[MUD-Dev] Semi-OT: Linux support in commercial MUDs?

[Bruce]

Ola Fosheim Gr=F8stad wrote:
> Do you think that Linux will become a viable target platform for
> commercial MUDs?  I don't know a whole lot about the Windows API, but
> now that Linux is getting better GL support and there are reasonable
> quality GUI toolkits then maybe I don't have to?

Well, I wouldn't do a Linux-only game yet.  We're working on a game that
will support both Windows and Linux from the start:
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/000121/nc_ientert_1.html

On the API side, SDL (http://www.devolution.com/~slouken/SDL/) is fairly
interesting:

----begin quote----
Simple DirectMedia Layer is a cross-platform multimedia library
designed to provide fast access to the graphics framebuffer and audio
device. It is used by MPEG playback software, emulators, and many
popular games, including the award winning Linux port of "Civilization:
Call To Power." Simple DirectMedia Layer supports Linux, Win32, BeOS,
along with ports in progress to MacOS, IRIX, Solaris, and FreeBSD.=20
----end quote------

Additionally, the CVS version of SDL has initial support for working
with OpenGL.  Excepting a port of SDL to the Playstation2, what else
could you want in terms of platform support? :)

Qt is an interesting choice that they've made here.  We've not yet made
plans on how we'll handle the cross platform support, but I'd be
interested in knowing how much of the game UI actually used Qt widgets
rather than custom drawn widgets.

There are also a number of licensable 3D engines for Linux these days.=20
Q3, Unreal are both there. Lithtech is being ported.

> I wonder how the a MUD populated with Unix/Linux users differs from the
> same MUD populated with Windows users. Maybe it would be advantageous t=
o
> do the alphatesting with a Linux only version?

I'll leave this to someone else.

 - Bruce



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