Where is the linux client?

[Nod]

Have mac client therefore porting probably relatively easy. Why they no want my money?

[fenlander]

Linux use to be supported but they dropped it because not alot of people were using it. Check the linux forums in Eve web site for info and help.

[Nod]

Perhaps they would like to review that descision, in light of recent developments. In the mean time plenty of other people are supporting linux so ... meh.

[Circadian_Seeker]

Back when they "had" a linux client it was a windows client bundled with Cedega (as the mac client is with Cider, it's not really a port). Cedega is a proprietary wine-style windows emulation thing that supported DirectX at a time wine didn't, so it was the only option for running eve in linux at some point.

Wine grew to be a big boy though, to a point where it handled eve much better than Cedega. In many cases the best solution to fix crashes on the linux client was to download the windows client and play through wine. CCP then decided to stop supporting the cedega "official" client to push players on wine.

I don't know why they're not supporting it officially (maybe they can't bundle it, or there's a legal issue with "selling" something with wine bundled in) but they unofficially promised to make sure it keeps working with wine.

[Chris Hatchenson]

Eve is WINE-capable, you need to download client from the website and run just like you run any other Windows application.

[Nod]

Yea I remeber Cedega from when it first forked from wines as transgames. So never a real port then, probably directx only. Is cider some mac windows emulation thing?

[Circadian_Seeker]

Yes Cider is Cedega's Mac port, so the mac client actually uses the windows client's guts as well

[fenlander]

I have tried to play Eve through WINE and I could never get it working.

[Icicle]

Originally posted by fenlander:

I have tried to play Eve through WINE and I could never get it working.

*Surprised*´
It's supposed to be one of the easily wine-able games.

[Kryuko [GNU/NT]]

+1 for linux client

[Nod]

native or meh.

[Circadian_Seeker]

While in theory I'm all for a native linux client as well, eve is written in D3D so a native linux client would be a complete rewrite of all the graphics - related code (that's probably half the client code, maybe more). I can't see them putting that much effort into it for a userbase as small as us linux guys while they also have a solution that works for most of us.

Now if you'd written it in OpenGL from the start CCP, that'd be another story.
(and the moral of the story is, support open standards)

[EPIC VOID]

Originally posted by fenlander:

Linux use to be supported but they dropped it because not alot of people were using it. Check the linux forums in Eve web site for info and help.

Guess why. A port never existed. It used wine and the performance was terrible. I have not played eve since they dropped their so-called "Linux-client". Maybe it works better these days, but i will not pay for me not getting support and fiddling around with wine while a minor update can ruin everything.

@digiakoum: Think once again. Obviously for many regular games a port was attractive. Now you come and tell me it will not be profitable for a game with MONTHLY FEE? They just do not want and/or there is a lack of know-how.

Is the MAC version native? I thought steam does only allow native software...

[Circadian_Seeker]

Mac version uses Cider, a commercial wine-like package for mac, and the windows client underneath.

[Circadian_Seeker]

You'll be surprised how little 3d openGL native linux game ports exist. I only know of the source engine games on the commercial side (halflife / counterstrike and the others), and the only reason they did it was to promote the linux steam thing in responce to microsoft's windows store shenanigans so there's an alterior motive there.

Even in that case it's not a complete rewrite of the code, but rather a baking - in of the translation layer to the existing game.
http://ubuntuxtreme.com/review/top-5-games-ported-in-steam-on-linux-review/3/

So even steam's approach is basically a more tightly integrated version of CCP's solution.
So no one else is doing it, and for good reason, supporting a truly native openGL client would essentially double the development and asset creation cost. Still don't think they can justify the cost, or the new features those developers implement now if you want to think of it that way.

[EPIC VOID]

My steam library lists 60 native Linux games. And there are more available and more announced despite of Steam4Linux being very young.
Imitating an api is anything but unusual in Software development: For example the very different libraries for runtime loading of dlls (windows <-> GNU/gcc) can be wrapped very easily. Nevertheless the code runs native without WINE. 2 very different things youre obviously not aware of.
The Source games have nothing in common with wine. They don't even use the winelib. As result they run great and with very good performance.

But i'm not really sure whats your point at all and why this trivial programming technique is relevant for EVE. Quite the contrary: Using winelib (not equal wine!) would kill all the "arguments" against native EVE. And creating an OpenGL rendering path should really be doable for a hord of professionals with calculable monthly income.

Although wine archievd great improvement it is still what it is: A less than ideal, temporary solution.