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WineX 2.0

ZaMoose writes "Looks like Transgaming has released version 2.0 of WineX (with full support for Jedi Knight II and initial 3D sound support. Joy!) Prepackaged .debs and .rpms are available only to subscribers, but you can always just download and compile it yourself (you just won't get the nifty SafeDisk workarounds/InstallShield proprietary stuff)."

96 of 306 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Support the community by NDPTAL85 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The community that would pay isn't large enough to support a company.

    --
    Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
  2. This is all good by beefstu01 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But still...

    It'd be really nice if games were ported/developed for linux. Then people will start switching operating systems. Nobody cares if you can run certain programs on linux with a bit of hacking except for those of us who already run linux. Recompile these games for linux, use standards such as opengl, etc...

    That being said, I really like seeing these things coming to linux. I love playing certain computer games, and really hate that they are only written for windows (I miss you loki). But hey, I'm off to play some JK II now

    1. Re:This is all good by Silver222 · · Score: 2
      Chicken and egg. What comes first?


      I think that people will use at home whatever they have on their desk at work. That's why you see so many wintel machines being sold in the home market. If linux ever makes it onto desktops at work, I think you'll see a much larger move toward it for home desktops.

      --
      "It's not a war on drugs, it's a war on personal freedom. Keep that in mind at all times." Bill Hicks
    2. Re:This is all good by torndorff · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Of course it SHOULD be, but us [not-so-rich] programmers dont have the leverage/capital it requires to push developers to different platforms.

      The efforts put forth by projects like Wine show that these games have the ability to run and run VERY well on Linux/Unix/etc. It also shows that Linux is not just for business and servers anymore but for recreation and peoples' home offices. Maybe because of this new Wine release 20 people will notice that games can run on Linux with just a little bit of work and they'll notice that *nix is a bit more flexible than they thought. If 1 out of those 20 people give it a shot and like it, word of mouth could have 2 people with it, and it slows spreads in that manner (hopefully).

      And hey, even if that doesnt work, you can always dual boot ;)

    3. Re:This is all good by BrookHarty · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Loki went out of business, not enough demand.

      Vmware runs most things, if it had DirectX support, team this up with a pre-empt/blah new fangled linux kernel, and you dont NEED to port games.

      I bet 5 years from know you will be able to emulate any OS, just run it under linux. So far I have Mac OS 9, VMWare, Amiga, Atari, N64, PS, DreamCast, Mame, C64, etc...

    4. Re:This is all good by great+throwdini · · Score: 2, Informative

      Chicken and egg. What comes first?

      Well, there are others besides Loki around.

      Came across an announcement on the Majesty Web site that Linux Game Publishing would be porting Majesty over to Linux.

      Granted. The release was from January, but one can dream... and this still isn't an 'original' but rather an incredibly delayed port... but still...

    5. Re:This is all good by Time+Doctor · · Score: 2, Funny

      It'd be really nice if games were ported/developed for linux.

      Except they are.

      Sure, lately fewer are available, but still some are being released.

      --
      Check out ioquake3.org for a great, free, First-Person Shooter engine!
    6. Re:This is all good by BrookHarty · · Score: 2

      I found vmware 3.0 for 139 bux on the web. And vmware 3.1 is a free upgrade. Win98 runs games fine, came with an older PC. The Game will cost you 50 bux either way. Total cost (not including game) is 139 bux.

    7. Re:This is all good by Gaccm · · Score: 3, Interesting

      actually if you read the history things that came up when loki died, it was from multiple reasons 1) believing the market would constantly grow (and thus loki grew, while the market stayed around the same size), 2) internet bubble popped and VCs wanted to pull out. The ceo or leader or whatever became curropt (buying new house when not enough money to pay employes).

      While Loki was in a screwed position from 1 and 2, its 3 that killed the moral and the compony entirely.

      --

      Only dead fish swim with the stream...
    8. Re:This is all good by 56ker · · Score: 2

      "I bet 5 years from know you will be able to emulate any OS, just run it under linux. So far I have Mac OS 9, VMWare, Amiga, Atari, N64, PS, DreamCast, Mame, C64, etc..." - yes but still to legally emulate them you have to own the ROMS (ie have the machine in the first place) - which makes you wonder why people bother emulating a machine they already have. ;o)

    9. Re:This is all good by PurpleFloyd · · Score: 2
      yes but still to legally emulate them you have to own the ROMS (ie have the machine in the first place) - which makes you wonder why people bother emulating a machine they already have. ;o)
      It is theoretically possible that one could buy the roms without the system, and then use them legally. Emulation is perfectly legal in and of itself, it is just in pirating software that you might run into legal trouble.
      --

      That's it. I'm no longer part of Team Sanity.
    10. Re:This is all good by Dwonis · · Score: 2
  3. Re:Support the community by Sheetrock · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Hear, hear. Also, buy games for Linux from people who go out on a limb to develop them. I haven't heard of any of them threatening lawsuits under the DMCA, and you know they appreciate your business because we can all use something to eat from time to time.

    --

    Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
    -- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.




  4. Using it right now!!! by friedmud · · Score: 2

    To install Max Payne - so far it is working flawlessly on my Gentoo Linux setup (installed using the RPM with --nodeps)

    Will write back with the results!

    Derek

    1. Re:Using it right now!!! by Sivar · · Score: 2

      How does Max Payne on WINE perform relative to, say, Windows?
      Also, please post any weird flakinesses that may pop up. I'd install it on my Gentoo Linux setup, but its portage system (the whole thing) bit the dust after a power out. (and i'm using XFS!)
      Also, what hardware are you running?
      Thanks!

      --
      Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. --E. W. Dijkstra
    2. Re:Using it right now!!! by Gaccm · · Score: 4, Informative

      just telling you, if you want info about over 150+ games and how they work with linux, check out:

      Code Weaver's wine

      just look on the left for "app database" and your set.

      --

      Only dead fish swim with the stream...
    3. Re:Using it right now!!! by friedmud · · Score: 2

      I agree - that's why I use Gentoo in the first place.

      And you have to use --nodeps in a non-rpm distro - because there isn't a database of installed rpms (because there are none!). I always do it without the nodeps first and then look at the dependency list it spits out and make sure I have everything (which, using Gentoo, I almost always do - and everything is ALWAYS up to date so I dont have to worry about versions)

      I have personally never used an RPM based distro (went from slack to gentoo) - and from what I hear that is a good thing(tm)!

      Derek

  5. Counter Strike 1.4 by GenCuster · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Does anyone know if wineX will support CS 1.4/steam? I have tested the latested wineX cvs and latest wine cvs and can not get it to work.CS is the most popular online fps and it would suck if linux could no longer support it.

