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New Transgaming WineX Release
Thunderbird writes "Transgaming released a new version of WineX. Winex allows you to run x86 windows games and programs on x86 Linux. It includes allmost full directx support (up to 7 including direct3d). " I'm still skeptical of their business model, but I subscribed anyway in the hopes that The Sims and its expansion packs will work soon. They look legit, although I only own 2 windows program (The Sims, Diablo 2, and their expansion packs)
so I don't have much to test it on.
Why would one use Wine to run games on linux when the linux port for Return to castle Wolfenstein has just been released?
Over at LinuxGames, a multi-day flamewar is starting to cool down a bit after a biting discussion of whether WINEX is good or bad for Linux gaming (or Linux as a whole). We should be discussing those same issues here.
In a nutshell: WINEX potentially gets more Windows people into Linux where they can use WINEX as a crutch to play the games they need while using a "better" operating system. (good) However, WINEX also promotes the use of Windows software and insulates programmers from cross-platform considerations. (bad)
Games like the Sims (remember the Mandrake bundle a while back?), Half-Life, Starcraft, Alice, Baldur's Gate II, and others already work and are supported. Games (in order of usability) can be found at http://www.transgaming.com/dosearch.php?order=work ing
Disclaimer:
(from http://www.transgaming.com/gamepage.php?gameid=9 - The Sims)
TransGaming's fully optimized Linux version of Maxis' hit title works perfectly. Packaged Windows version will *not* work well with standard WineX due to lack of optimizations
It seems like they still have to optimize, but it's encouraging that these things are working in the first place.
er, there won't be a boxed version
Quote from transgaming's website: "Packaged Windows version will *not* work well with standard WineX due to lack of optimizations".
So if you own the sims for windows and want it to run on linux, you're SOL unless you want to shell out another 70 or 90 dollars.
You're too late; there won't be a boxed Linux version of RTCW, because not enough people bought the boxed Linux version of Q3:A.
-- If no truths are spoken then no lies can hide --
Not to start another flame war, but this is something that Linux needs. WineX is an excellent piece of software and achievement!
Many people complain that there should be a Linux port and not to use emulation software. Wine is not an emulator and provides a set of APIs for cross platform conformity. This makes it possible for those companies that want a Linux port but do not have the resources to create a Linux port to program for these APIs in their Windows version making the software Linux/Mac/BeOS/etc compatible. This also allows for a single executable to be maintained instead of several versions.
It also allows those of use that dual boot to have one less application to switch to Windows for. Once we no longer dual boot and Windows leaves our hard drives, then the Linux ports will come as Linux will be more of a mainstream OS.
No, this is not better then a native Linux port, but it IS the next best thing!
The lack of a Linux version is the only reason I don't play Anarchy Online any more. Funcom made sure to drop enough hints about a Linux client to make us Linux-users hopeful, starting with a press release on the blessings of QT a year before launch, then later carefully moderating their statements to something like "we may make a Linux version, if we feel like it, at some point after launch". Now, several months after the release, there's still no word on a Linux client, and I strongly doubt there will ever be.
Too bad there's not enough of me to have an effect on any market statistic relevant to game developers.
-- If no truths are spoken then no lies can hide --
Here in the UK you can't return software at all.
For the time being at least Electronic Boutique will refund you fully and with no-questions-asked if you return a game within 10 days. It doesn't even matter if it's opened.
Both Game and EB have 10 day return policies. They'll take games back for any reason (including "it sucks") as long as its not damaged (no CD scratches or mangled boxes).
"Why should I be content to simply live in this world, when I, as a human being, can CREATE it?" - Oertel
Here are the games that have a working rating of four or five (out of five possible). Altough the sims shouldn't really be there since it isn't the windows version. Quite a good list and it's growing really fast too.
:)
Yes, this is karma whoring but the site felt kinda slow and I thought we needed to know what we are talking about
The Sims
Total Annihilation
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2
Total Annihilation : Kingdoms
Raiden II
Atomic Bomberman
Redline
Ultima Online Renaissance
American McGee's Alice
Mortal Kombat IV
I-War
Starcraft
Freddi Fish 2 Haunted House
Sudden Strike Forever
Allods 2
Rehash
Warhammer 40k: Final Liberation
Fallout 2
Panzer General 2
Manx TT SuperBike
NHL 98
1nsane
Elasto Mania
Darius Gaiden
In the hunt
Return To Castle Wolfenstein
Funkflitzer
WarCraft II
Half-Life and Counter-Strike
Carmageddon
Diablo 2
Commandos 2
Sacrifice
Command & Conquer Red Alert 2
Baldur's Gate 2
Air Offensive: The Art of Flying
7th Legion
Grim Fandango
Dune 2000
Myth The Fallen Lords
Championship Manager 2001/2002
Caesar III
Hitman CodeName 47
Shattered Galaxy
Jedi Knight
Red Baron 3D
Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Tigershark
Baldur's Gate
Russa-German War
the good news is if you pop over to linuxgames.com they have a link to the linux binary that will run the windows CD. Also look for tuxgames to sell the binary and windows cd soon. They report to ID as 'linux sales' so try your hardest not to buy the windows version.
It would suck to play any games over VNC, even on a fast network. The framerate is pretty low, even at 100Mbps. It basically pushes a snapshot of the desktop to the client at an arbitrary interval, and sends snapshots of an area around the mouse cursor at more frequent intervals. Its not uncommon for parts of the screen to get out of sync. VNC is mainly designed for remote administration of M$ boxen (which it rocks at). It keeps me from ever having to get up from my FreeBSD box here at work.
Hmmm...
