Ubuntu Vibes | Daily Ubuntu Linux Updates

Jedi Outcast Linux Port is in the Works

noreply@blogger.com (Nitesh) — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 03:55:00 +0000

After Disney shut down LucasArts recently, Raven Software open sourced Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy.

The source code was made available on SourceForge, however it was pulled down after few days as some proprietary stuff was included in the public repository.

Raven Software may upload the source code again after sorting out legal issues. However, community is already working on improving the game.

One such project is OpenJK, which aims to improve Jedi Academy. All proprietary parts has been stripped off from this repository.

In another effort, Jochen Leopold is porting Jedi Outcast to Linux. He posted a screenshot of the game running on Ubuntu.

Dell Launches Alienware X51 Ubuntu Gaming Desktop

noreply@blogger.com (Nitesh) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 17:52:00 +0000

Dell has launched Alienware X51 Ubuntu gaming desktop. Alienware customers can now choose either Windows or Ubuntu when buying a new X51.

Ubuntu option is initially available to US customers only and the price starts from $599. Detailed specifications can be found here.

Valve on Porting Source Engine to Linux, Android Next

noreply@blogger.com (Nitesh) — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 18:23:00 +0000

At the GPU Technology Conference, Valve recently talked about their experience of porting Source Engine to Linux.

The slides from the session are now available, you can have a look at these slides from here.

According to Valve, both Linux and mobile gaming markets are growing rapidly and they are working on an Android port of Source engine. They also talked about some differences in Android and Linux development. However, their current focus is getting Linux + OpenGL implementation of Source engine as mature as possible.

Valve said that Linux is a stepping stone to mobile market. It is too complicated to directly port any x86-Direct3D-based games to Android. If their games work on Linux, porting to android is relatively simple and thus opens up the big smartphones and tablets market with relatively little effort. Ultimately their main focus is on OpenGL as a platform independent 3D graphics interface.

A detailed coverage on the talk and Android specific slides can be found on 4Gamer and Heise.

Further details are available on reddit thread, where one of the Nvidia developers (who is helping Valve in Linux port of Source Engine) has done a mini 'Ask Me Anything' (AMA) session.

Ubuntu 13.04 Daily Build Mirrors

noreply@blogger.com (Nitesh) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 05:05:00 +0000

The latest build of Ubuntu 13.04 daily iso image can be downloaded from official Ubuntu cdimage server.

However, I found downloading from this server to be extremely slow. So, I tried some mirrors and now the daily image is downloading at full speed.

If you are facing similar issues, try the following mirrors:

http://mirrors.med.harvard.edu/ubuntu-cdimage/daily-live/current/
http://147.32.127.222/MIRRORS/ubuntu-cdimage/daily-live/current/
http://ftp.sh.cvut.cz/MIRRORS/ubuntu-cdimage/daily-live/current/
http://mirror.leaseweb.com/ubuntu-cdimage/daily-live/current/

via AskUbuntu

The Leap Motion Controller Now Supports Linux

noreply@blogger.com (Nitesh) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 09:34:00 +0000

Leap Motion is a company developing advanced motion sensing technology for human–computer interaction.

Leap Motion publicly announced its first device, The Leap Motion Controller, on May 21, 2012. Preordered devices are set to ship on May 13th.

The Leap Motion controller is a small USB peripheral device which is designed to be placed on a physical desktop, facing upward. Using two cameras and three infrared LEDs, the device observes a roughly hemispherical area, to a distance of about 1 meter (3 feet). It is designed to track fingers (or similar items such as a pen) which cross into the observed area, to a spatial precision of about 0.01 mm. (Wikipedia)

Leap Motion SDK has added Linux support with its latest version 0.7.6. Below is the Linux specific changelog:

Beta release of the Leap Linux SDK for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, 12.10, or newer. It’s early, but we’d love your feedback and support in bringing our software to this important platform.

Developers who have signed up for Leap Motion have access to deb packages.

Thanks to D. Kelley for tip, via NDAA

Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition Coming to Linux

noreply@blogger.com (Nitesh) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 03:33:00 +0000

Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition will be coming to Linux.

The collection includes first-person shooter Duke Nukem 3D and three expansion packs – Duke Caribbean: Life's a Beach, Duke: Nuclear Winter, and Duke It Out in D.C. The game has been refined with improved OpenGL based visuals, SteamPlay and SteamCloud support.

Windows and Mac versions of the game has been released on Steam today. However Linux support will come soon as announced by the developers in press release.