    --
    "The poet presents his thoughts festively, on the carriage of rhythm; usually because they could not walk" Nietzsche
    1. Re:Counter Strike 1.4 by Gaccm · · Score: 2

      half-life (including CS) has worked for linux for 1.5+ yrs

      lhl.linuxgames.com

      1 bug with current cvs builds is that sound doesn't work, you can either get an old copy of winex (check the forum for the site above, they have old working copies) or edit your config.cfg and disable voice.

      Also, even if the above worked perfectly, there is no way to transmit voice from linux, only listen.

      --

      Only dead fish swim with the stream...
  6. benchmarks... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    if anyone is anything like me, then youre curious of benchmarks... more specifically, youre curious of benchmarks of the same game, on the same machine, between a native windows (2000, in my case) vs wineX comparison... one of the major things keeping me from putting linux on my main box is the game compatibility, and i want to know if the games that im already getting barely-playable FPSs on will improve, stay the same, or drop below playability... so, does anyone have any sort of comparison benchmarks of anything like this?...

    1. Re:benchmarks... by friedmud · · Score: 4, Informative

      You can run 3dmark 2000 (not 2001... yet) in winex.

      I already have 2.0 installed and will do this in WinXP and Winex tonight and post back here. Last time I did it with 1.0 there was a serious drop in FPS - but it was still well above playable (on my 1.2GHz Tbird with a Geforce3 TI500)

      Derek

  7. Three cross-platform game programming libraries by yerricde · · Score: 3, Informative

    SDL seems like it makes it pretty easy to support Linux and Windows

    Not only SDL, but also ClanLib and the very widely used Allegro library. Apparently, ClanLib and Allegro have a richer set of features than SDL (such as graphics primitives), but all three SDKs can talk to the various platforms' OpenGL implementations. With tools like these, publisher-developers have little excuse not to write cross-platform code (other than bribes from Microsoft).

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
    1. Re:Three cross-platform game programming libraries by AHumbleOpinion · · Score: 2, Insightful

      With tools like these, publisher-developers have little excuse not to write cross-platform code (other than bribes from Microsoft)

      Sorry, but there are no black helicopters from Microsoft visiting developers.

      Linux's greatest impediment to native games still exists. Most Linux gamers buy the Windows version of the game and dual boot or emulate. The "real" Linux market is only those people who will never buy the Windows version. People who would buy Linux rather than Windows don't matter, transferring one sale from the Windows column to the Linux column doesn't do a developer any good, they need additional sales

      With respect to the cross platform libraries they are not the panacea being suggested. Sometimes there are legitimate performance or feature issues. DirectX has an "unfair" advantage coming from the OS vendor and often gets more attention from 3rd party vendors when it comes to drivers.

      Developers have no love for Microsoft, they don't have anything against Linux, but they are not on a crusade to promote Linux. They just want to make a buck. Even Id once stated publicly (Game Developer Magazine) that it doesn't make business sense to support Linux, that they only do it because it is cool.

    2. Re:Three cross-platform game programming libraries by 0x0d0a · · Score: 2, Informative

      ClanLib and Allegro have a richer set of features than SDL

      I rather prefer the SDL approach of small modular libraries that may be upgraded and fixed independently.

      ClanLib is nice if you like C++. I've coded with both it and SDL, and the main reason I use SDL instead is because most Linux software happens to be in C rather than C++.

      I've never liked Allegro, mostly because for time out of mind, the Linux versions have been poorly packaged.

      Developers do have one good reason to write DirectX instead of SDL -- it's easy. Lots of code snippits out there, MS supports it well, you're pretty much guaranteed that people have DirectX, and most Windows game developers are much better versed in DirectX and inertia resists them changing to SDL.

      That being said, SDL has many features that I really like. It's very easy to move between fullscreen and windowed mode -- less so on Windows than X11, but still not bad. There are excellent support libraries. SDL is relatively small and easy to learn. SDL is pretty fast. The end user can do all sorts of neat tricks with SDL, like have the output from it run through aalib...DirectX is much less configurable. SDL makes it really easy to use hardware-accelerated blitting. SDL pairs better with OpenGL than DirectX does.

  8. WineX is great but support the Ported Games! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Support people that porth the games!! I mean Wine is nice for trying to get people to use linux, but in the long run we need ported games! - - Happy Peguin - Hyperion - - Tux Games - Introversion . .. plus hunt for more!

  9. no need for winex by kraf · · Score: 3, Informative

    JKII works mostly fine with latest vanilla wine (I have radeon7k something) provided that:
    - you install it in windows, then you can copy it whereever
    - some non-3d cutscenes don't appear in single player
    - you don't set texture quality too high, with many players/big maps I see lot's of weirdness in the textures
    - the brightness setting does not work, you have to use xgamma youself, the result is the same
    - the cdrom must be mounted before starting the game

    However the wine+linux combo seems noticably faster than on w2k with same settings. I'm not drawing any conclusions though, it might be just shitty drivers on windows or some tuning stuff I missed.

    1. Re:no need for winex by ZaMoose · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I had all sorts of sound glitches/graphical weirdness with the CVS version. I installed this bad boy roughly 3 hours ago. I'm still up, playing JKII at 3am EST *grin*

      It is indeed equal in performance to my Windows performance on my 1.1GHz Athlon w/256MB RAM and a GeForce2 GTS (32mb RAM).

      I can't wait to try it out on my work macine tomorrow. Dual Athlon MP 1900+s, 1GB RAM and my GeForce4 should arrive tomorrow as well! Sweet!

      --
      I wish I had a kryptonite cross, because then you could keep Dracula and Superman away.
  10. Re:Support the community by _marshall · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yes and no.

    If you're making a fully 2d game.. (or a not so featureful 3d game)sure it's no problem. The big problem now days is the "new and extended" 3d support that comes with DirectX.

    Sure OpenGL works, but it's extremely lacking in comparison to DirectX. ( I would much rather have it the other way around -- but that's just not the truth unfortunately.) What the gaming industry really needs is either an updated version of OpenGL, or perhaps a new 3d standard that all can abide by.

  11. Re:simple by evel+aka+matt · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You forgot at least one thing...

    OS X.

    Apple users are now, for the most part, Unix users, too. And there are games that they may want to run that won't work under VirtualPC that just might work under WINE or WineX. Apple users don't have the luxury of being able to install a MS OS natively.

  12. Re:Obvious question: by friedmud · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you get the CVS version you have to use No-CD cracks for games that have SafeDisk or SecuRom.

