Gaming on Linux [news and developments]

[vivaxardas2015]

@ Gilrond Well, here I would disagree. Financial problems are the ones without any solution (if we ain't got no money, we ain't got no money, period ). Any techical problem, unless its solution would break natural laws and thus impossible, can be solved. I am sure if I somehow get couple of billions I'll be able to hire people, port a crap-load of games onto Linux, and sell them DRM-free. "Technical problems" talk sounds like a nice PC way to tell people to get lost. Sure beats saying - you are not a significant part of the market, we won't get any profit from you, and thus we won't bother. But what a hell do I know? May be they do have a legitimate real hard technical problem that can't be solved with enough funding. I really would like to know what this problem is though.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

@new&improved_vivaxardas: That's exactly my point. GOG never claimed their problems are financial and thus can't be solved. They claimed their problems are technical, so they can be solved and they are supposedly looking for a solution since 2012. So either GOG reps misled us, or they are too slow in finding that solution (both options don't really look good for GOG).

 

[Aver]

Potential Linux sales here make around 15.5%. Not at all 2% you would assume.

Then I can't wait for your explanation why only 1.2% (and dropping) of Steam users are using Linux. After all Steam put a lot of effort into supporting Linux.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Then I can't wait for your explanation why only 1.2% (and dropping) of Steam users are using Linux. After all Steam put a lot of effort into supporting Linux.

This was already explained before. HB provides numbers for sales of cross platform games, so you can actually see what percentage of Linux sales took place. Steam doesn't provide such numbers. Their numbers are cumulative for their whole catalog and user base, where Windows only games is a huge majority (therefore naturally Windows users there dominate the total sales number). So their numbers aren't useful for estimating potential sales of any particular cross platform game. May be they have numbers for individual games which are surely cross platform, but I didn't see such ones so far. I only saw their overall stats which are skewed because of the above. Another added distortion in Steam numbers is their DRM. Many Linux users simply don't use Steam at all, and I'd expect that percentage of those who avoid DRM is higher amongst Linux users than amongst Windows users. DRM-free releases don't have such distortion (again HB for example).

When you use any statistics you need to analyze better what those numbers actually represent, in comparison to what you are trying to apply them to. Clarify for yourself, what are you estimating first. For example, one can try to estimate, what would be a percentage of Linux sales for a cross platform game to see how viable is developing the Linux version. For that evaluation of viability Steam numbers are of no use. HB numbers (because they include uniformly cross platform bundles), or reports of individual developers about their sales per platform are much more to the point.

 

[volsung]

Steam for Linux is relatively new, so you can't really compare Steam for Windows and Steam for Linux game sales or user count. Also as Gilrond said, Linux is inherently DRM-free and many Linux users will try to avoid DRMed services. This is why the Linux market may be very attractive to CDPR and GOG.com.

I think the other point about the percentage of gamers among total system users is also very important: Windows is used widely by institutions, corporations and home users of all types. Out of all these, only a handful are gamers and therefore potential customers. But many Linux users like games, and the number of Linux users grows every year (helped in big part by people fed up with M$ policies).

Also consider the amount of dual booters: people who play in Windows (because there isn't much choice) but use Linux for everything else. With more games available for Linux, there would be no need to use Windows at all.

All in all, the current Linux gaming situation is hard to assess, but definitely much larger and with more potential than most people and companies think.

The other, final element, is where we want to go. Not where we are right now. Investing in a DRM-free future should be important at least for us, the users. So regardless of the current size of the "linux market", we can build demand and consolidate a truly DRM-free gaming future.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

@.Volsung.: I'd say no one tried to make a comprehensive research of gamers and how many of them use different operating systems. I'm not sure if it's even possible at all. All we have are such public numbers from various digital stores and developers who publish them. And here only uniformly cross platform related numbers actually makes sense to analyze (so not Steam ones really). Would be interesting for example to see sales numbers from Metro Last Light laid out per platform. Though it can be distorted by the fact that releases for different OSes weren't simultaneous (and of course DRM would distort it quite a bit as explained above).

