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Fragging on Linux and TransGaming
Kez writes "HEXUS.net has an article looking at the current state of Linux gaming and the broad number of supported games both natively and through emulation. Included in the article is a chat with the Product Manager of TransGaming - the creators of Cedega (formerly known as WineX.)" From the article: "Well, Linux certainly isn't most peoples' thought for a games-based PC. Especially one being taken to a big tournament LAN party. However, by design or trickery, none of the tournament games at the event were out-of-bounds to my Linux machine, and rousing games of Call of Duty, Quake 2 and Unreal Tournament 2004 were shared by the HEXUS.net collective and any other gamers who felt like joining in." We ran a story about a similar article back in February.
http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews/review_print. php?dXJsX3Jldmlld19JRD0xMDEx
Cube is worth checking out, runs nicely in Linux, and also on the PC so your linux-lorn friends can check it out to. Lots of fraggin' going on there.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
This one seems written by somebody who knows his way around the landscape.
Here is a link for games that run on linux. You can check out the high end and low end games listing.
fuvoo: watch something
I've actually found that the Linux version of UT2004 actually runs a bit better under Linux than under windows. I think it has something to do with the way windows allocates virtual memory; when I run under windows, the game eventually starts stuttering as windows valiantly tries to compensate for my woefully small amount of RAM; under Linux, it seems to keep chugging along just fine.
TransGaming is both insulting since it references transubstantiation (Catholic cultism) and transexualism (disgusting liberal plot). We, the righteous OSS community need to boycott these heretics.
It's because of apps like this no-one wants to adopt Linux as a gaming platform. The road will be long and hard but we must stop buying stuff like this and also stop buying Windows games, only when the companies realise there is a genuine market for Linux games will there be any progress. I can hold out, can you?
I've noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born - Ronald Reagan
I see the usual suspects again rear their heads: Quake 3, UT2004, etc, etc, etc. Love Linux on a server, as a games machine you've got to ask yourself why you're ponying up cash for a graphics card that is only going to be used by a handful of games. And if you're such a gamer that Cedega is a must for you, why are you even bothering to screw around with a kludge when you could just dual boot. I guess I'm just not hardcore enough to be that much of a purist that I'd jump through so many damned hoops just to be MS free. I enjoy having access to a huge library of games, and I really enjoy not having to deal with botched textures and subpar performance just to make sure it runs on my pet OS. I'm a gamer first and foremost, and in this day and age that means Microsoft.
FTA:
Q: Which Linux distributions cause the most headaches for your support people? Which ones Just Work? And which one do you use yourself, given the choice?
A: Currently I would have to say Gentoo causes the most support requests. With bleeding edge packages and a million and one different configurations in how you can use it, Gentoo has the most support requests by far.
I wonder if this is true for other packages out there. (This comes from me being a gentoo user)
First Loki is mentioned in the article, in a way that seems to imply that they would be more successful today thanks to the larger installed base (which sounds plausable). That said, it made me think of something. What about Aspyr? They seem to specialize in porting Windows games to the Mac. If they are doing that (which would probably require moving the games to OpenGL and OpenAL if they don't use 'em already), then shouldn't it be a quick walk from there to Linux? Seems like as long as you are moving platforms, the little extra effort for the increased market share you can sell to seems like a good idea.
Second is Tux Racer. Why do these articles always mention Tux Racer. It was cute that it existed 5 years ago, but the last time I tried it (a year to so ago) it still seemed amaturish (not bad, just simple and not as polished as a "real" game). It just doesn't seem like it should be an example that is trotted out every time one of these articles comes out.
Too bad we can't just get more people to use OpenGL and OpenAL/SDL/whatever in the first place so things no NEED full ports to be sellable on Linux/BSD/OS X/whatever. If MS were to somehow lose 20%+ market share quickly, the scramble to move these Windows only programs to other OSes would be fun to watch.
