Steam Adds Support For 64-bit Linux Games

[b15hop]

Full 64 Bit would be even more desirable

A 64 bit client with support for 32 bit games would be desirable

I would love to see full 64bit / 32bit support, be it either win7 or Linux. I'm kind of disappointed the Linux client isn't 64bit to be honest because of driver issues. Why make a 64bit steambox that is still using a 32bit os? Idiots.

[V10lator]

Completely wrong, here's the real news post:

Phoronix: Steam Adds Support For 64-bit Linux Games to the Steam overlay

Valve has added support for the Steam overlay to support 64-bit Linux game titles.

With today's Steam client update, the Linux version is now able to render the overlay over 64-bit games. Previously, only 32-bit versions of games had this feature.

Other Linux changes in today's update include a fix for finding Steam client skins, a crash when looking at community images, the Linux Steam overlay not restoring the proper mouse cursor, and a resource leak leading to graphics corruption. This update also has Big Picture improvements and other general changes and fixes.

More details on today's Steam update can be found via this bug report.

[duby229]

I stand corrected. I never built a machine with any P4 CPUs outside of dumpster dived boxes as AMD had better performance, had allot of fun OCing Tbird and Tbred cores.

You and me both. I still remember clearly my 2500+ running at 3200+ speeds. I don't remember the clock speeds exactly, but it was a nice boost for free.

[Vadi]

Weird. Conquistadors on Linux had a 64bit version before this as a launch option.

[Kivada]

Gallatin never supported 64 bit, and the first Prescott that did didn't come out until early 2005 (P4 EE 3.73). Even then they weren't in the commodity Prescotts until late summer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...890.C2.A0nm.29

I stand corrected. I never built a machine with any P4 CPUs outside of dumpster dived boxes as AMD had better performance, had allot of fun OCing Tbird and Tbred cores.

[locovaca]

Actually Intel has had 64 bit CPUs since 2004 with the Gallatin and Prescott lines.

Gallatin never supported 64 bit, and the first Prescott that did didn't come out until early 2005 (P4 EE 3.73). Even then they weren't in the commodity Prescotts until late summer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...890.C2.A0nm.29

[Kivada]

AMD supports 64 bit since 2003, Intel has changed to it in 2006 with the Core 2. How likely is it that a newbie will still have a 32 bit system and tries to run Ubuntu on it?
Valve should make a rule for developers that want to release on Steam, making it mandatory to offer also a 64 bit version. Than they can offer a pure 64 bit version of the client and everyone would be happy.

Actually Intel has had 64 bit CPUs since 2004 with the Gallatin and Prescott lines. Now though, they didn't want to do this as they wanted to kill off x86 for Itanium so they could shut out AMD, up until AMD released 64 bit CPUs and started really kicking Intel up and down the block.

[Naib]

64bit games have been supported in linux steam since its release...

PlanataryAnnilation, which was originally distributed for linux via steam-only, is 64bit only.

[schmidtbag]

I'm surprised Valve hasn't pushed for 64 bit from the beginning. If they intend to make a new console, now would be the perfect chance to ditch 32 bit. Doing 64-bit only wouldn't put any restrictions on games due to the ia32-libs. What it would do is limit people with 32 bit processors, which shouldn't be running steam today anyway. Unless you're using some quirky old driver, there's very little need to run 32 bit linux on 64 bit hardware these days.

I hope I'll be getting 64 bit versions of Portal and Trine 2.

[locovaca]

Most games are still 32 bit because of Microsoft retardation in not killing off 32 bit with Vista with new machines for years coming with 32 bit Windows. All OEM machines should have been required to have 64bit for logo with 32 bit windows only available for purchase by those that actually needed it.

At which point the only thing that would have held games in 32 bit would be XP compatibility. But most anyone looking to run modern games isn't going to be doing so on XP due to lack of drivers for hardware that is fast enough.

Intel had next to nothing 64 bit when Vista was released. Atoms released years after Vista didn't support 64 bit. There are plenty of reasons for Microsoft to not have killed off 32 bit with Vista, and none of them have to do with "retardation."