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Half-Life 2 - A Linux User's Lament
jvm writes "If you're a gamer with a pulse, you've probably heard about the impending release of Valve's Half-Life 2. As a gamer and a Linux user, I always get a little stirred up about the whole Half-Life situation, where we have a dedicated server but no client. So here's my reflection on the sad situation, past and present. How will the rest of the Linux gaming community react to the release of Half-Life 2? Boot into Windows? Wait for WINE or WineX support? Get the Xbox version? With so many Half-Life servers running on Linux, will the same be true for Half-Life 2?"
The bottom line is, Valve is a company with many ex-Microsoft employees. They fully embrace DirectX 9. In fact, the reason that the Mac port that was almost completely finished was cancelled was because (I believe) they wouldn't be able to get them to network together due to DirectX concerns.
Valve has made steps to ensure that Half-Life works under WINE, but the reality is, they will continue to use DirectX, as they feel that is how they can make the best possible game. The money that would go into creating a Linux box would be prohibitively expensive, not to mention perhaps impossible because of patents/copyrights on DirectX technology.
It would be great if it worked under Linux, but the bottom line is it doesn't make economic sense.
Loki went out of business due to bad management, not lack of interest from gamers. Check out this article.
According to beyondunreal.com, 2004 will have a Linux Client.
Check out ioquake3.org for a great, free, First-Person Shooter engine!
While we're talking about short memories, don't forget that Loki failed not because they had no market, but because they were poorly managed. They were one of many holdouts to the dotcom era who's only ambition, only hope, was not to bring the love of gaming to linux, but to IPO and cash out. It's sad too, seeing how many of the employees of this company that was doomed to fail, stuck it out regardless, and at the end, went months without getting paid, and in some case even spending their own cash to keep the company alive, and in the end, they get screwed by the owner.
Had the company been managed properly, they'd still be around today, and going strong. Linux would have a much stronger influence on game companies pondering to make a linux port, and if they were successful, there would be other serious competitors. Alas, the chance was lost, only because people at the top had the wrong vision.
At least we got SDL out of it.
-Restil
Play with my webcams and lights here
NVIDIA's 3D drivers are at least as good as the Windows ones now. ATI's are getting better, Kyro drivers are decent but hampered by the now very obscolete hardware.
The 3D driver situation in Linux is hardly bogus any more.
SDL is nothing more than very basic glue, barely enough to provide a portable framework. It does not provide even a fraction of the features Valve would need to make HL2 portable, and none of the OpenGL implementations on linux support the required pixel shader version.
HL2 is a very different beast to HL1 and even Quake 3 and UT2003, it takes a completely different approach to rendering, and implementing it using the tools available on Linux would be very, very hard.
You mean something like this?
http://www.gentoogames.com/
f they plan for it, there is no 'port' required. The project can be multi-platform without requiring weeks and weeks of man-hours to do a 'port'.
You've still got to test on every platform you support, you still have to train your support staff on every platform you support, etc. Have you ever worked on a large, commercial multi-platform product? If you had, you would know that the code is only part of the work involved, and over the lifecycle of the product, it's even just a small fraction of the work.
In fact, yes I have worked on a large, commercial multi-platform product, or I wouldn't have this point of view.
... again, big deal.
Platform-testing? Big deal. What do you think Internet beta's are for? Support staff? Last I heard, most of the big-game companies *shopped their support services* to 3rd parties
No, you're just not getting the point. The point is, a 'port' is not expensive if you don't do it last. If you do multi-platform development concurrently, and have a technical strategy in place to accomodate it, then it doesn't cost any more than to just do one-platform...
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
From http://www.blame-the-french.com/portal.php?article =0&sid=c6d361f221e8bb6e95ac4b053c4928de
Email and reply from some bloke and the HL2 pr bloke, Gabe.
--
Gabe Gabe Gabe!!!
As I'm sure you are aware the HL2 community is going crazy with the rumour that HL2 is going to be like a MMORPG and you will have to pay a fee each month via Steam to play HL2 multiplayer.
I don't believe this to be true but can you please put it to rest once and for all. PLEEEEEEASE.
Kind Regards
Matt
Here's my current thinking: Some people want to buy Half-Life 2 in a store. Right now we have three SKUs planned at three price points. One will have single-player only and not play MODs and we think of that as the mass market SKU (sold mainly at the Costcos and Walmarts of the world). The second is our traditional single-player plus multiplayer SKU that runs MODs and is sold at places like EBX. The third is the collector's edition SKU with lots of cool bonus stuff for people who like cool bonus stuff.
In the Steam world, some people will want to buy it once, like the middle SKU above. Other people will want to buy the game on subscription (e.g. $9.95/month). The good news for the "buy it once" crowd is, well, they only have to pay once. The bad news is that when we come out with new content (expansion products, TF 2, and presumably other games) then they have to pay separately for those. We're pretty sure that the $9.95 guys are going to get the better value, as we've been pretty good over the years at generating a lot of content.
Now nobody has done this before, so we're scratching our heads and massaging the plans to make sure we've got the best set of options. We've had some feedback that we should sell the top SKU (single-player only no MODs) on Steam, and my reaction has been "yeah, right, for the three people in the world who have a broadband connection, are sophisticated enough to purchase software over the Internet, but DON'T want to play MODs and multiplayer". Some people have said "I want a subscription, but I think the box and the manual are cool, so what about sending me those" and I think that's pretty interesting and we're trying to figure out what to do for them (needless to say Sierra isn't exactly jumping for joy at the idea of selling us boxes so people don't buy Half-Life 2 in stores).
But nowhere has there been a suggestion that people pay in the store and then pay a monthly fee on top of that a la the MMORPG.
Gabe
The problem with slashdot is that most of its users were bullied and stuffed into lockers as kids!
"none of the OpenGL implementations on linux support the required pixel shader version"
You will have to tell that to my GeforceFX5900 and Unified Nvidia Driver that has full support for all the functions you speak of via nvidia cg or via another none ARB rendering path. Now...since there is only one other chip maker that is making a card with PS2.0 (as people like to call it) that would be ATI...you only in turn have one company not supporting the technology they would need in linux. ATI has always been a joke in the 3d market with Linux so this is nothing new and Nvidia has a greater market share of high end 3d cards in both the Windows and the Linux market....so who cares?
They could have easily written that engine using OpenGL and had a VERY portable engine. But naw...they are getting some luvin from MS and ATI, so what do you expect.
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OpenGL has most if not all of the features that DX9 specs (possibly more). Further, HL2 will scale down considerably to support older machines that don't have DX9 capable grahics cards. Even if Linux doesn't get every shiny sunbeam, it would be an enormous coup to get a Linux HL2 port. I just don't get why devs won't do as the Carmack does, and start with OpenGL to begin with. It gives ports a much better chance. Just 'cause Carmack targeted DX7 with Doom3, doesn't mean that you can't get DX9 quality effects out of OpenGL if you plan for it. Not to mention, I'll wager that Carmack's DX7 Doom3 engine will compete with Valve's source as the best engine on the market. Anyway, for the next 4 years it will be Doom3 engine games being played on Linux and HL2could help this OS take off on the desktop front like almost nothing else.