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NWN Linux Client Not So Delayed after All?
Sir Joltalot writes "It seems as if the NWN linux client might not be as delayed after all. From the client page: "We have just been informed by Rad Game Tools that they have Linux versions of both Bink and Miles. ... This solves the two outstanding issues with the Linux Client, and I bet we will have even more good news for you in the coming week in terms of future Betas or Demos of the Linux Client."" You'll excuse me if I opt against holding my breath ;)
With all this excitement about the linux client, I haven't heard anything about an OS X one - anyone know if one in the works?
sic transit gloria mundi
http://nwn.bioware.com/about/macversion.html
Hmm. If they have linux versions, why not make them available on their website? The video tools are freely available for Windows, so having the linux version floating around surely would only help further adoption of their tech.
I can understand why they wouldnt release source - but would sticking the client and encoders up hurt them?
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
I have access to and just recently finished the Neverwinter Nights game start to finish, about 99.9% of it playing on the NetBSD machine as server. There were only a very few problems I encountered:
0. I had to create the directories "currentgame.0" and "temp.0" before I could get gameplay out of the server running on NetBSD using Linux emulation with the Suse7 emu package.
1. The most difficult to deal with were module transitions--from chapter to chapter. These had to be saved before the transition, the saves had to be moved to the windows machine, the transition completed on a windows local server, then saved again, moved back, and restarted.
I'm certain there's something simple that I could be doing--have the script check regularly (every second?) for some kind of disk structure, or perhaps fixing something else, but I was too anxious to get to the next chapter to sit there and do a ktrace of what was happening. I have a pile of saved games I can monkey with though (about 100 of them) so I'll get to it eventually.
I did not try to move it to a Windows server to see if this would make a difference. I suspect it would've worked perfectly.
So, I'd recommend saving yourself a headache and just use the Windows version. I play games for entertainment, coolness, sex appeal, geek factor, etc., but I don't wish to spend an hour tweaking stuff just right so I can play on GNU/Linux.
P.S. If you must play on Linux/BSD, please know that saving the game in the middle of an area to area transition (not module to module--that just plain didn't work) caused a freeze and core-dump in the server.
that the REAL story here is the availability of Bink and Miles. These two tools are widely used in the gaming industry, and should make porting of MANY games and other multimedia apps (not just NWN) a real possibility. In fact, a quick look at Rad Game Tools page shows 2,700 games that use the Miles API. Bink is pretty cool too...used in quite a few games as well.
-JT
Did they even bother to ask? I wonder how many other games or software projects have been delayed because the developers didn't bother to ask anyone if there were already wheels out there while they tried to invent their own.
Disciples II is also using the Bink engine to play animations. So that would make the recently announced port much much easier.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Sadly, you'll have to buy the windows version anyways, so holding out to support linux gaming doesn't matter. When I pre-ordered the game they had still claimed on thier website that the linux and mac binaries would be included. Boy was I pissed when I found out they weren't.
I completed the game, and I can say that it's a blast! Plus, making your own modules is great. Patience for the linux client will be WELL worth it. Trust me.
Everyone seems to be cheering the fact that NWN will hopefully have a way to play movies and sound come monday because of a linux version of RAD tools..
HELLO, People... Lets think about this one moment...
They announced MONTHS ago that they where going to Launch with a NWN Linux Client..
Then they turn around and say its going to be delayed..
Now in the last week they main delay is not having a clue of what to do about sound and movie?
Is it just me or does anyone else thing that this whole thing started out as nothing but a large STUNT to get more sales and it has turned around and bit them in the REAR..
MONTHS down the road and they are just now telling us that they can't play sound or movies.
And here we are 2 weeks before X-mas.. Even if they where 100% complete with everything else they would still have to integrate, and test these 2 very important show stopping features.
HOW CAN YOU ANNOUNCE A LINUX CLIENT AT LAUNCH AND NOT EVEN HAVE A REMOTE IDEA OF HOW YOU PLAN ON SUPPORTING YOUR MOVIES AND SOUND...
This false advertising beats out fast food, They fleece you every time you order a burger from there picture based menus, pictures that make your mouth water, and get something that looks like it was sat on.
Personal Website
Jeez, we finally get word that the client is almost done, and there's not one decent post in the whole stinking story.
