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Linux/Mesa 3D Game Beta

Steve Baker writes "Tux-the-Penguin - A Quest for Herring. A full 3D game for Linux/OpenGL (Mesa). Released with full source code under GPL. This is a first public beta and the start of a web-based project to bring this to completion. What's available now is a couple of playable levels. You *WILL* need a 3D accelerator that Linux can support under OpenGL (that pretty much means a Voodoo-1 or 2 or a RUSH).

61 comments

  1. Any chance? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Any chance this is going to be released for OpenGl under NT or 95? He should and try to sell it because windows users are use to paying for software. Plus I have not seen any cutsey 3d
    mainstream games, it just might sell.

    1. Re:Any chance? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, and include a free copy of Linux with it. Maybe even capabilities to boot off of the CD and run the game in Linux.

    2. Re:Any chance? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thing about this for a second...why would a game staring the Linux mascot be released for Windows? I dont want to put words in the authors mouth, but i sincerely doubt that a windows port will be made.

    3. Re:Any chance? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The web page says that it'll eventually be ported to other 'lesser' OS's. I assume then mean the M$ ones. ;-)

    4. Re:Any chance? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3

      Well, (I'm the author BTW) I *do* intend to
      get it going under Windoze. Two reasons:

      1) Tux-aqfh started life as a demo for my
      portable games libraries (PLIB). Portability
      is what it's all about. Why? Because if
      we can convince people that it's as easy
      to write games that are portable as games
      for just one platform, there will be more
      games for Linux and that would be A GOOD
      THING.

      2) I like the irony of Windoze users having
      to watch Tux run around their screens.

    5. Re:Any chance? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3

      Yes - I believe that someone *does* have it
      running under Windoze already using CygWin's
      toolset.

      At any rate, the 'PLIB' library certainly runs
      under windows - and that's 15,000 lines of code
      versus only ~7,000 for the game itself. It won't
      be hard to port.

      All the nasty portability issues are buried in
      PLIB anyway. I already have portable sound,
      GUI, Graphics, Windowing and Joystick/Keybd/Mouse
      I/O.

    6. Re:Any chance? by linuxci · · Score: 1

      Of course when you try and get interest in the Windows community with your game don't refer to their OS as Windoze, however tempting it may be. Appear professional at all times. Show them the potential of your libraries and lets hope it gets more games to Linux.
      --

  2. Re:3d cards question and slashdot wierdness workar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Are you sure about this? For Quake2, you should easily get better than 15fps w/a Voodoo1. Q3test, on the other hand... At least, on my p233 w/64MB, q3test is too laggy.

  3. Re:3d cards question and slashdot wierdness workar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    For $30 you should buy 2

  4. Re:Linux and 3D games by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The 3Dfx RUSH should work too.

    Permedia driver is in progress (at SUSE IIRC),
    I understand that someone has suceeded in
    running the game on a G200 using the early
    alpha-release driver (WOW!) and also there
    are widespread rumours of nVidia releasing
    a full OpenGL for TNT2 under Linux.

    The Banshee and Voodoo-3 drivers are also
    nearing completion.

    This is a subtle job of attracting 3D drivers
    so that the games are written so hardware
    vendors will write drivers so games can be
    written so that...

    (oops got stuck in a loop there)

  5. Re:3d cards question and slashdot wierdness workar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The idea behind UNIX is that user programs don't touch devices, only the kernel does.

  6. Re:Wow, this is a great game! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    how good is the G200 driver for performance? I'm going to be seriously excited to be running it later this year if it works...

  7. Kinda cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I personally haven't played it, but I think it's good to have a portable library. I also like the idea of using the mascot. BTW, are there any copyright issues w/ using the mascot?

    What I think would be cool though is to have the different mascots of Open Source projects in a game together. Maybe we could have a little fun in a Street Fighter like game w/ the good ole' *BSD mascot Beastie versus Tux, or 3d game deathmatches with the GiMP running around, or maybe get them all together in another bash Bill Gates game.

    1. Re:Kinda cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As far as using Tux in the game, it seems that
      all Larry Ewing requires one to do is to mention
      that it was drawn in GIMP - "if anyone asks" -
      you asked - so I'm telling you!

