Linux is becoming more and more popular (I myself would use it all the time if I could get the modem to work) and gaming companys have little choice as to stick with Windows or go for Linux too.

I haven't really played games on Linux other than what came with Ubuntu. I have tryed to play Theocracy on it but can't get it to work (The library is there but according to the error message it can't be found if anybody would like to help).

Quake 4 and Doom 3 plays better on Linux than Windows, for some reason it's slower on Windows.

xboxrulz

You've made several statements like that so far, but I'm not sure they concince the topic starter. At least they do not prove anything for me.

I have some kubuntu CDs somewhere on my desk right now, meaning to try it out at some point. However I do like my customized XP a lot and I'm not going to seriously try out OSes where I will run under emulation for most parts; that would be gimping the system.

If you have some charts or benchmarks I'd love to see them. As well as the topic starter I'm interested to how this turns out.

Alegis,

ID Software makes those games Native for Linux, it's not ran under emulation. I can only vouch that these games for me do run better in Linux than in Windows, I have no benchmarking charts to show, but I have no need to lie about these games running better, otherwise I would have stuck with Windows playing these games if Windows was better for these games, since I do like having the best performance I can get out of a game when playing online.

But this software is native, if you're looking at emulation, then that would probably give some performance issues, I don't know, I don't run emulated games.

Cheers,

MC

sometimes these so called "emulated" games (eg. using compatibility layers like WINE or Cedega) do sometimes run better than on Windows although the game was designed for Windows.

For example: C&C Renegade, C&C Tiberian Sun, Call of Duty.

FPS: 50+

Also, PS 3 runs on Linux and it is one of the best gaming machines out there along side with XBOX 360 and the Wii.

xboxrulz

This post has been edited by xboxrulz: Jul 18 2006, 11:24 PM

Linux is not better for gaming for Windows. Of course with the help of WINE or whatever you want to use, you will be able to run gamings specifically built for Windows. It really isn't fair to try to compare the ability to game under Linux and the ability to game under Windows. Here are the reasons why...

1) Such a small marketshare actually uses Linux. Why would game companies worry about attracting the 5% of the population that uses Linux while the other majority uses Windows?
2) It is rare to find a graphics card company that releases native Linux drivers for their hardware. Again it is that small market share that would probably COST the company more than it would help it. Granted, ATI does have Linux drivers, but they are a pain to install.
3) Gaming companies now like to use Software libraries provided by Microsoft such as DirectX. Linux will never be able to handle DirectX as well as Windows.

Linux is my main OS, in particular I use Slackware, and I can safely tell you that if you want to game then stick to Windows. You will not run into hardware issues, more games will be released to your OS, and you will not run in the frustration of trying to get Windows games to run under WINE for Linux.

Maybe once the marketshare of the Linux Community reaches a certain percentage then we will see hardware vendors and game developers tailor the installs of the game to Linux. But even when that happens, not all the distributions of Linux keep the same filesystem. Slackware is different than Red Hat, its different then SUSE, and its different then Ubuntu. Also not every fresh Linux install will have all the packages required to run said game. Do you package the install in a RPM, tgz, tar, do you let Linux users compile from source? Would you want Linux users to see the source, which could potentially lead to exploits in the game?

All in all, Linux was NOT meant to game. Of course its cool if you can get games to run under Linux, but that is not the point of this operating system. The point was to create an open source alternative to the Microsoft Giant. The point was to create a rich learning environment for anyone interested in the workings beyond the GUI.

That's my rant, hope you enjoyed it.

funny, you left out NVIDIA which is one of the largest card manufacturers in the world and they support Windows, Mac, Linux, FreeBSD and even Solaris.

id Software is one of the best developers in the world and they support Linux. Why? It's because it has potential and because more and more people are flocking over there.

Linux is about choice and not about open sourcing everything. There are many propriety games out there for Linux: America's Army (dropped support), Quake 4, Doom 3, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and of course UT 2004. These very successful games have been supporting Linux for quite a while.

Filesystem is not the problem atm because the Linux kernel handles ReiserFS, XFS, ext3, etc. all the same

The RPM, DEB, TGZ, EBUILD problem is not even a problem. Just make an installer using the .run method (a.k.a Loki Installer) and it'll copy all the files required on to the system. To uninstall, just run an uninstaller script like they have in UT2004, Doom 3, Quake 4 and etc.

Another point that relates back to choice and the point of the operating system, Linux is about choice. The choice for the person to customize their system to run anything and everything. Granted that gaming is part of "everything", therefore, gaming is part of the Linux vision. However, when you said that Linux was suppose to be an alternative, that's not really that true until it got popular. Linux was supposingly an open source project for Linus Torvalds to learn the x86 architecture on his computer and try to clone UNIX. The only reason why it's still in development under Linus's directions is because he finds making this operating system fun. It was never meant to be an alternative to Windows.

To tackle the Direct X thing, there are many games that are going to be running on Linux (PS3 to be exact) and all of them uses OpenGL 2.0. Also, Direct X was just Microsoft's version of OpenGL. When I take a look at the codes for a Direct X program vs. an OpenGL one, they look quite similar.

However, I do give you kudos about the marketshare, at the same time, you must remember, the only thing that's going to make an operating system popular is to have games running on it. In order to do so, you must have companies like id Software making that first move to make an operating system they think have potential with their technology.

Also, you can also even say no operating systems were meant for gaming, even Microsoft Windows. It's just that you have extra layers slapped on to it to make it run games.

xboxrulz

I think it's catch-22. Not enough gamers to warrent porting PC-CD games to Linux and not enough Linux games to encourage people to switch!

I have donkey's years of experience of Windows and use it for my job as well as gaming. I have tried a few flavours of Linux and were greatly impressed with the image and functionality of it. I have setup web servers on Linux and learned some of the command line functions. But each time I set it up and get excited about Linux again, I always get the bit where I realise I have a huge archive of genuine PC-CD games that I simply can't play on Linux.

There are a lot clever programmers out there and the day they work out how to give Linux the ability to install and run PC-CD games (and apps) straight from the cd with the minimal of fuss to the user, then Microsofts days are numbered.

Until then, I don't like the fact, but it's true that Linux just isn't flexible enough as a family's main computer.

Rgds

Mike

well, yes Lunix becomeng more useful and popular but at moment i think for Gaming events we should use Microsoft products and releases, i think technalogies of gaming platforms more comptable with Windows then Lunix products. One big reason that windows is more relable for gamimng platforms as programist i can say but i dont want say somting agains to Lunix but at moment i think more better play on Windows games then play it on Lunix platforms!! and More of games MORE comptable with Microsoft Windows Operateing Systems, i think!!!

Well, as I never really played games on Windows, due to I am a retro gamer and prefer all the games before the year 2000, I can easily emulate them on Linux and besides, people who use some other operating system than Windows really want the computer to be a computer, but if you don't want to know anything, just play games, listen to music, surf the web and watch a movie, which most of the people in the world does, use Windows, even though they (windows OS) can do much more, but it is a choice, personally my first OS was Amiga, then Linux and only then Windows, until I got used to Windows it was horrible; I don't see what Linux can't do what Windows can except Games, but serious people aren't gamers, just likes to play sometimes, personally when I start playing a game, my target is to finish it and people who plays counter strike, I don't see a finish there.