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Monolith Adds Games For Linux
Dave writes "Monolith Productions and Hyperion Software announced today that they have extended an existing licensing agreement to include a port of Monolith's critically acclaimed Shogo: Mobile Armor Division and LithTech 1.0 and 2.0 to the Linux operating system. The Linux port is expected to be available in the second quarter of 2000.
This is a great addition for Linux gaming, and will hopefully help to influence other software companies to develop more and more games for the Linux OS. "
You make a good point. I guess I haven't seen enough crap ported to Linux to think about that. Like you say, I'm sure it'll happen (or is happening, I don't buy that many games).
Yes indeed we jump at every time a company ports to Linux. That's what we should be doing. Companies who are short sighted enough to only write for Windows (with Linux and mac platforms gaining ground every day to differing degrees) will soon learn their lesson or they won't be around much longer. Companies should be applauded for porting to Linux and when we buy their Linux games it sends a message to the stupider companies to get their acts together. I kind of liked Shogo on the PC and I know I'll buy it if they sell it for Linux, not just because it's a cool game but I want to support their efforts.
I think the Myst people pretty much ported their stuff to the PC because AFAIK they do all their dev on macs. I could be wrong though.
True, but have you heard any other mention of them (or of Altima / WorldForge *grin*)? One announcement on Slashdot can supply a PROFOUND amount of resources to a net project, and thus can be much more valuable than just tossing money at it. WorldForge is where it is today largely _because_ of the initial Slashdot mention, IMHO.
I really truly believe that Slashdot could serve a very important role in helping organize and drive some of the really ambitious open source efforts towards success, if it wanted. The commercial Linux fixation is getting old, IMHO.
I just can't resist putting my opinion in on this one. Shogo: Mobile Armor Division is a CRAPPY GAME. Last xmas, I picked up quite a few FPS games, including Shogo, SiN, Half-Life, and Heretic II (close enough). By far, Shogo was the worst. It's not toally without redeeming qualities: the LithTech engine itself is rather nice, and is praiseworthy for it's excellent performance relative to other engines of the time. But what I'm really talking here is the content, not the technology. At the same time that SiN and Half-Life were raising environmental interactivity to all new heights, Shogo was less interactive than Quake. And it's AI was pathetic. Enemies would run in place against walls that partially blocked their path, had no concepts of avoiding fire, and in general just acted stupid. The on-foot missions were excruciatingly difficult, owing to the somewhat realistic representation of how many bullets a human body can take (this is a case where gameplay should have trumped realism). Basically, Shogo was a step backward for the FPS genre, not a step forward like Half-Life (although that game was certainly not without its problems, and was hardly deserving of the 11 out of 10 that PCXL gave it). I will admit that many of the weapons were pretty neat, and that the on-foot/in-robot dual modes of gameplay was pretty innovative, but these small points failed to redeem the game. What I do feel really did it for many is its use of anime... sort of. The only anime elements I really saw were the bizarre plot, the character mugshots, and the giant-robot influence.
The above is true for Blood II as well, only no anime.
But Monolith does have other games... Septerra Core has won that same "critical acclaim", though my RPG'ing friends are divided as to whether it's decent or totally blows. I'll reserve my own judgment until I can play the demo. Monolith's other RPM, Odium, I have heard nothing about, though I intend to secure its demo as well.
At any rate, more game houses porting their wares to Linux is always a Good Thing(tm) I guess. But realistically, until the hardware support infrastructure for 3D games has matured and the stability of the Linux releases is good enough for them to be "supported" (some are there now), I will continue to game in Windows...
MoNsTeR
Microsoft is suddenly becoming a powerhouse in the PC game industry. Only two years ago just about every title designed or published by MS was laughed out of stores.
Now they've got Age of Empires 2 burning up the sales charts and Asheron's Call making a serious challenge to online games like Ultima Online and Everquest. And MS has other big-name projects emerging in the next few months.
More than a year ago, I did a market research study for a big, established PC game company, and they made it very clear that they were terrified of MS' impending foray into the game world. Now that seems to be justified.
I'm wondering if these recent porting moves are the result of game companies realizing what other software companies grasped years ago... that making your product depend on your largest competitor's API/OS is a BAD IDEA.
I have to chime in with Bryce on this one. I have followed the mailing list (and then lists) for Worldforge since before it was Altima, and the work that has gone on is truly amazing. It has closely followed the benevolent dictator model of development, as well as the release early release often model. I know that there are sites for just Linux games, but I remember a time when links about Altima and other less main-stream topics were more frequent here on /.
Ah well, I am not going to jump on the "I remember when Slashdot was about geeks" bandwagon, but there are plenty of open source and fringe projects that are more worthy of mention than Slashdot is giving them these days.