      It would be cool to have the BSD daemon in the
      game - and that might happen sometime...he's a
      bit complicated to model - but I happen to know
      that the author of the XTux game has a 3D model
      of the daemon.

      I wanted to include the GIMP too - (His name
      is Wilbur) - when I asked the author, he readily
      assented - but pointed out that Wilbur doesn't
      have a body...so, no GIMP character. :-(

      I don't intend to do a 'bash Bill Gates' level,
      but this is GPL'ed code - so there is nothing
      stopping someone else from forking the codebase
      for Tux and doing something like that. I just
      don't happen to want that in my distribution.

  8. Re:3d cards question and slashdot wierdness workar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Umm, no. GGI is wrong solution. There is a reason why it's never going to kernel, I've just forgotten what it was...

  9. copyrights and the BSD daemon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    BSD daemon is owned by this guy, Marshall Kirk Mckusick. You have to ask permission to use it. I found that on the FreeBSD website.

  10. Re:3d cards question and slashdot wierdness workar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    No. We really shouldn't merge GGI with anything, because that would totally rule out any kind of portability. Sure you might be able to run GGI on a Sun framebuffer, but installing that probably requires root. This would completely lock out a whole slew of programs from other public workstations running other breeds of UNIX.

  11. Re:Or how about software rendering? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    Hi! (This is Tux-aqfh's author again - I *must*
    sign up for a /. username)

    Software-only OpenGL isn't gonna cut it.

    I might believe that an alternative software
    renderer could get Tux-aqfh working at a
    reasonable speed without 3D hardware...but
    it would be a LOT of work compared to $30
    for an ancient Voodoo card.

  12. Re:3d cards question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    Well, I *developed* Tux-aqfh on a Voodoo-1
    card and it runs at a happy 30Hz. 3D performance
    is as much to do with the CPU as with the
    3D card.

    I have a Voodoo-1 and a 266MHz AMD K6-2 CPU
    and get 30Hz.

    One of my Beta-testers has a Voodoo-2 and a
    133MHz Pentium and only gets 20Hz.

    So, a Voodoo-1 is OK for Tux-aqfh at least.

    (On a $5,000,000 SGI machine we have at work,
    I clocked Tux-aqfh at ~200Hz...but with a
    76Hz monitor that's a bit silly!)

  13. Re:3d cards question and slashdot wierdness workar by chkdsk · · Score: 1

    I've actually gotten my Voodoo1 (which a good friend gave me) to attain a massive ~37 fps under Quake2 (in certain areas). Of course I tweaked things a bit (both w/ glide and w/ QuakeII).

  14. Re:whats wrong with slashdot? by henri · · Score: 1

    i hit
    slashdot.org/index.pl and it worked fine... (after black screens on the main / page)

  15. No good.. by Mike+Hicks · · Score: 1

    Bah.. That's no good.. If a broken ad server can prevent me from seeing /., someone has a wacky set of priorities ;-)

    You sure seem to be right. By blocking adfu.blockstackers.com, the page turns black.. I suppose that could have been intentional..

    1. Re:No good.. by Joe+Mucchiello · · Score: 1

      My firewall blocks any *ad* and I view /. with no problems.

    2. Re:No good.. by mixmasta · · Score: 1

      oooh . . . How does it do that?

      --
      #6495ED - cornflower blue
  16. Re:Or how about software rendering? by Eccles · · Score: 1

    By the way, I suggested doing something like this game (I think I called it Tux64) on Slashdot about six months ago. I'm glad you started working on it so promptly you started six months before I even suggested it...:-)

    --
    Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
  17. Re:3d cards question and slashdot wierdness workar by Ian+Bicking · · Score: 1
    cause with unix you leave as much as possible in user space. and up to now it's worked fine, where we ran a trusted server process which could access the graphics card.
    Graphics are Linux's biggest instability. Needing to suid SVGAlib programs to root is insanely insecure. X is a bit more trusted, but running X suid root is, effectively, making X an OS process. Just one that isn't directly included inside the Linux kernel. That's just poor design.

    I don't know how good the KGI design is. From my lay view, it seems to be pretty good. ggilib looks really neat, though I don't know how much it depends on KGI. Anyways, I could be wrong about it all. However, one way or the other graphics definately should be in the kernel. fbcon is a step in the right direction, but not complete.

