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On Cedega 4.0 And Windows Gaming

Posted by simoniker on from the glass-half-empty dept.

An anonymous reader writes "There's a new ExtremeTech article discussing the state of WineX/Cedega on Linux as it relates to Windows gaming. The article suggest: 'As an operating system, Linux has many things to recommend it over Windows. Gaming, alas, is not one of them... We tried Cedega out on three different distributions (and with a bunch of games). The results were decidedly mixed.'"

10 of 34 comments (clear)

  1. WOW! by will.murnane · · Score: 4, Insightful

    gasp! surprise! wineX doesn't run games as well as windows! imo, wineX hurts the cause of developers, who can point to it and say "that's why we didn't develop a linux client! see, it runs!" if noone develops games for linux, noone plays games on linux. repeat. don't use or support wineX if you're interested in linux gaming.

    1. Re:WOW! by foidulus · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think the real reason that most companies don't develop Linux ports is that companies probably think that there really isn't a big enough audience that runs Linux exclusively. Most hardcore gamers will dual boot for games. It's a pain in the ass, but hardcore gamers are willing to do it.
      If you want linux gaming, write to the companies, and get others to do so, saying that you are interested in their product, but will not be purchasing it unless they release a linux port.

  2. hmm by DaveJay · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It seems odd that they would pick only games and demos that are NOT officially supported by Cedega.

    1. Re:hmm by Rallion · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well, it serves a purpose to do so. I have no reason to even have Linux installed, ATM, since between 10-minute /. sessions, I'm just gaming (If I'm in front of the machine at all). In order to even justify the hard drive space for a Linux install, I'd need to be able to play a lot of games on it, and more than the ones Cedega officially supports. I know the supported ones run, at least, they'd damn well better. It's the unsupported ones that are worth a look.

  3. Wine & WineX are nice, but... by Lisandro · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...do we really need to focus so much effort on emulating Windows on Linux? Don't get me wrong, Wine/WineX it's cool, and i've used Wine to run specialized software unavailable on Linux (like EE software).

    But when you talk Wine, 99% of the time you're talking games. Wine is cool, but most modern games don't run well at all on it; i just prefer keeping a Windows partition handy, or playing native Linux games (which is much better. Games tend to fly on linux). They won't run well anytime soon either, as Wine is always playing catch-up. It's no coincidence that all games that play 100% correctly are at least a couple years old.

    I say this because people expect Linux to do *everything* better, even running games for another OS! It's simple, if you want to play the latest Windows game like it should, keep a Windows partition handy. Linux versions are becoming more common lately, but in the meantime, that's the only way to go.

    1. Re:Wine & WineX are nice, but... by mahdi13 · · Score: 4, Insightful
      It's simple, if you want to play the latest Windows game like it should, keep a Windows partition handy.
      Oh yes, that's SO SIMPLE!
      News flash: Not everyone has/runs Windows. It may come pre-installed with new machines but some people skipped the middle man and built their machines. Some people can't afford to pay for a copy of Windows (and refuse to pirate). And some people just don't want to run Windows at all

      There is NOTHING wrong with running Windows games on Linux with an "application layer", it doesn't hurt your system and it DOESN'T hurt Linux. Some people are not Frame Per Second junkies and don't mind a few quirks, bonus if it works 100%
      Game companies will not decide to port to Linux because "It runs with WineX", that is an excuse (if they actually say this, I've never heard it). If companies want to port to Linux they WILL. We have Epic and id as very strong backers of cross platform games, and more are following.

      Linux games will not be an over night 'killer app', but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy some things. Having Windows on a second hard drive or partition is not an option for everyone.
      --
      "Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson
    2. Re:Wine & WineX are nice, but... by Lisandro · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, if that's the case; tough luck. Really. Want to play Windows games? Buy Windows. It's not that Wine kills FPS (it doesn't - as a matter of fact), 80% of the games won't run AT ALL. It boils down to that.

      Look, i'm not bitching about Wine. It's an impressive piece of software, and God knows it made my life easier more than once. But people like to throw a fit when their *WINDOWS* games don't run properly on *LINUX* - i mean, what did you expect? It's emulation software, for a platform that's a moving target. It will never run as good as the real thing under those circumstances.

      Like you said, Epic and iD are doing a great job supporting Linux games, and more are following. In the meantime, if you like gaming, you're more or less forced to have a Windows partiton somewhere. It sucks, but that's how it is.

    3. Re:Wine & WineX are nice, but... by miyako · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think your completely off base here, I'll use myself as a counter example. Every machine I own is x86 hardware running Linux (except my Laptop, wich is an iBook running OS X). I have 1 fairly high-end machine I use as my primary desktop machine. A Pentium 4 1.9gz with 3GB ram and a GeForce FX 5900. Now lets say it's a few months from now and the Doom 3 Linux client is available, so I decide I'd like to play it. For $50 I can go out and buy the game, download the Linux client (AFAIK the Doom 3 Linux client will be much like the NWN Linux Client, buy the windows version and then use an installer downloaded from the net to install on Linux). Now I'm playing Doom 3.
      Total Cost to me, a reasonable $50 and about an hour of time invested (driving to the store, back, installation).
      Now let's say ID decided not to release a Linux version of Doom 3, but I still really want to play it. Now I have to go Buy doom 3 for $50, plus a version of Windows, we'll say $80 for WinXP Home. Now I need to buy a new hard drive, say $50 for the cheapest drive I could find. Unfortunately now I also need to get an IDE controller card, since all the IDE slots on my computer are already being used ($20 should do for something not great but ok), Now I have to make sure this IDE card doesn't screw up my Linux installation. Now if I don't want to go that route I'm going to have to back up an entire drive in my Linux box, since Windows will eat a Linux parition. So I'm going to have to install Windows and then restore all my data that I backed up. Now when I boot into windows I need to make sure I'm off the net and download all the windows security patches, and while I'm doing that I probably need to buy an antivirus package to make sure I don't get turned into a spam relay.
      Now how rediculous does it sound to not be able to afford (money and time wise) XP Home but be able to pay for a legit copy of a game?

      --
      Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
  4. Got to wonder.. by Turn-X+Alphonse · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why anyone who would be using Linux (Not you're average media following monkey), without knowing this? I've never run Linux (will change next box though) and even I know this.

    Next people will be complaining that MS Word doesn't run on Linux. Software is designed to work for a system, it works on that system. It's like trying to put a free into a desert and expecting it to grow..

    --
    I like muppets.
  5. Linux games are starting to come by agraupe · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Doom 3 will have a linux client, UT2004 has a linux client, Neverwinter Nights has a linux client, and that isn't to mention all the good F/OSS games developed for linux. I have a gaming PC that runs only Windows, and I use it to play windows-only games. It works fine, and I can still play some of my favorites on linux. It is clear, IMO, that we should patiently wait for linux games, as they will come, and use Windows or consoles in the meantime.