howto: get SBCG4AP 101 (demo and full game) running on Linux

[demonfoo]

Can you provide the output of glxinfo? From looking at the output from the logfile you provided, it *looks* like it's using software vertex processing. Are you sure that the graphics chip in the system has hardware vertex support? I mean, it shouldn't cause a crash, but based on the output, it does look like software vertex code may be in use. Is hardware vertex support enabled in winecfg?

[maxiboy]

Yes, hardware vertex support is enabled.

My chipset is supposed to support openGL 2.0 and directX 9.0c, but I know the Phoronix diagnostics thingy says that my drivers only expose openGL 1.4-level functionality. Figures, Ubuntu 8.04 was shipped with a release candidate version of Mesa3D, which is now out-of-date, and won't be updated because 8.04 is supposed to be "stable."

But since openGL 1.4 is more recent than the required "four or five years" mentioned in the system requirements page, I figured it would still work.

maxtothemax@maxtothemax-laptop:~$ glxinfo
name of display: :0.0
display: :0  screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.2
server glx extensions:
    GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap, 
    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer, 
    GLX_OML_swap_method, GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGI_swap_control, 
    GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_SGIX_visual_select_group
client glx vendor string: SGI
client glx version string: 1.4
client glx extensions:
    GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context, 
    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_MESA_allocate_memory, 
    GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer, GLX_MESA_swap_control, 
    GLX_MESA_swap_frame_usage, GLX_OML_swap_method, GLX_OML_sync_control, 
    GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGI_swap_control, GLX_SGI_video_sync, 
    GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, 
    GLX_SGIX_visual_select_group, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap
GLX version: 1.2
GLX extensions:
    GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context, 
    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer, 
    GLX_MESA_swap_control, GLX_MESA_swap_frame_usage, GLX_OML_swap_method, 
    GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGI_swap_control, GLX_SGI_video_sync, 
    GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_SGIX_visual_select_group
OpenGL vendor string: Tungsten Graphics, Inc
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Intel(R) 965GM 4.1.3002 x86/MMX/SSE2
OpenGL version string: 1.4 Mesa 7.0.3-rc2
OpenGL extensions:
    GL_ARB_depth_texture, GL_ARB_fragment_program, GL_ARB_imaging, 
    GL_ARB_multisample, GL_ARB_multitexture, GL_ARB_point_parameters, 
    GL_ARB_shadow, GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp, GL_ARB_texture_compression, 
    GL_ARB_texture_cube_map, GL_ARB_texture_env_add, 
    GL_ARB_texture_env_combine, GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar, 
    GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3, GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat, 
    GL_ARB_texture_non_power_of_two, GL_ARB_texture_rectangle, 
    GL_ARB_transpose_matrix, GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object, 
    GL_ARB_vertex_program, GL_ARB_window_pos, GL_EXT_abgr, GL_EXT_bgra, 
    GL_EXT_blend_color, GL_EXT_blend_equation_separate, 
    GL_EXT_blend_func_separate, GL_EXT_blend_logic_op, GL_EXT_blend_minmax, 
    GL_EXT_blend_subtract, GL_EXT_clip_volume_hint, GL_EXT_cull_vertex, 
    GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array, GL_EXT_convolution, GL_EXT_copy_texture, 
    GL_EXT_draw_range_elements, GL_EXT_fog_coord, GL_EXT_histogram, 
    GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays, GL_EXT_packed_pixels, GL_EXT_point_parameters, 
    GL_EXT_polygon_offset, GL_EXT_rescale_normal, GL_EXT_secondary_color, 
    GL_EXT_separate_specular_color, GL_EXT_shadow_funcs, GL_EXT_stencil_wrap, 
    GL_EXT_subtexture, GL_EXT_texture, GL_EXT_texture3D, 
    GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp, GL_EXT_texture_env_add, 
    GL_EXT_texture_env_combine, GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3, 
    GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic, GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias, 
    GL_EXT_texture_object, GL_EXT_texture_rectangle, GL_EXT_vertex_array, 
    GL_3DFX_texture_compression_FXT1, GL_APPLE_client_storage, 
    GL_APPLE_packed_pixels, GL_ATI_blend_equation_separate, 
    GL_IBM_rasterpos_clip, GL_IBM_texture_mirrored_repeat, 
    GL_INGR_blend_func_separate, GL_MESA_pack_invert, GL_MESA_ycbcr_texture, 
    GL_MESA_window_pos, GL_NV_blend_square, GL_NV_light_max_exponent, 
    GL_NV_texture_rectangle, GL_NV_texgen_reflection, GL_OES_read_format, 
    GL_SGI_color_matrix, GL_SGI_color_table, GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap, 
    GL_SGIS_texture_border_clamp, GL_SGIS_texture_edge_clamp, 
    GL_SGIS_texture_lod, GL_SGIX_depth_texture, GL_SUN_multi_draw_arrays

