RE: Direction of Linux games...

[Erik <br0ke@math.smsu.edu>]

On 15-Nov-99 Gareth Noyce wrote:
>> I'm going to take a wild guess and assume that you HAVE a 
>> snes or snes emu.
>> When all was said and done, you could sit down and play the 
>> game and see your
>> graphics in action... If you didn't have a snes or emu, would 
>> you have done it?
> 
> Well, as this is going back quite a few years I din't have a snes as at that
> time they weren't available in the UK. I was given screen res and depth and
> told what to do, so yes I would have done it regardless of availability of
> target platform ;)
> 

I would imagine that behaviour is a bit aberrant. Mebbe I'm just selfish, I'm
not gonna code on a game that doesn't work on linux. :) Most humans are selfish
in the end, tho...

>> If I make a game that only runs on unicos (another 
>> assumption, I'm assuming you
>> don't have a cray in your living room), would you work on 
>> graphics for it? I
> 
> Yeah, as long as the project interested me... I'm not trying to be
> argumentative either. Nearly all my legacy stuff was done without
> availability to target platform. 
> 
>> highly doubt it :) My argument isn't that people usually 
>> won't contribute to a
>> project unless they benefit from it (get to use it). If you 
>> have both windows
>> and linux, and you like the tools in windows more than linux, 
>> you should use
>> windows to contribute to the linux project. A large majority 
>> of graphics
>> wizards use windows and/or macs EXCLUSIVELY. Those're the 
>> best platforms for
>> doing what they love, and it happens to fullfill their other 
>> needs to a degree.
>> For the most part, they don't have a need for linux.
> 
> Agreed. You'd be surprised how many GFX artists are portable though. For
> example most of the in house GFX design work at my company is done blind and
> the artists seem to love it... It gives them a chance to show off. Me - well
> I'm different in that I have a CS degree so my background isn't art anyway -
> I just have a talent for it...
> 

People who fit into catagories that are more technically adept than others tend
to be a lot more flexible with OS. Macs are pretty decent for graphics. SGI's
are the holy grail of gfx workstations I guess. Windows is not the top dog of
the gfx world. The typical winiot bigot (some of them are even reasonably
technically proficient in a computer related area) have this "it isn't windows;
therefore it sucks" mentality. Unfortunantly, there's a small fragment of the
linux community with a parallel attitude, and those idiots get the attention.
I'd imagine I could take any computer graphic artist and they'd be more
interested in installing linux or beos on their 'puter than, say, my boss :)

>> now I wish I had a project that was at a stage where a 
>> graphic artist would be
>> handy :) 
> 
> As and when - let me know! :)
>  
>> limited experience, that's probably an extreme, BUT if you 
>> look on most game
>> pages, there's usually a flock of people contributing to code 
>> and MAYBE one who
>> does some gfx... I beleive most commercial game production 
>> entities have more
>> graphic artists than programmers...
> 
> Agreed, and this is a problem. I've noticed I'm fairly lonely anyway. I'm
> surprised that more GIMP fans aren't taking the plunge, although it isn't
> particularly well suited to the task IMHO (I have some problems with GIMP
> anyway so I'm biased). I personally joined this list for programming advice
> as I have a game fully designed that I want to do. However having noticed
> the need for artists I'm probably going to offer my services doing that for
> a while... It seems there is more need of my GFX than my crap code! ;) Maybe
> this is the start of a trend?! (Ok I doubt it but...)
> 

please do everyone a favor and talk to the gimp guys. There are things that you
probably look for in a graphics application that they haven't thought of or
decided was unimportant. If a feature is cool enough or if enough people
mention it, those features usually get merged into projects (unless the project
heads are real assholes, which explains the current states of my projects ;)
When I get emails that say "hey, it'd be cool if **** had this feature..." I
pay attention. I bet if steve got an email with a cool idea for tux or plib
that he hadn't thought of, he'd give it serious thought. I bet if ingo got a
request for a feature in pingus that he hadn't thought of, he'd give it serious
thought... I'm pretty sure that one of the people hacking on gimp would be
receptive to good ideas, even if the people it mostly benifits are game gfx
wizards :)

> G
> 
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        -Erik <br0ke@math.smsu.edu> [http://math.smsu.edu/~br0ke]

The opinions expressed by me are not necessarily opinions. In all
probability, they are random rambling, and to be ignored. Failure to ignore
may result in severe boredom or confusion. Shake well before opening. Keep
Refrigerated.