Linux!

[rzadzins]

I am proud to be the first one to ask about X-Rebirth on Linux, probably the reason why I've looked at the X series in the first place! Linux communities, including gaming are thriving. With no Linux port for X3-TC, will X-Rebirth revive the penguin universe?

[Syock]

I was wondering about that too, but didn't want to get my hopes up due to no X3:TC version.

[X2-Eliah]

And who would be willing to port the game over, from that thriving Linux community?

Egosoft probably does not have the monetary resources to do it themselves - in the past such things have been outsourced to companies, ant that also costs a lot of money.

[rzadzins]

And who would be willing to port the game over, from that thriving Linux community?

There is a number of options here.
-> Amazingly, the history of linux gaming knows many projects, where game prots were released even without the public availability of the source code.
-> If the source code is available and the game even semi-successful, someone in the community always takes such project up
-> egosoft could also work towards making the game run in crossgaming platforms, like cedega, or other emulation software
-> Finally, it could be given to LGP for release, like before.

Egosoft probably does not have the monetary resources to do it themselves - in the past such things have been outsourced to companies, ant that also costs a lot of money.

Not sure what makes you to advocate for them, this thread is merely to remind dear Egosoft, that there will be a few pairs of penguin hands reaching out for the X-Rebirth game box

[Syock]

Of course it costs money. Odds are it will more or less be hacked in order to run on linux as many games are, but won't work very well for a lot of people. Then you end up with people like me that keep an old windows boot going to just cut out the trouble.

I blame micro$oft, not ego.

[rzadzins]

I don't blame anyone and of course it costs money. I'd be delighted to hear however that LGP will do this title

[Alee Enn]

Another one asking for a Linux compatible version.

I know nothing about Linux programming language, other than it's a completely different language, but surely if a games company decided from the start to have versions for all OS's, and small projects like Oolite or the X-Com UFO Defense remake (to name just two) can do it, why oh why oh why can't a big company like Egosoft do it too?

[Syock]

Another one asking for a Linux compatible version.

I know nothing about Linux programming language, other than it's a completely different language, but surely if a games company decided from the start to have versions for all OS's, and small projects like Oolite or the X-Com UFO Defense remake (to name just two) can do it, why oh why oh why can't a big company like Egosoft do it too?

Ego isn't all that big unfortunately. The problem is that linux uses an open standard for graphics/sound/input, rather than Microsofts proprietary directx which dominates the gaming market. You can approach the problem in a variety of ways in linux, but at the end of the day, the proprietary nature of directx is a big problem for linux and Mac. Microsoft is even forcing windows OS upgrades to get directx upgrades.

Fortunately most games being developed with directx are still developed with directx9, with stunning results like were seeing with Rebirth. Directx 9 runs fine on XP, meaning so far OS upgrades have not really been needed for gamers that didn't want to "upgrade."

Battlefield 3 is going to require vista or 7 to run it in windows due to this issue.

[Caldazar]

Another one asking for a Linux compatible version.

I know nothing about Linux programming language, other than it's a completely different language, but surely if a games company decided from the start to have versions for all OS's, and small projects like Oolite or the X-Com UFO Defense remake (to name just two) can do it, why oh why oh why can't a big company like Egosoft do it too?

It's not about programming languages.

Like most games X-Rebirth uses DirectX. That's an API specifically designed for developing games. Since it's developed by Microsoft it only runs on Windows.

That's the main issue.

[Alee Enn]

Thank you Syock & MPK. I am a little wiser.

[rzadzins]

Unfortunately, because there are more gams in DirectX, there are more developers coding using the DX API, so it pays off to small game developers.

If only OpenGL was used instead of DirectX, then porting the game would be actually almost as easy as cross-compiling the code - especially for games that have no network code like the X series!

If DirectX is used, the last chance for Linux games is to emulate DX drivers with software like WINE.

[gbjbaanb]

Its not quite that simple but... if the code is written in C++ using OpenGL then there's a good chance it could be ported to Linux with relatively minor effort.

The trick is to write the OS-specific bits separately so they can be swapped for the same functionality using different OS calls. There's plenty of cross-platform frameworks that allow this with practically no effort required.

However, it depends how Egosoft has done it, if they know DX and coded to use it, then we're stuck, and that's just too bad. Maybe next time they could rewrite their newly-rewritten game engine to use OpenGL instead (there's not that *much* difference between them anyway, and with the advent of webGL, its a more marketable skill, so I'd live in hope for next time)

[Arcturas]

Not sure what makes you to advocate for them, this thread is merely to remind dear Egosoft, that there will be a few pairs of penguin hands reaching out for the X-Rebirth game box

Or, here's a snazzy idea, you could just suck it up, and play it on windows. I dual boot my computer for this very reason. Windows for games, Linux for most of everything else.

[jiveaxe]

Not sure what makes you to advocate for them, this thread is merely to remind dear Egosoft, that there will be a few pairs of penguin hands reaching out for the X-Rebirth game box

...and I am one of them, too!!

[Koruth]

If it's any help at all, x3tc works pretty well in wine. If the engine's at all similar, XR should work pretty well with it too.

[fallenphoenix32]

Nearly all my Linux experience is through a command shell, but from what I understand, Wine has done a pretty good job of emulating DirectX9, so at least the possibility of compatibility is there. Have hope, open source nuts

[Rive]

If it's any help at all, x3tc works pretty well in wine. If the engine's at all similar, XR should work pretty well with it too.

All what's needed, all what's we are asking for is to contact with the WINE devs when XR comes to beta.

[ZeePal]

Another for Tux support!:!:!

[rzadzins]

Dear all Linux supporters!


Perhaps the game will work on wine ok. If not, perhaps it will need some help from us:

Wine offer the possibility to vote on bugs - the ones with most votes get resolved quicker. Perhaps we could all register and vote on the ones affecting XR

Lets keep this thread and report our findings once the game (or a demo or beta) gets released.

[the-danzorz]

If Steam can be made to work with linux, then porting the game to work with linux won't be a problem.

otherwise you first need to make the game standalone, without bugging it with the achievements and other steam features. You then need to make sure updates can somehow be applied.

Then you need to make sure the game can run without bugs and problems.

I use linux on my second PC and i can say, there will be NO Linux support for this game. Especially if there hasn't been support or any attempt to make any of the other egosoft games Linux Supported.

Linux isn't main stream enough for developers to focus on.