[KLUG Members] Re: TransGaming Releases WineX 2.0

[Adam Williams6]

>>FYI for the Linux gamers out there.  I just installed the latest RPM but 
>>haven't fired it up with any DX8 games yet to see how it works in real life.  
>>Seems to be a significant release from TransGaming though which is 
>>encouraging since Loki went under.
>Native apps are best and OpenGL is the key.  Convincing vendors to make
>Linux ports is the key.  There is a DirectX 8 to OpenGL API wrapper and
>SDL maps to most other DirectX functions.  The man-hours required to
>"tweak" an "emulator" for a title and just actually "port" the title
>from the source code is about the same.

Anyone want to do a presentation on OpenGL/SDL?

>It's too bad Loki's gone, but it was far too thin of a profit model to
>do on their own.  Fortunately, former Loki developers are still signing
>NDAs to port games!  E.g., Serious Sam and Operation Flashpoint are
>being ported to UNIX (because they actually were developed on OpenGL,
>even if they use DirectX).  Unreal Tournament 2 is also going to be
>available for Linux (largely because it's developed on Linux!).

I have to say, when I first craked open a Loki box, I thought "Games on 
Linux... pHhhhwwww".  But I was flat out shocked at the quality and 
performance,  they were top notch stuff.  They would run on hardware I 
wouldn't even consider game-worthy.

>From what I know I attribute their failure to completely inept management.  
Failure to realize they were in a currently low-volume niche, and they 
completely flumoxed the distribution side.  It took me *months* to 
purchase a Loki product,  one place took the order and was on backorder 
forever,  canceled that, another place "Oh my! We don't have any in 
stock", etc... It was insane.  Meanwhile there are piles of Loki product 
in warehouses (according to the creditors).  Crazy.

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Ximian GNOME, Evolution, LTSP, and RedHat Linux + LVM & XFS
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