Valve's L4D2 Is Faster On Linux Than Windows

[MonkeyPaw]

I believe Vista's new driver model took OpenGL support and moved it inside of DirectX. People believed it was a natural course in reducing its use. It was sad,as I remember going from Win98 to NT4 and being blown away at the huge OpenGL gains in Quake 2. Vista definitely was a setback.

The class action lawsuits thing is a response to a new law passed in the EU, namely that people should be able to sell used copies of digital goods. This is something Valve hasn't supported up till now and they wanted some protection against being forced into adding such a feature or needing to pull out of the EU entirely.

Yeah. I don't know how I feel about it. It does sound like we might have another storm brewing in the disc-less distribution model. It's a bit of digression for this topic, I apologize.

[frostwarrior]

FUD is the reason. When Vista was announced Microsoft said that OpenGL would not be supported at all, this made many devs switch over to DX, then right around when Vista came out they said "Just kidding ", but by then it was already too late. The damage was done.

Here's a nice read:
http://programmers.stackexchange.com...prefer-windows

[Dukenukemx]

As a side question. Why are people still programming for directx? It works only on windows. Program for opengl and you make your engine more portable from the start for if (actually when) you'll port it to linux. It's not like directx is so much easier than opengl.... brainwashed devs..

Microsoft makes it pretty easy to develop for Windows, and most game developers only focus on Windows and Xbox. PS3 is the only OpenGL game and even then, not worth the effort for developers.

[frostwarrior]

IMHO Linux was out of the question until nvidia drivers came up with his blob. Or, may I dare, until ubuntu was in the scene.

Linux was more a server/geek thing than a gaming platform at that time.
It was pretty much how do we see BSD guys today.

Let's talk about debian potato/woody as a gaming platform, compared to windows 98/XP.

[Kiori]

IMHO Linux was out of the question until nvidia drivers came up with his blob. Or, may I dare, until ubuntu was in the scene.

Linux was more a server/geek thing than a gaming platform at that time.
It was pretty much how do we see BSD guys today.

Let's talk about debian potato/woody as a gaming platform, compared to windows 98/XP.

Seriously?

Anything linux at (almost) any period in time was/is better than anything windows, really. Windows 98 was utter crap, and when launched so was XP.
Only after many years was XP really usable...

[frostwarrior]

Seriously?

Anything linux at (almost) any period in time was/is better than anything windows, really. Windows 98 was utter crap, and when launched so was XP.
Only after many years was XP really usable...

But I'm not talking about "anything". I'm being specific, talking about graphic drivers and API's.
How was gaming on debian woody?

[fenixkane]

Here's a nice read:
http://programmers.stackexchange.com...prefer-windows

A very nice read. Thanks for this, was enjoyable and informative.

[Linuxxx]

I wonder if he will ever reply...
You know, that Phoronix forum member who thinks he is a graphics API god but is really nothing more than a Microsoft fanboy.
Always saying how much better and faster Direct3D is compared to OpenGL; saying that you can't really have multi-threading with OpenGL...
Probably too embarrassed now to see why he just isn't competent enough to work for ValvE.
Have fun convincing yourself that OpenGL isn't worth it, while real programmers use it just fine instead of whining on the Phoronix forums!

[Sidicas]

But I'm not talking about "anything". I'm being specific, talking about graphic drivers and API's.
How was gaming on debian woody?

I don't recall it being bad.. I remember playing Enemy Territory on Woody with no problems... I'm pretty sure I was using blob graphics drivers though.
Linux really isn't bad for gaming, it's just that the open graphics drivers are lagging too far behind current generation games.. I think that's just a matter of manpower.. As somebody else said, if Linux can get a solid 5 FPS advantage over Windows on the latest games, then a *LOT* of people will switch from Windows.

I want to buy an AMD Trinity ultrabook, but the AMD 7000 series GPU support in Linux is scary bad..

[keegdsb]

But I'm not talking about "anything". I'm being specific, talking about graphic drivers and API's.
How was gaming on debian woody?

I sunk many hours into UT and Q3A on Linux with my G400Max and the DRI drivers. This was from 2000-2004. For those games, which were ported well, there was no appreciable speed difference.