Sorry if I missed it but is there a preliminary list of the platforms Civilization V will be available with? Windows unfortunately is not an option for me unless CivV happens to be WINE friendly. Xbox 360 would be ideal but traditional strategy games such as Civ rarely make a faithful translation to consoles. Anyway, will buy it anyway just hoping it comes in Xbox 360 so I don't have to wait for it to be supported through WINE under Linux.
Its pc only
Ah well, expectedWINE it is then! There is a reason I bought Crossover Games for Linux from Codeweavers! =)
Can not wait for this game, finally a real Civ sequal its been too long
I think its great that they're doing a proper PC version. I was worried after Civ Rev that the series would disappear from PC like so many other great PC games. I liked Civ Rev as well but of course its not as good as the PC version IMO.Originally Posted by KingJambo
It'll be awesome when it gets here! I'm confident I'll be able to enjoy it too, Civ 4 and both expansions play just fine for me under Linux using Crossover so I expect Civ V will too: if not initially then in short order. So, I'll buy it regardless: it will eventually work for me!
I'm almost ashamed to admit that I still have to buy Revolutions
its great fun and you can get it cheap now, just not as good as proper civI'm almost ashamed to admit that I still have to buy Revolutions
I will get it! I will get it!
So am I. Like many other games, Civilization belongs on PC and that's where it should be played.
It'll eventually become WINE-compatible, so enjoy it. But asking for a console version is pure heresy.
Heheh, not heresy, console is a computer too
A console is a striped down computer without a operation system and lousy firmware ;-) I hoped it will run under wine, otherwise I still need my windows partitition. Or maybe it will work from within virtualbox or vmware...Heheh, not heresy, console is a computer too
btw: installing civ4 right now to prepare myself
A console is a weak computer. It's strength is that every person who bought into the platform has the exact same machine. That matters to a developer making the gameA console is a striped down computer without a operation system and lousy firmware ;-) I hoped it will run under wine, otherwise I still need my windows partitition. Or maybe it will work from within virtualbox or vmware...
btw: installing civ4 right now to prepare myself
Civ V should run under WINE. If not right away then shortly. Hopefully won't have to jump through some of the hoops like getting other games to work under WINE.. Virtualbox or vmware, I doubt: their 3d emulation just isn't good enough... yet.
It's funny that gaming wise developers can keep writing for Windows. Those of us who view Windows as a legacy platform can just use WINE to get at the code
Edit: Have Civ 4 + both expansions already installed too: under WINE and they work fine.
Last edited by headkase; 02-18-2010 at 03:02 AM.
As much as I agree with the "no consoles" stance, Firaxis better be working on a Mac version...
I thought i'd demonstrate my intense desire for a proper (WINE is not a solution) port of Civ 5 for linux by registering and posting this message. Seriously, I took 10 minutes out of my busy procra..er.. studying schedule.
The issue is how many bloody distros of linux there are. I have a linux boot as well (on a side note, the new Kubuntu UI is awful), but you have to face the stark reality that linux is really not a gaming platform. Yes it would be great to see games supported on it at release instead of 5+ years afterwards, but this is not how things seemed to play out. If you want to PC game you more or less require a windows boot.
It's not as big of a problem as you'd probably imagine.
There's only two distros that are widely used: Ubuntu and Fedora. If they supported the most recent versions of both + the last long term support release for ubuntu that's only 3; 6 if you count 64-bit and 32-bit variants.
How many versions of windows are there? Let me count: XP, Vista, and 7. That's 3. 6 if you count 64 bit variants. Heck it's probably harder to support the Mac with having to worry about Endian issues with the intel and ibm chips.
Also, it's not as if Ubuntu and Fedora are entirely different operating systems.. it's all the same software. In many cases it's exactly the same versions of the software since Fedora and Ubuntu ship around the same times. It's just a matter of packaging.
In conclusion, it's not that hard to support software on Linux. Companies just don't think there's a market, which isn't true. Google does it with chrome, 2DBoy does it with World of Goo. Firaxis can do it too.
Sure, they CAN but do you really expect that they will?
