Is it possible to run a Windows virtual machine under Linux for games?

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CrashGawker

Gawd
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May 30, 2002
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I'm saving up for a new computer this summer and I'll be getting rid of Windows as my day to day desktop OS in favor of Fedora (it's the distro I've got the most experience with so far) but I'm afraid I won't be able to COMPLETELY wean myself from the yoke of MS oppression for some time yet. One of the main reasons is the lack of certain softwares I use that translate well to Linux and among those are some minor gaming.

I'm not a major game guy, but I do like to play around a little here and there with some older stuff and I was wondering if it would be plausible to run a virtual machine with Windows inside the Linux OS instead of having to set the system up as a dual boot rig and reboot anytime I wanted to play a game. I'm not sure if there would be simply too much strain on the hardware trying to run both together and a game or if it's just not feasible as a solution but I thought I'd ask...
 
Meaning technically with Wine it's possible to run some games, but they'd HAVE to be low end ones. I guess virtualization falls prey to the same problems forcing a dual boot setup then?
 
WINE can run games like Battlefield 2142, World of Warcraft, Command and Conquer 3 (at varying levels of quality, but the popular ones should be pretty much fully playable sooner rather than later). It all depends on what exactly you're going to play, and you can consult the application database over at WineHQ to see what games are playable, how playable, and what issues they have and such.

Virtualization's problems are different from whatever issue you're having with dual boot is. Currently, you can not get (good performing) hardware accelerated video in a virtual machine, as Whatsisname pointed out in his post. i.e. you can not have 3D acceleration to run DirectX games in any quality manner. VMWare is working on this for future releases though, but at this time, playing games in a virtualized OS is not the way to go.

I think you took Whatsisname's comment the wrong way, as he was referring to your original question of games in VM, not to Xer0's comment about Wine.
 
CrashGawker said:
Meaning technically with Wine it's possible to run some games, but they'd HAVE to be low end ones.
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Wine is not slow. Programs executed in the Wine environment run at a speed similar to native in many cases.

I guess virtualization falls prey to the same problems forcing a dual boot setup then?
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What problems?
 
I play C&C3 on my system via Wine (I run Debian Linux w/ 2.6.20) kernel with the following specs:

- Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
- nVidia 680i based board
- nVidia eVGA 8800GTS
- Seagate 500GB S-ATA drives (Software RAID1)

And I have no problems at all. My frame rates are amazing and I can play pretty much any game so far. CS:S and C&C3 are my main ones that I really care for...
 
You're right I took it wrong and applied it to gaming via Wine. I'm already planning on buying Crossover Suite so that I can run some other windows applications Natively in Linux so since that is a direct Wine derivative I should be able to run some games here and there right?

One of the games I'm hoping to be able to run is MS Flight Simulator X but since it's a MS product I don't really have high expectations of tricking it into running. I will try though. Other than that it'd probably be older stuff like Alice, Starcraft, Diablo, etc because I'm not really a heavy gamer I just like to play some little stuff here and there. I'll also be working on emulation under Linux as well because I really love the OLD games more than anything else.
 
Keep in mind that there are a handful of games that will run well natively in Linux, if you have a decent/supported video card. Wolfenstein ET, the Quakes, the Unreal Tourneys, etc.
 
CrashGawker said:
You're right I took it wrong and applied it to gaming via Wine. I'm already planning on buying Crossover Suite so that I can run some other windows applications Natively in Linux so since that is a direct Wine derivative I should be able to run some games here and there right?

One of the games I'm hoping to be able to run is MS Flight Simulator X but since it's a MS product I don't really have high expectations of tricking it into running. I will try though. Other than that it'd probably be older stuff like Alice, Starcraft, Diablo, etc because I'm not really a heavy gamer I just like to play some little stuff here and there. I'll also be working on emulation under Linux as well because I really love the OLD games more than anything else.
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Unfortunately, Flight Simulator X can't run via WINE yet. The description in the WineHQ appDB states that this is because the games make heavy use of Windows specific functions so it doesn't work via WINE yet. However, some other Microsoft games like Age of Empires seem to work.

American McGee's Alice - http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?iVersionId=374
Starcraft - http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?iAppId=72
Diablo - http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?iAppId=73
Diablo II - http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?iAppId=74

And let's just round it off with Warcraft, which all work. :)

I have not dealt with Crossover suite, so I can't say anything about that.

