[plug] Linux Gaming Question

[Craig Ringer]

Clinton Butler wrote:

>I have been playing an online game called Nexus (downloadable from 
>www.nexon.net) but unfortunately it is a windows only application. What I 
>wish to do is obtain the source code for the application and attempt to 
>compile it for Linux. What I need to know is: how hard is it to convert a 
>windows application to run under X (without Win4Lin or Wine). I am led to 
>believe that the application was written in C++. I want to do this so I 
>can finally get rid of windows once and for all (I have already found 
>alternatives for everything else).
>
Warning: I don't really know what I'm talking about here as  one who 
knows almost no C/C++ but this is what i've gathered over time:

Wine is the way to go, via winelib. You can essentially compile in the 
wine api into your app so that you don't need a copy of wine 
installed/running to use the app, and get vaguely decent performance 
because the code is all native. Winelib is essentially a win32 api 
implementation for *nix so you don't have do a massive rewrite of the 
code, as would otherwise usually be required to move to X, SDL, etc. Of 
course, thats no good if the dratted thing uses Direct3D as its not 
supported by winelib, so you'll at least need to convert the d3d code to 
use OpenGL instead.

First you'll have to get the source, and if its a commercial app or 
shareware you'll most likely be totally out of luck. Some freeware you 
can get source for but in the windows world the source seems to be kept 
pretty close to home even on free apps... just in case. *ARRGGH*.

have fun trying to get it working

Craig