SP:WaW and Linux?

Matrix Games Forums

Forums Register Login Photo Gallery Member List Search Calendars FAQ

My Profile Inbox Address Book My Subscription My Forums Log Out

SP:WaW and Linux?

View related threads: (in this forum | in all forums)

Logged in as: Guest

Users viewing this topic: none

Printable Version

All Forums >> [General] >> Unofficial Tech Support By Gamers for Gamers >> SP:WaW and Linux?

Page: [1]

Message

<< Older Topic Newer Topic >>

SP:WaW and Linux? - 6/11/2001 4:38:00 AM

sinner

Posts: 174
Joined: 5/7/2001
From: North Carolina
Status: offline

Hi there, Has someone made SP:WaW run under Linux? I really really really would like to run it under Linux. Mostly, because right now I have to use my company-leased laptop (that has Windows) to play SPWaW. Anyone has tried under WINE? Salut, Sinner

_____________________________

Sinner from the Prairy "Thalassa! Thalassa!"

Post #: 1

- 6/11/2001 11:36:00 AM

ectizen

Posts: 139
Joined: 2/24/2001
From: melbourne, australia
Status: offline

I've also been thinking about this for a while (no Windows at home :) ). A quick peruse through the archives turned up these threads: http://www.matrixgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=2&t=004322 http://www.matrixgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=2&t=002619 A little bit lean on the details, but they suggest it can be done. I'm going to have a go at it this week.

_____________________________

ectizen's SP:WaW Tools - Map Thing (1.0a), Scenario W

(in reply to sinner)

Post #: 2

- 6/12/2001 7:01:00 AM

ectizen

Posts: 139
Joined: 2/24/2001
From: melbourne, australia
Status: offline

I've made my first assault on this task. So far I haven't had much success - the best I've achieved was getting to the main menu (where you select "Solitaire", etc...) with a "low virtual memory" error. As this is the first time I've used Wine, I've probably messed up the configuration. :confused: I'll try again later... In related news, when we get SP:WAW running under Wine, we won't have to give up our favourite accessories! Both Map Thing and Scenario Wrangler seem to work under Wine :)

_____________________________

ectizen's SP:WaW Tools - Map Thing (1.0a), Scenario W

(in reply to sinner)

Post #: 3

- 6/15/2001 5:01:00 AM

sinner

Posts: 174
Joined: 5/7/2001
From: North Carolina
Status: offline

What version of WINE are you using? I'm downloading the latest CodeWEavers 1.0 preview 3 (200103-something) and I will try what happens. In my website, there's some screencaptures of the working install process under WINE. So far, only Install and OOB editor.

_____________________________

Sinner from the Prairy "Thalassa! Thalassa!"

(in reply to sinner)

Post #: 4

- 6/16/2001 10:45:00 PM

ectizen

Posts: 139
Joined: 2/24/2001
From: melbourne, australia
Status: offline

Not only have I got it running, but the very first scenario I played under Linux/Wine ended in a decisive victory for me! Woohoo! :D Now, back to business... I'm using Wine 20010418 from Linux Easy (needed a glibc2.2 version for my Redhat 7.1 system). I'm using the native libraries - no windows partition. I don't know if this is the proper way to setup Wine, but here's what I did. After installing Wine, I made a copy of its C drive d irectory (default in my package was /usr/share/wine-c) in my home dir (I put it in /home/ectizen/wine-c). I next adjusted my config to use the new one as my C drive. This was to let me install stuff easily without any permissions problems. I don't know if this is the approved way to do it, but it works for me ;) Next I installed SP:WAW 4.5. This was straightforward - nothing unusual going on here. It wanted to reboot. I told it not to, and rebooted manually. I'm sure it didn't actually need the reboot, restarting X probably would've done the job. But rebooting the linux box is bit of a novelty, so I did. :) Now for the fun part: cd into the SP:WAW directory (/home/ectizen/wine-c/Games/SPWAW on my box), and start the game with

wine mech.exe

That's it! I've not found any other way of starting that works. Also, autorun.exe didn't work for me - it would start, but didn't seem to launch anything. Miscellaneous observations:[list]

The game tries to run full screen - this isn't going to happen. What you get is the game in the top left corner of the screen. If you run with a high resolution, the game can appear quite small.

