Arcen Games

General Category => AI War Classic => AI War Classic - Technical Support => : AcidWeb August 25, 2009, 05:59:22 AM

: AI War - Linux installer
: AcidWeb August 25, 2009, 05:59:22 AM

Look at new topic:
http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,7246.0.html (http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,7246.0.html)


INSTALLER DON'T WORK PROPERLY! YOU WILL JUST WASTE TIME.
WINE is not ready to run AI War.
AI War works at VMWare Windows guest hosts.
VirtualBox hosts _don`t_ work.

-----

First of all this installer is still very very simple - no download resume and any error recovery - so consider it as alpha release. If something go wrong you must start from scratch.
I tested AI War on 4 different computers and performance was different on each so you must check it for yourself. Only at one test machine it works playable. Don`t install it at guest Linux VM - it will not work.

Prerequisites:

Instructions:

Installer downloads about 500mb of prerequisites so it can take a while  ;)
Auto-updater should work but we will see after 1.014 release.

I'm _very_ interested about performance so - feedback please.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: Zitterbacke August 25, 2009, 06:25:37 AM
I'm on it!
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: x4000 August 25, 2009, 09:26:24 AM
Stickied!  But also moved to tech support, because it is more of that sort of how-to. :)

Thanks for doing this!
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: Ranger Rick August 25, 2009, 11:10:25 AM
First of all this installer is still very very simple - no download resume and any error recovery - so consider it as alpha release. If something go wrong you must start from scratch.
I tested AI War on 4 different computers and performance was different on each so you must check it for yourself. Only at one test machine it works playable. Don`t install it at VM - it will not work.

Is there a manual version of the steps, or source for the installer?  I'd love to give this a shot on wine-on-OSX as well...
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: AcidWeb August 25, 2009, 11:55:27 AM
First of all this installer is still very very simple - no download resume and any error recovery - so consider it as alpha release. If something go wrong you must start from scratch.
I tested AI War on 4 different computers and performance was different on each so you must check it for yourself. Only at one test machine it works playable. Don`t install it at VM - it will not work.

Is there a manual version of the steps, or source for the installer?  I'd love to give this a shot on wine-on-OSX as well...

Wine on OSX got msiexec tool?
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: Ranger Rick August 25, 2009, 12:01:39 PM
Wine on OSX got msiexec tool?

Yup.  Wine on OSX is pretty much like Wine everywhere else.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: AcidWeb August 25, 2009, 12:10:37 PM
Wine on OSX got msiexec tool?

Yup.  Wine on OSX is pretty much like Wine everywhere else.

Bash support? Because you will be using winetricks script - http://wiki.winehq.org/winetricks (http://wiki.winehq.org/winetricks)

Install dxdx9 and dotnet20 thru winetricks (You can try do it manually.).
Download:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/0/f/60fc5854-3cb8-4892-b6db-bd4f42510f28/dotnetfx35.exe (http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/0/f/60fc5854-3cb8-4892-b6db-bd4f42510f28/dotnetfx35.exe)
http://slimdx.googlecode.com/files/SlimDX%20Runtime%20%28March%202009%20SP1%29.msi (http://slimdx.googlecode.com/files/SlimDX%20Runtime%20%28March%202009%20SP1%29.msi)

Install dotnetfx35.exe thru wine. Slim msi and AI War msi thru msiexec.

Good luck... you will need it.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: Admiral August 26, 2009, 05:48:01 PM
Yay! One day when I have way too much time I might get Wine-on-OSX and this.

For everything else there's Mastercard BOOT CAMP.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: AcidWeb August 27, 2009, 12:54:03 PM
Next version will be wrapped in a multiplatform GUI installer - InstallJammer.
So will be looking pretty  ;D
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: x4000 August 27, 2009, 12:59:43 PM
Nice!
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: AcidWeb August 27, 2009, 01:12:04 PM
I'm on it!

So Zitterbacke.. it work?
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: Zitterbacke August 27, 2009, 03:45:40 PM
Just a short status, I will edit this later: it's not a .gz file, it's a .tar, I got an error (File Roller/Gnome) unpacking it. Removing the suffix made it accessible.

After downloading dotnet3.5 some unpacking happens but then the setup of dotnet errors out with a requester (Setup.exe discovers...blah...need to close...). Your installation routine continues regardless, but when I start the game I get some error requesters pointing to the file I added. The license-requester pops up and the music plays, but then it quits to desktop when I close the requesters.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: Echo35 August 27, 2009, 04:07:25 PM
Just a short status, I will edit this later: it's not a .gz file, it's a .tar, I got an error (File Roller/Gnome) unpacking it. Removing the suffix made it accessible.

