Slashdot Mirror
BioWare Porting to Linux?
infodragon wrote to us with the news that BioWare is going to be porting games to Linux. Linuxpower has an interview with them talking about porting Neverwinter Nights, and /possibly/ Baldur's Gate 2. I promise I'll be good if they port BG2. I promise.
errrr.....make that BioWare *slapping hand* Next time use the preview button...I know, I know...
How many people first wondered who BioStar was, and then why it was newsworthy that they were posting? *LMFAO*
Seriously though, nice to see another one...maybe I can stop dual-booting one day if this keeps up...
Sgt Pepper
No, it wasn't. You're also way overestimating the power of the PSX - it run on a MIPS R3000 with the FPU removed (!) at 33 MHz (!!!). There is no data cache (not even L1). Optimistically this gives it the raw power of a 486/33. How do games play fast on it? No bulky operating system AT ALL (Win, Linux, anything), and really good hardware transform and lighting from day 1 (in 1994, for those of you thinking nVidia is an innovator).
Baldur's Gate was the prototype of the engine. Torment was the game. I quit BG in disgust before even *getting to* Baldur's gate, because I got so SICK of hearing the same music and blurbs. I think I just went for the delete about the 10,000th time I heard "I need a SWIG of some STRONG, DWARVEN ale". And the narrator's voice, it just struck me as ... juvenile for some reason -- I think hearing a second-person narration helped that along. All in all it struck me as endless hack and slash with no hope for plot or even good character writing.
I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
I wouldn't worry ... as long as there are people who want a well-crafted and immersive story, who are willing to give up a little control over their character (you look like this, your history is this) then games of that nature will be designed by anyone with the skills who wants the same thing.
... That's the time to wring your hands, when one can construct fully immersive fantasy and pick and choose the pieces of reality to enhance it with.... God banished us from Eden, we may well banish ourselves back into it.
The ultimate future of gaming, in say, 50 years, will be virtual worlds that will stand alone as well as come together to form a larger, more complex world
I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
I think it's cool for any company to port their games to multiple OSes. What I would like to see is a single CD with multiple binaries on it. Games could easily use the same media files and such and only need different binaries for each different OS. Take for example Quake 3, the three binaries are written specifically for each OS but the game's media files are all basically the same. CDs are pretty large things and could easily store the necessary files to have multiple binaries, if the game had a good deal of media developers could package an installation CD with all the binaries and then have different CDs with just media on them. I figure this would save game producers a penny or two as they would be only physically producing a single CD that would be purchased by everyone.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
This is great news, because BioWare doesn't just make games, they make the game engine as well. Planetscape: Torment (from Black Isle), another great RPG, used BioWare's Infinity Engine, and Black Isle is currently developing another game using it. With luck, Linux support for these games will "trickle down" just like many Quake licenses have made Linux versions of their games.
Mike
That just about does it for me. Baldur's Gate is the one remaining reason that I have for having winblows on my system (well and uploading to my rio, soon to be rectified with 2.4 kernel and usb support =). Quake III almost did it for me, but I just couldn't bring myself to get rid of Baldurs Gate. If they port baldur's gate 2, well, that just about does it. If they could port BG1 while they're at it, I would greatly appriciate it (just give the job to loki). Neverwinter Nights has been porting to linux since they started making the game, so that's no big suprise.
~Jester
Bye-bye winblows
"I have great faith in fools: Self confidence my friends call it." ~Edgar Allan Poe
Usually I don't get too fired up when stuff is ported to BeOS and ignored. Yet, this one pisses me off. The port of NeverWinter nights was announced for BeOS quite some time ago, and is pretty far along. Like I said I really could care less if /. put it up, but ignore the BeOS port and post the Linux port?
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
Porting? According to this link:
http://www.neverwinternights.com/about.html
Neverwinter Nights is be developed as a platform independent project for Linux/Mac/Windows. How does that require porting?
Sigs are awesome huh?
