Unity Confirms They Have No Plans For A Linux Editor

Yes, it is an issue, because it means that games will continue being developed on Windows, and Linux version will be just a port, if at all.

Guess im not getting into unity development :/ helping to fund leadwerks was the right thing to do after all.

Well, i'm not developing with unity then either. OGREs opensource anyway so meh.

This means that developers that are using Unity (probably) won't migrate to Linux to do their developing. While this isn't a big loss for end-users, it does mean that the devs are locked down to expensive operating systems, and I don't think that's a good thing.

Developers are people too, they should be able to use whichever OS they prefer.

that's too bad. I'm glad that we've got so many games from the Unity engine, but it's a shame Linux devs won't be joining their large community.

Yes, it is an issue, because it means that games will continue being developed on Windows, and Linux version will be just a port, if at all.

This is true. All those games that we are STILL waiting for (Interstellar Marines, Gloria Victis, 7 Days to Die)....they wont see a Linux port until they are finished. Even then, the possibility of them canceling out that port is still there. Making Native games directly on Linux with Unity 3d, would mean that Windows and Mac would be a "Port". I know unity 3d has brought Linux alot of games, but it also seems like its still difficult for people to just simply "press the Linux port" button. If it was on Linux, it wouldn't be such a problem. As for the Mac versions...they always come out quicker because of their Mac Editor version. Im having a Love / Hate relationship with Unity. Im tired of Linux being the last "porting option", mostly because of those developers who want to finish the game on another platform first "Winddoze", and building their games with Third party plugins that dont work on Linux, so they have to spend even more time getting it to work, and then after that Linux version is released, go through another set of bugs found while playing it in Linux.

Also, having more tools like this on Linux would be awesome. I know we have plenty of Opensource game engines and a few good editing tools, but there is always room for more.

Lame. It is definitely an issue, even if I now never plan to use it, having put my eggs in a different basket.

I suspect they'll cave, eventually. That, or they'll slowly cease to be relevant as devs migrate to other tools. If CryENGINE allows dev on Linux, I don't know why anyone would choose Unity3D, aside from the community and probably moreso the pricing (which I have not researched, I'm just assuming it's a lopsided comparison). But as stated, there are other options.

I'm not saying there isn't a bad side, but I guess the good side to this is that it will give more users to Godot and Leadwerks. I'm particularly interestested in Godot. It's Github contributions are coming from all over the place.

$ git shortlog -sn | wc -l
29

The first two are Okam but I think the others are independent of Okam.

I'm developing using Unity. It's a really good development environment and gets stuff done. I'm running it under WINE, which is not ideal, and if I get more established as an independent developer and able to devote more time to educating myself I'd very much like to move away from it entirely.

Thing is, running the editor under Wine seems to mostly use the wine-mono stuff, making me think that shipping a Linux-native editor might not be all that much effort for them, making this attitude doubly stupid.

Would love to have my frakking votes back though! :P

I really hope they cave on this. It seems very silly to be able to port games to a DE like linux that is obviously set up in a manner that could still facilitate their editor's environment (mouse and keyboard) and not provide the option of using said editor in that environment.

I understand it would take some work, but it's still pretty sad.

I really hope they cave on this. It seems very silly to be able to port games to a DE like linux that is obviously set up in a manner that could still facilitate their editor's environment (mouse and keyboard) and not provide the option of using said editor in that environment.

I understand it would take some work, but it's still pretty sad.

don't bet on them caving in. if you read their forums, they really hate Linux and use any nonsense to not create port of editor. biggest nonsense probably being that they would need to be sure that they'll sell 1000 pro licenses just to cover costs. and when company needs 1.5mio$ to port application, there are only few things that you can think off
- application is done so terribly wrong it will need 10 complete rewrites to fix it up where it is usable
- they employ monkeys instead of coders and hope that they'll press something sensible while mashing the keyboard
- they just don't want to port it

I'm developing using Unity. It's a really good development environment and gets stuff done. I'm running it under WINE, which is not ideal, and if I get more established as an independent developer and able to devote more time to educating myself I'd very much like to move away from it entirely.

Thing is, running the editor under Wine seems to mostly use the wine-mono stuff, making me think that shipping a Linux-native editor might not be all that much effort for them, making this attitude doubly stupid.

Would love to have my frakking votes back though! :P

and by using Unity like that, you're actually increasing the fact that they don't need to port it. beside the fact that you're in even worse than simply using it on windows. how do you tweak performance when you never get real results.

when i was checking which one to use, Unity was 1st on the off list simply because developers are so Linux unfriendly. wouldn't even bother with tool where only way to develop for Linux is crossing your fingers. that's why i wait on Leadwerks (don't care about Mac at all)

how do you tweak performance when you never get real results

By building a Linux build. Unless I misunderstand the question.

Game engines are anyway for no brainers. Making own game engine is what real linux users do. Like Half-shot said it is much better to create own game engine using graphical engines like ogre. That way you really don't depend on anyone in case company that made it bankrupts.

how do you tweak performance when you never get real results

By building a Linux build. Unless I misunderstand the question.

doesn't that require running outside Unity? at that point you lost most of reason why to use framework like that. anything run in Unity is bound to wine flaws where you don't get accurate performance picture

Shiva 2.0 editor is also coming to linux, more competition the better.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTYxMTc


View video on youtube.com

I'd rather just use Leadwerks anyway. I don't want to have to add an entire other OS into my development workflow.

This is just my opinion, but I feel that the indie gaming community would develop that much more of a foothold in the market if easy-to-use tools were available on Linux.

When they'll wake up, it's gonna be too late.
Leadwerks is powering through with the linux beta of the editor.

Its a good engine, have played around with it.
Unity along with UDK would be a good bonus ..sad they not coming to Linux.

Just did my first app for linux with unity.

Having to build it in windows and then pull it over to a linux box to test if my code works is a pain! I ended up having to write way more than I like to a log file just to see when or why something failed in my code on linux.

Its not as simple as writing in on windows unity and hitting build for linux. It's not always going to work.

But for what unity is I'm happy to have the ability to build it.

Well, every voter can put up to 10 votes on an issue. So, from 10k votes, we can expect about 1k voters. I put all my 10 on that suggestion... And I would be one of the "developers who would buy it and develop on Linux" for sure. I use Linux for everything except playing Windows-only games. And I mean it: if I need to access my e-mail when on Windows, I switch back to Linux just to access it (an easy task once you have SSDs ;-) ).

Using Windows is a pain.