5 ms·

I think focusing on WINE style emulation sounds like a very sensible way forward. The thing for me is, though, that it would be great if more games came pre wr

I think focusing on WINE style emulation sounds like a very sensible way forward. The thing for me is, though, that it would be great if more games came pre wrapped in some sort of emulation with all the relevant settings tweaked. I don't want to buy a game and then spend hours messing around to get it to work. Having a big library of emulated games is more important (in my opinion) than squeezing every last frame rate out of a small number of native ports.

lucian1900 14y ago
Winelib can be used by game developers to link their games against, to just provide them with Windows APIs their games expect. The results can be very good, an example is Picasa.
- rednukleus 14y ago
  So setting aside people's emotional considerations of Linux being a second class citizen, a library of games in Steam and DVDs including alternative executables using Winelib seems like a great way forward. Most games these days are designed to run on a range of graphics detail settings, and it's not a big deal if you just have to turn a few things down a little on the latest games.
  - yareally 14y ago
    Although I can understand why some on PC would consider Linux a second class citizen for gaming, the larger issue that matters more is PC in general typically being a second class citizen for games through lack luster console ports. I would much rather see developers focus on making quality games for PC in general than worrying about porting it natively to Linux or OSX instead of just assuring it works well in Wine. It would be nice to just see everyone behind that more than complaining about whether something is native or using wine. A lousy console port that works natively is still a lousy game.
derefr 14y ago
> The thing for me is, though, that it would be great if more games came pre wrapped in some sort of emulation with all the relevant settings tweaked. For example, http://transgaming.com/cider http://transgaming.com/cider. Notice, though, the high-touch sales process--that's unfortunately necessary, since "relevant settings tweaked" can actually sometimes mean "relevant DLLs reimplemented by us, as part of the 'sales-engineering' process, specifically to make your software work."
- gridaphobe 14y ago
  Cider is, IIRC, regularly used to port games to OSX, but the results are pretty poor in my experience. The winelib/cider method of porting raises an interesting question, should I as a mac/linux user have to pay the same price as a windows user for an objectively inferior product? (In the case of steam I think this is fine, because I get access to all three versions of the game)
  - Luc 14y ago
    For a niche product you'd expect to pay more, not less!

lucian1900 14y ago

Winelib can be used by game developers to link their games against, to just provide them with Windows APIs their games expect. The results can be very good, an example is Picasa.

rednukleus 14y ago
So setting aside people's emotional considerations of Linux being a second class citizen, a library of games in Steam and DVDs including alternative executables using Winelib seems like a great way forward. Most games these days are designed to run on a range of graphics detail settings, and it's not a big deal if you just have to turn a few things down a little on the latest games.
- yareally 14y ago
  Although I can understand why some on PC would consider Linux a second class citizen for gaming, the larger issue that matters more is PC in general typically being a second class citizen for games through lack luster console ports. I would much rather see developers focus on making quality games for PC in general than worrying about porting it natively to Linux or OSX instead of just assuring it works well in Wine. It would be nice to just see everyone behind that more than complaining about whether something is native or using wine. A lousy console port that works natively is still a lousy game.

derefr 14y ago

> The thing for me is, though, that it would be great if more games came pre wrapped in some sort of emulation with all the relevant settings tweaked. For example, http://transgaming.com/cider http://transgaming.com/cider. Notice, though, the high-touch sales process--that's unfortunately necessary, since "relevant settings tweaked" can actually sometimes mean "relevant DLLs reimplemented by us, as part of the 'sales-engineering' process, specifically to make your software work."

gridaphobe 14y ago
Cider is, IIRC, regularly used to port games to OSX, but the results are pretty poor in my experience. The winelib/cider method of porting raises an interesting question, should I as a mac/linux user have to pay the same price as a windows user for an objectively inferior product? (In the case of steam I think this is fine, because I get access to all three versions of the game)
- Luc 14y ago
  For a niche product you'd expect to pay more, not less!