14 DAY TRIAL // The second Release Candidate (RC) build of the upcoming major Wine 2.0 open-source implementation of Microsoft Windows on Unix-like operating systems arrived for testing.
Wine 2.0 RC2 comes only one week after the release of the first RC build, and it looks like it's here to patch even more of the remaining blockers before the final version hits the streets, which might happen just in time for the Christmas holidays if we're lucky. If not, it will hit the streets in early 2017, as the project is now in code freeze.
The second Release Candidate of Wine 2.0 addresses a total of 20 issues reported by users since RC1, among which we can mention crashes when attempting to play the Hitman: Blood Money, STAR WARS: TIE Fighter Collector's Edition, and Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 Platinum games, and it improves support for Windows 8.
World of Warcraft with D3D11 renderer should now work correctly
Among other interesting issues resolved in the Wine 2.0 RC2 release, we can mention better support for running the Gauntlet and World of Warcraft games with the D3D11 renderer, support for playing the Helldivers game on macOS, as well as fixes for winhttp:winhttp and webservices:writer test regressions.
It's now possible to paste into IDA Pro on macOS, the Skype VoIP client for Windows should no longer crash as Wine 2.0 RC2 resolves a wininet regression, the Dragon NaturallySpeaking 12 dictation software should load correctly, and it's now possible to install the Audiograbber free CD ripper, MP3 encoder and audio recorder using download-audiograbber.exe.
The RIDE motorcycle game should now start, as well as the Red Faction: Guerrilla video game when used with the DirectX 11 renderer. Additionally, the correct colors will now be displayed for the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City game on Intel i915 and similar GPUs. Download Wine 2.0 RC2 right now from our website if you want to take it for a test drive.