What is the status of Linux games when the Steamos era comes?

What happened to Valve's new gaming platform after 14 months of beta testing?

Since the advent of the Linux operating system in the 90 's, even the most influential figure in the circle has to admit that Linux, an open-source platform, is indeed uncompetitive in the game world. "Looking back about 2010 years, there are only 2 options to play on Linux," said Che Dean, a website editor for Linux Gaming website Rootgamers. Play some open-source games, such as Super Tux Kart, or run Windows games with the WINE simulator. ”

Ask an old Linux user, who can tell you the same story with tears in your mouth. "For a long time, I was the only one who was porting the game and I had done everything I could, but this industry couldn't be driven by a single person," says Ryan C Gordon, a senior Linux programmer. Gordon has migrated 75 games to Linux in the past 15 years. Gaming on Linux website Editor Liam Dawe agrees, "There are very few business games that have really been released for Linux over the years." ”

Around 2010, the game industry of the Linux operating system was slowly changing, and the Humble Indie Bundle launched the Linux version at the time of release, and all the versions after this game had a Linux version (and Linux users spent a lot of Money). At the same time, services such as Desura and Ubuntu software Center have emerged, giving Linux gamers access to a few stores that are friendly and can buy and manage Linux games.

However, the real platform for Linux users to enjoy close to 1000 professional, commercial masterpiece, from Valve's hands. "At the end of 2013, Valve released the Steamos beta, and the change began," Dean said. After years of game development, we can finally see the figure of a large game company, which not only transplanted PC games to Linux, but also developed a Linux-based gaming operating system. For Linux users, this is an exciting time and a turning point for Linux games. ”

Now, Steamos more than a year later, the new Linux game community is cautious and optimistic about this game platform that does not require Microsoft's operating system. In spite of technical and commercial operations, Valve has turned the Linux game industry from "basically no game" to "really some games" and can make the game a bit more.

Make porting easier

Valve's large company started supporting Linux games, which has a significant impact on developers developing Linux games. "I've always thought that Linux needs a large user base to give developers the confidence to develop the game, Steamos made the perfect example," Dawe said. "For a long time, developers have been asking me how to distribute games across the platform, and now they don't have to worry about that." ”

"Distributing games for Linux is a big problem because Linux and PCs are different," says Carlo Jez, a programmer at Croteam. Distributing directly on Steam avoids this problem because we know that all the necessary repositories are installed on all systems and the game runs smoothly. Croteam's CTO says Valve's Steamos operating system provides "critical content to keep the platform game running reliably, so we can make sure that the games we develop are running on everyone's computers." ”

Croteam has been involved in the development of Linux Games since 2001, and has transplanted "Heroes Sam I" and other games. Now, almost every developer will consider developing a Linux version for Linux users when developing a game. This cross-platform development took years, Ladavac said, and the company's software development and graphics tools relied heavily on Windows DirectX and Direct3D. But now, Ladavac says, full-platform development of computer games is no longer difficult. "There are also OpenGL on Linux computers with opengl,99% on Windows, so it's not a big problem to develop a Linux version. ”

The same is true of the Aspyr Media team. The team is known for porting PC games to Macs, and since the release of Steamos, they have released 6 new games, including the "Land of the Lord" and the "Civilization" series, which have transplanted 2K games. Ian Bullard, Aspyr's own Linux engineer, said, "because developers who support OPENGL,MAC systems do 90% of the work for us." The first Linux version did take a lot of effort, but the more tasks you do, the less time you'll have to transplant. Now, porting a work is much faster than before. ”

Even game companies that don't want to spend a lot of time and effort on porting can use the usual engine to recompile the game, and the game is doing well on Linux. "The development team has released many Linux boutique games, but there are no Linux experts on the team," Gordon said. In the Unity editor, you just need to click the ' Output to Linux ' button, and the work can be done with ease. We don't have a Linux bull, but the output Linux version works fine. ”

"It helped us a lot when the mainstream game development engine supported the generation of Linux versions," he added. Many game companies that don't care about the Linux operating system for about 2005 years are now willing to talk about game porting. Unity, Unreal 4, Source 2, Cryengine, etc. are willing to provide simple porting for some games. ”

Game Performance issues

If there are better drivers and finer optimizations, the Linux version of Survival Road 2 may be better than the PC version.

While Steamos makes it easy to migrate many games to Linux, there are a number of issues that need to be overcome to make porting games run smoothly on Steamos. One of the most prominent problems, even if Valve and hardware manufacturers spent years to solve, the drive is still the big head.

"AMD's closed-source drivers perform poorly on the Linux operating system," Dawe said. Their open source drivers are stable, but they are still a distance away from the best performance. The Unity Engine game is also relatively low on Linux, and given the fact that many games have been developed with the Unity engine, this issue deserves attention. ”

In theory, the Linux game performs better than a PC under the same hardware condition because the system consumes less resources. Valve also proves this point, the Linux transplant version of "Survival Road 2" and the PC version of "Survival Road 2" compared to the frame rate of the PC version of 4%. Although the promotion is very small, but for the game screen party, but it is a full selling point.

