Valve Pushes Out Half-Life For Linux(phoronix.com) |
Valve Pushes Out Half-Life For Linux(phoronix.com) |
Obligatory plug for my favourite HL1 mod: http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns/
Edit: Yep, sure enough HL1 shows up in the Steam Linux CDR (http://cdr.xpaw.ru/linux/), and interestingly enough, so does Counter-Strike - albeit with the message "Not Marked for Linux"...
http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/178aev/valve_pushes_o...
Here are the main differences:
* Commanding is much less stressful. Giving the marines their own resources and the ability to buy their own weapons means you can focus more of your attention on just coordinating attacks and getting upgrades.
* Stalemates are much less common. In NS1 taking down the turret factory would mean that there's an opportunity for everyone to rush it to take the rest of the base, now every room has a power node in a fixed location that powers down all the structures when it is destroyed. This makes it much easier to force a beacon, and to end the game once the marines are down to their last base.
* Each class is much better balanced. Excellent Fades are no longer the sole backbone of a good team. Lerks now are useful at all skill levels. Exosuits are extremely powerful but very vulnerable when alone.
* Gorges are now a nice-to-have when building instead of absolutely necessary. This means they can be on the front-lines more often.
* Graphics (obviously) and very dynamic environments. The infestation spreading is beautiful, and taking the power down makes for some very tense moments.
Regarding NS2, graphics are sweet, but I do not like the gameplay changes coming from NS1. I literally thought NS1 was perfect, and NS:Source would have sold like hotcakes.
That being said, I did happen to stumble across NS2 Classic (http://ns2cmodpreview.com/), and was very intrigued. Search for "Classic" in the NS2 server browser and just connect to play it. I found one with just 3 people on it, so not much gameplay was to be had.
Long story short, it was everything it was advertised to be - it felt JUST like NS1, with additions where needed. There was even a ported NS1 map we were playing on (I think it was ns_eclipse), although the textures weren't done. It still needs lots of polish to be done, but man, is it promising.
Very promising though if NS2 classic takes off, and I think (hope) it will see more adoption as the NS1 crew starts to move out of HL1... And as more people in NS2 discover the wonders of NS2 Classic.
Seems to be using the original Goldsource content GCF, so it appears indeed to be Half-Life. Interestingly enough, the OS list shows both Linux and OSX.
I'm very excited for the rest of the Source games showing up, especially with CS:GO.
edit, sv_cheats, noclip, fly, god etc don't seem to work? (edit2: I forgot -console -dev -sv_cheats 1 launcher opts.)
It's officially just for Windows, but it runs fine in Wine.
It's passed steam greenlight, so once finished, should be available for a nice one click install. I look forward to this :)
But if you're reading this thread and excited, you'll probably get a kick out of it.
You can get a preview of the gorgeous Xen graphics in one of the rooms of the Questionable Ethics chapter.
Why can't people express their opinion? Why do you care so much?
I think they have to move quickly though - the steam-sale model is getting copied by other PC download services and they stand the chance of getting lost in the crowd.
I stopped reading here. Lies.
I get:
Error:dlopen(/Users/barbs/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/Counter-Strike/hw.dylib, 2): Library not loaded: release/vgui.dylib Referenced from: /Users/barbs/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/Counter-Strike/hw.dylib Reason: image not found Could not load hw.dylib.
:(
[1] http://cdr.xpaw.ru/app/70/
Edit: I opened Steam on my mac, Half-Life is showing up under "Mac games," I'm downloading it now. Great.
* It will crash right after start using NVIDIA drivers 310.19. Upgrade to the latest, I used 310.32.
* It does not work with plain ALSA, I only get sound after starting PulseAudio.
Anyway, I'm mad at Adobe not because they didn't port CS6 over to Linux, I'm mad because they didn't even TRY to ensure Wine support for it. Tweaking your application to work under Wine is just as good as writing a copy for a different OS from scratch, and that's the least they could have done.
2. "only?
