Saturday, May 31, 2008

Enabling Directx 9.0 in Linux using Wine

It is a foregone conclusion that Linux has made deep inroads into the Windows arena and has succeeded in providing a robust user friendly Desktop which any lay person can use. But there are still a few areas where Linux lags way behind Windows.One of them is Games.

The problem is that most commercial games worth their name are developed using a proprietary technology developed by Microsoft called DirectX. It is a collection of application programming interfaces for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video. And as with all things Microsoft, DirectX too runs only on the Windows platform.

The latest version of DirectX is ver 10. But there is hope around the horizon for those die-hard gamers who would love to run their favorite game in Linux. Now it is possible to install DirectX libraries albeit version 9.0 in Linux using Wine.

The Wine review blog has an elaborate article giving step-by-step details of how to install DirectX 9.0c in Linux under Wine. Finally you will be able to play those fabulous games which you have stored in your attic by installing them in Linux.

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