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Transgaming releases "WineX" 4.0 "Cedega"
visy writes "Transgaming has opened a new site at today and are announcing WineX 4.0, now dubbed Cedega after a unique variety of grape. Transgaming claims Cedega allows "Windows ® games to seamlessly and transparently run under Linux, out-of-the-box, with outstanding performance and equivalent game-play". Will we see a new era of game compatibilty?"
does that mean that wine is now an emulator? ;-O
arrrrr
Or a new era of litigation
A psychopath can't tell the difference between right and wrong. A sociopath knows the difference - he just doesn't care.
Anyone care to discuss how well City of Heroes runs under Wine and it's offspring?
Some friends have been trying to get me to get a PC for this game, and I'd rather run Linux on it as opposed to Windows.
I buy Codeweavers products. They give back to the community, unlike Transgaming.
It's really a shame I won't ever get to use this, since Transgaming forced Gentoo to pull the packages for WineX from their distro.
Will Transgaming ever learn to work with the open source community instead of mearly tolerating its existance as an annoying necessity to business?
Cedega (Se-day-gah) - [noun] - a unique variety of grape used to make some of the finest Port Wines in the world;
I got here with only 4 postings and transgaming was already /.ed... good work team!
--Coming up with something clever... please wait...
I was curious as to what was going on at Transgaming - they had a large banner on their site yesterday with today's date on it and "Where will you be?". Had a funny feeling something was brewing. :)
# fuser -v
#
Will we see a new era of game compatibilty?
Yes, as soon as games are compatible with platforms other than Windows, not before.
You've probably noticed that people's noses get bigger as they get older. That's because old people are huge liars.
How seamless is it?
My main problem with games in X is that I have to change the screen resolution myself. Most applications I'm quite happy with seeing in a window, but games I want full screen, often at a much lower resolution. I also want cutscenes to be displayed fullscreen.
Does this solve that problem?
When are we going to see a shared memory wineserver. This would be the best way to see a significant speed increase in Wine, rather than it having to launch a new Wineserver process for each application run. Transgaming were working on this some time ago but seem to have ditched the idea.
meridian at tha.net
The only way that we'll see a new era of Linux gaming is with direct support from all of the big boys. As long as Linux users have to jump through hoops to get their game running, as long as those games are less than 100% compatible, you won't see much changing.
People want their games to work, not to pay for something (or deal with cvs) to get their stuff to partially work. Most people with a computer good enough to play DX9 games have a Windows disc anyways and a hd big enough to keep both. Transgaming will never be anything more than a niche company servicing a very small niche.
Until Slashdot fixes the funny modifier, use insightful or interesting. The poster knows your intentions.
X-gamings site seems to be more fluff than substance. Having a hard time determining what games they support. I've got a couple of little ones and, if I can get games like "Freddy the Fish", "Reader Rabbit", "Blues Clues", that would make it worth looking into for me.
However, I'm also looking at Crossover Office (or the SuSe "Wine Rack") for office compatability. Can I install both this and Transgaming's software or will they stomp on each other?
Thanks,
A goal is a dream with a deadline
"Windows ® games to seamlessly and transparently run under Linux, out-of-the-box, with outstanding performance and equivalent game-play"
They forgot to mention that small detail about all the bleeding-edge hardware you need to run the latest games.... THAT will give you the biggest part of the oustanding performance....
Codewearves gives back to community as much as Trasgaming: almost nothing.
Don't forget that Codeweavers products are closed source, different from Transgaming.
OK, Winex CVS version is not that compatible as commercial, but it is because of the proprietary parts.
The only true OS project is Wine.
I'm still torn as to whether or not to pay for winex. I tried using the free/cvs version and it kind of worked. Of course, I didn't actually get any games to work correctly, not even simple ones, so it didn't work at all. First off, if I pay for winex and I get version 4.0 can I just never pay again and keep using 4 forever? I mean, as long as there aren't any games that come out for windows that I want (very very few lately) it shouldn't be a problem right? Also, is there a computer limit on winex? If I pay for version 4 once can I install it on 3 linux boxes without paying 3 times?