    You can find most No-CD cracks (legally!) from your local www.gamecopyworld.com mirror

    I highly suggest paying the $5 a month though. I have been doing it since the first day Transgaming set it up - and I will continue to do so. It is a great community and a great project - and its benefits are direct (no more rebooting!).

    Derek

  13. Transgaming deserves your money... by Nailer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They provide a truly useful service for Linux gamers at a very reasonable price (far cheaper than most games) where purchasers actually get control over the direction of the project with their subscriptions. They also make their source code avaliable to anyone, sans the copy protection needed to play a lot of protected games. Install WineX from their source, test the non-copy protected demo version of your game, and if it works, buy WineX.

    That said, they're two ways to install software on Linux. One is RPM, the other has non standard install, uninstall, auditing and verification, leaves crap all over your system, makes it a nigthmare to build applications upon, and generally sucks. Here's a spec file you can use to create source and binary packages of Winex.

    Summary: Runs Windows programs (especially multimedia ones) under Linux
    Name: winex
    Version: 20020407
    Release: 1mm
    Source0: %{name}-%{version}.tar.bz2
    License: APSL
    Group: Applications/Emulators
    BuildRoot: %{_builddir}/%{name}-%{version}
    Requires: kernel >= 2.4, XFree86-devel, gcc >= 2.7.2, flex >= 2.5
    Requires: bison, glibc >= 2
    %description
    TransGaming WineX is a derivative of the Wine project. Wine is an implementation of
    the Microsoft® Win32® APIs on top of UNIX and X-Windows - in essence, it is a Window
    s® compatibility layer. Wine does not require Microsoft Windows to be installed, as
    it provides an alternative implementation of Windows written from scratch with no Mi
    crosoft code whatever.
    TransGaming WineX includes a new implementation of the Microsoft DirectX multimedia
    APIs, including Direct3D - the core graphics system most Windows games use for hardw
    are accelerated 3D.

    %prep
    %setup -q

    %build
    %configure
    make depend
    make

    %install
    %makeinstall

    %post -p /sbin/ldconfig

    %postun -p /sbin/ldconfig

    %clean
    rm -rf %{buildroot}

    %files
    %defattr(-,root,root)
    %{_bindir}/*
    %{_ libdir}/*
    %doc README ANNOUNCE BUGS DEVELOPERS-HINTS LICENSE LICENSE.winehq

    %changelog
    * Sun Apr 7 2002 Mike MacCana 1mm
    - Created packages

    1. Re:Transgaming deserves your money... by swillden · · Score: 2

      That said, they're two ways to install software on Linux. One is RPM, the other has non standard install, uninstall, auditing and verification, leaves crap all over your system, makes it a nigthmare to build applications upon, and generally sucks.

      Actually, I think .debs are far better than .rpms. Care to explain your rather strong statement?

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    2. Re:Transgaming deserves your money... by Nailer · · Score: 2

      There are things that either RPM or Debs have over the other. RPM has better package verification tools than Debian,. and can often be used a s a kind of poor mans tripwire. I userstand the GPG stuff is a lot better in RPM packages than Debian packages too. Debian has suggested / recommended / required dependencies (and excellent and useful feature) and some nice nice policy (tho similar stuff exists for many RPM based distros). Most people don't realize that both have apt-get support. RPM 3 is the current Linux standard for packaging and this will be changed to RPM 4 once Maximum RPM is updated for the new version.

    3. Re:Transgaming deserves your money... by swillden · · Score: 2
      Okay, now you're sounding like a reasonable person. Yes, package verification for rpms is currently better than for debs, and that won't change for a few months yet. The more detailed inter-package dependency model is the primary reason that I think debs are currently better, although of course it's the Debian policies that make 'apt-get install' (or, even better, 'aptitude install') work so nicely.

      RPM does have the advantage of being a "standard", although one that even Red Hat doesn't actually use (the version 3/4 issue you mentioned).

      All of this is fine, but doesn't square with your previous comment at all:

      One is RPM, the other has non standard install, uninstall, auditing and verification, leaves crap all over your system, makes it a nigthmare to build applications upon, and generally sucks

      How do .debs "leave crap all over your system", "make it a nigthmare to build applications upon" and "generally suck"?

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    4. Re:Transgaming deserves your money... by Nailer · · Score: 2

      All of this is fine, but doesn't square with your previous comment at all:

      How do .debs "leave crap all over your system", "make it a nigthmare to build applications upon" and "generally suck"?


      It squares fine with my previous comment - which never mentioned Debs, but were rather about installing any piece of software with using a packaging system. Deb's wouldn't be to bad, they're just not the current standard and (unlike RPM 4) aren't likely to be in the future.

  14. Re:Support the community by repoleved · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I disagree with the premise that one can make a difference by not buying PC games, because I don't think Microsoft or game companies would really feel the difference. on the other hand, by supporting transgaming, codeweavers, and other contributers to the wine project (or by contributing your time to the wine project directly), then it will soon be irrelevant to open source people that some companies choose to write their software for windows. we will be able to offer compatibility at an API level, combined with a vastly superior price and support model.

    Companies write software for windows because people who own windows tend to _purchase_ their software (because they don't know about the free alternatives). Windows users are used to shelling out money for software, even "free" shareware.

    Linux and BSD, however, now have several good office products, excellent networking support including email, web browsers, and server software, and user-friendly distributions. when it becomes possible to play windows games and use legacy windows software, computer distributers will find competitive advantage in selling Linux or BSD pre-installed computers for $500 with hundreds of whizbang features which would cost several $1000's to provide under windows.

    Linux & BSD distributions offer far better value for the money than windows already.. the only advantage windows has now is a commercial software base, and it would be a tremendous boon for open source operating system users to have access to all of that old legacy software.

    Companies who develop X-Windows native software will continue to enjoy a vastly superior user interface over old, worn out windows software running under wine, so I really don't think it will be a problem to find companies willing to develop cross-platform or Linux native software using any number of convenient libraries which are already available. (Eg. Java, Qt, wx-windows, modular development best practices, etc.)

  15. Biggest New Feature by Laven · · Score: 5, Informative

    It seems that everyone missed the biggest new feature of this official release. This is the first official release of WineX with DirectX 8.0 support, meaning the newest games have a chance to work.

  16. IT WORKS PERFECTLY!!! by friedmud · · Score: 5, Informative

    Holy shit!

    It is perfect! I was playing in 1024x768x32 and it is flawless. Everything is there, sound, FPS, movies, everything is just as it is in Windows! In fact I think it even loaded the levels faster than it does in windows - very cool.

