Transgaming Releases WineX 3.2

Beolach writes "Transgaming today released WineX 3.2, their subscription-download tool which 'brings the hottest Windows titles to devoted Linux gamers', now including support for Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne and Homeworld 2, among others. The release announcement also quotes Markus Maki, Development Director of Remedy Entertainment as saying: "TransGaming's unique ability to enable Max Payne 2 to run on Linux without any access to the source code is quite impressive. We're extremely pleased that TransGaming is broadening our reach to new audiences and that the Linux community continues to enjoy our products thanks to TransGaming's outstanding work." In other words, this is all Linux gets for Max Payne 2."

Comments

translation...

[shweazel]

"TransGaming's unique ability to enable Max Payne 2 to run on Linux without any access to the source code is quite impressive. We're extremely pleased that TransGaming is broadening our reach to new audiences and that the Linux community continues to enjoy our products thanks to TransGaming's outstanding work."

Translation:
"Holy shit they ported our game for free!"

Seriously though, why are gamers stuck funding these ports?
Instead of gamers paying transgaming, and then deciding which games are ported, why arent the developers/publishers paying transgaming to get their game onto the "supported" list? This could be a lot cheaper than a full-fledged port.

Re:translation...

[MMaestro]

Because developers don't want to fund something that does not guarantee a financial success. A developer can make the greatest game of the decade, but they're not going to pay a $250,000 in time and resources porting the game into Linux in return for a $100,000. They are in the business to make MONEY, not "to be different" and support Linux because they don't like Windows for X reason.

Until the Linux MARKET, not community, succeeds in proving itself to be a market to be recognized, Linux is just like the early Mac gaming market. Overlooked, because so few people used it.

Re:translation...

[shweazel]

A developer can make the greatest game of the decade, but they're not going to pay a $250,000 in time and resources porting the game into Linux in return for a $100,000.

You're missing the point. It costs transgaming much, much less than $250,000 to get a game working well under winex, because they're not starting from scratch every time.

Most new games already "sort of" work under winex, even if they're not on the supported list, so all transgaming has to do is fix whatever bugs exist. Much cheaper than a full port from scratch, and takes no resources from the developers.

So why can't the developer fund transgaming instead of the consumer?? This could be an excellent compromise for companies that don't have enough faith in the linux market to do a full port.

Re:translation...

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

No, you're missing the point. (Notice how rude it is to start a post by telling the parent is missing the point?) The exact numbers don't matter at all. Sure, it costs less than $250,000 to get a game supported. Would the charge to the company be less than this? Probably. But does that matter? No, and here's why - the cost of getting the game on the supported list is obviously greater than the return, otherwise companies would be doing this. You notice how game support for Linux isn't exactly universal? That's because the most amount of money can be made sticking with Windows.

It may be cheaper for Transgaming to fix the bugs but what is being suggested here is that the development company pay Transgaming for this work. It's a nice idea but not exactly revolutionary. If the market dictated that this would be profitable, it would have already happened. That answers your final question as to why the developers are not funding Transgaming - it would hurt their profit too much - very, very simple economics. But you don't seem to get it.

Re:translation...

[shweazel]

Notice how rude it is to start a post by telling the parent is missing the point?

No, YOU'RE missing the point. (Yeah OK I probably should have left that part out.)

All I'm saying is, maybe instead of releasing half-assed linux ports a year after the game comes out (I'm looking at you Neverwinter Nights), maybe it'd be easier to throw a couple bucks to transgaming. Sure it's not always as good as a native port, but it'd be out faster, and it'd be cheaper. But you don't seem to get it. (Notice how rude it is to end a post by telling the parent he just doesn't get it? :P)

Re:translation...

[Mike Hawk]

Acidic is right, and I really hate agreeing with that guy. You think they havent thought of every possible way to make money off of a game? If it was profitable, they would do it. That is the point and the only point. Most developers dont release a half-assed port, they don't release one at all. (What did someone say once? Developers, developers, developers, developers, etc.)

And you both have forgotten something that would happen uniquely if they made winex officially "supported". Who would handle the CS calls when it doesnt work? IE more money out of the developer's/publisher's pocket when it might be transgaming's fault.

Nope, winex is staying unofficial for lots of good reasons.

Re:translation...

[Directrix1]

All I have to say is: I'm glad I switched away from Microsoft to avoid the Microsoft tax of $100 every 2 years, so I can now pay the Transgaming tax of $5 per month * 12 months/year * 2 years = $120.... doh!

Re:translation...

[AllUsernamesAreGone]

They aren't using SDL because it doesn't offer anywhere near enough features - it is at best a bare-bones framework that needs a lot of additional work to be really usable. OpenGL is rather more low-level than Direct3D and, even if you can avoid problems with vendor-specfic extensions (which you can't), you then hit the problem that Windows OpenGL implementations tend to suck, seriously suck, because everyone on Windows concentrates on writing Direct3D drivers rather than well-written OpenGL implementations. So you then end up writing openGL and Direct3D...

