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Maxis Developer on Linux Game Porting

Posted by chrisd on from the isn't-xbill-and-same-game-enough-for-ya dept.

friedmud wrote in to tell us about a comment from a Maxis developer, Don Hopkins, who did a partial linux port of "The Sims". You can find his post here (3rd one down, comment from Don Hopkins titled "Reality check from a game developer") in a LinuxGames.com forum. I don't know if I agree with his assertion that Wine is the best way to have games happen on Linux but his comments on the economics of Linux games development and especially the costs of keeping versions concurrent on multiple platforms are insightful.

3 of 364 comments (clear)

  1. I just don't get it... by Xerithane · · Score: 5, Redundant

    ... we have SDL. we have OpenGL. I fail to understand the logic that game companies harbor to not write cross-platform games. I've done some development with SDL and it's a really good toolkit. Sure, it needs some more work but everything does. OpenGL is awesome, and it's not controlled by one proprietary source.
    Taking some extra time to port to linux and ship it on the same CD as the windows version doesn't seem like a bad idea. His talks about Wine are fine and all, and I can understand that.. but I really dislike his dismissal of whether or not it is native. AFAIK Wine still requires Windows. That is bullshit. I want a game to run on Linux. Linux. Not windows, not wine. Wine is Not an Emulator, Right?
    It doesn't seem to take much to build a game using existing cross-platforms toolkits that rival Direct3d. OpenAL seems to be the largest gap to bridge.. but, this is a pointless rant so I'll end it.

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    Dacels Jewelers can't be trusted.
  2. WineX could work iff.... by the_2nd_coming · · Score: 2, Redundant

    I think the subscription is a dumb idea....why put the onus on the user to get the most up to date libs for his system? if TG would sell their wine implementation to a game studio so that it can be included on the cd, then the game studio only needs to make an installer for Linux, the Winx is included so the Linux user just needs to buy the game with the penguine on the box, not worry about how it is being implemented, the installer can look at the system, see the winex libs are all compatable, if not install the ones that are included on the cd, and put an Icon on the desktop. bam a game that runs and the user dioes not have to know how it works.....that is how to make good use of wine, by including it in the installer, not a subscription.

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    I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
  3. Using the MacOS X port as a start? by George+Walker+Bush · · Score: 0, Redundant
    I believe they have ported the Sims to MacOS X already. Given the UNIX foundation of MacOS X, how easy would it be to use THAT port as a start for the Linux version, rather than working directly off the Windows version?


    (Or how about other games... if there's a MacOS X version out, shouldn't they use that to do Linux/UNIX porting, since Mac OS X is UNIX?)

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    George W. Bush
    President, United States of America