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Games Entertainment

NWN Linux Client Not So Delayed after All? 155

Posted by CmdrTaco from the believe-it-when-I-see-it dept.
Sir Joltalot writes "It seems as if the NWN linux client might not be as delayed after all. From the client page: "We have just been informed by Rad Game Tools that they have Linux versions of both Bink and Miles. ... This solves the two outstanding issues with the Linux Client, and I bet we will have even more good news for you in the coming week in terms of future Betas or Demos of the Linux Client."" You'll excuse me if I opt against holding my breath ;)
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NWN Linux Client Not So Delayed after All? More

NWN Linux Client Not So Delayed after All?

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  • OS X? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by glwtta ( 532858 ) on Sunday December 15, 2002 @12:44PM (#4892062) Homepage
    With all this excitement about the linux client, I haven't heard anything about an OS X one - anyone know if one in the works?
  • Nice!
    a Pity it wont be befor the 24th.
    Just yesterday I was thinking of getting the windows version, now I dontknow what to do, but I think Ill wait.

    I dont have enough money to by both. :)

    • Re:christmas (Score:2, Insightful)

      by McCutheonIV ( 631184 )
      Sadly, you'll have to buy the windows version anyways, so holding out to support linux gaming doesn't matter. When I pre-ordered the game they had still claimed on thier website that the linux and mac binaries would be included. Boy was I pissed when I found out they weren't.

    • Re:christmas (Score:3, Informative)

      by zoward ( 188110 )
      I put NWN on my list of things I want that people are always asking me for at Christmastime. It would be nice to fire up NWN under Linux, but I'm happy they're committed to putting out a Linux client at all. So I'll wait 'til January if need be. It just means there will be more user-built modules I can try out :-).

  • Bink and Miles (Score:5, Insightful)

    by stratjakt ( 596332 ) on Sunday December 15, 2002 @12:46PM (#4892074) Journal
    Hmm. If they have linux versions, why not make them available on their website? The video tools are freely available for Windows, so having the linux version floating around surely would only help further adoption of their tech.

    I can understand why they wouldnt release source - but would sticking the client and encoders up hurt them?
    • And a follow up question:

      RAD makes a ton of dough liscensing this stuff, it's used in thousands of games. The encoder is free, but the SDK is big bucks. [radgametools.com]

      So why do they ask for paypal donations? [radgametools.com]

      Anyone else find it just a little cheesy when a for-profit corporation is soliciting donations?
      • Anyone else find it just a little cheesy when a for-profit corporation is soliciting donations?

        Maybe they're taking their cues from Mandrake [linux-mandrake.com]?

      • Re:Bink and Miles (Score:5, Informative)

        by John Miles ( 108215 ) on Sunday December 15, 2002 @03:19PM (#4892837) Homepage Journal
        Because we spend $I_don't_know_how_much_money_but_it's_a_boatload on bandwidth giving away the RAD Video Tools [radgametools.com] for free. :)

        I'm not involved with that particular product and can't rattle any stats off the top of my head, but I remember being shocked to hear how much download traffic our site sees per month. The donation button shows up only when you're downloading a freebie like the video toolset that's of primary interest to (non-paying) end users.

        • Share it over gnutella and provide an md5 sum on your website. Linux folks like to share and want to help.

          Just an idea. I don't use proprietary software when I can avoid it anyway, so nevermind, I'm sure linux folks will keep working on SDL/OpenAL/etc.

        • How about mirroring and having all those Geeks share some bandwidth? Just wish one could mirror on a spammers server so we can user their bandwidth!

          Or at least have some information that you can use Bink and Miles (I am assuming that Miles Sound System is your design?) on Linux. At least it may save someone at your office having to deal with an influx of e-mail to do with software that was already available.

          If Bioware can make this mistake, I wonder how many others will too.

          Of course I have no idea what rules and regs at radgames would prevent any of my ideas :).

          StarTux
        • """
          Because we spend $I_don't_know_how_much_money_but_it's_a_boatload on bandwidth giving away the RAD Video Tools [radgametools.com] for free. :)
          """

          As others have said, let the community set up mirrors. I know it's hard for corporations to understand this, but sometimes giving up control over every last detail of software distribution can be a *good* thing!

