Suggestions for AppDB

DRNewcomb · Post by **DRNewcomb** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 7:13 pm

I'm not sure if this is the appropriate place for this suggestion but I'd like to get some discussion on the subject.

I feel that AppDB does not provide enough information about the particulars of the system and user to be of a lot of value in deciding what works, what doesn't and why. I'd like to suggest that AppDB capture some additional information:
1. User experience: e.g. Noob, Moderate, Hacker, Guru
2. System RAM
3. GPU: (e.g. geForce, ATI, etc)
4. Tweeks and additional packages installed.
5. ???

Post by **dimesio** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 8:16 pm

There already is a comments field where people can put any of the information you've listed. I would like to see more detailed information on special settings/dll overrides needed, and adding a field specifically for that might remind more people to include that information. (I'm guilty of forgetting to mention it myself sometimes.)

I believe the system requirements for programs under Wine are supposed to be the same as under Windows, so I don't really see the need for this info. (I could be wrong about that, of course.)

As for user experience, well, that would be self-reported, and I've learned to take such self-assessments with a lot of grains of salt.

DRNewcomb · Post by **DRNewcomb** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 10:25 pm

dimesio wrote:There already is a comments field where people can put any of the information you've listed.

Yes, but if something is not required information many people may feel that it is unnecessary or not germane and leave it off.

I believe the system requirements for programs under Wine are supposed to be the same as under Windows, so I don't really see the need for this info. (I could be wrong about that, of course.)

It may be my inexpereince but some of what I've been reading indicates that geForce and ATI GPUs have different capabilities under Wine because of the implementation of OpenGL. (Of course I could easily be reading out of date information of just plain wrong) So is it possible that a Windows application might run with one but not the other? If so this information could be signifficant.

As for user experience, well, that would be self-reported, and I've learned to take such self-assessments with a lot of grains of salt.

I agree but I doubt that many noobs would want to claim to be gurus.

vitamin · Post by **vitamin** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 12:22 am

DRNewcomb wrote:I'm not sure if this is the appropriate place for this suggestion but I'd like to get some discussion on the subject.

I feel that AppDB does not provide enough information about the particulars of the system and user to be of a lot of value in deciding what works, what doesn't and why. I'd like to suggest that AppDB capture some additional information:
1. User experience: e.g. Noob, Moderate, Hacker, Guru
2. System RAM
3. GPU: (e.g. geForce, ATI, etc)
4. Tweeks and additional packages installed.
5. ???

Most of that information is irrelevant for regular applications (not games). Requiring everyone to inter it would be counter productive.

hendrik · Post by **hendrik** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 9:24 am

On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 08:16:15PM -0500, dimesio wrote:

There already is a comments field where people can put any of the information you've listed. I would like to see more detailed information on special settings/dll overrides needed, and adding a field specifically for that might remind more people to include that information. (I'm guilty of forgetting to mention it myself sometimes.)

I believe the system requirements for programs under Wine are supposed to be the same as under Windows, so I don't really see the need for this info. (I could be wrong about that, of course.)

There a big different between "supposed to be the same" and "is the
same".

As for user experience, well, that would be self-reported, and I've learned to take such self-assessments with a lot of grains of salt.

DARKGuy · Post by **DARKGuy** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 10:03 am

On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 8:46 PM, dimesio <[email protected]> wrote:

I believe the system requirements for programs under Wine are supposed to be the same as under Windows, so I don't really see the need for this info. (I could be wrong about that, of course.)

Not really, Transformers: The game, doesn't work under WINE with the
same GPU it does under Windows (GeForce4 Ti 4200 AGP8X 128Mb) just
because it lacks an OpenGL extension that DirectX knows how to work
out correctly, and so the game works under Windows and it throws an
error saying you don't have Pixel Shader 1.1 in WINE.

Same happens with Need for Speed: Most Wanted, which has
blocky-to-blank textures (my guess is that it's a shader emulation
issue) and WAY less FPS (not to mention stupid crash & sound bugs),
compared to playing it under Windows, fully working.

Requirements can differ. With the same GPU, I get about 5-10 FPS less
under WINE than in Windows when playing World of Warcraft. I changed
GPUs and haven't tested since then, but the difference was -very-
noticeable. Hard Disk load was less though =).

On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 12:52 AM, vitamin <[email protected]> wrote:

Most of that information is irrelevant for regular applications (not games). Requiring everyone to inter it would be counter productive.

Then make a selection box to choose if what you're submitting is a
program or a game, problem solved and everyone gets what they want.

Tlarhices · Post by **Tlarhices** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 7:39 pm

[quote]1. User experience: e.g. Noob, Moderate, Hacker, Guru[/quote]
This is somehow a name change for the current ranking system :
Noob -> Platinium / Gold
Moderate -> Silver
Hacker/Guru -> Bronze
Nobody -> Garbage

[quote]2. System RAM
3. GPU: (e.g. geForce, ATI, etc)[/quote]
Wine implementation is under heavy development so optimisations and compatibility changes are really fast. Such informations will become deprecated to fast to be of any use (sadly the appdb is not so often updated by the users even when they have problems)
So it will tend to be the same as written on the box, one day, maybe.

[quote]4. Tweeks and additional packages installed.[/quote]
This one is dependent on the distribution your are using and so if the report is not done carefully it might easily give wrong informations to the users.

Detructor · Post by **Detructor** » Fri May 02, 2008 2:08 am

the only really thing that has to be known: What graphiccard has the user?
AMD or nvidia or Intel or VIA ?
And which version of driver?

That information is a must have! Because some games/functions doesn't work with AMD Graphiccards, but they do with nvidia graphiccards.

So you could say "yes, this game runs...but it does not with an AMD graphiccard"

Paul Johnson · Post by **Paul Johnson** » Fri May 02, 2008 8:51 pm

On Friday 02 May 2008 12:08:15 am Detructor wrote:

So you could say "yes, this game runs...but it does not with an AMD
graphiccard"

I think this actually is more dependent on whether or not the card is capable
of OpenGL, and what GL implementation you use. Generally speaking in Linux,
however, if you need GL, odds are nVidia might not necessarily be the way it
was meant to be played, but it's probably the only way it will play.

There's two ways to deal with this reality right now,

1) Take some time out from gaming to hack on the GL drivers for your off-brand
video chipset, or

2) Shop only vendors that do what you need in the first place...

--
Paul Johnson
[email protected]

Explaination of .pgp part: http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Mail/rant-gpg.html
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