Linux compatibility

[Frogfoot9013]

Are there any means of getting the W3D launcher to install on Linux-based OSs? I downloaded the installer and like what I'd usually do, ran it through Wine. But the program would not actually load up. In case it's relevant, I use Ubuntu 16.04LTS.

[Einstein]

Hello and welcome to W3D-Hub!

 

I know that at one time there was some work being done by Omar007 (one of our staff) on getting this working, but I'm not sure what progress he made on it. The launcher was coded by danpaul88, and because of some things he used, it is not able to run in wine (yet). I believe that Omar found a way but I don't believe it ever got implemented. Anyone that knows more want to chime in?

[Frogfoot9013]

I should probably have clarified, the installer works and installs it fine, but when I try running the launcher, it doesn't.

[Einstein]

Right, thats what I meant. Maybe it will work one day. If I hear anything I'll let you know!

[saberhawk]

The current launcher is unlikely to ever support Linux as it's a WPF application.

 

http://www.mono-project.com/docs/gui/wpf/

[Jeod]

You can still bypass the launcher and go directly into APB if Linux supports shortcut parameters. The Windows version looks like this:

 

"C:\Program Files (x86)\W3D Hub\games\apb-release\game.exe" +connect 178.162.193.144:9016 +netplayername <INSERT YOUR NAME>

 

The only downside is not knowing how many players are in the server or what map is playing. But, you can see that from IRC.

[Einstein]

Well beings as the launcher is required to download and install the games, this adds several extra steps. One could download and install on a windows PC, and then in theory copy the games over to a linux install and then run a direct connect shortcut probably. I believe someone a while back did verify that the games themselves can run under linux (in wine of course). I could be mistaken though.

[Omar007]

@Einstein; that has been me most likely as well

 

The last state of the changes I had to make were good. Things were working with mostly just cosmetic issues.

I'll check my changes against the latest versions and update where needed. Hopefully this can be pushed upstream some time as well.

 

That aside, with what's currently publicly available, your best option right now is to install the games under Windows and copy them over. The games themselves should work fine under WINE.

[cdoublejj]

To make things worse the W3D launcher installs a version of dotnet 4 which only works in wine with a "32 wine prefix".

i'm surprised no one has made an open source re implementation of  westwood's W3D engine with projects like Open Morrowind becoming more common place. wouldn't help with the launcher but, sure would make it easier to get a newer optimized engine that would allow way more modding and support all platforms.

 

when supports dotnet out of the box or with little/simple tweaks it might be possible to run W3D hub out of the box as well. games like the witcher 3 and GTA V are already playable.  I think i may play around with trying to get it work in wine.

Edited December 11, 2017 by cdoublejj

[Einstein]

7 hours ago, cdoublejj said:

To make things worse the W3D launcher installs a version of dotnet 4 which only works in wine with a "32 wine prefix".

i'm surprised no one has made an open source re implementation of  westwood's W3D engine with projects like Open Morrowind becoming more common place. wouldn't help with the launcher but, sure would make it easier to get a newer optimized engine that would allow way more modding and support all platforms.

 

when supports dotnet out of the box or with little/simple tweaks it might be possible to run W3D hub out of the box as well. games like the witcher 3 and GTA V are already playable.  I think i may play around with trying to get it work in wine.

Hello and welcome to W3D-Hub!

We.......kinda already started modding/rebuilding the engine a long time ago (10+ years ago), the source is just not public. We have a "scripts" development team that takes care of rewriting the engine to be our own and to better suit our needs as we need new features for the evolution of our various projects. If that sounds like something you might be interested in helping with, then by all means speak up! I can get you pointed to the right people.

Again welcome! Please read all our forum/game-server rules and please post or PM me or another staff member with any questions you have. Thanks!

[Omar007]

From version 2.19 of Wine i.c.w. launcher version 0.7.5.x and up I believe most blocking issues preventing it from running, or at least somewhat without crashing, have been resolved.
Good chances you can get it running in Wine now relatively easily compared to before that point.

I had planned to update what I had already made accordingly but with version 0.8 of the launcher the way it has been packaged has changed so several things I set up no longer work.
If I get around to it somewhere this week I may put something up for those that want to try to run things on Linux.

DISCLAIMER: Running on Wine/Linux is not officially supported by W3DHub so any crashes you can not reproduce on Windows will probably not be looked at by anyone.

