Running CoH in Linux


Aliana Blue

 

Posted

I've been playing City of Heroes in Linux and it seems to run quite well. So here's how I got it working, in case there are any others out there who don't use Windows but want to play the game.

There's an emulator (well not really an emulator, more like a runtime library maybe?) called Wine that allows Linux to execute _some_ Win32 code. In order to run City of Heroes, you must use a version of Wine called Cedega (formerly WineX). Cedega was forked from the main emulator some time ago by the people at Transgaming (which caused no end of grief in the free software community, but that's a discussion for another time) and is now a commercial program. You can either buy WineX from Transgaming.com (which you may not want to do if you are a GPL purist, as Transgaming kinda "stole" the original BSD licensed code in the first place), or if you are feeling adventurous, you can compile it from CVS without paying, using the instructions here: http://www.linux-gamers.net/modules/...p?articleid=45

After installing Cedega (at the time of this writing, version 4.0.1), you should be able to mount the CoH CDs and install them via "cedega /cdrom/setup.exe" or whatever your CD mount point is. Just remember not to cd into the cdrom mount point, or you won't be able to unmount CD1 when you need to insert CD2.

After installation, you can just cd into your installation directory (mine is ~/COH/), and run the game via "cedega CohUpdater.exe".

There are some issues, however, which I will enumerate below:

1). (May only apply to nVidia cards) Run your X server in 24 bits. 16 bit color causes the game to run _very_ slowly.

2). (May only apply to nVidia cards) If the cursor appears as a black rectangle, maybe with some junk underneath, set the following options in the "Device" section of your XFree86 configuration file:
Option "SWCursor" "true"
Option "HWCursor" "false"
After doing this, the cursor will only be visible when you move the mouse, will flicker, and will sometimes produce artifacts. A minor annoyance.

3). Make sure you set the VideoRam and AGPVertexRam options in the [x11drv] section of ~/.transgaming/config to the proper values. Otherwise, not all of the RAM on your video card will be used properly. And also make sure you actually have OpenGL turned on from within XFree86 configuration and that it is working, using the glxinfo program (I think there are instructions in the Cedega documentation).

4). Make sure that cedega reports itself as being Windows 2000, either with a commandline option or a section for CoH in the ~/.transgaming/config file.

5). The license agreement is not displayed in the updater, nor are the release notes, because it tries to use an embedded IE window. The URL is, however, printed to stdout, so you can still get the documents by pasting the URL into mozilla. Which I highly recommend doing, because you have to read the license agreement to legally play the game, afaik, at least if you live in the US.

The game runs passably on my computer this way, even though everything but my video card is at or below the minimum spec printed on the box. The two biggest issues are lag when there's too much stuff on the screen (usually only happens in large groups) and that I have to relog after playing for 5 hours or so because the rendering gradually slows down to a noticable chop.

I hope this helps someone. Let's cross our fingers and hope the game still runs in Linux after the next update. :P


 

Posted

Out of curiosity, what kernel / distro do you use?

Do you run CoH/WineX in a naked X session, or do you boot into a window manager first?


Liberty
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Posted

hi there,
i play coh in linux, too.
the game runs just as fast as on the windows installation on the same computer.
i run gentoo and cedega 4.1 and have coh running in a windowmaker window. i also tried with gnome but that slows it done some naturally.
its also adviseable to use a 2.4.x kernel for playing coh since the lag issues are for some reason worse with the 2.6.x kernels i run normally and the mouse behaves weird (meaning you can't click on things very well)
also i've only been able to get it to run with nvidia cards.
if anyone has gotten it to work with ati cards could you please post here?
that would be greatly appriciated.
kind regards


 

Posted

I also run under Linux with cedega.

Athalon XP 1800, 1GB PC2100 RAM, FX7500 Ultra video.

This is an old system, but it seems to run well now.
cedega-4.1-1
I suffered all the problems others have mentioned. However, cedega-4.1-1 cured most of my problems, and when I recently replace my aging Netgear router FM114P with a new (and updated firmware) Linksys WRT54G, the last issue of getting dropped all the time is now also gone.

As I mentioned in another thread, the issue of getting dropped all the time was related to my daughter's wireless card. Whenever it had issues and would reconnect, I would get dropped from the game. This issue was definately a router issue, and it no lnger occurs with the new router. She still has issues (which I now believe to be driver related).

