Linux Support Plz?

[SlidingHorn]

I've been away from the game for quite a while, and in the meantime, I've moved to using linux full-time.  Looking through the forum history, I do see that there is at least *some* "demand" for linux compatibility.  I, for one, would be much more likely to come back if the game were ported, rather than having to take a shot in the dark with WINE (last documented test in the Wine AppDB was from 2014, and I don't believe online play was tested).

I know HiTech (as with all developers) has limited resources, and I won't be that guy who acts like it's a trivial undertaking.  I would like to know how they and the community feel(s) about the prospect, however.

[Vraciu]

+1

AH is the only reason I still run Windows. 

[SlidingHorn]

As an additional point, now that I've spent some time reacquainting myself with the forums here:  It seems that the game is at a bit of a crossroads on how to gain and maintain players.  Linux users tend (IMHO) to be a very loyal and vocal/evangelical fan base.  While AH is a pretty niche game, I would think that their addition would be a welcome and helpful improvement.

[Mongoose]

  I'm not even a developer, and I can tell that it would be a huge undertaking.  I have a suggestion.  How about running Windows in a virtual machine so you could play AH?

  I am suggesting this for two reasons:  First, I think it might solve your problem.  Second, I am curious how it would work out.  I have wanted to try this for some time, but I don't have the extra hardware necessary to try it out.

[guncrasher]

for what I read in a thread before, it's not that HT has to support linux, but linux has to support HT.


semp

[Ramesis]

for what I read in a thread before, it's not that HT has to support linux, but linux has to support HT.


semp

+1

[Slade]

My ONLY reason to perpetuate using Windows is this game.

+1 to be able to play game efficiently using Linux.

[AAIK]

Traditionally the best/fastest games are written in C/C++ and it would take a huge amount of time to support/port to linux.

If the game were built with something like C# (.Net) theoretically it could run on any hardware but I am not sure C# is up to the task, neither is Java.

Linux is a tiny fraction of the user base so I dont think its even worth the cost to port it to it. Windows is like 80%+ I think.

[715]

AH3 is a DX9/DX11 game; no DX in Linux.  Hitech would have to learn something like Vulkan (kind of a follow-on to OpenGL) to port AH to Linux.  I suspect the chances of this happening are nil as it wouldn't be worth the effort with virtually everyone running gaming computers on Windows.

I use Ubuntu (Linux) for everything except AH3 and I dual boot into Win7 solely to run AH3.  (But I have an old computer that allows me to do that; I'm not familiar enough with Win10 or UEFI computers to know if they allow dual booting.)

[TequilaChaser]

715

I've been running WinXP, Win 7 Ultimate and Win 8.1 Pro in multi-boot, with Linux / Ubuntu as well... Everything worked smoothly and stable

I went to add Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB 64bit OS version and Windows 10 took over everything on the test machine completely cluster-squealing the MBR  and even though I have removed it from the my test machine and reformatted the SSD I installed it on, it still shows up as an Alternate OS that I can boot up to, even though it is not there or even recoverable

The only way I can securely use windows 10 enterprise LTSB version is to pull out the Hot swap bay that I have all my other multi-boot OS setup on just enough to disengage it and leave it that way...... Then when I want or mess with my multi-boot setup, I switch it up and disengage my Windows 10 hotswap bay and engage my multi-boot setup bay....

I have 3 different machines setup like this....  I have yet to find a way to keep Windows 10 from taking control of any other dual or multi-boot setups without Windows 10 porking the other OSes

Edit: I got lucky that my home server that has doubled backup redundancy is set up in such a way that Windows 10 could not access it when I did my initial installation of it..... It took months just to get the test machine back to stable....  My home server is running Linux


Hope this helps

TC

[Vraciu]

Wait.  Win10 is going to brick my ability to use Linux Mint???????

[715]

TC:

I also actually multiboot to XP, Win7, and Ubuntu (although since I upgraded to a modern GPU that doesn't have XP drivers I haven't actually tried to boot into XP).  I like having the ability to access files on all of these OS partitions from Ubuntu; I even edit and save them in Ubuntu directly to the XP and Win7 partitions/drives (probably something I shouldn't do but it works).  So I'm going to stay with Win7 as long as possible: even after support is ended I suspect I won't care since I don't access the internet from Win7 (except for AH).  I'm going to stay as far away as possible from Win10, but if Hitech ever switches to DX12 I'll be out of luck, or I'll have to go your route with physically removable drives.  Wouldn't it be nice if there was some way to wire a hardware switch that would allow you to chose the OS before turning on the computer, instead of having to physically pull out a drive.

[bustr]

An HD power switch so you only power the HD you want to use? About $90 by Cool Gear for SATA drives. Kingwin has one for SATA\SSD for about $30. I've read reviews on the DIY ones and there appears to be concerns about voltage spikes killing your HD. Or single bay enclosure but, you have to power off to swap drives in and out the front by just sliding them.

[Vraciu]

Wait.  Win10 is going to brick my ability to use Linux Mint???????

Let me ask the question again...

[icepac]

I still have win98SE as a multiboot choice but I got troubles with the more modern motherboards when it comes to dma channels.