Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

(06-09-2014, 02:52 AM)ZLRK Wrote: [ -> ]With all respect, but I think you misunderstood EVERYTHING. I'm certainly more of a Linux user than Windows, but with "main" system I clearly meant *host* system since the very first post. Why would I want to install Windows on a normal partition just to install Vbox on it and start a virtual Linux? What I wanted to do is, having a single partition-installed OS (i.e., the *host* Linux), install Vbox on it, on the virtual machine install Windows, and on this virtual Windows be able to play PC games and Dolphin. That was the original query.

I think you misunderstood what I was saying. Reread what I posted. I'm telling you that installing Windows on a normal partition just to boot up Linux is not a good solution if you'll primarily be using Linux. Again, that's a chore and an inelegant approach. That's why I didn't advise it by saying it wasn't the best way. :|

Additionally, we can't make assumptions about which OS you'll be using more than the other. Simply telling us which one is the "host" doesn't tell us about your usage habits. I've seen plenty of people that will run Linux from a VM in Windows to do most of their "ordinary work" but minimize the VM when they want to game (or just boot into Windows to game right away). You needed to explicitly tell us which one you would be using more often than the other from the start (instead of having us guess) because that in turn affects the answers you'll get.

As I will state once more, the best approach I see (which fits into your single partition-installed OS approach mind you) is to just use Linux, then for all your games, use CrossOver Linux (think WINE on steroids). Any time you need to game, CrossOver Linux will run without having to reboot or start up a VM (so you won't have to worry about sharing system resources across two running "machines"). This is only about the third time I've recommended this approach, but if you're insistent on using VMs instead that's your choice.

Also, just FYI VMWare Player is free, and from what I can tell, the only times it wouldn't be sufficient were if you were trying to run a company's entire network through it or install OSX as the guest, as that requires a feature not in Player (although once you've done that you can boot a VM with OSX installed in Player, so if you really wanted an OSX VM you could use the 30-day trial of the paid version, then revert back to the free version after you'd done the setup).

Well VMWare Player is giving me a much friendlier experience. I installed my Windows XP Professional in both VirtualBox and VMWare, and VMWare's Windows XP was way better in graphics and screen resolution. Could just be because it uses other settings, I don't know (does not have to mean VMWare is better). Populous the Beginning 3D went flickering on both so it does not make quite a difference for my Direct3D usage.

@AnyOldName3: Populous the Beginning does require DirectX 6.0 or higher, whether you use hardware (Direct3D) or software acceleration. I run Populous the Beginning Software on DirectX 11. Works fine. I understand that it is confusing when host and virtual OS use different DirectX, yet I don't fully understand your explanation (I still am and will be a newbie, sorry). Don't know myself where Populous' problems with Direct3D lie. I read on the Populous Reincarnated forum that it a has to do with newer graphics cards, and that depending on the card, using a few other .dll files fix the Direct3D problem. So yeah, it probably uses an older version of Direct3D. Now I want to know if it would work with VMWare if the hosts also uses ancient Direct3D .

@Gir: Populous the Beginning 3D does not work in Windows 8, just as some other old games I have for the PC (still have my very very old Windows 98 computer with Intel Pentium 4 863 MHz and 512 MB RAM ).

410172_Chief

Have you tried running it through something other than a full VM, such as DosBox? Looking at it, the game's so old that it's probably got 16-bit instructions, which would explain it not running in OSes with no 16-bit support.

@Shonumi & AnyOldName3:
Sorry, I realize I was not explaining myself very well. Though given you're mods/admins with expertise level already (or so I guess) I strongly believed I could obviate some things.

I indeed use Linux much more often than Windows, in fact I use Linux for my ordinary things overall and gaming when possible (i.e., if Wine supports the game or application at least with a Gold rating). I practically keep Windows for those things Wine cannot handle very well or nothing at all. That's why I said I was Linux user and that I'd set it as host system (currently I'm still with dual-boot just in case remind is needed).

I've indeed heard about CrossOver. What I understand is that Wine is in fact maintained in some way by their servers, so they are roughly the "same" people but CorssOver is the proprietary, "plus" or "pro", non-free division whereas Wine is the free one (which I've used since a while ago already). But right now I cannot afford it and that's why I wanted to maintain hope on a virtualized Windows, besides I don't know how it'd work with emulators such as Dolphin itself or PCSX2.

Last time I ran Dolphin natively on Linux (openSUSE) maybe 2 years ago, it ran horribly slower than Windows. While New Super Mario Bros and Super Smash Bros Melee ran perfectly on Windows, they ran close to unplayable on Linux. It was rumored OpenGL had become very slow unlike DirectX. Don't know if the situation changed...
And PCSX2 doesn't even run on 64 bit Linux systems, and I use this one.

Hope all of this helps clarifying things and see if your answers are kept or modified a bit...

Though I don't get very well what you mean with CrossOver being Wine with steroids. Does it have better or wider compatibility than Wine, in terms of supported applications/games?

(06-08-2014, 10:14 PM)AnyOldName3 Wrote: [ -> ]On the subject of hardware acceleration, I'm pretty sure VMWare have pretty much got it sorted out for DirectX and OpenGL (although not necessarily the latest version of each), but I don't think anything of theirs runs on linux.

I didn't know VMWare Player was free. I eventually did find the downloads site for Player, but their website isn't that easy to navigate...
So could you mean VMWare Player has better hardware acceleration support? Could it be at least close to what I pretend? And I didn't understand what is it that according to you doesn't run on Linux...


@410172:
Putting virtualization topic briefly apart, I can indeed say some old games have or can have issues running on recent Windows versions and recent drivers. I remember I had problems few years ago running Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within on a laptop with Windows Vista, Core 2 Duo 2 GHz, and a Nvidia 8600m GT. No lag, but it ran smoothly slow, while it ran well on another rig with Windows XP, Pentium 4, and a crappy ATI card of which model I don't remember.

CrossOver Linux includes scripts and other configurable options over standard WINE that can actually increase the compatibility of some programs. Since CrossOver employs WINE devs and they contribute back to WINE itself, you'll probably get the very latest games to work better in CrossOver before WINE (that's commercial support for you). If you can get away with using just WINE, then that's even better, but obviously you should test things first.

As for Dolphin and PCSX2, Dolphin runs phenomenally on Linux, and that's pretty much been the case since I started using it in Jan 2012. I haven't had any speed issues that caused me to question my choice in OSes. I would try Dolphin again (latest development builds) and come to us if you get speed issues (we can probably help).

PCSX2, however, is a sticking point. Not only is it 32-bit only (well you can compile it on 64-bit systems, it involves a lot of work with multi-libs and such). Additionally, at least as of 1.0, PCSX2 on Linux is simply inferior to Windows. Most games do not work well with its OpenGL renderer, but most games are playable with the software renderer (it's demanding though in many cases). This may not reflect current versions; I have not checked recently. The last time I heard, it did not work well with WINE; it doesn't crash, and it can play games, but through the software renderer (so it's still going to be slow). IMO, PCSX2 really could use a rewrite for x64 (and a decent OGL video plugin).

@AnyOldName3: Thanks for your suggestion. Yet this whole thread was not meant to discuss my favourite PC game but you gave me some new options I'm definitely gonna try.