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So, some see Unity3D as one of the saviours of Linux gaming along with Steam. I, however, have been thinking more on this recently, and feel that it could be dangerous, not just for Linux, but for Indie developers in general to be so heavily reliant on one game engine.
It's great that we have such a popular game engine that supports building games for Linux, but what if this engine were to suddenly disappear? We would then have a lot of developers who would have no support, no updates, and be out of pocket.
In their FAQ they state you can get the source code, but it's expensive:
So, you see "smaller operations" would be quite out of luck by this.
Imagine if a bigger company came along and purchased Unity and took them over, would they move to drop Linux support in favour of, say, focusing on mobile platforms? What would we do then?
This is a general problem with using any closed source product: if something happens to the company, or they just drop support for something you use, then it can be pretty much tough luck. Don't get me wrong though, so far Unity has been fantastic for the Linux gaming scene in pushing forward some great games to us, and there are tons more on their way right now.
This may not ever actually become a problem of course, so I ask you the community, what are your thoughts on so many developers now relying on Unity? Now would be a good time to share with us your favourite open source game engines! Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
It's great that we have such a popular game engine that supports building games for Linux, but what if this engine were to suddenly disappear? We would then have a lot of developers who would have no support, no updates, and be out of pocket.
In their FAQ they state you can get the source code, but it's expensive:
QuoteWe license Unity source code on a per-case and per-title basis via special arrangements made by our business development team. As this can be quite expensive, we do not generally license source code to smaller operations, educational institutions, nor to companies in countries which do not have adequate legal intellectual property protection.
So, you see "smaller operations" would be quite out of luck by this.
Imagine if a bigger company came along and purchased Unity and took them over, would they move to drop Linux support in favour of, say, focusing on mobile platforms? What would we do then?
This is a general problem with using any closed source product: if something happens to the company, or they just drop support for something you use, then it can be pretty much tough luck. Don't get me wrong though, so far Unity has been fantastic for the Linux gaming scene in pushing forward some great games to us, and there are tons more on their way right now.
This may not ever actually become a problem of course, so I ask you the community, what are your thoughts on so many developers now relying on Unity? Now would be a good time to share with us your favourite open source game engines! Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Developer of "Race The Sun" here. My thought is: Let's enjoy it while we can and not fret too much about the worst possible outcomes of the future. Unity Technologies has an immense amount of momentum, and they're not going anywhere soon. The engine provides a means for small developers like Flippfly, who have just one or two programmers, to ship a Linux build in a reasonable amount of time - without a tool like this, we frankly probably wouldn't ship a Linux build at all.
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this only helps create an ecosysmtem whre there were none. after that who cares what unity does. something else will come along if there are people there
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this only helps create an ecosysmtem whre there were none. after that who cares what unity does. something else will come along if there are people there
Indeed, we have Unigine, we have other engines too on Linux already.
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How many people actually use Unigine? Last i checked, not many and it was very pricey.this only helps create an ecosysmtem whre there were none. after that who cares what unity does. something else will come along if there are people there
Indeed, we have Unigine, we have other engines too on Linux already.
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Microsoft XNA games got dropped by microsoft in favor for making devs use straight up D3D same thing could happen with Unity if the got taken up by some other organisation. Hopefully other game engines will come along or that Linux gaming grows due to valve and others efforts, to the extent that devs and publishers can't turn away from Linux!
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With Source3 an inevitability, Cryengine getting a Linux port, Leadwerks looking like a decent alternative, and the UDK looking more and more likely, I don't think crossplatform development being tied to one engine will be much of an issue in the long term. Right now, Unity is the single go-to engine if you want to do a Linux port, no doubt. But with the way things are looking, this won't be the case for much longer.
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Unfortunately, the kickstarter campaign for bringing Torque3D to Linux, was a flop. The guys asked for just 30.000$ but they got only 10 and now we are left with just one guy to make the port during his free time and we lose Age of Decadence as well :(
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With Source3 an inevitability, Cryengine getting a Linux port, Leadwerks looking like a decent alternative, and the UDK looking more and more likely, I don't think crossplatform development being tied to one engine will be much of an issue in the long term. Right now, Unity is the single go-to engine if you want to do a Linux port, no doubt. But with the way things are looking, this won't be the case for much longer.I agree, as Linux becomes more and more popular other engines will support it, with SteamOS we will have more options in the near future in my opinion.
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And relying on Steam is better than that? There's others engines, I wouldn't worry a bit about Unity3D dropping GNU/Linux support. We wouldn't see so many games but it wouldn't be the end of anything.
That doesn't sound scary at all, if you want to sound scary tell us about Steam goodies. :-)
That doesn't sound scary at all, if you want to sound scary tell us about Steam goodies. :-)
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I agree, and it's what I've been saying. We are putting way too many Eggs in the Unity basket. Developers, please try to be more diverse.
I'm with berarma also, the same goes for Steam. We could be digging our own grave here if these two things go belly up. I've never really been a fan of Unity anyway, it's slow and clunky; just feels unoptimized. And what little of the Unigine games I've played, that engine is very smooth and feels right. I've actually found myself trying not to use Steam lately, I don't like locking myself into anything.
