Aquaria for Linux may be going on Steam

[GMMan]

Check this out: http://store.steampowered.com/news/9289/
In the list at http://store.steampowered.com/search/?term=linux#os=linux&advanced=0&sort_order=ASC&page=1, Aquaria is listed as one of the games.

Now what does that mean for us? Still old builds but with Steam achievements, or maybe a forked community build?
(I shudder at the thought of DRM on Linux, which Steam clearly is an example of. Hopefully it's easier to hack out than on other platforms.)

[IcyEyeG]

Do you have an Aquaria Steam key? If yes, try this: http://www.webupd8.org/2012/11/how-to-use-steam-for-linux-right-now.html

I've said this before: Seeing official Linux support of Aquaria, by selling it in Ubuntu Software Center, Steam and Desura could fetch new very interested users (linux users are usually enthusiastic, even more if it's about a game) and even boost mods and bugfixing in the GPLed engine.

[False.Genesis]

That would indeed be nice if they used the chance to release a bugfixed version.
Tho I wonder how they'd manage the code: For whoever is enthusiastic about license nitpicking (i am for sure not), using GPL code for steam is a no-no. So I'm concerned that after all the opensourced code is a dead end and there will be yet another closed code base in use.
That's a bit annoying for me personally because the modding I do requires certain extensions that are no problem to integrate into the open source code, but can't be added anywhere else. If this goes on we'll be stuck in stone age forever...

I'd prefer to have an open source binary that can load a shared object which uses steam code (that can be closed, because it obviously needs to, with all the DRM/NDA stuff), and an open replacement one that is loaded if no steam-based .so is available. I'd be happy to hack on this when I have some time but because the steam SDK is NDA'd this would have to be done from the official side.

[IcyEyeG]

That would indeed be nice if they used the chance to release a bugfixed version.
Tho I wonder how they'd manage the code: For whoever is enthusiastic about license nitpicking (i am for sure not), using GPL code for steam is a no-no. So I'm concerned that after all the opensourced code is a dead end and there will be yet another closed code base in use.

I completely forgot about that: you have to link code with Steam's to be able to publish it at the store, right? Yeah, GPL won't allow that.

That's a bit annoying for me personally because the modding I do requires certain extensions that are no problem to integrate into the open source code, but can't be added anywhere else. If this goes on we'll be stuck in stone age forever...

I'd prefer to have an open source binary that can load a shared object which uses steam code (that can be closed, because it obviously needs to, with all the DRM/NDA stuff), and an open replacement one that is loaded if no steam-based .so is available. I'd be happy to hack on this when I have some time but because the steam SDK is NDA'd this would have to be done from the official side.

That could be a solution, indeed.
It is important to note that, for the sake of publishing an official Linux Release, selling Aquaria on the Ubuntu Software Center wouldn't pose such problem, provided Alec and Derek add to the description a direct link to the source tarball used on the release and state the engine is GPL.
The same can be said about the Android Market.

I'm also curious about Desura: Does it have the same limitations as Steam, regarding GPL?

[GMMan]

Not sure if working. It shows up in my game list and I can install it, but it pops an "unauthorized" box in the middle of my screen. I suppose Steam isn't disabled, but you can hardly play anything with a gray box in front of everything.

[GMMan]

OK, it runs. It's version 1.1.3, probably using the same codebase as the one from HIB. The executable is huge (50.9 MB), so chances are either a lot of libraries a compiled in or it's unstripped. Anyone want to do some digging and see which code branch the build is from?

I haven't actually played anything, but one bug I've noticed is changing resolution doesn't always work. Changing in full screen exits, and changing from windowed, then ticking full screen, then exiting leaves 800x600 resolution.

[False.Genesis]

mind PMing me a linky?
I'll snoop around a bit and try to guess from the functions which version this is.
EDIT: I mean, as long as there's anything useful inside. I'm totally not the right person to RE anything.
EDIT2: Hey, this might be a unique chance to get some steam debug symbols.

[GMMan]

Holy mother of code... It does in fact have a full set of symbols. Not sure if there is debug data, but every single function has a name. I'm uploading to Dropbox right now. Meanwhile, any specific code you want me to check?

[False.Genesis]

"/home/icculus/projects/aquaria-nongpl/Aquaria"

Here's the guilty. Hi Ryan.


@GMMan: I don't know. I'd assume you're way better at this stuff than I am. :/
But I think I'll give this multi-.so thing a try just for the heck of it, whenever I have time to get back to coding again.
Would also be useful for windows (and maybe OSX)

EDIT: does calling "entity_animate()" in Lua just as it is (no args) crash it? It should, imho... you could also try to turn off vsync and see if huggys heal faster or slower, I remember there was a frame rate dependency. But that was script-only (fixed by achurch long ago).

EDIT2: Fragments of the steam headers are also there (if that helps <--).