

Linux Gaming: An Upward Trend - ekianjo
http://pandoralive.info/?p=3790.

======
WoodenChair
I found it interesting to note from the article that the two main AAA titles
cited (Civ 5 and Xcom) were ported by the two biggest Mac porting houses
(Aspyr and Feral respectively). They may be new to the Linux market but they
have extensive experience porting from DirectX to OpenGL and an impressive
library of AAA completed projects.

Valve's Steam Machines may prove to be an interesting new business opportunity
for these Mac porting houses - and hopefully the possibility of bringing games
to not one, but two platforms, will mean yet more Mac ports as well.

As was noted in the Xcom vignette in the article, they'll likely have some
difficulty dealing with Linux users (as opposed to their experience with Mac
users) from a customer service perspective. They aren't in Kansas anymore!

~~~
danieldk
_Valve 's Steam Machines may prove to be an interesting new business
opportunity for these Mac porting houses - and hopefully the possibility of
bringing games to not one, but two platforms, will mean yet more Mac ports as
well._

I am not sure, I have never seen a Steam machine anywhere or anyone being
interested in them. With the quickly growing power of ARM CPUs and GPUs, I
think in a short time, an Android or iOS-power mediacenter will be enough for
90% of the people.

Of course, since Android uses OpenGL as well, it's probably good for Mac.

~~~
adamors
Steam machines weren't released yet.

Also, while mobile GPUs are definitely stronger than they were 10 years ago,
they still have a lot more to go to even match the performance of a console.
Not to mention top it/reach that of a PC.

~~~
johnchristopher
Parent stated "enough for 90% of people", not "enough for 90% of games".

~~~
jeltz
I do not see why AAA PC game companies would care about what 90% of the people
in the world think. What they care about is what gamers think, since those
make up most of their customer base.

~~~
Chronic28
They care because ideas propagate.

------
girvo
Apart from SteamOS itself, I feel like OS X's rise in marketshare has helped
as well; Once you've ported your engine to OpenGL, supporting Linux as well as
OS X isn't much harder in my experience (as long as you've got a decent
abstraction layer).

What else has driven it? iOS/Android? I doubt those, other than perhaps making
AAA developers consider OpenGL _at all_ for various projects. The latest
consoles, while x86, aren't OpenGL at all, so that can't be it. It's a really
interesting state of affairs; I'd never thought I'd see the day where AAA
games that weren't made by id were released on Linux!

~~~
reidrac
I'm not sure about this. Obviously there's a cost in the actual port of the
game, but I suspect there's a lot of work besides that to support any new
platform.

I made some amateur games in python and they're trivial to run in Windows and
Mac (being Linux my dev platform), but there are lots of small details that
can ruin the user experience just because I didn't do proper testing in all
the platforms (like some Windows OpenGL implementations not supporting shared
contexts, or openal glitches in Mac).

My point is that is not just having a port, you have to support it, and that
costs time and money that may not be worth the effort given the number of
potential users of that new platform.

EDIT: sent the comment too early

~~~
azernik
Obviously there is an additional cost; I think the point the parent was making
is that the cost to add your third platform is lower than the cost to add your
second platform, especially since one of the hardest bits (changing graphics
stack) is mostly shared work between Mac and Linux.

The cost is still non-zero, of course, and for the most part Linux gamers have
to live with a lower degree of polish than Windows or even OSX gamers because
of that.

------
ThePhysicist
I recently installed Steam on my Ubuntu 14.04 Laptop and was positively
surprised at how many titles are already available for Linux. Now I can
finally play a quick game after work without having to reboot my machine to
Windows, which is a true win ;)

I hope that the additional push created by this will help drive more
"mainstream" users to Linux, which should help to make the whole ecosystem
more mature and accepted.

~~~
mattdeboard
Ditto! Not to mention the fact that Xbox controllers (wired ones, at least)
seem to be truly plug-and-play. They just work. I play BattleBlock Theater
almost exclusively on Linux.

