linux for windows vista replacment games etc?

Soldato
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Hi , is there any or will there ever be any linux os`s to rival windoes for games etc , ie will crysis ever work on a linux os? what about these programs called wine etc ,

Basically can i get rid of windows all together and run a linux os
 
There is not nor will there be in the near future a Linux-based OS for gaming.

If gaming is your priority Windows is your only option, sad as it may be.
 
Not at the moment if you want to play games. Drivers are catching up, but as people aren't directly paid to make Linux drivers, there's no imminent equality.

Wine attempts to imitate the Windows API, but only works with simpler apps.
 
but as people aren't directly paid to make Linux drivers, there's no imminent equality.
That's not really true, loads of people are paid to write drivers for Linux, especially at Novell and at Red Hat. The problem is that the hardware is frequently closed so it requires complicated and difficult reverse engineering to get something working. On the Windows side most companies write their own drivers and as such have direct access to all the hardware information possible.
 
really is a shame , is it just the fact that windows use dx ?
That's a big part of it. Direct3D has long surpassed OpenGL since OpenGL has been hindered by the big workstation app companies like Adobe, AutoDesk, and SolidWorks.

The other part of it is that even if it was written for OpenGL they'd still have to have staff write and test the Linux versions. These games already cost too much and take too long to develop and that would represent, most likely, as waste since Linux users are such a small niche.
 
Buy a PS3 and install linux on it. Fedora, Ubuntu and Yellow dog do Linux for PS3.

I know its not a real solution, but I thought I would throw it in.
 
you can play a fair few windows games in linux - at the moment i am mostly playing:

half life 2 - episode 1
Team Fortress 2
Enemy Territory Quake Wars
UT2004

diss
 
All ID softwares games use OpenGL tech and they have been ported to run on Linux (with only one employee!).. Some unreal engine games run native on Linux, many other games run under a windows compatibility layer called wine... Wine makes all the DirectX games run under OpenGL.

So yes, there are games for Linux but not every single game in existence will work (Although, more than a mac has!).

OpenGL is just as good as DirectX, many games consoles use it. OpenGL can do HDR and all kinds of fancy stuff. In fact OpenGL is better due to its cross platform nature.

Some of the things in this thread arn't true, like:
"Wine attempts to imitate the Windows API, but only works with simpler apps."
Wine runs many complex things including Steam, Half Life 2, Microsoft Word etc.. see http://appdb.winehq.org/ for compatibility.
 
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John Carmack has said that they will no longer develop on OpenGL since Direct3D has advanced while OpenGL has remained without evolution for years.

Doom 4 or whatever comes next will be a DirectX game. They might port it over though. He'll still probably GPL the engine after the game has been EOL'd so there would be a community port just like for most previous ID games.
 
Buy a PS3 and install linux on it. Fedora, Ubuntu and Yellow dog do Linux for PS3.

I know its not a real solution, but I thought I would throw it in.
Heh, t'is a good option for those who dislike Microsoft... not only are you using Linux instead of Windows on your PC but you're also using a PS3 instead of an XBox for your gaming :D The Microsoft fanboys will hate you for this.
 
Not as long as DirectX remains proprietary software.

Have you not been reading what we been saying about Wine? Wine will eventually mature and compatability will increase.. theres even efforts to put DirectX 10 in wine. Theres a ton of games that run right now. I personally dual boot xp and linux for the odd game that doesnt run.. see the various other threads here for help on dual booting and what linux distribution to choose from.
 
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Have you not been reading what we been saying about Wine? Wine will eventually mature and compatability will increase.. theres even efforts to put DirectX 10 in wine. Theres a ton of games that run right now. I personally dual boot xp and linux for the odd game that doesnt run.. see the various other threads here for help on dual booting and what linux distribution to choose from.
I disagree 100%. Wine is not the solution to our problem. Wine will never reach 100% compatibility since Windows is a moving target. I don't doubt for a moment that they would change things specifically to break Wine if Wine started to become a problem for their revenue model.
 
Within a few years, it should be possible to run games in virtual machines like vmware, from what i have heard they are investing a lot of time in emulating direct3d inside VMs, I believe parallel VM software for macs already has fairly decent support for direct3d, even though it sounds an incredibly hard process, there is talk of getting 90%+ efficiency on direct3d code inside virtual machines within the next few years.
 
Surely by it's very nature, a game running through a VM will have a performance hit compared to running it on a native OS? I suppose it wouldn't necessarily be a large performance hit, but there would be one.
 
Surely by it's very nature, a game running through a VM will have a performance hit compared to running it on a native OS? I suppose it wouldn't necessarily be a large performance hit, but there would be one.

It will have a performance hit as you need the minimum hardware requirements for the host and virtual os.
 
just like Wine has a tremendous framerate hit with gaming, vmware will have the same ....90% efficiency sounds like dreamland to me tbh.

vista didn't have 90% versus XP in gaming for quite awhile & that's with all the combined resources of MS/NV/ATI.

you'll always be able to play a small portion of games on linux but like others have already said you will always need that MS partition for gaming.
 
If a good chunk of people use one OS, then game developers will happily develop for it.

Unfortunately, Linux is only 0.8% of the desktop market and most of those people are either willing to duel boot or have a console or go without games.

That 0.8% is split between different distros (Ubuntu, Redhat, Gentoo), which are rarely binary compatible. Then there are different versions of each distro (Fiesty/Gutsy). Thats before you start thinking about KDE and Gnome.

If you wrote a game in 2001 for xp, you could get away without patching it for 6 years.

If you wrote game for Linux in 2001 there is little chance you play it now without recompiling it for your kernel, which you would not be allowed to do because it would no doubt be closed source.

While some closed source developers will keep up with the development of Linux for most popular distros, this is an advantage for them because they can sell new versions. Games are different once a game is released and sold, there is little benefit to the writers in keeping it compatible.

Until there are sufficient users of one distro games on Linux will stay hit and miss.
 
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