Reddit seems to be buzzing with information from SteamDB (full credit to them for finding it) showing indications that Valve might be adding support for compatibility tools to enable you to play games on operating systems they weren't designed for, like Wine.
I won't copy all of it, but a few interesting bits do certainly stick out like the string named "Steam_Settings_Compat_Info" where the description reads "Steam Play will automatically install compatibility tools that allow you to play games from your library that were built for other operating systems.".
There's also "Steam_Settings_Compat_Advanced_Info" which reads as "You may select a compatibility tool to use with games that have not been tested or verified to work on this platform. This may not work as expected, and can cause issues with your games, including crashes and breaking save games."
Valve do also have a Valve Compatibility Manifests and Valve Compatibility Manifests for Beta Testing set of packages that show up on SteamDB.
That certainly sounds like something Wine related, perhaps with a sprinkle of something like DXVK, don't you think? However, it could even just be DOSBox, a Valve-sponsored tool or anything—we simply don't know enough at this point.
Having the ability to use tools like Wine from within the native Linux Steam client, is actually something that has been requested for a long time by quite a number of people. It could certainly make using Wine less of a hassle for Steam games. If so, it might even give developers a better idea of how many people are on different operating systems if it showed up in their statistics when someone's using such a feature.
It might even be quite a smart business move for Valve, as it might push more people to buy games that have a decent enough rating through one of these compatibility tools.
It could all end up being nothing, so take it with your usual pinch of salt. Even if it does end up being a real feature, it could be quite a long way off too. I'm only posting it because I personally found it quite interesting, I'm pretty sceptical about it for a number of reasons, but doesn't stop it being somewhat exciting too.
What are your thoughts?
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Duke Takeshi Aug 15, 2018
Quoting: Comandante ÑoñardoWell... Somebody is funding DXVK and the Developer refuse to accept donations, so...
This.
I also think that this is a great thing. And necessary if Valve wants SteamOS to become the most relevant platform for Gaming in the long term (which is obviously their aim, as they are putting a huge amount of resources into it). The first step for them was creating SteamOS and Steam machines, also giving all valve games native Linux support was important. Now they'll try to push compatibility with other non-native Linux games to the maximum. But let's be honest, this won't make everyone who has a windows machine suddenly turn into a Linux freak and change OS.
Therefore I think the final step will be to have some of their own major titles release as SteamOS/Linux/Steam machine exclusives; let's say Half-life 3 and/or Portal 3 (we know Valve turned back to produce games on their own recently). They did the same thing with steam when they released Half-life 2: Everyone thought "why do I have to install this weird steam software with it. I hate this!" but since many people loved the first part of the game (and rightly so) they installed steam anyway to play its successor. Imho this was the birth of Steam and the foundation of Valves power in the gaming industry. Why shouldn't it work a second time?
For years we've seen a steady increased interest for Linux from gaming studios and if they see a viable option to never support a platform or even drop their support because current Linux users are just as willing to pay for Wine-gaming, that interest may drop as a rock.
With all that said, it can still work, but Valve really needs to be extremely careful. They cannot give the two options equal treatment, there must be some very obvious disadvantages to the users. Some bold disclaimers. Better if the Wine option is hidden somewhere deep in the settings. Only then there can be a hope that gaming studios will still see a incentive to give real support for Linux.
QuoteIf few people buy the game, it's expensive - they will not port it.
If many people buy the game, it's profitable - they will port it.
If many people buy the game, they already got your money. No further action required. The only good thing that can come from this is more people switching to Linux, but even then if they are perfectly happy with the compatibility layer (they won't be) it does not encourage any further porting efforts.
OS/2's windows 3.x and Win32S support was believed to be part of why fewer apps were ported to OS/2, and at the same time, the fact that MS kept intentionally breaking Win32S support on OS/2 made it a poor experience for a lot of the users, which drove users away from the platform.
We'll see though how it turns out.
Looks like it's for Mac, according to the SteamDB guy it was from an OSX binary.
Quoting: liamdawehttps://twitter.com/thexpaw/status/1029627718344888321?s=19
Looks like it's for Mac, according to the SteamDB guy it was from an OSX binary.
Makes sense if they are preparing for the deprecation of OpenGL.
Quoting: EhvisThink about it though, if they're going to have some kind of compat layer support...why be Mac only :)Quoting: liamdawehttps://twitter.com/thexpaw/status/1029627718344888321?s=19
Looks like it's for Mac, according to the SteamDB guy it was from an OSX binary.
Makes sense if they are preparing for the deprecation of OpenGL.
Quoting: liamdaweQuoting: EhvisThink about it though, if they're going to have some kind of compat layer support...why be Mac only :)Quoting: liamdawehttps://twitter.com/thexpaw/status/1029627718344888321?s=19
Looks like it's for Mac, according to the SteamDB guy it was from an OSX binary.
Makes sense if they are preparing for the deprecation of OpenGL.
It's a start. And Valve has always supported Mac, so it makes sense for them to try and fix an upcoming problem for a lot of games in their store. If it is this, then they're probably looking at including something for OpenGL -> Metal, which should be a lot easier than to try and support Windows on Mac/Linux. As you have found out yourself, things are a lot more erratic in that department and it would currently be a support nightmare.
But who knows. They may have much bigger plans indeed.
Quoting: EhvisThink about what you're saying though. If they are going that route, they can't just hook up a tool to convert OpenGL to Metal, it would still need something like Wine to handle literally everything else the game would be doing ;)Quoting: liamdaweQuoting: EhvisThink about it though, if they're going to have some kind of compat layer support...why be Mac only :)Quoting: liamdawehttps://twitter.com/thexpaw/status/1029627718344888321?s=19
Looks like it's for Mac, according to the SteamDB guy it was from an OSX binary.
Makes sense if they are preparing for the deprecation of OpenGL.
It's a start. And Valve has always supported Mac, so it makes sense for them to try and fix an upcoming problem for a lot of games in their store. If it is this, then they're probably looking at including something for OpenGL -> Metal, which should be a lot easier than to try and support Windows on Mac/Linux. As you have found out yourself, things are a lot more erratic in that department and it would currently be a support nightmare.
But who knows. They may have much bigger plans indeed.
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