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| [Feb 06, 2013, 10:15 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments |
A comment on reddit by id Software co-founder John Carmack (thanks Develop) follows the theme of a recent post by former id programmer Timothee Besset indicating that id's once-strong support for Linux gaming has waned. The post basically confirms and explains that premise, discussing how he sees a plausible path for Linux gaming via emulation on Steam, if "properly evangalized," but expressing skepticism about commercial native Linux ports: However, I don’t think that a good business case can be made for officially supporting Linux for mainstream games today, and Zenimax doesn’t have any policy of “unofficial binaries” like Id used to have. I have argued for their value (mostly in the context of experimental Windows features, but Linux would also benefit), but my forceful internal pushes have been for the continuation of Id Software’s open source code releases, which I feel have broader benefits than unsupported Linux binaries.
I can’t speak for the executives at Zenimax, but they don’t even publish Mac titles (they partner with Aspyr), so I would be stunned if they showed an interest in officially publishing and supporting a Linux title. A port could be up and running in a week or two, but there is so much work to do beyond that for official support. The conventional wisdom is that native Linux games are not a good market. Id Software tested the conventional wisdom twice, with Quake Arena and Quake Live. The conventional wisdom proved correct. Arguments can be made that neither one was an optimal test case, but they were honest tries.
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Re: John Carmack On Linux Gaming Support |
Feb 6, 2013, 11:46 |
yuastnav |
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|RaptoR| wrote on Feb 6, 2013, 11:18:
[...]
Quake, Quake 2, and Quake 3 had native linux binaries, but it's cool to focus on a browser-based version of Quake 3 to drive home your (invalid) point
My point is not invalid because his point wasn't. If he had included Doom 3 and Quake 4, which actually did have Linux binaries, then that would be a different matter altogether, however he specifically concentrated on Quake Arena (so he probably means Quake 3 Arena) and Quake live. Since he didn't even mention Quake 1 and Quake 2 you probably misread what he actually wrote.
Beamer wrote on Feb 6, 2013, 11:23:
Quake Live isn't even browser based. yuastnav is either misunderstanding the game or what "browser based" means.
Hold on, what do you actually understand by "browser based"? The game exists locally on your machine and is accessed via a browser plugin. What is your definition?
headkase wrote on Feb 6, 2013, 11:37:
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Having every developer writing for Linux is stupid. What needs to be done is that the engine developers write Linux-back-ends. When you develop your game for CryEngine 3 you don't say "oh my gosh! I have to write to the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC API!" No, shit. With CryEngine 3 you press the "deploy" button and the code needed at the lower levels - stuff dealing with operating systems and graphics and audio API's - is abstracted away from your content. If a engine developer makes an OpenGL back-end the developer of a game doesn't have to give two shits about it. They just press "deploy." Sorry, they have to press deploy 4 times: once each for Xbox 360, PS3, PC, and Linux. A properly written game engine will abstract away the lower level details and make it so a game developer doesn't have to give a single flying fuck about them.
Wouldn't that make the code extremely inefficient?
This comment was edited on Feb 6, 2013, 11:54. |
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