EVE Online's Linux/Mac Client Goes Live Tuesday

The official EVE Online site has details of upcoming patch 'Revelations 2.3'. Along with a number of bug-fixes to the PvP-focused Massively Multiplayer Online Game, this game fix will offer up compatibility with Mac OS X and Linux. Though the Mac client is a native port, Linux will require the used of Cedega. The post suggests that if you'd like a preview of what the game will be like on your rig, you can download the client and tool around the test server. System requirements are also listed, as are the distributions of Linux they are specifically supporting: Ubuntu 7+, Suse 10+, and Linspire 6. Update: 11/04 14:32 GMT by Z : Fixed implication of native Linux client.

It uses Cedega on Linux

[kcbanner]

Its not a native client. It uses a stripped-down version of the commercial fork of the now-obsolete xwine (what with normal wine having most dx things now), Cedega. People have been running the eve online client under wine and cedega for years now, I can run it under wine and get better fps than windows in some cases :P.

Anyway, the point is that they didn't actually take the time to write a native client, its simply packaged with Cedega, so this isn't really anything to praise them for.
I just thought I'd mention that because they don't until it actually starts installing.

Re:It uses Cedega on Linux

[QuantumG]

If more games companies (*cough* Blizzard) would test their stuff with WINE and support it, we'd have a different PC industry.

Re:Wow!

[seebs]

No, WoW doesn't. EVE does. They keep bragging about how a minute's play can wipe out months of work. Not interesting to me. In WoW, I can lose an amount of money that will take me as much as an hour to earn back. No problem, I can cope.

Re:So long GPA....

[Spit]

Honestly, what difference does it make to you whether a closed binary is compiled against Windows or Linux APIs? If the software runs well, there is no difference except in your head.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:So long GPA....

[cheater512]

Its effectively the same yes but native Linux ports are usually somewhat faster than running the same game on the same rig under Windows.
Using Wine throws away the benefits of Linux's superior video and audio libraries due to overhead.
The gameplay is similar to using it on Windows ironically.

Re:So long GPA....

[kripkenstein]

Its not a linux port. They simply packaged Cedega with EVE. I wish people would stop praising them for that...its not a native client.

Sure, a native port would be better, but this is still a step in the right direction. They deserve *some* praise for it.

If it lets a few more people not have to dual-boot into Windows to play games, then they are doing something right. Hopefully this will grow the non-Windows gaming market enough so that eventually native clients *are* released for Linux / Mac.

And as for Cedega not being truly open-sourced, and the games themselves certainly not, well, as a Linux desktop user and FOSS supporter this bothers me. But the fact is, at this point in time hardcore games are mostly a closed-source environment, whether on a console or a PC. Games are different than most typical desktop apps for various reasons. Hopefully in the future this will change, but meanwhile lots of Linux users want to play games, so this announcement is positive news.

"Months of work"

[Per Abrahamsen]

> They keep bragging about how a minute's play can wipe out months of work.

I would never get that far, I refuse to play any game for which playtime feels like work.

Re:Wow!

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do people insist on calling EVE super-niche hardcore?
It has hardcore elements, but that's it.
It is not a game which forces you to play any which way, and especially not "hardcore".

I have a 3-4 year old character on EVE, and I've not ONCE touched the drama, politics, etc. (you can play freelance your entire eve career and have a blast - that was infact one of the atmosphere/mood goals of eve; to incorporate that 'lost in space' feeling.)

WoW was far, far more time demanding for an equally 'in the game' feeling (and I won't even touch advancement/gear...).
It's the same with most other mmorpgs I've played. Out of them; EVE is the one that has the *potential* (if you want it to be) to be very time consuming, however it is the one that forces you to stress the LEAST to still to stay ontop of the game.

It might be this "hardcore dream" (Hmm...) of many players in it, however eve is just as much a casual gamer's dream.
Sometimes I start thinking all these people calling eve hardcore and niche/excluding, are spreading that fud for a reason.

- A freelancer in Eve

Re:EVE vs Vendetta

[Raumkraut]

While "Vendetta Online" has already shipped, the game is still considered to be in beta status by both its users and its developers, and many defining qualities are still only in the stages of early planning.

So the difference between VO and practically every other MMOG is just that the developers are honest?

Re:So long GPA....

[Goaway]

Says the man with square HTML tags.

Re:So long GPA....

[WilliamSChips]

He said compatibility layer. Which means that when the programs try to call the Windows API they're actually calling the WINE API which then calls the relevant Linux functions. Which is slower than the API itself.