Mmmmmm, Apples

By Charabis

In modern gaming, few can deny that Windows is king. There are more Windows computers in homes across the globe than anything else, so it makes sense to program using DirectX and target just the people who have Windows. It is the single largest market for software, after all. I mean, Mac users have Boot Camp and Linux users have programs like Cedega, right? The answer to that is a resounding yes and no.

While both these programs allow Windows programs to run under Linux or Mac, the costs in terms of system performance and compatibility are often overlooked. While I have never personally used Cedega, I do know that it carries a subscription charge of $5 a month. Not a staggering amount, but it's still an amount in addition to MMO subscription fees. Boot Camp is free at this time, but monetary costs are not the only thing to consider in comparing gaming value.

We must also remember to look at performance. In other words, is someone using one of these programs getting the same gaming experience for their money? In my experience, definitely not.

For starters, each of these programs uses space on your hard drives. Admittedly, the space isn't a huge amount, but it is something to be aware of.

Then there are the issues related to the technologies. For this discussion, we'll start with Cedega. On April 11th of 2007, TransGaming Inc. announced version 6.0 of Cedega. Here's an excerpt from that article that shows what I mean.

Along with a raft of other improvements, Cedega 6.0 lets top-tier titles play at some of the highest quality graphics settings possible. Be it the more realistic hair on your avatar's head, or the shinier sick slick of your favorite side-arm, you are sure to notice the difference!

Yes, you read that right. The Linux folks haven't been getting the full effect of the graphics on Windows games. Additionally, it was in this current version that they announced support was in for Direct3D's Shader Model 2.0. This highlights one of the bigger issues behind running Windows games under Cedega--there's no way for them to get ahead of the technology curve.

Additionally, both Boot Camp and Cedega will admit they're not perfect. Both have games they haven't managed to support yet, and, while they both will run the Windows programs, they do wind up taking a slight performance hit. Then there are the hard problems to solve. For this example, we'll delve into my personal experiences.

I do have a MacBook Pro running Boot Camp. A lot of the time, things go swimmingly. However, there are a few notable glitches, particularly with a Windows game called Caesar 4. At random intervals while playing it, the machine will reboot itself! More than likely there's a flaky driver somewhere, but there's nothing that can be done about it. Had I known about this issue, I wouldn't have bothered buying the game until I could realistically play it without saving every 5 minutes.

Realistically, I could go on for hours talking about the imbalances and such, but that's not the point of these articles. The Weekend Wonder is supposed to get YOU thinking about matters related to the gaming industry. With that said, it's now your turn. Register or sign in on our forums and give us YOUR thoughts on this complex subject.