---
I have to disagree with what you've said about Shogo. Shogo was perhaps the best FPS ever (only possibly because it is hard to choose between Shogo and Half-Life). Why?
:()
1. There is a plot. A REAL plot. An INTRIGUING plot.
2. The graphics rival Q3 and UT even though it is a year or two old.
3. The game engine is incredible!
4. The gameplay is incredible!
5. The weapons/items/etc are actually innovative and fun!
The only three drawbacks I see are:
1. The game seemed too short. At the end, you are left thinking "wait a minute... there should be more!"
2. The multiplayer wasn't the best. The whole mobile armor concept just didn't seem to lend itself too well to DM.
3. You couldn't rebind the zoom key for the sniper rifle (if you've ever played you know why this kinda sucks
Anyways, to put it simply: Shogo kicks ass!
-[Blaine]- "'Oh dear,' says God, 'I hadn't thought of that,' and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic."
On the other hand, it's not like Slashdot is head over heels on the commercial Linux thing. Yeah, Redhat and SuSE and Caldera and Corel and Debian are all featured, but they're the big ones, the Quakes' of the commercial world so to say. Most smaller distributions get one notice (RTLinux or so) or none.
Before they even had code, Slashdot posted their call for developers. So the support's there, it's just on a very hit and miss level.
You could also check out Crystal Space. It is an Open Source 3D Engine which runs on Linux, Windows, OS/2, BeOS, DOS, Macintosh, FreeBSD, SGI, Solaris, OpenStep, NextStep, ... It can use OpenGL, Direct3D, Glide, or software rendering. It features things like curved surfaces, volumetric fog, halos, ROAM landscape engine, portals, octree visibility culling, 3D triangle mesh objects with dynamic LOD and frame based or skeletal based animation, dynamic colored lights with soft shadows, ...
URL: http://crystal.linuxgames.com
Greetings,
Project Manager of Crystal Space (http://www.crystalspace3d.org). Support CS at http://tinyurl.com/cb3x4
EA's already jumped in, or at least Maxis who is owned by EA has. Simcity 3000 is being ported to linux by Loki.
Did you SUBMIT a story about the work you are doing to Slashdot? Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Slashdot editors (or story posters, they could use an editor) pick and choose from stories which are SUBMITTED. If you think that Slashdot readers need to know about your project (or any other project for that matter) write or submit an article! I'd like to know about your project, but the way it works is that if you don't tell anyone (Rob, Hemos, et. al.) about it, then no one hears about it.
Skippy
"False modesty is the refuge of the incompetent." - The Stainless Steel Rat
Lithtech's site is at lithtech.com not lith.com, which is a dead site.
...raise your hands!
(wow, that's a lot of hands)
Shoot, I missed seeing this late yesterday. I talked on e-mail with a V.P from Monolith once and asked him about Linux games. He only said they were waiting to see where the market was going. Way cool of them to come around.
Do really dense people warp space more than others?
When I go into the store, I ask them if it's out on the iMac (my son's computer) or Linux. I make them look it up to see when it'll be for one of those.
If it won't work with either of those - I don't buy it.
Windows is so 20th Century.
Will in Seattle
The game engine is a direct 3d game engine. They are going to have a hard time. Since they are probably going to port it to openGL they can probably also get an openGL version for windows.
It has been statistically shown that helmets increase the risk of head injury.
Picture this. Someone buys a brand new copy of Shogo, their favorite windows game because of its shlightly offbeat and unusual nature, loads it up into linux, giggling with anticipation. He installs it. Opps, need a new version of Mesa. He downloads it and installs. He giggles with anticipation as the game loads. He enters the level, and...
he sees the unaccelerated, blocky backgrounds running at 15 fps. He thinks to himself, doh! He borrows his friend's aging Voodoo 3 and puts it in in place of his GeForce DDR. He giggles with anticipation. He sets the settings to medium to go easy on the voodoo. He giggles with anticipation. Soon he is off. Lower res and slower than he is used to in windows, but playable. He enters a fight and hears... nothing because his brand new MonsterSound MX300 is not supported. Doh again! Thinking this is a good time to upgrade, he rushes and buys a new soundblaster live! He giggles in anticipation. He enters the fight. He gets fragged by someone behind him because he couldn't hear him since 3D sound is not supported under Linux. Doh the third time! Well, who needs 3D sound. He hooks up his Wingman force and starts fragging and feels... nothing, because Linux does not have a force feedback API. He thinks, well, I've giving it 4 strikes, one more than in baseball, I'm finished. He reboots into windows.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
Yes, but the extremely cool Mech I and II are still fair game for a port. As for how it compares to M3, I'll say that M3 was a 9 and it is probably a 7.5. Reasonably good, but you'll probably be far too addicted to Fallout2 or Quake I/II/III to play it much.
