ubuntu-gaming team mailing list archive

[Christian Ahmer <barde667@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Ryan,

thanks again for your input!
Right my idea is to use the desktop background as the dashboard for starting 
games. But it is not a native app, it is rather a server / client solution 
that works by dynamically render HTML and serve this to an embedded gecko 
engine, that is started via ruby gtkmozembed and embedded, as written above, 
into the desktop background. This is what I accomplished so far.

However, by clicking on a link on my frontend, a process can be spawned... but 
also there can be ajax (javascript) calls that can trigger functions in the 
backend (so one can design some watchdogs that check, if internet connection 
is available, 3d is enabled and so on....).

Next step is to design the user inerface, build the integrated database and so 
on. I'll do some sketches and maybe post them. What I would need is a rather 
complete list of all those nice games that are available for ubuntu. I know, 
that can be extracted from the systems package manager, but i rather need a 
list with things like name,type of game,developer, homepage,screenshots etc. 
in it.

Somehow this already reminds me a little bit of STEAM. But it feels faster... 
when STEAM was brought to masses, performance of the whole thing was not very 
fast although it is a native app as I remember. But the whole concept is 
great, you can use inline frames to embed external websites, widgets and so 
on. The great thing is, that we don't need to deliver much content, the 
content comes from Ubuntu's repositories. We just need some basic data to 
every game.

Feel free to comment, contribute, whatever...

greetings,
Christian

Am Sonntag, 3. Mai 2009 09:48:28 schrieb Ryan Swart:
> The games browser idea has been much talked about by many different teams,
> all with pretty good ideas, and some with pretty good implementations to
> boot (e.g DJL)
>
> However, they do seem to lack is a nice gaming like interface (save for
> MirthKit, I guess), most of the game managers just stick with the default
> gtk/qt themes, and end up looking like a settings panel :\  Another thing
> that's missing is the mentioned social features, buddy lists etc.
>
> So, Christian's idea, as I understand it, is to make a desktop interface in
> the way of Ubuntu Netbook Remix, which still allows traditional start menus
> to browse and run apps from, but gives the desktop estate to the games. I
> think this can work, but in the end it isn't a neccesary design choice to
> make it fullscreen, you can just as easily make an attractive, windowed
> interface and add the needed social functionality that people want.
>
> On Sun, May 3, 2009 at 11:22 AM, Christian Ahmer <barde667@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Hi Ryan,
> >
> > Python may be a good solution, but my coding background is object
> > oriented programming in php / ruby, so this is why I choose ruby. It
> > should not be that
> > kind of a problem since the ruby gems I use are not that big and the merb
> > framework is rather tiny in size compared with a full stack like e.g.
> > rails.
> > I don't speak python and don't wanna learn it, so I prefer ruby.
> >
> > I'll check what the existing Gaming frontends lack... I am sure they miss
> > something, maybe important aspects. You could help me with that - please
> > write
> > about whatever these frontends do bad or what they are not capable of.
> >
> > To assure you that I don't like to work against exisiting Ubuntu
> > Desktops, I
> > changed my view of how to embed the frontend. Instead of setting it to
> > fullscreen, what might be a bit too invasive (in Desktop using terms), I
> > changed it, so that it works like a desktop background - so it is fixed
> > to the
> > root window of X11. It's more elegant in my opinion. Thanks for the tip.
> >
> > What I have running here now reminds me a little bit of what was "Active
> > Desktop" in my early Win98 days ;-) But it is fast, reliable and does not
> > consume too much memory.
> >
> > When the whole thing is ready to show off, I'll send some screenshots and
> > maybe
> > a little demo will be available in the next weeks.
> >
> > thanks,
> > Christian
> >
> > Am Sonntag, 3. Mai 2009 05:45:11 schrieb Ryan Prior:
> > > tl;dr
> > >
> > > A few points:
> > >
> > > * Python is the official scripting language of Ubuntu and should be
> > > preferred over Ruby
> > > * "Gaming front-ends" already exist and gamers do not like them
> > >   - Xbox Live and the PS3 console are becoming more like traditional
> > > OS's - PC gamers really like platforms like Steam that let them do
> > > their normal thing while browsing games
> > > * What you're proposing actually takes the Ubuntu Desktop as we know
> > > it out of the picture, which is counter-productive to most of the work
> > > that the community does
> > >
> > >
> > > In short: -1
> > >
> > > Far be it from me to shoot you down without offering a better
> > > alternative: let's create a "games browser" which shows the available
> > > games along with screen shots (possibly animated!), descriptions,
> > > links to ratings by game sites, etc. Allow users to sort games by
> > > genre, by age-level appropriateness, by violence levels, by system
> > > requirements, etc). Extend this with Telepathy to have a "friends"
> > > page which shows what games your friends are playing and allows you to
> > > join them or start a chat with them using your preferred chat client.
> > > Integrate it with a system like Mumble which allows for chatting
> > > during games.
> > >
> > > All these things fit within the desktop paradigm we've already got and
> > > will clearly benefit gamers, while requiring less hackery to boot.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Mailing list:
> > https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-gaming<https://launchpad.net/%7Eubuntu-gami
> >ng> Post to     : ubuntu-gaming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Unsubscribe :
> > https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-gaming<https://launchpad.net/%7Eubuntu-gami
> >ng> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp