Steam - It's Not Just for Windows and Macs Anymore

Malor wrote:

What format did the Humble Bundle games come in? What's the extension on the filename you downloaded?

I believe it depends on the game. Some are .deb files, some are just archives you unzip and run the executable.

Well, I was going to try to give him specific commands to type, which would change based on the extension.

Malor wrote:

Well, I was going to try to give him specific commands to type, which would change based on the extension.

Oh sorry I thought you were just asking a general question. My bad.

Malor wrote:

What format did the Humble Bundle games come in? What's the extension on the filename you downloaded?

They were bin and .run.

I figured out how to install them (Go into properties, and make them executable), but Trine isn't working. It is using a shader 3.0, and I guess my intel HD card doesn't have that.

Supermeat boy was fun on the laptop, and like the intro : Gamepad is not necessary, as in bathing... ;P

It is using a shader 3.0, and I guess my intel HD card doesn't have that.

Yeah, you'll need Nvidia hardware with their custom drivers to make that work reliably. You may be able to get it running on opensource drivers on either AMD or NVidia hardware, but I wouldn't count on it. The AMD official driver software has a very bad reputation, although I haven't tried it myself in many, many years.

Basically, if you want good 3D on Linux, you really want NVidia, still. Intel supports the opensource drivers for its hardware, and as a result they are very reliable, but Intel 3D ranges from laughable, several years ago, to quite weak in current offerings.

They make excellent 2D chipsets, however, and if you stick with 2D-style games, they should run very nicely.

Malor wrote:
It is using a shader 3.0, and I guess my intel HD card doesn't have that.

Yeah, you'll need Nvidia hardware with their custom drivers to make that work reliably. You may be able to get it running on opensource drivers on either AMD or NVidia hardware, but I wouldn't count on it. The AMD official driver software has a very bad reputation, although I haven't tried it myself in many, many years.

Basically, if you want good 3D on Linux, you really want NVidia, still. Intel supports the opensource drivers for its hardware, and as a result they are very reliable, but Intel 3D ranges from laughable, several years ago, to quite weak in current offerings.

They make excellent 2D chipsets, however, and if you stick with 2D-style games, they should run very nicely.

now, if I want to delete Trine, just delete there folder? Or is there more to it to delete?

Oh, and as far as bin/run files go, it can be easier to drop into a CLI and do 'chmod u+x fileinquestion.run'. (that means set the user executable bit -- the owner of the file can run it.) At least, it is if you can remember the incantation; if you have to look it up, it's probably faster in the GUI.

Just 'chmod +x' also works, but that also sets Group and Other executable. Once in a great while, that can have unpleasant security implications, so using u+x is a good habit to develop, at least if you turn into a CLI jock.

Well, I don't know what it did -- I don't have that version of the game to test. PROBABLY, the original trine.bin file (whatever it was called) created a subdirectory, and put a bunch of files in there. If it didn't ask you for root permissions, then all it would have write access to would be your home directory and subdirs. So uninstalling should consist of removing that directory, plus optionally the binary file that created it.

I can't promise this, but it's highly likely.

Wow, one of my predictions at the beginning of this year. Even on the podcast it was put as not very likely at all. (my prediction was a Steam OS).
Besides all that. This is pretty big!

I had a feeling that a console was the only reason they would move steam to linux, the numbers just don't make sense otherwise.

Great news. This just means Steam on Linux is going to be a much bigger deal, and the drive to improve Linux video & sound will be that much stronger.

I hope that they both sell physical machines themselves, plus also release specs, to let anyone roll their own. Assuming that the DRM is no worse than it is now, that could be just about an ideal 'console'.

If they do get into console hardware themselves, I wonder if they'll sell at a loss, like Nintendo and Microsoft? If they do, that would be a big driver for tighter DRM, which would be really unfortunate. If they don't, then it would either be underpowered, or more expensive than the subsidized hardware. I'm good with that, but I wonder if, say, my sister would be. "Well, an XBox 720 is $100 less, and it looks just as good or better, so why would I buy the Valve machine?"

Generally, being the most expensive console is a bad idea. Look how badly the PS3 struggled.

Cross-posted from the Steam Box thread in the games area:

From what I'm reading in that Verge article, Valve appears to want to put a tight console/iOS/Windows Store like leash on this ecosystem that will run on their Steam box. In other words, they want to do exactly with this platform what they called Windows 8 a "catastrophe" for attempting in one small section of it. Don't get me wrong, I think it could still be cool and I'd be OK with their dedicated hardware platform being a walled garden in that way but it also seems...I don't know. Hypocritical is most certainly the wrong word but I don't know the right one to use.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Cross-posted from the Steam Box thread in the games area:

From what I'm reading in that Verge article, Valve appears to want to put a tight console/iOS/Windows Store like leash on this ecosystem that will run on their Steam box. In other words, they want to do exactly with this platform what they called Windows 8 a "catastrophe" for attempting in one small section of it. Don't get me wrong, I think it could still be cool and I'd be OK with their dedicated hardware platform being a walled garden in that way but it also seems...I don't know. Hypocritical is most certainly the wrong word but I don't know the right one to use.

I know what you are getting at and how you could see this a bit hypocritical. But Valve is already doing what it is. They are their own walled garden already. Because they are a store.
Windows is an OS, not a store. And now wants to be its OS AND its store. That's where the difference is for me.
You could argue they are Valve is becoming the OS on the Steam box. But it is still a different animal. Here you get an optimized OS for your Steam.
It's not necessary, but you can choose for it. The Steam Box is its walled garden from the start. Windows not.

