Dr. Steed
Architect of the Console Matrix
Senior Staff
Senior Meeper
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Posts: 496
I serve the Master Control Program.
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« Reply #15 on: January 08, 2008, 05:24:20 PM » |
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An update to my previous two posts.
As mentioned above, the sole reason for Windows XP on my main workstation was the ability to run World of Warcraft. The issue specifically was that ATI sucks - until a few months ago, their drivers were closed-source (as I predicted, AMD finally got ATI to open the vault recently), so the Linux ATI drivers are buggy reverse-engineered code and will likely remain so until open-source driver coders have the time to give the ATI source a good going over. So, digging through my spares, I found an nVidia GeForce 4.
Yes, I intentionally downgraded my video. The reason being that nVidia doesn't suck - they opened their driver source yonks ago, so the Linux nVidia driver sets are quite good. So, with a lesser-but-supported video card, I threw in a spare hard drive, disconnected my Windows drive, and installed Ubuntu. Then I installed wine (Linux's WINdows Emulation layer).
Now, one of the reasons I <3 Ubuntu is how seriously the community takes its documentation. I quite easily found a wonderful keystroke-by-keystroke walkthrough on getting WoW to run on Ubuntu through wine, and how to do a few simple hacks that dramatically improve performance (particularly by ditching DirectX in favor of OpenGL). I also added Automatix2 to the mix, as that simplifies installing the extra fonts that Windows programs like to use, plus a few other packages (Automatix2 has its own simple walkthrough). So, with wine and Automatix2 up and running, and having already made my own WoW install DVDs (as opposed to the dump-truck full of CDs normally needed), I simply launched Installer.exe through wine.
And waited for WoW to install. And for BC to install. And for 2.0.0 to patch up to 2.3.1. Anyone who's played the game knows this particular drill.
After a few hours of waiting for things to install - about the same time it takes Windows, BTW - I finally double-click that magic "W" icon.
Holy crap, is it pretty.
WoW actually runs faster and more stably, with slightly better graphics, under Linux/wine than under its native Windows. Even when using a lesser video card (so long as the card is made by nVidia, who doesn't suck) - I'm reasonably certain that this is due to Linux being far more intelligent than Windows when it comes to memory handling, particularly in the case of video card memory. And, of course, Linux having a way more efficient core than Windows.
So, here I sit, basking in the warm glowing warming glow of a dual-display HT-2.6GHz/1GB rig running Ubuntu Linux 7.10, knowing that at any time I can tap a hotkey combination (something Linux does out of the box, which Windows needs third-party software for) and be transported to Azeroth in moments.
Now, Linux still has a ways to go - there are few companies writing software specifically for Linux, even fewer game companies. Linux needs to continue its growth in order to be taken seriously enough by gaming companies in order to start getting native games and game clients. However, Linux can clean Windows' clock through *emulation* - once developers clue into the power of the platform, I expect to see "Linux Version" games added to store shelves alongside "PC Version" and "Mac Version".
Up next: Media PCs. Once I get a TV tuner card that doesn't suck (currently stuck with an ATI AIW128 that not even Windows really supports anymore - I'm considering a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 500 MCE as the replacement), my media PC - which has been Windows XP since it was built - will get a make-over and the two platforms compared (Mac won't be part of this roll-up - AppleTV is a digital receiver, not a media center). The new OS: Mythbuntu - the officially-recognized Ubuntu remix with a complete MythTV install built right in!
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