Transgaming and Transitive E3 Announcement 150
An Anonymous Coward writes: "Breaking news today on the Transgaming website. Today they announced an alliance with the company Transitive. Here's their headline: 'Los Angeles, Ca. TransGaming Technologies, in partnership with Transitive Technologies, unveil their game-porting technology that can allow Windows-based x86 games to be simultaneously released onto multiple platforms. These include the Sony PlayStation 2, Apple Mac OS, set-top boxes, PDAs and wireless devices.'"
There's more info on the Transgaming Site. Since Transgaming has ported The Sims already, it's a lot easier to believe that this isn't just vapor.
Hell yeah! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Hell yeah! (Score:1)
Re:Submitted by an Anonymous Coward? (Score:1)
transitives a better transmeta ? (Score:2)
so the question is why do custom hardware ?
I've spoken to them and they seem like a nice manchester company (-;
regards
john jones
Misread topic (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Misread topic (Score:1)
Re:Misread topic (Score:2)
Now pardon me while I go slip into a nice comfortable thong.
I dunno... (Score:2)
Finally... (Score:2, Funny)
i am confused (Score:1)
What about 3D? (Score:2)
For one, I'd prefer see them continue on their WineX development. But I can understand, if they need the money, that they'd join such a venture.
So does this use Wine or what? (Score:4, Interesting)
Here's why: Suppose they have everything in their kit that they need to support all Windows games written for Windows versions from 95-XP. Great, right? That means that with just a little bit of effort, a vendor can release a Linux version of a game, giving us more games to play with. However, here's the downside: If by writing for Windows you can target both Windows and Linux (and whichever other platforms they support), then why would anyone write any native Linux programs? Then, in XP+1, Microsoft introduces major breakage into their API, such that it's a long time to get it working correctly with Trans{gaming,itive}'s kit. That means that potentially, there won't be any new Linux releases until they can get it fixed. And if they can't... Well, consider OS/2.
Any thoughts?
read the release (Score:2)
so to get the sims running they did sweet FA
transitives had to doo all the work of makeing an x86(screwed) run on a MIPS (nice)
regards
john jones
Re:So does this use Wine or what? (Score:1)
Re:So does this use Wine or what? (Score:2)
Going on kind of a tangent, I have to say that I'm disappointed in the dearth of Quake, Unreal, and LithTech games for Linux. The engines are cross platform, yet we see so few licensees make the effort to port their own game code. We've got Unreal Tournament, Quake 2 and 3, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and Kingpin. F.A.K.K.2, Shogo, Sin, and Soldier of Fortune were ported externally.
What about Elite Force, Medal of Honor, Jedi Knight 2 (WineX isn't perfect), Deus Ex, The Operative, etc.? I'm not holding my breath for Elite Force 2, Soldier of Fortune 2, The Operative 2, Deus Ex 2, or Raven Shield. Raven and Ritual, the two top Quake developers, haven't shown much interest in Linux.
Add Deus Ex to the list of ports (Score:2)
Re:So does this use Wine or what? (Score:1)
Re:So does this use Wine or what? (Score:1)
I want my work apps native elf binary, made for linux in their origin. But games are far better suited to some controled environment, which you format simply by deleting that folder. Recreating (with a simple copy of originated winex folder) new one and here is your new formated games partition. If it would be so easy everywhere it would be very nice.
That way you can have separation of games and apps you use. And RPMs being so friendly to install and uninstall, make a realy clean platform for every user. (hopefully thay'll make a friendly list of RPMs groups being installed after initial system install, what would simplify install/uninstall greatly, even time framed groups would do nice)
Personaly I don't play games, but I'm supporting Transgaming. I even bothered to compare performance of winex with native Windows. There's just a little difference (sound is still a little buggy) which is easy forgotten just by smiling over games cleanup after playing.
I always think of winex as some native linux games Console, with a difference that installing a game is essential need, the step that consoles don't need. So, do reconsider benefits of that over the "native". It's the first time that games could be completely separated from a working bussines system, I hail to that.