Developer General Arcade and publisher Devolver Digital will continue to update Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition with new features including Steamworks-enabled online multiplayer, Linux support, and additional expansion packs in the future.

via Joystiq

'Kerbal Space Program' Linux Version Confirmed, Demo Available

noreply@blogger.com (Nitesh) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 10:40:00 +0000

Kerbal Space Program is a sandbox-style space flight simulator game.

In the game, you must build a spacecraft, capable of flying its crew out into space, without killing them. At your disposal is a collection of parts, which must be assembled to create a functional ship. Each part has its own function and will affect the way a ship flies.

The game has a huge fan base and a Linux version was long demanded by its users. Now in a new update, KSP devs finally announced full support for Linux. You can try a demo from here.

Full version can be purchased for $23 from here.

Dungeon Fray Update, Now Available on Desura

noreply@blogger.com (Nitesh) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 05:09:00 +0000

Dungeon Fray is a fast paced roguelike puzzle game featuring three playable classes, randomly generated levels, turn based combat and unlockable achievements and perks.

The game is inspired by popular roguelike games DCSS and Desktop Dungeons.

The game has received lots of new features and fixes since my last post.

Changelog:

Fixed after jumping, hero can attack monster with spell
Fixed hero can use a spell after converting spell
Added fullscreen mode, F11 key (Windowed mode is still recommended way of playing)
All monsters, even of same type and level now have different stats
Implemented alert monsters that will chase you once attacked
Savegame and settings files location has been changed
Fixed opening chests can sometimes leave stains
Fixed game crashes sometimes when monster is chasing
Increased number of coins received on level up
Added estimated damage to tooltip
Clearing a level now gives a coin bonus
Full health is restored when starting a new level
Added scoreboard
Disabled start-up help screen
Help screen is now slightly less wordy
Fixed cursor not changing when triggering achievements menu
Added more tips to info icon
Monsters on first few levels are now less challenging
Removed spell on goblin kid
Changed mage random spell to zap, permanently reduces enemy def by 1

Try Dungeon fray demo from here. Full version can be purchased from Desura or from Dungeon Fray Store for $ 6.99.

The game will be available soon on Ubuntu Software Center.

Award Winning Game 'FEZ' Coming to Linux

noreply@blogger.com (Nitesh) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 04:16:00 +0000

Phil Fish's award winning puzzle/platformer game FEZ will come to Linux. The game has received pretty great reviews from critics and users (rated 89% on metacritic).

On an 'Ask Me Anything' session on Reddit, Phil Fish confirmed that the game will be heading to Linux, most probably on Steam.

FEZ is coming out on steam PC on may 1 - mac and linux versions to eventually follow.

GameMaker: Studio Adds Ubuntu Export

noreply@blogger.com (Nitesh) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 05:30:00 +0000

Yoyo Games' popular cross-platform game creation tool GameMaker: Studio now supports publishing to Ubuntu Linux platform.

With GameMaker: Studio’s Ubuntu Export, developers can export their newly-created and pre-existing games as an Ubuntu Software Center-ready application from a single code base and at the touch of a button.

As the third most popular desktop operating system Ubuntu reaches 20 million users around the globe. With GameMaker: Studio, it couldn’t be easier to publish games to the Ubuntu Software Center and take advantage of the opportunity to reach a new audience. We can’t wait for all of the awesome GameMaker: Studio games to arrive for Ubuntu in the coming weeks and months. - said David Pitkin, Director of Consumer Software at Canonical.

GameMaker: Studio editor itself is not yet available for Linux. Very similar to the Unity Engine export, developers will have to develop games on other platforms and then they can export the game to Ubuntu.

Roguelike Game 'Dungeon Fray' Released

noreply@blogger.com (Nitesh) — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 06:31:00 +0000

Dungeon Fray is a fast paced roguelike game for Windows and Linux. The game features three playable classes, randomly generated levels, turn based combat and unlockable achievements and perks.

I have been working on this game for quite some time and finally released first stable version. Check out the trailer:

You can download free demo for Windows and Linux from here.

Full version of the game can be purchased for $6.99 from here. As launch offer, you can enter ILOVEROGUELIKE coupon code to get 20% off.

Shadowrun Returns Gameplay Video

noreply@blogger.com (Nitesh) — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 04:58:00 +0000

Shadowrun Returns is a 2D turn-based RPG with an emphasis on storytelling and tactical combat. The project raised $1.9 million via Kickstarter last year and it will be heading to Linux later this year.

First gameplay video of Shadowrun Returns is now out.

The game can be pre-ordered for $15 from here.

