> Maybe if LGP didn't sell a game for £20.00, then sell an UPDATE for £3.00 which actually doesn't add any > new functionality, but merely provides support for that game from LGP and the ability to install future > updates, people would be more receptive.
Yessss and if you had RESEARCHED this properly you would understand. The update we sell is for the LOKI version so that to get support people dont have to pay and get a whole new game. We arent going to support the loki version because a) its not our game, we dont have the source, and b) its not our game. The update is sold so people get a supported game for LESS.
> Maybe if Tux Games didn't charge $35 more for Quake IV than Best Buy does for the Windows version, they'd > get more sales.
We are in the UK, we have to pay a lot more for the games we buy. We actually make NO PROFIT on over half of the games we sell. We sell them at cost price.
> What do you mean by doing "their bit"? Should they keep their mouth shut about the problems they have > running the games they want to play, yet shout from the rooftops when something actually IS released that > supports Linux?
No but nor should they ignore any progress Linux gaming makes and criticise Linux gaming on a regular basis. Some of each would be nice.
> Should they purchase games they don't want, to generate more sales for you, which is really > the only thing that's going to entice developers to give your company licenses for more games.
If slashdot reports on the games that are available, sales go up. Thats a fact of the slashdot effect. If we get more sales we can afford more licenses. That is the fact of licensing games. Companies that we license games from care about MONEY, and if we sell more games we license bigger games. I dont want ANYONE to buy games they dont want, but letting people know what is out there would allow people to know about them and buy them IF they want.
A lot of these games may be older, but not all of them, and most of them are top notch and FUN games. Go try some, and enjoy them! Natively, no need for emulators, or rebooting. Now if you can tell me that there is no way to play games on Linux, I think I'll have to just disagree.
Right now we are working on a number of deals for some games that will be far better than anything Loki managed to publish. Of course when we do, I am sure slashdot will ignore the release announcements and continue to report on the death of Linux gaming.
You have a linux only system. A game is released for Linux.
The game is NEW FOR LINUX
So what if it was on windows 2 years ago, it is new to Linux, new to the player.
The fact is that newer is not always better, in fact a whole lot of games are just utter rubbish these days. The games that we publish are not always the latest, but before you criticise them, try playing some of them, they are all excellent games and fun to play.
You know, myself and others at Tux Games and LGP work long long hours to get games on Linux. This week Ive done about 30 hours and so far its only the end of tuesday. Thanks for your support, slashdot, in telling me and my staff that we are wasting our time.
It really drives me mad when slashdot refuses to post articles about the last 3 games we released, despite at least 30 or 40 people (that I know of) sending in messages about it, and then go criticise the state of Linux games. If they did their bit maybe our company would be in a better position to get the licenses for more games.
You claim that you are the 'victim' if you put a file on a shared location, and then someone else downloads it. Actually you arent. You are an accessory.
You have placed someone elses licensed Intillectual Property in a location where it may be obtained illegally, it would be like, that pie in the window analogy, if you took your housemates pie and put it in the window with the intention of allowing others to take it.
Dont get me wrong, I dont agree with the strongarm tactics of the RIAA, but I also run a small company that is losing money every day due to piracy and illegal copying. You cant tell me that if someone copies a copyrighted file and puts it on a website that is publicly available, that there is no intent to violate IP. Obviously they need to prove intent. Maybe you want access to your files when you arent at home. Thats cool, and the burden of proof should be on the company, you cant arrest people for stupidity cos they dont understand that others will get their files. But you tell me HOW people that but up bittorrent or other P2P versions of the products that my company makes, and literally take the food off of the table of myself and my staff, tell me how much you want to defend THEM. These people are the difference between staying in business and going under for a small company like mine.
I can give you a perfect example of when speeding up is required. I know someone that had this happen.
They were on a low powered motorcycle.
A large truck came up behind them - hadnt seen them
They didnt have the power to pull away
The truck destroyed the bike, the person only survived by throwing themselves off the bike and grabbing a tree at 50 MPH, breaking a lot of bones. The bike was spread over 180 yards of road.
