MartinB
04-02-2003, 07:37 AM
I just got my subscription to WineX on Monday and thought I would post for the benefit of anyone who is considering getting a subscription. I will try and add a more detailed review at some point to my website.
Anyway, first of all, I have to say that I am very impressed. I had used the WineX-cvs awhile ago and was disappointed that it was unable to run any of my games. The WineX-cvs certainly is no representation of the real binary WineX. I was lead to believe that the difference was in support for copy protected games, but it's more than that. Many of my games that don't use copy protection fail to run in WineX-cvx, but work great in the binary WineX.
I cannot say I've had 100% success with WineX. Most of the games that I try to play are quite obscure, and so are not listed in the WineX compatibility list (I have, however, submitted most of them to the list since subscribing). About three out of six of these games worked very well, one worked perfectly without any problems.
I have also tried some more popular games, SiN, American McGee's Alice and Tomb Raider III to name them. Alice and SiN both work very well. There are slight problems with Alice in that it doesn't position the window to the complete top left corner of the screen, and runs slightly slower than in Windows, but that is probably because I am using a Voodoo 3. An nVidia card is reccomended by the WineX site.
I was very suprised with how well Tomb Raider III ran on the WineX 3.0 pre-release. It's listed as not working at all in the WineX compatibility list, so I was surprised that I could play it. In fact, it ran almost perfectly, only lacking texture filtering (again, possibly because I'm using a Voodoo 3) and music, which brings me to my next point.
One of the big dissapointments for me in WineX is the lack of support for audio and music in many games. Lot's of my games use MIDI for the music, so I loaded a GM soundbank for my SB Live!, verified that it was working by hitting a few keys on my keyboard, and then hoped to hear some music when I launched the games. It seems that MIDI support is none existant. Some games will fail to play at all because of this, while some will play fine, but without the music. It seems that it's more than just MIDI though. Games that use CD-audio also seem to lack music. I'm not sure exactly how Tomb Raider III's music and ambient sound works (It's certainly not MIDI or CD-audio), but I didn't get any of it. I only had sound effects.
Despite a few minor problems, I am impressed with WineX. It was certainly worth the subscription. It currently only runs about half of the games that I want to play, some not as well as I would have hoped, but I wouldn't hesitate to reccomend WineX to anyone with a few Windows games that they want to play. I'm sure that support will continue to improve and one day I will be able to play all of my games, it's just a matter of time.
Anyway, any Transgaming subscribers have their own reviews on WineX?
Anyway, first of all, I have to say that I am very impressed. I had used the WineX-cvs awhile ago and was disappointed that it was unable to run any of my games. The WineX-cvs certainly is no representation of the real binary WineX. I was lead to believe that the difference was in support for copy protected games, but it's more than that. Many of my games that don't use copy protection fail to run in WineX-cvx, but work great in the binary WineX.
I cannot say I've had 100% success with WineX. Most of the games that I try to play are quite obscure, and so are not listed in the WineX compatibility list (I have, however, submitted most of them to the list since subscribing). About three out of six of these games worked very well, one worked perfectly without any problems.
I have also tried some more popular games, SiN, American McGee's Alice and Tomb Raider III to name them. Alice and SiN both work very well. There are slight problems with Alice in that it doesn't position the window to the complete top left corner of the screen, and runs slightly slower than in Windows, but that is probably because I am using a Voodoo 3. An nVidia card is reccomended by the WineX site.
I was very suprised with how well Tomb Raider III ran on the WineX 3.0 pre-release. It's listed as not working at all in the WineX compatibility list, so I was surprised that I could play it. In fact, it ran almost perfectly, only lacking texture filtering (again, possibly because I'm using a Voodoo 3) and music, which brings me to my next point.
One of the big dissapointments for me in WineX is the lack of support for audio and music in many games. Lot's of my games use MIDI for the music, so I loaded a GM soundbank for my SB Live!, verified that it was working by hitting a few keys on my keyboard, and then hoped to hear some music when I launched the games. It seems that MIDI support is none existant. Some games will fail to play at all because of this, while some will play fine, but without the music. It seems that it's more than just MIDI though. Games that use CD-audio also seem to lack music. I'm not sure exactly how Tomb Raider III's music and ambient sound works (It's certainly not MIDI or CD-audio), but I didn't get any of it. I only had sound effects.
Despite a few minor problems, I am impressed with WineX. It was certainly worth the subscription. It currently only runs about half of the games that I want to play, some not as well as I would have hoped, but I wouldn't hesitate to reccomend WineX to anyone with a few Windows games that they want to play. I'm sure that support will continue to improve and one day I will be able to play all of my games, it's just a matter of time.
Anyway, any Transgaming subscribers have their own reviews on WineX?