Definitely the polar opposite of my experience. I tend to avoid early access for much the same reason, but took a chance on this, figuring that the worst of the issues would be ironed out by the Itch run. I was right - this is very a polished, immersive, engaging experience. Well worth the price. I have coming up 10 hours in game, just defeated the first boss and I'm going to take a break from it for now, hopefully streaming it next month with the GOL gang.

It's weird that people criticise the games graphics/looks too. It's stunning. Sure, it's low poly, but nonetheless, it's stunning.

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Quoting: axredneck

Quoting: scaineHow do you install Mono, such that these launchers (like Elite:Dangerous) pick it up and run it, instead of .Net? I can't find any guides. Is it as simple as installing the entire Mono stack from your package manager?

Wine usually installs Mono automatically.

Well, sure, I have seen that in the two games I use Lutris for. I take it that's script-specific then on Lutris? And doesn't install automatically on Proton, despite Proton being a tailored wine version?

As I say, I'm interested for things like Elite:Dangerous. Right now, its launcher runs dot47 and fails if it doesn't find it. So how do I tell it to use Mono instead, now that Mono is apparently evolved to the point that you don't need dot47?

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Quoting: Guest

Quoting: TemplateRValve should partnering with RedHat or another big linux-development-player to create a Linux distribution for gamers and game developers. "Running Games natively on Linux" should be the motto.

The partnership could look like:

- Creating a modified linux-kernel for modern Gaming- and Desktop-experience
- Better test-area, how a new OS (or modified linux-kernel) will be performance on different hardware-settings
- Also better AMD-/-Nvidia/-Intel-Cooperation to improve their linux-drivers

And many more.

If you have a very good Linux-OS, then switching from Windows to Linux will be much more. The Proton-thing is in my opinion just the cherry on the good OS-cake ;)

Creating yet another distro is not really going to help much. Valve tried the whole SteamOS thing, and there's already well supported distros out there (Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSuse, etc). To their credit, Valve appear to have learned a lesson and looked around for alternatives to themselves trying to handle everything, which has resulted in their funding of various projects that can be pulled into any distro. Which is really how it should be for GNU/Linux.

Isn't Proton+Soldier pretty much that environment, in fact? Like a mega-"Steam Runtime" - target that environment and your game will largely "just work"?

I'm not really very clear on all the moving parts to this stuff. I click play, and it either works or it doesn't!

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How do you install Mono, such that these launchers (like Elite:Dangerous) pick it up and run it, instead of .Net? I can't find any guides. Is it as simple as installing the entire Mono stack from your package manager?

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Quoting: AkonadyIs there a way to play Battlefield 4 on Linux?

Apparently so: https://www.protondb.com/app/1238860 [External Link]. Although it looks like you have to run some commands to fix the server browser to display ping times.

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Quoting: slaapliedje

Quoting: PlutonMasterWhat if Valve does the "Linux only" exclusive game?
I think that would be a good treat for Linux gamers.
Or is it a bad idea?

They won't, Gabe has said time and again that doing exlusives is bad for the industry. On the other hand, their games are exclusive to Steam, so there is that. Even just a few initial months on Linux first would/could be a boost. Especially if they did something like what Liam was suggesting, selling a branded Valve USB stick (they already have a mold for the Steam controller dongles) with a LiveCD Linux distro and the game on it! Get bew customers using Steam, Linux and their new game all at once.
Surprised more companies don't do this simple thing, they could package their all popular method of 'exclusive skins and blah' on the USB drive.

I seem to remember general outcry because Valve offered this "exclusive" [External Link] accessory for running TF2 on Linux, even just once, during a two week period. Windows fanboys (seriously, who are these people?) shouted very loudly in mostly outraged tones that this was unacceptable. Can you imagine if Valve launched a whole new game exclusively for Linux?

I mean, I'd be laughing, for sure. But it would probably genuinely drive a certain kind of muppet to use Epic instead and swear unholy vengeance on Valve for daring to disrespect their wonderful, proprietary, expensive, monopolistic, privacy-abusing operating system.

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Quoting: bubexel

Quoting: Ehvis

Quoting: bubexelIt reminds me people saying same at half life 2 because it had no software rendering and no everybody can afford a video accelerated card. When you play for first time 3D games with a good accelerated videogame you don't want anymore software accelerated games. Same feeling i have with VR. I have a problem with flat games atm to be honest.

Not the same thing. Hardware accelerated rendering was a better replacement for software rendering. However, VR gaming is not a replacement traditional gaming. It is an entirely different beast that needs a different approach to games. I would love to have more high quality VR games, but I don't want to give up the regular ones.

It's exactly the same thing. VR is a better replacement of Flat Monitors. 3D games was not replacing tradicional gaming, we still have 2D release gamings.