          Besides, even if you didn't let others mirror your software how much extra traffic do you think the Linux versions will really generate? The Linux community's size is a pretty small fraction of the Windows throng's, and I imagine that most wanna-be game programmers are using windows anyway.

          Finally, would it hurt to at least *mention* the linux version of the tools somewhere on the website? I don't imagine you ported them for giggles. You *did* want to make some money off of them, right? You might find that your profits from these ports would increase if your customers were aware that they existed!

          -DA
  • I have access to and just recently finished the Neverwinter Nights game start to finish, about 99.9% of it playing on the NetBSD machine as server. There were only a very few problems I encountered:

    0. I had to create the directories "currentgame.0" and "temp.0" before I could get gameplay out of the server running on NetBSD using Linux emulation with the Suse7 emu package.

    1. The most difficult to deal with were module transitions--from chapter to chapter. These had to be saved before the transition, the saves had to be moved to the windows machine, the transition completed on a windows local server, then saved again, moved back, and restarted.

    I'm certain there's something simple that I could be doing--have the script check regularly (every second?) for some kind of disk structure, or perhaps fixing something else, but I was too anxious to get to the next chapter to sit there and do a ktrace of what was happening. I have a pile of saved games I can monkey with though (about 100 of them) so I'll get to it eventually.

    I did not try to move it to a Windows server to see if this would make a difference. I suspect it would've worked perfectly.

    So, I'd recommend saving yourself a headache and just use the Windows version. I play games for entertainment, coolness, sex appeal, geek factor, etc., but I don't wish to spend an hour tweaking stuff just right so I can play on GNU/Linux.

    P.S. If you must play on Linux/BSD, please know that saving the game in the middle of an area to area transition (not module to module--that just plain didn't work) caused a freeze and core-dump in the server.

    • Re:Been there, played it (Score:5, Funny)

      by Longinus ( 601448 ) on Sunday December 15, 2002 @01:12PM (#4892178) Homepage
      I play games for entertainment, coolness, sex appeal, geek factor, etc., but I don't wish to spend an hour tweaking stuff just right so I can play on GNU/Linux.

      What? I thought running stuff on GNU/Linux was the epitome of cool and sexy! I'm sure if I had a girlfriend she would back me up on this...

    • They're not talking about running the server under Linux, but the game client.

      Or were you running the client under NetBSD some way?
    • Sounds like a lot more work than just booting into Windows and playing it there... :)
    • P.S. If you must play on Linux/BSD, please know that saving the game in the middle of an area to area transition (not module to module--that just plain didn't work) caused a freeze and core-dump in the server

      Uh, I've been using the Linux deticated server since Day 1 it was released. Using Red Hat 7.2, I haven't had any of those problems since several patches ago. Bioware fixed the "save in the middle of a transition" bug (which existed in the Windows version too) a long time ago, for sure.
    • I play games for entertainment, coolness, sex appeal, geek factor, etc., but I don't wish to spend an hour tweaking stuff just right so I can play on GNU/Linux.
      Some of us don't have Windows machines and need to wait for the GNU/Linux version to be able to play it.
    • the only drawback was that map rotation was manual

      I guess it would not that hard to write a sniffer to look for special control phrases in the chat logs [like i do for everquest - I can call up maps & item searches, recipies, any url, send email etc.etc.]

      but NWN server never/rarely crashed on me - it did kind of bork the response of the public web server sometimes by CPU hogging but hey, that's life

    • This is a *Linux* program and you're advising against using it because it doesn't work properly...on your *BSD* box! Did you ever consider the far-more-likely possibility that it's a *BSD* issue -- improperly emulating the Linux environment -- instead of a NWN issue?

      If you wanted things working out of box (you "don't wish to spend an hour tweaking stuff") and you purchased a *Linux* program, for God's sake, *use Linux*.

