Aquaria on Ubuntu Software Center

[IcyEyeG]

I've recently purchased the Humble Indie Bundle V and noticed it is now integrated with the Ubuntu Software Center. I installed the games and it actually works quite well. One of the great things about it is giving access to automatic updates later on.

So this kept me wondering, if Aquaria could be released to the Ubuntu Software Center, to keep my Aquaria Ubuntu build easily up-to-date.

Has this ever been considered?

EDIT: Just to clarify, I'm asking if it has been considered to sell Aquaria on USC, like many other Indie games.

[False.Genesis]

Ubuntu will never ship the *newest* version. Newest official maybe, but the nature of open source stuff is to move quite quickly usually
Depends on how up-to-date you'd like to stay, that is.

EDIT: Also i doubt there will ever be an official update again. If you're not scared to use unofficial stuff, better do that.
EDIT2: I mean, Windows is still stuck on 1.1.1 from 2008, and there is no official 64 bit version for linux. What you get from the HiB is 32 bits (and for example, in my case, makes my sound driver die, so i have no choice but to use a self-built 64 bit binary)

[IcyEyeG]

Well, I think you are right. But, it'd be nice to see Aquaria at the USC, since you see tons of Indie Games selling there. It'd be a way to increase the user base (Maybe I'm being too naive). I say this, because the Aquaria website doesn't show anything about running or purchasing Aquaria for Linux, which is a shame.

I also use an unofficial build for me as well, but at least it would be nice to see a "semi-official" PPA to make things easier.
Vincent's PPA at https://launchpad.net/~vincent-c/+archive/aquaria works well enough, but I don't think it has the latest commits from http://hg.icculus.org/icculus/aquaria/.

[False.Genesis]

Well, I think you are right. But, it'd be nice to see Aquaria at the USC, since you see tons of Indie Games selling there. It'd be a way to increase the user base (Maybe I'm being too naive). I say this, because the Aquaria website doesn't show anything about running or purchasing Aquaria for Linux, which is a shame.

Very true. But seriously, the official support is near (?) zero, so who do you expect to update it? Had the same thought and suggested it already, but noone cared.
Derek isn't around at all, and Alec only once a month. Too bad. Only thing that could help without involving any of the two is probably a good PHP 0-day exploit. *sigh*

I also use an unofficial build for me as well, but at least it would be nice to see a "semi-official" PPA to make things easier.
Vincent's PPA at https://launchpad.net/~vincent-c/+archive/aquaria works well enough, but I don't think it has the latest commits from http://hg.icculus.org/icculus/aquaria/.

The icculus repo is also outdated, use mine: https://bitbucket.org/fgenesis/aquaria
*shameless self-promotion*

[IcyEyeG]

The icculus repo is also outdated, use mine: https://bitbucket.org/fgenesis/aquaria
*shameless self-promotion*

Ah, didn't know that one (Vincent probably doesn't know it either, I'll see if he can update the PPA), I hope your contribs get merged to icculus for the sake of not reenventing the wheel.

A bit OT, but I didn't know bitbucket. Why not using your github account, if I may ask? Is it because it uses Hg?

And by the way, thanks for your hard work!

[False.Genesis]

I'm using both.
But for the sake of merging my changes into the official repo (should that ever happen), which is HG, i made this HG repo that mirrors my git development repo (and contains less "Oops i screwed up"-commits ).
I'm waiting for my changes to get merged since November - I bet Ryan is too busy to handle user contribs, so I stopped spamming the mailing list with patches and am working on it as a fork instead... Trying to establish a new standard, because the icculus repo doesn't seem to get anywhere anytime soon.

EDIT: And of course there is also the iPad code everyone is waiting for... would be so cool to merge this in, or to port all changes that were made to the old code to this new code.
If it gets released during my exam time i'll have a *huge* problem.

EDIT2: And just btw, who did you expect to provide updates to the USC? If they don't even manage to update steam/win32/osx/anything else/provide a version for mac-steam. Ok, the iPad version, yes, this is new. But this is achurch's work, and he's *so* reluctant to give any infos. Hasn't posted here for a long time, that is.
Hate to say it but there are cases where a community needs to help itself.

[IcyEyeG]

I'm using both.
But for the sake of merging my changes into the official repo (should that ever happen), which is HG, i made this HG repo that mirrors my git development repo (and contains less "Oops i screwed up"-commits ).
I'm waiting for my changes to get merged since November - I bet Ryan is too busy to handle user contribs, so I stopped spamming the mailing list with patches and am working on it as a fork instead... Trying to establish a new standard, because the icculus repo doesn't seem to get anywhere anytime soon.