    Seriously, on the FPS side, I couldn't tell a bit of difference from playing it in windows. This is on a 1.2Ghz Tbird with 512MB of RAM and a Geforce3TI500 using the newest nvidia drivers (2880).

    It even installed perfectly and added itself to my kde desktop/menu.

    Great job transgaming!

    Time to try some more games!

    Derek

    1. Re:IT WORKS PERFECTLY!!! by Time+Doctor · · Score: 2, Funny

      Want to game in linux?
      Except it's not.
      It's gaming with the proven monopolist's API(s), and extending it's stronghold to Linux. Fun!

      --
      Check out ioquake3.org for a great, free, First-Person Shooter engine!
    2. Re:IT WORKS PERFECTLY!!! by Bios_Hakr · · Score: 2

      It even installed perfectly and added itself to my kde desktop/menu.

      Quick Q for you...Did you install from src or did you do the rpm/deb? Did you do any special config to get it working in KDE? The reason I ask, is that the last time I downloaded WineX (March 2002), I didn't get any cool menus added under KDE.

      --
      I'd rather you do it wrong, than for me to have to do it at all.
    3. Re:IT WORKS PERFECTLY!!! by athakur999 · · Score: 2

      Plain ole Wine does this for you (at least since the March versions, probably earlier too).

      Wine itself doesn't add any menu items, but if you run a Windows installation program in it, when the installer trys to create the start menu shortcuts it goes in your KDE menu instead.

      --
      "People that quote themselves in their signatures bother me" - athakur999
  17. Transgaming Will No Longer Support Wine! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Lost in this release is a far more important announcement. Transgaming is throwing support behind a fork of Wine: ReWind!

    Seems, they take issue with the recent change of licenses for Wine. They are actively encouraging developers to contribute to there X11 fork. Understanding that a vote of the developers leaves there branch in the minority, they are touting cash incentives and the some of there 2.0 source as bait.

    The war of the branches begins...

    1. Re:Transgaming Will No Longer Support Wine! by Laven · · Score: 2

      IMHO, X11 license is much better for Wine because it is a lot less scary for business use of Wine. For example, Corel would have never used Wine to port WordPerfect and CorelDraw to Linux if it were under LGPL back then. Although LGPL is compatible with most possible business uses of WINELIB, it makes it impossible in certain cases like Transgaming's patches to make games with CD copy protection work. They CANNOT releases these patches due to the DMCA. =(

      Corel understood open source, and released all of their changes to Wine back to the X11 tree. And the man behind Corel Wine was Gavriel State, the same man behind Transgaming WineX.

    2. Re:Transgaming Will No Longer Support Wine! by Moritz+Moeller+-+Her · · Score: 4, Informative

      The war of the branches is over.

      Any improvement in the X11 branch can be used in the LGPL branch, but not vice versa.

      --
      Moritz
  18. Re:Maybe I just don't get it.. by psavo · · Score: 3, Insightful
    even risking sounding flamebite, several reasons.
    • windows doesn't offer many cool features of linux (as-per-default):
      • skripting (cygwin's like installing second linux, got my debian enough)
      • stability (yes, even win2k, which btw. fails to ride my serport debugger correctly)
      • multiple desktops
      • overall feeling of OS. which for programmer at least is very importaint (IMO).
    • virus security (viruses don't work as well on linux).
    • got better to do than watch machine rebootin.
    • real one: interrupted sessions (like 20+ windows open working on some project. close 'em all to do somethin' in windows? naah)
    --
    fucktard is a tenderhearted description
  19. Re:DMCA violation ? by repoleved · · Score: 2, Insightful

    errmm.. i think that they made agreements with the relevant companies and pay royalties for the privilege... correct me if i'm wrong.

  20. They licensed it... by gregstoll · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'm pretty sure the TransGaming people licensed the SafeDisc code from whoever
    does it, so that's why it's not in the CVS version (license restriction, I'm
    sure)...

  21. Re:Maybe I just don't get it.. by RelliK · · Score: 3, Informative

    Rebooting to windows means that I have to stop everything I was doing, just to play the game. When you have a whole bunch of editor & debugging windows open it's a big pain. (+ servers, DB connections, remote logins, etc...). Playing in Linux allows me to take 30 min to relax and play the game instead of 30 min to play + 15 min to restart everything I was working on to its original state. At work, I rarely reboot or even log out. Even at home it's still a pain.

    --
    ___
    If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
  22. Diablo II - Yes. Dungeon Siege - No. by Thurn+und+Taxis · · Score: 2, Informative

    This is the first official release of WineX with DirectX 8.0 support, meaning the newest games have a chance to work.

    If only that were true. I just downloaded and installed the new version, and it doesn't support the "newest game" I have, Dungeon Siege. DS insists on having DirectX 8.1 before it will install. Of course, any coder worth his/her/its weight in donkey turds knows that you shouldn't change the API between minor versions, so the program shouldn't care whether I have 8.0 or 8.1. But to give Microsoft (the publisher of DS) the benefit of the doubt -- which (A) I'm still willing to do, even though they rarely deserve it, and (B) even so, doesn't make them look too good -- GPG probably found some nasty bugs in DirectX 8.0 while writing this game, so MS had to fix the bugs and release DirectX 8.1 to make this game work.

    Not to dis TransGaming, though -- Diablo II works beautifully, and the LoD expansion seems to work as well (still need to test this more thoroughly), so major props to them. I'd do more tests tonight, but I have to work for a living.

    --
    On stereophonic equipment, the monaural sound obtained through multiple channels will enhance your listening pleasure.
  23. Re:simple, or not... by LocoBurger · · Score: 5, Informative

    Remember, Wine Is Not an Emulator... It will only run windows programs on x86 hardware.. The win32 binaries still run natively (sort of) under linux. Wine does not translate machine instructions from x86 to whatever you're running, it just moves them around more to linux's (or BSD, or hypothetically any other x86 native OS's) liking. So, as long as MacOS only runs on PPC (foreseeable future, which is fine...) it will never run wine in its current incarnation. There would have to be a true emulator in there somewhere to do that...

  24. Re:Support the community by afidel · · Score: 5, Informative

    Oh you mean like the brain dead interface to the ATI pixel shaders that DX8 exposes versus the fully functional opengl extensions. Oh ok yeah like Carmack hasn't gone on a rant about that one. DX is just good enough that lazy ppl use it.

