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Valve will QA the games to an extent where it at least seems to run resonably before they'll release it on their platform. We shouldn't get anything blatently broken from the get go.
Valve will QA the games to an extent where it at least seems to run resonably before they'll release it on their platform. We shouldn't get anything blatently broken from the get go.
Strong Linux expertise in game companies seems to be quite rare these days.
So it stands to reason that Linux builds will be quite a challenge for lots of companies.
This is a learning process of course and might improve quickly if SoL will be a success.
But IMHO it's unrealistic to expect Linux builds of the same quality than Windows releases for the first (and important) batch.
In particular, if companies treat porting and testing efforts in the same way as AMD does it for their Catalyst;
Investing a tiny fraction of labor force due to the small fraction of Linux users.
Strong Linux expertise in game companies seems to be quite rare these days.
So it stands to reason that Linux builds will be quite a challenge for lots of companies.
This is a learning process of course and might improve quickly if SoL will be a success.
But IMHO it's unrealistic to expect Linux builds of the same quality than Windows releases for the first (and important) batch.
In particular, if companies treat porting and testing efforts in the same way as AMD does it for their Catalyst;
Investing a tiny fraction of labor force due to the small fraction of Linux users.
You're looking into this way too much for some reason; you come across as some sort of troll or shill, or you deeply misunderstand the problems.
Sure some game dev may lack a bit of experience with linux / opengl, but that has little to do with valve. As I stated, valve will continue to QA games that they release on their platforms, as they always have. This will consist of testing the game to see if they work properly, and if they're the type of game valve would like to assosiate steam with. How this would be any different, other than a couple of people using a couple of linux distros to do their tests, I don't really know.
Furthermore any percived problems, with exception of replacing DirectX and assosiated libraries, are going to be trivial to someone as highly skilled as a game developer. Sure, there may be a few issues such as not knowing the relevant standards, where they should be putting stuff, how they should be relying on libs, but given that valve are porting their games first, and want this to work, it bears to reason that once the problems solved, there will be attempts made at producing some documentation to help porting efforts. Most likely this will be a current expert gathering the known working solutions, and sending it out to partners, something I suspect valve do anyway as a "how to make your games work with steam" sorta dealio, but probably more indepth.
There are a few niggling issues, such as perhaps a less than steller graphical stack, but for the most part nothing that isn't already being solved, or isn't solved already.
The real issues are:-
What about my old games. I can't see them getting ported at all, unless valve offers some sort of incentive to do so. - Most of this I can probably live with, to an extent.
Popular distros need to get over the period of breaking things for fun, and start taking desktop seriously.
I can see whats in this for valve, but I'm not so sure the game publishers/devs will see it their way. Time will tell. Personally I love steam.
Last edited by ownagefool; 19 July 2012, 12:14 PM.
Sure some game dev may lack a bit of experience with linux / opengl, but that has little to do with valve. As I stated, valve will continue to QA games that they release on their platforms, as they always have. This will consist of testing the game to see if they work properly, and if they're the type of game valve would like to assosiate steam with. How this would be any different, other than a couple of people using a couple of linux distros to do their tests, I don't really know.
Let's wait and see. I could just be that Valve has to reject way more submissions to keep their high standards than they are used, that's my point.
Ofc, I might be completely wrong here and I actually hope so.
Furthermore any percived problems, with exception of replacing DirectX and assosiated libraries, are going to be trivial to someone as highly skilled as a game developer. Sure, there may be a few issues such as not knowing the relevant standards, where they should be putting stuff, how they should be relying on libs, but given that valve are porting their games first, and want this to work, it bears to reason that once the problems solved, there will be attempts made at producing some documentation to help porting efforts. Most likely this will be a current expert gathering the known working solutions, and sending it out to partners, something I suspect valve do anyway as a "how to make your games work with steam" sorta dealio, but probably more indepth.
Like graphic card companies having their experts send to game companies and support them with their engines?
Well, why not. Sounds like a plan.
Ewww, you're mean!
On the other hand, I'm posting too much lately...
I mean no offense. Nothing wrong with having an opinion, but not everything everyone says is valid. For example, you often hear "it'll be impossible to develop for linux because of distro fragmentation". This seems like an intelligent point, until you consider a) standards exist and b) many companies have already used these with a good deal of success.
Let's wait and see. I could just be that Valve has to reject way more submissions to keep their high standards than they are used, that's my point.
Ofc, I might be completely wrong here and I actually hope so.
You could be right, but having to write an e-mail explaining were issues when they tested a client, is hardly going to be a stressful ordeal. They already reject a fair bit, it'll be more of the same.
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