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f13.net General Forums => General Discussion => Topic started by: CharlieMopps on September 21, 2010, 04:55:27 PM



Title: Direct3D 10/11 supported natively on Linux
Post by: CharlieMopps on September 21, 2010, 04:55:27 PM
They don't have it totally done yet but, if they really get it done it's going to be awesome.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=mesa_gallium3d_d3d11&num=1


Title: Re: Direct3D 10/11 supported natively on Linux
Post by: Ozzu on September 21, 2010, 09:05:47 PM
Wow. That's definitely interesting. I enjoy using Linux, but having to dual boot to play certain games makes it kind of a pain. If this helps with that, I'd be pretty happy just using Linux.


Title: Re: Direct3D 10/11 supported natively on Linux
Post by: Engels on September 21, 2010, 10:32:46 PM
incoming proprietary lawsuit in 3, 2, ....


Title: Re: Direct3D 10/11 supported natively on Linux
Post by: KallDrexx on September 22, 2010, 05:59:29 AM
Wow. That's definitely interesting. I enjoy using Linux, but having to dual boot to play certain games makes it kind of a pain. If this helps with that, I'd be pretty happy just using Linux.

It won't from the sound of it and It sounds more impressive than it really is, I think.  From what I am reading it just allows you to code linux games using the D3D 10/11 API.  It won't let you port a game from windows to linux easily, and it won't help WINE out since it's heavily based on the Gallium3d API's (which doesn't seem to support hardware acceleration anyways from what I am reading). 


Title: Re: Direct3D 10/11 supported natively on Linux
Post by: CharlieMopps on September 22, 2010, 11:30:20 AM
Yes, but if 2 OS's have the same graphics API then a port of a game becomes almost an afterthought.


Title: Re: Direct3D 10/11 supported natively on Linux
Post by: KallDrexx on September 22, 2010, 12:44:11 PM
Yes, but if 2 OS's have the same graphics API then a port of a game becomes almost an afterthought.

This is only the 3D part though.  You still have memory management (maybe? I know it's different for consoles), window management, sound, input, etc...  All those API's are still OS dependent, and probably bigger and less portable than the 3d code.


Title: Re: Direct3D 10/11 supported natively on Linux
Post by: Quinton on September 22, 2010, 01:05:01 PM
Yes, but if 2 OS's have the same graphics API then a port of a game becomes almost an afterthought.

This is only the 3D part though.  You still have memory management (maybe? I know it's different for consoles), window management, sound, input, etc...  All those API's are still OS dependent, and probably bigger and less portable than the 3d code.

Not really.  Memory management and file io are pretty easily abstracted, and even input handling isn't much work -- really you're just converting one event type to another.  Shifting from DX to OGL (or modifying your engine to handle both) is going to be more work than basic IO.

There's plenty you can do to make portability hard, and at the end of the day this remains true: "there is no portable software, only ported software." 

The time investment in supporting additional platforms (especially if they represent a tiny slice of your userbase) is still not going to be worth it in many cases, even if it's easier to port your code than before.  The additional cost of QA and debugging on another platform can easily outweigh the benefits (especially since if you do it right, while you're doing your main development, it's potentially putting your schedule for your primary platform(s) at risk).