Somehow I don't believe they will find the resources to do it, althought I'd love to have a linux version so that I don't have to dual-boot.Given the direction Win8 is taking and the fact that Valve and several other publishers are currently driving towards Linux, I'd say YES to any possibility of Egoing that way as well.
Haven't read the thread other than the first couple of posts.
As an Ubuntu user of many years I'd gladly contribute purely to move game publishers towards publishing for Linux.
IMO it'd also be a PR boon to do so.
As an Ubuntu user of many years I'd gladly contribute purely to move game publishers towards publishing for Linux.
IMO it'd also be a PR boon to do so.
The suckiest part is.
I keep watching youtubes of the game, and thinking "this is awesome! this is just like the original elite experiences i grew up with!"..
except i can't play it until it's released for linux. not everybody spends their money on their OS, when they could be giving it to game devs instead.
I'm glad Elite: Dangerous exists and that people are enjoying it and that it's as fun looking as the originals, plus updated graphics and updated ships and all the fancys..
I just wish i could play it too.
I keep watching youtubes of the game, and thinking "this is awesome! this is just like the original elite experiences i grew up with!"..
except i can't play it until it's released for linux. not everybody spends their money on their OS, when they could be giving it to game devs instead.
I'm glad Elite: Dangerous exists and that people are enjoying it and that it's as fun looking as the originals, plus updated graphics and updated ships and all the fancys..
I just wish i could play it too.
But MS are devs too!
But they're not the game devs working on ED.
Anyway, I also vote for a Linux port, although I would prefer they get the Windows kinks worked out first. Even running Windows, there is no excuse for stuttering and jarring transitions in a game released by a well-funded developer studio, especially on an octa-core CPU, a GTX 660 GPU, an mSATA SSD and 16GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM.
You are literally not missing a single thing.
I'd really like to see a Linux version. I installed Windows 10 just for this game.
Turns out I discovered one of my RAM modules has some damaged addresses.
On Windows, this means my game (and everything else) crashes every hour or worse.
On Linux, I didn't even notice, because when the kernel sees a broken address, it just ignores it.
I'm literally buying 160 dollars of RAM just to play this game BECAUSE it only runs on Windows.
Please Frontier, gibe Linux port.
Turns out I discovered one of my RAM modules has some damaged addresses.
On Windows, this means my game (and everything else) crashes every hour or worse.
On Linux, I didn't even notice, because when the kernel sees a broken address, it just ignores it.
I'm literally buying 160 dollars of RAM just to play this game BECAUSE it only runs on Windows.
Please Frontier, gibe Linux port.
+1 to that!
If there was a native Linux version I'd finally be able to switch fully to my OS of choice. I did try playing a few Windows games on Linux using WINE, but it's always a hit-or-miss avenue in regards to performance, and there's no telling if future updates to launcher and/or client will break everything. As there is an extensive controller support integrated into Elite: Dangerous, it's just calling to be played on a "Big Screen", using e.g. Steam Machine/SteamOS or any other hardware/Linux combo users are satisfied with.
Maybe organise a dedicated Kickstarter/funding drive to see if there is enough potential customers to warrant making a native Linux client? I'd surely chip in!
If there was a native Linux version I'd finally be able to switch fully to my OS of choice. I did try playing a few Windows games on Linux using WINE, but it's always a hit-or-miss avenue in regards to performance, and there's no telling if future updates to launcher and/or client will break everything. As there is an extensive controller support integrated into Elite: Dangerous, it's just calling to be played on a "Big Screen", using e.g. Steam Machine/SteamOS or any other hardware/Linux combo users are satisfied with.
Maybe organise a dedicated Kickstarter/funding drive to see if there is enough potential customers to warrant making a native Linux client? I'd surely chip in!
If there's one request I have for Elite: Dangerous, it is definitely that it needs to be ported to Linux. I seriously have a small Windows partition on my hard drive solely to run this game. The rest of my hard drive is all Ubuntu. Please, Frontier, make this happen. Much of the progress will have already been made after the Mac port is created due to OpenGL already being used, so while it won't be all done after Mac, it won't be far! Let's allow as many people to play as possible!
Oh hai!
I was just rummaging around in another thread, and found this gem
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=20856&p=463190&viewfull=1#post463190
I guess there really *isn't* any point in asking Frontier for anything. Apparently they've made up their minds?
