| The PlayMe page:
About games in a
GNU/Linux environment. |
| Despite
the myths, GNU/Linux as well as FreeBSD can easily be a gaming platform. First of all read: http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Linux-Gamers-HOWTO/index.html This page contains very useful data for potential Linux gamers. Paragraphs in this page are: Possibilities Listing Personal Experience Libraries Links Conclusion Specific Tips Possibilities
Listing
Personal Experience
More to come soon. Libraries For every type of game technology (Native, Ported, Layered, Emulated) we may encounter for GNU/Linux or *BSDs, there are always some essential libraries we will rely on. The most common are: SDL OpenGL - Mesa OpenAL LibJsw Yiff DRI Read about game prequisites carefully and install the necessary ones before trying to compile - install the games. BUT: Do not worry too much, because all modern distros have most of these libraries installed. On the other hand, nomatter how automated or not is our GNU/Linux distro, we will have to deal with these libraries sooner or later. So start reading now. MS Windows users will also have to deal with SDL - OpenGL. MacOsX users may have to deal with most of the mentioned libs too. Links http://www.opengl.org/applications/linux/games/ : OpenGL games for Linux/Unix http://games.linux.sk/ : Huge Linux Games Database - Finder Linux Gamer's Game List Conclusion Who said that OSes like GNU/Linux or FreeBSD are for server clusters only? When an operating system reaches the mainstream user for Desktop/Home purposes, the Gaming role is not far away. However, the user may have to make some - or much more - effort to achieve gaming functionality than a user in other systems. Since Sound Servers like Yiff and libraries like LibJsw might not be included in our Distro structure, learning to install packages or better compile and install will have to be simple - routine - tasks. But in the other hand (and this is my personal experience) once the servers or libraries were in place, all native and ported games ran surprisingly easily. The emulated ones depend on the compatibility status of course. Happy gaming. Specific Tips This paragraph applies to games that need a few "tweaks" to play well. Warcraft 3 in Linux-FreeBSD through wine: Assuming that: 1) Warcraft 3 is legally purchased and 2) The Graphics card is OpenGL accelerated and properly configured for kernel and X and 3) OpenGL or Mesa libraries are correctly installed in the system then 4) SDL is correctly installed (although I do not know how much wine uses SDL for this game). If Warcraft 3 is located at /mnt/c/Games/WarIII/ , The command wine /mnt/c/Games/WarIII/War3.exe -opengl will run Warcraft 3. Caution: 1) A no cd crack must be applied because direct cd access does not work *. 2) A registry key must be added in ~/.wine/user.reg: the command is wine regedit
4) Wine plays the game without errors using Arts sound server. Alsa or OSS might work too. * If a game is legally purchased then using cracks is not illegal. More "difficult" games soon to come. Simcopter Fallout 1-2 |