    --
    There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
  25. A possible Bait and Switch? Judge for yourselves. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    For all those who believe that hybrid proprietary and free software business models might be stable, please compare:

    http://216.239.35.100/search?q=cache:9MjQn79wp0U C: www.transgaming.com/businessmodel.php+transgaming+ subscriber+aladdin&hl=en

    with

    http://www.transgaming.com/businessmodel.php

    Notice how all the talk about eventually returning the semi-proprietary code to the community has been unceremoniously removed...

    It saddens me that they have apparently abandoned the idea of eventually freeing their customers and letting them share freely with their friends once they have a stable subscriber base sufficient to pay the expenses.

  26. Neato.. but.. by Ogerman · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What Transgaming is doing is pretty cool as an interim solution for gamers. On the other hand, I hope to see more Free Software community-developed games in the future. There certainly is an incentive to create free games: they're fun to write and fun to play! One of these days I trust there'll be a really killer Open Source multiplayer game that everyone will enjoy and at no cost. Various libraries like SDL and CrystalSpace are making headway. It's going to be exciting as they mature.

  27. For the Cheap ones among us by evil_one · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you patch your safedisk game with a crack, you can run without the binary version.
    Alice (full version) works beautifully this way.

    Ironic that the pirates would come to the rescue of legimate game owners.

    --
    Desperation is a stinky cologne
    1. Re:For the Cheap ones among us by PsyQ · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It is not illegal to crack (as in "no-CD crack") software you own.

      There's even a law that explicitly allows backups, at least in Switzerland. This is a rough translation of article no. 24 of the Swiss copyright law: "Whoever has the right to use a computer program may make one backup copy thereof. This right cannot be revoked by contract." Nice :)

      And in order to make such a copy, you'll need the no-CD crack - otherwise the copy becomes worthless.

      Patches for most games and to work around SafeDisc etc. can be found at GameCopyWorld, which is also rather legal. Unless you're in the US and someone tries to use the DMCA against you, maybe.

    2. Re:For the Cheap ones among us by tdye · · Score: 2

      The DMCA makes it illegal to crack the copy protection on games you own, because you don't own the games. You just own a plastic circle and a licence to play the game, subject to whatever restrictions the authors place on you. That's the justification behind DeCSS being illegal, even if you want to use it to play DVDs you own.

      It's not just in the USA either... much of Europe is adopting similar measures.

  28. Re:I tried compiling it once by ZaMoose · · Score: 3, Informative

    make install won't do the symlink in your user dir. Running "winex " for the first time sets up all fonts, virtual drives, etc.

    Conf file for all your virtual drives, etc. is usually in ~/.transgaming/config

    I installed my Jedi Knight II install to my H: drive, mapped out like this in ~/.transgaming/config

    [Drive H]
    "Path" = "/usr/local/games/winex"
    "Type" = "hd"
    "Label" = "Games"
    "Filesystem" = "win95"

    And I just chowned the winex to my user account, so I can install any further games there.

    --
    I wish I had a kryptonite cross, because then you could keep Dracula and Superman away.
  29. Re:A possible Bait and Switch? Judge for yourselve by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    And if you'd read http://www.transgaming.com/gavstates.php you'd understand exactly what is going on.

  30. Re:Support the community by igrek · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's a question of motivation of game writers.

    Scenario A.

    Goal: I want to popularize the platform XYZ, because I think it's great. I want more people to use platform XYZ.
    Action: Let's implement some game for XYZ.

    Scenario B.

    Goal: I have a great idea for new game. I want more people to play my game.
    Action: Let's choose some platform that (a) allows to write games easily and (b) delivers games to broad audience.

    Rhetorical questions:
    - Which scenario delivers better games?
    - What is the platform of choice in scenario B?

  31. Re:Linux gaming still sucks by igrek · · Score: 2

    I don't think so. I still play SEGA Saturn and Nintendo 64 games, bought 5 years ago. But my Pentium 100, about the same age, is now useless.

  32. Transgaming and open source... by Error27 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I know that Transgaming contributes some stuff to the wine project already where it's convenient, but if I recall correctly they were going to release a lot more when they had a certain number of subscribers.

    What ever happenned with that? Did they reach the number of subscribers? Did they scrap that idea?

    I personally am always doubtful, when people claim that they are going to release source under an open source license at some future date. From what I've seen they seem to change their mind over half the time.

    I guess, I really don't care either way if release the source or not. I'm not subscribed and so they're under no obligation to me, but I was just curious.

    1. Re:Transgaming and open source... by Gaccm · · Score: 3, Flamebait

      actually, as someone posted above me, they will never give anything to wine again. Wine used to have an X11 style liscence, now its LGPL. Transgaming can't use the new wine stuff while keeping some stuff, like cd-copy protection secret (which, according to them would violate the DMCA if it is released). you can check out the offical word here

      --

      Only dead fish swim with the stream...
    2. Re:Transgaming and open source... by HeUnique · · Score: 2

      They said they will release almost all their modifications once they'll reach 20,000 subscribers...

      According to their web site - they got "over 3000" - which mean they need almost 17,000 more subscribers in order to release all their modifications (sans copy protection - due to DMCA)..

      --
      Hetz (Heunique)
    3. Re:Transgaming and open source... by SubtleNuance · · Score: 3

      which, according to them would violate the DMCA if it is released

      There is no DMCA in Canada.

      this is Transgaming FUD.

    4. Re:Transgaming and open source... by HeUnique · · Score: 2

      Well, there isn't a DMCA law in Canada maybe, but it will be the last thing a business will do (to release copy protection support code) if they want to sign game companies as partners (like they worked on the code of The-Sims).

      Get it?

      --
      Hetz (Heunique)
  33. Maybe, but I don't like their revenue model. by Nindalf · · Score: 2

    Money now, product later? No doubt these particular guys are honest, but it doesn't give them a whopping big incentive to do their best work as quickly as possible.

    Realistically, people are signing up mainly to support them, i.e. donating. Why on Earth should they say, "If you want to donate, this is the amount you must give. We won't take less, and we're not interested in more." ?

    I still don't understand why so few open source software projects are taking voluntary payments. It seems like the perfect match: "We give you the software with no obligation, you pay us whatever you like to encourage more work."

    1. Re:Maybe, but I don't like their revenue model. by HeUnique · · Score: 2

      Product later?

      WineX 2.01 supports 80 games (go check their DB) - I can hardly call this "later"

      --
      Hetz (Heunique)
  34. A note for people trying JK2+vanilla Wine on 1GHz+ by smcv · · Score: 2, Informative

    Kraf, thanks for the xgamma tip; I knew there must be a way to adjust gamma somewhere :-)

    There seems to be a problem with JK2's CPU detection code on 1GHz+ CPUs under vanilla WINE (the multiplayer executable gets to "Detected AMD CPU with 3DNow!" then crashes with a divide-by-zero).

