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Support Windows games using wine in the Galaxy client for Linux and Mac
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hjahre Implement wine support in GOG Galaxy for Mac and Linux to support games that are Windows-only. I imagine it could be done by teaming up with PlayOnLinux (https://www.playonlinux.com/), who already have custom compiled wine and setup scripts for a lot of games.
Wine/PlayOnLinux-support would be beneficial for Mac and Linux users who want to play Windows games.
KPazik Aaa... i kupuje premium jak tylko odpale, ale już prawie 10h poświęciłem na odpalenie tego "na około"... bruh...
KPazik Prooooosiiiiiiiiimyyyyyyy!! Taka fajna gra, na telefonie nie znając kart i strategi gra się co najwyżej średnio - na zasadzie, super, że jest, tablety już są ok - ale to nie to co u znajomego na PCie - a jednak gra jest świetna dla użytkowników Maków! Tzn. mało który użytkownik Maka gra w Battlefielda, czy nawet GTA, RDR - ale w MOBY, Karcianki, może WoWa, Wiedzmina - to jak najbardziej - dane z mojego skromengo doświadczenia, nie poparte niczym, prócz chęcią grania w Gwinta na Macbooku
dayarbro1 With the new Catalina OS X, wine does not work because it is a 32-bit app. I have checked the wine web page and the author says he doesn't have time to support a new version of wine right now. He suggests using the latest version of CrossOver which is based on wine. It would be of great use if we could have CrossOver as a choice like Steam.
BeingofEvil galaxy runs slow in wine, atleast for me as i use cheap laptop. native linux client is much better idea as the steam linux works perfectly.
darknase While I prefer native Linux clients, it would be a great addition to the still missing in action native Linux Galaxy client to be able to work with Wine in a manner similar to Steam+Proton.
While at it it would be also be a great QOL feature to have some kind of community supported "This is my Distribution, I use Wine version, with these settings", i.e. known-to-work distributed settings. A bit similar to Steam's "Steam Controller" public settings. The simplest solution for this - while a security concern - would be a dump of the Wine cfg file as-is.
Anyhow, Wine support from Galaxy, but then again first needed is Galaxy Linux support in the first place.
Which - taking into account the time and lip services given - probably is never gonna happen ... Which is a fricken sad thing to happen because GOG is shooting itself into the foot with that, not from a Linux Gamer perspective - yet - but a MS Windows 10 and UWP and hence "MS Store only policy" wise. And not building a community to fallback onto when it comes, and it's not a question of _if_ but _when_ ... well shortsightedness is a systemic problem: just to give an example: "Life insurer John Hancock requires Fitness-Tracker" ... it's not like never every anybody warned about this poo coming.
Andtha As I Linux user I find this a marveous idea! It would be like PlayOnLinux, but configured globally in the GOG Galaxy Client's settings, or on a per-game basis (defaulting to "use global settings from the Galaxy client"). It MUST however include the option to use the distribition-supplied installation of Wine, along with tested pre-compiled downloadable version of Wine supplied from GOG.com. There should be "stable" markings for games, but this must again include the (pre-compiled) version of Wine used when it was tested. All other configuarions. including those not tested by GOG, would have to be marked "use at own risk" because, naturally, they could be unstable or non-functioning. And there MUST be an option to NOT use this feature.
freelance337 Unless Wine is running sandboxed, this is a bad idea. I prefer native support for Linux.
hollunder Sorry, but PoL is quite crappy. I use it myself for some things, but it sucks in many ways. Their scripts are always out of date and mostly broken. I don't see this happening. It's not impossible, but it would need a lot of effort and continuous maintenance. PoL done right and then some.
caetydid I recently initiated <a href="http://dolmades.org">dolmades</a> - a project which aims to put wine into software containers and run those specifically configured for custom windows applications. I started tests with wine in containers just because I was pissed off that some nice old games will never be ported to linux natively, and although I believe GOG started to package some game with wine, my favourites were never amongst them: Civilization, Drakensang 1+2, Monkey Island Enhanced Edition,... now they have a discount on Oblivion which should be running fine as well... Maybe some of you can write me an email which games you'd be primarily interested in?
Phitherek_ This would actually be amazing because that's the feature missing even in Steam client and give Galaxy a clear advantage.
danneu To the people below, GOG games on Mac/Linux already use Wine. What I don't understand is how to wrap a game myself so that GalaxyClient's "Scan for Games" button finds my wrappers. Right now I'm launching games with `wine ~/.wine/drive_c/**.exe`. I'd like to launch from GalaxyClient since I'd like it to track my time in the game.
