Another day, another journalist claiming that Valve is killing SteamOS (amongst other things mentioned) and it couldn't be further from the truth. I'm going to be pretty blunt in this one, because it needs to be.
I give you this sensationalist piece from Softpedia titled "Valve Is Killing Its Projects by Abandoning Them, Including SteamOS".
While it's true SteamOS hasn't turned into the almighty force some hoped, here at GOL, I always said it would never be a big success overnight and it would take a long time. That hasn't changed and SteamOS is still very much alive. In June of this year, Valve did a major update to SteamOS that dropped AMDGPU-PRO in favour of Mesa, it had a big Kernel version bump and more. Only a few days later another SteamOS beta was released with more updates. The development is ongoing and you can hardly call something that was updated majorly only a month ago, as something that's being abandoned.
They quite literally have no idea what they're talking about. I don't think Valve has ever said anywhere they were pouring money into OpenGL and Vulkan development. Valve did actually help to kickstart Vulkan, Valve has also hired developers to work on Linux graphics drivers. The public Mesa mailing list is extremely active, with patches from all sides flowing in every day, with the Valve developers doing quite a bit of work. Anyone following it knows this, they would too if they looked. They should know too, since they report on Mesa. Only recently one of the Valve developers finished up the OpenGL multithreading code in Mesa, which can give big performance gains in certain games.
The bit about developers not being heard of any more is also strange. It takes a long time for a brand new API to gain traction, but it is gaining with Vulkan games being released. Croteam have thrown their weight behind it, so has Feral Interactive. Not a massive amount sure, but again, it takes time. Games already in development won't throw out their entire renderer for Vulkan, but new games have a good chance of using it.
No one really knows if Half-Life will continue or not. Apart from that, the other examples are all still sold and worked on. SteamOS, as mentioned, is regularly updated. The Steam Controller is constantly updated with new awesome features, there's even been hints of a second revision. The Steam Link is still selling well with plenty of people rather happy with it. It's not quite likely any of them will follow the path of Half-Life, there's nothing whatsoever hinting at it, they're pulling speculation out of their backsides here with no sources to show for anything they're saying. It's bottom of the barrel reporting.
No, it hasn't. Vulkan 1.0.55 was released only yesterday and last I checked there's more Vulkan games than there is DirectX 12 games on PC. What part of that has slowed down considerably? It hasn't, not at all. I'm also unsure as to what they mean by "integrated VM solutions", I'm going to assume they're really trying to sound smart, but missing the mark. They likely mean wrappers, but so many things come under that banner and wrappers aren't necessarily a bad thing.
I'll be honest here, I really don't like Softpedia and I think their reporting is quite often terrible. They reported on the iCloud hack that happened some time ago, by using one of the stolen images of a celebrity in their article—just awful.
I often end up feeling like we're one of the few sites that won't scaremonger for traffic, because it's stupid. It's an article where clearly research just hasn't been done, but hey it makes a good headline to click right?
I won't blindly stick up for Valve or any company, as every company serves their own agenda. However, Valve are very clearly and often quite publicly still supporting Linux, SteamOS, Steam Controller and so on. I will gladly report on it when there's signs they are dumping something, but there's no such signs yet. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
I give you this sensationalist piece from Softpedia titled "Valve Is Killing Its Projects by Abandoning Them, Including SteamOS".
While it's true SteamOS hasn't turned into the almighty force some hoped, here at GOL, I always said it would never be a big success overnight and it would take a long time. That hasn't changed and SteamOS is still very much alive. In June of this year, Valve did a major update to SteamOS that dropped AMDGPU-PRO in favour of Mesa, it had a big Kernel version bump and more. Only a few days later another SteamOS beta was released with more updates. The development is ongoing and you can hardly call something that was updated majorly only a month ago, as something that's being abandoned.
QuoteValve also promised to put a lot of money in the development of OpenGL and Vulkan, so that Linux could feature the same type of performance with games running on Direct3D, on Windows. That is also a really quiet front, and after some initial success, developers are not heard anymore.
They quite literally have no idea what they're talking about. I don't think Valve has ever said anywhere they were pouring money into OpenGL and Vulkan development. Valve did actually help to kickstart Vulkan, Valve has also hired developers to work on Linux graphics drivers. The public Mesa mailing list is extremely active, with patches from all sides flowing in every day, with the Valve developers doing quite a bit of work. Anyone following it knows this, they would too if they looked. They should know too, since they report on Mesa. Only recently one of the Valve developers finished up the OpenGL multithreading code in Mesa, which can give big performance gains in certain games.
The bit about developers not being heard of any more is also strange. It takes a long time for a brand new API to gain traction, but it is gaining with Vulkan games being released. Croteam have thrown their weight behind it, so has Feral Interactive. Not a massive amount sure, but again, it takes time. Games already in development won't throw out their entire renderer for Vulkan, but new games have a good chance of using it.
QuoteValve is becoming famous for two things. One is the easiness of which they make money from their Steam Platform, and the other is their started and failed projects. The most famous of them is the Half-Life series, which ended abruptly and it feels abandoned. It’s quite likely that SteamOS, Steam Controller, and Steam Link are following the same path.
No one really knows if Half-Life will continue or not. Apart from that, the other examples are all still sold and worked on. SteamOS, as mentioned, is regularly updated. The Steam Controller is constantly updated with new awesome features, there's even been hints of a second revision. The Steam Link is still selling well with plenty of people rather happy with it. It's not quite likely any of them will follow the path of Half-Life, there's nothing whatsoever hinting at it, they're pulling speculation out of their backsides here with no sources to show for anything they're saying. It's bottom of the barrel reporting.
QuoteThe development of Vulkan, an open source alternative to Direct3D, has slowed down considerably. Games are still being developed for Windows systems and ported to Linux with the help of integrated VM solutions, which greatly decrease performance.
No, it hasn't. Vulkan 1.0.55 was released only yesterday and last I checked there's more Vulkan games than there is DirectX 12 games on PC. What part of that has slowed down considerably? It hasn't, not at all. I'm also unsure as to what they mean by "integrated VM solutions", I'm going to assume they're really trying to sound smart, but missing the mark. They likely mean wrappers, but so many things come under that banner and wrappers aren't necessarily a bad thing.
I'll be honest here, I really don't like Softpedia and I think their reporting is quite often terrible. They reported on the iCloud hack that happened some time ago, by using one of the stolen images of a celebrity in their article—just awful.
I often end up feeling like we're one of the few sites that won't scaremonger for traffic, because it's stupid. It's an article where clearly research just hasn't been done, but hey it makes a good headline to click right?
I won't blindly stick up for Valve or any company, as every company serves their own agenda. However, Valve are very clearly and often quite publicly still supporting Linux, SteamOS, Steam Controller and so on. I will gladly report on it when there's signs they are dumping something, but there's no such signs yet. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
Quoting: cRaZy-bisCuiTActually part of the problem is already us: Honestly, who did buy a steam machine, a steam controler or uses SteamOS here in the forum? I
we dont need it, we already use linux so we already count to the linux marketshare.
the money we would spent geting an steam machine to not improve the marketshare at all, could be better spent buying games for linux instead.
steam machines need to sell to the ones who dont use linux not to the ones who already to, in order to be effective to change the things on the market.
Quoting: cRaZy-bisCuiTSo what is the user base they so actually aim for?that is the question
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TheRiddick Jul 20, 2017
Its the same old argument most windows fans use, and that is because Linux isn't on par with Windows with drivers/features/games/performance then its declining and failing.
However as we all know it has been getting considerably better over time and even more so lately, things like these don't ever start in reverse like many think, it always starts off bad and gradually gets better and will always take longer then you want.
However as we all know it has been getting considerably better over time and even more so lately, things like these don't ever start in reverse like many think, it always starts off bad and gradually gets better and will always take longer then you want.
