linux has no game API, but there are graphics API, sound API and so on...what you miss is probably the ms-like SDK. the functions are there.
directx-emulation: I think this would not really help...it's comparable to the wine project. it emulates other windows-APIs...and it doesn't really work.
maybe it would be a copyright problem, too, since companies pay for licensing APIs(apple did so for OpenGL.Before they planned to license dx)

Sengir

SDL is nearly a complete multimedia API, as is GameGLUT.

Actually I was more concerned with the compatibility or bridge between games that CURRENTLY exist on MS platforms running under Direct X (For which there are Pleanty). I would have a hard time believing that 3DO will suddenly decide to go back and re-make or start developing linux versions of their successfull products if they already have functioning code under DirectX. It would be sweet if not impossible for such a bridge to be drawn.

As for Wine, you are right it failed and will fail because they are trying to do too much for too little return. Why emulate windows if you can just run windows. Games however are different, part of the reason windows 95 was successful is because Microsoft recognized the need to have an OS that the user didn't have to reboot and fornicate around with config.sys and autoexec files just to get a ***GAME*** working.

Ahhh... how unenlightened you are...

SDL and GameGLUT *are* cross platform APIs. SDL games will work under Windows (they use DirectX), and GLUT is available on nearly every platform that has OpenGL.

Woh, Wine isn't dead or a failure. It actually works pretty well for alpha software. Keep in mind it hasn't even reached the beta stage yet. But it is rapidly approaching it. And as for DirectX games running under it, some do currently, take a look at http://www.linuxgames.com/wine/

Wine is a growing, thriving increasing project. And as for dual booting, it's kind of a pain, and it requires you own a copy of the OS in question. Wine also includes the winelib project, which means many programs can simply be compiled with these libraries instead of the MS win32 libraries and work immediately (really for business apps as I understand it).

As to games running without modification, well maybe one day we'll see that. But till then, it's not really all that bad to port to Linux. In Linux you have source code & documentation for the entire OS. SDL is not a bad replacement for the non-3d portion of gaming. Open GL works fairly well under linux, the only stumbling block is D3D. I don't know, I guess I'm just not that concerned, I believe Linux will become more and more game-friendly by & by.

------------------
Dane Jackson - zuvembi@mindless.com
The meek shall inherit what they're bloody well given.
And be thankful for it.

In my opinion the one thing that sucks is that Linux has virtually NO game API to write to.

My new challenge is to find a group of people developing DirectX emulation for Linux and help them in any way I can. I think the Linux community as a whole would benifit from this kind of contribution a great deal. Lets face it, there is really nothing that can shut up a hard core Linux fan better than "How well does it run the latest commercial games?".

If you know of any such group please email me or post to this forum.

Though its viability may be in question, I think a DirectX Linux port would be great. Maybe as an alternative, you could have a DirectX -> OpenGL converter. What would that involve?

------------------

Lack