  • It seems to me... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by johnthorensen ( 539527 ) on Sunday December 15, 2002 @12:49PM (#4892081)
    that the REAL story here is the availability of Bink and Miles. These two tools are widely used in the gaming industry, and should make porting of MANY games and other multimedia apps (not just NWN) a real possibility. In fact, a quick look at Rad Game Tools page [radgametools.com] shows 2,700 games that use the Miles API. Bink is pretty cool too...used in quite a few games as well.

    -JT
    • Note above comment should have read:

      "...availability of Bink and Miles for Linux"

      -JT

    • Re:It seems to me... (Score:5, Funny)

      by stratjakt ( 596332 ) on Sunday December 15, 2002 @01:06PM (#4892155) Journal
      You notice it lists "3D Realms Duke Nukem Forever"

      Makes me wonder what else on the list is imaginary.

    • Re:It seems to me... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by beme ( 85862 ) on Sunday December 15, 2002 @01:11PM (#4892176)
      There's also a bit to the story about Bioware talking so much about a simultaneous release, then a release a 'few weeks' after the windows version, then many months later, all when they never even bothered to _ask the vendor_ if the tools they chose to use might work with Linux. Boggles my mind that there'd be all this talk about a Linux version and they don't even bother to send an email to the support@vendor.com address.
      • Exactly, this really gets me, especially when I took the time to write a comment in the thread about the delay about how if they had picked something else they wouldn't be having this problem now, and how could they possibly even encounter this problem in the first place if they intended to do a linux version from the start?

        So now it's even more ridiculous; They supposedly planned windows and linux support at the same time. They were supposed to release them at the same time. Then, as you say, they claim they will be late because the software to do a straightforward port is not available -- You would think they would have noticed this sooner. Now, again as you say, it further seems that they never even checked to see if these APIs even existed for linux.

        This is supposed to compel me to buy games from this developer why? This is a serious case of rectal-cranial inversion.

    • Disciples II is also using the Bink engine to play animations. So that would make the recently announced port much much easier.

      Kjella
  • it would be nice to see the game finally running under linux..
    i already played 2 chapters under windows and the game is great

  • It took them that long to find out? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ttyRazor ( 20815 ) on Sunday December 15, 2002 @01:10PM (#4892169)
    Did they even bother to ask? I wonder how many other games or software projects have been delayed because the developers didn't bother to ask anyone if there were already wheels out there while they tried to invent their own.

  • Take it from me... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by fudgefactor7 ( 581449 ) on Sunday December 15, 2002 @01:26PM (#4892244)
    I completed the game, and I can say that it's a blast! Plus, making your own modules is great. Patience for the linux client will be WELL worth it. Trust me.

  • A example of False Advertisement at its best (Score:3, Interesting)

    by cyberlotnet ( 182742 ) on Sunday December 15, 2002 @01:38PM (#4892283) Homepage Journal
    Everyone seems to be cheering the fact that NWN will hopefully have a way to play movies and sound come monday because of a linux version of RAD tools..

    HELLO, People... Lets think about this one moment...

    They announced MONTHS ago that they where going to Launch with a NWN Linux Client..

    Then they turn around and say its going to be delayed..

    Now in the last week they main delay is not having a clue of what to do about sound and movie?

    Is it just me or does anyone else thing that this whole thing started out as nothing but a large STUNT to get more sales and it has turned around and bit them in the REAR..

    MONTHS down the road and they are just now telling us that they can't play sound or movies.

    And here we are 2 weeks before X-mas.. Even if they where 100% complete with everything else they would still have to integrate, and test these 2 very important show stopping features.

    HOW CAN YOU ANNOUNCE A LINUX CLIENT AT LAUNCH AND NOT EVEN HAVE A REMOTE IDEA OF HOW YOU PLAN ON SUPPORTING YOUR MOVIES AND SOUND...

    This false advertising beats out fast food, They fleece you every time you order a burger from there picture based menus, pictures that make your mouth water, and get something that looks like it was sat on.
    • Most people would not expect the client before xmas, its only aout 5 working days left and they have to rip out the sound code and put back in the Miles sound. Bioware wll not get the Bink and Miles tools for Linux until Monday...

      No real false advertising as the language between planned release and actual promised release are two seperate things.