I've been following the WINE project for quite some time now, and I've been cheering for them from the sidelines the whole time. They've picked exactly the right way to go about their project (provide a Linux version of the Win APIs, not emulate Windows) and once complete, they will have contributed a signifigant service to the community.
But I wonder about their choice of licence.
The nature of WINE is that it is very modular; it's not so much a great big tool, as a toolbox full of little tools, where each "tool" is another successfully ported Windows API call. Wine will be "complete" when every possible Windows API is duplicated in Linux-native code.
As such, it's a program that is very responsive to massive development parallelism - once you have a certain core functionality established, you can hand off large chunks of the API-space to other developers, and they can hack away at it at their leisure. Once they have a given API call working, it can be folded back into the main tree.
It's analogous to the SETI@Home or Distributed.net efforts, where an "API call" is a "work unit" Once the entire API "search space" has been completed, the project is done.
(Of course, this is an over-simplification. Windows itself is not so nicely modularized, with APIs calling APIs and lots of undocumented side-effects. But at a course level, WINE does suit parallel development pretty well)
But WINE is licenced BSD. As such, there is no compelling mechanism that requires that any "work units" be re-submitted back into the main project. It is entirely possible for aome entity to port a core series of Windows APIs, and then withold the source from the WINE community. Entirely legal, but very, very bad form.
And yet, that appears to be what TransGaming is doing. They are working on (from what I can tell from their website) porting the DirectX APIs - absolutely essential for getting games (probably the most compelling reason for using WINE in the first place) to function. They have staked out a key, core component of the WINE project "search space".
And they have licenced their portion of the work in such a way that it taints the entire project. In a nutshell, you are prohibited from _selling_ any product that uses WINE and their source. So if you want to write a DirectX Linux app, and sell it, you're FUBARed.
Furthermore, you can't use any of their source as examples or help in porting other APIs that may be related, because of the tainting effect.
The end result is very much like Microsoft's "Shared Source" where you can see the source code, but you can't actually _use_ it in any meaningful way.
It's worth retelling the story that lead to the creation of the GPL - Stallman was having problems getting a printer to work. He knew that if he had access to the source, he could get the printer to work, and that he could pass out copies so that everyone with a similar printer could get it to work too. The manufacturer refused to provide source, on the grounds that they made their money selling the drivers.
Which is more important, a company making money, or people getting their stuff working?
There are 3 essential aspects of software freedom: Universal availibility of source, Freedom to modify that source, and Freedom to redistribute modified source any way you want (as long as these freedoms are not denied to those further down the chain) TransGaming is providing the first two, but steps on the third - and by doing so, sabotages a worthy community effort.
If only WINE had been been released under the GPL, then this situation could not have occurred!
And a big, HUGE thumbs down to TransGaming, for taking this step in the first place! Yes, they are simply trying to protect their business model, and I understand that. But I offer than any business model that requires poisoning a community effort in this way in order to ensure its success is a business model that should not have been attempted in the first place.
I will not be making use of TransGaming's code, and I encourage others to do the same.
Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
Yes, it will be nice playing Half Life TFC in Linux. If WineX can handle something as intensive as a 3D FPS video game, how is it at handling something relatively boring and mundane, such as Excel 97? If I can get Excel 97
AFAIK, wineX is solely concentrating on DirectX and its components. Excel IIRC does not use DirectX, therefore WineX should have no bearing on it.
Got Freedom?
Thinking?
To answer your question...
Following your link the very first sentence reads:
The source code to TransGaming WineX (minus copy protection related code, for now) is available through VA Linux's SourceForge website.
The copy protection related code isn't available on SourceForge for the moment due to DMCA concerns, amongst other things. We've just updated the source code page to mention this.
-Gav
--
Gavriel State, CEO
TransGaming Technologies Inc.
gav@transgaming.com
http://www.transgaming.com
Id's problem was this:
...
They had to justify making the Linux port. So they released a Linux version in its own box to see how it would sell on its own.
If I recall correctly, Linux supporters were asked to buy the Linux version and download the Win32 executables from the web site - so you were essentially paying for 3 versions. Also IIRC, the Linux version was released later. That didn't help sales much (since most people who actually want to game buy it quickly), and it makes you wonder if id took that into account
I disagree with the statement "id fucked up" because it was probably pressure from their publisher (Activision?) that made them release the Win32 version ahead of the Linux version and skewing the numbers. I'd like to see a less biased (but similar) test done again in the future. Unfortunately, it probably won't happen at id, one of the more influential developing houses in the games biz.
----- rL
After the last transgaming story, I decided to head on over and see what it was about. It would really be nice to have one less thing to boot to windows for, so I was pretty hopeful. I looked at the titles that worked, downloaded a build, browsed the message boards, and decided to try it myself. After I got it compiled and installed, I tried running things.
The real test for me was Baldur's Gate, something that didn't work with just plain Wine. WineX got farther than Wine, it managed to play the movies and actually start the game. However, just like Wine, the games stutter like mad and never achieve anything close to respectable speeds. I think it's a problem with my sound card, but I'm too lazy to set up the ALSA drivers, which may solve my problem. And I'd be really upset if I went to the trouble just to have it not work due to something else.
Anyhow, I'm planning on trying it again if I replace my sound card, or if I get time to try out ALSA, but I'm not holding my breath. No one else that I've seen has had this kind of problem (everyone either doesn't work or does, no one seems to have stuttering in all games) so I don't think it'll get fixed anytime soon. I really wanted this to work, and I'd still like to subscribe if I could get this working. But this is the classic problem with Linux and I'm not ready to fork over money if I don't believe it's going to work for me.
"I may not have morals, but I have standards."