Open source of art from the status quo of Linux games

From the current situation of Linux games, let's talk about the Open Source of art-general Linux technology-Linux technology and application information. The following is a detailed description. At present, although the Linux system is far from enough to shake the status of the King of Windows, it is undoubtedly a powerful Challenger. Many Linux users will find a very strange problem: many games are used in Linux, and large games are rare, while well-made large games are almost difficult to find. Why?

A glimpse of the status quo
Linux has a very rich set of game resources, and both KDE and GNOME desktop systems are integrated with a very good set of games, from Tetris, rock, Black White, and card games, it can be said that there is everything (I used to use Linux for the KDE built-in kasteroids. These games provide exquisite pictures and sound effects. Some of them are also equipped with beautiful music, which is of superior quality. But once we talk about big games, Linux seems shy compared to Windows.

What is a big game? I am mainly referring to big production, not only to well-known classic masterpieces such as final fantasy, but also to classic ACT games such as Super Mario, this is because the gameplay is simple, but the development cost was not low. Starting from this definition, many loyal Linux fans will have different opinions: Linux clearly has many such games, there are more and more games like Quake and CS. Why not ??

First, let's take a look at the Linux substitute SuperTux (Super penguin) of SuperMario. Although it is very close from the name, the gameplay and even the screen are exactly the same, those who have played the game still have to admit that "SuperTux" is still inadequate compared with the "SuperMario" in the 1980s S, whether on pictures, music or operations.

SuperTux (ACT, Linux)


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Let's take a look at the common FPS in Linux. I don't catch a cold with FPS, but I saw 3D FPS in several systems when installing Sabayon, compared with the first time I played "half a life", I felt that the picture was keeping up with me, but this operation ...... Is uncomfortable. In addition, these games are not smooth enough on my machine (I have turned off all the special effects that can be turned off), and my machine configuration is not high, just integrated i855GM, however, I believe that running CS in Windows is more than enough. The requirement of OpenGL configuration is much higher than that of DX ??

Sauerbraten (FPS, Linux)


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Finally, let's take a look at Wesnoth, the most sophisticated masterpiece in Linux. It should be said that this is indeed the most well-made game I have ever seen in Linux. The screen, music, plot, and stability are excellent. Thanks to the battle download function, the game is quite scalable. This kind of work also provides quite good international support, including Chinese. If we use games in Linux, Wesnoth can be called "God's work, many people regard it as a substitute for Heroes of Might Magic. But in fact, compared with Heroes, Wesnoth's music is a bit monotonous. Although Wesnoth is exquisite on the screen, it does not have the amazing feeling of Heroes. In addition, although Wesnoth is also a combination of RPG and SLG, Wesnoth does not have the concept of city management, nor is it as powerful as Heroes RPG, But it emphasizes SLG, emphasize the cultivation and deployment of combat units. It can be said that these two games are not a type of game at all. If they must be put together, due to the lack of some important elements (such as CG and combat images ), wesnoth can be regarded as a hero's invincible castrated version. Some people may think that it is unfair to compare Wesnoth to an epic like hero invincible. Do not forget that the most classic hero invincible 3 is just an old work of the last century.

Wesnoth (SLG, Linux)


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Final Fantasy works are not available on Linux, and will not be available in the short term. Great masterpieces such as civilization, simulated city, and Quake have been able to log on to the Linux platform at the beginning of this century with the efforts of companies such as Loki, however, they did not attract much attention, because they are neither open-source nor free. More importantly, most of them are outdated versions transplanted to Linux.

Loki officially transplanted magic door: Hero invincible 3 (SLG, Windows/Linux)


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Cause Analysis
Is it not suitable for playing games on Linux? For those who think "Linux = server", I need to repeat the fact that Linux is just a system kernel, which is also the reason for its extraordinary elasticity. If you think that Linux is not applicable to building a game platform, it is because no one develops the required software, which has nothing to do with the Linux core. In fact, Sony PS3 uses Linux. I believe no one will think that it is more suitable for servers.

