Urza9814 Posted July 7, 2004 Report Share Posted July 7, 2004 Hey, what's a good emulator for running games in Linux? Is it WineX, or are there other good ones? I'm starting to play games more now...meaning I'm on Winblows a lot more now...and it's really annoying me :P So...what do you suggest? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted July 7, 2004 Report Share Posted July 7, 2004 winex/cedega if there's no native linux port of the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iphitus Posted July 7, 2004 Report Share Posted July 7, 2004 WineX/Cedega is your only option. Vmware, Win4Lin and Bochs are emulators and they have a lot of overhead and aren't as reliable, which makes them almost useless for games. Wine has got next to no DirectX ability, and is only capable of playin a handful of 2D Direct X games, nothing 3D. iphitus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VeeDubb Posted July 10, 2004 Report Share Posted July 10, 2004 Oh, and for the record, for the 1 billionth time, Wine, WineX(now cedega) and crossover office are ABSOLUTELY NOT EMULATORS!!!!!!!!!!! Glad I got that out of my sytem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkelve Posted July 10, 2004 Report Share Posted July 10, 2004 (edited) Oh, and for the record, for the 1 billionth time, Wine, WineX(now cedega) and crossover office are ABSOLUTELY NOT EMULATORS!!!!!!!!!!! Glad I got that out of my sytem. Sure they are, it says so in the name: Wine Is aN Emulator! :deal: (ducks for cover now) Edited July 10, 2004 by Darkelve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iphitus Posted July 10, 2004 Report Share Posted July 10, 2004 (edited) Wine Is Not an Emulator http://winehq.org/site/myths B) Edited July 10, 2004 by iphitus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulSe Posted July 10, 2004 Report Share Posted July 10, 2004 Yeah right and LAME = Lame Aint an Mp3 Encoder Of course Wine is an emulator. So is WineX and so is crossover office. I don't care what anyone says - if it looks like an emulator, smells like an emulator and work like an emulator then it is an emulator. The code might be different and blah blah blah the end result is an emulator. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SheHeItThey Posted July 10, 2004 Report Share Posted July 10, 2004 Emulators emulate instruction sets of different processor architectures. A GameBoy emulator for PC interprets the instructions found in a ROM dump of the cartridge and implements them on PC. They are different processors, and code is interpreted, not executed natively. It's similar to how Java works I suppose... Windows programs and Linux programs (x86) both run on the same Intel PC architecture. You normally cannot just run Windows programs on Linux mainly because of the difference in PE and ELF headers and because all the Windows runtime DLLs aren't there to link with. Oh yeah, and the registry. The idea of WINE is that it takes care of the differences in headers and provides the Windows runtime environment. It does NOT emulate the instructions of an Intel processor; there's no need. Windows programs run natively, and WINE supports them. WINE can be thought of as a Windows library or a Windows compatibilty layer. Emulators are virtual machines, and WINE is not. The overhead and slowdown associated with emulators don't apply to WINE because the instructions run natively. It looks like an emulator because it lets you run things from a totally different platform. That doesn't mean it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwiftDeath Posted July 11, 2004 Report Share Posted July 11, 2004 Emulators emulate instruction sets of different processor architectures. A GameBoy emulator for PC interprets the instructions found in a ROM dump of the cartridge and implements them on PC. They are different processors, and code is interpreted, not executed natively. It's similar to how Java works I suppose... Windows programs and Linux programs (x86) both run on the same Intel PC architecture. You normally cannot just run Windows programs on Linux mainly because of the difference in PE and ELF headers and because all the Windows runtime DLLs aren't there to link with. Oh yeah, and the registry. The idea of WINE is that it takes care of the differences in headers and provides the Windows runtime environment. It does NOT emulate the instructions of an Intel processor; there's no need. Windows programs run natively, and WINE supports them. WINE can be thought of as a Windows library or a Windows compatibilty layer. Emulators are virtual machines, and WINE is not. The overhead and slowdown associated with emulators don't apply to WINE because the instructions run natively. It looks like an emulator because it lets you run things from a totally different platform. That doesn't mean it is. That sounds about right SheHeltThey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newbie4ever Posted July 13, 2004 Report Share Posted July 13, 2004 Emulators emulate instruction sets of different processor architectures. A GameBoy emulator for PC interprets the instructions found in a ROM dump of the cartridge and implements them on PC. They are different processors, and code is interpreted, not executed natively. It's similar to how Java works I suppose... Windows programs and Linux programs (x86) both run on the same Intel PC architecture. You normally cannot just run Windows programs on Linux mainly