Battlefield Director: "We Strongly Want To Get Into Linux"

[Strazdas]

Titanfall

Trainz 2015

Some killer apps yes but trainz 2015? I have never even heard of it, so i doublt there would be too many "must buys" for that. It may be for you, but would it for everyone?
and titanfall? seems a lot of hype for a regular mecha game to me, and evne then at least on the escapist the opinions are rather cynical. its coming to windwos anyway too.

 

[Furism]

OpenGL is indeed like DirectX. It's true that its openness should be an argument in its favor, and it is, but not to the extend people would think. To "patch something broken in OpenGL" you have to, you know, actually write a patch and push it. And most companies don't need to do that because if they use DirectX, Microsoft will do it for them. Microsoft sees the time and money spent on this as an investment, as people will then buy Windows licenses.

And it would be lying to say that OpenGL is better than DirectX. DirectX is really friggin' good, but that comes with the price of being tied to Microsoft and therefore Windows. Last I checked (it's been a while) OpenGL was lagging behind DirectX in terms of features. Also isn't OpenGL limited to graphics? So it should be compared to Direct3D, one of the components of DirectX, because DirectX also contains DirectInput, DirectSound, and all these APIs that make it easier to talk to the OS.

Maybe Microsoft should port its library to Linux and then sell it on that platform, instead of just bundling it with its OS. But then you have the Linux users who see the "Free as in Speech" software as a religion and would be fighting this.

PS: I love Linux for servers, and I love Windows for desktop. Linux is not there just yet for desktop experience, and Windows is just too cluttered for a clean and neat server. I'm trying to say I'm not a Windows or Linux fanboy, I like them both equally. I prefer to develop under Windows though because Visual Studio rocks.

 

[Bostur]

on Linux is there any real cockblock that prevents a simple GUI "frontend" being written for the CLI tools ?

because i've used many such GUI "frontends" for various CLI tools on windows over the years...in fact i've even written a few (although admittedly most of those were actually complicated batch files...but not all)...and i'm thinking...if the likes of Valve or someone wants to "consumer friendly up" the OS is there any real reason they can't just throw a few man-hours in that direction and do that ?...

i guess what i'm suggesting is i don't really see that as a very large problem...

There is nothing preventing such tools and they are very common. One problem new users sometimes encounter is that sometimes they are not installed by default, and the user may be unaware of their existance. Sometimes there may be several which can add to the confusion.

It's actually very simple to hook up text based software to a GUI, which is one reason why Linux is very well suited for specialized systems like media machines.

A common software development paradigm in the Unix world, is to do the text based tool first, and then hook that up to a GUI either through scripting or through API calls. A lot of desktop applications actually uses text based backends. It allows for much more customization.

 

[kasperbbs]

There won't be any AAA exclusives on linux anytime soon, noone wants to spend millions on a game for a system that a very few people use, besides windows already owns pc's, there are a lot of pc gamers that have difficulty installing a game, they sure as hell wouldn't want to go through the hassle of reinstalling their OS into something even more confusing. It remains to be seen if SteamOS will change this, probably not for a while.

 

[Andrew_C]

ah no, we completely disagree on these things.

It should not be difficult for someone who knows nothing about computers to be handed a PC and a CD and an instruction of install this OS to figure it out with nothing but that PC and CD. Its all about how you present the available choices of the necessary actions that a person has to take. Sure we can make a program that partitions a disk for you without any instructions or explanations to go along with it but that would be rather silly now wouldn't it. And I'm not talking about the "--help" you have in linux, that stuff is for people that already know what they are doing and just need to refresh their memories of the available commands.

Is it really so damn difficult to have text that explains exactly what is going on in a program while its happening, to provide explanations along with the choices your about to make? Especially with Linux you could build a distro specifically oriented to new users that explains everything they need to know, but this just doesn't exist yet. Computers really don't need to be this difficult to get into but sadly the people who are good at it suck at making easy to learn programs and seem have an attitude that isn't helpful at all.

