Supported Platforms

[nestor]

man Alec, I'm sorry these guys fruited out on you.  Thats not cool at all.  I hear and identify with your pains and know that you guys are busting ass to get Aquaria finished.  I'm a programmer.  I've got a finished software mixer that currently works using a DirectSound backend sitting on my harddrive.  It supports an arbitrary number of channels, and will stream one stereo audio track from disk in chunks.  Its not buggy.  It doesn't jitter.  Its real simple and just works. 

I've written small things in ALSA before.   So plugging in an Alsa backend and the Ogg Vorbis probably wouldn't be too difficult.  I code everything when I can, because there's always something, and I have a dayjob, so...

but if you want help, just ask.  I mean, the whole OS fundamentalism is stupid.  I'm a 6-year linux user.  That's how I learned to code.  there are some Brilliant, I just mean fecking brilliant projects written by linux developers and that's why I stuck around.  Alsa for instance.  But I realized that I my ultimate wish is to program games so I switched to Windows. 

and I may be joining a company very soon that is developing for the Mac... 

anyway, bit-blot rocks.  Linux rocks too.  fanboys and zealots don't. 

peace.

[bakaotaku85]

I response to the comment by the dev staff about not knowing the Linux indie market, I would like to say that I understand most Linux gamers to be indie fans. Most games that make it to Linux are decidedly not mainstream, but sell really well because of the population an open-source OS like Linux pulls together. In fact, I prefer running most indie stuff in Linux (using Wine or native distros) because I can (indie programmers tend to write cleaner, faster code that Wine likes). If you were to build a Linux release, post it on tuxgames.com or somesuch, rely on the indie population to hype it, you would definitely get your money's worth.

(A am psyched about this release. I first saw it on the Indie Gamer weblog, and have been following it's progress since then. Good luck in the home stretch here guys).

[madhattr]

Im just posting to show my support for a native linux client. Linux has a growing market share on the desktop and dell is even shipping linux pc's in europe. I would totaly buy the game if it was made available for linux. Possibly you should ask icculus at icculus.org for any help, he has ported many great games to linux. Thanks.

I also wanted to say it would be nicer to have a linux port instead of wine. Wine is alpha or beta software i think and does not do the best job always.

[Nille]

I would love an linux port.
But if you don't think there's an market for the Linux platform then set an goal and take preorders.
Like the port will be done after 300 preorders for Linux.
I my self miss 2D games there to few on the market. (3D games makes me dizzy)
Good luck and keep the good work going.
And i hope you can solve the audio issue.

[Alec]

Oh, shit.

[Gravious]

Oh, shit.

You're just a big tease really aren't you Alec?

[Alec]

The ports' real at any rate. I should know, I haven't slept in 24 hours. =_=

The naming convention stuff is a pain in the arse. I'm trying to make everything lower case, but there might be some folders with different systems... we'll see. The best would be if everything was consistent.

I'm using SDL_mixer, rewriting code to avoid music tracks overlapping, and going to be pre-loading the voice overs instead of streaming them. Going to be a lot of fiddling to get that to work just right.

Both of those have caused the Windows + Mac versions to break, but hopefully I'll be able to get everything working again in a few days. (I hope...)

I had a few questions for Linux peeps.

• Is there an "Alt-Tab" equivalent?
• What is the expected key combination to switch fullscreen/windowed?
• Quick quit key combo?
• i'm using Code::Blocks for an IDE atm. If anyone has any other suggestions, lemme know.

Edit: Oh yeah, if anyone's curious what's going on at the end, I right clicked on the mossy rock, which would normally get Naija to swim over and sit on it. But for some reason the path finding code isn't working in the port yet, and Naija just gets stuck swimming on the spot.

[KingAl]

I have to say, the game is looking downright awesome! I hope all goes well.

[ZedDB]

• Is there an "Alt-Tab" equivalent?

For me it's the same as in Windows. I can switch between windows with Alt+Tab if it's that you mean. (I'm using Gentoo Linux and Gnome)
You can also switch between workspaces with Ctrl+Alt+"Arrow keys" (Some fullsceen apps don't allow me to Alt+Tab)

• What is the expected key combination to switch fullscreen/windowed?

From the games i have played it's usually one of the F1-F12 keys.  (If i remember correctly some use Alt+F or Alt+Enter)

• Quick quit key combo?

Maybe an F1-F12 key again. Or as i prefer it: Esc then q. (Esc for main menu)

Thank you for putting so much effort in the port! 
Hope you solve the problems with the Windows + Mac ports too!



