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Valve Looking to Port Games to Linux?
Martin Bozic writes "Valve is apparently looking for senior engineers to port games to Linux. They have an ad up on the official site looking for a Senior Software Engineer with experience in 'systems engineering designing and developing communications software and hardware solutions including resolving problems surrounding real-time and non real time PC- based systems using C++ and network programming algorithms and their interaction with physical devices.' One of the lines under the job description is the simple statement: 'Port Windows-based games to the Linux platform.'" No reason to get excited about this before they make an official announcement; while this may eventually mean Half-Life 2 running under Linux, they may just want penguin-based folks to play Peggle.
They've already ported it to the PS3, so why not port it to another, more successful gaming platform? I mean, it's not like it can be any harder than the PS3 port, and it's likely to pull in more sales anyway.
I wonder if this means Steam under Linux?
IF Valve wants to port its Windows games to Linux, and IF that involves porting Steam, does that mean they'd be required to disclose the source to Steam's authentication system?
Otherwise they'd just release binaries that target distributions, right?
The man's a porting machine, from the old Loki days up to a lot of the current Linux compatible titles. http://www.icculus.org/~icculus/
I'll be all over it in a hearbeat. That game and CS:S are the only reasons I give windows any hard drive space at all.
Linux is already known to have a few rootkits available, so they will save on recoding.
More like they're looking to port dedicated server clients to Linux.
I swear to god I have tears of joy. As a developer (OK Modder) who truly enjoys developing with the Source engine, this is my dream come true! Valve I love you! Finally I will be able to stay completely within my OS of choice!
Valve, if your reading my post, thank you for making this guy's dream come true.
I support this fully! Let me know if you need anything on my part!
Server software may run under Linux and the games under Windows.
I hate signatures
Now that we will have way better open source video drivers for ATI (which we all know valve LOVES ATI), I think that the day has come for having real games on linux. This just makes sense.
mr pibb + red vines = crazy delicious
Wow. Major troll. No wonder you posted anonymously. So, pray tell, exactly how would games suffer under Linux? One might argue that games on Linux might actually be better than on Windows depending how efficient the Linux coding is. Also, it's not as though the whole game would need to be retooled -- just the binaries. There would be no need to change the data files. Of course, this would be even easier if the game companies would start using OGL instead of DX.
I'm also very interested to hear how Linux will have an influence over what you play. Funny, but I've never had a Linux person come to me and say, "You can't buy that game! It's not on Linux!" and I've never heard a gaming company say, "We're not releasing this game until we have a working Linux client!!"
And how a Linux client will be a liability to Valve? Yeah, expanding a client base. That's a really bad liability. *cough*
Next time, put more thought into it. As a troll-wannabe, you're not very good at it.
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
Many Half Life 2 servers already run on Linux.
It's a much better use of Ryan's precious time to work on porting games to the open source OLPC platform which will bring new educational games to millions of kids, instead of working on closed source software like Valve which will only bring old violent games to a few thousand hard core Linux fanatics.
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
It seems unlikely that Valve would go in this direction. Valve's founders are ex-Microsoft employees. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valve_Corporation
In my experience developing games on the playstation 3, Linux is fine for gaming. ;) Eventually, companies will invest in better opengl implementations for linux- such as the one used by ... you know... Linux Gaming Machines. Sony has some sweet libraries for it.
The article omitted a link to Peggle, so here's a link: http://www.popcap.com/games/peggle
Maybe it'll work with wine?
While the description talks about algorithms and real-time, not a word is mentioned of OpenGL or similar graphics background. All the more reason to think Linux is being used backend somehow.
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
Linux usually won't let a program root it as easily as Windows will, due to all the sensible security design that gets in the way.
So there may be a certain liability just from having a Steam client that doesn't allow you as much security through obscurity.
Yeah, I know, bad idea and all that. But I'm just positing a possibly worry.
On the other hand, if this is just to get dedicated Linux servers for the new Team Fortress, they may not care too much about an uncrackable Steam client.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
My friend and I both have Dell XPS Gen 2 laptops. With mine running Windows and his running Wine Ubuntu, he can get into a game slightly faster than I can.
And those applications didn't run under a Administrator account at all when running.I have no idea what you're talking about here. Steam doesn't have to be opensource to run on Linux. Hell, I've ran it under Wine under yet again, a normal user account.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
Is the version of DX used by the XBox360 anything like the one used by Windows? If so, that might drop developers into the position of having to choose between: (XBox360 and Windows with DX) or (Windows and Linux with OGL), and sadly, I think there are a lot more gamers out there with the X360 than Linux... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkzhVHTXgS4/ I suspect there isn't enough Linuxy bits in the PS3 (or enough PS3s in the marketplace!) for that to help sway the other way.
