Half-Life 2 Games Released For Linux On Steam

[Wildfire]

AFAIK you need to own the games to get the beta access.. kind of stupid in a way but it is what it is.

Just because the game is considered "beta" (i.e. not release quality) on Linux doesn't mean Valve will suddenly be handing it out for free. It's still the full version of the game, not a demo version and not a free-to-play title like TF2. If you really want to play the game, go buy a copy and show Valve they're on the right track.

[startzz]

startzz is just being an M$ troll as usual.

The requirements are most likely just because of Ubuntu 12.04 being the minimum supported Linux OS and needing higher specs than say, Win XP which would run even on the 800 Mhz, 128MB RAM etc mentioned for the Win version of HL1.

I dont see, how its worse than being stupid linux troll like you ... people here just trying to offend other people, thats all you trolls can do ... I just posted info from valve site for trolls like you - steam, but anyway, i dont think that you understand anything about hardware I posted it to prove, that linux gaming is very bad, because difference between these requirements is soo big, that can only mean few things - even valve doesnt give a shit about linux and games for linux being released very deoptimized, or linux is like 10 times slower than windows, because these requirements arent min requirements for ubuntu, as i post ubuntu requirements from ubuntu site :
700 MHz processor (about Intel Celeron or better)
512 MiB RAM (system memory)
5 GB of hard-drive space (or USB stick, memory card or external drive but see LiveCD for an alternative approach)
VGA capable of 1024x768 screen resolution

By the way, question not for linux trolls - if you have already bought a game from steam for windows looong time ago, i.e. half life 2, so now to play it on linux, do you have to buy it again, or can you just install it and play ?

[Calinou]

I posted it to prove, that linux gaming is very bad, because difference between these requirements is soo big

No they aren't. If you use the official driver, performance is the same with a NVIDIA card. Of course on AMD and Intel it's going to be slower, but these are a minority for gaming, more or less.
Also, it's your fault if you want to game on low end hardware.

that can only mean few things - even valve doesnt give a shit about linux and games for linux being released very deoptimized, or linux is like 10 times slower than windows, because these requirements arent min requirements for ubuntu, as i post ubuntu requirements from ubuntu site :
700 MHz processor (about Intel Celeron or better)
512 MiB RAM (system memory)
5 GB of hard-drive space (or USB stick, memory card or external drive but see LiveCD for an alternative approach)
VGA capable of 1024x768 screen resolution

Well, that's Ubuntu. Xubuntu does much better at working on old hardware, and is pretty good for gaming once you've disabled compositing.

[kernelOfTruth]

By the way, question not for linux trolls - if you have already bought a game from steam for windows looong time ago, i.e. half life 2, so now to play it on linux, do you have to buy it again, or can you just install it and play ?

the latter - just install and play



Half-Life 2 works flawless with the opensource radeon drivers, btw (on an old 5850 on "mid" power profile)

command to run steam:

R600_DEBUG=sb,nohyperz R600_LLVM=0 STEAM_RUNTIME=1 /usr/bin/steam

without STEAM_RUNTIME=1 it (steam) wouldn't work anymore - always showing errors

[jasen]

I just played up to the start of Ravenholm without a single problem. Almost Max settings at 1920x1080 with an i5-2410m and GT 520M

[Gps4l]

it mean we have to purchase the windows version through steam and then we will be able to eable the linux beta ?

When you have steam installed on Linux, you can buy all games for Linux, without windows.
I bought Serious Sam 3, without using windows.

For the beta's you need to already own the game.

If you already have a mac or windows version, and then install steam on Linux, the games which are available for Linux ( also the beta's ) will appear in your library.
You can however buy the games on linux, and then the beta will appear too.

So basically you do not need a windows version.

[nightmarex]

Just because the game is considered "beta" (i.e. not release quality) on Linux doesn't mean Valve will suddenly be handing it out for free. It's still the full version of the game, not a demo version and not a free-to-play title like TF2. If you really want to play the game, go buy a copy and show Valve they're on the right track.

I do own them, but then again that's why it's stupid. I bought L4D2 when I heard it was coming out for Linux, does that count as a Windows purchase? It still isn't even officially out. If it's not to find bugs, then either it shouldn't be labeled beta or they should have a link to buy it on Linux with the stipulation it's coming soon. When you want people to test your game you shouldn't make them pay as they're doing you a service.

