Quote: "I'm wondering if converting them to tier 2 would solve the ongoing Linux compatibility issue? My presumption is that compiling for Linux using tier 2 would mean no need to use the Linux player."
As far as I know, AppGameKit tier 2 cannot compile into Linux Apps at all. This is in contrast to MacOS and Windows, both which can compile into I assume native Apps if a tier 2 App is compiled on the same host OS as the target OS.
In the AppGameKit Studio User Manual, there are sections for tier 2 development for Windows, Android, MacOS and iOS, but there is no such section for Linux. I therefore assume that any AppGameKit App targeting Linux is limited to tier 1 and requires the Linux bytecode player for execution. AppGameKit tier 2 is more limited in the range of target OSes than is AppGameKit tier 1, unfortunately. In addition to Linux, HTML5 is another target platform that AppGameKit supports only using tier 1 and omits with tier 2.
Quote: "The Official AppGameKit User Guide - Page 85 of 91 - © The Game Creators Ltd 2019
MAC OS X
This guide explains the process involved in creating projects when using Tier 2 when using the Macintosh OS X
platform. In order to compile projects on the Mac you will need Xcode 10 or higher running Mac OS X 10.13.6 or
later. Xcode is available for free by visiting https://developer.apple.com/xcode/ Alternatively you can obtain it from
within the Mac App Store by searching for Xcode.
All of the relevant files for Tier 2 development are bundled within the main package of AppGameKit Studio. To access
them navigate to the install location for AppGameKit Studio e.g. Applications/AGK and right click on the icon for
AppGameKit Studio and select Show Package Contents. From here enter the Contents folder and then the Resources
folder where you will see a Tier 2 folder with libraries, include files and examples projects for Mac OS X development."
As far as I know, in order to develop for MacOS for example, using tier 2 and C++, you would need to have a computer running MacOS with a native (native to MacOS) IDE capable of using the AppGameKit C++ library/SDK, which I assume is furthermore a MacOS-specific version of a C++ library. Then when the App is compiled on the host MacOS machine, the executable App is a bonafide MacOS App compiled into machine code for that specific target platform, with the AppGameKit SDK/library functions also fused/incorporated into that target platform's executable file. That's my current understanding of it anyway, but I could be wrong.
I have not developed or exported any AppGameKit App for Linux (yet), but I would assume that using tier 2 would indeed eliminate the need for the AppGameKit bytecode player. However, it seems that there is not tier 2 support for Linux specifically. If I understand correctly, using tier 2 will compile not into bytecode (which requires the AppGameKit player to subsequently execute the "compiled" bytecode App), but rather into native-OS compiled machine code (depending on the target OS, whether that is Windows, Android, MacOS, or iOS). Sadly, Linux appears to be omitted from the target platforms that AppGameKit tier 2 supports/targets.
To date, I've only been developing AppGameKit tier 1 projects using AppGameKit Studio hosted under a Windows OS machine, with exports limited to either Windows or HTML5. I would certainly like to try C++/tier 2 in the future, but so far the omission of HTML5 as a target OS under tier 2 has kept me from pursuing tier 2 development, even though C++ is my personally preferred language of choice over BASIC language generally.