Re:So does this use Wine or what? (Score:1)
Seems to me most people write for X/KDE/Gnome/"posix", not for Linux. Wine or this interface layer just becomes another Linux API that just happens to be identical to Linux, and the programs are effectively Linux-native.
Then, in XP+1, Microsoft introduces major breakage into their API, such that it's a long time to get it working correctly with Trans{gaming,itive}'s kit.
Then no other old program works either, and people dump Windows in droves, or refuse to upgrade. Don't 16-bit Windows programs still work on XP? They may extend the API, but they rarely intentionally break it.
Re:So does this use Wine or what? (Score:2)
When Linux has a large chunk of the market then even hardcore ms windows developers will migrate to linux. The API's are open and easy to code to. The total price of a system is lower for both the developer and for their customers. Performance of native apps is bound to be higher. And they will be able to take advantage of the latest developments on a platform which is evolving _much_ faster than Ms windows.
How will Linux get a large chunk of the OS market? Only by being backwards compatible with legacy windows apps.What you perceive as a setback is actually a longterm investment without which it could take 20 more years to conquer the desktop.
And establishing Linux as the Lingua Franca is too important to the economy to wait that long. Imagine if all businesses could suddenly save $1000 a year per computer user by switching to Linux. Yes between Windows, Office, Back Office, connections licenses, and misc. other packages like Visio and Frontpage, it is probably that big of a savings. It would make the Bush tax cut/economic incentives look like a piddling amount.
Re:So does this use Wine or what? (Score:2, Interesting)
Many DOS games ran much better than in native DOS as well. Of course, always having 640K of main memory was always killer. And being able to run good old Oblivion/2 in the background while I was playing X-Wing... Those were the days.
I do acknowledge however there is a big difference between emulating an operating system and emulating a whole other processor. I would tend to think that is not going on however, as the performance would just suck, especially on something like an ARM.
The Sims (Score:3, Interesting)
Considering that folks can get it (on Win32) for $50US, there's little incentive to buy it except "for the good of the company". After I found out what Loki did with my money, I'm still a bit jaded about paying a premium for Linux games...
Re:The Sims (Score:2)
That assumes that you have Windows and dual boot. The Windows version doesn't work under WineX, and I don't see TransGaming fixing that any time soon. Even more annoying: for your $70, you can't even play any of the expansion packs.
Linux gaming's time has come and gone, and will come again, eventually. I've been looking forward to Neverwinter Nights, but they'll have to fix the SDK EULA to get my money.
Re:The Sims (Score:2)
Just today, as I went to purchase it, I read the fine print in the FAQ and discovered that the Win32 version not only does not run well on WineX-- it doesn't run AT ALL.
And then this topic appeared on slashdot giving me a chance to vent some. ;-)
Re:The Sims (Score:1)
Sadly, transgaming is in for the money.
Re:The Sims (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The Sims (Score:2)
Re:The Sims (Score:3, Interesting)
Have you tried The Sims using the new version of WineX? I don't know about that game, but the admittedly quite different Jedi Knight II works out of the box just as speedy as on Windows for me. I just need to remember to make my Windows partitions user-writeable and I'll be set!
I was very skeptical of buying anything from them, especially a monthly plan, but after I tried Jedi Knight II I think I'm going to sign up. $5/month, $15 minimum - you get precompiled binaries with copy-protection support and voting rights. Think Mandrake Club (or maybe not
Re:The Sims (Score:1)
Nice press release... (Score:2, Informative)
Of course The Sims was easy to port - it's 2D.
From reading the company website, their technology is indeed slightly novel: they've reimplemented the win32 API functions for other platforms. On top of that, they've reimplemented the DirectX API as well.
But for 3d games, I don't think this will be at all trivial for porting... the PS2's architecture is extremely different to that of a PC, and just blindly interpreting Direct3d Immediate Mode calls ("draw this triangle here") will surely not take advantage of the PS/2 architecture at all.
Transitive's angle is that companies can just write their game for the win32 platform, talking to all the native APIs, and Transitive's APIs will take care of porting to other platforms.
