Steam for linux beta!

[techtard]

AMD released an update to their Legacy drivers, so I downloaded those and borrowed a friends usb thumbdrive with a Xubuntu 12,04 installer.

Steam loads, TF2 loads and seems to run fine. Will play for a bit and then post back later.

EDIT
Everything was smooth, forgot to enable the console and use netgraph to check my FPS though. Everything seemed to work except for AA. I set it in the game client and then the game crashed. Restarted the game, and had an error on load. Had to manually change AA to 0 in the config files to get it to play again.

TF2 was fun, but I'm waiting for Counterstrike (or HK3!)
One thing that bogged down my session was some strange interference with my HP wireless mouse. Fresh batteries, but every now and then it would stop responding, had to turn of and back on. Not driver related, but annoying enough to mention.

It only took them a few months, but AMD did a decent job with these legacy drivers for older cards.

EDIT 2
Played again with netgraph enabled. Was hitting 100+ FPS, with dips to 40-50 during battles.

[Jstn7477]

I made another foray into Linux today on my desktop. Installed Ubuntu 12.10 x86_64 on a crappy 160GB laptop drive, built the AMD 13.1 drivers which seemed to install fine, and now I'm downloading TF2 to see how well it runs with these AMD drivers. Last time I tried with 12.04 and 12.11 beta8 drivers and they never installed right. Had a Steam Beta machine going a few months back with my old 2600K/GTX 465 which was so easy to set up with NVIDIA's drivers, but it was at work and I never used it more than a few times before taking the 465 out for folding.

EDIT: TF2 runs, but once you get on a server it causes this ear piercing headphone interference and the screen is mostly huge black artifacts. Way to go AMD...

[Vinska]

They released Half-Life 1 and Counter Strike 1.6 for Linux yesterday.
Tried running CS1.6 - played it for ~7 hours. Runs like a charm =]

[Mr.EVIL]

Serious linux users detected

[Vinska]

A Linux version of CS:S came out ~ day ago. Played the sh*t out of it. Runs real well
Thumbs up for Valve for such a rapid [yet high quality] porting of their games!
Along with a steady flow of ports from other devs, I already have 13 games I can natively play on Linux on Steam. This more than doubled to what was available to me when S4L closed beta started (had 6)

@Mr.EVIL awww just great! Gonna have to deal with your hatred for Linux on two forums now!? asdfdfdfsdfsa

[Mindweaver]

Originally Posted by Vinska

@Mr.EVIL awww just great! Gonna have to deal with your hatred for Linux on two forums now!? asdfdfdfsdfsa

We won't deal with it long.

Originally Posted by Vinska

A Linux version of CS:S came out ~ day ago. Played the sh*t out of it. Runs real well
Thumbs up for Valve for such a rapid [yet high quality] porting of their games!
Along with a steady flow of ports from other devs, I already have 13 games I can natively play on Linux on Steam. This more than doubled to what was available to me when S4L closed beta started (had 6)

That's good news. I can't wait for HL:3 to come out, and be ready for Linux Steam day 1.

[johnspack]

I've been trying to run games under linux for years... remember Cedega? Or what the heck was it. How many games actually work perfectly now with steam? Just curious.

[DannibusX]

Originally Posted by johnspack

I've been trying to run games under linux for years... remember Cedega? Or what the heck was it. How many games actually work perfectly now with steam? Just curious.

I can't quote the numbers. There are a lot more independent games that run natively under Steam for Linux, but Valve is actively porting their entire library to work under Linux.

I think they are also working on a devkit for other developers to use to bring their games to Linux as well, which is exciting.

Edit: And by Valve porting their entire library, I literally mean Valve's library, not every game available on Steam.

[Vinska]

Originally Posted by DannibusX

I can't quote the numbers. There are a lot more independent games that run natively under Steam for Linux, [...]

Well, I can. But they are inconsistent
In the main Linux game page on steam:



Meanwhile, clicking on this link to "86 games", yields a list of only 50:

(Basically it shows a search with filters set to "games" && "Linux")

It even more odd because I thought that 86 is games + DLC, but filtering the list to show only DLC gives 42 items. And 42 DLC + 50 games != 86
Furthermore, setting filters to "Linux" && "All items" gives a number of 106

[techtard]

Thinking about building a dedicated Linux Steambox. Anyone try out the Steam Linux beta with an FX CPU?
This would give me the excuse to build a budget AM3+ machine.

[Vinska]

Originally Posted by techtard

Thinking about building a dedicated Linux Steambox. Anyone try out the Steam Linux beta with an FX CPU?
This would give me the excuse to build a budget AM3+ machine.

Check my system specs ¬___¬

[Chevalr1c]

Yes, but you are using a dedicated (nVidia) card, and Tectard seems to mean a box that runs without dedi card.

[Vinska]

Originally Posted by techtard

[...] FX CPU? [...] build a budget AM3+ machine.

note the "FX" and AM3+

Originally Posted by Chevalr1c

Yes, but you are using a dedicated (nVidia) card, and Tectard seems to mean a box that runs without dedi card.

AFAIK, all the AMD CPUs w/ Radeon cores are called "Fusion" and use the FM1 or FM2 sockets.
So it seems He DOES mean a budged box WITH a dedicated card.

