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Savage to Support Linux
focitrixilous P writes "Gamespot writes about the upcoming hybrid strategy game Savage: The Battle for Neweth, which will provide a full Linux edition on the same disk as the Windows version. The title blends real time strategy with action titles, along one player to act as a general while others do the actual fighting."
Other's have though of it before. I bought a copy of Terminus a couple of years ago that had linux, windows, and mac binaries on them.
Dinivin
On a side note, I recently read an article about some programmers that said it was actually unbelievably easy to port their program to *nix from Windows. It was however an application/design program and not a game, but hell if Winex works. . . I'll see if I can find it.
Unreal Tournament 2003 runs fine under Linux. You have to watch out for the installer bug and the supermount bugs but those problems and their work-arounds are well documented
This guy is way out there
This actually sounds a lot like the Half-Life mod Natural Selection to me. The aliens have special powers (they can see anything that any alien can see, even through walls) and the marines have a commander who tells them what to do. It makes it an RTS for one person and an FPS for everyone else. The normal players can call up the commander and ask for health and weapons, too. At least, that's how it's supposed to work. I've tried to play it, but it never did work on my machine.
Anyway, this game sounds like it will be two marine groups against each other.
I doubt the space used is the issue, since CDs are so cheap. It's the issue of having to make sure the game works properly on all of the desired platforms that costs money, and which is why so many companies ignore Linux (and Mac). The vast majority of gamers are running Windows, and a lot of Linux/Mac users have another Windows box just for games. It's just not worth the time/money when the game market is so competitive already.
Mark
Yeah thats awesome linux guys, but I really have to put my .02 in this. I have one player for everything in windows. Media Player Classic does everything I ever wanted in a media player. Combine it with the codec pack and the quicktime/realmedia alternative codec packs you can get from here . It can play everything you throw at it because all it does is use all the codecs on your system. You can set priority if you want things specific and dolby ex quality dvds play perfectly.
[Just Shut Up and Do What I say]
This is not to intimate that there are renderware or gamebryo platform licences available. I'll put it another way, until a signifigant number of gamers say "I will pay 50$ for a game only when it hits linux natively (not transgaming or others)" then is when you will see linux reach parity with the Mac or windows. Currently, our research shows that hard core gamers that use linux are not loathe to reboot into windows or use an emulation technology. Until that changes, the state of linux gaming won't change either.
Also, describing the engine as minor shows you don't understand the state of AAA gaming. The engine would comprise a scenegraph, an interface to the video hardware (either via opengl, directx, console video, or a software renderer like pixomatic), the positional sound or mappings to other libraries like miles, AI connectors, physics or physics tie-ins to havoc, networking, matchmaking, and a variety of other components. Keep in mind that you can make most of this cross platform, but it's not like it just happens magically.
Chris DiBona
Co-Editor, Open Sources
Open Source Program Manager, Google, Inc.
As a linux beta tester, I can tell you that the Linux version is every bit as good, if not better (more stable) than the windows version.
Patches for the beta are released at the same time for linux and windows and linux performances are equal or better than windows (if you run a lightweight WM, or no WM at all and no other proggy, you WILL see a difference).
Every features of the game, even the little graphical details no one would notice are in the Linux version, auto updater included.
So, there, if you dare miss this game cuz of all the FUD you see here, I'm really sorry for you.
XFree86 4.3.x should support most ATI products with both 2D and 3D acceleration through DRI (some 3D features are missing, but most are there).
Suppose you decide to use Crystal Space, for instance, I can't really find out if there is any real tool support for max or maya that you'd get with a renderware or ndl licence. Those plugins are really kind of important to a number of studios.
All I'm saying with my post is that cross platfrom compatibility is always a cost issue for a commercial game studio. Whether those latforms are windows and the mac, or an xboc and a ps2 or all three and a gamecube. It's more than just assets. I know a lot of companies that have chosen renderware with all the (expensive) bells and whistles because it got them closest to the write once run anywhere goal. But that's me guessing more than a real opinion :-)
That said, I stand by my economic argument. Linux needs a larger dedicated gamer fanbase that would make the extra platform costs worth it. Until then, I think that transgaming and icculus are the saviours of gaming on linux.
Chris
Co-Editor, Open Sources
Open Source Program Manager, Google, Inc.
Actually, I find myself needing both xine and mplayer. Mplayer plays just about anything you throw at it, without problems. Xine on the other hand has a somewhat flakier playback, sometimes with frames dropped, at least on my system, but it's way better than mplayer for dvd:s.
The stars that shine and the stars that shrink
in the face of stagnation the water runs before your eyes
OSX is based on BSD.
This much is true.
But, unless you're running the X server for OSX, that's about were it stops. The entire graphics, sound and control systems are completely different if you're building an Aqua application (native OSX). Unless you're using some crossplatform GUI like wxPyhton or QT or something, or openGL (which OSX uses) you're going to have a hell of time making that game fully compatible
I've been running the beta on an Athlon 900, 512mb PC133 and Geforce 2 MX, running Debian, and I could play the game at decent fps. It crashed only during one patch too, which is impressive.
It will probably run for you with good fps, but in bigger games with maps covered by towers and people fighting everywhere, your CPU probably won't handle it.
You can also download a gameplay trailer if you want to take a closer look at it.