Valve had made a promise to the game developers some time back that it will release the source Software Development Kit for Linux. Well it has made good its promise by releasing the same. The company has its Source software development kit, Source SDK 2013, which will now support Linux in addition to Windows and Mac OS X. However the mega news for gamers is that Valve has added support for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset in this edition of the SDK.
For the uninitiated, the Source SDK can be used by game developers to develop new game mods. The support for Linux means game mods can now build and run clients on Linux computers. Earlier the Valve had support only for Windows despite the games being available for all platforms. Linux will get dedicated servers support with this SDK.
Valve has made a lot of changes in the new SDK, the biggest being the entire source code is now hosted on Github the latest hit portal for developers and publishers. The company has also changed the license that makes it easier for developers to share their mods and changes to the SDK.
The new SDK will however not ship the modding tools such as Hammer which is used for modelling and level design, it will have to ship with the respective game. Valve has also phased out the launcher, instead, you will have to navigate to where the tools are stored as batch files and launch them.
Steam’s new delivery service, Steam Pipe, is now supported by the sample mods, and existing mods’ gameinfo.txt can be changed to match the new format to support Steam Pipe support. Valve will now support Oculus Rift which mean that game developers will have to run compatible mods with “-vr” on the command line to enable head tracking and run the mod in stereo on the virtual reality headset. Gamers will remember that Valve added Oculus Rift support to Team Fortress and Half Life 2 earlier this year.
To download the Valve's Software Development Kit (SDK 2013) visit here.
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