If I buy through Steam, then no Linux version?

[JoeTheZombie]

I pre-ordered Darwinia through Steam before I knew there was Linux version. I'm guessing I don't get the Linux version now.

[prophile]

This is not from experience, but you get the windows version and then upgrade it with a few linux patch files (which are free) so you could get hold of the files from steam and then patch them to work on linux, but as I say I'm not sure this works.

[Dave2]

Depends on how the Steam version is packaged; I'm not sure how Steam does things, but I can see it being potentially possible to extract the raw data and use the Linux patch with it.

[JoeTheZombie]

Well, I'll give it try. Guess I'll find out at 12:01 tonight!

[hitm4n]

at 12:01 eh... all depends where in the world you are.
I'm in the UK and i know for a fact it'll be later on the 14th than earlier.

[JoeTheZombie]

True... Half-Life 2 was released worlwide at 12:01 PST. Asuming Darwinia is also released at 12:01 PST, that would make it 01:01 GMT-7.

[hitm4n]

and i'm gmt so 8am ?

[ninjadoug]

I find it very unlikley that you will be able to produce anything that runs on linux by taing some files from a windows version.

They will be compiled for different operating systems, if it were that simple then any game/app would have a linux version

[Dave2]

There already is a Linux version, which involves patching from the Windows version.

[andrewas]

The reason few games come out for Linux is that many render graphics through D3D - which is unavaiable outside windows. Also, even among those games that use OpenGL for the rendering, many games still use other parts of DirectX. None of that is available on Linux, and the APIs you can use on Linux tend not to be available on windows, either. So you need to write version of the game which use the APIs available on each platform, which while it isnt actualy double the effort, is a lot more trouble than writing one version for one platform.

However, none of this is a problem for getting the Linux version through steam. With Darwinia, the patch includes the complete .exe, and the data files are identical. So you should indeed be able to run Darwinia on Linux with the patch and the Steam version. Just use GCFscape to get the data files out of the .gcfs, and add the patch, and then play.

[xander]

Here is how the Linux version works (more or less):

You buy the Windows version. On the CD that you get, there are many files, only one of which is an executable. The executable is not very large. The vast majority of the 30 MB that make up Darwinia are "resource" files -- music, shapes, sounds, scripts, etc. The Linux version uses all of the same files, and only replaces the executable. Also, the Linux executable can be downloaded from IV. Thus, if you have all of the Windows data files, you can grab the executable from IV, and be on your merry way. The concern, then, is: will you be able to extract the data files from Steam?

xander

EDIT: andrewas got there first. This is what I get for loading the reply page, teaching a class, then coming back to it 30 minutes later. ;)

[Varsity]

You don't even need GCFScape, all of the files are extracted for you. The executable doesn't (yet) use the Steam filesystem.

[da_zeg]

30mins Zander, what do you teach? dont think Ive ever had a lesson that lasted less than an hour
I knew that would piss you off ;)

[micks]

Really young kids? A have a friend who teaches them and that's about how long their classes take. From what I've heard it's pretty difficult to have them really pay attention to any single subject or activity longer than that.
I have to admit though that my own classes sometimes do not take much longer and I teach at university

[xander]

30mins Zander, what do you teach? dont think Ive ever had a lesson that lasted less than an hour
I knew that would piss you off ;)

Zander?! OMFG, yuo st00pid n00b!!1!1!!one

I teach computers to elementary school kids. Because the school is in a really low income area where no one speaks English, the powers that be have decided that 30 minutes a week is more than enough time with the computers. Nevermind that this is not nearly enough time to teach even the basics of word processing or, heaven forbid, proper typing. But the powers have spoken.

I'm not bitter, really. And when I finish my secondary credential, I can go off and teach algebra to high school kids.

xander