Left 4 Dead 2 Getting Closer To Release On Linux

[Plombo]

Trine 2 runs fine of the FLOSS drivers, and I somehow doubt the Source engine is all that more complicated when compared to that.

Sorry, but...no.

First of all, it's safe to assume that the Source engine gets a lot more active development than the engine used in Trine 2, whose name I forget, and Source has definitely been used for many more high-budget games. Of course it's going to be more complicated.

More importantly, anyone who's ever worked on or debugged an OpenGL implementation knows that different applications use different features in different combinations, even if they are visually similar from a user's perspective, and they thus expose different driver bugs.

[Hamish Wilson]

I'd bet that drivers are holding them back. The original note from last summer said it was running faster on Linux than Windows - with Nvidia binary drivers. I wouldn't be surprised if it can't run at all on FLOSS drivers or AMD binaries. None of the Linux games to date have used any of the more advanced features, lighting and shaders that L4D2, Portal 2, CS:GO or DOTA2 use and I wouldn't be surprised if the AMD binaries choke or crash on them.

Trine 2 runs fine of the FLOSS drivers, and I somehow doubt the Source engine is all that more complicated when compared to that.

[curaga]

Not true, because the Windows version uses Direct3D and the Linux version uses OpenGL.

Good point, I forgot they were creating a wrapper instead of the games being native GL.

[Figueiredo]

On my E-350 laptop steam can't even launch in big picture mode (crashes).

[Plombo]

AMD blob shares the code, so if they run on Windows, they would also run on the blob.

Not true, because the Windows version uses Direct3D and the Linux version uses OpenGL.

[curaga]

I'd bet that drivers are holding them back. The original note from last summer said it was running faster on Linux than Windows - with Nvidia binary drivers. I wouldn't be surprised if it can't run at all on FLOSS drivers or AMD binaries. None of the Linux games to date have used any of the more advanced features, lighting and shaders that L4D2, Portal 2, CS:GO or DOTA2 use and I wouldn't be surprised if the AMD binaries choke or crash on them.

You could always test this in a couple months by trying to run them with the latest drivers as of today and see if I was right.

AMD blob shares the code, so if they run on Windows, they would also run on the blob.

[Vash63]

I'd bet that drivers are holding them back. The original note from last summer said it was running faster on Linux than Windows - with Nvidia binary drivers. I wouldn't be surprised if it can't run at all on FLOSS drivers or AMD binaries. None of the Linux games to date have used any of the more advanced features, lighting and shaders that L4D2, Portal 2, CS:GO or DOTA2 use and I wouldn't be surprised if the AMD binaries choke or crash on them.

You could always test this in a couple months by trying to run them with the latest drivers as of today and see if I was right.

[AJenbo]

If they are going to release older games, then they need to discount them.

If you own it for one platform you get it for all with out having to pay extra.

Then again, I think Goldsrc was OpenGL based and it was likely a simpler engine than current Source so it could just be that those games made it out first because the ports were easier/quicker.

It was based on Quake 1/2 (network) it had a build in Soft and GL rendere as well as a DX wrapper for the GL rendere.

[Plombo]

Huh, so L4D2 is not yet released? With all the hype around it, I thought it would have been the first game to ship. Apparently not. So what was the first, then?

The first to be released was TF2, which was followed (in some order) by Half-Life 1, Counter-Strike, CS:S, DoD:S, and HL2 Deathmatch.

[GreatEmerald]

Huh, so L4D2 is not yet released? With all the hype around it, I thought it would have been the first game to ship. Apparently not. So what was the first, then?