Timothee Besset | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Besset at QuakeCon 2007 | |
| Born | 1976 (age 48–49)[1] |
| Other names | TTimo |
| Spouse | Christine[2] |
| Website | http://ttimo.typepad.com/ |
Timothée Besset (also known asTTimo) is a Frenchsoftware programmer, best known for supportingLinux, as well as someMacintosh, ports ofid Software's products. He was involved with the game ports of various id properties through the 2000s, starting withQuake III Arena.[3] Since the development ofDoom 3 he was also in charge of the multiplayer network code and various aspects of game coding for id,[4] a role which had him heavily involved in the development of their online gameQuakeLive. Since departing id in January 2012 he has worked as a software contractor, including forValve Software.
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 theZero Wingmeme.[5]
Besset grew up inFrance, and started programming in the early 1990s. In school he majored incomputer science, as well as pursuing courses inchemistry,mechanics, andfluid mechanics. Through school he was also first introduced toLinux, originally only for system administration and networking, and eventually adopting it for his main system. His first serious game development project was working onQERadiant, a free game editor tool forid 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-platformGtkRadiant editor project in 2000.[6] 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 ofQuake III Arena from the then flounderingLoki Software.[7][8]
His first actual porting project came with the release ofReturn to Castle Wolfenstein in 2001, with the Linux client being released on March 16, 2002.[9][10][11] This was followed about a year later by the release ofWolfenstein: Enemy Territory, with the Linux builds sharing the same release date as theWindows release. His next porting work came with the release ofDoom 3, with him releasing the first Linux builds on October 4, 2004.[12][13][14] Around this time he also assumed the responsibility of becoming in charge of network coding for id.[3] On October 20, 2005 he released the Linux binaries forQuake 4.[15][16] This was followed by him releasing the source code forGtkRadiant under theGNU General Public License on February 17, 2006.[17][18] His next porting project was portingEnemy Territory: Quake Wars, with Linux binaries being released on October 19, 2007.[19][20][21]
He also worked on theQuake 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.[22] 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".[23][24][25]
In January 2012, Besset resigned from id Software, ending hope for future Linux builds (thoughDoom 3 BFG Edition came to Linux viasource port).[26] A year laterJohn Carmack revealed thatZeniMax Media "doesn't have any policy of 'unofficial binaries'", and so preventedid 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 ofWine instead.[27]
On July 2, 2012, he was announced to have joined Frozen Sand, which was then developingUrban Terror HD.[28]
In September 2016, he portedRocket League to SteamOS/Linux with the help ofRyan C. Gordon[29][30]
As of January 2024 he was reported as working on the LinuxSteam client among other contract work forValve Software.[31][32][33]
To my wonderful wife Christine for 'putting up with me' through the yearsSee:http://members.iinet.net.au/~tmorrow/doom3/emails.html#Thanks..
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."
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.
