Years ago, Zalman used to make something like this that you could put a 2.5" SATA disk in [1].
It was much cheaper, but you needed to add storage. I wish they still made them. I normally have spare disks around and it worked out much more cost effective.
Though they have their flaws, I've been an fan and advocate of these drives for a long time now.
I got the Zalman-VE300 because it was the cheapest HDD enclosue available to me back then. It turned out an absolute gem that pleased me through about two years and countless OS installations at an IT Support gig.
When the brittle jog-dial broke and I researched the thing, it turned out to have been a Zalman rebranded IODD-2531, to extend IODD's very limited market capability (korea, china, russia). So I got the successor IODD-2541 from russia.
Later, I got a IODD-mini through the failed crowdfunding campaign. SSD, screen, physical enclosure were all lousy quality.
About a year ago, I bought the ST300 on iodd.shop, surprised to find that they are still going on and still have no clue of design, yet are still producing and improving new products.
Will buy whatever they come up with next. Even if they still put in the same shitty screen, or still manage to put the usb port at the wrong side of the case, or still fail to rotate the screen and keypad by 90 degrees :)
> What kind of firmware updates do you need to do on it, when its only purpose is to act as a screen?
On some screens, signal processing has been significantly improved in later firmware versions. New features are also not uncommon, such as VRR and HFR being added after release[1]. This is particularity nice for modern consoles.
> What are the main costs of releasing a Linux version of a game when using Unity or Unreal? My limited experience with Unity has been "check the Linux box, click the build button". It even cross-compiles no problem. People I know tell me Unreal is similar.
For a simple game that uses the entire UE4 stack, you might be able to get away with that if none of your code is Windows-specific and works exactly the same on the Linux distribution you are targeting.
Once you start using your own middleware and libraries from outside of the default engine, you need to make sure every single one works across all the platforms you're targeting. Many won't have a Linux compatible version, and those that do may only work against specific distributions and hardware. Even then: Have they changed the window manager? What have else they customised?
There have been many issues with anti-cheat solutions over the years on Linux.
> It's not like they have to do a full run of play-testing for Linux. Just check if it starts, play for 10 minutes and release that.
For a simple game, you may get away with this. Anything larger will require significantly more testing. I've been a producer on large games, and the QA process starts very early on. You don't 'finish' a game and then QA starts - It's an ongoing process that consists of significantly more than just launching a game.
>We know we're a minority so we're willing to put up with bugs
Some people don't see it that way though. People who have paid for a product have the right for it to work properly. Tickets for Linux support are often higher [1], so the time investment against payback can be problematic.
GPU driver support on Linux can also still be problematic. From feature differences against Windows, to crashes. These all take additional development time.
Linux developers are often more difficult to acquire in the game dev world. QA even more so.
Game dev is really hard. Some of it is hidden by engines like UE4 on the surface, but as soon as you start digging down into serious development, it's difficult.
Probably the most relevant issue here is the DirectX stack or using some windows specific API (why? DirectX I maybe got at one point, the others speak to some absurd Microsoft-Is-Best-Cause-I-Paid-Money-ism).
> Many won't have a Linux compatible version, and those that do may only work against specific distributions and hardware. Even then: Have they changed the window manager? What have else they customised?
Outside of truly exotic window managers, the biggest issue I've ever seen with ports has to do with dependencies. Flatpack/Snaps solve most if not all of those problems.
> There have been many issues with anti-cheat solutions over the years on Linux.
That's assuming anti-cheat systems are ethical, even. Most games I play I want to be multiplayer, and moddable. Most games I play can do both of those things and work in a cross platform modding language. Not hard. I don't want any anti-cheat systems for a complex game with tons of modding.
The only place anti-cheat systems make sense is with e-sports style games. Of which, the best anti-cheat systems work server side. Anything else is invasive and tantamount to illegal spying. Shame on you, go burn in peeping Tom hell you perverse game dev.
> For a simple game, you may get away with this. Anything larger will require significantly more testing.
I find this incredibly hard to believe. If you are working within the engine the majority of the time, the majority of the game will play wherever the engine works. Which brings us back to one of your first comments:
> For a simple game that uses the entire UE4 stack, you might be able to get away with that
For which games are you not just using the UE4 stack? I.e. what specific problems are game devs normally experiencing causing their code to be non-portable? A bunch of low level assembly code and non standard C++?
> but as soon as you start digging down into serious development
I challenge you to define 'serious' development. That sounds suspiciously like you're wasting your time fighting infrastructure, or just doing things in a non-portable manner. Solving problems is cross platform, so you can't be doing much serious game coding, its probably problem solving for your particular platform (e.g., as I already mentioned, doing a bunch of work in DirectX shaders or something).
It was much cheaper, but you needed to add storage. I wish they still made them. I normally have spare disks around and it worked out much more cost effective.
[1] -https://www.zalman.com/EN/Product/ProductDetail.do?productSe...