Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S932178AbXAIQEq (ORCPT ); Tue, 9 Jan 2007 11:04:46 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S932176AbXAIQEq (ORCPT ); Tue, 9 Jan 2007 11:04:46 -0500 Received: from caffeine.uwaterloo.ca ([129.97.134.17]:44919 "EHLO caffeine.csclub.uwaterloo.ca" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S932178AbXAIQEp (ORCPT ); Tue, 9 Jan 2007 11:04:45 -0500 Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2007 11:04:44 -0500 To: Dirk Cc: Kasper Sandberg , Helge Hafting , Jay Vaughan , Trent Waddington , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Gaming Interface Message-ID: <20070109160444.GC17269@csclub.uwaterloo.ca> References: <45A22D69.3010905@gmx.net> <3d57814d0701080243n745fcddg8eaace0093e88a38@mail.gmail.com> <45A2356B.5050208@gmx.net> <45A24176.9080107@gmx.net> <45A2509F.3000901@aitel.hist.no> <45A264E1.3080603@gmx.net> <1168317631.3013.7.camel@localhost> <45A342AC.9080507@gmx.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <45A342AC.9080507@gmx.net> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.9i From: lsorense@csclub.uwaterloo.ca (Lennart Sorensen) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2048 Lines: 40 On Tue, Jan 09, 2007 at 08:22:20AM +0100, Dirk wrote: > If there is no problem with Linux gaming I should shut the hell up and > start buying all these Linux games I keep hearing about and seeing in > those TV commercials. There is no problem with linux gaming. There is a problem with game development companies and their marketing decisions. Unless you somehow make linux have 100% compatible directx and able to natively execute windows code, the game companies aren't going to give a @#$#. They have a limited budget and for them it is more important to aim for 99% of the market than 100% of the market if it means saving 20 or 30% in development costs. Even if it saves 5% in development cost, it makes sense financially. Some companies of course realize that the installation base does not always equal the gamer installation base and write portable code in the first place using abstraction layers where needed, and stick to opengl and such. This is why quake, and other titles from ID are ported to linux and mac and such. Some companies believe the hype from microsoft about directx and write for that instead, which makes the games not portable to mac or linux or anything else. The problem is not that linux doesn't have any decent stable api for games. The problem is that it isn't directx which is what a lot of companies believe they want to use. I play neverwinters nights on my linux system. I have never seen it on windows. Linux uses opengl, while I have no idea if the windows version is opengl or directx or maybe lets you pick (some games offer a choice of rendering engine). I do know the game runs great for the most part even though my hardware is below the minimum specs if I was running on windows (at least according to the box for the game). -- Len Sorensen - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/