4 ms·
Personal anecdote. Out of the blue, my wife suggested that we play some Age of Empires III. I don't have a Windows computer anymore so I decided to give it a go
by vkjv 12y ago
Personal anecdote. Out of the blue, my wife suggested that we play some Age of Empires III. I don't have a Windows computer anymore so I decided to give it a go in Linux Mint.
I used Crossover Linux (already had a license for MS Office) and it "just worked". Everything from sound to full screen high quality graphics was perfect. No input lag or anything else.
I understand that this is a game that's nearly a decade old but I am deeply impressed by the quality here considering it wasn't even built for that platform. It makes me wonder, how easily could developers support Linux if they just decided to? It seems like it might not be the burden or overhead that it once was.
- tormeh 12y agoEspecially now that C++ gets more platform-hiding features. System calls is the enemy of portability. DirectX is still a pain in the ass, though the attractivity of making OS X ports makes OpenGL more familiar to developers.
- zanny 12y agoDirectX, at least version 9 for most old games from 2010 and earlier, is almost a solved problem on Gallium drivers. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTgxNzU http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTgxNzU If there is a working DirectX state tracker, combined with a reimplementation of the Windows API like Wine, you have fully native Windows binary games. All the slowness in Wine today comes from reinterpreting DirectX into OpenGL.
- elektronjunge 12y agoGreat I can use 5 year old games in their fallback renderer.
- ekianjo 12y agoA more recent example, I played recently Wolf Among Us straight from the Telltales install files from their official website and it ran flawlessly on WINE too. I was quite impressed.