Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: Nikitis on March 11, 2007, 11:19:13 PM
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This is a Work in Progress Post. Please no flak, if you have issues. Please post your reply here if you are having problems pertaining to the following steps I listed below ONLY.
I'm this Ryan Waters that Peabody (My future Father in-law mentioned). My AH2 name is LinuxAce. I managed to get AH2 to run in Linux. I give thanks to those on the Wine project who work hard for free to develop Wine. I from time to time help people develop small fixes for wine. But I am not listed on the project manifest. I just help where I can.
As for history of my work with Aces High II with wine. I was doing a lot of debugging per request of BBosen. (My future Father-inlaw) I was never too big into flight sims until he introduced me to them. He bought me a Joystick, and let's just say my piloting skills aren't yet as good as my Linux skills.
What i had to do to get it running. Well I noticed that DirectX was failing a lot. It was missing key directx files which were not yet implemented in wine or cedega. As of late Wine has been doing heavy directx implementation. Now this does not mean that it uses directx files. It emulates it on it's own. I have a CVS Build of wine and not an official release. Basically my copy of wine has more patches than what you can download as a binary setup. A couple of which are my own. I will not release these patches as they are way to hard to explain on how to implement them. I'm sorry. I will however send them into the Wine project in hopes that they will implement them soon. All the DirectX implementation that AH2 needs has been added to wine as well as cedega now. What you may notice is a white screen poping up and then crashing. If you see this, then your drivers are installed. And you are 3/4 of the way to running AH2 on linux.
The current problems: The current problems are if you see the white screen popup, then crash are. VBO indexing is not working. In Wine you can enable this, and it will load up. But freeze once the clipboard pops up. This is where my patches come in. With Cedega however. if you use vbo indexing, and Engine 5.2.10, and ALSA Sound. It should function.
The white screen that comes up is a DirectX window. It crashes because it doesn't like the OSS Sound architecture. So in Wine or Cedega, you must kill OSS and enable ALSA. On some boxes, this will automatically fix AH2. But for optimum performance, Select WinXP as the emulated OS. Alsa, and check vbo indexing in Cedega with Engine 5.2.10. Once done, you should be flying high on a linux box.
So as a recap:
1. Install Video Drivers
2. Install Cedega (Don't try on wine. It won't work fully as of yet)
3. Install Aces High II via Cedega. (Visit an IRC channel. Server: irc.freenode.net Channel: #Cedega if you cannot figure out how to do this. They should assist you.
4. Right click on AH2 Shortcut in Cedega and select Edit properties for this shortcut.
5. Select WinXP, vbo indexing, and Alsa sound.
6. Run Aces High 2 and pray.
I'll be doing more extensive testing later for Wine, and will report once the latest CVS on it's own will run AH2. Once this happens then the next official release will play it. And then no more paying for Cedega.
I was only able to figure out what to do in Cedega because I was testing it in wine and figured out the problem. I know the cedega configuration seems easy enough and you may think I just got lucky. But i really only knew what to do after some debuggin in wine.
Thanks
LinuxAce
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Cool. Thanks for the post.:aok
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Thank you for your work. Can't wait for wine patches :aok
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Skuzzy can you make this a sticky?
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Thanks Ryan!
I've _almost_ caught up with you. I've recently learned:
-- My favorite Linux distribution is"PcLinuxOS" v2007livecd-TR3
-- How to enable hardware-accelerated graphics with nvidia
-- How to install Wine V0.9.33 (one level beyond what you were using)
-- How to configure "Wine" with my initial guesses about defaults
-- How to install Aces High "classic" (about 3 years out of date)
-- How to map joystick and keyboard controls without Windows tools
-- How to remaster a boot CDROM to get me back to this setup easily
-- How to sign up for a Cedega account
-- How to install Cedega
-- How to configure and test Cedega in general
The old, outdated "Aces High Classic" works splendidly under Wine V0.9.33, allowing me to verify things like joystick support and mapping, etc. I have more experience with Wine than with Cedega, and I haven't got it to work under Cedega.
The current version of Aces High II immediately crashes to desktop after the initial video configurtion dialog (both under Wine and Cedega). I've deleted the resulting video8.cfg file and diddled with several video options to no avail.
