Valve VR goes more open
Valve’s Moondust VR demo gets a Git repository, while a new interview goes in-depth on making Steam Play work with Linux.
Valve, the company behind hit games like Half-Life, as well as the all-conquering Steam game store, continues to impress us with its forays into open source. First of all, eagle-eyed Michael Larabel of the Phoronix website spotted that Valve had created a Git repository (which you can visit at http://bit.ly/
LXFValveGit) for its Moondust virtual reality technical demo. By creating a Git repository and starting to fill it with files, including an MIT licence, it looks like Valve could be open-sourcing the VR tech of Moondust, hopefully making it easier for developers to create virtual reality games and experiences. You can read Michael’s report at http://bit.ly/LXFMoondust.
Meanwhile, GamingOnLinux has an illuminating interview with Philip Rebohle, developer of DXVK ( http://bit.ly/LXFDXVK). DXVK is an open-source project that provides a Vulkan-based D3D11 and D3D10 implementation for Wine, which is the basis of Valve’s Proton software, which enables Windows-only DirectX games to run in Linux as part of Valve’s acclaimed Steam Play initiative (see last issue for more information).
In the interview, Philip explains what it’s like working with Valve. “There are some things that I probably wouldn’t have done without Valve requesting it, such as adding OpenVR support or focusing on certain games early on,” he says, explaining how anti-cheat and DRM software present in some Windows games is making Valve’s support in Linux more difficult. “I’m not an expert on anti-cheat or DRM technology,” Philip says, “but those that don’t work are typically very invasive, access Windows kernel APIs, rely on undocumented APIs, and may prevent debugging. All of that makes it very hard for Wine to support them.”
The full interview also touches on some of the fears people have that Steam Play could hamper native Linux support in games. It’s well worth a read: http://bit.ly/LXFRebohleInterview.