Rich Geldreich On The State Of Linux Gaming

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Rich Geldreich On The State Of Linux Gaming

Rich Geldreich, the former Valve developer who did a lot of work on the VOGL OpenGL debugger before leaving the game company, and has been critical of OpenGL and its drivers, has written a new post on the state of Linux gaming...

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

[Prescience500]

Unless I'm mistaken, Valve doesn't need to conquer Windows and colsole gaming to achieve their goals. Simply by keeping Microsoft, Apple, Sony, etc. from monopolizing video game distrobution on their respective platforms out of fear of Linux ascendency, they win.

[Temar]

Unless I'm mistaken, Valve doesn't need to conquer Windows and colsole gaming to achieve their goals. Simply by keeping Microsoft, Apple, Sony, etc. from monopolizing video game distrobution on their respective platforms out of fear of Linux ascendency, they win.

How long will that fear last? You can't keep them at bay forever, sooner or later you either have to release something or admit it was a bluff. Once developers stop porting their games, there is nothing to fear anymore.

[Creak]

So Rich Geldreich is apparently a nihilist

My last news about Valve and their Steam Machines is that it's been postponed to Q1 2015. Anyone has other news?

BTW Alienware already offers Steam Machines (but under Windows).

[Kemosabe]

How long will that fear last? You can't keep them at bay forever, sooner or later you either have to release something or admit it was a bluff. Once developers stop porting their games, there is nothing to fear anymore.

You mean ports are done in favor of SteamOS which will come some day or not?
You want so say Europa Universalis IV was ported for the success of SteamOS after devs announced they will only port it in case Crusader Kings II was a success under Linux?

I don't see any reason why devs should stop porting their games. SteamOS was never a reason for people to buy Linux games. . . .

[Prescience500]

How long will that fear last? You can't keep them at bay forever, sooner or later you either have to release something or admit it was a bluff. Once developers stop porting their games, there is nothing to fear anymore.

I wasn't suggesting that it was a bluff so much as being like Google's VP8. They knew that it wasn't as good as h.264 (technically speaking), but it did drive down the prices of licensing for everyone. Eventually, they hope to conquer, but until then, they are continuing to force prices lower.

[Temar]

You mean ports are done in favor of SteamOS which will come some day or not?
You want so say Europa Universalis IV was ported for the success of SteamOS after devs announced they will only port it in case Crusader Kings II was a success under Linux?

I don't see any reason why devs should stop porting their games. SteamOS was never a reason for people to buy Linux games. . . .

Well, I don't think a developer can live on the 1.5% market share that Linux currently has. Except for some very popular titles.

I think in the long run the ROI is not enough to justify a port. I doubt we would see as many Linux games without the promise of Steam Machines being released in the near future.

[Calinou]

It is obvious that this guy is no longer working at Valve.

Nice post from someone who used to develop proprietary software in order to ?rule the world?.

[johnc]

It's not a bad post.

The problems with these AAA game ports aren't completely unexpected though. We're basically looking at games that were originally designed for consoles with PCs being an afterthought, lazily ported to PC and then now they're trying to squeeze it into OpenGL / Linux. From my view it's also kind of hard to design something for ancient DX9 and expect it to run well on something completely different (OGL). I'd like to see new games built at the design level around cross-platform tech and then see how well it performs.

The only game I play right now, and I'm sure Rich has some experience with it, is L4D2... and it's a trainwreck on Linux. (Yes, on NVIDIA. And no meanies intended. It's just a broken mess. If it's any consolation, they game is really bad on Windows and OS X too.) That post about how they managed "faster zombies" has not matched my experience. I kind of wonder if it was basically just a fabrication to draw press attention. The other issue is... L4D2 was released for Linux and that was it. There are still really, really ridiculous bugs (some easy to fix, some show-stoppers) that Valve is not even bothering with. I've seen no game updates, not even any acknowledgements on GitHub. Yet we always hear that Valve is just rolling in crazy profits. .......... Clear evidence that they're not interested...?

It's clear that SteamOS / Steam Machines are not going anywhere. From an outsider's perspective it looks like they've given up on the idea but just haven't made it official and public yet.

Regarding AMD / Intel... F 'em. Their support on Windows is spotty as it is, let alone Linux. That's just my software dev mind talking. If you don't want to support your hardware, I have no interest in my software supporting your hardware. Show up with working drivers and I'll make my game work with your hardware. Of course I'd be a failure in the marketplace with that attitude. I understand there are realities that cause boundaries. But f 'em. If I was porting / making a game to / for Linux it would be NVIDIA, OpenGL4+ only. F 'em.

[nanonyme]

Agreed in requiring modern OpenGL, disagreed with caring about vendors. By making software that requires 4.5 there starts being pressure to have it implemented.