 

[pigah]

Nice!  I just came across the game and was sadly reading through this thread and thought all hope was gone for a linux port. 

I would second ZedDB on the Alt-Tab for window switching and the Alt-F for fullscreen.  I know a lot of programs that use Ctrl-Q for quit, but there really isn't a standard, sadly.

 

[Alec]

For me it's the same as in Windows. I can switch between windows with Alt+Tab if it's that you mean. (I'm using Gentoo Linux and Gnome)

Thanks!

Yeah, I can alt-tab... but not while the game is running. Not sure if its the game's fault or if that's just how Linux works.

Mainly want a way to get out of the game window without quitting.

[ZedDB]

Yeah, I can alt-tab... but not while the game is running. Not sure if its the game's fault or if that's just how Linux works.

Mainly want a way to get out of the game window without quitting.

Hmm. After some testing on my end it seems like i cant Alt+Tab from any of the native linux games running in fullscreen that i tried. But it works with almost any "WINE game" (In some chases it didn't work there either).

I'm not that good at linux so i can't say if it's a problem at my end or if it's that way.
But as i stated before I can Alt+Tab when they are in windowed mode. So at work around would be to push the fullscreen/windowed hotkey and the Alt+Tab and when your done just Alt+tab back and push the fullscreen/windowed hotkey again (If you want to run the game in fullscreen that is...)
If you still can't switch when it's running in windowed mode I don't know what the cause would be...
But you should be able to make it at least tabable in windowed. I don't know how tho...

[gaminggeek]

OMG thank you!

[wesley]

The ports' real at any rate. I should know, I haven't slept in 24 hours. =_=

The naming convention stuff is a pain in the arse. I'm trying to make everything lower case, but there might be some folders with different systems... we'll see. The best would be if everything was consistent.

I'm using SDL_mixer, rewriting code to avoid music tracks overlapping, and going to be pre-loading the voice overs instead of streaming them. Going to be a lot of fiddling to get that to work just right.

The naming is indeed a pain.

The rewrite to SDL_mixer is pretty cool. If you really want multiple streams you could check out the SDL_mixer code though. I haven't looked at it, but would it really be too hard to fix a quick hack in SDL_mixer to play multiple streams? Well, of course it's not really a problem if you can avoid the track overlapping. Fade out + Fade in is nice too

Both of those have caused the Windows + Mac versions to break, but hopefully I'll be able to get everything working again in a few days. (I hope...)

Haha. I hope so too But I'm sure you can do it in a small amount of time, seeing how fast you were able to port this stuff to Linux after putting your mind to it for a day. Really... That's some great stuff you're doing.

I had a few questions for Linux peeps.

• Is there an "Alt-Tab" equivalent?
• What is the expected key combination to switch fullscreen/windowed?
• Quick quit key combo?
• i'm using Code::Blocks for an IDE atm. If anyone has any other suggestions, lemme know.

Alt-Tab: In the popular KDE (KWin window manager) and GNOME (Metacity window manager) desktops (and also in the recently hyped Compiz-Fusion '3D' window manager) Alt-Tab just works to switch windows (eventhough Compiz-Fusion also has this neat Super-Tab that shows your windows in a circle..)

Expected key combination to switch fullscreen/windowed: I think alt+F or ctrl+F is pretty logical.

Quick quit key: don't be funny - nobody wants to quit this game ... I'd say Ctrl+Q, that one is used quite often, but really I'd prefer no quick quit key... you wouldn't want to accidentally press it... Esc should bring up a menu, and from there you can quit. I think that's the best way.

Code::Blocks is pretty good. I use KDevelop myself. And a lot of people like Eclipse. And the real freaks just use vim or emacs

Edit: Oh yeah, if anyone's curious what's going on at the end, I right clicked on the mossy rock, which would normally get Naija to swim over and sit on it. But for some reason the path finding code isn't working in the port yet, and Naija just gets stuck swimming on the spot.

I'm sure you'll fix it

Yeah, I can alt-tab... but not while the game is running. Not sure if its the game's fault or if that's just how Linux works.
Mainly want a way to get out of the game window without quitting.

Are you grabbing keyboard/mouse input in SDL with SDL_GrabInput()? That could be the problem. Try setting it off when you press Esc or something, if you are using it.

Otherwise, Alt-Tab should keep working fine.

I'm very glad that the port is becoming reality. You're doing a great job and you have my support. besides buying the game, I will probably donate some extra money for the effort.

Thanks, alec-dude. You made my day.

[Zam]

* zamzx zik hands Alec a cookie