NEWS: X2: The Threat for LINUX - order in our online shop

Post by **BurnIt!** » Mon, 12. Jun 06, 15:08

Order X2: The Threat for LINUX in our Online Shop now!

More than 20 years have passed since Kyle Brennan, test pilot of the X-Shuttle, was catapulted into unexplored space.
Now, take up the role of Julian Gardna, convicted of the theft of a transport ship, and given a second chance. From this point on, the choices are all yours.

In the immersive universe of X2, there are no rules. Return to a life of piracy and crime, build your own trading empire, join the ranks of mercenaries, or become an ace combat pilot, commanding a fleet of starships from the bridge of your carrier. Any path is open to you.
If you wish to, follow the evolving storyline, and take your place among the greats of the universe, or blaze your own path to glory.

But beware. Something is moving in the remote areas of the galaxy.

X2 features stunning graphics, beyond anything seen before in the space genre.
Open ended gameplay allows you to choose your path freely, in a universe that would take you almost 2 days playing time just to fly from one end to the other. Pilot any of over 60 classes of ship ranging from the tiny Argon Discoverer, a one man fighter, all the way to the Teladi Albatross, a huge carrier class ship over 2km long, capable of carrying a squadron of fighters, all at your command.
A complex yet intuitive interface allows complete control of your empire. Be it a trading fleet of merchant vessels flying between the factories and stations littering space, or a fighter wing of deadly Split Raptors.

[ external image ]

System Requirements:

Operating System: 2.2.x or better Linux kernel with glibc-2.1 or later and X-Windows (XFree86 3.3.x or later)
Processor: 1.2 GHz x86 Processor
Memory: 256 MB
Disc Space: 1.4 GB
Optical Drive: 1 x DVD Rom
Graphics Card: Hardware Accelerated 3D Graphics card with 64 MB video memory
Sound Card: OSS or ALSA Compatible

Fore more information visit LinuxGamePublishing.com

=VipeR= · Post by **=VipeR=** » Mon, 12. Jun 06, 16:20

Im not using linux wright now but im very courious about performance and controler compatibility, if any one is going to try it, please post your impressions, thanks.

eladan · Post by **eladan** » Tue, 13. Jun 06, 07:32

Much as I love the idea (and I do - I'd dearly love to see more games written for linux, especially of this quality) I can't see myself digging into my pockets for another copy of this just to play it under linux - particularly this long after it was released on Windows, with X3 taking up so much of my time. Give us a choice at release time, and it would be a different story...

I hope it sells well, but I suspect it won't. And none of us will really know how popular it would have been.

bobioman · Post by **bobioman** » Tue, 13. Jun 06, 07:53

oh wow...i really hope egosoft didn't spend any time on this when they should be spending time on adding more features and updates to X3 like they promised us when we purchased the game. So far there have been mostly just updates to fix things in the game, not much has really been added to the game. I swear I remember reading something about "future content upgrades" either on the box or in the manual...how many months has it been now?

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Tue, 13. Jun 06, 07:55

Egosoft didn't write the Linux port, so no, they didn't "waste" any time doing this.

jlehtone · Post by **jlehtone** » Tue, 13. Jun 06, 08:46

Two obvious questions:
1. BonusPack
2. Savegame compatibility

If we do want to see more/any games on the Linux platform, we have to pay. Money is the only signal for the publisher to recognise that such effort pays off.

nirwin · Post by **nirwin** » Tue, 13. Jun 06, 10:40

I never owned X2, so I have bought X2:the threat for linux, and have had it a couple of weeks now (got it from tuxgames.com).

I don't know about savegame compatability (send me a savegame to find out) and nor have I downloaded the bonus/content from this site to test it out (it may even be included, I think the game is installed as patch 1.4
However the bonus content should work, as it is all XML based, and as we all know XML is a beautiful multi-platform Markup Language.

Performance-wise I am running it on Mandriva 2006 (KDE environment configured to be beautiful) with an AMD Athlon XP3200+, a GeForece 6800 256Mb and 1.5Gb RAM, and a SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZX platinum soundcard. This gives a generally nice FPS with the occasional stutter, which is most noticeable in FMV's.

The port itself is very well done, nothing seems out-of-place, nothing seems to have been done with a half-hearted effort, there are no ReadText problems like the demo had.
I cannot say about controller issues as I am just using keyboard and mouse (which really sucks in X2, hurrah for X3), but both those controllers work fine, my assumption would be if your peripheral (joystick/gamepad) is linux compatible and there are no known problems with it and X2 (and you can get the peripheral recognised by linux) then it should work.

Bringing a game to more than one platform is not a 'waste' it is simply aiding free choice, and I for one think that is a fantastic and noble goal.

