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While Linux development, especially for game development, does has it's fare share of pain points. I don't think this should be interpreted as any more than it
by Arelius 12y ago
While Linux development, especially for game development, does has it's fare share of pain points. I don't think this should be interpreted as any more than it is, a single developer deciding he wants to stop supporting, one specific platform.
Eric is indeed a very skilled programmer, but this engine is very much developed to meet his whims. He hasn't yet released any games on it, and the vast majority of his engine licensees are hobbyists, who quite frankly are also unlikely to release a game.
So while Linux was a nice-to-have earlier on, and likely sold him a few licenses, with UE4 heading to Linux it's unlikely to give him many more sales. And I suspect he's used to developing in Windows, likely with visual studio, and in comparison, Linux can feel quite archaic. And in that context, maintaining Linux build systems can seem quite painful, likely the primary reason it's getting dropped.
On the contrary, with Valve's current and monumental efforts, I suspect we're going to see a lot of games continuing to be released on Linux. And the tools are improving vastly, and some rather nice tools, vogl for instance, are only fully functional on Linux, which provides a strong advantage.
I'm personally pretty excited to see what comes from AMD being much more open with their ISA, and related documentation. I'm pretty hopeful for a very open and fast graphics API, OpenGL in my opinion is the worst part of working on Linux.
- pjmlp 12y agoI still haven't see any of the Steam machines on the wild. Frankly I doubt I will ever see them.
- darklajid 12y agoNeither have I, if we're talking about the 'console' style Steam OS things. But I'm playing on this Thinkpad running Arch, using my Steam account. I tend to ignore games that aren't cross platform (although I have a gaming box running Windows 8 as well). It helps that a lot of games that I like (Awesomenauts for example) are available and work amazingly well.
- thirdtruck 12y agoI was running Steam in Big Picture mode on my Linux laptop only minutes before reading your comment. It's not a true Steam Machine, but neither is it that far off. :)
- jiggy2011 12y agoWhat is the specific difference between a true Steam Machine and a PC with Steam installed?
- rjaco31 12y agoWell they use the SteamOS as an operating system
- jiggy2011 12y agoI don't think that is a requirement though, realistically the cost saving on a Windows OEM license will be eclipsed by the reduced game catalog for quite some time.
- thirdtruck 12y agoBesides Steam OS, mentioned earlier, people also expect them to be console-like in their compactness and portability, but that's not a hard requirement.
- baldfat 12y agoWith Microsoft and Windows 10 having an App Store will certainly cause Steam OS to continue to Develop. The longer it is being baked the better it will be in the end. Certainly people still need the need for Linux as an alternative to Windows and I have so little hope that OS X users would also see the need. Looking at you HTF+.
- simonh 12y ago> The longer it is being baked the better it will be in the end. Gnu HURD Forever!
- not_with_retard 12y agoDoesn't surprise me, since none been officially released yet.
- restalis 12y ago"I suspect he's used to developing in Windows, likely with visual studio, and in comparison, Linux can feel quite archaic. And in that context, maintaining Linux build systems can seem quite painful, likely the primary reason it's getting dropped." That's not it. Eric explained it in here: http://www.terathon.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=14050&sid=7b0525a1f9271a349bbb38c66c047b26&start=25#p127661 http://www.terathon.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=14050&sid...
- Arelius 12y agoThanks, I tried to search for more info but couldn't find it. I can't read this right now since it seems that Terathon.com is down, but will check it out.