I'm fairly new to Linux, and I'm considering switching to it as my primary OS. The only thing that has been holding me back is support for games, and now I heard you can run Windows-based games on Linux with minimal performance loss.

So basically I'm looking for some step-by-step instructions on installing (and playing ) a game under Linux (specifically, WarCraft 3). I found some instructions on using wine I think it was, but it didn't work...don't really remember why.

Info on my setup:
On first hard drive, Windows 2000
On second hard drive, Red Hat 8
Video card: Radeon 8500

Thanks for any help you can give me

-KMac

www.transgaming.com

You'll definitely want to check out what they've got as this would be your best bet on running win games on linux, just short of using a win emulator such as vmware ( www.vmware.com )

These are both pay programs, however transgaming is only 15 bux US up front, then 5 bux a month there after, it's a subscription service; whereas vmware is a 1 time fee of ~199 bux US.

VMware offers a 30 day unlimited use trial that you may want to check out before forkin over the 200 bones.

Transgaming offers their files free via CVS, however you get no support and need to compile them yourself, and then they still don't work a good percentage of the time. However, there are loads of threads on getting them to work, and you might consider checkin them out if you are interested in that.

Cool

I have to agree with kmac when it comes to transgaming's winex. I started a subscription a month and a half ago, and I don't think I could have invested a better $15 towards my enjoyment of linux. $15 dollars gives you unlimited downloads and updates for three months. Some games like unreal tournament and it's 2003 counterpart have linux installers so you can install the normal retail cd without the need for any emulation (or windows application layers, to be completely PC :-)

I wish you luck in the full switch. Stick with it, and you'll be glad you did.

Thanks, I think I will check out the transgaming thing

Another thing I was thinking of that might be a problem: Is there any way I can access windows network objects? I would like to still be able to access network resources on the campus network (read: download mp3's really quick )

Thanks again

It sounds like you need to look into samba or smb. KDE has (in most distros installed by default) SMB handling built into Konqueror. SMB is the protocol that windows uses for it's network neighborhood. Just make sure you have the samba client and any kde-samba related packages installed.

If you know the IP address of the computer that you want to browse just type smb://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/ with the x's being replaced by the ip address of the remote computer.

If you don't know the computer's IP address I would suggest that you look into LISA. It allows you to see and browse computers by the network name. LISA is also normally installed along with kde, but many times you need to enable it in your boot process. Most distributions have a runlevel editor that will allow you to enable the LISA daemon on boot. You would most likely need to enable that for runlevel 5 (the runlevel that gives you a Graphical interface).

If you search this site for samba or smb you'll probably find every possible combination of questions and answers you could ever encounter.

Let me know how it works out for you.


Steve

Ok thanks again...

Also right now I think I'm either using Gnome or X desktop environment...should I be using KDE instead? I just did whatever the default was on installation...


Update: OK new problem...I ran WarCraft 3 and it went really slow...so I tried to install new drivers from the ATI website (I have a radeon 8500)

Whatever I did, it screwed up the X configuration, and x won't start...any way I can fix this? Oh, and how would I get 3D acceleration enabled? Looking at the support on transgaming.com, it said you need to do this if you run some command and it says 'no' (I ran this command and it said no, so I think I need to do this...)

Thanks

If you enjoy RPG's and can wait a month or so, BIOWARE is coming out with 'Never Winter Nights' for GNU/Linux (native support). www.bioware.com for more information. Looks very promising as far as graphics go and game play is unreal from what I've been hearing.

You'll have to purchase the 'windows' retail version and then download the gnu/linux binaries on there site (the windows retail version has the big map/video files, etc.)

Definitely a good investment, as it promote native gnu/linux game play and now a work around like winex which supports INVERSE NET FUTURE WORTH!!! (:

I am so stoked waiting for this game to come out (Never Winter Nights). I don't do much gaming due to the fact that alot of the major games around are first person shooters and I can't do those kind of games (motion sickness). This is an RPG type and so I am just stoked as all hell This will be my first game purchased, and will also be my first big game I've played/installed on my linux box. I hope the search function is up to my questions I'll have as soon as it comes out.



Cool

I'll see if I can find any answers for you. I'm at work right now, and my employer uses Websense to filter any content related to gaming, including the Transgaming web site. I don't know how well transgaming and Radeon get along, as native ATI drivers are relatively new and, to the best of my knowledge, somewhat querky.

I have a Geforce 4 ti4200, so I'm probably not qualified to troubleshoot ATI drivers killing X. You might think about making a seperate post, including any errors you're recieving, in the Hardware forum.

good luck

Steve

Sorry, I didn't even see the question. Try reconfiguring X. Did a readme file come with the drivers you installed? What distro are you running?

Cool

I was just reading on the info at the top of the page for your driver at ATI's website and you first need to determine a few things. They offer a script to help with that. Make sure you read that over, and follow the instructions. Run the script to get the info it requests so you an match it up with the driver you need.

Cool

Well, I just upgraded my GeForce drivers last night, it killed X cuz I hadn't edited the XConfig file properly, make sure you read through the readme carefully. For me the process required installing two patches (yes I installed everything from an RPM :P I'm a lazy bum) then editing the Xconfig (from vim since X wasn'tcoming up thereafter) and now everythign's fine and dandy. Really go for the readme and if there's some other problem, well say so