That's what I thought. I do hope Ryan finds the time to give a look at your set of patches though, at least to make things consistent and more tested.
In the meantime, I'll start paying attention to your repo.

EDIT: And of course there is also the iPad code everyone is waiting for... would be so cool to merge this in, or to port all changes that were made to the old code to this new code.
If it gets released during my exam time i'll have a *huge* problem.

Indeed, that, I think, would increase the chances for, at least, an unofficial Android port. Or at least to keep up the pace to the plethora of multitouch computers that are going to be released by the end of the year (judging from all the buzz from the 2012 Computex).

EDIT2: And just btw, who did you expect to provide updates to the USC? If they don't even manage to update steam/win32/osx/anything else/provide a version for mac-steam. Ok, the iPad version, yes, this is new. But this is achurch's work, and he's *so* reluctant to give any infos. Hasn't posted here for a long time, that is.

Well, I thought that since the Aquaria engine is FOSS now, it'd be a matter of selecting a good revision from the community and release it to the USG once in a while. However, I'm probably oversimplifying.

Hate to say it but there are cases where a community needs to help itself.

That, is very true.

[vincent]

False.Genesis, could you add the following patch to your repo? It fixes a build failure with gcc 4.7 (see http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-4.7/porting_to.html for details).

Code: [Select]

--- a/BBGE/Joystick.cpp
+++ b/BBGE/Joystick.cpp
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
 Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.
 */
+#include <unistd.h>
 #include "Core.h"
 
 #if defined(BBGE_BUILD_WINDOWS) && defined(BBGE_BUILD_XINPUT)
I don't really think there's any point in having a community-maintained version of Aquaria on the USC at the moment. Afaik, there's no free data/music for Aquaria developed by the community (à la FreeGish, for example), so we would need to have Alex/Derek take the initiative and upload Aquaria to the USC (since they're the only ones who have the rights to distribute Aquaria's game assets). Probably not going to happen anytime soon...

Of course, there's also the fact that I solely run Debian nowadays, so I personally don't care about the USC at all.

[vincent]

Looks like I spoke too soon...aquaria still fails to build on Ubuntu quantal (gcc 4.7). Builds perfectly fine on previous Ubuntu releases, including precise (which uses gcc 4.6).

Build log: https://launchpadlibrarian.net/107797134/buildlog_ubuntu-quantal-i386.aquaria_1.1.3%2B20120616-1~ppa1~quantal1_FAILEDTOBUILD.txt.gz

Tail of build log is as follows:

Code: [Select]

[ 26%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/aquaria.dir/Aquaria/Network.cpp.o
/usr/bin/c++   -DBBGE_BUILD_ACHIEVEMENTS_INTERNAL=1 -DAQUARIA_CUSTOM_BUILD_ID=\"-2012-06-16\" -DGL_GLEXT_LEGACY=1 -DHAVE_PUTENV=1 -DTIXML_USE_STL=1 -DBBGE_SKIP_CONFIG_HEADERS=1 -DBBGE_BUILD_SDL=1 -DBBGE_BUILD_FRAMEBUFFER=1 -DBBGE_BUILD_OPENGL=1 -DBBGE_BUILD_OPENGL_DYNAMIC=1 -DBBGE_BUILD_FMOD_OPENAL_BRIDGE=1 -DBBGE_BUILD_VFS=1 -DAQUARIA_FULL=1 -DAQUARIA_BUILD_CONSOLE=1 -DAQUARIA_BUILD_SCENEEDITOR=1 -DBBGE_BUILD_UNIX=1 -DLUA_USE_ULONGJMP=1 -DHAVE_STRCASECMP -O3 -DNDEBUG -I/build/buildd/aquaria-1.1.3+20120616/BBGE -I/build/buildd/aquaria-1.1.3+20120616/BBGE/GL -I/build/buildd/aquaria-1.1.3+20120616/Aquaria -I/build/buildd/aquaria-1.1.3+20120616/ExternalLibs/FTGL/include -I/build/buildd/aquaria-1.1.3+20120616/ExternalLibs/freetype2/include -I/usr/include/lua5.1 -I/usr/include/ogg -I/usr/include/vorbis -I/usr/include/SDL -I/usr/include/AL -I/build/buildd/aquaria-1.1.3+20120616/ExternalLibs -I/build/buildd/aquaria-1.1.3+20120616/ExternalLibs/ttvfs    -pipe -fsigned-char -fno-stack-protector -o CMakeFiles/aquaria.dir/Aquaria/Network.cpp.o -c /build/buildd/aquaria-1.1.3+20120616/Aquaria/Network.cpp
In file included from /build/buildd/aquaria-1.1.3+20120616/Aquaria/Network.cpp:1:0:
/build/buildd/aquaria-1.1.3+20120616/ExternalLibs/minihttp.h:72:5: error: 'intptr_t' does not name a type
make[3]: *** [CMakeFiles/aquaria.dir/Aquaria/Network.cpp.o] Error 1

[False.Genesis]

Is in at https://github.com/fgenesis/Aquaria_clean, will update my hg repo probably after finishing russian translation patch.
Totally overlooked that this was reported on the mailing list as well...

