First off, as this is my first post, I'd like to introduce myself. I am Ladikn, and I am seriously concidering, after 3 viruses and 2 CCN steals, of running Linux. However, I am a little apprehensive on one area, and that is the purpose of my question.

I am a rather avid gamer, and from what I see on this and other forums, Linux cannot run DirectX supported games. I'm not sure if there are ways around that (I've heard rumors), but even then some of my games run things that are supposedly completely incompatible with Linux (like GameGuard).

So my questions is is it possible to switch between Linux and Windows(for gaming)? Thank you in advance for your help.

-Ladikn

You can run Virtualbox with windows XP inside linux for when you want to game or invest in a service called Cedega I believe which is great from what I hear for gaming... Wine also runs some games and so on.

You can also dual boot, which many linux users do (me too). If you install linux you can choose to keep your windows installation and install linux on another partition. The installer will then automatically set up your system for dual-boot.

First off, Welcome to the forums , enjoy your stay.



Which may be the best for this situation. Until you see how Linux goes, and even if you're going to stay with it. Cedega and Wine, are fine, but still limited, they are getting better all the time though . . . , maybe one day.

Running virtualization software such as VirtualBox etc, (may or may not work, I don't know), but it will have the disadvantage of an added overhead, using more resources etc. You are basically running 2 OS's, first off you are running Linux, then Win **, then your game (I think that's how it is anyway), If you have a real beefy machine, this may not be a problem.

I am lucky, all (99.9%) of the games I care for/play run natively under Linux, the only problem I had was to do with editing/modding tools, and only for Doom3/Quake4. So the decision I was faced with was, to either stay with Windows, and have full 100% percent compatibility, or, dual boot and have the best of both worlds, or stay with Linux and just live with the fact that there was just some things I may not be able to do . . . yet (I still live in hope). I chose the later, because by this time, it had become obvious, that for me there was no going back to Windows, I didn't even want to dual boot, I just didn't want to use it anymore.

Good luck.

You might also check out some of the games that run natively on Linux.

Which game types do you prefer?

There is a nice library of native Linux Games (All of Id's games run natively, so does UT2004 and some others) but if you're a serious gamer it won't be enough for you.

I was a Cedega subscriber for a long time and it ran all the games I needed it to (HL2, World of Warcraft, etc.) but some of them did take a little convincing

Otherwise, dual-booting is an option - but virtualised Windows is not. You can not have direct rendering for graphics in a virtual environment. Yet.

Just booting into Windows for games is not the end of the world. Your sensitive info will still be safe and sound in your Linux partition.

Heretic, Blasphemer,

that is all that is needed by the serious gamer.

I'll meet you out the back . . .

all a serious gamer needs is a terminal and angband

but anyway, VM's like virtual box or vmware will NOT work for any 3D or graphics accelerated games.

so beside that, you're left with native games, using cedega, using wine, or dual booting. You by no means have to use one, depending on how different games work, you can use a variety of different methods.

Dual booting's the easiest, so when you start, maybe give that a go, and then migrate and try out the other methods.

I've been a Linux user since '99, and I still dual-boot for games. I've used Cedega and WINE at various points, but in the end, for the best performance you should run it in it's native environment. Just don't run Vista

Seriously iph, you've been carrying on about angband since I've known you. What do you see in it? I would rather grate my knuckles...

Works fine for me

For games, that is... don't use it for anything else.

My experience didn't go well, especially for any games that use OpenGL (instead of DirectX). All the benchmarks I've seen have basically said that you're better off staying with XP for gaming because of performance degradation (in some cases, anyways). I even saw a few reports of Cedega 6.0 out-performing Vista.

I can't see any reason why running Vista instead of XP other than it takes some heavy tolls on the game performances. The only reason to use Vista for gaming will be if all the game companies switch to DX10, but that would not happening the next 5 years.

i like angband as much as well i like playing nethack. you have to have a great imagination to appreciate them. but less than playing paper-based rpg.

wish i could play more, or at least play anything. Hopefully after May 10 when work in the office become less toxic. :(

ciao!