Half-Life: Alyx Update Adds Native Linux Support, Vulkan Rendering

[skeevy420]

Who is going to get GTA V for free in 2020? I thought anyone who wanted to play it has already played it. The free gifts are probably to enable alter accounts....

Me. I have a massive backlog of games that I still haven't played and I watched people I know play the PS4 version which informed my decision enough to not buy the game since I'm not the biggest fan of the GTA style of gameplay.

[Vash63]

Yeah, Valve has been contributing to AMD GPU drivers and RADV specificailly. Thanks to the open source driver, they can get insight into driver problems and due to their contributions can influence driver quality and performance. It makes sense.

I'm pretty sure Valve is still planning to launch some kind of Steam console in the future. Main question is when.

My guess is 2022. Over the next year or so I expect Proton to become stable and officially supported, SteamVR for Linux to leave beta and SteamOS 3.0 to launch. Once those are all done, then we can consider a Valve game console.

[skeevy420]

My guess is 2022. Over the next year or so I expect Proton to become stable and officially supported, SteamVR for Linux to leave beta and SteamOS 3.0 to launch. Once those are all done, then we can consider a Valve game console.

My guess is when AMD 5000 or 6000 series APUs are available for commercial use. Whichever one is the first with both DDR5 and RDNA2. That would be one of the first things I'd consider if I were Valve since it would deliver a low power profile and should deliver good enough performance if DDR5 is the APU breakthrough we've been waiting for. We already know the CPU side will kick enough ass since all the rest of the Zen2 stuff kicks ass so Zen3 or Zen4 should be that much better so it's really all about if AMD can step up their iGPU game.

The 4000 series APUs, while having very nice potential, aren't something we'd want at the heart of a gaming setup w/o a dedicated GPU to accompany. While that's my plan for my next system, July seriously can't come fast enough, it isn't a plan I'd pick for my Dad and other console users to switch from consoles to PC gaming...Linux or Windows...

[ix900]

The 4000 series APUs, while having very nice potential, aren't something we'd want at the heart of a gaming setup w/o a dedicated GPU to accompany. While that's my plan for my next system, July seriously can't come fast enough, it isn't a plan I'd pick for my Dad and other console users to switch from consoles to PC gaming...Linux or Windows...

That really just depends. If someone won't be playing more intensive games then it would be perfectly great.

[HarlemSquirrel]

Never.

It's designed from the ground up to be experienced in VR and to show people that VR is great.

Some mods are trying to turn it into a flat game, but trying to play Alyx in flat makes no more sense than buying an iPhone and try to get a buggy Android fork on it.

Yeah, except it would be more like trying to play Wii Tiger Woods golf on a Sega Genesis. There's just no way to replace those motion controllers and if you could the experience would be a fraction of what was intended.

Half-Life 2 brought us into Steam and now Valve hopes Half-Life Alex will bring us into Steam VR.

[skeevy420]

That really just depends. If someone won't be playing more intensive games then it would be perfectly great.

I agree. That still doesn't necessarily make them a good APU for a Steam Machine. Just basing that on random 4700u and 3400G benchmarks where they do around 1080p30 with high settings at best.

I can't imagine the 4000 series desktop APUs doing much better since they're Zen2 with a Vega 8 iGPU. The 3400G has a Vega 11 iGPU. It's the Navi/Navi2 and the possibility DDR5 that makes the post-4000 APUs more appealing for a mass-produced consumer gaming product (or a better DDR4 controller so we can use the stupid fast memory like the Intel folks can).

[Michael_S]

1. Cost (needs a much beefier system than your normal games) + a good VR headset alone costs $1000 (Valve Index) - in my country people on average earn just $500 ... a month

That's a completely legitimate reason, you don't need the others.

2. Space
3. Cables
4. Vertigo
5. Extreme eye strain
6. Steel feels extremely clunky

Other than all of that it's just fine.

Sorry, I need a VR system which neither requires having any cables, nor wearing any gloves and has a 4K resolution for each eye and 120Hz refresh rate, and near zero lag (<10ms) when I'm spinning my head.

I have friends in the tech industry that have the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive and an appropriate gaming computer to use one, and my kids have gotten to play on those setups, and they love it.

I don't own such a setup yet. I live in the US and I'm lucky enough to have a high paying job, so I can afford it. It's just not a priority. But we'll get one eventually, the entertainment value is incredible.

I also imagine that within a decade or two, VR/AR will be a part of education. I've been thinking of trying to learn the relevant programming skills so I'm still employable in my 60s.

[vb_linux]

[QUOTE=numacross;n1179689]

May I ask why?

I would think it would mess your eyesight, keeping a screen so close to your eyes for hours.

[vb_linux]

My guess is 2022. Over the next year or so I expect Proton to become stable and officially supported, SteamVR for Linux to leave beta and SteamOS 3.0 to launch. Once those are all done, then we can consider a Valve game console.

I don't expect a console. I expect a streaming service. I wouldn't mind it too. I have tried Stadia and Nvidia Geforce. To be able to play the game on old laptops and continue them on Ipad on way to work is awesome.

I need Steam to do it and bring my library with it. On Nvidia's service, all games on Steam, Epic, Ubisoft, etc. were available. So, I enjoyed the service in beta for free for three years. It worked like the console on their Nvidia Shield Pro. Then they went live and everyone decided to pull their games from it. Now, even if I have bought a game on stream, I can't stream it in Geforce now, which to me is very unfair.

For people against streaming service, with Steam doing it, you will still be able to play the said library on your own PCs.

[leipero]

I also imagine that within a decade or two, VR/AR will be a part of education. I've been thinking of trying to learn the relevant programming skills so I'm still employable in my 60s.

The issue with VR/AR and why it will never be outside of niche area, is because it's inconvenient, it is fun for a while I'm sure, but at some point, it gets old and more convenient ways are preffered by large majority of people.

Personally, I fail to see any use of such technologies in education proper (teaching people how to think, rather than what to think and exercising memory and other capacities/skills with large amount of data), but it is possible that there is a use case I failed to see.

Really, only sphere where VR/AR have some chance is movie/video industry, not even in TV networks in 100 years from now, and nothing of that is related to technology, only convenience.

Personally, I can't even take advantage of stereoscopic vision, so it wouldn't be of any use to me. But, my point is, most likely, it will never become large market where you can enter easily with average or slightly above average skills, best at the job will earn a lot, others, not really IMO.
With that being said, it's always good to learn new things, even for fun factor, with that as an expectation, go for it. I do kinda doubt that there's any difference in programming in comparison to other non-VR applications, the only difference is in controlling from what I can see, and until optimal way of controlling VR environment is discovered (because current way is obviously sub-optimal), you will face changes and learning curve consistently I guess. But I am not a programmer, and with toolkits and APIs and so on, you will have to learn per project basis with more or less steep curve.