3. Why do people care? Not necessarily you, but commenters on reddit, The Verge and others are practically angry at Valve supporting Linux.
On top of that, the PC itself seems to have peaked. It's hard to think that Valve sees this as the right time to pour resources into PC gaming on Linux. It's much more likely to have something to do with the console we know they're working on.
1. Wikipedia lists the release dates for the full game, which were in Dec 1999 for both Windows and Linux (windows a few weeks earlier). I don't recall exactly when the demo came out, but I think it was sometime in the winter of 1999.
Otherwise you're right, setting up Linux Gaming computers with working OpenGL Hardware Acceleration was painful, especially for us poor people who could not afford the most expensive OpenGL Hardware. ;) On the other hand I think audio was easier to setup :P
For me, it was a great first trip to Linux-Land - I was in my gaming-and-hacking phase, so I hacked together a Linux that could actually run UT :).
edit: I spoke too soon. You just have to own the Windows version, and the mac version will appear. Downloading!
I guess it may be a whole different story on Mac. I haven't heard of anyone getting the native OS X Half Life running through Steam, though someone on reddit said they had it downloading...
I think plenty of us hated the Xen levels, and the BM:S team knows how challenging it will be to modernise. I'm looking forward to see what they do!
To use a more readily recognizable name... It would be like seeing a post about a new version of Windows releasing, and someone saying "Great! Where can I get the source so I can roll my own?" Maybe that person wouldn't know... But the assumption is going to be they're making a comment rather than asking a genuine question.
Yeah, they get more by shoehorning people into Steam than they would lose from not selling DRM-free versions.
There may have been a point to stop this from growing into what it's become early on... But it's too far gone to be broken free of save a major scandal. And even then, it'd probably take a few. It's just by far and large a non-invasive tool. They've worked out many kinks.
I'm not saying it's perfect, nor am I saying we should be happy with it. But it's avoided the major problems most other DRM efforts see in "making things more difficult for legit users than pirates". I haven't had any issues with any aspects in years.
Can I get source access to the NT kernel on Windows? Nope. That's Microsoft's secret and novel invention that is supposedly the best OS in the world, so they have to keep it on lockdown. </s>
Just being restrictive of what computers can run your OS does not make it closed. When has Microha$h ever supported FOSS? Think about it for a second.
In Windows: "Metro" apps didn't exist before Windows 8, and normal apps don't have any origin restrictions.
In OSX: Gatekeeper is easily bypassed by the user for specific apps or even turned off entirely.
Letting marines spend their own resources dilutes the game. Weaksauce.
Maybe I'm getting old, but I find the maps incomprehensible. This last is the real reason I'm not logging any time on NS2.
True, but this also means that the maps are possible to balance. You don't have to worry about things like red room or cold turn that break otherwise promising maps.
>Letting marines spend their own resources dilutes the game.
Way too many pub games of ns1 ended early because no one wanted to take on the stress of being commander. I've never seen that happen in ns2.
>Maybe I'm getting old, but I find the maps incomprehensible. This last is the real reason I'm not logging any time on NS2.
I think you are getting old. :) No seriously, I think it's just a busier art style that comes with more polygons and higher res textures. I had the same initial reaction being so used to older games with simpler graphics, but once you are accustomed to it most of the maps end up being pretty easy to learn. Tram and mineshaft are particularly hard, but veil is ported perfectly from the original, and summit and docking are both pretty straightforward.
Right, but also don't get comm chairs and spawns balanced up on the manifolds (above the reach of onosen) in Processing, outside DCD, on ns_hera.
> I think it's just a busier art style that comes with more polygons and higher res textures
I agree. And it's too much for me. I've been thinking someone should make a mod that's just racing from techpoint to techpoint, with no one shooting at anyone, and with highscores for best times, to help learn maps.
Also when playing a PCW last night I was ordered by my comm to buy more mines and welders because "I am just a waste of a shotgun", he was a little bit upset with me.
It's more democratic, as it allows players to opt-in to such things, I've bought guns for my team mates before as a planned saving for dual exo was never going to happen.
