If one man is able to port 2 or 3 games to Linux in a year then why do big studios avoid releasing their games on Linux fearing it won't be profitable? Few thousand copies should be enough to cover all the cost.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Great news. It looks like Steam Machines will launch with far more AAA games than the PS4 launched with. Can't wait for November.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I am hoping for a Ubisoft game. Assassins Creed or Watch Dogs.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: SabunAny mention on whether they use middleware, and if that middleware currently supports Linux?

Yes, Unreal Engine. It's shown on the video.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: melkemindI think these wrapper versions of games are nice for the current Linux crowd that might not otherwise play the game if it were never ported, but I think it will still ultimately cause problems for Valve. If they hope to move Steam Machines, they'll have to present the public with games that have equal or better performance than Windows, Xbox One and PS4. Otherwise, it'll be a tough sell to make to the average user. The big selling point of PC gaming, even in Valve's own ads, is 1080p 60fps. They need release-day games that demonstrate that.

Not really. These are older games designed for PS3-level hardware and they will still run fine on Steam Machines despite the extra overhead of the wrapper. These games won't be used as a reference when comparing Steam Machines to consoles and even if they are used for comparison, it will still be in Steam Machines' favour. Afterall, Bioshock Infinite is available on Steam Machines but not on PS4 or XB1.
For newer games Valve isn't taking a wrapper route. Almost all major engines support Linux natively and Valve is working hard on getting Vulcan in a good shape. So expect newer games to be on par with Windows.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Any idea what the performance looks like on Windows for the same hardware/settings? I am wondering how much overhead the port is adding.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Linux usage won't go up before the arrival of Steam Machines. In fact, it's quite surprising there is a million active Linux gamers given that it often takes some technical knowledge to get everything working properly.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

What's up with that graphics? It hurts my eyes more than the picture of the blue/black dress.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: blackout24

Quoting: sarmadThe slide says "Vulcan supported ACROSS THE BOARD on Steam Machines". I assume this means both AMD and nVidia have Vulcan drivers for Linux in development.

They demoed NVIDIA drivers during the talk and the later Vulkan sessions on Windows. Since the only thing different between NVIDIA drivers across platforms is a small shim to abstract the OS it would probably work in a few weeks. The Imagination Technology guys (two of them) wrote their Vulkan driver for PowerVR in just two months.

Awesome news. Yeah, I expect Vulcan to be much easier to implement than OpenGL since it's a simplified API.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

The slide says "Vulcan supported ACROSS THE BOARD on Steam Machines". I assume this means both AMD and nVidia have Vulcan drivers for Linux in development.

View this comment - View article - View full comments