Last but not least... why do I have to pay so much? I moved from PC to Mac and would have to rebuy all my games. The data files are where most of your money is tied up. Write portable, and sell one box with one DVD that works on Win/Lin/Mac. Or just sell a Windows version and when the Linux/Mac version are ready make the files freely downloadable so anyone with a Windows copy run under Linux/Mac.
If (seemingly) every big console game can come out on all three consoles within a year (usually at the same time), then surely you can launch a computer game that runs on the big 3 OSes (Win, Lin, Mac) without 2+ year porting times. The difference between a Mac and a Linux box are MUCH MUCH SMALLER than between a Cube and a PS2.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
The article really should have mentioned Garage Games. Marble Blast and Gish are two of the funnest games I've ever played. If a good game to you is based on eye-candy, then this isn't the place for you. But if a good game is based on game-play, these were the best $20 I've ever spent.
"My girlfriend's got sodium laureth sulfate hair."
I've actually found that the Linux version of UT2004 actually runs a bit better under Linux than under windows.
That is so true! For some reason, Linux version of UT2004 takes a huge performance hit in Windows.
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -David Hume
It's because of apps like this no-one wants to adopt Linux as a gaming platform.
Not true. If that would be true, game developers would take care that the games runs in Wine/Cedega. They are not - the linux market is not important. If the market would matter, the game developers would use stuff that is easily portable (OpenGL, SDL), if they are not limited by the enviroment (for example the need to use a DirectDraw gfx engine).
The only game I can think of that took care of wine compatibility and had no native linux version was Master Of Orion III. If your argument ("no one develops for linux because of wine") would be true, there would be far more games like that.
Offhand, I know that 1, 2, 3, and 5 work. I'd have to look up WoW.
MOUNT TAPE U1439 ON B3, NO RING
I'm working on DirectX 9 for vanila wine, you can checkout the current version from my website. There's another update going up in a few days as well as instructions on patching the wine tree.
The current state of play is more-or-less everything works except shaders (because I haven't ported them from d3d8 yet), the current version has some texture problems, the fix will be in the next release.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
Most people i know have tried cegega and aren't impressed. they claim it's both tough to install and even harder to configure correctly.
i haven't tried cedega myself, but a simple apt-get install wine has worked perfectly on most systems i use.
Keep the faith, share the code
To an old-timer like me "fragging" meant killing your squad leader (typically a lieutenant) in Vietnam usually either for getting someone busted for smoking pot (or similar), or insisting on going on dangerous patrols (which usually were pointless.)
But, hey, now KIA is a car brand but to me it still means "Killed In Action", not the most attractive name for a car.
I played Max Payne 2 all the way through at 1280x1024 with almost all detail options on and it ran like a dream. Not a single crash, the FPS was great, and it felt native. In fact if I didn't know and saw someone playing it, I would have guessed it was native. I usually prefer native games but if WineX can deliever even a few top notch games that will never be ported to Linux (political/busines reasons), then I'd call it a success. I mean, if they can get 10 games to run like that on Linux, thats like a 100% increase in recent high quality games from the platform. (not counting old Loki stuff, its way to out of date)
I'm a gamer and I've used Linux exclusively for work since 1997 and have always booted into my Winetendo partition for games. Not having to do that to play a game as good as Max Payne 2 is great.
Those of you clamoring "native or nothing", good luck. There has been no significant rise in native ports for years. We get 1 or 2 big titles thats it. So, if WineX can deliver 1 or 2 more a year, thats fine with me.
If there was a gaming console based on linux tech (openGL, SDL, Linux the OS, etc), then games could be easily cross-ported to the linux PC I would think, a bit like XBOX and Windows...
I think that a linux console would be the single best way to slap the world and jump-start linux native gaming. To most ordinary folk, the OS running under the hood wouldn't matter - as a console, it would be: load the dvd, turn on...
dahlek (will you squirm when you are pecked
Thanks. :)
It's good to know that work is being done to provide a free DirectX alternative to Cedega. After all, where would Transgaming be without the Wine Project? I think the Wine folks deserve more respect. Transgaming hasn't been good about returning code to the community; they are more interested in getting subscriptions.
