Exporting for linux and mac

Hor far se are to export native games for linux and mac? Its a very important resource, gdevelop should be better of construct for example. I realy want to build it, but i dont know how programming. How different is a native game and HTML based? Shouldnt be diferentes, but with 2 exporting. The behaviors of only one of two ways will not appears on export with no have this behaviorismo yet.
Sorry for my english.

To export GDevelop native games to Linux, you’ll have to install GDevelop on Linux.

Seriously? How far we have to export of windows to Linux or mac? or of Linux to export to windows or mac?

You can’t crosscompile (export for another OS) mainly because executables and the libraries are not compatible between OSes. There’s also many Linux distribution (Linux is not an OS, it’s just a Kernel, the distribution are the OSes) which are compatible in theory but may run different libraries versions (not always really compatible in practise).
The native games are not available on Mac OS X because there are still some issues.

EDIT : Please, consider writing english sentences yourself instead of using translator websites. Even with simple words, we can understand.

I wonder, couldn’t be GD games compiled into some sort of byte code, then ran in VM? This would solve crosscompiling issue at the (negligible) loss of performance.

LLVM provides features to create bytecode but most low level C++ headers depends on the system and don’t have the same API/ABI (application binary interface) on each OSes. This means that the bytecode would be invalid on other OSes.

Then compile those “specific” headers into separate library like gdwindows.dll, libgdlinux.so, gdosx.dylib, etc. and dynamically link to it, while for gd’s bytecode compile only events and such?

Basically, things that don’t change after compiling, things that are same for every project, those would be put in os library, while project-specific things like events would be compiled into bytecode.

This may increase runtime size (size of an “empty” game upon export), as you can’t assume things like “oh, this game doesn’t use feature X so we can cut it out”, but overall, it is worth the risk.

Im dont be sad if my project is up to 5mb to 20mb if its export to many platforms. And i will say more, im dont sad if my project up to 5mb to 50mb. Today all internet of the world is very fast, and the machines have more space. I can say it because im from Brasil and here, the internet is a shit, and i can download 200mb in my smartphone.

This is not as easy as you say : the bytecode generated would depend on these libraries (that are not possible by the way) and will only work on the OS the bytecode was generated for.

The main difference is that, there is some features that are missing from the HTML5 version. For example: lights, Networking and 3D objects. And there are some features that are missing from the native version. For example: JavaScript code, AdMob adverts. Also, native games are meant to be played on desktop OS’s (Windows and Ubuntu are currently supported) while HTML5 games are meant to be played inside web browsers, but there are technologies that allows you to turn your HTML5 game in to a mobile (Android, iOS) or desktop (Windows, Linux, Mac) game.

If you want to crosscompile your games between Windows, Linux and Mac, you best option at the moment is to export your game to HTML5 and use NW.js to turn your HTML5 game in to a desktop app.
You can also turn your HTML5 game in to an Android or iOS app by using IntelXDK.

NW.js:
nwjs.io/

IntelXDK:
software.intel.com/en-us/intel-xdk

Awesome! Im understanding. Its very hard, but we can to input an crosscompilator in the Gdevelop? Works to export to many platforms. I know, dont will work perfectly but it will help some people and G develop will gain more community. Better then construct 2.

I want to learn develop in c++ and javascript to contribute with Gdevelop.

So… what about a “interpreter” ? GDevelop could generate a code that can be interpreted by many pre-compiled runtimes, and when user wants to distribute your game, he could merge these files(runtime and game code), such like LÖVE do.
More info. about: love2d.org/wiki/Game_Distribution
the performance may drop slightly, but I think it’s something worthwhile to consider…

This would require to create a new platform in addition to “native” and “HTML5”. Something like a Ruby / Python platform to generate Ruby / Python games.

heavy work for little result, i guess…

As @ddabrahim said, our best alternative is use HTML5.

Then please explain me how I can take Java bytecode (.jar) and run it under Linux, Mac, etc. with no issues or take .exe compiled for .NET and run it under Linux using Mono (NOT wine)?

Maybe because these languages are made for this. It’s not the case of C++.

You seem to be talking about things that you don’t even know. Please avoid doing this, that’s not really cool. :frowning: If you have a bit of experience with C++ that’s cool, but if you had it, I would know that the way C++/Java or C# are working are really different (because Java or C# rely on a huge virtual machine called the JRE or the .NET framework that users/players have to install).

Victor and I have lot of experience doing software that can be run on various platforms. The best example is both GD (download the sources, compile, and it just works) and the games made with GD : just open it on another OS, compile, and it just works.

This is honestly something that is already really great (just ask C2 users how hard they would like to run C2 on Mac or Ubuntu, or even have a native export for Ubuntu or OS X). Cross compiling using C++ is complicated and is not even doable on some OSes. Switching to another language like Java or C# is probably the single worse idea that one could have for GD future. Cross compiling shouldn’t even be a question : if you want to distribute your game for a platform, you must have this OS on your computer (at least because you have to test the game on it to make sure it is running fine). So just open GD in this OS, compile, and here you go :slight_smile: Awesome isn’t it?

And if you want a truly cross platform game without recompiling, I have the solution :slight_smile: It is based on a language that is highly optimized, JIT compiled and supported by a large majority of platform, including handheld/mobile devices : it’s called HTML5 + Javascript :slight_smile: