GOG with Wine

I'll keep this brief.  I tried installing the Witcher Card game beta some time back and had to use the /verysilent parameter to get through.  Had some error messages but the game worked.  It looks like the update facilities do not work on Wine so I may have to re-download the installer and get a new version.

Currently, I'm trying to install Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut.  Ran into some install issues so looking over at WineHQ, I found some list of components to install.

$ winetricks d3dx10 d3dx9_26 d3dx9_28 d3dx9_31 d3dx9_35 d3dx9_36 d3dx9_39 d3dx9_42 d3dx9_43 d3dx9 directx9 physx vcrun2003 vcrun2005 vcrun2008 vcrun2010 vcrun6sp6 vcrun6 wmp10 xact_jun2010 xact xinput

Ran into the same empty message window again, so I'm running the setup with the /verysilent parameter.

Update: I think that the additional packages may have broken x360ce on Wine.  My previously configured ini file seems to work though so I just copied it into the folder.  There seems to be no added benefit to the libraries.  Direct3D 10 doesn't work so you have to run Assassin's Creed using the Direct3D 9 binary.

Also, the Witcher Adventure Multiplayer Beta no longer works, it seems.  It doesn't recognize the account as part of the closed beta.

Yes!!! Witcher 2 Keys!

After staring through days of the download of Witcher 2 Steam, hoping to fire it up and get a CD key, I was getting desperate that I wouldn't be able to avail of the GOG.com Witcher 2 backup promo.  After going through CD Projekt RED's website for a replacement key, I was told to wait for 72 hours.

I'm always skeptical about these things, but apparently after just 48 hours, they've responded with my new key.  Thank you very much CD Projekt RED and thank you GOG.com! You guys rock!

Witcher and Wine Update

Playing a lot of Witcher lately but I've run into some interesting findings.  One is that on a fresh boot, I have to run Witcher twice to fix the graphics problem (puppeteer bug), so this has very little to do with the Launcher.exe.  Having it run directly from desktop menu is also added convenience and less clicks to do.

At least one time, I had an error dialog box telling me that Witcher crashed.  Once I clicked OK, the game launched anyway, but there was no sound at all.  This has been consistent in that everytime the dialog box shows up before launch, the game loses sound.  I don't know what causes that but after a reboot, it fixes by itself.  The sound is also automatically disabled by the game so you have to go the option and re-enable it.

Witcher and Wine Update

So, in my session yesterday I found more interesting clues.  After work, I fired up Witcher straight away and predictably Geralt was invisible and this warranted a hard reboot to fix.  Something about Ubuntu is doing this I am sure as my playtime in older Ubuntu systems wasn't like this.  You can tell if Witcher is going to have graphical glitches if you're not seeing the flying crows in the background of the main menu (lower left hand corner of the screen).

Next thing I did after a reboot was run the desktop icon which runs the Launcher.  The game didn't have the crows in the menu but it turns out it wasn't Geralt being invisible.  It was the puppeteer bug.  So what I did was run the witcher.exe directly (something I always did on my first playthrough).  This fixed everything and Witcher ran well after that.  I updated the desktop icon to run the executable file so I expect this to be fixed for good.

Witcher and Wine

Long ago, I started playing Witcher.  I haven't finished it yet because it's a darn long game.  When I played with it, I was running the Cross Over Lame Duck edition but I had to use version 7.2.2 because version 8 would just silently crash.  Running that had a few graphical glitches like the trees and the vitality and endurance bar, but other than that, perfect.

I just reinstalled the game and it's running on Wine 1.3.33, but I noticed a few peculiarities in addition to the graphical glitches. 

The first was that Geralt would only walk for a few steps.  Then he would start to glide on the floor.  I believe this has something to do with the keyboard input that is bugged in Ubuntu 9.10.  If you pull out the sword, you will notice Geralt walking a few steps and then perform a roll on the floor, indicating that the game was reading double-tap direction input.

Second was this occasional problem of Geralt not being rendered.  I toggled UseGLSL to disable which seems to help although it does still happen.  Restarting the computer seems to fix things, so I'm not sure what it is.