$ tar -xvf aiwar.tar
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: AcidWeb August 27, 2009, 04:13:26 PM
Just a short status, I will edit this later: it's not a .gz file, it's a .tar, I got an error (File Roller/Gnome) unpacking it. Removing the suffix made it accessible.

Whoops!

Next version will be one monolithic binary so consider that problem solved :)
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: AcidWeb August 27, 2009, 04:27:09 PM
After downloading dotnet3.5 some unpacking happens but then the setup of dotnet errors out with a requester (Setup.exe discovers...blah...need to close...). Your installation routine continues regardless, but when I start the game I get some error requesters pointing to the file I added. The license-requester pops up and the music plays, but then it quits to desktop when I close the requesters.

You using wine 1.1.28?

Game crashed because Net 3.5 is not installed.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: Zitterbacke August 27, 2009, 04:28:41 PM
yes, wine --version gives wine-1.1.28

I have the dotnet3.5.exe here separately and it errors out exactly the same way if I run it. Do I need special qualifiers to install it?
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: AcidWeb August 27, 2009, 04:33:33 PM
yes, wine --version gives wine-1.1.28

Hmmm... all testing machines installed NET 3.5 successful. If you don`t have nothing better to do run setup one more time and make screenshots of all NET 3.5 errors  :)
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: AcidWeb August 27, 2009, 04:35:46 PM
I have the dotnet3.5.exe here separately and it errors out exactly the same way if I run it. Do I need special qualifiers to install it?

No. Yes, luck ;D
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: Zitterbacke August 27, 2009, 04:37:28 PM
I removed my .wine folder and let your install run again, MS can take a couple of GB downloads I guess :D

Nope, still this error. See attachment.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: AcidWeb August 27, 2009, 04:51:11 PM
Strange.

Try using dotNetFx35setup.exe.
Download it and run thru wine directly.

It never worked for me so maybe it will run :)

I presume that .NET 2.0 installed without errors?
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: Zitterbacke August 27, 2009, 04:57:20 PM
Ok, the 2,7MB dotNetFx35setup.exe errors out, too. I'll try a different language setting, maybe it's that stupid.

EDIT: No, still errors on me.

It is an AMD64 bit Version of Ubuntu, maybe that's what causes some confusion.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: AcidWeb August 27, 2009, 05:06:04 PM
Ok, the 2,7MB dotNetFx35setup.exe errors out, too. I'll try a different language setting, maybe it's that stupid.

EDIT: No, still errors on me.

It is an AMD64 bit Version of Ubuntu, maybe that's what causes some confusion.

Maybe, maybe. I didn't test net on 64 bit systems.
Give me wine console output when .net installer crashes.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: Zitterbacke August 27, 2009, 05:07:58 PM
It looks like in the attachment. That is exactly the moment.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: AcidWeb August 27, 2009, 05:09:29 PM
It looks like in the attachment. That is exactly the moment.

dotNetFx35setup.exe output  :)
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: Zitterbacke August 27, 2009, 05:12:28 PM
Opps, Ok.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: AcidWeb August 27, 2009, 05:17:23 PM
I don`t have slightest idea what is wrong.
Maybe I will think something tomorrow... for now I'm going sleep it is almost midnight here  :)
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: Zitterbacke August 27, 2009, 05:19:15 PM
Same here, too (timewise), thanks for looking into it, mabye I put this on hold till you get your GUI version into gears. As a sidenote: VirtualBox won't run the game, too, since it supports only DX8 IIRC. I tried.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: AcidWeb August 28, 2009, 08:53:47 AM
Same here, too (timewise), thanks for looking into it, mabye I put this on hold till you get your GUI version into gears.

GUI is only visual enhancement if .NET installer crash now it will not help.

Anybody else got 64bit distro and can test .NET 3.5 installer?

: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: Huw August 28, 2009, 09:17:49 AM
Anybody else got 64bit distro and can test .NET 3.5 installer?

I'm running 64-bit Ubuntu on an Intel machine but I don't have enough bandwidth left this month to download .NET.  I've been itching to try this, so I will test at the earliest available opportunity (Tuesday).
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: AcidWeb August 28, 2009, 09:39:20 AM
Anybody else got 64bit distro and can test .NET 3.5 installer?

I'm running 64-bit Ubuntu on an Intel machine but I don't have enough bandwidth left this month to download .NET.  I've been itching to try this, so I will test at the earliest available opportunity (Tuesday).