Or, put another way, why go to the expense when you can just get a copy of VisualC++ and the DirectX SDK? (BTW, I am a Linux user, and would love to see more companies behaving like ID, but I'm also under no illusions about how likely that is given that publishers are only staffed by beancounters and lawyers these days)

Great quote

[jvmatthe]

Sorry, but this just leaves me breathless:

"Our groundbreaking portability development continues to keep pace with the industry's recent and most challenging games written for Windows," remarks Peter Hunnisett, Manager of TransGaming's Linux Development Team. "Dynamic sound, rich graphics and riveting game play are matched and, in some instances, surpassed with our WineX technology." [my emphasis added]

I take that to mean that the Windows game plays better under Linux using WineX than it does under Windows. I know people will say things like "no BSOD!" to be funny, but doesn't this strike anyone else as a lot of malarkey? What runs better...Mine Sweeper?

Ok, flame on!

Re:Great quote

[Beolach]

A game I play fairly often performs better under WineX than under M$ Windows. You may have heard of it: WarCraft III.

Under Linux/WineX I run it at 1280x1024, under Windows I can't stand the performance at any resolution higher than 1024x768.

Re:Great quote

[Aliencow]

When RTCW was released about a year ago (I think) , there was no Linux single player version at all... I had a dual boot, and under Windows with my crappy Geforce 2MX the framerate would go between 30 and 70 all the time, with slowdowns when there was a lot of action... under WineX it ran at a steady 50FPS..

I heard starcraft also runs faster in Wine but any computer faster than 200mhz probably won't notice :)

Did anyone save the CVS version

[EvilSporkMan]

right before release? I know they make CVS available free, or used to...surely someone's got it frozen @ 3.2.

Re:Did anyone save the CVS version

[Curtman]

Actually, they aren't required by Wine's license. And the CVS hasn't gone anywhere, it just doesnt have the copy protection stuff needed to play these commercial games. For reasons explained here

Re:Transgaming is rad

[Mike Hawk]

Wait wait wait. Let me get this straight. People pay $60 per year to get Windows games to work under linux?

One can purchase a completely legit copy of Windows 98 (mine has served me well over the last 4 odd years) for less than that. Turns out, Windows games run natively under Windows AND they work on day 0, not when some third party decides to make them work. Rad indeed! Logical...not so much.

Put your money where your mouth is

[Screaming Lunatic]

We're extremely pleased that TransGaming is broadening our reach to new audiences and that the Linux community continues to enjoy our products thanks to TransGaming's outstanding work.

Remedy should put their money where their mouth is if they are so pleased.

They should license WineX, throw it on a CD with Max Payne 2 and shrink wrap it. It should be sold at the same price as the Windows version. It's the least they could do for a company that is "broadening their reach to new audiences". In other words, helping Remedy sell more units.

Re:Put your money where your mouth is

[zoward]

They should license WineX, throw it on a CD with Max Payne 2 and shrink wrap it. It should be sold at the same price as the Windows version.

While I'd love to see it happen, it won't. It would save the company the cost of development of a Linux version, but they would then be on the hook for support of Max Payne 2 running under Winex3 and Linux, which may very well erase any profits they would get from having it there in the first place. They could put a disclaimer ("here's Winex3, you can use it if you're l33t, don't call us if you can't get it to work."), but if it's on the CD people are going to expect to be able to call if it doesn't work, and they would then have to turn away those callers, which wouldn't win them a lot of friends in the gaming community.

Re:Why doesn't Transgaming do whay Aspry does?

[aaronli]

They've already stated, to a qualified degree. Check out.
http://www.transgaming.com/webstore.php

So far they
- Marble Blast
- The Sims
- Kohan: Immortal Sovereign (Orignial & Special award edition)
- Kohan: Ahriman's Gift

These ports work by being sold with a custom modified version of winex suitable for that game to get maximum performance for it.

While these are not native (ie, use Linux libraries over wine reimplementations) it seems a reasonable alternative to to costly sytem ports until the Linux market can be proven. Hopefully avoiding yet another Loki-like embassment for the community.

Yes, but..

[tananda]

They still have yet to get any of The Sims expansion packs to work, after making such a big deal out of providing The Sims for the Mandrake Gaming Edition. Furthermore, The Sims Online seems to have been completely forgotten by the project as a whole.

Re:Transgaming is rad

[Spoing]

Wait wait wait. Let me get this straight. People pay $60 per year to get Windows games to work under linux?

Yes, though it's $5/month, so if you want to pay for part of a year WineX won't all the sudden stop working. You just don't get updates forever for $0.

One can purchase a completely legit copy of Windows 98 (mine has served me well over the last 4 odd years) for less than that. Turns out, Windows games run natively under Windows AND they work on day 0, not when some third party decides to make them work. Rad indeed! Logical...not so much.

After spending thousands over years on computer equipment, why reset a perfectly functioning machine each and every time I want to play a quick game of CivIII? That's a waste of time and a unnecessary hassle. Besides, it would take the web servervices down.