Boomslang said:
Keep in mind that there are a handful of games that will run well natively in Linux, if you have a decent/supported video card. Wolfenstein ET, the Quakes, the Unreal Tourneys, etc.
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You should read this as: I hope you're running an nVidia card. ;) ATI cards, for lack of a better term, suck under Linux. nVidia's cards can perform pretty much equally under Linux as they do in Windows, but ATI's drivers leave much to be desired.
 
I'm running x64 feisty, with wine, and get over 100fps in CSS with everthing high. Thats the game I play, and it works, so I'm happy. Dual boot, untill you can get it working the way you like in .nix

GL
 
I'm an nVidia fan anyhow so I'm going with nVidia graphics for the new rig. Actually unless I discover I really NEED a separate card I'll just be using the onboard graphics of the Asus M2NPV-VM motherboard I have picked out.

As for going dual boot until I can configure Linux the way I want it I actually have another computer that currently runs windows that I'll be phasing out once I get Linux to my liking so for the initial process I'll be set. I'll still probably run a dual boot setup I'm just trying to reduce my reasons for having to boot into Windows. I figure the less time I spend in windows the more I'll learn about Linux until I can stop using Windows altogether.
 
CrashGawker said:
I'm an nVidia fan anyhow so I'm going with nVidia graphics for the new rig. Actually unless I discover I really NEED a separate card I'll just be using the onboard graphics of the Asus M2NPV-VM motherboard I have picked out.

As for going dual boot until I can configure Linux the way I want it I actually have another computer that currently runs windows that I'll be phasing out once I get Linux to my liking so for the initial process I'll be set. I'll still probably run a dual boot setup I'm just trying to reduce my reasons for having to boot into Windows. I figure the less time I spend in windows the more I'll learn about Linux until I can stop using Windows altogether.
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my advice... find a reason to stick with linux and you will learn
I really started using linux at uni when I got my hands on a laptop in my final year. Format and install RedHat. picking up how linux worked and how gimp, StarOffice (as it was then) and such worked so that I could get my dissertation in (using RTF documents - the true interchangable format)
Plus never got infected by any of the word virus's that did the rounds :D

so force yourself todo it. Say design a website but just use linux as the desktop
 
You can also use Cedega. While it's not a free choice (meaning, you have to spend some good money on it), it does allow you to play your games easier. It's based on WINE, anyway, so if you're not lazy or feel bad towards this because of being a commercial product, just go with the original,
 
eeyrjmr said:
my advice... find a reason to stick with linux and you will learn
I really started using linux at uni when I got my hands on a laptop in my final year. Format and install RedHat. picking up how linux worked and how gimp, StarOffice (as it was then) and such worked so that I could get my dissertation in (using RTF documents - the true interchangable format)
Plus never got infected by any of the word virus's that did the rounds :D

so force yourself todo it. Say design a website but just use linux as the desktop
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Actually...I have already considered your argument and it's one of my main reasons for attempting this. You are VERY correct in your assertion that if there's no END PURPOSE in mind many people who TRY to switch from Windows to Linux will be turned off by the differences and perceived shortcomings of the Linux operating system in comparison to Windows and will give up on it in short order.

If you have a REASON for changing operating systems you will be more driven to learn the ins and outs as well as learning how to work AROUND the shortcomings or finding alternative ways to do what you want to do in order to get the results you were after in the first place. MY reasons are plenty not the least of which is the current price tag of the MS OS (~$200 OEM and ~$400 retail) compared to the price of downloading a Distro Disk of your favorite brand or flavor which is FREE! Not to mention most of the things your average computer user does are included in most distros by default (browser, email, IM software) so the only thing holding back the basic computer illiterate market is the MS ball and chain.

Also, having recently delved into Linux for the first time at length while building a MythTV system I have discovered some things in Linux that I think are MUCH better implemented than the MS counterparts such as the storage space mounting versus a stack of drives under My Computer that makes keeping your things in order and filing much easier without having to rely on RAID for combining space. The lack of virus issues is also a great plus to *nix, as is the inherent stability of the system. My MythTV rig hasn't needed to be rebooted (save for power outages) since I built it and is rock solid stable, something my Windows machine could NEVER accomplish. Because of that stability, once I have a new desktop system running the machine I'm currently typing on is getting converted to a Linux based file server which will give all of the powerful stability and file sharing tools to my file server and free me from the irritation of my current scheme which leaves MUCH to be desired.

