A third of Valve now working on VR, still no Linux support

Quoting: GuestHaving one third of the company work on something that maybe 5-10% of Steam users will buy seems reckless…

Reckless means it involves a risk, that you will dearly pay for, worst case scenario it's a waste of effort. It's not like Valve is short on cash (to my knowledge). Even if VR becomes a bust, it's better then not being ready for it; it could cost them far more to not be ready.


Last edited by Qantourisc on 21 June 2016 at 4:10 pm UTC

I had the opportunity to try the Vive headset that a friend bought and I have to say that it is really really impressive. We were a group of 8 friends trying the headset and even the most skeptical had to admit that it was really enjoyable.
The only thing that could make VR fail would be the lack of VR games but if there are well designed VR games (and more than the simple launch demos), VR will stay and will be a new way to create and play some games (I'm not saying that all new games will be in VR, only that this will create different new type of games). So we really need this technology to be available on our OS if we want it to stay relevant when it comes to gaming.

Quoting: cRaZy-bisCuiTI don't give a d**n - who cares about VR?

I do, But at the moment its to expensiv.

Quoting: cRaZy-bisCuiTI don't give a d**n - who cares about VR?

I agree with your sentiments if not your vehemence. I believe that after the initial hype dies down, VR will land in the specialty hardware niche alongside flight controllers, steering wheels, articulated chairs, and the like.

Quoting: KimyrielleI will contest the "everyone" part by saying that I don't give a rat's behind about VR and know a lot of gamers who don't. For starters, it has absolutely no valid use case for the type of games I am playing (strategy, RPG). VR adds absolutely nothing to a lot of genres and not everyone is knee deep into shooters and racing games. Then, I generally hate first person view, and VR is the pinnacle of first person view. If a play a character, I want to -see- my character. Next, I dislike wearing things on my head (I don't even use headsets for gaming). And last but not least, I get sea sick really fast. Good enough reasons?

I don't know why RPG wouldn't suit VR unless you're talking about something like Pillars of Eternity. As for strategy, it might actually be interesting, the way people describe it is that you get the feeling of looking at a boardgame when playing something like Defense Grid. 3rd person games like Chronos have also been impressive in VR according to many accounts.


Last edited by badber on 21 June 2016 at 7:06 pm UTC

Not surprised... I mean we still don't even have steam broadcast support.

Instead of buggering about with silly things like VR, that will be gone by next year, work on SteamOS & make it better than Windows for gaming.


Last edited by lucifertdark on 21 June 2016 at 5:38 pm UTC

I have been exposed to 4k desktop and gaming for too long to use VR, it would be like hot knife into my eyeballs having my face pressed up against a shitty stretched 1200p screen!

I installed windows 7 just for the vive... and to be able to develop for the vive... :(

Ive been windows free for almost 10 years

Sorry guys... but vr is too exciting for me... :(

I just bought a second computer for it, to avoid touching my main rig...

I would like to have the opportunity to run a vive on linux, but to be honest I too think that VR is a hype for many years to come.

Like with 3D (television), VR comes up every few years/decades and I still don't see technology anywhere near to be usable by the broad masses.

And let's face it: without the masses, no money, without money no show... simply as that in a capitalistic world.