Forums » General Pantheon Discussion

Will Alpha/Beta testing be available to Linux users?

    • 93 posts
    April 23, 2016 11:28 AM PDT

    I was just wondering. I know the FAQ says it will be available at launch, but I am curious about beta and alpha. I am probably going to make the switch from windows to Linux soon I think, and if I can't test with Linux I will probably just wait to switch until launch.

    Thanks, your friendly guardian of the vale.

     

     


    This post was edited by halflingwarrior at April 23, 2016 7:35 PM PDT
    • 9115 posts
    April 23, 2016 6:23 PM PDT

    We are unsure at this stage, we will need to see how much of our community uses all 3 platforms and make a decision as development progresses but at this stage we are unsure if we will have Linux or Mac during testing phases.


    This post was edited by VR-Mod1 at April 23, 2016 6:24 PM PDT
    • 93 posts
    April 23, 2016 6:57 PM PDT

    Kilsin said:

    We are unsure at this stage, we will need to see how much of our community uses all 3 platforms and make a decision as development progresses but at this stage we are unsure if we will have Linux or Mac during testing phases.

    Thanks for the reply Kilsin. 

    • 9115 posts
    April 24, 2016 3:08 AM PDT

    halflingwarrior said:

    Kilsin said:

    We are unsure at this stage, we will need to see how much of our community uses all 3 platforms and make a decision as development progresses but at this stage we are unsure if we will have Linux or Mac during testing phases.

    Thanks for the reply Kilsin. 

    You're welcome my friend :)

    • 2756 posts
    April 24, 2016 3:16 AM PDT

    A techy dev on the Sage of Lucimia team was just saying the Unity engine lends itself to multi-platform development.  Not trying to put words in the devs mouths, but it looks hopeful from that regard, though this was more a 'when' question than a whether ;)


    This post was edited by disposalist at April 24, 2016 3:17 AM PDT
    • 363 posts
    April 25, 2016 2:00 PM PDT

    As long as Pantheon will run fine on Win 10, I'm happy. But I hope for all you Linux types it will run just fine. 

    • 613 posts
    July 14, 2016 2:52 PM PDT

    I am curious if there is any news on this? 

     

    Ox

    • 308 posts
    July 14, 2016 4:00 PM PDT

    linux is cool, but have the mac people get real computers

     

    • 844 posts
    July 14, 2016 7:32 PM PDT

    disposalist said:

    A techy dev on the Sage of Lucimia team was just saying the Unity engine lends itself to multi-platform development.  Not trying to put words in the devs mouths, but it looks hopeful from that regard, though this was more a 'when' question than a whether ;)

    Unity does allow a lot of flexibility, but you still have to develop a client for any different OS you want to support.

     

    ( ...and I am an engineer at a game studio that uses Unity )


    This post was edited by zewtastic at July 14, 2016 7:34 PM PDT
    • 109 posts
    July 14, 2016 8:45 PM PDT

    I would just like to encourage macOS be supported during testing. As an Apple employee, most people at work play Blizzard games because it runs on mac.

    I use both systems, but people at work won't even look at a game if it isn't on macOS. it's understandable the windows has most of the gaming market, but I feel you could potentially lose out on tens of thousands of potential customers if you leave out macOS or treat it as a "side project" like Guildwars II and a few other companies did.

    When I ask people at work about "X" game, the first question they ask is,  " does it run on a mac? " When I mention bootcamp and windows partition, they say (and I quote) "I don't want to dirty up my mac with windows, even on a separate partition"  :D

    Just a suggestion. I understand not everything is possible, but I truely feel leaving mac users out of alpha and beta could hurt your bottom line in the end.

    If we macOS users don't tell you that we want you to support us, how are you to know, right? Pantheon is going to be the greatest MMO to hit the market since EQ. I just don't want boundaries between the game and players.

    Thanks for reading. Have a good day.

    • 201 posts
    July 18, 2016 9:56 AM PDT

    Also keep in mind that with 3 different operating systems, there can be 3 sets of issues.  It's not just publish and done.  Honestly as much as multiple systems would be nice, I'd say stick with the masses first, and than stem out.

    • 85 posts
    November 12, 2016 7:10 AM PST

    Sorry to necro an older thread, but I didn't want to create a new one for the same topic. I'd also like to express my interest in a Linux client being available during the alpha/beta phases. Considering with Unity 5+ being able to export linux builds nearly on the fly I'd hope we see this. To keep things simple you can take the approach Project: Gorgon does and just keep the linux binaries publicly available but do not provide support for them during the alpha/beta phase, if it works it works. Most of us Linux users would help track down any quirks/bugs without need for wasting internal testing time. With that said, is there any update on if this will be available or not?

    • 56 posts
    February 13, 2017 5:21 PM PST

    Endalmir said:

    Sorry to necro an older thread, but I didn't want to create a new one for the same topic. I'd also like to express my interest in a Linux client being available during the alpha/beta phases. Considering with Unity 5+ being able to export linux builds nearly on the fly I'd hope we see this. To keep things simple you can take the approach Project: Gorgon does and just keep the linux binaries publicly available but do not provide support for them during the alpha/beta phase, if it works it works. Most of us Linux users would help track down any quirks/bugs without need for wasting internal testing time. With that said, is there any update on if this will be available or not?