Here's hoping for good news after the Mac port. I hope the Mac market isn't too disappointing. I'm pretty sure linux0rs will make up for it. but hey, i'm just some random anecdote.
So, if we don't get it working with WINE, somehow getting WINE up to snuff, we don't get Elite: Dangerous.
=(
I was just rummaging around in another thread, and found this gem
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=20856&p=463190&viewfull=1#post463190
I guess there really *isn't* any point in asking Frontier for anything. Apparently they've made up their minds?
Here's hoping for good news after the Mac port. I hope the Mac market isn't too disappointing. I'm pretty sure linux0rs will make up for it. but hey, i'm just some random anecdote.
So, if we don't get it working with WINE, somehow getting WINE up to snuff, we don't get Elite: Dangerous.
=(
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The Linux market is very small compared to Windows, I think it would only be worth it financially if they (had a clue and) made the game portable from the beginning. No doubt they have used Direct X and windows-specific APIs out the wazoo, so it would be painful to port. Developers who are clueful with portability would start with Mac and Linux in mind, even developing the game on Linux in the first place, and would use Open GL and other high-quality portable libraries to create a highly portable game. I'm disappointed that Frontier did not attempt to create a portable game from the get-go, apart from its own direct benefits, portable code tends to be higher quality and better organized.
That said, coding for Linux is very very similar to coding for Mac. Mac OS and Linux are both more-or-less UNIX/POSIX operating systems, and both use Open GL for 3d graphics. So it would not be a huge effort to do a Linux port after having done a Mac port, especially if they bear that in mind while doing the Mac port.
The main benefit of doing an Elite for Linux port, for Frontier, would be gaining the goodwill and respect of the Linux users. We are not exactly spoiled for choice with AAA games, and we tend to be extremely grateful for good quality ports.
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i'm pretty spoiled for choice. I have about 200 linux games in my steam account, and barely have time to play my favorites..
It's a mistake to compare the linux marketshare to the windows marketshare. This entire thread starts with "windows will get the lions share of the market", that's obvious and a given, sadly.
My point is, as is backed up by Anecdotal Evidence(tm), that I hope Frontier isn't too disappointed with the Mac port's uptake, because if they're discouraged from doing the Linux port, they'll never discover there are more Linux0rs wanting this game than Mac people.
Additionally, as has been said before too, for the money i'd have to spend on a mac that would play E: D, i could build or upgrade a much more beefier Linux PC. Why would i waste my money on Apple for this game?
Finally. It's not fair for me to bring up Steam, since it's a game distribution platform with many games and many types of gamers, of course their linux usage count will be low (but steady, it appears). What would be more representative is the people who want to play THIS game (or games like it (i.e. Star Citizen)) which want a Linux version. People who are interested in space flight sims are disporportionately different than regular gamers.
another wasted US$0.02.
cheers,
1 thousand is not all of SC's community, so it's 20% of the people who bother to visit the forums, and who didn't find anything else interesting to vote for, And since basic math says it's a multi choice vote, it also means that a lot of people would rather have other things instead of linux support.
At the end of the day though, ED isn't massive it's a rather small niche game, porting a game to linux isn't cheap, it's not like opening the project in the compiler and hitting "compile for linux", so this means that a very small part of the ED community needs to donate a LOT for it to make economic sense(consider long term support as well, you're doubling all QnA) or you're for some reason thinking that a majority of the ED community have any interest in linux and want to pay more for the game to play on their free OS.
At the end of the day though, ED isn't massive it's a rather small niche game, porting a game to linux isn't cheap, it's not like opening the project in the compiler and hitting "compile for linux", so this means that a very small part of the ED community needs to donate a LOT for it to make economic sense(consider long term support as well, you're doubling all QnA) or you're for some reason thinking that a majority of the ED community have any interest in linux and want to pay more for the game to play on their free OS.
I have hundreds of Linux games in my steam account also, but not that many of them are AAA games. Not sure if Elite would be regarded as a AAA game or not, maybe if they debugged it.
I doubt it, what gives you that idea? There are definitely more people gaming on Mac than Linux, and I don't see why the Elite user-base should be any different. Maybe the Linux users are more vocally asking for it, since Frontier has already committed to building the Mac version!