I bought this game to add to my rapidly expanding linux game archive because i love X and wanna play it in linux, I want to encourage future linux game development (especially in the world of X) and I wanted to play the plot of X2. And I must say despite the price tag for such an old game I am happy with the purchase.

Thank you Ego/Enlight/Deepsilver/LGP, basically anyone who had a hand in allowing this to come to pass. But I agree that a same-day release for each platform would be preferable, I would certainly buy X3, X4, X5 for linux, so come on Ego, make your code platform independent, or get LGP in on the ground floor so they can be ready to release a version soon after the official 'Windoze' release.

Buy it, support linux gaming, support X.

=VipeR= · Post by **=VipeR=** » Tue, 13. Jun 06, 12:01

Thanks nirwin for your feedback, that was realy informative.

Post by **CBJ** » Tue, 13. Jun 06, 12:09

Regarding savegame compatibility, savegames should be compatible between different platforms (provided both are 1.4) but that cannot be absolutely guaranteed and as far as I know has not been tested.

Regarding the bonus pack, again, the scripts should be cross-compatible. However, the installer almost certainly won't be so you'd need to extract the files first on a Windows PC and then copy them accross.

Regarding platform-independence and same-day release, I'm afraid that is extremely unlikely. It simply isn't practical to move away from DirectX, nor is it practical for third party companies to start porting code that is still under heavy development prior to release.

nirwin · Post by **nirwin** » Tue, 13. Jun 06, 13:32

CBJ wrote:Regarding savegame compatibility, savegames should be compatible between different platforms (provided both are 1.4) but that cannot be absolutely guaranteed and as far as I know has not been tested.

Regarding the bonus pack, again, the scripts should be cross-compatible. However, the installer almost certainly won't be so you'd need to extract the files first on a Windows PC and then copy them accross.

Regarding platform-independence and same-day release, I'm afraid that is extremely unlikely. It simply isn't practical to move away from DirectX, nor is it practical for third party companies to start porting code that is still under heavy development prior to release.

Didn't the bonus pack just get released in a zip file? If not it might be worth making a zip version available just to be linux friendly (wouldn't take long).

I can understand that the switch from DirectX is not an easy thing, but it could be kept in mind for the future, perhaps you could build in a driver framework which means that both DirectX and OpenGL/OpenAL could be implemented alongside eachother and like some older games it could (once the OpenGL version works) offer a choice as to which library you want to use. Everything that is possible with DirectX should in theory be possible with OpenGL though it will take a bit longer.
With the release of OpenGL 2.0 maybe things in the OpenGL world have moved forwards a bit?

In regards to 'port'ers working on development material, yes you're right it probably isn't overly practical and may even cause some time-wastage, but once the engine is finished, which I imagine is (usually) a while before the game is released, the bulk of the work can be done. I imagine most of the work done to port X2 to linux was making the engine use the OpenGL API instead of the DirectX API and writing implementations of any API calls that had no equivelant in OpenGL. Of course I could be completely wrong.

I know it's not going to happen soon/easily/ever but I'm just voicing the fact that I want it (if you don't ask you don't get) and like everything, it is possible if the resources can be allocated.

Either way, no whinging from me, I can now play an X game in linux so I am super happy

busby1968 · Post by **busby1968** » Tue, 13. Jun 06, 13:56

Ill like to say well done to ehosoft for allowing a linux port of X2. I hope X3 will also be ported to linux. Linux is an up and coming gaming plaform but should be a lot further on if sony decided to ever help the open source community. Anyway might buy it alought I still vmware linux and not have a sperate harddrive for it so it will affect performance and the direct X API is better then the open GL one in my opion(A lot easier to code with).

esd · Post by **esd** » Tue, 13. Jun 06, 14:05

verything that is possible with DirectX should in theory be possible with OpenGL though it will take a bit longer.

Except "work on Vista", that is. There's been rumour and speculation regarding MS trying to stop anything non-DirectX operating on Vista.

elmy · Post by **elmy** » Tue, 13. Jun 06, 14:28

Can't beleive that. That would keep many hi-end media production software (eg Maya, 3ds max, AfterEffects, ...) from operating on Vista. Plus most professional graphics cards are even optimized for running OpenGL. Up until now, it was up to the gfx card producers to provide OpenGL drivers. How could ms possibly stop them and get away with it ?

EDIT: I just checked the beta-driver offeed by nvidia. They are advertised to contain OpenGL support.

nirwin · Post by **nirwin** » Tue, 13. Jun 06, 15:10

esd wrote:Except "work on Vista", that is. There's been rumour and speculation regarding MS trying to stop anything non-DirectX operating on Vista.