K. Don`t use script - it downloads full installer twice.

- Remove ~/.wine
- Download http://www.kegel.com/wine/winetricks
- Run: sh winetricks dotnet20
- Download online installer - dotNetFx35setup.exe
- Run it and pray.
- Share the results :-)

EDIT: Or faster:
- Remove ~/.wine
- Download now only dotNetFx35setup.exe (~2mb) and try run it. It crashing on start or starting download?

: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: Zitterbacke August 28, 2009, 10:29:55 AM
I've tried a lot today, to no avail, dotnet3.5 setup always crashes on me, whatever approach I chose.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: Ranger Rick August 28, 2009, 11:23:49 AM
...

Install dotnetfx35.exe thru wine. Slim msi and AI War msi thru msiexec.

Good luck... you will need it.

Hah!  Well, it mostly worked (I was able to get all the way through the install) but it's pretty much unusable on OSX.  It has some major drawing issues where backgrounds draw over controls and other crazy stuff.  Gonna give it a shot in Crossover Games 8rc1 to see if they maybe have tweaked anything, but my hopes aren't high.

That said, this is *much* farther than it went last time, so things are definitely improving.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: AcidWeb August 29, 2009, 04:48:40 AM
It has some major drawing issues where backgrounds draw over controls and other crazy stuff.

Yup I seen that on one of my testing machines.

That said, this is *much* farther than it went last time, so things are definitely improving.

.NET 3.5 support thru WINE is quite preliminary but you are right in each new version it working better.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: ldlework August 29, 2009, 02:12:04 PM
Hey guys.

Just attempted to run this via Ubuntu32 Jaunty with newest wine. All installs complete but then I get the errors in the attachment.

Also - rtsnet.org requires a password... what is it?
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: Revenantus August 29, 2009, 02:34:31 PM
Hi Idlework,

Welcome to the forum.

I'm sorry to hear you're having trouble with the linux installer, note that it's not something that Arcen Games officially supports, it's been created by a dedicated player and is currently in the very early stages of its existence. Hopefully one of our members with more experience with Wine will be able to advise you further.

rtsnet.org should only request a password if you attempt to join using a registered nickname, can you join through the Web Client (http://arcengames.com/irc/aiwar_irc.php)?
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: AcidWeb August 29, 2009, 02:51:24 PM
Hey guys.

Just attempted to run this via Ubuntu32 Jaunty with newest wine. All installs complete but then I get the errors in the attachment.

Also - rtsnet.org requires a password... what is it?


Hello and welcome  :)

You used my installer or installed all perquisites manually?
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: ldlework August 29, 2009, 02:52:51 PM
Yes, all pre-reqs are installed. The whole installation went fine. I get those errors when starting AI War. It looks like a genuine unhandled exception. (IE a bug in AI War that's showing its face when run in this environment.) If you need any more information from me or me to try things let me know.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: AcidWeb August 29, 2009, 02:55:39 PM
Yes, all pre-reqs are installed. The whole installation went fine. I get those errors when starting AI War. It looks like a genuine unhandled exception. (IE a bug in AI War that's showing its face when run in this environment.) If you need any more information from me or me to try things let me know.

I see that error for first time. Extractly what prerequisites and in what order you installed?
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: ldlework August 29, 2009, 03:00:34 PM
Well I installed cabextract then well I fudged around with your installer like 20 times then realized standard Ubuntu 9.04 comes with Wine 1.0.1 so I upgraded that - deleted .wine/ - then ran your installer again. It installed without a hitch. Running AI War.exe gives me that error. My window manager is XMonad but I highly doubt that is causing the issue. But you never know.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: AcidWeb August 29, 2009, 03:01:55 PM
Well I installed cabextract then well I fudged around with your installer like 20 times then realized standard Ubuntu 9.04 comes with Wine 1.0.1 so I upgraded that - deleted .wine/ - then ran your installer again. It installed without a hitch. Running AI War.exe gives me that error. My window manager is XMonad but I highly doubt that is causing the issue. But you never know.


Ok. You starting AI War when you are IN AI War directory?
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: ldlework August 29, 2009, 03:02:49 PM
Hehe, yes.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: AcidWeb August 29, 2009, 03:08:16 PM
Hehe, yes.

