Valve have once again gathered all the new features and fixes from a bunch of recent Beta builds and pushed it out to everyone, this includes a bunch of nice fixes for Linux.
Steam Remote Play is one of the biggest changes (previously in-home streaming), now it's "experimentally" available outside the home too with the renaming. You should now be able to stream games from one Steam client to another, wherever they are.
On the Linux side the fixes include: a random Steam client crash when launching games, a bug where copying/moving files bigger than 2GB would fail with an I/O error, improved responsiveness to network changes, support for rumble pass-through for virtual controllers (rumble for the Steam Controller), prefer Steam Runtime's libcurl over yours which fixes "Risk of Rain" and other GameMaker titles, support for removing old Proton versions by aliasing them to more recent ones and support for developers and Valve testing specifying default Proton configuration options for games even if they're not yet white-listed.
Their Shader Pre-Caching was re-worked, to enable downloading and pre-compiling of the whole collection of Vulkan pipelines for a given game. You will likely now see them show up in the Steam client downloads area with an OpenGL/Vulkan logo below them. Valve said "Pre-compiling" will be enabled in a future Steam update. This is the feature that should, eventually, help stop stuttering in games when you first play them. They also fixed an issue with them being downloaded, even if the feature was disabled by you.
There's plenty more fixes in this update, like issues with the in-game overlay becoming "abnormally pixelated" for games using Vulkan, plenty of Steam Input updates and so on.
Full news here.
As a reminder, the Steam Library overhaul is also getting a public beta soon.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
Quoting: gradyvuckovicIf Valve offered that service for free, (which they probably could because the overwhelming majority of users would prefer local gaming so it wouldn't be a commonly used option), Stadia would be dead on arrival.
i am not sure about that. there are games with 60 - 100GB. i would stream such a games, because i dont have the space
Destiny 2, gta 5, mordor, deus ex
but if google can offer 4K for 10$.....
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Mohandevir Jun 14, 2019
Quoting: EikeQuoting: kuhpunktThey sure can. Services like Geforce Now and Shadow already do that. You just rent a remote computer with those and access your Steam library from there.
It will severly limit what you can do, IMHO.
Many people will prefer to just play game X - not buy, download and install it first.
Hm... But then, who if not Valve is in the position to do this faster than anybody else...
Buying will be the bigger problem. Like people don't buy Netflix series, they won't want to buy games. But how would Valve be allowed to install it then, without an agreement with the developers...?
No, I don't think it's so easy.
I can't say for sure, but how does it differ from renting a remote computer from Shadow and then installing our Steam library on it? Basically it's the same, it's just that you rent the computer from Steam, then. Why Steam couldn't offer a remote computer service while Shadow is allowed to?
Edit: Like in: "We at Valve, offer you the location of a SteamOS Clockwerk computer to do as you please with it."
Last edited by Mohandevir on 14 June 2019 at 2:34 pm UTC
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Quoting: EikeQuoting: kuhpunktThey sure can. Services like Geforce Now and Shadow already do that. You just rent a remote computer with those and access your Steam library from there.
It will severly limit what you can do, IMHO.
Many people will prefer to just play game X - not buy, download and install it first.
Hm... But then, who if not Valve is in the position to do this faster than anybody else...
Buying will be the bigger problem. Like people don't buy Netflix series, they won't want to buy games. But how would Valve be allowed to install it then, without an agreement with the developers...?
No, I don't think it's so easy.
Not sure what you mean. How/why would buying be a bigger problem? It would still be exactly how it is now. You buy a license for a game. Whether you play the game locally on your own computer or on a rented unit somewhere else makes no difference.
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Quoting: kuhpunktNot sure what you mean. How/why would buying be a bigger problem? It would still be exactly how it is now. You buy a license for a game. Whether you play the game locally on your own computer or on a rented unit somewhere else makes no difference.
*edit* I probably didn't express my thoughts too well when writing them up during thinking. :) Not buying itself is the problem.
If people are still buying games, everything might be fine.
But then, how many DVDs have you bought lately...?
People stop buying stuff, be it music, films, ..., and many will stop buying games I guess.
And then it's harder to do.
Last edited by Eike on 14 June 2019 at 2:43 pm UTC
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Mohandevir Jun 14, 2019
Quoting: EikeQuoting: kuhpunktNot sure what you mean. How/why would buying be a bigger problem? It would still be exactly how it is now. You buy a license for a game. Whether you play the game locally on your own computer or on a rented unit somewhere else makes no difference.
*edit* I probably didn't express my thoughts too well when writing them up during thinking. :) Not buying itself is the problem.
If people are still buying games, everything might be fine.
But then, how many DVDs have you bought lately...?