It's very rare I come across a personal machine with Windows that doesn't have some sort of pirated software running on it.
Personal Linux machines I have come across on the other hand, well, I can't think of ever seeing pirated software on one.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
Or, it could just mean that they're making a network game/MMO and want to use Linux to power the servers that talk to Windows clients. This could easily be explained if they already have a good portion of the Windows networking code working for the game (thus porting from Windows to Linux for the server.) It could be they started development with the idea of using Windows Server, but then decided to switch to Linux or add a Linux option.
Comment of the year
For all new games so it is easier to port them.
I think the 360 Dx and the PC Dx are extremely similar if not exactly the same. I think that's what they've been using as a selling feature to publishers. Or at least if I were Microsoft I'd be doing that.
"See you should release your game on the Xbox 360 because you could also release it for PC, maximizing profitability while minimizing development costs!"
of course this is from the bizzaro world line of reasoning (where things that make sense prevail)
disclaimer: I've been known to store numbers in my ass for which to dig out when quantities are required.
Sorry, don't know where that YouTube link came from - please disregard! (it's broken anyway!)
It seems unlikely that Valve would go in this direction. Valve's founders are ex-Microsoft employees.
Valve's founders started as Macintosh developers who ported their products to Windows. Microsoft eventually bought them.
That said, I agree with others, this job is most likely to port new game code to Linux for use in game servers only.
With so much new support for Linux lately (Ubuntu, Dell, HP, ATI/AMD) it would be hard to ignore Linux as a gaming platform.
Game developers are not ignoring Linux as a potential retail platform, they are merely doing the math and seeing that it is not justified. The major problem is that Linux gamers generally dual boot or emulate, therefore they are already customers buying the Win32 version of the game. A Linux version of the game would merely replace a Win32 sale with a Linux sale, there is no new money in such a swap, the development and support costs are not paid for. These costs are only supported by *new* sales, this means sales to people who refuse to dual boot or emulate. This makes the Linux gaming market far smaller than most people think.
Mac used to be in a better situation because dual boot was impossible and emulation impractical. However with modern Intel based Macs this is no longer the case. Note what is happening there, developers are starting to use emulation. To oversimplify things, wine (Cider) is being linked into the Win32 game, as opposed to Linux where wine (Cedega) is a standalone tool. If developers start support Linux it will be through something like Cider where there is very little work compared to doing a native Linux port.
...is much better than CS:S. At least in my opinion (and many of my gamer friends as well), the gameplay is superior to any version of counter strike, and it is free and available for Linux NATIVELY. Give it a shot, and if you like it, free up that windows drive. I'll see you on there.... :)
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
Most official dedicated servers already have a linux port, and a way to interface them with the steam servers to update them.
They are hiring someone to port new game code to create servers for future games and/or maintain the existing servers for old games. They are merely continuing what they have already been doing, they just need another person.
Ah, thanks for that. Like I said, I was just trying to come up with a reason. I don't know the ins and outs of Steam that well, because I gave up trying to use my PC as a games machine ages ago in favour of consoles. Ever since Starforce screwed up my DVD writing software, basically.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
On the other hand, I buy a LOT fewer games for the PC now than I used to. I use Linux as my main OS and I hate even going into the other room to use my gaming PC. If I'm going to go that far, I just go to the living room and play on a console instead.
At this point, I have no plans to update my gaming rig. This is the first time I've ever been able to say that, and it surprises me greatly.
As for Linux ports... It's a lot easier to plan to be cross-platform in the beginning than port it, even using Cider. There are even free libraries to help ease the transition now. There's not much excuse left for why they continue to be Windows-only when it won't cost them much more development time. (It'll cost more test-time, but cross-platform programming tends to force proper coding, and fewer bugs to start with.)
So no, not everyone that dual-boots can be bothered to reboot just for a game. Not everyone with 2 systems can be bothered to flip back and forth just for a game. Ignoring (without specific reason) 2 of the 3 major OS's is a huge mistake, and Valve is making sure they are covered. It's not a big surprise.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
There are even free libraries to help ease the transition now. There's not much excuse left for why they continue to be Windows-only when it won't cost them much more development time. (It'll cost more test-time, but cross-platform programming tends to force proper coding, and fewer bugs to start with.)
