Well id Software have announced Doom 4 is in production, no real details yet, but considering id's past track record with support for Linux, it may be safe to assume that Doom 4 will be coming to Linux. Yeah, lets hope so.

Id has released native Linux versions of all its games. There is no chance that Doom 4 would be any different, unless Id was acquired by another company who put a stop to the support.

Although John Carmack has said not to take Linux support for granted when speaking of idtech5, and Rage, but I don't disagree with you, as I stated in my above post, I believe it will. It is the first time they are splitting off from openGL only, and going the way of DirectX.

iD Software has always offered a linux port for all of its games, a sin of good quality in my opinion.

Go Doom 4!

If they aree going in a DirectX direction it may have implications for a Linux port - it won't be as straightforward as an OpenGL jobbi...

I wonder though how much extra work it is to have the engine offer both DirectX/OpenGL. There's a lot of games that have done that in the past.

Remember that there's no DirectX on OSX, so if it's on OSX, it's got the OpenGL support.

...and The consoles are OpenGL too, if they want to take that direction (like everybody else it seems).

My understanding was the DirectX thing is mostly to do with XBox, although there has been uncertainty as to whether the primary development is now DirectX as apposed to what it has always been, OpenGL. this could all be speculation, as there has been little info released, except for what I said above about a comment made by John Carmack. They have stated that Rage, their new IP developed on id tech5, will be available on Console (PS, XBox), PC (Windows) and Mac, which of course means OpenGL, it's not like they are dumping it or anything, but nothing actually mentioned about Linux.

I also remember at that same time as the comment I mentioned above, John Carmack had some non to flattering things to say about Linux and open source in general, can't remember the exact details now, but I think it was something to do with the zealotry in the Linux/Open source community, and may have also been to do with the fragmentation of Linux in general. I do remember at the time I read it, it made me a little sad, and unsure of the future of id games and Linux.

It also seems that JC has become more and more impressed with DirectX over the years, so much so that he also made a comment along the lines of, that there is no longer any reason to choose OpenGL over DirectX

Although the above is to do with Rage, and not Doom4 as such, they are both being developed with id tech5. Also, this is just what I have read. I read, watch everything concerning id software and id software games that comes my way, as in the gaming world, nothing else really interests me. So make of it what you will.

Myself, I believe that Doom4, following the tradition, will be available for Linux, I am just not, as John Carmack said, taking it for granted.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On a personal note, this is all a moot point for me personally, as I have been offered a place in a project which will require me to use specific hardware and proprietary software/file formats, namely ProTools, which will not function under Linux, this is so I will have compatibility with the other band members, and that projects can be taken from home-rehearsal-studio, while maintaining full compatibility at every step. It is an offer I simply can't refuse, I have purchased THIS, which should be arriving tomorrow, I will then have to reinstall Windows, so my Linux time seems to be at an end.

It's not all bad, as I will be certain that Doom4 will work for me , plus being an avid game mapper/modder, I will also be able to get back into that when the time comes, something which I would not have been able to do in Linux, regardless of whether there was a Linux release of Doom4 or not, as the Modding/mapping tools are win32 only, from Doom3 onwards (Quake4, ETQW) with the built in editor and tools, it has been this way, and apparently there are no plans for that to change, no plans to make the tools Linux compatible. This is something I have missed under Linux, while I still have been able to continue dabbling with Quake, Quake2 and Quake3, the later games are just not possible with Linux.

Fare Thee Well Good people

Have one on me

I think it's difficult to port from one API to the other, but if you develop for both from day one then you're fine. Of course it's more work and more intensive to do, but if Id plans to leverage both APIs and do it from the start then there's no big deal.

I can understand why they want to throw the Xbox platform more love - that is where the real money is. Look at how much GTA IV goes for on the console and how much money MS gave the developers to have custom downloadable content. Also the fact that when the game is released for PC it will retail for half the price.

Case in point: The Orange Box. In my country it cost R340 (about $45) on PC at launch, and R600 for the Xbox. Console titles make huge margins... of course the publishing agreements are completely different too.

Just a bit extra related to some stuff in my above post (aphelion), that emerged at the recent Quakecon.

Question: What are your current views on the Linux situation [...]?

Answer: I can’t say I have really high hopes for it.. . . .

It is unlikely that the big titles [Wolfenstein, Rage, Doom 4] will have anywhere near simultaneous releases . . . . .

but all of those problems that the PC has are just an order of magnitude worse on the Linux space. So it’s not really a good target. . . . .

more so than being Linux, there’s nothing that I think Linux would bring to a console operating system . . . . .

there’s nothing that really bothers me about Microsoft or some of these operating system levels there; they’re done competently. Linux would probably bring more trouble than benefits to those things. . . . .

I wish the platform well, but it’s not even on our radar right now for our current projects . . . .


http://www.linuxgames.com/archives/10532