Timothee_Besset

Timothee Besset

Timothee Besset

French software programmer

Timothée Besset (also known as TTimo) is a French software programmer, best known for supporting Linux, as well as some Macintosh, ports of id Software's products. He was involved with the game ports of various id properties through the 2000s, starting with Quake III Arena.[2] Since the development of Doom 3 he was also in charge of the multiplayer network code and various aspects of game coding for id,[3] a role which had him heavily involved in the development of their online game QuakeLive. Since departing id in January 2012 he has worked as a software contractor, including for Valve Software.

Quick Facts Other names, Spouse ...

He has been occasionally called "zerowing", but he has never gone by that name himself. It is derived from the community oriented system zerowing.idsoftware.com, of which the Linux port pages were the most prominent. The system was actually named by Christian Antkow based on the Zero Wing meme.[4]

Life and career

Besset grew up in France, and started programming in the early 1990s. In school he majored in computer science, as well as pursuing courses in chemistry, mechanics, and fluid mechanics. Through school he was also first introduced to Linux, originally only for system administration and networking, and eventually adopting it for his main system. His first serious game development project was working on QERadiant, a free game editor tool for id Software games. Through his work on the editor he got to know Robert Duffy, who was at that point working as a contractor for id. After he got hired full-time, Duffy managed to secure Timothee a contract to work on the new cross-platform GtkRadiant editor project in 2000.[5] This eventually led to Timothee being hired to become id's official Linux port maintainer after they took back the support rights to the Linux release of Quake III Arena from the then floundering Loki Software.[6][7]

His first actual porting project came with the release of Return to Castle Wolfenstein in 2001, with the Linux client being released on March 16, 2002.[8][9][10] This was followed about a year later by the release of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, with the Linux builds sharing the same release date as the Windows release. His next porting work came with the release of Doom 3, with him releasing the first Linux builds on October 4, 2004.[11][12][13] Around this time he also assumed the responsibility of becoming in charge of network coding for id.[2] On October 20, 2005 he released the Linux binaries for Quake 4.[14][15] This was followed by him releasing the source code for GtkRadiant under the GNU General Public License on February 17, 2006.[16][17] His next porting project was porting Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, with Linux binaries being released on October 19, 2007.[18][19][20]

He also worked on the Quake Live project, with the game entering an invitation-based closed beta in 2008 and an open beta on February 24, 2009, with Linux and Macintosh support coming on August 18, 2009.[21] In response to fears by some in the Linux gaming community that id would abandon Linux with its future titles, on September 13, 2009 in a well publicized statement he reaffirmed id's support of Linux, stating in his blog that "Fundamentally nothing has changed with our policy regarding Linux games... I'll be damned if we don't find the time to get Linux builds done".[22][23][24]

In January 2012, Besset resigned from id Software, ending hope for future Linux builds (though Doom 3 BFG Edition came to Linux via source port).[25] A year later John Carmack revealed that ZeniMax Media "doesn't have any policy of 'unofficial binaries'", and so prevented id Software from pursuing any sort of third-party builds as it had in the past, be it Linux ports or experimental releases, and he then suggested the use of Wine instead.[26]

On July 2, 2012, he was announced to have joined Frozen Sand, which was then developing Urban Terror HD.[27]

In September 2016, he ported Rocket League to SteamOS/Linux with the help of Ryan C. Gordon[28][29]

As of January 2024 he was reported as working on the Linux Steam client among other contract work for Valve Software.[30][31][32]

