Valve's L4D2 Is Faster On Linux Than Windows

[ownagefool]

Well, its doable. All you'd really need is a 1:1 function equivalent for every OGL call. Problem is, so many DX functions rely on various Windows calls, you need to emulate those too to a certain extent. Plus, the overhead cost of running an interpreter.

Also remember its not just the graphics part of the game you need to rip out to make a port, you also need to remove all those windows specific API calls, and I can assure you theres a LOT of them. So making a OGL to DX wrapper won't magically make everything ported to linux.

Given the OS X port, its probably OK to assume those specific Win API calls are going to some sort of abstraction layer. They'll still need to write the functionality, but I imagine its a lot simpler when you're not playing hunt the platform specific code.

[kwahoo]

I couldn't find the date on the siggraph site.

Good question. AFAIK they will be at the OpenGL Birds of a Feather Wednesday, 8 August 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm | JW Marriott Los Angeles L.A. Live - Gold Ballroom Salon 3 . Any additional info? Slides, video, live streaming?

[entropy]

Good question. AFAIK they will be at the OpenGL Birds of a Feather Wednesday, 8 August 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm | JW Marriott Los Angeles L.A. Live - Gold Ballroom Salon 3 . Any additional info? Slides, video, live streaming?

They answered a similar question on their blog.

peter_2 says:
August 2, 2012 at 10:29 am

Will a video of the SIGGRAPH presentation be made available on this blog?
I would really like to watch it, because I cannot attend it in person.

Valve Linux team says:
August 2, 2012 at 3:11 pm

Great idea. We’ll make our information available in whatever form we can.

[Kristian Joensen]

A DX to GL wrapper? Isn't that how Wine handles D3D games and software? What would be the point with another one?

[ownagefool]

A DX to GL wrapper? Isn't that how Wine handles D3D games and software? What would be the point with another one?

I think its probably somewhat different actually. I'm certaintly no expert, but I in WINE imagine theres some hackage where black box calls are intercpeted and coverted, whilst putting an abstraction in your engine is probably a bit more straight forward and sensible. Its probably not VERY different, but different enough. It depends on specifics though, something that'd take someone with actual knowledge to answer.

More importantly though, WINE does a hell of a lot more than translating D3D to OpenGL and it tackles a wide base not a specific engine. Personally, I honestly don't care how its done, as long as its on par with the Windows version.