• Valve seems to be working on tools to get Windows games running on Linux
    27 replies, posted
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/08/valve-seems-to-be-working-on-tools-to-get-windows-games-running-on-linux/
I've wondered before why they couldn't just make an elaborate emulator to make games run on non-Windows systems. I guess now they are.
I will believe it when they release it
And only an infinitesimal amount of users will switch over, because Windows is fine for the vast majority of players and they have absolutely no impetus to switch. In the end, Linux's market-share will remain stagnant as far as gaming is concerned. Next.
Ok cool story, but this would be really great for the current users of Linux if it came to fruition
It'll probably just be some sort of WINE + DXVK / whatever that just uses either Valve provided (lol, we all know this isn't going to happen) or community provided "profiles" to run windows games on Linux. Maybe developers can even make their own profiles.
If this means that I can actually install Windows games on Linux steam, and not have to keep a separate Wine Steam instance running then I'm all for it. Especially if it also counts in the statistic as actually playing it on Linux and not on Windows.
Weren't they doing this like 10 years ago?
It sounds like these could just be preconfigured wine profiles really. If you wanna play windows game then just dual-boot windows, don't torture your self.
Valve's explained in the past that they're mostly doing this for their own sake. Since Win8 Gabe Newell has been worried about Windows heading in the direction of Apple's walled garden environment. They don't want their own innovations or UGC (which was a big focus point for Source 2 by their own statements) limited by Microsoft deciding to keep more stuff under the hood. Their history with using directX to push players onto new OS versions probably also didn't inspire faith that MS will use its power sparingly. In addition to these push factors, there's probably also creative pull factors involved. The other Steam Universe projects (Vulcan, Steam Link, S Controller, S Machines) were announced shortly after XB1 and PS4, neither of which seemed to be pushing the industry in any meaningful ways for creatives. XB1 marketed itself as a great place to watch television and PS4 prided itself on staying game-focused on not making it harder to play used games. Since the creativity of games is limited by what platforms can do and what peripherals you interact with them, and nobody seemed interested in innovating in these regards, Valve may have seen themselves forced to do it themselves (to varying degrees of success). So basically, I don't think Valve wants to build a Windows killer and get all their users to jump ship ASAP. This seems more like building a backup plan in case Microsoft morphs into Apple or they want to do something creative that Microsoft doesn't provide the Windows tools for.
Anything that helps push games to run on Linux is a good thing in my eyes
I wish there was just some way you could just throw in the same code to a different compile toolchain and have it spit out some Linux binaries instead (Similar to Cygwin+GCC, but with more of a hands on approach to converting Windows-specifics to Linux-compatibles). Or if things like OpenGL/Vulkan handled the differences for OSes behind the scenes when you compiled. My understanding of programming stops at compilers, so I won't pretend what I said makes perfect sense, but in my head that's how I think it should work. Less focus on emulating Windows compiled stuff, more focus on simplifying the process of cross-compiling.
I'll switch to Linux without ever looking back if it means I still get to play games
Valve was porting their own games to Linux, this is different in that they're making an all-encompassing fix for all Steam games allowing them to be played on Linux
It really doesn't, wine has gotten much better over the years.
It's also becoming a better option for playing much older games. Even though I got it on GOG, I was only able to get Jazz Jackrabbit 2 working properly after I installed Wine on my laptop. Virtual Machines didn't run games well on my desktop and none of my PCs have the hardware for actually running Windows 9x
I really hope we see more and more developers use Vulkan in the future, should make stuff like this a lot easier.
vulkan OR OpenGL, many devs to use the latter but still restrict to Windows only laff
Oh boy, and it'll have the beta version come out and then just fucking die.
I run Linux on my laptop, and games are the only reason I have Windows on my desktop. I would love to make the full switch, Windows does so many minor unnecessary things that are just hostile and make it a pain in the ass.
I really hope they actually go fully ahead with it, unlike what most things they've started working on.
If Linux were to get decent gaming compatibility and performance, a lot of people who build their own PC would likely switch by virtue of most Linux distros being free.
Personally always used windows, but I'd definitely look into using linux if compatability for gaming was properly possible
It's not about emulation; emulation is to simulate hardware systems. The difference between windows and linux executable is BASICALLY twofold: the system calls they make, and the executable format that they produce. without rewriting or cross-compiling Windows programs to Linux, the executable format expects the systems calls it makes in windows to behave in a certain way and give certain kinds of access. You need to basically translate the functionality of those system calls from windows-expected behavior to linux behavior and have them have effectively the same footprint. You know how in like german they have words that can't really be translated to english well? You can't have any of that shit
WINE only blows dick because the Win32 API blows dick. WINE does an incredible job for what it is. CrossOver is also a great front-end for people who don't want to deal with the nitty gritty of WINE, although not free.
where the fuck is the royalty free source 2
I've started giving up on Source 2 after Grey Newell said he couldn't find any information about it...
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