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Double Fine On Linux Support

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Double Fine did a blog entry about them support Linux with their games, makes for a nice read so I thought I should highlight it for you.
QuoteThe big thing with supporting Linux is making sure your game uses OpenGL for rendering and as the years go by this is becoming more and more difficult as the DirectX and OpenGL APIs grow further apart. Fortunately for Spacebase we went full OpenGL from the start; Double Fine goes to great effort to ensure the highest compatibility for easy porting instead of requiring platform-specific features like you might use if you were only targeting DirectX 11.

That said, Linux has its own set of challenges. There are many many many different combinations of OS flavor and software configuration that go way beyond what we see on Windows and OSX. Graphics card drivers vary wildly (Nvidia has at least done a great job recently getting its Linux OpenGL drivers into shape), but you can still see things like “on this machine entering fullscreen just displays graphical corruption” or “on this machine moving the mouse causes significant slowdown” that can result from fundamental differences in different Linux flavors.

On sites like Stack Exchange you’ll see people suggesting complicated shell scripts to fix some of these problems, which is generally very different from the user experience of buying games on steam for Windows.

Debugging ranges from slightly more difficult than on Windows and OSX to impossible; there are command line tools you can use to track down crashes and runtime issues but there’s nothing really out there that compares to the graphics debugging capabilities of PIX for DirectX.

But especially with a game like Spacebase, we really wanted to support Linux from day one. We worked alongside the Broken Age team to make sure we had baseline ports ready to go, but even with that we were originally not going to support Linux until Alpha 2 (November).

We worked on nights and weekends to ensure it was close to the same quality level as the Windows version to make sure Linux folks could play it as soon as possible; we think that a game like Spacebase aligns really well with typical Linux gamer sensibilities and so far they have responded favorably!

Source

I always love seeing helpful posts like this, I wish more developers did some sort of Linux post-mortem. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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tweakedenigma Nov 5, 2013
On the upside this should get better the more support Linux gets. Tools and drivers should improve (particularly with the Steam Machines coming). 

That being said I am going to keep buying as many Linux ports as I can, as I want to ensure it is worth the developers time. 
Dima Nov 5, 2013
Quoting: Quote from tweakedenigmaOn the upside this should get better the more support Linux gets. Tools and drivers should improve (particularly with the Steam Machines coming). 

That being said I am going to keep buying as many Linux ports as I can, as I want to ensure it is worth the developers time. 
Agreed 100%. Only good things are coming for us.. and it's about time. Hopefully the steam machines are successful and finally bring life to Linux, myself. I haven't installed a distro yet as I'm on a brand new laptop and I'm waiting for the new Mint to be released (should be any day now)!
Apopas Nov 5, 2013
Quotea game like Spacebase aligns really well with typical Linux gamer sensibilities
Huh? Are we some type of diferent kind of species with special common characteristics?
Lord Avallon Nov 5, 2013
Quoting: Quote from Apopas
Quoting: Quotea game like Spacebase aligns really well with typical Linux gamer sensibilities
Huh? Are we some type of diferent kind of species with special common characteristics?
Yes, we are crazy penguins!
HadBabits Nov 5, 2013
Ever since Psychonauts I've been a big fan of Double Fine. I'm really glad they've been so supportive :)

Wish I could say the same for Edmund of Team Meat :\
tweakedenigma Nov 5, 2013
Quoting: Quote from HadBabitsEver since Psychonauts I've been a big fan of Double Fine. I'm really glad they've been so supportive :)

Wish I could say the same for Edmund of Team Meat :\

On the upside it looks like they might be working on some updates and bring Super Meat boy to Steam on Linux: 

  • about an hour ago Changed Depots
    • 40802/config/oslist: linux

    • 40802/name: Super Meat Boy Linux

    • 98011/dlcappid: 98011

    • 202941/config/oslist: windows,macos

    • 202941/dlcappid: 202941

    • markdlcdepots: 1



Hamish Nov 6, 2013
Quoting: Quote from HadBabitsWish I could say the same for Edmund of Team Meat :\

Just do the world a favour and ignore him.
intok Nov 6, 2013
So is there any hope for Braid and Torchlight? I already got my answer for X2, they have no plans to bring the LGP port to Steam...
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