I've just found your suggestions from this thread and I'll be experimenting with them soon. In particular, I'll disable ALSA as a starting point.
After the big wedding, when things settle down a bit, I'll post detailed instructions for the things I've successfully completed.
Regards,
-Peabody-
("Dad")....
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YESSSSSSS!!!!!!!!
It works! I switched to ALSA sound and enabled the options you describe above, and it works under Cedega. I'm mapping my joystick now. Thanks!
-Peabody-
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Congratulations. Glad to see you managed to get it running in PCOS linux. I've been having trouble joining your server as of late. Can't figure out why. I'll try again and hope to see you in there.
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My "Peabody Hosts Solomon Islands" server was shut down for almost a week while I travelled out of town. It's back on now. See you soon.
-Peabody-
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HMMmmmmm......
Cedega's joystick button mapping is problematic.
I figured out the analog "axis" controls, so my ailerons, elevators, rudder, and throttle work sensibly.
But Cedega isn't like "Wine". With "Wine" and AH classic, all of my joystick buttons worked sensibly, and I was able to re-map them using AH configuration tricks.
Under Cedega, there is some problem with my joystick buttons. I can't detect ANY joystick button press activity. I can't fly my beloved P38 without convenient access to flaps on the joystick (among other things).
The Cedega "documentation" for joystick support is SEVERELY lacking. I diddled around and found out that I need to refer to my joystick as "Logitech Logitech Extreme 3d" (learned that from KDE config tools). Some of the Cedega forums encourage me to add the following cryptic string of undocumented jargon to the Cedega joystick config GUI:
"X,Y,slider,Z,POV,none"
or
"X,Y,Rz,Z,POV"
I can only guess what all of those details mean, but I can't find any documentation on them anywhere. In particular, I am wondering what "none" means, and whether I need to refer to the 12 joystick buttons somehow.
I can see that that information was automagically pushed into a configuration file at ~home./cedega/AH2, but (again), the associated comments and documentation are sparse and essentially useless.
Does anybody understand Cedega's joystick management jargon?
Regards,
-Peabody-
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Hi
I'm planning to install WinXP/Ubuntu dual boot system to my laptop for the testing purpose.
Is it possible to make several game controllers to act like one in Linux? I would like to test good old Flanker 1.5 (http://www.warezhouze.1g.fi/Here/Flanker/) sim in Linux but flanker only accept one controller and I have a three (CH, Saitek & Logitech).
Thanks
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I'd imagine you would have to configure each one.
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It's working under Cedega for me too. (Slack 11 , Nvidia gpu)
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Sev:
Congratulations! Now there are at least 3 of us.
Are you able to use or map joystick buttons? I can't figure out how to get any response to any of the 12 buttons on my joystick thru any Cedega applications.
-Peabody-
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Originally posted by bbosen
Are you able to use or map joystick buttons?
Button mapping is working for me and i can use them without problems on my MS Sidewinder 2 (through is has only 8 of them :) )
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Thanks for the info Sev. At least now I know it's possible. Did you have to specify anything special in Cedega's GUI to describe you joystick and its buttons?
-Peabody-
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Cedega Joystick button mapping saga continued.
Now that I know the Sidewinder joystick series has worked for somebody, I decided to dig out one of my old Sidewinder "Precision Pro 2" sticks.
Same result: Analog axes work fine. AH2 sees an appropriate joystick "name" ("Microsoft Microsoft Sidewinder Precision Pro") but no button or hat press activity is detected.
Ugh!
I don't know what to tell Cedega about my joysticks. For this experiment, I didn't tell Cedega anything. Evidently the results I got come from some kind of default setup.
.... Still searching for sensible documentation. When I get it figgered out, I'll post the information here.
- Peabody-
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Originally posted by bbosen
Did you have to specify anything special in Cedega's GUI to describe you joystick and its buttons?
I did not touch anything in Cedega's joystick section, worked ok from first start. (I got empty list there)
Dose those buttons work in other Linux applications ?
