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Friday May 19 14:10:43 2000
Terminus Goes Gold
- Updated by AlKini
Karthik Bala, CEO of Vicarious Visions has announced that the the long-awaited space sim Terminus has gone gold. This announcement comes after approximately 3.5 years of work on the project. In the announcement it is also mentioned that a demo is now in the works and an official press release will also be put out soon.
Comments 2
Source: Station Terminus
Friday May 19 14:01:51 2000
Parsec Interview at The Corporation
- Updated by AlKini
The Corporation has published an interview with Markus Hadwiger, lead programmer of the upcoming space-combat sim Parsec. The interview includes a brief description of the game and why there will be no single player component, and the pace of development. Markus states that a release date for the first playable demo will be announced soon and answers questions regarding development hurdles, experience gained from the project, and other topics.
Comments 0
Source: Linux.com - Games
Friday May 19 13:21:51 2000
SimCity 3000 ... Unlimited!
- Updated by Matt
Over on Loki's site they've announced that they'll be shipping SimCity 3000 Unlimited from Maxis, an improved version of SimCity 3000 that was just released for Windows. SimCity 3000 is currently in the final stages of beta testing and should be on its way to release in the very near future. Read up on it here.
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Thursday May 18 22:31:59 2000
Crystal Space Article at O'Reilly
- Updated by AlKini
The O'Reilly Network has published an article on the 3D gaming engine Crystal Space. The article covers the history of Crystal Space and its creator Jorrit Tyberghein. It also covers a sample of the games using CS, a comparison to other engines, features, weaknesses, and the future of the engine.
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Thursday May 18 21:39:52 2000
Linux.com Interview: Michael Vance of Loki
- Updated by AlKini
Linux.com has interviewed Michael Vance, Loki developer and project lead for the Soldier of Fortune port. The interview covers OpenAL, the challenges encountered while porting, toolchains, 3D support, and Michael's typical day at the Loki office.
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Thursday May 18 21:25:20 2000
Our Apologies
- Updated by AlKini
I, on behalf of the LinuxGames staff, would like to apologize for the lack of news posts as of late. We've been very busy with our real jobs and it has obviously taken a toll on our news posts. As soon as I work out my Internet connection for the summer and settle in while CrusadeR finishes up a business trip, please bear with us and understand that we will be working as best we can to catch up with news and continue to provide the best news coverage that we can. My thanks goes out to everyone who has mailed us lately with news items, and to Matt, our reviewer, who stepped up and took a stab at news for us while we were away.
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Wednesday May 17 22:24:24 2000
GooseEgg 3D
- Updated by Matt
Today I found out about a nifty 3D modeller project using OpenGL called GooseEgg 3D. Written by Terry 'Mongoose' Hendrix II (cool name!), it so far supports the following model types:
- MDL for Quake and Hexen
- MD2 for Quake 2
- nearly full Tomb Raider 1 support (not that that's useful in Linux)
It will soon include Jedi Knight and Quake 3 Arena model support, and, if I heard correctly, there is a chance it will support models for Soldier of Fortune, (Loki's latest Raven port). So if you're considering writing a mod under Linux and want to design your own models, you should definitely check this out.
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Wednesday May 17 22:24:24 2000
Report on Linux at E3
- Updated by Matt
Over at Slashdot there has been a report written by James Hills about his experiences at E3 looking for signs of games on Linux. It's a bit on the gloomy side:
Overall, E3 this year was disappointing for Linux gamers.
While there is probably a lot of truth in this, E3 has never been the kind of show that Linux folks went in the first place, as far as I know. Regardless, head on over, read what has been written, peruse the comments left by other readers, and maybe even post your own thoughts.
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Source: Slashdot
Monday May 15 22:24:07 2000
Epic Spin?
- Updated by Crusader
Ok... this is just getting weirder and weirder: Epic's Tim Sweeney sent this in regarding this week's controversy over Epic apparently dropping support for the OpenGL API in their next 3D engine:
We're still doing OpenGL. Either Brandon or the dude who interviewed him
was smoking crack, because we haven't dropped OpenGL.
-Tim
My question is, is Epic backtracking from a planned D3D-only strategy, or was this an internal communications snafu?
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Monday May 15 09:33:40 2000
Unreal Port Clarification
- Updated by Matt
Epic's Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart has updated his .plan to clarify their current position on Linux and Mac ports of the next generation Unreal engine. He claims that the move to D3D-only isn't new news and has been expressed by Tim Sweeney on the Unreal Tech page. He goes on:
"I DID NOT SAY that we would be DROPPING Mac or Linux ports."
He explains that the Mac and Linux users may not get all the effects that the Windows clients will, since Epic may use effects that D3D has that other APIs, like OpenGL, don't provide. To read the full deal for yourself, click to see the whole .plan.
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Monday May 15 09:21:32 2000
E3 Miscellany
- Updated by Crusader
Linguica from Doomworld drew E3 duty
this year for Telefragged, and covered a few titles of interest
to Linux gamers:
- Quake 3: Team Arena - id's teamplay-oriented expansion pack for Quake 3: Arena; the retail release will
contain binaries for all
supported platforms, including Linux.
- Return to Castle Wolfenstein - Being developed by Grey Matter Studios (which was founded by ex-Xatrix developers, who created Kingpin), this is Q3A engine-based sequel to id's classic FPS set in WWII Nazi Germany. As the Q3A code base already exists on Linux, and Grey Matter's Ryan Feltrin has experience porting Linux titles already, it's likely that this title will appear on our platform.
- Starsiege: Tribes 2 - Dynamix's multiplayer sci-fi combat game's engine has been ported to Linux already ostensibly, and OpenAL was also being integrated into the client that may be released (Dynamix has refused to commit to a client port).
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Sunday May 14 11:35:30 2000
QuakeForge and QuakeWorld Forever Merge
- Updated by Matt
Over on Slashdot there is a news item about QuakeForge and QuakeWorld Forever announcing a merger. The goal is to combine the cross-platform strengths of QuakeForge with the anti-cheating measures of QuakeWorld Forever. Despite no announcements on the front page of either site, you can read a press release about this merger here.
Comments 0
Source: Slashdot
Sunday May 14 07:47:51 2000
No Linux Port of Next Unreal Engine?
- Updated by Matt
At E3, Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart of Epic has told Blue's News that the next generation Unreal engine will drop OpenGL and Glide support completely and focus solely on Direct3D. Apparently, they'll have direct access to Microsoft about the development of the Direct3D API. Consequently, a port of this engine to non-Microsoft platforms, meaning Linux and MacOS, could be far more difficult.
This is an almost complete reversal of fortune for Linux users with regard to Epic and their games. Their support for Linux with their last game, Unreal Tournament, was surprising in its understanding of how Linux works. Not only did they produce a port of UT that was available concurrently with the Windows, but they also open sourced parts of the game to assist in making the port better (see OpenUT). Now, it looks as though Linux might be considered only for a dedicated server, just like Valve and their game Half-Life.
If you've been following the comments made by Tim Sweeney, you might have seen this coming. I refer you to the following comments:
- Epic will concentrate on Direct3D and OpenGL for their next engine.
- Sweeney gets his OpenGL extension rejected Proposes OpenGL would be better if it were controlled by one hardware vendor, like NVIDIA. Says they'll use DirectX on Windows and concentrate on OpenGL on other platforms like Linux.
- Tim Sweeney defends Mircosoft.
Comments 6
Source: Blue's News
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