In this instance it was the bikes lack of power causing the problem, but if that same power was cut off by a computer - and that caused a death - it shouldnt be possible.
CD requiring copy protection is more effective than purely cd key only, but it only lasts until someone reverse engineers the copy protection system, or hell, not even that much, they can do it by a big of hex editing and ensuring that the test function returns the pass value without running the test. There IS no currently feasable copy protection that actually works. All we are going to be able to do is stop the casual copying. I have to say I can think of numerous methods of copy protection that WOULD work, but they are so draconian that I would shudder to even consider them, and would NEVER use them!
1) The GL drivers for PPC are rubbish for the most part 1) this argument only goes for closed source drivers, which unfortunately, are so popular now. DRI drivers are the same for all arches (well, ok, you do have the occasional arch specific bug, but that is not different from your hardware specific bug).
Agreed, but the closed source drivers are the only ones cutting it. There is no way anyone using open sourced drivers will be able to get a reasonable speed out of them with their current state. I have to admit I dont know why, open source does great in so many things but seems unable to produce really good 3d drivers.
2) endianness issues. The way data is handled internally breaks 2) Yes, however, a good programmer should code endian safe code. As the above runs on mac as well, i don't think there are big endian (pun not intended) issues. In addition, for a game it should not be necessary to be so close to the hardware to have to cope with endianness. Look at some of the ppc distros, most rpms (or debs or whatever) are just auto-rebuild for ppc, and they work. (Ok, there is the occasional bug, which I then fix). Remember though we are poirting not coding from scratch. And even the best coders will make endian mistakes in a million line program unless it is developed for both at the same time. And most endian issues are straightforwards, but some of them can be impossible to find taking many weeks of hunting for one line of bug.
3) build environment issues. The right combination of static libraries to work on all systems. 3) well, I think if you use a certain set on a x86 distro, you can also use it on the ppc flavor of that same distro. All libs are the same, just rebuilded for ppc. Ahh for that kind of easy life. No, binary distribution to work on as many systems as possible is a nightmare. We've been trying for the last few weeks to find a gibc 2.2 environment that works on modern systems except the one its built on. No luck. Things like pthreads, ouch they are just whole wolds of pain.
4) random unexpected quirks between systems 4) well, yes, like differences between all other hardware. The advantage of ppc is actually that there are only a few systems. So only a small set of hardware. Agreed. That is a good thing, not helpful enough to help *enough* but still, good.
Well, the copy protection we are aiming at is effectively:
A registration key
This does online verification with a keyserver
If the keyserver is not available it simply drops back to being a non-online key system so people without net access can use the game.
You can have as many installs as you like on the same key. However each key will allow you to lock out other users of that key, so sure you can put your key online, but if someone locks you out after you do it, dont come crying to us.
Knowing it is an online protection system some people will try and kill their net connection for each time the game starts, but if people wanna do that then thats fine, its a lot of hassle to keep your stolen copy but we cant stop people 100%. Also some clever people will reverse engineer it and get a crack, we know this, and we cant stop it, there is no way to stop every workaround. Hopefully though, we'll stop most of it.
For the legitimate user, however, it will simply look like: Enter a CD key once. Play the game, forget it. No CD-in-drive required. For multiplayer games (X2 isnt) install copies on your home machines, play away, no locks. We *ask* that people buy one copy per install if they can afford it, but we wont stop people installing around their home if they cant.
The system is one that needs to be tested thoroughly however and we will probably do that in the X2 beta. If it looks like causing problems for users, we will simply release with no protection, as I dont want people having 'issues' with it. Then we'll fix stuff and try again next game beta - till we get it right {:-)
As for people that want to download a cracked version and try it out, and then buy it later if they like it, they can do that too with our cd key system. I funny support that idea, as it means we dont have to ship the game, its much easier for us {:-)
Wouldn't it be possible to get closer ties to the manufacturers and co-release?
