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?"

Comments

WINE

[ChupaThePirate]

does that mean that wine is now an emulator? ;-O

New era

[PhilippeT]

Will we see a new era of game compatibilty

Or a new era of litigation

Too bad

[Anonymous Coward]

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?

Re:Too bad

[strange_harlequin]

To be entirely fair, Transgaming didn't force gentoo to pull the packages, they asked them to pull the packages and gave their reasons. The gentoo developers respected that and complied.

You (and I) may disagree with Transgaming's reasons, but saying that they "forced" gentoo to pull the packages is unfairly implying harsh measures on Transgaming's part.

Re:Too bad

[xoran99]

Just because you can't emerge it doesn't mean it can't be installed the old fashioned way, right?

Re:Too bad

[gspr]

I understand what you're saying, but Gentoo hasn't pulled all WineX packages from Portage. Transgaming forced them to remove the packages that fetched the open part of WineX from CVS and built it. If you are a Transgaming subscriber and use their binaries, there are still ebuilds for you.
I see your point though.

Re:Too bad

[srwalter]

Transgaming only forced Gentoo to remove links to their CVS archive, which is publicly accessible. Their business model is based upon selling subscriptions to end users who want their product. The CVS repository is only there for developers, and they encourage developers to use it. Transgaming's argument is that having an ebuild that pulls from their CVS undermines their business model by giving end-users a free (as in beer) option to get releases.

Now, if they really wanted to be jerks, they could have just shut down their public CVS access. Seems to me, however, that politely asking (they didn't sue or anything) Gentoo to remove the ebuilds in question was a much nicer alternative. Could you explain what's wrong with this, exactly?

Re:Too bad

[Anonymous Coward]

Too bad they didn't do "functionally the same thing" - if you'd taken the trouble to have a browse through Wine's source code, you'd see a slew of contributions from Transgaming.

This is *my* observation, and *directly* related to the parent in the interests of clearing up an instant judgement/misconception.

Re:Too bad

[SQLz]

The main problem was that people were downloading the CVS version (which did not contain any of the main features of WineX) and then giving others the wrong idea about WineX, namely that it didn't work. Not to mention, CVS is a developers tool for version control, not a method of mass distribution.

Hardly any games ran with the CVS version at all anyway. You need the commerical version to do anything.

Re:Too bad

[Anonymous Coward]

"And also ask them why BSD is much better than GPL :->"

Because BSD is truely free.

It doesn't impose any moral obligations to you. It tells you that you would do well for yourself by contributing back, but we are not going to force you to be nice.

Its like gifts to family members. Your aunt buys you a crappy sweater for your birthday, and for the next 10 years, every time you see your aunt you are obligated to wear it. Wrong size? Too bad. You can't take it back. You can't get your money for it and get something you really want.

Too many people are too damn selfish.

The GPL is the same. Its *VERY* selfish. Its giving a gift and then telling you that you have to wear it everytime the gift giver comes around.

Rationally a gift should be given because you want to give it. If someone doesn't like it or wants to give it to someone else or just get the money and buy crack with it, who the fuck cares. Once you have given it away, your obligation is over and you should have inner peace knowing you did the right thing.

BSD doesn't force you to take on a religion to use their code. It doesn't ask that you vote in the next election in one way or the other. It doesn't tell you Santa Claus doesn't really exist, nor does it require you to crucifix an easter bunny every spring. It gives you a gift and says see that I am doing right by giving this to you and please do the same, but I'm not holding you to the same ethical standards that I hold myself.

Are their instances this can be abused?

Gawd no...you've fullfiled your obligations and while some morally retarded motherfuckers would claim that if even one doesn't follow your lead, you are taking your ball and going home. How is that a choice??? There can be no instances of abuse when you expect nothing out of the other person.

In a sense, it is the most perfect license there is.

Then again, I love GPL for my own stuff...it means competitors can't work against me. They can't release a product of mine and add new features and not give them back to me. Its free development work. And as I'm still considered the expert in my field, folks still buy my consulting from me and the few times a competitor has used my work against me, it only took a fews to surpass what they had done because they really didn't understand the theory behind the practice.

