Some thoughts:

Valve didn't had any advertising strategie. Every new platform has at least one killer feature / one killer game whatever which is holding the candle even if stuff false flat on the edges. What realy unique does steam os / steam machines offer out of the box at the moment?

Ok if there is nothing unique it must be good at what it is doing. So it must be good in terms of gaming. Nowhere in the last few years i have seen any comparsion in terms of gaming pc's without a performance comparsion. So it was for sure that performance will be compared. Here we need to be honest ... in a way we could be happy they have choosen the pentium g and not an amd cpu. The performance difference from windows to linux on amd cpu's are even much worse. We can also be happy that ars technica didn't blame linux / steam os for the performance difference but rather opengl / unoptimised ports and so on. They could had made it much simplier by saying it's a product i bought and it sucks in what it should do.

So as hard as it sound's thats basically what steam os (steam machines) current state is. It's less performant than windows and it doesn't give any advantage for the "normal" user over windows and to stress it even more there is not one AAA Game from this year available on steam os nor does any other with AAA publisher support linux.
(Bethesda -> nope | Ubisoft -> nope (no uplay) | EA -> nope (no origin) ....).

To make this one not dead on arival valve realy need to put something out which is unique or make a huge effort as soon as vulcan is available so the most attractive games on steam os get a vulcan renderer and get on comparable performance level with windows, else i don't see a reason why a non linux dedicated user should pay the same price for a less performant steam os box than a windows box.

Another small hint how unsatisfying the current situation ist (most popular games on twitch):

CS:GO -> Positional Audio doesn't work as expected out of the box , mouse input is hard to configure | requires good linux knowledge | to get full performance you need to tweak the starting commandline | some still have issues (microstutters) with multithreading enabled | performance below windows
DOTA2 -> performance below windows
LOL -> not on steamos
Fallout 4 -> not on steamos
Heartstone -> not on steamos
Call of Duty (Black OPS III) -> not on steamos
ARMA III -> on steamos in beta , still not current version
Kingdom -> not on steamos
Starcraft II -> not on steamos
Minecraft -> not accesable throu steam big picture mode and lacks in current version the "easy" installer of windows
World of Warcraft -> not on steamos
Fifa 16 -> not on steamos
Destiny -> not on steamos

This list goes on. Let me ask a real question here , which market is the target for steam machines right of now?

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Quoting: alex

Quoting: Maelrane

Quoting: NyamiouFor those that didn't comprehend, the SteamOS icon is still a Linux icon, SteamOS is a distribution like all the other and if a game doesn't run on every distribution then it doesn't run on Linux. We are not going to have a logo for Ubuntu, a logo for Fedora, a logo for Arch ... if the game doesn't run everywhere then it's no good.

Although the numbers are (not) in our favor... Windows has a lot of versions too, so has MacOS. Nobody bats an eye if Windows Vista is not supported, or Windows XP etc.

I mean, I know what you're going to say, but

If the reason turns out to be additional requirements, then there should be a distinction between "Desktop Linux" and "Couch SteamOS" ;)

Windows has its Win32 API written in old C and this API hasn't changed for 20 years (some additions but really no removes). This makes Windows binaries that are 20 year old run as good as new ones on modern Windows OS:es. Windows is extremely backwards compatible.

Mac OS X has its Cocoa API and Carbon stuff which is also standardized for all OS X:es.

Linux has no standard at all. There is no standard package manager, there is no standard package list. There is no standard C++ runtime. Nothing is standard because everything is moddable. Valve have defined a pack of libraries that is all you need to make any game.

Thats not true there is the lsb [External Link]. Every Distribution which want to be LSB compliant need to have this standard included.
Ubuntu [External Link]
fedora [External Link]
debian [External Link]

and the list goes on.

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I realy hope that leads to all dev's using SDL2 for input. And this action includes all the unity i do my own thing build's. Oh Oddworld , it was a good time while you had an steam icon and ignored the fact that all none xbox360 user couldn't play your game.... could Name so many more.

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Quoting: BillNyeTheBlackGuy

Quoting: Glog782.) Pillars of....

Can you tell me your build? I can barely get above 40 fps in my game despite being over the recommended settings.

v2.00.0706 - steam
on nvidia the trick is -> __GL_THREADED_OPTIMIZATIONS=1 LC_ALL=C %command%
Use a Phenom II X6 1090T + GTX 970

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Damm , why do we do wild assumptions and not just ask them ? Gaming on linux just send them an email how this comment was meant and express the questions raised.

Second i would like to give you all access to the documentation of the game (sadly i can't) but 2 Facts which are never mentioned in the whole discussion:

1.) Obsidian was on the edge of closing the studio. So maybe they did compare what could have meant a 200k invest in case of more features to sell more copies on windows and what did a 200k invest in case linux as a platform meant. The conclusion might had been, that it would be more wise for the studio to survive when they invest this money into windows features. Thats just plain where is the chance higher to survive. I'm honest here i would rather see Obsidian drop support for linux and make sure the company survives than makeing a linux version and die. Hopefully they come back and besides complaining that it wasn't as much return as they hoped that the experience and the linux crowd was still a pleasure. That also includes the fact that 1.5% are realy good sales for a "popular" game.

