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Valve's SteamOS Now Supports Vulkan, The Cross-Platform Alternative To DirectX 12 (pcworld.com)
SteamOS just gained support for Vulkan, the cross-platform alternative to Microsoft's DirectX 12 and Apple's Metal. This should make it easier for developers to write and optimize games for SteamOS, closing the performance gap with Windows and encouraging more developers to support Linux. This feature arrived in SteamOS Brewmaster version 2.63. Valve added version 355 of the Linux Nvidia driver, which means SteamOS offers Vulkan support when used alongside Nvidia hardware. Intel's graphics hardware should also support Vulkan on SteamOS in the near future. AMD is still working on its new driver, known as AMDGPU, that will replace the current fglrx driver for SteamOS and other Linux-based platforms. If you use Linux distribution besides SteamOS, you can download Nvidia's Vulkan-ready Linux driver or an experimental version of Intel's Vulkan-enabled graphics driver.
Their console. Steam has been pushing Vulkan a lot.
I was surprised to learn that very few games are running on DX12 (maybe 1-3?)..
Vulkan already has one and it's looking likely to get more. I'm guessing Valve at least will port all their modern titles to it. If so, Valve is really playing the long game on becoming less dependent on MS Windows..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
That's weird because my cousin once used foul language in a steam game I bought and we ended up getting the Royal Marines at our front door with several chests full of gold. Given my own experience here, I highly doubt your story.
SteamOS != Steam.
I have issues with the statement "the cross-platform alternative to DirectX". OpenGL was a cross-platform graphics standard before DirectX even existed.
And Steam is designed to keep you from running the games that you've bought.
The state keeps me from driving the car I bought. Just because I drive 127 MPH in a school zone *ONE TIME*, now I'm no longer allowed to drive my own car.
I have issues with the statement "the cross-platform alternative to DirectX". OpenGL was a cross-platform graphics standard before DirectX even existed.
I have similar issues, but for other reasons.
Once commanding benefit to DirectX is that it attempts to loop unroll shaders and effects, and if it can't do it -- it drops them on the floor. While this may mean that that graphical dust storm isn't as pretty as it might have been otherwise, it also means that you don't crash or hang the video card, and as of DirectX 9 and later, even if you do, to get the compatibility sticker, the manufacture has to make it possible to reset the card and restart pending operations. So if you are able to hang the card anyway, despite the unrolling, the OS can unhang the card, and go merrily on its way.
One of the big problems with games on Mac OS X or Linux is that they tend to directly target OpenGL, rather than an OpenGL emulation running on top of Direct X, as is done on Windows. Which means it's possible to take down the cards hard, because there's no unrolling layer between the instruction stream and the card to protect it. Apple tries to make this happy by always keeping a spare channel lying around, so it can talk to the card to recover, but it doesn't always work out.
Vulkan seems to have the same problem that OpenGL itself has, in this regard. So it is *NOT*, in fact, a crossplatform alternative to using DirectX, it's a replacement for OpenGL to make it more difficult to buy other people's graphics cards. Which I kind of could care less about, if it supported the unrolling the way Direct X does, rather than just being different for the sake of being different. To me, it just looks like a handy way to hang your system, instead of using the even handier OpenGL.
Cross Platform? Please tell me that it means more than just Windows + Linux, and that I can install & run it on FreeBSD
Vulkan [...] [is] a replacement for OpenGL to make it more difficult to buy other people's graphics cards.
Whose graphics cards? The graphics card vendors representing roughly 99.5% of the market support Vulkan, and the other 0.5% don't matter because their stuff is very old super low performance embedded chips that isn't useful for gaming anyhow.
an OpenGL emulation running on top of Direct X, as is done on Windows
Stop spewing bullshit. Windows provides a user mode thunk layer to allow installable client drivers (OpenGL, OpenCL, Vulkan, Mantle) to communicate with WDDM kernel mode drivers.
