Ok here is a challenge to all the hardcore linux folks out there.

I will greatly accept the switch if it can be proven that Games will run as good under linux as they do under windows.

Im a windows guy at heart, but I do work on unix systems at work.
Im a gamer, and that will never change.
I had switched over to linux about 4 years ago, and I couldnt play crap on linux without dual booting to windows. (I think it was Wine emulation they were running under)

Now have there been some improvements in being able to play windows games smoothly on linux?
If so, please let me know, and please point me to references which say that is true.

here is my setup and what I currently play:
Hardware:
asus p4ce800-deluxe mobo (onboard gig-e)
p4 2.8ghz
bfg 6800 ultra
1gb corsair XMS pro memory
4x200gb western dig sata hd's in raid 1 (2 logical drives)
2x 160gb OS and data drives.
sb audigy 2

Acessories:
Logitech g15 keyboard
Logitech 6.1 surround
Logitech G5 Laser mouse
Ceative Zen Xtra jukebox.
Couple of flash drives.
Dual layer dvd burner ( i think its a lite-on.. been a while since i checked)

Games I am currenly playing, and want to continue playing...

Godfather the game
Freelancer (old standby favorite)
World of Warcraft (just dumped my account actually)
Rollercoaster Tycoon 3
Civ 4

Edit:
From what i can tell Cedera is the app of choice for a lot of games.
Any suggestions on linux flavor as well? or web sites to point me in the right direction. I will prob dual boot until i can get a handle on things for a month or 2.

- C

This post has been edited by DjCalvin: May 8 2006, 10:48 PM

I've tried Linux for a few weeks in the past, but since I wasn't a Linux geek at that time, it just confused me a lot.
I'm guessing that most games were built just for Windows, and Linux's processors aren't the most efficient in reading Microsoft's proprietary codes. If a game was created specially for Linux, it'll probably run crappily on Windows.

It's really hard to compare between the two from a gaming standpoint.

See, first of all, Linux was never meant to be for gaming. In it's primary field of expertise - OS Resource Usage, Networking & Security - it far outshines Windows. The performance of Windows in those spheres is at best miserably pathetic.

On the other hand - Windows was designed to be the average end-user desktop system and those are the people who play a hell lot of games. Thus Windows has a pretty powerful graphical engine, which helps games work real smooth.

Then again - there are games specifically designed for Linux - which work equally well. It entirely depends on the coding & the gaming engine.

WINE isn't a solution by any means - but yeah, it's supposed to make your transition from Windows --> Linux a lot easier by letting you run some of your favourite Windows appz on Linux. That's about it.

Until Linux comes out with a powerful graphics engine, and developers see the potential, I doubt any other Operating System can compare to the years of development that Microsoft have had.

I would sooner use a propietrybased operating system to play my favourite games, than to compromise and get a weakend, or playable game. Especially if it cost a lot.

I can't have solid prove (since I can't get the FPS showing on Windows), but when I ran C&C Renegade, C&C Tiberian Sun and Quake 4, it was considerably faster, as if you can feel the speed difference too.

My only explanation to this phenomenon is that the X Server's framebuffer is bigger, therefore it's faster to process all the graphic data.

Yet when m^e said about Linux wasn't designed for gaming, true, but remember, Linux was designed as a powerhorse to calculate math and other operations fast! Therefore, if calculations are faster and stable, then Linux can beat a Windows machine (if running natively or in some WINEd games)

xboxrulz

This post has been edited by xboxrulz: May 9 2006, 11:38 PM

Playstation 3 is shipping with linux pre-installed on the hard disk.. ( sold seperatly )

what more needs to be said.

lol, that just blows away the argument, I forgot to bring that up.

Yet, Linux is already preinstalled, but you require the hard disc to access the full functionality. All games are running on OpenGL and Sony's customized Linux variant.

xboxrulz

A dedicated gaming console which runs on linux is the greatest proof. When it comes to PC gaming lot of game developers are now targetting linux also. There are many popular games which are being ported to linux by the game developers. Try ID software games(all ID Software games are now available for both Windows and linux), when playing you may not be able to make out that whether you are playing it on windows or linux. When it comes to better gaming experence, both windows and linux are the same. Only thing is Linux has a way to go to be more popular OS and then more and more gamedevelopers will target their games to linux.

not only is it on Linux/Windows but also on MacOS X.

xboxrulz

Well, I play a lot of games myself and prefer Linux over windows. Now, games which are made for Linux work seamlessly. But there are only so many games that run natively on Linux. The native Linux games that I've played are:

1. Quake 3 Arena
2. Unreal Tournament 2004
3. Neverwinter Nights

Well, I do like to listen to some music in the background when playing the game. Q3A and UT2004 had some sound issues if I played amaroK in the background, in the sense that there would be no more sound coming from the game, just from the music player. But this didn't affect gameplay and I wasn't bothered.

Neverwinter Nights is by far the best native Linux game. The sound works perfectly, I can listen to background music from amarok AND the graphics are terrific. I played the whole of first and second levels and there was no problem at all.

Now, thanks to Cedega, some Windows games can also be made to work in Linux. The Windows games that worked for me (without any hassles) are:

1. Spiderman 2 PC
2. Sonic Adventure DX Director's Cut

Sonic didn't work all that well since it's sound depends on the WMA9 codec and I didn't have it installed. Nevertheless, the game worked seamlessly if only silently!

Cedega offers ready, out-of-the-box support for a large number of Windows games. You could check it out.

You can always expect problems if you're playing a Windows game on Linux. I'm usually always on Linux, but use windows only to play games and nothing else.