I'm no enlightened hippy, so I do what I can to protect myself. But I going to give all the respect to those that are willing to give with all their hearts and not look back. Maybe one of these days I will be...but not yet...for now, I'll hang with the commies -- and I mean commies as in the rule of Stalin -- because their iron fists protects my livelyhood.

Re:Too bad

[gaijin99]

I think you're misinterperating, and making a C&D sound nicer than it is. A C&D is not a polite request to stop, it is a statement that if you do not immediately comply with their demands then they will sue you. Essentially its a threat, not a request. When you get threatened by a corporation known to use lawsuits to crush competition, not to mention a legal budget that is bigger than you really want to think about, I'd argue that its different from getting a non-threat letter saying "would you please stop that? Here's why we don't want you to keep doing this".

Am I the only one that thinks that many corporate giants are not evil's kinsmen and don't ride a pale horse, and occasionally get things correct?

I don't think that they're evil necessarially, but they are powerful, and mostly uncontrolled. If you get in the way of their profits they will do everything they can to crush you (see entries under MS's use of SCO against Linux for a nice example). That isn't evil, any more than its evil for a polar bear to eat a penguin. But the penguins don't like it.

To totally sidetrack, and leave animal analogies behind, I simply think that corporate power is being alowed to run amok, the current trend towards more and bigger mergers is probably a bigger threat to capitalism than communism ever dreamed of being. I view any concentration of power as a potential threat to individual liberties. Government concentrations of power were pretty closely monitored (until 9/11 and the USA PATRIOT act anyway, these days it seems as if anything goes), but corporate power is largely ignored by those who worry about liberty; despite the fact that corporations can trounce your liberties as much as the government can. On a total side note, I'll add that corporations aren't the only group to worry about, guilds, unions, etc are also potential threats. A group has more power than an individual, thus any group can *potentially* be a threat to individual liberty. There are occasional extremely powerful individuals, but they're the exception not the rule. I'm not a fear case who goes around seeing threats to my liberty everywhere, I just have a healthy degree of concern.

Re:Too bad

[gaijin99]

Since its the Lesser GPL, they have a bit more leeway. Under section 2 of the LGPL they must distribute all modifications to the LGPLed libraries under the LGPL, but they are allowed to simply use the LGPLed libraries alongside closed source work. Additionally, until March 2002 WINE was distributed under the MIT license [1], so as long as they never used any post March 2002 WINE code they'd be perfectly free to modify and not release their changes.

Brad

[1] Side note to the snarky BSD poster: which is basically the same as the 3-clause BSD license. So much for the inate superiority of the BSD license, huh? Not that I don't like the BSD license, but claiming that its a panacea is just so much nonesense. I think the world needs both licenses, personally.

Re:Too bad

[Turmio]

Wine hasn't been under the LGPL from the beginning (which dates far far back to the 90's). WineX is derived from Wine from the era it was still licensed under the X11 license that allows this. The main Wine tree was re-licensed under LGPL partly due to TransGaming's actions (they promised to contribute all their changes back to the main Wine tree but they didn't) and some of the Wine developers wanted to prevent similar from happening from in the future and thus they changed the license to LGPL under which, as you stated, that couldn't happen. Not all developers agreed that Wine should be under LGPL so another fork, ReWind was made that continues to use the X11 license. Interesting is that the LGPL'ed main tree can pull patches from ReWind but not vice-versa. Most contributors to Wine however dual-license their patches so that both trees can benefit from the efforts (and also WineX since TransGaming can use source from the ReWind tree if they want to).

Re:Too bad

[silicon not in the v]

That isn't evil, any more than its evil for a polar bear to eat a penguin. But the penguins don't like it.

Don't say penguins preciousss. It hurts us, yes it doesss. Say...shark eats fish--yessss, nice fisssshhhh.

Re:Too bad

[sydb]

That isn't evil, any more than its evil for a polar bear to eat a penguin. But the penguins don't like it.

Not evil, but definitely unlikely.

Polar Bears - Arctic. Penguins - Antarctic!