All I really want to do is to play Steam and all of the mods and stuff that go along with it, in linux. If I can do it for a really low one time fee and never pay again, then I think this is a good deal.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
Based on my experiences with winex, not fcking likely. I suppose if you bought games you knew worked with winex, you'd be happy. Picking games you like, and trying to get them to work with winex is another problem altogether.
Of course, I haven't tried this grape thing yet, but I have a month left on my Transgaming membership. Maybe I will be bitchslapped by reality, but I am low on optimism....
Even if TransGaming is not software libre, those who would use it have already made the choice to give up some of their freedom of use in exchange for enjoyment--very few games that would require WineX are themselves libre. However, one may wish to support the developer of a game without supporting an evil organization that they are associated with.
An analogous situation might be, for example, going to a live performance of a band rather than buying their CD in a store, as, presumably, the live performance gives a minimal amount, if anything, to the RIAA, while giving plenty to the band.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Right now, I'm looking at building a new computer and taking my existing one and making it into a computer for the kids. My children are very young so I'm kinda waiting for KDE to do some more work on this "Kiosk" mode. It would be great if Transgaming's software would support thier windows games "Finding Nemo", "Freddy the Fish", "Blues Clues", "Hot Wheels", etc. My son also likes TuxKart, TuxRacer, Frozen Bubble, Tux Pinball, and Pingus. He's kinda into penguins nowadays....I'm sure that's just a coincidence ;)
Anyway, a KDE-Based Linux box with the ability to run thier Windows games as well would be an ideal solution for me.
A goal is a dream with a deadline
Does "cedega" sound like a Final Fantasy spell to anyone else? Stronger than Cede and Ceda...
But anyway, I used to think things like WINE would hinder "true" GNU/Linux game development, and while that may be true, the games are going to be proprietary anyway, so really what's the difference between running a locked-up native binary and a locked-up WINE-translated one? And in the case of WineX, even the program doing the emulation/translation is non-Free. Folks who don't care that PC games aren't open-source shouldn't complain that the closed binary is for the wrong platform.
I was lucky enough to grab the new version before the /.'ing, TG says that this version adds support for some DirectX 9 features, like Pixel Shaders.
I've tried a couple of new DirectX 9 games, and so far I'm quite happy with the results, first game is Far Cry, it used to work with the previous version, but now the performance is much better, with less artifacts and more effects.
The other game is PainKiller, it runs quite well too, I had all kinds of problems trying to get this game running with the previous version.
I know I'm going to be flamed for this post, but I wiped my Windows partition a while ago, and WineX (Cedega whatever) is doing a very good job giving me my gaming needs, it's still much better than having a Windows gaming partition.
The IT section color scheme sucks.
Is there a mod for stating the blatantly obvious or towing the slashdot line. This guy said absolutely nothing new, interesting or insightful. He might as well have copied his post from 16,000,000 other posts just like it.
The problem with designing most styles of games is that they don't lend themselves to open source tactics.
Having worked in a few betas, often a 90% finished game is still quite unplayable. Also for a good game you really need a group of people to decide what the goals are for the game and then reach these and release.
Open source does lend itself to simpler more open ended games like nethack, but games more than anything really aren't much good until they are almost totally finished, and also most people won't play a game through more than a couple of times no matter how good it is
Combination - fun iPhone puzzling
It isn't "necessary" for linux to play games, just as it isn't necessary for an apple or windows to play games. It is what some people want to do though.
Basically what you're saying is that if I want to run linux AND play games, I should spend more money on more computers and more consoles so that I can have 500 different pieces of hardware to do all the things I want to do. If my computer can do linux and games and I don't have to buy anything else, thats more economical and more money for beer later.
Why is it necessary for Linux to play Windows games? Linux games will come out when people are good and ready for them. In the meantime, frustrated linux users can use one of the many fine gaming consoles (PS2, XBOX, GameCube, even PSOne to some degree).
I already have thousands of dollars' worth of Windows games. I can't play them on any of the "many fine gaming consoles" you enumerate, and I don't know why I'd want to buy another machine when I already have a perfectly good PC, anyway. Are you suggesting I just throw them all away now I've switched to Linux, or will you concede that I might have a legitimate reason to be interested in something like WineX?