Linux is also a lot more difficult to install, the number of choices available to you is staggering and a lot of stuff you're supposed to know is presented to you, there is a lot you can fuck up. (I once installed Linux without actually installing it... XP Figure that one out.) Windows is far simpler, you fill in simple stuff, you get a list of disks and you can end up installing a working system by just randomly pushing buttons. For people that do know what is what Linux is the far superior choice because Linux allows for far more control and will always do exactly as its being told, while Windows takes your choices more like suggestions. (It can even end up installing on a different disk you told it to install on, and then even across multiple disks, what a damn retarded OS.)

Either you haven't used Linux in the last 10 years or have been trying to install stuff aimed at professionals or serious hobbyists with a lot of time on their hands like Debian, RHEL & CentOS, Slackware and Gentoo. And even Debian and RHEL/CentOS have user-friendly installer these days.

Fedora, Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, PClinuxOS Mint and Arch (and most of the other popular distros) all have installers that are easier to use and more novice friendly than the XP and Win7 installer IMO. By default they work like you claim the Windows installers do. They show you the available disks, you pick one to install to, which usually involves the extra step of shrinking a Windows partition, install the distro, install the boot loader and you have a fully functional machine that dual boots Windows and Linux.

Now if you choose the advanced install option, yes you will be faced with a bewildering array of options and could end up with an unbootable system because to chose to set up a LVM across multiple discs, wiping out your Windows install, and also didn't set up the boot loader. But why would a novice user choose to do an advanced install? Particulary when the installers usually it clear that it is only for those who know what the hell they are doing.

(Edit: always mix PCLinuxOS & Mandriva for some reason)

 

[Doom972]

Half Life 3 would be enough of a reason for me to make a Linux Partition. I would still need Windows for many other games though.

 

[Matthi205]

I don't like Windows a lot, that's for sure. But that just comes from just how unstable the OS actually is, and from Microsoft wanting to dick consumers preemptively.
Then there's the fact that on Windows, the whole system just stops working when a teeny-weeny problem with the graphics driver occurs.

Erm, explain? Millennium Edition has been the only bad bad, unacceptable form of instability that I've come across. Vista's problems were greatly exaggerated and backwards compatibility was it's main issue.

You're blaming bad drivers on the OS? That doesn't make any sense. Still, faults tend to be at the firmware/hardware level. Why don't you just blame the weatherman for the bad weather while you're at it?

I blame the OS where the OS is to be blamed. I use Windows 7 64-bit. The fact of the matter is, the graphics driver crashes every so often, but tears the system down too. I HAVE HAD bad graphics drivers, and they usually just restarted instead of BSOD'ing. Which means that there is something in the system that just goes "NOPE I don't want to work anymore" and then... gives me a blue screen.
I've also had the 32-bit subsystem collapsing quite often lately - win32k.dll I think was the name of the dll. This makes my system BSOD too.

Titanfall

Trainz 2015

Some killer apps: yes. But Trainz 2015? I have never even heard of it, so i doubt there would be too many "must buys" for that. It may be for you, but would it for everyone?
And titanfall? Seems like a lot of hype for a regular mecha game to me, and even then at least on the escapist the opinions are rather cynical. It's coming to Windows anyway too.

After correcting all of your spelling mistakes, this has become readable. Please stop typing in the dark on a 20 year old keyboard, Strazdas (at least have the decency to use a Model M).

Trainz (I think it's been rebranded Train Simulator? Not sure, really) has sold really well, and does seem to have grown sufficiently to be able to move a ton of copies even with timed Linux exclusivity. The game series also has good mod support IIRC, which further adds to its allure for fans of this particular genre.

As for Titanfall: it has something that you seem to miss. That thing is called game flow. Titanfall looks as if it offers a gameplay pace similar to Blacklight: Retribution. That is, it seems to offer a very fast and fluid gameplay experience, which allows for quicker matches taking up less of your time. They may not be as tactical as, say, ArmA, but it's been a long time since the last AAA arena twitch shooter with a jetpack came out.
Then there's just how awesome the gameplay in itself looks: completely over-the-top and crazy, but still looking plausible. The color palette: not a between brown and grey, but with more vibrant colors - this makes a big difference, as vibrant colors are inherently pleasing to see to human beings.