Then officially i don`t have slightest what is wrong  ;D
In next week i'm relasing new, smaller installer with changed install method of .NET 3.5.
So maybe then will work. .NET 3.5 thru wine is just broken so... I can't promise that will change anything - but faith is beautiful  ;D 
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: ldlework August 29, 2009, 03:08:38 PM
I believe this error has something to do with initializing the display device. The output log right before the error happens reads:

"fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x32d144,0x00000000), stub!"

Although the error in the unhandlederrors.txt I attached earlier lends itself to the instantiation of the Player class.

who knows... =(
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: AcidWeb August 29, 2009, 03:11:09 PM
I believe this error has something to do with initializing the display device. The output log right before the error happens reads:

"fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x32d144,0x00000000), stub!"

Although the error in the unhandlederrors.txt I attached earlier lends itself to the instantiation of the Player class.

who knows... =(

Try:
wget http://www.kegel.com/wine/winetricks
sh winetricks fixfonts

If still crashes give me C:\windows\fonts\ contents.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: ldlework August 29, 2009, 03:33:09 PM
Alright I'm doing a fresh install THEN fixfonts. I'll let you know how it goes.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: ldlework August 29, 2009, 03:52:38 PM
Oh what the hell. Now I'm getting an error on the 3.5 install.

"The program PrintFilterPipelineSvc.exe has encountered a seriously problem and needs to close.." which causes the installer to close.

ldlework's head explodes

Well the install seems to be on going! so who knows. we'll see if it works. (Wtf)
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: AcidWeb August 29, 2009, 03:56:36 PM
Oh what the hell. Now I'm getting an error on the 3.5 install.

"The program PrintFilterPipelineSvc.exe has encountered a seriously problem and needs to close.." which causes the installer to close.

ldlework's head explodes

Well the install seems to be on going! so who knows. we'll see if it works. (Wtf)

Yes even if PrintFilterPipelineSvc.exe explodes installation will succeed.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: ldlework August 29, 2009, 04:06:05 PM
Well fontfix didn't fix anything. The Fonts/ folder is empty. I hope this means something!
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: AcidWeb August 29, 2009, 04:11:15 PM
Well fontfix didn't fix anything. The Fonts/ folder is empty. I hope this means something!

You got ttf-oriya-fontsĀ­ package installed?
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: ldlework August 29, 2009, 04:22:17 PM
I uninstalled it. Same error. I do believe this is a font issue as I've now seen the part in the error message that I think you're looking at.

I also see some stuff on winehq about this.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: ldlework August 29, 2009, 04:23:46 PM
I wish we could force it to tell us what the font its failing to load is....
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: ldlework August 29, 2009, 05:10:49 PM
So I fixed it. Instead of deleting some of those fonts I simply renamed them. Apparently this wasn't good enough as they were still found. Unfortunately I'm experiencing the same issue with the background over-drawing the GUI elements and the game is impossible to play. Well that was all for naught. Thanks for the help!
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: AcidWeb August 30, 2009, 01:49:35 PM
So I fixed it. Instead of deleting some of those fonts I simply renamed them. Apparently this wasn't good enough as they were still found. Unfortunately I'm experiencing the same issue with the background over-drawing the GUI elements and the game is impossible to play. Well that was all for naught. Thanks for the help!

Yup this is common. For now I'm freezing this project and wait for better .NET 3.5 support in Wine. At 95% computers it not work so for now I'm wasting time  :-\

Anybody here got any luck in using AI War thru Wine?
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: ldlework August 30, 2009, 03:49:27 PM
Maybe its something that Chris could change in the way he draws to the screen to fix this issue. Proactivity ftw?
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: x4000 August 30, 2009, 03:55:26 PM
Maybe its something that Chris could change in the way he draws to the screen to fix this issue. Proactivity ftw?

Most likely this is simply a bug in Wine's support of some aspect of DirectX or .NET 3.1.  The way that the game assets are rendered is via discrete sprite batches that are sent to the GPU in multiple calls, and if it is mixing the data from one call with the data from a prior call, then that's a pretty serious problem with the emulation.  I don't know that that's what is happening, but from what I have read so far that is what it sounds like.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: AcidWeb August 30, 2009, 05:14:48 PM
Maybe its something that Chris could change in the way he draws to the screen to fix this issue. Proactivity ftw?

