Thinking of taking the plunge but am hesitant.

I am growing more tired of Vista each day, kinda considering trying Linux but would like to be able to play Crysis, Bioshock, MOHAA, DAOC and COD4.

Do any of the above games work in Linux/Wine etc ?

NettieZoom said:

I am growing more tired of Vista each day, kinda considering trying Linux but would like to be able to play Crysis, Bioshock, MOHAA, DAOC and COD4.

Do any of the above games work in Linux/Wine etc ?

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I dont think any of those programs will run under wine.

But you could always propose it as a future project HERE.

Even if they were supported by WIne, i dont think DX10 would be.

If Vista has tired you then I would just go back to XP for now.

cod4 single player will work under wine with relatively minor tweaking. If you search you can find a thorough guide. Multi player won't work because punkbuster doesn't like wine. There may or may not be a native linux client coming for cod4, as they did publish linux native server binaries. The rumor is that a client is in the works.

I have no experience with DAoC, but from what I've read the wine support is very spotty. Some people have tweaked enough to get it to work, so it is possible.

MOHAA has a native linux client, but can also be played through wine.

And finally Crysis and Bioshock - nope, no way to play those on linux yet. It is very common for brand new games to not work under wine.

Man, from first hand experience I can tell you that working with Wine is problematic. If you are pressed for time and want a complete gaming experience, gut Crapista and jump back to XP-Pro. With SP3 rumored to be out sometime next year, you know that MS are not ditching XP users.

I wouldn't call wine problematic, but it certainly isn't a replacement for Winblows. The biggest problem with wine IMO is that it can take from weeks to years before the development advances enough to work with some games and apps. Crysis for example, we likely won't see a version of wine that works well with it for quite a while.

Choosing to go strictly linux does limit one's gaming options. And if not for gaming, I would have no use for Windows at all anymore (well, other than I develop windows software all day so without MS I wouldn't have a job )

Linux still lacks when it comes to the gaming side... Tux Racer baby yea!

For a serious answer though, if you are a developer, a programmer, or someone willing to take a lot of time to work with a new OS then linux will off you a lot of power. I use it for writing / compiling programs (who can pay for MS studio), Amarok (by far the best media player on earth), email, school, browsing oc forums like right now... lol... Linux has such a small share of the desktop market that most gaming companies don't develop their games for the Linux platform **the largest exception being the Quake / Doom engines. Also Direct x, which belongs to microsoft, is becoming the base for many games these days. Not Linux friendly

I've been through a few different distros and even started my adventure taking gentoo linux headon... bad idea... i got through, but it was brutal and although i thought the learning curve would be better, looking back i think i overwhelmed myself.

My current setup because I can't live without World of Warcraft is this.
DUAL BOOT!!!
Windows Xp Pro
Ubuntu 7.10

I have my 74gb raptor partitioned into 3 partitions...
the first partition is about 40gb is dedicated to my windows installation, after partitioning the drive, the best part is to install windows first to get dual boot working best with GRUB
2nd partition is a 2gb swap partition for linux (similar to the pagefile of windows, but it needs it own partition in linux)
The third partition about the remaining 30gb is for Ubuntu. The new 7.10 Ubuntu really makes learning linux easy at first, and you'll find yourself easily up and going without messing up package managers and dependencies (unlike my first experiences). Ubuntu offers restricted device drivers aka (nvidia, ati?, realtek, etc..) to easily get your hardware running with the most up to date drivers (trust me Ubuntu makes drivers a lot easier then previously)

Main thing is if you truly are interested... you have to dive in, best is first hand experience, and yes linux really has a lot of advantages over windows xp, but you might still find xp useful (Specially if your a gamer )

drewmister said:

My current setup because I can't live without World of Warcraft is this.
DUAL BOOT!!!

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I'm running WoW using Wine. Some reason on Kubuntu 7.10 it is having issues with directx mode (I know my version of Wine is three versions out of date) but running it in Mac's OpenGL mode works. $ wine wow.exe -opengl

Only gripe is that after flying a griffin long distances, honestly it seems only right after flying over elwynn, my fps drops about half. If I log out and log back in it's fine. If you quest in one area for hours then you will never see this.


Bioshock and most newer games are so packed with security to stop pirating that it kills Wine. Wine does have a good amount of DX8/9 compatibility but all that other non game crap the studios throw in kills it.

I have to agree with the dual boot setup. Just boot in to Windows when you want to game and use Linux for daily tasks.

apcmag.com/dualboot

Go there if you want to learn more about how to dual boot, it's really, really, really easy.

Another vote for dual booting. I tried my hand at gaming with WINE and Mandriva, but I decided Vista best suited my needs.

doublejack said:

I wouldn't call wine problematic..

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I wouldn't either.
I'd called it horrific...or, at best, hit or miss. I use GNU/Linux as my main OS and I cannot and will not recommend WINE to a serious gamer. As a gamer myself, WINE is simply not an option, especially if you gravitate toward the newest games.