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Quoting: elmapulQuoting: cRaZy-bisCuiTActually part of the problem is already us: Honestly, who did buy a steam machine, a steam controler or uses SteamOS here in the forum? I
we dont need it, we already use linux so we already count to the linux marketshare.
the money we would spent geting an steam machine to not improve the marketshare at all, could be better spent buying games for linux instead.
steam machines need to sell to the ones who dont use linux not to the ones who already to, in order to be effective to change the things on the market.
Quoting: cRaZy-bisCuiTSo what is the user base they so actually aim for?that is the question
They have to be aiming it at console players the fact the default view drops you into big picture mode. If you are already using Linux chances are there is no way you are dropping you're distro to go to steam os.
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Quoting: ArdjeReally? No "IP"...
They must talk about software, game IPs. And objectively speaking they are right. It's been ages since any new IP has arisen from them. Not sure how much it matters, though.
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Quoting: BeamboomFact is Valve just isn't primarily a game company any more, and hasn't been for some time. Google hasn't come out with a lot of games lately that I know of, either, but nobody seems to consider that a failing.Quoting: ArdjeReally? No "IP"...
They must talk about software, game IPs. And objectively speaking they are right. It's been ages since any new IP has arisen from them. Not sure how much it matters, though.
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Quoting: GuestHad a bit of a chuckle over Vulkan as an "open source alternative...".
For those wondering: Vulkan is an open standard, an API. Implementations aren't necessarily open source.
Softpedia's the CNN of tech news.
(They're calling CNN the most trusted name in Fake News these days...)
What they're talking to is the failed rollout of STEAMBOXES. GameStop had them...couldn't sell 'em. Not so much because they were poor machines- but because they were pricey (Alienware...c'mon!) and the staff would steer people, as they always do, to their pet system, PS4 or X-Box (or as I spell it eeechsbox.).
It's part of why Nintendo's languishing (That and the N is still off doing "off" things...).
It's no surprise that this got "abandoned" in their eyes. Because all they see is the expensive Alienware kit being abandoned...BY DELL.
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Quoting: aejsmithQuoteThe development of Vulkan, an open source alternative to Direct3D, has slowed down considerably.
IKR? It's actually ahead of Direct3D for most things and most studios are targeting it...because it's on EVERYTHING. Not just Windows.
Want to target the next gen of Playstation and PS4, along with X-Box, etc.? Next gen consoles with minimal problems? You'll use Vulkan. When they get this much wrong...what else are they f-ed in the head on? X-D
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That softpedia article. Another Microsoft shill..
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Quoting: svartalfSoftpedia's the CNN of tech news.You Americans need to start getting it through your heads that all your main news sources lie to you. The Democrat-slanted ones lie for the Democrats, the Republican-slanted ones lie for the Republicans, and they all lie for the billionaires and the military contractors. So like, whenever they start telling you how incredibly dangerous (Country Leader X) is, and so you have to do something and the response has to be military and so the military needs more money again . . . yeah, it's a lie.
(They're calling CNN the most trusted name in Fake News these days...)
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Quoting: GuestI am a realist. Linux gaming as it is now is good for indie gaming only.I think we need some kind of word for games that are made by fairly established companies which are not operating on a shoestring but which do not cost the truly obscene amounts of money and marketing that we associate with the AAA. Maybe AA or something. Because, really, when someone says "indie gaming" I picture a couple guys in a basement, or at most like a quickie rented office space with a bunch of hastily-installed equipment and cables hanging out all over the place. And lots of games, including lots of games on Linux, are not big enough to qualify as AAA but are made by profitable companies with solid sales and track records, moderate numbers of employees, and probably fairly stable offices with ergonomic furniture and receptionists and the whole schmeer.
So if we admit only two categories, "indie" and "AAA", then I guess it's not wrong to say Linux gaming is nearly all indie. But it's kind of misleading. If games are a pyramid in terms of size, slickness and expense, then "indie" sounds like the bottom layer, where in fact Linux has its share of all but the top few blocks.
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