Of course there are still some glitches. I can't play games while using Xmonad
since the games don't play nicely with non-reparenting window managers. But if
I load gnome it's fine.

~~~
philsnow
Things seem to work better for me if I float the game window; maybe try that.

~~~
mattdeboard
How do you get the game window to float if it never appears? Like if I have
the Steam window floating, for example, by dragging with mod+<left mouse>, if
I just launch the game normally will it Just Work(tm)?

------
shmerl
_> CD Projekt Red has announced that The Witcher 3 will be available for
SteamOS (and therefore Linux)_

This is incorrect. CD Projekt Red never announced such thing. These false news
are caused by one banner which appeared on Steam front page. It was quickly
pulled though (so it most probably was some prank), and GOG / CDPR commented
that no such thing was announced by them.

If you actually want such port to be made, vote for it:
[https://secure.gog.com/wishlist/games/to_cd_projekt_red_brin...](https://secure.gog.com/wishlist/games/to_cd_projekt_red_bring_witcher_3_and_your_other_games_to_linux_please)

~~~
ekianjo
Actually I could not find any official refutation from Projekt Red that
Witcher 3 is NOT coming to Linux... do you have any source?

~~~
shmerl
This question was directed to GOG (CD Projekt Red sister company) regarding
their own preorder. I.e. whether preordering there will include the Linux
version (since it was supposedly announced on Steam). GOG representatives
answered like this (this was all by e-mail):

 _> Hello

> As for now there were announced only PC, Xbox One and PS4 versions of the
> game.

> Regards_

I see it as an official refutation. There is some hope still, since they said
"as for now", but I definitely won't preorder anything until it will be
officially confirmed.

------
jkbyc
Good to see more games coming to Linux, even though I game only rarely. They
forgot to mention also Carmageddon:Reincarnation, funded by Kickstarter, now
already available on Steam in preview for Windows, and should be coming to
Linux later as well! One of the few games that I'm really looking forward to
:)

------
ixwt
One game I am looking forward to the Linux port is Transistor by Super Giant
Games. They said when it first comes out, it will be available on PS4 and PC.
And they will be working on a Linux and Mac port soon afterwards[0].

As for the trend, I have normally seen the Linux port as a stretch goal for
Kickstarters. While it's a shame it isn't a priority from the start, I feel
that this is another sign of the increasing trend. Developers are considering
it an incentive, which isn't a bad thing.

Another thing I think the author left out is Steam In-home Streaming [1]. It
allows you to play any game that can be played through Steam, on a non-windows
computer that has Steam on the same LAN. (I think even those that aren't on
Steam, if you add it to steam as a non-steam game. I haven't tested this
though) While not the most optimal setup (a powerful windows machine dedicated
to streaming one game at a time, with a dumb terminal or another computer
without windows), I feel it is designed with the SteamOS in mind to increase
the amount of games that can be played. Those that already have a powerful
gaming computer can hook up a Steam Box to their living room TV and play any
game they have access to (and through Steams ability to share libraries, some
you haven't purchased by your family (or friends) have purchased).

I've tested the Steam In-Home streaming myself. I was using a very under-
powered laptop at the time. If that were the case, I'm sure the latency over
LAN would be negligible. Which I believe is the fatal flaw that OnLive had.

[0]: [http://supergiantgames.com/index.php/2013/06/transistor-
comi...](http://supergiantgames.com/index.php/2013/06/transistor-coming-to-
ps4-and-steam/) [1]:
[http://store.steampowered.com/streaming/](http://store.steampowered.com/streaming/)

~~~
ekianjo
> Another thing I think the author left out is Steam In-home Streaming

I did not talk about it since this is not purely relevant for Linux Gaming.
You can do in-home streaming between a Windows desktop and a windows box next
to your TV as well. There's nothing Linux specific and it requires that you
have a Windows PC install somewhere in the house. Only a tiny fraction of
people are going to do that at home, while this may increase a little when
Steam Machines are available.

~~~
ixwt
> I did not talk about it since this is not purely relevant for Linux Gaming.