Inside was a instruction sheet informing Linux users how they could use CVS to pull and compile 3D support, depending on their distribution. I thought it was rather funny that someone felt they could market a game to people who were compiling their own operating system. I guess that's why it was in the discount bin.
You are replying to a comment which clearly states "I loved Black Mesa," and then go on to suggest that he enjoyed Black Mesa.
The general story, setting, and level layout are a tremendous amount of what would be considered a single-player, narrative-driven, FPS experience.
All that's left is the level of difficulty, and the feel of the code, as seen inside a particular engine. It's fine that you feel these are important aspects of Half-Life, but, when people wax nostalgic about this game, those who loved it remember their reactions to the setting they were in, the feelings they had inside the narrative, and the difficulties they had with particular aspects of the level design.
These are the things that were translated well, in your depiction. I haven't played it, but I suppose we can take your word for it: the team that made Black Mesa did a good job of replicating the Half-Life experience.
He was replying to a comment that stated that they didn't enjoy Half-Life but wished they had, and that Black Mesa let them do that. The reply is correct; Black Mesa and Half-Life are different games.
Half-Life is a good game, but it's also overrated because it was so novel for being narrative-driven at the time. It's still a Quake-like arcade shooter at its core, which is great but not new anymore, so people going back and playing the original expecting to be surprised may be disappointed.
Invisible brushes, different physics, monsters are different, some attack much quicker and harder, others are dumbed down.
This might feel like an improvement to some people, to me it did not. It does make the GAME a different one though. If only you notice minor changes, don't even mind the different graphics and sounds, then it may very well be a better game to you.
But please do not say it is the same. If you have played Black Mesa, you did not play Half-Life. You played Black Mesa.
OS X is specifically designed not to work non-Apple hardware, even hardware that is perfectly capable of running it.
Parts of it are open source, mostly because those parts were an extention of existing open source software.
"OSX" is not free in any sense of the word.
Microsoft are still a far cry from the likes of GNU/Linux in terms of openness, but almost nobody would describe the Mac platform as "more open" than Windows.
I never played it, and don't particularly care about what people think of either experience.
I didn't say it was the same, but, if someone feels that way, they are entitled to care about different aspects of the single player experience.
People are entitled to be as aggressive as you are, and I find it strange that you would ask others to keep their opinions to themselves, if they found Black Mesa to be the superior experience.
People may be disappointed, people may feel like the commenters in this thread do, and people may appreciate both.
This is why it's ridiculous to ask someone else not to express their opinion on which is better.
Majority of Linux kernel is pretty good because of servers, super-computers and Android.
The only reason Linux needs Desktop users is for better graphics drivers and games. Now that Valve is making their game-console, the graphics drivers should improve tremendously, and there should be a lot of new games.
So there is no real need for wide acceptance of Linux desktop.
Of course, this is a rather selfish point of view. I believe that the world would be a better place if everyone used Free Software (and Linux). It would encourage collaboration of many groups of people, and would be really beneficial for all software.
Even with all the Smartphone BS out there, the PC market is still immensely bigger than all of of the smartphone/tablets combined. Why do you think people still make games and applications for PCs ?
What mess? Unity is getting to be quite tolerable. Gnome is forging ahead with their vision and Mint provides a nice alternative to Ubuntu with several different UIs. I don't understand the argument that this is "bad". People have been saying that since the dawn of Linux and it's boring and an non-point.
If you accept that "PC" has peaked, Valve/Steam is screwed anyway. If consumers keep flocking to iOS/Windows8, let alone to Android... then Steam will die a painful death and modern computing will be reduced to mindless one-at-a-time "apps".
Ironically, the "mess" of Linux desktop is the only platform that isn't going for a signed, verified, OEM only software model eroding consumers' rights and freedoms along the way.
The same people were probably complaining about the mess with IE6, Firefox and Opera a few years ago. Some do not like choice and prefer to have a single standard to rely on. :)
Never have I heard such glowing praise.