      Anyway, think logically...Why false advertise against a small market? You're witnessing honest mistakes here of that I am certain (how many have worked in a large business can relate to screw ups happening?).

      • Have you followed the NWN Linux client fiasco at all?

        At this point its not only that they made a big mistake announcing it.. They took almost 3 months to let the public know what was going on, For 3 months linux users had no idea what the state of the linux client was..

        And even today we are not sure, They just told us this week about the miles/bink issues.. Until this week we had no reason to suspect major delays like this.

        The problem is not that they made a mistake.. Its that they failed to own up to there mistakes and come straight.

        Honest mistake, Maybe but unlikely. Loss of there Integrity, For sure.

        I wonder how many people purchased the game expecting the linux client to be out, Expecting Bioware to live up to there Public announced release of a Linux client.. at $49 a pop.. If we had known we could of put that money in savings and not only bought it cheaper when the linux client does come out but made interest on the money...
        • Yes I followed NWN from well over a year ago...And yes I purchased the game after reading the press release that the client would follow soon. It was a screwup, not very well written press release, but it was far from false advertising like you're intent on spreading. Really this would not affect sales to any great extent.

          Just go and enjoy the game once its released, I will be.
          • Hey StarTux :)

            I'm over on the linuxgames.com site as well, I usually post as an anon because my work doesn't like me logging in to any sites. Silly job. Any who.. I used to be a bioware apologist.. but even you have to admit this is weird. When you do a project , you scope it out and design it in before you code. They planned for simul release. Note, I didn't say promise.. just planned. But from how it appears now, they did little to no coding on the linux client during the windows programming. Doesn't that seem a bit odd? Now we find out that not only did they not do much programming, that they didn't know if the sound system would work, nor the movies system.. this is after having problems with the networing, the graphics, the controllers, and the scripting engines, in that order? See.. what gets us pissed is the fact that this is supposed to be a simul release.. and it has the look of a Compsci student programming in Visual C++ and using MS APIs and then expecting it to compile on an HP/UX aCC environment. This could very well be an honest mistake.. but the mere fact that they "planned" to have a simul release but apparently didn't even start coding until two weeks before the windows release is .. at very least, unethical, and very most.. illegal.

            Magnwa

  • Stupidity (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Rydia ( 556444 ) on Sunday December 15, 2002 @01:44PM (#4892305)
    Jeez, we finally get word that the client is almost done, and there's not one decent post in the whole stinking story.

    Personally, I think that the story of bioware should help a lot, both for linux gamers and developers. It should remind the developers that you should never, ever, EVER make a cross-platform game with non-cross-platform parts. Bioware got so incredibly lucky with this, I have no idea what they would do if they didn't have Bink and Miles available... I would have doubts about a winter date. As for the gamers, I think that this is a great opportunity to get a native game that isn't an FPS, supported by the developers (with an expansion on the way, too). I know that it's very easy to sigh and condemn bioware and all this silliness, but hey, at least they're doing it. And we should be happy and support them by buying it to ensure their future support of linux (now that they have gotten their act together ;).

    Also, hello to all the guys from the Great Linux Client Thread! :)
    • What should be next for the Linux Client Thread?

      "The Penguin Saved the Client?"

      StarTux
      aka Fuzzle from the bioboards...
    • They did it stupidly, they bungled this. I hope that they learned their lesson this time. I mean, how could they plan for a cross-platform game (FOUR at the beginning (Win, Mac, Linux, BeOS), and then use components restricted to two of those? Are they that stupid? That being said, I look forward to playing NWN in Linux.
    • ... but hey, at least they're doing it. And we should be happy and support them by buying it to ensure their future support of linux (now that they have gotten their act together ;).

      No. Sorry. Not yet.

      It's still FAR too early to say "they have gotten their act together". You might say that when they release a public beta. You could even say that when there's a "teaser" that runs on linux but only has a few character classes, spells, items, maps, etc. You might even say this if it only runs on a limited range of hardware/kernels/libc and has worse bugs than their original 1.10 windows release.