Games credited

See also

References

  1. [1]
    id Software. Doom 3 (PC). Activision. Level/area: Primary Excavation: Artifact Dig. To my wonderful wife Christine for 'putting up with me' through the years See: http://members.iinet.net.au/~tmorrow/doom3/emails.doc#Thanks..
  2. [2]
    JeuxLinux, Entretien avec Timothée Besset
  3. [3]
    Network Performance Daily, ID Software Developer Timothee Besset on Network Performance in Games
  4. [4]
    Piga Software Forum, Piga Software Congratulates...
  5. [5]
    Interview with id Software's Timothee Besset LinuxGames, August 22, 2004
  6. [6]
    Linux Quake III Arena Update Blues's News, May 22, 2001
  7. [7]
    Quake 3 Arena takes Linux by force Archived 2018-10-22 at the Wayback Machine LinuxWorld, December 3, 2001
  8. [8]
    Quakecon Interview With Timothee Besset LinuxGames, Aug 23, 2002
  9. [9]
    On Wolf's Goldness Blue's News, November 15, 2001
  10. [10]
    Wolfenstein Patch Clarifications Inside Mac Games, August 27, 2002 (Article by Andy Largent)
  11. [11]
    DOOM III for GNU/Linux Released LinuxHardware.org, October 05, 2004
  12. [12]
    Doom3 Linux and Windows Battlegrounds Anand Tech, October 13, 2004 (Article by Kristopher Kubicki)
  13. [13]
    Doom 3 Linux Performance Analyzed LinuxHardware.org, October 12, 2004
  14. [14]
    id Software Quake 4 Phoronix, October 20, 2005
  15. [15]
    Quake 4 and Serious Sam 2 for Linux jeuxvideo.fr, October 3, 2005
  16. [16]
    GPL GtkRadiant Blue's News, February 17, 2006
  17. [17]
    Herné novinky & zaujímavosti 5 LinuxExpres, October 8, 2006 (Article by linuxexpres in Czech)
  18. [18]
    ET: Quake Wars Linux Client Released Phoronix, October 19, 2007
  19. [19]
    Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Mac Version Confirmed? Inside Mac Games, April 23, 2007 (Article by Cord Kruse)
  20. [20]
    Linux version of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars comes Pro-Linux.de, June 28, 2007 (Article by Mirko Lindner)
  21. [21]
    Quake Live Now Available To Linux Gamers Phoronix, August 19, 2009
  22. [22]
    Rage and other Tech5 games might be Linux-friendly Neoseeker, September 14, 2009
  23. [23]
    Kommender Id-Titel Rage auch für Linux ? PC Games Hardware, September 17, 2009
  24. [24]
    Rage probablement sous Linux NoFrag, September 15, 2009
  25. [25]
    Onwards !, TTimo's blog, January 26, 2012
  26. [26]
    Chalk, Andy (2013-02-06). "John Carmack Argues Against Native Linux Games". The Escapist. Archived from the original on 2014-01-13. Retrieved 2013-09-29. I don't think that a good business case can be made for officially supporting Linux for mainstream games today, and Zenimax doesn't have any policy of 'unofficial binaries' like Id used to have... I have argued for their value (mostly in the context of experimental Windows features, but Linux would also benefit), but my forceful internal pushes have been for the continuation of Id Software's open source code releases, which I feel have broader benefits than unsupported Linux binaries."
  27. [27]
    Code Wizard TTimo joins Frozen Sand
  28. [28]
    Rocket League thoughts on Linux, initial port report, it's also 25% off right now
  29. [29]
    Dawe, Liam (2016-09-15). "Interview with Timothee Besset, formerly of id Software, who helped port Rocket League to Linux". GamingOnLinux. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  30. [30]
    Rudra, Sourav (2024-01-18). "Valve is Not Happy With Ubuntu's Snap Version of Steam". It's FOSS. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  31. [31]
    Dougherty, Mark (2023-04-13). "An Interview with Timothée Besset, Valve Contractor". Linux Gaming Central. Archived from the original on 2023-06-06. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  32. [32]
    Gonsalves, Amarylisa (2023-09-30). "Counter Strike 2 in Linux: Is CS2 Available on Linux?". Sportsmanor. Retrieved 2024-01-23. Additionally, players playing on Linux must remember that going by what developer Timothee "TTimo" Besset had earlier said, the game has been thoroughly tested on the Windows version but considerably less on the Linux version. Thus players are advised to report any bug they come across while playing CS2 on Linux.
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