It's not that simple. It's far more important that game developers write their game for portability from the ground up, with an abstraction layer, for OS-specific stuff like win32 API calls, at the lowest levels.
But 3d engines are not going to port well just by having Direct3d calls translated, especially for platforms that are as odd as the PS2. In that case, it's going to take a non-trivial adaptation of the graphics engine for that platform.
PS2 architecture (Score:2, Interesting)
I thought that too, but after looking around the Playstation2 section at CompUSA I noticed that there are a LOT of PC games (Half-life, No One Lives Forever, Baldurs Gate to name a few) that have been ported to the PS2. That makes me think that perhaps the hardware, or at least the PS2 API, is that different from a PC.
Granted, I've never DONE a porting to the PS2 but it seems like a lot of companies have.
Re:PS2 architecture (Score:1)
For the others (Quake & Lithtech engine games), the underlying engines were ported, with quite a lot of platform specific tweaking, to the PS2, with quite a lot of functionality cut out to deal with the fact that the PS2 has almost no memory to speak of (compared to even the lowest end bargain basement PC) and the fact that as the above posted mentioned, the architectures are very different. So, while you might have Lithtech PC and Lithtech PS2, and the API for LITHTECH is pretty much the same across both, that is not the case with a lower-level API like DirectX/Direct3D whose very software architecture makes extreme assumptions about the hardware architecture it is running on.
NOBODY is going to use this to 'port' commercial games run under the PS2, period...Not gonna happen, ever. If anyone does I WILL EAT MY COMPUTER and webcam it live for all to see.
Re:PS2 architecture (Score:1, Funny)
Won't that be a little hard, considering that the webcam would be broadcasting through the computer you're eating?
Re:PS2 architecture (Score:1)
Re:PS2 architecture (Score:2)
I thought that too, but after looking around the Playstation2 section at CompUSA I noticed that there are a LOT of PC games (Half-life, No One Lives Forever, Baldurs Gate to name a few) that have been ported to the PS2. That makes me think that perhaps the hardware, or at least the PS2 API, is that different from a PC.
Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance isn't a port, its a totally different game set in the same world. I don't know about No One Lives Forever, but as for Half Life, a game that old is probably simple enough to run well on a PS2 even if the port is crap.
There is no "PS2 API".. either you buy an engine from someone, or you write your own.
This sounds pretty interesting, but... (Score:1)
For example, I enjoyed Baldur's Gate II on Windows 98SE. I don't know that I'd enjoy it on a PDA without some heavy alterations that a crossplatform toolkit won't be able to handle -- changing the resolution, shrinking the binary footprint, or matching the color depth appropriately come to mind. Can a game designed for a PDA interest people on a Playstation 2?
It's a cool idea, and maybe where it will really shine is in developing things like MMORPG clients, but I guess my point is that programming for compatibility means that you (probably) won't get the most out of any platform you're designing for... and games are the one thing we expect to push our hardware to its limit these days.
Max Payne: $34 M (Score:2)
Re:Max Payne: $34 M (Score:2, Funny)
Just a couple of... (Score:1)
Am I missing something? (Score:1)
But as usual, all press releases are sketchy on details, made to sound good by making things generalized.
This will not quite work. (Score:5, Informative)
Input and Sound are handled on the IPU, which is essentially an embedded PS1.
The machine has an insanely low amount of ram for textures that the only way to actually use many is to either compress the hell out of them or use the insanely high memory bandwitdth to contunually load new textures into memory.
The EE / GS (Emotion Engine and Graphics Synth), and the VU0 and VU1 units handle data much differently then a standard 'Wintel' box.
And all of that is just considering the differences between the PS2 and a PC!
Using a well written library, it may be possible to get something to compile. However, all of the games art content (Model geometry and textures) would have to be re-worked signifigantly. Getting a game to run on multiple consoles is a bit more involved then simply switching compilers.
Further complicating this is that for this to work, you will have to write your game with the proposed game engine in mind. This means that if you want to have a simultaneous release, you will have to stick to the lowest common denominator among the selected machines. For some simpler titles, this will be fine, but no game that wants to push a machine to its limits can really get much use from this sort of technology.
