winepak [Official Site] is another interesting Wine-related project. One that aims to package up an assortment of Windows-only games that work in Wine using the power of Flatpak packages.
I'm not going to get into the politics of Snap vs Flatpak, mostly because I don't care for the arguments surrounding it and end-users shouldn't care as long as they work and work well.
Much like today's previous post about Track Mania Nations Forever having an easy to use Snap package, winepak seems to aim a bit higher and offer a repository of games. The advantage of using such packages (Snaps or Flatpaks), is that it should come with everything you need to get the Windows game running on Linux, without having to mess around with configurations. It's a new project though, so there's likely a fair amount of kinks to work out.
Their listed goals are simple:
- Package wine applications via flatpak
- Make installing and running applications Just Work
Currently it seems to offer: League of Legends, Path of Exile, Blizzard's BattleNet client along with, Overwatch, Starcraft II and World of Warcraft, World of Tanks and more. The full list can be found on GitHub here, although some don't work like Fortnite. Obviously, it does depend on Wine and what Wine build they include with each game.
Testing it myself, it seems that both League of Legends and World of Tanks had no issues with their launchers downloading, logging in and updating using this Flatpak method.
For those wondering how legal this is, well, it doesn't have to include any of the installers itself. It will just download them for you, so it's not actually redistributing stuff it's not supposed to.
Curiously, it seems the mind behind winepak, Julian Richen, is the same developer who we chucked some bucks some time ago to help re-design our website (which turned into our current theme). Always nice to see more from someone you've worked with before.
Will be fun to see how far this project goes, as I said it's early days yet. If projects like this can help bridge the gap, for people moving over to Linux so they don't lose access to some of their favourite games and have an easy way to play them—I'm all for it. It can help ease the transition until they become fully fledged Linux gamers. A lot of potential here.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
In the end, you need to winepak it anyway, as you need to install it with lutris with different settings in a different wine prefix, because the installers will need to download the installers somehow, because you can't redistribute the games anyway.
I don't really see the benefit over using different prefixes with installer-scripts (except that installer scripts in lutris seem somehow a unmaintained mess).
The only thing could be that the game developers actually pick that up for re-distribution for their games on linux with tweaked wine versions, on the other hand - they could theoretically do that right now too.
Last edited by STiAT on 14 June 2018 at 12:25 pm UTC
I remember reading several years ago that Blizzard actively perma-banned people from Battle.net if they are "caught" using Wine and Linux. Could someone confirm if their hostility and paranoia is still this bad today?
Micromegas Jun 14, 2018
I remember those rumors but I think bans were either errors by Blizzard or had other (valid or invalid) reasons.
Quoting: STiATI don't really see the benefit over using different prefixes with installer-scripts (except that installer scripts in lutris seem somehow a unmaintained mess).
The only differentiating factor in Flatpak is sandboxing. Other than that, sure you can do the same thing with prefix management and custom Wine bundles.
And yes, installer scripts tend to become an unmaintained mess, because of the sheer volume of games that are out there. That's why I simply stopped using them in the past and prefer to install things in Wine myself.
Last edited by Shmerl on 14 June 2018 at 3:18 pm UTC
Quoting: TheSHEEEPBut "just works" is a necessity if Linux is to attract more gamers. The vast majority don't have the skillset or patience like you or me (or many others here) to fiddle around with anything. Hell, for some, having to install Wine to install their game is already too much.In my case a great deal of the games I play through WINE no longer "just work" on modern Windows anymore. There is a real opportunity for WINE to corner the retro PC gaming market as for many older Windows games it is now easier to mess around with WINE than to try and get them running on Windows 10. It is for this reason that I have really started to warm up to WINE over the past few years.
Quoting: LakortaI stand corrected . . . partially. Presumably this means you don't need to download anything, but there's a lot of potential not-so-"special" configuration in an "out-of-the-box Wine installation". There's all these settings on tabs--which Windows version, which this, which that, and I tend to have no clue which of them matter for any given application.Quoting: Purple Library GuyDefinition of the Wine Platinum ranking: "Applications which install and run flawlessly on an out-of-the-box Wine installation"Quoting: shigutsoWell, no. My understanding is, Platinum means it works perfectly if you set the fiddly stuff correctly, not that you can ignore the fiddly stuff. In this discussion at least, I think people are using Just Works to mean you just click something and it installs properly and happens, rather than having to figure out how to configure it first.Quoting: TheSHEEEPThat's a good idea, but my hope is that such functionality should be made official and implemented within Wine itself.Not quite... all software from this page Just Works (tm):
After all, Wine's biggest problem is that is simply doesn't "just work". There's always some fiddling around required.
https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&sTitle=Browse+Applications&iappVersion-ratingOp0=5&sappVersion-ratingData0=Platinum&sOrderBy=appName&bAscending=true
There is probably some Platinum stuff that Just Works in that second sense as well, but plenty that doesn't. So things like this, and PlayonLinux and so on, have always been welcome initiatives and I really hope at some point one becomes really solid--achieves critical mass so most stuff is there, and is easily maintainable so it doesn't rot.
Gold is the one you described: "Applications that work flawlessly with some special configuration"
Quoting: HamishAbsolutely! Wine has great potential.Quoting: TheSHEEEPBut "just works" is a necessity if Linux is to attract more gamers. The vast majority don't have the skillset or patience like you or me (or many others here) to fiddle around with anything. Hell, for some, having to install Wine to install their game is already too much.In my case a great deal of the games I play through WINE no longer "just work" on modern Windows anymore. There is a real opportunity for WINE to corner the retro PC gaming market as for many older Windows games it is now easier to mess around with WINE than to try and get them running on Windows 10. It is for this reason that I have really started to warm up to WINE over the past few years.
It would just need someone in the role of a producer and/or manager - and not only developers.
However, people truly managing open source projects are even harder to come by than coders.
Quoting: GuestBoth the Overwatch and WoW flatpaks error out in the Blizzard launcher for me. The Blizz launcher gives the error, "Failed to create a graphics context".
Linux Mint 18.3 w/ NVIDIA proprietary driver.
I get the same type of errors for other games in that repo, using Kubuntu 18.04 with NVIDIA proprietary driver, no Lutris installed. Really puts a bad taste in the mouth when the promise is a non-fiddly install. Whatever it is that's prohibiting it from working right, I hope it gets ironed out.
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