An introduction to CrossOver Games for Linux

[Cyrus_the_virus]

What exactly is CrossOver Games

CrossOver Games is a commercial variant of Wine released by CodeWeavers with support for many of today's most popular games. CrossOver Games is tested for performance and stability with many games such as Guild Wars, Eve Online, and Steam games like Half-Life 2 and Portal.

Minimum system requirements

Linux:

• An x86 based Linux distribution based on glibc 2.3 or greater
• Perl 5 or greater
• IJG JPEG library (libjpeg)
• It is also recommended that you have a web browser installed.
• 40MB of available disk space (plus space for the Windows applications)
• 64MB of RAM

Mac:

• Intel-based Macintosh system running Mac OS X
• 120 MB of free disk space
• Systems with integrated Intel GPUs will suffer some performance degradation on graphically intense games.

The Demo version of CrossOver

The demo version of CrossOver has all the functions and features of the full version. Any Windows software that works on a full version will also run in the demo version, and vice versa. The important limitation of the demo version is that bottles can only be used for 7 days. This means that any Windows packages that you install using the demo version will cease to work 7 days after their installation. When a demo installation is unlocked, all existing bottles and applications are unlocked as well. To unlock a demo, you must have a support account with CodeWeavers. You can purchase CrossOver licenses and support contracts from the vendor that provided you with your demo or directly from the CodeWeavers store. During purchase you will be asked to provide an email address and password. This address and password will be used to unlock your demo install.

Supported Games

World of Warcraft
Guild Wars
EVE Online
Half-Life (via CD or Steam)
Half-Life 2 and variants such as Counter-Strike (via Steam)
Team Fortress 2
Portal
Call of Duty (via Steam)
Call of Duty 2 (via Steam)
Prey (via Steam)
Day of Defeat (via Steam)

Many games that are not on the Supported list will still work just fine. For a list of such applications, visit the CodeWeavers CrossOver Compatibility Center. At the compatibility center you can search for games, read about other users' experiences, and post tips and hints for other users.

Cost and Support of CrossOver Games

If your a current owner of CrossOver Office you will receive a complimentary copy of CrossOver Games. If by chance you don't currently own a copy of CrossOver Office you can purchase the stand alone Games product for only $39.95 with your purchase you will receive six months of professional support through their support ticket system, you can join in the discussions that take place at the C4 compatibility center, join a mailing list, vote for your favorite game, and much more.

A purchase also goes toward helping support a full time Wine hacker! the folks at CodeWeavers have over the years given back well over 98% of all the code modifications that went into CrossOver to the Wine project.

CrossOver Games Screenshots

CrossOver Games Gnome menu entries

*bp0.blogger.com/_PpaJ8vsrkzo/R-hmzjgkWPI/AAAAAAAABW4/9HTCANa8ryU/s400/CX-Games-1.png

When you select "Configuration" from the menu "CrossOver Games Setup" the setup tool will start.

Read Full at Source



Screenshots:


*www.codeweavers.com/images/products/shot_games_tf2_thumb.png
Team Fortress 2


*www.codeweavers.com/images/products/shot_games_hl2_thumb.png
Half-Life 2: Episode 2


*www.codeweavers.com/images/products/shot_games_eve_thumb.png
Eve Online


*www.codeweavers.com/images/products/shot_games_gw_thumb.png
Guild Wars

 

[gary4gar]

Even with wine you can run these games?

Why pay just for improved installer?

 

[Cyrus_the_virus]

Even with wine you can run these games?

Why pay just for improved installer?

Well I guess it's much less hassle for recent linux converts to get back to their gaming with this than proper wine.

 

[axxo]

will i get the same fps as in windows here?

 

[praka123]

better have ur window$ in virtual env rather than these emulators!

 

[ray|raven]

^Lolz, actually emulators work better than a virtual env , where you need to run loads of better processes.
I run CS on wine and it runs very well.
I did compile cvs cedega sometime back but coudnt get it working.

@gary,
Cedega and Crossover are better than wine for most games,
Not just for a fancy gui.

 

[FilledVoid]

will i get the same fps as in windows here?

No you will never get the same amount of fps you got with Windows as the game was natively built for it. You will however get a playable experience using any of these products.

