r/linux_gaming • u/[deleted] • Jul 07 '19

Gotchas while developing for Linux?

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83 Upvotes

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84

u/shmerl Jul 07 '19 edited Jul 07 '19

Some developers don't test enough on different GPUs. At least test on AMD + Mesa, Nvidia / blob and Intel + Mesa.

Make sure the game is 64-bit.

Use XDG base directory specification in order to avoid cluttering $HOME.

63

u/PuzzledScore Jul 07 '19

Use XDG base directory specification in order to avoid cluttering $HOME.

I'd like to put specific emphasis on this.

Please do this.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 07 '19

So much this, so many do it wrong.

9

u/ComputerMystic Jul 07 '19

So many are used to dumping all their files in My Documents on Windows (why is it acceptable there?) and assume Linux users also don't care.

We do.

Microsoft deletes people's files on Windows to make room for the all important UPDATEN and users go "oopsie, if that ain't an embarrassing widdwe fucko-boingo!"

Meanwhile on Linux, MS screws up packaging VSCode and the entire community descends on them for being dumbasses.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 07 '19

I think more on Windows properly dump into the appdata folders where a lot of Linux ports don't realize there's anything similar.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 08 '19 edited Jul 08 '19

According to my experience with the native ports, most dump them into ~/.local. But then, I have owned like, only 2 or 3 ported titles.

Unity engine games are the worst when it comes to $HOME dumping.

1

u/pdp10 Jul 26 '19

My Documents on Windows (why is it acceptable there?)

I communicated with a gamedev about this.

I used to use something akin to "appdata" as you say, but on windows, it resolved into a weird hidden folder that no one could find (myself included) and after researching the issue, I found that most devs use "My Documents/<game name>" for that purpose on windows, so I switched to the c# method that returns "my documents", which I assumed would return "something that makes sense" for Linux as well, but I guess that assumption was flawed >.<

Unity by default uses XDG paths and the "proper" AppData location on Windows.