's not like Source is the end of Valve.

But yeah, plenty of AAA Source titles

 

[Terzo]

I'm kinda surprised they released an osx version before linux. I suppose the it would be easier to develop for, but I assume that the general linux population is more gaming oriented than the general osx population.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Are there actually linux games out there who don't switch to windows to game?

At any rate, I'll believe it when I see it. Video might not be a problem, since ogl is pretty much standard by now, but isn't the state of linux audio best described as 'chaos'?

 

[Terzo]

Are there actually linux games out there who don't switch to windows to game?

At any rate, I'll believe it when I see it. Video might not be a problem, since ogl is pretty much standard by now, but isn't the state of linux audio best described as 'chaos'?

You can use WINE. The one person I know who uses linux and plays games did that when we did a Diablo II lan; so did I, actually, though I was only able to play in windowed mode.

 

[quadomatic]

At any rate, I'll believe it when I see it. Video might not be a problem, since ogl is pretty much standard by now, but isn't the state of linux audio best described as 'chaos'?

Isn't OpenAL supported?

 

[KeypoX]

Left 4 Dead 2 just came out last fall. I'd call that pretty recent.

Which is still based on a old engine. And just an expansion of an old game. AND they havent released L4D2 on mac yet.

I dont think its to little or to late. Something is better than nothing and can really create a push in the right direction.

 

[simonizor]

Which is still based on a old engine. And just an expansion of an old game. AND they havent released L4D2 on mac yet.

I dont think its to little or to late. Something is better than nothing and can really create a push in the right direction.

The Source engine may be old, but it's extremely flexible. The physics are pretty good, it's very mod friendly, and the graphics are very scalable. It's still one of favorite engines.

Valve has shown once that they can update the Source engine when they released the Orange Box. Who knows what more they have planned for the Source engine down the road.

 

[Genx87]

I'm kinda surprised they released an osx version before linux. I suppose the it would be easier to develop for, but I assume that the general linux population is more gaming oriented than the general osx population.

Look at the marketshare of OSX vs linux.

 

[Fox5]

I think the wine drivers actually make up like 1% of the hardware in the steam hardware survey. It's not big, but that's a rather significant number given it's on a platform that steam wasn't even natively available for and often requires a ton of work arounds to even get a single game to work.

 

[0roo0roo]

Also, Steam is more than just Valve. Steam would certainly encourage game development on Linux. Also, it would imply that future Valve releases would be on Linux as well...I mean really, it's not like Source is the end of Valve.

But yeah, plenty of AAA Source titles

Maybe, maybe not. The question is whether notoriously cheap consumer base of linux can support anything worth bothering with over the long term. Valve has its own interests since its the store. But regular devs are already seeing how weak the pc market is vs consoles, never mind linux's tiny market.

 

[Ancalagon44]

As I see it, the big problems with development on Linux (for games at least) is A) business uncertainty regarding DRM on linux, and B) the fragmented nature of linux makes support hard to provide, ie your product may work on Ubuntu but not Suse.

I would say that OpenGL is still not quite up to the level of DirectX as far as gaming API goes, but at least that is standardized. I suppose the next problem is that driver support from the major 3D manufacturers is pretty poor. Still though, its an untapped market, and the similarities between Mac and Linux may lower the development cost for Linux enough to justify the effort.

 

[you2]

If your willing to static link (large program) or supply .so (dynamic library) for your build then this is not so bad. There might be display issues (performance) but not sure (you mentioned this).

I wonder if the games I've purchased will run on both platforms or if I will have to explicitly pick the platform; then again my linux box has a frame buffer not a graphic acc since I use it for all non-gaming activities so perhaps this is a non-issue. Still I much rather run my games under linux; where I can quickly identify any system problem that might occur.

As I see it, the big problems with development on Linux (for games at least) is A) business uncertainty regarding DRM on linux, and B) the fragmented nature of linux makes support hard to provide, ie your product may work on Ubuntu but not Suse.

I would say that OpenGL is still not quite up to the level of DirectX as far as gaming API goes, but at least that is standardized. I suppose the next problem is that driver support from the major 3D manufacturers is pretty poor. Still though, its an untapped market, and the similarities between Mac and Linux may lower the development cost for Linux enough to justify the effort.

 

[Fox5]

Maybe, maybe not. The question is whether notoriously cheap consumer base of linux can support anything worth bothering with over the long term. Valve has its own interests since its the store. But regular devs are already seeing how weak the pc market is vs consoles, never mind linux's tiny market.

In all those "pay what you want" experiments, linux users average consistently higher donations than mac or windows. Granted, it's a smaller sample size too.

At this point though, the Linux market doesn't matter, but it's potential for growth does. If it starts getting support and gets picked up by a major manufacturer (maybe Dell looking for anything to save its slumping sales), it could be a serious future platform. And as it is, it's probably not much harder to make a linux port once the mac is done, and it likely adds a fairly sizable percentage to the potential sales.

 

[Darklife]

One game studio has decided to port its games to Linux after something like 4 years. BILL GATES IS IN DEEP SHIT!

Seriously though, does this mean all of their new projects will be released simultaneously, or will it take them half a decade?

 

[fastcuda]

It would sure be nice to buy new games with all the money I have spent on the new windows whenever they decide it is enough updates at once to call it a new version. We all know its just an update whenever they have too many service packs and updates that should be free or we should get for a fraction of buying windows new again. Windows 7 should have been free for anyone that paid for vista which was its beta basically. And then they use that greed money to get game companies to not port to linux, I personally loved netscape and look what they did to that. You all know its a money thing. I would rather the game developers get a bigger piece than an operating system monopolizer though.

 

[Sylvanas]

One game studio has decided to port its games to Linux after something like 4 years. BILL GATES IS IN DEEP SHIT!

Seriously though, does this mean all of their new projects will be released simultaneously, or will it take them half a decade?

Future releases should be same day multi-platform. Not just Valve's games, but because Steam is probably also coming to Linux it provides a reason for other developers to jump on board with an established distribution network.