Yes, but unfortunately not always the easiest thing in the world to do. We're working on it, but its an uphill struggle. Our core market always has been and always will be, the people that dont dual-boot. Not that there is anything wrong in dual-booting, its just that, as things stand, we cannot get up to simultaneous releases because we dont have the resources in most cases. As such, we aim our games at people that havent got Windows, so the games ARE new. I know we lose a lot of business always releasing after the windows version (trust me I know, I cry myself to sleep over it many a night), but we cant do more than we can, and we just keep on that uphill struggle to the nirvana of simultaneous release {:-)
its a fair question. Now, Ive never done any of the PPC building so no flames if I make some slight errors, but these are some of the things my dev team have mentioned to me:
1) The GL drivers for PPC are rubbish for the most part 2) endianness issues. The way data is handled internally breaks 3) build environment issues. The right combination of static libraries to work on all systems. 4) random unexpected quirks between systems
Also there is the fact that we only have a single G3 imac in the company, so we couldnt test a 3d ppc game even if we wanted to, and really, for the level of return we'd get for porting to ppc, it wouldnt even cover buying a new mac to test it on, let alone pay for the developer time. Sorry.
Many Linux users pay for what they are supposed to. Many dont, however.
This is a VERY VERY hypocritical position. How many of the Linux users that illegally copy games are the same ones that rabidly defend the GPL? Probably a lot. And lets examine that. They get offended when people break the GPL because those people have broken the license the software was released under, and get all upset that their work which was done for free is being used in a way it shouldnt. Hold on, thats exactly what happens when people take our games and give them away for free. Our games arent trying to lock people into our products, we dont force people to use them or try and stifle competition. Quite the opposite, weve tried on several occasions to support open source projects and to even give assistance to competing companies, to try and increase choice and competition. We arent evil. I believe in open source and open standards. I have YET to see an open source game that even comes close to the level of closed source games. We play on a level playing field where you can only win by being better.
The fact is that if people keep on *stealing* our games by copying them and never paying for them, then Im going to decide that its just not worth my spending 14 hours a day working on this kind of thing for what is effectively a negative salary (I put far more money into the companies than I take out). And then when nobody is making games for Linux any more, then people can't complain that a) the games are all old, b) the games cost too much, c) the games should be open not closed source - or whatever - because there wont BE any games.
Sorry, rant over, I just get tired of people who do nothing but complain and do nothing to help the situation (not aimed at anyone in this thread, its just where it finally dumped from brain to keyboard). I'll take genuine complaints from people that have put their money where theie mouth is (there are a few but not many). Ive dumped over $200,000 of my personal money into Linux gaming - thats my level of dedication to getting games to Linux. But I cant stand it when people stand on the sideline complaining that they could do better, and then go back to dual booting and playing all their games on their xbox.
Yes, what you say is correct. What we aim for right now is for it to run at an acceptable speed - with game options turned down (no bumpmaps or shadows), on a 1GHz processor with a 64MB Geforce 4 class graphics card. We may not meet that goal, but we are trying.
There is a chance it will contain a copy protection system, one that we wrote purselves because we need to do SOMETHING to stop piracy that is really hurting our company, but the copy projection does not install drivers or anything else. It isnt evil, just something to try and stop people from ripping the bottom out of our revenue - which really cant afford that any more.
I know what you are saying, and I agree in many ways. However there is really nothing we can do about it.
There ARE scenarios that will allow this to change.
1) Enough Linux users start buying the games that we can show sales numbers that make game makers NEED to get Linux versions.
2) Someone comes along and offers LGP $20 million, which is about the amount we figure would allow us to force the market more mainstream.
3) Enough people stop dual-booting that they only buy linux versions of games.
None of that is going to happen any time soon. So yes, I do understand your point, and I appreciate your willingness to make the purchase, but, until things change, we're fighting a very steeply uphill battle.
As a side note, I wont confirm anything about X3, but - there is likely to be a strong link between how X2 sells to if we do X3 also. THATS a brand new game!
After playing for a few hours, the game had this awsome sense of immersion.
Yup, it does doesnt it {:-) It felt like a real, living breathing huge ass universe. You could see the seams around the sky-box of space, where the "stars" were (the textures were poorly done, so you knew you were flying around in a huge ass box)
Skybox issues were fixed, it looks better now. In fact all the bugs you mentioned were fixed in patches. The Linux version is based on the source for the latest patch and so shouldnt inherit the bugs. Also, we hope to fix some of the remaining issues to make the linux version even better than the windows version.
