Linux and Gaming

[Banquo]

Hi everyone,

As you may have guessed from the title, I am wondering how easy it is to play games on Linux and what Linux release, if any, is best for gaming.

I have used fedora core for a while now running on a test box but the hardware on there is pretty old so I wouldnt want to put any games on there anyway.

However, my main gaming machine is still of a pretty average standard so I was thinking of slapping on a linux distro, seeing how caddega works and ultmately transferring to Linux totally in the future. However I would still want to run pc games on Linux, if possible.

So if you have experience of running games on Linux , what in your opinion is a good distro? How good is caddega and what are the major positives and major negatives about going down this route?

Any advice, gratefully received

[Reddog]

It's not really worth the trouble, if Linux is your favourite OS then usse that for everything and have a copy of XP on a little partition just for games.

[Hyperion2010]

Ok, I've been working hard to get ROO to working on linux. I've spend about the last week trying. I find that I can get into practice mode with latest version of wine. If you will post what distro you are using and your computer specs I can give you a hand. I can guarantee that I can get you online as I'm still working on that, but we shall see.

I'm using gentoo ATM, but something like Ubuntu might be a better choice. Also you are probably better off if you have a Nvidia graphics card. Cedega is usually the way to go if your games are D3D. I've had some trouble with mine on occasion but thats probably because I'm running gentoo and a cracked version of the engine file (mostly because as I suspected it wouldnt work completely). I also have a wierd partition scheme so that could also be the source of the problem, but if you have a Nvidia card and something like a vinilla ubuntu install you should be ok. Wine works fine if the games you want to play support an openGL render path. ROO runs really well under OGL. There are some problems with the mouse leaving the window but I'm working on those too.

[mat69]

You should look at the database here: http://appdb.winehq.org/
There you can see the apps that are more or less (most times) working on Linux.
Some games like Decent III, UT series, Quake ... work perfeclty on linux.
Here is an older article about gaming on Linux: http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=1011&page=1

Linux is not fit for gaming yet as the companies mostly do not support it, basically a lot of apps could work on Linux with only a little work, but well ...

[Deeival]

Here is a pretty good guide how to get CSS to run on Linux. RO is pretty much the same just a different -applaunch numbers

http://www.linux-gamers.net/modules/...=HOWTO%20Steam

[Case]

I've been running Ostfront using cedega for many many months.http://www.redorchestragame.com/foru...ead.php?t=9051

[SnotRocket]

I dunno about RO, but I've gotten World of Warcraft running perfectly under wine in Ubuntu. I just moved to Ubuntu 2 weeks ago and it's a pretty easy distro to figure out, you just have to be willing to go find the information. I'm installing CS:S right now, so I'll have to see how that works.

[Banquo]

Thanks Guys,

Some very useful info there.

I think the way to go for me is to dual boot, get comfortable with Ubuntu and take it from there. Unfortunately, I have an ATI card atm so that may be a hinderence.

Anyway, I always enjoy looking at new software and OS's which people recommend so it will keep me busy

[SnotRocket]

If you're willing to wait a month, Ubuntu 7.04 feisty will be released, and it appears to be even simpler than this one. Autofetching codecs, nicer layout, and graphical effects to compete with OSX 10.5 and Vista.

[mat69]

The graphical effects are basically the same you can have allready, simply search for Compiz or Beryl.

Personally I'm waiting for PCLinuxOS 2007, it looks great so far.

[SnotRocket]

Yeah but Compiz and Beryl are both beta software. I'd prefer to wait for an official OS-supported release.

[mat69]

They are also beta software in the upcoming release, only activating the effects may be a little bit easiere, but basically you will have the same software that you can allready have.