Hey GameDev.net!

I have some previous experience programming games some time ago, but now I want to start doing 3D games (using OpenGL?). I use and prefer Linux as my main OS, and I'm wondering what language or platform I should use. I'm open to anything, I don't really have any preference for a special language.

Depends on efficiency in your OpenGL project, you can use Java, C++ or C# with it. Minecraft is an example of an OpenGL game written in Java. Java does compile to native code (via the JIT compiler) and does provide facilities for calling native code libraries such as OpenGL (via JNI)

Bare in mind, OpenGL is not a programming language OpenGL is a framework, a precompiled library in external DLLs.

There is no such thing as a special language. Use the comfortable tool for the job.

Depends on efficiency in your OpenGL project, you can use Java, C++ or C# with it. Minecraft is an example of an OpenGL game written in Java. Java does compile to native code (via the JIT compiler) and does provide facilities for calling native code libraries such as OpenGL (via JNI)

Bare in mind, OpenGL is not a programming language OpenGL is a framework, a precompiled library in external DLLs.

There is no such thing as a special language. Use the comfortable tool for the job.

I am about equally as comfortable in all of those three languages, but I don't really like Java. Picking between C++ and C#, I would probably prefer C# because it doesn't have as many gotchas as C++ has. Is C# support really that good on Linux though? C# feels like a language you almost need an IDE for. If you have VS it's amazing, but I'm not so sure on Linux.

You could try Mono (.NET for other platforms) and MonoDevelop (an IDE).
If you're familiar with C#, you might want to have a look at Unity, too. Using Unity you're able to create 3D (and also 2D, but many people doesn't like Unity for 2D) games quite fast.

You could try Mono (.NET for other platforms) and MonoDevelop (an IDE).
If you're familiar with C#, you might want to have a look at Unity, too. Using Unity you're able to create 3D (and also 2D, but many people doesn't like Unity for 2D) games quite fast.

Unity editor doesn't support Linux.

I'm not extra familiar with C# compared to C++, C and Java, but I think it's a little bit nicer than all of those actually. I will look into MonoDevelop. Somehow it doesn't feel like C# is meant for Linux. It's a shame since C# is such a nice and polished language. But I will maybe use it anyway.

YES YES YES! A BEGINNER WHO USES LINUX! Take your pick as far as what language you want to use. I use C, but you don't have to. Also, don't take that as a recommendation. Just go with your flow and personal zen, and you can find your inner language. This could be Perl, Python, Haskell, C, C++ (eww), Java (ewwwwwww), JavaScript, Vala, C-UP, etc. etc. etc.

There are a bunch of game engines and third party tools which either are cross-platform compatible so you may develop games in a Linux OS (even for other OS) or the software development framework has a version compiled for use in Linux. You just have to do your typical in depth research to discover the set of software and applications which will make your particular workflow pipeline. I would start with looking for game engine IDEs which are compatible with Linux and allows development for other systems, the number of which might surprise you.

List of game engines - at least half of these frameworks may be installed in Linux:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_game_engines

You are in a position to choose what language that you prefer, maybe two: One for low level Just In Time compiling and lower level issues using Java and use C# for game feature scripting, just as a suggestion. In this case, you might really like GTK for things such as GUI programming and class files associated with it, depending on your workflow planes.

Clinton

On Linux (and BSD) I tend to develop 3D (and 2D) games with the following configs

C++, freeglut, glew, gl, glm, png (for sound, openal, freealut, ogg, vorbis)

C++, SDL, glew, gl, glm, SDL_image (for sound SDL_mixer)

Both work great, and the latter can also use Emscripten to be compiled to Javascript (asm.js), WebGL and run on a web browser. Using lots of smaller tech like this rather than a single games engine makes it quite easy to port to Android, iOS and all the many different flavors of UNIX and Linux since you can swap out individual components (i.e inside #ifdefs).

If you would prefer a more complete solution, there are some pretty decent engines / renderers compatible with Linux too such as Irrlicht, Ogre, Horde, Panda3D (very good with python).

If you want to go the .NET route, there is OpenTK (OpenGL related tech wrapper) and MonoGame (XNA compatible API) (which is completely broken on FreeBSD and some of the more "stable" distros such as RedHat Enterprise 6).

Also, an interesting thing to do is run ldd on your favorite Linux / UNIX game and see what they technologies they use. i.e

$ ldd /usr/local/bin/quake3
$ ldd /usr/local/bin/nwn

Depends on efficiency in your OpenGL project, you can use Java, C++ or C# with it. Minecraft is an example of an OpenGL game written in Java. Java does compile to native code (via the JIT compiler) and does provide facilities for calling native code libraries such as OpenGL (via JNI)

Bare in mind, OpenGL is not a programming language OpenGL is a framework, a precompiled library in external DLLs.

There is no such thing as a special language. Use the comfortable tool for the job.

Also on this you should note howmuch ram and cpu Minecraft eats up because of Java. The fault is in part the programmers because I really doubt they were geniuses when they began working on Minecraft( Notch alone ) and I still doubt they are that they are any more better. But Java does not help any bit. If redone in C++ or C the game could sped up by amazing amounts even if done by a person skilled in C as Notch was skilled in Java.