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Sev:
Thanks for staying with me on this. It is helpful to know that you didn't need to do anything special to configure Cedega with regard to joystick button support. I'm glad it's working for you. I wish it worked for me.
You asked if those joystick buttons work in other Linux applications. Yes, KDE sees them, and AH "Classic" under "Wine" sees them. It seems that only Cedega applications like AH2 don't see them.
.... Still looking for the answer to this mystery.
I'm using Cedega V5.2.3. You?
Regards,
-Peabody-
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Whoops!
I think I'm using Cedega Version 5.2.10 because that's what the "Release Notes" say. The "About Cedega" dropdown menu says "5.2.3", but I bet that's wrong. I just downloaded it a few days ago from the Cedega web site (RPM version for Mandrake).
Please disregard the portion of my prior memo in which I said "5.2.3".
Regards,
-Peabody-
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Yes, Cedega can have multiple engines at once. 5.2.10 is the latest, but 5.2.3 comes with the Point 2 Play (P2P) Gui. You have to manually install the 5.2.10 engine, and make sure it's selected for your game in order for it to run.
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Evidently I have V5.2.3 of the Cedega "GUI" management application, and V5.2.10 of the emulation "Engine".
I'm confident I have the latest and greatest, because I've exercised the Cedega autoupdater and it tells me everything is up-to-date.
Still no joystick buttons..... :(
-Peabody-
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Update: Everything works!
Last night I found I had been struggling needlessly.
Early in this exercise, I had grabbed an old version of Aces High 2, just for testing purposes. Evidently the version I grabbed (about 1 year old) doesn't use the latest joystick management routines.
Last night, when I upgraded to the latest version of AH2, everything started working, including the joystick button mapping.
I exercised it enough last night to be completely satisfied. Everything I tried worked, and the framerate was comparable to what I'm accustomed to under Windows XP.
I haven't tried H2H hosting yet, but I know it works well in client mode.
Within a few days I'll remove XP from several of my computers....
THANK YOU VERY MUCH everybody that's helped out!
-Peabody-
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Followup:
I've been flying with Linux for about a week now, and I've worked out all of the details within the past 3 or 4 days. It works very well, delivering framerates between 40 and 160 on my system (Athlon 64 3Ghz, nVidia, 1GB RAM).
The graphics are _slightly_ different from XP. The only perceptible difference is that some textures exhibit a slightly different color (and once in awhile I see some black speckle, but only rarely and only for brief periods of time).
I installed the LINUX Teamspeak 2 client with no trouble at all (about 5 minutes) and it worked without any special configuration in "native" mode.
I used Aces High's native "control remapping" to map all of my joystick buttons and hardware keyboard controllers to mimic the setup to which I had become accustomed under Windoze XP. I like the new setup, which is 95% identical to what I had before. The only real difference is that I can't designate a "shift" key for my Logitech Extreme 3dPro joystick. Lacking a "shift" key, I can only assign one function to each joystick button. That cut 11 buttons out of my routine. So, I installed a numeric keypad (USB) and set it directly next to my joystick so I can use it for view keys, etc. That freed up more than enough additional buttons to compensate.
I got my first 4 "LINUX Kills" in Air-to-air combat yesterday and today.
When I get some more time I will post more detailed instructions on how I got all of this working. It's been a great adventure. Thanks again to all those who helped!
-Peaboduy-
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Hey Nikitis:
What kind of display adapter does your laptop have? I assume it's one of the nVidia cards. When I buy my next laptop, I want to make sure it can handle Aces High 2 (for some reason, my current HP laptop with a 3-year-old nVidia card can only handle AH "classic") under Linux/Cedega or Linux/Wine.
Regards,
-Peabody-
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I finally got AH II working under PCLinux/Cedega 6.0.2 with the exception of the POV hat on my joystick. I'm using an MS Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 usb stick. AH and HardDrake see and correctly identify it. KDE does not see it at all. Everything else about the stick responds properly with that single exception. Can anyone offer any clues? Thanks.
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Originally posted by Irwink!
I finally got AH II working under PCLinux/Cedega 6.0.2 with the exception of the POV hat on my joystick. I'm using an MS Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 usb stick. AH and HardDrake see and correctly identify it. KDE does not see it at all. Everything else about the stick responds properly with that single exception. Can anyone offer any clues? Thanks.
