How To: Run Windows Games on Linux
Tired of the lackluster gaming opportunities on your alternative OS?
Playing your favorite PC titles in Linux is easier than you think!
Time: 37 Min What You Need GNU/Linux installation with recent kernel
(2.6x) Free, www.ubuntu.com Wine Free, installed via Linux or
winehq.org A PC game It?s OK, Linux users. We understand your pain.
Gaming on your open-source platform is, for the most part, restricted
to similarly open-source or freeware titles from independent
developers. You don?t often receive the same love that Windows users
enjoy from triple-A game developers. But your time spent in the dark
can now end: We?re going to show you how to play the latest PC-only
titles on your Linux distribution of choice. We?re using a program
called Wine to simplify the process of running Windows-based games on a
Linux platform. Unlike virtualization applications such as VMware, Wine
is not an emulator. An emulator is a wrapper that allows one operating
system to run within another. This wrapper hides the primary OS from
its windowed love child, creating a software bubble for the second OS
to play in. Since emulators run a complete OS within this virtualized
bubble, the performance hit can be staggering and hinders gaming on all
but the most powerful PCs. Wine avoids this problem by implementing a
set of routines (or APIs) used by applications to communicate with
Windows. Rather than emulate them, Wine uses a compatibility layer that
translates system calls from Windows to Linux and vice versa. If you?re
still confused, relax. You don?t need to understand how it works. You
just need to know that Wine is free and easy to configure and will have
you up and gaming in no time! 1. Install Wine the Easy Way Installing
new software for Linux has become much easier since the advent of
package management software. If you?re using a modern Linux
distribution, you?ve probably utilized some kind of package manager.
The most common are Synaptic/Aptitude (used by Debian and Ubuntu),
Portage (Gentoo), and RPM (RedHat). A software package comes bundled
with the necessary software dependencies required by the application.
Since these dependencies often overlap between applications, a package
manager will ensure that your system installs only the dependencies
that are missing. If you already have what you need, the package
manager links the dependencies that have previously been installed to
the new application. Installing Wine on a package-managed system is as
easy as telling the package manager to go ahead and install the
program. One quick preface: All of our instructions are based on our
experience with Ubuntu. Your Linux variety may vary, but the overall
gist of our instructions should remain the same. To get Wine onto your
system, first launch the Synaptic Package Manager by opening the
Applications menu on the title bar at the top of your screen and
clicking Add/Remove. Click the Binocular icon and type wine , but be
sure to select the ?Show All Available Applications? option before you
commence your search. As you can see in the above screenshot, your
results will include an application called Wine, version 1.0.0. Finish
the job by clicking on the box to the left of Wine to select it and
then click the green check mark labeled Apply. Confirm the installation
of any additional packages to ensure that your installation doesn?t
choke when it fails to find its dependencies. 2. Configure Wine?s
Graphics and Audio Open a terminal window in Ubuntu and type winecfg to
launch Wine?s configuration screen. Start by clicking the Drives tab
and set Wine to autodetect your drives, as shown in the upper image.
The application will create a file structure that mimics Windows: It
will establish your base directory as a C: drive and map your optical
drive to D:. Next, click the Graphics tab to adjust your DirectX
settings. We recommend using the settings displayed in the lower image:
Check only the second and fourth options under Window Settings. The
last option is especially critical, as it?ll make your Wine games stay
windowed. That way,
if your game crashes, you?ll still have access to your Linux desktop.
Don?t forget to set your gaming resolution: You?ll do that underneath
the Emulate a Virtual Desktop option. Finally, click the Audio tab and
then click the Test Sound button. If you can?t hear anything coming
from your speakers by default, select each of the provided drivers?one
at a time?until you have sound. It?s a crude solution, but it will take
the least amount of time to get your speakers rockin?. 3. Check Game
Compatibility Before you rush to your local game store and spend the
hard-earned money you saved by using a free operating system instead of
Windows, read this step. It?s mission critical. Linux comes in many
varieties. Because of this, certain games tend to run better on certain
distributions. And more often than not, specific titles will flat-out
not work with the specific distribution?or any distribution?you?re
running.You should know a title?s compatibility issues before you plunk
down $50 for a game. For that, you can turn to Wine?s official
application database at appdb.winehq.org. This giant user-driven
database provides ratings of and recommendations for running more than
10,000 applications and games in Wine. The games and applications are
broken down into specific test results, which the site presents based
on combinations of tested distributions and Wine versions. Each listed
entry tells you whether the program was able to either run or install
correctly and assigns an overall usability rating to the experience.
