Valve's Alien Swarm Game For Linux?

[leif81]

Porting games to different platforms takes time and money. It's very possible internally at Valve there are a few interested in a long term vision of seeing the engine, games, and Steam itself run on Linux. But all this takes time and money. However even if they want it to happen it doesn't mean it can happen over night. Often when porting to other platforms you make tiny progress here and there by replacing one bit of windows code with another bit of cross platform code. Or one windows library here with another cross platform library (i.e. webkit). Eventually the light at the end of the tunnel gets brighter and you realize it's actually going to be possible. Who knows where Valve is in that tunnel. My guess is that with the Mac port done it must be technically within grasp and largely coming down to marketing and financial decision planning for if and when it makes sense to release.

[Havner]

Although you may have forgotten that steam already HAS come to Linux. Just not released to the public. I think it would be safe to assume companies would not waste money on developing a product they don't plan on selling.

Wrong. Look at the UT3 story that was lately confirmed just here on Phoronix that UT3 will not be coming to Linux. Even if they made working Linux client it doesn't mean they will release and maintain it. Just like I said. Someone (even it mean whole Valve) might have been playing with it.

[BlueKoala]

Please stop taking small pieces of code from random places and claiming an imminent port just because the word linux is there, It could be some framework/library that might work on linux that steam is using.
Only mention steam again if you have words from developers, or something filtered, but stop messing with the code.

UT3 taught me to not rely on what devs say, but rather to make my own assumptions.

[mirv]

Oh no, not another article about steam on linux....
I'd honestly be surprised if the folks at Valve weren't tinkering with getting things to run under linux, but that's all it has the appearance of at this stage. Tinkering, testing, just to see if it can be made to work.
Let's also remember where Alien Swarm came from: a UT2004 mod, and back then playable under Linux (or so I hear - never tried it myself).
Between this, the UT3 debacle, and Wayland (nothing anyone can say means it _will_ overtake X or gain traction - all we can say is "it's possible, maybe in a couple of years or more"), it does make site less interesting.

[BlueKoala]

Wrong. Look at the UT3 story that was lately confirmed just here on Phoronix that UT3 will not be coming to Linux. Even if they made working Linux client it doesn't mean they will release and maintain it. Just like I said. Someone (even it mean whole Valve) might have been playing with it.

I disagree.
UT3 was fully intended to be released on Linux.
Companies do not intentionally sink resources into something that will never see the light of day, unless strictly for research purposes.
Apparently something went wrong with UT3 and we can only speculate what could have gone wrong.
The fact that linux references have been found on a recent steam game that was developed by Valve themselves is proof that they intend the game to be released on linux. Whether only internally or publicly is not what I'm debating. I'm just saying that coders usually have a QA process and I'm sure that this wouldn't have passed through if they did not intend the game to be released on linux. With all that being said, it only makes logical sense that this will be released to the public eventually. I'm also certain that if valve had no intentions of releasing a linux client, they would have officially stated it by now. Instead we just see more hints of it coming to linux. I think it's very safe to ask oneself "when" the client will finally come.

I think it may be as early as January 2011. I'm willing to bet 50$ US dollars with you Havner that by September 2011, there will be a Linux steam client out for public use.

[elanthis]

and Wayland (nothing anyone can say means it _will_ overtake X or gain traction - all we can say is "it's possible, maybe in a couple of years or more"), it does make site less interesting.

The difference here is that half of the core X.org developers are saying Wayland is the way to go in the future. The people who actually write the code and make the decisions about what to support and work on are leaning towards Wayland. That's a big difference than a corporate entity like Epic that might change its mind for non-technical reasons or basically unprovable sensationalist headlines from a niche news site operator. You can actually get on the IRC channels, mailing lists, and git repositories and watch Wayland move along both technically and socially. Can't do that for UT3 or Steam.

[byteframe]

Bullspit. There will be no Linux client for Steam. It's ok, wine is fine.

[Havner]

I disagree.
UT3 was fully intended to be released on Linux.

And Steam might be. I'm not questioning that. The fact is, we don't know. That's the whole point. Im not saying it won't happen. I'm saying that Phoronix claiming they know it will without giving a proof is just scam.

Companies do not intentionally sink resources into something that will never see the light of day, unless strictly for research purposes.

Of course. The key word is intentionally. Lots of project are not finished because various of reasons. And Steam on Linux might fall under those categories. It might be research as well as you wrote.

The fact that linux references have been found on a recent steam game that was developed by Valve themselves is proof that they intend the game to be released on linux. Whether only internally or publicly is not what I'm debating. I'm just saying that coders usually have a QA process and I'm sure that this wouldn't have passed through if they did not intend the game to be released on linux. With all that being said, it only makes logical sense that this will be released to the public eventually.

That's not that obvious. I am software developer myself, I know the process. It's not black or white. QA is failing very often. Besides, completely valid lines of code for Linux might not be considered bad quality just because there is no Linux client. We don't know their policy.

I'm also certain that if valve had no intentions of releasing a linux client, they would have officially stated it by now. Instead we just see more hints of it coming to linux. I think it's very safe to ask oneself "when" the client will finally come.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/23/v...-in-the-works/

I think it may be as early as January 2011. I'm willing to bet 50$ US dollars with you Havner that by September 2011, there will be a Linux steam client out for public use.

I might be willing to accept the bet. Just tell me why September? Do you know something? :-) (yeah, conspiracy theories)

[mirv]

The difference here is that half of the core X.org developers are saying Wayland is the way to go in the future. The people who actually write the code and make the decisions about what to support and work on are leaning towards Wayland. That's a big difference than a corporate entity like Epic that might change its mind for non-technical reasons or basically unprovable sensationalist headlines from a niche news site operator. You can actually get on the IRC channels, mailing lists, and git repositories and watch Wayland move along both technically and socially. Can't do that for UT3 or Steam.

Yes, Wayland is likely to be how things are - but we can't say it with 100% certainty. Might be something stopping it later, or it may be deemed unsuitable due to [insert whatever here]. Just learned to wait until things are in actual shape to start being widespread before claiming that everyone will adopt it.

[byteframe]

As the following been discussed? Ok, so even if Valve were to commit to Linux, that would mean only a small number of games (source and others) would be native. Would the Steam client then have to be able to call Wine to run the other games, or would the user have to have two copies of steam running, one for native, and one for wine games? Seems like a pain in the ass.