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Nvidia Doubles Linux Driver Performance (and also Steam Linux) - Linux Viable for gaming soon?


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So apparently Nvidia has been working away at their proprietary linux drivers and have managed to get a 2x performance increase. Also valve releases steam linux beta (closed beta) with TF2 already ported.

 

http://linux.slashdot.org/story/12/11/06/204238/nvidia-doubles-linux-driver-performance-slips-steam-release-date

 

 

 

Does this mean that linux will soon be viable for gaming?

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I highly doubt that this will really making general gaming viable for linux anytime soon. Yes, Valve is doing a lot for their own products, but they seem to be the only ones. Especially considering that the vast majority of people own either a Windows or a Mac PC, (and that's already two systems to develop for), the majority of big companies aren't going to feel the need to start porting to Linux, and definitely not porting them quickly. Perhaps I'm being overly pessimistic, but it does kinda make sense that companies don't put a lot of money into a product that isn't going to be used by a lot of people. I had a Linux install at some point, but the fact that it was so difficult to get games working properly (except for, for example, Minecraft), I ultimately switched back.

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time soon. Yes, Valve is doing a lot for their own products, but they seem to be the only ones. Especially considering that the vast majority of people own either a Windows or a Mac PC, (and that's already two systems to develop for), the majority of big companies aren't going to feel the need to start porting to Linux, and definitely not porting them quickly. Perhaps I'm being overly pessimistic, but it does kinda make sense that companies don't put a lot of money into a product that isn't going to be used by a lot of people. I had a Linux install at some point, but the fact that it was so difficult to get games working properly (except for, for example, Minecraft), I ultimately switched back.

The idea is that the games wont take configuring to work properly because they are distributed through steam.

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time soon. Yes, Valve is doing a lot for their own products, but they seem to be the only ones. Especially considering that the vast majority of people own either a Windows or a Mac PC, (and that's already two systems to develop for), the majority of big companies aren't going to feel the need to start porting to Linux, and definitely not porting them quickly. Perhaps I'm being overly pessimistic, but it does kinda make sense that companies don't put a lot of money into a product that isn't going to be used by a lot of people. I had a Linux install at some point, but the fact that it was so difficult to get games working properly (except for, for example, Minecraft), I ultimately switched back.

The idea is that the games wont take configuring to work properly because they are distributed through steam.

that makes absolutely zero sense...

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time soon. Yes, Valve is doing a lot for their own products, but they seem to be the only ones. Especially considering that the vast majority of people own either a Windows or a Mac PC, (and that's already two systems to develop for), the majority of big companies aren't going to feel the need to start porting to Linux, and definitely not porting them quickly. Perhaps I'm being overly pessimistic, but it does kinda make sense that companies don't put a lot of money into a product that isn't going to be used by a lot of people. I had a Linux install at some point, but the fact that it was so difficult to get games working properly (except for, for example, Minecraft), I ultimately switched back.

The idea is that the games wont take configuring to work properly because they are distributed through steam.

That still requires developers to port their game to Linux, which takes time.

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time soon. Yes, Valve is doing a lot for their own products, but they seem to be the only ones. Especially considering that the vast majority of people own either a Windows or a Mac PC, (and that's already two systems to develop for), the majority of big companies aren't going to feel the need to start porting to Linux, and definitely not porting them quickly. Perhaps I'm being overly pessimistic, but it does kinda make sense that companies don't put a lot of money into a product that isn't going to be used by a lot of people. I had a Linux install at some point, but the fact that it was so difficult to get games working properly (except for, for example, Minecraft), I ultimately switched back.

The idea is that the games wont take configuring to work properly because they are distributed through steam.

that makes absolutely zero sense...

How? Steam will prepackage everything nicely or customers will complain. It's also why they are only targeting one distro.

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time soon. Yes, Valve is doing a lot for their own products, but they seem to be the only ones. Especially considering that the vast majority of people own either a Windows or a Mac PC, (and that's already two systems to develop for), the majority of big companies aren't going to feel the need to start porting to Linux, and definitely not porting them quickly. Perhaps I'm being overly pessimistic, but it does kinda make sense that companies don't put a lot of money into a product that isn't going to be used by a lot of people. I had a Linux install at some point, but the fact that it was so difficult to get games working properly (except for, for example, Minecraft), I ultimately switched back.

The idea is that the games wont take configuring to work properly because they are distributed through steam.

that makes absolutely zero sense...

How? Steam will prepackage everything nicely or customers will complain. It's also why they are only targeting one distro.

See my post before yours. Steam will prepackage everything nicely, but they can't prepackage things that haven't been ported, which is the vast majority of Steam games.

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time soon. Yes, Valve is doing a lot for their own products, but they seem to be the only ones. Especially considering that the vast majority of people own either a Windows or a Mac PC, (and that's already two systems to develop for), the majority of big companies aren't going to feel the need to start porting to Linux, and definitely not porting them quickly. Perhaps I'm being overly pessimistic, but it does kinda make sense that companies don't put a lot of money into a product that isn't going to be used by a lot of people. I had a Linux install at some point, but the fact that it was so difficult to get games working properly (except for, for example, Minecraft), I ultimately switched back.

The idea is that the games wont take configuring to work properly because they are distributed through steam.

that makes absolutely zero sense...

How? Steam will prepackage everything nicely or customers will complain. It's also why they are only targeting one distro.

Because steam is a distributor of all bit a select few games, sure they can pressure them to make a port but overall the company who made the game has to port the game and steam can't do anything to change that. Also with the market share of Linux users so damn low it doesn't make economical sense at the moment. So while this is a step in the right direction it's a very small step

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Consider this:

Many people who use Nvidia cards report better performance for Windows games when running under Wine. I trust that they're not lying about it, however. Think what you'd like, but it's not unlikely. As Valve found out earlier this year, Linux's OpenGL implementation is faster than DirectX and OpenGL on Windows.

Linux is not poorly suited for games. I play Steam games through Wine. Guess what? All I have to do is pick the games I want and start playing. I play Left 4 Dead 2 and Portal 2. Nothing different, no special tweaking required, no terminals in sight.

 

Also, some think that Valve are doing this because Microsoft are closing shop with the new Windows Store, making Steam less visible. Linux, however, is and will always remain open, therefore being a viable platform for Valve to put their bets on. As the game support picks up (currently with 25 Linux games in the store, and it's still beta), it is likely that more gamers will come over and have a look, which in turn increases the focus on performance and functionality for Linux distros and graphics drivers. If Valve can make Steam grow on Linux, it will definitely benefit both Valve and Linux.

Other than that, Valve aren't the only ones. Unity 3D is already here with Unity 4.

 

And for those talking about the current state of Steam for Linux: I've tried it, though I'm not a beta tester. (Valve haven't reacted to non-beta testers using it. They probably won't either. The difference between a non-official and an official tester in this case is that the official ones submit bugs and give feedback, others aren't actually supposed to. But we're Linux users.) Steam games for Linux seem to be packaged with libraries. Shouldn't be much of a problem unless your system is really incompatible. It seems like Arch users are having fun with Steam as well, because it's in their AUR.

 

Overall, I'd say that Linux is quite ready to become a gaming platform. After all, you could use it to set up a complete Steam box beside your TV at some point. (Big Picture is kind of rough right now.)

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