SteamOS, and the future of PC gaming

[Daiyus]

Dear all,

I may be a little late to the party, but I've recently updated my knowledge on the latest and greatest ideas in PC gaming. The most exciting of which I think may be SteamOS:

Official Site: http://store.steampo...ngroom/SteamOS/

Wikipedia Page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SteamOS

I personally find it exciting that a non-Windows operating system may be emerging to support gamers, and what's more, it's open-source and free! Even better, it's actually being noticed by some big players; I quote from the Wikipedia page: "Other developers such as DICE, creators of the Battlefield series, and The Creative Assembly, developers of the Total War series, have stated that they plan to support their games on Linux and SteamOS".

If this proves true then it means EA is on board (being owners of DICE). Whether this means a return of their games onto Steam, or an Origin client built for the new OS is yet to be seen, but either way it makes it possible than most future games will be playable on this new system.

It's been stated by Valve that we will be free to edit the software any way we choose, therefore the only restrictions will be what is available for Linux. Personally, for what I use my PC for, I think SteamOS will cover most bases. I'll maybe need to use a Windows emulator, or even keep a copy of Windows as a dual boot, for my older games, but it's a small matter.

The other question of course is modding, and what I mean by this is that it's a safe bet to say TESVI/Fallout 4 will probably be on Steam (based on how Skyrim is). That also means these games will be available for Linux. Is it possible that we may see modding utilities such as TESEdit, WryeBash, and Nexus Mod Manager for this new OS?

What's your opinions? Would you like to move away from Windows if possible? What concerns would you have? Does open-source excite you (it's the reason I go for Android phones)? Could this pave the way for 64bit gaming?

[Werne]

Is it possible that we may see modding utilities such as TESEdit, WryeBash, and Nexus Mod Manager for this new OS?

I'm not sure, but I recall someone (Dark0ne or one for the developers?) mentioning a possibility of porting NMM to Linux. As I said, I'm not 100% sure, but I have a feeling that was mentioned.

 

It's been stated by Valve that we will be free to edit the software any way we choose, therefore the only restrictions will be what is available for Linux. Personally, for what I use my PC for, I think SteamOS will cover most bases. I'll maybe need to use a Windows emulator, or even keep a copy of Windows as a dual boot, for my older games, but it's a small matter.

I think SteamOS is basically something like a console OS - boot and play, period. I'm note sure it will be a real operating system, so my guess is it'll be just a gaming system (based on what it's designed to be used for). Guess we'll see when it gets released.

 

What's your opinions?

I'm dubious, sounds like a good idea but also sounds like not such a good idea after all. Don't know, but if it works, it'll make Linux a viable gaming platform and give me no reason what so ever to keep Windows around.

 

Would you like to move away from Windows if possible?

I primarily use Debian Wheezy for about 9 months now, I only have Windows because the AMD graphics driver sucks on Linux so game performance is bad, and I boot Windows once in a blue moon since I don't play games much lately. When I buy an Nvidia card as my next upgrade (unless AMD pulls it together with the graphics driver), Windows will be gone for good.

 

What concerns would you have?

I'm concerned Valve will make distro-specific changes to some of the OS aspects so games may fail to run on other Linux distros. Valve must share the code for their modifications to the already-present FOSS software (from my understanding of the license), but they don't need to release the code for their own software that gets added to the base OS, so that might be problematic.

 

Does open-source excite you (it's the reason I go for Android phones)?

I like fiddling with things so FOSS comes in handy. By the way, Android is about as open source as Windows, only the kernel and a bit of software is FOSS, even some of Google's kernel modifications are not open to the public.

[Daiyus]

Interesting points Werne. Interesting to see the opinions of someone who's already stepped away from Windows. I wasn't aware AMD had such issues with Linux, that will definitely effect how I upgrade my PC next time around (I've got a Powercolor Radeon HD 7870 in my rig at the moment).

 

I think your issues with the core operating system itself are definitely valid. Being completely honest, I can't see SteamOS being that popular itself. It is designed for living room entertainment (what I already use my PC for, but hey), and thus might not be suitable for more mainstream PC users. That said, if it can pull enough interest into Linux as a gaming platform ,assuming they don't make other Linux builds incompatible, then it could spark a revolution in the way PC gaming is handled. Judging by how they've approached the SteamBox in terms of freedom to change the OS, I doubt they will limit other Linux builds, but you never know.

[Werne]

I wasn't aware AMD had such issues with Linux, that will definitely effect how I upgrade my PC next time around (I've got a Powercolor Radeon HD 7870 in my rig at the moment).

Well, AMD has excellent out-of-the-box support for their cards, their open source Linux driver (radeon) is pretty good, still not as good as the proprietary one but perfectly fine if you're not looking for gaming or the like since it doesn't feature very good 3D hardware acceleration. Their proprietary driver (Catalyst) has bad performance which is ~60-65% of what it has on Windows, and it has poor OpenCL support, but it's very stable.

 

Nvidia is completely different though, they have a pathetic open source driver (noveau), they even neglected it's existence until SteamOS came out, now they give tiny crumbs to the FOSS driver developers just so the cards work for long enough to install a proprietary driver. Their proprietary driver rocks when it comes to performance though, it has identical performance to the Windows driver, but it's a bit on the unstable side (much like their Windows driver).

 

I currently have an XFX 7770 Core Edition in my machine and I'll likely upgrade my card once Debian Jessie comes out (in about a year and a half). If AMD doesn't release a decent driver by then, I'll be getting an Nvidia card instead, I may pay for royalties that way but at least I'll get the performance I expected to get for the money.