Third was an issue with the so-called puppeteer lines that are rendered on Geralt.  I noticed this when I ran the game from the launcher but when I ran the game from Witcher.exe it didn't have this problem.  I deduced that this has something to do with the fact that my AppDefaults on Witcher.exe weren't getting picked up when I run Launcher.exe.  Since I have separate Wine bottles for each game I have installed, I decided to push the AppDefaults into the actual Direct3D settings.

Lastly was a lack of sound.  My experience with Wine apps and sound (and PulseAudio) is that the longer my computer runs, the more Wine performance seems to suffer.  My suspicions are that PulseAudio is still not in a good implemented state.  After copying my audio settings from Tomb Raider Underworld, I rebooted the machine and ran the game.  The game gave me a good scare when it still didn't have audio but after checking the game's options, I realized there was a toggle to disable sound.  Bah!

I hope to finish Witcher this time around.  The game is really huge and I really want this to be over in preparation for Witcher 2.

A few thoughts...

I'll keep this short.  Figured out that deleting Sims on Sims FreePlay is a matter of customizing the Sim for their clothes and hairdo.  There's a red icon on the upper left corner.

Been getting some sweet stuff out of GOG lately.  I'm plan to play Fallout and (finally finish) Witcher Enhanced Edition.

Some quick thoughts

I just wanted to drop a few thoughts from an interesting week...

Firstly is the new module I released.  'Nightmares to Dreams' which is in NW Vault.  The aim was to have something roughly playable to be released and that is finally out of the way.  Have not received much of any feedback but I'll let that sit for awhile there while I ponder on what to do next.  I plan to reinstall the NWN toolset into Linux.  I don't like working on Windows.

Second thing to get out of the way is the texture map task my brother keeps wrangling me about.  Hopefully by the end of the week, it'll be finally finished.

Third thing is how I have been indulging a bit on Witcher by reading short stories and watching the Polish serial.  It has been quite interesting and I fairly enjoyed the short stories.  The TV series seems to have some pretty laughable effects but I am still remotely interested in watching it.

Fourth thing is how more videos of Tatsunoko vs Capcom are finally going around and this game is looking like a winner.  One game for the holidays that is for sure.

Lastly, I had a good couple of hours with Tomb Raider Underworld on Wii.  In a word, it's a mess.

Anniversary had a very good control system and she was very agile.  The camera, while not perfect, was something I could adjust to.  The Wii exclusives also made Tomb Raider a much more enjoyable experience.  I have used the flashlight for so many times even if I do not particularly need it.  It was very nice additions and added to the immersion.  

Underworld was a straight up port sprinkled with even less Wii additions.  I am boggled why and how Underworld for the Wii got several steps behind Anniversary.  This game has an atrocious camera system, the motion capture moves makes Lara look like a clumsy lady.  The wall scaling system needs improvements and her acrobatic moves are gone.  One thing I liked about Anniversary was that Lara looked perfectly confident with the leaps she makes.  It makes for an exhilirating piece of acrobatics.  Underworld makes her seem ordinary.  That is not what it should be.  Furthermore, the control scheme seems to have been changed for the worse.  I always liked the nunchuck shake as the action for Lara to throw her grapple.  Now it's the 'B' button.  Less Wii immersion.  The swimming part is also incredibly bland and weak.  Also, there have been multitude of bugs in this game.  One puzzle had me scratching and I decided to exploit physics to solve it.  Hey Eidos/Buzz Monkey, did you playtest this game at all?

What did I like about Underworld?  The idea to use more of the Wii remote speakers.  The sound samples they used have not worked out though.  Sounds more like a broken speaker sound.  The graphics are alright even though I think Lara kind of suffered a bit.

Over all, if I were reviewing Anniversary, I would give the game a solid 8.  Underworld deservedly gets a 5 or a 6.  Granted I have only played the first few levels, that might end up being a bit higher to say, 7, if the changes dramatically make this an awesome game.  I doubt it though.  I am not sure if Buzz Monkey did Tomb Raider Anniversary but I am positive they did Tomb Raider Underworld.  If Buzz Monkey had nothing to do with Anniversary, I would suggest Eidos not to hire them again.