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Expert Opinions On Linux Gaming's Future
jg21 writes "Following
on from yesterday's Slashdot coverage of the idea to launch a games-based Linux
distro, LinuxWorld Magazine has held a Gaming Round Table involving Chris DiBona, Ryan
Gordon, Timothee Besset, Gavriel
State, and Joe Valenzuela about where Linux
currently stands and how it will one day become a premier gaming platform. 'It
became perfectly clear to me that most of the technological issues are already
solved, and that the others won't take too long to fix once the game publishers
really get into the mix,' reports Dee-Ann LeBlanc, Gaming Industry Editor for
LinuxWorld, who coordinated the round table. Well worth reading."
One thing that Linux can do really well is CLUSTER EASILY. Forget the PS3... as long as games are written to make use of Linux's clustering abilities - we can have some MASSIVE gaming servers and game environments.
:)
Now all I want for Christmas is an Open Mosix release for the 2.6 kernel.
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
Obviously, we've all heard about UT2003/2004, Neverwinter Nights, and the upcoming Doom III (id Software usually supports Linux well, yay them!)
Even the US gov't is jumping aboard with America's Army (as well as support for Mac).
Linux is growing, and needs to grow more and more in regards to users, so we can get better game AND hardware support. I know some people think this Linux vs. Windows war is kind of silly, but until Linux grows to the point where it's recognizable by the average user we'll still be left out in the cold in many regards (such as, of course, games and hardware).
I admit, I myself still have Windows installed. How else can I play many games? Wine doesn't want to work on my computer, and it's not perfect anyway.
---
Never criticize religion on Slashdot. You will be modded down for "Troll" no matter how factual it is.
Stable nvidia drivers to take advantage of it? My machine at work has a lovely graphics card in it - but once I load the nvidia driver, it will crash/hang at some point in the future. And that sucks.
Get your own free personal location tracker
The most important thing required for a successful gaming platform is an audience to purchase the games. If you have that, game developers will develop for your platform. Linux does not have this yet and it is a bit of a chicken and egg scenario.
About the only thing Linux can hope for in the short term is the occasional port but even that may not be financially viable for quite some time judging by the smouldering crater that was once Loki.
Hmm...I wonder if it'd be easy to convert Mac OS X games to Linux? After all, both Mac and Linux games use OpenGL, and both Mac and Linux are UNIX based... If the developers take the Mac source code and tweak it a bit for linux, then recompile it on an x86 Linux machine, voila, Mac games on Linux!
Two Words: Market share.
The games will come if/when a larger proportion of their target market runs Linux.
Right now, very few games are developed for Linux, because relatively few game buyers run Linux. Most game developers don't have the time or resources to port their products, because the margins are razor thin and time is critically important. Windows development toolkits like DirectX are widespread and proven effective.
Until linux is percieved as a major market and has the level of (hardware) vendor support that Windows-based stuff does, it will continue to be an afterthought in game development.
"We have to go forth and crush every world view that doesn't believe in tolerance and free speech." - David Brin
Personally I think it might just be a bit easier to roll out a gaming linux console, as it eliminates most of the installtion/setup processes that could be complicated sometiems.
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
No trolling, but.. something like DirectX wouldn't hurt!
I mean (aside from DirectInput which is pretty cool), the whole development cycle is DX-centered: Microsoft asks Nvidia/ATi what they need, then they put it on DX nad then the cards take advantage of it... it's cyclic.
Carmack is the only reason for OpenGL's survival...
--krahd
mod me up scottie!
It's beginning to look like the adoption of Linux on the desktop is going to take a massive scandal on Microsoft's part. Something like Bill Gates is stealing your credit card number or something. I know I'm going to be modded down for this but I challenge anyone who's going to throw away a mod point on me to reply and refute what I've written.
Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
I posted this in the last Linux - Gaming - Distro - Thread, but was a bit late. This isn't consistent in itself, but the idea should be clear:
What about setting up a fund for developing a linux game? It should have a concept, only rough, like the genre, set.
Then set up a website with a nice progress bar, and a target sum needed for the developement, like what? 5 Million Dollars? 10 Million Dollars?
Ok, that won't get us a completely new Half - Life - 2 developed, but maybe a nice RPG / Adventure built on an existing engine.
Maybe different Funds for different uses, like
- Make a cool RPG a 'la Deus Ex / System Shock
(Wizardry would be even better, but i don't know about the mass - marketing appeal...)
- "Make a good game developing environment based on Crystal Space"
Make an agreement with some game studio to get a cool engine for a guaranteed price for a free - as - in beer - game production use, let it be the UT or Doom 3 Engine. Or not, depends on the game's genre, i guess.
Let somebody develop a cool game from this money for the community.
If the community wants a new cool game developed, everybody transfers a few bucks to a new proposed game fund of his choice. I think there are enough gnu / linux / bsd / mac etc. fans out there to invest a few dollars each to get a big enough budget, it's mostly a marketing question, i guess.
Kind of like the effort for opening the Blender source?
The fund should be handled by a trusted entity, of course.
Yeah, Linux should come pre-installed with the latest drivers just like Windows. Oh wait, Windows users have to install drivers downloaded from nVidia or ATi's site, too.
I think it's obvious that downloading and running a program to install a driver is not beyond the computing abilities of your average gamer.
True story.
There has to an incentive for them to pursue it. The problem with a linux based game is that the developers are not necessarily lazy, but will take the path of least resistance to highest profits. That means most of them will stay with windows because they know that most x86 users will have that installed.
;). If you built a disc that booted straight into the game, or it would take over an XP box and unload the OS, you've built a back door into linux installs. Kind of reverses the way of looking at the installed base.
This means linux (as a whole) must play to their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.
1. ATI and nvidia must have drivers released that will work properly.
2. A DirectX port or OpenGL2 would also accelerate development.
3. Since Linux can be updated and supports more advancements more quickly than windows, push that to developers. If Athlon's 64-bit processing power can be utilized, ship a knoppix-like distro that takes advantage of it. Nothing like making the claim that their game performs X% better by using linux and amd 64bit mode than by using XP. Getting the NTFS partition loader automagically to install would be a boon to write/cache saves and game updates.
4. Brain dead consumer land installs. Knoppix is even easier to install than windows
I'm probably missing alot here, but I think them's the basics as I see it.
There might be some truth to "If you build it, they will come" but in reality, unless there are an awful lot of people clamoring for the ballpark, it's not gonna happen.
It DID happen. Loki heard the clamor, released a bunch of games, then went belly up because all the people who had insisted for years that they'd buy linux games if they came out turned out to be lying.
You wouldn't need to install it. That's the whole point. Game developers could create a bootable liveCD distribution specifically tailored to their game, which you'd stick in your CD drive, reboot, and it would load the kernel, drivers for your sound and video cards, the components of X that your game needs, and then launch the game.
Effectively, your PC would act just as a game console. Stick in the CD, turn it on, and you're running the game. Only difference is, if you turn it on without a CD in, you've got a general purpose computer, rather than a screen that says "NO DISC".
"City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
Anybody else catch the gripes from one of the developers about the quality of Visual C++ code as compared to the quality of GCC code? He seemed to think that the VC++ code was better optimized, and in general regarded Windows as the better development platform. I'm not a serious programmer (I just play on on Slashdot), and my projects are small and none too complicated. Can anyone else comment on this? Is he talking sense, or blowing smoke?