      Until there is _something_ available to everyone (like me) that purchased the game in hopes of "soon" being able to play without rebooting into a yucky OS, it's too soon to say they've "gotten their act together".

      I've personally only rebooted a couple dozen times to play. I originally thought I would abstain until the linux client... but I got curious, and so did my girlfriend (yep, we picked up a second copy, at approx $50 retail). One thing I can say from experience is that even on the windows client, they really only recent "got their act together" and fixed the last of the crashing bugs, somewhere around 1.25. There were MANY other little bugs... but I can live with some choppy audio on the movies and little things that aren't quite right. On my machine, it would crash on startup about 50% of the time before rev 1.25 or 1.26 (or something like that). Even that is ok.... but in-game crashing is just not acceptable. There was a bug where the game would crash sometimes when you removed your armor (eg, in front the "seedy tavern" to put on the stolen pirate uniform so they'd let you inside).

      So opinions may differ... I personally will say "they have gotten their act together" when a playable linux client is released that doesn't suffer from show-stopper bugs like in-game crashing. You may differ, but certainly this recent news means nothing. The original promise of a linux client alongside windows meant nothing. The "within weeks" and "sometime in the fall" didn't mean much. Any excuse could be offered, as we just saw. They could decide to scrap the linux client for any reason.

      On the plus, at least it seems Bioware's NWN linux effort has put pressure on Rad to port to linux.

  • Just remember... (Score:5, Informative)

    by mao che minh ( 611166 ) on Sunday December 15, 2002 @01:44PM (#4892308) Journal
    ..to actually buy the Linux version once it hits shelves (or more then likely, the stock of your favorate online retailer). Without support for their efforts, Bioware won't throw money towards future ports.
    • I pre-ordered NWN, and paid $59.99us for it, because it was supposed to have the Linux binaries available shortly after release. The price has since dropped to around $35.00us and I'm STILL waiting, and now you want me to buy ANOTHER copy!?! How about this instead? BioWare gets the Linux client and the toolset, out before the end of the year, or I never buy another one of their products again due to the missleading manner in which they advertised it. I am tired of companies who claim to support Linux to get the free advertising, only to fail to make good on their claim.

    • Re:Just remember... (Score:5, Informative)

      by 1%warren ( 78514 ) <<wardon> <at> <xtra.co.nz>> on Sunday December 15, 2002 @02:08PM (#4892428) Homepage
      There isn't a *Linux* version. They originally planned to ship the game with Linux support. The Linux client will be a free download. Bioware will be able to get a fair idea of the numbers by seeing how often it's downloaded.

  • They announced another big delay of an already tremendously late product because of the unavailability of some components without even bothering to check with the maker of those components. And yet some people seem to believe Bioware are "working hard" in this port. Awesome.

    With this level of interest on Bioware's side, I can only imagine how buggy NWN for Linux will be when it is "finished".

  • Imagine that at project start, the future availability of Bink and Miles for Linux was "promised" to Bioware. After the collapse of Loki and other developments, Rad Game Tools declines to release said products.

    While working feverishly to roll their own solution, Bioware publicly states that this is the reason they are being held back.

    Sam Lantiga suddenly shows up out of the blue on the NWN forums to reveal that he had previously ported Miles and submitted the code back to RGT.

    The Rabid Linux Zealots flood RGT's mail server...

    RGT admits that they do have a working Bink and Miles for Linux.

    grassy knoll... area 51...
    • Except that RAD made it clear in advance that it was out. It was more like Rabid Linux Users went to RAD, found the link and the such.. and told RAD that bioware was using them and lying. RAD made it public that they had these things, and then bioware had to backpedel dramatically.

      I mean.. come on.. Do you really think a company that paid for a license to use APIS didn't know what platforms those APIs ran on? Are you stating that we are waiting for a game made by a company with coders, buyers, and planners THAT utterly inept?

      Magnwa
      • Except that RAD made it clear in advance that it was out. It was more like Rabid Linux Users went to RAD, found the link and the such..

        Unlikely. The word "Linux" does not appear on the radgametools website. Until lately Radgametools had no intention to port Bink and the Miles Sound System to Linux. At least that's what they assured me when I inquired for the game company I was with a year ago.

