It's Now Been Six Years Since Valve Began Rolling Out Steam For Linux

[phoronix]

Phoronix: It's Now Been Six Years Since Valve Began Rolling Out Steam For Linux

It's now been six years since Valve began their beta roll-out of the Steam client on Linux and beginning to support their own titles natively on Linux...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Steam-For-Linux-6

[tildearrow]

Six years in, are you happy with the direction of Linux gaming?

Pretty much yes, especially with the Proton thing.

What more would you like to see out of Valve/Steam on Linux?

Fixing the survey.

Will 2019 bring the return of Steam Machines?

Doubtfully, but if it is the case, the actual problem is achieving popularity on a mainly-Windows-dominant gaming ecosystem.

[Almindor]

Six years in, are you happy with the direction of Linux gaming?

While really thankful to Valve for all they did I have to say no. Native linux games (e.g. ported, not proton supported) are ~50% chance of outright failing, streaming doesn't work between nvidia and AMD machines (linux to linux but also windows to linux). Proton is almost as bad hit and miss as the "native" games, although honestly I think it might be the ticket to get things in a better shape.

It's gonna be the king of irony if Proton ends up being "the way" to have stable games on linux. Given the linux userspace mess, I wouldn't be surprised.

What more would you like to see out of Valve/Steam on Linux?

Not sure honestly I am stumped as why they keep beating a dead horse. It doesn't make business sense. I'm happy they're trying but I just don't see the endgame for them.

Will 2019 bring the return of Steam Machines?

No, and even if they do it's gonna end up exactly the same.

[madscientist159]

What more would you like to see out of Valve/Steam on Linux?

Requiring publishers to submit LLVM IR binaries à la Apple, to future-proof their catalog against shifts in the PC and console industries. Want to support some amazing new machine? No problem, translate the IR down to machine code and go.

I can dream, right?

[kaprikawn]

I finally got around to trying Doom 2016 this weekend. Playing on an RX480, mostly ultra settings, 1080p on Vulkan, I was getting a rock-solid framerate way above 60fps, usually around 90fps, sometimes more. It's a minor miracle. Tekken 7 crashes immediately on startup for me though which is a bummer.

[grigi]

Six years in, are you happy with the direction of Linux gaming?

Yes, it has surely gotten a lot better.

What more would you like to see out of Valve/Steam on Linux?

Fixing developer relations? Naturally <insert valve game>3

Will 2019 bring the return of Steam Machines? Share your thoughts with us in the forums.

No

[LaeMing]

I have steam on my Debian box for a game I enjoyed very much for a while and might yet play again this holidays. My only real gripe is having to support a 32-bit environment to use the platform. That might fly in Windows World, but here in Linux Land it is the 21st century on the desktop, and has been for some considerable time!

[oiaohm]

Six years in, are you happy with the direction of Linux gaming?

While really thankful to Valve for all they did I have to say no. Native linux games (e.g. ported, not proton supported) are ~50% chance of outright failing, streaming doesn't work between nvidia and AMD machines (linux to linux but also windows to linux). Proton is almost as bad hit and miss as the "native" games, although honestly I think it might be the ticket to get things in a better shape.

Streaming with Valve has been hit and miss with Windows to Windows as well. Items like geforce, amd and intel drivers deciding to crash under windows not particular fun for windows users.

It's gonna be the king of irony if Proton ends up being "the way" to have stable games on linux. Given the linux userspace mess, I wouldn't be surprised..

I am not exactly sure that You can say that Linux userspace 100 percent a mess not at least by valve bug list. Valve steam runtime bug list fairly much trace down to two things libstdc++ in mesa this will be fixed by libcapsule and graphics driver issues. Graphics driver issues are fairly much a given be it windows or Linux.

Proton had to come. Valve first said no emulators on SteamOS then first you see games released using ScummVM then you see dosbox games appear. So it really was only a matter of time until steam did wine.

Its mainly retro gaming you know people who want to play a 20 year old+ title. libcapsule is being tested with Quake III Arena binary from loki games. Yes it possible to build a new version of Quake III engine from source but those wanting to play retro want the retro game warts and all and will pay money for this.

Not sure honestly I am stumped as why they keep beating a dead horse. It doesn't make business sense. I'm happy they're trying but I just don't see the endgame for them.

It does make business sense when you work out they are hosting game servers. The ability to manage this stuff on a budget is kind of important.

Yes the ability on a test Linux system for something that will come a Linux Server instance to spin up the game and test that it working properly has been around for a long time. There have been a lot of screen shots of games running native Linux that native binaries were never released to customer this of course got Linux people hopes up. These linux native game binary was only for those maintaining the game servers. So small income on the Linux programs they have to maintain any how does make sense. 0.01 market share is still profitable when you wake up they would have this anyhow.

Valve has been giving wine developers for a long time complete free access to the complete steam catalogue of games. Mostly because if the game did not have a linux native port internally they were running valve was running it on wine at times. Proton is fairly much the same as Linux native games they are just releasing what they need for internal operations and if that happens to make them a profit so be it.

Almindor it really does not make sense to develop Linux native client or make windows client work on wine internally then not sell it to customers who are willing to buy it. Yes that non business sense is what valve had done for over a decade with Linux native binaries and 15 years + with wine before doing proton.

[rabcor]

The real number of games is 5476, (5462 in english, and 4861 in english with reviews.) So we can safely say "linux runs over 5000 games on steam now", and that's just native ports, there's like another ~3000 titles enabled with proton.

You can see all the ones (with adult games excluded, unless you enable them) here, sorted by review ratings. https://store.steampowered.com/searc...edlang=english

[TemplarGR]

Steam Machines were a very bad idea. Steam Console on the other hand will sell like hotcakes. And i am pretty sure Valve is already developing it (and several AAA games) behind closed doors.

They need to do a proper linux-based console or else Steam will eventually fail. It is not a monopoly in pc digital distribution anymore and most AAA companies distribute their games on their own platforms now. Unless Valve becomes more aggressive and tries new things, they will become irrelevant in a few years.

A properly developed Steam console based on linux kernel, mesa, sdl2, and some prioprietary libs (and obviously drm), with proper crossplay support and the ability to have the same game library on both pc and console, and use your existing pc steam account on the console, will just sell many million consoles. I think it has the potential to beat the PS5 easily, as for the next XBOX, it is a given... Give it a few exclusives like Half life 3, Left for Dead 3, etc, and we are golden.

It will also have the additional benefit of FORCING EA, Bethesda, Ubisoft, Activision, to return to the fold, and deliver their AAA games on Steam, in order to not lose access to the new console...

I will be very surprised if Valve does not make a console. It will mean they have thrown the towel.