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.
Quoting: EhvisYeah I did say it could be nothing.Quoting: liamdaweRead the info again, they key point about it was "other operating systems". That doesn't sound like simply making OpenGL go to Metal.
If you'd take it literally, yes. But since this is all unofficial, I choose to read that with a certain flexibility and take the "simplest" option for now. However, I am always ready to be surprised.
More food for thought, in this post from Valve, they said:
QuoteWe also have other Linux initiatives in the pipe that we're not quite ready to talk about yet
Duke Takeshi 
Aug 15, 2018
Quoting: dubigrasuOff topic:
I totally dislike to point this out, but FFS, some of you here could use a bit of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctuation It can't be that hard.
Just saying...
Dude, I bet most of the people here are (like me) not even natives. And punctuation in English can be really weird sometimes. xD
Quoting: Duke TakeshiQuoting: dubigrasuOff topic:
I totally dislike to point this out, but FFS, some of you here could use a bit of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctuation It can't be that hard.
Just saying...
Dude, I bet most of the people here are (like me) not even natives. And punctuation in English can be really weird sometimes. xD
I'm not a native English speaker myself, and is not hard to do it.
At least you split your thoughts in sentences/paragraphs and use full stop after them. Don't need to go for perfection.
QuoteThis is a huge gift to MS and a huge FU to Gaben and linux.Possibly Valve retaliation? With very strong rumours on Win 10 will be free and/or subscription-based service, walled-gardening, MS huge incentive to devs, etc; Valve doesn't want their "oil wells" being disrupted. Being "locked-out" means game over for Valve's profit. Desperate + critical times need desperate measures. Making every game works even "Wine"-ing is huge step to ensure future on Steam.
Let's remember that MS has a thing called Xbox (DirectX-box, get it? it's in the name). Most developers are now forced not to care about MacOS X (because it's just to expensive) or linux (because it's too small) so they'll just develop inside walled gardens of D3D, because they DO have to care about xbox and game development becomes cheaper when it's developed across just one API (or two, for PS additionally).
Apple is in an all-out war against open standards. I don't think I'd ever seen this kind of hostility from MS.
But, it's also a double-edge sword. MS will considered it as "act of war". With MS wealth, they simply buying/paying every developers to make them come to Win. Just look at MS's own presentation on E3 this year.
Infact, I'm really won't surprised Cyberpunk 2077 won't coming to Steam and/or Linux. And won't surprised if CP2077 will be MS Store timed exclusive.
Remember guys, Windows 7 EOL is on 14th Jan 2020, which means less than 1.5 years from now. Net Market Share says Windows 7 still dominating at 42++% (nearly half). As former XP-ian, Win XP EOL makes me come to Linux. Will soon-to-be EOL Win 7 users adopting Linux or upgrading to 10? Time will tell.
p/s:I know PC gamer comments aren't "too constructive", but sometimes we should listen outside of our echo chamber..
And most of the average joes who tried steam machine said it didnt have enough games. So doesnt have enought games and doesnt have enought gamers to support the games.
Well that situation have become better more linux native games. But I think that if you can play 99% of games with close to native performance through something like wine, it wont render the game devs lazy.
It will move more gamers to our linux platform and in turn starting to solve the problem mentioned above. therefore something like this will cause new linux native games to appear rather than new windows wine games, as game developers tend to want something that works good. good graphics, performance etc.
So I myself is for the Wine + DXVK thing that is going on. Best thing to happen to Linux in a while, Now if this compat thing is what we think it is :O :O :O :O
Projectile Vomit Aug 15, 2018
That being said, I am looking forward to simply making a couple of clicks, rather than jumping through hoops, to play games like Diablo 3, Skyrim, Dungeons & Dragons Online, etc. (actually, Skyrim was a pretty easy install, compared to the others mentioned, but still).
I welcome our non-emulator to the Steam fray, if that is what is happening.
Sputnik_tr_02 Aug 15, 2018
Quoting: Projectile VomitI am all about native Linux games, but I have to admit that there are more than a few games in my collection that I run from Wine. I understand that it goes against the idea that companies won't care to make native Linux games if people are willing to run them using Wine, but the reality is, those games are simply not going to get ported and dammit, I want to play them.
That being said, I am looking forward to simply making a couple of clicks, rather than jumping through hoops, to play games like Diablo 3, Skyrim, Dungeons & Dragons Online, etc. (actually, Skyrim was a pretty easy install, compared to the others mentioned, but still).
I welcome our non-emulator to the Steam fray, if that is what is happening.
I understand people's concern about this wine situation, but companies still won't care about Linux if our market share stays this low regardless of wine's existence.
That being said, imagine that most of the windows games (old and new) working hassle free using wine, most people unhappy about windows would switch. And when Linux market share reaches a certain point it would be too risky for game devs to not to port the game and only then we can break this chicken and egg dilemma.
Of course, this is Valve we're talking about, so no telling what this really is or when Valve will bother announcing it to us peasants
Last edited by HadBabits on 15 August 2018 at 5:10 pm UTC
Quoting: Sputnik_tr_02I understand people's concern about this wine situation, but companies still won't care about Linux if our market share stays this low regardless of wine's existence.
That being said, imagine that most of the windows games (old and new) working hassle free using wine, most people unhappy about windows would switch. And when Linux market share reaches a certain point it would be too risky for game devs to not to port the game and only then we can break this chicken and egg dilemma.
Either case, if Steam gives a solution to play Windows games on Linux, they probably will take their part from publisher profits (and hope it's a big one). From my perspective, this solutions shouldn't be as bad as some are afraid of, but right now there is a lot of hype around it and we're not even sure of what is going on. I insist that we should calm down and keep gaming with native games for now :D
Last edited by x_wing on 15 August 2018 at 5:43 pm UTC
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