Re:Support Codeweavers

[Anonymous Coward]

"The issue of contributing back to the community always shadows every open-source project. Transgaming does contribute back, but there are restrictions. You can see them in the statement from Transgaming's webpage:

"The source code to TransGaming WineX (minus copy protection related code, for now) is available through VA Linux's SourceForge website. You can examine and modify it to your heart's content, you can watch the changes we make as we go, and you can participate in detailed development discussions on our mailing list. The only thing you can't do is redistribute WineX code for any commercial purpose. The WineX code is licensed under the Aladdin Free Public License, which prohibits commercial use of our work. If you wish to use WineX commercially, please contact our sales team to arrange for alternative licensing arrangements.

Once we have reached our subscription goals, we plan to release all of the WineX source code under the Wine license, which will allow it to be directly integrated with the core Wine project code hosted at www.winehq.com. Until then, we will periodically submit selected portions of our code for integration with the Wine project.""

Saw it yesterday

[ktulu1115]

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. :)

Will we see a new era of game compatibilty?

[neilmoore67]

Will we see a new era of game compatibilty?

Yes, as soon as games are compatible with platforms other than Windows, not before.

Impressive, but...

[91degrees]

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?

Re:Impressive, but...

[noselasd]

Just about any game I've run using winex starts fullscreen, and
the games usually allows one to set the resolution.

Re:Support Codeweavers

[etymxris]

The only thing you can't do is redistribute WineX code for any commercial purpose.

That's not software libre.

Once we have reached our subscription goals, we plan to release all of the WineX source code under the Wine license, which will allow it to be directly integrated with the core Wine project code hosted at www.winehq.com.

Yeah, they've been saying that they were going to release everything from the beginning. Remember the beginning? As soon as they got enough money, they were going to distribute it for free for everyone. Well, after many bought into that, the promise changed. They liked making a profit. Nothing wrong with that, but people don't like being deceived, even when the initial promises are so ill conceived.

Shared Wineserver

[meridian]

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.

Re:Shared Wineserver

[Papineau]

Currently, there's only one wineserver process launched to serve all Wine threads for a given user. What happens though, is that there are at least two context switches for each request to the wineserver. A shared memory wineserver architecture allow a Wine thread to access some data without any context switch, by only reading part of the shared memory of the wineserver. Thus the speed increase.

At the last Wineconf in January, Gavriel State (of Transgaming) showed a short demo of American McGee's Alice with a partial shared memory wineserver, and the increase in the fps was about two fold (yes, double of what it was with the current design).

Re:Shared Wineserver

[Joel Carr]

At the last Wineconf in January, Gavriel State (of Transgaming) showed a short demo of American McGee's Alice with a partial shared memory wineserver, and the increase in the fps was about two fold (yes, double of what it was with the current design).

Just thought I'd mention that this game is one of the corner cases that is drastically affected by reducing the number of context switches. A shared memory wineserver would not automatically give this sort of performance boost to any game/application. Not that you were implying it would, but just so people know.

---

New Era? Probably Not

[illuminata]

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.

A couple of questions...

[StressGuy]

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,

Re:A couple of questions...

[adam.skinner]

I set up MDK10 w/ cvswinex for my daughter's computer. She was able to run Pajama Sam, but not a couple of her other games. So it's pretty much a crap shoot when seeing if a game is going to work with winex or not. However, that's not to say that we haven't seen significant improvements with Winex 4.

Btw, if you want to get cvswinex up and running, follow the instructions at linuX-gamers.net

Re:A couple of questions...

[ecliptik]

I run (and pay) for both of these, and they do work well together. Transgaming wine's binary is 'winex3', soon to be winex4 more than likey, and Codeweavers Crossover's binary is just plain 'wine'.

I am using Debian unstable, and installed winex with their provided .deb and Crossover with ther install sh/rpm package.

Both wonderful projects and make my GNU/Linux use almost seamless with windows progs.

They forgot to mention...

[__aahlyu4518]

"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....

Is it ok?

[Apreche]

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.

Re:Is it ok?

[mahdi13]

Yes, it $15 for the first 3 months (minimum) and $5/month afterwards.

You are free to cancel after those first 3 months anytime

You are free to browse and download as often as needed during that time. I don't have a copy of the license available, but I believe it is a per-user license. But I'm not sure...I have it on two of my machines at least

Re:For those wondering how to pronounce it...

