Are you interested in Steam Machines?
Not have the slightest interest at all. The performance is horrible, even for Valve-made titles. If it continues like this, SteamOS will fail faster. That'll teach them not to release half assed products especially with the idea of 'Linux for gaming'.
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This is akin to the chicken and egg problem - it would be virtually impossible to release a fully prepared "Steam Machine" product being a combination of hardware, SteamOS, Controller, and a solid game library from the get-go within the current ecosystem. However, the more users raise their concerns about the platform (granted, it must have other advantages aside from performance to keep people interested), the faster those get addressed. I'd say that Steam Machines are naturally in Early Access now (after a closed beta period).
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The only joke in the Steam Machine line-up imo is the Gigabyte BRIX Pro which, although physically tiny, relies on Intel integrated graphics. Everything else seems to at least have a minimum of a GTX 750 so they're at least roughly as gaming ready as the current console generation.
Besides that I hope for the best, but only time will tell if enough people pick up the machines or use SteamOS to make the tux demographic substantial enough for more developers to take notice. According to Steam's hardware survey, the current breakdown for OS usage is about 95.5% Windows, 3.5% Mac, 1% Linux. If nothing else, I hope the push for Steam machines has graphics card manufacturers putting some decent drivers out for their cards.
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The problem is that joke of a machine as you put it will likely be the only one left. (Besides the Alienware & Zotac, considering those companies are heavily invested with advertisements and everything). It seems more and more are pulling out of making Steam machines, yet Valve has not even removed the store page entries for them. If these were able to pre-order once I hope people get their money back. I also hope these pages are not going to get an actual purchase button on the official release dates for false advertised machines.
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2015/11/11/origin-pc-decides-against-steam-os-for-its-steam-machines.aspx
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2015-11-16-falcon-northwest-skips-steam-os-because-of-limitations
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Ouch, wasn't aware of that. At least it seems like Falcon Northwest is trying to do it for the best interest of their users.
"We met with Valve about our reservations concerning the limitations of SteamOS with high-end PC builds, and they agreed they were not issues that could be overcome in time for us to launch a Steam Machine this year," said Reeves. "But they were genuinely interested in working to address them in future SteamOS builds. So the option for us to produce a Steam Machine is still open, and our Tiki PCs have been in production for years as Windows systems and are always ready. But for now, we've put our plans to offer a Steam Machine on hold."
The driver blobs provided by AMD/Nvidia have been the bane of users for a long time. Judging by the linked benchmarks, the OpenGL ports of games aren't all that great either (even Valve's offerings). Shadow of Morder on Ultra is a huge difference, and that may be along the lines of what they're getting at with "high-end PC builds".
There is one statement in the Game Informer article that's funny though:
This also ensures that all Windows-compatible software will work on the machine.
Except for the decade or so of AAA software protected with the SSS (SafeDisc, SecuROM, StarForce) trifecta.
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AMD is hit or miss as always. Either their driver crashes your game, wont open a game, or just kills FPS. It is a shame AMD doesn't have the money Nvidia does or we might see much better drivers. At least there is Radonsi that does help a lot, but you still end up hurting with those having AMD cards. Because it takes a lot longer getting cards to work with your driver when you didn't make the hardware, making it harder to buy newer AMD video cards.
Nvidia uses pretty much all the same code as the Windows drivers for their proprietary software. The only real draw backs in the drivers & utility software is we lack a few features Windows has and it isn't exactly mundane computer user friendly. With Steam OS it does install all that for you so it does make it load easier for someone with no knowledge of using "sudo" to start software.
Intel while having the funds just doesn't seem to care to much. Even when that is said, I wouldn't understand the logic of using Intel over AMD or Nvidia if you truly wanted to play games. Integrated graphics are not even that great on Windows.
Next the OpenGL ports. Well not all of these are actual true ports. This is where the problems come in as the game is in a eON wrapper or Wine wrapper. While eON wrapper is a lot better than most wrappers you still end up with some performance issues in some builds, making it wiser to have a bit more juice in your computer.
Then you have the almost native ports. Where the game is all coded for Linux in mind until someone down the line fails to code the game in actual OpenGL. Instead they make the games depend on a sort of software layer call translator. The game will still be programmed for DirectX, but now calls to DirectX translate to OpenGL calls. Again leading us down that same rabbit hole, to the problem of possibly needing more juice to run the games.
