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How different are windows and native linux versions of a game?
Install Oct 27, 2022
I was wondering how different is a game for windows and a native linux version? What are the differences in terms of coding,etc to build a windows version vs a linux native version?
CatKiller Oct 27, 2022
Inherently, there is zero difference. Your compiler will make ELF files for your Linux build and PE files for your Windows build. You'll need to avoid wrong-case typos in file names since Linux filesystems (unless you specify not to) treat characters of different case as different, and Windows filesystems let that slide.

It's possible to make extra work for yourself by making them different, for example by using APIs or middleware that are only available for one platform. Obviously if you want to make multiplatform software you should avoid doing that.
Kuduzkehpan Oct 27, 2022
Most of games in windows use DirectX api and in Linux there isnt any DirectX api so in Linux games use OpenGL or Vulkan api
also Vulkan is available to many platforms as android to consoles.
in linux most of games uses SDL library for image process. so its up to libraries and apis thats the difference rest is just same as it is


Last edited by Kuduzkehpan on 27 October 2022 at 11:10 am UTC
Big_and_donkey Nov 1, 2022
Well, even DirectX has an implementation on Linux now with DXVK and VKD3D, which even some native games use at compile time (I.E. the same code is compiled but linked to DXVK instead of Microsoft's DirectX.) Of course, as a developer you'd ideally target Vulkan or some other open API to make it easier, but my point is that now even many Microsoft APIs are available on Linux.
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