[vincent]

I'll try a re-build with <stdint.h> included this time around, thanks!

[IcyEyeG]

I don't really think there's any point in having a community-maintained version of Aquaria on the USC at the moment. Afaik, there's no free data/music for Aquaria developed by the community (à la FreeGish, for example), so we would need to have Alex/Derek take the initiative and upload Aquaria to the USC (since they're the only ones who have the rights to distribute Aquaria's game assets). Probably not going to happen anytime soon...

Perhaps I didn't explain myself correctly. I was referring to selling Aquaria at the USC, using Linux binaries compiled from a community release. As long as a link for the source used is provided, it is possible to sell a full Linux version even if the engine is GPL (like Codeweavers does with Wine and Crossover Linux).
Many Indie games are already being sold at the USC.

BTW, thank you for taking the time to update the PPA!

[vincent]

As a consumer, if I were to spend money on a game via whatever distribution channel I prefer (e.g. Steam, HIB, USC, etc.), I expect it to work out of the box, e.g. I download an installer from the distributor, I run it, and voila, I'm ready to play (in the USC's case, I open it up, click a few buttons, deb is installed, and I can run it right away). I'm not too keen on paying for a binary file, and then realizing that I have to pay for and download the game's data separately, and then move the game data into the same folder, fiddle with permissions, etc. At that point (assuming I'm your average consumer), I would've just given up, asked for my money back, and moved on to another game.

The only people who have the rights to sell a complete game bundle for Aquaria (with engine and all game data bundled together) are Alex and Derek, so it's up to them whether they choose to support the USC or not. IMHO, selling a GPL'ed game binary (without data) is pointless; either the end-user has no idea why the game doesn't work out of the box and is reluctant to invest any more effort to get it working, or the end-user knows that the engine is GPL'ed and source is available, and they can compile it themselves.

(I'm not against having Aquaria on the USC; it's just that I, personally, wouldn't bother putting time and effort into making it happen, unless Alex and Derek also express interest in uploading Aquaria to the USC.)

[vincent]

Is in at https://github.com/fgenesis/Aquaria_clean, will update my hg repo probably after finishing russian translation patch.
Totally overlooked that this was reported on the mailing list as well...

The latest source from your git repo still fails to build on quantal/gcc 4.7. Build log here: https://launchpadlibrarian.net/107860451/buildlog_ubuntu-quantal-i386.aquaria_1.1.3%2B20120617-1~ppa1~quantal1_FAILEDTOBUILD.txt.gz

[IcyEyeG]

As a consumer, if I were to spend money on a game via whatever distribution channel I prefer (e.g. Steam, HIB, USC, etc.), I expect it to work out of the box, e.g. I download an installer from the distributor, I run it, and voila, I'm ready to play (in the USC's case, I open it up, click a few buttons, deb is installed, and I can run it right away). I'm not too keen on paying for a binary file, and then realizing that I have to pay for and download the game's data separately, and then move the game data into the same folder, fiddle with permissions, etc. At that point (assuming I'm your average consumer), I would've just given up, asked for my money back, and moved on to another game.

For Ubuntu, selling the complete game in the USC would solve that problem, because you would buy the complete package, and get it installed on your PC with no hassle. The game could even be compatible with comunity builds if the comercial PPA for Aquaria is organized correctly. If they separate it in two packages like "aquaria" (which would include the binary, and the sripts folders) and "aquaria-data" (which would include all the data folders), they would leave the option to the user to install a comunity build if desired (all the user had to do would be to remove the "aquaria" package and leave "aquaria-data" intact).

The only people who have the rights to sell a complete game bundle for Aquaria (with engine and all game data bundled together) are Alex and Derek, so it's up to them whether they choose to support the USC or not. IMHO, selling a GPL'ed game binary (without data) is pointless; either the end-user has no idea why the game doesn't work out of the box and is reluctant to invest any more effort to get it working, or the end-user knows that the engine is GPL'ed and source is available, and they can compile it themselves.

(I'm not against having Aquaria on the USC; it's just that I, personally, wouldn't bother putting time and effort into making it happen, unless Alex and Derek also express interest in uploading Aquaria to the USC.)

That's why I made the thread!
I'd love to see the complete Aquaria game sold at the USC! Not just the engine (as you said, it'd be pointless), but the complete game!