EVE General Discussion

No it's not, however programming for different mobiles IS. Mostly due to vendor feckups such as HTC lol

Programming for Windows game platforms is easy, just use Steam Hardware Survey for REAL LIFE metrics on platforms and pick some to target. Mobiles however is not so easy, thanks to HTC and co fecking up with vendor specific issues.

Even worse, is Linux, so let's just skip that all together :) Mac, Windows, PS and XBOX are too easy to code for, just use Unreal Engine :) Mobiles its a pain in the arse, Linux, don't even go there. Anyway too little money on Linux anyway and the only reason we take the pain with mobiles is the huge money pot via viral word of mouth on games and socal heresay and also micro payments. Large volume of impulse purcahses and low cost. Even better is facebook games, spam their wall's for free advertising :)

The reason game devs usually don't write for Linux is the same reason novels aren't written in Latin.

Mac's have virus and spyware and everything else that haunts Windows systems but the fact that there are not that many compared to Windows is why you do not hear about them.

Like I always tell people. Why create a Virus for a Million users when you can create one for a billion users?

Also Windows is the most used OS on the planet and most used for home computers which is what most games are built for home users to play on home computers. (granted my home PC is a beast and way better then my computer at work and I am in the IT field).

MAC is a solid OS but the price of Apples is what turns me away, why would I pay an extra $1000 dollars for an Apple logo? The hardware inside is the same as a PC, so why spend the extra money? (Unless you are make graphics or sound, PC does everything better)

Linux is a great OS but not many people are going to be able to use it, many people can't use windows and you want them to have to use command lines? yea right.

PS3, Xbox360 both use Linux OS. I think it is funny as hell that Xbox360 does not use a windows OS and its made by Microsoft who's flag ship product is Windows.

As much as I love GNU/Linux, would you rather develop for a solid metal block(MS Windows), or lego (GNU/Linux)

I use both, but I don't tend to use Linux with a GUI because I can use Windows instead. Linux is handy, but lets face it, it's never going to be a mainstream desktop OS, and I'm fine with that. I do a lot of work in the 'cloud' and MS has it sewn up (along with Citrix). I know of entire organisations that are moving to cloud based systems and replacing all their agents laptops with iPads... do MS care? Not a jot because the iPads are connecting to Windows 7 VDIs.. result is MS make even more money than if those laptops were replaced like for like with Windows/Office installed.

They've won, someone had to. Let's keep encouraging them to make the progress they've shown with 2008 R2, W7 and now Server 8.

As for Linux, as a poster said earlier it can be a huge pain in the arse. I've spent 2 days trying to get a server up and running that does little more than IDS/IPS and it was a complete nightmare on a 64bit CentOS distro. The same software on a Windows box was up and running in under 20 minutes.

*shrug*

It's expected though. Windows is a general purpose OS, Linux works best when it isn't.

Open GL is a mess to code from what I understand. When they refused to properly update it for so long to match the ease of use of Direct X. Many developers jumped ship.

Open GL thought they could be lazy and keep to the old ways longer. In the meantime game development costs skyrocketed so savings from switching to DX were significant.

Nvidia got most of it's tech bumps from acquisitions, not research and that link kinda backs that statement up. Don't get me wrong, it's my favorite provider of graphics technology at the moment, but their skills really lie in marketing, not innovation.

If 3dfx had survived graphics processing would probably be a fair bit further than it is now.

Open GL can be powerful but it was never really intended for games.

As for catering to Linux, I think it's a dark plot to trick the independent-minded into an endless world of codec/driver/source lib HELL and getting nothing done.

And I don't see Bill Gates standing on a bridge ready to kill himself just because some people don't use Windows.

I think the joke is on those who don't. Ever try to get some work done with people like that? Lots of time spent on user groups trying to find a driver or compile something or some make file is not working.

Yes yes, resist Microsoft and Bill Gates and his eugenics-driven new world order agenda. I get it.


But when I need a gun, do I try to make one from scrap metal that will probably fail after a few shots or do I get creative with a hammer and get one made in a factory owned by the enemy but I know it will work?

Using Windows is what I like to call the Maquis approach. They took Federation ships and modified them.

And finally, even a rudimentary knowledge of C#, the XNA game studio setup, and some "model import fu" can have you creating games in short order. In one day I made a demo program for a graphics project (not a game but I had freedom to choose how I did it) with a little space ship flying around and I used a Tie Interceptor model found on the web, and I wrote my own EvE-like quaternion camera class for it, and it launched little missiles (yeah Tie Interceptors didn't have missiles I get it for the last time).

And I am no expert in XNA, but it was all free and it works.

Linux... I love Linux for my servers and general browsing / productivity boxes. OGL support for any recent hardware is abysmal though.

I loose 50% or more of my frame rate going from native Windows OGL binaries to native Linux OGL binaries.

Java OTOH absolutely screams on Linux. My Minecraft servers run faster on exponentially slower hardware when using Linux

Once many nerfs ago CCP did have a Linux client. Sadly it ended as the numbers of nix users didn't justify the cost of development.