People stop buying stuff, be it music, films, ..., and many will stop buying games I guess.
And then it's harder to do.
Personnally I still buy blu-rays and rip them with makemkv so that I may copy them on my OMV server, but I get your point. We are a minority to think about these things. :)
Last edited by Mohandevir on 14 June 2019 at 2:59 pm UTC
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Quoting: EikeQuoting: kuhpunktNot sure what you mean. How/why would buying be a bigger problem? It would still be exactly how it is now. You buy a license for a game. Whether you play the game locally on your own computer or on a rented unit somewhere else makes no difference.
*edit* I probably didn't express my thoughts too well when writing them up during thinking. :) Not buying itself is the problem.
If people are still buying games, everything might be fine.
But then, how many DVDs have you bought lately...?
People stop buying stuff, be it music, films, ..., and many will stop buying games I guess.
And then it's harder to do.
I buy more Blu-rays than I have time to watch
3 Likes, Who?
Quoting: liamdaweYeah, it might seem like SteamOS/Steam Machine don't see a lot of attention, but as always when you look at all the work they're actually doing to improve everything relating to Steam/Linux gaming there's a lot going on.This seems as good a time as any to mention this comment thread, which genuinely surprised me. (You might have noticed some incoming clicks, actually. Not my doing. :) For some reason, I never comment over there.) There's the odd naysayer, as always, but for the first time I can remember on any general PC gaming site, they're in the minority. This stuff is beginning to get noticed outside our Linux-fanatic bubble. Shamus talks a little about it at the beginning of his latest podcast.
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Quoting: DuncIt shouldn't surprise me but it still does, how bad a tunnel-vision a lot of "tech" podcasts and websites just count out Linux instantly without basic research.Quoting: liamdaweYeah, it might seem like SteamOS/Steam Machine don't see a lot of attention, but as always when you look at all the work they're actually doing to improve everything relating to Steam/Linux gaming there's a lot going on.This seems as good a time as any to mention this comment thread, which genuinely surprised me. (You might have noticed some incoming clicks, actually. Not my doing. :) For some reason, I never comment over there.) There's the odd naysayer, as always, but for the first time I can remember on any general PC gaming site, they're in the minority. This stuff is beginning to get noticed outside our Linux-fanatic bubble. Shamus talks a little about it at the beginning of his latest podcast.
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 14 June 2019 at 4:19 pm UTC
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If games stutter during the first launch due to compiling shaders, why don't game developers compile the shaders during loading? I remember playing some games that did just that. Now, if they're just providing a service to download the existing shaders for your hardware and save the time from compiling, then I can understand that is a good thing, but even so if the shaders don't exist I still think the game shouldn't stutter.
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Quoting: gradyvuckovicAll Valve has to do now is offer some kind of option to run your own remote instance of a gaming PC on a Valve server, and connect direct to it, and they'll have an alternative to Stadia. Buy your game on Steam, download it to play it locally, or stream it to any PC or phone/tablet or TV. Stream it from your PC or stream it from a Valve server. All your workshop mods, your cloud saves, your Steam friends, etc, take them all with you anywhere you go.I'm not sure I believe this is really going to happen or that if it does it will work as well or be as open as this description lays out. But it could happen and you paint a compelling vision.
Buy Portal 2 and download/install it locally to play on your PC, then stream it from your PC to your TV and play it with any controller you want, then stream it from a Valve server to your phone and play it on the train.
If Valve offered that service for free, (which they probably could because the overwhelming majority of users would prefer local gaming so it wouldn't be a commonly used option), Stadia would be dead on arrival.
For Linux (& Mac) gamers, that would mean all those games currently not playable on Linux, the 40% or so of Steam that isn't quite there yet with Proton, would suddenly immediately become playable via an alternative solution, ie: streaming from a Valve server. Effectively bringing all Steam games to Linux.
Boom, no need to ever install Windows for any game on Steam. No need to buy games on Google's or iOS's app store even, just buy it on Steam and stream it to your phone!
I'm calling it, this is what Valve is working towards. Valve is going to make it happen.
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Quoting: Guesttweaking an entire engine to hide stutter only seen on first launch might simply not be considered worth the effort.
Hmm... On the other hand, you never get a second chance to make a first impression...
3 Likes, Who?
Mohandevir Jun 14, 2019
Quoting: Dunc...There's the odd naysayer, as always...
Nessus is pretty hilarious to read... Feels like he tried to run Linux from Scratch.
I can't remember a single time I had to manually install a single dependency when using the software center on any Ubuntu based distro. Feels like the problem is between the keyboard and chair, to me. :D
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Quoting: liamdaweprefer Steam Runtime's libcurl over yours which fixes "Risk of Rain" and other GameMaker titles
I wonder if it also fixed Devil Daggers on 18.04 because if I remember correctly it's because the libcurl version was different that it didn't work anymore .
