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Quake Live Dev Says Mac and Linux Are "Top Priority"
AlexMax2742 writes "id's Marty Stratton notes the following in his Quake Live developer blog on the subject of the Mac and Linux port of Quake Live: 'These have proved more difficult than expected, but we're getting close. We expect to also be testing Mac and Linux versions of Quake Live internally this month and then making those publicly available just as soon as we feel they are ready. This work is being done by a separate programmer in parallel with the other work that we're doing, and is his only priority — point being, that this is a top priority for us and not being delayed because of other work.' In my humble opinion, it's awesome to see that kind of (continued) dedication from a company."
The post also indicates that progress is being made on the much-awaited private server functionality, and part two makes brief mention of match broadcasting and community-made maps.
If it was designed from the start to be cross-platform compatible (e.g. using OpenGL rather than DirectX), then yes, one programmer is more than enough. All the logic, scripting, and models will carry over no matter what, which really leaves debugging whatever minor environmental and graphical inconsistencies that arise.
id is small. They used to have a list of everyone who worked there on their site, but I can't find it anymore. It was no more than a two dozen people, most of which were artists.
The point of browser-based games is that the end user doesn't need to install anything, but Quake Live is a browser plugin, so it's basically a complete, stand-alone game. Except that it is now dependent on browser plugin APIs for, apparently, no reason. Why is this better than a stand-alone online-only game? It seems to be 'browser' based only in as much as that the browser launches the game and the game runs in the browser's address space (and so can break it). If you want closer browser-game integration, a better approach seems to be to register a handler for a custom URL schema (e.g. quakelive://) so any links in the browser that start like that are handed off to your game.
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Given the size of the project, absolutely. AFAIK only 4 people are working on QuakeLive.
Now that I'm almost completely addicted to the game, they finish up the Mac port so that I'll be able to play the game on my MacBook while I'm in lecture during the day. And as an added bonus, there will be private servers I can meet my friends on.
I am so going to fail out of school.
"I'd just like to emphasise that taking a million years isn't a metaphor here..." -Rich Bradshaw
They've made a lot of great games, and they open source there older platforms. What more can you ask from a software company?
On a side note Quake Live is fun
my sig
As I recall the Quake live team is tiny anyway and between the existing QL code and Q3's original Linux source code they probably didn't think it would take that long to knock something out.
one programmer is more than enough
So then zero is about right?
What makes it better to play in a browser?
play? nothing. But you get to have this rich beautifull interface with stats, profiles teams clans tags battles tournaments accesible from the web at no additional cost.
Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
Sure it does. Catering to the Linux community creates good will. The geeks that use Linux often have influence over the technology selections of others and are more likely to recommend products from a company that, in their eyes, has done something good. Every business decision does not have to equal measurable profits. Some decisions may have no effect on the bottom line today, but by doing The Right Thing by some, will reap rewards in the future.
... Or maybe Carmack just wants to play a little FFA on his Linux box. :)
I'm really looking forward to the implementation of private servers. I know all that's holding a few of my friends back is the fact that they have to play with the unwashed masses. It'd be great if several of us could hop on for some games against opponents we know and can laugh with.
I wish I could get to see the numbers (or percentages) they (ID Software) estimate to be the potential size of Linux and Mac OS X users. I suspect, though I am biased, that their numbers would surpass in quality and quantity the recent estimate based on web site traffic that set Linux use at one percent. I suspect too those figures would be less prone to tweaking or to external third party pressures.
is not when will it be released but will it have a tux model available.
lose != loose
What's the next one on the list to go over, how about the fact that Trolltech's (now Nokia's) toolkit is a word, not an acronym. Qt (pronounced cute) - not Q.T. grr. I could go on with you and your "unix daymon" retarded pronunciation habit as well, but my arm is getting tired of the cane shaking.
id Software has since exploded in size, and I think I heard they had about 40 people employed and 2 full teams going. As I under stand it currently there is a team working on Rage and another working on QuakeLive.
I don't know everything.
Should be. In an ideal world of really flawless corss-platform libs, the only thing to rewrite would be the makefiles...
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
Ahh so you went in off-peak. I wonder what it's like in there around midnight? Assuming they're like any other software house I'm guessing you saw their "nightshift"
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