Universal Linux Launcher for NCSoft Games

is everyone enjoying the game? i know i am. =) played a good deal yesterday. i also archived my bottle now, so in case something goes wrong i can pick up right from this update. =D much easier.

i noticed that i can't play the game for long after using the perl launcher. it slows my whole computer down tremendously after about 40 minutes, and i need to kill it for things to get better. i think it's because of all the output from CoH into the terminal, but Mark disagrees. all i know is, if i run the game without cohlaunch.pl running persistently in the background, everything is fine for hours.

in either case, Mark will be making an update to the launcher so that it closes after launching the game.

yeah, it feels great being able to play again.

Can't really tell if it's slows down, but I have noticed that there's less and less RAM memory available for each time i launch the game through the perl script.
Might be something to take a look at?

//CX

my hope is the issue will be fixed when he updates the script to shut down after launch. if you have any particular concerns you'd like to bring to his attention, feel free to post on wineHQ. the more the merrier, so he knows it's not just bart and i pestering him. =)

*edit* also, i loved working on this with all of you. =) if you're ever looking to team, feel free to look me up. =) @nico144 on Virtue.

For my friend Sue I just commented out the LaunchCoh subroutine call on the last line of the script, and put the launch function in a shell script wrapper instead. This leaves a shell instance running instead of a perl interpreter instance.

good idea Kosmos.

i also have two launchers, one to update and run the script, and one that just launches the game.

Happy Double XP weekend! =)

I used this command in terminal to run CoH:
wine ./cityofheroes.exe -project "coh" -renderthread 0 -auth 64.25.36.4
or ./cohlaunch.pl -project "coh" -renderthread 0 -auth 64.25.36.4

I got a AMD: Radeon HD 4830 (RV770 LE) card

The game works but I have a problem with rubber-banding, similar to this problem:
http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=13718

Here is some text from my terminal:

-project CoH isn;t needed with cohlaunch.pl. the script already includes it by default.

i'm afraid i'm not experiencing any rubberbanding. =/ maybe someone else can better assist you?

what drivers are you using?

Ubuntu 11.04
Kernel 2.6.38-10-generic
GNOME 2.32.1
Wine 1.2.2
Catalyst version 11.6
Driver packaging version 8.861-110524a-120881C-ATI
2D Driver version 8.86.5
Catalyst control center 2.13
RandR version 1.3
OpenGL version string: 3.3.10834 Compatibility Profile Context

all i can think of is make sure compiz is off and maybe try older drivers. i've hear that the ATI drivers lately have problems with CoH. i hear 11.3 are good, but be mindful of your X server version as well if you downgrade.

i'm afraid that's all i can offer. sorry. =/

i spent a few hours playing with 0.6.2 of cohlaunch.pl and encountered no problems. it ran like a charm using just it to both patch and launch.

i'm using it now to download the beta and give that a shot. couldn't find a team for the life of me once i left praetoria. =/

Admittedly on Windows, but I don't know of anyone (and I've AMD as well) that had 11.6 running right. For me, it was constant "snagging" vs. full rubberbanding, and my cpu usage doubled while running CoH under those drivers.

This is one of the few solutions out there that really worked for me...
I tried to compile the ULL launcher, but had no luck.

installing dotnet20 with winetricks and calling the NCLauncher.exe directly resulted in "Path not found"

Using the PERL script worked like a charm. CoH started downloading and patching immediately.

For extra measure, I created a launcher with a custom icon.

Thanks for sharing your solutions.

--- p3x

-----
Using:--

Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid)
AMD Athlon X2 6000+ (3.0Ghz)
GeForce 8800GTS
Wine 1.2.3

i'm glad it worked out for you, p3x! it's a great solution for the community, and has less bugs than the NCSoft launcher.

i'm enjoying it. =)

*edit* i updated the first post to be in-line with the new version 0.7 of the PERL launcher.

Y'know, anyone who comes up to me and says "Oh, I don't know why Linux isn't used by more people, it's easy and user friendly" can kiss my butt.

Trying to work my way through this - download this, that, the other. Oh, but for that to work you need to download these. Maybe. And run these command lines that give god knows what as output. Hopefully they worked, oh, by the way, you actually need to download THIS as well. OK, now type in this that the other. Watch text you have no idea what it means scroll by, but which might hose you, so hope it's right. OK, find this, make, configure, make make, make cake, configure install, build house, build barn, download something else that doesn't seem to run...

This "simple" little script (which I'm not done making, installing, make installing, make configure, configure install, download xyzing) is getting me very ready to dump the whole Linux partition and send flowers to Microsoft in apology for ever looking elsewhere.

/vent off

Regardless, after all that screwing around, it seems to (finally) be downloading. >.<

hi there! =D

why don't we take a moment a take a nice, deep breath. =)

ok, what seems to be the problem?

