Re:Conspiracy theory (Score 1)

Except that RAD made it clear in advance that it was out. It was more like Rabid Linux Users went to RAD, found the link and the such..

Unlikely. The word "Linux" does not appear on the radgametools website. Until lately Radgametools had no intention to port Bink and the Miles Sound System to Linux. At least that's what they assured me when I inquired for the game company I was with a year ago.

Most likely the the Biowares Linux client story was similar to the one of my former employer Massive Development. They started with the firm commitment to release a Linux client and server along with the Windows version. They employed me, mostly a linux guy, to do the multiplayer network coding.

When I started to work and had a first look to the existing codebase, I already wondered how you can hope to build a Linux client with a totally Direct3D dependent renderer, but was told a OpenGL Port was in the pipeline and ready "any day now". But it soon turned out, that supporting the latest vertex shaders was much more important to the graphics guys. The resulting engine was even tighter bound to Direct3D and a port to OpenGL an imposiblility without an architectual overhaul. Of cause, there was no time for that, so this was the end of the Linux client.

Shortly after, I came up with a full working, UDP based, distributed object system. But management decided to scrap UDP networking and to use DirectPlay8 as the low level network code. That was the end of the linux server. The rationale for this was: The Xbox (then new on the horizont) was assumed to be lacking UDP networking and was considered to be a more important platform. Not that that they based this assumption on facts, or that they published a XBox version until now.