Google reveal more games with the latest Stadia Connect, including Cyberpunk 2077

Quoting: GuestThey mention visual studio in their software tools. I don't know how to take this. I am still not sure these games will run natively on Debian or trough a proton-like tool. And even if they do, it wouldn't mean they would be released to Linux desktop players for fears of high support costs for little revenue.

It's likely they will use Visual Studio to cross-compile to Linux. That way most devs targeting Stadia won't have to leave the comfort of their Windows developer machines. So developers won't get better at developing for Linux, but they will get better at targeting Vulkan.

See: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/cppblog/linux-development-with-c-in-visual-studio/

Quoting: ElectricPrismI hope Cyberpunk 2077 offers their Vulkan layer on Windows, at least then Proton could run it really well on Linux out of box.

Quoting: Sir_DiealotNo interest in the lineup or Stadia, but maybe Cyberpunk 2077 will get a proper Linux release. Yeah right, as if.

i dont think so, they canceled witcher 3 and after years without giving an reason they said it was the bad reception that they got on witcher 2 because it was using an translation layer.

Quoting: subImho without Valve putting serious money into Linux gaming this wouldn't be even possible.

Hard to believe without all the awareness of Linux building up over the last few years and all the efforts that went into the infrastructure, Google would not have convinced a single AAA developer to go that route.

1)google has a lot of money, those companies develop for platforms with 0 users, almost no know how on how those platforms work, they learn an brand new programing language and develop games for it in 4 years or so, when there is money involved, they will do anything.

2)google is trying to enter the gaming market, so even without valve it would do that.

3)google is trying to enter the desktop operating systens market (chromeOS) and he need games to do that

Quoting: DesumNever going to support this crap. It's the ultimate DRM and walled garden rolled into one. What's the point of gaming on Linux when you don't even have the game running on somebody else's computer anyway?

i can agree on that, but the point is not just you, if more people migrate to linux since the gaming barrier break due to stadia, then we will have more native games, wine will evolve faster and so on...

Quoting: x_wing

Quoting: GuestThey mention visual studio in their software tools. I don't know how to take this. I am still not sure these games will run natively on Debian or trough a proton-like tool. And even if they do, it wouldn't mean they would be released to Linux desktop players for fears of high support costs for little revenue.

Visual Studio Code has Linux support. Never used it and probably, I never will 'cause vim is all you need!

you dont need visual studio or anything having support to run on linux, you just need it to compile for linux.

Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: scaineI honestly thought Stadia was just a glorified Steam Link that worked over the internet? So while the box you buy might be Linux-based, I always assumed there would simply be a farm of PCs running Windows in a datacentre somewhere and you tapped into that resource to place your game.

You don't buy a box. About the only real plus for this over just buying games normally is, you can play it on pretty much anything with a screen (well, if your internet connection is fast enough). So the mention of Linux was always about the servers.

Cool ta. This is what threw me, from the article:

QuoteStadia is going to launch in November, with access being granted to around 14 countries. Currently, the only way to actually get in is to purchase the Founder's Edition with everyone else getting access next year. The Founder's Edition comes with a Chromecast Ultra, three months Stadia Plus, an exclusive Night Blue Stadia Controller and more. It's not cheap though, at around $129/£119.

I'm a bit clearer on this now. I wonder what excuses developers/publishers will dream up to release on Stadia, but not release on Linux directly...? Pfff. They'll think of something, no doubt.

The games in the list that interest me are Cyberpunk and ESO. Protondb says that ESO runs great (a game I already own from the Windows days). Playing Cyberpunk as a streaming game feels like a huge risk to the experience.

I'm interested but leery.

Silver lining? Stadia is more fuel against the (already untrue) statement that Linux can't play games.

Quoting: scaineI wonder what excuses developers/publishers will dream up to release on Stadia, but not release on Linux directly...? Pfff. They'll think of something, no doubt.

I imagine something like "our only supported Linux platform is Google stadia", followed by a suggestion to play it in a browser.

I personally have zero interest in a game streaming service, but It'll be interesting to see if/how google manages to pull this of.
The combination of network+encoder+decoder latency plus bandwidth limitations should make this a rather sub-optimal experience.

Like most of you, I'm not particularly interested in streaming games. However, I CAN see why someone fortunate enough to have reliable network bandwidth and latency might be tempted. If your only use for a PC is to play games, the cost to an individual of purchasing and upgrading PC gaming hardware probably exceeds the Stadia subscription, and the player's running costs are lower. So the main target audience is probably the living-room players that Valve has also been trying to target.

The main plus that Stadia brings for Linux gaming is that it increases the importance of Vulkan as a back-end. Every new Windows game will be likely to have a D3D11/12 back-end so that it can support XBox. With Android and Stadia both using Vulkan, many Windows games will also have Vulkan back-ends, which makes them much more likely to work well under Linux/Wine, even if there is no direct port.

I am less than convinced that there will be many Stadia games extended to support generic Linux, so long as the user base remains so small. As with consoles, a Stadia game port targets a single hardware profile, and a single software stack; this makes it much easier to test and optimise at reasonable cost. That is quite different than the cost/revenue argument for a full Linux port, which would have to deal with port+support costs for many hardware combinations and inconsistent Linux graphics stacks.

It will be interesting to see if streaming is actually sustainable as a business model. I expect their hardware spend is a fraction of what you or I would have to pay, but there is still significant cost involved, particularly if they over-provision hardware to meet expected annual peaks in demand.


Last edited by etonbears on 20 August 2019 at 1:57 pm UTC