AO Linux HOWTO

[olterman]

Guys can anyone post all settings you have on cedega for AO, My game runs fine, however I am running cedega 4.4.3 to fix the shift+leftlick bug wich is fine but every 30 seconds or so my screen freezes for 2 seconds .. making it impossible to for example blitz pen ctas etc ... runing latest nvidia + ubuntu 6:10 and cedega 4.4.3 (my nvidia card is a geforce 4 ti)

[Hacre]

Guys can anyone post all settings you have on cedega for AO, My game runs fine, however I am running cedega 4.4.3 to fix the shift+leftlick bug wich is fine but every 30 seconds or so my screen freezes for 2 seconds .. making it impossible to for example blitz pen ctas etc ... runing latest nvidia + ubuntu 6:10 and cedega 4.4.3 (my nvidia card is a geforce 4 ti)

Not quite sure how the settings translate to old Cedega, but the poignant stuff is:

Reduce wineserver priority.

Use Vertex Shaders.

Use Pixel Shaders version 1.3.

Disable Wine's Scheduler.

However I've tested from command line and found AO works ok anyway, but they're the recommended settings.

If you have a dual core CPU, check your kernel configuration. If you have the Multi Core Scheduler enabled, disable it, it causes problems with Cedega on a lot of systems. Also check what the kernel timer clock frequency is set to, for optimal performance with AO it needs to be set to 1000Hz.

HTH

[Cambo1]

Cedega version 4.4.3 does seem rather old, as the latest version is now 5.2.8

If you are getting 2 second pauses, it may be done to your video drivers. Most drivers now have a way of resuming operation after an error of some kind. This is normally only noticeable as pauses in animation. You might want to check which drivers you are using.

Personally, I have a Nvidia Geforce FX 5700LE 128Mb AGP. I'm running Ubuntu 6.10 with the 1.0-9742 Nvidia drivers. I run fullscreen 1600x1200 res, and get 25-30 fps in stores, and usually above 10 fps elsewhere. This is while also having a second monitor connected to the same card, with Firefox open, listening to GSP, etc

Profile settings I use; (If option not mentioned, it's either off or blank)

General tab - Winver: win2k, Cedega Version: 5.2.8, Use XVid Mode: Yes, Managed: Yes, Mozilla Control: Yes, Scheduler: Default, Use Pthreads: default, Desktop: No, FreeType and XRender: Yes

Audio tab - depends on your soundcard, etc

Graphics tab - Video RAM (MB): set to RAM on your card, AGP Vertex Data (MB): set to half your AGP Apeture Size in BIOS - needs to be at least 64Mb for AO, Pixel Shaders: Yes 1.3, Vertex Shaders: Yes, NV_VAR Extension: Yes, ARB_VBO Extension: Yes, Fixed Program: Auto, Fragment Offset: Auto, Non Power of Two Testures: Auto, Clip Space Fix: Yes

That works for me, though I may have to do a little experimenting with the Scheduling that Hacre has mentioned



Cambo

[Trestidlo]

do i realy have to pay for cedega?

[Cambo1]

Cedega uses a subscription system, rather like AO

It's $5 per month, with a minimum period of 3 months.

You _could_ just pay for that initial 3 months, and then stop subscribing. You would have the latest version of Cedega, but would not get any future updates, access to the forums, vote of the games Transgaming attempt to get working with Cedega, etc.



Cambo

[Gwenneth]

The best invested 15$ you will ever spend, trust me :>

Gwen

[sebquantic]

Just wanted to let everyone know that AO seems to be running fine with Wine version 9.25.0+. The only difference I can tell is that the water textures don't render like they do with Cedega. Other than that the game runs fine, with no noticable FPS drop from windows. If you dont want to spend the (is it 15$ now?) for cedega, this might work for you.

I put up a new test page at the Wine AppDB

Tested with:

Gentoo Linux (kernel 2.6.8)
Wine 0.9.29
Xorg 7.1.1
Enlightenment DR17 0.16.999.037
Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS
Nvidia Geforce 2600 (binary drivers)

[Ll4m4]

Just wanted to let everyone know that AO seems to be running fine with Wine version 9.25.0+. The only difference I can tell is that the water textures don't render like they do with Cedega. Other than that the game runs fine, with no noticable FPS drop from windows. If you dont want to spend the (is it 15$ now?) for cedega, this might work for you.

the window manager mouse cursor showing over AO cursor and the fact that view keeps rotating when you use numpad to change it is a bit annoying tho, unless you have managed to fix these 2 issues. Apart from that the 3d seems to render correctly and there's even not the problem I have with non-english characters under cedega.

[sebquantic]

Random crash problem fixed for me apparently. Don't think AO liked being from from a different directory. I had my launcher bar setup to do this:

"cd /home/seb/Apps/AO && wine Anarchy.exe"

The game would start up but wouldn't stay up for very long, crashing at random times and take X down with it. Don't ask me why, but running the game from a terminal while in the same directory with:

"wine Anarchy.exe > winelog 2>&1"

seems to fix this problem.