If computer gaming is something you can't do without, use Windows. Why not devote a small partition to Windows/games, and use the rest for linux?
Because I might only want to play for ten minutes in my coffee break, and constantly rebooting is really rather a drag?
If you don't want to play Windows games in Linux, good for you - don't use WineX then. For the rest of us, this is one more step towards making a permanent migration possible. That's a Good Thing, in case you didn't realise.
Why would it be a troll? I think the original poster is raising a valid question.
Some people wish to enjoy at least a small portion of the cornucopia of applications developed for the Windows platform without supporting what they see as an evil company
I get so sick and tired of this anti Microsoft lobby. Microsoft is not an evil company, it's a company. Period.
But to answer the original posters question: there are reasons why someone would insist on running anything in linux:
It's the place where you might do most of your work. Maybe you have only one computer and rebooting frustrates you because it is slow.
You might feel safer from viruses etc.
But really, that's all I can think of. Me, I have four computers. Most run linux exclusively, but one is reserved for the few things I do in windows. Crossover and Transgaming or really no issues to me. I have a much better chance of getting windows programs and games working on windows than on linux, so why bother? Because I am supporting an evil company this way? Get real.
Please login to access my lawn
[posted as AC to avoid karma whoring]
Toronto/Ottawa -- June 22, 2004 -- TransGaming today unveils the milestone release of version 4.0 of its flagship product, WineX, which has been renamed to Cedega. Cedega allows Windows ® games to seamlessly and transparently run under Linux, out-of-the-box, with outstanding performance and equivalent game-play. Cedega 4.0 includes support for Microsoft ® DirectX ® 9.0, significantly broadening the scope and availability of the latest triple "A" titles for avid Linux gamers. The landmark release of Cedega 4.0 adds support for new blockbuster DirectX 9.0 titles such as EA's(TM) Battlefield Vietnam(TM), Eidos'(TM) Hitman: Contracts ©, and LucasArts' © Star Wars(TM)Galaxies(TM), bringing the total number of games supported under Cedega to well over 300. Furthermore, Cedega features unprecedented support for NCSoft's ® recently released massive multiplayer online game, City of Heroes ® and Blizzard Entertainment's ® unreleased but highly anticipated World of WarCraft ®.
Cedega (Se-day-gah) - [noun] - a unique variety of grape used to make some of the finest Port Wines in the world; an innovative portability technology developed by TransGaming that allows Windows games to run on Linux.
"Cedega 4.0 represents an amazing evolution of our Linux product. Thus, it was only fitting to give it a new name; a name that is representative of our product's maturity, complexity, sophistication, and elegance. The new name, Cedega, is meaningful and reflects the significant growth that both the product and TransGaming have enjoyed over the last few years," comments Vikas Gupta, Co-CEO and President of TransGaming Technologies.
From a technical standpoint, this release sets a new benchmark for the support of games on Linux. "The Cedega 4.0 release contains more technological innovation than any previous TransGaming release and truly represents a milestone in game software portability. Cedega 4.0 supports titles that make use of the DirectX 9.0 API as well as advanced Pixel and Vertex shaders. Cedega 4.0 also includes a new advanced inter-process communication architecture that can double the speed of games which make heavy use of Win32 kernel synchronization primitives," remarks Gavriel State, CTO & Co-CEO of TransGaming Technologies.
To keep pace with the growth of Linux worldwide and to more effectively meet consumer demands internationally, TransGaming is also pleased to announce the European launch of Cedega 4.0. European customers and subscribers can now pay in Euros, a feature that has been much anticipated and will cater specifically to the rapidly growing Linux community in European countries. Cedega 4.0 includes an updated version of its user friendly interface, Point2Play, with multiple language support for English, Dutch, Danish, Portuguese and German.
About TransGaming Technologies Inc.
TransGaming Technologies is a global leader in the development of software portability products that allow game developers and publishers to develop games for one system and deploy them across multiple platforms - faster, cheaper and better than anyone else.