;).
:)
Personally, I think that the story of bioware should help a lot, both for linux gamers and developers. It should remind the developers that you should never, ever, EVER make a cross-platform game with non-cross-platform parts. Bioware got so incredibly lucky with this, I have no idea what they would do if they didn't have Bink and Miles available... I would have doubts about a winter date. As for the gamers, I think that this is a great opportunity to get a native game that isn't an FPS, supported by the developers (with an expansion on the way, too). I know that it's very easy to sigh and condemn bioware and all this silliness, but hey, at least they're doing it. And we should be happy and support them by buying it to ensure their future support of linux (now that they have gotten their act together
Also, hello to all the guys from the Great Linux Client Thread!
..to actually buy the Linux version once it hits shelves (or more then likely, the stock of your favorate online retailer). Without support for their efforts, Bioware won't throw money towards future ports.
My understanding is that we will be able to download the Linux binaries for free if you bought the windows version. I don't know about the Mac Version.
This post was generated by a Cadre of Uber Monkeys for Monkey-Man2000 (603495).
Imagine that at project start, the future availability of Bink and Miles for Linux was "promised" to Bioware. After the collapse of Loki and other developments, Rad Game Tools declines to release said products.
While working feverishly to roll their own solution, Bioware publicly states that this is the reason they are being held back.
Sam Lantiga suddenly shows up out of the blue on the NWN forums to reveal that he had previously ported Miles and submitted the code back to RGT.
The Rabid Linux Zealots flood RGT's mail server...
RGT admits that they do have a working Bink and Miles for Linux.
grassy knoll... area 51...
All kings is mostly rapscallions. -Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
With all the whining I have heard about the delays in the Linux client im suprised BW even bothered continuing work on it. Where is the value to BW in finishing it. The delays have turned into bitches and gripes that only fuels bad press - like that which is found in the headline on this site ("i wont hold my breath") BW, in its slow way, is actually doing the linux community a favor by developing for the platform at all - and hopefully when there done, people will buy it - thus showing the gaming community that Id isn't the only company that can make a headliner game for Linux and be successful. So stop yer bitchin. You don't have to love or even support the delays or even the effort of BW to make the game. Be cynical all you want but shut up about it. If your gonna bitch - bitch if no game comes ever does come out. And then when you do bitch, make sure you bitch at all the people who could only whine during the development and showed the world what an ingrateful lot the Linux community can be at timews.
Lookie here, Linux always gets a mention :).
g s/ 20021212_hoc.shtml
http://nwn.stratics.com/content/community/hoclo
I'm seriously curious here... why is Bioware releasing a Linux client? Please understand, I run Linux and I'm desperate to get a Linux client myself, I just don't understand Bioware's business reasons for this.
Bioware isn't likely to make back the money they've sunk into porting to Linux, not in sales they'd otherwise not have received. Yes, they'll certainly gain some good will from the Linux community but still...
Certainly, matters are different with the stand-alone linux server. Porting that didn't take much effort and this adds value to the product quite obviously.
So what's my theory? Bioware is using NWN to get some cross-platform experience for a future project. They know they aren't going to make their money back on the development of a linux client for NWN but that doesn't matter to them. The experience they get from this port is the value they are looking for and they plan to leverage this experience on future projects. Those are the ones Bioware expects to see a payback.
Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.
"We have just been informed by Rad Game Tools that they have Linux versions of both Bink and Miles.
You mean... They didn't ask?!
Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. --E. W. Dijkstra
I really have to agree with you..the ruleset is whacked, they did NOT even get close to making it 3rd ED D&D. The toolset is neat in a very superficial, and limiting way. The hundreds of hours needed to actually transfer an original idea into their scripting makes it VERY much NOT WORTH the effort. If you actually expect to RolePlay give it up. If you want a gauntlet like experience and a very simple roleplay environment it might do the trick. But any actual character development or spontaneus roleplay is impossible in this game.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
When I preordered it was supposed to be shiped in box. They will get more money from me the instant they refund my purchase in full.