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Quoting: TheSyldatDidn't work for me on Ubuntu 19.04.Quoting: liamdaweprefer Steam Runtime's libcurl over yours which fixes "Risk of Rain" and other GameMaker titles
I wonder if it also fixed Devil Daggers on 18.04 because if I remember correctly it's because the libcurl version was different that it didn't work anymore .
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Quoting: EikeIndeed, if you do the first impression badly, you may never get a first chance to make a second impression . . .Quoting: Guesttweaking an entire engine to hide stutter only seen on first launch might simply not be considered worth the effort.
Hmm... On the other hand, you never get a second chance to make a first impression...
2 Likes, Who?
Is their a Steam launch option i can use to swap between graphics Driver
AMDVLK & MESA
Some games work better with AMDVLK and some with MESA
AMDVLK & MESA
Some games work better with AMDVLK and some with MESA
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Quoting: kuhpunktQuoting: jensQuoting: MohandevirQuoting: liamdaweQuoting: kuhpunktNo they wouldn't, not with Steam Play once it's mature enough.Quoting: gradyvuckovicFor Linux (& Mac) gamers, that would mean all those games currently not playable on Linux, the 40% or so of Steam that isn't quite there yet with Proton, would suddenly immediately become playable via an alternative solution, ie: streaming from a Valve server. Effectively bringing all Steam games to Linux.
The Valve servers would have to run on Windows, though and I highly doubt Valve would want to pay for those licenses.
I suspect SteamStreaming, or SteamCloud (who knows how they will call that), might happen the day SteamPlay/Proton leaves beta and become official. Simultaneous announcements is my guess.
Edit: It can't be too far away, because Valve risks long term damages, if they let users get accustomed to the competitions' solutions (Xcloud or Stadia).
I wonder if Valve is legally allowed to offer everything in your library as a streaming service just like this. I could imagine that existing contracts would need at least some review. This might also be the reason that official Steam Play whitelisting isn't happen that often, even for games that work perfectly well (e.g. TW3). I'm just speculating here though.
They sure can. Services like Geforce Now and Shadow already do that. You just rent a remote computer with those and access your Steam library from there.
The list of supported games on Geforce Now is very very small: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/products/geforce-now/supported-games/ or am I missing something obvious here? Looking over the Geforece Now site tells me that it works just how Jens wondered, aka they must license each game from the publisher before they can add support for it on their platform.
Shadow I have no idea how they work since they don't offer their service in my country and consequently don't want to shed much information either.
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Quoting: gradyvuckovicAll Valve has to do now is offer some kind of option to run your own remote instance of a gaming PC on a Valve server, and connect direct to it, and they'll have an alternative to Stadia. Buy your game on Steam, download it to play it locally, or stream it to any PC or phone/tablet or TV. Stream it from your PC or stream it from a Valve server. All your workshop mods, your cloud saves, your Steam friends, etc, take them all with you anywhere you go.
Buy Portal 2 and download/install it locally to play on your PC, then stream it from your PC to your TV and play it with any controller you want, then stream it from a Valve server to your phone and play it on the train.
If Valve offered that service for free, (which they probably could because the overwhelming majority of users would prefer local gaming so it wouldn't be a commonly used option), Stadia would be dead on arrival.
For Linux (& Mac) gamers, that would mean all those games currently not playable on Linux, the 40% or so of Steam that isn't quite there yet with Proton, would suddenly immediately become playable via an alternative solution, ie: streaming from a Valve server. Effectively bringing all Steam games to Linux.
Boom, no need to ever install Windows for any game on Steam. No need to buy games on Google's or iOS's app store even, just buy it on Steam and stream it to your phone!
I'm calling it, this is what Valve is working towards. Valve is going to make it happen.
They would also have to invest a number of billions in new datacenters and bandwidth for that to happen on the scale that Valve operates (they have roughly 90 million monthly users) and they would have to build them locally all over the world. The costs of running stuff like this is extreme and is why currently only Google is pulling it off (and we don't know yet if they will pull it off).
The other services described in this thread is nowhere near to compete, Shadow seams to have only a small number of servers in California and Geforce Now seams to have only 300k users with some reports that performance is bad during peak hours (but to be honest I have just spent a few minutes googling this).
For what it's worth I worked as the CTO of a Cloud computing startup 11 years ago and had to design stuff like this.
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Quoting: MohandevirNessus is pretty hilarious to read... Feels like he tried to run Linux from Scratch.
I didn't read the thread yet, but judging from Steam forums, the most aggressive anti-Linux people are those who wanted to use it and failed.
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