Last month Valve announced that a Linux version of Steam is in the works, and Left 4 Dead 2 was to come along for the ride. Well, it appears that the Valve Linux Team has made some progress, and they have some interesting data (via LockerGnome) to prove it.
One major factor when porting a game is performance, and the folks at Valve have offered us a side-by-side comparison of Left 4 Dead 2 running on both Windows and Linux. While using the exact same hardware, they compared the frames per second during play using a 64-bit install of Windows 7, and a 32-bit install of Ubunu 12.04.
The number for Windows? 270.6 FPS. The initial number for Linux? 6 FPS. But, as explained by the Linux Team, “This is typical of an initial successful port to a new platform.” After some serious coding voodoo, and some direct contact with hardware manufacturers, the poor start on Linux was boosted to a final count of 315 FPS. And to top it off, the knowledge learned during the process allowed the team to increase L4D2’s FPS to a solid 303.4 on Windows.
Whether or not you use Linux, it’s interesting to see some big names try and infiltrate the market. And, when the research improves already existing products, it’s hard to complain.
What do you think of Valve’s attempts to bring more games to Linux? Let us know below, or head on over to the Stick Skills forums.