Wine & DirectX questions

[Cuddles]

I just BOUGHT this new game, its supposed to run in Win98 or better, and requires DirectX 8.1...

I booted to my Win98 install, its own partition, set up for using WINE in Knoppix only, installed the game, DirectX, sound, video, everything works great, in Windows, that is...

My intent was not to run it in Windows, I rearely, if at all, run my Win98, but, my intent was to fire that game off in my Knoppix hard drive install, using WINE... It appears, even though I installed the "complete" game on the partition, a whopping 1.9 GB, that it still requires the CD-ROM be in place to play the game... So, I mapped my WINE configs, drive mappings, to reflect how it was installed: C: is my Windows, D: is the /dev/cdrom, so, now, it doesnt yell bout the cdrom cant be found, but, it doesnt run....

Looking at the failed log, and running the wine command line from the CLI, I think my problem is that WINE doesnt have the "modules" for DirectX in them, my best guess...

To resolve this myself, I did a Search Knoppix.net with the key words wine & directx, and came up with one similar posting in Tips & Tricks... Appears that two versions, or variants, exist in devlopment of WINE... One is the "normal" WINE, which comes with Knoppix, the other is WINEX, which appears to be for "gamers" and includes the DirectX stuff. Problem is, it is stated that this puppy isnt free...

So, on to my questions:
Can you use this WineX in Knoppix? Does it work like "wine" just with DirectX for games? Does it "replace" the "normal" wine? What do they mean "not free", is it not GPL, or does it actually COST MONEY to have it? Has anyone else had any experience running a "DirectX Game" within Wine, or this WineX?

Heck, if the thing isnt GPL, thats no problem, I've already, as my "kernel compile" stated, I've already "tainted" my kernel by inserting my NVidia video card drivers, whats with something else that "taints" it any further? ( the fun of a Sid based Linux / Debian, huh )

BTW: the game in question is "The Simpsons Hit & Run" -=- first impression, running it from my Win98, is, "Hit & Miss" - the game is very "B", characters are not like the TV show, they are "blocky" looking, the game play is choppy, and thats with a 1.7 GHZ processor, 512 MB RAM, a NVidia GeForce 4 MX 440 64 MB VRAM ( this could just be Windows problems, and a good reason why I want to fire this up in Linux, to see if it runs better )

The game had to "instantly" have the keyboard controls re-mapped, it was using lame keys for the character control movements, and the driving control movements - the mappings are clumbsy, you have a mixture of mouse and keyboard controls, so you are constantly going from keyboard to mouse, back to keyboard, etc... But, heck, I bought this game, and want to play it - And DURN if I'm going to be running it in Windows, especially when I got Knoppix to make it all better

Thanks for any assistance on getting this game working in Linux,
Ms. Cuddles

[OErjan]

winex is free in the cvs version, winex is now called Cedega btw. otherwise it costs just 5 USD, 5 EUR, or 3 GBP per month. no disaster. and if i understan corectly the binary will continue working after the subscription expires.

Subscribers are referred to as TransGamers, and as a TransGamer, you'll be able to download Cedega 4.1 (formerly known as WineX) and Point2Play 1.3.2, play your favorite Windows games, gain access to our support forums, and vote on the games you'd like to see us work on next. Click here for more details on all the benefits!