Then linux might be able to achieve some gaming capabilities on par with that of a circa-1996 windows box. If you want to serve web pages, run linux. If you want to play more than 2% of new pc games, run windows. Dual booters
are just greedy.
Explain exactly how a person is greedy in wanting to get something to work that they paid for?
Slashdot social engineering at it's finest
Bioware has planned a Linux port of Neverwinter Nights right from day 1. NWN being primarily a client/server multiplayer game (and apparently a really interesting one too) I think it wasn't really an option not to support Linux.
:(
Why you ask? Because the platform statistics for FPS servers is currently something along the lines of 70% Linux, 30% Windows, the difference being even bigger in Europe (Can't remember an exact reference, but check the
Bluesnews archives). All the big known dedicated servers run on Linux. As an example, the server availability for Half-Life was abysmal until Sierra finally got the server port out, and now it's the most popular game online (mainly
because of the Counterstrike mod).
Where are these stats comming from? Where do these people get the time? Can this game be played by yourself without a network connection?
I get really scared of what the future of games might be like. Not everyone has a net connection at their home, and not everyone wants to have to play games with others. I made a feeble attempt to play things like starcraft multiplayer and got massacred each and every time
I would like the use of network play to be an option not the basis for the entire game. Multiplayer games introduce an ammount of shall we say unfair competition. When I play a game I expect to have a fun time and enjoy an experience that I can feel good about. Not like I was just humiliated by some 10 year old kid.
Slashdot social engineering at it's finest
Ok, Hemos will be good...but will Rob ? Seriously, if there's a commitment for a timely porting of BG2 to Linux (and henceforth other games), Windows may be looking at a up and coming reformat at home. I currently have Debian
and Win/98 (yes, I admit..I'm weak and like to play games sometimes). I seldom boot into Win98 (twice a month or so...and always to play like BG). This is VERY GOOD news to me....thanks for the person who submitted the
article!
What precisely makes this game so good? I assume that Baulder's Gate II is already out for other platforms right? What is this about?
Slashdot social engineering at it's finest
Games are good. It's one of the two things keeping Windows on my home computer.
----------
Stupid sexy Flanders.
Interesting to note the positive tone of the reply when asked about open sourcing the older projects:
We haven't considered that yet - but it might be an interesting way to keep interest in our games high for future years.
Now, with several companies starting to put their older games out into the open source community (Descent 1 & 2, Doom, Quake I, Marathon 2 to name a few), how do we go about convincing some more of the software companies that releasing source code to old classics is a worthwhile thing to do? Which ones would people most like to see - I note several attempts at producing clones of games like Warcraft and Ultima 7, so there must still be interest in these games? Is it only multiplayer games that are worth upgrading or revising or are there some single player ones which would benefit from smarter AI or better collision detection?
Cheers,
Toby Haynes
Anything I post is strictly my own thoughts and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the opinions of IBM.
I have lunch with them occasionally at the Billiards Club across the street from their studios in Edmonton, and these guys are great. They put a tonne of work in. My favorite QA guy Carl came to lunch one day after a 30 hour shift, and he had been doing that all week. And you should have seen the grin of relief on the face of David when he came in last week (after MDK went gold).
You guys all know the drill. If you buy games for Linux, they will keep making games for Linux. And if you need additional motivation, I consider BioWare to be a personal friend of mine, in addition to being a Kick-Ass games shop.
And they're Canadian, and proud of it!
People (as in, most people who purchase home PCs from electronic superstores), do so not to have security, 99.9% reliability, high speed, cheap computers but to have one to that does extremely simple things (word processing, web surfing, _SIMPLE_ spreadsheets, etc.) and plays games. Lot's of games. The sheer size of games sections vs other sections of software at these superstores is a testament to that fact.