X2 starts with the story, feels more linear, and not quite as big a universe, but much much much better looking. Maybe it does get better (in the scale sense)
Yes, it does, the X2 universe is HUGE compared to the X1 universe. I forget the exact number but something like 3 times as many sectors. more ships, and yeah, the graphics are stunning.
While Im not saying anything official here, but it would be a logical assumption that if X2 for Linux does well, X3 will follow some time in the early part of next year. Of course, Im only the CEO of the company doing the ports, so I may not have all the information, but taking an informed guess, Id say that thats the likely path. {:-)
Thanks. It is always good to get some positive feedback from people. Normally when we announce a game we get so many people complaining and moaning that they hate our choice and why couldnt we pick newer/better/shinier games, that it gets a bit offputting sometimes. Seeing the people that ARE looking forwards to the games we put a LOT of effort into is always a nice change that we really do appreciate. I hope you enjoy it. If you like the genre, and from what you say you do, then you will love it, its completely addictive!
Im afraid not, only x86. There are a few reasons for this. Partially because of the size of the market (sorry PPC guys, we will do a port when we can but this one would be a LOT of extra time to get it available for you all and the numbers in this case just dont work). and also for the state of 3D hardware accelleration for linux ppc is in most cases just not up to the job. We'd love to, but not this time. Sorry.
Couldn't they have chosen something easier to port? And a bit more recent?
OK, Soomething easier to port, maybe, but we pick the games we port carefully with regard to what people want. X2 is widely regarded as the best space game of all time, and IF it sells well for Linux, you can look to see X3 soon too.
As for more recent. *sighs* Well, sure, send me $100,000 and I'll get the license to port any recent game you like. Or, alternatively, we will port games that are realistic to port to linux.
Also X2 isnt exactly old, it has been out for 18 months. X3 is yet to be released for Windows.
The X series (iirc, I could be wrong) uses Direct 3D, porting it would be quite difficult. Surely porting a game that uses OpenGL would at least give the programmers a bit less trouble in porting?
Sure it would, but just because a game is easy to port doesnt make it any good. We pick games that are GOOD, not easy. If I wanted easy, Id be making games for consoles and driving a ferrari right now. As it is, I make games for Linux and catch a bus, cos I want Linux to have the best games it can. It means more work to get them out there, but its worth it. Easy and non-direct3d, well, pretty much all windows 3d games now use direct3d except for games by id, and they are covered for Linux versions. So that leaves 2D windows games. I hear there is yet another tetris clone for windows, but you know what, I really dont think Im going to waste my time having my company port that game to linux.
On a different note, I've yet to see any Elite clone equal the greatness that is the Elite trilogy. Here's hoping for the ever elusive Elite 4 that David Braben has been working on since the dawn of time to appear, if at all.
Well, speaking as someone that played elite from 2 months after its initial release on its first platform (the BBC micro) for 6 solid months, I can tell you, X2 is the first game I have seen in the genre that passes Elite. It is better in every aspect. I loved Elite, I really did. X2 beats it. For those Elite die-hards, there is even a small in-game homage to elite in X2. The control to activate the SETA time compression system, is J. It does exactly the same as the old Elite J Jump did.
Not at all, we use purely ourown code, and libraries such as OpenGL and SDL. If you follow our company history you will see that I am very very much against any kind of emulation of Windows software on Linux for many reasons I am not going to go into here cos Id be ranting on on this thread for pages (google for my reasons, they are findable, if you are rerally interested).
Slashdot Mirror
> Maybe if LGP didn't sell a game for £20.00, then sell an UPDATE for £3.00 which actually doesn't add any
> new functionality, but merely provides support for that game from LGP and the ability to install future
> updates, people would be more receptive.
Yessss and if you had RESEARCHED this properly you would understand. The update we sell is for the LOKI version so that to get support people dont have to pay and get a whole new game. We arent going to support the loki version because a) its not our game, we dont have the source, and b) its not our game. The update is sold so people get a supported game for LESS.
