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  (Source: geek.com)
For those who want to participate in the Steam for Linux beta program, download the most recent Steam Linux client or upgrade

Valve Corporation has announced that the Steam for Linux beta program is now open to the public.

Up until this point, the Steam for Linux beta program was closed to the public, but making it available itsn't the only Steam-related news. Steam for Linux beta client bugs will be tracked through GitHub, which is a change from the use of forums in the closed version. Anyone can access the Steam for Linux repository with a free GitHub account in order to create, edit and track new issues as well as search others in the database.

There are a few other changes as well, such as the Steam installer package repository, and fixes to excessive CPU usage by the Steam client during Team Fortress 2 as well as overlay crash in Cubemen and better back navigation behavior/added discount behaviors in Big Picture.

For those who want to participate in the Steam for Linux beta program, download the most recent Steam Linux client or upgrade your current client to the latest version.

Back in October, Valve announced that it was allowing users to apply for the Steam for Linux beta. Valve said it was specifically looking for experienced users familiar with Linux and are running Ubuntu 12.04 or above. There were only 1,000 spots available in the registry.

Source: Steam


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Dawn of a new Day
By vol7ron on 12/20/2012 9:51:05 PM , Rating: 2
A big advantage, in my humble opinion, that Microsoft had over the other OSes was its monopoly over online gaming - let's face it DirectX is nice from visual, audio, peripheral management, etc. Steam has really been making great changes in becoming available on OSX and (hopefully) Linux; though, I think it's still OpenGL-based, rather than Direct3D/X.




RE: Dawn of a new Day
By inighthawki on 12/20/2012 9:59:18 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Linux; though, I think it's still OpenGL-based, rather than Direct3D/X.

And never will be because DirectX is a propriety and core component of windows. DirectX is not just a user level API, but works hand in hand with the graphics kernel in Windows, which is why the newer versions are so hard to get working in WINE just to simulate it.


RE: Dawn of a new Day
By TakinYourPoints on 12/20/2012 10:48:42 PM , Rating: 1
DirectX is a proprietary graphics API that is exclusive to Windows and the XBox 360. Games for OS X and Linux use OpenGL.

On the plus side, OpenGL optimizations have been going very well for Valve. In the two years since Steam launched for OS X they got Source to run very fast on it, and they currently have Source games running faster under Linux than they do in Windows. Granted, 315fps in Linux vs 270fps in Windows gives no practical benefits since it is already so fast, but it is still worth noting.

In the end, this is great and very forward looking for Valve, especially given that the future of their business partly lies in DOTA 2. Getting DOTA 2 to run very fast on cheap hardware (remember, DOTA 2 is huge in China and Brazil) on a free OS like Linux is one place they'll benefit for sure.


RE: Dawn of a new Day
By inighthawki on 12/20/2012 11:10:39 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
On the plus side, OpenGL optimizations have been going very well for Valve. In the two years since Steam launched for OS X they got Source to run very fast on it, and they currently have Source games running faster under Linux than they do in Windows. Granted, 315fps in Linux vs 270fps in Windows gives no practical benefits since it is already so fast, but it is still worth noting.


I'm still very suspicious of this claim, since they've released no details. Is it one particular scenario, one particular configuration of hardware. Did they use DX9 or DX11. If DX9, then LOL of course OpenGL 4.2 will be better. Lets compare a brand new API to one that's 10 years old...


RE: Dawn of a new Day
By TakinYourPoints on 12/20/2012 11:48:05 PM , Rating: 2
Incorrect, they released all of those details. Hardware was a GTX 680, Intel i7-3930k, and 32GB of RAM, and the operating systems were Windows 7 and Ubuntu 12.04. All current Source engine games use DX9, not DX10 or 11, so that part is irrelevant. The version of OpenGL being newer is also beside the point, it took months of optimizations and custom driver work to get L4D2 on Linux to go all the way up from 6fps to what they're running now.

Either way, I'm all for cross-platform to work. It has been in Microsoft's best interests to make sure that the best gaming experiences are on their platforms, despite the fact that OpenGL ports and original games on Mac, PS3, and iOS (through OpenGL ES) have been solid for years.

Valve (and Blizzard) are mostly responsible for keeping PC gaming viable in the first place, so if they want to open things up to platforms other than Windows or Mac, I'm all for it.


RE: Dawn of a new Day
By inighthawki on 12/21/2012 12:59:30 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Incorrect, they released all of those details. Hardware was a GTX 680, Intel i7-3930k, and 32GB of RAM, and the operating systems were Windows 7 and Ubuntu 12.04

Sorry I should have clarified, I worded that very poorly. I meant whether or not it only did that well on one hardware configuration, or others as well? What were their OTHER tests. They could have easily tested it on 100 machines and cherry picked the one that worked best. They could've had dozens of lower end systems that run significantly worse.

quote:
Source engine games use DX9, not DX10 or 11, so that part is irrelevant.

That doesn't mean they don't have internal builds with different rendering engines. Knowing what they tested against is incredibly relevant.

quote:
The version of OpenGL being newer is also beside the point, it took months of optimizations and custom driver work to get L4D2 on Linux to go all the way up from 6fps to what they're running now.

No I think that's great, but when you claim "OpenGL runs better on Windows 7 than DirectX" you need to know which one you're referring to, because DX11 is much more optimized than DX9.


RE: Dawn of a new Day
By TakinYourPoints on 12/21/2012 3:07:20 AM , Rating: 1
I didn't say that OpenGL is faster than DirectX, I said that they got Left 4 Dead 2 running faster in OpenGL, huge difference. :)

I don't expect this to be the same for everyone. For example, I wouldn't automatically assume that Blizzard would get similar results with Starcraft 2 or Diablo 3, it all depends.


RE: Dawn of a new Day
By inighthawki on 12/21/2012 12:33:33 PM , Rating: 2
Again, poor wording, I apologize. I was using "you"generically to mean Valve, not literally you.


RE: Dawn of a new Day
By TakinYourPoints on 12/21/2012 6:32:25 PM , Rating: 2
No worries!


RE: Dawn of a new Day
By ResStellarum on 12/21/2012 11:26:14 AM , Rating: 1
Actually OpenGL a big advantage over Direct3D:

It's available on every platform in some form or another. GNU/Linux, OS X, Android, iOS, Ouya (when it's released), Wii, Playstation, and of course Windows too.

Direct3D on the other hand is only available for Windows and XBox. That's a huge limitation. It's also proprietary, which means Microsoft controls the keys. That would worry me as a game developer given their past history.


RE: Dawn of a new Day
By TakinYourPoints on 12/21/2012 5:44:07 PM , Rating: 2
I agree that it is a big advantage for cross-platform development. It is a huge reason why John Carmack and a few other developers who are into portability and openness of code prefer to work in OpenGL.

It also appears that there is a DX/MS fanboy around here downvoting any posts mentioning these completely objective points. Funny.


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