Awesome. Way to go SteamOS! DirectX is pretty much the only thing that has been driving the gaming scene on PCs. Take that away from Microsoft and you'll be able to get Linux PCs that people are happy with, rather than being forced to game on Windows. Kudos Nvidia, kudos SteamOS.
The state keeps me from driving the car I bought. Just because I drive 127 MPH in a school zone *ONE TIME*, now I'm no longer allowed to drive my own car.
So.... your DeLorean is defective?
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
WiiU, PS3, and PS4 all run freebsd as the OS so why not.
PS4, yes. PS3 and WiiU, no.
there's no unrolling layer between the instruction stream and the card to protect it.
I've worked on graphics drivers for 3 major vendors, and every one of them can and does unroll loops in OpenGL shaders. The actual situation is complex for both DX and GL, as it involves a myriad of factors such as the version being targeted, whether the loop bounds are statically known by the compiler, and whether they vary per SIMD-channel. Furthermore, GL supports device restart on hung shaders, and this is tested for in many common test suites.
So, your post is almost entirely incorrect. Charitably, we can chalk it to innocent ignorance rather than a vested interest in spreading misinformation about platform-independed APIs.
No, the state keeps you from driving on public roads if you did that. You are still perfectly free to drive your own car on private property.
Notice how he said he can no longer play offline single player?
The statement is "the cross-platform alternative to DirectX 12" - specifically 12, and not DirectX in general. On Windows your options for Mantle-like APIs are currently Vulkan and DirectX 12, i.e. the platform-limited alternative to Vulkan is DirectX 12, and the cross-platform alternative to DirectX 12 is Vulkan. I hope that helps you feel a bit better about the headline.
It is an open API (though not free, you have to pay membership dues) that can be implemented on basically any platform people wish. As of right now, only nVidia and Intel have implemented it and only on Windows and Linux as far as I know, nVidia may have it in their drivers for other platforms. Apple has expressed no interest and most other OSes rely on the graphic drivers to provide APIs. AMD will eventually probably get a driver out, they were one of the driving forces behind Vulkan, however they suck at drivers so it always seems to take them a long time.
Ah you know that SteamOS is ubuntu right with the steam client autostarting in big picture mode and some of the desktop stuff removed. That is all....
And if you could point me towards one instance of a machine being compromised as a result of steam that would be really useful as well....
I think you should just calm a little.
This should make it easier for developers to write and optimize games for SteamOS
It's difficult to get solid numbers on Steam Machine sales. But they don't appear to be setting the world on fire:
Alienware Steam Machine ASM100-6980BLK Desktop Console (Intel Core i7, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB HDD) NVIDIA GeForce GTX GPU 3.1 Stars. #3,293 in Computers & Accessories #237 in Computers & Accessories > Desktops
The Steam Hardware & Software Survey: January 2016 doesn't offer much to feed on:
Windows 95%
Win 10 64 Bit 33% and Trending upward.
OSX 4% No change.
Linux 1% No change.
Ubuntu 0.4%. Mint 0.2%
So.... your DeLorean is defective?
If it can make it up to 127, it's probably working better than designed.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
there's no unrolling layer between the instruction stream and the card to protect it.
I've worked on graphics drivers for 3 major vendors, and every one of them can and does unroll loops in OpenGL shaders.
They try, but they do not drop them on the floor entirely when it can not be proven that they will run in bounded time. Google actually has a similar technology that it uses in Chrome to "test the waters", but doesn't deploy it in Linux versions.
The actual situation is complex for both DX and GL, as it involves a myriad of factors such as the version being targeted, whether the loop bounds are statically known by the compiler, and whether they vary per SIMD-channel.
Yes. And if they *aren't* statically known by the compiler, it should drop the things on the floor, like Windows tends to. It's not a very ideal solution, but it works well enough that I would not have been resetting my G5 desktop when something decided to go crazy and take the card with it.
Furthermore, GL supports device restart on hung shaders, and this is tested for in many common test suites.
You have to maintain a non-blocked channel with the card in order to do this. And it's a fairly recent feature that vendors tended to leave out of their cards, until Microsoft forced them to include it to get the little badge on the outside of the box that let them claim compatibility with Direct X.