> Maybe if Tux Games didn't charge $35 more for Quake IV than Best Buy does for the Windows version, they'd
> get more sales.
We are in the UK, we have to pay a lot more for the games we buy. We actually make NO PROFIT on over half of the games we sell. We sell them at cost price.
> What do you mean by doing "their bit"? Should they keep their mouth shut about the problems they have
> running the games they want to play, yet shout from the rooftops when something actually IS released that
> supports Linux?
No but nor should they ignore any progress Linux gaming makes and criticise Linux gaming on a regular basis. Some of each would be nice.
> Should they purchase games they don't want, to generate more sales for you, which is really
> the only thing that's going to entice developers to give your company licenses for more games.
If slashdot reports on the games that are available, sales go up. Thats a fact of the slashdot effect. If we get more sales we can afford more licenses. That is the fact of licensing games. Companies that we license games from care about MONEY, and if we sell more games we license bigger games. I dont want ANYONE to buy games they dont want, but letting people know what is out there would allow people to know about them and buy them IF they want.
Whoops - thanks.
I think I was a bit heated when I was writing there {:-) I didnt check as well as I should {:-)
Majesty Gold
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Creatures Internet Edition
Doom 3
Unreal Tournament 2003
Candy Cruncher
Uplink
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide
Hyperspace Delivery Boy
NingPo MahJong
Soul Ride
Savage: The Battle for Newerth
Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark
Dominions II: The Ascension Wars
Gorky 17
Software Tycoon
Unreal Tournament 2004
Northland
Postal 2: Share the Pain
Darwinia
Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil
Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood
X2: The Threat
Quake IV
Tribal Trouble
Airline Tycoon Deluxe
Cold War
Dominions 3: The Awakening
A lot of these games may be older, but not all of them, and most of them are top notch and FUN games. Go try some, and enjoy them! Natively, no need for emulators, or rebooting. Now if you can tell me that there is no way to play games on Linux, I think I'll have to just disagree.
Right now we are working on a number of deals for some games that will be far better than anything Loki managed to publish. Of course when we do, I am sure slashdot will ignore the release announcements and continue to report on the death of Linux gaming.
You have a linux only system. A game is released for Linux.
The game is NEW FOR LINUX
So what if it was on windows 2 years ago, it is new to Linux, new to the player.
The fact is that newer is not always better, in fact a whole lot of games are just utter rubbish these days. The games that we publish are not always the latest, but before you criticise them, try playing some of them, they are all excellent games and fun to play.
This is utter rubbish. Our company has plenty of experience porting from Direct3D to OpenGL.
It isnt just possible, it has happened - frequently.
It really drives me mad when slashdot refuses to post articles about the last 3 games we released, despite at least 30 or 40 people (that I know of) sending in messages about it, and then go criticise the state of Linux games. If they did their bit maybe our company would be in a better position to get the licenses for more games.
Actually you are making a false assumption here.
You claim that you are the 'victim' if you put a file on a shared location, and then someone else downloads it. Actually you arent. You are an accessory.
You have placed someone elses licensed Intillectual Property in a location where it may be obtained illegally, it would be like, that pie in the window analogy, if you took your housemates pie and put it in the window with the intention of allowing others to take it.
Dont get me wrong, I dont agree with the strongarm tactics of the RIAA, but I also run a small company that is losing money every day due to piracy and illegal copying. You cant tell me that if someone copies a copyrighted file and puts it on a website that is publicly available, that there is no intent to violate IP.
Obviously they need to prove intent. Maybe you want access to your files when you arent at home. Thats cool, and the burden of proof should be on the company, you cant arrest people for stupidity cos they dont understand that others will get their files. But you tell me HOW people that but up bittorrent or other P2P versions of the products that my company makes, and literally take the food off of the table of myself and my staff, tell me how much you want to defend THEM. These people are the difference between staying in business and going under for a small company like mine.
I can give you a perfect example of when speeding up is required. I know someone that had this happen.
They were on a low powered motorcycle.