 

I think your issues with the core operating system itself are definitely valid. Being completely honest, I can't see SteamOS being that popular itself. It is designed for living room entertainment (what I already use my PC for, but hey), and thus might not be suitable for more mainstream PC users. That said, if it can pull enough interest into Linux as a gaming platform ,assuming they don't make other Linux builds incompatible, then it could spark a revolution in the way PC gaming is handled. Judging by how they've approached the SteamBox in terms of freedom to change the OS, I doubt they will limit other Linux builds, but you never know.

The GUI is not that relevant, Linux is modular and SteamOS is based off an Ubuntu LTS release (I believe it's Trusty, I doubt they'd use Precise or one of the "in between" releases for it). So if it's not a true OS, you bet you can make it into one, adding a file manager and image viewer is as simple as sudo apt-get install nautilus eog, provided that you have super-user access, have those programs in the repos, and that SteamOS uses apt as a package manager. If not, you can always use Ubuntu repos and install from there, or compile from source.

 

 

 

As for the gaming on Linux...

 

The one thing about Linux is that it may be better optimized for games than Windows is because you can turn it into anything you want it to be. Want high performance? Compile your own stripped-down kernel with built-in driver support, my machine can compile a standard Debian kernel in less than 10 minutes. Plus, it's open-source nature makes it easy to modify and strip down for pulling maximum performance out of the hardware.

 

On the game performance side, Valve already proved that Linux can run games a equally or better due to how the kernel handles some things like thread management. Their native L4D2 Linux port performs better than a native L4D2 for Windows, about 30% better, which they are hoping to achieve on Windows as well. So it may prove to be suitable for mainstream gamers, but I don't know how they'd feel using Linux when the very though of it makes some people laugh (not to mention Linux is not Windows, it's a bit harder to use).

 

There's also a 50/50 chance this Valve initiative will be a dud. You see, big titles have already been released for Linux in the past - Serious Sam series are native Linux, DOOM series as well, Left for Dead, Half-Life, Team Fortress, Counter Strike, Unreal Tournament 2004, Quake 4, Metro: Last Light, Portal, etc. And there's also a metric crap-ton of Indie and FOSS games for Linux, with some being bloody awesome (Hedgewars, Xonotic and Cube 2 pop into mind). None of those inspired people to use Linux, but then again, Linux was never marketed like it is by Valve at the moment, so that might play a role in it's usage too.

 

In any way, Valve is a big company, and pushing Linux as a gaming platform is not a small thing to do. With other big companies like DICE jumping aboard the Steam train, this could be interesting if Valve plays their cards right. But there's a teeny tiny thing I'm concerned about:

 

In October 2013 NVIDIA also announced their collaboration with Valve to aid in developing Steam Machines with the help of a developing library called GameWorks which will incorporate PhysX, OptiX, VisualFX and others NVIDIA-proprietary engines.

Yeah... that could be a potential issue if GameWorks isn't available for other Linux system, which wouldn't surprise me at all seeing as how Nvidia is making it. :ermm:

[JimboUK]

I don't think getting rid of Windows is an option, it'll still be needed for older games even if every future PC title supports Linux, it would be nice not having to worry about updating to a newer version of Windows because M$ has decided to not to update the DirectX in older versions though.

[Daiyus]

I don't think getting rid of Windows is an option, it'll still be needed for older games even if every future PC title supports Linux, it would be nice not having to worry about updating to a newer version of Windows because M$ has decided to not to update the DirectX in older versions though.

Certainly not for while. Linux does have Windows "emulators" which may progress to be able to run almost anything. Either way I can't see myself really jumping at a primarily Linux based gaming system until I need to rebuild my PC in a few years. I'll probably just dual-boot until then.

[Beriallord]

I don't think getting rid of Windows is an option, it'll still be needed for older games even if every future PC title supports Linux, it would be nice not having to worry about updating to a newer version of Windows because M$ has decided to not to update the DirectX in older versions though.

 

You'll be able to emulate older versions of windows no problem. I got an emulator for windows 3.1 and 98 that I used to run some really old games that just aren't compatible with Windows 7.

[JimboUK]

 

I don't think getting rid of Windows is an option, it'll still be needed for older games even if every future PC title supports Linux, it would be nice not having to worry about updating to a newer version of Windows because M$ has decided to not to update the DirectX in older versions though.

 

You'll be able to emulate older versions of windows no problem. I got an emulator for windows 3.1 and 98 that I used to run some really old games that just aren't compatible with Windows 7.

 

 

I was thinking more about never having to upgrade from Windows 7 if SteamOS does take off, in that case dual booting would be the better option.

[Werne]

Sorry for the bump, but it would seem Valve is serious about Linux. Yesterday, Gabe Newell announced that Valve is joining the Linux Foundation, along with Cloudius Systems and HSA Foundation (cloud and parallel computing companies). It still doesn't mean much (even Adobe is a member of the Linux Foundation and they cut all support for Linux except the flash player, even that one could be killed) but it's something.

 

And what's interesting is that Gabe there considers Linux as "future of gaming". Can't say that's what I think at the moment, but s**t may change with Valve pushing things along. :smile:

[FMod]

Quite a few games have Linux versions, including some 2013 releases. It's not difficult to do. But it does take some effort to change the libraries, compile, test, etc., and most publishers aren't sure if there's any profit in it.