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Is id Abandoning Linux?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the can't-believe-they-stuck-it-out-this-long dept.

edv writes "In a news posting dated 10th of September, Beyond3D is reporting of an article in a German publication in which id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead discusses the upcoming id title Rage and the engine it runs on, codenamed 'id Tech 5'. Amongst other things Todd mentions that no Linux version of the game is planned at the moment, and that it will run on Direct3D on Windows platform. OpenGL version is planned for the Mac however. If true, this would be a serious blow for Linux gaming (insert jokes here) as id and Carmack have been strong proponents of OpenGL and openness in the past."

9 of 339 comments (clear)

  1. Hmm... by jafoc · · Score: 5, Informative

    A few months ago (in April) they certainly intended to prepare a GNU/Linux version.

    1. Re:Hmm... by EriktheGreen · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Another good point to remember is that ID is not of one mind.... back when they were deciding on their next product (Wolfenstein or Q4 or whatever) Hollenshead fired a few people loyal to Carmack as retribution for losing that argument. It's entirely possible that this guy thinks things are going one way and Carmack is going the other without telling him.

      When you get right down to it, having everyone in the world know the greatness of your company is entirely due to one man who is not you has got to suck :)

      Erik

    2. Re:Hmm... by Azarael · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Also, everyone should keep in mind that porting of Doom 3 to Linux didn't happen until fairly late in the development process. Just because they haven't planned to port it yet, doesn't mean that they aren't going to.

  2. Re:Support(Vista, OpenGL) == SLOW_FPS by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 5, Informative

    I was under the impression that Vista did not support OpenGL in the true sense of "support". I had heard that Vista emulates all OpenGL calls and turns them into DirectX equivalents. Stop spreading FUD. What you just said is so completely wrong it's not even funny. Vista brings better OpenGL integration than XP. You're right that Vista does not include an OpenGL ICD in the box, but then again, neither did XP.

    --
    My blog
  3. Re:Support(Vista, OpenGL) == SLOW_FPS by Richard_at_work · · Score: 5, Informative
    This is a common misconception regarding OpenGL on Vista - there are three options open to OpenGL developers on Vista:

    1. Default Implementation - this does as you say, translates OpenGL calls into Direct3D calls.
    2. Legacy Installable Client Driver - this runs OpenGL natively but is incompatible with some parts of Vista.
    3. Vista Compatible Installable Client Driver - this runs OpenGL natively.


    As you can see, all is not as lost as some are making it out to be.
  4. Re:Linux is the biggest Linux gaming obstacle by porkThreeWays · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is the epitome of FUD keeping people from switching to Linux. You COMPLETELY don't understand how software works apparently. First of all, there is a standard library for writing 3d games. It's called OpenGL. Second, what Desktop Environment you run is completely irrelevant to anything. I'm currently running Gnome on this computer. At home I have Fluxbox. At my parents they have KDE. Guess what? We can all run the exact same programs. People write programs for a certain toolkit, but in no way, shape, or form does this mean you can't run it in a different desktop environment. What desktop environment you are running has nothing, 0, none, zilch, to do with what programs you can run. The Windows world is no different in this respect. There are at least 10 different GUI toolkits floating around in the Windows world. For programs to work, all you need to do is include the proper libraries. The reason there is a low rate of Linux adoption in part is because of idiotic propaganda like this being spread around. It has zero basis of truth and I think anyone propagating this garbage should be called out for what they are.

    --
    If an officer ever threatens to taze you, say you have a pacemaker.
  5. Misinformative Article... by CrusadeR · · Score: 5, Informative

    Regarding id Tech 5 and Rage, id titles are usually ported to Linux relatively late in the development process when the programmer has the time, but they've always been ported. There were also these statements from Carmack at QuakeCon last month:

    http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Story/200708/N07.0803.1731.12214.htm?Page=1

    GI: Will this engine support any DX10 features?

    Carmack: No, not currently. We're not expecting to. We're not sure if we're going to be a Vista title or not. There will be some support benefits by being Vista only. It depends when we get the game done what the adoption has been. But it's a OpenGL title on the PC and Mac right now, obviously D3D on the 360, and the PS3 it's kind of an in between where it's Open GLES but we do a lot of direct command buffer writing there. If necessary we can move the PC version over to DX10, but there's not much strong pull for us to do that. All of the toolset is in OpenGL, I wouldn't want to convert everything over.

    http://www.linuxgames.com/news/feedback.php?identiferID=9374&action=flatview

    Q: I wanted to say thank you for open-sourcing the Quake 3 engine, it's made a huge difference to the community. I wanted to ask your opinion about the future of Linux and open source gaming.

    A: I do take a great deal of personal pride and satisfaction with what I've been able to do with getting so much of the stuff out. Sometimes I think about it, and while I know it's not something I'm generally considered for, I may be one of the most prolific open source authors considering all the code that I've written over the last 15 years that I've made open source, or have made open source there. I do think it's very valuable. I'm very happy when I see both user gaming community stuff, or research universities, or people doing simulation tests, or bringing up things. Every new piece of hardware ends up having Doom or Quake titles used as an early form of test application. So I'm very happy to have done that. It's certainly going to continue. I mean I won't commit to a date, but the Doom 3 stuff will be open source. We still make those decisions even today when we're doing the Rage code when we have decisions about "do we want to integrate some other vendor's solution, some proprietary code into this". And the answer's usually no, because eventually id Tech 5 is going to be open source also. This is still the law of the land at id, that the policy is that we're not going to integrate stuff that's going to make it impossible for us to do an eventual open source release. We can argue the exact pros and cons from a pure business standpoint on it, and I can at least make some, perhaps somewhat, contrived cases that I think it's good for the business, but as a personal conviction it's still pretty important to me and I'm standing by that.

    The id-produced title coming out at the end of the month, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, will have a Linux dedicated server and client as well:

    http://zerowing.idsoftware.com/linux/etqw/

    Linux client?

    When it's done. We have beta testers, they are doing a great job, you don't need to apply. There is still some work to be done before it matches id quality standards, and we won't commit to any dates.

    In summary: Don't panic.
    --
    :wq
  6. A direct response by John+Carmack · · Score: 5, Informative

    There is certainly no plans for a commercially supported linux version of Rage, but there will very likely be a linux executable made available. It isn't running at the moment, but we have had it compiled in the past. Running on additional platforms usually provides some code quality advantages, and it really only takes one interested programmer to make it happen.

    The PC version is still OpenGL, but it is possible that could change before release. The actual API code is not very large, and the vertex / fragment code can be easily translated between cg/hlsl/glsl as necessary. I am going to at least consider OpenGL 3.0 as a target, if Nvidia, ATI, and Intel all have decent support. There really won't be any performance difference between GL 2.0 / GL 3.0 / D3D, so the api decision will be based on secondary factors, of which inertia is one.

    John Carmack

    1. Re:A direct response by Evangelion · · Score: 5, Funny

      Awww. Unfounded speculation was so much more fun.

      Thanks for ruining it, spoilsport.