Even if your game of choice appears to be broken on all Linux
varieties, be sure to read the user comments appended at the bottom of
each game?s results page. You might discover information about a new
workaround or patch that has yet to be reflected in the game?s overall
ratings. 4. Install your game The installation process for applications
under Wine is generally the same as it is in Windows because Wine uses
the same installer. We?re going to focus on installing our game of
choice, Sins of a Solar Empire, but you can use the same process to
install a variety of other titles. Start by opening a Linux terminal
and typing winefile. This pulls up the application?s Windows
Explorer-like interface. Navigate to your optical device by clicking
the appropriate icon at the top of the window?it should look like a CD
going into a drive. From there, double-click your game?s installation
file (setup.exe, for example) and let the installer do its thing.Follow
the instructions as you would for any game being installed in Windows
but pay attention to any errors or glitches that you see. Chances are
good that you?ll notice fonts sizes are off and, in some cases, the
fonts won?t display at all. We?ll come back to that later. Once you?ve
installed the game, you?ll want to make it easy to launch. You can do
this by finding the executable file and linking it to a launcher?the
Linux version of a Windows shortcut. By default, Wine hides its fake
Windows partition in your /home/[user name] directory. So you?ll want
to right-click your Linux desktop and select the Launcher creation
option. Name the Launcher whatever you want, but start the command as
follows: wine ?/home/[user name]/.wine/drive_c/?. After the ?drive_c?
section, type out the path where you installed your program. If you
can?t get a launcher to work, don?t worry. Some games end up working
only by double-clicking the executable within the Winefile application.
5. Troubleshooting Although we?ve been able to install and run
Microsoft Office, Guild Wars, and NHL 08 without any problems, Sins of
a Solar Empire was trickier. This gives us a perfect transition to
Wine?s biggest headache: troubleshooting. In our case, the fonts for
our game were the wrong size and, in some cases, completely nonexistent
(see above). If this happens to you, there?s a quick workaround. From a
Windows installation, copy the fonts out of the C:WindowsFonts folder.
You?ll then want to launch Winefile and copy the fonts back into Wine?s
simulated Windows installation, same C:WindowsFonts folder. If your
chosen application gives you compatibility problems, it?s time to
return to the Winecfg configuration tool. If the application was
developed for a specific instance of Windows, try using the
Applications tab to force Wine to use a suitable compatibility layer
for the program. Click Add Application, choose your executable file,
and choose the appropriate version of Windows. The configuration tool
also lets you change graphics and audio options as mentioned earlier.
Disabling hardware support can keep games from crashing but sacrifices
game performance in doing so. When in doubt, turn settings to minimum
and bring them up slowly as you attempt to troubleshoot the best
configuration for your game. 6. Work in the Wine Library When you are
configuring a new application, it?s wise to launch it from a terminal
until you have the kinks ironed out. Doing so allows you to read the
error messages that stream down the screen as the application runs.
Bear in mind that many of these messages are not errors; they are used
by developers to tune Wine. This makes them useful sources of
information, particularly when they spit out .dll (dynamically linked
library) errors. A dynamically linked library is a fancy term from
Microsoft that refers to a library of software used by various
applications. These libraries are ?linked? to applications as they are
needed. If this reminds you of the package-managed dependencies
mentioned at the beginning of the article, hand yourself a gold star.
These libraries are what Wine replaces when it runs your MS-based
applications. Sometimes, the libraries are missing or incomplete. In
this case, the .dll errors mentioned earlier will give you the name of
the specific files that are causing problems. Replacement .dll files
can be found in your Windows install or in a regular Windows install of
your application. To fix errors, you can use the Library tab in Wine?s
configuration tool to replace Wine?s .dll with the authentic .dll. Wine
Vs. Cedega Not everyone has the time or patience to wrangle Wine into
submission, and TransGaming Technologies (www.transgaming.com) is
hoping to bank on this fact. The company has produced a ?commercial
re-implementation of the Windows API for Linux with a focus on gaming.?
Sound like Wine? It should. Transgaming?s product, Cedega, is based in
part on the free Wine source code. Many in the open-source community
view this as an outrage, but Transgaming insists it violates no
licenses. For a small fee, it offers ?Wine that works? with a list of
games guaranteed to run with it.