        Most likely the the Biowares Linux client story was similar to the one of my former employer Massive Development. They started with the firm commitment to release a Linux client and server along with the Windows version. They employed me, mostly a linux guy, to do the multiplayer network coding.

        When I started to work and had a first look to the existing codebase, I already wondered how you can hope to build a Linux client with a totally Direct3D dependent renderer, but was told a OpenGL Port was in the pipeline and ready "any day now". But it soon turned out, that supporting the latest vertex shaders was much more important to the graphics guys. The resulting engine was even tighter bound to Direct3D and a port to OpenGL an imposiblility without an architectual overhaul. Of cause, there was no time for that, so this was the end of the Linux client.

        Shortly after, I came up with a full working, UDP based, distributed object system. But management decided to scrap UDP networking and to use DirectPlay8 as the low level network code. That was the end of the linux server. The rationale for this was: The Xbox (then new on the horizont) was assumed to be lacking UDP networking and was considered to be a more important platform. Not that that they based this assumption on facts, or that they published a XBox version until now.

  • With all the whining I have heard about the delays in the Linux client im suprised BW even bothered continuing work on it. Where is the value to BW in finishing it. The delays have turned into bitches and gripes that only fuels bad press - like that which is found in the headline on this site ("i wont hold my breath") BW, in its slow way, is actually doing the linux community a favor by developing for the platform at all - and hopefully when there done, people will buy it - thus showing the gaming community that Id isn't the only company that can make a headliner game for Linux and be successful. So stop yer bitchin. You don't have to love or even support the delays or even the effort of BW to make the game. Be cynical all you want but shut up about it. If your gonna bitch - bitch if no game comes ever does come out. And then when you do bitch, make sure you bitch at all the people who could only whine during the development and showed the world what an ingrateful lot the Linux community can be at timews.
    • So when you give someone money for a service in expectation of a certain date, and then find out they knew quite well that they wouldn't be ready for half a year, we're supposed to thank them! The people who shelled out money for the windows version after the promise of a quick release of the client have every right to be annoyed about it in light of everything that's come up about how the development process has been laid out. They're a buisness like any other. If people find a service to be good, they have a right to mention that opinion to others. The same right holds true of anything negitive as well.

      Should no one be allowed to mention how unhealthy Mcdonalds is because they have good prices? Should we be banned from mentioning how affordable and convient Mcdonalds is because it's unhealthy? People deserve to be able to make informed decisions about the products and services out there, and ignoring any aspect due to other factors in the company makes for a very unwise platform on which to base ones purchases.

      I'm thrilled to be getting a Linux client at all, but if I think they're making a bad choice in which way to arrive there darn right I'm going to mention it. If people hadn't "whined" about it, they'd still be working on implementing Bink and Miles.
    • wow - the whining really doesn't cease. So, another day of people not accepting responsibility for their own choices. You, or others, shelled out cash for a product they hadn't seen but heard was coming. Some advice, don't preorder. Buy things when they are done. Don't reward a company for their marketing hype - reward them for a product in hand. If you are so eager to have a product that you want to pay for it, before it is done, thats your perogative, but also realize its your gamble. There was no guarantee that any version of NWN would be released.
  • Lookie here, Linux always gets a mention :).

    http://nwn.stratics.com/content/community/hoclog s/ 20021212_hoc.shtml

  • Portability should not be an afterthought (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Portable applications are well designed applications.

    One guess as to why this port has been so difficult for them.

  • Why is Bioware doing it? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by yamla ( 136560 ) <chris@@@hypocrite...org> on Sunday December 15, 2002 @03:12PM (#4892791)

    I'm seriously curious here... why is Bioware releasing a Linux client? Please understand, I run Linux and I'm desperate to get a Linux client myself, I just don't understand Bioware's business reasons for this.

    Bioware isn't likely to make back the money they've sunk into porting to Linux, not in sales they'd otherwise not have received. Yes, they'll certainly gain some good will from the Linux community but still...

    Certainly, matters are different with the stand-alone linux server. Porting that didn't take much effort and this adds value to the product quite obviously.