EDIT: I assume He is aware that Nvidia is much better for gaming under Linux than AMD graphics, so I bet He is planning to make a AMD FX + low/mid-end Nvidia build.

[D007]

I would love to see Linux compete more.
If they can get me better gaming performance, they might earn my money..
Never used it but it'd be worth a shot.

[techtard]

Ok I'm currently pricing out an FX-Steambox and am kind of stuck picking the CPU.
I can get an FX-6300 for $130, the FX-8320 for $170 or the FX-8350 fir $200.

Is the 6300 'good enough' or is it worth it to grab an 8320? The 8350 seems to be priced a bit too high in my opinion.

Also, I'm eyeballing a GTX 650 or maybi a 650ti. Pretty inexpensive for some decent Linux gaming performance. Or should I spend a little more and go a bit bigger?

[Chevalr1c]

You are gaming at 1080p? Then a 650 should do good. Make sure you install the propietary drivers for the graphics.

[Vinska]

Originally Posted by techtard

Ok I'm currently pricing out an FX-Steambox and am kind of stuck picking the CPU.
I can get an FX-6300 for $130, the FX-8320 for $170 or the FX-8350 fir $200.

Is the 6300 'good enough' or is it worth it to grab an 8320? The 8350 seems to be priced a bit too high in my opinion.

Also, I'm eyeballing a GTX 650 or maybi a 650ti. Pretty inexpensive for some decent Linux gaming performance. Or should I spend a little more and go a bit bigger?

For the CPU:
I don't see games going past 300% CPU load very often (i.e. 3 cores worth of load). So unless You plan to do other things on it (mostly involves compiling || video encoding), getting a 83x0 is an overkill. So yeah - if You are going to only do gaming, 6300 is a better choice. If Your chip happens to clock well[1], overclocking is a good idea.

For the GPU:
Depending on what You plan to play.
For source games:
Currently, my GF 560 (non-ti), which is very close in performance to GF 650ti, is able to keep all currently ported source games above 120FPS. With TF2 going WAY past that, up to 250+ FPS at some maps. OTOH: CS:GO, assuming it gets ported, will probably do much worse. As I get 80-110 FPS most of the time on Windows. And I would not expect it to run [significantly] faster on Linux.
For Killing Floor:
Can't remember ATM. Gonna check a bit later.
For Serious Sam 3:
A GF 650Ti won't get You Ultra settings, that's for sure. To keep SS3 over 60 fps at all times with a GF 650ti, You'd need to go with a customized graphics, settings "sitting" in between Medium and High. If You need help squeezing out the best looking graphics while keeping a good framerate, let me know. I found a lot of tricks with Serious Engine 3[.5] games to do so.

That's all for all the "graphics intensive" games I own on that have Linux ports ATM.

[1] My FX-8120 chip clocked very well and it would run stable above 4GHz on effective vCore ~1.19V. Meanwhile, my new FX-8320 needs an effective vCore to be above 1.3V to stay stable above 4GHz. Thus, I could keep my 8120 relatively cool on full load above 4GHz on stock cooling, while my new 8320 starts overheating on such loads && needs better cooling, which I plan to get.
So... If Your 6300 clocks well, OC the sh*t out of it.

[95Viper]

Hello everyone, I did not see anywhere this had been posted, yet.
So here it is.

Steam for Linux is having a Celebration Sale with over 50 game titles going for 50% to 75% off.

Link --> Steam for Linux Celebration Sale

[Easy Rhino]

i would recommend picking up FTL for a sweet strategy game and SteelStorm if you like arcade style shooters!!!!!!!!!

[DannibusX]

I also recommend FTL. The game is fantastic and frustrating. Also, the soundtrack is dope as hell.

I hope that when it officially launches that Dota 2 will have a Linux client. Dota 2 would likely be one of the biggest games on Linux, and with that games' popularity, could potentially allow Valve to show crazy numbers for other developers and publishers to drool on.

I'm going to set up an Ubuntu dual boot soon and play any game that has a Linux client through it.

Also. Do buy FTL. 'tis awesome, and $10 at full price.

[DannibusX]

Installed Ubuntu 12.04 in a dual boot on my laptop. I really like it, but it is a little confusing. I installed Steam and things are good to go.

Time to mess around and learn me some Linux.

[Vinska]

MEANWHILE, x86-64 (aka 64-bit) Steam client is available for some time now.
Too bad the package for the x86-64 version has different package dependencies and now depends on things I definitely DON'T want to have. ~____~

[Vinska]

So, they released some multiplatform mumorpuger on Steam today. With a native Linux client, ofc.
IDK, I shall try it out. I don't remember ever playing any other mumorpuger natively on Linux, so it's interesting to see this "odd one".

[Easy Rhino]

Originally Posted by Vinska

So, they released some multiplatform mumorpuger on Steam today. With a native Linux client, ofc.
IDK, I shall try it out. I don't remember ever playing any other mumorpuger natively on Linux, so it's interesting to see this "odd one".

i have no idea what you just said...

[techtard]

I think he was talkng about the MMO Champions of Regnum, which has a native Linux client.

I played it a few years ago on a Fedora / AMD machine, it worked fine. Not big on MMO games though, so I can't comment whether it's good or bad.