 

[praka123]

then sorry for my lack of GK I havent played a game(gaming=window$?) for years(believe it or not) may be except chess
I should say that dual booting with ur xp is what is better than these emulators (and emulator wine esp is the reason why Linux doesnot have a own version gtk of picasa from google or utorrent for eg: )

 

[ray|raven]

^Actually by trying to get picasa working properly in wine,
google made quite a few fixes, that improved wine's performance,
and were later submitted to the wine project.
And other than the look-and-feel part, picasa on wine works just like a native app. I feel its way better than f-spot.

 

[praka123]

But better they should've released a native port of picasa?they did with google earth though.and Linux's gaming prospect is largely hindered by the growth of wine/cedega/crossover etc those game makers will never come up with a native port for Linux/BSD if these wine things are getting famous (Yes!I dont use wine,I drink only )

 

[ray|raven]

^I Agree, but to a certain extent only.
If it wasnt for wine / cedega , would the game developers know that even linux users play games?
IMO, its coz of wine that we are getting some native ports,
coz the game dev's know that people would play it on *nix too.

Would'nt you agree?

And , yes a native port would have been better, but personally i dont really see the difference,
Possibly due to the fact that picasa has it's own ui.

 

[abhinandh]

I should say that dual booting with ur xp is what is better than these emulators

^^+1
it is better than playing games on emulators with low FPS.

I still have XP installed on one corner of my HDD cos my little brother plays big games

 

[Cyrus_the_virus]

There is no problem with FPS's using crossover, there might be at max a slight difference of 2-5% in frame rates from a similar windows config.

And also, the response is instantaneous, there's no lag, so don't think that this is some cheap emulator with considerable underperformance.

The best in gaming on linux so far has only been managed by cedega, where you have less than 0.5-1% frame rate difference and works equally or better to a similar windows config.

 

[Faun]

is wine an emulator ?? I doubt that
*www.winehq.org/site/myths

Better hav dual boot XP than using wine,cedega or anything.

 

[Cyrus_the_virus]

is wine an emulator ?? I doubt that
*www.winehq.org/site/myths

Better hav dual boot XP than using wine,cedega or anything.

Every product has a purpose and having a product is not the only option always.

Nothing can beat cedega on non windows gaming platforms and no emulator can beat the everincreasing functionality of emulating windows apps on linux like wine does. These products are meant for people who run only linux or want to run a windows only program without needing to reboot to windows.

It's not really meant for those who have dual boot, the whole point of having windows emulators like wine or cedega is to get rid or dual boot.

 

[Faun]

i would like to see more n more opengl games, not the DX ones.

I tried few games but prolly my system was weak to play them.

 

[ray|raven]

@Cyrus
Well said.
The same can be said for my case,
I used to play CS and Ragnarok regularly and it prevented me from removing xp.
But after i managed to get both of them running on wine,
i could delete windows from my pc.

 

[FilledVoid]

There is no problem with FPS's using crossover, there might be at max a slight difference of 2-5% in frame rates from a similar windows config.

And also, the response is instantaneous, there's no lag, so don't think that this is some cheap emulator with considerable underperformance.

The best in gaming on linux so far has only been managed by cedega, where you have less than 0.5-1% frame rate difference and works equally or better to a similar windows config.

False. Try COD4 on Wine and you will see what Im talking about. As Cedega is a paid for service I cant try that.However you will always face Mouse Lag and no Punk Buster support which means you just lost 50% give or take a few servers in whatever you play online.

Also are there actual logged stats pointing to 2-5% or 0.5 to 1% difference in fps only cause I would appreciate the link to it and find out what version of what they are running and on what game. Also If i recall correctly Crossover is based on Wine.

 

[Cyrus_the_virus]

False. Try COD4 on Wine and you will see what Im talking about. As Cedega is a paid for service I cant try that.However you will always face Mouse Lag and no Punk Buster support which means you just lost 50% give or take a few servers in whatever you play online.

I was talking about crossover and not wine. Crossover is not entirely based on wine.

 

[FilledVoid]

What i'm trying to say Crossover Office is a more refined version fo WIne I geuss from what I udnerstand. I doubt that there are applications that would run in Crossover Office which would not run in Wine. An example as I tried to say above is COD4

*www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/browse/name/?app_id=3762

As they state This application currently does not install or run. We suggest you do not even try to use it until we have it labeled otherwise.

Now check *www.filledvoid.com/2008/02/16/compiling-wine-for-ubuntu-gutsy-gibbon-64-bit/

Further on their site

Everything we do at CodeWeavers revolves around the Wine Project. Wine is the primary driving technology of our CrossOver Products, and enhancing and supporting the Wine Project is one of our key corporate goals.