Kotor 2 Linux Port

[Sheedee]

I'd like to ask developers whether there is going to be a Linux version of KOTOR 2.

There are many Linux users out there, who had to play the first KOTOR via some kind of an emulator, or install windows. Please please please don't make us do that again

 

Thanks in advance for answer

[TSAdmiral]

Guaranteed NOT to be a Linux version available. If Microsoft had its way, they would pay additional money just to kill a Linux possibility. The day MS lets their premium games port over to rival systems is the day Obsidian gives us additional information.

[Leferd]

What does Microsoft have to do with Lucasarts?

[Salsabettis]

What does Microsoft have to do with Lucasarts?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well, the game will be on X-Box, so Microsoft is involved somewhere.

[Leferd]

and?

 

Sony directly competes with Microsoft. You see cross-platform titles.

[Darth Sun_Tzu]

Lets face it linux blows, i tried it out and all it was was a cheap (or free as the case maybe) rip-off of microsoft. Everything was exactly the same, it just looked different. But this is off topic, no there won't be support for linux.

[oherror]

NO...waste of money to make it combatible...

 

just buy Lindows if you want to play kotor 2 on it.

[Leferd]

Agreed. Ther won't be support for linux. But saying Microsoft just rides roughshod on game publishers/developers who create xbox titles is stretching it a bit much.

[Darth Sun_Tzu]

NO...waste of money to make it combatible...

 

just buy Lindows if you want to play kotor 2 on it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Lindows?

[Archmonarch]

An OS that combines aspects of linux and windows. linux + windows = lindows

[Darth Sun_Tzu]

An OS that combines aspects of linux and windows. linux + windows = lindows

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

That sounds great.

 

Why not just stick with windows, it may cost u money but atleast u can play every game that is releast.

[Charles Vrike]

reread(read) this:

We finally have a strong american company, why not talk about dumping by the Koreans and especially Japan's Sony?  Sony has some American jewels (Radio Corporation of America, Columbian Pictures, major music outlets etc.).  They did not do that by being nice guys to America!!!!!! <_<

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[Craigboy2]

I'd like to ask developers whether there is going to be a Linux version of KOTOR 2.

There are many Linux users out there, who had to play the first KOTOR via some kind of an emulator, or install windows. Please please please don't make us do that again

 

Thanks in advance for answer

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I thought linux went out of buisness or was bought by someone, well that shows how much of a stupid kid i am.

[oherror]

I'd like to ask developers whether there is going to be a Linux version of KOTOR 2.

There are many Linux users out there, who had to play the first KOTOR via some kind of an emulator, or install windows. Please please please don't make us do that again

 

Thanks in advance for answer

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I thought linux went out of buisness or was bought by someone, well that shows how much of a stupid kid i am.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

not stupid just uninformed....the original linux was never a company it was given freely for people to mod and then sell. most heard linux os is redhat and they might be the ones that went broke. i don't know if thats true or not because i've not heard anything about redhat going broke.

[Meshugger]

I'd like to ask developers whether there is going to be a Linux version of KOTOR 2.

There are many Linux users out there, who had to play the first KOTOR via some kind of an emulator, or install windows. Please please please don't make us do that again

 

Thanks in advance for answer

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Linux-gaming is still very underdeveloped and KotOR II isn't going to be an exception for that genre's favour either. Linux is the way to go if you're looking for a good net-security or a server-administration solution, but not in gaming.

[Grandpa]

I think this was answered before...and the answer was "no".

 

I don't think many developers would want to get involved with Linux anyway. Isn't the lawsuit from the SCO still going on? Not that I agree with any part of SCO's claims, but that could scare people away from developing for Linux at the moment.

[Bokishi]

An OS that combines aspects of linux and windows. linux + windows = lindows

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

That sounds great.

 

Why not just stick with windows, it may cost u money but atleast u can play every game that is releast.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

That reminds me of those Macs. Sure, they have fancy computers and all, but their software index isn't stellar.

[Sheedee]

People, you are all so wrong

 

First of: There IS NO Lindows. Lindows is a legend. The only thing close to what you described was a Linux distributon called Lindows, that by the way had nothing to do with windows. Just an unfortunate name that has already been changed to Linspire.

 

2): Nobody can ever buy Linux, as it is open source. That means, Linux is owned by ever single last person on this planet (That is put very simple)

 

3): SCO is just a bunch of people who make their living by suing everyone. Yes the lawsuits are still going on, but they mean nothing. Even if this whole universe went crazy and SCO won the lawsuit, all the Linux developers would have to do would be replace about ten pages of source code in Linux kernel.

 

4): Linux is no rip-off Windows. No one, who has ever worked on Linux for more that five minutes will confirm that. Linux came five years BEFORE windows appeared and it was based on POSIX standarts that existed for decades before there even was any microsoft.

 

5): It (Linux) is getting bigger and better every day. Today, it's used on about 5% of desktop (means home, or office) computers and at about 40% of internet run on Linux (Including google by the way). Two years ago that was only 2% of desktop computers and 30% of internet. Just give a few more years.

 

6): Some other great games had their linux versions:

Doom 3

Unreal Tournament 2004

Quake 3

Heroes of Might and Magic 3

Simcity x000 (I think it was 3000)

etc...

 

7): Apples computers (Macs) run on MacOS X which is based on the same technology as Linux is. If you port a game to Linux, 99% work is done for MacOS X as well.

 

: Multiplatform development helps keep the code clean. So it is less buggy, is more likely to work on all versions of windows and ussually is faster as well. Everyone wins there.