The game is displayed always on top, and will follow you around as you switch virtual desktops. Beware that if you start some other programs at the same time, you can lose them under the game - you'll have to quit the game to access them.

If the game loses the input focus, the mouse pointer will disappear in the game. To get it back simply click on the game. I approch from the bottom of the screen so I know I won't click anything that's "active".

Also, the game will pause (eventually) when it loses the focus. It will resume when it regains the input focus.

It seems to want a fair bit of memory. It I try running it with a couple of browser windows open, I'll probably run out of memory - I've got 96MB with 120MB of swap.

It seems a little sluggish on my K6-2 450, but that might just be the SETI@home client in the background ;)[/list] I think that covers everything. Did it raise any questions? ...edited 'cos I left stuff out (and to hide my shame) [ June 16, 2001: Message edited by: ectizen ] [ June 16, 2001: Message edited by: ectizen ]

_____________________________

ectizen's SP:WaW Tools - Map Thing (1.0a), Scenario W

(in reply to sinner)

Post #: 5

- 6/17/2001 6:04:00 AM

Paul Vebber

Posts: 11430
Joined: 3/29/2000
From: Portsmouth RI
Status: offline

WOW - I heard it could be done! THanks for verifying that! Great job!

_____________________________

http://www.matrixgames.com/images/sig-logo-02.gif

(in reply to sinner)

Post #: 6

- 6/26/2001 12:40:00 AM

sinner

Posts: 174
Joined: 5/7/2001
From: North Carolina
Status: offline

It's Working! I installed the wine-cvs-stripped-062301-1.rpm file in my Mandrake 8.0. Then, I copied the /etc/wine/config file to /home/sinner/.wine/ , changed ownership and permissions, edited it to match my configuration (mainly, point the CD-ROM to the proper device, poiny "C:\" to /home/sinner/Windows/ , create /home/sinner/Windows , /home/sinner/Windows/windows and /home/sinner/Windows/windows/system ) Then, I installed the game form the CD . Ater a false start (font config stuff), it installed. Then, I changed to /home/sinner/Windows/MatrixGame/SPWaW and did "wine ./mech.exe" It's working! I went to the "Use your Tiger" training scenario. When I heard the KABOUM of the 8,8 gun and the "Klang!" form the ricocheted shell, well, I knew that my quest is over :) I need to put this on my website, where I host an old SP manual by Wild Bill and Mario Bellizzi on SP Tactics. :D

_____________________________

Sinner from the Prairy "Thalassa! Thalassa!"

(in reply to sinner)

Post #: 7

- 7/3/2001 5:55:00 AM

ectizen

Posts: 139
Joined: 2/24/2001
From: melbourne, australia
Status: offline

5.3 and the MegaCampaign have been installed, and are now running on a Linux system. Starting and playing the game are pretty much the same as with 4.5. Installation was a different story - with all the false starts and apparent dead ends, it took me about 5 hours to install 5.01 :(. The updates went in quicker, once I realised what was going on. If I'd known then what I know now, the entire process would have taken less than an hour... The problem was that both Spwawv50.exe and Spwaw-v53-Update.exe would hang at the end of the installation (Spwaw-v501-v52-Update.exe didn't do this, and went in without a hitch). After transferring all of the files, they would display the message "Updating system..." and sit there. I waited an hour. Nothing happened. Thanks to the Windows setup tradition of running full screen and system-wide modal, there isn't much you can safely do here. To deal with this, I ssh'd in from another machine and killed all wine-related processes. There were a few, which I found using pstree -p. I started with the wine processes, as the others seemed to respwan. It wasn't necessary to kill the wineserver process. The installation is now complete enough for Linux. Rebooting is not necessary. The installation leaves some files in the temp directory. These should be removed - if you abort an installation and try again, the prescence of these files will cause the installation to fail with a message something like "E:\irsetup.exe cannot be read.". If you're like me, you'd waste a lot of time trying to figure out why there are problems reading drive E: That's about all there is to it. I hope you have enjoyed my latest Linux Installation AAR. :) [edited, because I can neither type nor proofread] [ July 02, 2001: Message edited by: ectizen ]