New RPG from Ultima Creator Coming to Linux

noreply@blogger.com (Nitesh) — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 04:41:00 +0000

Richard Garriott, the award winning designer and creator of the Ultima franchise, is working on a new fantasy role-playing game.

Titled 'Shroud of the Avatar', the game represents the reinvention of the classic, fantasy role-playing which he pioneered.

The project is currently on Kickstarter, aiming to raise $1 million. So far it has raised $400k in just one day so it looks like it will hit the target soon. The game will be available for Windows, Mac and Linux in October 2014.

You can confirm a copy for yourself by pledging $25 or more on Kickstarter.

Thanks to Tamara Ryan for the tip

Unreal Engine 3 Game 'Painkiller Hell & Damnation' Coming to Linux in April

noreply@blogger.com (Nitesh) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 15:40:00 +0000

Nordic Games has announced today that Painkiller Hell & Damnation will be coming to Linux and Mac later this year. The game is based on Unreal Engine 3.

In addition to this, the Linux and Mac gaming community will also be in for a hellish treat this spring when Painkiller Hell & Damnation launches on these platforms. Players using the Linux and Mac platforms will finally be able to join the Painkiller PC gaming community and fully immerse themselves in Daniel Garner’s purgatory.

As well as launching the Mod-Kit, we are working to provide regular updates and further improvements to the existing content and framework.” said Reinhard Pollice, Business & Product Development Director at Nordic Games. “We’re also working to port good old Daniel Garner to Linux and Mac this April/May.

Full press release can be found here.

'Dungeon Fray' 0.2 Released with Many New Features

noreply@blogger.com (Nitesh) — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 13:33:00 +0000

Dungeon Fray is a fast paced roguelike/RPG inspired by DCSS and Desktop Dungeons. I have been working on this game for past few months and version 0.2 is now ready.

New features in this release:

3 New levels in story mode
9 new monsters in story mode
New infinite mode (not yet available in demo)
5 new monsters exclusive to infinite mode
New class ROGUE
3 New spells
Better UI for managing quickslots and hotkeys
6 new music tracks
New animations and sound effects
New bots and orbs system to make game more strategic
New status effect icons shown above hero image
New perk system: You can activate upto two perks before starting a new game
Lots and lots of game balancing tweaks
Each class now has a unique ability
Full health is now restored on level up
Minor UI improvements
Many bug fixes and stability improvements

Check out a video showing some of these changes:

Download Dungeon Fray 0.2

EDIT: The game will crash if you enable exactly one perk. I have fixed this issue but it would take time to package the game again for both Windows and Linux, so a proper fix for it will come in next build :)

P.S. I haven't posted much news on Ubuntu Vibes in last few days but I will be coming back to it within a week.

'Dungeon Fray', New Fast Paced Roguelike/RPG for Linux

noreply@blogger.com (Nitesh) — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 14:17:00 +0000

Dungeon Fray is a new roguelike/RPG inspired by Desktop Dungeons. The games features randomly generated levels and each level has random number of monsters and chests (no two levels are same).

I have been working on this game for last few months and finally released first alpha build today. Check out a gameplay video:

You can download Dungeon Fray for Windows and Linux from here. The alpha build features 2 playable classes and 5 levels.

The next build will hopefully come out at the end of this month with some of these features:

New maps plus Infinite Mode
New Class 'Rogue' and 3 new spells
Better interface for quick access to spells and potions
Permanent upgrades to enhance your character

Any feedback on the game will be helpful, specially on following areas:

CPU usage, bugs and crashes
Game balancing
Suggestions/comments on game mechanics

Over 100 Titles Now Available in Steam for Linux, Celebration Sale Kicked Off

noreply@blogger.com (Nitesh) — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 03:43:00 +0000

Steam for Linux is now distributing over 100 titles (60 games plus DLCs) and the beta tag has been lifted.

Steam is now also available in official Ubuntu repositories so you can easily install it from Ubuntu Software Center and get regular updates.

To celebrate these milestones, a massive sale has been launched by Valve, offering 50-75% discounts on all Linux titles.

All Linux users playing Team Fortress 2 will also get a bonus Tux item through the end of this month.

Thanks to Fernando Scherrer

Steam for Linux Not Affected by Valve Layoffs

noreply@blogger.com (Nitesh) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 04:42:00 +0000

A number of employees (around 25) were laid-off from Valve recently, as per a report from Gamasutra.

Some users feared that this may affect Steam for Linux or upcoming Steam Box. Reasons for these layoffs are unknown but the good news is, Valve will not cancel any of its current projects and their Linux plans will not be affected by this.

