An FPS Server guide for developers It's not rocket science and to be honest, most if not all of these features have been around for some time. However we keep seeing new games released, with a lot of these basic features missing. Click here to view the list of features we've been asking for since 2001
Please use this thread to leave feedback or be part of the continued discussion on what admins need to run a successful game server.
Gamesindustry.biz is reporting on a PCGA report that states PC game sales rose in 2009, thanks to the Asia Pacific region.
Software revenues for the PC games market rose by 3 per cent last year to a total of $13.1 billion, according to the new 2009 Horizons Report from the PC Gaming Alliance (PCGA).
The increasing popularity of free-to-play games and social network sites such as Facebook did result in a decline in overall revenues in established Western markets though. The lack of major new subscription-based games also contributed at a fall in revenues in North America and Europe of 10 to 15 per cent.
The most significant decline though was in boxed retail sales, which now accounts for just 20 per cent of total PC game revenues worldwide.
Most developers should be embarrassed by what Valve does on a day to day basis. From patching titles older then some studios to offering games on multi-platforms without trying to charge you again.
Below you will find a few Q&As from Valve regarding their latest news, support for the Mac platform
Yesterday, we announced that Steam and all our Source engine games will be coming to the Mac. Sound too good to be true? Well, guess what: It is true! There are no catches! Sometimes life actually works like that. The bad news is that we've just truth bombed your hard-earned lie detector back to the stone age, and you'll probably lose all your money to the next international lottery scam that sneaks through your spam filter. Still, Steam on the Mac!
Since we're getting a lot of email asking the same basic questions, we figured we'd just answer them here:
Q: I own TF2 on the PC. Do I have to buy it again on the Mac?
A: No. If you own TF2 on the PC, you own TF2 on the Mac (and vice versa). You don't have to buy the game twice. In addition, the Steam Cloud will automatically propagate your configuration settings and custom sprays to your Mac for you.
Q: Is it just some crappy emulated version of TF2?
A: No! Also: How dare you! Mac users aren't getting a crappy emulated version of the game. TF2 will run natively on OSX, like an actual big boy game for adults.
Q: Hmm, that all sounds pretty good. But I'll bet I can't play with my friends who own Macs if I'm on my PC.
A: Mac and PC users will all play together, on the same servers. We're not creating two separate universes. We're all going to be one big, happy family with guns locked in a bloody, never-ending struggle for cap points.
By being able to install and play my current valve titles on both my Macs and Windows machines will let me test how well the game performs on the Mac platform.
Thanks Valve, wish other developers had half your talent and a third of your wisdom.
EAIT is working hard to improve server stability. They will do a restart of the master servers around 0800 GMT tomorrow (that is, in 6 hours time from now).
Just because no one else is doing it (think supporting the PC platform) means Valve should be. If this catches on, then Microsoft better be worried as there won't be much reason to game on Windows.
And to think, they're not simply porting their games, they are coding them for the platform. - NICE
Bye-bye Windows......
Valve announced today it will bring Steam, Valve's gaming service, and Source, Valve's gaming engine, to the Mac.
Steam and Valve's library of games including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available in April.
"As we transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients," said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. "The Mac is a great platform for entertainment services."
"Our Steam partners, who are delivering over a thousand games to 25 million Steam clients, are very excited about adding support for the Mac," said Jason Holtman, Director of Business Development at Valve. "Steamworks for the Mac supports all of the Steamworks APIs, and we have added a new feature, called Steam Play, which allows customers who purchase the product for the Mac or Windows to play on the other platform free of charge. For example, Steam Play, in combination with the Steam Cloud, allows a gamer playing on their work PC to go home and pick up playing the same game at the same point on their home Mac. We expect most developers and publishers to take advantage of Steam Play."
"We looked at a variety of methods to get our games onto the Mac and in the end decided to go with native versions rather than emulation," said John Cook, Director of Steam Development. "The inclusion of WebKit into Steam, and of OpenGL into Source gives us a lot of flexibility in how we move these technologies forward. We are treating the Mac as a tier-1 platform so all of our future games will release simultaneously on Windows, Mac, and the Xbox 360. Updates for the Mac will be available simultaneously with the Windows updates. Furthermore, Mac and Windows players will be part of the same multiplayer universe, sharing servers, lobbies, and so forth. We fully support a heterogeneous mix of servers and clients. The first Mac Steam client will be the new generation currently in beta testing on Windows."
Portal 2 will be Valve's first simultaneous release for Mac and Windows. "Checking in code produces a PC build and Mac build at the same time, automatically, so the two platforms are perfectly in lock-step," said Josh Weier, Portal 2 Project Lead. "We're always playing a native version on the Mac right alongside the PC. This makes it very easy for us and for anyone using Source to do game development for the Mac."
Support for the Mac in Source and Steamworks is available to third parties immediately. Interested developers should contact Jason Holtman at jasonh@valvesoftware.com.
After optimizations and restarts yesterday, we had been stable across all platforms. Unfortunately, we encountered another outage at approximately 9:30 AM PST today.
- X360 was severely impacted, and the service is being restarted. It should be back online and we are monitoring closely.
- PC had an outage, but the service is offline currently and the service is being restarted. It should be back online and we are monitoring closely. We will then start checking the quality of the customer experience to determine possible next steps.
- PS3 appeared to have a brief outage, but has quickly recovered and the services is functioning properly at this time.
All teams are actively engaged in diagnosis and remediation. We are adding additional services to alleviate load. Despite having a major infrastructure in place, the peak traffic this weekend has been huge, 400% higher than any other Battlefield's peak simultaneous users. The teams will continue to monitor the services closely. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and will provide further updates on the latest developments as they are relevant.
- Source: official Battlefield blog
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