Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Michael Simms of LGP and TuxGames

Posted by Hemos on from the making-the-games-work dept.

jvmatthe writes "The scene for native Linux games has been sleeping for months now, given the demise of Loki. Now LinuxGames has posted a very interesting interview with Michael Simms, who leads both TuxGames and Linux Game Publishing (LGP), which details his views on where Linux gaming has been, where it stands now (including comments on WineX), and where it may be going in the short and long term."

2 of 189 comments (clear)

  1. Re:not proportional? by Alranor · · Score: 2, Informative

    Somehow I think he meant that the ratio of linux gamers / linux computers would be similar to that of windows gamers / windows computers.

    Bit of an optimistic guess I think, given how many people who run Linux also have windows machines / partitions for gaming.

  2. Re:not proportional? by Jearil · · Score: 2, Informative

    OpenGL is a completely open system for graphical rendering that is a much better supported (both morally and via standards) for Linux than any propriatory system would be. Most games created now that have 3D aspects in Windows are built to run on either DirectX or OpenGL, which means if the OpenGL side was ported, it wouldn't be too difficult to run. Why make a new standard like a DirectX clone on Linux when a perfectally good ones already exsists? (aka OpenGL).

    As for audio, I've noted on more recent distributions that support for audio has greatly improved. Several applications support several different options for recieving audio depending on what system you use, but it seems to becoming standardized fairly quickly. (I'd post links but I'm typing this telneted into a Linux box and using links..)

    The problem I believe they were referring to with not having the right ratio of gamers prolly has something to do with Linux being more accepted in the Server market than the desktop market. I'm guessing a lot of companies that use Linux as a server probably don't also play games on them, as they are used in daily production and have more "important" tasks to do. And since the Linux desktop market is still relatively small, the market for games is going to be small. Also, a lot of linux users balk at buying software of any type for their box because of the attitude that software should be free(as in beer). Not saying that the attitude is good or bad, just that it makes selling games more difficult and the urge to port them less.

    Saying that I've bought several games from Loki that have run fine on my Linux box. Nothing like going to a lan party with a bunch of Windows people and playing some games, with people wondering what kind of system I'm running :).

    Food for thought.