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Draeker speaks on Linux Game Development
Stargazer writes "Scott Draeker, of Loki Entertainment Software (the company porting Civ3 to Linux if you haven't been paying attention) has an article featured in Game Developer Magazine (sorry, no online version). While most of the article focuses on the strengths of Linux, he does go into the power open-source can give to games -- namely, well-designed developer kits and the ability to modify the OS to the game's needs. Heavy stuff, considering all the craziness among distributions that could cause... " BTW, having recieved my copy of the beta for Civ:CFP. Wow. I'm salivating for the review/final version.
Posted by Jobu3D:
Re-typed from my magazine. GDMag is kind of hard to find, so I figured some of you might still wanna read it. yes, I typed this all, so excuse the typos.
Making a case for Linux Games:
Great ideas seem obvious in retrospect. nearly eight months after founding Loki Entertainment Software, putting games onto Linux is starting to seem obvious, too.
For those of you recently returning from the outer rings, Linux is a free, open-source operating system. It's fast, stable, reliable, and responsive - technically equivalent and often superior to commercial OS's because Linux development is driven by technology, not marketing. Think of the Linux development community as the world's only functioning meritocracy. Only the best code survives. A solice estimate of Linux users is difficult to come by - it's perfectly acceptable to download the OS or copy it for a friend - but the most reliable figures put the '98 Linux installed base somewhere between 12 and 15 million.
Still, you might ask, isn't Linux just a server OS? Well, International Data Corp. estimates that Linux held about two percent of the worldwide *desktop* market in 1998. Quite remarkable for an OS which has only recently begun to see desktop applications. The trend is familiar. New technologies often trickle down from high-end applications, such as servers to the consumer desktop.
It's true that most of the applications are beginning to appear. There are two very good GUI's for Linux already availabl: KDE and GNOME. There are also several good Linux office applications, including Corel's recently released Wordperfect 8.0. Wordperfect was downloaded over 250K times within two weeks of its release. Who's to say games aren't next?
Not only will linux became an increasingly viable dekstop OS - I beleive that it's also going to be the gaming OS of choice. because Linux is open source, it's possible to make changes to the OS itself to enhance game performance. By developing on Linux, the game industry will further Linux development - and build in superior game play.
That's why we chose to port Activisions Civilization: Call to Power to the Linux platform. At Loki, we license the rights to pirt successful game titles to Linux. The original developer provides us with the source code (which we do not release). We then port the game. Loki tests, publishes, and supports the Linux port - and pays the original developer royalties. This way, we're able to deliver the best titles the PC game world has to offer to our customers.
All developers could potentially benefit. Gan-related software libraries are also oen source in the Linux world and this gain all the benefits of the open-source model. In our own company, we are currently sing the Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL) to support input, graphics, and sound. The changes we make to SDL in our porting work will be publically available - source code and all. Eyes will begin combing the code. With thousands of developers scrutinizing SDL code, bugs will be found and fixed faster than they would in any single company's product.
Open source also encourages open standards. And open standards translate into lower costs for developers and fewer headaches for users. linux is far more likely to standardize on a particular 3D API, for example. By contrast, Windows developers struffle to support competing 3D, sound, and other propietary formats.
The combined benefits of an open source OS, open source libraries, and open standards add up to a superior gaming environment. In the near future, the same game running on the same hardware will be faster, more stable, and more responsive on Linux. Hardcore gamers will pick up on this quickly. What about game developers?