That is ancient history. Try about 3x ....
That is ancient history. Try about 3x ....
just an fyi. Open source AMD driver in mainstream Debian has opengl 4.3 support ( compute shaders ). 64bit. would be a shame to let all that current code go to waste 
Most likely that statistics will be off by considerable margin considering that Linux users are more likely to be gamers and they are most likely interested in space sim. Also number isn't 10x, Numbers are 2% and 6% of market share accordingly and Linux is raising.
The last I heard, Steam counts me as being a Windows user in their analytics and not a Linux user, just because I happen to use Windows more, even though one of the main things I look for in the games I get is that they'll run on Linux as well. I've also been known to have fun with what info I let my browsers tell certain websites.
I think it's likely that some of the reasons Linux user percentages seem as low as they are is that Linux users are often making do with Windows platforms to run software that isn't easily available for Linux.
I think it's likely that some of the reasons Linux user percentages seem as low as they are is that Linux users are often making do with Windows platforms to run software that isn't easily available for Linux.
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Well, they tried...Steam machine unfortunately was total failure...
Happy that a bunch of the games on Steam are for Linux either way. [up]
Unfortunately, Elite is not among their ranks.
Yes, it at least was a start, maybe v2.0 will be better...
Elite is too mainstream
, I expect PS4 version instead...since they already did XBOX...
Yes, it at least was a start, maybe v2.0 will be better...
Elite is too mainstream
I think your right, there are waaay more PS4's out there than Linux machines which is ironic seeing as the PS4 OS is based on Linux.
Yes, it at least was a start, maybe v2.0 will be better...
Elite is too mainstream
There are more mainstream games than Elite that are on Linux though. It's more down to the specific studio and what they want to do for their own reasons. I think it may be that Elite wants to be more mainstream than what it really is, so Frontier plays ball and has to pick their battles.
It may be worth it for some of the larger studios to put their games on Linux just for the brownie points. Per capita, I think it's likely that Linux users are a bit more vocal and influential in the computer gaming community.
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You don't say...
It's a good thing. Someone has to run the infrastructure for this all to work for everyone. Besides, we all know Linux is a better platform anyway...
Disclaimer: Yes, I'm intentionally being a bit cheeky, but search your heart and you'll know it to be true.
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digitalscream
Banned
Strictly speaking, OS X was the poor investment since they didn't think ahead and realise that since it doesn't support compute shaders, there's no way it could work going forward. All that effort is now essentially wasted - until Apple decide they want to support it with their OS, there's no way ED can be updated past 1.x, so all the OS X users will have jumped to Windows.
Linux, on the other hand, supports everything (to my knowledge).
Citation needed
And 6% was not enough for FD to want to keep developing. Why would 2% be?
The PS4 has done >40 million in global sales, and we can assume that they are almost all gamers. There is presently no support for the PS4.
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Not DirectX, which is what FD uses.
Some versions of DirectX are supported through WINE; but one does not write for emulators... one writes for the thing being emulated (which in WINE's case is Windows)
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That's not the complete truth, else ED would not run on Mac.
Porting their Mac version to 'nix would be pretty menial.
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digitalscream
Banned
Well, duh.
I'm obviously not talking about DirectX - I'm talking about GPU features. FD clearly already support OpenGL for the OS X port, which - under Linux - supports all GPU features available to it.
While we're at it...
6% was enough for FD to port it in the first place and they quite clearly wanted to continue, but because OS X is they couldn't - because of the lack of compute shader support I mentioned, which is required for Horizons.
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https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/289874-Future-support-for-Win-32-and-DX10
This is also telling:
It sounds like they are willing to cut off 2% of the player base (force them to change hardware to continue playing) in order to avoid "an alternative rendering solution in our code".
So. What's the incentive to support an alternate code-base for LINUX? How is it more compelling than DX10?
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A position they abandoned for Horizons... making something unavailable a requirement.
I mean: I'm sure they would take a "no effort on our part" LINUX option. But I'm doubtful how much effort they would consider it worth financially.
Even if we assume that LINUX (2% of desktops) users didn't have access to windows. We'd not expect more than a 2%-5% increase in sales, would we?
This is also telling:
It sounds like they are willing to cut off 2% of the player base (force them to change hardware to continue playing) in order to avoid "an alternative rendering solution in our code".
So. What's the incentive to support an alternate code-base for LINUX? How is it more compelling than DX10?
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A position they abandoned for Horizons... making something unavailable a requirement.
I mean: I'm sure they would take a "no effort on our part" LINUX option. But I'm doubtful how much effort they would consider it worth financially.
Even if we assume that LINUX (2% of desktops) users didn't have access to windows. We'd not expect more than a 2%-5% increase in sales, would we?
All E: D has to do is support Vulkan. That would sort out the Mac's as well, assuming Apple could pull their thumb out.
E: D could be the killer app that supports mass migration from Windows to Linux gaming. I know that if I could run E: D on my distro, I'd have my Windows box on a lot less.
https://www.khronos.org/vulkan/
E: D could be the killer app that supports mass migration from Windows to Linux gaming. I know that if I could run E: D on my distro, I'd have my Windows box on a lot less.
https://www.khronos.org/vulkan/
Sorry to say that I can't see FDev devoting their already limited resources to port and then support ED onto a heterogeneous o/s which in total has between 1.4% and 2.3% of the PC marketplace.
https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems
To put into context OS-X has iro 8-10% share.
Putting it another way - how many Linux users only have Linux systems? I'd guess it's not many.
https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems
To put into context OS-X has iro 8-10% share.
Putting it another way - how many Linux users only have Linux systems? I'd guess it's not many.
digitalscream
Banned
Jeez...you really are twisting everything to fit your mindset, aren't you? Do you honestly believe that FD arbitrarily chose to implement compute shaders to the detriment of any platform?
They were forced to abandon it because to restrict Horizons to the feature set that OS X supported - in order to make the game experience the same on all platforms - would've meant a drop in quality across all platforms. It wasn't a case of, "You know what? I can't be porting this version to the Mac, so let's just drop it and save ourselves hassle".
The point is that it could have been done in DirectX 10 - that was a possibility, although there would've been a lot of work involved. Implementing it on OS X was an impossibility. Do you understand the difference?
You posited that they were happy to abandon OS X users - that isn't true at all, which is what I was trying to say. The reason they abandoned it is that no amount of money or effort would've made it possible to do so because the operating system is fundamentally incapable of supporting the game.
Of course, all of this could easily be solved by FD doing another Kickstarter campaign to port it - estimate the work involved, and see if it'll be funded. That's the easiest way to put the whole argument to bed.
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