Linux Steam comunity wine support

[Acheta]

Hi,

I would like for community(or Valve) to be able to create wine prefixes for Windows games not available for Linux yet.

I know this is not in the best interest of making people port games to Linux natively, but a lot of games run under wine wery well and I hate to run the entire steam client under wine.

I have do have a lot of games that do run reasonably well and a guide how to execute most games can be find over at Wine HQ[appdb.winehq.org] or they can be executed using tools like PlayOnLinux[www.playonlinux.com].

It would be really nice if there was a button in Steam Client that says "Run under Wine" with possible warning that the game is not native but emulated and thus can have some performance issues and with no guarantees.

This way we could enjoy wider variety of games and not necessarily hustle with configuring wine for each and every game.

Let me know your thoughts.

Milan

By the way, why is there not Steam for Linux category?

[Spawn of Totoro]

You can already do that by running Steam for Windows with Wine.

Steam for Linux is Valve breaking away from MS. By encouraging developers to use Wine instead of making their game a native Linux build, it is like taking a step backwards, not forwards.

There is a Steam for Linux form. It just hasn't been linked to the Discussions yet.

[Fork_Q2]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Spawn of Totoro:

You can already do that by running Steam for Windows with Wine.

Steam for Linux is Valve breaking away from MS. By encouraging developers to use Wine instead of making their game a native Linux build, it is like taking a step backwards, not forwards.

There is a Steam for Linux form. It just hasn't been linked to the Discussions yet.

What does "linked to the discussions" do exactly? Asked a similar question before on Steam Suggestions was was told this before the thread was locked.

[Acheta]

I know I can run Steam for Windows with Wine in fact I do mention that. But every game might require different version of Wine or different settings/libraries in the prefix which makes it hard.

The point of this is not to make developers of new games do it, but there are plenty of older games worth playing that will probably never get ported. For these we as the comunity can provide the correct configuration of the wine prefix(idealy the entire wine prefix with the correct wine version - kind of the way PlayOnLinux does that), so others who might not be so able to this can enjoy couple more games.

I know that in the long run this could discouradge companies from making games natively for Linux, we all know what happens when they use emulater and poor one at that(looking at you Witcher 2), but I think that enabling this option can make Linux more accessible to more gamers.

Do not get me wrong, when I buy a game I do so only with Linux capable games and I do support good ports, but here and than I do have couple games which got to me that I never played(no Windows in my house) that I know work under wine. By the way, this way the game can show in the statistics for the developer as played on Linux and show our interest in their future support of the platform and our willingnes to pay for the game.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Fork_Q:

What does "linked to the discussions" do exactly? Asked a similar question before on Steam Suggestions was was told this before the thread was locked.

Basically a link that people can follow to get here, that is listed in the discussions. ie: Steam for Mac forum. It think the issue is that the Steam for Linux forum has it's own sub-forums and was made an independent forum from the start, white the Mac forum is just a sub-forum of the General Steam Discussions.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von aknarts:

I know I can run Steam for Windows with Wine in fact I do mention that. But every game might require different version of Wine or different settings/libraries in the prefix which makes it hard.

The point of this is not to make developers of new games do it, but there are plenty of older games worth playing that will probably never get ported. For these we as the comunity can provide the correct configuration of the wine prefix(idealy the entire wine prefix with the correct wine version - kind of the way PlayOnLinux does that), so others who might not be so able to this can enjoy couple more games.

I know that in the long run this could discouradge companies from making games natively for Linux, we all know what happens when they use emulater and poor one at that(looking at you Witcher 2), but I think that enabling this option can make Linux more accessible to more gamers.

Do not get me wrong, when I buy a game I do so only with Linux capable games and I do support good ports, but here and than I do have couple games which got to me that I never played(no Windows in my house) that I know work under wine. By the way, this way the game can show in the statistics for the developer as played on Linux and show our interest in their future support of the platform and our willingnes to pay for the game.

I understand what you are asking, I'm just giving my own view on the matter. The methods already exist for Steam for Windows and can be utilized in that way.

There needs to be a focus on Steam for Linux that will see it blossom in the long run and stay open in it's full glory. Using Wine would only be a short term solution that may hinder/delay such a future.

You even seem to agree with me on this:
"in the long run this could discouradge companies from making games natively for Linux"

Would you rather a strong future for Linux as a OS and gaming platform or a quick wind-up until it stops and requires another turn of the key?

What we need is the full commitment of the developers to make Linux games. The vast majority (major developers) would be happy making poorly emulated titles and letting the Linux community fix their mistakes.

I'd rather a future with Linux as a main focus then MS holding the reigns of Linux gaming.

[Fork_Q2]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Spawn of Totoro:

Basically a link that people can follow to get here, that is listed in the discussions. ie: Steam for Mac forum. It think the issue is that the Steam for Linux forum has it's own sub-forums and was made an independent forum from the start, white the Mac forum is just a sub-forum of the General Steam Discussions.

So that's why Linux forum isn't on the main discussion board. Got it, many thanks.

[Acheta]

Oh I do agree with you, but I would like this discussion:).

I do not see running Steam for Windows as a viable solution for the reason mentioned above(different needs for different apps).

As for the future, opinions vary on that. I do think that getting more gamers to accept linux as the primary platform is more important than getting developers see Linux as something real - this is basicaly chicken and an egg issue. But from my point of view if you get people to Linux using Steam on linux we start to show up in statistics with higher percentage. But people won't come if they can't play their belowed Age of Empires II HD Edition (just for example) and so the platform would suck in their eyes.

I do sincerely hope that when Steam boxes finaly come there will be plenty native games. But untill than, I do think that showing people what wonderful things they can do on the platform (like running another platform's game with little or no issues) can benefit us all.

[Dusk of Oolacile]

I'm sure it will be implemented once native games become a standard. For the sake of old games, just like we have dosbox games on Steam now. However, at the moment it would hurt too much, so they won't implement it in the near future.

[R3450N]

Implementing WINE for use within Steam would be a very bad idea since it would cause Steam to have a Windows session within its own program that not only runs natively under Linux but provides a means for any intruder to get access to a person's Linux machine through Windows.

Suffice it to say if you are playing games on WINE then why are you on Linux to begin with? You should be on Windows; not only can you play your games natively then but at least you won't be exploited through any security flaws therein. After all, you can still run your open source programs under Windows, and program just as normal.

Also, even if WINE were integrated Valve would bear responsibility to also perform version-satisfying; since one wrapped-game works better on one version of WINE than another.

If you are using Linux, use native Linux software and games. Period. Otherwise, you shouldn't be using Linux if you just want to play games made for Windows.