Side gripe: If Loki is porting Interstate '82, why not grab '76 at the same time? The original was better! There is nothing quite like a Pacer with a Chevy big-block and two fender mounted mini-guns.
.sig: Now legally binding!
Ooh! So I can play QW, madly fragging the Aussies while waiting in line to pay for my Ramen noodles, Heineken Dark and salsa? Or play I `82 whilst locked in traffic? I can see people giving me the evil eye as I scream "Get off my fender or you'll be eating a full load of lead Grandma! F*** you, freaking semi! Here's a grenade for your time!"
Be still my beating heart! Please!
.sig: Now legally binding!
You can be sure that companies are going to be more interested in porting and writing games on Linux now. Over the next two years more and more Linux devices, many of them portable, will appear, and a large market for these
:-)
devices will be for games, and especially network games!
That's real nice but why network games? I still would like to play games by myself most of the time and generally do not like interaction or being forced to use a network if I do not want to. I would rather have a killer desktop machine than a mediocre(sp) hand held device.
You could be playing you game around the house, in the garden etc, but loading the game data from inside the house, across a bluetooth link or wireless ethernet link - basically a remote disk drive. No more having to leave the
computer behind when you are forced to go into the garden/shopping/etc!
Unfortunately I think that there would be problems generally with this concept. The modern concept of games has generally been to take *full* advantage of fast processors and lots of ram and HD space. This will always limit the types of games that a hand held could run without getting really bogged down or getting damaged really fast.
Developers need to get aquainted with programming games for Linux as soon as possible. XFree86 4 will makes things even better for them
I just see really high end video card support not making things better for embedded systems programming for hand helds. Unless this next realease can fit on a floppy and run in 2 Mb of ram then it will not be a feasible option. Qnx is more like it for hand held devices.
Slashdot social engineering at it's finest
I have been following your project for a while, and am genuinely impressed of a great job being done.
/. story, not only because it is OS, but that it distinguishes itself by demonstrating some useful solutions to the "artist/content problem" that many other OS gfx-related project can benefit from.
/. and ask to have your project be made news.
:) (Am I pessimistic, Hemos?)
:)
:) ) is stopping them, then it is content we should figure out how to solve. :)
Your project would make a great information OS
There were a short thread recently about how the home-made (i.e., non-big-game-corporation) games are dead. Because (supposedly) new games require the kind of content that cannot be obtained without a huge budget for art, et. al.
Your project dealt with this dilemma admirably.
Many potential home-made game developers can learn from your story.
Tell you what.
1. I will write Hemos
2. They'd probably ignore us.
3. If they do, we can talk about other non-/. ways where we can put you in touch with other home-made game makers (and potential contributors), and other ways to get get your project more well-known, okay?
4. If you don't mind I would like you to discuss and share your content development solutions to potential set tops hackers.
Next-Gen set tops have some great hacking potential lacking even in some next-gen PC HW accelerators. And I would love to see some great set top hacks along some creative inventions of pixel pipeline routes. If supposedly "content" (which I still disagree
I want to help. I think you can help many others. Let's talk off-line.
It seems as though games are the first class of real "desktop" applications that are being ported to Linux in any number. Is this because Linux people tend to be a bunch of games hounds, or because game makers are more likely to be Linux friendly? Will games be the first reall killer app for Linux on the desktop?
There's no point in questioning authority if you aren't going to listen to the answers.
Being able to run Shogo, Quake, or any of the other big-name, big-effects games is nice, but that's not going to convince anyone that Linux is a viable gaming platform.
What will turn heads is when some company, either one of the current or some startup, designs and builds a top-notch game specifically for Linux. When non-Linux users see that there is something out there that they can't have, then they'll sit up and take notice.
I came across an interesting item on the Jagged Alliance web site (www.jaggedalliance.com): "Jagged Alliance 2 To Be Ported To Linux: Tribsoft will be developing a Linux port of Jagged Alliance 2. Jagged Alliance 2 for Linux will be bundled with the new Jagged Alliance 2: Unfinished Business expansion pack. "The growing acceptance of Linux is one of the most important trends in this industry," said series creator Ian Currie. "We're extremely pleased that Tribsoft will be bringing Jagged Alliance 2 to this platform." Jagged Alliance 2 for Linux will be available in Spring 2000. " For those of you not familiar with Jagged Alliance 2, it is an excellent game and hopefully Sir-Tech will continue to port some of its upcoming games, I'd love to see Wizardry 8 for Linux ;).
Hmmm.. when you look at it that way, Microsoft's decision to venture into gaming could do great things for Linux gaming. I certainly hope things continue along the track they're currently on. Seems like something cool related to Linux gaming is being announced every week now.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
The floodgates are pretty much opening right now, for "big boy" games for Linux, and *everybody* will soon be jumping on. When Electronic Arts jumps in... well, it's going to happen any time./ Chances are they're working on a few ports already just to assess the technology.
