Not a lot of big name commercial developers are developing for the *nix platform. Couple that with Carmack's statement on being able to ignore the platform without losing too much sleep, and you have a lot of people who just won't develop for Gnu/Linux.
It is hard enough to make money on the Win32 platform. Publishers don't want to take a risk on Linux-based machines.
On the other hand, there is more to shareware than "homebrewed" stuff. There are professional quality games that are shareware by choice. They do make money. Garagegames just happens to be one of those companies that provides a high quality engine for really cheap. Torque has been used in Tribes 2, and there are quite a few games being developed in it.
Again, if it isn't id or Blizzard, people think it won't be good. Linux is different from Windows, and unfortunately, a lot of people think you can't play games on it. Publishers won't publish on Linux so it furthers the problem.
Also PC gaming is still alive and well. They say that it will die every 5 years when the newest consoles are released. It always stays alive. The difference nowadays is that consoles and PC gaming tend to look more alike than before. Certain games run and feel better on a console than on a keyboard. Offtopic, but still. B-)
But there is plenty available for Linux Game Development.
garagegames.com provides the Torque Engine for only $100 a programmer. A number of quality games already exist for free or (more likely) as shareware at their site.
There are different libraries like PLIB, which as I remember was used for Tux Kart and other games.
Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be active websites for the community of GNU/Linux game developers. Usually the mailing lists are more active though. The websites look defunct which may make people think that nothing is happening.
As for productivity, yes, it is possible that more Linux-based PDAs will make people want to work on GnuCash and other such projects that are needed for productivity. I think that it might be a catch-22 in that demand for such apps would fuel development but development requires demand...The difference here is that if the hardware developers would hire programmers to actually MAKE the software in the first place, it would solve the problem.
Maybe not the most direct answer, but it is my $.02
Perhaps if you read the article more closely, you will see a number of things: 1) He says that the amateur mentality results in people who feel threatened or insulted when being told how they could improve themselves. Rather than trying to improve themselves, they feel they need to correct other's criticisms. Seems we know what camp you would be in, except that 2) he says at the end of the article that it is not evenly split. There is a wide range of types of people between the two mentalities. So your comment that the article "basically seems to say that either you are a professional marketer, or some kind of brain-dead paranoid retard" is completely off-base since the article explicitely says that it isn't saying that.
Gamedev.net is one place to go to find out about getting into the game development business and how to develop games in general.
Join your local IGDA chapter. Meet people in your area who make games. Talk to them about how they can help you or how you can help them.
Game development is not as close to the movie industry as some people like to think. People don't just write scripts and hope someone directs it. People make game design documents and present them to publishers or even game development companies, and they might hire you to do other things, like work on other projects that they have funded already. Still, most likely your own personal project won't be funded, but it may be your key to getting into the business.
Interested to see: DOOM III and Duke Nukem Forever Fondest Gaming Memories: DOOM II deathmatches in college
So we have someone who likes sequels, yet complains about the lack of originality...
I personally think that originality in gaming is overrated. People don't care if it is original. They care if it is fun. Originality is not the end all be all of good games. And originality comes in many forms. It doesn't have to be a completely new genre. It can be a new take on an old idea. Original War was an original game. An RTS with RPG elements. Not many people played that one. If it could get rid of its bugs, it would have been perfect. People liked Ogre Battle...it was also an RTS with RPG elements, only different.
I originally thought Doom 3 was just an FPS with prettier graphics, but seeing the demo made me realize just what was possible with those graphics. Alien vs Predator 2 had dynamic lighting and shadows, which made the game quite scary, but Doom 3 seems to be going much farther than that.
It is hard to see what is coming next. But I get tired of people complaining that games aren't original anymore. What do you expect? Games have only been around for a couple of decades or so. Of course every game is going to start to look unoriginal. It is hard to create your own genre.
That is why you have to start to appreciate what is available. I am not saying that you should be happy with crappy copies of games. I am saying that you should look at what you consider to be a crappy sequel and figure out what they might have done better. What innovations actually exist in that FPS you have been ignoring. What secret you missed out on because you avoided what you thought was "Yet Another RTS."
It is interesting how popular NES emulators are...I mean, aren't those games...boring now? You get bored of their sequels, yet classic gaming is ok?
Broadband and its ability to get to most people are still limiting the possibilities of such business working out. Pay-per-view-online and similar things aren't going to be so popular so long as dial-up is the primary access. Imagine trying to buy an MP3 and taking 30-50 minutes to download it. Each disconnection results in the hassle of trying to download the file again. Now imagine music videos or even feature length films and how long those would take! Even if all dial-up was 56k, which isn't always the case, it would still take hours to get a relatively few minutes worth of media. You can't necessarily make a successful business off of college students.
It isn't about pride, as much as the number of Debian users would make it sound. It is more of the fact that Debian can't release a new Stable version until it works on all of the supported platforms.
But you are right. There should be no reason why something like autodetection shouldn't be incorporated into the install process. That is why they are working on a new install/boot process. An active mailing list to be on, let me tell you.
I spent a week getting sound to work on my system by using Google and experimenting. Then they decide to make it easy so that my accomplishment would mean nothing to all of the newbies who show up. I can hear/see it now: "Hey guys, do YOU have sound on your system? I do!", I exclaim, with beaming pride.
"Uh, yeah whatever dude," they would say. "I got sound working too. Dumbass."
Somehow they protect their constituincies free speech rights. Video games don't have any.
I got to see the pics before they get /.ed
on
Water Computing
·
· Score: 2, Funny
I think it is a cool concept. EMP wouldn't be such a problem. Lugging the thing to a LAN party would. Imagine having to carry Hinkley and Schmidt as well as the device.
And the user base is not hostile to Passport if they are the ones that requested it.
Microsoft has its reasons. I have yet to see them make a move in Redmond without having a way to capitalize on other people's mistakes.
Passport on *nix is better than nothing on *nix, as far as the market is concerned. A product exists where another product does not. I haven't heard squat about Liberty or anything similar.
Then again, it could be because enough people know it is a big security risk. I mean, I risk enough when my email accounts at three different providers as well as my/. account as well as other accounts all have the same password. To have them actually behind the very same password is worse. At least I can change the passwords for each if one gets compromised. With Passport or any alternative, I don't know how I would protect my accounts.
But again, Microsoft is providing a product where there is no product, and will win a big market share, even if it is on a Free OS, simply because there is no alternative. At the same time, it is good and bad.
"If the intended target uses Word 2000 or 2002, the most recent versions, the attack will only work if the Word document is printed first before the reply is sent to the attacker"
How badly can the programmers be working if they make such a strange flaw? It must be printed in order for the problem to exist...uh huh.
While it does include a bit of math it is also good at telling you some basic/advanced topics on physics. Mostly physics as pertaining to bouyancy, forces, acceleration, velocity, etc.
Heh, while I would love to be able to provide such things, the truth is I couldn't afford to.
And I don't believe a group of people can organize an effort to raise money for it either.
I am curious as to how that code was made though. It would be nice to see what sometimes caused the DirectSound error(I believe that was it...it's been a little while since I saw it) on startup, and how they got all those units to move without slowdown on a 56k connection with a 100Mhz machine.
Well commented C++ code, eh? Novelty! B-)
I have used it as one of the standards for judging RTS games. Starcraft is pretty good, and the story there rocked, but I missed being able to select all units of a given type without a limit except for how many were on the map.
Homeworld is a great game as well. A little different, and the gameplay runs a little slower than TA or Starcraft, but fun.
I loved being involved in late night sessions of TA on the Boneyards. I was really getting good when they got rid of it though. I should really reinstall it, but classes just started back up for me, so maybe that won't be the best idea in the world.
Aw heck, I'm game.
As for what to do with the code...Public domain? No, it makes no sense for them to do that. Open Source? Yeah, that would rock!
I used to play this game on a Win95 system with 32MB of RAM. Now I have 640MB of RAM and 64MB of video memory. I think the unit limit can be raised just a bit now, for starters, and a better AI can be developed, especially for units that are shooting and turning. Too many times my tanks would turn without keeping their turrets on their targets, so by the time the turrets finally move back, they are turning again.
What else? How about SUPER LARGE maps? Or more possible simultaneous units? B-)
I wonder if this is related to the vulnerability in IE.
Also, why do they have to require back doors, sniffers, and other things to be installed on ISPs and asking anti-virus makers to turn a blind eye to the SECURITY VULNERABILITY that would obviously arise if one could somehow spoof Magic Lantern and in so doing attack or otherwise hijack the computer?
Why not try to gather intelligence by using spies and other methods that do not necessarily require them knowing my password for the QBasic forums that I visit, or my credit card info for purchases I make at Amazon.com?
Also, why deny it? People already don't trust the government as it is, so why pretend it doesn't exist? It doesn't help at all, but at least be honest about looking over our shoulders.
Slashdot Mirror
Not a lot of big name commercial developers are developing for the *nix platform. Couple that with Carmack's statement on being able to ignore the platform without losing too much sleep, and you have a lot of people who just won't develop for Gnu/Linux.
It is hard enough to make money on the Win32 platform. Publishers don't want to take a risk on Linux-based machines.
On the other hand, there is more to shareware than "homebrewed" stuff. There are professional quality games that are shareware by choice. They do make money. Garagegames just happens to be one of those companies that provides a high quality engine for really cheap. Torque has been used in Tribes 2, and there are quite a few games being developed in it.
Again, if it isn't id or Blizzard, people think it won't be good. Linux is different from Windows, and unfortunately, a lot of people think you can't play games on it. Publishers won't publish on Linux so it furthers the problem.
Also PC gaming is still alive and well. They say that it will die every 5 years when the newest consoles are released. It always stays alive. The difference nowadays is that consoles and PC gaming tend to look more alike than before. Certain games run and feel better on a console than on a keyboard. Offtopic, but still. B-)
But there is plenty available for Linux Game Development.
garagegames.com provides the Torque Engine for only $100 a programmer. A number of quality games already exist for free or (more likely) as shareware at their site.
There are different libraries like PLIB, which as I remember was used for Tux Kart and other games.
Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be active websites for the community of GNU/Linux game developers. Usually the mailing lists are more active though. The websites look defunct which may make people think that nothing is happening.
As for productivity, yes, it is possible that more Linux-based PDAs will make people want to work on GnuCash and other such projects that are needed for productivity. I think that it might be a catch-22 in that demand for such apps would fuel development but development requires demand...The difference here is that if the hardware developers would hire programmers to actually MAKE the software in the first place, it would solve the problem.
Maybe not the most direct answer, but it is my $.02
The IBM PC was not very innovative with its hardware either. Look where that got them today. What morons.
What?
I use GNU/Linux to solve my problem. B-)
Perhaps if you read the article more closely, you will see a number of things:
1) He says that the amateur mentality results in people who feel threatened or insulted when being told how they could improve themselves. Rather than trying to improve themselves, they feel they need to correct other's criticisms. Seems we know what camp you would be in, except that
2) he says at the end of the article that it is not evenly split. There is a wide range of types of people between the two mentalities. So your comment that the article "basically seems to say that either you are a professional marketer, or some kind of brain-dead paranoid retard" is completely off-base since the article explicitely says that it isn't saying that.
Gamedev.net is one place to go to find out about getting into the game development business and how to develop games in general.
Join your local IGDA chapter. Meet people in your area who make games. Talk to them about how they can help you or how you can help them.
Game development is not as close to the movie industry as some people like to think.
People don't just write scripts and hope someone directs it. People make game design documents and present them to publishers or even game development companies, and they might hire you to do other things, like work on other projects that they have funded already. Still, most likely your own personal project won't be funded, but it may be your key to getting into the business.
Interested to see:
DOOM III and Duke Nukem Forever
Fondest Gaming Memories:
DOOM II deathmatches in college
So we have someone who likes sequels, yet complains about the lack of originality...
I personally think that originality in gaming is overrated. People don't care if it is original. They care if it is fun. Originality is not the end all be all of good games. And originality comes in many forms. It doesn't have to be a completely new genre. It can be a new take on an old idea.
Original War was an original game. An RTS with RPG elements. Not many people played that one. If it could get rid of its bugs, it would have been perfect.
People liked Ogre Battle...it was also an RTS with RPG elements, only different.
I originally thought Doom 3 was just an FPS with prettier graphics, but seeing the demo made me realize just what was possible with those graphics. Alien vs Predator 2 had dynamic lighting and shadows, which made the game quite scary, but Doom 3 seems to be going much farther than that.
It is hard to see what is coming next. But I get tired of people complaining that games aren't original anymore. What do you expect? Games have only been around for a couple of decades or so. Of course every game is going to start to look unoriginal. It is hard to create your own genre.
That is why you have to start to appreciate what is available. I am not saying that you should be happy with crappy copies of games. I am saying that you should look at what you consider to be a crappy sequel and figure out what they might have done better. What innovations actually exist in that FPS you have been ignoring. What secret you missed out on because you avoided what you thought was "Yet Another RTS."
It is interesting how popular NES emulators are...I mean, aren't those games...boring now? You get bored of their sequels, yet classic gaming is ok?
"That would be like me suing a person's parents when he calls me an "asshole", does not make any sense, does it?"
Of course it makes sense. I rule in favor of the plaintiff and award him 1 million dollars.
Next case: Old woman spilled coffee on her self again? *sigh*
Broadband and its ability to get to most people are still limiting the possibilities of such business working out.
Pay-per-view-online and similar things aren't going to be so popular so long as dial-up is the primary access.
Imagine trying to buy an MP3 and taking 30-50 minutes to download it. Each disconnection results in the hassle of trying to download the file again.
Now imagine music videos or even feature length films and how long those would take! Even if all dial-up was 56k, which isn't always the case, it would still take hours to get a relatively few minutes worth of media.
