Valve Writes About Their Linux Client Plans

[Kristian Joensen]

"Around 1.5 to 2GB, depending. Varies a LOT by game though. Still, 1.5GB is 16% of your total disk capacity."

Of executables?????

[GreatEmerald]

Putting aside that not all people who buy games are gamers (shocking, I know), why should 10% of the gaming market be ignored, when there is no financial downside to sticking with 32-bit? Try pitching that to upper management some time.



One, I doubt any major game development company is using DMD as their compiler. [Heck, I'd wager 90% of them use MS Visual Studio].

Two, the library tool chain is up to the developers to re-design for 64-bit support. Compilers and the OS libraries have supported 64-bit without issue for quite some time now. Its an issue with the developers, no the OS itself.



GB, or at a bare minimum, a few hundred MB. Try fitting an extra GB onto a DVD9 thats already filled with 8.8GB of data. Woops, can't fit the 64-bit .exe onto the disk, and it doesn't make financial sense to ship a second disk just for a 64-bit .exe.

Because educated gamers prefer 64-bit software, and there is nearly no financial downside to also compiling a 64-bit build?

Your point being? I'm saying that the 32-bit situation is a mess on Windows and not a mess on Linux, not necessarily that it has something to do with the respective kernels.

Oh? The whole binary content of 64-bit UT2004 takes exactly 9.2 MB.

[gamerk2]

"Around 1.5 to 2GB, depending. Varies a LOT by game though. Still, 1.5GB is 16% of your total disk capacity."

Of executables?????

I'll compile a list when I get off work, just to demonstrate.

I'm saying that the 32-bit situation is a mess on Windows

No, its not. Windows (64-bit) has the same dual compatability that Linux is currently trying to add.

At the end of the day, there currently is no financial reason for developers to work on a separate 64-bit executable. Period. If the toolchain supports it, then you might see one spat out, but for most developers, this isn't the case. Same reason why the primary OS target is still Win XP/DX9: Developers do not want to lock out large portions of the market, even if those portions are less likely to purchase their product.

In any case, its sounding like MS plans to kill 32-bit support after Win8, so we should see a transition to 64-bit once MS officially confirms that fact. Only question is whether MS will keep WOW32 in place...

[johnc]

In any case, its sounding like MS plans to kill 32-bit support after Win8, so we should see a transition to 64-bit once MS officially confirms that fact. Only question is whether MS will keep WOW32 in place...

Unfortunately people will be using Win7 for another 10+ years.

[AJSB]

Oh god, not again........

I believe that you missed the "" ...

But indeed i prefer Linux Mint with MATE than UBUNTU 12.04 ...

[Spectre]

I created an open source operating system group a little while ago, on steam, in preparation. Come join me! I said in the description even if you used a BSD form operating system you could still join. I read that they do have a Linux compatibility layer and will work with almost all Linux software so I'm not fully sure if it will work on their but if it does then they can join too.

[TobiSGD]

Anyway, i believe that you are talking about those MMO games , right ?.

Open world games are games like GTA 4, Skyrim, Fallout 3/New Vegas, ... .

[TobiSGD]

3: Installable media [Read: DVD] space limitations make it impossible to package both a 32 and 64 bit executable on a single disk. [Multiple disks raises costs]

IIRC, we are talking about Steam here. You won't download physical media via Steam and it should be no problem at all for the client to determine if you run 32 or 64 bit Linux.

[Redi44]

I believe that you missed the "" ...

But indeed i prefer Linux Mint with MATE than UBUNTU 12.04 ...

It's not about what you prefer, it's about using distrowatch.com as legitimate source of distro usage

[johnc]

Around 1.5 to 2GB, depending. Varies a LOT by game though. Still, 1.5GB is 16% of your total disk capacity.

That's downright disturbing. An entire Ubuntu or OS X install, after decompression, is only about 5 GB. Who are these game developers building 2 GB binaries and why have they not been flogged profusely?