Seems like the majority here agree, Linux for productivity, freedom, power
and
Windows for games (thats about all I use it for anymore... every other utility seems to have a better more customisable OSS (open source software) option in Linux.... well not every, but a good majority. I can think of video editing software on windows that blows the top off of any linux video editor.)

No driver fuss, no 'licenses', no activation crap, none of that 'register now or later', no '30 day trial ended'...

Steps for windows install:

1. Insert CD
2. Boot computer
3. Go through install GUI
4. Wait...
5. Wait ...
6. GUI
7. Wait....
8. Coffee...
9. GUI (networking) install
10. Sip of coffee
11. Error "Drivers not found"
12. Click continue anyways
13. Needed smoke
14. Create User
15. Error: Code not valid - please call microsoft
16. Error: You have installed wrong version of Vista for this code
17. Start from 1
18. Back to #15, but installed proper version "Premium"
19. Error: Network drivers needed
20. Driver cd for Mobo
21. Reboot x 4 (Northbridge, Sound, Proprietary software)
22. Resolution is screwy ... 800x600? WTF?
22. Ahh ! Internet works. Download Video drivers and other drivers
23. Another coffee + Smoke
24. Downloads done, install
25. 4x Reboots
26. Surf the web for favorite software, or from DVD/CD
27. Customize settings
28. That networking GUI thing SUCKS ! My computer wont talk to my laptop...
29. Listen to music and surf the web freely!
30. Time for bed.

Ubuntu Install:
1. Insert CD.
2. Loading... wait
3. "Would you like to listen to some music?" Whhuu?? Really?
4. Double click on "Install"
5. GUI - Partitioning " \ " " Swap "
6. Installing...
7. Browse web ... Have a chocolate bar, listen to some music...
8. Reboot
9. Lunch break is over, go back to work.

Thats what impressed me.

-D

Misfit138 said:

I wouldn't either.
I'd called it horrific...or, at best, hit or miss. I use GNU/Linux as my main OS and I cannot and will not recommend WINE to a serious gamer. As a gamer myself, WINE is simply not an option, especially if you gravitate toward the newest games.

Click to expand...

The only drawback IMO. We have to hope for open sources / SDK, or devs that actually work along the ID software / UT3 / Doom3 / OpenGL gaming.

If devs would ever gravitate towards the OpenGL side, Linux would have windows for breakfast, then poop windows out, set the tird in a bag, set the bag on Bill Gate's welcome mat and light fire to it and press on the doorbell.

-D

diaz said:

No driver fuss, no 'licenses', no activation crap, none of that 'register now or later', no '30 day trial ended'... No driver fuss because a lot of time they dont have any, nor any supported games (no messing with WINE for hours to get partial functionality doesnt count), no regular updates for drivers for a lot of heardware, none of that activation crap so there's no phone number to call for troubleshooting if need be. Lack of standardization for most Distros. Includes a need to learn a completely user un-friendly back end to get anything to work properly, the list goes on

Click to expand...

You forgot the rest of the list, I fixed it for you.

Wraith said:

You forgot the rest of the list, I fixed it for you.

Click to expand...

Hm. No, I think he got it right the first time.

Zerix01 said:

Bioshock and most newer games are so packed with security to stop pirating that it kills Wine. Wine does have a good amount of DX8/9 compatibility but all that other non game crap the studios throw in kills it.

Click to expand...

You have that right, Wine has sm2.0 nearly 100% supported and sm3.0 is probably about 75-80%, and SM4.0 just had its roots laid. Believe it or not this year alone there has been major strides in Direct 3D. Now for sound, the ALSA driver for wine has been completely rewritten from scratch and fixed most of the major issues. You can get many games working in Linux. Half-life 2 episode 2 is a good example, of a new game that works in Direct X 9 mode. Good news is SecureROM has just been patched into WINE as of version 0.9.50. Bad news is like said most anti-piracy means are not supported in wine yet. They are difficult to implement as information on them is purposely not available.

Thanks for all the info guys, I guess I am stuck with Microcraps windows for now

You haven't considered a dual boot setup?

I used to be a hardcore PC gamer as well.. Then I realized that I had to put up with Micro$oft and it's variety of windows (98, 2k, ME, XP, Vista) All of which required me to buy new hardware as did all the newer games that came out. So i decided to stop shooting myself in the foot, save some money and buy two things.

This first, to satisfy my gaming habit, was an xbox360. You get all the new games don't ever have to upgrade your hardware, etc. And I know that I'll get blasted for saying it, but seriously, you can get used to playing FPS's with thumbsticks, it's just a different feel.

The second, so that I didn't have to use windows, was a mac book pro. I couldn't be happier with OS X. Gives you enough linux access to make you happy but really just blows away the competition with GUI and ease of use. It is also much more stable than windows.

Sure, I'd like to see Crysis in all its glory but not badly enough that I'd spend $2500 on the hardware and another $300 or whatnot on Vista.