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Gabe Newell's Q&A (AMA) on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1zkfmv/wearea_videogame_developer_aua/?sort=top

Examples:

Q: 1) Do you use Linux in your everyday life? If so, what is your distro of choice?
2) Do you think that in the long run Linux will not only be the future of gaming, but also the future of desktop?
3) Is Valve planning to release any exclusive for SteamOS?

A: 1) Debian. 2) Probably. 3) No.

Q: In the future, do you expect all Steam games to run on Linux/Steam OS? Has there been any trouble getting developers to add Linux compatibility?

A: Yes.
Surprisingly little. There is a lot of popular sentiment in the developer community about Linux and gaming.

 

[volsung]

Thanks @Gilrond. That's interesting.

Surprisingly little. There is a lot of popular sentiment in the developer community about Linux and gaming.

I wonder what he means by that. Popular sentiment meaning it is widely accepted? I suppose that's it since he said there has been surprisingly little trouble. I guess all companies need is some major name offering support and solving basic issues for them (such as choosing a target distribution).

How ironic Steam is spearheading this change. Some other services really need to step up.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Judging by CDPR it doesn't look like the popular sentiment is so universal May be Gabe Newell has some inside insights into what's going on right now before the release of Steam Machines.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

This can be useful for new users and anyone who is interested and wants to start using Linux:
https://edx.org/course/linuxfoundationx/linuxfoundationx-lfs101x-introduction-1621

 

[tommy5761]

Hmmm .
View attachment 2198

 

[GuyNwah]

This can be useful for new users and anyone who is interested and wants to start using Linux:
https://edx.org/course/linuxfoundationx/linuxfoundationx-lfs101x-introduction-1621

Self-undermining. Linux "expert" does not know how to use a wildcard certificate to vouch for his Web site. (To be fair, I work for a security company, and even here, just about everybody else is baffled by the same subject. But a 20-year veteran of Linux training should know better.)
:huh:

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

It's not really his site, it's edX: https://www.edx.org so I doubt authors of the courses manage the site certificates. The site itself is relatively new, but this bug looks strange. I filed a bug to them (feel free to file such bugs yourself, that's more useful than just complaining how badly something is made).

This link avoids the bug: https://www.edx.org/course/linuxfoundationx/linuxfoundationx-lfs101x-introduction-1621

 

[cdred]

I finally got my GTX 750 Ti which replaced my old HD5850. Everything worked out of the box on SteamOS - no hassle with drivers or any other work needed to be done. SteamOS started as always. So far I have been very happy to my new card. I'm able to use my old silent Nexus 400W PSU now and SteamOS machine runs very silent and cool.

I have used two AMD cards for gaming HD5850 and HD7970. It's kind of sad to see GTX 750 Ti runs games better than HD7970 on Linux (driver version 13.x, 14.x should be better for GCN cards). I hope drivers will be ready once SteamOS is officially released.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

I'd expect AMD open drivers to surpass their closed Catalysts at some point.

 

[GuyNwah]

They already have; radeonsi is ahead of fglrx on Tahiti support. 3.11 and later kernels, preferably 3.13, which have the power control for 3D modes, with Gallium 3D, is a win for AMD.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

That's good. Unfortunately nouveau is way behind Nvidia's closed driver, especially since it doesn't support reclocking still.

 

[GuyNwah]

That's good. Unfortunately nouveau is way behind Nvidia's closed driver, especially since it doesn't support reclocking still.

nVidia seems to have only recently come around to the idea that it's good business to work with, rather than against, the open source community when you sell them a lot of graphics cards. On the other hand, their closed-source driver is good enough that the nouveau project would have a long way to go to catch up, even if they had decent information.

 

[BER7ERK]

CryEngine to fully support Linux

http://www.shacknews.com/article/83473/cryengine-to-fully-support-linux

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

That's interesting. Here are more details: http://www.crytek.com/news/conferen...ngine-updates-and-much-more-at-crytek-s-booth

So, when is RedEngine coming to Linux?