But without optimized drivers and development tools, the game industry developed by ordinary developers is unlikely to see this small boost. "If the game companies are optimizing the game in both Windows and Steamos, I believe there is a higher number of frames on the Steamos, but I think it requires people to change their minds," said Bullard of Aspyr company. ”

Croteam's Ladavac distance says Linux game performance issues due to driver problems. "At first we had a high-resolution problem, and we found it incredible how the resolution would affect different drivers." The problem may be on OpenGL shaders, and the OpenGL compiler in Linux graphics drivers is worse than the compiler optimizations in DirectX. Over the years, the progress has been slow, after all, this stuff is very complex, the project volume is large, but also to support different hardware ... Linux drivers are waiting for a long time to catch up with DirectX's performance. ”

Small-group users in small markets

Even though Valve and other companies have made a lot of effort, the number of games in Linux has exploded, and the Linux game population is still very small. Linux game insiders say, the Linux game market size is probably only the 1-2% of the Windows gaming market. This is still from the previous 0, after years of development has become the 1-2%, but from a business perspective, there is potential.

Aspyr, vice president of Elizabeth Howard, said the game sales to Linux were about half of the sales of the games that were being ported to MAC. This is enough to give them the confidence to continue developing the Linux version. "If developers find it worthwhile to develop a game for MAC, it's even more unlikely that someone will develop a game for Linux," she said. ”

Howard says she is trying to promote the porting of Linux to manufacturers that transplant Mac games. She said that the Linux game transplant business has been a decent performance. "Porting to Linux will not lead to a decline in sales, nor can it be sold in a single copy." When I was marketing, I would say, ' Who knows about the future, it's better to take the market first. ’”

However, some big developers in the game industry are still reluctant to transplant their masterpiece to Linux because there are too few users for Linux. This means that gamers must stick to the Windows platform if they want to play a game, and developers are also gaining attention and sales on the Windows platform.

Croteam Ladavac that if the game manufacturers first develop the console version and then release the PC version, Linux Undoubtedly, priority is placed on the last side. "Manufacturers consider the development of Windows Edition, will consider the Linux version, but also let manufacturers have reason not to develop the Linux version." The sales of Linux may be that the PC's 10%,pc sales may be 10% of the host, or less. ”

"Unfortunately, this is not going to change unless Valve releases the full version of Steamos and quality Steam games," Dean said. "I suspect that the developer's decision to develop a Linux version is determined by market sales, rather than the difficulty of the game transplant. ”

For Steamos's attention: How much longer is the beta version going to take?

Valve's own problems

There is no doubt that Valve has made the original lifeless Linux game community a little bit more alive, but the slow pace of development at Valve may make the Linux game market go back. Last year, Steamos released a beta release to allow Valve time to develop community spirits.

Steamos also makes the Steam machines game box useful, and the Linux game console is as easy to use and upgradeable as a PC. Steam Machine has no news after flashing sparks at last year's CES. Some hardware manufacturers can't wait, they have to publish their own brand of Windows game box. Valve developed the innovative Steam Controller gamepad that brings the user to a living room gaming experience without a keyboard mouse, but the design has been changed during the beta.

Valve declined to comment, but said it was discussing "new living room gaming equipment" and would be released with the SteamVR virtual display helmet at the March Game Developers Conference. In any case, Valve's quiet months of silence make it tempting to think about abandoning Steamos and the Linux game market.

"From the outside, it seems like this, but in my opinion, their footsteps didn't stop," Ladavac said. Not only Steam itself, but also to constantly modify the drive, but also to consider the game distribution, and so on, when the official version of the Steamos release, the game library must have goods. There are many things that are not resolved and progress is slow, but waiting can be seen. ”

Everyone is following Valve's footsteps, and many are willing to give valve more time to make the system better. "We also pay tribute to Valve's desire to do the product well," said Blair, of Aspyr Corporation. We are fully convinced that they postponed the release for good reason. The first step in any product is to be good, and as a gamer we admire Valve's approach. ”

"Steam machine is not going to be an instant success, and Valve is very clear about it," Dawe said. If you want to play the Linux game market, the first gun will have to be played, then need more games. Valve has always been very supportive of the product (the early half of the game is still being updated), so I think it's slow but steady. ”

If Valve is able to solve the technical and commercial sales problems of Steamos and Steam machine, many gamers can "play Linux games occasionally". However, these people said to me that these players are unlikely to abandon the Windows gaming platform.

"My attitude is that the best desktop gaming platform can run all the apps and games," Gordon said. Many Linux have so far been unable to find good email, word processing and instant messaging apps, and in order to play games they will switch Windows. So it's unlikely that Windows players will be able to switch to Linux to play games. ”

But for those who are the main players in Linux, they can finally play some games on the platform with the help of Valve. Gordon said, "The worst is over, the first chicken or egg problem is solved." The platform must have the game others just come back to play, but the premise of the game is that someone wants to play the game on this platform. Valve gives developers a clear confidence that the game of Linux is worth the trip. ”

• This article is from: Linux Learning Tutorial Network

What is the status of Linux games when the Steamos era comes?