Hi everyone,
For the past two months or so I have been engaged in modifying the
Genesis Engine, and have created a cross-platform version called Open
G3D which is Mac OS and Linux compatible. So as a result as of
Mysteries of the Ancients beta 14 there will be an official Linux
version of the game. The only question left to decide upon is what you
would prefer to have in terms of an installation method for the game.
The first possibility is to use a packaging tool like dpkg. The
advantage here is that I could create an official *.deb package for
Debian, Ubuntu, and Vinux distributions of Linux. The advantage here
is that by running a command like
sudo dpkg -i mota-0.14-i386.deb
the package would install everything for you, and would check for
dependencies such as SFML, OpenAL, etc. It would be a surefire way of
knowing if the system requirements were met before installing.
The disadvantage of using a specific package manager like dpkg is that
not every Linux distribution out there uses dpkg. I happen to know a
few who are fans of Fedora Linux which uses rpm instead. Suse Linux
has a different package manager. So if I created a deb package the end
user would likely have to use something like alient to convert it if
they were using a non-Debian based Linux distribution. That's not
quite as good as having a package specifically built for your own
distribution of Linux.
The second possibility is to write a custom installer such as a bash
shell script that simply copies all the libraries, files, and
documentation into the directories where they belong. This way is
obviously the least distribution specific, and would work on just
about any Linux distribution out there with the required dependencies.
The only problem I have with this way is that unlike with a package
manager like dpkg there really isn't a good way to check if all the
requirements are met to install the program.
The final possibility is to do what RS Games does and just create a
zip file of the game, and have the end user extract it into his/her
home directory. This is the absolutely easiest possible installation
method out there, but is also kind of messy too. This method takes the
least amount of work for me, but like I said it is kind of messy.
Generally Linux programs are installed to /usr, /usr/local, or /opt
and are not directly installed to someone's home directory. So this
method of installation is really up to you guys and if you don't mind
creating a Games folder in your home directory to install USA Games
titles.
So if any of you are Linux users and plan to download and run the
Linux version of MOTA beta 14 I'd like to know in advance what is your
prefered installation method. I am willing and able to do any of these
options.

Thanks.

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