"Out There" Inquiry: Linux Support in the Future?

[RayVad]

Hi,

Yes i am aware of Wine an tried many times.
I think it is a good project too. But my experience is performance loss and some hell of configurations, which let me stay on Windows for gaming so far.
My server is running on Ubuntu and Wine though.

[Thaeris]

Thanks for the heads-up on Mission4Today. I've not managed to convince myself to dip my toes in WINE yet, but that may happen at some point. And again, it's cool to know there is some form of interest in this matter. At least a chap can dream!

...Also great to know that Il-2 is already set up for OGL. If I could pump one last item - if there is ever somehow any concern that interest in the sim is dropping off, opening up the doors for Linux would stave that off for sure!

[TheGrunch]

Note that it seems the 4.14.1 installer doesn't work under Wine because Wine bundles an implementation of WinPCap.

[Jumoschwanz]

I have run IL246 with wine no problem years ago, so anyone should be able to figure it out with a bit of independent and critical thought.

[Thaeris]

Hey Jumoschwanz,

It's good to know it seems to work reasonably well. However, is it wrong, per-se, to inquire about the possibility of the software being made to natively run on Linux?

[TheGrunch]

Originally Posted by Thaeris

Hey Jumoschwanz,

It's good to know it seems to work reasonably well. However, is it wrong, per-se, to inquire about the possibility of the software being made to natively run on Linux?

Sorry for thread necro...

Short answer is it's very unlikely: the Java code is relatively easy to port, but a lot of the game's code is already compiled code from an elderly non-free Microsoft compiler (mixture of MSVC++ 6 and 7 I think).

I don't think that even DT have access to the original source code for that stuff.
That's why the DT patches add a new DT.dll instead of replacing the original .dlls.

Porting the game would mean reproducing all of the original code, without having the original source code, at the same time as porting it to a new platform.

Not impossible: see e.g. OpenMW where some dedicated individuals have reverse engineered and reimplemented the entire Morrowind game engine in modern cross-platform C++, but it would require a lot more development effort than most in the community are prepared or able to offer.

[Jumoschwanz]

If you want to update IL246 I do it on an old Windows xp box, then just copy the updated install to the linux machine with the network or a thumb-drive. As old as this sim is, it will never have native linux support.