programmer looking for career change..
Author
Hey guys, new here..
i'm a web developer looking to dabble in a career making some games. I'm a little confused about how i should go about this because i'm an open source developer and i don't want that to change. Anyone here have any experience making games for linux? or if i should even bother?
if anyone could point me towards some resources that would be great, too. thanks!
Quote:Original post by instant oatmeal
Hey guys, new here..
i'm a web developer looking to dabble in a career making some games. I'm a little confused about how i should go about this because i'm an open source developer and i don't want that to change. Anyone here have any experience making games for linux? or if i should even bother?
if anyone could point me towards some resources that would be great, too. thanks!
It is possible to build games for Linux using the SDL library. You'll probably need to look at C or C++ as a primary language, although there are wrappers for other languages like Python -- depends on what kind of games you want to make. (The GNU toolchain is one of the few things you can expect to see on any Linux distro.)
Linux does have issues as a gaming platform, not the least of which is support. Windows already suffers from the requirement to support umpteen million permutations and combinations of hardware, and Linux has exactly the same problems squared: there are so many distros and variations of Linux that it's nigh-on impossible to build a universal installer which will work for everyone.
Also, from my own experience and those of friends in the industry, Linux gaming is not a viable market financially, so keep the day-job.
Author
Quote:Original post by stimarco
Also, from my own experience and those of friends in the industry, Linux gaming is not a viable market financially, so keep the day-job.
.. hehe, i bet!
But with ubuntu's increased popularity in a few years the distribution issue could become less of a problem though. In Windows you guys use DirectX for 3D graphics if i'm not mistaken, right? would you happen to know if there's an equivalent for linux?
edit: i completely forgot about openGL. wow, been away from games far too long..
Linux is great as a game development platform. I still find it hard to believe that programmers willingly go back to windows after having used it.
Anyway, I used to use SDL and C++ but now use Java with LWJGL (http://www.lwjgl.org).
If you get into 3D, there are lots of open source 3D engines that run on linux.
The equivalent to DX is OpenGL for graphics and OpenAL for sound. LWJGL has support for both.
Anyway, I used to use SDL and C++ but now use Java with LWJGL (http://www.lwjgl.org).
If you get into 3D, there are lots of open source 3D engines that run on linux.
The equivalent to DX is OpenGL for graphics and OpenAL for sound. LWJGL has support for both.
If you use Java + LWJGL, you can create games that will run on Windows, MacOS, and Linux. All three operating systems support OpenGL (the graphics library you'll want to use if you want to program 3D on Linux or MacOS) and LWJGL does abstract away differences in input devices (I have no experience with the Linux and MacOS libraries)
Edit: beaten by a second :D
Edit: beaten by a second :D
Author
i just did a quick search and i came up with
- irrlicht
- ORGE3d
- NeoEngine 3D
- Crystal space 3D
wow, i never knew all this existed for linux. i've been drowning in the boring world of php/mysql for too long! any of those you recommend?
edit: removed windows related engines :)
[Edited by - instant oatmeal on April 19, 2007 6:15:36 AM]
- irrlicht
- ORGE3d
- NeoEngine 3D
- Crystal space 3D
wow, i never knew all this existed for linux. i've been drowning in the boring world of php/mysql for too long! any of those you recommend?
edit: removed windows related engines :)
[Edited by - instant oatmeal on April 19, 2007 6:15:36 AM]
Can't vouch for any of them myself but others probably can.
Later down the track, if you want to play around with an FPS, you could use one of many suped-up Quake 2 or 3 engines out there. Or Cube , for that matter (http://wouter.fov120.com/cube). I did a fair bit of work with Cube about two years back. The charming thing about it is that its code base is only 8k lines. Problem is, it's 8k of shockingly messy code. Most of the work I did was on cleaning it up. Should really make that available for others, someday.
Later down the track, if you want to play around with an FPS, you could use one of many suped-up Quake 2 or 3 engines out there. Or Cube , for that matter (http://wouter.fov120.com/cube). I did a fair bit of work with Cube about two years back. The charming thing about it is that its code base is only 8k lines. Problem is, it's 8k of shockingly messy code. Most of the work I did was on cleaning it up. Should really make that available for others, someday.
Author
cube looks really nice!, i'm going to have to take a few hours later and check everything out. I'm going to brush up on my C and take it from there. Thanks to those who responded! i was completely lost. If you guys have any other recommendations, please post!
thanks again.
thanks again.
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