   visual  x  bf lv rg d st colorbuffer ax dp st accumbuffer  ms  cav
 id dep cl sp sz l  ci b ro  r  g  b  a bf th cl  r  g  b  a ns b eat
----------------------------------------------------------------------
0x23 24 tc  0 32  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  8  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 0 None
0x24 24 tc  0 32  0 r  .  .  8  8  8  8  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 0 None
0x25 24 tc  0 32  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  8  0 24  8  0  0  0  0  0 0 None
0x26 24 tc  0 32  0 r  .  .  8  8  8  8  0 24  8  0  0  0  0  0 0 None
0x27 24 tc  0 32  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  8  0  0  0 16 16 16 16  0 0 Slow
0x28 24 tc  0 32  0 r  .  .  8  8  8  8  0  0  0 16 16 16 16  0 0 Slow
0x29 24 tc  0 32  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  8  0 24  8 16 16 16 16  0 0 Slow
0x2a 24 tc  0 32  0 r  .  .  8  8  8  8  0 24  8 16 16 16 16  0 0 Slow
0x2b 24 dc  0 32  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  8  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 0 None
0x2c 24 dc  0 32  0 r  .  .  8  8  8  8  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 0 None
0x2d 24 dc  0 32  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  8  0 24  8  0  0  0  0  0 0 None
0x2e 24 dc  0 32  0 r  .  .  8  8  8  8  0 24  8  0  0  0  0  0 0 None
0x2f 24 dc  0 32  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  8  0  0  0 16 16 16 16  0 0 Slow
0x30 24 dc  0 32  0 r  .  .  8  8  8  8  0  0  0 16 16 16 16  0 0 Slow
0x31 24 dc  0 32  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  8  0 24  8 16 16 16 16  0 0 Slow
0x32 24 dc  0 32  0 r  .  .  8  8  8  8  0 24  8 16 16 16 16  0 0 Slow
0x57 32 tc  0 32  0 r  .  .  8  8  8  8  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 0 Ncon
maxtothemax@maxtothemax-laptop:~$

[demonfoo]

Bad news, I'm afraid. Telltale says in their support FAQ that graphics chips mentioned in this list probably won't work with their games. Looks like you have a 965GM, so it sounds like that may just not work. Unless there's a newer Xorg driver that works better, you may just be out of luck. Sorry.

Edit: I suppose you could try upgrading to Ubuntu intrepid, and see if the drivers it contains do any better, but based on what the FAQ mentions, I wouldn't count on it.

[maxiboy]

That's okay, I'll just wait until I can get my desktop working again, and then the game will be staring down the barrel of an HD 4850.


And I can always enable more Intrepid packages to try the new drivers. (I have the Intrepid repositories enabled, but I'm keeping all but a few packages back to Hardy using apt's "pinning" feature.)

[DaVince]

demonfoo: that list might not be applicable because this is Wine, and Wine uses OpenGL as its DirectX implementation, which means that these cards suddenly might work in Wine when they don't in real DirectX.

Doesn't work for me, no matter if I have IE6, set Vista mode, etc... Did anyone file a bug for this in Bugzilla? If there is one this problem might attract the Wine devs' atttention and it could get fixed permanently in a newer version of Wine.

EDIT:
Hi guys, please support the following bug reports by making a reply (in which you explain a bit more or just say you have the problem). The more popular a bug is, the faster it usually gets fixed.

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=17588
http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=17589

[demonfoo]

Originally Posted by DaVince

demonfoo: that list might not be applicable because this is Wine, and Wine uses OpenGL as its DirectX implementation, which means that these cards suddenly might work in Wine when they don't in real DirectX.

That's pretty unlikely. If the card can't support hardware vertex shader fragments on Windows, it's almost certainly not going to on Linux. (And yes, I looked at his 'glxinfo' output and compared to my workstation with an nVidia board; no shader-related extensions are present on his setup, which is going to be a problem...)

Originally Posted by DaVince

Doesn't work for me, no matter if I have IE6, set Vista mode, etc... Did anyone file a bug for this in Bugzilla? If there is one this problem might attract the Wine devs' atttention and it could get fixed permanently in a newer version of Wine.