No BS Podcast #73 The Red, White & Blue Edition
Tom, Dave, Norm, and Andy get together to bring you a dose of tech news
to listen to as you head out to celebrate the 4th of July. This week,
Dave dresses up as Uncle Sam and discusses Microsoft's PC gaming
strategy while Norm steps away from the Maximum PC pie-eating contest
to discuss the upcoming iPhone launch. Do you have a tech question? A
comment? A tale of technological triumph? Just need to get something
off your chest? Email us at maximumpcpodcast@gmail.com or call our
24-hour No BS Podcast hotline at 877.404.1337 x1337--operators are
standing by. Ready to feel the wrath of Clan [FU] in Team Fortress 2?
Join our Steam group. Feel like stalking us? Check out our Facebook
Page. Modders and modding aficionados, head on over to Mod Shop! Check
out all the hottest mods and stay tuned for some special announcements.
Subscribe: http://feeds.feedburner.com/maximumpc/1337
Game Theory: Hangin' out at the Quad Core
I?ve been gaming on a jury-rigged desktop frankencomputer for long
enough to begin feeling those ol? tech-lag blues, so when VoodooPC
offered to loan me an Envy H:171 gaming laptop, I jumped at the chance.
Quad-core processing, complete with a 17-inch screen and a pair of
GeForce 7950 GPUs, all at less than 12 lbs and portable? Sign me up,
baby. The first thing I did was fulfill a long-standing dream of mine
to play PC games on my TV. (Hey, I dream small.) I only recently got a
decent HDTV, and dismantling the desktop machine and hooking it up in
the family room was never really an option. The Envy made it much
easier, and I got down to work playing Enemy Territory, Portal, and
Team Fortress 2. (It?s a hard job, but someone has to do it.) All of
them looked spectacular, of course. The frame rates were better and I
could finally crank all the graphic settings up to 11. This is gaming
at the bleeding edge. More to the point, the quadruple fans and the
case design kept the unit cool even through several hours of heavy use,
erasing any doubts I had about the practicality of quad cores in
high-end gamer laptops. But I play action games on consoles all the
time, and after a hefty chunk of Halo 3, Gears of War, and BioShock on
360, would the experience be that different? In a word, yes?but only in
ways a hardcore PC gamer would notice. BioShock looked great on 360,
but a powerful PC provides deeper colors, better textures, and more
convincing fog effects. This was all obvious in a side-by-side
comparison, but it wasn?t something that struck me when I simply played
BioShock on the console, which leads to the $5,200 question: Does a
$5,600 PC outperform a $400 Xbox enough to warrant the massive added
expense? For the true hobbyist, no question. The clincher was Medieval
2, a game that gives my current desktop the yips. Once I cranked the
graphics up to the max and saw hundreds of detailed units clashing in
complex and realistic battles, I remembered what makes PC gaming so
special. And if that?s your passion, who can put a price on it? So,
does that mean when my loaner period is up, I?ll buy one? Hell no! Who
has that kind of money? ?Thomas L. McDonald has been covering games for
17 years. He is Editor-at-Large of Games Magazine.
I don?t need TruSkill to tell me that I?m an FPS badass
Shadowrun is the first Windows LIVE game that enables cross-platform
gaming. I?ve been playing it for the past week on both my Vista gaming
machine and on the Xbox 360, and while I?m not quite ready to give it a
full review, I need to get a few initial impressions off my chest.
First off, the game definitely doesn?t fall into the 60% range that
some early reviewers would lead you to believe. Multi-hour gaming
sessions for the past several nights with editors from Maximum PC, PC
Gamer, Official Xbox Magazine, and GamesRadar is evidence enough that
I?m not alone in having a lot of fun with the game. The unique balance
of old-school shooter skills and magic/tech ability management makes
for a refreshing teamplay experience. That said, here are ten things
(in no particular order) I wish were different in Shadowrun. Again,
don?t take this as a verdict of any sort ? you?ll get my full review in
the Sept issue of MaxPC. More game modes ? The game ships with 3 game
modes: Raid, Extraction, and Attrition. All three center around
capturing, holding, and escaping alive with an artifact (flag). What
about Team Deathmatch or plain Deathmatch? Even if these vanilla modes
aren?t as fun as the flag-centric ones, they wouldn?t be difficult to
implement. Variety is good. Switch sides in Raid rounds ? My current
favorite game mode, Raid, sets up one team on defense to prevent the
other team from capturing the artifact. As fun as it is, being locked
on one side for the entire match is a bit frustrating. I?d like to see
sides swapped every round to mix things up. More context-sensitive team
commands ? With a gamepad, the directional thumb pad offers three
commands to let teammates know that areas or clear or to call support.