TransGaming's flagship Linux product, Cedega, supports hundreds of the hottest and most popular games on Linux, out-of-the-box, including hit titles such as Max Payne 2(TM), Battlefield 1942(TM), Battlefield Vietnam(TM), Medal of Honor(TM), Diablo II ®, EverQuest(TM), Star Wars Galaxies(TM), City of Heroes ® and many more. TransGaming has also ported such blockbuster titles as TRON 2.0 ®, James Bond 007(TM): Nightfire(TM), Law & Order(TM), Indiana Jones ® and The Emperor's Tomb(TM), just to name a few.
TransGaming has a research and development center in Ottawa, Canada, with business, strategy, and operational activities conducted at the Toronto, Canada office. TransGaming was recently honored with inclusion on the Branham300 List of top IT companies in Canada for the second consecutive year. More information abou
Personally, I love it, and I don't regret paying for it [1]. When I want to play a supported game I don't have to boot back to Windows, and that's definately a good thing. I do wish they'd spend a bit more time making the older stuff run though. I vote for it every time I can, but the bulk of the votes always wind up going to the latest FPS candy...
.
[1] Put that in your pipe and smoke it, all you "Linux users won't pay for anything" dips.
"Mission Accomplished" -- George W. Bush May 1, 2003
but if I have to pay for it
Let me quote a page that ALL linux users should read and know by heart: "WHAT? You mean to say you own enough hardware to run this stuff, yet you're too lousy to pay 15 bucks for binary packages? Get real."
(or at least not use it with Portage
The ebuilds are there. Just pay the money and you can use it within portage with no trouble.
TransGaming's flagship Linux product, Cedega, supports hundreds of the hottest and most popular games on Linux, out-of-the-box, including hit titles such as Max Payne 2(TM), Battlefield 1942(TM), Battlefield Vietnam(TM), Medal of Honor(TM), Diablo II ®, EverQuest(TM), Star Wars Galaxies(TM), City of Heroes ® and many more. TransGaming has also ported such blockbuster titles as TRON 2.0 ®, James Bond 007(TM): Nightfire(TM), Law & Order(TM), Indiana Jones ® and The Emperor's Tomb(TM), just to name a few.
I was a subscriber for many months, and quit my subscription. I cited that the only game I was interested in was SW Galaxies, and that until it was supported, I would no longer subscribe. I contributed a chunk of change, and now I'll have to put my money where my mouth is and re-subscribce to run the game I want.
Religion is the opium of the people. Evolution is the opium of scientists.
actually both those games work rather well under Cedega 4.0 :-)
"Consider how lucky you are that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn't been good to you so far
Here's the info from the site:
Toronto/Ottawa -- June 22, 2004 -- TransGaming today unveils the milestone release of version 4.0 of its flagship product, WineX, which has been renamed to Cedega. Cedega allows Windows ® games to seamlessly and transparently run under Linux, out-of-the-box, with outstanding performance and equivalent game-play. Cedega 4.0 includes support for Microsoft ® DirectX ® 9.0, significantly broadening the scope and availability of the latest triple "A" titles for avid Linux gamers. The landmark release of Cedega 4.0 adds support for new blockbuster DirectX 9.0 titles such as EA's(TM) Battlefield Vietnam(TM), Eidos'(TM) Hitman: Contracts ©, and LucasArts' © Star Wars(TM)Galaxies(TM), bringing the total number of games supported under Cedega to well over 300. Furthermore, Cedega features unprecedented support for NCSoft's ® recently released massive multiplayer online game, City of Heroes ® and Blizzard Entertainment's ® unreleased but highly anticipated World of WarCraft ®.
Cedega (Se-day-gah) - [noun] - a unique variety of grape used to make some of the finest Port Wines in the world; an innovative portability technology developed by TransGaming that allows Windows games to run on Linux.
"Cedega 4.0 represents an amazing evolution of our Linux product. Thus, it was only fitting to give it a new name; a name that is representative of our product's maturity, complexity, sophistication, and elegance. The new name, Cedega, is meaningful and reflects the significant growth that both the product and TransGaming have enjoyed over the last few years," comments Vikas Gupta, Co-CEO and President of TransGaming Technologies.
