Your thoughts on the Source-engine port for Linux - Games

So Valve's primary source of revenue, the Source-engine,is being officially ported to Linux. What are your thoughts on it? I personally think that this is great, as many more gamers can join in on the action and even add their own creative input to games like Garry's Mod. It's also nice because a Macintosh port would be next,as Mac OS is based on the FreeBSD distribution of Linux, which means a port from linux to Mac is a comparable piece of cake. Also, my PC's motherboard commited suicide and i could seriously use Garry's Mod on my Mac :P

I don't think this is going to expand their player-base, as much as it makes things convenient for a small portion of people who already play Source games. I don't use Linux all that much, I'm assuming Steam is compatible with Linux, too? If so, I'm running out of reasons to use Windows as my primary OS.

As far as i know, only 3 or so Steam games work on Linux with WINE. And the X86-emulators are shoddy at best, so i shall wait for the official port to come out before deleting Windows and running Linux.

When I can play TF2 on Linux, I'll probably make the jump. I can't think of anything I use anymore that requires Windows except for games.

If you want to play games you wouldn't just have a Linux. That's like looking to play awesome games on a mac.

Source is old, it's a bit late to be porting it, though perhaps they are using this as a stepping stone to more actively developing for Linux.

Off-Topic: I think it would be neat it Episode 3 is taking so long cause a new engine.

Finally.

More people get to enjoy great games made by Valve? What's not to like?

Where's the source on this information?

If so, it should come with water physics.

As it turns out, I've had better luck with Source on Linux through Wine than any other engine or game. Beat Portal on my older Linux machine. TF2 ran, but my computer wasn't powerful enough for it, if I remember correctly. Definitely worked better than either CryEngines, Far Cry and Crysis just segfaulted on launch. D:

[QUOTE=Wipmuck;19100980]If so, it should come with water physics.[/QUOTE] If y'all said that to me while i be eatin' mah Cheerio's, i would gag and most presumably choke to death. 3D-water physics is still a pipe-dream. Theory: Imagine a water particle. A little ball that would be semi-transparent and have a core (smaller ball) that would act as the colliding object for the water particle. Imagine a 3x3x3 square-meter pool of these water particles. Would take about 500-1000 water particles per square meter for accurate physical simulation. All these water particles would have a script, that when colliding with another water particle's core, they would then create a morphing "meta-surface", a 3d plane that would adjust itself to "be" the water, between the water particles. These particles would have to refresh IN REALTIME AND IN TANDEM to work and create real water. not to mention each particle having its own sound channel) Most likely,your current processor,motherboard and graphics card would blow up while computing this... But one day mah boy... One day it will be done in real time... ;___; Imagine scooping up water into a bowl, and playing with it for hours and hours, then throwing it off a building and seeing it splat onto the pavement... A man can dream...

Source? This has been said many times, though a lot of linux related slip ups have occurred in valve's press releases recently.

[QUOTE=Spiddycent;19113028]If y'all said that to me while i be eatin' mah Cheerio's, i would gag and most presumably choke to death. 3D-water physics is still a pipe-dream. Theory: Imagine a water particle. A little ball that would be semi-transparent and have a core (smaller ball) that would act as the colliding object for the water particle. Imagine a 3x3x3 square-meter pool of these water particles. Would take about 500-1000 water particles per square meter for accurate physical simulation. All these water particles would have a script, that when colliding with another water particle's core, they would then create a morphing "meta-surface", a 3d plane that would adjust itself to "be" the water, between the water particles. These particles would have to refresh IN REALTIME AND IN TANDEM to work and create real water. not to mention each particle having its own sound channel) Most likely,your current processor,motherboard and graphics card would blow up while computing this... But one day mah boy... One day it will be done in real time... ;___; Imagine scooping up water into a bowl, and playing with it for hours and hours, then throwing it off a building and seeing it splat onto the pavement... A man can dream...[/QUOTE] With CUDA and PhysX I successfully simulated 60,000 particles of such that you are describing in their water simulation. That was on an 8800GT, now that I have two GTX 260's Core 216's, imagine what I could do. I mean technically one could run Half Life: 2 and the other could simulate 120,000 water particles if there was said to be a mod for it that supported all of the said features needed for it to happen. [editline]10:57PM[/editline] Not that this would even happen but just saying.

[QUOTE=Jallen;19100307]Source is old, it's a bit late to be porting it, though perhaps they are using this as a stepping stone to more actively developing for Linux.[/QUOTE] Source isn't 'dated' or old. They constantly upgrade and integrate new technology.

Wait, WHERE DID THEY STATE THAT?

[QUOTE=Slasha00;19132385]Source isn't 'dated' or old. They constantly upgrade and integrate new technology.[/QUOTE] It's fairly old. Despite upgrading and integrating it shows it's age.

Valve has no intentions of porting Source to Linux/macs, similar to how they will not develop for the PS3.

[QUOTE=DOG-GY;19133229]It's fairly old. Despite upgrading and integrating it shows it's age.[/QUOTE] Bollocks. They just don't change the name, but it's something completely different from the first versions. Nobody comes with idea of calling UT3 engine old, because they strapped number 3 to it, to distinguish it from it's predecessors. Compare HL:Source source engine and Portal source engine. They are two totally different things, while they have the same name. Source was never supposed to host games like Crysis. It's a portable, flexible, well optimized, FPS engine and it still does it's job perfectly.

Rumors have been flying since 2007. There is a small possibility that Source will be ported to Linux, but don't hold your breath.