All of the above is just them being lazy. If you look at games like Insurgency, Borderlands, or a handful of other titles it is like night and day. Yet games ported like mentioned in that article suffer (Shadow of Mordor). (Also, what the hell is with that crazy tested resolution? Who the hell plays at 1792 x 1120? That might be part of the problem as some games suffer on Linux at lower resolutions vs higher like 1920 x 1080). While I like Feral they have been part of the problem too. Hints the hit or miss performance in Shadow of Mordor.
Valves games in OpenGL are some of the best there are.. They rival Windows ports and sometimes beat Windows ports. Even using AMD these games tend to have more than enough performance. Only to pull a quick Google here are two videos showing just that. Also this YouTuber seems to have invested quiet a bit into comparing. With both AMD & Nvidia compare videos, but from what I gather from a few glances through their videos the Nvidia card is a bit dated compared to the AMD card.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRitBdb0rIw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM8qXbJqMvs
StarForce is dead now and I am so glad. SecuROM still sucks, but at least it has evolved to the better in most cases (FYI I still do not buy them or suggest buying them), but yeah DRM on games is a big problem on Windows. Whom is to say if Linux will not follow in that trend when larger developers & publishers get there hands in making games. Heck Raven's Cry has Reality Pump on it and it is a Windows, Mac, & Linux game on Steam. (Horrible game too. Worse than the Batman game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lofR-R_rFJ0 ).
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Thanks for the insight, particularly on the wrappers. I had a feeling that they weren't rewriting from DirectX to OpenGL in most cases but was not aware of eON (I've used WINE a fair bit). With the demographic stats from Steam I really can't blame developers for being lazy, but hopefully SteamOS has a substantial positive impact on their financial incentive. Admittedly my last few years with GPUs and Linux have been solely for applications that utilize CUDA or OpenCL for parallel computing. On the whole I use Linux and occasionally BSD for productivity, but with everything going on with Windows 10 I foresee myself weaning off Windows pretty much entirely by 7's end-of-support in January 2020.
I hadn't pondered DRM with the AAA transition to Linux. It'll be a sad day if a typical SteamOS installation has half a dozen kernel modules loaded for DRM.
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(Fun fact, eON is used in Dirt Showdown, BioShock Infinite, Spec Ops, and Witcher 2. BioShock & Spec Ops isn't horrid, but Witcher 2 crashes a bit, and Dirt Showdown can have some massive FPS drop).
I will blame the developer/publisher for being lazy with the millions of Linux users & even more so because over half the time they do not even make the ports! They go to a third party porter and just let them run with it. There are some games that were thrown to third parties to produce bugs and now the third parties refuse to fix the problems. Again leading back to the devlopers/publishers for picking poorly. Instead of going with a brand name porter per se. They pick some Joe Shmo that is one person, all to save tons of money. I can understand an indie doing this, but a AAA money popper of a company doing so is kind of a joke.
(Fun facts: Darksiders 1 & 2 was effected by this very problem too, the one single porter was removed from the company putting the game on hold. It's been in Limbo for like three or four years now. -- Dungeon Defenders was porter by a single person, the bug reports are ignored, and the game has been a crashing mess since its Linux release).
Uggh, I am there with you on Windows 10. You have to jump through hoops to find some settings and turn off so much in the registry just to have a cleaner system. Even then you're left with having to block ip/web addresses to stop phoning home with some of these settings disabled. It is like Microsoft does not care that people A) Might have a internet data cap & B) Think of you nothing more than a dollar sign.
I personally only use Windows in VM's with vga-passthrough these days. It's the best place for Windows because I can limit what it can do. Right now my VM for gaming sits on Windows 7, I dread the day D3D12 only titles start popping out. Gaming really has a hold over what OS you use, even in the land of Windows.
I am not exactly saying DRM will be loaded into the Linux kernel. More so it will be loaded into the install of the game. Sort of in the terms of what SecuROM does with activations using your internet connection. If not that, similar to UbiSoft with the whole, "Always Online" DRM.
(Talking about Ubisoft. We got Grow Home recently. Now we just need Uplay and we might get some other games. It shouldn't be to hard to port because it is already ported over the Mac).
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It's very good to see how Linux is growing up in gaming with Steam
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" Not really excited about Steam Machines, but happy to see more Linux-games" And specially the linux scene in the videogame sector, which we all need (as a community) in order to get competence and better service/products. Although I am not going to buy any steamstuff in the mid-long term.