Below is a statement issued by Gabe Newell to Engadget:

We don't usually talk about personnel matters for a number of reasons. There seems to be an unusual amount of speculation about some recent changes here, so I thought I'd take the unusual step of addressing them. No, we aren't canceling any projects. No, we aren't changing any priorities or projects we've been discussing. No, this isn't about Steam or Linux or hardware or [insert game name here]. We're not going to discuss why anyone in particular is or isn't working here.

First Gameplay Video of Wasteland 2

noreply@blogger.com (Nitesh) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 04:08:00 +0000

Wasteland 2 is an upcoming post apocalyptic RPG by inXile and Obsidian Entertainment.

The game is sequel to the popular action-strategy-RPG game Wasteland, released back in 1988.

Wasteland 2 was successfully crowd funded through Kickstarter raising nearly 3 million dollars and it will be released for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux in October this year.

inXile has now released first official gameplay video, check it out:

CoD of Duty, A Funny Take on Popular Game Series

noreply@blogger.com (Nitesh) — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 05:04:00 +0000

CoD of Duty is a first person shooter by Ryan Evans where all of your enemies are fish.

The game is based on a joke that Call of Duty always being abbreviated ‘CoD’ on the Internet. Ryan says:

A lot of the ‘joke’ is how I feel about the standard FPS single player campaigns. Short, not terribly interesting, and completely over the top with their story elements.

The game is about 15-20 minutes long, and it is actually quite fun. Check out a video:

Download CoD of Duty for Linux

Steam for Linux will have More Launch Titles Than Mac

noreply@blogger.com (Nitesh) — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 12:31:00 +0000

Steam for Linux (Beta) is now serving 50 game titles (excluding DLCs and addons).

Steam for Mac OS X was launched worldwide on May 12, 2010, following a successful beta period. At launch, there were roughly 50 titles for Mac (excluding DLCs and addons).

So we are already there and in few days we are going to beat Mac in terms of number of game titles available at final launch. Steam Linux Beta period is not over yet and the CDR database is already showing over 90 games. All in all Steam has 354 titles for Mac today (excluding DLCs and addons).

In terms of number of users, Linux is also catching up fast. Mac users now account for 3.56% of all Steam users (in nearly three years after launch) while Linux users now account for 1.12%, in just three months of beta period.

John Carmack Speaks More on Wine and Linux Gaming

noreply@blogger.com (Nitesh) — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 15:43:00 +0000

John Carmack recently tweeted that Wine for Linux gaming seems like a better idea than Native ports, which triggered a big debate among Linux gamers.

Now replying to a thread on Reddit, he expressed similar views. Below is the full post:

I wish Linux well, but the reality is that it barely makes it into my top ten priorities (Burn the heretic!); I use Linux for the flight computers at Armadillo Aerospace, but not for any regular desktop work. I was happy to hear that Rage ran in Wine, but no special effort was made to support it.

I do get tempted to port to Linux for technical reasons – I would like to use Valgrind again, and Nvidia has told me that some experimental GPU features I would like to use for R&D would be easier to prove out on Linux. Working on open source Linux OpenGL drivers again would also be fun if I ever had the time.

However, I don’t think that a good business case can be made for officially supporting Linux for mainstream games today, and Zenimax doesn’t have any policy of “unofficial binaries” like Id used to have. I have argued for their value (mostly in the context of experimental Windows features, but Linux would also benefit), but my forceful internal pushes have been for the continuation of Id Software’s open source code releases, which I feel have broader benefits than unsupported Linux binaries.

I can’t speak for the executives at Zenimax, but they don’t even publish Mac titles (they partner with Aspyr), so I would be stunned if they showed an interest in officially publishing and supporting a Linux title. A port could be up and running in a week or two, but there is so much work to do beyond that for official support. The conventional wisdom is that native Linux games are not a good market. Id Software tested the conventional wisdom twice, with Quake Arena and Quake Live. The conventional wisdom proved correct. Arguments can be made that neither one was an optimal test case, but they were honest tries.

If you fervently believe that there is an actual business case to be made for Linux ports, you can make a business offer to a publisher – offer a guarantee and be willing to do the work and support. This is what Aspyr does for the Mac, and what Loki did for Linux. However, you probably can’t even get an email returned if you are offering less than six figures to a top ten publisher. This may sound ridiculous – “Who would turn away $20,000?” but the reality is that many of the same legal, financial, executive, and support resources need to be brought to bear on every single deal, regardless of size, and taking time away from something that is in the tens of millions of dollars range is often not justifiable.