[iapetus]

Ironic, really, since WineX makes Ports less likely...

Re:Just buy Windows you cheap asses !

[etymxris]

Seriously, instead of trying to get a buggy emulator to work why don't you just install the games on a Windows partition.

I know this is a troll, but it is a question many ask in earnest. The answer is simple. 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.

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

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:For those wondering how to pronounce it...

[CdBee]

So we're porting to wine instead of whining for ports?

Re:Support Codeweavers

[mahdi13]

Are you saying that the CVS is incomplete? The only code that is 'removed' from the CVS is the CD-Copy-Protection code that is licensed and they are not allowed to distribute in a 'free source code' manner...

Only the binaries that they distribute under their subscription includes this code. Is it so bad that
A) they are trying to make ends meet (pay the bills)
and
B) keeping themselves from getting sued out of exisitance?

Got it

[Dreadlord]

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.

Re:Support Wine

[Dave2 Wickham]

They have to release all of their changes to the WINE tree (under the LGPL - they use the current tree), and they do. They also hire developers to work on WINE, and this can get merged back into the public tree (depending on whether it's accepted into CVS).

Re:Too bad it's not

[Chris_Jefferson]

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

Re:What I don't get is...

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Just buy Windows you cheap asses !

[carnivore302]

I know this is a troll, but it is a question many ask in earnest

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.

Re:Support Codeweavers

[FuzzieNorn]

SO WHAT

So they promised to release it under the Wine License and then didn't. (incidentally, I'm a subscriber..)

Here's the slashdotted text

[Anonymous Coward]

[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

Re:City of Heroes?

[Morklebb]

Feel special.. New Features ============ Cedega 4.0 ---------- * TransGamers can now enjoy playing Battlefield Vietnam, City of Heroes, Star Wars Galaxies and Hitman: Contracts.

Re:Support Codeweavers

[SQLz]

I buy Codeweavers products. They give back to the community, unlike Transgaming.

Go to Wine website, download the full change log, and grep for @transagaming.com, then come back here and post an apology.

Re:How well does this work?

[gaijin99]

Depends on the games you consider critical. I subscribe, and it does let you play many of the newer games just fine. Warcraft III, etc. OTOH some of the less popular games don't work (Dungeon Keeper and DK 2, StarTopia, etc). If the game is an FPS or one of the other ultra-popular type games, than odds are that it will work, otherwise its a definate maybe.

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.

Yes, it does

[SilentReproach]

From the article:

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.

It's Slashdotted

[ciryon]

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

Re:Support Codeweavers

[dewke]

How is this "interesting"?

Transgaming gives back. You're free to download their cvs product, install it, play games. If that isn't "giving back" I don't know what is. Hell you can read the source code if you wanted to.

Oh, I get it, because you actually have to *pay* for the licensed version, that's not "giving back". Well, welcome to the real world. Everything is not free.

Re:Support Codeweavers

[AndrewRUK]

The only thing you can't do is redistribute WineX code for any commercial purpose.

While the license says that, consider what happened when Debian wanted to package it and include it in non-free. Transgaming asked Debian not to, with a threat to change the license to stop Debian distributing any future versions. Quoteth Gavriel State, Transgaming's CEO:

If Debian goes ahead and packages WineX despite our request, we will have to evaluate how that is affecting our financial situation, and determine whether we should change our license to restrict any future binary-packaged redistribution, regardless of commercial or non-commercial intent. It would certainly be our preference not to have to do so.

http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2002/05/msg02 463.html
Gentoo removed WineX for similar reasons.

New Win ZPI for Longhorn

[essreenim]

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? ...

Re:New Win ZPI for Longhorn

[Doogie5526]

WinFS actually sits on top of NTFS (for backwards compatibility)... and I also think this was one of the many new technologies that are planned to be dropped from Longhorn (which is still many many years away).

I think the point of this is to shut people up about, "The only reason I haven't switched is because I play games." After that, with more people on Linux, a Linux native version of a new game gets released, and it gains more support. Finally, more and more publishers look at making Linux versions.