Unity allows me to utilize more screenspace, very effectively. The latest version is pleasant to look at. I'm still not a huge fan of the default lens, but that will get better with time or as someone creates a replacement for the default lens.
Beside, that's a pretty pithy lame reply to your original remarks. Disappointing.
Elementary is great, although currently only working well with 12.04. Cinnamon is great, my mother figured it out intuitively immediately based on Windows XP (much faster than with Windows 8 or OS X). Gnome-Shell is "OK", I find it's a taste thing and most people what more out of it.
Which, by all accounts, will be more-or-less a Linux PC.
And Linux-on-the-desktop seems healthier now than a couple years ago. The reason it's harder to recommend one single Linux distro, is that even casual users have more than one good choice. I don't see "Unity/Gnome 3/Mint/etc." as a "mess". If you want a single, monolithic platform, we already have that. It's called "Microsoft Windows".
This means, if you ever have a PayPal-froze-my-account issue, you are guilty of Fraud, and thus they take back all your bought (Erm, rented?) games.
This is something I do not like and that always gnaws at me about the platform. Especially combined with their very poor customer support. ( Approaching Google-level of user hostility )
- need to be single-user admin with saved password - didn't know that before? tough! you're locked out from all games including DRM-free ones - happened again and still can't get offline mode? tough! - support limits how big a message you can send so I couldn't send complete info (not that they looked) - support promotes racial hatred, closing issue with poor English and telling me I didn't do what I did. - follow up support also closed. - considered small claims court but was convinced it really wasn't worth it.
lesson learned: There is no such thing as "friendly" DRM. When the system decides you are wrong, there is no recourse[1]
[1] Unless you're a famous blogger, have a personal contact or other out-of-band means unavailable to the masses.
In my experience the steam client is physically painful to use (unpausable downloads, cache verifications, slow startup, unresponsive store). It's not as bad as iTunes, but it's getting there.
I understand that Valve can be already too involved with game producing companies which still have backwards thinking that DRM is a must. But Valve can start pushing them to drop it, instead of being passive.
Which means Steam and all its titles would have to be launched by explicitly navigating to the classic desktop. Which is beyond Apple's simply providing a parallel way to get software onto OSX.
If Apple didn't allow icons in the Dock, unless the app came from the Mac App Store, I'm sure you'd see a similar reaction from third-party platform creators like Valve.
If Steam can still trivially get its third-party-bought programs onto the metro-styled start screen, the popular reporting on that situation was off.
And I can't even find a story where Gabe himself actually expresses an opinion on, or concern about, the MS App Store. His comments seem to entirely revolve around Metro being bad for desktop usability and Windows 8 not selling. So the popular reporting that Gabe was specifically upset about the store (via it's limitations) seems to have all been bullshit/editorial.
Upon digging deeper, it seems his concerns about Windows 8 aren't materially different than his comments about Vista (via complaints about DX10 being Vista-only, as Vista wasn't selling).
Is there an easy way to filter games by this criteria on Steam itself?
Yes, that is the case case with the DRM free Steam games I have played. I guess that this is common among indie games at Steam, but I have not really looked into it.
> Is there an easy way to filter games by this criteria on Steam itself?
Do not think so. I do not think Valve want to dissuade developers to use their DRM.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/35140/ 3rd-party DRM: SecuROM™ 4 machine activation limit
PCs are horrendously complex for what most people would use them for--taking pictures, browsing Facebook, watching movies, and so on. It's no surprise that, as mobile devices have made these things easy to do, PC sales have been on the decline.
All mine are, by default. Valve is concerned about the competition from the Windows app store, not the UI revamp.
In my poking around on this, I saw plenty of assertions that this was all about the app store, but nothing is ever attributed to Newell except his lament that the usability is off and the sales aren't there.
But the 'doom and gloom', from Gabe's mouth, doesn't seem to be any more extreme than his stated position on DX10/Vista. As far as I can find, the press are the ones taking his comments to extremes, reading into them about app stores, etc.