    To fix it, get the vanilla WINE source (for Debian users like me: the result of "apt-get source wine" works nicely), open up win32/newfns.c, replace all occurences of

    #if defined(__i386__) && defined(__GNUC__)

    with

    #if 0

    and recompile (Debian users: cd to wine-yyyymmdd and run "dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc" to make new .debs).

    If you don't like having to find and mount the CD, the "DUCK" no-CD crack from gamecopyworld doesn't work reliably in multiplayer, whether you use Linux or Windows; the "BH" no-cd crack (the one containing Start-MP.exe) does. Please do actually buy the game though... writing a game this good should be rewarded with actual sales :-)

    I had no texture problems in High (not Very High) texture quality on a Geforce2 Pro with the latest nvidia drivers (version 1.0-2802).

  35. Writing Game yes, but for art by Matthias+Wiesmann · · Score: 2
    I think you are missing half of the part of games: game ideas and art. You are right, there are a lot of geek-work for building game libraries and clones of games. The problem is, the art part is not following. Take a look a freecraft the code is quite advanced, but basically the game relies on the artwork of Warcraft. The "original" art designed by OS comunity is quite awfull.

    Until the OS community is joined by skilled art people OS games will be limited.

  36. FUD Re:Transgaming and open source... by Laven · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is FUD.

    Transgaming plans on releasing many pieces to the X11 Wine branch for two good reasons.

    1. It costs more to maintain these many code deltas from the main (Rewind) tree. If they are general bug fixes that aren't strategic like DirectX or InstallShield, they want to release it to X11 so they don't have to use resources to keep maintaining it.
    2. For strategic pieces like COM for InstallShield, they plan on trading those pieces for other LGPL Wine pieces that they need. For example, if they want a certain LGPL piece, they may consider licensing their own ASPL piece if that LGPL piece is also made X11. Everyone benefits.

    I personally support both Transgaming and CodeWeavers financially. I hope both succeed and continue to improve Wine for everyone.

  37. Actually supported? by SmileyBen · · Score: 2

    Are any games *actually* supported with this release? I think they're *still* being sneaky if they're claiming this is the second version of WineX that supports running Windows games under Linux. Famously, version 1.0 only 'supported' the Sims, and it turned out that meant that you have to have a semi-ported-to-Linux version, and that the Windows version wouldn't run.

    Which begs the question: is the Sims now supported?

  38. Further instructions for packaging newbies by Nailer · · Score: 2
    Remember, keep the resulting files for your own use. Redistributing binaries of Winex breaks the license and means you're freeloading off a company that gives you a whole lot for free anyway and doesn't charge much for a subscription, and that because of this, you suck.

    • cd /var/tmp
    • cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.winex.sourceforge.net:/cv sroot/winex login
      Hit Enter when prompted for a password
    • $ cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.winex.sourceforge.net:/cv sroot/winex co wine
    • mv wine winex-(today's date if ISO format, eg 20020418)
    • tar -icvf winex-20020418.tar.bz2 winex-20020418
    • mv winex-20020418.tar.bz2 /usr/src/(distribution, eg `redhat')/SOURCES
    • Download the spec above and save it into a file called /usr/src/(distribution)/SPECS
    • Edit that file. Change Version to today's date, in the same format you did earlier. Change release to, say 2davesmith (because you made the package, not `mm' - i.e. Mike MacCana / Nailer.
    • rpm -ba /usr/src/(distribution)/SPECS/winex.spec
    • When the compile is over, you'll have a source package and a bianry package in /usr/src/(distribution)/SRPMS and /usr/src/(distribution)/RPMS.
    • Install the RPM.
  39. Re:A note for people trying JK2+vanilla Wine on 1G by ZaMoose · · Score: 2

    Latest nVidia drivers are 1.0-2880. Just FYI.

    --
    I wish I had a kryptonite cross, because then you could keep Dracula and Superman away.
  40. Re:Support the community by larien · · Score: 3, Funny

    *laugh* "..access to all of that old legacy software". I don't think I've heard of Windows stuff being "legacy" before, but if linux takes off like this, it will be...

  41. The catch up game by Greyfox · · Score: 2
    Microsoft's always kept competitors playing the catch up game. Back in the OS/2 days it seemed like they were changing win32s weekly (In fact, we dubbed this "The Microsoft API of the Week Club.) OS/2 Windows support was great, but IBM couldn't keep up with various Microsoft releases. And Joe Average user didn't want to have to think about whether that software package he bought at CompUSA was going to work with his OS or not. And developers were unwilling to do native ports because they could just target Windows 3.1 and cover all the platforms in one go.

    On the plus side, Wine runs Lotus Notes pretty well and saves me from having to reboot at work to check my mail.

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

    1. Re:The catch up game by the_quark · · Score: 2

      I did the OS/2 Windows shuffle, and I've been thinking about that a lot as I've been messing with cxoffice and winex.

      I think we have two things going for us that OS/2 didn't: We've got the Power of Open Source (TM), and, more importantly, we've got the Internet to distribute patches.

      When MS broke OS/2 2.1 Windows support for new apps, all you could do was wait for a new release of OS/2, which would take months or years.

      Now, you just download a new version. Eventually, if these guys get on the ball, they'll have autodownloading. Sure, if you try to play DS the day it comes out, it won't work. But, a month later, it'll say, "New version of WineX required to play this game. Download now?"

      Unfortunately right now we're at the dancing bear stage (what's important is that it dances at all, not how well it dances). In this stage, I've been very impressed with both of them. But I'm looking forward to when they both work even better.

  42. Your brand name may be your one biggest asset by yerricde · · Score: 2

    Most Linux gamers buy the Windows version of the game and dual boot or emulate.

    Wine is not an emulator. VisualBoyAdvance is.

    transferring one sale from the Windows column to the Linux column doesn't do a developer any good, they need additional sales

    If you port your game to Linux, your customers will be able to run it on PDAs that run Linux, giving them something to do during downtime (such as on a train or bus or something).

    DirectX has an "unfair" advantage coming from the OS vendor

    If SDL is bundled with Mandrake, then it "com[es] from the OS vendor" too.

    Even Id once stated publicly (Game Developer Magazine) that it doesn't make business sense to support Linux, that they only do it because it is cool.

    In other words, id Software ports its products to the GNU/Linux system not because it'll provide any additional sales in the short run but because a cross-platform policy builds the id Software brand in the long term. Many analysts have claimed that a company's trademarked brand name is its biggest asset, as it represents the goodwill of the company.