On the keyboard, these callouts are activated using the Z,X, and C key.
It?s useful for the headset impaired, but really, only three commands?
A Battlefield-esque context sensitive communication menu would be much
more functional. Or, how about a... Text chat box ? I?m outraged that
this staple multiplayer feature was omitted from Shadowrun. How else am
I going to let the other team know ?gg no re? or?omg hax?? More death
camera options ? One cool teamplay feature in Shadowrun is the ability
for you to voice-chat with teammates even after you?re killed. This
way, you can let them know where your body is and call for a
resurrection. It?s too bad that the only death-cam is a third-person
tracking view. An additional first-person view wouldn?t unbalance the
game, and an option to turn free-cam on would help newbies learn the
levels. TruSkill stats ? The in-game matchmaking system uses Truskill:
tracking your gameplay stats to pair you with comparable players for
evenly balanced rounds. It?s too bad you have no idea what your skill
level is, nor can you browse through your global stats. The game
rewards you with an achievement for killing a hundred enemies of each
class ? I?d like to know how close I am to securing those Gamerscore
points. Random game settings ? Aside from full gameplay modes, I?d like
a random settings mode to randomize player classes, starting weapons,
and magic/tech abilities. A ?Summon? ability only match would be so fun
to play! Global rankings ? Not only is Shadowrun?s TruSkill system
hidden in the background, there?s also no way to see how you?re stacked
up against the rest of players in LIVE. Part of what keeps me playing
multiplayer shooters is the promise that with persistent play, I?ll be
able to move up some ranking ladder to show off to my buddies. It?d be
fascinating to see how Vista gamers stack up over time against 360
players. In fact, there?s no way in-game to tell what platform members
of a server are using. Better party system ? The party system keeps
groups of friends together between match and server changes, but aside
from a plain lobby, party members have no indication that the leader is
searching for games. The invite system integrated into the LIVE guide
is cool, but I?ve experienced many occasions where party members were
randomly dropped or restricted from joining open parties
mid-match. Single player campaign ? I guess it?s a little unfair to
demand that Shadowrun have a single-player component since the game was
built from the ground up as a multiplayer shooter. But every time I use
the teleport ability or summon a minion, I can?t help but imagine how
awesome these abilities would be in a fleshed out single player
campaign. I?d like to think that someone on the dev team had the same
thoughts and that it?s in the works. Pretty please? If some of the
features mentioned above sound familiar, it?s because they?re already
either in most PC multiplayer shooters like Unreal Tournament or on 360
games like Gears of War. In fact, the other game I?ve been playing a
lot of recently is the Halo 3 multiplayer beta, which has interface and
gameplay features so robust that it should be the standard for all LIVE
multiplayer games to come. It?s a little disconcerting to realize that
the beta of the multiplayer component to a completely separate single
player game has in many ways more to offer than the full priced
Shadowrun. It?s just too bad that Microsoft has no plans to let PC
gamers in on that fun.
Lost Planet DX9 vs DX10
We?re back with a more thorough analysis of the Lost Planet demo just
released today. This time around, we?re comparing screenshots and
framerates between maxed out DX10 and DX9 settings. We?re also throwing
in screens and numbers for more playable DX10 settings. Again, the game
is being played on a system powered by a FX60 dual-core CPU, 2GB of
RAM, an 8800GTX, and running Windows Vista. In scenario 1, we?ve run
the game benchmark with all video options maxed out, running at
1920x1200 with 8xAA and 16xAF. These settings give an average 10 frames
per second in the outdoor portion of the demo, and 14FPS in the second
?cave? portion. With effects set to medium when avaiable, resolution
scaled down to 1280x720 (the resolution X-Box 360?s run the game in
HD), and AA/AF turned off, the game chuned out a much more playable
average of 70FPS outdoors and 33FPS indoors. The numbers for the DX9
benchmark dropped down to 22 outdoors and 30 indoors, with settings
again maxed out at 1920x1200. The screenshots below illustrate various
scenes from the demo in each of the three test scenarios. Keep in mind
that the screens from the game at higher settings look a little fuzzy
because of motion blur. This doesn't accomodate great screenshots, but
makes a big difference when you see the game in action. DX10 1920x1200
DX9 1920x1200 DX10 1280x720 DX10 1920x1200 DX9 1920x1200 DX10 1280x720
DX10 1920x1200 DX9 1920x1200 DX10 1280x720 DX10 1920x1200 settings DX10
1280x720 settings DX10 1920x1200 DX10 1280x720 A couple take-aways from
the demo and benchmark: - The demo is the same single-player sample
that X-Box 360 owners got a year ago over X-Box Live Marketplace. - The
benchmark isn?t completely scripted. The bugs spawn and act a little
differently each time you run the demo. The benchmark is more of a
scripted flyby of the level with invincibility and ?noclip? turned on,
with the bugs relying on game AI to direct their reactions. This means
the benchmark won?t make a perfect comparison between different
hardware setups, even with identical game settings. - The DX 9 version
doesn?t look that much different from the DX10 game, especially in
motion. You can pick out more shader effects in screenshots, but these
aren?t particularly noticable when you?re in game and in combat.
