Slashdot Mirror
Linux Descent 3 Demo
Dustin Reyes writes "Loki Entertainment Software has released a
demo of
Descent 3, the 3D
action game developed by Outrage Entertainment (who
were also responsible for the initial Linux porting work). Featuring 3 levels
(one single-player and two multiplayer),
the demo weighs in at 42MB (the README is available here, which includes command line options and known issues). Mirrors: Loki, 3D Downloads" My copy should ship any day: descent is probably the one game that I probably should take dramamine to play.
Actually, games are the finset pieces of engineering on the face of computing. The evangalist behind DirectX (Alex St. John) once said something along the lines of "its incredible that software these days can visibly refresh drawing just a few graphics on the screen while id is spraying huge worlds with tons of AI driven monsters on the screen at 30fps.) This quote holds very true. Games tend t spend a lot of time working on precise algorithms for all the performance critical sections, and games tend to be written to use as little memory as possible. Thus, most people understand why the requirements for games are so high, you're trying to emulate reality for god's sake! If KDE was written by a game designer, it would use 4 megs of RAM, be able to redraw a browser window at 200fps, and would load in less than a second.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
I'd like to see you defend that. Software is something I make. It is not an idea (now that would be silly, I'll charge $50 for the idea of a fast, free, lightweight open source OS) but an actual product. What should be able to be sold? Work should be able to be sold. Just as a service is work (the expenditure of engergy for a given length of time) software is work (the expenditure of energy required to code it for the coding time.) Further, it can be though of as a service (I'm programming your computer for you.) Ideology holds dear the ability to make statements without any reasoning. However, given some reasoning, you can say that software is just like a service and can be charged for. If you wish, you can also think of it this way. Sex is kind of like software. Even though you can get it for free, in all accounts it is a service and can be charged for. More importantly, it involves the expenditure of energy for a given length of time, and can thus be considered "work" and very few people argue that you shouldn't be able to charge for work. Of course, just like sex, there are those who insist on giving away software for free, but you cannot say those who charge for it are morally wrong because they aren't giving it away free.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
(Oh, great. I leave town for the weekend, and my project hits Slashdot. :) )
Hi, I'm the Descent3 developer at Loki.
You CAN install the game in less that 500 megs, but the default expects that much space. If you put the movies to disk, it's a gigabyte of space (and not worth doing, unless reading the movies from the CD on-the-fly is too slow.)
Most of the game can be played by swapping CDs at runtime. This at least halves the install space requirements. If you've got two CD drives (ie. - DVD-ROM and a CD burner), you can put one disk in each drive, and Descent will never nag you to swap disks, and you can have a minimal install on the hard disk.
--ryan.
Don't say, "don't quote me," because if no one quotes you, you probably haven't said a thing worth saying.
No... you can use a loadable module instead. Playing as root is fine if you're disconnected and you wrote the game, otherwise it's not likely to happen 'round my house. Fortunately, the demo doesn't require it (nor does any other loki game I own).
Sadly, the linux port was 90% done when the windows version shipped. It's taken this long not because of technical reasons.
:(
Anyway, I hope you all go out and buy to to both support Loki, and to support the companies like Outrage (who lost a lot of money on D3, and isn't likely to make anything off of the Linux port), who ported the game to linux in order to support the linux community.
I think D3 was an example of a developer trying too hard to make the community happy. I spent 2 years working at Outrage on D3, and we added features which people wanted, not just thinking about if this will help us sell the game. D3 has a lot of cool user requested features, and it cost a lot of money to make. In the end though, it just didn't sell enough copies to make a profit.
but the market has to start somewhere.
:).
There have been several simultaneous ports [Unreal Tournament, Quake III: Arena, Terminus, Theocracy, the next Doom game, Anarchy Online (a non-fantasy-based MMORPG), Neverwinter Nights (the multiplayer AD&D RPG), Tribes 2 (well, nigh-simultaneous), and probably some I'm not thinking of off-hand] shipped or announced in the last 12 months, and the only way to maintain momentum is if you, the community, vote with your dollars.
Moreover, one of Loki's more recent ports, Soldier of Fortune, shipped only 4 months after the original Windows version, so the lag time on porting should hopefully be decreasing as well.
The gaming industry is ruled to a large degree by inertia, so it'll take time and effort to ensure a viable and diverse Linux gaming library, but I intend to do what's necessary to ensure that for all of us
:wq
I like this game. I will pay money for this game. Therefore, Outrage will make money. Thus, there is interest in games on Linux.
One of the big reasons I will pay for this game is because the previous versions of Descent have had their source code released. It is because of that that I can play D2 under Linux. And I'm buying D3 keeping in mind that the source code will most likely be released sometime in the future. And this time, it will be native Linux code, instead of having to port it over ourselves. WTG Outrage and Loki. Keep up the good work.
I've probably got it somewhere with one of my video cards too, however since I don't run Windows, Descent 3 is certainly new to me, that's why I ordered my copy straight away. Don't assume everyone uses Windows for games and Linux for the rest - I've never had my own WindowsPC in my life.
While I still have Windows 98SE on my hard drive, games like Descent 3 for Linux continue to erode the reason for having it there. So as soon as I get that Xfree86 4.0 install done and the NVidia drivers up and running, I shall be posting a cheque in the direction of Loki. Along with the Quake series, the Doom series, SimCity 3000, there is less and less reason to waste 11GB of hard drive space on Windows. What I need now is a decent driving game for Linux with force feedback support :-)
Cheers,
Toby Haynes
Anything I post is strictly my own thoughts and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the opinions of IBM.
its at the loki portal page http://loki.linuxgames.com
Natas of
-=Pedophagia=-
http://www.mp3.com/pedophagia
Also Admin of
Natas of
-=Pedophagia=-
http://www.mp3.com/pedophagia
Also Admin of
http://loki.linuxgames.com
With any luck, they'll port dramamine to Linux.
descent 3 is long out of sales on windows, it's not even in the bargain bin anymore. This one game was a story on slashdot when the porting was announced, it is a story now, and it will be a story when the retail ships. If you think about that, you will realize how bad the state of linux gaming is in.
It's nice that they are porting the game, but so little so late.... definitely not somethign the linux community should be proud of.
And the very worst part is that the game is now so old and outdated (I got the full windows version for free with my video card over a year ago) that nobody will buy it, and game companies will say "see, there is no interest in games on linux"
________
Descent was always my favorite. The full 3D movement was fun, and the controls were very challenging. How fast is it on un 3D accelerated linux?
-- Moondog
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Enjoy!