That's because the hateful developers saw fewer users in Linux and deliberately ignored our existence? Let's take a look at Apple's Mac OSX, where users and Linux are on the same order of magnitude, and OSX has less free software than Linux. If you have used OSX, you will find that the enthusiasm of game developers for OSX is incredibly high. Many of the most common Windows-based masterpieces actually have Mac versions, including World of Warcraft. in addition, piracy like Windows is prevalent ......

World of WarCraft (MMORPG, Windows/Mac OS X)


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It seems that the user group is not that big a problem. Compared with Mac and Windows, what makes Linux so special that it is ignored by game developers? It is very simple. It is the Open Source spirit of Linux. Then, the answer is obvious. Developers cannot (or are difficult) profit from the Linux version, so they simply ignore the existence of this platform. Developing games for the Linux platform is not as simple as porting the platform. More importantly, developers are reluctant to accept the "open" concept of the Linux platform.

For mandatory software, it is easy to be despised and imitated in Linux, which is hard to imagine on other platforms. Developers and users prefer to embrace open source, and even prefer to develop a replacement for freeciv rather than the official release of the Linux version civilization. this makes game developers very worried. In addition, some open-source communities developed their own game engines also showed excellent quality, so some developers simply choose to use their outdated open-source game engines to please the Linux open-source community, for example, Quake.

FreeCiv (SIM, Linux)


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However, the actual situation is that both imitation products, high-level engines and official open-source engines have not achieved the expected performance in Linux. Look at freeciv and lincity (a substitute for City Simulation), which is enough to recall the primitive FC era. For those self-made engines and official engines, despite the high quality and powerful functions of the program, however, you can't see the amazing masterpiece created using these engines-in fact, you cannot find any game that is developed with an open-source Quake engine that is comparable to Quake! What is the problem?

LinCity (SIM, Linux)


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As pointed out in an article about game production many years ago, for games, programmers are like magicians who combine various materials according to the requirements of directors. That is to say, the program is not all about the game. The program is not an external expression of the game, but a combination of pictures, models, music, and scripts like adhesive. For gamers, the gaming experience is mainly provided through pictures and music. It is hard to provide pictures and music of the same level without imitating other game masterpieces.

By extension
For a professional game development company, creating a good game requires a large number of artists and musicians, rather than a large number of programmers. For games on the Linux platform, what is lacking is not a programmer, but an artist and Music Artist. In other words, programs can be open-source, but can art be open-source?

Can Mozart's work be open-source?


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First, let's look at open source software. Open-source software is exempt from liability, because in fact developers are not fixed and do not need a fixed development team for maintenance (although such a group can help extend the life cycle of the software ). The code is open and anyone can distribute and modify it, but it is irrelevant to whether the original author is willing to continue development. With a good idea and the impulse of a programmer, it may lead to the birth of a good open-source software. The original author of the software will be respected, but will not be considered to be the owner of the software, because open-source software is usually a work that many Programmers spend a lot of time contributing together. Therefore, due to the review and modification by many people, good open-source software usually has much better code quality and performance than closed-source software.

Is it possible for artistic works, especially graphic works such as icons and CG, 3D models, animations, and music, to have open source potential? In fact, many open-source art works, including wallpapers, themes, and icons, have been published in the form of source files in the KDE community. But can works of art benefit from open source like a program? I'm afraid it is very limited. Pictures and music are usually personal works, and there are few pictures or music completed by teamwork. Artistic Creation requires the continuous inspiration and motivation of the same author, and it is difficult to complete the masterpiece by making constant changes. For example, the style of da Vinci and Clamp is completely different. It is hard to imagine what kind of work will be produced by the collaboration between the two. The same is true for Mozart and Jay Chou. In addition, even the original author may be unable to complete the work once the idea is interrupted.