Count_ZEr0 I'd suggest a switcharoo: try to have the Windows client running in wine as long as it doesn't impair normal functionality or devops. One click compatibility for most games in wine is still far in the future so you can't "market" such feature in your client without getting some negative feedback from your customers (for good reason). Rather leave it to people who are willing to invest time to configure wine & know there's no 100% success rate to try wine at their own peril. What I mean is try to use API functions supported by wine as much as possible.
Romeo9 I personally feel this is a stupid idea for 2 reasons: First what if I'm a Linux user that doesn't support a full instance of wine taking over my machine cause lets face it many people are of this mindset. Secondly if GOG through all their support into making this happen why would they ever bother to make a native Linux port ever again?
What I personally think they should do is from an organizational perspective firstly and this is on both Mac and Linux, sort games according to: Dos games = Dos Box (why they still haven't put all their dos games on Linux is beyond me, they had this pretty much sorted first thing for Mac). Then old (would never see a native Linux or Mac port since they just too old), simple (can run in an isolated environment meaning no calls or writes to registry), basic non dos games = (potential for a wine bottled release) so you basically do to these games exactly what you would do to a dos game using dos box. Give it only the windows dll's, scripts etc.. it needs and run it in an isolated environment. Many games come to mind. Tons I wanna play on Linux: Roller-coaster Tycoon, Commandos, SWAT 3, Pharaoh etc... Then finally your more complex games newer games, these need native Linux ports.
I personally think GOG need to take this approach and then just systematically work through all their games this way. I can't see how any Mac or Linux gamer even the most hardcore ones can complain about this approach.
ssokolow If it weren't for the Windows registry (ie. if installation were just a matter of unpacking the installer), I'd suggest a well-hidden "allow installation of games for other platforms" checkbox paired with a "launcher script for non-native games" text field.
Savolae I take back what I said. I don't see why Wine couldn't be supported as optional dependency. Essentially it would be very easy for Galaxy to try to launch Windows game: just call wine (with standard prefix) and provide path for .exe. Any adjustments should be done game-specific.
This should however be absolutely optional dependency, because Wine takes quite much space (probably multiple times more than Galaxy would), non-sandboxed Wine is a considerable security risk and because no-one really wants to use Wine. And POL... I see little reason for using deprecated Wine versions.
Savolae I don't want Wine or POL integrated with Galaxy. But it would be nice if you could add custom startup-script for any game you own (regardless the fact, you are using the wrong system). This could be easily achieved if Galaxy had some kind of "I have this game installed elsewhere button" with every game. And you could could provide with this button your " WINEPREFIX=Witcher3 wine /Windowsmount/games/Witcher3/Witcher3.exe" -command or script.
Storminator16 Ewwww indeed. I'm a Linux user and I rather the actual developer to support Linux versions of their games, not GoG. That would be a support and PR nightmare for GoG. Yeah, don't hold your breath on this.
tinysalamander Eeew…
iJacks MonsieurMiyagi - I had never heard of Porting Kit before. Sounds like it would work very well on Mac, but from my (very brief) research it does not appear to be available for Linux? Please correct me if I am wrong! Perhaps the Mac client should use PK and the Linux one WINE? Just like POL there is no reason that the install script could not be community based - which could remove some of the burden placed on GOG?
Not sure what the best method will be, but having this in some fashion is kinda essential as many of the GOG titles won't run on Linux (of course anything that uses DOSBox can just use the Mac/Linux version).
MonsieurMiyagi There are quite a few different choices for the emulation layer out there and picking a specific one will not be the answer for lots of titles. An option to link
in self-ported games (or otherwise non-GOG games) would be much simpler and avoid problems like vendor lock ins.
I have found playonlinux to be rather lacking on OS X. Porting Kit does a much better job, with less compatibility issues, user-friendly interface and creating self-contained apps that run independent of PK itself. Best of all, PK allows you to directly go pick up your Windows games from GOG!
Maki This is kind of important. We don't expect GOG to re-invent what Wine, Play on Linux, or Virtualbox can do in terms of running virtual instances of MS Windows, but put a hook in there to use what is available for these games where possible, please?
tinysalamander Eew…
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