I truly do feel that emulation of some sort is a proper technical direction for gaming on Linux. It is obviously pragmatic in the range of possible support, but it shouldn’t have the technical stigma that it does. There really isn’t much of anything special that a native port does – we still make OpenGL calls, winsock is just BSD sockets, windows threads become pthreads, and the translation of input and audio interfaces don’t make much difference (XInput and Xaudio2 are good APIs!). A good shim layer should have far less impact on performance than the variability in driver quality.

Translating from D3D to OpenGL would involve more inefficiencies, but figuring out exactly what the difficulties are and making some form of “D3D interop” extension for OpenGL to smooth it out is a lot easier than making dozens of completely refactored, high performance native ports.

Ideally, following a set of best practice guidelines could allow developers to get Linux versions with little more effort than supporting, say, Windows XP.

Properly evangelized, with Steam as a monetized distribution platform, this is a plausible path forward.

Jonathan Blow: Cost of Switching to Linux is Too High for a Game Developer

noreply@blogger.com (Nitesh) — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 08:11:00 +0000

Jonathan Blow (creator of award winning game 'Braid') said that his experience with Linux as a game development platform has not been very good.

Replying to a thread on Hacker news, he expressed that the state of debuggers on Linux is really bad and tools like GDB are far from being ideal. Below is the full post:

Being a very experienced game developer who tried to switch to Linux, I have posted about this before (and gotten flamed heavily by reactionary Linux people).

The main reason is that debugging is terrible on Linux. gdb is just bad to use, and all these IDEs that try to interface with gdb to "improve" it do it badly (mainly because gdb itself is not good at being interfaced with). Someone needs to nuke this site from orbit and build a new debugger from scratch, and provide a library-style API that IDEs can use to inspect executables in rich and subtle ways.

Productivity is crucial. If the lack of a reasonable debugging environment costs me even 5% of my productivity, that is too much, because games take so much work to make. At the end of a project, I just don't have 5% effort left any more. It requires everything. (But the current Linux situation is way more than a 5% productivity drain. I don't know exactly what it is, but if I were to guess, I would say it is something like 20%.)

That said, Windows / Visual Studio is, itself, not particularly great. There are lots of problems, and if someone who really understood what large-program developers really care about were to step in and develop a new system on Linux, it could be really appealing. But the problem is that this is largely about (a) user experience, and (b) getting a large number of serious technical details bang-on correct, both of which are weak spots of the open-source community.

Secondary reasons are all the flakiness and instability of the operating system generally. Every time I try to install a popular, supposedly-stable Linux distribution (e.g. an Ubuntu long-term support distro), I have basic problems with wifi, or audio, or whatever. Audio on Linux is terrible (!!!!!!), but is very important for games. I need my network to work, always. etc, etc. On Windows these things are not a problem.

OpenGL / Direct3D used to be an issue, but now this is sort of a red herring, and I think the answers in the linked thread about graphics APIs are mostly a diversion. If you are doing a modern game engine and want to launch on Windows, Mac, iOS, and next-generation consoles, you are going to be implementing both Direct3D and OpenGL, most likely. So it wouldn't be too big a deal to develop primarily on an OpenGL-based platform, if that platform were conducive to game development in other ways.

I would be very happy to switch to an open-source operating system. I really dislike what Microsoft does, especially what they are doing now with Windows 8. But today, the cost of switching to Linux is too high. I have a lot of things to do with the number of years of life I have remaining, and I can't afford to cut 20% off the number of years in my life.

via Develop

Wadjet Eye Games Seeking Linux Beta Testers

noreply@blogger.com (Nitesh) — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 05:42:00 +0000

Wadget Eye Games is looking to bring some of their games to Linux. The game studio is well known for creating incredibly popular point-and-click adventure games 'Gemini Rue' and 'Resonance'.

These Linux ports will be most likely based on open-source Adventure Game Studio game engine. So if you are interested in testing their games, contact them from here.

Check out Gemini Rue trailer:

John Carmack: Wine for Linux Gaming Seems Like a Better Plan than Native Ports

noreply@blogger.com (Nitesh) — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 05:46:00 +0000

John Carmack, founder and technical director id software, recently tweeted that Wine for Linux gaming seems like a better idea than Native ports.

It is not first time Carmack has shown his support for Wine. Last year in April, he tweeted that there won't be a native client for Rage as it runs fine under Wine.

Carmack, however agrees that Steam for Linux is a great thing for the platform and hopes that there will be some big hits.

As of now, Steam has 45 Linux games (excluding DLCs and addons) and all of them are native ports.

What do you think about it? If a game runs as good as a native port in Wine, game developers should go for it or spend time and resources for full native port?