The Steam on Linux experience

So Steam is out of beta, I think apparently because it doesn't seem like its really "there"

Tested it with TF2 and well while my laptop isn't gaming-class it can still play any Source game without any problems, but in this case man did TF2 sucks! even with every effect and detail cut down to the bone it runs like total laggy shit, less than 10fps!

I'll be trying it on the desktop later, but I tell you this thing wont get any traction if you need mid-to-high end hardware to run a 6-year old game, and I dont see any well known publishers racing to port their games.

 

They seem to be porting over lackluster (or older) games in my opinion, if they'd take to time to port Counter Strike Global Offensive over I'd certainly be a happy bunny and it'd show they have faith in the platform at least a little. However with the current rate at which they're slooooooowly ironing out bugs from the windows release I'd say this isn't coming to linux any time soon.

I'd rather spend my evenings logged into Linux Mint rather than windows (I work in Linux and play in Windows currently).

I've not tested any games on Linux yet so I can't comment on the performance issue, though I do have quite a meaty rig so I imagine it wouldn't have a problem with them really.

I think personally it'll take a while for the waters to warm enough for companies to think about porting their games to Linux. I imagine it's a fair bit of work for not much return at the moment.

 

A big issue is still video drivers.

 

I downloaded the nVIDIA drivers and installed them completely painlessly, which is a stark contrast from 2003 ish when I tried installing linux on my rig then (which was meaty at the time). I had a hell of a time ironing out bugs and spent so long trying to set up my Radeon 9800xt on dual monitors that I gave up completely as I realised I was spending more time fiddling with it (not just the graphics) than actually using the damn OS. Stuck it on my laptop instead....

I'm a more patient person nowadays though.

 

I would consider dual-booting on my laptop... if they make everything fully and easily playable.

Until then, I'll leave Win7 on this thing.

 

I use Radeon and the fglrx drivers still suck donkey balls.

And with the meager offer of games there is no way I'm paying for a nvidia card just for this.

Anyways, my guess is that unless valve makes a real official steambox console nobody is going to bother porting to linux.

And even then we are talking about porting to one unique hardware config not hundreds, meaning that games might still not work well in linux-PCs

 

I have Steam on Linux mostly to keep in touch with friends. So I haven't tried it for games yet. But even though its been on Linux for some time now, it still performs really poorly.

I really like that Valve tries to make Linux a gaming platform (I don't care if they just want to make their own hw/sw-platform) but their Software is so non-standard that its one of the worst pieces of Linux-Software I have used in a very long time.
I also hope that especially Radeon drivers will improve now with Valve backing the platform, but on the other side, I'm worried that Valve leaves the platform again which would crush most hope for Linux gaming (considering major developers).
BUT...
As soon as I start Steam it changes my Anti-Aliasing settings, changes my mouse-cursor, screws up my desktop with it's weird window drawing method sometimes ruins my taskbar with non-existing windows. I'm using Arch Linux, so that might be contribute to the problems.

So that sums up my experience with Steam on Linux.

 

Well I've avoided Radeon like the plague - was ATI back then, is now AMD I believe. Even then I was pissed off with the way it performed on most games and the driver support seemed to be all over the place, not forgetting they introduced that crappy catalyst control centre which seemed to gobble resources and lag the computer out just to change settings on it.

It took me a while after that to have enough faith to even consider linux on my computer.

I've had like I said before a completely painless Linux experience this time round, I'm using Mint (NADIA) with mate desktop and I've had no problems installing and running graphics apps this time round, no desktop quirks or driver problems.

And like JayFoxRox said I only use it to keep in touch with mates when logged into Linux, though EVERY time I launch steam it installs an update of sorts. It doesn't take long, but it always installs something. I've also had no problem with it ether as far as functionality or causing errors in the OS.

I hope they do make a linux steam box, I'd definitely pick up one of those and chuck it under my other TV.

 

Valve recommend ubuntu linux as their distro for their client and games, maybe thats why people are running into problems with performance etc

 

Afaik Steam support for linux only covers ubuntu and some ubuntu distros like Mint, but arch? thats not even debian based.

Video drivers still suck, the only exception being intel ones but given my crap experience even with discrete midend graphics I doubt you can run TF2 in a HD4000

I'm using ubuntu and I still get performance issues so it really comes down to bad optimization for now.