As far as the next Source engine, we don't even really know what features it will offer or how well it works. It's too early to talk about. If it spits out games like Serious Sam 3, then it's not going to go very well for that either. That game is a mess of headache inducing, over-bloomed rubbish.
I'm with berarma also, the same goes for Steam. We could be digging our own grave here if these two things go belly up. I've never really been a fan of Unity anyway, it's slow and clunky; just feels unoptimized. And what little of the Unigine games I've played, that engine is very smooth and feels right. I've actually found myself trying not to use Steam lately, I don't like locking myself into anything.
As far as the next Source engine, we don't even really know what features it will offer or how well it works. It's too early to talk about. If it spits out games like Serious Sam 3, then it's not going to go very well for that either. That game is a mess of headache inducing, over-bloomed rubbish.
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I just wish we got to see a Unity editor, or even just the web player! Either way, I think it's generated a lot of interest in Linux. As for steam, I've hardly seen a Linux title on it that wasn't available somewhere else as well, so I'm not too worried.
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As far as the next Source engine, we don't even really know what features it will offer or how well it works. It's too early to talk about. If it spits out games like Serious Sam 3, then it's not going to go very well for that either. That game is a mess of headache inducing, over-bloomed rubbish.
That game is not built on Source, but rather Croteam's own Serious Engine.
As for steam, I've hardly seen a Linux title on it that wasn't available somewhere else as well, so I'm not too worried.
I would not go that far because there are quite a few, but I have been impressed with the amount of diversity that has remained even after the introduction of Steam. Both Desura and Humble Store have proven to be viable alternatives, more so than I would have expected. In fact, at this point Humble Store fights the good fight for DRM free games far more than Humble Bundle does, strangely enough.
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And what little of the Unigine games I've played, that engine is very smooth and feels right.
Oil Rush is the only Unigine game I know, are there others?
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And what little of the Unigine games I've played, that engine is very smooth and feels right.
Oil Rush is the only Unigine game I know, are there others?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unigine#Games
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Renzatic, what makes you think the UDK is likely to receive Linux support?
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Isn't there still C4 Engine as alternative? That one doesn't seem too bad either, though, is missing "some" tools. Stource Engine has been ported, the CryEngine will probably see a port too, and I'm pretty sure a few other developers are looking into that issue for their next version of engine as well.
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Renzatic, what makes you think the UDK is likely to receive Linux support?
Simple competition. With SteamOS up and coming, and all its competitors slowly and surely adding Linux support, it'd be strange if it were the only high end engine lacking it.
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Renzatic, what makes you think the UDK is likely to receive Linux support?
Simple competition. With SteamOS up and coming, and all its competitors slowly and surely adding Linux support, it'd be strange if it were the only high end engine lacking it.
They won't be. Frostbite, Gamebryo, etc will not receive Linux support. Don't take recent DICE statements regarding Linux seriously even if they mean it, EA will never let them support Linux in any way, shape or form. I consider Epic bought and paid for by MS(See Bulletstorm using GFWL even though it was published by EA, their main studio not releasing anything for PC since UT3 and the cancelled UT3 Linux port).
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They won't be. Frostbite, Gamebryo, etc will not receive Linux support. Don't take recent DICE statements regarding Linux seriously even if they mean it, EA will never let them support Linux in any way, shape or form. I consider Epic bought and paid for by MS(See Bulletstorm using GFWL even though it was published by EA, their main studio not releasing anything for PC since UT3 and the cancelled UT3 Linux port).
EA will let Dice support it if the money's there, which is what all this comes down to. If Valve can carve a solid niche out for themselves, which is very much a possibility, then developer support will come pouring in from everywhere and everyone.
Also, I wouldn't say Epic is bought and paid for by MS just because they used GFWL. Back during its heyday, it was used by publishers mostly because of the names behind it, and its freewheeling use of rather heavy handed DRM schemes (which are always loved by the big publishers). That doesn't mean they're MS shills, just that they use MS platforms.
As for Epic not releasing any games themselves for the PC, this is true, but you've gotta separate Epic Megagames from Epic UDK. They themselves might not be so gung ho about the PC as they used to be, but there are tons upon tons of developers who license UDK to release PC only games. As game developers, they make more money by targetting what they believe to be the best platform with the best return on investments. As engine developers, they'll release an engine that can port to every platform imaginable to support the needs and wishes of every other developer out there. Because if they don't, someone else will.
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I wonder why indie devs use Unity3D (3th) when they have Blender 17th engine on ModDB. The Spring engine, http://www.evolutionrts.info looks cool! :D
The Leadwerks engine could be the killer app for Steam machine :)
Unfortunatly it's not GPLed...
P.S: linux game devs need updated books. Last book that I read was Programming Linux Games by J. Hall (R.I.P. :( ), 2001 Loki Software.
Why do Ryan Gordon not write a book about his experiencing in programming/porting linux games?
The Leadwerks engine could be the killer app for Steam machine :)
Unfortunatly it's not GPLed...
P.S: linux game devs need updated books. Last book that I read was Programming Linux Games by J. Hall (R.I.P. :( ), 2001 Loki Software.
Why do Ryan Gordon not write a book about his experiencing in programming/porting linux games?
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