2.) Pillars of Eternity is one of the best unity games on linux up to date and it already was when they first released it. It's one of the few unity games which maintain 60+ fps even on highest settings on my rig (very uncommon). They must had done a lot to secure this. It even runs better than the current build of Wasteland 2. In the documentation you see that they even tweak their game using a gpu debuggers just to make it running smooth. I for myself wouldn't wonder if they crushed their selfset limit (so the investment was higher than the return in their eyes) for a port. At this point i only hope that they trust their new knowledge and for future tittles on linux make sure to avoid most of the issues they had with Pillars of Eternity.

The following points also floating in my mind:
a.) when Pillars of Eternity's development was started noone knew about how good or how bad unity on linux realy was / is. So they did a damm good job. Also i remember that at this point most of the tools which are available now wheren't available back then and they basically did the port blind (Unity not on linux / gpu debugger not realy existent / for most stuff a gamedev does only workaround exists at this time)
b.) The RoI (return on invest) for a lifelong used platform will most like always be better than for a new platform.

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For all the posters before saying the performance before i would be interested in them posting there CPU cause honestly on my AMD Unity (at least 4.6) performance is always a big issue (using 1thread only).

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Quoting: Xeekei....

Personally I don't miss anything, but I'm not really a developer. My friend is. He's not the only one I've heard good things about VS from.

Visual Studio is a great IDE and i don't know a comparable product in terms of one product just fits everything what visual studio does. But depending on what your friend's realy miss there might be alternative's on linux depending on the language and the features.

There is for example eclipse with all it's plugins. There is Clion. There is atom / there is visual-studio-code (yes a ms product and even in beta right now a damm good editor / minimalistic ide). Thats why ask. If you friends don't mind they might open a forum post (to keep the thread on topic) and people might have some sugestion towards a tools and workflows. I talk about sugestions cause i know from myself how picky i'm when it comes to change my workflow.

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Quoting: XeekeiDisclaimer: Haven't read all comments yet.

The biggest issue with Linux from a Windows developer's perspective is that it's unclear how you're supposed to develop. Sure we got Sublime and QtCreator, but we really have no Visual Studio. VS is the biggest road block for my friend. Otherwise he loves Linux.

Also, as stated in the article, games just happen to rely on Linux's weaknesses. Namely graphics, audio, and input. Hopefully Wayland and libinput will fix this. I'm not sure how much more work PulseAudio needs, or if maybe even ALSA needs fixing.

The new so called "hybrid source" AMD driver might be good too. I personally hate when games are Nvidia only, but can understand why.

To help with the question for an IDE please be a little more specific what you miss on Sublime or QtCreator ?

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Interesting article. Thanx for taking the time and writing it.
I want ask questions:
- What about the current situation that sales can determined aproximatly but not real well ? I give an example: Bioshock Infinite / TW2 / Spec Op's and huge amount of other games where in my library before the linux version (windows days / linux wine days). As sadly will be Darksiders and Darksiders 2 :(
- What about none measurable Profits? For example i know Gamers which never would had touched some indie games if i wouldn't advice them this games.

While we all know that PC Gaming is broken to the end for AAA tittles i had a huge hope that indie games can stop this trend. In a way they did but what i see in terms of linux makes me sad. The same arguments publisher gave towards pc gameing (we make less money) are used to excuse bad quality on linux from some of those indie dev's. So do you suggest if we know what lead to the bad overall state of gaming on windows , we should still support the same excuses?

I know that for a dev right of now it's hard. You mentioned a vague platform. I agree and disagree. The linux gaming community always supported the idea that a dev target one distribution. Ubuntu in the beginnig, the better choice now would be steam os. But even that isn't mostly done in a good way. Some examples which find scary:

System requierments -> omg so inexactly across the board
Requiering drivers outside of the distribution -> as a customer why do i need to update my drivers if the dev targeted a distribution and therefor the included drivers ?
Communication -> Sometimes (of course it's not all of them) i realy think thats not true... You publish a game on a platform but say loudly this platform sucks? You take money but aren't even willed to check if the error could be on your side?
Bug fixing -> This is mostly a issue with Early Access tittles which even raise the bar. But in my oppinion if the linux community try to show you bugs for a product they bought to improve on their platform too. Don't ignore them or call them stupid or something like this (everything seen already)