[cdoublejj]

i am not a coder but, my relationship with wine and linux is getting better. if i get it working perhaps i could explain how i did so with some sort of guide like forum post. I have went ahead submitted W3D Hub as an app to be added to the Wine Application Data Base so that compatibility reports and or any needed work arounds can be filed and published.

 

IF anyone has tried installing and not had it hand let me know. i was not very patient to let it it install dot net since i know wine has problems and almost always requires a 32bit prefix to make it work. i am currently researching this.

Additionally wine 3.0 RC out and 3.0 is a big jump from 2.21. idk if that's stable version number or a big jump from the current staging version. if the later maybe they have added a lot more features and api calls.

[der Papst]

I've found 3 ways to do it:

Lutris: https://lutris.net/games/w3d-hub-launcher/

 

The winetricks-way ( recommended for experienced users only )

1. Create a new prefix
2. Use winetricks to install dotnet 4.6.1
3. run the w3dhub-installer in the prefix
4. run w3dhub in the prefix. wine3.1 worked well

The PlayOnLinux-way ( more comfortable )

1. Install PlayOnLinux (you can find it usually in your distribution's sources, for example "sudo apt-get install playonlinux" on Debian, (K)ubuntu,...)
2. Download the latest w3dhub-installer and the attached script( w3d and dependencies tested.polscript )(store both anywhere you like, just remember where)
3. Open PlayOnLinux, go to tools -> run local script and select the attached script.
4. The script tells you what it currently does - but you have to click next whenever possible (pls give me feedback if you would prefer a "silent" installation. I did this for debugging-purposes and just didn't change it)
5. When the install script asks for the setup file, select it
6. After the w3dhub-installer finished, create a shortcut to the w3dhub-launcher

Spoiler

The attached script is written in bash and calls only PlayOnLinux-functions. PlayOnLinux will show you its content before running, you can also read it in every text-editor.

What the script does: exactly the same winetricks does when asked to install dotnet 4.6.1:

• create a new 32bit PlayOnLinux-prefix and install wine3.1 (if not already installed)
• remove mono from the prefix
• download and install dotnet 4.0, 4.5 and 4.6.1 (which depends on 4.0 and 4.5)
• create some dll-overrides
• ask for w3dhub-installer and run it

Please give me feedback about this guide and just ask if you have problems

I've played Interim Apex with PlayOnLinux >25 hours now, without any problems, A Path Beyond procudes crashes quite often.

(I'm also trying to create an official PlayOnLinux-installer without local scripts, but their script for dotnet4.5 doesn't work with wine 3.1)

Edited May 19, 2019 by der Papst
Added Lutris to original post

[der Papst]

Lutris is now supported too: https://lutris.net/games/w3d-hub-launcher/

[Displayname]

Hello, i  use Ubuntu 21.04, on the installation use "3 partś "

after installation auto update, software center updates, ctrl+alt+T

sudo apt-get install wine-stable 

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386 

sudo apt-get update 

sudo apt-get install wine32 

 reboot

software center, playonlinux  > w3d hub 

 

but framework 4.7.2  cannot  istall,  "works  only for 64bit?"

 

for lutris +winetricks tape ctrl+alt+T

 

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lutris-team/lutris

sudo apt update

sudo apt install lutris

Edited August 16, 2021 by Displayname

[Einstein]

26 minutes ago, Displayname said:

Hello, i  use Ubuntu 21.04, on the installation use "3 partś "

after installation auto update, software center updates, ctrl+alt+T

sudo apt-get install wine-stable 

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386 

sudo apt-get update 

sudo apt-get install wine32 

 reboot

software center, playonlinux  > w3d hub 

 

but framework 4.7.2  cannot  istall,  "works  only for 64bit?"

 

for lutris +winetricks tape ctrl+alt+T

 

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lutris-team/lutris

sudo apt update

sudo apt install lutris

So this is a working method for the launcher and the games to run? What about the .net framework error, does that affect anything?

