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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."
...2018 is the Year of Linux on Desktop!
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.
Somebody should send Valve a bottle of Wine.
I have ran and finished on Linux several WIndows only games, using Wine. Wine can be very useful, but in my experience, you lose a big amount of time just testing different wine versions and playing with configuration (Windows version, DLL overrides, runtimes, etc.).
So, even if it is only something like PlayOnLinux on steroids, managing different Wine versions and with scripts automating its usage, it could be good if Valve uses a decent amount of its resources to testing. This could avoid the end users to waste lots of time.
BUT, after writing this, I do now think this will be the case. Something like DOSBox, SCUMMVM and that kind of wrappers seem more feasible.
They should charge a 15% commission for all games launched on that OS, down from their normal 30%.
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.
OS/2 was so good with windows that few true os/2 apps where made and then MS started to mess up OS/2 With all of the win32/s updates.
Games need to move away from wrappers in Linux.
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 CS is what originally launched the steam platform. I realize it's a HL mod, but with 1.6 it became "stand alone". I realize it still used the HL engine and everything, but CS was the only game on steam at that time, not HL.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to be technically correct somewhere else on the www.
CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
I suspect that with Valve involved the turn around time will be a lot shorter. Besides, no sane person buys a game when it comes out. It's expensive and buggy, no thanks. I'll wait a year for them to get the bugs fixed and in that time Valve can get it working on Linux.... double bonus. Plus, waiting a year is a good litmus test of if the game is any good. If after a year it's still almost full price, it's a good game. If it's 95% off, it's probably not worth your time to play.
Technically correct: the best kind of correct.
Does anyone still care?
I cared in 1998 when windows was unstable and unreliable. Windows 10 runs rock solid for steam gaming, what problem are we solving here? I guess freeing people from the evil of Microsoft is an admirable goal, but it all seems so early 2000s
I don't want to have to boot to windows to play games.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
I still can't get Linux to install and run with accelerated graphics on my Radeon card.
This post is a bit less than credible given that it does mention any specific Radeon model. My experience with Radeon cards is much different: every one I have (more than four) works flawlessly, especially with the open source drivers. You do need to install the card firmware package, without that they kinda work as VGA only, but no acceleration, low resolution, sucks. But works well enough to boot to KDE and figure out the bit about the firmware in comfort.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
You need to install the card firmware, probably.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
True, but I recall other issues: its hardware compatibility was rather limited, and its marketing absolutely sucked.
I mean, holy shit. IBM was always so bad at reaching home users. For example, watch these ads touting the same feature, multitasking: OS/2 and Win95. What do you get from them? From the visuals, the music, the voiceover -- what do they make you feel? To me, the former makes it seem bureaucratic, unexciting, work stuff. But the latter makes it seem exciting, whimsical, empowering, fun! Whoever produced that ad nailed it.
Circumcision is child abuse.
Bugs aside, Windows 10 has a very ugly, disorganized, and inconsistent interface. I'd gladly use Cinnamon instead of this mess.
Circumcision is child abuse.
and I really don't think it should matter that I have a 7870 LE.
Interesting fantasy land you live in, where hardware details don't matter. Also interesting how you come in throwing around insults without having done a bit of research yourself.
The 7870 LE s an oddball using the Tahiti chipset instead of the more popular and well supported Pitcairn chipset. Bugzilla: Tahiti LE: GFX block is not functional, CP is okay
It seems, some people got it working, but if it were mine I would just junk that 2012 card. If you want something really minimal, HD 6450 is perfectly servicable, and fanless. If you want something powerful but cheap, RX 400 series or RX 500. That particular card is, unfortunately, a bit of an orphan. It happens.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Maybe Valve could fix Issue #1040 from 2013 once and for all (https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/1040). The client wants to manage all aspects of the window instead of letting the window manager do it. The practical result is that the Steam client fights with the window manager and semi-unpredictably makes itself unusable or infuriating. There's really no excuse for this.