Yeah, Unity and Shiva both have export options, which is an awesome thing for gamers. But for developers, you still have to use Windows or a Mac with those engines. I love that they've added the export option, though. That means more games on Linux, which is always a good thing!

Don't forget about Crystal Space 3D [crystalspace3d.org].

I suppose Cube [cubeengine.com] counts.

It's easy to run x86 binaries on x86-64, but vice versa is not possible. I don't know of any x86-only CPUs being sold anymore, the last ones I remember were the early Atoms, so maybe in a few years we can bury the arch.

64bit binaries are also larger, meaning that for the same hardware configuration the CPU can cache more 32bit code than 64bit. 64bit binaries also take more RAM, increasing swap times.
This is why I'm running a 64bit kernel with most of the userspace being 32bit, the exception are numerical computation tools (numpy and friends) which live in a 64bit chroot. This is my personal laptop, office computers are fully 64bit.

Two reasons: there are plenty of such machines still in use (like the one I'm typing on), and if you don't need the extra space, it just wastes memory. Doubling the size of all your pointers increases pressure on the data cache, slowing things down.

4 GB is plenty for many applications.

As of recently, less than 50% of all Ubuntu installs are 32bit -- so this is absurd.

And considering that it's a gaming engine... and gamers are more apt to have more RAM... running 64 bit seems more appropriate.

That was IAC, not GarageGames. This company bought GG and renamed the sub-company Torque, jacked up prices and devoured souls. I'm sure the CEO also ate babies, but I have no picture evidence. People close to the company can testify this is the sort of thing they would do, though.

I have more hope for the engines now than the IAC days, especially after having seen the improvements on the 2D side. There is still much work left, but people who are really interested in more platforms (like Android) are free to contribute. Please somebody start on Android ports of both engines so the whine can stop ;)

You spent hundreds in the hopes that this would come about?
 
Further proof of why funding schemes like this may work in the short term but in the long term will lead to total shit. There's no way funding like that will continue on a regular basis.

That's what I was thinking, I thoght they had promised it ran on Linux long ago?

I shelled out for TGE at a time when that was alot of money to me, and alot of time went into learning it. I hated the script, which was about the only thing thoroughly documented. The actual engine itself was poorly documented and questions about the engine usually got no attention. Then when they basically abandoned it and started creating more products instead of improving the existing engine, I had enough. This created fragmentation in the community and help system, such that some people move to other engines and no longer participate in the community of the original engine. Rather than improve the documentation and flesh out the details of the engine architecture over time, attention was turned to other $ generating products with new marketable names.

This really left a bad taste in my mouth. I believe there were other paths they could have taken to making 2D and RTS games easier, in a way that would have leveraged a single core engine to ensure the entire community was focused on improving the core.

Obviously I recognize it's their engine to do with as they please. They claim to be a different kind of company now, and I think some of the moves they've made show this to be potentially genuine, so good luck to them. I think the only thing that would really give me renewed interest is to see them do some self-reflection, publicly admit past problems, and talk about what philosophy they will have going forward to avoid those past problems. Are they going to have a long term commitment to this engine?

Disclaimer, I work for BeamNG.
While Torque has some problems (script language, weird API), it is also the only professional quality, open source engine (we know because we checked nearly all of them).
Concerning closed alternatives, they are nice when the game that you want to make fits their use cases. If not, you either pay a serious amount of money for a source license, or do as we did and go towards Torque.

u wot m8?

One of the key reasons was that IndieGoGo has better international support, and some of the best teams who are using Torque and looking to target Linux are from countries not supported on Kickstarter.

We're starting with 32b Ubuntu since that's the common dev target that most engine and game developers target first. We need a solid base target to start from and we can branch out from there.

And yet you decided to read the story and comment on it?

So you learned something.

Are you implying that slashdot submissions be titled based on YOUR personal knowledge and experience?

I'm so sorry you are so out of the loop. It really pains me to see you in this terrible state. Reading the article might help. Not that I have any faith that you will.