Valve reports Left 4 Dead 2 on Linux runs faster than Windows version
Open-source gaming at its finest
Valve is working to get Steam on Linux, and the first game for it, Left 4 Dead 2, already runs faster than the Windows version.
An update on the Valve Linux blog details everything the team has accomplished so far to make Steam and L4D2 a reality on Linux. When Valve first started on the project, L4D2 ran at 6 FPS. Fast forward to today and now Left 4 Dead 2 is at 315 FPS, while the Windows baseline is at 270.6 FPS using an Intel Core i7 3930K, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680, and 32GB of RAM. The studio was able to accomplish this feat by modifying L4D2 to work better with the kernel and OpenGL, plus by optimizing the graphics driver. Coincidentally, these enhancements allowed the Windows version to perform better, although it only manages 303.4 FPS.
Valve is using the 32-bit version Ubuntu 12.04 for now, but will change to 64-bit later on. It is still fascinating to see an OpenGL version of L4D2 run faster than the Direct3D version for Windows, but that begs the question of how is that possible? The developer did some analysis and determined there are a few additional microseconds per overhead batch for Direct3D compared to OpenGL, which affects performance in Windows. They're working to address that issue, so who knows, maybe L4D2 on Windows will match the Linux performance.
Valve is also working with AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel to make sure all the graphics drivers behave under Linux. Engineers from those companies are working on-site with its engineers, so any bugs that appear can be easily squashed. The entire Linux community should benefit from these improvements, and should go a long ways toward establishing Linux as a viable gaming platform.
Source: Valve Linux Blog
Section: PC Games
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I don't want it to but I remember all the Mac guys jumping for joy when Steam supported Mac. A year on and there are still only 10-20 games on Steam coded for Mac out of over 2,500. As always this depends on developers actually giving a shit about Linux and if it's like their embracing of Mac they won't give a shit.
Since Steam supported Mac a good 200 new games have released and one of them Portal 2 supported Mac. The rest didn't as it's extra work, work developers do not want to put in for a platform that is tiny in comparison to PC. The issue I see happening is Linux is even more underground than Mac, I just don't see the average developer coding a Linux version as it's an extra cost they won't want to spend.
I hope this works out but Linux won't get a huge revival from this as the fact is Linux has one game, PC has over 2,500 on Steam alone. I go where there games are and I assume many other PC gamers do the same.