Hopefully, this will be set in to action before Longhorn is released (you know, right after Duke Nukem Forever).

One more thing, I believe most games don't use too much anymore of the Windows API than the winmain() function (to run the app in windows). The rest is engine code or DirectX/OpenGL. So I doubt it will be that much of a problem when the day comes.

I'm pretty sure it's still spelled "Windows" and "Microsoft." If they did change the name to "Window$," I'm pretty sure there'd be a Slashdot story on it.

Re:Support Codeweavers

[Rushuru]

Alright

wget http://source.winehq.org/source/ChangeLog

I count 14826 changelog entries
$ grep @ ChangeLog | wc -l
14826

226 of which are from a transgaming employee
$ grep -i @transgaming.com ChangeLog | wc -l
226

And 1701 for codeweavers
$ grep -i @codeweavers.com ChangeLog | wc -l
1701

So Transgaming gave back a little after all. But not that much. I browsed the top transgaming changelog entries and they concerned relatively minor stuff, like fixes for alsa audio support.

Sorry but I'm still convinced that Transgaming has been a bad wine citizen (the fact that the licence permitted it doesn't change my opinion), and that they were deceiving the community when they said they'd give back everything to wine after they reach a certain number of subscribers. I guess they have reached that number since they have not yet filed for bankruptcy.

Re:Support Codeweavers

[Prior Restraint]

The question of whether GPL or BSD is more free depends on who we're talking about. BSD is more free if you're a developer, because you can basically do whatever you want with the source. The GPL is more free if you're an end-user, because you're always guaranteed not to get locked in to any particular developer to do your maintenance. It's apples and oranges.

Finally, the BSD license is not public domain, and people really need to stop making that rather ridiculous comparison. If you don't include the proper copyright notice, you are not allowed to redistribute BSD-licensed software.

I like your comment

[Programmer_In_Traini]

I like your comment...

why "serving" them with emulators so that they dont need to port the games ("hey, linuxuser, dont whine, you got wineX")?

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 ...dare i say....windows.

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 (?) :D

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.

Re:Support Codeweavers

[Fizzol]

They said they would realease the code when they reached 20,000 subscribers not once they had enough money. Last I heard they had 3,000 or 4,000 subscribers. Also the Wine license has changed since they made that promise.

Re:Support Codeweavers

[drinkypoo]

The GPL is not about the freedom of the user. The GPL is about the freedom of the software. For better or for worse it is intended not to benefit the users or the authors, but the software itself. The GPL keeps the software from being "caged" by an individual developer by forcing changes to be contributed back if the software is widely released.

The fact that the users of the software get all the source code is a side benefit.

Re:Support Wine

[Zardus]

Transgaming doesn't use the current tree, though. They started out way before Wine was changed to LGPL and when the change happened, forked Wine to Rewind to avoid the LGPL. Since then they've been using the Rewind sources.

I'm against what Transgaming is doing, but they are on sound legal footing open-source-wise, I think.

Re:Support Codeweavers

[dubious9]

Sorry but I'm still convinced that Transgaming has been a bad wine citizen (the fact that the licence permitted it doesn't change my opinion),

Transgaming is a commerical venture. They need to secure a line of income. They do this by restricting access to precompiled binaries, amoungst other things. To get it easily you have to pay a nominal subscription: $60 a year. Now that's not alot. Without this subscription they wouldn't have a profit model and would probably desinagrate.

Would you rather have them not do this venture at all? Or do you have another profit model that would alleviate what you criticize? For me the community benefits from their work: I can run Windows games under Linux. The OSS'ers may complain that they don't have full/libre access to the code, but if they had that, there wouldn't be a transgaming anyway. What do you want them to do?

and that they were deceiving the community when they said they'd give back everything to wine after they reach a certain number of subscribers. I guess they have reached that number since they have not yet filed for bankruptcy.

So just because they haven't yet, they're not going to? And they lied about it? Face it a pure software company just doesn't have a OSS profit model. Name one. Red Hat? Services, not software. Mozilla? Not a commerical entity, but backed by them. Come on, what would you have them do?

Re:Additional games support?

[xchino]

"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

TransGaming Wine Contributions

[gavriels]

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