END COMMUNICATION
Re:read the freaking release (Score:1, Funny)
no you fool (Score:1)
they emulate the whole PC
while java is just a common runtime like
regards
john jones
Re:no you fool (Score:1)
The original poster's point stands..This might be nice for Linux and Mac users but its next to useless for the PS2, dunno why they even bother mentioning it.
Limits of Emulation (Score:2)
Compression technologies aside, its not that easy to get 8 megs RAM to emulate 32 megs of RAM.
END COMMUNICATION
Re:This will not quite work. (Score:3, Insightful)
I assume that is why they say it goes from two years to two months versus two days. They are acknowledging (though implicitly) that it isn't just a purely simple matter as switching compilers/platforms and recompiling.
Definitely not hype (Score:5, Interesting)
When they said they would port Max Payne in the same amount of time, they delivered the merchandise.
Now, when they say they can port to other platforms, I would bet my last dollar they will deliver the merchandise again.
Great to see some fellow Canadians have success!
Re:no they did NO porting at all (Score:3, Interesting)
*did* port DirectX to Wine...
The main difference between Loki and TransGaming is
that Loki ported individual games, while the other ports the DirectX layer, so when they work on a game, you suddenly get more games working, eventually to the point where you have hundreds.
Re:no they did NO porting at all (Score:2)
hey I'm not saying it was easy to port x86 windows version of the sim's to linux but they would be in a world of pain to get it to run on a big endian RISC machine without doing the transitives thing
regards
john jones
Re:no they did NO porting at all (Score:2)
(a deltic so please dont moan about spelling but the content)
whats a deltic?
no, actually, they did (Score:2)
See http://www.transgaming.com/gamefaq.php?gameid=9 [transgaming.com]
not sure if you have to be a member to access that page
I don't know if that means it's using a wine executable to run a windows binary, or if they used libwine to compile a native linux binary, I don't own a Linux version of the Sims.
You should also note that the Windows version of The Sims does not run under winex at this point.
Furthermore, I'd like to point out to all the naysayers that Transgaming has come through with EVERYTHING they said they would just as quickly as they said they would, and they have also contributed a great deal of code back to the original wine project, and their code(minus safedisc) is available from sourceforge.
Re:no, actually, they did (Score:1, Informative)
(1) If it's a native binary, it's a very odd one (see gdb dump above) since it requires winex to run it and it does not have any of the normal Linux segments. Nor, I might add, does it look like any Windows binary I've seen.
(2) Some of the DirectX code is not available publicly either, nor are much of the InstallShield fixes, nor is the Direct3D code (at all), not even under AFPL and the winex CVS.
(3) The WineX CVS isn't helpful to the WINE project, as it is AFPL'd and cannot be reintegrated, and the two trees have significantly diverged due to the DLL separation work. Since this happened around the time of the licensing change, negotiations are going on which might get a lot of that work merged back. However, it depends on one of the stronger LGPL proponents agreeing to strip the LGPL from a bunch of his code, and that's a toss-up (based on public statements on the wine-license list).
(4) TransGaming indicated they would bring The Sims to "Linux", not to "x86 Mandrake 8.1 Linux". Since Mandrake 8.x is also available for PPC, it would be nice if they could "come through" with a PPC version too. (If nothing else, that would prove it's more of a port and less of an emulation...)
However, based on the history of Linux game sales, I'd be willing to bet that a Linux "The Sims" that sells for $80 is not exactly flying from the shelves, so it's probably not worth the effort.
important correction (Score:2)
That is not correct, the only things missing from the current CVS is safedisk support and some install-shield code(both because of licensing and with safedisk probably the DMCA as well).
You can see for yourself, download the cvs tree and compile it, use a nocd crack for max payne or aoe and you'll see that they run. (my friend does this)
The Sims (Score:2)
I'm sure this is awfully discouraging to would-be purchasers. (like me)
Re:The Sims (Score:2)
Re:The Sims (Score:2)
Re:Definitely not hype (Score:1)
Like MacOS.
