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Valve Seems To Be Working On Tools To Get Windows Games Running On Linux (arstechnica.com)
"Valve appears to be working on a set of 'compatibility tools,' called Steam Play, that would allow at least some Windows-based titles to run on Linux-based SteamOS systems," writes Kyle Orland from Ars Technica. From the report: Yesterday, Reddit users noticed that Steam's GUI files (as captured by SteamDB's Steam Tracker) include a hidden section with unused text related to the unannounced Steam Play system. According to that text, "Steam Play will automatically install compatibility tools that allow you to play games from your library that were built for other operating systems." Other unused text in the that GUI file suggests Steam Play will offer official compatibility with "supported tiles" while also letting users test compatibility for "games in your library that have not been verified with a supported compatibility tool." That latter use comes with a warning that "this may not work as expected, and can cause issues with your games, including crashes and breaking save games."
Compatibility Mode? It's called OpenGL or Vulkan. Tell Microsoft to ditch DirectX; it's unnecessary and makes crap like this necessary. If people don't like the features of OpenGL or Vulkan you can always hop on the advisory board and get things changed.
-SaNo
The doom and gloom predictions of the Windows Store inserting itself between users and the internet at large seem more and more prescient every day.
They should charge a 15% commission for all games launched on that OS, down from their normal 30%.
Sure, if you don't mind waiting a few years to play last year's games.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
this would be enough to finally get me to stop using Windows.
I play a lot of PC games, windows is a must for this.
The big reason people should use Linux is to free themselves from proprietary closed source OS that is designed to take away your freedom. You will notice that while SteamOS claims to be open source, actually the critical parts of it like the client, are closed source. I am all for Windows compatibility as a way for people transition away from windows while taking their apps with them. However the compatibility layer needs to be able to work on fully open source OSs otherwise people would just be giving up one proprietary OS with vendor lock in for another proprietary OS with vendor lock in. You should not have to use a particular Linux distro to be able to benefit from Windows compatibility. Wine is the best solution since it is open source. People need to work on making that better rather than fragmenting with another closed source platform.
All i want is to run all my games seamlessly without messing around with wrappers or virtual machines or GPU passthrough or having to draw a summoning spell in blood on my monitor.
I don't to spend 4 hours googling or needing 2 GPUs or a different config file for every single game or losing a huge chunk of FPS from virtualisation (and needing twice the amount of stupidly expensive RAM) or getting banned because the anti-cheat engine got confused.
I don't want to dual boot, hell half the time i forget what i was doing in the time it takes my web browser to open let alone for a full reboot.
It's a lot to ask i know but gaming is stopping linux going mainstream.
Technically correct: the best kind of correct.
This is not for linux desktop. This is so valve can build a console for their huge library without paying Microsoft licensing fees
2019 will be the year of subscription-based Windows 10 on dumb terminals.
Not on dumb terminals, on dumb user's computers.