quote: Original post by brad_beveridge
Can somebody explain to me why SDL is the lowest common denominator? I''m under the impression that it is quite a thin layer, and for OpenGL it is no overhead at all. If somebody can convince me otherwise, please do.

What they mean is that if only one platform has a feature (or all except one), then SDL (probably) won''t have it. They aren''t saying SDL is slower or anything like that.

quote:
The Loki experiment proves nothing and was doomed from the get-go.

I only mentioned Loki as an example of the technical abilities of SDL, not as a business model. If the Loki ports performed on par with the Windows version of each game, then it largely invalidates the implication that SDL is the "lowest common denominator". Or rather, it implies that the lowest common demoninator is enough for most needs.

Do you think the OpenSource mentality has anything to do with game viability on Linux?

Take care,
Bill

quote: Original post by Siebharinn

I only mentioned Loki as an example of the technical abilities of SDL, not as a business model. If the Loki ports performed on par with the Windows version of each game, then it largely invalidates the implication that SDL is the "lowest common denominator". Or rather, it implies that the lowest common demoninator is enough for most needs.

Do you think the OpenSource mentality has anything to do with game viability on Linux?

Take care,
Bill

As for ports, I am not sure what was used for the Return to Castle Wolfenstien binary but the performance I have is identicle when using Windows or Linux.

As for the OpenSource mentality having anything to do with game viability I don''t think so. Just because the community supports OpenSource does not mean "other" software would not be supported. As in any business model, marketing is the primary source of income. If the public does not know about your product, how do you expect to sell it. This coexsists with the Linux community. If they don''t know about it, how can they try it. Need drives demand and that drives supply. If people don''t see a "need" to change from M$ they won''t and on the flip side of that, some people shouldn''t switch. My granny is one of them. She can cook like a super star, just don''t ask her to mount a hdd or cdrom. I do believe that in any group there will be people who are simply looking for free software or ways to steal non-free software otherwise how can you explain the popularity of sites like Kazaa? So whether the OpenSource mentality is only related to the Unix/Linux community is arguable. Granted they don''t get the source in Kazaa but most don''t want the source anyway, only the program.

GRELLIN

CGP | IYAOYAS | Linux.com | Linux Game Development Center

Don''t fear the penguin!

quote: They have found that Linux is a completely non-viable commercial platform with their box-set release of Quake 3 Arena (tin box and all) for Linux

Quake 3 for Linux was ported by Loki (I have it sitting right here next to me). As far as I''m aware, like all other Loki games, it didn''t come out until later.

Also, as for RtCW, it doesn''t really advertize that it can be used on linux (which to use, you must download the binaries). Also, you can''t use it for stats at all because it''s sold as a windows cd.

I agree that Linux is not a huge market yet, but I think that if a number of companies would give it more support (whether in the same box as the windows/mac versions, or in a different version), we could start seeing it grow as a market.

rm -rf /bin/laden

"As Long as the significant IBM(PC) titles are relatively few in number...we do not feel the need to add a fourth machine to our coverage." -Computer Gaming World, March 1985

food for thought


University is a fountain of knowledge, and students go there to drink.

Yeah, exactly. That''s living proof right there that Linux may not always be a small market.

rm -rf /bin/laden

Agreed! Now back to coding...

GRELLIN

CGP | IYAOYAS | Linux.com | Linux Game Development Center

Don''t fear the penguin!

I work for a commercial game company that uses both Linux and Windows. We ship graphical clients for Windows platforms, and we run our servers on a combination of different systems (NT, Solaris, Linux...). I think the general consensus among Linux fans has been that Linux is all-around better, while it is really only better in a few specific areas (stability for one, price another). I''ve been trained by M$ to run all of my servers on non-M$ products now, even though some of the Network technologies available in newer M$ systems surpasses(?) that of a hardware-equivalent system running Linux.

When Loki announced they would make Linux ports of popular games I jumped up and down and cheered with all of my Linux-using friends. And none of us bought a single Loki game.

As a developer, my first graphics program used SDL on Windows95. It was great for the simple demo I created. But there are times that you need more than what you can get via a high-level wrapper library. I moved the same demo to Linux and it didn''t compile without some extra work on my part.

Striving for portability still has merit, even if you only consider the solid software engineering practices involved. I routinely find as many inconsistencies between Solaris and Linux as I do between Win98 and Linux. I still choose Linux when I have an option, but on the flip-side, I also recently left OGL for D3D.

my $0.02

Tim