Venus with broken arm


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However, for some works of art, collaboration is possible. Examples, as long as the original author provides the original file and original ideas, the successor can make the same type of work based on these things, such as the default KDE crystal icon, Mac iPhone icon, even if most of these icons come from the same person, future generations can easily make similar icons to improve the entire set of icons. This is because the icon design is different from the conventional graphic design, and there is a set of design specifications and guidelines, which makes it capable of mass production in the industrial age. 3D modeling can also be done by teams, but the division of roles is more rigorous and accurate than that of the software development team. As for music, multi-person collaboration is rare. Currently, there is no "shared creation" agreement for music creation.

KDE "Crystal" series icons


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Obviously, for most artistic creations, open source may be difficult and unnecessary. Open source can help achieve the work that is mechanized or industrialized and requires collaboration among multiple people, rather than the work that is as free and undisciplined as art creation. In addition, the conception stage and the high degree of identity at the present stage of artistic creation make it difficult to use open-source ideas. You cannot change a child graffiti into a great file, but the original author of open-source software cannot imagine what the published file will eventually look like.

To sum up
That is to say, the open source of pictures and music is of little significance. The artist's painstaking efforts in the process of artistic creation need to be rewarded. I personally think this is the reason why it is difficult for game masterpiece to be free or open-source. It is difficult for art to open source, leading to the lack of artists and works of art, which is the direct cause of the low quality of games on the Linux platform. Although a very small number of artists have made their work "open-source", as mentioned above, this practice has no practical significance for most types of works. Therefore, do not expect selfless artists to become more and more as free programmers. After all, art is a work of art. Mona Lisa has only one fake, and others are fake.

I do not think that there is no outstanding game masterpiece on Linux, but that there is no outstanding open source game masterpiece on Linux, which is determined by the nature of open source and art. I think: excellent engines + excellent artists = great works of art. For the masterpiece, the selfless artistic investment required is too large to bear. You can choose to wait, but even if you just want to play an open-source game comparable to the final fantasy game a decade ago, it may take another 10 years or longer.

A more feasible solution is to give up the idea of completely developing open-source games, attract more artists, and use open-source game engines. In terms of the current engine level, the outstanding masterpiece is just around the corner. However, such games cannot be free of charge, which is unfair to those artists because they cannot obtain open-source benefits from such creations-such as multi-person collaboration and paid services, so let's praise them and pay for them. This will give them more motivation to make the next game, maybe home 3.

HomeWorld (RTS, Windows)


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One thing that needs to be mentioned here is that the proliferation of pirated software has a devastating impact on domestic games, if it is not because of the emergence of online games that make domestic games recover. I personally think that pirated games are more hateful than pirated software, and strongly urge everyone to purchase genuine games as much as possible. Tens of dollars is not too much, even if we only support artists who provide beautiful pictures and music for the games we love. They have paid too much and may have paid more.

The last thing to note is that pictures and music are not all about the game. We can see from the battle between NDS and PSP. In the current situation, game development in Linux can also aim to improve playability, thus improving the quality of the game. Here we recommend a pretty good game heroes. This is a game similar to a snake. The screen is beautiful, but the music is a bit monotonous, and the sound effect is simple. But the most impressive thing is its creativity. This multiplayer Snake game is different from the common similar games in the past. It replaces the traditional apple with a variety of items, this greatly increases the playability of the game.

Heroes (PUZ, Linux)


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This kind of small ideas and good pictures are enough to make simple games interesting. In the same case, there is "Tetris 2" on SFC (the ancestor of the explosive Tetris game) in the QQ game. A more typical non-mini-game example is Super Mario. This simple game, which was first released in 1985, has three versions on FC, each of which is different from that of the previous generation, there is not much progress in pictures and music (limited by FC functions), but constant innovation makes every generation of works so popular. No matter in the FC, SFC, N64, and Wii, the Super Mario series continues its stubborn vitality with countless fascinating innovations. In contrast, "Super Penguin" has almost no things of its own.

Super Mario World (ACT, SFC)


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The creation and implementation costs of game playability creativity are much lower than those of painting and composing, even for open-source games, this is completely affordable. This is a way out for Linux games. Of course, to improve the quality of games on the Linux platform, we also need to fundamentally change the open source community's views on art open source.