Sparhawk wrote:

I know what you are getting at and how you could see this a bit hypocritical. But Valve is already doing what it is. They are their own walled garden already. Because they are a store.
Windows is an OS, not a store. And now wants to be its OS AND its store. That's where the difference is for me.
You could argue they are Valve is becoming the OS on the Steam box. But it is still a different animal. Here you get an optimized OS for your Steam.
It's not necessary, but you can choose for it. The Steam Box is its walled garden from the start. Windows not.

The reason they called Windows 8 a catastrophe is not because of the OS but because of the Windows Store that cut into their business model. The overall quality of the OS has nothing to do with it. It is pretty clear why Valve has to make its own garden from the ground up to justify its existence in the long-run.

They called it a catastrophe because that's what it is - a move by Microsoft to extract toll from all Windows users. Now that they're starting down that path, there's no limit to how far they'll go - as long as people keep signing up for that lousy deal, the deal will keep getting lousier.

/sigh

Anyway, it appears as though the article has been updated as there is stuff there now I'm positive I didn't read before. As usual, the enthusiast press quoted first and provided context later. It appears as though Valve's plan is to allow both standard PC games and even games from competing services to run on this Steam Box. If so, that's excellent. Maybe it will be one of those things where you have to enable an "advanced mode" to get access to stuff that they haven't tested and certified.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

/sigh

Anyway, it appears as though the article has been updated as there is stuff there now I'm positive I didn't read before. As usual, the enthusiast press quoted first and provided context later. It appears as though Valve's plan is to allow both standard PC games and even games from competing services to run on this Steam Box. If so, that's excellent. Maybe it will be one of those things where you have to enable an "advanced mode" to get access to stuff that they haven't tested and certified.

If so.. how is this special in any way then really? Are we just looking at an Alienware X51 with a bunch of preloaded software? Unless its heavily subsidized by Valve I'm not sure how this is even remotely interesting to anyone.

parallaxview wrote:
Sparhawk wrote:

I know what you are getting at and how you could see this a bit hypocritical. But Valve is already doing what it is. They are their own walled garden already. Because they are a store.
Windows is an OS, not a store. And now wants to be its OS AND its store. That's where the difference is for me.
You could argue they are Valve is becoming the OS on the Steam box. But it is still a different animal. Here you get an optimized OS for your Steam.
It's not necessary, but you can choose for it. The Steam Box is its walled garden from the start. Windows not.

The reason they called Windows 8 a catastrophe is not because of the OS but because of the Windows Store that cut into their business model. The overall quality of the OS has nothing to do with it. It is pretty clear why Valve has to make its own garden from the ground up to justify its existence in the long-run.

We are agreeing here I think and I think what Valve is doing is great

Sparhawk wrote:
parallaxview wrote:

The reason they called Windows 8 a catastrophe is not because of the OS but because of the Windows Store that cut into their business model. The overall quality of the OS has nothing to do with it. It is pretty clear why Valve has to make its own garden from the ground up to justify its existence in the long-run.

We are agreeing here I think and I think what Valve is doing is great :)

It is a HEATED agreement

I agree that it is a good move by valve if they manage to pull it off without becoming "evil"

Vessel is out for Linux

Good news everyone!

Steam is now in open Beta for Linux! (I found it weird at first I was able to log in from my account on my Linux machine...)

http://steamcommunity.com/games/2214...

Here's the change list for this release:
The Steam for Linux client closed beta transitioned to an open beta.
Linux - Fixed excessive CPU usage by the Steam client when running Team Fortress 2
Linux - Fixed overlay crash when starting Cubemen
Big Picture - Improved back navigation behavior throughout user interface
Big Picture - Added discount timers and other user interface to store

Good news : Crusader Kings 2 is on its way to linux

Paradox Studio Manager wrote:

CK2 runs fine on Mac, and will be on Linux when Steam goes live.

Hopefully, all games EU4 and forward will be Mac & Linux compatible.

Consider me a happy camper. I just installed Steam on my linux laptop running Lubuntu 12.10 and the process was as simple as installing it on Windows. No issues, and I fired up Unity of Command right away. Pretty fantastic, if you ask me!

Well, I did some moderate testing today, and it's working okay, although most games that are listed in the Linux client don't actually download, like Psychonauts and Limbo. (I don't think they're even Linux games, are they?) But TF2 downloads and runs fine, with the frame lag issue previously mentioned. Trine 2 also runs very nicely, and it's even smart enough to realize that you don't have everything you need -- on Ubuntu, at least, it will offer to download all the needed libraries from your repository. (It was a lot of libraries, probably 30 or 40, so automating them was handy.)

Trine doesn't, however, seem to support 2560x1600; the highest it goes on Linux is 1920x1200. So I ran it at 1280x800, and while that's no major test or anything, it was beautiful, and ran flawlessly.

Oh, the launcher was hopelessly muddled; I use big fonts, and it's not smart enough to realize that. Of course, with all the different window managers, expecting Trine to read XFCE settings specifically is kind of dumb on my part. Odd that it honors them, though. I could get the game launched okay, but couldn't really read the buttons.

Malor wrote:

Well, I did some moderate testing today, and it's working okay, although most games that are listed in the Linux client don't actually download, like Psychonauts and Limbo. (I don't think they're even Linux games, are they?)

They've been made available for Linux in Humble Bundles, so it makes sense for them to be on Steam. I had the same problem, though -- they're listed, but installing them doesn't work. Hopefully they'll get those working soon.

It's a shame there's nothing available that I want to buy that I don't already own in Humble Bundles, but it's still early days! Here's hoping for more Valve stuff soon, too.

FTL works. No more manual updates! Hopefully cloud save will work

I bought the current Humble Bundle and none of those games are available on Linux Steam yet (even though they all have Linux versions).

The shift+tab "community overlay" feature isn't working for me, but I've only tested it in FTL thus far.

Would indeed be nice when the Cloud Save works as well for TFL... at the moment it doesn't.