Valve To Launch Native Linux Game In July?

[pfunkman]

And to add to the actual story, I wouldn't doubt Steam coming to Linux, many games in their "portal" have Linux versions as noted already,

Steam has what 6 games with native linux clients? I dont see the benefit for them, they are just a distribution platform and could obviously make steam work in linux relatively easily but thats meaningless if the developers dont make linux clients to use the platform with.

but Valve was just really stupid in using the Windows GUI/Explorer/IE/etc libraries to create what is just a customized version of IE that loads their website and ties in with the system so that upon clicking on a game the user can install it in Windows easily. They should have used actual web and cross-platform standards from the get-go so that they could release "Steam" for other platforms in the future. Someone at Valve clearly screwed up.

We already know steam works well with gecko so i guess i dont get your point there. I dont see how its "stupid" to design their platform to cater to 99.99% of thier customer base. Yeah it would be nice if they made it multi platform etc. but if you stop and think for more than 5 seconds there really isnt much of a benefit to be had unless developers start showing interest in other platforms.

I just say "Steam" because again, it's just a freaking website loading in IE plus a resident program to act as DRM, there's nothing special about it really, Firefox *could* be used as "Steam" but simply lacks the Windows software installer hook. And the DRM. Why doesn't anyone talk about the DRM any way? If I can't even play a single player game without connecting to their Steam servers and asking for permission, that definitely helps take the wind from my sails.

Do you know anything about steam at all? DRM is not discussed because what you said is entirely untrue. Steam can be put into offline mode and you can play all the single player games you want without connecting to the internet.

Even if they did spend the time and make a linux client for what they have they would have to work with each individual game and make it work with their platform. All that time and money for what? How many would run out and buy these games from steam now that they have them? Most people already have the native games they want so steam doing the work to port them now wouldn't net them much in the way of sales.

Now if developers start showing interest in linux as a platform they will obviously follow suit. Until then its a big waste of time, resources and money for them to port over a client for a small amount of old games.

[MAXX]

Well that is your choice for sure. However you have to wonder if everybody did the same thing would the devels take that as "poor sales because it isn't a native solution" or "poor sales because there isn't much demand for linux". You may end up sending the wrong message. I sometimes wonder if supporting "wrapped" up solutions should be the short term solutions out there to show that there is a market at least. Win the small battle first and then worry about the technological planning later.

Well, a port that is realized by a wrapper feels like a fake port. I wonder if you could win a case of wrong advertisement against EA for their "Mac Versions".

And I think even if they'd surely know that there was a market for Linux it would not necessarily improve anything.

Look at Runesoft, first they do their Mac port for the Money.... and then, after receiving tons of preorders which finance the whole port to Linux, they port it to Linux. They already did the direct3d-->opengl for their Mac port...
And although or maybe because? they have the whole porting job from the Mac to the Linux version already payed for by the preorders, they do a port which is crappy as hell. I bought Ankh and was VERY disappointed or even shocked by the port. If they sell it as Linux version then i expect my game to work... If you turn the details in Ankh to high, the screen is just black, if you turn shadows to medium it works okay, but the big shadows in the game are still bugged to shit...

Hell, if I buy a game I want to be able to set my graphics settings just as i want them...

I also ordered Ankh 2 right when I ordered Ankh 1, but I did not touch it a single time. First of all it'd obviously be nice to finish the first game before playing the sequel... and then I'm also afraid that it's just as much of a mess as Ankh 1...

Actually, thinking further about the whole Ankh thing, I think that they did not even have to do the direct3d-->opengl thing, afaik they use the ogre engine... which is a multiplatform engine.

[deanjo]

Well, a port that is realized by a wrapper feels like a fake port. I wonder if you could win a case of wrong advertisement against EA for their "Mac Versions".

I doubt that would be possible as it is very well advertised that their mac games use Cider. As well there is no guarantee's that even a native port will be a good port or even better then a "wrapped" solution. There are plenty of piss poor ports out there running in native code.

[Dragonlord]

Do you know anything about steam at all? DRM is not discussed because what you said is entirely untrue. Steam can be put into offline mode and you can play all the single player games you want without connecting to the internet.

Point denied. Doesn't work with me and many others. DRM in steam IS a problem.

[Slash]

Steam has what 6 games with native linux clients? I dont see the benefit for them, they are just a distribution platform and could obviously make steam work in linux relatively easily but thats meaningless if the developers dont make linux clients to use the platform with.

There are over 700 games on Steam. A lot more than 6 have Linux clients. I'm not going to go through them all to check, but it'd be an interesting project for someone with a lot of free time

[Dragonlord]

There are over 700 games on Steam. A lot more than 6 have Linux clients. I'm not going to go through them all to check, but it'd be an interesting project for someone with a lot of free time

Many have server binaries. Only linux clients do count since Linux/Unix machines are used since a very long time for game serving.

[pfunkman]

Point denied. Doesn't work with me and many others. DRM in steam IS a problem.

How does it not work exactly? It has worked fine for me for years now. You should start here and diagnose your problem instead of claiming it just dont work for you and "many others".

Offline mode does work regardless of hwat the fud spreaders say.

There are over 700 games on Steam. A lot more than 6 have Linux clients. I'm not going to go through them all to check, but it'd be an interesting project for someone with a lot of free time

It was a little tongue in cheek but the point still very much stands. The amount of games on steam with native linux clients is such a small percentage, on top of that the games with linux native clients tend to either be old or poor selling titles anyway. There are a couple small exceptions to the rule (World of goo for example) but they are very few and very far between.

My point is simple, asking steam to make a linux client is the WRONG approach if you want more linux native games. You need to start with the developers and publishers then you can work on the different distribution platforms.

As it is now what benefit is there for steam to bust their asses and spend the money?

[MAXX]

My point is simple, asking steam to make a linux client is the WRONG approach if you want more linux native games. You need to start with the developers and publishers then you can work on the different distribution platforms.

You realize that Steam=Valve=Halflife2=Source, eh?

[Dragonlord]

How does it not work exactly? It has worked fine for me for years now. You should start here and diagnose your problem instead of claiming it just dont work for you and "many others".

Offline mode does work regardless of hwat the fud spreaders say.

Not spreading fud. Has been like this since ages and is still the case today... on various machines. Steam simply refuses to start if there is no connection. Fails to find the internet ( if it's unplugged like on a laptop in a train ) and then dies. But I won't argue any further with steam trolls since for them their mighty Steam can not be faulty. Heard this tons of times before.

[L33F3R]

@dragonlord
stuff works good for me on my end.

It is in my opinion to simply not use steam at all. I prefer having my stuff independent of 3rd party software thats crashes more often then my windows operating system itself....

BTW, DRM does a very very good job!





at pissing people off.