As far as her wireless driver issue, I put in the new SUSE 9.2 live DVD and had her play with that for a full day. She never once had a disconnect / reconnect from the router. She is currently using the orionco driver, but the SUSE test defaulted her to the madwifi driver, so I will make that change for her. Her card is a Netgear 411 (a 311 in a special PCI card).


 

Posted

I'm running Debian unstable on an Athlon 900 with a geforce3, 320 megs of ram, an old 4 gig disk and /home over nfs, and a 2.4.26 kernel out of package management.

I use blackbox or ratpoison as my window manager, depending on my mood, which are both very lightweight, so I don't run it in a bare xsession or anything like that. Cedega _does_ eat 100% cpu all the time though, and I imagine most all my lag issues are due to my crappy CPU, so if you're running Gnome or KDE it might be a good idea to switch to another WM while playing, maybe. Honestly though I don't think most desktop environments will use enough CPU to make any difference; I never saw much if any performance increase running stuff on a bare xserver when I used to use KDE. Turning the graphics settings down all the way while in a big group helps a little bit, but not quite enough. In small groups I can run at 100% detail with high quality textures with no problems though.

My biggest issue atm is that my home directory, which is the only place I had enough space available for the installation, is mounted via nfs on a 100mbit link, so load times are beyond abysmal.


 

Posted

will Cedega run under OS X? i just returned a Dell laptop and am considering either a Sager 3790, or possibly a iBook. if Cedega can run CoH under OS X, i'm liable to go for the iBook


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
will Cedega run under OS X? i just returned a Dell laptop and am considering either a Sager 3790, or possibly a iBook. if Cedega can run CoH under OS X, i'm liable to go for the iBook

[/ QUOTE ]

Nope, it won't run on PPC (I wish! My real computer is a Mac running Linux, heh). Wine/Cedega isn't really an emulator, but more of a runtime library that redirects Win32 api calls through libc (and whatever else, xlib and a bunch of other stuff probably). So it requires an x86 compatible CPU, as the code is still more or less executed natively rather than interpreted.

At least that's how I understand it. You may be able to use a real emulator such as Bochs or vmware or something to run a copy of windows and CoH on os10, but I have a feeling it would be godawful slow, and I don't think any of those emulators provide access to the 3d hardware.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
also i've only been able to get it to run with nvidia cards.
if anyone has gotten it to work with ati cards could you please post here?
that would be greatly appriciated.

[/ QUOTE ]

AFAIK some of Cedega's directx emulation will only work on nVidia hardware. I read somewhere that CoH supports OpenGL. Is this true? If so it ought to run under plain ol' still-free Wine, as long as dx6 calls are not used for input.

I know I tried running it under normal Wine, but it didn't work. Maybe there's some trick you have to use to get it to use OpenGL (if indeed the above rumor is true)?


 

Posted

Yah, sux that WineX is $99/year.

I understand the cost, but I dont understand the cost on linux.
o.O


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Yah, sux that WineX is $99/year.
I understand the cost, but I dont understand the cost on linux.
o.O

[/ QUOTE ]

Heh, it's been argued to death by people other than me. Personally, I don't mind paying for software, or for some software to be proprietary. I just don't really want to give Transgaming my money because they took the freely available work done by 100s of people, made it proprietary by changing the license, and didn't contribute anything back to the original authors. Of course maybe this has changed; I don't keep up with the news very well. I doubt it though, otherwise the directx9 code from Cedega would have been folded back into the main Wine tree by now.

Hmm, should I really post this? Kinda off topic. Oh well, delete this if it's too far off track from the original intent. :P


 

Posted

I've run it in Slackware 10 with a 2.6.8 kernel (I think it is) it's okayish but definately slower then in windows (I dual boot)


MA Arc:
Overload (Arc ID #405822) | Status: Final | Last Edited: 5th Nov 2010 for text fixes.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
So it requires an x86 compatible CPU, as the code is still more or less executed natively rather than interpreted.

[/ QUOTE ]

ya, that was kinda my guess too. too bad, as i bet running it on OS X's FreeBSD core would probably be a bit more robust than the standard linux flavor


 

Posted

I dont know that BSD would ever get into DX code, due to "liability" issues. Last I heard, people working on DX ports to Linux got a cease and decist from Microsoft.

course thats not a legal reason to stop messing around with it.


