Exactly, just from the start, if game developers could switch from DX to OpenGL, to develop on windows, it would be a first step and the ports to Linux/MAC would get a performance boost and be much easier to make. OpenGL would get much more love from developers and would become much better.

Spin that wheel! :)

But let me guess... DX is required and OpenGL is not available on Xboxes... That would be Microsoft way of doing things.

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Just thinking about it... The problem is not the fact that Steam doesn't run on Windows 8. It always did.

At the beginning of the SteamOS adventure, the major points that Valve put forward was the need to be independant from MS thecnologies because they feared that MS may decide to stop supporting the Steam client, in a future version of Windows. It's all about the windows store being in direct competition with Steam and D3D12 being a nightmare for developers.

Being able to replace Metro with Steam Big Picture doesn't change that in any way... I might be wrong...

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Dropping SteamOs development after that much efforts and money invested feels kind of big.

My other point is can you thrust MS on the long run?

Personally, I don't. They have the right to implement the Big Picture mode in Windows 8, but what about windows 9 and 10? Don't forget that Steam Machines are in direct competition with XBone (even win8 with big picture).

What if MS decides to pull the plug, once Valve has dropped Linux support?

Valve will have to start all over again... What a waste of time! It doesn't make sense to me. Valve would still be dependant on the goodwill of MS. I would not be safe if I were Valve.

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Nvidia are working with Valve for the Steam Machines development and AMD proposed to supply Mantle (in part or in totality, I don't know) for the development of OpenGL-5.

Valve never said it was going to be an overnight revolution. In fact, they said many times that it would be a slow build-up.

We have to keep faith... :)

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Quoting: SkarjakOh, and I forgot to mention the whole Witcher 2 situation. :D But I guess nothing needs to be said about that.

No you don't! :)
They should have stated it was a beta, not an official release... In fact there is still a beta available for that game and it solves the last bugs that I had to deal with.

To gabsd84:
Good to know and it confirms what I was reffering to... Compromises.

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SteamOS is a Console OS. It should be sold as such, IMO. Then, it's going to be a fight on the catalog aspect vs XBone and PS4.

With 750 + games already available, SteamOS is in good position, but it needs more AAA titles. Will there be surprises at the official launch? From what I read in many places, it is really likely. A 6 month exclusivity on a big title would help the matter too.

What I mean it's that those who buy a console don't really care about what's underneath. They buy the game catalog. Ex: Half Life 3 on Steam Machines (not available on XBone or PS4). Get the picture?

If Steam Machines can get some market shares out of PS4 and XBone, it will raise the Linux Desktop marketshare at the same time. That's the leverage Valve can get from playing on both "playgrounds".

March 2015, they say... :)

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Anyone runs an AMD R9 or R7 GPU, on Linux?

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AMD proprietary drivers are a nightmare. Never been able to correclty use an AMD GPU on Linux except if I could use the FOOS driver and, in that case, it rarely supports the latest GPUs.

So, for AMD, no matter what you do, it's all about compromises. Too bad, being Canadian, I was a big AMD fan (ATI was a Canadian company).

I decided to switch to NVidia and XCom, The Witcher II and Borderlands II are just awesome, all maxed out (Gigabyte, GTX 750 TI).

I don't know what M. Geldreich is talking about... :)

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All of this is the reason why they are working on OpenGL-5.

And yes Linux needs more than 1.2% of marketshare to draw the attention of developpers.

As long as there is no true Steam Machine offering, side by side with XBone and PS4, we can't speculate about the SteamOS performances or future.

IMO, if these boxes can get the Linux marketshare at around 5% to 10%, things will change because Linux will become attractive for developpers. From that point, who knows...

It's all about what comes first and somebody (Valve) has to start the whole thing and it's not done yet.

March 2015, they say...

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Haven't played for some time... Tanks in Warthunder? Yes!
World of Tanks just got flanked... :)

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