I live in a giant bucket.
the only drawback was that map rotation was manual
I guess it would not that hard to write a sniffer to look for special control phrases in the chat logs [like i do for everquest - I can call up maps & item searches, recipies, any url, send email etc.etc.]
but NWN server never/rarely crashed on me - it did kind of bork the response of the public web server sometimes by CPU hogging but hey, that's life
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
This is a *Linux* program and you're advising against using it because it doesn't work properly...on your *BSD* box! Did you ever consider the far-more-likely possibility that it's a *BSD* issue -- improperly emulating the Linux environment -- instead of a NWN issue?
If you wanted things working out of box (you "don't wish to spend an hour tweaking stuff") and you purchased a *Linux* program, for God's sake, *use Linux*.
May we never see th
I'd just like to say that the amount of benefit that Sam Latinga has brought the Linux community is incredible. He did SDL, and released it freely. He did a few support libraries, and released them freely. He worked with Loki to port commercial games, and even now that he's working at the ever-so-nasty-and-Linux-hating Blizzard, he's still churning out good stuff.
A hearty thanks from us all!
May we never see th
Don't be an idiot -- do you prefer the Linux support (or complete lack thereof) from some other game companies, like Blizzard?
May we never see th
I put NWN on my list of things I want that people are always asking me for at Christmastime. It would be nice to fire up NWN under Linux, but I'm happy they're committed to putting out a Linux client at all. So I'll wait 'til January if need be. It just means there will be more user-built modules I can try out :-).
"Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?"
Blizzard's support of Linux gamers is better than Bioware's
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That's a keeper.
None of them have a working game for Linux
I suppose you're too uninformed to be aware of the Linux dedicated server that Bioware has had out for NWN.
We'll be generous and assume that you were just talking about the client. One has put plenty of effort and risk into writing Linux based code and is about to release a supported Linux client. The other has repeatedly stated flat out that they will not support Linux, that there is no money in the Linux market, and has attacked an open-source server project (bnetd). You must be using some rather original reasoning to reach your conclusion s.
Incidentally, the sound system used by NWN has been ported to Linux by Sam Lantinga -- currently a Blizzard employee
Again, it seems that you don't know what you're talking about, but I'll make it simple. SL is a great guy, and has been doing Linux gaming work for ages, well before he worked for Blizzard or anyone. He was actually *paid* by Loki. Blizzard, on the other hand, hasn't put a single cent into supporting Linux, and is not supporting SL in his work. About the only thing you can say in their favor is that they aren't threatening to fire him or something for doing what coding he wants to do in his free time, which is a pretty pathetic endorsement.
Blizzard is about as solidly anti-Linux as an entertainment dev house can get, and Bioware is one of the few companies that's taken some risk to support Linux users. Your comment is both uninformed and out of line.
May we never see th
Sigh...I do spend hundreds of hours, but the scripting ability in NWN will not ALLOW even a fraction of that to be put into play. I agree about the previous games, but NONE of them EVER CLAIMED to be an ENGINE to PROVIDE an RPG experience for PLAYER made content. As a traditional RPG NWN is quite nice, as what they advertise it to be it is a pile of crap, that WEB RPG makes look silly.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
You will be able to DM using the native linux game, but the Aurora toolset (the module design program) is Windows-only. I hear it works well under WINE, though....
Liberal (adj.): Free from bigotry; open to progress; tolerant of others.
Actually, the servers I run also have Roger Wilco enabled, so NWN is like playing old school RPG's with miniatures. Well, without the dice rolling, of course. ;-)
Murphy was an optimist.
Redundant? WTF? Time for me to kill some bitch ass moderators.
mstyne: real name, no gimmicks
We meet every Sat and play Old school with figures, NWN does not even get close... I've been playing table top rpg since the early 70's and computer RPG's since my commodore 64. I appreciate everyones attempt to correct my opinion but I wasn't looking for support, just voicing my overall displeasure with the game, and before anyone asks yes I have made several very popular mods and ran a persistent server for quite sometime so I know what I speak of regarding the scripting language. They are getting closer with AI but even 2 DM in a game cannot keep up with PC conversation or control the NPC's in a reasonable manner. The # of lines of code needed to get an intelligent monster to behave in such a manner is HUGELY overblown. Throw in a an NPC with spells and you might just as well have the GM controlling all the NPC's.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
I wasn't trying to correct your opinion, rather I was trying to offer my own opinion. It just happened to not be the same as yours. :-)
Murphy was an optimist.