Hello gamers, For about a month or so I have been doing research for USA Games on how to expand our future titles to target Mac, Linux, and Windows operating systems all at the same time. While my research isn't complete I do have some options on how I might actually target all three major operating systems at once. If research is successful I would like to convert all of the existing Raceway code over to a non-Windows specific language so I can support Mac, Linux, and Windows all at the same time. There are advantages and disadvantages to doing this which I would like to point out below. The obvious major advantage would be that no longer would a gamer have to be running Windows x to play accessible games like Raceway. Weather you use Mac, Linux, or Windows as your favorite os of choice you can play Raceway and future USA Games titles using the same technology. IN addition operating systems such as Linux with little to no high quality accessible games would be an equally powerful accessible gaming platform. Since Linux OS is free and my games are pretty cheap by most currancy standards it would save gamers money if they chose it as their gaming platform. One other advantage of going multiplatform in general that I think would be good for this comunity is platform independant networked games. Everyone who plays Rail Racer says that the online racing aspect is the high point of the game. Now, imagine taking that idea, build it using Java's excelant platform independant networking API, and play against blind players on any operating system out there. You might be running Windows Vista while the guy you are racing against is on Linux or Mac. However, there are a few pit falls and disadvantages I'd like to mention which I think should be addressed here. First, to insure maximum platform independence I would not likely be using DirectX as the multimedia API of choice. As a result some of the features of Raceway that were promised like force feedback stearing wheels, would have to be dropped in favor of using more generic and universal input devices like mice and keyboards with universal keyboard standards. This won't likely go down well with Raceway fans hoping for these features. Second, is the question of speech output. Every operating system has its own unique way of presenting text to speech. For Windows it is done through Microsoft Speech API 5 and on say Linux the Gnome-Speech API handles things like tts for applications. Obviously, making specific wrappers for each operating systems tts is time consuming and difficult. The more logical thing would be to use wav samples of speech like many other accessible games do That would be platform independant, but increase the size of the games quite a bit, and could cutdown performence. One option I have if I pick Java is include the Free TTS engine in with my games. The problem with that approach is that the voice is very robotic and sounds like Robby the Robot on crack. Though, it would offer the possability to create built in chat clients and other platform independant gaming tools that requires a tts engine. One thing about Raceway that bothers me is the custom driver feature. While it is no sweat to have a language like Java read a list of custom drivers from an xml file it wouldn't work if all the voice clips are wav files. To pull that off you need something like Gnome-Speech, Sapi, etc to read any updates or changes to the game made outside the factory defaults. Either that or Free TTS which sounds terrible. in the end I might have to cut out that feature which some customers might not like as well. As a developer I am really torn by what I want to do, and what is good for the game. I know many of you had requested features, suggestions, etc that if I stick with Windows is all very possible. However, I've been on the orca mailing list for Linux, seen recent Mac posts on this list, and I can clearly see that multiplatform games are beginning to be in demand. I think it is time that accesible game developers begin thinking about the possability of making games truly accessible to all. Rather than just an elite group of Windows users. How would you feel about games like USA Raceway, STFC, etc going multiplatform? Since STFC 2.0 is still in early production I should have no issues converting the existing code to Java, Python, or something else once I decide on what I need to do to make all this happen. Raceway is obviously further along, but the basic logic is done, and just needs converted from C-Sharp to whatever language I choose so no big deal there. Just will take a month or two extra to convert and test what I have written already. I am looking forward to any thoughts, comments, or suggestions you have about this possability.
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