From a technical standpoint, this release sets a new benchmark for the support of games on Linux. "The Cedega 4.0 release contains more technological innovation than any previous TransGaming release and truly represents a milestone in game software portability. Cedega 4.0 supports titles that make use of the DirectX 9.0 API as well as advanced Pixel and Vertex shaders. Cedega 4.0 also includes a new advanced inter-process communication architecture that can double the speed of games which make heavy use of Win32 kernel synchronization primitives," remarks Gavriel State, CTO & Co-CEO of TransGaming Technologies.
To keep pace with the growth of Linux worldwide and to more effectively meet consumer demands internationally, TransGaming is also pleased to announce the European launch of Cedega 4.0. European customers and subscribers can now pay in Euros, a feature that has been much anticipated and will cater specifically to the rapidly growing Linux community in European countries. Cedega 4.0 includes an updated version of its user friendly interface, Point2Play, with multiple language support for English, Dutch, Danish, Portuguese and German.
About TransGaming Technologies Inc.
TransGaming Technologies is a global leader in the development of software portability products that allow game developers and publishers to develop games for one system and deploy them across multiple platforms - faster, cheaper and better than anyone else.
TransGaming's flagship Linux product, Cedega, supports hundreds of the hottest and most popular games on Linux, out-of-the-box, including hit titles such as Max Payne 2(TM), Battlefield 1942(TM), Battlefield Vietnam(TM), Medal of Honor(TM), Diablo II ®, EverQuest(TM), Star Wars Galaxies(TM), City of Heroes ® and many more. TransGaming has also ported such blockbuster titles as TRON 2.0 ®, James Bond 007(TM): Nightfire(TM), Law & Order(TM), Indiana Jones ® and The Emperor's Tomb(TM), just to name a few.
TransGaming has a research and development center in Ottawa, Canada, with business, strategy, and operational activities conducted at the Toronto, Canada office. TransGaming was recently honored with inclusion on the Branham300 List of top IT companies in Canada for the second consecutive year. More information about the c
This guy said absolutely nothing new, interesting or insightful. He might as well have copied his post from 16,000,000 other posts just like it.
Well, we have "redundant", but we need something which is "The opposite of insightful"
I might suggest (-1 Banal)
Excuse me, but how on earth would you sue someone for accessing a public CVS archive for the purpose of downloading a CVS build? Remember now, you (the user) access it with an ebuild, not the Gentoo group.
What would the argument be, exactly? "You're honor, we only meant that CVS tree for people that wanted to do free work, not everyone else. That's why we made it publicly available"? They essentially threatened to pull the CVS tree if Gentoo didn't remove their ebuild. Real nice. HUGE believers in OSS and "giving back" to the WINE project.
You're reading Slashdot. Of course you like Linux and pc hardware
So my wuestion is about Avalon.
...
In 05/06 Window$ will release a new OS with a brand nre API - Avalon - based on a completely new file system/table... WinFS (or whatever its called)
I've no doubt they will make this the most convoluted file system ever seen with no chance of proper reverse engineering or even emulating.
So, shouldnt we be pushing for new and smarer ways to develop more sophisticated OpenGL render engines faster and better so Linux can compete eith Window$ in gaming rather than living off M$ scraps?
Oh, sound in a game is minor?
Until you stop bitching and contribute or run your own open-source business, shut up.
yes, native alsa support is not a big deal, since a) most people still use OSS, and b) Alsa OSS emulation works perfectly fine
!
^_^
Computers aren't very different from anything really and no matter how much of a need there is for standard, there never will be really a standard.
Have you ever dreamed installing a big block hemi in your shiny WRX impreza or Ford Focus ?
If that's the case, keep dreaming, it'll never happen. Because chevy stuff are for chevys, ford stuff is for ford stuff. They're not compatible and there isn't a lot we can do to change it.
Computers, like I said, aren't very different. Don't try running windows programs directly in linux, you won't get very far (well...we all know that).
But! in computers we have the advantage of being able to change that somehow by creating "emulators".
Companies won't create a game for all possible platforms, it would cost way too much so they aim for the most popular ones - such as
Linux isn't a profitable platform yet, because not enough people use it to profitably make programs for it, not to mention no company will be willing to release their game in an open source manner, because yes, it would inevitably come down to asking them to release their latest game in an open source because that's what Linux is all about.