_____________________________

ectizen's SP:WaW Tools - Map Thing (1.0a), Scenario W

(in reply to sinner)

Post #: 8

- 7/3/2001 8:52:00 AM

sinner

Posts: 174
Joined: 5/7/2001
From: North Carolina
Status: offline

What's your WINE version? I'm having trouble with 20010629 ... maybe there's something wrong here... I do not know...

_____________________________

Sinner from the Prairy "Thalassa! Thalassa!"

(in reply to sinner)

Post #: 9

- 7/3/2001 12:02:00 PM

ectizen

Posts: 139
Joined: 2/24/2001
From: melbourne, australia
Status: offline

I'm using Wine 20010418 from Linux Easy. They have a newer version available now - 20010510. As this version is targeted at RedHat systems, I don't know how well it would work on Mandrake, although they suggest that you can use their source RPM on other distros. What kind of problems are you having? [edited to save you from my grammar...] [ July 03, 2001: Message edited by: ectizen ]

_____________________________

ectizen's SP:WaW Tools - Map Thing (1.0a), Scenario W

(in reply to sinner)

Post #: 10

- 7/3/2001 10:38:00 PM

sinner

Posts: 174
Joined: 5/7/2001
From: North Carolina
Status: offline

I'm using 20010629 -rpm- on Mandrake 8.0 (XFree 4.10, 2.43, ReiserFS) It should work. It worked with some LinuxEasy RPM that I d/l. Since I upgraded to this 20010629, I just cannot play with the game or, if it starts, it cannot finish the "turn processing". I have to try again the old LinuxEasy Wine version and see if this works. I know that it can work. I have played several turns with it. With a different Wine version, of course but... I'm confused. Time for a downgrade. :confused:

_____________________________

Sinner from the Prairy "Thalassa! Thalassa!"

(in reply to sinner)

Post #: 11

- 7/4/2001 9:06:00 AM

ectizen

Posts: 139
Joined: 2/24/2001
From: melbourne, australia
Status: offline

I've just tried the cvs stripped rpms from Dataparty, both 20010629 & 20010702 (I think this is what you would've been using). Both of these worked for me - I was able to play an entire scenario. However, I did find something that requires some caution. From the description of your problems, I suspect that this may be the cause. It seems that if SP loses the mouse pointer, it can't get it back! The game appears to lock up. Even worse, if the mouse pointer isn't in the region of the screen used by SP when it starts, it won't get it at all - this will give you a completely black window in the upper left of your desktop, and leave it at that. To avoid this problem, make sure the mouse pointer is in the top left of your screen before the black window appears, and never let the pointer go beyond the right or bottom edge of the window. Note that this makes it a little dangerous to shove the map around by pushing the mouse up to the edges, so it's best to use the little strategic map to move around instead. Does this help?

_____________________________

ectizen's SP:WaW Tools - Map Thing (1.0a), Scenario W

(in reply to sinner)

Post #: 12

- 7/8/2001 8:09:00 AM

sinner

Posts: 174
Joined: 5/7/2001
From: North Carolina
Status: offline

OK, now it's working. I had several problems: I had no "nt.dll" file on my wine install. So I had to borrow one. Then, my system was getting waaaaaaay too hot. Like a Newelwerfer tube with "No Ammo Limit" option turned on :D . So I just installed a whole bunch of fans (my PC sounds like a B-17G !!!) And... with all that heat, no AC and Linvin' La Vitta Loca in North Carolina ... my video-card got fried (literaly). :confused: Thanks God I was born the same day as Julius Caesar and I got an early-bird birthday-present: a new video card. Now I call this gaming. I just replayed the "Learn to use a Tiger" scenario. It's so much fun! All those "boom"'s from the Flak 8,8 cm.... :cool: Keep Linux Rockin... and using pre-planed artillery fire! :D [ July 07, 2001: Message edited by: Sinner from the Prairy ]

_____________________________

Sinner from the Prairy "Thalassa! Thalassa!"