I'd suggest using ies4linux. It's what I've used, and as I've pointed out before, I've played literally every Telltale title, and they all work. (I'm currently running Wine 1.1.15 debs on Ubuntu intrepid x86_64, as a point of comparison.)

[DaVince]

I'd rather steer clear from external tools that supposedly run Wine stuff better - I've tried and disliked both WineDoors and PlayOnLinux in the past, and improvement on games working better or at all was nil.

The reason I made these bug reports is so that it can be fixed in Wine instead, which is a lot better than having to rely on these external tools, anyway.

[Tina Russell]

I just downloaded the free Episode 5 from the Trogday deal, and everything works except that I still reliably have the flamin’ “missing eyes” bug. (Actually, characters seem to have no faces at all; is this the same problem that everyone else was having?)

I’m running this on a Lenovo ThinkPad X61 Tablet, with some kind of Intel integrated graphics. (“Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0c),” according to lspci.) I use Ubuntu 9.10 “Karmic Koala,” and my Wine version is the latest dev release from the Wine repository. Please help!

[Will]

No one ever has faces/eyes? It's a known bug that they can occasionally vanish, and it does seem like it happens more frequently on some cards than others, but if it's ALWAYS gone, then it probably is a driver/DirectX issue. Though I'm not sure what sort of luck you will have with updating a GM965. Those intel integrated cards aren't really designed for gaming even under the best conditions I'm afraid.

[Tina Russell]

Originally Posted by Will

No one ever has faces/eyes? It's a known bug that they can occasionally vanish, and it does seem like it happens more frequently on some cards than others, but if it's ALWAYS gone, then it probably is a driver/DirectX issue. Though I'm not sure what sort of luck you will have with updating a GM965. Those intel integrated cards aren't really designed for gaming even under the best conditions I'm afraid.

Yeah, it’s sad. The worst part is that virtually all tablets are bereft of dedicated graphics, and yet, a tablet would be the best way to play a 3D adventure game, wouldn’t it? Argh.

The game (well, uh, the title screen and main menu) seem to work just fine on the machine (minus the faces, of course), though I put the graphics quality on “low” just in case.

I can try some unstable Intel graphics drivers from repositories and such, but in the meantime, any advice on where to go from here? Any leads that might help? I know... “getting SBCG4AP to work on an Ubuntu machine with terrible Intel graphics” is a pretty obscure query, but since I’m pretty computer-literate even vague ideas might help. Thanks!

[Will]

Well unfortunately, I haven't done anything with Linux in probably 7 years now, so I'm probably not your best resource. All I can suggest is fiddling with your graphics drivers and whatever you are using for DirectX. One of those two is surely the culprit.

[Tina Russell]

Having failed to run it on my machine, I tried running it on my brother’s Mac Mini using Wine. I followed all the instructions, and the launcher works, and I was able to verify my copy with Telltale... but as soon as it tries to run the game proper, the screen goes white (except for the Mac OS menubar and dock) and the game crashes outright.

So, three questions:

1) Has anyone tried doing this on a Mac, before?
2) If Strong Bad wins the Mac games poll, when the Mac version is released, will those of us able to verify our copies of the Windows version get to download the corresponding Mac version as well? (That would give me a reason to pick up the $10 season package while I can, hint hint)
3) Now that you’re porting the Telltale Tool around, might I suggest Linux as your next goal? Linux users are a key niche; we’re the sort to whom people look for computer advice and recommendations. We evangelize for products we like!

[Avistew]

Originally Posted by Tina Russell

2) If Strong Bad wins the Mac games poll, when the Mac version is released, will those of us able to verify our copies of the Windows version get to download the corresponding Mac version as well? (That would give me a reason to pick up the $10 season package while I can, hint hint)

If you buy the game, you buy it for both systems. So yes, you'd be able to download it for Mac when it's released (which it will be whether Strong Bad wins or not, the rest is just a matter of time). At least it's that way with Tales of Monkey Island.

[JohnJohn]

Sorry for bumping this old thread, but when I tried this out, it didn't work, it tells me that Homestar101.exe had a serious error so it has to crash, how can I fix this?

[DanKegel]

I had to do
winetricks ie6 d3dx9_36
and then I had to click blindly where the 'play now' button is supposed
to appear. Other than that, it seems to work.

See http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManage...sion&iId=13380
for more info.

[coldReactive]

cp -a ~/.ies4linux/ie6 ~/.wine_sbcg4ap

Gives this:

cp: cannot stat `/home/lucradia/.ies4linux/ie6': No such file or directory

Yep, I installed via ies4linux.

[coldReactive]

I get this problem when trying to run BTTF: http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26371

(Somehow, I didn't need to create the wine prefix)