So, your post is almost entirely incorrect. Charitably, we can chalk it to innocent ignorance rather than a vested interest in spreading misinformation about platform-independed APIs.
I have no vested interest in supporting the DirectX platform, or even running Windows. And I'm aware that the Mac OS X nVidia drivers are encapsulated versions of the Windows nVidia drivers, just ported to run on Mac OS X. I occasionally worked with the people nVidia had on site at Apple, in order to resolve bugs, although Charles and Brian did so more frequently. The ATI folks, less so (less bugs, or at least less that came to my attention as a kernel panic).
The issue is the glue layer that Windows has, which adds more overhead, but at the same time provides some safety from bad graphics programming. I'm certain that Microsoft probably lucked into it, and didn't write things that way on purpose.
I'm just laying out my own personal experience.
There are solutions on all platforms for that.
You're able to chroot and jail in linux since I can remember.
The shit is, how do you give your jailed game access to your graphic card, if the same one has to be used by your host/hypervisor?
Market share is not everything. Just look at Apple.
The Alienware Steam Machine I linked to earlier is ranks about #240 in desktop sales at Amazon. While a pimped-out Cybertron Win 10 gaming rig retailing at $6,000 ranks about #40. CybertronPC Thallium X99 Red Gaming Desktop-Intel i7-5960X, 64GB DDR4,3x NVIDIA GTX980 Ti, Microsoft Windows 10
> it should drop the things on the floor, like Windows tends to
Different AC here, but no, that is not true on more recent shader models.
You have been corrected by a number of individuals here on every major point you raised, and you keep saying more bullshit. You should really stop talking about this subject. You don't know what you are talking about.
Next time read the TOS and EULA before buying the game
I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
You can't give full access like that - you would need a different card for the host OS.
I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
That may be true, but the statement was about Vulkan not OpenGL and in a gaming world where DirectX dominates.
You start off with "they try", which is 100% acceptance of the FACT that your original claim was 100% wrong, yet you pretend through the rest of your post that you were right all along.
Your "they try, but it doesn't always work" is ALSO defunct since your admission that DX resets cards is admission that DX doesn't always work, either, else they wouldn't need to reset.
I think we can discard the innocent option.
Since copyright doesn't control the "copy" made to use the game as purchased, you don't have to agree to squat, and if he's not running the Steam net service (running single player), the TOS is ALSO irrelevant.
Please stop demanding people bend over and take it just so you don't feel such a fool holding on to your ankles and crying at the pain.
I think you missed an important point. It was not the owner who broke the rules, but a delegated operator (for lack of a better term). Your example would be more precise in saying your friend drove your car at 127 MPH through a school zone, therefore YOU are no longer allowed to operate your car (while your friend merrily goes on continuing to operate his own car).
It's more complicated than that, even, since the nephew in question was [probably?] operating under the uncle's username; if so, that does swing the Finger of Blame(TM) back toward the uncle somewhat for permitting someone else to use his account.
Still, my opinion is that it would be quite reasonable for Valve to block online multiplayer play for some period of time, but to prevent local gameplay is a major overstepping of reasonable bounds.
That said, I will undoubtedly continue to purchase Steam-powered games. Baaaaaaah.
http://undecidedgames.blogspot.com
OpenSUSE for Debian...
*ducks and hides
I have determined that my sig is indeterminate.
Also their developer network, distribution network and own catalog.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Yes, AMD and Nvidia have been using their own gpl software to load their proprietary video blobs into the kernel to avoid gpl violations and which seems to be okay with Linus for now, but, who knows how long this will last there are a lot of zealots out there that are not happy with this method.
Given it is explicitly called out in the license file preamble for the kernel and re-licensing the kernel is not really possible in terms of practicality I don't see any change happening. Not to mention all the vendors that create proprietary kernel modules and all the kernel contributors that rely on this code (almost all mobile and embedded vendors) would likely continue on with the existing kernel version rather than this re-licensed offshoot if such a thing were even possible.