Hey, I can hope.
The PC landscape is changing. With the growing popularity of Mac computers, and the availability of free, standard, cross platform APIs, it isn't acceptable for companies to make non-portable games anymore.
Mac and Linux market shares (check w3schools if you don't believe me) are getting to the point where companies aren't going to be able to afford to just ignore everything that's not windows anymore. I'm hopeful that we'll start to see more companies taking portability seriously.
Be forward thinking, Firaxis and 2K! I believe in you!
Hey, I'd love if linux got more support as well! I think one of the major obstacles in the way is the game industries reliance on DirectX.Hey, I can hope.
The PC landscape is changing. With the growing popularity of Mac computers, and the availability of free, standard, cross platform APIs, it isn't acceptable for companies to make non-portable games anymore.
Mac and Linux market shares (check w3schools if you don't believe me) are getting to the point where companies aren't going to be able to afford to just ignore everything that's not windows anymore. I'm hopeful that we'll start to see more companies taking portability seriously.
Be forward thinking, Firaxis and 2K! I believe in you!
Sad but true. If only there was some kind of alternative 3D graphics API that's supported on a wide variety of platforms, including Mac, Linux, and Windows. Why, if game developers were to adopt such an API, they could write games that run on every major platform instead of just one! *hint Firaxis*, *nudge 2K*
I'm using Ubuntu, so a Linux version would be greatly appreciated here as well!
WINE compatibility from the start would be perfectly fine, otherwise I'd have to reinstate my old WinXP (which I successfully got rid of completely more than a year ago).
@3kirt Blizzard shows the way, their games use the OpenGL API (in parallel to DirectX). But I guess it'd be too much to ask of 2K to switch.
I guess the issue is that OpenGL is it kind of lags behind in technology. For instance geometry shaders were only implemented in version 3.2 (the latest, released in august 2009) yet Direct X 10 has had them since it's inception in late 2006. 2 years can be a big difference!
Again, sad but true. I'm hoping that with popular devices like the iPhone, etc. using OpenGL that the OpenGL ARB will get off their butts and keep up with the times.
It would be very nice if they did so
At least blizzard is still trucking along with OpenGL support (though they have DirectX modes too) - I wish them luck! One has to wonder how much custom code blizzard has created that would be an excellent inclusion to the OpenGL library. I would, at least personally, prefer to use OpenGL as it's cross platform and royalty free.
Last edited by Weaver; 02-18-2010 at 05:42 AM.
Just throwing around ideas really... but maybe they could sign a NDA with a WINE developer and offer them source access so they can make it run on WINE...
But wine is under the GNU license so it's illegal to not distribute the source on any modifications to it. Unless you want all changes to be done on Civ 5's end... regardless, they wouldn't get a wine developer to do that - they'd just do it in house.
My point is that 2K can only do so much to make Civ run on WINE. They shouldn't need to touch the WINE source (that would mean even more effort and spending), but if they tell them what they need (which I tried to imply with "showing the source under a NDA"), the WINE devs might be able to implement it in a targeted manner. And they may share their know-how on what 2K needs to become compatible.
No licensing problems, each party works on it's own code and they share knowledge via NDA where neccessary.
In the end, they could bless an "official" Civilization V for Linux by bundling WINE builds, like Google does with it's Windows to Linux ports.
I guess that could work in theory, but you'd need to show 2k that there are at least 10 or 50 thousand wine users out there who would buy the game if they did it.
Last edited by Weaver; 02-18-2010 at 06:57 AM.
Of course I can't give you the exact minimum number of people who will buy the Linux version.
That said, it very much depends on what it actually takes to make it run on WINE. One developer working full time can achieve quite a lot, especially if he only has to do the "glue parts".
And he's probably more than paid off by selling a few thousand games.
Then again, the number of Linux users lies in the tens of millions, not tens of thousands.
Ubuntu alone, launched in 2004, has passed 8 million concurrently installed machines with internet access in 2006 (measured by unique update repository hits) and I'd say it has multiplied since then. Fedora, which is much smaller, claims to have passed 12 million at the beginning of 2009.