A large truck came up behind them - hadnt seen them
They didnt have the power to pull away
The truck destroyed the bike, the person only survived by throwing themselves off the bike and grabbing a tree at 50 MPH, breaking a lot of bones. The bike was spread over 180 yards of road.
In this instance it was the bikes lack of power causing the problem, but if that same power was cut off by a computer - and that caused a death - it shouldnt be possible.
CD requiring copy protection is more effective than purely cd key only, but it only lasts until someone reverse engineers the copy protection system, or hell, not even that much, they can do it by a big of hex editing and ensuring that the test function returns the pass value without running the test.
There IS no currently feasable copy protection that actually works. All we are going to be able to do is stop the casual copying. I have to say I can think of numerous methods of copy protection that WOULD work, but they are so draconian that I would shudder to even consider them, and would NEVER use them!
1) The GL drivers for PPC are rubbish for the most part
1) this argument only goes for closed source drivers, which unfortunately, are so popular now. DRI drivers are the same for all arches (well, ok, you do have the occasional arch specific bug, but that is not different from your hardware specific bug).
Agreed, but the closed source drivers are the only ones cutting it. There is no way anyone using open sourced drivers will be able to get a reasonable speed out of them with their current state. I have to admit I dont know why, open source does great in so many things but seems unable to produce really good 3d drivers.
2) endianness issues. The way data is handled internally breaks
2) Yes, however, a good programmer should code endian safe code. As the above runs on mac as well, i don't think there are big endian (pun not intended) issues. In addition, for a game it should not be necessary to be so close to the hardware to have to cope with endianness. Look at some of the ppc distros, most rpms (or debs or whatever) are just auto-rebuild for ppc, and they work. (Ok, there is the occasional bug, which I then fix).
Remember though we are poirting not coding from scratch. And even the best coders will make endian mistakes in a million line program unless it is developed for both at the same time. And most endian issues are straightforwards, but some of them can be impossible to find taking many weeks of hunting for one line of bug.
3) build environment issues. The right combination of static libraries to work on all systems.
3) well, I think if you use a certain set on a x86 distro, you can also use it on the ppc flavor of that same distro. All libs are the same, just rebuilded for ppc.
Ahh for that kind of easy life. No, binary distribution to work on as many systems as possible is a nightmare. We've been trying for the last few weeks to find a gibc 2.2 environment that works on modern systems except the one its built on. No luck. Things like pthreads, ouch they are just whole wolds of pain.
4) random unexpected quirks between systems
4) well, yes, like differences between all other hardware. The advantage of ppc is actually that there are only a few systems. So only a small set of hardware.
Agreed. That is a good thing, not helpful enough to help *enough* but still, good.
It can vary by game.
Majesty was about 12 man months
X2 has been about 10 man months so far and more work to do before its released.
These are months of long hours and working weekends.
Well, the copy protection we are aiming at is effectively:
A registration key
This does online verification with a keyserver
If the keyserver is not available it simply drops back to being a non-online key system so people without net access can use the game.
You can have as many installs as you like on the same key. However each key will allow you to lock out other users of that key, so sure you can put your key online, but if someone locks you out after you do it, dont come crying to us.
Knowing it is an online protection system some people will try and kill their net connection for each time the game starts, but if people wanna do that then thats fine, its a lot of hassle to keep your stolen copy but we cant stop people 100%. Also some clever people will reverse engineer it and get a crack, we know this, and we cant stop it, there is no way to stop every workaround. Hopefully though, we'll stop most of it.
For the legitimate user, however, it will simply look like: Enter a CD key once. Play the game, forget it. No CD-in-drive required. For multiplayer games (X2 isnt) install copies on your home machines, play away, no locks. We *ask* that people buy one copy per install if they can afford it, but we wont stop people installing around their home if they cant.
The system is one that needs to be tested thoroughly however and we will probably do that in the X2 beta. If it looks like causing problems for users, we will simply release with no protection, as I dont want people having 'issues' with it. Then we'll fix stuff and try again next game beta - till we get it right {:-)
As for people that want to download a cracked version and try it out, and then buy it later if they like it, they can do that too with our cd key system. I funny support that idea, as it means we dont have to ship the game, its much easier for us {:-)
Wouldn't it be possible to get closer ties to the manufacturers and co-release?
