Amazing work as always Philip! Thankyou so much for all your hard work.

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Given there's likely some overlap in users, and developers are the most likely people to use Linux in any event, it's quite possible that Godot's strong Linux support offers competition to Unity.

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Quoting: Perkeleen_Vittupää

Quoting: gradyvuckovicThe analogy I'd use is ... imagine that Linux gaming is like a 100m diameter ball of lead, on a flat plateau of land on top of a hill.

I dig this analogy alot! :happy:

Yeah. HUGE potential energy.. but just really difficult to get moving.

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Quoting: LinasThe whole idea is to give a stable runtime environment to the game developers where you don't need to care about what distribution is the game run on, or that upgrades to the system would break something. It is essentially a Linux compatibility layer for Linux to address the main argument a lot of people have against Linux - fragmentation.

That's how I read it too. Which is awesome, as usual for anything Valve is working on related to Linux. Fragmentation is one of those hard problems with Linux, and this goes right to the heart of addressing it.

I don't think Valve is planning another console. Even Steam Machines weren't really consoles as such, more like prepackaged PCs with a living room tailored experience, like a media center PC.

To me the way I read everything they're doing, it feels like they've taken a step back, looked at the Linux gaming ecosystem, identified every pain point they can find that's preventing adoption and they're just systematically going through each one and trying to either fix it or at least reduce the pain as much as possible. I think they're hoping if they fix enough pain points and wait long enough, eventually organic growth will take off.

The question is why of course. Why do they care. It is possible that perhaps they're just passionately and ideologically supportive of Linux. Or the popular theories of it being a preemptive defensive strategy against any future moves Microsoft might make. Either way, at this point they're putting so much effort into this, it's clearly one of their main goals now, not just a side interest, they're 100% committed to this.

Will it work? Honestly I think it will. But it's definitely going to take a long time.

The analogy I'd use is ... imagine that Linux gaming is like a 100m diameter ball of lead, on a flat plateau of land on top of a hill.

We're been trying to get the ball rolling. Once it does build up speed and start going down the hill, it will become an unstoppable force. We've been trying to get it rolling for years, but it's a 100m diameter ball of lead and we're just a dozen people pushing at the side, having no impact. The stubborn bastard wouldn't shift.

Valve's efforts with Steam, Proton, DXVK, ACO, Pressure Vessel, etc, is like bringing 4 giant trucks up to the top of the hill to help us out, they've strapped them up to the ball and are gunning the engines with the tires screeching. The ball is shifting a little, starting to move, a few inches at least, it's working but it's slow. If they keep at it for the long haul and the tires don't pop, eventually it will build up momentum and it'll work.

If it works, Valve is best positioned to benefit from the success. A new mainstream gaming platform will emerge and Valve will be the centre of it's universe.

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This is one of those reasons why I can't stand EGS exclusives. This game was always destined to have a native Linux build but it was delayed by a full year because of the EGS exclusivity contract, limiting it to a store that doesn't support Linux, hence there was no way to provide a native Linux version even if there was one.

Not only does that delay a Linux native game, it means many gamers will have bought this game on a platform which does not and will likely never have available the native Linux version of the game. So if that gamer wishes to switch to Linux, they will either need to play the Windows version via EGS running through Wine, or they will need to rebuy the game. Which is a subtle discouragement for gamers thinking about switching.

Stuff like this is why I won't even accept a free game from EGS.

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Valve sure are sponsoring a lot of really awesome things in the world of Linux. Coordinating work between Wine and Linux kernel development to make things possible that previously weren't, is a big thing, when this stuff settles into the kernel and Wine, and is broadly available, it's going to make a huge difference.

Valve's commitment to solving such huge problems is inspiring. Taking on stuff like getting DRM and AntiCheat software to work via Wine, drastically improving performance, sponsoring all that DX12 work.. it's no small thing. And shows they're in it for the long haul. We're lucky to have them on our side.

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Quoting: Phlebiac

Quoting: EhvisThe only thing I've found mildly useful has been curators about special features.

Agreed; some I've found useful: "Proton Compatible", "Broken Linux Promises", "Powered by DOSBox", "Powered by ScummVM", and "icculus.org".

You made me curious so I just searched for Proton Compatible and followed them. Then viewed their recommendations and noticed it lets you view recommendations by 'Recent', 'Top Sellers', 'New Releases' and 'Discounts'. And now if I look at a store page for a game that Proton Compatible has reviewed, their review appears right at the top below the screenshots and description.

That's VERY handy, thanks!

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Quoting: BreezeIf 6800XT is anything like the 5700XT launch:

• October 28th announcement of release November 30th, reference only.
• February 1st AIB cards released.
• March 1st, I can build the kernel and Mesa from git branches to have a somewhat stable experience.
• October 2021 first Ubuntu release that works reliably, April release didn't have everything.

I have bought a few Nvidia cards and they worked with proprietary drivers the week of release with zero issues. I have a 5700XT, the question for me is:

Is there a game that will be released before October 2021 that I will want 2x performance of 5700XT? If there is, I will buy a Nvidia RTX 3080, if not I'll buy a 6800XT most likely.

Games that may make me want to upgrade:

• Cyberpunk 2077
• Vampire the Masquerades: Bloodlines 2 (not looking good)
• Starfield
• New Elder scrolls game
• Avowed

I bought a 5700 XT too and what you described was my experience as well. It was very disappointing. If AMD was as prompt as NVIDIA on drivers, I don't think ANYONE would buy an NVIDIA GPU on Linux at all.

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I think it's fair to say it's the responsibility of developers to ensure that their software works on the platforms they claim to support when they ship their software.

But if those supported platforms then change and break that software, I blame those platforms.

If for example a game developer made a Playstation game, released it, and the game worked flawlessly, then 5 years later Sony updated the Playstation console OS and it broke that game, I would say it's Sony's fault, not the original developer.

Because while it's all well and good to say 'Well developers should just update their software' or make things 'future proof', games are a great example of why that isn't always practical. In some cases the original developers who developed some of the games which are still being played today on Steam aren't even still around, and the source code might have even been lost. A developer can't keep updating software forever, platforms need to be designed to handle that.

Platforms should strive to offer a stationary target for developers to develop software against. If changes are to be introduced, that should become a new target, and those changes shouldn't affect software being developed against the old target.

This is why Flatpak is a good system, it allows devs to target a runtime, make sure their software works for that runtime, then as long as that runtime continues to be available and supported into the future, even for decades, that software should still work, no matter how much Linux changes.

And users only have to download and install the runtimes they need for the software they're actually using. Ideally such a concept should become part of Linux desktop operating systems themselves, it would make life much easier for developers. Then Valve wouldn't need to come up with container solutions to keep old Linux games working on Steam.

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I love how simple and user friendly this looks. It's just so "point and click". Awesome!

I imagine this will be very useful for anyone using web based clients for game streaming, or for Netflix, Youtube, or any number of other websites.

What I also like is that instead of creating a brand new project from scratch, they are working with others and improving an existing application. Fantastic.

Would be happy to see more stuff like this in the future.

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