Valve's native Linux build of L4D2, 6 fps to 315

http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/faster-zombies/

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/08/02/left4dead4linux-now-50-times-faster/

LinuxBoner activated.

 

Good good. I want to use Ubuntu.

 

Gabe Newell: “I think Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space.”

 

pretty much this

 

Windows 7 is fucking awesome you all suck. Every other OS in existence, including other Windows OSs, suck.

 

Pffff, the 15fps (5%) difference between Win7 and Ubuntu could be choked up to the hardware and other testing procedures. It's just one data point. We cannot make blanket statements about which OS is better for gaming performance when we only have one fucking data point. This proves absolutely nothing.

 

Keep in mind that they have yet to optimise code. If they follow this through and port several Valve titles to Linux, I think other game developers will follow.

 

You can't deny, however, that even though it's one data point, it's still quite interesting. Especially that Direct3D has extra overhead that OpenGL lacks.

I wonder how much, if any, difference using 32-bit Ubuntu made instead of 64-bit. It could've made it run slower, it could've made it run faster.

 

I can definitely deny that. It's a start. After starting, you have to continue and eventually conclude.

Intel did a Ray Tracing demo using Quake Wars in 2008. Aside from doing the same thing with Wolfentein in 2010, the project has yielded nil. Years later, we still don't have ray tracing and we probably won't for years to come.

So you want me to believe that just because Valve can get L4D2 limping along in Ubuntu, Linux gaming is the future? Hell, we haven't even seen quality screenshots! We have no idea of the game's stability!

Valve is great, but they have a hell of a mountain to climb. You won't hear me saying that they can get to the top before they do it.

 

In fairness if any game developer makes the effort to have stable linux games it will be valve

 

And it'll only be Valve.

You might see some big budget MMOs get ported to Linux just like Activision's stuff runs on MacOS, but you won't see much else.

 

So simply because it's a single data point, it's not interesting at all? The fact that it shows that Left 4 Dead can run at least equally well on Ubuntu as it can on Windows seems quite interesting. I'm not claiming that Linux will replace Windows any time soon as a gaming platform; there's still much work that has to be done. But for an initial test case, this seems incredibly promising.

And in the comments, it's mentioned that the quality settings were the same in the Ubuntu test and Windows benchmark, so it's not like they ran with one at high graphics and the other at shit to fake the numbers.

If the market proves promising enough, I'd bet good money that other companies would join in. There's a definite number of people that only use Windows for application compatibility purposes, games especially.

 

If, in an ideal world, every game that I ever played worked fine on Linux and didn't require any "effort" in setting it up, I would probably have no reason to use Windows any more (except for .NET development).

Unix based operating systems are inherently faster and more stable than Windows anyway. This means even OSX is probably better in that regard.

Hopefully Valve will lead the way for other major studios to start taking an interest in Linux.

 

If they release steam onto Linux then I'm fucked. The only reason I have Ubuntu on my laptop is because it means I have shit all to goof off with if I need to work.

 

Windows 8 is going to be shit simply because they removed the start menu and added in the start screen.

 

windows 8 more like windows 88

 

Yes, it's a single occurrence and it's the easiest imaginable path to getting a single AAA title on Linux.

If a top-notch studio announced that their next gen engine was running (and 'looking') equally well on Windows, OSX and Linux, then I would get excited. That would mean that there would be a stream of AAA games coming out with Linux support. That would be interesting.

 

The start screen IS the start menu in full-screen mode. And that's about the only thing that changes in Win 8 if you use it in desktop view. Valve and a bunch of other companies are just pissed because MS will introduce their own app-store with Win 8. That is the main reason Valve put more ressources into Linux game developement. I honestly see bigger chances for OS X to become a viable gamer alternative to Windows than Linux.