Yes, but unfortunately not always the easiest thing in the world to do. We're working on it, but its an uphill struggle. Our core market always has been and always will be, the people that dont dual-boot. Not that there is anything wrong in dual-booting, its just that, as things stand, we cannot get up to simultaneous releases because we dont have the resources in most cases. As such, we aim our games at people that havent got Windows, so the games ARE new. I know we lose a lot of business always releasing after the windows version (trust me I know, I cry myself to sleep over it many a night), but we cant do more than we can, and we just keep on that uphill struggle to the nirvana of simultaneous release {:-)
its a fair question. Now, Ive never done any of the PPC building so no flames if I make some slight errors, but these are some of the things my dev team have mentioned to me:
1) The GL drivers for PPC are rubbish for the most part
2) endianness issues. The way data is handled internally breaks
3) build environment issues. The right combination of static libraries to work on all systems.
4) random unexpected quirks between systems
Also there is the fact that we only have a single G3 imac in the company, so we couldnt test a 3d ppc game even if we wanted to, and really, for the level of return we'd get for porting to ppc, it wouldnt even cover buying a new mac to test it on, let alone pay for the developer time. Sorry.
Many Linux users pay for what they are supposed to. Many dont, however.
This is a VERY VERY hypocritical position. How many of the Linux users that illegally copy games are the same ones that rabidly defend the GPL? Probably a lot. And lets examine that. They get offended when people break the GPL because those people have broken the license the software was released under, and get all upset that their work which was done for free is being used in a way it shouldnt.
Hold on, thats exactly what happens when people take our games and give them away for free.
Our games arent trying to lock people into our products, we dont force people to use them or try and stifle competition. Quite the opposite, weve tried on several occasions to support open source projects and to even give assistance to competing companies, to try and increase choice and competition. We arent evil. I believe in open source and open standards. I have YET to see an open source game that even comes close to the level of closed source games. We play on a level playing field where you can only win by being better.
The fact is that if people keep on *stealing* our games by copying them and never paying for them, then Im going to decide that its just not worth my spending 14 hours a day working on this kind of thing for what is effectively a negative salary (I put far more money into the companies than I take out). And then when nobody is making games for Linux any more, then people can't complain that a) the games are all old, b) the games cost too much, c) the games should be open not closed source - or whatever - because there wont BE any games.
Sorry, rant over, I just get tired of people who do nothing but complain and do nothing to help the situation (not aimed at anyone in this thread, its just where it finally dumped from brain to keyboard). I'll take genuine complaints from people that have put their money where theie mouth is (there are a few but not many). Ive dumped over $200,000 of my personal money into Linux gaming - thats my level of dedication to getting games to Linux. But I cant stand it when people stand on the sideline complaining that they could do better, and then go back to dual booting and playing all their games on their xbox.
Yes, what you say is correct. What we aim for right now is for it to run at an acceptable speed - with game options turned down (no bumpmaps or shadows), on a 1GHz processor with a 64MB Geforce 4 class graphics card. We may not meet that goal, but we are trying.
No.
There is a chance it will contain a copy protection system, one that we wrote purselves because we need to do SOMETHING to stop piracy that is really hurting our company, but the copy projection does not install drivers or anything else. It isnt evil, just something to try and stop people from ripping the bottom out of our revenue - which really cant afford that any more.
There ARE scenarios that will allow this to change.
1) Enough Linux users start buying the games that we can show sales numbers that make game makers NEED to get Linux versions.
2) Someone comes along and offers LGP $20 million, which is about the amount we figure would allow us to force the market more mainstream.
3) Enough people stop dual-booting that they only buy linux versions of games.
None of that is going to happen any time soon. So yes, I do understand your point, and I appreciate your willingness to make the purchase, but, until things change, we're fighting a very steeply uphill battle.
As a side note, I wont confirm anything about X3, but - there is likely to be a strong link between how X2 sells to if we do X3 also. THATS a brand new game!
