Linux

[KoKuToru]

Who cares about Linux ?


...

I am a 100% Linux user !
I am playing FFXIV with wine.. the performance is 1/4-1/10 of "real windows"
But who cares ? I love Linux !

Linux or Windows isn't the problem here !
Give me a Windows OpenGL client !
It will run perfectly fine with same performance at Linux (via wine [as long as you use NVIDIA]).

DirectX is evil !

[Delsus]

No way. It doesn't matter how many people actually use Linux, it's a matter of how many want to play games on it. Look at the statistics for things like the Humble Bundle: http://www.humblebundle.com/

Linux is a very niche market for games, which is why not many games are made for it. Mac users have relatively few choices in games as well, *especially* for MMOs, so even that would be more likely. Though, as others pointed out, the graphics engine wasn't built for it, so it's very unlikely.

The 2.0 engine is built around OpenGL because (as I said earlier) the PS3 uses OpenGL, all they need to do is port the PS3 client (made around OpenGL) to Linux.

Also people may not want to play games on Linux because they are forced to use Wine for most triple A games and there are compatibility problems for alot of programs, alot of graphics options aren't supported and you can take a performance hit running in an emulated environmnet, if more companies made more triple A games that run native to Linux I bet a lot more people would want to use it for gaming.

I'm no Linux user but I guess it would be fine if they tried to make the game in a way that wasn't WINE-unfriendly.

FFXIV is actually very Wine friendly, from what I have heard it runs alot better than native Windows, and providing they get the OpenGL right a native version should run even better because of the resources that are freed up using Linux

Who cares about Linux ?


...

I am a 100% Linux user !
I am playing FFXIV with wine.. the performance is 1/4-1/10 of "real windows"
But who cares ? I love Linux !

Linux or Windows isn't the problem here !
Give me a Windows OpenGL client !
It will run perfectly fine with same performance at Linux (via wine [as long as you use NVIDIA]).

DirectX is evil !

See above and I agree 100% Linux does trump Windows in every way except compatibility, Wine helps somewhat with that but it is a little spotty.

[Valmonte]

The 2.0 engine is built around OpenGL because (as I said earlier) the PS3 uses OpenGL, all they need to do is port the PS3 client (made around OpenGL) to Linux.

No it Doesn't, its programed using OpenCL which can use both Direct X Libraries and OpenGL. the PS3 only supports OpenCl v1.0 which only has compatibility With the DirectX 9 Libraries and OpenGL 3.x.

OpenCL is now in revision 1.2 which can handle Dx10/Dx11 libraries along with the latest version of OpenGL.

[Soukyuu]

No it Doesn't, its programed using OpenCL which can use both Direct X Libraries and OpenGL. the PS3 only supports OpenCl v1.0 which only has compatibility With the DirectX 9 Libraries and OpenGL 3.x.

OpenCL is now in revision 1.2 which can handle Dx10/Dx11 libraries along with the latest version of OpenGL.

Err.. OpenCL is an API for GPGPU, just like CUDA except openCL code runs on any GPU. It has nothing to do with the graphics engine.

As for linux not having many games, it's an endless cycle: there are few games on linux -> people using linux are not interested in games or use windows -> the companies don't see it as a profitable platform -> there are few games on linux

[Delsus]

No it Doesn't, its programed using OpenCL which can use both Direct X Libraries and OpenGL. the PS3 only supports OpenCl v1.0 which only has compatibility With the DirectX 9 Libraries and OpenGL 3.x.

OpenCL is now in revision 1.2 which can handle Dx10/Dx11 libraries along with the latest version of OpenGL.

Heres the fun thing, I have been reading up on OpenCL after you posted that, and it seems OpenCL was approved for release on the 8th december 2008, however the PS3 was released in 2006, so what did PS3 use before the 2008 release of OpenCL if not OpenGL? Also if PS3 really uses OpenCL it has to have OpenGL compatibility or the 2006-8 games would not work (if they are that different) therefore PS3 can use OpenGL and therefore we can have a linux port of it.

Source (yes I know its Wikipedia)

Err.. OpenCL is an API for GPGPU, just like CUDA except openCL code runs on any GPU. It has nothing to do with the graphics engine.

As for linux not having many games, it's an endless cycle: there are few games on linux -> people using linux are not interested in games or use windows -> the companies don't see it as a profitable platform -> there are few games on linux

This is exactly it if triple A games do not make Linux versions, why would people run Linux for gaming when Wine has performance/graphics/compatibility issues with alot of games when they will run better in the system they were designed for. I for one would love to make use of the resources freed up by Ubuntu for gaming.

[Soukyuu]

This is exactly it if triple A games do not make Linux versions, why would people run Linux for gaming when Wine has performance/graphics/compatibility issues with alot of games when they will run better in the system they were designed for. I for one would love to make use of the resources freed up by Ubuntu for gaming.

Well, maybe SE will take a first step. They should have less problems with linux than with windows, especially with their devs having more experience with openGL than with DirectX because of all the games they made for the PS3 *hint hint*

[Delsus]

Well, maybe SE will take a first step. They should have less problems with linux than with windows, especially with their devs having more experience with openGL than with DirectX because of all the games they made for the PS3 *hint hint*

We can always hope, as I have said the lack of compatibility without wine is why I still use Windows, open source is the way forward, why should I have to pay over £100 for a really bloated OS, when I can get one that is 50x better for free.