[QUOTE=PirateMax;19100718]Where's the source on this information?[/QUOTE] :rimshot:

[QUOTE=Spiddycent;19113028]If y'all said that to me while i be eatin' mah Cheerio's, i would gag and most presumably choke to death. 3D-water physics is still a pipe-dream. Theory: Imagine a water particle. A little ball that would be semi-transparent and have a core (smaller ball) that would act as the colliding object for the water particle. Imagine a 3x3x3 square-meter pool of these water particles. Would take about 500-1000 water particles per square meter for accurate physical simulation. All these water particles would have a script, that when colliding with another water particle's core, they would then create a morphing "meta-surface", a 3d plane that would adjust itself to "be" the water, between the water particles. These particles would have to refresh IN REALTIME AND IN TANDEM to work and create real water. not to mention each particle having its own sound channel) Most likely,your current processor,motherboard and graphics card would blow up while computing this... But one day mah boy... One day it will be done in real time... ;___; Imagine scooping up water into a bowl, and playing with it for hours and hours, then throwing it off a building and seeing it splat onto the pavement... A man can dream...[/QUOTE] I think we'll find a better method with all the breakthroughs in mathematics these days before we get computers powerful enough to run it

I heard about a source Linux port years ago, Nothing has come of it.. I haven't heard anything since then, apart from this thread.. Maybe you're reading old stuff.

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;19133615]Bollocks. They just don't change the name, but it's something completely different from the first versions. Nobody comes with idea of calling UT3 engine old, because they strapped number 3 to it, to distinguish it from it's predecessors. Compare HL:Source source engine and Portal source engine. They are two totally different things, while they have the same name. Source was never supposed to host games like Crysis. It's a portable, flexible, well optimized, FPS engine and it still does it's job perfectly.[/QUOTE] HL: Source is the same engine that hl2 uses, pre-ob engine. It looks like shit because it was a direct port of hl1 to source, but it still can do all the stuff. Source is getting outdated, despite all the new stuff they add.

Source already works on Linux, but an official port would be nice.

wait... what? porting an outdated engine to linux instead of making a new one that looks better, runs better and works on both systems? Good job there, valve. I have no doubt that they could actually move on and remove all that shitty vvis and lightmap stuff, this is not 2000.

[QUOTE=BloodYScar;19145562]wait... what? porting an outdated engine to linux instead of making a new one that looks better, runs better and works on both systems? Good job there, valve. I have no doubt that they could actually move on and remove all that shitty vvis and lightmap stuff, this is not 2000.[/QUOTE] Lightmapping provides a huge performance boost over dynamic lighting. FEAR 1 had dynamic lighting, FEAR 2 had static lighting. The performance on both at full settings was quite close, and look at the difference in quality. If Source adopted a dynamic lighting solution, it wouldn't look anywhere near as good. For starters, we'd lose Global Illumination. And remind me, what's wrong with the vis leaf system?

[QUOTE=Spiddycent;19113028]If y'all said that to me while i be eatin' mah Cheerio's, i would gag and most presumably choke to death. 3D-water physics is still a pipe-dream. Theory: Imagine a water particle. A little ball that would be semi-transparent and have a core (smaller ball) that would act as the colliding object for the water particle. Imagine a 3x3x3 square-meter pool of these water particles. Would take about 500-1000 water particles per square meter for accurate physical simulation. All these water particles would have a script, that when colliding with another water particle's core, they would then create a morphing "meta-surface", a 3d plane that would adjust itself to "be" the water, between the water particles. These particles would have to refresh IN REALTIME AND IN TANDEM to work and create real water. not to mention each particle having its own sound channel) Most likely,your current processor,motherboard and graphics card would blow up while computing this... But one day mah boy... One day it will be done in real time... ;___; Imagine scooping up water into a bowl, and playing with it for hours and hours, then throwing it off a building and seeing it splat onto the pavement... A man can dream...[/QUOTE] Well most of modern computers can run water simulation fine [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5Cdc2gFngk[/url] I know the particles are huge and not as accurate as this: [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUAH-PPtCIE[/url] But hey! When 3D was implemented in videogames, we didn't see crysis on the next day? Years will pass and we will have better technologies. Remember when you saw Half Life 2 in 2003? But even now - Valve combine real physics and scripted physics (so called "cinematic") So what is wrong with doing a static water for lakes and rivers, and real physic water for barrels and canisters.

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;19133615]Bollocks. They just don't change the name, but it's something completely different from the first versions.[/QUOTE] Blatant fanboyism without knowing what you're talking about. [QUOTE=Awesomecaek;19133615]Nobody comes with idea of calling UT3 engine old, because they strapped number 3 to it, to distinguish it from it's predecessors.[/QUOTE] You obviously don't understand how they go about making the Unreal engine. [QUOTE=Awesomecaek;19133615]Compare HL:Source source engine and Portal source engine. They are two totally different things, while they have the same name.[/QUOTE] No they aren't. Portal's has new features, which is required to keep it up to date. I don't know if you noticed, but Source games have their own look to them. HL2, L4D, Portal all have a similar look, and it's looking older each day. My example is their lighting solutions. Everything is baked on. Also, their map formats are old too. [QUOTE=Awesomecaek;19133615]Source was never supposed to host games like Crysis. It's a portable, flexible, well optimized, FPS engine and it still does it's job perfectly.[/QUOTE] It's old and the reason it's so "portable" is because most computers today have surpassed it greatly in performance.