Can I play any Win7 game on Linux?

[teemumilto]

Hi, I am apprehensive about buying the Windows 7 for my new desktop PC ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig_b41uOQCg ) and pay more than 100 euros for it. I don't have enough money before I get the student loans after New Year 2012, and I was wondering if I could get Linux somewhere today or before Christmas holidays.

Before I decide, tell me, can I play any Win7 game I like on Linux, by using Wine, PlayOnLinux, Crossovergames or Cedega? I am a PC gamer, I want to have maximum performance on SLI GTX 580 graphics cards, the bespoke Corsair Dominator 2000 Mhz and the fastest SDD on the market, OCZ IBIS 160 Gb and Ivy Bridge processor. I don't want any compromises in terms of what games I can play, but I can stretch about the top FPS. I can cope with having to learn command prompt. I just want compatibility.

I have Steam on my EEE PC and I want to run those games on my new, faster desktop PC, including Minecraft, Sanctum, Civ4, Crysis2, Battlefield2, any future maximum requirement game, the astronomy program Celestia, Google Earth with the graphics cards. I want to use Linux exactly for the same things as I'm using my Windows, if not exactly the same way.

I am ready to give up Win, as I've wanted to do since the 1990's. Just as long as you tell me, hard, cold and honest truth, weather Linux can run the same software as Win. I don't want any wishful thinking about tinkering with Linux in the gaming world, open-source games unheardof in Windows or Steam and the possible future. Is it possible now?



Regards, Teemu, Finland.

[tparker]

On 12/22/2011 1:59 AM, teemumilto wrote:

Before I decide, tell me, can I play any Win7 game I like on Linux, by using Wine

No, wine will not play games with certain type of DRM. Beyond that you
will have to put time and effort into searching for fixs and workarounds
to each game individually if you run into trouble trying to play it
through wine. People are willing to help with that but it will take work
on your part as well. The wine appdb has info on many games and you
should search for the games you want to play there and see what is
listed for how well they work and how much goes into setting them up.



? I am a PC gamer, I want to have maximum performance on SLI GTX 580
graphics cards

You will not have this through wine. Wine does only DirectX9 graphics at
this time. Any games that use DX10 or 11 will not have those graphics
options and if the game requires either 10 or 11 it simply will not
work. Even with DX9 you may not see the same framerates you do in
windows but that will vary greatly depending on the game. Again, you can
check the appdb ahead of time for more information on that per game.

[teemumilto]

Understood. DRM means Digital Rights Management.

And a good closing point about the DX9 on Wine. Most forums are full of subjective opinions about hardcore gaming on Linux, but that was critical. But I thought Wine was OpenGL and is compatable to directx in general? Wine has never been a directx9 operating system. Semantics aside, if the comparable graphics level and compatability on Wine is DX9, and Steam's Sanctum with DX10 won't work, then it is too much to ask. I have to wait for the holidays and buy a fucking Win7. Clonezilla didn't work on my EEE PC either.

[jjmckenzie]

Understood. DRM means Digital Rights Management.

And a good closing point about the DX9 on Wine. Most forums are full of subjective opinions about hardcore gaming on Linux, but that was critical. But I thought Wine was OpenGL and is compatable to directx in general?

OpenGL == Open Standard for Graphics Libraries
DirectX == Closed Microsoft Proprietary System

They are not compatible in their calls or methods. Wine has to translate from DirectX calls to OpenGL calls and back.

Wine has never been a directx9 operating system. Semantics aside, if the comparable graphics level and compatability on Wine is DX9, and Steam's Sanctum with DX10 won't work, then it is too much to ask.

DirectX10 is a work in progress. If the project was made aware of a missing DirectX10 call, through the bug reporting system, that keeps a game from working, the volunteer developers might place more emphasis on making that particular call work or to provide workaround code (called a stub) that allows the program to work. Without reports, developers work on what they feel is essential. Also, much of the DirectX work is pending implementation of lower level functions in the DIB engine.

I have to wait for the holidays and buy a [expletive deleted] Win7. Clonezilla didn't work on my EEE PC either.

Wine does not fully implement the Windows7 ABI/API, so if you find a program that requires Windows7, you would be best to buy it to avoid encountering difficulties with the program. Yes, the project is working towards full compatibility with Windows7 but that does take time.

James

[Mateusz Stachowski]

I don't know from where did you get information about Sanctum requiring DirectX 10. On the Steam requirements there is clearly written that it is DirectX 9.0c or higher: Sanctum on Steam

There is also AppDB page for that game: Sanctum AppDB

I had it working, but didn't play much.

[vitamin]

Before I decide, tell me, can I play any Win7 game I like on Linux, by using Wine, PlayOnLinux, Crossovergames or Cedega?

No, you can't. None of the above support all aspects of DirectX. And whatever is supported is at least 25% slower then native.

But I thought Wine was OpenGL and is compatable to directx in general?

Not even close, other then both have something to do with 3D graphics (DX is more then just graphics btw).

Wine _implements_ DirectX over OpenGL (note this James, not translates calls, _implements_). The difference is the same as asking Google to translate some Russian poetry to English. Will you get the meaning? Yes. Will you get the poetry? No.