Valve Open-Sources Their Direct3D To OpenGL Translation Layer

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Valve Open-Sources Their Direct3D To OpenGL Translation Layer

With Valve's Source Engine originally just targeting Direct3D, when initially porting their games to Linux and OS X they relied upon a hand-made Direct3D to OpenGL translation layer. In potentially assisting other game developers, Valve Software has now opened up this graphics translation layer...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTYyNjM

[Vim_User]

Can this be used in Wine?

[schmidtbag]

Way to go Valve! Every little thing like this counts, and the fact they're open sourcing it makes it that much better. It's a little hard to believe Gabe is so fond of linux when so little of his company's products are open sourced. Not that any of them HAVE to be, but it's mildly hypocritical to be a linux advocate and close all your source code.

[blackout23]

I hope a lot of people send in patches to make it more engine agnostic and easier to implement for everyone. I wish I had the skills to do some of it myself.

[erendorn]

Way to go Valve! Every little thing like this counts, and the fact they're open sourcing it makes it that much better. It's a little hard to believe Gabe is so fond of linux when so little of his company's products are open sourced. Not that any of them HAVE to be, but it's mildly hypocritical to be a linux advocate and close all your source code.

If his company is making money (= staying alive) out of closed source products, but at the same time is advancing the OSS ecosystem, then it's good in my book.

[Ancurio]

Thankfully it is limited to the 9.0c API, which should hopefully deter any new software from being written against it..

[AJenbo]

Way to go Valve! Every little thing like this counts, and the fact they're open sourcing it makes it that much better. It's a little hard to believe Gabe is so fond of linux when so little of his company's products are open sourced. Not that any of them HAVE to be, but it's mildly hypocritical to be a linux advocate and close all your source code.

It's been a thorn in my side that they use GitHub for bug tracking, but only a small fraction of there code (like there SDK's) are not on GitHub. This is a nice change.

I would really love to se source for the Hammer editor.

[Luke]

They have no choice due to FUD from the Windows 8 catastrophe

If his company is making money (= staying alive) out of closed source products, but at the same time is advancing the OSS ecosystem, then it's good in my book.

Windows 8 has scared the shit out of a lot of people who write Windows software, due to the "modern" apps/Windows store coupling. There has been a lot of fear that Windows 9 would take this to the next level by attempting to block software not from the Windows store like Apple's iOS does. Many do not trust any statements to the contrary from anyone, given prior conduct. As a result, having a Linux alternative is a both question of survival and a question of deterrence.

With Windows 8 tanking so badly as to drag down PC sales, for companies like Valve to so clearly be lining up at the Linux-based lifeboats is a shot across Microsoft's bow. At this point a Windows 9 locked to the app store could finish off Microsoft for good and I think they know it. PC makers know it too, and they fear being going down with the ship. Why else would Chrome OS start showing up in places like larger laptops? Another lifeboat being nervously eyed from the rail as the ship begins to list.

Even if only 1% of Steam users use Linux, it becomes damned clear that Microsoft is no longer able to try to say, demand huge licensing fees from Steam. The initial software work is done. Able to port ANY game to Linux is the ability to port all their games to Linux unless blocked by the authors. The Steambox is a console you can get without buying anything, as a result Microsoft just lost the ability to lock Valve out. Even non-unlockable bootloaders woudn't be enough, as premade Steam machines would simply get custom firmware-and ANY board (often even a bricked one) can be given custom firmware by flashing it with an external "bus pirate" device. An MS block against Steam at the bootloader level would create enough demand for boards for what would become a top-selling console that board makers would simply load them with Steam compatable firmware instead of Microsoft-locked for that job.

Sorry if I always assume the worst, but that's how my life has taught me to think: judge capability, forget trying to guess intentions or you'll get burned.

[Spittie]

Can this be used in Wine?

AFAIK toGL works at compile time, so no. Also I think that the WineD3D9 render if fairly strong already, the problems usually lies in other places of the code.

Thankfully it is limited to the 9.0c API, which should hopefully deter any new software from being written against it..

It's even a subset of D3D9.0c, probably just enough to run valve games - So I don't think it will be used by many people. It doesn't help as well that "This most likely won't build by itself and is provided as-is and completely unsupported." it's one of the first things you read when opening the repository.

Anyway I don't really see the problem. Sure, I'd love to see everyone use OpenGL, but this is a compile-time solution with minimal/no overhead, and in fact Valve claim a ~20% faster execution when using toGL instead of raw D3D.

[stiiixy]

Windows 8 has scared the shit out of a lot of people who write Windows software, due to the "modern" apps/Windows store coupling. There has been a lot of fear that Windows 9 would take this to the next level by attempting to block software not from the Windows store like Apple's iOS does. Many do not trust any statements to the contrary from anyone, given prior conduct. As a result, having a Linux alternative is a both question of survival and a question of deterrence.

With Windows 8 tanking so badly as to drag down PC sales, for companies like Valve to so clearly be lining up at the Linux-based lifeboats is a shot across Microsoft's bow. At this point a Windows 9 locked to the app store could finish off Microsoft for good and I think they know it. PC makers know it too, and they fear being going down with the ship. Why else would Chrome OS start showing up in places like larger laptops? Another lifeboat being nervously eyed from the rail as the ship begins to list.

Even if only 1% of Steam users use Linux, it becomes damned clear that Microsoft is no longer able to try to say, demand huge licensing fees from Steam. The initial software work is done. Able to port ANY game to Linux is the ability to port all their games to Linux unless blocked by the authors. The Steambox is a console you can get without buying anything, as a result Microsoft just lost the ability to lock Valve out. Even non-unlockable bootloaders woudn't be enough, as premade Steam machines would simply get custom firmware-and ANY board (often even a bricked one) can be given custom firmware by flashing it with an external "bus pirate" device. An MS block against Steam at the bootloader level would create enough demand for boards for what would become a top-selling console that board makers would simply load them with Steam compatable firmware instead of Microsoft-locked for that job.

Sorry if I always assume the worst, but that's how my life has taught me to think: judge capability, forget trying to guess intentions or you'll get burned.

Yeah, the guessing intention thing always gets me. I haven't locked that part of the brain down yet to automatically half-glass empty that stuff. My curiosity to see how people perform and react overwhelms me. I can't stand liars and bullshit-artist's, and their statements are their chance to make good on their actions. Break it, and you've just gone two notches. Can be one had 'they' made a proper follow-up stating 'we're in over our heads'. Which shows lack of experience, but an honest and open approach nonetheless.