Linux is a perfectly suitable games operating system as my own desktop
will demonstrate. Sadly most games development companies do not
produce Linux versions of their games (or often Mac versions for that
matter) as Windows dominates 80-90% of the desktop operating system
market (depending of who you ask), it is often seen as not financially
viable to produce cross platform games for what is considered a
marginal market. Proprietary games developers often find it too
difficult to understand the 'bazaar' style open source development
process, consequently, without any recognised organisation (such as
Microsoft or Apple) to approach with driver or issues regarding their
game, they often consider supporting a product on Linux as too
awkward.
In most cases, the games will have been written using C++ which can be
compiled on any operating system, using almost any compiler (in most
cases, where cross platform compatibility is required, a developer
would use a compiler with cross platform versions like GCC). The code
issue is not necessarily the problem but the libraries are written
against.
Many Windows games are written against the Microsoft Direct X API and
therefore will only run on Windows. While virtualisation software may
enable you to play Windows games, performance will considerably worse
than running on Windows natively. Using WineX may help by providing a
kind Windows compatibility layer for Windows games, however, it is not
flawless.
Some games developers have gone to the trouble to make their games
cross-platform. Games using the Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament engines
have some Linux versions, notably Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Quake
3 and Unreal Tournament. There are demo versions of these and other
games available free of charge online. In the case of RTCW, you can
buy the Windows version retail cdrom and download the files to make
the game playable on Linux. This requires a Windows machine to extract
the necessary files from the installer executable by installing the
game and copying the required files onto the Linux machine.
Might I also draw your attention to Wolf ET, a free online multiplayer
version based on RTCW, developed by the same team as the original and
released free of charge. I play RTCW and Wolf ET regularly under
Linux.
As a side issue, if you are thinking of running 3D games on Linux you
are going to need a 3D accelerated graphics driver. Currently the most
reliable are NVidia and ATI. I have an ATI card which works fine, but
NVidia are often seen as having better drivers. Most modern Linux
distributions will either ship with the NVidia nv kernel module and
the ATI fglrx module, or at least will offer a means of obtaining it.
You may have to install it by hand using your distribution's packaging
method. I personally run Ubuntu Linux http//www.ubuntulinux.org/ and
installed the fglrx module using Synaptic, which is on the System >
Administration menu. |