True. It isn't the cheapest or most elegant option. It may not be Linux
specific, but I feel it deserved a mention as it can increase the availability
of games to the Linux market. But I'm not you.

------
TheLoneWolfling
Biggest issue (for me at least) is 3D graphics performance, or rather lack
thereof.

My laptop dual-boots - I use Windows for gaming and Linux (Mint currently) for
almost everything else.

Any games I can (Dwarf Fortress, etc) I run in Linux, but there are many games
that either just flat-out cannot run or run too sluggishly to be playable.

~~~
XorNot
Have to agree here at the moment, though I blame GPU makers. Ati's Linux
drivers are problematic (open source Radeon is great but lacks performance
wise).

~~~
jebblue
I don't know about ATI but nVidia has been great for me on Linux going back to
2007 when I switched to Linux (Ubuntu) FT.

------
skriticos2
X-Com is currently eating my time together with Pandora: First Contact (which
was inspired by alpha centauri). Still can't warm to Civ5, but getting a Civ4
port would be great. I'm also quite intrigued by the civ: beyond earth game,
though only time will tell how good that is. And probably not on release,
Firaxis has a history of needing a lot of time to polish the games.

Anyway, good times. I'm throwing money at all the Linux games. Hope the trend
continues.

~~~
redacted
Regarding Civ 5: you should pick up the two expansions (Gods & Kings and Brave
New World). Together they add:

\- Religion \- Trade routes \- Ideologies (enhanced late game Social policies)
\- Tourism (enhanced cultural victory) \- Spying \- World congress (binding
resolutions! and makes diplomacy actually useful, buying votes from AI civs
etc) \- Unique civs, like Austria who can buy city states to expand their
empire

Vanilla Civ 5 was quite disappointing and dull (get science, make army, total
war). With GnK and BNW it is a far more nuanced game, and there are more valid
win conditions than just domination.

I think both expansions are on sale as part of Steam's summer sale.

~~~
chongli
I have GnK but not BNW. I've been playing some co-op games with my friend. So
far the games have been very slow-paced and lacking in the decisions-per-turn
department. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri continues to be the gold standard for
the genre, in my opinion. It has a much quicker pace of gameplay and the
strategies are far more varied and nuanced.

A lot of the design decisions in Civ 5 really turn me off, though none more so
than the way they balanced the game in favour of small numbers of very large
cities. I really hate how counterproductive it feels to build settlers!

~~~
lukeschlather
I found it got a little better when I turned off battle animations (I actually
kind of like having fewer decisions per turn.)

That said it still doesn't match Alpha Centauri. I miss the narrative angle
especially, which was very unique in a Civ-style strategy game.

------
ZeroGravitas
Is there some way to say in Steam "I'd buy this game if it was ported to my
platform"?

~~~
ekianjo
Yes, via the discussion forums in the Community Board :) Lots of people
usually start a Linux thread there for popular games, requesting specific
Linux port in order to purchase the games.

------
mackal
Steam on distros other than Ubuntu (or a distro with similar package versions)
sucks ass. I know they're working on the issue, but until then, Steam on Linux
is completely useless to me.

~~~
Jach
What distros are you using? I've had no problems on Gentoo and have heard
similar from Arch users. Sure it doesn't play nicely with the wider ecosystem
(understatement), but it's been a long while since I could agree that Steam on
Linux sucks.

~~~
mackal
Gentoo on ~amd64 with open-source radeon drivers.

~~~
izacus
You will have severe problems running anything OGL based at decent perfromance
on OSS radeon drivers anyway. Sadly.

~~~
mackal
The radeon drivers have actually been improving a lot. Their performance is
fairly close to using the closed ones now, although, Catalyst does suck on
Linux, but at least the open source ones are getting better.

