Game Development Community

Supporting Linux and OSX

by Daniel Buckmaster · in General Discussion · 11/21/2009 (7:25 pm) · 11 replies

I'm not really ready to be asking this yet, but I thought of it anyway. From the perspective of a developer making a game on a PC, what do I have to do to get Linux and OSX compatibility? (I'm speaking of TGE, which can be run on both platforms as far as I remember.) Do I need to actually compile the engine in the target OS? I don't want to buy a Mac ;P. Also, are code changes to relatively high-level stuff (game logic, some GL rendering) likely to need to be 'fixed' to work on platforms other than Windows?
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Torque Owner Daniel Buckmaster
T3D Steering Committee

About the author

Studying mechatronic engineering and computer science at the University of Sydney. Game development is probably my most time-consuming hobby!

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    Torque 3D Owner Ronny Bangsund
    Torque Cheerleaders
    #1
    11/21/2009 (7:38 pm)
    You need to compile on the OS in question. A Linux cross-compiling environment is possible in theory, but is more work than slapping another harddrive in your computer and installing Ubuntu :)

    If you don't want to buy a Mac, hire one of us Mac-using Torque owners to port it ;)

    I wouldn't expect game logic to require any changes at all, and with OpenGL being cross-platform it only depends on whether you added any very new features only found in nVidia's or ATI's GL implementations. OS X OpenGL is known to be quirky, but the TGE level of use shouldn't be a problem. If you didn't make any changes in platform code, chances are good that it compiles fine on the other supported platforms.

    Torque Owner Daniel Buckmaster
    T3D Steering Committee
    #2
    11/21/2009 (8:10 pm)
    Okay, thanks for the info. Yes, Linux is easy enough, and I will probably end up installing it anyway.
    Quote:If you don't want to buy a Mac, hire one of us Mac-using Torque owners to port it ;)
    Fair enough ;P. I'd be worried about long-term support, though, but that's a bridge to cross when I come to it.

    Quote:If you didn't make any changes in platform code, chances are good that it compiles fine on the other supported platforms.
    That's great - I had hoped it was the case.

    Torque Owner Tyler Slabinski
    #3
    11/21/2009 (8:15 pm)
    Yea, it's really easy with Torque.

    (I will do it for free if I can get a free copy :P)

    Torque Owner Javier Canon
    #4
    11/21/2009 (9:49 pm)
    you can install a osx or linux in a virtualization environment, or install osx for intel processors to...

    Torque 3D Owner Ronny Bangsund
    Torque Cheerleaders
    #5
    11/22/2009 (1:22 pm)
    No, you can't install a virtual OS X and expect it to be stable ;)

    Torque Owner Tyler Slabinski
    #6
    11/22/2009 (3:23 pm)
    It's true, OSX is not stable on any other machine other than a Mac. I suggest you get a Mac Mini and port it over using that.

    Associate Orion Elenzil
    Real Life Plus
    #7
    11/22/2009 (3:39 pm)
    +1 get a mac mini

    Torque Owner Daniel Buckmaster
    T3D Steering Committee
    #8
    11/22/2009 (7:27 pm)
    -1 :P. But who knows, I might end up owning a Mac at some point in the future.

    I was going to ask whether I could just dual-boot with OSX, but I guess not. The 'friendly community member' ploy seems the route to go down for me at this stage. Or not... since I'm not at the stage where I'd need it. Just interested :P.

    Torque Owner Ryan Zec
    #9
    11/23/2009 (11:50 am)
    You can dual boot with Windows and OSX however you can only do that on a Mac computer, not a PC (at least not legally).

    I currently have a mac-mini with Window 7 boot camp and it works great. The mac mini have pretty descent specs, very similar to the Mac Book Pro, just a slight less powerful video card (NVidia 9400M instead instead of NVidia 9600M). Well worth the $800 to me to be able to officially support Mac OS.

    Torque 3D Owner Ronny Bangsund
    Torque Cheerleaders
    #10
    11/23/2009 (12:53 pm)
    MacBook Pro doesn't mean so much anymore - the 13" models only have the 9400m :/
    I'm using a MacBook with a mini-displayport to DVI adapter and an external Apple keyboard. That is practically the same as a Mac mini, but with portability too. Nice laptop, long battery life.

    Torque Owner Ryan Zec
    #11
    11/23/2009 (3:55 pm)
    @Ronny Bangsund: If portability is needed then a mac book is ok. Personally I could never work on a 13 inch laptop screen. Being able to plug in my 2 24-inch monitors is so nice :)