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Does job vacancy posting point to Elite: Dangerous Linux version?

by Mark Tyson on 28 December 2015, 11:31

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A recent job vacancy posting at Frontier Developments may be a signal that a Linux port of Elite: Dangerous is in the offing. Both TweakTown and Softpedia reckon the job vacancy advert might give away Frontier's intentions of creating a Linux port of its premier open-world Space exploration and adventure games title.

The admittedly fragile link between the Systems Programmer vacancy post and a Linux version of Elite; Dangerous comes from its mention, in the skills requirement, of the; "Ability to write platform-independent code for deployment on Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, and current generation consoles".

It is noted that Elite: Dangerous is currently available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Xbox One but there will be demand for it on other platforms including Linux. Furthermore the porting from Mac OS X is said to be not such an ominous task, as it has at least OpenGL in common.

Unfortunately the job vacancy advert doesn't even mention Elite: Dangerous. Frontier isn't just about Elite games, and it has various titles on various platforms under its belt like Zoo Tycoon, the LostWinds games, plus various Kinect games. It is also noted that Linux knowledge is useful for programmers in working with back-end servers and this job posting says that a major responsibility will be "collaborating with the server team and game teams to design and develop online services". Job vacancy postings often optimistically ask for a scattergun of skills that might some day be useful to the employer.

So, overall, you'd have to be pretty optimistic to feel that the Frontier programmer vacancy is due to the firm's intentions to make a Linux port of Elite: Dangerous.



HEXUS Forums :: 3 Comments

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I would be more optimistic if they were showing evidence of doing a Vulkan port. I mean, this would be a stupid time to start on an OpenGL Linux port when Vulkan is basically done.
I thought of Vulkan also as soon I read openGL.
So long as me owing the the windows version would give me access to the Linux version also then it would be good to see it happen. Bit of long shot though to conclude this from the job posting.
CountBartok
I thought of Vulkan also as soon I read openGL.
So long as me owing the the windows version would give me access to the Linux version also then it would be good to see it happen. Bit of long shot though to conclude this from the job posting.

The Windows version should get Vulkan too in my book. Every time I see an asteroid belt, I think Vulkan.