You can't necessarily make a successful business off of college students.
How many GNU/Linux or *BSD users actually make use of file sharing programs?
B-)
It isn't about pride, as much as the number of Debian users would make it sound.
It is more of the fact that Debian can't release a new Stable version until it works on all of the supported platforms.
But you are right. There should be no reason why something like autodetection shouldn't be incorporated into the install process. That is why they are working on a new install/boot process. An active mailing list to be on, let me tell you.
I spent a week getting sound to work on my system by using Google and experimenting. Then they decide to make it easy so that my accomplishment would mean nothing to all of the newbies who show up.
I can hear/see it now:
"Hey guys, do YOU have sound on your system? I do!", I exclaim, with beaming pride.
"Uh, yeah whatever dude," they would say. "I got sound working too. Dumbass."
I can no longer consider myself 1337. B-(
Somehow they protect their constituincies free speech rights. Video games don't have any.
I think it is a cool concept. EMP wouldn't be such a problem. Lugging the thing to a LAN party would. Imagine having to carry Hinkley and Schmidt as well as the device.
Yay! Now I just have to wait only 9 months for all of these cool features! B-)
And the user base is not hostile to Passport if they are the ones that requested it.
/. account as well as other accounts all have the same password.
Microsoft has its reasons. I have yet to see them make a move in Redmond without having a way to capitalize on other people's mistakes.
Passport on *nix is better than nothing on *nix, as far as the market is concerned. A product exists where another product does not. I haven't heard squat about Liberty or anything similar.
Then again, it could be because enough people know it is a big security risk.
I mean, I risk enough when my email accounts at three different providers as well as my
To have them actually behind the very same password is worse.
At least I can change the passwords for each if one gets compromised.
With Passport or any alternative, I don't know how I would protect my accounts.
But again, Microsoft is providing a product where there is no product, and will win a big market share, even if it is on a Free OS, simply because there is no alternative. At the same time, it is good and bad.
"If the intended target uses Word 2000 or 2002, the most recent versions, the attack will only work if the Word document is printed first before the reply is sent to the attacker"
How badly can the programmers be working if they make such a strange flaw? It must be printed in order for the problem to exist...uh huh.
While it does include a bit of math it is also good at telling you some basic/advanced topics on physics. Mostly physics as pertaining to bouyancy, forces, acceleration, velocity, etc.
Was I the only one who watched that? Filmation goes out of business, and now Bravestarr and Heman are never seen on TV again.
and everyone has to be anti-Microsoft.
Now if Apple did this, Microsoft would be crapped on for something else.
Heh, while I would love to be able to provide such things, the truth is I couldn't afford to.
And I don't believe a group of people can organize an effort to raise money for it either.
I am curious as to how that code was made though. It would be nice to see what sometimes caused the DirectSound error(I believe that was it...it's been a little while since I saw it) on startup, and how they got all those units to move without slowdown on a 56k connection with a 100Mhz machine.
Well commented C++ code, eh? Novelty! B-)
I have used it as one of the standards for judging RTS games. Starcraft is pretty good, and the story there rocked, but I missed being able to select all units of a given type without a limit except for how many were on the map.
Homeworld is a great game as well. A little different, and the gameplay runs a little slower than TA or Starcraft, but fun.
I loved being involved in late night sessions of TA on the Boneyards. I was really getting good when they got rid of it though. I should really reinstall it, but classes just started back up for me, so maybe that won't be the best idea in the world.
Aw heck, I'm game.
As for what to do with the code...Public domain? No, it makes no sense for them to do that. Open Source? Yeah, that would rock!
I used to play this game on a Win95 system with 32MB of RAM. Now I have 640MB of RAM and 64MB of video memory. I think the unit limit can be raised just a bit now, for starters, and a better AI can be developed, especially for units that are shooting and turning. Too many times my tanks would turn without keeping their turrets on their targets, so by the time the turrets finally move back, they are turning again.
What else? How about SUPER LARGE maps? Or more possible simultaneous units? B-)
I wonder if this is related to the vulnerability in IE.
Also, why do they have to require back doors, sniffers, and other things to be installed on ISPs and asking anti-virus makers to turn a blind eye to the SECURITY VULNERABILITY that would obviously arise if one could somehow spoof Magic Lantern and in so doing attack or otherwise hijack the computer?
Why not try to gather intelligence by using spies and other methods that do not necessarily require them knowing my password for the QBasic forums that I visit, or my credit card info for purchases I make at Amazon.com?
Also, why deny it? People already don't trust the government as it is, so why pretend it doesn't exist? It doesn't help at all, but at least be honest about looking over our shoulders.