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I have never had a chance to give a Linux OS a try due to compatibility issues with games I play. Hopeful more and more devs make their games compatibly with Linux in the future. I'd really like to give it a try someday since I'm kinda sick of MS.
P.S. Thanks for the awesome giveaways! Bumps.
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Six hours remaining until the end of the current round.
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Although I'm pro with Steam Machines, I don't know it is going well or not depending on the fact that many companies including Asus, Origin PC, Falcon NorthWest and Gigabyte got their Steam Machines removed from Store. It is disappointing to see those removed after many months of advertising.
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Guys, did you see this? http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/11/ars-benchmarks-show-significant-performance-hit-for-steamos-gaming/
I really like the idea of getting rid of Windows in the future, but I wonder why the performance is so bad right now.
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idk. not sure if i should be excited about it or not. Why'd they even make it in the first place???
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Let's bring this up, as the number of Linux titles now over 1800.
I've got now over 600 Linux titles in my library, so let's celebrate with a little train.
Get your tickets here:
Tux tux tux...
Currently limited to Linux groups I belong to. I may add a puzzle access when I've got the time.
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November 10, 2015 - the official Steam Machines launch date - may just mark the beginning of a new era in GNU/Linux gaming. An actual franchise of hardware-diverse console-like devices based on the SteamOS platform (powered by the Linux kernel) can become huge in increasing both its userbase and the game library.
Whether or not Steam Machines take off, Valve has already become instrumental in removing a lot of Microsoft-focused blinders from PC Games developers. Almost 500 new (and old) titles have appeared in the SteamOS + Linux catalogue, and we are now in the 1600+ area in just about half-year's time.
UPDATES (Games that went live for SteamOS since this thread was created):
(Semi-random) SHOUTOUTS:
All that aside, I'm back with some SteamPlay goodies. ^^
Steadily running out of unrestricted gifts (and unbundled games, as time goes by), but I will try to keep this interesting and varied.
No complaints are accepted without "proper" GA for arguments. Lead by example. :P
There is a handy thematic sale going on right about now.
There are no giveaways above this line.
Round Four Nov ??-?? (Check back later - there will be updates!)
Lense wants to share these (L0+):
There are no open giveaways beyond this line.
The rest is now history…
Round One Nov 10-12
L0+/FFA: [CLOSED] Pixel Piracy | [CLOSED] Evil Pumpkin: TLH | [CLOSED] Nimble Quest
L1+: [CLOSED] Munin | [CLOSED] Terraria | [CLOSED] Torchlight II
L2+: [CLOSED] Goat Simulator | [CLOSED] Hexcells Complete Pack | [CLOSED] Gods Will Be Watching
Round Two Nov 13-15
L0+/FFA: [CLOSED] Beyond Gravity | [CLOSED] Gnomoria | [CLOSED] Nihilumbra
L1+: [CLOSED] Paper Sorcerer | [CLOSED] Hotline Miami | [CLOSED] Khet 2.0
L2+: [CLOSED] Unity of Command (Trilogy) | [CLOSED] Verdun | [CLOSED] Shadowrun Returns Deluxe
Round Three Nov 16-18
L1+: [CLOSED] Contraption Maker | [CLOSED] Uplink | [CLOSED] Ironclad Tactics
L2+: [CLOSED] Interplanetary | [CLOSED] SteamWorld Dig | [CLOSED] FarSky
L3+: [CLOSED] Nuclear Throne | [CLOSED] Fire | [CLOSED] Tabletop Simulator
And… thanks to JustDucky, there was also a (L2+) [CLOSED] Besiege giveaway here!
Lense, our MVP, has sneaked in two more (L0+) giveaways. I just couldn't resist (shame on me):
– Knock-knock.
– Who's there?
– A Virus Named Tom!
– Sorry, we're [CLOSED] now!
An (L1+) [CLOSED] Enigmatis 2: The Mists of Ravenwood GA was also hidden here, courtesy of iracional88.
BrutoDetestsSB asked to add a (L0+) [CLOSED] Witcher 2 to the list. Very well.
partypooperwastaken joined the party with these [CLOSED] super [CLOSED] gooey (L4+) giveaways,
keeping it up (L4+) with the [CLOSED] LIMBO dance with a nice calypso [CLOSED] beat,
and wasn't sure whether he should have rushed back [CLOSED] home (L4+) to chill out with some music or sought for an [CLOSED] adventure (L4+) going out that day.
As usual:
And a quick reminder about the dedicated OS X and/or GNU/Linux Steamgifts groups (fragmentation everywhere!):
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