Hi guys

I am Ubuntu user for some time now (about two years), but I have done all the playing on windows so far. Today I installed wine, and tinkered with it for a while, installed some games with it, some successful (older games), others not so much...

I have noticed that games installed with wine recognize my video card wrong, and also, wine recognizes I have only 32MB of video memory.

However, I know each game in wine is special case, and should be treated differently, so my question is not related for a specific game.

I would like to know what steps should I follow to initially set up wine, so at least games recognize my graphic card right with right amount of memory? And if you have any other starter tips they are welcome.

System specifications:
OS: Ubuntu 13.04 (x64) with ATI Catalyst and driver installed (Version 013.010.000.003.000000)
Wine version: 1.5.31
Graphics: VTX Radeon HD 6850 X2 (1024 MB, dual monitor setup)
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 645 Processor
MBO: ASRock M3A770DE
RAM: 4GB

Thanks!

Normally, I don't sweat myself over what is auto-detected. It doesn't particularly matter since you can reconfigure the game's settings to work. However, if you wish to configure the Video Ram Size, you should look here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1076755

Wine pushes most of the settings into its registry. So a lot of what you're going to be doing is registry keys.
For a full extensive list of registries that is used in Wine:
http://wiki.winehq.org/UsefulRegistryKeys

If you are heading to gaming, I suggest downloading Winetricks and PlayonLinux. Winetricks streamlines some of the most often used solutions to get games to work on REGULAR WINE (e.g. install directx, .net runtime, etc.).

PlayonLinux is a wizard that has a collection of scripts that are known to work for specific games. It also installs specific wine builds that play the game best. It doesn't mean it's trouble free, but it's built with end users in mind and gives the least amount of headaches assuming the script works.

Thanks! That is very useful :)

Any other beginner tips are welcome.

I edited my post to give out more tips. Good luck with Wine and if you have a problem getting a game to work, appdb is always a good place to start.

Play on Linux is definitely something worth looking into. In addition to it having known configurations for various games, it also makes creating and managing various wine versions much easier, as well has having just about any version you want ready to go skipping any real need to build yourself. They even have versions with common patches applied. For getting the most mileage out of wine it's really the best way to go.

It can be very overwhelming for a newbie, as there are so many types to choose from. However the most important thing to remember as a beginner is the GDE test. Everyone's GDE criteria are different; find one that suits you and enjoy. Don't fret too much over professional scores or lexicon.

And here I thought this thread was about which California Pinot Noir to drink tonight ;-p

Srsly, good luck ;-)

Funnily, I knew what he was asking for before I clicked the thread. When I clicked it though, I second guessed myself... "What if he was asking about wine drinks?" LOL

Can you explain what GDE test is? Google isn't helpful

I'm sorry...my post was tongue-in-cheek. GDE is used by some wine (the drinking kind) enthusiasts for 'Goes down easy'. I came to the thread expecting the same as momo1991.

What about beer for newbies?

All you need to know...

I'm more of a wine person myself, enjoying a great and full-bodied Dornfelder at the moment (surprising, as Dornfelder is usually a 'budget' wine, and we picked this bottle up for cheap at a fleamarket)... http://appdb.winehq.org/

Link for the unknowing. Individual AppDB apps often give useful tips on past experience with Wine versions. It may be that later Wine versions have introduced game-breaking bugs, and that you may need an older version (PlayOnLinux can prove particularly handy in this regard).