Yup, it does doesnt it {:-)
It felt like a real, living breathing huge ass universe. You could see the seams around the sky-box of space, where the "stars" were (the textures were poorly done, so you knew you were flying around in a huge ass box)
Skybox issues were fixed, it looks better now. In fact all the bugs you mentioned were fixed in patches. The Linux version is based on the source for the latest patch and so shouldnt inherit the bugs. Also, we hope to fix some of the remaining issues to make the linux version even better than the windows version.
X2 starts with the story, feels more linear, and not quite as big a universe, but much much much better looking. Maybe it does get better (in the scale sense)
Yes, it does, the X2 universe is HUGE compared to the X1 universe. I forget the exact number but something like 3 times as many sectors. more ships, and yeah, the graphics are stunning.
While Im not saying anything official here, but it would be a logical assumption that if X2 for Linux does well, X3 will follow some time in the early part of next year.
Of course, Im only the CEO of the company doing the ports, so I may not have all the information, but taking an informed guess, Id say that thats the likely path.
{:-)
Thanks. It is always good to get some positive feedback from people. Normally when we announce a game we get so many people complaining and moaning that they hate our choice and why couldnt we pick newer/better/shinier games, that it gets a bit offputting sometimes. Seeing the people that ARE looking forwards to the games we put a LOT of effort into is always a nice change that we really do appreciate. I hope you enjoy it. If you like the genre, and from what you say you do, then you will love it, its completely addictive!
Im afraid not, only x86. There are a few reasons for this. Partially because of the size of the market (sorry PPC guys, we will do a port when we can but this one would be a LOT of extra time to get it available for you all and the numbers in this case just dont work). and also for the state of 3D hardware accelleration for linux ppc is in most cases just not up to the job.
We'd love to, but not this time. Sorry.
OK, Soomething easier to port, maybe, but we pick the games we port carefully with regard to what people want. X2 is widely regarded as the best space game of all time, and IF it sells well for Linux, you can look to see X3 soon too.
As for more recent. *sighs* Well, sure, send me $100,000 and I'll get the license to port any recent game you like. Or, alternatively, we will port games that are realistic to port to linux.
Also X2 isnt exactly old, it has been out for 18 months. X3 is yet to be released for Windows.
The X series (iirc, I could be wrong) uses Direct 3D, porting it would be quite difficult. Surely porting a game that uses OpenGL would at least give the programmers a bit less trouble in porting?
Sure it would, but just because a game is easy to port doesnt make it any good. We pick games that are GOOD, not easy. If I wanted easy, Id be making games for consoles and driving a ferrari right now. As it is, I make games for Linux and catch a bus, cos I want Linux to have the best games it can. It means more work to get them out there, but its worth it. Easy and non-direct3d, well, pretty much all windows 3d games now use direct3d except for games by id, and they are covered for Linux versions. So that leaves 2D windows games. I hear there is yet another tetris clone for windows, but you know what, I really dont think Im going to waste my time having my company port that game to linux.
On a different note, I've yet to see any Elite clone equal the greatness that is the Elite trilogy. Here's hoping for the ever elusive Elite 4 that David Braben has been working on since the dawn of time to appear, if at all.
Well, speaking as someone that played elite from 2 months after its initial release on its first platform (the BBC micro) for 6 solid months, I can tell you, X2 is the first game I have seen in the genre that passes Elite. It is better in every aspect. I loved Elite, I really did. X2 beats it. For those Elite die-hards, there is even a small in-game homage to elite in X2. The control to activate the SETA time compression system, is J. It does exactly the same as the old Elite J Jump did.
Not at all, we use purely ourown code, and libraries such as OpenGL and SDL. If you follow our company history you will see that I am very very much against any kind of emulation of Windows software on Linux for many reasons I am not going to go into here cos Id be ranting on on this thread for pages (google for my reasons, they are findable, if you are rerally interested).
Technologies. We are porting the Direct3D to OpenGL, we use SDL for some things, GCC is the compiler. ffmpeg for video, openAL for audio.