Dear lord that?s a lot of snow
It?s here! Today marks the release of the first real playable DX10
gaming software. Granted, it?s just a demo of the the upcoming PC port
of X-Box 360?s Lost Planet, but it?s also a heavily modified port
sporting fancy smancy DirectX 10 effects. Early adopters of nVidia?s
8800 DX10 video cards and Windows Vista finally have something other
than tech demos to utilize their hefty investment. Life sure is looking
grand! Capcom was courteous enough to include a benchmark with the Lost
Planet demo, which actually comes in two varieties ? a DX9 vanilla
version and suped-up DX10 counterpart. Both weigh in at around 350mb,
so the DX10 demo here doesn?t seem to have the extra large textures
promised in their original announcement. What it does feature, however,
is full Shader 4.0 support and advanced geometry shader effects, as
demonstrated by a massive serving of particles in the form of
snowflakes. Running the demo on an dual-core FX60 and 8800GTX with 2Gb
of RAM, my system was only able to churn out framerates in the
mid-teens with game settings maxed out at 1920x1200. A few screenshots
from the benchmark are included below, including the images from the
video settings menu to show in-game options. Note the red X-Box style
?back? button on the bottom left hand corner of the menu ? either
someone forgot to swap out a menu graphic or Capcom really wants you to
play the game with a gamepad. Full resolution screens are linked as
well, and I?ll be posting some DX9 comparisons shortly. Stay tuned!
You Win Some, You Lose Some
Summer has finally arrived. I can tell because the birds are chirping
and E3 is has come and gone once again. What can the new crop of games
and announcements tell us about the state of PC gaming? First, the
obvious news: Strategy and massively multiplayer online (MMO) games
remain the only two genres left wholly and completely to the PC. I
never doubted this would be the case. On the strategy front, Supreme
Commander, Company of Heroes, and Medieval 2 are all poised to be major
games with gorgeous visuals and unique mechanics that no console could
hope to properly capture. On the MMO tip, World of Warcraft has an
impressive expansion in the works. Guild Wars Factions launched strong,
and a mass of new titles like Lord of the Rings, Fury, Age of Conan,
Gods & Heroes, and Tabula Rasa are all in the pipeline. Even though
Auto Assault is having trouble finding an audience, we can count
massively multiplayer as the other sturdy pillar of PC gaming. But
where does this leave shooters and RPGs, the very heart and soul of PC
gaming? The Magic 8-Ball is a little fuzzy on this one. Two very
promising shooters are, for now, exclusive to the PC. Crysis, the new
game from Far Cry creators Crytek, and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars are
on track as PC-only titles. Battlefield 2142 is set to launch on PC,
but JV versions of the Battlefield games are always ported to consoles.
BioShock (from Irrational Games, creators of System Shock 2) is coming
out for both PC and 360, while Unreal Tournament 2007 is slated for PC
and PS3. This is all good news for us PC folk, especially considering
that two of the most exciting upcoming games, BioWare?s Mass Effect and
Epic?s Gears of War, are 360-only (at least for now). And therein lies
the problem. Back in the day, Gears of War and Mass Effect would have
been core PC titles. Bioware and Epic each have long histories of
quality PC gaming, and while neither is abandoning the PC altogether,
it?s disheartening to see their best work going to consoles. But that
still leaves plenty of good news, and a PC gaming market that is
weakened but far from dead.