There are two problems:
a) .NET 3.5 don`t install completely - some parts (Like WPF presentation framework) just blow up :)
b) They are still problems with DirectX renderings.


x4000, _just_ rewrite AI War to Mono  ;D ;D ;D ;D
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: x4000 August 30, 2009, 05:18:58 PM
x4000, _just_ rewrite AI War to Mono  ;D ;D ;D ;D

Yeah, right. :)  Maybe someday, if Mono support gets to where it supports Linq and .NET 3.5, I'll be able to compile a Mono version.  But that looks to be a long ways off.  And the last time I ported a program to Mono (my "Manuscript Analyzer" tool), an operation that took under 1 second in .NET took 30+ seconds in Mono.  I know they are improving all the time, and there's a lot about that project that excites me, but... well, it's not quite as baked as WINE yet, I don't think.  It has been a year or more since I looked at it, though, so who knows.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: arthurp August 13, 2010, 02:11:24 PM
Hey there

I though I would awaken this thread a little since I just checked to compatibility of Mono with .NET and it does support 3.5 and LINQ.

The easiest way to describe what Mono currently supports is:
Everything in .NET 3.5 except WPF and WF, limited WCF.

I'm not expecting you to do a rebuild immediately or anything (I'm sure there are DX compat issues), but since it matches what you said was needed I thought I'd mention it. I would certainly LOVE to see a linux build. Are there any other issues with Mono that I don't know about? (I'm not a .NET programmer at all)
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: x4000 August 13, 2010, 02:54:49 PM
Cool stuff, it sounds like that might work, then.  Arcen won't be doing a rebuild, but I think that there are ways in which to get it running under WINE, and that would require someone with Linux knowledge, etc.  We'll be porting the entire application over the Unity 3D soon anyway, and that runs much better under Linux in general, since it uses OpenGL and Mono instead of DirectX and .NET.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: Admiral August 13, 2010, 05:08:57 PM
X beat me to it... The forthcoming Unity version should work better on WINE.

Or, do what I do and run a Mac. It has everything you'd want from a Linux perspective, and then some. (I've been a Linux developer since late '91.)

Cheers!

PS: I can't wait for the Mac version. I would never have dreamed of such a thing a year ago.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: x4000 August 13, 2010, 05:09:50 PM
PS: I can't wait for the Mac version. I would never have dreamed of such a thing a year ago.

We're excited about it, too!  And that should really usher in a ton of new linux support, too, as you noted.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: arthurp August 14, 2010, 04:45:35 AM
Cool stuff, it sounds like that might work, then.  Arcen won't be doing a rebuild, but I think that there are ways in which to get it running under WINE, and that would require someone with Linux knowledge, etc.  We'll be porting the entire application over the Unity 3D soon anyway, and that runs much better under Linux in general, since it uses OpenGL and Mono instead of DirectX and .NET.

The Unity 3D port will probably make WINE support a lot easier though (openGL instead of DX). That would make me very happy. Also who knows some day there may be a Unity port for Linux. It is already cross platform and based on many open-source libraries so a Linux port of Unity would be quite possible I am sure (though I have no idea exactly how much work would be needed).

: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: keith.lamothe August 16, 2010, 01:49:49 PM
Yea, the Unity folks have publicly stated that they want to add support for Linux, and that they intend to do so, but that it will be a lot of work to port all their c/c++ code to that platform and so they can't actually say when they'll get around to it.

So there's definitely hope, but I couldn't say what year that will become manifest :)
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: cmatei September 26, 2010, 12:20:07 PM
FYI, the game works on xp using virtualbox 3.2.8. There is just one catch: you need to install the guest additions (d3d) in safe mode - this is documented somewhere but can't find it anymore.
IIRC, I did like this: install the trial version, including slimdx and directx9. The game won't start, but boot in safe mode, install guest additions, boot normally and then it will work. I may be wrong with the ordering of things, debugging windows problems is always "throw random stuff at it and see what happens" for me.

 It did crash once, but is otherwise playable (spent some good hours on the tutorial campain). Nice game.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: keith.lamothe September 26, 2010, 02:55:16 PM
Glad you like it :)  The Unity version should be *much* easier to run in Linux, when it's ready.  If you want to, you could try running the Tidalis demo in Linux; The Unity version of AI War will run on the same exact platform.
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: SRombauts November 06, 2010, 10:12:32 AM
The new thread about Wine support is here: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,7246.0.html

=> The new version AI War versions 4.0 using Unity is working perfectly well under Linux using a recent Wine without doing anything special.

(I post this because for now it is still the first topic to appear on Google)
: Re: AI War - Linux installer
: AcidWeb November 13, 2010, 04:35:48 AM
The new thread about Wine support is here: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,7246.0.html

=> The new version AI War versions 4.0 using Unity is working perfectly well under Linux using a recent Wine without doing anything special.

(I post this because for now it is still the first topic to appear on Google)
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