Probably the HAT is visible like an axis. You can use qjoypad to remap it to button (what I did)
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Irwink:
I had trouble with the hatswitch mapping too. But I realized that I had been experimenting with an old, outdated version of AH2 for my Linux work. As soon as I updated to the version that was current (about last May), it started working without any special configuration necessary. I can map my joystick hatswitch using native AH2 control mapping without any restrictions.
While I was struggling with this I posted some questions and some answers (as I learned things) in the Cedega "joystick" forums. If you have an active Cedega account you can still find that information. In the end, that information was not necessary for me, but it was interesting and I learned that there are a lot of options. Might help with your joystick.
(I use the Logitech Extreme 3dPro joystick, one of the most reviled, despised, cheapest joysticks available. It works very well for me.)
Regards,
-Peabody-
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Thanks for the replies. I haven't really had a chance to tinker or research solutions since I posted the other day. I do have an active Cedega account and had always intended to research their forums about the problem if necessary. My problem is in part compounded by the fact that I just recently left one distro and installed PCLinux and am not totally used to it yet. At any rate I appreciate the tips and will let you know what I come up with. I'm not totally averse to the Logitek stick, I'm easy on a stick and have used Logitek in the distant past. But I'll save that path as a last resort. Thanks.
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Well I got impatient and borrowed a Logitek stick. Funny thing - I had forgotten to first unplug the Sidewinder and once I had connected the Logitek stick KDE for the first time recognized the MS Sidewinder. Weird. It still didn't make any difference in-game though. So for the moment I'm using the Logitek.
Anyway, the game is pretty much the same under Linux/Cedega. It seems to have taken a bit of a performance hit as compared to XP with the same hardware similar to the hit one takes going from XP to Vista but it's not bad. Graphics don't seem quite as vibrant either. I have yet to attempt to tweak anything yet though other than the detail sliders and gamma. I used the CNTRL-I FRS indicator but I don't really trust the veracity of what it says. Lower reported frame rates in some situations didn't seem to translate into what my eyes actually perceived - it didn't seem as slow as reported. I'm using an Nvidia 7600GS on this machine that I put together a couple of weeks ago from parts I had onhand other than the mb and case. The processor's an E6400. Reported frame rates in the air seemed to fluctuate from a low of 35 - 40 up to about 75 - 80.
I did find and install Qjoypad. My next steps are to try and get my headset/mic working (PClinux doesn't see it for the most part) and then back to trying to get the Sidewinder to work re: the hat. The game sees the hat switches but reports them as simply "Axis X" and sees no input from them. Hopefully Qjoypad will help.
! to the player that became my first Linux kill. I couldn't salute you back in-game as I was dealing with the 262 trying to get my buffs!
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Yep I got It working, NO POV really bites. sound works defualt keyboard mapping works
Machine:
AMD 64 2.0Ghz
2 GB of Ram
Nvidia geforce 7600 512mb
Ubuntu 7.04
I also have Fedora 7 and Open Suse, but have trouble with getting 3d working on these flavors.
By the 75 frame rate (highest ever for me)
two kills in two sorties!
By the way congrats on the wedding!
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The new patch seems to of stopped the Transgaming form launching teh game
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I'm guessing you're probably going to have to uninstall, download and reinstall the game entirely. I haven't tried to just let the patch run but I was already suspecting there would be problems and figured I'd be reinstalling too.
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I actually reinstalled Cedgera and Aces, played around with the video settings, nothing happens when I try to launch the game.
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Hmmm. I'll probably be messing with the update this weekend. Thanks for the heads up. I'll post if I have different results or figure out what needs to be tweaked.
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Come to think of it I'll probably wait til the smoke clears and the second wave of patches to the patch are in place before reinstalling.
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I've been updating successfully, but NOT with the "autoupdater". Instead, I've been downloading the "full install" packagers from the AH2 website. I think I've done this 3 times now under LINUX, and it's been successful every time.
Regards,
-Peabody-
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I have reinstalled transgaming, updated, I have redown loaded the whole game, (latest version)
didn't use auto update, Since newest round of patches still no Aces. Any way you can post Jpegs or something of your cedgera settings?
