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Why do game developers prefer Windows?


Debug
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Is it that DirectX is easier or better than OpenGL, even if OpenGL is cross-platform? Why do we not see real powerful games for Linux like there are for Windows?

Edited by Debug
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I believe Valik was referring to the point that Linux has virtually no penetration into the desktop world, so why would a game company waste valuable resources writing games for it? Just because you CAN write games for it using OpenGL, why would you do it for the $25 you'd make from it (total worldwide sales to Linux users, as a guesstimate)?

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Right. It has nothing to do with DirectX versus OpenGL. It has everything to do with ~85% market share (Windows) compared to ~1% market share (Linux). Those figures include mobile operating systems, when you take those away Windows jumps up to 93% market share.

Source.

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Supporting an extra OS always costs extra development time. If OpenGL worked well enough, then the time required is minimal. It could be so minimal even that the 1% market share Linux has today is big enough to become financially worth it, or at least possible to break even. (Valve aren't stupid, along with other big companies like AMD looking to get the upper hand in this early Linux gaming market).

There will always be developers who will want to support another OS from a personal motivation (ideological, or preference for example). That extra development time purely for the OS quickly becomes very small and then it has everything to do with DirectX versus OpenGL. In turn, that's a battle fought a decade ago (see link in previous post), but it looks like we're going to be seeing again in the near future.

Edited by Manadar
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Err, as noted in the article the development time isn't small. Getting something to work across OS isn't a matter of search and replace. You also have the added time and expense of maintaining the item across OSs.

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Getting something to work across OS isn't a matter of search and replace.

I disagree. High level languages by definition should not have portability issues. Of course in practice this only works for a very small function set.

Manadar agreed with you, apart from this small point:

If OpenGL worked well enough, then the time required is minimal.

OpenGl should do the whole window creation and user input bit, which leaves exactly the same thing to be done by the developer.

Currently basic demos do work cross platform. Problem is that developers also need to do stuff like connect to servers.

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The more I read about OpenGL the more it seems that they have screwed the pooch with the changes to it over the past 2 decades.

If I posted any code, assume that code was written using the latest release version unless stated otherwise. Also, if it doesn't work on XP I can't help with that because I don't have access to XP, and I'm not going to.
Give a programmer the correct code and he can do his work for a day. Teach a programmer to debug and he can do his work for a lifetime - by Chirag Gude
How to ask questions the smart way!

I hereby grant any person the right to use any code I post, that I am the original author of, on the autoitscript.com forums, unless I've specifically stated otherwise in the code or the thread post. If you do use my code all I ask, as a courtesy, is to make note of where you got it from.

Back up and restore Windows user files _Array.au3 - Modified array functions that include support for 2D arrays.  -  ColorChooser - An add-on for SciTE that pops up a color dialog so you can select and paste a color code into a script.  -  Customizable Splashscreen GUI w/Progress Bar - Create a custom "splash screen" GUI with a progress bar and custom label.  -  _FileGetProperty - Retrieve the properties of a file  -  SciTE Toolbar - A toolbar demo for use with the SciTE editor  -  GUIRegisterMsg demo - Demo script to show how to use the Windows messages to interact with controls and your GUI.  -   Latin Square password generator

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His comment about not ever removing obsoleted functions seems strange. I am perfectly Ok with have multiple versions of a system (each separate and usable concurrently) which may or may not have all the old features. I am not Ok with Frankenstein's monster libraries. Edited by Richard Robertson
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Is it that DirectX is easier or better than OpenGL, even if OpenGL is cross-platform? Why do we not see real powerful games for Linux like there are for Windows?

Why do game dev/companies use Steam?

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