Neverwinter Nights Linux Client
December 14th, 2002 by MarvThe weekly update to the Neverwinter Nights Linux Client has occured with some rather bad but unexpected news at this point in time.
[Dec 13 2002] There have been many questions as to why the Linux client is taking so long. The two big issues are sound and movies due to the fact that BINK and Miles are only available for Windows and Mac. BINK is the in-game movie player and Miles is the sound engine for Neverwinter Nights. We are having to find our own solution for Linux sound in Neverwinter Nights, and we are exploring possible movie options. Due to these factors, we are revising the estimated release date from Fall 2002 to Winter 2002 (Dec 22 2002 to March 21 2003), with January 2003 being the earliest date it could be out.
Progress has been made on sound this week, and to re-iterate, the graphical side of the Linux client is looking excellent and is almost complete.
December 14th, 2002 at 9:00 am
It just keeps getting better.
December 14th, 2002 at 9:14 am
This just illustrates why software companies who want to make their products cross platform should use open standards and tools to develop their projects from the start. And, if what is available isn’t up to the level they need, they should extend them and make them better. SDL is a good example.
December 14th, 2002 at 9:27 am
They should have hired icculus. :)
December 14th, 2002 at 9:42 am
RPGs are stupid anyway. BioWare gets no money from me with their empty promises. Note to the Linux gaming community (no matter how many or few there are of us): Don’t hold anyone to a promise. Buy the product when you SEE the BITS. That is all.
December 14th, 2002 at 1:58 pm
A game with few bugs is better than a game with thousands of bugs! Thanks for the effort and I know this will be a great buy! With all your improvments over your initial game engine, you should be able to release the Linux client and server with support for Linux/i386 as well as Linux/ppc, Linux/Sparc, Linux/Power3|4, Linux/Alpha, and Linux/MIPS. Can’t wait for the fun, and I will make up for all the time you werer working on NWN. ;D
December 14th, 2002 at 2:17 pm
Give them some slack over NWN and show them some support — sure they screwed up, but if we give them some sales they’ll learn from their errors and port [i]more[/i] games for Linux.
December 14th, 2002 at 2:28 pm
The only comments you’ll ever hear from a Linux user are complaints: “no port!”, “port takes too long!”, “port sucks!”… Be grateful that there are a few companies nice enough to make ports available, there is absolutely no commercial motivation to do so.
December 14th, 2002 at 4:51 pm
I can’t wait for BioWare to release a client, be it final or beta, and shut up all the whiney 12 year-olds who got their parent’s to buy the game for them.
BioWare WILL deliver. You have to learn how to be patient. If you think it’s so easy to just magically port a game at the snap of your fingers, then why don’t YOU start your own porting company?
December 14th, 2002 at 8:09 pm
I can’t wait for this to come out, a native port is much better than some WineX + NWN combo or something of that nature. I don’t really mind that it’s taking a long time to port, as I have other games I can play in the mean time. Im happy that another company is porting another new game to linux besides iD and Epic Games. I see it as another purchase that will hopefully get more game companys writing crossplatform games…now if they could only get the ports comming out at the same time or a week or two after. Or even better..port it to Windows from linux…
December 14th, 2002 at 8:46 pm
I’m very appreciative to BioWare, and will buy NWN when it comes out with support for Linux. I hope they do get some value from their client port, if only a code base that is easier to port to Macintosh and other platforms.
December 15th, 2002 at 2:22 am
Please don’t rush out and buy this game based on this latest turn of events. Unless you’ve been following the massive span of “The Great Linux Client Thread” over on their forums you might miss the fact that we’ve been fed misinformation, lied to and mostly just ignored over the past 5+ months. The only time we seem to get anything out of them is when they get a story on slashdot. Just wait a while after their client is released and see if they continue to support it a month or two down the road is all I ask.