Really? Why am I not surprised! M$ appears to be trying to stomp out something open and sensible, there's a shocker! And people wonder why I'd rather have a game on Linux than on Windows.
It would be kind of funny if they did do that, Unreal Tournament for one would have to move it's code to DirectX (bet they'd make the switch if they had to) and also isn't M$ one of the companies that controls the development of OpenGL? That would certainly explain the stunted development of the library.

Oh well, guess you have to appeal to the masses and the lowest common denominators.

And about that comment about DirectX being much easier to use than OpenGL, well there is no answer, because it is a matter of opinion, but I have coded with both API's and I much prefer the use/layout of OpenGL, and it is a view that is shared by many others.

So ES, any plans to let LGP do another fantastic job and port over X3? Or are you waiting to see if they approach you?

Post by **Cycrow** » Tue, 13. Jun 06, 15:38

well, being a programmer in both opengl and directx, i have to say that OpenGL is the better API.

and ID software must think so as they always use opengl

antman112 · Post by **antman112** » Tue, 13. Jun 06, 22:51

sounds cool

but dose not effect me at the lest

as i do not use LINUX

michael_x2 · Post by **michael_x2** » Fri, 16. Jun 06, 15:30

jlehtone wrote:Two obvious questions:
1. BonusPack
2. Savegame compatibility

The bonus pack is included on the DVD, just select the option at install time.

Downloadable scripts are fine, we didnt include them on the DVD, however, as we didnt want to confuse users who may install them and then get the big 'Modified' label, and not know why.

Savegames are cross-platform between linux and Windows, we tested this successfully with a number of saves, and with the way it was ported, it should handle any save you can throw at it.

If we do want to see more/any games on the Linux platform, we have to pay. Money is the only signal for the publisher to recognise that such effort pays off.

As the CEO of the publisher I agree wholeheartedly. Tho its not cos we're moneygrabbing corporate sellouts, its cos we like to make enough money to pay our employees and put food on the table {:-) The plan is, if X2 sells well enough, then X3 for Linux will happen, if it doesnt, it won't, unfortunately (much as I personally love the X series, I cant put the company into the poorhouse over what Id prefer to port, we have to stick to market realities)...

hogy · Post by **hogy** » Fri, 16. Jun 06, 16:13

I preordered X2 for linux from linux game publishing and got it about 2 weeks ago

(egosoft seems to have taken their time to mention the port's existance on the main page).
I've been very satisfied with it, runs just like it did in windows, with force feedback as the only thing lacking (which is to be expected). Most joysticks have open source linux drivers available from the web.
There's a free demo of X2 by the way, available from linux game publishing so you can try it out and see if your hardware works ok with it (see the Demo section of this webpage: http://www.linuxgamepublishing.com/info.php?id=23&)

I'd be interested to know how many X fans are only using windows because some of their games are designed for only windows. Post your thoughts.

I'm running fedora core 4 on an amd (1800Mhz) with a geforce fx 5600 and 512 mb ram and it runs fine (struggles with shadows, but it did with windows too)

I could be wrong about some of this, but regarding the vista-opengl thing:
* You need to install drivers for your graphics card to take advantage of the hardware anyway, and its in the hardware manufacturer's best interest to support opengl since its in such wide use.
* From what i've heard, vista can only cause problems with opengl when the fancy aroglass effects are in use (which use dx) and you won't be seeing that if your game's in fullscreen mode anyway.

I will probably not waste my money buying any future X games for windows (i've been playing them since xbtf), and i'll just wait until a linux port gets released. I'd be overjoyed if egosoft showed some concrete signs that they were at least interested in their linux using customers, but i can see that this is unlikely to happen. IMO until game developers actually break the lock-in and make some cross platform games, customers aren't going to have any choice and the developers will be limiting their market.

Even just a bit of effort so that wine/cedega has a chance of running the X games would be good (starforce copy protection makes it basically impossible and running a game in linux is not an attack on copyright).

just my humble opinion

James

taronas · Post by **taronas** » Fri, 16. Jun 06, 16:54

Two years late

I bought the Windows version and will not buy the linux version now - years later and with X3 already getting old.

A great example of how it could be done: http://www.x-plane.com/

OpenGL that runs on Windows, OSX and Linux. The only limiting factor is Hardware support of the OS you are running.

Now, this awesome Flight Simulator is probably the real reason for me not buying any other X anymore: Since I got it beginning of this year I have no time anymore for something else

Vanir · Post by **Vanir** » Sat, 17. Jun 06, 10:03

To michael_x2:

What, in your experience, is the 'best' linux distribution for the purpose of playing games?

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

NEWS: X2: The Threat for LINUX - order in our online shop

NEWS: X2: The Threat for LINUX - order in our online shop

works great for me