The Most Popular Linux Gaming News For 2017
Here's a look back at the most popular Linux gaming news on Phoronix this calendar year.
Valve continued improving Steam/SteamVR on Linux (although Linux VR support currently still leaves a lot to be desired...), SteamOS has been kept in what feels like a minimal maintenance mode, Feral Interactive released many exciting Linux game ports, and the open-source game community continued pushing ahead. Of interest to us has been all of the driver contributions done by Valve this year and other Linux "plumbing" efforts and will be interesting to see where that leads in 2018.
My favorite Linux games of 2017 would have to be Dawn of War III and F1 2017, simply from having Vulkan support and fun benchmarks to watch. Share your favorite 2017 Linux games with us in the forums as well as what titles you hope to see natively for Linux next year.
Valve Hires X11 Veteran Keith Packard To Work On The Linux Display Stack
Valve's latest high-profile hire is adding Keith Packard to their roster of Linux graphics driver developers.
Valve Has Another Linux Graphics Driver Developer Working On Open-Source AMD
You may have noticed recently that Timothy Arceri has been working on AMD Mesa/Gallium3D improvements while previously he mostly focused on the Intel driver stack at Collabora. It turns out this change-over is due to Arceri having joined Valve to work on the open-source AMD Linux driver stack.
Valve Developer Posts New AMD GPU Debugging Tool, Part Of Improving Linux Driver
Another Valve developer has begun contributing to the open-source AMD Linux graphics driver stack. Besides posting some RADV Vulkan patches last week, today he's announced a new GPU debugging tool he's been working on for AMD's driver/hardware.
Valve May Be Moving Closer With Their VR Linux Support
It looks like Valve may be moving closer to debut their Linux VR support, which they demonstrated at the 2016 Dev Days and we've known they've been working on further -- including improvements to AMDGPU/RadeonSI/RADV.
PlayStation 3 Emulator Making Progress On Linux Support
Nekotekina, the developer working on a open-source PlayStation 3 emulator, is making progress on Linux support.
DiRT Rally Coming To Linux Next Month
Feral Interactive has shared that they'll be releasing DiRT Rally for Linux next month.
id Tech 4 / Doom 3 Is Being Rewritten In Ada
For fans of the Ada programming language, id Tech 4 / Doom 3 is being rewritten by an open-source enthusiast in this structured, statically-typed language.
Steam Linux Client Beta Adds Idle Detection, Updated Vulkan Loader & More
Valve pushed out an updated Steam Linux client beta today that includes some useful changes for Linux gamers.
Steam's Recent Linux Changes Have Been Promoted To Stable
At the beginning of 2017 Valve released a Steam client beta with noteworthy Linux improvements. With today's Steam stable client update, all of those changes are included.
RadeonSI Works Surprisingly Well With HITMAN On Linux
With today's release of HITMAN for Linux it's exciting not only because there are signs of possible Vulkan support but also because Feral Interactive backed this game with launch-day RadeonSI support.
Dolphin Emulator Drops D3D12 Backend, Focuses On Vulkan
Dolphin Emulator, the open-source cross-platform game console emulator for the GameCube and Wii, has been continuing to improve its Vulkan back-end and is also moving forward with its work on a Qt user-interface.
Keith Packard Comments On Valve Work
As reported earlier, Keith Packard is Valve's latest driver developer hire for bettering the Linux display stack for gaming, and in particular, VR. Keith has now shared a few comments on his new endeavor.
Connor Abbott Is Valve's Latest Linux Graphics Driver Developer
Valve has hired another prominent open-source graphics driver contributor.
SteamVR For Linux Gets Improved Radeon Performance
Valve has released an updated SteamVR beta for Linux VR gamers ahead of the weekend.
Steam Is Now Available In Flatpak Form
For those looking to run Steam in a more isolated/sandboxed environment, Valve's game distribution service can now be easily run in a Flatpak environment.
Steam Linux Usage Saw A Notable Decline For June 2017
Valve's monthly Steam Survey metrics show a relatively large decline in the Linux market-share for the past month.
Valve Eyeing "Exclusive GPU Access" To Boost SteamVR Linux Performance
Andres Rodriguez of Valve's Linux GPU driver team is looking at "exclusive GPU access" support in order to boost the AMDGPU+RADV SteamVR performance.
Trying Intel Kabylake Graphics With Civilization VI On Ubuntu Linux
I was very surprised to find out that I was able to get Intel HD Graphics working with Aspyr Media's latest Linux game port, Civilization VI. Here are some benchmark results.
Steam's Latest Monthly Survey Puts Linux Gaming Marketshare At 0.75%
Valve has put out their Steam survey results for February 2017 and show another drop in the estimated Linux gaming market-share.
