ID Software Moving Further Away From Linux, QuakeLive Going Native

This is a sad move by ID Software but understandable. Compared to Windows both the Linux and MacOS user base is quite small but since Linux as platform is very fragmented (different drivers, kernels, desktop environments, etc), it is very likely to cause imense support effort. Period.

ID software has had its time with Doom and Quake but lastly games such as Rage IMO could not really compete with other titles such as Borderlands, Deux Ex 3 or Bioshock.

We are talking about Q3 here folks. Something that runs / has been ported to pretty much any system you can think of. Even my Raspi is able to run Q3A.

Frankly...ID...get lost...

With games like Metro - Last Night and Serious Sam BFG running natively on Linux and SteamOS around the corner I think ID might change their opinion soon. But don't count on my money anymore...

This is a sad move by ID Software but understandable. Compared to Windows both the Linux and MacOS user base is quite small but since Linux as platform is very fragmented (different drivers, kernels, desktop environments, etc), it is very likely to cause imense support effort. Period.

I'm a bit tired of this FUD. Just one man was supporting ID titles on GNU/Linux and they worked really well, period. Indie developers are doing it without that much effort. Windows or Android are much more fragmented and often even broken and still supported by most publishers.

We are talking about Q3 here folks. Something that runs / has been ported to pretty much any system you can think of. Even my Raspi is able to run Q3A.

No immense support effort.

Correctly supporting a game has a cost on every platform, saying is harder on GNU/Linux than other systems without an evidence is FUD. Maybe it isn't profitable because the number of users is currently very low, but it's not because of technical deficiencies.

Id Software isn't that good as a game developer.  Since Quake3/Wolfenstein everything has been pretty bad, and consider their older games are basic, it doesn't say much for John Carmack and the company.  They make corridor railed games with little interaction, so if they leave Android/Linux/Mac field nothing really lost.

Linux ports might have been written by only one man but this was supported by the company (unless he did all this stuff in the sparetime).
Also the release of the engine source code for Doom and Quake was supported by the company. Saying the Linux ports and the resulting eco-system was the result of one man indeed is really FUD :)

>>Correctly supporting a game has a cost on every platform, saying is harder on GNU/Linux
>>than other systems without an evidence is FUD. Maybe it isn't profitable because the number
>>of users is currently very low, but it's not because of technical deficiencies.
I work in quality assurance / support for both client and server software which runs both under Windows and Linux. Claiming I have no evidence without knowing my background is funny.....

I know that every additional Linux distribution we support (e.g. RHEL, SLES, etc) doubles our testing efforts and potentially means side effects you are not always aware off. And we are talking here about Java EE stuff without relationship to Xorg version, GPU drivers, installed toolkits, libsdl and so on....

So this is FUD ? Have fun developing you first game for Linux, Android, Windows and MacOS. Then do support yourself and report what causes most report issue.

Id Software isn't that good as a game developer. Since Quake3/Wolfenstein everything has been pretty bad, and consider their older games are basic, it doesn't say much for John Carmack and the company. They make corridor railed games with little interaction, so if they leave Android/Linux/Mac field nothing really lost.

I can't speak for Rage, but every previous id game has had its merits, and they definitely were not "railed games". Doom 3 even offered a lot of interactions and side details to find and enjoy; they were never Call of Duty where you actually get penalized for exploring. And if you can not find something to appreciate in their older titles then you obviously have no notion of the historical context or just how much innovations were present in them.

Linux ports might have been written by only one man but this was supported by the company (unless he did all this stuff in the sparetime). Also the release of the engine source code for Doom and Quake was supported by the company. Saying the Linux ports and the resulting eco-system was the result of one man indeed is really FUD :)

No, you are still the one spreading FUD. The only officially supported Linux ports by id were Quake III Arena and Quake Live; all the rest were side-projects done by employees in their spare time. Timothée Besset ported all of the id games with Linux ports post Loki, and all of them had the consent but not the support of the management. When Zenimax purchased them, they changed this by no longer allowing the release of unsupported binaries, meaning that only official Linux ports could be made, which id was never really willing to do since the Loki Software debacle.

So this is FUD ? Have fun developing you first game for Linux, Android, Windows and MacOS. Then do support yourself and report what causes most report issue.

I am not in a position to doubt your experiences, but they are indeed different than some of the others I have heard reported. No piece of software is the same, so neither will be the QA experience, on any platform.

Looking backwards it may be tempting to think early id games were not innovative, but really they contributed basic ideas and perspectives that were so important they are now taken for granted... reminds me of hearing a friend comment that the biggest weakness of LoTR was that it tended to be rather stereotypical fantasy :P

Id Software isn't that good as a game developer.  Since Quake3/Wolfenstein everything has been pretty bad, and consider their older games are basic, it doesn't say much for John Carmack and the company.  They make corridor railed games with little interaction, so if they leave Android/Linux/Mac field nothing really lost.

Is this for real? Corridor railed games? Have you even played the original doom? They are full of massive levels where you have to explore ever nook just to get through the level? Before id games didnt even have height or even 3d level design. They created the FPS genre and pc online play, they coined the term deathmatch. Without id we wouldnt even have the basis for modern gaming. I do agree as far as quake 3 being the last game you can really call good but saying they make games with little interaction and railed corridors tells me you didnt play pc games when those came out. Maybe you werent even born or old enough to play. This is maddness. There was only id games in the 90s everything else was pretty much irrelevant. Not to mention they allowed for game modding and people created their own WADS/levels and assets. They pushed the boundaries more than anyone. I would recommend reading the book "masters of doom" before saying such things.