THE Sadness

[raijinsetsu]

I had finally decided to try Linux on my gaming PC again, as it was reported that support for games in Wine/Cedega has improved since the last time I used it.
However, I was greatly disappointed ;(
I don't play many mainstream games, so no one is working on fixes for them.
I had fun getting my sound to work, and then getting my graphics cards to run in SLI mode. I just enjoyed the setup.
But, then I couldn't do anything with it. My favorite media player (VLC) has some sort of bug in x86-64 that no one can help me with. Wine and Cedega still have a long way to go before they're viable for everyday usage. I could only play Diablo 2, and I couldn't convert my QuickBooks files to Gnucash, or even a spread-sheet. And there were some stability issues when using OpenGL.
So, I'm back to Windows on my gaming PC...

It makes me sad because it ran so nicely, when it ran.

My file-server is still running Linux though. I don't trust windows to safe-guard my data. It's just for games.

[vexorian]

Wine and Cedega still have a long way to go before do they? I mean, are you sure it wasn't just some giberish because of copy protection?

[raijinsetsu]

I'm sure of it. Most of the games I play don't have copy protection. The one that did, worked fine.

[tigerpants]

Horses for courses. Using linux to run windows games is like banging a square peg into a round hole, with a cricket bat. I never understand why people spend so much time trying to get windows games to run in linux - use windows, save yourself the pain.

Cedega is just awful, and its marketing is pure false hope. Linux is not a windows gaming platform, lets just all accept that and buy a console. Or dual boot windows.

[A3sthetix]

I agree and disagree with you tigerpants. I think it's necessary to push the abilities of Linux. Gaming and graphics are key areas to improve the acceptance of Linux. The more people test and report issues, the more the community will progress.

Maybe a specialized OS for gaming is necessary, but it's a pain. I would love to just use Linux all the time, but I just can't run some apps on it without grief. Also, I can't afford a console gaming system at the moment.

[WanderingKnight]

But, then I couldn't do anything with it. My favorite media player (VLC) has some sort of bug in x86-64 that no one can help me with.

What does VLC provide that mplayer doesn't? As far as I can tell, VLC has terribly bad rendering of softsubs. Seriously, what functionality does VLC provide you over mplayer?

[raijinsetsu]

What does VLC provide that mplayer doesn't? As far as I can tell, VLC has terribly bad rendering of softsubs. Seriously, what functionality does VLC provide you over mplayer?

VLC provides support for every format I've found, except proprietary formats. Also, it's "Browse Files" screen is a standard(GTK?) window, unlike mplayer which is unmanageable for me. Lastly, I'm comfortable with how the settings work, and I like the variety of settings.

And I never use softsubs...

[bobbybobington]

My experience with wine has always been pretty bad, the user interface and ease of use is either terrible or non-existent. But I keep on hearing people use wine or cadega like it was a piece of cake. I'm I right or am I stupid and missing something obvious? Is cadega at least tolerable to just use compared to wine?

[tehkain]

I agree and disagree with you tigerpants. I think it's necessary to push the abilities of Linux. Gaming and graphics are key areas to improve the acceptance of Linux. The more people test and report issues, the more the community will progress. Yes gaming and graphics are key issues - just not windows gaming and graphics. We need to embrace ut3 and other games that release gnu/linux version. Wine is nice but building a system around it is faulty. This is why ubuntu does not include it by default. There are native apps for just about everything and the few things we do not have covered is where the focus needs to go. Instead of trying to get the windows versions to run flawlessly.

Another things about wine - the project is amazing but as we know it will never be complete since windows and its sub systems change every day. So they are fighting a good fight, but one that will never have a true victory like silverlight.

Worry less about getting windows games to run on linux - worry more about getting gnu/linux games made. Rally behind those who make games for our platform. If need be kill WinPC gaming by buying a non MS console.

To release a game on Consoles, Mac, and Gnu/linux is trivial if the goal is there. To release games for Consoles(including xbox360) and DXWinPC is vastly harder, and requires alot of redundant work.

[happysmileman]

I agree and disagree with you tigerpants. I think it's necessary to push the abilities of Linux. Gaming and graphics are key areas to improve the acceptance of Linux.

Yeah exactly, and what do you achieve when you but Windows games and try to play them on Linux, nothing, except another sale of a Windows game, one more person who, according to the games manufacturers and salespeople are using Windows.

Linux itself doesn't have a flaw in it that stops people playing games, and it's no worse a gaming platform than Windows, peoploe need to make it clear that it's not up to the users or Cedega/Wine developers to make games work on Linux, it's up to the game developers.

Everytime someone buys Windows software and tries to use it on Linux they are directly distorting statistics in favour of Microsoft and making sure that it doesn't seem profitable to develop for Linux.

And if you want to play a game that is made for Windows, it's highly likely that you're going to need Windows, stop blaming Cedega/Wine developers and start blaming Microsoft and the game developers.

[/rant]

EDIT: Grrr... tehkain beat me to it

[raijinsetsu]

The ultimate goal for linux should be to have a gaming platform. HOWEVER, software companies have already invested millions(billions??) of dollars in Microsoft development software. This means, that we need a foot hold. This means that some company is going to have to see that it's worth their while to make games cross-platform (we won't see linux-only games until everyone figures out Vista is crap).

I am currently in the process of making a game for linux, but it's slow work. In the interim, I think it helps our case(that gaming is for linux too) if we show people that even Windows-only games will run on Linux. We can show developers that most of the tools needed to port their games to this platform are already in place, and just need some help.