Linux is in some ways similar to Windows (or any OS) and in many ways different. we need to approach it as if we are learning a new thing.

in this case, it is in many ways similar. you know how in Windows if you want to extract a .rar file you need to download a program, like Winrar? it's the same in Linux, except in this case we need Unrar. these are called dependencies. all OSes have them, and they are called dependencies because to achieve the desired goal "depends" on having another component. other examples of this are, say, having the correct DirectX for your game, or the correct driver for your video card, or when a program (like the NCSoft Launcher) requires Microsoft .NET version whatever. =) it only seems different because you're not used to these other programs or these other terms.

now, it looks like you're also referencing compiling source code. this is a PERL script. it does not require compiling, and the instructions on the web page do not mention compiling. just think of it as an executable. make sure you have the required dependencies so that it will run (which are listed on the webpage), then place the cohlaunch.pl file it into your City of Heroes directory.

then open a terminal and change directory to your City of Heroes directory, and run the script like i detailed in the first post,

./cohlaunch.pl

and add any arguments you might need, like -renderthread 0

let me know if this helps or if you have any other questions. =)

*edit* i'm glad you got it working! running non-native software on any OS can be very challenging (and yes, sometimes frustrating! =), but it can also be very rewarding and educational for those who take the time to give it a fair go.

and always remember, while Linux is sometimes similar to Windows (or can appear similar), it isn't Windows, and needs to be approached as its own entity. it's for the ways that it is not Windows that we tend to love it. =)

But no, that isn't the case. I had a fairly fresh, basic installation. While the script *itself* didn't require compiling anything, the five other things (which led to several other bits to download) did.

Maybe you had some of these bits and pieces (or are used to having to hunt down packages and whatnot.) I didn't. For me, the difference is:

"How do you begin driving a car when you want to go somewhere?"
For windows? "Get the keys, go to the garage, open the garage door, get in car, put key in ignition, turn, put into drive."

My experience with getting all this stuff together for linux? It's feeling more like "Find something car-like. Dig ore. Smelt ore. Try to fashion resulting metal into key. Make engine block from scratch using a beaver, three rocks and duct tape. Put in engine block - oh, but don't forget to grow trees to tap for rubber to learn to vulcanize and shape into tires, gaskets..."

You mention "make sure you have the required dependancies." Yeah. THAT's where I'm dealing with all this nonsense - and where I'm saying anyone saying they don't get why more people don't use Linux can kiss my butt. I'm somewhat stubborn - but trying to track those down (and their OWN dependancies) is annoying and frustrating to a degree that "Update DirectX (checked and done automatically by most programs) in Windows" is not. I wouldn't be as annoyed if half of them were in the software center, where at least I'd know they were installing correctly and would get whatever else they needed (I don't expect the script to be there, of course.)

In any case, after a few days and many times more screwing around than I've ever had to do with even the most recalcitrant Windows program in its native land, it's (slowly) downloading.

...needless to say, I'm not exactly looking forward to trying to get, say, Left4Dead or anything *else* running anytime soon.

what distro are you running, if i may ask?

Newest version of Ubuntu on this system (Narwahl,) without the Unity interface... and which itself seems to have updated.

i'm a bit surprised by that, honestly. i'm running Kubuntu, based on Ubuntu 11.04, and everything i needed was already in the package manager with no compiling necessary.

not sure what else to say at this point. =) i hope your future efforts go more smoothly. =) not every game requires you to add in extra dependencies. all i can say is, perhaps next time maybe more thoroughly check the package manager first to see if what you need has already been compiled for you? i know those dependencies are in there, because that's where i got them. and for you that would be the Synaptic Package Manager, not the Ubuntu Software Center or whatever they're calling it now. =) and, when in doubt, ask for help. =)

the flip side of that is, well, now you have some real experience in building things from source. =) good job! =P =D =)

so, if you're not a fan of linux, why are you using it?

you misunderstand what i'm saying about you "having" them. you still need to select them for installation. what i mean, more accurately, is to say you already had access to compiled versions of the dependencies ready to install, should you so choose. you would need to go to Synaptic Package Manager, search for the dependency, then select it for install. the Manager would then also install any additional dependencies that would be needed for any given item.

i'm glad you're trying. i'm trying to help you understand how things work here and where you went wrong, so you don't have to do it again unless you want to. =) things, by and large, aren't as difficult as the path you took to achieve your goal. =) it got you there, for sure, but you sort of reinvented the wheel as you went. =)

almost everything you need will be in your package manager and in the repositories (which is where programs and such are stored.) very rarely do we actually need to go to a website to get something, though it does happen for the odd speciality program or two (such as cohlaunch.pl)

linux will always have a certain "do-it-yourself" quality. it generally is as easy or as difficult as you want it to be, depending on what you want to do with it. but the real wonderful thing about it is, you can get it to do just about whatever you want, as long as you try.

i'd have no qualms giving Ubuntu to my mom, or my friends (and i have.) but they also aren't going to try and run City of Heroes. i know a few linux gamers, but they're definitely a rarer breed.

that's the point he's making, you had to maanually install the dependencies manually.

I love Linux but I'm a geek and I agree that it's still not as streamlined as windows for example.
of course the answer would be for ncsoft to provide a properly supported Linux version.

to expand on the car example above, it's like trying to install a GM factory radio into a Toyota car: some fiddling is required because the same radio was not offered natively for Toyota, but you can't really blame Toyota.

note that a number of Linux native/friendly maps go out of their way to make sure they install dependencies in windows. if you ever installed the Gimp in windows, it pulls all kinds of prerequisites automatically, but that's not because windows is better, it's because the people that packages the app cared.