- Chris Jacobson
Re: (Score:1)
Re:no one quite knows what this is yet (Score:1)
my god you read the release (Score:1, Offtopic)
regards
john jones
Re: (Score:1)
I feel compelled to clear up a misconception. (Score:5, Informative)
If you purchase the Mandrake 8.1 Gaming Edition with The Sims (which I, unfortunately, did do, and it was rather a waste of $80), and you install it, you will receive a copy of TransGaming's WineX in addition. Once you have done the installation, you can start looking around at the setup.
The data is put in /usr/lib/the_sims (by default), which has, in addition to the UserData directories, .the_sims/, simsdir/, and winex_sims/ /usr/lib/the_sims/simsdir/ includes simsinstall.exe (a Windows executable), two .dlls for running, and the default game data. /usr/lib/winex_sims/ includes the normal bin/ and lib/ -- lib/ has all the normal wine libraries (plus, it looks like, some winex-specific and maybe Sims-specific libraries), and bin/ has the normal wine/winex launchers.
The shell script which launches the game (/usr/bin/the_sims) is a bash shell script which sets up the environment to reference that specific winex install, sets a few bits related to it, and runs wine /usr/lib/the_sims/.the_sims/c_drive/simsdir/S ims.exe
From public statements (sorry, no reference handy), it appears that Transgaming had the Windows source -- but rebuilt the binaries to work around some Wine/WineX-specific issues. But they're still Windows binaries and Windows libraries.
PLEASE stop perpetuating the myth that TransGaming is doing "native ports". They are customizing the executable to work better in their existing emulation[*] environment, and the environment to mesh better with the Windows executable.
If TransGaming were truly doing native ports, they would not need a second company to emulate the x86 processor for their technology to work on non-x86 platforms!
(I'll point out that most Windows games are memory and processor hogs, and many of the platforms they mention, such as PDAs, set top boxes (devices on which I develop), PDAs, and wireless devices are very memory and CPU limited. Not to mention that the UIs usually need redesigning, and the binaries heavy optimization just to fit into the tiny memory and screen footprints these devices have.)
[*] I did not say that WINE is an emulator, I said that the environment (in toto) emulates the Windows environment from the perspective of the Windows executable being run.
Definition of "port" (Score:5, Informative)
http://foldoc.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/foldoc.cgi
2. To translate software to run on a different system or the results of doing so. See portability.
I think Transgaming fits that definition.
They did port the DirectX layer, then tweaked the source so it would run fine on Linux.
OK, it's not "native", but I haven't seen the word "native" in the article, on in timothy's comment.
Re:Definition of "port" (Score:1, Insightful)
However, that definition of port does not match the common usage I've heard in my years as a Unix user. In the common parlance to which I've been exposed, "porting" something from one platform to another results in a native binary (possibly with helper libraries). This is a native emulator, with non-native binaries. Qualifying that as a port means that since the Linux gcc works under the FreeBSD Linux emulation environment, the FreeBSD team "ported" gcc just as much as the gcc developers who made the FreeBSD version of gcc.
I agree that they build some impressive technology improvements (D3D, many DirectX fixes, the SafeDisc fixes) on an existing codebase (wine), enough, even, to warrant a subscription fee and bundling deals.
I disagree that qualifies as "porting" in the practical sense, and it lowers the value of the term and cheapens (nay, insults) the work of those developers who make a natively-optimized binary (such as id, Epic, the sadly defunct Loki, Hyperion, Tribsoft, Sunspire, Illwinter, and others).
Wine and WineX are a valuable migration tool -- but running a Windows binary through an emulation environment is quite a different beast from taking a code base and moving it to a native toolchain.
I do use Wine to play a few older games -- but I'd hardly call that "Oooh, I ported WarCraft 2 because I got it running under Wine". And the Wine team didn't port WarCraft, they created a set of APIs roughly matching the Win32 APIs.
Similarly, the existence of stella is certainly not indicative of the stella team porting the Atari 2600 titles to Linux (I doubt many people would agree that they ported Pitfall, for instance). Nor does epsxe mean the epsxe developers ported Final Fantasy VIII.
