F.E.A.R on linux?

bb002 · 11-27-2005, 03:12 PM

I want to know if fear is going to be ported to Linux. I've searched around and have found plenty of websites claiming to have a deticated linux server for download but nothing about a Linux client even existing. Can anyone clue me in?

cs-cam · 11-27-2005, 08:46 PM

No it won't. Lots of Windows games have dedicated servers available for linux because the ports are easy to write as they don't use graphics/sound. Clients are much more time-consuming to write, especially if they've used DirectX for video.

bb002 · 11-27-2005, 09:11 PM

Well if that isn't a slap in the face. Linux, you are not good enough to have a client for our game but we'll write a server piece of our game for you.

Yes it maybe time-consuming to support both operating systems but it has been done.

cs-cam · 11-27-2005, 10:16 PM

The thing is, if they were to use OpenGL rather than DirectX for graphics then writing a linux port wouldn't be very difficult or time-consuming at all! Most of the code would cleanly swap over, they'd just need to port the audio to something like OpenAL or SDL and write a basic frontend.

That's why ID released linux clients for games, not because of the warm anf fuzzy feeling it gives their CEO, because they use OpenGL for the graphics and it's easy to do and they have developers on their staff interested in doing it.