Picture your typical uninformed sales clerk at B*st B*y conversing with a typical computer purchaser at that store:
sales clerk: This is 600 MHz, with yada yada..
customer: (stupified) Can I download the internet with it
sales clerk: Yep.. 56k guarateed connection.. (insert more incorrect information..) AOL, MSN, your choice! The latest technology with Win2k.
customer: (hesitant) So, this will get me on the internet?
clerk: of course
customer: Does this have financial software? (*NOTE: Linux needs to make headway here. Been working on a package for myself, but have a long way to go to get anything useable by anyone else)
clerk: Free with this is MS M*ney, Qu*cken, etc.
customer: How fast is the computer (xlate: can it handle games, since the last several tasks can be performed by a 386SX with 2mb of RAM, need a 486DX & 20MB if you want Java* stuff. ActiveX is a way to let the M$-Intel Cartel control obsolescence of hardware WRT the internet.)
clerk: (continues spiel..)
So.. more games == more acceptance. Maybe a game-oriented distro needs to be put together. Small foot-print, no ports open under 1k without knowing how to turn them on, a 100% WM like KDE, plus OSS added in the purchased version.
Of course, there is a chicken-egg paradox here. Need install base to support games. Need more competent programmers to port successfully (xlates to more expensive in some cases), to handle security issues. etc.. In other words, need a large enough market to support a game that costs tens (hundreds?, thousands?) of thousands of dollars to produce that sells at US$50.
Sam Lantinga, Lead Programmer for Loki Entertainment Software has created a toolkit called the Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL). This is open source (available under GNU LGPL) and provides an increasing amount of the functionality for DirectX style work.
As well as Linux it is currently on BeOS and Win32, with the potential for MacOS, IRIX, Solarix and FreeBSD (unofficial or in progress).
Gamma Testing - Where testing is extended to the full user community (AKA Shipping the Program)
Folks, we have a problem. The companies which are porting their games to Linux are NOT your friends! They are working for MICROSOFT!
See, the REAL reason that Linux developers write so much code and find bugs so fast, is because they don't have any GAMES to hamper productivity!
By secretly financing the porting of these Windows-only games, with well-known addictive qualities, to Linux, Microsoft is hoping to destroy the productivity of all Linux developers.
No longer will the diehard Linux developer be able to boast that they commonly do the work of 10 Windows developers - between lack of focus & sleep, they'll be lucky if they can TALK intelligibly, much less write good code.
Save yourself, before it's too late!
Bioware has planned a Linux port of Neverwinter Nights right from day 1. NWN being primarily a client/server multiplayer game (and apparently a really interesting one too) I think it wasn't really an option not to support Linux. Why you ask? Because the platform statistics for FPS servers is currently something along the lines of 70% Linux, 30% Windows, the difference being even bigger in Europe (Can't remember an exact reference, but check the Bluesnews archives). All the big known dedicated servers run on Linux. As an example, the server availability for Half-Life was abysmal until Sierra finally got the server port out, and now it's the most popular game online (mainly because of the Counterstrike mod).
So news like this is always welcome.
However, Linux as a gaming platform is only one piece of the pie. We also need to work on usability for new users. The GNOME and KDE projects are a very good start for this.
After many years of working with "clueless newbies," it's become my opinion that most of them are willing to learn only what they need to know to get done whatever it is they want to do. Sometimes even less.
What needs to happen is this: New users should be able to learn what they need to know as they go. For instance, you have to update a whole bunch of things to get Quake III Arena installed. It's my opinion that all these drivers should have been included on the CD and the installation process included them, and these presented in a manner that users would learn what a shared library is, what X is, what X toolkits are, what the kernel is, what kernel modules are, how all this ties together, and why they are all important, in a quick, easy to follow format.
If the collective knowledge of all of us UNIX people can be placed in the hands of newbies at just the point where they're most receptive to it (e.g. the installation process of a game they really want to play) then I believe the number of "clueless" newbies will drop.
Anybody who wants to work on systems to make this sort of thing possible, or knows of any in progress, can feel free to contact me.
---
How am I supposed to fit a pithy, relevant quote into 120 characters?