Linux games :)

Johan K · #1 October 9th, 2003, 11:20 PM

Quote:

How will you know if Dom 2 is being used on Linux or the Mac? I did not add any comments when I pre-ordered Dom2...

Shrapnel games might know something more about this.

However we will release patches later on and they will be seperate downloads for different platforms. So by counting the downloads it should be quite easy to see if a particular OS is used or not.

Richard · #2 October 9th, 2003, 11:33 PM

There will be no way to know. Except we could track trends in specific browsers, but that doesn't really track people that order.

The patch thing makes the most sense.

Instar · #3 October 20th, 2003, 11:46 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Johan K:

quote:
How will you know if Dom 2 is being used on Linux or the Mac? I did not add any comments when I pre-ordered Dom2...

Shrapnel games might know something more about this.

However we will release patches later on and they will be seperate downloads for different platforms. So by counting the downloads it should be quite easy to see if a particular OS is used or not.

Just a technical question for you. How are you maintaining interoperability? Is the program made in Java? Or maybe you just use standard C++ or whatever and then have different modules that have the platform specific code?

Johan K · #4 October 21st, 2003, 11:15 AM

Dominions II is programmed in pure C with platform specific files for some parts. These parts are for graphics+events, sound and network. The platform specific part is about 2% of the code, so porting to a new platform is a quite quick process.

Instar · #5 October 21st, 2003, 04:35 PM

That must take some effort to make it like that, you have to have good programming discipline to do that. Good stuff.

reimero · #6 October 21st, 2003, 10:03 PM

As far as Mac ports go, I do know that Apple is on top of their PR game right now, and I know that if you make a Mac app that runs on OSX and let Apple know about it, Apple will do at least a little bit of promotion on it on their site, regardless how well-known the developer is. About 2 years ago, their "featured partner" of the month was this little outfit called Ambrosia Software, which still operates as a shareware company.

I also know that in recent months, Ambrosia has worked with at least one other small Windows developer to port a game to the Mac platform. I have zero knowledge of how this worked or what business arrangement they came up with. I just know they worked something out and did it, so it can be done.

Saber Cherry · #7 October 28th, 2003, 07:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by reimero:
As far as Mac ports go, I do know that Apple is on top of their PR game right now, and I know that if you make a Mac app that runs on OSX and let Apple know about it, Apple will do at least a little bit of promotion on it on their site, regardless how well-known the developer is. About 2 years ago, their "featured partner" of the month was this little outfit called Ambrosia Software, which still operates as a shareware company.

I also know that in recent months, Ambrosia has worked with at least one other small Windows developer to port a game to the Mac platform. I have zero knowledge of how this worked or what business arrangement they came up with. I just know they worked something out and did it, so it can be done.

Great suggestion! I'll call up Jobs right away. ...oops, I forgot he has me blacklisted because I bash Macs so much

But it would be great for Macophiles, Shrapnel, Illwinter and the Dominions community if, say, Apple would show off Dom II and post the demo on its main site. Maybe Shrapnel has the clout to be heard by Apple PR people?