 

[Andrew_C]

Trainz, Railworks Train Simulator and Train Simulator are different games from different companies. None are related to the old Microsoft Train Simulator game, although all try to imply it by using the title font that MS Flight Sim did (before MS cancelled it for no reason).

 

[Strazdas]

I blame the OS where the OS is to be blamed. I use Windows 7 64-bit. The fact of the matter is, the graphics driver crashes every so often, but tears the system down too. I HAVE HAD bad graphics drivers, and they usually just restarted instead of BSOD'ing. Which means that there is something in the system that just goes "NOPE I don't want to work anymore" and then... gives me a blue screen.
I've also had the 32-bit subsystem collapsing quite often lately - win32k.dll I think was the name of the dll. This makes my system BSOD too.

Im no lover of windows but to say that Windows 7 crashes your graphic drivers is false. graphic drivers will crash when they are unstable. such is the problem of bad graphic drivers, though honestly i havent had a graphic driver crash in over a year now, so maybe you should start using better ones instead? windows 7 itself is as stable as windows ever were. granted there were a lot of flukes before, XP was no monument of stability and Vista... well lets just say i knew when it was goign to crash at least 3 times a day,, but windows 7.... i dont remember last time it crashed one me. it happened a few times, but so far of OSes i tried its the most stable one to date.
Restarting on BSOD is a setting that can be turned on and off and yes it is on by default, because at the point of BSOD 99.9% of people cant do anything anyway, the other 0.1% actually know what BSOD reads. and even then, its error messages arent clear enough for average user. The only BSOD i ever got was either me using unstable version of graphic drivers (which got patched out quite quickly) or my RAM being funny. i never experienced win 7 causing BSOD. i did not try 32 bit win 7 though as by the time it was released i was using a system that woould better suite 64 bits, so i cant say much about that.

After correcting all of your spelling mistakes, this has become readable. Please stop typing in the dark on a 20 year old keyboard, Strazdas (at least have the decency to use a Model M).

Trainz (I think it's been rebranded Train Simulator? Not sure, really) has sold really well, and does seem to have grown sufficiently to be able to move a ton of copies even with timed Linux exclusivity. The game series also has good mod support IIRC, which further adds to its allure for fans of this particular genre.

Train simulator has sold pretty well in germany. thats kinda about it. Train simulator is not trainz though. Yes, it will lure fans of the genre, all 1000 of them. 1000 people is not popular in gaming industry.

As for Titanfall: it has something that you seem to miss. That thing is called game flow. Titanfall looks as if it offers a gameplay pace similar to Blacklight: Retribution. That is, it seems to offer a very fast and fluid gameplay experience, which allows for quicker matches taking up less of your time. They may not be as tactical as, say, ArmA, but it's been a long time since the last AAA arena twitch shooter with a jetpack came out.

Yes, i did miss game flow. I cannot get game flow from a game that is not released yet, you know. noone can.
Match quickness is a plus now? whatever happened to, you know, strategy, planning, skill and abilities?

Then there's just how awesome the gameplay in itself looks: completely over-the-top and crazy, but still looking plausible. The color palette: not a between brown and grey, but with more vibrant colors - this makes a big difference, as vibrant colors are inherently pleasing to see to human beings.

So do tell me whether its over the top and crazy or plausible.
There are plenty of games outside of "Bron shooter" stereotype, you can stop pretending every game is like that and titanfall is the one standing out.

 

[HadBabits]

As someone who's used Linux exclusively for over a year now, I can say there's definitely a learning curb. It was a pretty fun experience for me, but then I like learning new things. However, when I've installed it on relatives' dying Windows computers, it's always good to set things up as simply as possible and walk them through it.

Point being: the best way to help people get into Linux is help interested parties learn it. No one ever used a computer for the first time without some instruction. Just be warned, once you start, it's very possible they will come to you for any issues until they get adventurous enough to start digging around google for solutions That said, none of my relatives (who are old use their computers for very simple stuff, mind) have yet to call me about them.