  18. Re:3d cards question and slashdot wierdness workar by pod · · Score: 1

    They definitely ARE worth $30, but at the same time will NOT give you 15 fps on quake 2/3. Quake 1 should run fine though.

    --
    "Hot lesbian witches! It's fucking genius!"
  19. Gee, how about I tell you. by bkosse · · Score: 1

    It never got in for a couple reasons, the primary being that (ahem) the GGI DEVELOPERS weren't ready for it to go in. The second being that FB devices made it in. So, gee, now GGI is giving FB devices accelleration. What the hell's wrong with that?

    --

    --
    Ben Kosse
    Remember Ed Curry!
  20. Re:3d cards question and slashdot wierdness workar by Scott+Wood · · Score: 1

    Actually, considering that GGI can display onto things like X, and adding other display targets to GGI is not difficult, programs using the API would not be Linux-specific at all.

  21. Re:whats wrong with slashdot? by Rob+Parkhill · · Score: 1

    My Netscape 4.05, 4.06, 4.5, and 4.51 all present me with the lovely "Big Black Screen Of Nothingness". I've had to resort to IE4.0 to access /. today.


    --
    "Tomorrow's forecast: a few sprinkles of genius with a chance of doom!" - Stewie Griffin
  22. Long awaited... but binaries? by WWWWolf · · Score: 1

    Well, hope I can get it soon - it looked nice. =) Two megs of source and all, and I have no interest in installing the 3dfx devel things yet - are there any pre-built binaries yet?

  23. Re:3d cards question and slashdot wierdness workar by Paul+Jakma · · Score: 1

    cause with unix you leave as much as possible in user space. and up to now it's worked fine, where we ran a trusted server process which could access the graphics card.

    in future there might need to be a minimal bit of kernel support to get 3d graphics working, ie to support interrupts and copying textures across AGP to the video card.

    GGI as an API is dead. it's too linux-x86 centric. OpenGL/X is portable.

    --
    I use Friend/Foe + mod-point modifiers as a karma/reputation system.
  24. Re:3d cards question and slashdot wierdness workar by Paul+Jakma · · Score: 1

    no, the idea behind UNIX is to keep things simple.

    There is nothing wrong with allowing a trusted programme access to hardware, with the caveat that you can recover from any mistakes it might make - achievable with linux-framebuffer and a supported card.

    Also, if people start to write app's to things like GGI then we end up with linux-specific programmes. not nice.

    --
    I use Friend/Foe + mod-point modifiers as a karma/reputation system.
  25. In a word, "Yes" by Skip666Kent · · Score: 1

    $30 is a fair price for what is still an effective, usefull and widely supported product.

    Gopher it!

    --
    **>>BELCH
  26. Super Smash Brothers? :-) by Chameleon · · Score: 1

    Like Super Smash Bros. for N64? :-)

  27. Re:Linux and 3D games by itp · · Score: 1
    Unfortunately, at this moment in time, the definitive list is:
    • Voodoo
    • Voodoo 2


    --
    Ian Peters
  28. Re:3d cards question and slashdot wierdness workar by Des+Herriott · · Score: 1

    This is true, though obviously depends on your CPU as well.

    My P-II 400 with a Voodoo1 gets between 30-40 FPS on Linux (using the 3dfxgl minidriver).

  29. URL FIX by doomy · · Score: 1
    --
    ...free your source and the rest would follow...
  30. Re:Wow, this is a great game! by doomy · · Score: 1

    Carmack also mentioned that g200 should preform around the same speed as TNT. (see g200 devel list). Thus I have high hopes for g200/g400.

    BTw, 3dlabs would be given out the specs both 2d/3d for pm3 as well. You can play this game under pm2 using the kernel mlx module developed by SUSE.
    --

    --
    ...free your source and the rest would follow...
  31. Re:3d acceleators under linux by doomy · · Score: 1

    Hi Matt

    Mlx compiles fine for me, but with the cvs drivers i get a green screen of death when ever i run an opengl application. Simon @suse said he would be uploading newer drivers soon.

