on linux I have periodical lags when game stops for 0.1-0.2 seconds each 5-15 seconds

I've read about that. You can try and fix it by getting indicator-cpufreq from the Ubuntu Software Center. Once installed, just restart/log out and when you come back in there's an icon on the top right. Right click it and set it to Performance, this will heavily utilize your CPU and reduce those periodical lags.

Regarding the fps, it is indeed relatively the same on both Operating systems. I removed the screen recorders and used Source's Demo ability, so the following video better represents the performance between the two.

View video on youtube.com

Uploaded this days ago, but it got stuck in YouTube processing (happened before too).

View this comment - View article - View full comments

So far "cross-platform" for them means exactly Windows, XBONE, PS4 and WiiU.

Exactly my fears. Whilst AMD was pushing for their Open Source drivers before Nvidia was, AMD's software support for Linux really feels on and off. Since they have their hands full with two consoles, it is very unlikely they'll focus on us unless Nvidia really starts reaping the benefits from being in a partnership with Valve over the SteamOS.

For that matter, what applications in Linux actually have a working OpenCL implementation? Blender has CUDA, but OpenCL is missing. I don't know of any video editors in Linux that make use of these GPU offloading capabilities. If Mantle comes into the picture, I feel it'll be just like these features. Nvidia may actually support it on Linux or bring out an alternative, and AMD probably won't.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

While I did mention in the video that my performance outside of the screen recorders was that both platforms performed rather the same and there wasn't really a performance difference, I understand people wish to see it with proper timing and no screen recorders messing with the fps.

I am editing a new video of L4D2 running in both Windows and Ubuntu without any screen recorder, and both using a demo file to ensure timing is the same. It is being done with a low end camera though, and I feel even with this video there will be quite a few people I cannot satisfy.

However, I am grateful for the guidance and advice many of you have given me. Hopefully this next video will better represent my experience on both platforms in terms of L4D2 (outside of screen capture that is). I should have the video uploaded in a couple of days, and one other test video in conjunction with this redone test.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

AAA games will be available on Steam Linux too or only on Steam OS ?

No one knows this yet, but we can take a look at Metro Last Light which will be coming out for both. I think it's safe to assume that the games will be released for Linux, and probably tailored slightly to SteamOS.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Wow, that is good news, can you provide some link or something where I can read more about it?

While I am still waiting on Toms Hardware for a full write up on the information from AMD, this link is where I got the news that Linux support is being worked on. It's a live blog stream kind of thing, so you'll need to scroll down. It's not yet an article, but just a sentence at this point. Hopefully in the coming days we'll see more about this being released :)

LINK: http://new.livestream.com/toms-live/amd-hawaii-day-1 [External Link]

View this comment - View article - View full comments

They should work on ATI drivers for linux, otherwise, ATI cards are not any good

ATI or now known as AMD have said that they are working on Linux support, they announced this at AMD GPU14 Tech Day Event (which was on the 24th of Sept, so it's a current statement). It's likely they will reveal more of their plans for Linux in the coming days.

I think they might be feeling the heat after hearing Nvidia's plans to open more of their documentation and Valve's close working with Nvidia since the Steam for Linux beginning.

How long till us consumers actually enjoy that Linux support? Depends on how serious they are. Just thought I'd share that news with you :)

View this comment - View article - View full comments

but I think their main goal here is to get hardware manufacturers to make pretty little boxes that ship with it.

Very true, I wonder what happened to the Piston Xi3 guys (if that is what it was called). Oh man, two days for the next announcement feels so long!

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Desktop? You mean television, right? Ubuntu isn't aggressively targeting the TV last I checked.

I know everyone's thinking TV and living room, but the OS itself is meant to run on desktop hardware (at least that's my understanding, correct me if I'm wrong). That is why I refer to it as such. Also Ubuntu TV does exist, but is slow coming I think. Any how, doesn't this news excite you? It sure does me :D

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I did not try FFMPEG in Windows, last I tried it in Ubuntu 12.10 it was a serious pain. Constantly out of sync audio, and frustratingly had aspect ratio problems with the output video.

It's not easy to use, and that was back when I was willing to go through lots of documentation to try and make it work. I don't believe I have the time to put myself into that position for now (I'm doing these test videos while going through my final exams for the semester).

Talking about Power regulation, are we talking power plans? I had my power plan set to High Performance in Windows during these tests. Or is this something else? If it is, then please teach me about it.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Could this be dangerous for the desktop Linux client?

To me it sounds like another Linux distro, except it's aiming for the desktop aggressively (like Ubuntu) and has financial backing from Valve. I'm actually pretty excited to try it out once it's downloadable.

View this comment - View article - View full comments