I agree that cross platform development can help, however it makes far more sense to target Mac than Linux. Adding a third platform, Linux, would not improve things much over two, Win32 and Mac. Even when portions of a game are ported to Linux in order to create a server there is still a lot of work to be done with respect to getting the user interface and other client side code running.
The free libraries are often overrated, they are not without their own troubles and tend to lead towards a least common denominator approach. Companies that develop for both Win32 and Mac or port from Win32 to Mac tend to use their own code developed over many years. However, I think Cider is threatening the idea of native ports to Mac, we'll have to wait and see how things go with these early adopters of Cider.
Ignoring (without specific reason) 2 of the 3 major OS's is a huge mistake, and Valve is making sure they are covered. It's not a big surprise.
It is a bit premature to say Valve will support native Linux clients. They are probably just hiring another person to work on Linux servers. The existing servers need to be maintained and new servers need to be developed for games under development.
That's the best news I've heard all day. Especially seeing as if they port Source and Steam, we probably won't be paying twice.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
Are you by any chance clinically insane?
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
You do realize that Valve is the *only* major game engine vendor that still doesn't provide a native Linux port, right?
-- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
Game developers are not ignoring Linux as a potential retail platform, they are merely doing the math and seeing that it is not justified.
You do realize that Valve is the *only* major game engine vendor that still doesn't provide a native Linux port, right?
Engine developers are very different from game developers. The option of doing Linux is a useful marketing bullet item. Having the option to target Linux if and when it becomes financially justifiable is nice. However offering such an option does not imply that native Linux versions are justifiable today. Keep in mind that engine developers are selling to people who won't have a finished game for years.
Is it really the third platform, or the fifth? I hear that the PS3 and XBox360 are pretty big gaming platforms. When you look at it that way, you quickly realize that the Mac, Linux, and PS3 ports are largely the same code (OpenGL renderer) - as are the Windows and XBox360 ports (DirectX). At that point, the question of a release on Mac or Linux is basically installer testing rather than any sort of significant extra programming effort.
That seems to be why both ID and Epic make both Mac and Linux releases of their games. They're already writing a cross-platform game with an OpenGL renderer - releasing for a couple of extra similar platforms has trivial costs compared to a non-zero number of extra sales and some good PR. It also future-proofs their engines in case Linux happens to hit an inflection point in uptake during that engine's useful lifespan.
-- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
Sure, that doesn't change the fact that Valve *is* an engine developer and that Half Life is just as much an engine demo as Doom III or Unreal Tournament 2004 were. My point is simply this: Using the proposed logic (considering what other similar developers do), it isn't obvious that Valve shouldn't port to Linux.
-- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
Frequent use of the word "teh", especially in the presence of the word "Lunix", is strongly indicative of sarcasm, however lame that sarcasm may be.
Evidently, the key to understanding recursion is to begin by understanding recursion. The rest is easy.
This is good news, though steam runs fine (minus a couple minor bugs) with normal Wine and plays the games.
I don't think retarded 12 year olds are able to understand or apply sarcasm.
Want to hear the voice of GOD? cat
Like my sibling said: Rather a typical Windows issue. Everyone I know runs top-notch commercial software packages on Windows, but I doubt they could have afforded to pay for all that.
On Linux, you get all that functionality for free, which leaves more money in our pockets to spend on commercial games and badass hardware that drives them.
Want to hear the voice of GOD? cat
What would be nice is if they released a live or installable DVD image that supported all your common hardware and provided a stripped-down system designed purely to run Steam, games and maybe some chat software etc. so you'd have a nice solid system to play your games without any background tasks getting in your way. Would also make it really easy to turn PCs you have lying around into lan party machines :)
- doctea
Yes, DX for 360 and Windows are similar. Not the exact same, but close enough for most uses. But that really stops to be a selling point once you take into account that the PS3, and Wii, use close cousins of OpenGL. Its really a choice of what standard developers want to develop for. There are more really good DX coders out there than OpenGL, because back in the day, DX had a larger feature set, and was much easier to code for. Creating a larger pool of development houses that went that direction. Now though, the two are relatively matched for the most part. There is just not the pool of coders knowledgeable in using it. This could change in a few years, who knows?
I don't think anyone but retarded 12 year olds use teh Lunix either... but what does that have to do with teh fact that game developers couldn't give two shits about teh Lunix?