As for the steambox is still not clear if Valve is going to make one, license it to OEMs or just release a list of supported hw and tell every gamer to build one of its own.

Personally I prefer the first or last options since OEMs are going to charge and arm and a leg for crappy components.

 

Shadowlayer, TF2 runs just fine on HD3000. I play it often on my 2011 MacBook Pro (obviously it's much nicer on my gaming desktop, but I digress). It should be OK on HD4000 as well.

You really need to use the closed-source binary drivers for Source engine games on Linux. The open source ones have bad/non-existent s3tc support, and source uses that extensively.

I suspected from the beginning that Steam for Linux would actually be Steam for Ubuntu, and it turns out I was pretty close. It seems like Arch/Gentoo/Redhat users are just lucky that it works for them too.

 

What retroswim said, you're probably using the wrong drivers.
'It seems like Arch/Gentoo/Redhat users are just lucky that it works for them too.'
Eh? Static compile, it'll run on any GNU/linux distro with the correct basic libraries.
I've got an NVIDIA 9600 GT using the propietry drivers and it runs flawlessly here.

 

You are right, but they target Ubuntu in terms of what comes with it "out of the box".

Because 99% of their customers wouldn't know a glibc from the library down the street.

 

i've not had any issues with steam on linux, on or off ubuntu, but i've been using linux for years, that said i didnt need to do anything special, currently under linux i have CS: Source, Serious Sam 3 BFE, Space Pirates and Zombies, steel storm burning retribution and TF2, all run great.


client itself runs fine, i expected alot worse. but its been no problem. also like the way you dont have to re buy the games to get the linux version.

 

Been testing Steam Linux for a while now on 12.04 LTS. TF2 performance is crap even on a 7850 with the 13.1 drivers. The latest beta drivers are said to help out in this area though. However I don't care for TF2 so since CSS works fine and so do 1.6, CZ and HL I am satisfied with it. The games they have to offer is rather slim and I'm still hoping to see at least CS:GO hit Linux. I think the other GoldScr/Source games are being converted to the new Steam Pipe design which might be why it is taking so long. But my money is on the oh so infamous Valve time.

 

AMD = ATI = good video hardware and shitty drivers. It's still the same as it was in Rage II times. Linux drivers are utter crap, windows... well a bit better. I can name a lot of games that work better on GF6600 than latest Radeon. And some of them will be more than 10 years old...

 

while still not perfect, the amd drivers have improved a lot over the past few years and a huge amount since the rage / early radeon days alot of the issues people have could be wiped out if amd and the big players in the GNU/Linux scene played nice together and cut out the handbag swining but steam is a huge step forward, more games / demand on linux = more effort being put into the drivers = better quality end user experience.

babysteps

alot of games actually work faster / better under emulation in linux, than running natively on windows. witch again is rapidly improving

 

lol pacman breaks x

gb2 mint bleeding edge kid shitty timesink os

(I'm kidding ofc)

PS: Nobody here showed be a freedums person. Open system settings, find driver/software repos and tick "use proprietary sources", it'll make life far easier.

 

for me tf2 runs fine sometimes, but then it has these wierd mouse input lags and also on the xbox360 controller aswell, which makes it unplayable, but cs:s usually runs fine,
it still has some problems here and there, for example when using the flashlight which has a kinda nasty effect on the fps. the xbox360 controller is making problems in booth games

serious sam 3 only runs good when i set the graphics to "medium", on windows i could run it at "high". the xbox360 controller is working fine here.

big picture mode is currently not really usuable for me, it drops the performance for everygame, the overlay is slow as hell ingame, and it stays minimized after exiting a game.

i'm not really sure if its only the fault of my amd graphics card, i think about getting a nvidia 660 or 660ti, not sure right now. i also thought about getting a hd7950..oh the devil........but their gpus are just so much cheaper then nvidias

 

why anyone would use a 360 controler on PC FPS games is beyond me but whatever floats it for you, i dont have any issues with the flashlight affecting frames per second.

with serious sam 3 it has a hellova lot of performance tweaks and customization options

i have AMD HD5830s in crossfire

withs Serious Sam 3, the MSAA settings and super sampling made a great impact on performance i've not played the game in windows but it runs great in linux for me