(By your logic, running the cygwin version of ls under WineX is as much a port as grabbing ls from GNU's FTP site and building it with the Linux version of gcc.)
I know MandrakeSoft has a vested interest due to the bundling deal, but please try and realize that this is not an indictment of that, your company, your distribution, you, or TransGaming. It is an attempt to correct the mis-apprehension that The Sims was ported to Linux -- just like Quake 3, Tribes 2, etc. The processes were very different, the underlying pieces are very different. The only real similarity lies in the fact that, in the end, the user can play Quake 3, Tribes 2, or The Sims under Linux. (And, according to one TransGaming employee with whom I spoke, the Sims binary that was built was, indeed, built with Windows tools.)
I am aware that timothy did not say "Look, they ported The Sims just like Loki ported Tribes 2", but his phrasing linked it to just such efforts in the past.
Re:Definition of "port" (Score:2)
Some days I like to be the Devil's advocate, it makes for interesting discussions
Re:I feel compelled to clear up a misconception. (Score:2)
Has anyone tried it? (Score:1)
Re:Has anyone tried it? (Score:2)
Re:Has anyone tried it? (Score:1)
Thanks for the info guys.
Re:Has anyone tried it? (Score:1)
Counter-Strike (Score:1)
Works fine for me.
Transitive (Score:2)
This is all well and good, but I would have thought this is only a tiny step for most games. Many games make extensive use of platform-specific libraries to provide graphics, sound and IO support. I would imagine that running (for example) the DirectX libraries through Transitive Dynamite would be a technically interesting but legally difficult exercise. Are Microsoft really going to allow Transgaming to port their libraries to PS2?
And this doesn't even touch on the hardware specification problems. How would a game that expects at least an SVGA screen really cope with trying to run on a Palm? Isn't the PS2 architecture sufficiently different from the PC architecture to cause major problems?
These issues can be addressed (presumably that's whay the Transgaming press release says it reduces porting time from "2 years" down to "2 months") but it seems that binary porting is actually only a small aprt of the problem. You would have to heavily rebuild the source code anyway, so why not just cross-compile it straight to the target platform?
Perhaps I am missing something. Can anyone enlighten me?
Re:Transitive (Score:1)
Well that's where projects like WineX come in..Cleanroom implementations of the lower level libraries that will be used on whatever platform. Though as I mentioned in another post, there's no fucking way in hell anyone is ever going to use this technology to port a real-world modern game to the PS2...the technical issues are too numerous for me to repeat here again.
Re:Transitive (Score:2)
already possible - sort of (Score:4, Interesting)
Pissed off (Score:1)
There is a native port of this game and yet they still have this up. This is why transgaming won't see a dime from me.
Native port available here.
ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/wolf/linu
http://www.transgaming.com/gamepage.php?gameid=
What is this game doing here. This game was ported natively
Native port here:http://www.lokigames.com/products/tribes2/
I didn't go through the whole list but I'm sure there are a few more they have listed there that have been ported and work natively. I just get tired reading that someone tries running quake3 with wine or winex when id has been releasing linux binaries for a long time.
Wolf has my +5 vote (Score:1)
Basically wineX works for me, the binaries don't. wineX has support and is continually impoving, the binaries don't and aren't.
Saying that you won't pay $5 a month for Transgaming membership because too many users vote for a game you don't think should be officially supported is silly. Any work Transgaming would do to improve RtCW would certainly improve wineX performance for other games as well.
For christsakes, RtCW isn't even offically supported (and probably never will be because it will never pass the monthly vote). That doesn't matter to me though because it already works fine with wineX 2.0
Re:Pissed off (Score:1)
Quake2 runs under linux, but if you don't have a 3dfx card, documentation to get it running is VERY hard to find. I couldn't find it. I installed Q2 under WineX and it works as better than it did under windows when it was released. ( I also didn't have an nvidia GF4 4600 Ti back then
Unsupported Linux Binaries (Score:1)
For example, you list Tribes2, but LokiGames has gone under and cannot support the game anymore (and my copy breaks pretty frequently). There's a bit of worry expressed on the GarageGames.com forum about a new patch to be released this summer by Sierra for the Windows version that it may break the existing Linux binaries that try to use patched servers if Sierra decides not to update the Linux client as well (which seems pretty likely).