------
josteink
While I like and appreciate this trend, trending up from virtually nothing
shouldn't really be too much of a surprise once SteamOS was announced.

~~~
ekianjo
It may not be a surprise, but there were a lot of naysayers whenever Steam
arrived for Linux. Yet it seems to gather more and more support, and not just
from indies.

------
omarhegazy
Getting indie developers on board with Linux shouldn't be hard in the coming
future. Linux is rapidly growing and is started to be seen by the public eye
as an OS some people would actually personally use for their own personal
computer. Also, Unity and Unreal Engine 4, the two biggest engines indie
studios use to develop 3D games, both easily support developing for Linux.
Lastly, and most importantly, these guys don't have a choice. If they want to
compete with the triple-A market they have to expose themselves to the biggest
market they can.

To get the triple-A companies on board is a tougher problem. The most-thorough
and simplest solution is to get more Linux users. Triple-A companies use
engines built on top of DirectX because DirectX works much better than OpenGL
on Windows and everyone uses Windows (like, everyone. Windows still has 90%+
market share). If you pulled the rug under that logic by having everyone use
Linux, you would force triple-A companies to support multiplatform engines and
graphics APIs. Just because this solution is simple doesn't mean it's easy.
Linux market share is currently pathetic. There are more Vista users than
there are Linux users. While on forums and discussions and other virtual
agoras, evangelists annually preach "the year of the Linux desktop" and with
each patch to every WiFi driver pundits will make blog posts about how better
Linux is getting and how no one likes Windows 8 and just-you-wait, the fact of
the matter is, before Linux topples Windows in the market share graphs, it has
to start toppling "Other" in the market share graphs. And it's pretty obvious
why Linux isn't getting the market share it deserves. 1. No one wants to
install a new operating system on their computer, and the fact that people
have to know what an operating system is at all is a tragic case of a leaky
abstraction, because people don't want operating systems, they want pictures
and videos and music and Facebook and e-mail, 2. No one wants to deal with
WiFi and graphics driver issues, and 3. No one wants to think for a single
second past "Best Buy" when they want to buy a new craptop for their lovely
little girl going to college (which I think is why Win8.x is beating both OS X
and Linux combined despite being an objectively worse OS), and you sure as
hell won't be finding any Linux at Best Buy. Marketing exists for a reason.
Older computer geeks with long beards remember buying the Macintosh 128K for
being the first computer with an effective implementation of a GUI and a
mouse; many other people will remember buying the Macintosh because the 1984
ad caused Apple to explode in the public eye and turned Steve Jobs from one of
those computer people into a heavily publicized rock star. Apple would
continue to master and practically define hype, and while OS X isn't faring as
well in the market share war, what Apple really is focusing on -- iOS -- is
killing it. Until the Linux folks discover how important marketing stuff is,
they won't capture the people who don't care enough about their machines to
think past "what's the most popular thing being used right now?"

These are huge issues, and until they get solved, you won't be seeing Linux
with a high marketshare, which means no triple-A company will bat it a single
eyelash.

The easiest solution, although less effective than the first one, is to
increase marketshare in platforms that are not Windows. This is because most
platforms that are not Windows will require use of APIs that are
multiplatform, making it frictionless to port to Linux. Somehow get people to
game through the browser by making it possible to run triple-A games in
Chrome? Good. Linux has Chrome. Get people to game mainly on OS X? Good. OS X
games usually use OpenGL, and that's easy to port to Linux. Because this isn't
as direct, you will always get some people who give so little shits about a
set of OSes that have less users than "Other" does that they won't go through
the effort of clicking the checkbox next to Linux in the engine project setup
page, but it's somewhat of a solution.

~~~
Ryanpaswan
Just check this out.

[http://www.techonsolution.com/which-is-the-best-operating-
sy...](http://www.techonsolution.com/which-is-the-best-operating-system-linux-
or-windows/)

------
CmonDev
The cross-platform tide lifted the Linux boat. That's it.

~~~
the_af
That may be it, but it's also the best possible scenario.

I am exclusively a Linux user. I work, browse the internet and game on Linux
computers. However, I am strongly against so-called platform exclusives.
Everything multi-platform is the best possible scenario for _users_. I
wouldn't want Linux-only games; I want games to be available on Linux,
Windows, OS X, etc. This is not always possible due to time and money
constraints, but it's _desirable_. If that's what "lifted the Linux boat", I'm
incredibly happy.

------
joshcrawford
A blade of grass in my yard has an upward trend too.

------
praetorian84
This is the year Linux makes it big on the desktop.