    Basically read the gettingstarted/Readme and follow those directions there, I have had clean compiles with the cvs and the tar balls on suse. If you need any more help e-mail me at twisted@telbot.com.

    Later.
    --

    --
    ...free your source and the rest would follow...
  32. 3d acceleators under linux by doomy · · Score: 2

    Voodoo (you know where to get it)

    Rigth now there are two companies which has pledged their alligance to Linux and given specs to their 3d/2d hardware.

    Matrox G200 - OpenSource project.
    lists.openprojects.net/mail man/listinfo/g200-dev

    3dlabs Permdai2 - See link above and Simon's page on Suse

    In other news, 3dlabs said they would be giving full specs to permedia3 for developers. This includes both 2d and 3d specs. Currently both pm2 and matrox g200 can play q3a with hardware acceleation.
    --

    --
    ...free your source and the rest would follow...
    1. Re:3d acceleators under linux by Tuross · · Score: 1

      Anybody gotten the mlx driver to compile? I spent a few unsuccessful hours with it the other night. There were problems in the header files some of which I fixed and others I have not the faintest idea how to (knowing 0 OpenGL)

      --
      Matt
      1. Read Slashdot
      2. ???
      3. Profit
  33. And on TNT as well by Tom+Womack · · Score: 1

    I've got the game running really quite nicely on a Riva TNT card here.

    Of course, I had to port it to Win98 first; it's not a complicated procedure, though (1.5 hours, and that included setting up the IDE nicely; only about 10 lines of code had to be changed).

    email me for details

  34. Re:Or how about software rendering? by eponymous+cohort · · Score: 1

    Possible? Yes,
    Although Mesa itself seems rather slow in software-only rendering.

    --

    Of all the comments I've ever posted, this is definately one of them

  35. Re:whats wrong with slashdot? by psaltes · · Score: 0

    I cant seem to access slashdot via netscape, but it works fine via Mozilla M5 :)

  36. Re:whats wrong with slashdot? by Aleatoric · · Score: 0

    Apparently, the ad server is down. I've been getting error messages from it all morning. A while back, I was messing around with redirecting the url's for some of the ad servers, and had the same problem you're having, when I redirected adfu.blockstackers.com.

    The problem does appear to be restricted to netscape. I'm currently posting from work (NT/IE5), and have no trouble seeing the pages.

    Interestingly enough, you can view the page source, even when it doesn't appear in the browser.

    --

    Nunc Tutus Exitus Computarus.

  37. Or how about software rendering? by Dast · · Score: 1

    Is it possible?

    --

    This sig is false.

    1. Re:Or how about software rendering? by Gottjager · · Score: 1


      I don't see a problem with software rendering if the game is optimized and the hardware can handle it. I tested quake2 in 800x600 software and got 28fps and 19fps in 1024x768...

    2. Re:Or how about software rendering? by Jorrit · · Score: 1

      Of course software rendering is possible. Under SVGALIB, fbcon, GGI, or X11 even. If you want you can try it out using Crystal Space. This engine works on Linux (and on Windows, OS/2, BeOS, DOS, Macintosh, NextStep, ...) and runs with software rendering, OpenGL, Glide, or Direct3D (Direct3D obviously not for Linux :-)

      Have a look at http://crystal.linuxgames.com

      By the way it is Open Source (under the LGPL license).

      Greetings,

      --
      Project Manager of Crystal Space (http://www.crystalspace3d.org). Support CS at http://tinyurl.com/cb3x4
    3. Re:Or how about software rendering? by zagmar · · Score: 1

      Hey, maybe people should start calling their game 64 to take advantage of the N64 marketing strategy. Muhahahahaha!


    4. Re:Or how about software rendering? by empath · · Score: 1

      Heh.. Have you ever seen glquake run with software rendering? A friend of mine messed around with the dlls and got it going. It wasn't pretty. Something like 9 seconds per frame.. Granted, this was on a P133, but you get the idea.

      --
      "Please don't sigh like that, maam"
  38. Linux and 3D games by Rayban · · Score: 1

    I just saw this one on Freshmeat. It's great that 3D games are coming out for Linux, but I've found that it's really tough to find out which cards have native 3D support. Is there a definitive reference for accelerators under Linux?

