Linux port for JKII

[NickR]

Well it seems that Raven certainly won't be doing one and unless loki, who have been doing the raven linux ports in the past, don't so one that leaves us guys.

 

So how about it?

 

I don't have linux installed on this system but I'm looking into it at the moment.

[Emon]

Don't the Linux binaries also let you play the game normally?

[Dest]

eh? I thought qvms were there to make it so the game worked on all systems...

[NickR]

Yeah I thought that too.

 

But obviously the engine executables and the single player dll wouldn't run on linux.

 

And having said that there's no way Raven would give us that code to do a port.

[idontlikegeorge]

i think people are afraid of open source cuz they know someone will make their **** better, and they dont like that.

[Dest]

quake3 works for linux... must be the g2api?

[Emon]

Why don't you just use WineX? It works fine for JO.

[Chewcaca_Dookie]

Wow! I didn't know that! Thanks!

[JaseP]

WineX is a stop-gap and is limited to about 50 frames per second. A linux native is the only REAL way to get performance. Since they are doing a MAC port, it makes perfect sense to do a Linux port. OS X is after-all based on the BSD system.

[Emon]

WineX is a recode of the Win32 environment, there is no slowdown like emulators have.

[DeadlyBOFH]

Guys;

 

U should send e-mails to raven & lucasarts... the ability to make a linux port of JO should be easy, considering that it was based on the Q3A engine, and the Q3A engine is compilable under linux.

[Emon]

Hahaha! If Raven had the time, I'm sure a few people would work on it. LEC, however, doesn't give a ****.

 

WineX is your best bet.

[DeadlyBOFH]

Emon:

 

Dont be so sure.. its prolly only a few hours of code-work.. Its just the testing that makes things take so long... The thing is Quake3 already works in Linux.. JKII should as well since its on the same engine... all they gotta do is recompile their source under linux.. The problem is though, that glibc is released over and over again with newer stuff

[Emon]

No, LEC does not give a damn. They won't even support the community and help prolong the life of the game, ultimatly earning them more money. There's no way in hell they are going to bother with a Linux port, especially when it already works on Linux with WineX.

[JaseP]

I tried to get together a few programmers a few months back to port JK2:JO to Linux, but I didn't get enough to step up to the plate to approach the contact the Raven people gave me at LucasArts...

 

There won't be a Linux port unless we really raise the noise level for it. Linux is still considered to much of a fringe operating system. It'll be a couple of years before Linux captures enough of the desktop to make more developers take notice.

[WD_Rage]

I currently do not run any form of *nix based OS's. However, I do know several people that ran JK2 under Linux using Wine and it ran smooth as silk for them.

 

On another note, LEC has shown that they do not care about this game and the community that it has (Raven has already implied this). Raven is powerless to do it without the go ahead from LEC, which they will most likely not get. It's a shame, really. LEC produces a wonderful game called Jedi Knight, only to ruin the series with another gamed called Jedi Knight 2. *sigh*

[Emon]

How is it ruined? A few saber and Force imbalances in MP? JK has 10x as many imbalances and problems as JO does.

[Raze]

WineX aint the solution, native is the only way to performance

[WD_Rage]

Originally posted by Emon

How is it ruined? A few saber and Force imbalances in MP? JK has 10x as many imbalances and problems as JO does.

 

Not really. About the only thing that was not balanced was protection. Everything else was balanced; however, you had to know how to use everything in order to have that balance, especially in ff play.

 

JK2 is ruined in my eyes mainly because of the approach that was taken. Instead of building the game upon it's predecessor, they took an entirely different approach. In my eyes, and many other's, the game was developed with a newbyish mentality (I do not mean anything derogatory by the "newbyish" term - it was just the people that did not want to put forth the effort to learn how to play the game). JK MP was challenging and had a very sharp learning curve. JK2 MP, on the other hand, I had mastered in the first few days. There was no challenge. The only thing that kept me playing was the pretty sparks the glowing whiffle bats emitted when striking something (plus the release of the source code).

 

I know Raven says they played the game. I, however, do not think they played the game to the extent that many JK1 players played (by extent, I mean playing on the competition level for both nf and ff play). It's one thing to play the game; it is an entirely different thing to play the game and get close to beating the best of the best.

 

Don't get me wrong, I was not wanting a clone of JK1 with a better engine, I was wanting a sequel to the game that I spent over 4 years playing. I do know that many things that JK1 had are pretty much impossible to emulate in the Q3 engine (physics, for one); however, I expected more of the JK1 gameplay instead of the slothfully slow JK2 gameplay. I wanted a game where I could start off as a newbie again, and have to learn to get good (which wasn't the case at all with JK2).

[NickR]

You bring up a very interesting concept. How, in your view, would you alter the gameplay to create longer learning curve?

[JaseP]

Far be it from me to change the subject (back to the original subject of the thread), but how does the MP imbalances really effect whether there should or should not be a Linux port of this game???

 

I see that a Linux port of JK2 would be great, while a port of JK1 would be a waste of time and effort (nobody really plays it anymore). It would be nice for LucasArts to release the source of the original game, and a campaign to convince them to might be fruitful, but I'd rather see a concerted effort to convince them of a port of JK2.

[Emon]

JK imbalances:

 

• 
  Protection is very cheap
  Grip is very cheap, you are still frozen when using absorb
  Destruction is very cheap. Either throws you into the wall causing massive impact damage or saps your health when you have your guard down.
  Throw is very cheap. It can kill you in a matter of seconds and you cannot stop it. Ever.
  The concussion rifle and the rail detonator far outpower all the other conventional weapons such as the Bryar, the E-11, the Repeater and the Bowcaster. They are all nearly useless in JK1.
  

 

If you go by the logic of, "It's not an imbalance, you just have to learn how to counter it." then there are no imbalances in JO, because you just have to learn the way around it.

[WD_Rage]

So I guess everything in JK was cheap? Bah.

 

 

Protection

Protection was very cheap. The one weapon that could penetrate it was the saber, and it took 4 hits of secondary to kill the protection user.

 

Grip

Grip was not cheap. If grip had no affect on absorb, then absorb would have been the ultimate force power. Combine it with protection, and the player would've been unstoppable. Grip was easy to counter. I'm sorry you never knew how to.

 

Destruction

I've heard this many, many times. Destruction was counterable. It was called absorb. Yes, you still got thrown (not always into a wall: usually just a few yards from where were), but no damage was caused, this is unless you did get thrown into a wall. Any good FF player could avoid getting thrown into a wall. It was something called skill.

 

Throw

Throw was useless, as well as lightning. Against a fast moving target (if you were playing FF and you weren't moving fast....well, I guess I could see where you would think it was unstoppable) it was nearly impossible to hit, much less kill, the target.

 

Weapons

Yes, very true. Then again, I wasn't a FF Oasis player, either. But you are also limited to the Star Wars universe. So having balanced weapons like Q3 or UT is near impossible. The key to the weaponry is to have either the concussion or the rail. However, having those two weapons did not ensure victory. I know many people that played FF Oasis with purely the force and saber and won.

 

I see that you called almost every dark force cheap, and you probably think it was unbalanced. The dark side, by nature, is the agressive side. The light side, by nature, is a more defensive side. A light vs. dark FF BGJ match was quite balanced (the light side does balance out the dark - you just have not know how to use them) and came down to the skill of the player. Dark vs. dark was also balanced. I never played a light vs. light match, though. Every force power had its counter. There were drawbacks and advantages to every force power. You just needed to know what they were and how to use the force powers given to you.