    Bringing this thread back to life for a few minutes (how many times is it possible to necro a thread?), please consider adding support for debian-based Linux distributions. Being able to play Pantheon on Ubuntu would be awesome, and I know i'm not alone on this.


    This post was edited by Wyatt at February 13, 2017 5:21 PM PST
    • 690 posts
    February 13, 2017 5:42 PM PST

    Pantheon testing is actually the only reason I haven't switched over to linux, though if I've heard right mint cinammon might be able to run most windows applications just fine. Thanks for asking the question for me OP=)

    • 9115 posts
    February 14, 2017 1:38 AM PST

    There will not be any Linux (or possibly Mac) support for testing that I am aware of, we are focussing on the Windows PC platform until we get further along in development. If there is enough interest in Mac and Linux and we have the resources to support them we will certainly look into it but it is just not a focus right now.

    • 3016 posts
    February 16, 2017 8:31 AM PST

    Flak said:

    Endalmir said:

    Sorry to necro an older thread, but I didn't want to create a new one for the same topic. I'd also like to express my interest in a Linux client being available during the alpha/beta phases. Considering with Unity 5+ being able to export linux builds nearly on the fly I'd hope we see this. To keep things simple you can take the approach Project: Gorgon does and just keep the linux binaries publicly available but do not provide support for them during the alpha/beta phase, if it works it works. Most of us Linux users would help track down any quirks/bugs without need for wasting internal testing time. With that said, is there any update on if this will be available or not?

    Bringing this thread back to life for a few minutes (how many times is it possible to necro a thread?), please consider adding support for debian-based Linux distributions. Being able to play Pantheon on Ubuntu would be awesome, and I know i'm not alone on this.

     

    The Community Manager on this site prefers necroed threads as opposed to multiple threads on the same topic,   necro away.  :)

    • 93 posts
    August 11, 2017 1:48 PM PDT

    I didn't want to start a new  thread because my question was related. One thing that really brought me to pledge to this game was the idea of native Linux support. I know you mentioned there would be no Linux support for the testing phase, but will there still be a native Linux client upon official launch?

    • 9115 posts
    August 11, 2017 6:00 PM PDT

    halflingwarrior said:

    I didn't want to start a new  thread because my question was related. One thing that really brought me to pledge to this game was the idea of native Linux support. I know you mentioned there would be no Linux support for the testing phase, but will there still be a native Linux client upon official launch?

    We will try our best to get Mac and Linux support my friend but there is no guarantee, being a small team it is going to be tough to even think about that until we get more funding or fully funded, so for now, we are focussing on a solid Windows client but will do our best for Mac and Linux further down the track.

    • 278 posts
    August 12, 2017 3:11 AM PDT

    @halflingwarrior

    Been awhile since i used linux (ubuntu) but the win console in most linux is good (once you got all drivers right) or start with dual boot win/linux. Or stick with win you get excellent patience training with windows.

    • 93 posts
    November 17, 2017 7:27 PM PST

    I honestly thought that native Linux support was a marketing point when I first read the initial kickstarter. I see now that any mention of Mac or Linux support was removed. Can't really remember. I pledged because I thought this would be an mmo for the Linux community.

    Perhaps Linux support will come a year or so into the game. Still too early to speculate on all of that I realize.

    • 2130 posts
    November 17, 2017 7:45 PM PST

    I don't know why a developer would waste time developing something for 1% of their playerbase, especially when you can just dual boot Windows to play. It's not a financially savvy move whatsoever.

    • 93 posts
    November 17, 2017 8:11 PM PST

    Liav said:

    I don't know why a developer would waste time developing something for 1% of their playerbase, especially when you can just dual boot Windows to play. It's not a financially savvy move whatsoever.

    To properly understand "why" a developer would "waste" time, one must study in detail the engine used to create Pantheon, and also as I mentioned, the initial statement regarding cross-platform launch.

    Reasons against dual booting are usually political and/or philosophical.

    I've never quite understood the hostility toward the Linux community from Windows users. You will get your game soon enough, worry not my friend.

    Looks like we will be relying on WINE yet again my compatriots.

    Edit:

    I have yet to see a poll utilized for gathering data on operating systems used by the pantheonmmo forum community.


    This post was edited by halflingwarrior at November 17, 2017 8:19 PM PST
    • 56 posts
    November 17, 2017 8:16 PM PST

    Since they chose the Unity engine we might get lucky. It's a long shot, but possible.


    This post was edited by Wyatt at November 18, 2017 9:44 AM PST
    • 2130 posts
    November 17, 2017 8:29 PM PST

    I wouldn't call it hostility. There's a reason World of Warcraft, the most accessible MMO ever made, still does not have a native Linux client.

    • 30 posts
    August 31, 2018 9:04 AM PDT

    One option would be to make the Client, open-source so anyone can build it for their system.


    This post was edited by rencil at August 31, 2018 9:05 AM PDT