If done right, it's not hard to make a game portable from the beginning. They did not do that. Mac OS and GNU/Linux are very similar, so it should be quite easy to port from Mac to Linux (or vice versa), especially if that is considered before commencing the Windows->Mac port. The main problem with porting to Linux is the wide variety of Linux distributions and setups, and the difficulty of supporting them all. It's almost like the "cross-browser" problem for web developers, but not quite that bad! It's not a huge obstacle, they need to test that the game at least basically works on the major distributions, and consult with an expert who has ported many games to Linux. Many Linux users are highly skilled IT professionals, and can provide support to make the game work on different distributions if necessary.
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About the Linux thing. I would back a kicktarter for Linux port but it is not the porting that is the problem it is the support.
Supporting ED on Linux would be too much effort. There are just too many versions. Not worth it, even though Linux is geek land and ED is ultimate geek game. I have been continually using Slackware as my main distro since it came out.
However, I would really hope that they unnofically make it easy to run on Linux. In fact I not only hope this I kind of expect it. To not do so would be almost rude, considering how much we as computer users owe to the whole Free software, GPL, Linux effort - the computer world would be a very different place if it were not for that.
Piracy is not a problem with it because of the always on-line.
So, I hope that in the future it will be easy to run ED on Linux, but I never expect an official port.
Supporting ED on Linux would be too much effort. There are just too many versions. Not worth it, even though Linux is geek land and ED is ultimate geek game. I have been continually using Slackware as my main distro since it came out.
However, I would really hope that they unnofically make it easy to run on Linux. In fact I not only hope this I kind of expect it. To not do so would be almost rude, considering how much we as computer users owe to the whole Free software, GPL, Linux effort - the computer world would be a very different place if it were not for that.
Piracy is not a problem with it because of the always on-line.
So, I hope that in the future it will be easy to run ED on Linux, but I never expect an official port.
Support Im not sure would be too much of an issue if they only "officially" supported one version of linux, Ubuntu ?
Im sure the various linux communities would also take a fair amount of pride in quashing any issue on their own distro's, as has been the case for years now.
I understand it from a company view but Linux deserves this game, they were made for each other I have a Nvidia card an X52 a TrackIR5 and an Asus Xonar soundcard all ready and working to rock and roll !
Never had to configure any of my hardware other than the TrackIR, which took me 10 mins much to my surprise tbh.
Im sure the various linux communities would also take a fair amount of pride in quashing any issue on their own distro's, as has been the case for years now.
I understand it from a company view but Linux deserves this game, they were made for each other
I have a Nvidia card an X52 a TrackIR5 and an Asus Xonar soundcard all ready and working to rock and roll !Never had to configure any of my hardware other than the TrackIR, which took me 10 mins much to my surprise tbh.
In all honesty, fragmentation across desktop distributions shouldn't really be considered an issue. Just target one specific distro, such as Ubuntu, and you've captured the majority of the Linux desktop user base right there, and for those rare cases when it doesn't work on a specific distro, that person would be able to seek community help or even attempt to fix it themselves. That's what Valve did with Steam, along with most game developers on Steam, and it seems to have worked just fine. GoG, for example, initially stated they wouldn't be providing Linux support because they wouldn't be able to support all distros. After considering it more, they just targeted Ubuntu & Mint (an Ubuntu derivative), and, as it has with Valve, it seems to have worked out. It's just like how for Windows these days, games usually only support 7 or 8.
Hoping we get a Linux port!
Hoping we get a Linux port!
As long as the binary links to the same system libraries (OpenGL, X11, etc.), distro fragmentation shouldn't matter. Most Linux distributions contain the same core system libraries.
Porting to Linux isn't difficult. The bulk of the logic is going to be the same. If the engine's renderer has been written in Direct X, that's probably the biggest hurdle.
Abstracting the windowing portion of the engine to interface with X11 can be done with relative ease, but building a whole new rendering pipeline in OpenGL may take a while.
Heck! If they wanted to, the developers could just use X11 from the start. Mac OSX still runs X11 through XQuartz. That way you can create a Mac OSX/Linux port in one fell swoop!
Porting to Linux isn't difficult. The bulk of the logic is going to be the same. If the engine's renderer has been written in Direct X, that's probably the biggest hurdle.
Abstracting the windowing portion of the engine to interface with X11 can be done with relative ease, but building a whole new rendering pipeline in OpenGL may take a while.
Heck! If they wanted to, the developers could just use X11 from the start. Mac OSX still runs X11 through XQuartz. That way you can create a Mac OSX/Linux port in one fell swoop!