Completely unsupported AO-On-Linux howto

[Frostsongr]

If you are using a laptop with an NVIDIA video card you may want to run this script to make sure that your GPU stays at max performance when playing games.

#!/bin/bash

echo 'Forcing GPU to high-performance mode. Press CTRL-C to stop.'
let x=0
while true; do
        let y=x*25
        echo -ne "\rTime spent in high performance mode: $y seconds"
        nice /usr/bin/nvidia-settings -q all > /dev/null &
        let x=x+1
        sleep 25;
done

[Huonosihti]

I managed to get my AO runing on linux, but i can't have any other program open, or it won't start (it doesn't do anything or it freezes the whole PC). "Run in window" doesn't work, and when i try to open game with console to see the errors - it wants to patch, and when i do so: error again (it says: ERROR: Could not move ResourceDatabase.dat to old_rdb.dat).
It opens with wine, but not with console.
But if i manage to open program while playing the game, i can't see it or use it, because AO stays on top and hides every program behind it.

Also i'm having lag, can't play with 32 bit colours and water looks weird and causes even more lag.

I'm pretty new with this linux, so don't know what to do. Please help!

[Huonosihti]

I solved my problem. Can run other programs now \o/
I fixed it by letting wine make it own desktop. "Run in window" and other programs work now.

[Frostsongr]

Just wanted to confirm AO and AO Test are working and patching just fine in Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic.

[Helliste]

Got everything working in 9.10 too, just Bore seems quite laggy, rest looks good so far.
Im just missing a script on how to run a 2nd instance of AO on a second screen.

[Axtilmor]

Got everything working in 9.10 too, just Bore seems quite laggy, rest looks good so far.
Im just missing a script on how to run a 2nd instance of AO on a second screen.

If you have an Nvidia card and you're using Twinview, try setting the Primary Monitor in the nvidia-settings app (System->Administration->NVIDIA X Server Settings by default). AO starts on whatever monitor is set to primary. I've looked up and down the net and I still haven't figured out how to set the primary monitor in a script, though.

[Wakizaka]

Got everything working in 9.10 too, just Bore seems quite laggy, rest looks good so far.
Im just missing a script on how to run a 2nd instance of AO on a second screen.

Run it in a window and drag it to the other monitor

If you have an Nvidia card and you're using Twinview, try setting the Primary Monitor in the nvidia-settings app (System->Administration->NVIDIA X Server Settings by default). AO starts on whatever monitor is set to primary. I've looked up and down the net and I still haven't figured out how to set the primary monitor in a script, though.

Not sure if you can, I was thinking of Xrandr but from glancing at the API it doesn't look like it. I'll see what I can dredge up without having to restart X.

[Axtilmor]

Yeah, the maddening thing about it is it must be possible to change primary monitors without restarting the xserver, because nvidia-settings can do it. I just haven't figured out how.

If I run AO in windowed at the same resolution as an individual monitor (1280x1024 in my setup), I'm unable to drag it. If I drop the resolution down to 1024x768, I'm able to move it around just fine. I'm not sure why that is. This is with "Allow the window manager to control the windows" turned on in wine config. Wine 1.1.23 added "Proper fullscreen mode for the virtual desktop" which made it so a fullscreen virtual desktop couldn't be dragged, which in theory shouldn't be related.

[Frostsongr]

NOTE: Figured I would repost this here even if nothing new is written just for the record. Please if anyone else discovers anything please post it here as well.
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What works

Everything works great so far. You can follow the guide here http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...d.php?t=557615 or just keep reading on. You do need ies4linux which I am lazy and used winetricks.

wget http://www.kegel.com/wine/winetricks
sh winetricks ie6

Thats it. After that installing AO from scratch works great and patching as well. If you have problems installing the game download the following installer.

wget http://l3cdn.ageofconan.com/download...P1_EP2_EP3.exe

I use this script to run the game. Works great for me give it a go.

#!/bin/bash
cd ~/usr/Anarchy\ Online

# renice fix
echo renice needs sudo access.
sudo echo sudo unlocked
# end renice fix

wine Client.exe &> /dev/null && sudo renice -10 $!