I treid all sorts of combo's no Aces.
Thanks
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Linux/Aces high Update
I've been flying with Linux for 3 months now, and I've got absolutely EVERYTHING working really, really well on various machines. I've got 4 different LINUX machines including 3 desktops and 1 laptop. Here's the breakdown of what I've got and how it is working:
Desktop 1 of 3: AMD64x2 5000 with 2GB RAM running Cedega Engine 6.0.2 can run both AH1 and AH2. AH1 framerates between 100 and 500 FPS. AH2 framerates between 50 and 300 FPS. This machine can host or join H2H for either AH1 or AH2 across a LAN or across the Internet via Hamachi. AH1 voice and AH2 voice both work locally and worldwide via Internet/Hamachi. Film viewers (both AH1 and AH2) look funny and don't work correctly. The graphics card is nVidia 7950.
Desktop 2 of 3: AMD64 3000 with 500MB RAM running Cedega Engine 6.0.2 can run both AH1 and AH2. AH1 framerates between 70 and 300 FPS. AH2 framerates between 40 and 200 FPS. This machine can host or join H2H for either AH1 or AH2 across a LAN or across the Internet via Hamachi. AH1 voice and AH2 voice both work locally and worldwide via Internet/Hamachi. Film viewers (both AH1 and AH2) work just fine on this one. The graphics card is nVidia GeForce 6600.
Desktop 3 of 3: AMD64 3000 with 2GB of RAM running Cedega Engine 5.2.10 can run both AH1 and AH2. AH1 framerates between75 and 330 FPS. AH2 framerates between 45 and 220 FPS. This machine can host or join H2H for either AH1 or AH2 across a LAN or across the Internet via Hamachi. AH1 voice and AH2 voice both work locally and worldwide via Internet/Hamachi. AH2 Film viewer is just fine. Haven't tried AH1 Film viewer yet. The graphics card is nVidia GeForce 6600.
Laptop 1 of 1: HP Pavillion zv5000 with AMD64 2400 and 1GB RAM running Cedega Engine 6.0.2 can run AH1 but not AH2. AH1 framerates between 40 and 175. This machine can host AH1 across a LAN or across the worldwide Internet via Hamachi, and supports AH1 voice in either situation. The graphics card is nVidia GeForce 440. AH1 Film Viewer works OK.
All of my Linux machines are running PcLinuxOS 2007 standard edition. I use "qjoypad" to map joystick buttons and hatswitches with AH1, but haven't found that necessary with AH2. I can map all buttons and hat switches any way I want, and I've developed a setup that works very well, using the numeric keypad for views, secondary weapon select, fuel tank selection, map zoom in/out, and clipboard toggle. This frees up joystick buttons for flight controls and target zoom in/out.
To get Hamachi to host AH1 and AH2 properly, I had to manually add an extra route for "Multicasting" through the hamachi virtual network device. From a root prompt, the command is this:
route add -net 224.0.0.0 netmask 240.0.0.0 dev ham
I also had to edit my /etc/hosts file so that the "localhost" entry was equal to my own hamachi IP address from within the 5.x.x.x subnet.
When hosting via Hamachi, I can be joined by any combination of Windows XP and/or Linux machines on my local LAN or from anywhere in the world via the Internet. This has been verified by access from several different locations, all using different ISPs.
Graphics quality is almost exactly the same as when running under Windows XP, but I get a tiny bit of "black speckle" once in awhile. It isn't bad enough to trouble me, but I can notice it when I'm looking for it.
I've been able to upgrade AH2 several times during my LINUX experiments, and each upgrade has gone forward succesfully without incident. I don't use the "autoupdater". Instead, I download the "Full Install" file from the website and let it run to completion. I've also updated the Cedega engine (just one time) during my LINUX experiments. No problem there either. The newer engine (6.0.2) is a little easier to configure for AH2, but I have to rely on the guidance from Nikitis (see his earlier posts in this thread) to select appropriate Cedega Graphics options with either Cedega engine.
