According to an X11 dev, Daniel Stone, Wayland reduces the latency and eliminates tearing issues associated with X11.[1] This is exactly the kind of upgrade to Linux that will make SteamBox a viable alternative to PS4.
As far as audio goes, PulseAudio is fine for playing music, but a real PITA for many hardcore gamers[2][3] including myself. I found latency was terrible with Wine + PA and later saw the developers had an issue with PA too.[4]
I've been playing native and Wine game on Linux with for about 6 years now and by far the best experience I had was with OSS4 and my old SB Live. When I eventually "upgraded" to ALSA, I immediately noticed some latency in games like OpenArena.
I'd think that maybe this issue was just me, accept Steam said in their announcement, they were "targeting audio performance". If they do put some resources to clean up the linux audio subsystem, it will be a win for us all.
As far as audio goes, PulseAudio is fine for playing music, but a real PITA for many hardcore gamers[2][3] including myself. I found latency was terrible with Wine + PA and later saw the developers had an issue with PA too.[4]
I've been playing native and Wine game on Linux with for about 6 years now and by far the best experience I had was with OSS4 and my old SB Live. When I eventually "upgraded" to ALSA, I immediately noticed some latency in games like OpenArena.
I'd think that maybe this issue was just me, accept Steam said in their announcement, they were "targeting audio performance". If they do put some resources to clean up the linux audio subsystem, it will be a win for us all.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIctzAQOe44
[2] http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/linux-and-open-source/pulse...
[3] http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=960195
[4] http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTEyODM