Interesting bit of news today, folks, as the teams behind the widely popular PlayOnLinux and PlayOnMac applications have announced their new service, PortMyApps. The website gives a short list of reasons why one would want to port to Mac/Linux as well as a system that also allows you to test out your specific program for free.
Those familiar with WineSkins on Mac OS X may be familiar with the methodology.
Basically, it just wraps your Windows program in a standalone Wine environment which doesn't require any additional configuration or setup on the intended platform (in theory).
This service is obviously geared toward software publishers, but any program can be "ported." There is even an online feature that allows you to upload a Windows program via a zip and see if it will work with their solution (Linux support soon).
Overall, I'm pleased to see this program/service exist. I feel as if this could convince more developers to port their games and programs, even if it's not native. What do you guys think?
Source: http://en.portmyapps.com/
UPDATE: One of the people involved with PortMyApps wrote the following in the article comments:
Those familiar with WineSkins on Mac OS X may be familiar with the methodology.
Basically, it just wraps your Windows program in a standalone Wine environment which doesn't require any additional configuration or setup on the intended platform (in theory).
This service is obviously geared toward software publishers, but any program can be "ported." There is even an online feature that allows you to upload a Windows program via a zip and see if it will work with their solution (Linux support soon).
Overall, I'm pleased to see this program/service exist. I feel as if this could convince more developers to port their games and programs, even if it's not native. What do you guys think?
Source: http://en.portmyapps.com/
UPDATE: One of the people involved with PortMyApps wrote the following in the article comments:
tinouAs a developer of PlayOnLinux, and by reading some comments, I want to make things clearer;Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
This tool is noway made to discorage use of native ports. In fact, you cannot use it port games because it is limited 50Mo.
It is designed for very specific apps (like the one we ported) that could not and would not be ported in other way, or very old game (in general the source code is lost).
Games that can be natively ported won't be ported with PortMyApps, it is not planed for the moment. (And there are no point for that!)
Anyway, we do not have enough resources to bring profesional support for a game played by million of users, so clearly we won't take this risk ...
Also, you'll notice that the website is called PortMyApps, and not PortMyBrandNewGame ;-) ...
Wine's results are too variable for us to afford the risk to work for very big companies ...
Game editors that are interested in Linux do not want to give a bad image of their brand by bringing a low quality support for a title. Valve has proven it by not using wine for Steam.
0 Likes
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
Patreon
PayPal
If it really is a small studio who can't afford it then put your source out there (NOT the content) and let the linux community sort it out. If it's something that enough want then someone will port it for little to nothing. Then they will still get the game sale they might otherwise have not so the person can get the data needed to run on the native binary.
I just don't want to see it become even more of a crutch than it already is that they get use to using instead of doing it the right way.
thanks for this, makes me feel a bit better about it.
EDIT* if the source is truely lost because it is that old I really don't have a problem with it as it will most likely show no difference in performance (ie frames locked to 60) than if it was run in windows. Using it as a crutch for newer stuff sucks for me personally. When running in ultra wide (5760x1080) I tend to need every ounce of power my rig has to run them natively in windows.. so when you subtract the loss in performance from using wine it's usually a show stopper for me. I also completely understand that my setup is in no way standard and that I am a minority.
It will depend on the context. I know for example that GoG use wine for old games because they have no other choice. Our role is first to give good advices. Be sure we're going to be very clear about wine disadvantages versus a real native port.
@vulture, don't worry, we won't port Skyrim.
Well, we are thinking about it, but for the moment, they are doing things on their side ;-)
Also, you'll notice that the website is called PortMyApps, and not PortMyBrandNewGame ;-)
I know.. I'm more speaking of wine in general and not pointing at POL exclusively. I just hope it stays "PortMyApps" and doesn't end up being "PortMyGames". that's all I was getting at. Give people an inch and they take a mile =)
Do not worry, it will stay PortMyApps ;-) As I said, Wine's results are too variable for us to afford the risk to work for very big companies, :-)
That won't happen really. Game editors that are interested in Linux do not want to give a bad image of their brand by bringing a low quality support for a title. Valve has proven it by not using wine for Steam.
This. The true solution for old games are source code releases, wherever possible.
If there really are enough arguments to make this not happen (other than losing the code in question) then you just demonstrated the game is still valuable enough that you should be doing it properly with a native port rather than simply using WINE.
I can accept WINE and DOSBox for abandoned games, or even if it is done by people in their own time for a specific interest, but if you are a game developer and are still actually serious about your old games, please either release the code or do a native port.