Re: Gaming Interface

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From: Helge Hafting
Date: Tuesday, January 9, 2007 - 5:10 am

Dirk wrote:
Come on!  We agree that there aren't many games to buy on linux.
We just disagree a bit on why.
You suggest a standard API in the kernel.  You have been informed
why this can't be in the kernel, and that well-supported standard APIs for
linux games exists already anyway.  Perhaps the documentation could be
improved - you were probably not the only one who didn't know
that opengl+SDL is the way to do games on linux.

The reason you see so few games on linux is _not_ lack of support
for game programmers in linux.  The support is there,
it has been there for a long time - and that
is why we have 3D games like ppracer and quake on linux.

The reason there isn't many commercial games for linux is that
desktop linux is a smaller market than desktop windows.  Linux
is big on servers but few people play games on those.

We could port directx today and there still wouldn't be that many
linux games.  This will change only as home limux becomes more popular.
And then we'll get linux games no matter what the programmers will
have to do to make them work. The problem is market share - not
technology.



Another thing - why worry about those commercial games anyway?
It is not as if linux lack games, the only problem might be how to pay
for them. ;-) 
On debian, the following command counts over 400 game titles:
apt-cache search game | grep -v lib | grep game | wc

Helge Hafting
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Messages in current thread:
Re: Gaming Interface, Trent Waddington, (Mon Jan 8, 3:43 am)
Re: Gaming Interface, Jay Vaughan, (Mon Jan 8, 4:17 am)
Gaming Interface, Dirk, (Mon Jan 8, 4:39 am)
Re: Gaming Interface, Dirk, (Mon Jan 8, 5:13 am)
Re: Gaming Interface, Dirk, (Mon Jan 8, 6:04 am)
Re: Gaming Interface, Helge Hafting, (Mon Jan 8, 7:09 am)
Re: Gaming Interface, Alistair John Strachan, (Mon Jan 8, 7:47 am)
Re: Gaming Interface, l.genoni, (Mon Jan 8, 8:11 am)
Re: Gaming Interface, Dirk, (Mon Jan 8, 8:36 am)
Re: Gaming Interface, Jan Dittmer, (Mon Jan 8, 12:31 pm)
Re: Gaming Interface, Adrian Bunk, (Mon Jan 8, 12:57 pm)
Re: Gaming Interface, Jan Engelhardt, (Mon Jan 8, 1:39 pm)
Re: Gaming Interface, Tomas Carnecky, (Mon Jan 8, 2:57 pm)
Re: Gaming Interface, Kasper Sandberg, (Mon Jan 8, 9:40 pm)
Re: Gaming Interface, Trent Waddington, (Mon Jan 8, 11:16 pm)
Re: Gaming Interface, Adrian Bunk, (Tue Jan 9, 12:00 am)
Re: Gaming Interface, Adrian Bunk, (Tue Jan 9, 12:07 am)
Re: Gaming Interface, Trent Waddington, (Tue Jan 9, 12:08 am)
Re: Gaming Interface, Trent Waddington, (Tue Jan 9, 12:10 am)
Re: Gaming Interface, Dirk, (Tue Jan 9, 12:14 am)
Re: Gaming Interface, Dirk, (Tue Jan 9, 12:16 am)
Re: Gaming Interface, Dirk, (Tue Jan 9, 12:22 am)
Re: Gaming Interface, Kasper Sandberg, (Tue Jan 9, 2:48 am)
Re: Gaming Interface, Kasper Sandberg, (Tue Jan 9, 2:50 am)
Re: Gaming Interface, Kasper Sandberg, (Tue Jan 9, 2:51 am)
Re: Gaming Interface, Helge Hafting, (Tue Jan 9, 5:10 am)
Re: Gaming Interface, Jesper Juhl, (Tue Jan 9, 5:15 am)
Re: Gaming Interface, Lennart Sorensen, (Tue Jan 9, 9:04 am)
Re: Gaming Interface, Lennart Sorensen, (Tue Jan 9, 9:07 am)
Re: Gaming Interface, Lennart Sorensen, (Tue Jan 9, 9:08 am)
Re: Gaming Interface, Adrian Bunk, (Tue Jan 9, 9:51 am)
Re: Gaming Interface, Akula2, (Tue Jan 9, 2:14 pm)
Re: Gaming Interface, Valdis.Kletnieks, (Tue Jan 9, 4:02 pm)
Re: Gaming Interface, Lennart Sorensen, (Tue Jan 9, 4:05 pm)