[zathariel]

AO runs just fine in WINE 0.9.33 on ubuntu
No FPS drop, no random crashes for me either. Lag seems to come in spikes, might be FCs fault though, not sure, heh. It does seem like I am the only one getting them, though.

[kaghelion]

Wine doesn't have any built-in method of knowing how much VRam your graphics card have and uses 64 MB by default. Have a look at Useful Registry Keys as how to adjust that and other hidden settings.

[Ll4m4]

Yes since last wine version it is beginning to work very well, don't know if it is because of wine developpement or that FC changed some stuff with mouse and camera management but the bug which was making the camera turn endlessly when using the keys to move it is no more.

Running on ubuntu I only have 2 little problems: the game don't go in fullscreen mode correctly when under gnome and the X mouse cursor is still visible over AO's.

[stehn]

how hard would it be for the developers to compile a version for linux with support for OpenGL
mmorpg makers cannot continue to ignore Linux as a platform

[Mawerick]

Pretty hard I'd think, as OpenGL and D3D instructions are very different.

[Izolenta]

how hard would it be for the developers to compile a version for linux with support for OpenGL
mmorpg makers cannot continue to ignore Linux as a platform

why not make native Linux app then. The hardest part is D3D -> OpenGL wrapper.

AO runs fine in Wine really. Especially at latest version (~10% FPS dropdown - not really noticable)

[Telperion]

I just switched to Linux and am currently struggling to make AO work on my laptop.

I'm currently at the step where AO freezes when trying to open the skills windows, and i haven't even left the backyard i was logged in yet...
Gonna try to update the video driver (for the ATI Mobility Radeon 9200)...

[porter]

I just switched to Linux and am currently struggling to make AO work on my laptop.

I'm currently at the step where AO freezes when trying to open the skills windows, and i haven't even left the backyard i was logged in yet...
Gonna try to update the video driver (for the ATI Mobility Radeon 9200)...

Oh, I forgot you were using a laptop (we have discussed this briefly elsewhere) - I hope there are decent drivers for that gfx chipset around.

By the way, are you running AO under Cedega or Wine?

[Telperion]

The problem is the driver, indeed. I've tried to install it but ATI has this bad habit of not supporting their own hardware as soon as it's more than 1-1.5 years old, so i have to recompile some old driver (which i can't find)... Looks like i'm doing something wrong, since all i get when rebooting is a black screen (with Linux running in the background, since i get startup sounds and all).
I really hope AO doesn't keep crashing because my video card is low on memory (after all, AO never crashes under Windows, and i'm using the same video card).

With Ubuntu's built-in Radeon driver, i can launch AO but my system crashes whenever i try to open the skills window, or when i try to resize an info window... I've tried disabling all the GUI elements, but it doesn't resolve the problem. There are also several graphic glitches, and overall performance is poor.

I'm running AO under Cedega, btw, Porter. $5 per months isn't much, after all.

[Telperion]

Update: on Sunday morning, i was able to launch AO and play almost normally (with only a slightly slower framerate compared to Windows). Later the same day, i got the skills window crash. It means it's actually possible to make AO work normally, but i really don't know what i'm missing. I haven't been able to avoid the skill window crash since...

My setup:
Pentium M 1.3 GHz
RAM 1 Gig
Video: Mobility Radeon 9200 (with Ubuntu's built-in driver, the proprietary driver just doesn't work anymore - thx ATI for your infinite wisdom)
Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Dapper, with a 686 core (but it does the same with the 386 core).

Can anyone help me here, please?

PS: Tried to run AO under Wine, too, but i get a Visual Runtime error.

[Gwenneth]

Well, the ATI drivers are a fickle beast.

Next time you pick up a gfx card, be sure to pick nvidia, their drivers work almost flowlessly with linux (Closed source, but still, good)

If you're ati you might want to do this:

1) Get cedega. It's WELL worth the 15$ you pay for it, time and time over. Dont build from cvs, the precompiled works wonders.

2) ATI users have two options:
a) The closed source drivers you get from ATI, the fglrx ones
b) The open source drivers, for older cards.

3) ATI users _might_ be interested in this option:
In the Graphics tab under AO in cedega:
a) Tick off Fixed GL Extensions Buffer
put this in the field: "-GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object" minus the quoutes of course.
b) Also look at the different options in the cedega gui. Some come with recommendations for ATI users (turn this off, turn that on, etc)
c) Use the AO GDDB, it sets required options.
d) Remeber to set VIDEO RAM and AGP VERTEX DATA to appropriate sized
e) Experiment with Vertex and Pixel Shaders settings -> Some combinations work better than others


_________
**DISCLAIMER**
I'm a nvidia user. Not at all certain of how much relevance this info is to you, but might be worth a shot. Get a nvidia card :P
**/DISCLAIMER**

Gwen

Edit: Oh, and switch to gentoo. Plox.