    I'd love to play Tribes under Linux, but it just won't work. :(

    --
    æeee!
  39. Re:3d cards question and slashdot wierdness workar by Chris+Pimlott · · Score: 1

    I have a Canopus Pure3D Voodoo 1. It may not be the best thing in the world, but I'm playing Q3Test, and I am very much liking that :). FPS is good in low res at low detail. Sometimes choppy when there's a lot of action, but I still manage to win a good deal of the time.

  40. G200 by Fizgig · · Score: 2

    It depends on what you mean by "support." You can throw in the Marox G200, if you're lenient. The driver is so alpha it's just CVS right now, but it works pretty well considering how young it is. To give you an idea, people are getting ~5-10fps in Q3Test, which is very little, I know, but much better than the 2spf that you get with software.

  41. Re:Wow, this is a great game! by Fizgig · · Score: 2

    Well, it varies greatly. It's leaps and bounds above Software, that's for sure, but it's not up to 3dfx performance yet. Part of that has to do with Matrox not releasing quite all of the specs. They left out something called "Warp" which is their triangle setup engine (I believe; I don't really know anything about this; this is just from the mailing list). People seem optimistic that Matrox may eventually release that too. Another thing to wait for is the direct rendering (i.e., not through X) protoctol that Precision Insight is working on and won't release until June. It's very good progress so far, and the people on the list seem very intelligent--not that I know anything about this stuff, but when Carmack himself has looked at the code and said "I don't see anything blatantly wrong" I take that as meaning these people know what they're doing!

  42. Wow, this is a great game! by Fizgig · · Score: 4

    I just downloaded it and got it to compile (I had to comment out a line calling XMesaSetFXmode to fullscreen to get it to compile, but it did eventually, and this is an amazing game! It's not really much of a game yet. You just walk around and eat fish, but Tux can jump and dive and burp like he never could before! Don't try it on software Mesa, though. It's SLOW. I was getting about 5 seconds per frame. But I did get it to work with the in-development G200 driver, and it was more than playable (except that there's not much of a point to the game yet). It's far from finished, from the looks of it, but the graphics engine is very impressive. I can see the game ending up with great appeal for kids.

  43. Re:whats wrong with slashdot? by Atreide · · Score: 0

    my netscape 4.5 with NT Server 4 & SP 3 works fine... but an error message on top of my page. This is a failure connection messge sent by my firewall, but since the rest of the page displays correctly I though it was my network problem

    anyway, just format your linux patition and run M$ Windows !

    just kidding ;-)

    --
    The world belongs to those who get up early. - I'm far from being the king of Earth then :-(
  44. 3d cards question and slashdot wierdness workaroun by dayeight · · Score: 2

    Are those ratty voodoo 1 cards on pricewatch for 30$ worth it? Would it allow ~15 fps on quake3 or whatnot? I really want a 3dcard (just for the 3d tracert tool) but I don't got oodles of cash.

    As for slashdot wierdness, let it give you the black screen, then click reload, wait and press escape before it finishes.

  45. Re:3d cards question and slashdot wierdness workar by Josh+Turpen · · Score: 1

    They are definately worth $30. I just wish GGI/Mesa/X would all finally merge. Actually all we need is KGIcon finished and merged with the kernel proper. The rest will just magically appear.

    --
    --- A Jesus Fish eating a Darwin Fish only proves Darwin's point.
  46. Re:3d cards question and slashdot wierdness workar by Josh+Turpen · · Score: 1

    Well, I wouldn't want GGI merged, just KGIcon. Unix abstracts all other hardware, why leave video cards in userspace?

    --
    --- A Jesus Fish eating a Darwin Fish only proves Darwin's point.
  47. There is such a game by bug_hunter · · Score: 1

    My friend and I are working on a project (he'll get annoyed at me writting about it before it's really worth showing the public), but if you want a sneak preview of Xtux go to
    http://www.adelaide.net.au/~philaw/
    Currently you can be Tux or BSD, Gnu comming soon.
    (Copyright with Tux isn't a problem, we're assuming Gnu project wouldn't mind, BSD might sue the pants of us but who knows?)

    Enjoy

    --
    It's turtles all the way down.