Much thanks goes to Oliver for his efforts in implementing DirectX 9 for the free software community; I will be sure to check your patch out!
Long live free software... down with domination by proprietors! ;)
> You don't understand flightsimmers: we need realism.
You're lying. Flightgear is ultra-realistic. The military uses it in their flight simulators. You know why it's hard to fly? Because you have to know what you're doing. Flying a real plane is not as simple as turning it on and moving a joystick. Flightgear is a true flight simulator, not a fun game to play.
My other car is first.
Simply put, no.
Most of what Transgaming uses from Wine is from when Wine used the X11 license (last such release was 20020228). Wine now uses the LGPL. There has been some work (ReWind) integrating patches from developers willing to double-license their patches under the old X11 license as well, but that fork is mostly dead now.
If you actually read the EULA for Cedega, you'll notice that they say that some of the work they distribute is under the LGPL, some other under the Artistic license, etc. So they actually use (as per the LGPL) some parts of Wine. I don't know exactly which ones are under which license, you'd have to look that up yourself.
Transgaming still have a freely accessible cvs server. I haven't checked it out since a long time ago, but if you want to see which parts are under which license, I guess that'd be a good place to start.
Each dll can be replaced on an individual basis, so it's very conceivable that it can be under a different license, even if distributed together. The best proof for that (except for things like kernel32 and ntdll) is that you can use the native (Windows) versions instead of the builtin ones (Wine/Cedega).
I don't have a list of what they contributed either, but I believe the current DCOM work (mostly needed for Installshield support, but also other things) is based on a patch sent by Ove Kåven about two years ago. The Marlett font which comes with Wine is also their work. Of course, don't expect any patches from them which touches DirectX or copy protection.
I hate to admit this, but gaming is the sole reason myself and alot of people I know haven't switched completely to linux. While their are alot of games that are "playable" under Linux/Wine, the bottom line is that performace wise, they don't match up to a Windows system. I don't blame the Open Source community for this, in fact I don't really blame anyone. But as long as people, read geeks, don't get equal or superior game performance in linux, they are always going to have a Windows system laying around.
My sig of choice is Marlboro
While it's always good to see some games from genres other than FPS come up when Linux gaming is discussed there is still a huge gap there.
Of the 10 games I have installed on my Win32 machine right now only 2 of them fall into the FPS genre. That leaves 80% of the games that I normally would expect to play out of what most people would think of in terms of Linux gaming.
I'll grant that some of the the games could be run in WINE and even one of them, good ol NWN, is directly supported. However if gaming on Linux is to become the reality I think that it should not be so one sided as to expect that people will switch just because of FPS games.
Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
You don't understand flightsimmers: we need realism.n esis_3000_Overview.html
By what you describe Flightgear is too realistic for you. You are looking for something like this:
http://phoenixosfs.org/
http://targetware.net/
Also, I have a large console (yoke, switching, throttle, prop control, mixture) that only works with MS FS2004.
Oh, Im impressed. How do you think does that compare to this:
http://www.flightgear.org/Projects/Genesis3000/Ge
Seconed, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is a gem of a game. The objective based and role based team play is better than anything else out there imho. You'll get bored with counter strice, but never with ET! :)
//TheToon
I occasionally use X on MS Windows as well - and a decently written X server works quickly there too even on slow hardware. The wrong video driver options can stuff you up anywhere, not just on X, so that can slow things down.
DOSEMU stands for DOS Emulation, and allows you to run DOS and many DOS programs, including many DPMI applications such as DOOM and Windows 3.1, under Linux.
DOSBox is a DOS-emulator that uses the SDL-library which makes DOSBox very easy to port to different platforms. DOSBox has already been ported to many different platforms, such as Windows, BeOS, Linux, MacOS X...
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Joseph Farthing
http://josephfarthing.com