As I said earlier however, everything has it's downside as well. Linux software isn't as broad as Windows, which is why I am trying to figure out how to Wine them when possible, and the game support is obviously lacking as well. I'm not much of a gamer, but that doesn't change the fact that the cross platform compatibility is drastically lacking in certain arenas. Also, the simple act of installing software under Linux is MUCH more complex than running a single EXE under windows _BUT_ once those small issues have been addressed and I've learned how to do the things like install software and such I'll be much better off overall. Provided nothing unexpected happens I'm hoping to have the money for the new build by mid July and then I'll start working in a real environment instead of the purely theoretical where I'm stuck currently. Then I'll start posting more stupid threads asking for help until I get things figured out.
 
TetsuDC said:
You can also use Cedega. While it's not a free choice (meaning, you have to spend some good money on it), it does allow you to play your games easier. It's based on WINE, anyway, so if you're not lazy or feel bad towards this because of being a commercial product, just go with the original,
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Cedega looks really nice but the only problem I have there is that's it's not a piece of software you can buy...it's a subscription service which means that as long as you want to use it you've got to dump money into it...I don't know that I want to spend a monthly amount for support for games I'm not going to play.
 
TetsuDC said:
You can also use Cedega. While it's not a free choice (meaning, you have to spend some good money on it), it does allow you to play your games easier. It's a fork of on WINE, anyway, so if you're not lazy or feel bad towards this because of being a commercial product, just go with the original,
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just a correction. After WineX failed to hand back any code improvement's they had WINE went GPL to protect their code investement. Since then Cedega cannot keep up with the correctly implemented DX* that WINE are doing

Cedega tend to go with the popularity contest and whatever at the top provide hacks on top of hacks on top of... to get it working, WINE went the correct route to implement DX* and the windows API

Sure Cedega performed better with games then WINE, but a few releases ago WINE had some major improvements in DX* support and things really started working correctly and consistantly!. Cedega can have an edge still with the games at the top of the popularity list but they are still quick hacks.

There have been games that worked really well in Cedega that after a patch or two of the game stopped working and since game no longer in the popularity list no hack to fix, as opose to WINE where once implemented it works!

Cedga does have the real edge in copy-protected games HOWEVER recent improvements in WINE's nt kernel hooks have made at lease one copy protection work really well.

WINE should be the first try, the trial version of Cedega next to see if it does work, then maybe do Cedega on a monthy subscription while checking with WINE.
Also WINE are part of Googles summer of code and one of the things they are going to be doing is initial DX10 support
 
Boomslang said:
How great would it be if DX10 came to Linux, and not XP. Heh.
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It will, its just a matter of time.

It'll take years before the implementation is completed, but it should be usable by next year. About the same time DX10 games start showing up in mass.
 
no, virtualization falls prey to very different problems than a dual boot setup.

CrashGawker said:
Meaning technically with Wine it's possible to run some games, but they'd HAVE to be low end ones. I guess virtualization falls prey to the same problems forcing a dual boot setup then?
Click to expand...
 
Just some facts...

VMware has supported limited Direct-X use for awhile now. You can actually run some games... esp. Direct-X 8 or less.

Cedega is ok... but the new player in the game arena (and better than Cedega in some cases) is Codeweaver's CrossOver product. Of course it also run M$ Office really well... recommended.

I've played HL, HL2, HL2 Episode One using Cedega/CrossOver (Steam). You CAN just buy a short term subscription (just don't renew). It's really not all that expensive. Cedega does some work to make weirdo copy protected things run. That's their biggest advantage. Of course, many just (cough) hack up their games so that's not a problem anymore anyhow. CrossOver did a nicer job than Cedega btw with regards to handling textures and such. HL2 was quite nice on CrossOver. I'll have to put up some videos.

Regardless... if you don't know ABSOLUTELY, positively for sure that it will run with Wine/Cedega/CrossOver, I can almost guarantee you that it won't. Sorry.

3dmark 2001 running on wine:
http://theendlessnow.com/screenshots/wine-3dmark2001.png
(thought I had a picture of running 3dmark 2000 or 2001 under VMware... but I can't find it)
 
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