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Is the Key to Linux a Games-Based Distro?
An anonymous reader writes "If in the FOSS community we could only get our act together and launch a game-based distro, we will be home and dry. That, at least, is the view of one British games enthusiast, Ian Bonham, who says in the short Linux World article: 'I would be happy to help a group of volunteers create a distro based on games, because I believe that's where the next generation is - NOT in giving away copies of Linux or OOo. That's a short-term ideal. The PS2 and the X-Box(sic) run Linux, so let's create a distro that turns home PC into a console with development potential. Expand that distro to the consoles. And lets get some 'killer' games on that disk.'"
...did I miss the point here somewhere? Just about everything I know about gaming says that the more the OS stays out of the way, the better. Now they want to replace our thin OS-like layers with a complete business/research oriented OS. Why?
Seriously, the OS doesn't *do* anything for a game. All a game really needs is a collection of APIs to transparently access low-level hardware. Threading is nice, but "green" thread libraries can be used in its stead. That's much the reason why MSDOS (save for the 640K barrier) was such a great gaming platform. The OS literally did nothing. It got the frick out of the way, and stayed there.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Ever heard of a USB HID device? They're all supported.
As for multiple monitor support, it's called Xinerama and it works, as well.
gentoo already has bootable game cds, one with americas army, and another with ut2003 demo
Running legacy DOS games natively is a pain when it's not impossible, but the DosBox emulator does a really good job at it, and there are builds available for all major operating systems.
software mixing is JACK's job.
There's a Morphix module (Morphix Gamer) that already provides this. Plus there are related projects like KnoppixMame.
However, I tried Morphix-Gamer a week or two back and feel compelled to point out that easily half of the games that came included either would not run at all (at least not from the CD), or were unbearably slow and clunky (TuxRacer for one). My machine at home is nothing to brag about (Athlon XP 1800, 1/2 gb ram), but it seemed to me it should have been sufficient to run whatever was bundled with the gamer module.
Not sure why they bothered included games that wouldn't run tolerably well from the CD. Sure someone might choose to install it to HD, but the whole point of a live-cd is just that.
First off,
Please do some actual research before you state something as a fact. An accrual informed write-up of multi Monitor support in windows
And that review focuses solely on gaming under multi monitor situations in windows, there are even more options available if you are not trying to game. So your "only 2" options in windows statement is quite false. Thanks for your time.
The kernel can definately be hacked so that it allows this, but this presents a huge security concern. Every user would have to have the same priveledges as root in order to do this, or the user must play as root.
"Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson
>At least Microsoft never said (to my knowledge) "Our OS comes with games built in," referring to Solitare and Minesweeper (and whatever else comes with XP now).
;-)
Wanna bet?
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
In a recent thread over at Beyond3D forums, we asked developer of Max Payne 2, how are the costs distributed in a project like this between middleware, code development and content development. He said:
- middleware 10%
- content 60%
- and the rest is code, i.e. only 30%
So, unless you wire up some really innovative procedural content generation routines, Open Source Software alone isnt going to get you far in game development.Btw, im quite certain that the trend is ever growing, i.e. content part is going to take up more and more of game budgets.
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Tenebrae is a great example of a free open-source game engine with linux support. It even supports pixel shaders and 3d audio.