There is something in horizon for linux gaming. It is vulkan api. A library for graphic programming.

Its equal to directx12. From what I read directx12 was partially influenced by vulkan.
Dx12 is only for Windows10. Vulkan on other hand covers linux, osx, windows and mobile.
Opengl, the api that is used for linux games is still viable but if developers want to maximize performance Vulkan or dx12 is way to go.
That means triple a games need to use dx12 or vulkan.
And so if you as developer had to pick a graphic tech and you want to go with the best one...Vulkan is the choice.

Not only is vulkan bettet performance in general for future linux ports, compared to opengl, it could make developers port more to linux.
Valve is supporting linux with their steamos and also Vulkan.

The conditions for Linux gaming to flourish are present! What is lacking is users.
Currently estimate of linux gamers is between 1-5%. most companies dont want to chase that with Opengl api.
But if Vulkan tech truly makes porting easier and there is a proof that now 10% gamers on Linux it could persuade developers.
So if you can endure Linux flaws gamingwise for two years then now is very good time to change to it. Devs wont be convinced by how good Linux is, they probably know.

Note that Vulkan is not complete. Currently 1.0 and developers are working on next release which will improve the api more. Also be aware that just because a game is using or supporting Vulkan api it doesnt guarantee that developers have tapped into everything that makes it good.
The api will be easier to use for devs too when they have learned its ins and outs.
If you want an example of a Vulkan game that has decent implementation look towards latest Doom game.
Still even Doom is not perfect example as it used Vulkan 1.0 and ID software (doom devs) had things they wanted to improve after Vulkan use.

Thank you very much for your guide. It is quite helpful.

Here are a few questions, if I may:

That was something I was wondering. How can you minimize this risk? Removing the convenience links to any directory under $HOME? Running Wine as an unprivileged user? Using a Virtual Machine running another Linux installation running Wine (I suppose that would be slow)?

Also, I have read about "Wine bottles", that seemed similar to Wine prefixes. Is that a better, more airtight Wine container?

As for PoL install scripts, I have not yet grasped what they do that is not done with the installation wizard. Does it auto-picks the best Wine version, configures it adequately and installs extra libraries if needed? They would not need to be a script to declare optimal setup, so there should be more to them.

yes, removing the links to the user's $HOME and removing the z: drive mitigates the risk. But it is rather inconvenient to set up if you often create a new wineprefix.
For a more thorough protection I would look into a solution using linux containers/namespaces.
check out: firejail for example
I only use it to securely isolate firefox and steam from the rest of the system, but using it with wine should be doable as well. (not sure if it will work together with PoL).
wine should always be run as unprivileged user, never run it as root.

Isolating the prefix by removing all links to paths outside of it could work, although a bit inconvenient & any malware could still potentially spread via the local network. Wouldn't recommend running it in a VM though, at least not for any games.

Otherwise it's the same as you would on Windows really - don't blindly run stuff from untrusted sources, have some way to run virus scans on anything from sources that may be a bit dodgy. I still have a Win7 install on this system with so I usually just reboot into that if I want to scan anything. Also, never run Wine as root.

They're exactly the same - PlayOnLinux calls them "virtual drives", CrossOver calls them "bottles".

The scripts do nothing you can't do yourself with a manual install, it's just a convenience thing really. They'll automatically download & select whatever Wine version is specified, download & install the required dependencies & set any overrides, registry tweaks etc. So you basically just have to select the game & click through its installer and POL will sort the rest out itself according to what's specified in the script.

You added it as a link to the first message so i dont think it is any longer necessary.

I've only used their install scripts once, and that was for interstate 76, as I tried to get it to run and failed, installed it using their script and it works, I did move wine from 1.6.3 to 1.9.16 without any problem.

You can view the scripts here if you want to see what they do: https://www.playonlinux.com/en/supported_apps.html ("Source code")

Ah, saw your giveaway topic and decided that it's time to try linux on my old Vista laptop, so far so good, much faster (but Vista was painful slow for some reason, and there is an ssd > >), still have to read more of your guide later. The sad thing so far... I have to use Chrome as I need flash version 11.3 +. :/

Tomorrow I will try some games. :)

And it can also deny network access? I'm sold! Thank you. Bookmarked!
I wanted to try the sandbox / jails approach (I never remember which is Linux and which is BSD). This may be simple enough.

LOL. I meant to say a throwaway user, like "nobody" instead of my regular user that has valuable files in his $HOME, and may be a member of some extra groups. I was thinking of creating a "gamer" user just for non-free games.


Good call on the local network. But do you suppose Wine does a good job of isolating the "virtual disk"? "c:\> cd .." (or some similar syscall) won't land me on $HOME/.wine? Running "format" from within Wine is safe?

Regarding the PoL scripts, if I have Wine version Y, and the script says the game works well with older Wine version X, the script will download and install the older version. So, won't I end up with 20 versions of Wine this way?

I don't know, I've never worried about it (I just be careful about what I run). Format won't work, as it's not implemented in Wine (why would it even need to be?)

Yes, you'll end up with multiple versions of Wine installed. Although that'll happen anyway if you keep downloading the latest versions like I do :p Still, you can switch everything to newer Wine versions then remove the old ones.

yeah, that works as well. Needs some work to set up, to allow the other user access to your X11 session.
And you may end up with some extra work to move stuff from account to the other.
But it works

For coverage of all Windows system calls? I remember Partition Magic was mentioned a lot a few years ago, even on Linux installation guides. I don't think gparted is as good resizing partitions.

BTW, do you have an idea how big each version of Wine is?

Oh, I was not thinking of going to those lengths. Switching to another VT ought to be sufficient. :-)

I know I may be a bit paranoid in here, but better safe than sorry. And I'm not sure of everything that noCD crack does. It can be some malware, virus, trojan, ransomware, backdoor, spy tool, botnet client, or it could just erase my files for fun. I remember having some really unstable windows system some 10 years ago, and some rouge software could explain it.
My next PC likely won't have an optical drive, like my old laptop back then didn't. But I would like to keep my games playable.

It varies depending on version, but currently it's a bit under 200MB for the latest 32-bit Staging release.

It has never been a problem for me, even before I started using Mint. Still, I tend to replace them on GOG whenever possible & mostly run GOG games now.

My system hasn't had a DVD drive for years already - I do have an external drive but rarely use it.

That definitely won't work with most copy-protections. Especially all those that require a kernel driver to do their dirty work.
So best bookmark some good crack sites if you want to get your old games to work ;)