And besides the whole "profitable" side of it, think of WineX as the bridge no other sector could create.
Think of it as the ultimate option given to the consumer to finally choose the game HE wants and play them on HIS platform no matter what the game is intended for.
To come back to my chevy/ford example. I doubt we'll ever see any kind of device to allow us to put a hemi engine in my ford impala. It's because cars are bound by mechanical pieces, physical pieces. There are space constraints, tons of fittings would be inserted everywhere.... not a very reliable technique.
Software on the other hand, is an abstract product, something you can't touch see or smell... or taste (?)
We must use that advantage to build bridges that allow us to use what we want, on the platform we want, where we want.
I applaude WineX for their initiative and you be damn sure I'll buy their product once it is matured.
If you look like your passport photo, you're too ill to travel. - Will Kommen
Wouldn't the LGPL allow them to link with a binary-only copy protection module?
Chu vi parolas Vikipedion?
"The two games that are really holding me from running Linux on my desktop full-time are Unreal Tournament 2004 and C&C Generals Zero Hour."
I guess you didn't pay for UT2K4 or you might have seen that it supports linux on the box. The Linux install binary sits right next to the windows binary in the root directory. It plays better on my Linux partition than it does on my Windows. C&C I don't know about and don't play, but ut2004 has NATIVE linux support, which beats playing a game under wienx any day
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
Indeed, Cedega is not software libre. We've never claimed that it was. It's a commercial product that includes components dereived from Wine and ReWind.
Despite that fact, and despite the fact that we have not yet reached the 20,000 subscriber number in our original plans, we have contributed and we continue to contribute to the Wine project in a number of substantial ways. These include major contributions or rearchitectures of: 2D DirectDraw, DirectSound, DirectInput, DCOM, RPC, the WIDL IDL compiler, and wininet code, including SSL support. Additionally, we continue to maintain the X11 licensed ReWind tree, we've contributed code for a DIB renderer, and the Shared Memory WineServer.
Overall, we've contributed tens of thousands of lines of code under Open Source license term.
In particular, our DCOM, RPC, and WIDL work - required for use of InstallShield based installer - is extremely substantial work, and we are actively continuing to contribute that work to Wine and ReWind. We have probably spent as much engineering efforts on this as we have on our closed source Direct3D support.
If you want to see some of what we've contributed, just browse the wine-devel and wine-patches mailing lists.
-Gav
Gavriel State, Co-CEO & CTO
TransGaming Technologies Inc
Most people aren't willing to "leave their comfort zone" and just go Linux, and I'd say that most of them (that were willing to try Linux in the first place, but not stay) are gamers.
If you're a PC gamer, don't whine about Linux not working for you... stick to Windows. Most friends I know use their PC as an appliance. It lets them talk on Aim and play games.
I never understood people's missionary attempts to "recruit" people to Linux. Who cares? Stick with what you like, try something else when you get tired of it.
DrPascal: Not the language, the mathematician.
First of all, don't feed the trolls. Second of all, that's fine and dandy if you've got four up-to-date computers, one of which you can dedicate exclusively to Windows. I, on the other hand, use one computer because:
1) I pay my own electric bill
2) I don't have the floor space for more than one computer
3) It's hard enough hauling ONE computer back and forth from school
4) I already have lots of RAM, a good CPU, and a fast video card in my Linux desktop machine. I'm not going to pump more money into a second computer with lots of RAM, a good CPU, and a good video card when I already have one. Likewise, I'm not going to run my Linux desktop apps on a slower second computer because I've already got all the apps I like on a computer that runs them fast and efficiently. Besides, I'm not getting a second computer for the other reasons above.
So, as it is I do a lot of rebooting so I can play the games that don't run in WineX. However, I'd like to keep that rebooting to a minimum so that I don't have to switch back whenever it's time to listen to MP3s, surf the web, check my email, or God forbid get some productive work done. Hence, I spend $5 for a WineX binary which runs at least half of my favorite games almost perfectly, without the need to reboot. And my electric bill is maneagable. Sounds like a good deal to me.