Steam Linux Usage Ticks Up Slightly For May
With the start of a new month comes updated Steam usage figures for the month prior.
Valve continued improving Steam/SteamVR on Linux (although Linux VR support currently still leaves a lot to be desired...), SteamOS has been kept in what feels like a minimal maintenance mode, Feral Interactive released many exciting Linux game ports, and the open-source game community continued pushing ahead. Of interest to us has been all of the driver contributions done by Valve this year and other Linux "plumbing" efforts and will be interesting to see where that leads in 2018.
My favorite Linux games of 2017 would have to be Dawn of War III and F1 2017, simply from having Vulkan support and fun benchmarks to watch. Share your favorite 2017 Linux games with us in the forums as well as what titles you hope to see natively for Linux next year.
Valve Hires X11 Veteran Keith Packard To Work On The Linux Display Stack
Valve's latest high-profile hire is adding Keith Packard to their roster of Linux graphics driver developers.
Valve Has Another Linux Graphics Driver Developer Working On Open-Source AMD
You may have noticed recently that Timothy Arceri has been working on AMD Mesa/Gallium3D improvements while previously he mostly focused on the Intel driver stack at Collabora. It turns out this change-over is due to Arceri having joined Valve to work on the open-source AMD Linux driver stack.
Valve Developer Posts New AMD GPU Debugging Tool, Part Of Improving Linux Driver
Another Valve developer has begun contributing to the open-source AMD Linux graphics driver stack. Besides posting some RADV Vulkan patches last week, today he's announced a new GPU debugging tool he's been working on for AMD's driver/hardware.
Valve May Be Moving Closer With Their VR Linux Support
It looks like Valve may be moving closer to debut their Linux VR support, which they demonstrated at the 2016 Dev Days and we've known they've been working on further -- including improvements to AMDGPU/RadeonSI/RADV.
PlayStation 3 Emulator Making Progress On Linux Support
Nekotekina, the developer working on a open-source PlayStation 3 emulator, is making progress on Linux support.
DiRT Rally Coming To Linux Next Month
Feral Interactive has shared that they'll be releasing DiRT Rally for Linux next month.
id Tech 4 / Doom 3 Is Being Rewritten In Ada
For fans of the Ada programming language, id Tech 4 / Doom 3 is being rewritten by an open-source enthusiast in this structured, statically-typed language.
Steam Linux Client Beta Adds Idle Detection, Updated Vulkan Loader & More
Valve pushed out an updated Steam Linux client beta today that includes some useful changes for Linux gamers.
Steam's Recent Linux Changes Have Been Promoted To Stable
At the beginning of 2017 Valve released a Steam client beta with noteworthy Linux improvements. With today's Steam stable client update, all of those changes are included.
RadeonSI Works Surprisingly Well With HITMAN On Linux
With today's release of HITMAN for Linux it's exciting not only because there are signs of possible Vulkan support but also because Feral Interactive backed this game with launch-day RadeonSI support.
Dolphin Emulator Drops D3D12 Backend, Focuses On Vulkan
Dolphin Emulator, the open-source cross-platform game console emulator for the GameCube and Wii, has been continuing to improve its Vulkan back-end and is also moving forward with its work on a Qt user-interface.
Keith Packard Comments On Valve Work
As reported earlier, Keith Packard is Valve's latest driver developer hire for bettering the Linux display stack for gaming, and in particular, VR. Keith has now shared a few comments on his new endeavor.
Connor Abbott Is Valve's Latest Linux Graphics Driver Developer
Valve has hired another prominent open-source graphics driver contributor.
SteamVR For Linux Gets Improved Radeon Performance
Valve has released an updated SteamVR beta for Linux VR gamers ahead of the weekend.
Steam Is Now Available In Flatpak Form
For those looking to run Steam in a more isolated/sandboxed environment, Valve's game distribution service can now be easily run in a Flatpak environment.
Steam Linux Usage Saw A Notable Decline For June 2017
Valve's monthly Steam Survey metrics show a relatively large decline in the Linux market-share for the past month.
Valve Eyeing "Exclusive GPU Access" To Boost SteamVR Linux Performance
Andres Rodriguez of Valve's Linux GPU driver team is looking at "exclusive GPU access" support in order to boost the AMDGPU+RADV SteamVR performance.
Trying Intel Kabylake Graphics With Civilization VI On Ubuntu Linux
I was very surprised to find out that I was able to get Intel HD Graphics working with Aspyr Media's latest Linux game port, Civilization VI. Here are some benchmark results.
Steam's Latest Monthly Survey Puts Linux Gaming Marketshare At 0.75%
Valve has put out their Steam survey results for February 2017 and show another drop in the estimated Linux gaming market-share.
Steam Linux Usage Ticks Up Slightly For May
With the start of a new month comes updated Steam usage figures for the month prior.
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