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
  43. can't configure on RH 7.2 by _|()|\| · · Score: 2
    Thanks for the instructions. I only noticed two typos: Slashdot-induced spaces in "cv sroot" and the -I switch to tar.

    The rpm build fails pretty early on with the error:

    configure: error: can not find sources in . or ..
    This is after the following libtoolize warnings:
    Remember to add `AC_PROG_LIBTOOL' to `configure.in'.
    Using `AC_PROG_RANLIB' is rendered obsolete by `AC_PROG_LIBTOOL'
    You should add the contents of `/usr/share/aclocal/libtool.m4' to `aclocal.m4'.
    I'm not a total newbie, but autoconf and rpm make me feel like one.
  44. But HOW do I give it to them???? by brunes69 · · Score: 2

    Some 3 weeks ago I went to transgaming's website for a gander at how much a subscription costs. I crawled over that thing like a maggot for hours, clicking every link in site, before giving up. I could not find anywhere on the site with pricing info, or where to sign up for a subscription, or how. For a company that wants your money, they sur emake it difficult! Most places have a big "Sig up now!" link on the front page, but not Transgaming. It seems mired in enigma.

    Am I just dumb? I hope so. Can anyone post the link that shows how much a subscription is and how you sign up?

    1. Re:But HOW do I give it to them???? by gergi · · Score: 2

      There should be a thing on the left side of the screen that says "Subscribe here" near the login. This link should also take you to the signup.
      http://www.transgaming.com/create_accnt.p hp

      The subscription is $5/month

      --
      Nosce te Ipsum
  45. Re:Difference between Transgaming and CodeWeavers? by tongue · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Out of curiosity last night, I attempted an install of M$ office under both winex2 and crossover (not crossover office--just the plugin version); the crossover version of wine aborted the install about a third of the way through copying files, which tells me there's some pretty important fixes in the crossover office that didn't make it into the plugin version of their quite excellent product. WineX, on the other hand, fully installed office, but there were a lot of problems with it; no pixmaps on the buttons for instance, fonts sucked a fat one (might not have been winex's fault, i didn't investigate my options there, although i do have plenty of good fonts installed that work fine with other apps on my system), and a few other assorted problems. i think outlook crapped out as well, and i really only tested Word.

    all things considered however, i think both ventures are worth places to spend my money, if only to support open-source software.

  46. Never Mind by brunes69 · · Score: 2

    It seems with this release there is a Subscribe Now! link on the front page after all. I guarentee that was not there before!

  47. Pirates helping is old by bluGill · · Score: 2

    Back when I was first on the Atari scene (about 1982) I met people who bought and paid for legitimate copies of programs they liked, put the box unopened on a shelf, and downloaded a cracked version from a BBS. The pirates deliver a solution that works reliabily, while many copy protected programs abused the hardware to the point where you needed 7 tries to load a program you had a right too.

  48. Re:DMCA violation ? by bluGill · · Score: 2

    The DMCA contains a clause about interoperability. Thus a Wine hacker could figgure out how safedisk works, and fix wine to work with that protection (so long as they make an attempt to not bypass it for non-legitimate copies).

    It appears though that the wineX version is licensed code, and they can't give the code back because of a contract. Much easier in the shortrun to license this code like that, but in the long run it better to do a clean room implimentation so you can make it part of wine. (Of course it would be illegal to seperate that code out of wine and use it to break copy protection, but you wouldn't do that, right...)

  49. never mind, good to go on RH 7.2 by _|()|\| · · Score: 2

    It looks like the CVS check out was incomplete. Compiling now.

  50. Re:JediKnight 2? by ShavenYak · · Score: 2

    What is JediKnight 2 for Windows? I only know JediKnight 2 on OS X, a Cocoa-based Aqua-compliant and all around great IRC client... strange how programmers seem to lack creativity when it comes to naming their apps.

    Jedi Knight 2 is a game by LucasArts (I'm betting you actually knew this). What is creative about naming an IRC client Jedi Knight? Not only does it make no sense and provide no meaningful description of the product, the guy will be lucky if LucasArts doesn't sue him out of existence.

    --

    Hey kids, there's only 5 days left 'til Yak Shaving Day!
  51. Re:Forget about Transgaming and codeweaver by ZaMoose · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hmmm. I tried putting my Jedi Knight II CD in my PS2. It wouldn't load. Funny thing, that.

    Serious Sam wouldn't load either. Nor Tribes 2. Return to Castle Wolfenstein wouldn't even boot up. Not even Medal of Honor would work. We're not even going to talk about the Sims, Black and White, Dungeon Siege, or Freedom Force.

    Seems I do still need my PC for something...

    --
    I wish I had a kryptonite cross, because then you could keep Dracula and Superman away.
  52. Re:Support the community by HiThere · · Score: 2

    Unfortunately, in Scenario B sub goals (a) and (b) conflict. I've been looking for a resolution to this, but Java doesn't work. It seems like Mozilla should, but documentation is a bit hard to come by. Smalltalk (Squeak) carries this large baggage along with it (it's nice baggage for a programmer, but a hinderance when programming is not intended). Ruby and Python don't have decent graphics packages. C is good for systems work, but much less good for games (except for arcade type games, which don't interest me). C++ .. well, I don't like it. I find all the casting that is required to be .. ugly (that's a part of my problem with Java). Eiffel is too inflexible about run-time dynamics, and has no good graphics.

    Probably eventually I'll decide to do something like use swig to wrap OpenGL in a form that Ruby can handle, but so far Ruby doesn't have a "create a standalone" capability that's even as good as Python's.

    The main trouble with Python isn't the language, it's the use of space as a syntactic marker. I really prefer that tabs be used as indent markers, and with most editors that works find. Some editors, however, change tabs to spaces. Worse, Glimmer, at least the last version I looked at, changed each tab to 8 spaces as soon as you open the file. If you don't catch this immediately, you can totally garbage the logic of your program. And I didn't catch it for a few days. It was so bad I had to start over nearly from scratch. (I used a print-out as a guide, and hand wrote in what the indentation should be!)

    And, of course, with the recent license changes I can't use any recent version of the MS software for anything. I must admit that I haven't been buying new copies whenever I hear of a license amendment, so this isn't a guaranteed accurate fact. But, OTOH, if they make an improvement in one month, I don't have any evidence indicating that the next month they con't come back with something even worse than before.

