John Carmack reaffirms Linux support (and OpenGL for now)

Following the Todd Hollenshead interview posted by golem.de where he stated John Carmack was not as interested in linux, id Software's Technical Director has posted on Slashdot that, while a linux SKU of Rage is not in the cards, there will likely be a linux binary release once the game ships.

"There is certainly no plans for a commercially supported linux version of Rage, but there will very likely be a linux executable made available." writes John Carmack. Concerning Todd's comments that the game used DirectX9 (rather than 10) and that it would run on WindowsXP Carmack goes on to say that while the PC version uses OpenGL right now, it could change by the time the game is done.

"The PC version is still OpenGL, but it is possible that could change before release. The actual API code is not very large, and the vertex / fragment code can be easily translated between cg/hlsl/glsl as necessary. I am going to at least consider OpenGL 3.0 as a target, if Nvidia, ATI, and Intel all have decent support. There really won't be any performance difference between GL 2.0 / GL 3.0 / D3D, so the api decision will be based on secondary factors, of which inertia is one."

Id Software has developed id Tech 5 with multi-platform capabilities in mind with the first game based on that engine, Rage, having been announced for PC, Macintosh, Xbox 360 and the PS3. It has been known for some time that the renderer was fairly API agnostic. From previous reports we know that Rage will use D3D on the xbox platform, LibGCM on the PS3 and OpenGL on the Mac.

The specifications for OpenGL 3, the newest version of the API which underwent a major revision, are scheduled to be published at the end of September.