Trainz for Ubuntu

[amigacooke]

Why should we be forced to buy only from microsoft?

I don't suppose you will be. Microsoft, not for the first time, is copying from Apple which has had the App Store for some time. However, although I do buy apps through the store, there is nothing to stop me buying from any other vendor. The Kerbal Space Program is an example of the latter.

 

[rjhowie]

Never been keen on kind of closed shop mentalities or near monopolies. I can accept MS is easy to use although I am a bit iffy about the Windows 8 concept.But as said was surprised by Linux and that you can have an OS taking less space as well as being fast, etc. If items like Linux and Apple Mac do get more wider use that cannot be a bad thing. Now I am curious about Apple although I understand that even entry level (say for trainz) is expensive!

 

[JCitron]

Never been keen on kind of closed shop mentalities or near monopolies. I can accept MS is easy to use although I am a bit iffy about the Windows 8 concept.But as said was surprised by Linux and that you can have an OS taking less space as well as being fast, etc. If items like Linux and Apple Mac do get more wider use that cannot be a bad thing. Now I am curious about Apple although I understand that even entry level (say for trainz) is expensive!

Bobby,

Right now Linux is a bit faster than Windows and the Mac OS because it doesn't have as much overhead with drivers, pretty interfaces, and many other things. When Linux is finally made "consumer' friendly, it will be a lot slower. I have seen this already with Ubuntu running its pretty GUI compared to Solaris 9 running with KDM. These are both graphical interfaces with KDM being the simplest and Ubuntu's being very similar to MS Windows.

The more you make the "engine" do to run the program, the less resources there are to run the programs.

John

 

[WindWalkr]

OpenGL was designed for graphical Unix workstations. It was not designed for high performance games. In general DirectX is faster than OpenGL and not tied into a graphic card vendor such as nVidia.

The workstation is definitely where things started off, but it's worth noting that both DirectX and OpenGL are fairly thin abstractions around the underlying hardware. It's certainly true that on Microsoft Windows, Microsoft DirectX tends to have better support (surprise, surprise) but there's nothing fundamental in the APIs that ensures this to be true- it's simply a matter of where the most time and money is focused. Given that DirectX is limited to two major platforms, it's reasonable to say that the rest of the world doesn't care whether DirectX or OpenGL is faster on Windows ;-)

The hardware to watch at the moment is the new Google Nexus 7 built by ASUS. That is the one that has Microsoft worried and probably N3V too. Trainz on Android costs 2.99 not 49.99 and that means less income. Could it replace a PC? It could probably displace a few lap tops.

It certainly doesn't worry us at the current time. If we lose money by selling on platform X, we'll simply stop selling on platform X. Unless platform X replaces all other markets in their entirety, we still have that option. As much as Android is big, it's certainly not that dominant. I would guess that it's currently a distant fourth when it comes to our sales figures.

chris

 

[rjhowie]

Thanks for that comment John and you are no doubt correct on the eventual resource change.

 

[SnapperJan]

I was searching the net to see if Trainz12 could be installed on Ubuntu and arrived here.

Haven't read the complete thread and I won't because I feel a massive negative vibe from all the Windows experts here telling Linux is no good. Not much help here. Geez.

 

[clam1952]

Read the Thread again, no one is saying Linux is no good, what we are saying is you are not going to get a Trainz for Linux. If you want to use Trainz in Ubuntu, you need to try Wine or Crossover, which is free for today only so get it quick http://www.codeweavers.com/support/forums/announce/?t=24;mhl=132802;msg=132802#msg132802. sites a bit slow so give it time to load. Old versions will run, 2009 can be got to run, 2010 without content manager can sometimes be got to run in wine, not bothered trying Crossover lately, I prefer route building to messing with Wine libraries trying to get Trainz to work.

 

[AntonyVW]

I was searching the net to see if Trainz12 could be installed on Ubuntu and arrived here.

Haven't read the complete thread and I won't because I feel a massive negative vibe from all the Windows experts here telling Linux is no good. Not much help here. Geez.

Ive dabbled with linux many times. It is a good piece of software engineering. Its one big drawback as far as gamers are concerned is that there is little support at present. However I suspect that will change in light of what MS have done with windoz 8

 

[ftldave]

A wise person once said "Only college students and masochists have the time and the inclination to master Unix." I think the same rings true for all the different versions of Linux. For those of us who work in IT as a profession, 2008 was truly "The Year of Linux ... That Didn't Happen." That was the last year for the Linuxfest here at the university where I work. I kind of miss it. And the campus Linux support group was disbanded, too. There's still a local Linux user group, but ...

I'll look forward to the next version of Trainz for Windows.

"It kills me to say this: The dream of Linux as a major desktop OS is now pretty much dead. Despite phenomenal security and stability--and amazing strides in usability, performance, and compatibility--Linux simply isn’t catching on with desktop users. And if there ever was a chance for desktop Linux to succeed, that ship has long since sunk."
- Robert Strohmeyer, PC World, 2010

 

[djt]

You better clue Valve in then, lol -

http://www.zdnet.com/wheres-valve-going-with-linux-7000003778/

 

[ftldave]

You better clue Valve in then, lol -

http://www.zdnet.com/wheres-valve-going-with-linux-7000003778/

Well, keep laughing. The writer of the report is kind of skeptical, too. Valve would love to get into the console business, not take over desktops with Linux. As the writer said in his story about Valve:

"All this desktop Linux talk could just be a handy smoke screen."

 

[djt]

Valve's also been busy optimizing its games for Linux, and claims to have Left 4 Dead 2 running faster on Ubuntu than on Windows 7 -- and not just a little faster either: over 16 percent faster. Considering how much time and effort Valve has spent developing for Windows, that's quite an achievement for Linux.

Pretty much mirrors the result’s I’ve seen running X-Plane 10 on Linux lately, but of course it’s going to take more of a variety of sims/games besides X-Plane to bring PC gamers over to Linux.

So, what's Valve up to?
Two things spring to mind. First, rumors and job postings suggest that Valve is working on gaming hardware. Given the harsh criticisms of Windows and Microsoft, it's unlikely that any Valve-branded hardware is going to run Windows. That leaves a Linux distro as the obvious alternative because Valve would be free to tweak and customize the operating system to their heart's content.

Whatever the plan, Valve needs the support of other game developers. If Valve can get that -- and if there's one company that can herd the gaming industry, it's Valve -- then maybe Microsoft needs to start worrying, because while the most important sector for Microsoft as far as Windows revenue is concerned, is the enterprise market, it's not the most influential.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/375107/valve-commences-beta-testing-for-steam-on-linux/