Today, Valve replied to our message asking about the situation with Half-Life: Alyx and Linux support and we got our answer.
Originally, the official statement that was sent to us (at the bottom here) mentioned it was only being confirmed for Windows. As it came closer to release, we messaged Valve again to see if they could be any clearer and here's what they sent to us today:
The game will be playable on Proton with DX11 at launch. Post-launch, we'll be aiming to provide Vulkan and Linux support through subsequent updates.
This is excellent news of course, showing truly that Valve is committed to Linux gaming for their return to the Half-Life saga. Now you just need a Virtual Reality kit and a decently powered computer but at least you will have a bit of extra time to prepare for the Linux version.
"Playing as Alyx Vance, you are humanity’s only chance for survival. The Combine’s control of the planet since the Black Mesa incident has only strengthened as they corral the remaining population in cities. Among them are some of Earth’s greatest scientists: you and your father, Dr. Eli Vance."
You can wishlist/follow Half-Life: Alyx on Steam. The release for Windows will be on March 23, once a date is set for Linux and when we learn more we will let you know.
If you missed it, Valve put out some Half-Life: Alyx gameplay videos which we've included below:
Direct Link
Direct Link
Direct Link
Additionally, Gabe Newell and Robin Walker of Valve spoke to IGN in a new video that went up today.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
appetrosyan Mar 28, 2020
Quoting: buonoQuoting: subQuoting: HoriIDK... I've got a Valve Index this monday (a great way to fight the pandemic btw) and SteamVR works VERY badly on Linux, and often freezes my whole system. Many games also refuse to start even.
I'm sorry to say this but I play all my VR games on Windows because of that, and they will likely count as Windows sales because of this. I really hoped I can stick to Linux, but VR is where I draw the line. I can handle errors, glitches and crashes on traditional games, but not in VR.
If I may ask - what GPU?
Recently bought a 5700XT and waiting for the Index, which currently says 2-4 weeks. :(
Alex will run on the rx 5700. I am currently running Arch with these tweeks from the mesa-git repo, vulkan-radeon-git, mesa-git, together with 32 bit libs and xf86-video-amdgpu-git. I am also using the drm-fixes-5.6 branch of the linux kernel (An easy way to do this can be found in gardotd426 's comment on this thread from about a week ago). I have had about 3 crashes in about 4.5 hours of gameplay and been able to ssh in but can only recover with a reboot.
The game itself is great fun, I am using the index headset but I only have the old controllers and I think to get the most out of the game you need valves new controllers.
Is the 5700xt as bad as people make it out to be. I'm currently thinking of upgrading, and people cast doubt on whether I should get nVidia or AMD.
Quoting: appetrosyanIs the 5700xt as bad as people make it out to be.Nvidia fans bash AMD and vice versa. Business as usual.
I'm not really interested in VR myself, but I'm pretty damn happy with my 5700XT for regular gaming. If that's what you're asking.
But if you mean in the context of VR on Linux and Half Life: Alyx specifically, judging by the comments on this SteamVR article from a couple of days ago, AMD might actually be the safer bet right now.
Is the 5700xt as bad as people make it out to be.
NO! Its a pretty awesome card. I bought mine day 1 release.
Okay I will accept it took a while for everything to catch up but now everything is sweet plays everything I through at it. Mainly in 4k.
And most all VR games play fine.
HL:A has got a little performance issues but I bet they will get sorted very soon or wait for native release.
PS Cool game so far.
Last edited by stud68 on 28 March 2020 at 8:59 pm UTC
Last edited by buono on 30 March 2020 at 8:34 am UTC
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