All those users can install WINE within mere seconds, so that's not a barrier.
Of course only a part of them are gamers, but a big name title like Civ will easily garner a huge load of attention.
And there's game studios that even go through the effort of building a whole native Linux client... for example Heroes of Newerth, or UT2007. And the native Linux versions of Unreal Tournament 2004, Neverwinter Nights or Doom 3 worked out quite nicely for their publishers, didn't they?
Gaming on Linux is on the rise, here's a small list (by no means complete) of upcoming native Linux titles:
http://lgn.linux-hardcore.com/list-o...u-linux-games/
I just found out about the Civ 5 news on Slashdot and I just registered for this board to join this discussion. I would love to see a native Linux client, and I think that we should pressure game studios to release native Linux clients. We should at least squawk about it. I'd pay $100 for a Linux version without a second thought. That said, a fully functioning Wine version would still make me happy. And I'd be willing to contribute to a fund to pay a Wine dev to help make it so. And I don't want to have to run a no-cd crack and I want it to be fully compatible with my Windows friend's clients, mods, and the whole nine yards. I'd pay a lot for that. Civ has probably been my all time favorite game.
A 64 Bit Linux Pitboss server would be great too. Something that could be set up on a headless server. That would be perfect.
Yes please. Civilization is the only thing left for me that I can't do under Linux (can't get the DRM running in WINE). I would pay extra for a Linux version.
I really hope they port this to the xbox 360, especially after seeing how well CivRev worked with a control pad.
civ x (original)+ 2 (expansions)
the way civ serise works much like the Sims serise does, many many expansions.....
i take it positive....
It would be great to have Linux port. Of course it depends on engine. If it uses DirectX, then there's no luck for Linux..
Please see this linked article for a discussion of DirectX and OpenGL. Be sure to see the original article as linked in the first line of that link for extra information. Basically, OpenGL *IS* absolutely fine for writing games with, but developers have already locked themselves into DirectX. Being locked in has costs of it's own and those costs don't usually become apparent until the day the developer decides interoperability is important. DirectX gets millions and millions of marketing love from Microsoft telling you it's better. OpenGL just goes along it's merry way improving itself as needed. OpenGL does not shackle you to a particular vendor, if you realize that is important then you will bite the short-term costs and switch to it to protect yourself for when the future changes. Unfortunately most business decisions are driven by the mediocre short-term so that is what rules the day. Now, if Microsoft were to make DirectX a truly open *STANDARD* then there would be every reason to stay with DirectX and it would be implemented everywhere. Until then, as a developer, Microsoft has you - even if you think they are benevolent for the moment.
http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/01/Dire...enGL-revisited
Microsoft benevolent? Who in their right minds would think that? The truth is that they seek to lock down people with proprietary standards in EVERY market. Just look at Silverlight. Why create a proprietary plug-in if the same things can be achieved with HTML5? Answer! Because they want to have a grip over web designers. OpenGL x DirectX. Silverlight x HTML5. PlaysForSure x MP3. It is in their blood to be evil.
Also, Playstation 3 games use OpenGL, so this alone should be enough to break Microsoft's FUD. Just take a look at Uncharted 2.
The funniest part about Playsforsure? It doesn't. Microsoft killed it and left everyone who bought into that out on a line. Last I checked MP3, being a standard - even through still *somewhat* proprietaryish, still works fine everywhere and will work fine everywhere forever. That's what you get buying into closed. I got burned when I moved over to Linux with my MP3 player - aparently being Sony it doesn't use standard formats, teach me: when I get around to replacing the loss it will be a generic *and standard* device.
http://windowsitpro.com/article/arti...ysforsure.html
Woa there
Now I'm definitely not a fan of Microsoft, but you guys have to realize that when you start calling Microsoft the devil, people start to think you're just part of a radical fringe. We don't want people to think we're a radical fringe. We're mainstream. We're everywhere. They're missing out on a big market if they decide to ignore us. So why don't we just tone down the Microsoft bashing (as justified as it may be) in the interest of respectability. Capice?
Anyone can prove anything with facts
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