Gameplaying/Graphics

ThePatriot

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Ok, I work with Unixware almost daily, and I've used various versions of Linux since about Red Hat 5.1, but I never gave gaming on Linux a try.

I installed Mandrake 9.2 on my wifes PC recently and thought I'd give it a whirl. Is game plying inherently bad on Linux as a rule? Even the Tux Racer game that came wqith it runs like poopy.

This is not a bad pc, it's a Compaq Evo P4 2.53 with 1Gb of ram, a 128 Meg Gigabyte Maya Radeon 9000 Pro and a Soundblaster Live! card.

I installed the latest Catalyst video driver from ATI's site, and it only helped marginally.

Anyone have any input on this?

Thanks!
 
game playing on linux is generally bad as a result of little to no serious game development for the platform, linux itsef is not a bad platform as world+dog knows, but with most of us gamers being windows addicts, thats the platform with the most focus on gaming.
 
there are a few games that have been ported to linux that run ok (cant rem examples). But as lord says as a whole, yah it sucks at it. Primarly because of lack of demand for development.
 
Ok, that's cool. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something. The desktop LOOKS and performs fine, I was just alarmaed at how bad the 3d was.

On a side note, I did see a few threads on other forums that basically said Linux support for ATI cards was not so hot, or at least the r200-ish series like my wifes.

Thanks for the input! I'll tell the wife to boot windows if she wants games!
 
Linux only uses OpenGL afaik for 3D Rendering. OpenGL is a great platform for games but Microsoft made DirectX. Game Developers went for that, and because DirectX is made by Microsoft there is no Linux port of DirectX.

There are a few games for Linux, Unreal Tournament, Doom, Quake and even Half Life (1). Basically any game with an OpenGL support in it's options is ok to port on Linux but the developers chose not to because not "everybody" has Linux on there computer.

There is something called I think Caldrea (spell) that emulates a mini win32 environment, you have to pay for it but I think you can compile it from free from CVS (though it is a pain to set-up), with this you can even install Half Life 2 (steam) I think.

Mandrake 9.1 is quite old now I think, it's now named Mandriva and I'm sure they just released 10, give it a try it should have updated drivers and Xorg etc.
 
Last edited:
Hey Desie!!


Yeah, everything she said.
 
Yeah, the distro is a bit aged. What really burns me is I have the latest Debian on 2 DVD's and didn't think to use it until AFTER I had Mandrake installed.

Oh well, a project for this weekend, maybe!

Thanks for the reply desie! And you too Steevo!
 
Debian 3.1...that is the latest release from them, yes?
 
I heart Debian.

My first and bestest Linux flavor yet.
 
Something no one else has mentioned but which I am well aware of and suprised Lord did not appear to know is that ATI cards will never have the driver support that Nvidia get in Linux - this I feel sure is a factor for you also.

Go to any IRC channel for GFX issues and the first thing they say is that you are kinda on your own if you insist on going ATI.
 
VenomXt said:
why is that?
falconguard said:
Canadaian exchange rate.:dead:
VenomXt said:
Classic.
rofl.gif
 
Mainframeguy said:
Something no one else has mentioned but which I am well aware of and suprised Lord did not appear to know is that ATI cards will never have the driver support that Nvidia get in Linux - this I feel sure is a factor for you also.

Go to any IRC channel for GFX issues and the first thing they say is that you are kinda on your own if you insist on going ATI.


That was one of the factors in my getting an nvidia card this time around. ATI dont do linux.
 
True, neither the newer cards or the older ones. Anything between a 8XXX series and 9800 series was fine though. I remember a early edition of Debian and troubles with my old 7500.
 
Yeah, it's definitely an ATI thing. Debian installed well, but is no better in the graphics dept.

One thing I don't like about it...in Mandrake I had the option of right-clicking a network pc and browsing it with whatever credentials I needed and it displayed quite fast, but with Debian it is a bit trickier and much much slower displaying the contents of folders with lots of files in them. I assume I need to configure Samba to improve this. Haven't had much time this weekend to do anything with it though.

That said, I think I like Debian more overall.
 

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Also Hi EP and people. I found this place again while looking through a oooollllllldddd backup. I have filled over 10TB and was looking at my collection of antiques. Any bids on the 500Mhz Win 95 fix?
Any of the SP crew still out there?
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Just did some crude math and I apparently joined almost 18yrs ago, how is that possible???
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