Wine 3.0 released, to run Windows programs on Linux (and Android)

Wine 3.0 is the last step in evolution of Wine, a compatibility layer that allows you to run Windows programs even in Linux environment and – even in a reduced form – in the Android environment. The latest version brings with it many new features, especially with regard to graphics.

In Wine 3.0 we find, as reported by announcement, great steps forward in support to Direct3D 11. Although it is still not perfect, and you need a lot of work, some games are already partially working: among them, Prey (2017), Crysis 2, Witcher 3 and Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Progress in this direction is considerable, and it is not unthinkable to achieve full functionality relatively quickly.

Support for Direct3D Command Stream has been improved, already launched with Wine 2.6 but further refined compared to then.

Improvements have also been made to Direct2D and DirectWrite rendering, as well as support for high resolution screens (HiDPI).

Significant advances in Android support are also significant: although this is still in its early stages, graphics drivers and support for OpenGL are now present, as well as the audio and other basic features of system. At the present time, it is not possible to consider ” production ready ” software, since a huge amount of work is still needed to support applications on Google platform.

As for support for new DirectX 12 and more recent titles that exploit DirectX 11, work focuses instead on VKD3D, a project that aims to support Microsoft’s libraries using Vulkan to partially offset the performance penalties arising from translation.

Wine 4.0 is scheduled for next year and 3.x branch will be supported during the year with updates aimed at solving problems.