 

So to speak

[Astatine]

Porting the KOTOR series to Linux would be a lot of effort for, I suspect, not very much gain. Hopefully in a few years' time, if .NET takes off and proves a viable platform for writing games for (and I don't see why it shouldn't) and the Mono project (whose philosophy still makes me a bit uneasy) keeps up, it will be much easier to make Windows games run under Linux.

 

There's always Cedega but last time I tried it (ages and several versions ago when it was called WineX) the games that did run ran much much slower than on Windows. And it seems a bit silly to pay for something that runs things less well than WIndows does when I already paid for Windows...

 

For the moment I'll be keeping that Windows install sitting around to reboot to when playing a game

[Sheedee]

Porting the KOTOR series to Linux would be a lot of effort for, I suspect, not very much gain.  Hopefully in a few years' time, if .NET takes off and proves a viable platform for writing games for (and I don't see why it shouldn't) and the Mono project (whose philosophy still makes me a bit uneasy) keeps up, it will be much easier to make Windows games run under Linux.

 

There's always Cedega but last time I tried it (ages and several versions ago when it was called WineX) the games that did run ran much much slower than on Windows.  And it seems a bit silly to pay for something that runs things less well than WIndows does when I already paid for Windows...

 

For the moment I'll be keeping that Windows install sitting around to reboot to when playing a game

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yeah I guess you're right. You know, I'm Linux lover, but not a fool I'll propably keep a notebook with windows 98 around for games anyway, so...

 

It's a shame though, Linux has all those technologies (SDL, OpenGL, OpenAOL) that make it a great platform for games. Just look at UT2004. It runs about 20% faster on Linux than on windows.

[Meshugger]

Porting the KOTOR series to Linux would be a lot of effort for, I suspect, not very much gain.  Hopefully in a few years' time, if .NET takes off and proves a viable platform for writing games for (and I don't see why it shouldn't) and the Mono project (whose philosophy still makes me a bit uneasy) keeps up, it will be much easier to make Windows games run under Linux.

 

There's always Cedega but last time I tried it (ages and several versions ago when it was called WineX) the games that did run ran much much slower than on Windows.  And it seems a bit silly to pay for something that runs things less well than WIndows does when I already paid for Windows...

 

For the moment I'll be keeping that Windows install sitting around to reboot to when playing a game

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It's not only the whole Windows Kernel, it's also DirectX that's difficult to port. If KotOR was written in OpenGL, then a Linux port wouldn't been that difficult to port from technological standpoint.

[Sheedee]

Porting the KOTOR series to Linux would be a lot of effort for, I suspect, not very much gain.  Hopefully in a few years' time, if .NET takes off and proves a viable platform for writing games for (and I don't see why it shouldn't) and the Mono project (whose philosophy still makes me a bit uneasy) keeps up, it will be much easier to make Windows games run under Linux.

 

There's always Cedega but last time I tried it (ages and several versions ago when it was called WineX) the games that did run ran much much slower than on Windows.  And it seems a bit silly to pay for something that runs things less well than WIndows does when I already paid for Windows...

 

For the moment I'll be keeping that Windows install sitting around to reboot to when playing a game

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It's not only the whole Windows Kernel, it's also DirectX that's difficult to port. If KotOR was written in OpenGL, then a Linux port wouldn't been that difficult to port from technological standpoint.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Correct. In fact we can divide any game into two parts:

game logic, that remains the same on all platforms and used libraries. If KOTOR is based on DirectX (Direct3D, DirectInput and DirectSound), the code using those libraries would have to be rewritten.

 

It's not that big deal though. I guess about 70% of code is game logic. So all you have to do to port a game to another platform is hire someone who would go trough the code using the windows libs and just rewrite it function by function (or class by class ). For Doom 3, one guy was able to do this in three months. So don't tell me it cannot be done. Besides doing this helps keep the code clean and fast as you have to keep game itself and its libs strictly separate.

 

 

Truth is, that software development for linux takes much less time than for windows. Problem is not the technology, it's the politics and politics only.

 

Just look at it retrospectively:

Bioware made NeverWinter Nights

Bioware owned NWN

Bioware ported NWN to other platforms (didn't take long)

 

Bioware made KOTOR

LucasArts owned KOTOR

Bioware were not even allowed to support mods for their game

 

Obsidian gets to make KOTOR 2

LucasArts is going to own KOTOR 2

Obsidian is not going to be allowed to do anything to KOTOR 2 without Georges aproval

 

Obsidian gets to make NWN 2

Obsidian/Bioware are going to own NWN 2

Obsidian is considering linux and mac ports if at all possible

 

 

I think politics speaks for itself...

[Leferd]

Bioware doesn't own NWN.

Bioware never ported NWN.

 

Porting decisions are left to the publisher.

In which case, the actual porting was done by another development house.

[Sheedee]

Bioware doesn't own NWN.

Bioware never ported NWN.

 

Porting decisions are left to the publisher.

In which case, the actual porting was done by another development house.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Ok, so it was done by someone else. Doesn't matter you know, it still got ported (even the expansion packs). I still think it's all about politics

[Meshugger]

Bioware doesn't own NWN.

Bioware never ported NWN.

 

Porting decisions are left to the publisher.

In which case, the actual porting was done by another development house.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Ok, so it was done by someone else. Doesn't matter you know, it still got ported (even the expansion packs). I still think it's all about politics

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It's not called "politics" by the suits. It's called "market strategy"