Supported Platforms

[Alec]

For reference, the new issues in all 3 versions are all due to switching to full lower case to support Linux's stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid case sensitivity. And no, they're not all resolved yet.

I can expect to be finding and fixing these bugs for the next month. I have to comb the entire game and test every single thing that can happen to ensure that it all works. So expect the game to be delayed even further because of this.

Also, sdl_mixer is sub par. Ogg looping isn't seamless. (I hacked in a fix for this, but the way sdl_mixer is set up, it'll take one of the devs to actually put it in properly) Fading out sounds/music is chunky and noisy on headphones. Other indie developers have told me they've had problems with sounds lagging in sdl_mixer.

Great.

[Zam]

Not to sound like a dumbass or anything, but wouldn't have been easier to only make the linux version with the lowercase letters?
Then any problems related to mods and such would be isolated...you could release the linux version a month later, and keep the other ones on track.

Of course, I haven't slept in a day (stupid harry potter book) So, it might be stupider then I think atm.

[Alec]

Makes more sense to break all the versions and test them all now, because we can test common problems on platforms that have more testers. Otherwise it'll just be more of a pain later.

Also I'm getting really tired of recoding audio 500 times. I just want one library that works for all platforms, so I can implement it once and have it work on all three.

[Dragonix]

Oh man... you're absolutely amazing!!!
A Question: How are you going to distribute it? Like Quake // Doom with a patch? Or will there be 3 versions of the game?
-One windows Edition
-One Linux Edition
-One Mac Edition
?


And again, thanks for the work!!!

[KingAl]

One thing that's absolutely certain - if I understand the situation correctly -  is that the Mac version is separate, since it's published by Ambrosia. Given the extremes that Alec's now going to in order to make a Linux version, I'd assume we're not looking at a combined Windows/Linux package, but then I may be completely wrong.

[Alec]

Welp, gonna email the FMod folks and see if they can score us a reasonable license. I've heard from other devs that they're merciful to indies, so maybe it won't be as painful as I originally thought it would be money-wise.

Let's all hold hands and hope together!

 

[Zam]

We can always all go out and donate...erm...Bodily products?

[wesley]

Welp, gonna email the FMod folks and see if they can score us a reasonable license. I've heard from other devs that they're merciful to indies, so maybe it won't be as painful as I originally thought it would be money-wise.

Let's all hold hands and hope together!

 

It just so happens that I contacted them two weeks ago. I got a friendly reply in 24 hours. They are good guys. My question was completely different from yours though I wanted to know if it was possible to get FMOD sourcecode without buying a commercial license. And they thought about it, and they are keeping that a future option, but the problem right now is that there are some legal issues and it would need a license restructuring. Anyway, my point is that they are very friendly and openminded. I'm rooting for you.

Oh, one little note though. I wasn't able to get sound working in FMOD through alsa dmix when I tried it. (dmix is a software alsa mixer) If no other sounds were playing, then FMOD sounds played fine, but otherwise no sound coming from FMOD. (the opposite was also true: FMOD blocked the sounddevice so other applications couldn't output sound if FMOD was being used..)

I think I'm going to look into that issue further if you decide to go for FMOD, because it's very weird.

Oh, and irrKlang was no good, I guess?

PS: I see that you read my blog message I translated the most important bits to English in the comment following your comment.

[LubosD]

• Is there an "Alt-Tab" equivalent?

That's a tricky one. You can usually press Ctrl+Alt+/ to "ungrab" keyboard from the game and then use Alt+Tab. To allow the ungrab operation, you need something like this in your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file:

Code: [Select]

Section "ServerFlags"
        # other stuff here
        # ....
        Option "AllowDeactivateGrabs" "on"
EndSection
The only problem with this solution is that OpenGL application running in the same X session can make the rest of the desktop painfully slow. For that reason I've developed a tool called QGameX - you can use it to run the game in a separate X session - to switch between X sessions, use Ctrl+Alt+F7, F8, and so on.

I am looking forward to the game. I think I'll write a game review and publish it on AbcLinuxu.cz when the game is available :-)
If you need a Linux betatester, I volunteer :-)

[p3ter_st0ry]

I don't want to sound stupid either, but couldn't you just write a script that would change all the cases to lowercase? It seems there must be some alternative to manually going through and changing everything. Unless of course, you're working on something much more clever.

[wesley]

I don't want to sound stupid either, but couldn't you just write a script that would change all the cases to lowercase? It seems there must be some alternative to manually going through and changing everything. Unless of course, you're working on something much more clever.

Please read through the older posts in this topic and you'll understand why it's not that easy.

[qhartman]

Thanks again for going Linux! I can't wait to get my copy.

[shinygerbil]

Holy shit, Alec, you've just made me change my mind. I don't need to install Windows XP after all. You're awesome.

Personally I've always been a fan of Alt-Enter for fullscreen. I'm not sure about a quick quit key.

Also Code::Blocks seems quite good, from what scant messabouts I've had with it. Although I hear something along the lines of "if you don't get the nightly builds, you're using a shit version" is pretty much the convention with that.

[kawsper]

I digged the "robbery" at Digg, it got 5 diggs, so we i think we have gotten a few new members on that account.

http://digg.com/linux_unix/Bit_Blot_announces_progress_in_their_Linux_port_of_Aquaria

[Matt]

I wrote earlier in this thread that I'd buy the game if it were ported to linux. I'm back again to assure the developers that I will buy the game and with all the more joy now that they have embraced the idea.

I hope all other linux users on here will do the same and purchase the game for linux when it's released. Much respect to the developers for hearing their audience and taking a step few have had the vision to see yet.