Nope, definitely not. Sure, I don't want to play Elite:Dangerous on a monitor anymore. That's literally how good the VR "upgrade" is for that game. It also gets around the "gross motor control" point made by another poster here, because I'm still using my keyboard/mouse (or joystick/HOTAS) and the headset is just for immersion. But my god, the immersion. It's... hard to describe how game-changing it is.

But conversely, I don't want to play Noita in VR. Or indeed, the vast bulk of twitch FPS games I love. And anyway, my desktop is still 2D, so unless a compelling VR-based desktop comes along, I'm still going to play certain games in 2D even if they could benefit from 3D, because I use my desktop while playing them.

Honestly, even if that 3D desktop comes along, I still don't buy that VR is a natural upgrade path from a monitor, simply because the hardware isn't there yet. I played about 5 hours of Elite in one session at the weekend there and when I took the headset off, not only was my hair a mess, but my "panda face" was spectacular, and I had soreness across my cheek bones from where the headset rubs very lightly. Hardware will have to improve by two or more generations before this stuff becomes viable.

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I used to back "no tux no bucks", but it's had its day. I still focus mostly on only buying Linux games, sure, but I realise now that doing so won't impact the market in any way at all. Not just "won't impact the market meaningfully"... I mean it "won't impact the market AT ALL". So I've made exceptions, I'm glad I did (Elite! Noita!), and I'll continue to do so.

What Valve is doing is visionary. Literally, visionary, as in it will take decades to see through to fruition.

Here's a great story I heard in a leadership talk. Back in the 1950's Sony came up with this vision: "Become the company most known for changing the worldwide poor-quality image of Japanese products". It's a brilliant vision - punchy, specific, measurable. But of course, it took 30 years for that to become something that didn't make people laugh out loud. And then with products like the Walkman in the early 80's, then the PS1 in the 90's, and the VAIO laptops in the 2000's, then the Bravia TV line-up... they succeeded.

Actually, their vision today is less impressive - "to fill the world with emotion, through the power of creativity and technology, and to nurture innovation to enrich and improve people's lives". It's less impressive because it's not really measurable. But that first vision! It was risky. It was bold. what a story. What a vision.

Looking at Valve, I suspect their vision (for Linux) is something along the lines of "Make gaming platform-agnostic without impacting a developer's choice of toolset". Hence the focus on Proton. The work with Collabora and Codeweavers. Their improvements to the graphics stack, drivers and kernel. It'll take decades, but I think that one day, Linux gamers will simply buy a game and expect it to run. How risky is that? How bold?!

DRM? Anti-cheat? Shaders? Installation? Media playback? External peripherals? Experience? Performance? Contollers? VR? All of it will be irrelevant, because you're running Linux and all the hard work has been done.

That's a vision I can get behind, even if I might not even be alive to benefit from it.

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Looks like most people here agree with my views, so I won't repeat them. Only one outspoken defendant of Denuvo/DRM/Anti-Cheat, which is... well, one more than I'd expect in a Linux-focused community, but then there are millions of us now, so it's not hard to accept that there will be more and more Linux users that don't care, or understand, the harm of these technologies.

Indeed if we have any hope of growing beyond 1%, then we need more such gamers to join the ranks and, well, game. Regardless of the DRM/anti-cheat landscape.

But I'll stick to my guns. I despise Denuvo as a company for their root-kit approach to DRM. I've refused entire Humble Choice months in the past because they've featured Denuvo-ridden games (although annoyingly got the one with Yakuza before I realised). I don't support them and I never will. Despite how open they're being here, I sincerely hope their efforts on the anti-cheat front fails spectacularly. The last thing we need is yet another prevalent EAC-like solution barring entry to online games. And Denuvo's previous record shows that once they've cornered enough of the anti-cheat market, they'd start bundling their DRM too, making gaming worse in literally every possible way - intrusive, compulsory for single-player, reduced performance, binary, proprietary bullshit.

No thanks.

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So many people commenting "I don't want this", which is... weird. This isn't aimed at people who use Linux. They'll build this into the Steam client and then hard-core Windows users who want to dip their toe into the Linux waters can, with no repercussions. No, it might not be the best possible experience. Yes, hardware variance will make this tricky.

None of that is the point of the article though, which just pointing out that Steam want to increase visibility of Linux as a viable platform. This sounds pretty cool. And it won't affect us at all.

For my two cents, I'd like them to have made some inroads on EAC and BattleEye first. Most Windows games trying out a Linux key to see how Steam runs will want their big online games running, I think. And that's a big challenge, because of course Epic hate Valve. Not sure how that will play out. It's not like Epic will throw us a bone here - they probably already regret their Linux EAC client. No-one at Epic appears to care about Linux at all, least of their blind-sided CEO - I swear, if he calls Windows an open platform one more time... what a muppet.

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