because of the difference in PE and ELF headers and because all the Windows runtime DLLs aren't there to link with. Oh yeah, and the registry. The idea of WINE is that it takes care of the differences in headers and provides the Windows runtime environment. It does NOT emulate the instructions of an Intel processor; there's no need. Windows programs run natively, and WINE supports them. WINE can be thought of as a Windows library or a Windows compatibilty layer. Emulators are virtual machines, and WINE is not. The overhead and slowdown associated with emulators don't apply to WINE because the instructions run natively. It looks like an emulator because it lets you run things from a totally different platform. That doesn't mean it is. That sounds about right SheHeltThey <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VeeDubb Posted July 13, 2004 Report Share Posted July 13, 2004 Yup, sorry SS, WINE is no way an emulator. It doesn't do any of the things that an emulator does. All it does is provide libraries for Windows API calls to be translated in to Linux API calls. Not one architecture to another. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulSe Posted July 13, 2004 Report Share Posted July 13, 2004 Not an emulator on paper but definately an emulator in practise. That's all I'm saying. Lets not confuse the n00bs. WINE achieves what it does using different code to windows completely. The end result is that it runs windows programs by making them think that they are running in windows... just like an emulator. I know that technically it doesn't qualify but that doesn't matter. Life is too short to stuff a mushroom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Padma Posted July 13, 2004 Report Share Posted July 13, 2004 Cedega/WineX is clearly the way to go. My only real "Windows Only" game (Civilization 3) runs with only a few minor problems (e.g., a sound glitch) using it, letting me have my cake and eat it, too! :D As to the "emulator or not" side discussion, I agree with SoulSe: technically, it's not an emulator, but to a non-tech newbie, it does the same thing. :shrug: Not worth arguing about. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted July 13, 2004 Report Share Posted July 13, 2004 Wine and WineX emulate a windows environment where none exists. It is therefore an emulator. Whether or not it emulates a different architecture as far as the CPU is concerned is irrelevant. It emulates -something-, and is therefore an emulator. definition of "emulate": To imitate the function of (another system), as by modifications to hardware or software that allow the imitating system to accept the same data, execute the same programs, and achieve the same results as the imitated system. It does not clarify that the difference must be of the CPU type. It can be instruction sets. Besides, what if I run Wine/WineX on a PPC Linux install? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VeeDubb Posted July 14, 2004 Report Share Posted July 14, 2004 No, it DOES NOT "emulate a windows environment" Sorry, take a look at how the program works, won't bother replying again, it does not do anything that even vaguely resembles emulation is you understand what emulation means. Realy Tyme, I expected more accuracy from you, :lol: Let me explain more clearly, for what I promiss will be the last time for me in this thread. Example 1: When you load up a rom image for metroid in a program like Nesticle(An NES emulator) The program 'metroid' is running on a virtual machine, which functions in a manor very similar to a real NES. That NES in turn is actualy a program that is running on your computer. Nice in that every thing will function perfectly given a well coded emulator and an adequitly advanced real computer, but the downside is of course that the more advanced the machine or system being emulated, the worse it will run. Example 2: When I play Tribes2 on my linux desktop with cedega (I tried to buy the linux port, I swear I did, but it's not available anymore) It is running in Linux. Not virtual windows inside of linux, which would seriously reduce proformance just like an emulator, but it is runing all by it self, directly in linux, with full resources and real access to the acual computer. Meanwhile, cedega sits in the background, and when ever tribes2 tries to ask for a windows specific item, let's say "C:\Dymanix\Gamedata\base\base.vl2" cedega simply changes that to /home/stephen/.transgaming/c_drive/Dynamix/Gamedata/base/base.vl2" It does the same things for library and api calls. It doesn't emulate windows or a windows environment, it just redirects things to the right locations, ecause the truth, as we all should know, is that linux can do anything windows can do and in many cases it can do much more. The software doesn't translate because it isn't smart enough on it's own to know what to ask for in linux. These two examples are perfect examples of emulation and a compatability layer respectively. They are CLEARLY very different on a deeply fundamental level. That is that, in an emulator, you have a piece os software that pretends to be another system, and in wine/cedega, you have a background program that simply acts as a translator so software can run natively. I swear, if i didn't shave my whole head every day, I'd have pulled the hair out anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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