If you are having problems with sound give WinePulse a try. http://art.ified.ca/?page_id=40


What does not
All working great.


What was not tested
The AI mission crash in a particular room that I have not been able to test yet.


Additional Comments

Hopefully the transition with the new engine will be as painless as possible...
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Source: http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManage...estingId=46462

[LV-62]

Cedega has AO marked as a working game in their gamers database:

Anarchy Online                  Works    Cedega 7.3.0
Anarchy Online: Shadowlands     Works    Cedega 5.2.10
Anarchy Online: The Notum Wars 	Works    Cedega 5.2.10

Can't tell if it has bugs under cedega, but at least they don't list it as not working.

[Tamalou]

What was not tested
The AI mission crash in a particular room that I have not been able to test yet.

Was still crashing with Wine 1.3.4, just installed 1.3.5 but no plan to do more LE miss atm...
=> only fix I found is to use cedega (I think I tried all AO display setup with Wine and all crashed)

3) Settings - Rendering Device
If you are experiencing lower FPS try using DirectDraw HAL - Wine D3D7 HAL instead of DirectDraw HAL - Wine D3D7 T&L HAL. Also if you are forcing Antialiasing I have found turning that down gives great results.

Still true, megabump because T&L HAL < HAL on my computer too

5) Gnome movement bug fix. Character has a hard time moving because your keyboard has Key Repeat set to on. Before you run the game type this in terminal:

gnome-keyboard-properties

Turn off repeat keys. When done turn back on.

Its a Xorg bug and for more info: http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=22515


About dual logging:
There used to be a script with parameters on this thread to make easy dual logging.
Im not an expert and failed to make it works some months ago.

Anyway if you want an easy way to dual log (same screen) you can find how I did it just here:
(maybe not the best way but well a noob like me can do it!

Before first install be sure to have Wine configured to make it own desktop!

1) Follow Macrosun Howto to make a first install of the game.

2) Make you game works, tweak your ao.sh with tips found on this thread.
The game is working? Fine! now repeat the howto from step 3) but with "~/.wine-ao-dual"

3) continue the steps, well ok, you need to make a new install and all stuff, maybe there is a quicker way but what ever, it will work and we gonna clean after.

4) Copy your ao.sh into a ao-dual.sh and just change the WINEPREFIX!
Second installation works? Cool, then you should be able to run the 2 installations!

5) Finally you can clean your second install. This way you will save 2.6go, you will run the 2 accounts with same prefs folders, and will need only 1 update per patch!
Go into ~/.wine-ao-dual and delete the drive_c folder. Finaly execute

sudo ln -s ~/.wine-ao/drive_c/ ~/.wine-ao-dual

This will make a symbolic link of your installation!
For noobs like me, lets just say that this shortcut will allow the second wineclient to use the same installation folder than the first one


Happy Xmas for all linux users!

[Topedd]

Anyone else experience a weird bug with the latest update to wine? Im now getting a black bar about an inch wide on the bottom and right side of my AO window. And its as if the rest of the game is being squished and kinda blurred, iv tried running in full screen mode and that gets rid of the black bar, but theres still blurring and of course the camera control bug is ever present. Gonna try reinstalling wine and not updating to the latest patch.

[Sauerdriod]

A bit out of character for the thread, but has anyone tried running AO on a linux host with a VirtualBox XP install? I don't have a working rig right now, but having just started reading up on Virtualbox (with its extensive 3d support), I would assume that a Ubuntu system running a Virtuabox VM with XP on it would probably do a great job running AO with less tweaking than WINE (only under the assumption that you own a copy of XP/Vistastrophe/7 and are willing to sully your HDD with it).

Having gone the WINE/Cedega route before as a total linux n00b at the time, I can say its not always an easy process, and VB's seamless mode seems to be the bees knees for running windows apps (at least according to a few friends of mine).

Just a thought.

[Wakizaka]

Just make sure you run it in seamless mode.
I haven't checked to see how much the performance difference will be, maybe I'll hack it together this weekend (running Arch so will need to make some changes).

