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Loki's Draeker On WineX, Transgaming And More
pseen wrote to us with a conversation with Scott Draeker (of Loki Games concerning the recent Transgaming and Wine announcements, as well as the Mandrake Linux Gamer announcements.
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WINE = Wine Is Not an Emulator
Why can't people get this through their heads??
This is not the same thing as VMWARE or VirtualPC for the Mac. This is an implementation of the Windows API for linux. What does that mean? It means games run just about the same in linux as in windows because there is no overhead of an emulator.
With the case of Direct3d the WINE implementation actually converts the calls on the fly to OpenGL - it does not emulate a Direct3d card - it just does a conversion, there is a difference because when a Direct3d card is emulated (as in VirtualPC) the software that is run has no real knowledge of what is underneath - this is not so with WINE.
You can even run things such as 3dmark 2000 because of this. I get about 2500 3dmarks on a 1.2GHz Athlon with 512MB of RAM and a Geforce2 MX - not quite as good as what I do in Windows, but it is damn smooth.
So don't bash it unless you try it because it really does work.
Derek
And that is the problem with WineX. That is why developers do not use Java to develop games. [Please don't turn this into a C++/Java flame war] But the fact of the matter is, whenever you put another layer between the hardware and end user software you incur an overhead.
This isn't a problem with *most* applications. However, for games to run at 60 fps, you need to render a frame every 16ms or so. With this kind of constraint you do not want to be farting around with a VM.
There are alternatives to this. The problem right now is the fact that a lot of developers use Direct3D rather than OpenGL to develop games. You could argue about what API you like better, but both APIs are functionaly complete [minus the time it takes for extensions to be approved when new hardware comes out]. Therefore, using a Turing machine argument, applications that are developed using Direct3D can be developed using OpenGL, and vice versa.
But why do developers use Direct3D? Because cross-platform operability is not a big concern. It's a catch-22 situation. Developers do not develop games for Linux because nobody buys them. Noboby buys games for Linux because there are no games developed for Linux.
Now, Quake 3 was an exception to the above argument. It was released for Linux...but nobody bought it strictly to play on Linux. And developers still don't have any confidence about releasing games for Linux.
My advice, when Doom3 is released a year and a half down the road. Buy it. Play it. Play it on Linux. That is the only way to convince developers that Linux is a viable platform.
SL
Besides what I have already said - I would also like to comment on the fact that if you can get a game to run usning Transgaming it usually looks just fine.
The directx7 implementation is great - it is there. Mostly it is some of the other parts of the system that have problems (ie loading the program, or installing the program - but here again Transgaming did an entire implementation of MS's DCOM - that in itself was a huge feat).
So call it what you want - but I don't think it is an emulator because it doesn't create software instances of hardware (like running an NES emulator creates a "virtual" NES in software so the games like it).
The point is just go try it! The first month is free anyway - and after that it is only $5. I don't know about the rest of you, but being able to play all the games I already own in linux is like a wet-dream come true, and if $5 a month will help that out then I am there.
Derek