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Live CD for PC Games?
Onion asks: "Can anyone inform me why games developers don't put out games on a 'Knoppix' style live CD? This would negate coding the games for different PC platforms. Provided the hardware detection routines were up to scratch, the game could be coded using GNU/Linux for development and would run on any PC machine, regardless of OS. Only major drawback I can see would be the need to 'reboot' each time to play. Any thoughts or views on 'why not' ?"
It's a bugger. Most games developers have enough to think about without having to build an OS "installer" too. So for now, expect most games to be primarily developed for specific OS platforms.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Say goodbye to your msn/icq/aim/yahoo in the background... Unless of course the game developers started building in support for open-ended protocols like jabber, in which case a remote server could be handling things like providing legacy IM services and native jabber im.
"You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help" -- Calvin
Rebooting -- that is kind of a big one -- but people who have dual boot partitions do it all the time.
Hardware Detection: We are talking about some serious driver databases here. Especially if you want to enable all the whistles available in each piece of hardware.
There is a reason why we install an OS. So that every program/game doesn't have to redo what has already been done.
If game developers were going to put that much effort into a game, they might as well just port their stuff to Linux and MacOs, and be done.
Eventually, I think that is what will happen.
Free Ipod here
You should really check them out, full blown computers made just for playing games.
But seriously, because of the licencing on windows / directx and such, I think that unless many / all game developers decided to start using (what some may consider lower quality) open source / free drivers, that this isn't going to happen any time soon.
Also, gamespy type 3rd party software wouldn't work, and irc clients for finding games may not be included either...
I think a completely new OS, build from teh ground up for gaming would be needed to be developed, and be very very modular to support all the different hardware with quality graphics and sound. Think shared memory software rendering for every mobo sold in the last 4 years...
Good idea though...
Two issues (other than HW support):
1) I don't know about any of the other slashdot gamers out there, but I'm seldom only doing one thing at a time. I'm usually on some sort of IM client and if the game I'm playing isn't networked, I may download something at the same time or may even play an mp3. If I wanted to check my e-mail every 15 minutes, that'd mean a reboot every 15 minutes. No thanks.
2) Patches. One of the unique parts of the PC platform is that if there's a bug, you can patch it. Buring a CD multiple times is a pain. If the game is even remotely network capable, it's a must to be able to patch to help prevent extensive cheating/hacking.
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
im starting to get tired of having to buy all new hardware every few months.
So don't.
The good games that were produced a couple of years ago haven't lost any of their goodness. If you want to sit on the bleeding edge and deal with expensive hardware, issues with new systems coming out, and constantly upgrade, and "beta test" all new games coming out. The only reason to sit right on the edge is because marketing is forcing you ("August 28th, the world will fear...Warcraft IV!") to do so. Just ignore it.
It's better to view the PC market as a system where the current set of games is a beta test for what you *will* be playing in a year or so, at the earliest. That way, all the bugs (savegame corruption, random crashes, getting stuck) are ironed out, frequently expansions get bundled with the main game for free, there are good strategy resources out, the hardware is cheaper, and you don't spend all your time on the bleeding edge. It's called "bleeding" for a reason.
Taking this to a probably more extreme extent than most would be willing, I just played Star Control 2 (via Ur-Quan Masters) and Majesty on Linux for the first time in the last month. Both tons of fun, and for both my PIII is a ridiculous powerhouse.
You can play Half Life (great fun) and the expansions very smoothly on systems that people are throwing in the trash.
It's just a difference between the PC and the console market. The console approach has everyone buy hardware, and then sit there for a couple years while the hardware stagnates. The PC approach is to make games with scalable effects, let people buy hardware when they want -- but make the games available overly early. Only the most fanatical of must-have-it-before-everyone-else gamers should purchase games at release date. Everyone else should just walk the path that they blaze.
May we never see th
One major problem: CD-ROM drives are waay slower than harddisks.
Remember when people used to do "minimal" installs of games to harddisk and have most of the game content on the CD?
Doesn't really happen much anymore because the loading times are unbearable.
The revolution will not be televised. It won't be on a friggin blog either
I could definitely see games that are written for Linux offering this as a "spawn" copy (ala Diablo). Select the basic hardware configuration (e.g. IDE/SCSI, CPU type, video card) and it would create an ISO image to be burned to a CD/DVD. These would be awesome for LAN parties.
Because it's a daft idea. The only advantages it would offer would be to a tiny minority of people who aren't prepared to spend $50 on an OS (but are probably prepared to spend $LOTS on the latest and greatest hardware every year) while everyone else would suffer because of the disadvantages.
This would negate coding the games for different PC platforms.
No, it would not. It would merely negate writing a code for supporting a tiny portion of customers and substitute the much more difficult task of coding for the umpty-um million different combinations of PC hardware out there.
A platform includes the software _and_ the hardware.
Yep, I'd be chomping at the bit to return to the bad old days of wondering whether or not a flash new game was going to support my particular hardware combo.
Provided the hardware detection routines were up to scratch, the game could be coded using GNU/Linux for development and would run on any PC machine, regardless of OS.
No, it would almost certainly only run on the PCs that particular distro of Linux happened to support *at the time of the games release*.
And, given that support of cutting-edge hardware favoured by gamers tends to be spotty under Linux at best, I think that would be a bloody stupid move on behalf of game developers.
Only major drawback I can see would be the need to 'reboot' each time to play. Any thoughts or views on 'why not' ?"
Oh, there's many more drawbacks than that. Having to reboot is relatively a minor one.
Hardware support. Your game-on-a-CD is probably going to have huge problems with hardware released after it is.
From the developers perspective, support would be an utter nightmare, largely because of the hardware support issues.
No guarantee of convenient writable media - where are the saved games going to go ?
Memory constraints. No guarantee of available swap space.
Size constraints. Most games these days don't fit on a single CD.
Having to reboot the machine to play games. That'll be *really* popular in a house where several people share the one machine.
You basically want us to go back to the early 90s, when playing games meant having appropriately "compatible" hardware and having a custom boot disk for each game.
Worst. Idea. Ever.
If you want a console, buy a console. If you don't want to use Windows, be it for financial or philosophical reasons then accept the fact that this decision brings with it the consequence of a limited selection.
OK, let's start again!
Let's start with Morphix/Knoppix as a base module. They are consistant and fairly stable in development. Next, lets set up the drives with stored configs, persistant home, and swap file...[note to self, may need winXP script to set up files in NT systems. As long as the file size is exactly the same Knoppix doesn't have a problem] Now adding an SDK for compatibility....Let's see both Morphix and Knoppix now support the idea of modules...precompiled & zipped up add-ons keyed to working with the disc. These would be useful for the SDK, and for the games. Again, they could sit on ANY file system. You could download new SDK modules to your HDD when you get new hardware! Knoppix is based on Debian which has execllent forward & backward compatiblity built in!! Knoppix suports External everything out of the box, USB keys, memory cards, external drives...storage of game saves is a moot point.
WE have forward and backward compatiblity, removable storage, extensability of the game & OS. The only things missing are a few key bits of software. One would need to establish a very strict API [SDL perhaps] and carefully guide it for this purpose. There would need to be work done on the game end to optimize for varied requirememts/ best play.
Overall, it's doable RIGHT NOW! So stop bitchin' about it! Try offering some constructive soulutions instead!!