    --

    I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  53. API Change and Win 95 obsolescence. by malkavian · · Score: 2

    Note the change of the API to stop DX8.0 working with DX 8.1. And the hurriedly released DX8.1 synchronised with the cessation of 'official support' for Win95.
    As far as I can see, it looks more like MS wanting to stop any Win 95 users from even having a look in at new games, tying them into forcible upgrades to XP.
    That being said, I hear there were additions to support extra features that were added to ATI's radeon card that were not present on the GeForce3 range, so there is some extra functionality added. However, most games won't use this extra functionality.. Wo why not just let them be, with requirements for least common denominator in the API?
    Seems like incentives being offered to upset the user base, and get yourself the nice shiny new stuff that MS is pushing for cheap.

    Cheers,

    Malk

  54. Re:Maybe I just don't get it.. by Junta · · Score: 2

    I prefer Linux, but some points are shaky at best, so I'll comment on them.
    Scripting is there, cmd can do scripting. The syntax is really arcane, not nearly as smooth as, say, bourne shell, but you can implement bourne shell level scripts in cmd, zsh, on the other hand offers some really cool features, but bourne shell seems to be the de facto standard. I don't *like* using cmd, but I am confident it is as functionally complete as bourne.
    Stability, with 2k I would say you have equal probability of decent stability as you do with linux. Funky hardware/drivers can bring Win2K down screaming a painful death, but the case is true in linux too. Now the difference to me is that under linux when this happens I can more easily ignore the things that cause the system to go down hard. Also, a graphics driver issue can crash your X session, but leave the system still working on the network (remotely log in and fix it is possible). This means little for desktop users (system may as well crash if they lose all their apps anyway), but in a professional network, particularly servers, this separatism is very important.
    Multiple desktops, no problem, the powertoys and tons of other apps offer this. I know you said by default, but powertoys are so readily available they might as well count.
    Virus security is correct, given the current climate. However, if linux had the same sort of users, it would be a problem (everyone logged in as root, and if a large platform, popular target for viruses). Now what I like about linux and other unix systems is that users (and even services) can pretty much do whatever they need to without dangerous privs, where in windows you *need* admin privs to do some of the most basic things, and therefore the platform is vulnerable in that way.
    Now the last two are valid points for not rebooting. Of course, witht he last one you might be tempted to close a lot of those windows to free up resources for the game :)

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
  55. Re:Maybe I just don't get it.. by athakur999 · · Score: 2
    Scripting is there, cmd can do scripting.

    Not to mention VBScript and JScript. As well as PerlScript if you install ActiveState's Perl.
    --
    "People that quote themselves in their signatures bother me" - athakur999
  56. Re:Linux gaming still sucks by igrek · · Score: 2

    1) I would send it, but it's too late :) I gave this Pentium to charity

    2) The problem is not with old games. I still play Tetris, Digger more than any of new 3D games. My problem is with space for computers - I live in 2-bedroom apartment and my closet is full of high-tech toys that I can't physically put anywhere. So, only the most efficient devices survive. Which are:
    - powerful PC that I'm using for both work and games
    - my daughter's iMac (the original 233 MHz version). We play incredible machine on iMac, BTW. Great game.
    - my wife's G4 (for graphic design and photoshopping)
    - Saturn, Nintendo 64, Gamecube.

    The rest are in the closet. What happens when the next 10GHz PC is around? Of course, I'll buy it and the current PC will go to the closet. But still, my Nintendo 64 will be around, I'm sure :)

  57. Civilization 3 or Capitalism 2? by Jacek+Poplawski · · Score: 2

    I am searching for any info for a long time. Does anyone run Civilization 3 or Capitalizm 2 with winex? Is it possible? What about HOMAM4?

  58. Diablo II/LOD running nicely by rossz · · Score: 2

    I've spent the day fooling around with WineX and Diablo II/LOD. It was a pain, but worth it.

    1. Uninstalled WineX 1.03
    2. Nuked my Diablo directory
    3. Installed WineX 2.0
    4. Installed Diablo II and LOD
    5. Failed to get it to run, banged head against wall
    6. Realized it wouldn't run because I didn't have 640x480 and 800x600 resolutions defined for my xserver.
    7. Added the additional resolutions.
    8. Ran the game! w00t!

    Not being happy with the way things were, I then reconfigured everything to run the game on a second xserver at :1.0. Now it's perfect. No window manager to interfere with the game (the ALT meta key was a particular annoyance), it runs using the full screen, and doesn't interfere with my KDE desktop at all.

    Performance it's bad, about 30 fps compared to 50 on Windoze. The font used to display status info (type "fps" in the chat box) is much too small, but other than that, it seems solid.

    Time to kill Baal for the billionth time.

    --
    -- Will program for bandwidth
  59. ohh boy... by Archfeld · · Score: 2

    The game is HO-HUM at best. Nice to see more work done in providing an alternative gaming platform but did no one learn anything from Loki's messy demise ?

    --
    errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
  60. Not everyone wants WINE for games... by MsGeek · · Score: 2

    Here's my predicament.

    I want to get out from under Redmond's thumb just like everyone else here. (Heh, funny considering my cert...) However, there is a whole category of apps that have not materialized for Linux. What are they?

    PRO AUDIO APPS.

    There is no native Linux Digital Audio Workstation software available. Nothing that is anywhere near the caliber of Sonic Foundry's Vegas or Digidesign's ProTools. There are stereo audio .WAV editors, tons of MP3 and OGG tools, but nothing like those programs. There is nothing out there that compares to Sound Forge, which right now is the Gold Standard for audio mastering. And there isn't ANYTHING that resembles ACID, Sonic Foundry's loop composition software.

    If Wine, WineX, ReWind or Grandma's Chicken Feet (I don't care, I'm not picky about licenses or product names) could get Sonic Foundry products to run, and run predictably and solidly, under Linux I would be able to convert our audio production machine from Windows to Linux. That would mean one less Windows box, one more Linux box.

    Linux still needs polishing. Linux still needs to be able to install predictably (My friend Chad ironed out my optical drive problems on one of my Linux boxen...apparently depmod didn't do everything it should have during the Red Hat 7.2 install) and it still has tons of usability problems. However, it is headed in the right direction.

    Windows, OTOH, is headed the wrong way...more complexity, more bloat, less functionality, an unruly codebase according to some informed reports, and of course tons of security problems no Ex Cathedra pronouncement by Bill Gates can fix. And there's that wee, small issue of licensing and Microsoft continuing to tighten the screws on that issue.

    Until someone steps up to the plate and writes some serious audio apps for Linux, emulation or something that asserts it is not an emulator but the duck test says otherwise is the only hope I have. And any progress along those lines will be cheered. In the words of Daria Morgendorffer, "Go. Go. Kick butt."

    --
    Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.