Loki Publishes "Programming Linux Games"

An anonymous reader sent in this tidbit - Loki Software has recently released Programming Linux Games, a book about Linux game development. It covers SDL, several audio APIs, and the Linux framebuffer console. The publisher has more info. (If someone wants to review this, email Hemos.)

Comments

Re:I've been waiting...

[jonathan_ingram]

On a slightly different tack, you might be interested in PyGame, a portable game programming framework for Python which wraps SDL. Of course, there are bindings for other languages as well (just look at the SDL Homepage), but PyGame is very well implemented. Here is a example of what a very simple demonstration app looks like in PyGame. One of the best applications/games using PyGame so far is Solarwolf, a remake of an old Atari 2600 game (hmm... looks like the site is down at the moment, though).

One of the best ways to pick up game usage tips is to look at source code. One guy who's coded loads of SDL games (in C) can be found here. In particular - check out Circus Linux - it's a lot of fun :).

Re:selling the *nix community short?

[ikekrull]

The biggest problems with getting games onto linux are:

a) Developers are mostly much more familiar with Windows, leading them to adopt Windows-specific techniques, making porting difficult and/or expensive.

and

b) There is no 'Standard' under Linux for audio/video/input handling.

Loki is attempting to solve both those problems by

a) releasing documentation e.g. this book that enables programmers to become familiar with game-development techniques on Linux

and

b) releasing a cross-platform library (SDL) that handles these functions, and is looking like the most promising 'Standard' gaming API for Linux.

I don't see how this is a 'free ride' for anyone, since ideas represented in code, regardless of who they are written by can be easily protected using various licenses, most notably the GPL, which prevents companies from 'stealing' anything.

And how the hell you arrive at the conclusion that writing documentation is somehow 'the wrong thing to do' is completely beyond me.

The reason many gaming companies don't support Linux is the same reason they don't support BSD. In terms of the gaming market, nobody buys Linux games.

Is that any reason not to write games for Linux?

Linux never would have made any ground in any sector of computing if this attitude prevailed - 'No companies are doing it, so theres no point trying.'

If a Linux port of a Windows game can be produced for close-to-zero cost, or if Linux can be used as a development environment (can you say 'Playstation 2'?), then delivering games for Linux becomes easier and more attractive, and having good games available leads gamers to consider Linux as their primary OS.

Linux has only just become a platform capable of supporting modern games, and outshines every other *NIX variant in this respect.

It is only natural that books like this should be produced, and i can't think of a better group of people to produce them than Loki.

Re:Helping the competition?

[OverCode@work]

No. I wrote this book. It is not deliberately obfuscated. But by all means have a look and decide that for yourself.

-John

Re:selling the *nix community short?

[OverCode@work]

I think you're over-analyzing it a bit. :)

I don't know what Loki's motives for commissioning this were, but I can tell you mine: I wanted to learn this stuff myself. One of the best ways to learn something is to write it out for someone else. In the process of writing PLG, I became a serious SDL user, learned the quirks of OSS, reverse engineered ESD (that's what you have to do when there's no @#$%ing documentation :), and taught myself framebuffer console programming, as well as a bit about video signals, etc.

So I think it's reasonable to say I know a bit about the mechanics of Linux game programming now. Now maybe someone else can benefit. Maybe it'll sell a million copies, make DirectX obsolete, and get a penguin logo painted on every street corner. But probably not. That's not why I wrote it.

Or maybe some Linux-using 12 year old will pick it up and get into game programming. It would make my day to know that.

-John

Shake your google, kid

[wrinkledshirt]

Start here... SDL site

Here's the SDL doc project.

Here's an article comparing X-based programming to SDL-based programming.

You can use OpenGL techniques in SDL, so here's some OpenGL stuff for you...

This NeHe page comes complete with a version of the infamous Gears ported to SDL.

Finally, if you really want to start getting the best out of it, you'd better get on hardware acceleration. Either switch to one of the latest commercial distributions (RH 7.1 and Mandrake 8.0 do 3d out of the box), or use the source, luke.