Not that easy
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| jhansonxi Aug 18, 2009 10:16 PM EDT |
Closed-source games by their nature require the developers to support them as the OS changes. Doom3, Quake4, UT2004 all include the libs they require but even these suffer from bit rot as the other components they rely on break compatibility. Most Linux port installers don't even support the XDG menu specs for adding menu entries to the desktop menus and that standard is rather easy to implement. The Games for Windows program probably has some marketing (and maybe monetary) benefits to encourage developers to meet Windows standards (DirectX, DirectPlay, etc.) The closest thing to a Linux development platform standard is the LSB (which is rather limited from what I've read). Using an ISO image as a container is already proven by the millions of BitTorrent users. Including libs with the apps is already done with current games so there isn't any additional benefit to using an ISO. |
| herzeleid Aug 18, 2009 11:28 PM EDT |
While it would be nice to see the extra little touches like games added to the menu etc, the core of the game is really not all that hard to support on different linux distributions. Case in point: I downloaded the quake 3 arena demo in 1999. I've played it on slackware 3.x, redhat 6.x, suse 9.x and 10.x, and I can still play it today in ubuntu 8.10, 10 years later. I've had to tweak the system sound settings a bit to allow a game using a 1999 sound API to continue to produce sound effects on a 2009 sound architecture, but it's been remarkaby consistent over the past decade. As far as a linux gaming standards, (for 3D FPS anyway) it seems to be mainly about OpenGL, and a multimedia development API called SDL - which is roughly the same sort of thing as directx is, over in the pc gaming world. I'd love to see more native linux games developed. I'm not too keen on playing pc games using wine, on general principles, but I can understand how fo some it may serve as their fix for the time being. |
| tuxchick Aug 18, 2009 11:39 PM EDT |
I would love for more games to run on Linux. There is a pretty good selection now, but I like a good gory FPS once in awhile. I miss Myst and Riven, too. I have Win2k installed somewheres, maybe I can still make them work. Isn't that sad, how a high-tech game has a ridiculously short shelf life, and a ten dollar Scrabble or Monopoly set lasts forever? |
| gus3 Aug 18, 2009 11:52 PM EDT |
Quoting:Isn't that sad, how a high-tech game has a ridiculously short shelf life, and a ten dollar Scrabble or Monopoly set lasts forever?Scrabble and Monopoly will still be playable, even after the initial EMP blast in the coming global thermonuclear war. The same cannot be said of Doom, Quake, and Half-Life. That is, there will no longer be any need of computers for that kind of action, and it won't be "play." |
| jacog Aug 19, 2009 4:31 AM EDT |
World of Warcraft is one game that works so incredibly well under WINE that it's hard to believe it's not native. I have read rumours though that Blizzard do treat WINE as something of a platform though, and keep their code clean enough to run on it. |
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