Gaming on Linux

Linux Australia MiniconferenceMorwell, Victoria 2014

Andrew PamSerious Cybernetics

sericyb.com.au

Introduction Computer games are a distinct medium of artistic

expression like books, comics and films Now financially significant - US$66B global revenue in

2013 (Activision Blizzard US$5B); compare with film industry global theatrical revenue US$35B in 2012

Drives development of graphics hardware and software, and in earlier years also audio

Good for you! (Therapy, mental wellbeing, socialisation, learning)

Overview Advantages and Disadvantages Where to get Linux games Top 10 Steam Linux games for today Emulators and engines Graphics drivers Game development More information

Advantages

Runs better on old hardware No need to pay for Windows or MacOS

repeatedly Continue to run classic games that no longer

run under newer Windows or MacOS LiveCD/LiveDVD/LiveUSB distributions

Disadvantages

Not all games are supported The newest hardware may not be well

supported yet

Where to get Linux games

Your distribution Humble Bundle Steam IndieVania GOG coming soon

Steam top 10 Linux games19 July 2014

1)Rust (Adventure, Indie, RPG, Early Access)2)Magicite (Action/Adventure, Indie, RPG)3)garry's mod (Indie, Simulation)4)Sid Meier's Civilization V (Strategy)5)X-Plane 10 Global (Simulation)6)Europa Universalis IV (Simulation, Strategy)7)Kerbal Space Program (Early Access, Indie, Simulation)8)Habitat (Action, Simulation, Strategy, Early Access)9)Portal 2 Aperture Tag mod (Action/Adventure, Casual, Indie)10)Left 4 Dead 2 (Action)

Emulators and engines Wine/Crossover ScummVM DOSBox MAME Console emulators: FCEUX (NES), BSNES and

ZSNES, Project64 (using Wine!), ePSXe, PCSX2 (PS2), Gens (Sega Genesis), DeSmuME (DS)

Game engine recreations

Graphics drivers Intel hardware uses the open source driver which is

very well supported but the hardware is not quite as powerful

AMD video cards can use the Radeon open source driver (reliable but has performance issues) or the Catalyst proprietary driver (fast but unreliable)

Nvidia cards can use the Nouveau open source driver (new hardware only just beginning to get support) or the fglrx proprietary driver (fast)

Game development Online: LAMP stack Languages: Python (PyGame, RenPy), LUA, Lobster,

Java, Javascript Javascript libraries: haXe, GameJS, GameQuery,

JavaScript GameLib, game{closure} Blender Platinum Arts Sandbox, Crystal Space, WorldForge

Wikipedia List of Open-source Video Games

More information www.humblebundle.com store.steampowered.com/browse/linux/ www.indievania.com/games?platform=Linux

games.sericyb.com.au www.lgdb.org (Linux Games Database) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_gaming

Thank you

Andrew PamSerious Cybernetics

sericyb.com.au

Slide 1Slide 2Slide 3Slide 4Slide 5Slide 6Slide 7Slide 8Slide 9Slide 10Slide 11Slide 12