    So what's my theory? Bioware is using NWN to get some cross-platform experience for a future project. They know they aren't going to make their money back on the development of a linux client for NWN but that doesn't matter to them. The experience they get from this port is the value they are looking for and they plan to leverage this experience on future projects. Those are the ones Bioware expects to see a payback.

    • This is a good observation. I was wondering "why" to myself, as well. People have apparently gotten the game, toolset, etc. to work in Wine. I'm sure Bioware expected them to do so.

      Your comment makes sense. The only question is "what" future project? Knights of the Old Republic? Maybe something they are just toying with right now? *Shrugs*
    • Your theory sounds about right to me. The work on NWN is, fundamentally, a work to create a new engine for their RPG's to replace the aging one used in the Baldur's Gate series. They milked Baldur's Gate for many years, and it was tremendously popular and a big money-maker. The same can be expected of NWN.

      Fundamentally, NWN is a method for telling stories. Everything else is simply a means to achieve that end. They've made amazing, engrossing stories before. Having a client run on all platforms will almost surely be a money-loser, but all those future expansions, cranked out every 8 months, is a sure way to continue being profitable for this company, because they know how to tell an engrossing story via a game engine.

      So yeah, I agree with you. But it's not some mysterious future project that they are laying the groundwork for, but simply more and more expansions so they can use this as their base engine for the next 6 years.
    • Bioware is making a Linux client because they promised it. They originally said it would ship at launch! Linux installer and all, right there when you bought the disc. I am glad they are standing by their promise to make a linux client, but you must understand why people would be upset. There are people who bought the game on the good faith that a linux client would be released shortly. It wasn't.
    • I think they are doing it for a couple of reasons. The main one being using the linux crowd as a source of modules to keep the game alive. Think about it. D&D, Linux, fat sweaty programmers... It's a perfect fit! :)

      They've been very open and understanding to the community the past couple of years, and I think a linux client just fits. I just don't think they realized it would be so difficult, and they got in a little over their head.
    • Yes and no. For one thing, Bioware promised a client (on the CD, no less), so they have to deliver. And yes I am sure it's an investment in the future. However, I think there is one more reason why NWN gets ported to Linux while a hundred thousand other games don't. Bioware is, as far as companies go, very smart. They know their market. And I am sure they know that a sizeable share of Linux geeks are long-time RPG fanatics. Probably much more so than users of any other OS. What's more, Linux users tend to have a goodly amount of technology available. Specifically, this includes Servers that can - and will - be used to host games of NWN. And last but not least, many Linux users will know programming, making them the ideal module builders (NWN's scripting language is basically C as far as I have seen it).

      So, by supporting Linux, Bioware probably hopes to increase the infrastructure and the community produced content available to the game by an unporoportionally large chunk. Yes, there are many, many solo players out there, but still the free add-ons are one big seller for NWN.

  • Rad (Score:2)

    by Sivar ( 316343 )
    "We have just been informed by Rad Game Tools that they have Linux versions of both Bink and Miles.

    You mean... They didn't ask?!
  • Will I be able to develop levels and DM using Linux? From what I hear this is all the fun in the game.

  • Binks & Miles (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    You know what the sadest part of this whole thing is? It took the Linux NWN Community to let Bioware know that Linux versions of these libraries were available. I do not know who is in charge of analysis and design for NWN, but they have seriously screwed up. First, Bio announces that they are having sound issues and movie issues because they used libraries that are available only on Win/Mac. Leads me to wonder how they ever thought there would be a concurrent release for all three platforms. Second, they didn't work with RAD to find out if Linux ports of these libraries were in the works or how hard it would be to do this. Basically, there were bad design decisions made at the front-end of this project. Other standards should have been considered, such OpenAL and MPEG4. Anyway, my .02.
  • "But I don't want to go on the cart..."
    "Oh, don't be such a baby!"
    "But I'm feeling much better..."
    "No you're not... in a moment you'll be stone dead!"
    -- Monty Python, "The Holy Grail"

    - this post brought to you by the Automated Last Post Generator...

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