Blizzard Still Has a World of Warcraft Linux Client

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Blizzard Still Has a World of Warcraft Linux Client

For years its been said that Blizzard has developed a Linux client for its very popular World of Warcraft MMORPG game but that it's never been publicly released. It turns out that this appears to still be the case that internally they have a Linux build of World of Warcraft but as of yet they have decided against releasing it to the public...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=OTA0NQ

[Chewi]

A couple of things... It's easier (and more robust...) to do an RPATH spec or a loader script that does LD_PRELOAD or LD_LIBRARY_PATH to handle inconsistencies. Statically linked, you have to send out a new binary if there's an ABI (as opposed to an API...) issue with the kernel. There was one transition that there were problems with. With .so's in a ./libs directory, there's a slim chance you might be able to fix the problem in the field with a small file inclusion or removing a pre-packaged .so.

My thoughts exactly. Many games in the Humble Indie Bundle followed this approach and it worked well.

[renkin]

A couple of things... It's easier (and more robust...) to do an RPATH spec or a loader script that does LD_PRELOAD or LD_LIBRARY_PATH to handle inconsistencies. Statically linked, you have to send out a new binary if there's an ABI (as opposed to an API...) issue with the kernel. There was one transition that there were problems with. With .so's in a ./libs directory, there's a slim chance you might be able to fix the problem in the field with a small file inclusion or removing a pre-packaged .so.

And they can consult people like Svartalf who actually work in the business of distributing games on Linux. Nothing's stopping them

[Svartalf]

A couple of things... It's easier (and more robust...) to do an RPATH spec or a loader script that does LD_PRELOAD or LD_LIBRARY_PATH to handle inconsistencies. Statically linked, you have to send out a new binary if there's an ABI (as opposed to an API...) issue with the kernel. There was one transition that there were problems with. With .so's in a ./libs directory, there's a slim chance you might be able to fix the problem in the field with a small file inclusion or removing a pre-packaged .so.

[Iksf]

Staticly link it and distribute as a tarball or install script like the nvidia drivers, what can possibly go wrong

[nerdopolis]

Seems that someone was actually able to run extremely old Linux apps recently http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/ant...atibility.html

It could be the fact that none of the libraries use that c++ library mentioned before, but I still think this proves something...

even though you can have multiple versions of a library installed, I guess you cant have an app that has a library that depends on libstdc++5, and another one that depends on libstdc++6?

[deanjo]

Quake 4 - Jointly Developed between iD and Raven. Since iD had an involvement, TTimo was involved to do a port there.

You know every reference refers to Raven being the developer. Also you kind of forgot about Quake Wars that to was outsourced to a 3rd party. You might also want to take a look here:

http://www.wolfenstein.com/thegame/developers/

The Developers

Raven Software is a market-leading and award-winning computer game software developer based in Middleton, Wisconsin. Since its inception in 1990, Raven's core has always been centered on graphic excellence and superb gameplay. With this focus, Raven has established a stability few in the ever-changing computer software industry have been able to achieve. As new technologies and trends continue to develop everyday, Raven remains dedicated to surpassing new levels of quality in electronic gaming.
Founded in 1990 by brothers Brian and Steve Raffel, Raven Software has gone from a five-person company with a dream of creating a role-playing game for the Amiga, to the developer of recent groundbreaking titles like MARVEL: ULTIMATE ALLIANCEand X-Men II: Rise of the Apocalypse. Since its inception, Raven Software has developed some of the most critically acclaimed games on the market.
id - Defined by Freud as the primal section of the human psyche; id Software, located in Mesquite, Texas, was founded in 1991. From inception to present day, id Software has relentlessly provided technical, design and artistic leadership as an independent game developer and technology provider. Transcending the games industry, id's iconic brands such as Wolfenstein, DOOM, QUAKE and Enemy Territory have become staples of popular culture for generations of gamers. More information on id Software can be found at www.idsoftware.com.

[deanjo]

Wolfenstein 3D - Wolf3D opengl port happend.
Heretic, Hexen - Doomsday can play these. Engine is a little modified doom.
Commander Keen - Source would be published, but it is lost.

iD had no involvement in the ports other then releasing the source.

[crazycheese]

Wolfenstein 3D - Wolf3D opengl port happend.
Heretic, Hexen - Doomsday can play these. Engine is a little modified doom.
Commander Keen - Source would be published, but it is lost.

[Svartalf]

Well maybe maybe some were aware of this, but here's the solution for that problem. Appstream. Someone needs to tell Blizzard about it, and maybe they will release the linux client.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...item&px=OTA1MA

I've been thinking, if projects like this one, continue to appear, then this will be the "linux desktop's year".

Appstream allows you to frame in a universal installer framework. It does nothing to solve the concerns of library incompatibilities. That problem, however, has largely been solved so...combine this and what I and others have accomplished and you might be right.