[Sauerdriod]

If you don't get a chance too, I will be testing it on a few rigs as soon as I get my tax return sometime this week - old PC took a nice dump (I think the clock generator on the mobo went out) and I plan to be using exclusively linux on the new machines (likely karmic). Since I own licenses for every version of Windows from 3.11 to Vista Ultimate, I figure I may as well put them to some use.

If I have the time I'll do a full barrage of tests (I will have both ATI and nVidia cards to work with) using both VMs and WINE/Cedega to see where the best performance lies.

Edit: According to most sources, Virtualbox in particular runs software on guests nearly at host speed, so if your PC would play AO well in windows, it would most likely work well under VB as well. And IMO it might make for some interesting multilogging potential.

[jorricane]

Update on using virtualbox -

Although it supports DirectX/Direct3d, it only supports version 8+. No dx7 = no AO in its current state, unfortunately. WINE it is I suppose.

[Tamalou]

wine 1.1.39 still crashing in the infamous LE miss room (the one with some sort of tongue as ground).

So I started again my Cedga, but I didn't knew how to combine cedega, ao install and the magic ie6 stuff... so my AO don't patch.

Then I just installed AO w/o patch and deleted my "~/.cedega/Anarchy\ Online/c_drive/Program\ Files/Funcom/Anarchy\ Online" and I did same link than my post from 21 December:

sudo ln -s ~/.wine-ao/drive_c/Program\ Files/Funcom/Anarchy\ Online ~/.cedega/Anarchy\ Online/c_drive/Program\ Files/Funcom

Now you can play LE mission with cedega, and if you decide to keep using cedega for regular playing, dont forget to use your regular wine for the update!

[Tamalou]

Wow, Cedega is not cool!

1) My AO crashed like 4 times in 2h.. (I dont remember my last wine crash not related to the LE room ofc!) Maybe its because of dual log...

2) There is a problem with keyboard focus when dual logged, i had to hit ALT each time I do alt tab between accounts...

Maybe both can be resolved but hell, Ill stay on Wine wich is working very smooth and switch only to cedega when my LE miss got the infamous tongue room.

Wtb a chat option "I play on wine, so gimme a mission w/o the tongue room pls" when speaking to Unicorn reccruter!

[DocJones]

Wtb a chat option "I play on wine, so gimme a mission w/o the tongue room pls" when speaking to Unicorn reccruter!

Lol at that I have the same problem with crossover (LE mish crashes on certain room). +1 for me!

[lusthorne]

Wow, Cedega is not cool!

1) My AO crashed like 4 times in 2h.. (I dont remember my last wine crash not related to the LE room ofc!) Maybe its because of dual log...

2) There is a problem with keyboard focus when dual logged, i had to hit ALT each time I do alt tab between accounts...

Maybe both can be resolved but hell, Ill stay on Wine wich is working very smooth and switch only to cedega when my LE miss got the infamous tongue room.

Wtb a chat option "I play on wine, so gimme a mission w/o the tongue room pls" when speaking to Unicorn reccruter!

I find this very interesting. I've been playing mostly with cedega for years and I don't have this crashing issue. AO is not particularly friendly with alt-tabbing to begin with, and the extra alt-tab stuff in cedega (ie; minimize on focus loss) should actually be disabled for AO (which alone takes care of the majority of focus issues).

I also recommend (if you dual log ao in full screen) to put your instances of AO on different desktops, and use hotkeys to flip desktops rather than using alt tab to flip active windows (even wine has problems with alt-tabbing in my experience so it's not unique to cedega).

Further, for a good dual logging experience, it's best to have 2 separate AO profiles inside cedega (profiles, _not_ 2 installs of AO) so they don't conflict inside the same memory space (the wine equivalent would be like using bottles).

Performance-wise cedega typically pulls off much better framerates, and ofc doesn't crash in those wine trouble spots (ie; LE missions).

About the only thing cedega *doesn't* do better for AO is patching (where you'll still need to use wine for sure).

Oh and also, it's not necessary to symlink ao from its install directory to the cedega directory, as you can put the path to any executable when making a new shortcut in any cedega profile. In the case of AO, you'll also want to fill in the working directory to be the same dir as the real anarchy.exe.