[Displayname]

[POL_Wine] Message: Running wine-3.1 regedit /home/x/.PlayOnLinux//tmp/override-dll.reg (Working directory : /home/x/.PlayOnLinux/ressources/dotnet472)

[POL_Wine] Message: Wine return: 0

[POL_Call] Message: ----- Ending function POL_Install_dotnet472 -----

[POL_SetupWindow_Close] Message: Closing window for pid 2647

10 minutes please wait, about

Edited August 18, 2021 by Displayname

[StephanvanSchaik]

Given that there has been some recent activity, and since this is related to the topic, I am just going to post this here, but I updated the Lutris installer. However, as it is currently under submission you can use the following link to open the new installer: lutris:w3d-hub-launcher?revision=79264

- I updated it to install dotnet472 i.e. Microsoft .NET framework version 4.7.2, since that is what the installer tries to install anyway.
- I changed the installer to set the following registry key: KEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Avalon.Graphics\DisableHWAcceleration to type DWORD and value 1. Without it, WPF applications will not render properly, in that they will not refresh the drawing, so you may just see a black window, noise or some old data that is currently in your framebuffer.
- I added a silent option to the W3D Hub installer, such that it just installs the W3D Hub Launcher in the background.

The new installer gives me a nice out of the box experience where it just installs the W3D Hub Launcher. The W3D Hub Launcher just works and I used it to successfully log in and download and install APB. Then after the 1.6 GB download, I was able to just launch APB and play it. All of this on Linux.

I haven't tried using d9vk yet for additional performance, as the games already perform really well as-is, but I can experiment a bit with that and see. In general performance with d9vk should be better as it handles Direct3D9 calls over Vulkan instead of OpenGL. If your machine is somehow struggling with these games, you can try enabling d9vk through winetricks (assuming you have native Vulkan support).

On 8/16/2021 at 6:50 PM, Einstein said:

So this is a working method for the launcher and the games to run? What about the .net framework error, does that affect anything?

While I don't use Ubuntu myself, yes, these instructions seem to be right: https://linuxconfig.org/install-lutris-on-ubuntu-20-04-focal-fossa-linux. The idea is enable the i686 repositories (to provide 32-bit packages, as most older games are 32-bit and therefore need 32-bit WINE), install WINE stable and Lutris from their respective repositories, as Ubuntu may not have the packages by default or they are likely out-dated already (WINE progresses at a much faster pace than Ubuntu can generally keep up with). From there you can just use Lutris and use the installer for the W3D Hub Launcher.

I am not sure which version of WINE is being used in this question, though, but I had no issues installing dotnet472. However, how well the .net framework installation goes depends on your version of winetricks (e.g. dotnet461 used to have deadlock issues with older versions of WINE). I am reporting this for WINE 6.14 (the lutris-fshack-6.14-4-x86_64 build to be exact) where the experience seems to be flawless.

Edited November 7, 2021 by StephanvanSchaik
explain the .net framework part

[danpaul88]

Just so you know, the launcher will be updated to net6.0 sometime in the 'near' future, but it'll be a self contained deployment so shouldn't need any other framework present on the target machine.

As it's still using WPF it'll still be a Windows application of course, but down the line I am planning to investigate using avalonia as a UI framework, which would allow it to run on other platforms natively (although we'd still need to write registry stuff to handle game config, so not sure if it'll be possible to actually use it in a native fashion since obviously the registry isn't native to other platforms)

[moonsense715]

On 11/17/2021 at 8:16 PM, danpaul88 said:

Just so you know, the launcher will be updated to net6.0 sometime in the 'near' future, but it'll be a self contained deployment so shouldn't need any other framework present on the target machine.

As it's still using WPF it'll still be a Windows application of course, but down the line I am planning to investigate using avalonia as a UI framework, which would allow it to run on other platforms natively (although we'd still need to write registry stuff to handle game config, so not sure if it'll be possible to actually use it in a native fashion since obviously the registry isn't native to other platforms)

If you think of it as a portable approach, you could just write into documents or somewhere else instead of using registry?

[danpaul88]

Game.exe doesn't read your settings from a file, so we have to match what game.exe is doing

[Einstein]

On 11/27/2021 at 1:29 PM, danpaul88 said:

Game.exe doesn't read your settings from a file, so we have to match what game.exe is doing

I'm sure it might be frowned upon, but we could also change what game.exe is doing

[danpaul88]

We'd have to update every single game to not use the registry, including ancient things like APB beta, before we could remove the need for the launcher to use the registry... Pretty big ask of all the devs!