Linux Port for BI Titles

[Milyardo 10]

Hi,

I am a dedicated BI, OFP, ArmA, and soon to be ArmA II fan. I am also a Linux user and regular visitor to Phoronix.com, a popular Linux 3D hardware and benchmarking site.

Today, to my suprise and excitement I saw in this thread(http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17492) that Svartalf, a developer at Linux Game Publishing(LGP) listing ArmA as possibly a future canidate for a Linux Port by LGP with the quote "ARMA (Initial contact made...we'll see...)".

I pleasently surprised that BI studios would consider a Linux port, and I would like to use this thread to give my support and thanks for giving Linux users like myself an opportunity to have a native version of any of your titles.

[.kju 3245]

Thanks for sharing the news!

[klavan 0]

This would be simply great!

Let's hope...

Thanks Milyardo for sharing this.

[Deadfast 43]

I wish...:)

Thanks for the heads up!

[zwobot 22]

Any clue how long this would take?

[andersson 285]

I had a look and arma is under 'dead end' now.

[echo1 0]

If ArmA (and ArmA 2 for the matter) was ported to Linux, and a good job was done with it, I'd definitely buy it. And I know a load of other people who'd do the same. However, I'd question just how feasible it would be.

[raedor 8]

Meanwhile ARMA is listed as "Dead end" ...

[MehMan 0]

Directx is a hard nut to crack.

[zwobot 22]

Alright so Arma is a dead end but what about Ofp? :)

[klavan 0]

Alright so Arma is a dead end but what about Ofp? :)

Uh well, if you're not a purist WINE can run it (and also the modding tools) quite good as far as I remember.

[xnsine 10]

I just opened this account to post here. I was surprised to find a thread about this on the bistudio boards, while looking for info on ArmA 2. I'm the one who contacted BiS on behalf of Svartalf from Linux Game Publishing, and regular board member at phoronix.com, for a possible business partnership to get ArmA ported to Linux. We were all excited when BiS actually replied to my email saying that they were going to bring this to their dev. team to see. After a short pause of about 6 weeks, they finally replied with a standard "We're not interested." Took them a month and a half to say no. Wow, that's considerate. It was such a letdown. But, it's k, such is the gaming industry, it has its caveats. LGP has so far closed a deal with another popular game called Caster, and now is working on more porting candidates. Operation Flashpoint would have to be talked about with Codemasters, since they own the rights to that game.

[Maddmatt 1]

Operation Flashpoint would have to be talked about with Codemasters, since they own the rights to that game.

They only own the rights to the name and the PC version voice acting. The actual code is with BIS.

[xnsine 10]

They only own the rights to the name and the PC version voice acting. The actual code is with BIS.

Are you 100% certain of that? So BiS owns the game's engine for example then?

[MehMan 0]

Yep. The real virtuality engine is the product of BI and nobody else. Probably Ondrej and Marek mostly.

[PhailQuail 10]

I am a Linux user, and it saddens me that there are no Linux ports of BI-titles.

[th3flyboy 0]

I personally would like to see OFP, ArmA and ArmA 2 ported to linux myself. I feel that that would tear away one more chain holding me to windoze.

[Yoma 0]

I just use VMWare when i want to test something under Linux.

Once 3dhardware gets decent virtualisation, i think the OS will matter less and less, as people will start using all sorts of OS's on the same PC.

For instance i have win98,win2k,winxp, winxp64, debian,Ubuntu in vmwares that run on my VistaX64 pc.

Great for testing,toying around and programming.

Once 3dhardware gets the same level of virtualisation as pretty much all other hardware nowadays, there will be absolutely no stopping you from "launching windows" inside the main OS just to play a game.

Of even better, launch my "virtual game console stripped of all other shit" yay application virtualisation - loading my game.

My point is the more virtualisation kicks in, the freer you become of OS ties and the less relevant porting of applications becomes.

[xnsine 10]

I just use VMWare when i want to test something under Linux.

Once 3dhardware gets decent virtualisation, i think the OS will matter less and less, as people will start using all sorts of OS's on the same PC.

For instance i have win98,win2k,winxp, winxp64, debian,Ubuntu in vmwares that run on my VistaX64 pc.

Great for testing,toying around and programming.

Once 3dhardware gets the same level of virtualisation as pretty much all other hardware nowadays, there will be absolutely no stopping you from "launching windows" inside the main OS just to play a game.

Of even better, launch my "virtual game console stripped of all other shit" yay application virtualisation - loading my game.

My point is the more virtualisation kicks in, the freer you become of OS ties and the less relevant porting of applications becomes.

Yes, but virtualisation is just a patch, it's not a good solution. VmWare is still a windows application that need to run under windows to emulate. Having native linux and other platform games would truly remove the requirement for players to have windows installed in their computers to play their games, to effectively avoid paying the "windows tax" they pay when wanting to play their games. WINE is more or less the same, it doesn't address the situation of truly multiplatform games.

[xnsine 10]

I am a Linux user, and it saddens me that there are no Linux ports of BI-titles.

I personally would like to see OFP, ArmA and ArmA 2 ported to linux myself. I feel that that would tear away one more chain holding me to windoze.

Well, maybe if enough community members show here their interest, we could start a formal petition to BiS here to ask for their approval in allowing Operation Flashpoint and ArmA to be ported to linux. The talent and expertise needed is there. LGP would do all the work. BiS only has to give the approval.

[raedor 8]

Well, maybe if enough community members show here their interest, we could start a formal petition to BiS here to ask for their approval in allowing Operation Flashpoint and ArmA to be ported to linux. The talent and expertise needed is there. LGP would do all the work. BiS only has to give the approval.

Just start the petition! :) Don't forget to inform the most important ArmA news pages. I'd love to play the BIS titles under debian... maybe a reason to reinstall OFP and A1... :)

(Note: I'm saying this as private person, in no way as BI official.)

[.kju 3245]

What about helping BI to port only the dedicated server?

Sounds more like a doable and realistic goal?

[Yoma 0]

What about helping BI to port only the dedicated server?

Sounds more like a doable and realistic goal?

That's very very true :)

[M@Nu-SoLo 0]

Well, it's good only for windows users who want to have a Linux dedicated server and don't want to wait any more to have it. :)

[xnsine 10]

Just start the petition! :) Don't forget to inform the most important ArmA news pages. I'd love to play the BIS titles under debian... maybe a reason to reinstall OFP and A1... :)

(Note: I'm saying this as private person, in no way as BI official.)

Actually, that's a great idea. I'll do it. Lets see the amount of response it gets. :) Can you please tell

me which are the most imporetmat ArmA/OpF BiS news games sites?

What about helping BI to port only the dedicated server?

Sounds more like a doable and realistic goal?

That's very very true :)

Well, it's good only for windows users who want to have a Linux dedicated server and don't want to wait any more to have it. :)

I didn't know there wasn't a linux dedicated server yet for ArmA. Maybe that could be a start. But the idea is to eventually have a native linux client for the BiS games, so they can run in debian, ubuntu, zenwalk, etc.

Edited June 6, 2009 by xnsine