Games that have worked for me under WineX 2.x (Score:2, Insightful)
Quake 2 had linux binaries available, but they were intended for a 3dfx chipset. Documentation on getting Q2 to run on OpenGL (Nvidia) hardware is SO hard to come by, that I just said screw it and installed under WineX. Works as well as under windows natively. SoF2 was released YESTERDAY, a cutting edge title that runs under linux thanks to winex (issues to install, see transgaming forum's for details).
I love WineX. I believe the the big money payoff for this announcement is the Mac folks comsumer base. They wait a looong time for a meager trickle of PC games, this could work to making main stream games available to them upon initial release. Linux is not mentioned in the press release, but I'm assuming that by x86 PC, Linux is the main target, as windows needs no help to run native apps. The optimistic result of this (if the tech pans out) is that developer's are so happy to have a multi-platform release that they adopt open design standards (sound and graphics) as opposed to DirectX API, to keep their titles available for all platform's via the WineX environment. That's a step closer to open standard games which require no WineX. As has been posted, there are open standards (SDL, etc) that could be used now to accomplish this, but what we need are baby steps that result in sales $$$ to publisher's as a result of the broad cross platform market.
Re:Quake 2 (Score:1)
Don't go down that slippery slope! (Score:4, Insightful)
Write your games using truly open standards like OpenGL, and then port to Windows.
Re:Don't go down that slippery slope! (Score:1)
Re:Don't go down that slippery slope! (Score:1)
Re:Don't go down that slippery slope! (Score:3, Informative)
A full set of APIs
A large user base
Hardware vendors writing drivers
Major Name Recognition (tm)
Future and Past interoperability (better than, say, NES and GameCube. XP will run lots of Win 3.1 stuff. )
Windows is great for game companies. Better than Mac. Better than OS/2. WAAAAAY better than Linux. If you can make Windows games run out of the box on Linux machines (with small additional cost), you make best buddies out of end users, developers, and gamers. People don't want to have a pile of games written for a specific OS that now needs to be repurchased. I have a stack of OS/2 games sitting around. I have a stack of Apple games sitting around. I even have some older Linux games sitting around (RH 6.5 is not very compatible with RH 7.2, you know). What I don't have is old Windows games sitting around. My current box is able to play everything I have. Norse by Norsewest; Command and Conquer; Wing Commander I, II, and III; Ultima I - IX;
It is always better to tell someone "I don't need to you to change anything, I can generate additional revenue for you for free", then to tell them " I want you to create OS-specific, hardware optimized code for a platform that has a niche market."
Face it: as cool and as useful as Linux is, it is not Windows. It has a fraction of the desktop users, supports a fraction of the hardware, and commands a lot less respect from developers. I don't see "Hot New Linux Game!" in any of my game magazines.
-WS
Offtopic, sure, but... (Score:1)
Developers, developers, developers, developers...
I'm worried. 'macrovision'? (Score:2)
About TransGaming Technologies:
TransGaming Technologies is the dominant provider of software portability solutions for game developers and publishers. TransGaming's unique technology allows games designed for one system to be deployed on multiple platforms - faster, cheaper, and better than anyone else. TransGaming Technologies has recently developed strategic relationships with Electronic Arts, the world's premier game developer and publisher; MandrakeSoft the world's largest retail Linux distributor; and MacroVision, the world's most-used PC copy protection provider. TransGaming has a license to the world's top selling game, Electronic Art's "The Sims" and shipped an optimized Linux version just eight weeks after receiving source code.
My emphasis.
So, transgaming will do their very best to work with "copy protection providers", which interfere with what people want to do with their hardware. yay! Good that I've not given in to the urge of donating money to transgaming. Now I know that I never will neither.
Playstation 2?!? (Score:1)
PDA? what does that mean? (Score:1)