Some points i want to add my thoughts:
(vague Platform)
- Linux has a standard. It's called LSB. I don't think it's ready for gaming but if it isn't why don't ask for changes ?
- SteamOS and SteamSDK should be the industry default as long LSB is a no go. I don't agree they are close enough to ubuntu or debian to use them as development platform. Some examples why:
- systemwide pulseaudio (i don't agree with that decission but it is how it is)
- compiz
* compiz can fix 99% of the vsync issues
* games don't need to implement vsync just a frame limitter (overheating) and the user can do a systemwide vsync on / off and set the desired framerate in the game
- bigpicture mode and controller support
* as much as i think mouse and keyboard are a great input method , lets be honest here controller / touch are the one most people are used too. So if there is no reason every game should support a pure controller based input
system using SDL2 as default (so it is hardware independend as much as possible)

What do i think can be done to improve:
- we not only need a steamsdk but we need a steamos development edition (at least a easy to use multipackage selection of the tools to install using the package management)
* pre-installed with the steamSDK and configured so a build is using the steamsdk libraries first if installed in the linux box
* including basic development tools freely (or in terms of valve freely available) for steamos. I think of default IDE's / Debugger / buildsystems (maybe even templates) and so on
* a ruleset how properity tools integrate into that -> i'm thinking here of unity 3D / unreal and so on (certification)

As hard as it sound's but the freedom and huge amount of ways how you can develop for linux scares windows dev's which are used to install visual-studio and everything integrating into it. At this point i even agree with the dev's stating that finding resources of how to do it leads to a nightmare amount of information which you can't decide what you realy need and what not.

There is one point which i realy think is vital for making a longterm success and agree totally with the article. We need a default featureset standard and make it deterministic for the dev's. Where i disagree is that we should agree to that being a problem and just take it.

So lets talk about the current status (from my point of view). A game / engine on the lowest level needs some systems:
1.) userinput | Staus: ok | SDL2 does a wonderfull job
2.) soundoutput | Status: medium | SDL2 / OpenAL will do the job -> If we check above makeing pulseaudio systemwide on steamos gives maybe another way to program or archive audio (i wonder if SteamOS will get a RT kernel and use RT Audio)
3.) graphic's | Status: WIP

3a) 2D graphic's should be fine with SDL2 and or most engines don't have problems with 2D graphic's

3b) 3D graphic's if an engine is used -> Unity 3D / Unreal / Source / Source 2
- 1st and foremost it's possible and works reasonable well
- 2nd bugs / performance issues can't be fixed between user and dev's but needs to be fixed between dev's and engine provider. So please dev's give it to the people which are responsible or use another engine or check if you can fix on your side (assets / shader and so on). As stated in the article , ask the customer to provide the information as best as possible. Hint checkout this thread how this can work -> http://steamcommunity.com/app/250560/discussions/0/558751813249138496/ [External Link]. As a dev remind your that you only have to support one distribution which is highly preconfigured (SteamOS).

3c) 3D with OpenGL
This is a huge WIP area. Ok what does most dev's complain -> different behaivior by different graphic stacks. What i don't understand and it bothers me (the customer can't change anything) is the following: OpenGL is done by the Khronos group. If there are unclear corner cases (example: https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=34052) [External Link] why doesn't this get reported and gets fixed within the spec? I think if the dev's put themself together they are powerfull enough to do so. An example how this can be is a external OpenGL Bug DB only filled by dev's using opengl but public visiable so consumers can make informed decissions which graphics card vendor fix their shit and which doesn't. If you don't think there is enough power by the group of dev's at least valve could do something against it. SteamOS drivers could get certified. Certification is only given when a testsuite is gone thru. Of course this testsuite includes the mentioned corner cases and defines the outcome. So a programer against those certified drivers can expect a certain outcome.

3d) 3D with Vulcan (future hope)

All the points above can be solved without the customers and should be (in my eyes) solved without the customer (eg: linux gaming community). On last thing i realy want an answer:

Why are we always the bad toxic community here cause we are just a small marketshare but dev's are allowed to ignore all helping advices we give and go on claiming it's impossible to program for linux even it already exists or will be there soon ?

Some of the advices i talk about and a huge amount of linux users at least wrote once under a not working port:
- use SDL2 at least for Input and Windowmanagement
- Unity 4 has performance issues with AMD hardware please check what you can do
- The software only use 1 thread from my 4 core / 6 core machine
- __GL_Threaded_Optimisations=1 helps performance wise
- LANG=C fixes issues

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Quoting: hardpenguinThis industry has enough problems with ports from consoles to PC (last shitstorm with Batman: Arkham Knight proved it once again), at that point we should be grateful we are getting anything at all, really ;)

If you are not familiar with the gaming industry you might overrate developers capabilities of keeping and maintaining their own source code after as short time as, let's say, two years. Not to mention, that wrapping technologies REALLY are often cheaper to use.

You want developers to learn how to multiplatform? That is very nice of you. But hey, they do not own you a thing. So stop acting like you are entitled to any kind of treatment and if you don't like something, just do not buy it.

Don't get me wrong, I am all for native ports. But just understand, that is not always possible. And that a bad native port is way worse than a good wrapper.

If all think nobody does change anything nothing will be changed at all. So people should voice what they want. So being negative isn't a good way either.

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