 

Posted

Has anyone tried running CoH in Linux using VMWhare???

Phantom Matrix


 

Posted

Just imagining booting to WinXP, running VMWare to boot Linux, then running CoH through WineX


Liberty
Ultimate Arcane La Alma, Keeper of Secrets - Magic Mind/Kin Controller 31
Protector
Egypticus - Tech FF/Psy Def 19
Virtue
Sir Coranus - Magic Broad/Regen Scrap 16

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Just imagining booting to WinXP, running VMWare to boot Linux, then running CoH through WineX

[/ QUOTE ]

Wasn't there a program to run WinXP on Mac OS X?


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Posted

Moving to Guides section for safe keeping


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Has anyone tried running CoH in Linux using VMWhare???

[/ QUOTE ]

The virtual video adapter in a VMware VM is (currently anyway) a "generic video card" sort of thing that does not support 3D graphics acceleration.


 

Posted

I run CoH using Debian unstable with the 2.6.8 kernel on a P4 2GHz, 768 MB ram and a GForce FX 5700. In general I play under Gnome with Metacity, but if I know I will be on the game for a long period of time I will switch over to a generic X-session. I have also gotten this working under the 2.4.26 kernel without any problems. I am using Cedega 4.0.1 and its companion application Point2Play. I am emulating Win98 and it seems to work just fine with the problem of a small memory leak.

[ QUOTE ]
Heh, it's been argued to death by people other than me. Personally, I don't mind paying for software, or for some software to be proprietary. I just don't really want to give Transgaming my money because they took the freely available work done by 100s of people, made it proprietary by changing the license, and didn't contribute anything back to the original authors. Of course maybe this has changed; I don't keep up with the news very well. I doubt it though, otherwise the directx9 code from Cedega would have been folded back into the main Wine tree by now.

[/ QUOTE ]

When I was looking at buying Cedega I noticed that it is possible to actually download the source of their product and compile it yourself for free (as in beer). Cedega charges for two things, precompiled versions for the different distrobutions and their excellent product Point2Play. Trying to use Cedega, and all of the flags necessary to do anything with it, by itself would be a nightmare which is where Point2Play is useful.

I dislike sounding like a mouth piece for Transgaming, but Point2Play is how Wine should do its setup. It is a front end that does all of the downloading of their updates and allows for you do setup the configuration without having to type in all of the flags over and over again. Very similar to the Crossover Office setup only cleaner.

My 2 inf on the cost issue. Cedega only costs $99/year if you want to be able to use their upgrading system. Since Cedega 4.0.1 works beautifully with CoH just spend the $30 and get the product. They spend a lot of time specializing their code to work specifically for games. Would I love to see this under a Free as in Speech license? Of course. But I don't think that merging their product back with standard Wine is a viable option anymore. They are a company that provides a good, solid product that does exactly what they say it does and I don't mind supporting them and their programmers.

VMWare, as someone pointed out earlier, emulates the hardware as generic hardware so you lose the graphics acceleration. The early versions couldn't do directX either.


 

Posted

Bah, I bought a new hard drive to install Windows on, so I could play CoH. :-/

(I know there are more $$ effcient ways to do that, but I'm lazy)


Justice
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Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Trying to use Cedega, and all of the flags necessary to do anything with it, by itself would be a nightmare which is where Point2Play is useful.

[/ QUOTE ]

Most games require very few if ANY flags, City of Heroes for example does not require any.


MA Arc:
Overload (Arc ID #405822) | Status: Final | Last Edited: 5th Nov 2010 for text fixes.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]


Wasn't there a program to run WinXP on Mac OS X?

[/ QUOTE ]

You really don't want to be running games with high machine requirements like this one on Microsoft VirtualPC. It will melt. It can emulate apps like Word and Excel, but if you want to play PC games on a Mac, stick to Minesweeper or Solataire.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but CoH will likely never run on a Mac. Cryptic has already said they ain't gonna port it, and VirtualPC can't handle it.


 

Posted

Now the real question is:

Have any of you managed to get CoH running on Linux using 3D acceleration and an ATI video card?

I know that has been the biggest problem and the only thing that is stopping me from switching to Linux completely.


 

Posted

fwiw, i've gotten it working under gentoo linux 2.6.x w/ cedega...


 

Posted

Are you using an ATI card?

If so, did you have to do anything special?

Please let me know if you have CoH working in linux on an ATI card