Edit: As pointed out you don't need a Windows system to buy the games, however you do have to buy it without the penguin under it. That's what's rubbing me wrong here.

[Wildfire]

I do own them, but then again that's why it's stupid. I bought L4D2 when I heard it was coming out for Linux, does that count as a Windows purchase? It still isn't even officially out. If it's not to find bugs, then either it shouldn't be labeled beta or they should have a link to buy it on Linux with the stipulation it's coming soon. When you want people to test your game you shouldn't make them pay as they're doing you a service.

I can see where you're coming from, but I think most of these points are nitpicking. Ultimately it shouldn't matter which platform you _buy_ a game on, the platform that matters is the one you _play_ the game on. Except for Portal 2 I bought all of my games through online shops, so for multi-platform games, how would you even classify such a purchase? Does it count as a Windows purchase by default?

Also, all of these games are quite old, so most gamers (myself included) bought them a long time ago, so the number of Windows vs Linux purchases is pretty much irrelevant right now because the games were not available on both platforms when they came out. This means they pretty much have more then enough gamers available for testing these games, so there's still no reason to give them away for free, even if you do them a service (that is ultimately to everyone's benefit).

I don't know their exact reason for labeling these games as beta, but my guess would be: Either these games do not yet meet Valve's internal quality standards and/or they wish to keep less experienced gamers away to reduce the number of bogus bug reports until the games are sufficiently stable.

No they aren't. If you use the official driver, performance is the same with a NVIDIA card. Of course on AMD and Intel it's going to be slower, but these are a minority for gaming, more or less.
Also, it's your fault if you want to game on low end hardware.

I would agree that AMD doesn't have the best track record when it comes to Linux driver's but still, what is it with this anti-AMD bashing all the time? As numerous people have reported (myself included) the games run fine on AMD cards. Also, according the Steam Hardware Survey it's currently 53% Nvidia vs. 34% AMD. While Nvidia has an indisputable lead I wouldn't exactly call 34% a minority.

[Gps4l]

I do own them, but then again that's why it's stupid. I bought L4D2 when I heard it was coming out for Linux, does that count as a Windows purchase? It still isn't even officially out. If it's not to find bugs, then either it shouldn't be labeled beta or they should have a link to buy it on Linux with the stipulation it's coming soon. When you want people to test your game you shouldn't make them pay as they're doing you a service.

Edit: As pointed out you don't need a Windows system to buy the games, however you do have to buy it without the penguin under it. That's what's rubbing me wrong here.

For helping testing Valve, the first group of beta testers got a tux in Team-fortress 2

Here is mine.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=130255066

Further more, Valve need gamers to test the games. People who already have played the game are far more useful to them.
They can tell Valve if the game runs as good on Linux as on windows.

Would they put the tux symbol under the beta games, allot of people would complain about the game not working right. ( because they would assume it has been already released)

[fig_wright]

Here's another one having serious issues on AMD hardware/drivers! I have an A10-5800K APU and all games running on the Source engine have major input (keyboard and mouse) lag. The same issue exists for L4D2. Just checked google and no surprise since L4D2 is running on the source engine!! Crazy. The only thing I can do is set the resolution AND quality super low. Games are playable like this but still seriously lag when in certain spots in the game (like in portal, looking at the door you exit at a level--weird!) I've tried EVERY bios and driver setting to no avail, and it's been like this since Catalyst 13.1. For now, I'm staying away from all Source engine games. (Trine2, SS3 BFE, and all non-source engine games I have run just fine.)

Yeah many people have that input lag problem including me. Seems to only affect "older" (5xxx-6xxx (not 69xx)) GPUs and has nothing to do with Linux or Source Engine (also happens with Unigine Heaven OpenGL on Windows, so it's an OpenGL driver bug).

Just bought and installed HL2. Runs OK, but I have an A6-3500 APU which comes with AMD Radeon HD 6530D and I have this mouse lag :-(

I also find that enabling any FSAA at all has a huge effect on performance - even enabling 2x will halve the frame-rate!