(in reply to sinner)

Post #: 13

- 7/8/2001 10:42:00 AM

David Heath

Posts: 3274
Joined: 3/29/2000
From: Staten Island NY
Status: offline

Hi Guys I been following your thread on getting SPWaW working on Unix. I wanted to know if there is a way to convert or use something complied for a Windows machine and make it run on a native Unix box.

_____________________________

(in reply to sinner)

Post #: 14

- 7/8/2001 12:50:00 PM

sinner

Posts: 174
Joined: 5/7/2001
From: North Carolina
Status: offline

There are ways, of course. You can do pure Unix(Linux), mixed Linux/WINE installations and Windows applications following the "WINE compatibility guide". For example, IBM ships a WebPage development application (Websphere Homepage?). They do it as a "mixed" appliaction. So, they have gotten a WINE build, tinkered around a little to make sure it only has from WINE what is needed (so the application runs faster and is smaller) and that it runs well with their applications. A program called "Music Match" uses a special compilation of their Windows program to adapt Music Match to the WINE libraries. This way, with a "standard" WINE, Music Match runs fairly well. Then there's applications made with WINE in mind, develope for Windows... but that they will run in Linux+WINE with no problem. Now there's some DirectXsupport of WINE. CodeWeavers and some "TransGaming" (??) company that ships WINE-tweaked for gaming (sound, video, DirectX...) so you can play Windows games on Linux. And there's also the Pure Linux gaming development. What do you need? There's fairly good sets of libraries to develop games for Linux: SDL, OpenGL, and some others. A final note: not all the install applications work with WINE (most notably the latest Install Shield, like in the sound patch. But the install apps from SPWaW4.0 to 6.0 work OK). So you want to check the install application to work in Wine before shipping. Of course, you can *always* contact me for further info, notes, explanation, tests... you name it. sinner@escomposlinux.org / sinner@maduixa.net Some links: Potable Game Library (Win/Linux...) http://plib.sourceforge.net/requirements.html Linux Gaming APIs (Programming Linux Games) http://linux.com/develop/newsitem.phtml?sid=1&aid=12446 Programming Linux Games Book http://www.nostarch.com/plg.htm Linux Games: SDL development http://linux.com/develop/newsitem.phtml?sid=93&aid=12443 WINE homepage http://www.winehq.com http://www.winehq.com/Docs/ CodeWeavers WINE: WINE install & config made easy http://www.codeweavers.com TransGaming: full DirectX implementation on Linux http://www.transgaming.com WINE newsgroups: news:comp.emulators.ms-windows.wine My Web Page with Linux-Wine screenshots :D (check the links at the end of the page) http://www.geocities.com/sinner_prairy/linux/linux_03.html Steel Panthers under Linux-Wine http://www.geocities.com/sinner_prairy/dibus/sinner8.jpg http://www.geocities.com/sinner_prairy/Steel/spwaw01.jpg Hope this helps.

_____________________________

Sinner from the Prairy "Thalassa! Thalassa!"

(in reply to sinner)

Post #: 15

- 7/8/2001 11:39:00 PM

ectizen

Posts: 139
Joined: 2/24/2001
From: melbourne, australia
Status: offline

Something that needs to be mentioned is that Wine will only work with x86 cpus - no playing SP:WaW on your SPARC machine, or that spare Cray you have lying around :(. ... Did someone say screenshots? Try this. It's been scaled down from the original 1280x1024 :)

_____________________________

ectizen's SP:WaW Tools - Map Thing (1.0a), Scenario W

(in reply to sinner)