Valve's Source Engine Coming To Linux

[Thetargos]

Oh, and the Source engine has already an OpenGL render... did you really thought the Playstation 3 supports DirectX?

Indeed. IIRC the PS3 supports lowlevel, direct manipulation of registers both in the CPU and GPU portions, and extensively uses OpenGL ES as its rendering API.

[Svartalf]

Still, it would be nice if steam and the source engine was fully ported to linux. I'm just really skeptical that it'll happen.

Uh, considering that Michael here just said he got a bit of insider information that leads him to believe that they're actually DOING it.

While I'm not holding my breath, how the AMD stuff has gone down (Much as he basically described it- at least on the documentation and FOSS driver front...) that I'm willing to consider the possibility that he's telling it as it is.

If this is what caused the delay on UT3, someone over at EPIC needs to re-evaluate how they handle PR- if this has been the holdup, the way they did this is NOT how you handle things.

[Svartalf]

openGL 2 does not support many features that are found in DX 10. openGL 3 will support instance rendering, streaming vertex data to a buffer, texture buffer objects, new texture formats and more. To become the ultimate gaming OS you have to not only meet your competitors but exceed their offerings. Also openGL 3 is supposed to get down more to the "bare metal" then the current offerings.

Heh... They had ARB extensions pretty much ratified for all of the DX10 capabilities out the door about at the same time Vista shipped. I know, my former client's OpenGL group management were commenting on the "thickness" of the spec docs as a whole (Bloody REAMS of paper...)...

Whether or not the ARB_foo items are implemented yet or not remains to be seen, but it was my understanding that the vendors were working on making them happen when I left my former client's employ.

[deanjo]

e) So long as they media format is supported under linux and they purchase the licence this point is moot; although using open formats would mean it's easier for a develop to break even on ports to linux (no licencing fee's).

Non-free media formats means either offering a precompiled binary to run the game which can lead to breaking with future upgrades. If the propriatary codec developer goes out of business this can lead to an issue that can never be fixed. Utilizing a open solution would not only allow for the system to use optimized libraries but also ensure long term ability to play it back (ever try to get nwnmovies playing back correctly on a modern system with bink for linux?)

[Thetargos]

(ever try to get nwnmovies playing back correctly on a modern system with bink for linux?)

Good point! And the reason why I transcoded the .bik files into .ogg (yeah, theora+vorbis) files. Took a few attempts, took more time than I can remember, took a toll in the IQ and tons of CPU cycles, but I did it

[Aradreth]

Non-free media formats means either offering a precompiled binary to run the game which can lead to breaking with future upgrades. If the propriatary codec developer goes out of business this can lead to an issue that can never be fixed. Utilizing a open solution would not only allow for the system to use optimized libraries but also ensure long term ability to play it back (ever try to get nwnmovies playing back correctly on a modern system with bink for linux?)

I agree that using open format would be best option but if the developer wants to use closed solutions instead for whatever reason it should be fine so long as they provide linux support for it (unlike bink for nwn where they didn't bother buying a licence and so linux users had fun getting the videos).
I wouldn't have thought that a pre-complied codec that ships with the game would be the most likely thing to break when upgrading.

[d2kx]

If/When there's a linux release of any game of Valve, you'll see what the Windows users already know: Valve = excellent (very) long term support and no bugs.

[Aradreth]

If/When there's a linux release of any game of Valve, you'll see what the Windows users already know: Valve = excellent (very) long term support and no bugs.

I think it's more to do with other developers who would start releasing games for linux if valve does release a linux port of steam/source engine and is successful. *cough*EA*cough*

[Svartalf]

I think it's more to do with other developers who would start releasing games for linux if valve does release a linux port of steam/source engine and is successful. *cough*EA*cough*

I think "craptacular" ought to go in there between "releasing" and "games" in light of the publisher in question.

[KohlyKohl]

It would be nice if they did port steam over to Linux and a few of their games along the way.