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Wine development is starting to heat up again, as Wine 2.2 is now officially available. Sounds like a good one too.

What's new
- Windows version set to Windows 7 for new prefixes.
- More steps towards the Direct3D command stream.
- Still more Shader Model 5 instructions.
- Initial support for double-buffered theme painting.
- 35 bug fixes.

It fixes bugs in Need For Speed Most Wanted, Venom Codename: Outbreak, Civilization II and more.

Even though Wine is a hot topic of conversation, I still think it's very important. There will always be games and applications that simply won't come to Linux for a variety of reasons. Having every option open to us is great.

Kudos to the Wine team! Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Wine
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Shmerl Feb 19, 2017
How long does it usually take for wine-staging to release their packages in their repos? It's still at 2.1 there.

Quoting: LeopardDevel or staging,which one is stable version?
Neither. But there is no point in using the stable version. Too many features are being added all the time. Staging has more bug fixes which are somewhat experimental still. I'm using staging for gaming.


Last edited by Shmerl on 19 February 2017 at 7:14 pm UTC
Avehicle7887 Feb 19, 2017
Quoting: ShmerlHow long does it usually take for wine-staging to release their packages in their repos? It's still at 2.1 there.

Quoting: LeopardDevel or staging,which one is stable version?
Neither. But there is no point in using the stable version. Too many features are being added all the time. Staging has more bug fixes which are somewhat experimental still. I'm using staging for gaming.


It's normally a few days after the "normal" version, should be tomorrow or Tuesday.
sr_ls_boy Feb 19, 2017
Quoting: LeopardDevel or staging,which one is stable version?
Staging git, which rebases to 2.2 devel. These are today's commits.

I'm sticking with a 2.2 development build and a 2.1 staging build.
Whitewolfe80 Feb 19, 2017
Quoting: sr_ls_boyAs of today, on Sunday, the staging patches all of but done. There are serious regressions. For starters the color problem in Thief is back. Also, SE V2 will no longer start. This forthcoming release will tank performance in Hitman: A. I benchmark at 1/2rd the fps I used to get with 2.1 staging. So, I have reverted and will be keeping 2.2-devel(no patches) for further testing.

That's why you should not always do day one updates on Wine there are typically regressions here and there in order to get better functionality with x package if the version you have has decent performance stick with that until there is an improvement in the functions you are looking for bottom line read the change logs.
Shmerl Feb 19, 2017
Quoting: sr_ls_boy
Quoting: LeopardDevel or staging,which one is stable version?
Staging git, which rebases to 2.2 devel. These are today's commits.

I'm sticking with a 2.2 development build and a 2.1 staging build.

Is anyone publishing nightly builds of wine staging?


Last edited by Shmerl on 19 February 2017 at 8:42 pm UTC
sr_ls_boy Feb 19, 2017
Quoting: Whitewolfe80if the version you have has decent performance stick with that until there is an improvement in the functions you are looking for bottom line read the change logs.

You'll never know until you test it. That's what I did.
throgh Feb 19, 2017
Quoting: wojtek88
Quoting: throghWhy do you ever want to run newer Windows applications on Linux? Newer games should be done as native applications for Linux and WINE is very good for older classics.
@throgh in perfect world you're right. But you need to see that Valve and Ubisoft/EA are competitors because of Uplay and Origin platforms. This means that those companies won't release Linux versions of their games, because they have no interest in it. What's more - other bigger publishers are not on Linux board yet. CD Projekt RED did not release Witcher 3 even if Valve claimed they will, Rockstar and Bethesda are not interested in Linux, so it's very unlikely that there will be Linux version of games like:
GTA V, Witcher 3, Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, Watch Dogs 2, Far Cry 4, FIFA 17, and so on and so on.
One approach is just to ignore those titles (and of course this is best for the platform - ignore titles that are not released and support publishers with games that are published, give money to companies that support your market).
But you should take a look at the titles of the games I mentioned - look at numbers next to the game name - 5 (ignoring Vice City etc.), 3, 5, 2, 4, 17 (actualy 24). Some people fell in love with some of this franchises back in the days when they used Windows. And they just want to play their favourite franchise and they don't want to be forced to have Windows installed on their PCs again. Such a people would choose Wine if it would run the game on decent frame rate. And it's not something that is impossible - Wine made huge progress last years. Take a look how Doom works on Vulkan renderer with Wine.Take a look at this comparison. Do you think that such a performance is bad? I don't. That's why I don't think that newest games cannot be ported with Wine.
Of course Doom is very different than most of the games that are available on the market - it does come with Vulkan and OpenGL renderer while most of the games we have problem with have DirectX renderers.
But if you have doubts regarding Wine being useful for newer games - take a look at manero666 thread. He did great work. You will be able to see many great games running without an issue on Wine, including DIRT 3 that I loved and some popular games, for example Fallout 3 or PES 2017. Of course maybe we have different understanding of term "older classic" - I see it as games released at least 10 years ago.

Well of course: Points that matter. But most of those games you've mentioned are only used with DRM and available throughout concurrent platforms. That means: There are also problems when patching those platforms like UPlay or Origin, so WINE has to have a look after these. So at first there is just another building site: Getting those games without DRM, even DRM-free and I don't think about illegal copies. After that when the installation is possible without any further problems and only focussed on the games, there can be thoughts about running those without problems. Otherwise you have always problems when any client is patched!

And regarding the term "older classics": Games most older than ten years. But that's my individual perspective ... I just don't want to turn my Linux-installation in another "Windows" because most of the games you've mentioned also needs more amount of hardware and even more software besides the game itself as controlling instance. And of course: The newer games from UbiSoft, Electronic Arts or Bethesda are coming all with enforced activation and I also don't think the companies behind ever think about supporting Linux, so I also see no reason giving them support through renting their software. ^_^


Last edited by throgh on 19 February 2017 at 11:38 pm UTC
gustavoyaraujo Feb 20, 2017
The Wine project is awesome, I'm running Heroes fo the Storm on my Arch and no issues at all.

Thumbs up for all wine developers!
expironec Feb 20, 2017
It's either native support, or no buy! simple as that! though wine is a interesting project...
no_information_here Feb 21, 2017
Quoting: Comandante Ñoñardo
Quoting: no_information_hereI may be wrong, but I have never heard a dev say "We don't need to port to Linux, those people will just buy it anyway and use Wine."


I think John Carmack said something like that
Thanks to Comandante Ñoñardo for the link to the Carmack quote. I stand (partly) corrected.

However, I have always thought of Carmack as a technology guy, not a business guy. It is the business people who will decide whether Linux is worth porting to. People like Carmack can strongly influence that decision, but at the end of the day it is financial. If the linux market is promising enough, people will port games. My argument was that business people are not looking at wine as rendering the linux market potential zero. It has too small an impact for that.

Linux as a business proposition will stand on its own. Unless Wine suddenly become almost flawless in running 90% of all current Windows games, it does not really compete with porting games. To be honest, though, if was suddenly able to do that, I wouldn't mind at all.
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