~~~
ikt
Stop with this horrible trope please :(

------
sandGorgon
I personally still think that Valve made a huge mistake by basing SteamOS on
top of Debian. I think they should have adopted Android as a desktop
environment per se (like Keepod [1] for example).

This gives them access to the same developer ecosystem (tools and
documentation) that Android games has already established, the same OpenGL-ES
framework that Android uses.

Additionally, Google has demonstrated Android-L applications running on the
Chromium runtime and have access to the underlying hardware.

Using something like Docker, I could have been running Android-SteamOS on my
laptop and still been able to get RoR+Postgresql working.

I think fundamentally, the huge fragmentation in the desktop linux world (cue
the Systemd Wars) is hard to work around. But Android already has a single
driver (Google) and Steam could have built a viable desktop Android based
SteamOS.

[1] [http://keepod.org/](http://keepod.org/)

~~~
aroman
Completely disagree, and I'm really not sure why you're characterizing their
decision to base on Debian/Linux as a "mistake" (it's going very well so far).

>I think they should have adopted Android as a desktop environment per se
(like Keepod [1] for example).

Android _is not_ a desktop environment. Just as there are numerous desktop
environments for Debian/Linux, so too are there numerous desktop environments
for Android. There is no one clear standard on either platform. Valve wouldn't
escape fragmentation by using Android; they'd merely embrace another kind.

>Using something like Docker, I could have been running Android-SteamOS on my
laptop and still been able to get RoR+Postgresql working.

You can do precisely the same thing with Debian/Linux. In fact, that's
precisely what it was designed for.

>the huge fragmentation in the desktop linux world (cue the Systemd Wars) is
hard to work around

The systemd wars are over. Systemd definitively won, full-stop. Besides, what
on earth does that have to do with Steam? Why should it need to have any
insight into that level of abstraction?

> But Android already has a single driver (Google)

This isn't an advantage; it means that they have less flexibility. Why do you
think Google itself chose to base Chrome OS on Gentoo Linux, instead of
working with someone like RedHat? Flexibility and freedom.

> Steam could have built a viable desktop Android based SteamOS.

They already did — on Debian. Exactly what makes you think they regret their
decision? Seems to be going very well, so far.

~~~
sandGorgon
First, Arch has not adopted systemd.

Second, fragmentation in Linux is different than fragmentation in android -
the latter is about obsolete versions,while the former is about heterogenous
operating system stacks.

Third, I don't understand why people believe that the Android os will force
you to use mobile chips. If valve would have adopted android,it could very
much have brought on nvidia and ati to port to android (I don't know if it
would have been easier).

If the systemd wars have taught us anything ,then it is that flexibility is
not always a good thing - which is why the CTTE voted to keep only one init
system,rather than offer a choice. I do respect the fact that it is important
for you.

Fundamentally ,I think Linux gaming would be much better married to Android
because of the sane and coherent graphics APIs as compared to desktop Linux.
Read Jonathan Blow's frustrations stemming from his inability to port Braid to
Linux [http://www.develop-online.net/news/jonathan-blow-
criticises-...](http://www.develop-online.net/news/jonathan-blow-criticises-
linux-dev-tools/0113967)

I think a lot of people are resistant to the idea of having a touch centric
interface on the desktop whenever I talk about desktop Android. But that is so
untrue - you can build beautiful launchers for Android that replicate and
improve upon desktop interfaces - Android L is bringing some of them
bybrunning android apps in the desktop.

Lastly,why am I downvoted ? You may not agree with me,but it is not as if I'm
trolling.

~~~
jeorgun
Arch was one of the earliest distros outside of Red Hat to adopt systemd. It's
been using it for nearly two years.

~~~
sandGorgon
Ah,my mistake - I was thinking of OpenRC. It is Gentoo rather than Arch,but I
hope the example still holds.

