Use PlayOnLinux/Mac and install the component d3dx9_36.
This way the new engine is working at least in windowed mode.
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Use PlayOnLinux/Mac and install the component d3dx9_36.
This way the new engine is working at least in windowed mode.
I've recently switched over to Ubuntu Studio 15.10, probably soon 16.04, and tried to install it with Crossover, which is kind of the commercial version of Wine (I'm using it for a few other programs anyways).
Unfortunately, the old engine doesn't even start (black screen after client) and the new engine runs very poorly: Severe lag and some models in the scene don't even load, such as buildings and trees, etc. - has anyone experienced something similar to this and found a solution to make it at least playable for now?
So far I've tried to manually (re-)install Direct X9 and replace the d3dx9_36.dll in the AO bottle, setting it to Windows/native in the library preferences. This didn't do the trick however, or have I possibly done it wrong? Maybe it's also a GPU problem, since I'm using an AMD Radeon R7 360 (the proprietary drivers made no difference either, apparently). While my love for AO goes pretty far, I hope there is a simple fix for this, as I'm not going to switch to an Nvidia GPU.
I haven't used Crossover in a couple of years, but the underlying technology is still WINE. I don't know which version of Crossover you're using and which version of WINE it's built on, but old AO (not beta) was working for me with the last version of Crossover I had (13, I think).
When I've had problems with AO not rendering or making a black screen, I've had some luck monkeying with WINE's registry entries.
Here's a quick tutorial for getting RegEdit open in Crossover: https://www.codeweavers.com/support/.../registry_keys
And here's the list of "useful" registry entries that WINE cares about: https://wiki.winehq.org/Useful_Registry_Keys
Specifically, the one that has helped me was changing "OffscreenRenderingMode". I don't remember which works, fbo or backbuffer, but I've had the following work once: AO rendered black. I set it to "backbuffer", still black. I set it back to "fbo" (the default value if nothing is set), and magically AO rendered. Go figure.
That's all I can think of for AO giving black screen. Good luck and leave notes on your progress so I can come up with other hair-brained ideas for you to try.
Wow, Lliers. I just tried your suggestion and it actually worked, thank you very much!
Setting it to "backbuffer" made the old engine run, the other setting did not work however. There's just a small problem remaining: Apparently the game window "reserves" a certain space on the desktop. At first, I thought the game started and froze, but when dragging the window around, I noticed that the game was only displayed in motion in the top left corner in a space of the specified resolution (e.g. 1024x768), when the window is larger than that, the rest of the game window gets tearing lines. This is a bit unfortunate, since things as the credit count are at the bottom and because of the window decoration on top, this part is always beyond the specified resolution and will not be displayed. Setting it to fullscreen also just results in a black screen.
But it's playable so far, so that is already great! I'll just keep continuing to try different things here. You don't happen to have an idea on that one as well? ;)
You can try to "emulate a virtual desktop" and specify a desktop size and see if that fools wine into rendering the entire space. In Crossover you would do something like:
Manage Bottles -> Control Panel -> Wine Configuration -> Launch Selected Item -> Graphics -> Emulate a Virtual Desktop
Check the box. Specify the size of a desktop that you want. You'll probably need to restart the bottle. Then try running AO in the newly specified virtual desktop size.
I'm not 100% sure about how to get winecfg up for your version of Crossover, but the above is how I'd do it in Crossover 13.
Yeah okay, this sort of worked. The error is still there, but since the game window is now kind of enclosed in the virtual desktop window, it's possible to move it so that almost only the game screen is in the specified box of pixels. There is something like one line of pixels that is not displayed correctly, but that's not a problem of course.
Thank you so much for your help with this, being relatively new to the system, it's always a bit difficult to see the whole picture right away, but I'm really happy with this solution. Went from nothing to playable with a few setup quirks, that's a huge win I would say! :-)
I've been playing AO on my linux box for years. My rig is Frankenstein's monster crossed with a dinosaur and WINE has eventually always managed run AO, but it has often taken some digital duct tape and bubblegum notwithstanding.
Glad I could help.
Happy gaming.
^.^
Is there a recommended version of WINE to use? I have it working via PlayOnLinux but I would like to improve the framerate if possible. Older laptop, NVIDIA 512mb card, getting ~50-60FPS in Borealis but I feel l like those numbers don't tell the whole story. It still feels choppy to me, even with details and fx turned off or way down. That is in full screen mode, not sure if the performance improves in windowed mode.
Edit: Works in windowed / borderless mode, FPS remains the same.
I can't say that there is a "recommended version of WINE". I always use the latest version of WINE (currently up to 1.9.10) on my aging desktop with an nVidia card (also 512 mb). I'm pretty certain I don't get 50 FPS. My game play is extremely choppy in Borealis and ICC and anywhere in SL. I often crash out in Bore. I don't know what version of WINE is bundled into PlayOnLinux, but if you follow the WINE change log, you will see that WINE devs are constantly making improvements in the graphics rendering in WINE, so I believe that the latest version of WINE will always squeeze out a little more out of your graphics card/CPU but at the cost of a little risk of the latest version being incompatible with AO, but so far that's only happened twice in the years that I've used AO on WINE.
Thanks. I went up to the latest version. FPS improved but it still feels choppy. Messed around with the settings long enough in Borealis to get a crash. I will play around with it. Just on a froob right now so can't see SL. It seems like it might be playable, will see soon. Thanks again.
Ok, this is working very well on my old laptop now. Running it on Antergos, PlayOnLinux, and the latest wine. Using NVIDIA drivers for my little 512mb card and everything seems good. I messed with settings a little, most visuals are set to medium and most effects are turned off ( I did this on Windows too ) and while Borealis stutters every once in a while, I am getting good FPS.
I have not logged a paid toon yet so hopefully SL isn't a huge letdown, but I am happy enough with it so far. Oddly enough, the initial stuttering in Borealis seemed to occur on really slow mule toons for the most part. Toons with a little bit of runspeed seem to not suffer as much. Possibly it is network lag or something to do with FC calculating movement rates.
I've found using Wine 1.5.25 works best. It gives me the least amount of lag in big cities like bore. I keep trying to mess around and test things but I get the same result. Game is smooth like butter locked at 100fps EXCEPT in big cities. It tends to drop to 2 fps and is choppy as hell. I wish I knew more about programming and could decipher the errors. I've have been trying for years to figure out how to fix the problem but to no avail.Quote:
Originally Posted by haxi
SUMMER 2017 UPDATE
The current iteration of Wine (Wine 2.x-Staging with CSMT enabled) actually fixes the lag issues experienced in the major cities. Just in case anyone is still looking for a solution.