All of my systems use the despised, reviled, Logitech "Wingman Extreme 3d Pro" joystick. I haven't tried "force feedback" so I can't bear personal testimony to it, but others have reported that it works too. Sound seems identical to AH1 or AH2 under WinXP. I haven't had any trouble at all with AH voice under either AH1 or AH2.
I hope this helps!
-Peabody-
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And I am kind a happy about it! :D
wonder what is different w Ubuntu? same settings except I cant get teh game to work . :cry
:p na na bo bo Bill & Steve :p
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Which version of Cedega are you using? Mine is 6.0.2 I believe. I'll check the settings later on for you. I'm using another machine right now.
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Using the mandrake rpm since PClinuxOS is based upon it.
I am gonna try it out on my Dell Ubuntu notebook. and try to find out what the difference is.
Wonder if I need to try find an another Nvidia package, I got it to work on 7.4 then when the patch for aces came out it stop working.
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If you tried to apply to latest patch to AH that's one difference in our setups. I just re-installed AH completely rather than trying to patch it since I had a feeling there might be problems. I wish I'd documented what I re-configured from default but it wasn't much. I ran the Cedega installer telling it to install in a folder named Transgaming. After the install I edited the AH properties, under the General tab, so that the Windows version to run under was XP rather than the default 98. Under the Graphics tab I -think- I had to uncheck the ARB-VBO Extension and Dynamic
VBO boxes. I believe by default they were both checked. Earlier on in this thread I read that there could be problems with those. And BTW, I forgot that I upgraded the Cedega engine to 6.0.3 but I did have AH running pretty much the same way prior to the latest patch under V6.0.2. I'm running an Nvidia 7900GS pci-e and am using the Nvidia_97xx driver right out of the repository. My sound is Realtek AC97 onboard using the default driver PCLinux configured on install.
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It looks like the Nvidia card settings did not take.
I got Aces running in Ubuntu 7.10, Fedora 8. NO pov which does bite.
So far I would say PClinuxOS is the best to get Aces running and playable.
I just dislike Mandrake and its off spring.
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Hi! I've got some problems about the graphics, sorry for my english I'm trying to do my best...
I installed cedega and followed the instruction u posted... I run AH II but here's what i get:
1st the clipboard seems to be corrupt and i even cant see the mouse pointer...
[img=http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/453/clipboardka6.th.png] (http://img259.imageshack.us/my.php?image=clipboardka6.png)
here's how the game looks like... it seems to me a loose of memory ... dont know ?
:cry [img=http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/4113/game1jt2.th.png] (http://img517.imageshack.us/my.php?image=game1jt2.png)
[img=http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/9135/game2fw7.th.png] (http://img165.imageshack.us/my.php?image=game2fw7.png)
Help me pls ... I did a good job by setting up the microsoft sidewinder precision pro joystick on linux and now I cant play on this **** machine ...
for details:
intel pentium 4 1.9 ghz
nvidia geforce 7600gs 256mb on an old mobo :( ...
1gb RAM
Ubuntu 7.10 gutsy gibbon
ty! again for the post ty
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Solved changing the cedega engine to 6.0.2
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UGH I updated to cedega 6.05... after install of cedega then reinstall of AH it will not start!
older machine
cedega 6.05
ubuntu 8.04
athlon X2 3800+
2GB Ram
I think its an OLD nvidia 6200 or something... latest driver for that card like 169.12?
hep me hep me
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UGH I updated to cedega 6.05... after install of cedega then reinstall of AH it will not start!
older machine
cedega 6.05
ubuntu 8.04
athlon X2 3800+
2GB Ram
I think its an OLD nvidia 6200 or something... latest driver for that card like 169.12?
hep me hep me
try to check the path of AHII in the properties menu in cedega, I had to edit it because some symbols have been in substitution to normal words ... I hope this will solve your problem! :)
:pray
let me know !
:salute
100Chewi
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That was it!!! 1 zillion thanks! it always worked before i would have never checked that! I just got my first linux scalp... usually i only use the linux box when i run supplies
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also a problem... no radio window... anyone else getting that?
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Skuzzy can you make this a sticky?
Skuzzy could you make this a sticky post for us penguins?