That's coming nicely I'd say. Now we have to start thinking beyond that: lots of people aren't going to put Windows away for good until their children can play games, especially educational games on dad's computer. That's the new frontier.
Life's a bitch but somebody's gotta do it.
LithTech/ Linux Press release - Posted 1/19/2000 by Tom Kirkland, WA (January 19, 1999) -
Monolith Productions and Hyperion Software announced today that they have extended an existing licensing agreement to include a port of Monolith's critically acclaimed Shogo: Mobile Armor Division and LithTech 1.0 and 2.0 to the Linux operating system. The Linux port is expected to be available in the second quarter of 2000. Under an initial agreement with Monolith in April, 1999, Hyperion agreed to port Shogo and the LithTech 3D Engine to both the Amiga and Apple Macintosh platforms (http://www.lith.com/corporate/04_28_1 999.html). The existing agreement has now been extended to include Linux for x86 and Power PC processors.
"Porting the LithTech 3D engine to Linux gives licensees and game players one more reason to choose LithTech technology and LithTech-based games" comments Jason Hall, CEO of Monolith Productions. "Our latest agreement with Hyperion continues our quest to provide the highest quality, most versatile 3D engine in the market."
The LithTech 3D Engine, the technology behind Shogo: M.A.D. and upcoming Monolith games Sanity and No One Lives Forever, allows for a full range of cutting edge graphic effects, from spectacular lighting to highly detailed character models. The engine also allows designers to create breath-taking outdoor areas from magnificent mountain ranges to sprawling cities. Current LithTech licensees include Third Law Interactive and New World Computing. Extensive information including FAQ's about LithTech can be found at www.lithtech.com.
Shogo: Mobile Armor Division, inspired by the Japanese "anime" tradition, is an action-packed first-person shooter combining spectacular environments (from neon-lit, futuristic cityscapes to gaping desert ravines and canyons) with a meaningful storyline packed with intriguing characters, plot revelations and huge transforming machines known as mecha.
About Monolith Productions, Inc.
Monolith Productions, Inc., based in Kirkland, WA, is focused on combining uncompromising gaming content with the ultimate in high-end gaming technology. Founded by six game developers in 1995, Monolith's passion for programming resulted in the creation of the LithTech 3D Engine. This proprietary software is used in the creation of Monolith products, such as the well-received Shogo: Mobile Armor Division, and is available for license to the wider development community. For the latest news and information on Monolith and it products, visit their Web site at http://www.lith.com.
About Hyperion Software
Hyperion is a recently established Belgian-German software house dedicated to bringing high-end PC games to PowerPC based Amiga and Mac computers. Individual members of the Hyperion team have been involved in various commercial and non-commercial projects on the Amiga, Mac, Linux and PC platforms. For any information about Hyperion Software, visit their website at http://www.hyperion-software.com
In related news, Mattel recently announced that it would be porting the entire series of "Barbie and Ken" doll computer games to the Linux operating system. According to company spokesperson Jim Nasium "we see the market segment represented by Linux users and programmers as a completely untapped resource for generating revenue." The Ken and Barbe series includes the wildy popular "Which way does Ken Swing" and "Barbie Life" in which the goal is to navigate Barbie through a series of life-changing decisions while avoiding the evils of pimps and crack dealers. AP.
XML causes global warming.
Games are what defines an OS or machine. Take the Amiga. In the early 90's THAT was the computer of choice in Europe. Lots of great (and not so great) games, and life was good. Then a certain software company released a certain game called DOOM. People saw that it was good. PC's were seen as serious games machines, and people moved to the PC. The games developers stopped developing for the Amiga and moved to the PC when the market grew, and the Amiga died. (As a mainstream machine.) While there's a trickle of games for Linux right now, sooner or later, hopefully, the dam will break, and the floodgates will open. Linux needs it's version of "Doom". A killer game that blows the competition away and makes people sit up and take notice. Here's to a Linux port of Championship Manager 99/00! (Not that that would sell Linux to 99.999% of the population, but oh well...)
Okay, I'm biased since I'm working on one, but I sure would like to see Slashdot give more attention to the many free software game projects. There's a *lot* of them out there, and many are doing some very cool things. I mean, Slashdot *does* support open source software development, right? (Right???)
The Lithtech engine is the underlying layer for the games. So if it gets ported to Linux, you can expect that it will be VERY easy to port other games to Linux in the future.
Lithtech handles more than just the graphics. There's sound and network support also. Porting this engine will be a big job, but that effort will then apply towards ALL games that use it.
Best regards,
SEAL