Linux support

[asday9]

For me on Mint, so far I couldnt get it running. I know there will probably never be a linux version of this, but if someone has advice on what to tinker with so it might work, Id greatly appreciate it. So far it either crashes without image after the launcher or, when I enable dgvoodoo 2 in lutris, it launches into a black screen and stays there. by experimenting with the fix launcher option, I did get to see the main menu for like 2 seconds before it crashed again. What could be the issue?

[pauls2271]

Yeah, I didn't buy as I dumped Windows and run Linux now (CachyOS).

Supposedly it is a brand new, from scratch program (not just WITP-AE with new data tables). If so, there is no excuse for it not to run under Linux - especially if they want to get it to Steam and run under Steam-deck.

Requirements say Direct X 8a (which is like 25 years old) and recommend Direct X9 - also quite old. So I would look at if there are parms for DirectX8 or 9 emulation in Lutris (I dont run Lutris myself),

Have you tried it under Steam yet (you can add non steam programs to Steam and it will grab the emulation files). I've had some success doing this (this is how I run Cyberpunk 2077 even though I bought it from GOG not Steam).

[asday9]

Yeah, I didn't buy as I dumped Windows and run Linux now (CachyOS).

Supposedly it is a brand new, from scratch program (not just WITP-AE with new data tables). If so, there is no excuse for it not to run under Linux - especially if they want to get it to Steam and run under Steam-deck.

Requirements say Direct X 8a (which is like 25 years old) and recommend Direct X9 - also quite old. So I would look at if there are parms for DirectX8 or 9 emulation in Lutris (I dont run Lutris myself),

Have you tried it under Steam yet (you can add non steam programs to Steam and it will grab the emulation files). I've had some success doing this (this is how I run Cyberpunk 2077 even though I bought it from GOG not Steam).

yes, I did try steam with various proton versions. enabling dgvoodoo on lutris gave me some progress, as now I get a simple blackscreen but yeah. apparently the game is in 32 bit or something? apparently thats the issue because i dont have the right driver. Iam currently on that. Its weird because war in the east 2 and even war in the west do run perfectly fine on my system with simply proton experimental. I dont get whats going wrong here.

Ill look into that directx9 thin in lutris, but I am not that experienced with linux and lutris, Ill see what I can do

[HappyHedonist]

Try gamescope with either fullscreen or borderless and set a resolution. I would try GE-Proton, which you can download, and try that. I'm debating a purchase. If I do, I'll report back.

[Codechopper]

I also run Cachy, I tried setting up a custom wine prefix and it complains about..

Code: Select all

Unhandled exception: unimplemented function magnification.dll.MagInitialize called in wow64 32-bit code (0x7b5c98f7).

I tried to do a Library Override in winecfg, and a few other things like copying the native dll, etc. but the game continues to crash with the exception for magnification.dll. I also loaded into steam and tried Hotfix, Experimental and GE Proton 10-10 with no luck.

I ended up spinning up a Windows VM, but the dialogs, display and menus were all disproportionately HUGE.

So, I'll wait a bit to see if there is a graphics fix (it has been reported in a few places on the forums) for the VM, or maybe wine12 which may fix the issue with the .dll.

[asday9]

I also run Cachy, I tried setting up a custom wine prefix and it complains about..

Code: Select all

Unhandled exception: unimplemented function magnification.dll.MagInitialize called in wow64 32-bit code (0x7b5c98f7).

I tried to do a Library Override in winecfg, and a few other things like copying the native dll, etc. but the game continues to crash with the exception for magnification.dll. I also loaded into steam and tried Hotfix, Experimental and GE Proton 10-10 with no luck.

I ended up spinning up a Windows VM, but the dialogs, display and menus were all disproportionately HUGE.

So, I'll wait a bit to see if there is a graphics fix (it has been reported in a few places on the forums) for the VM, or maybe wine12 which may fix the issue with the .dll.

same for me. I did pretty much the same as you. I do have a VM where I pass a GPU through and it works fine in there.

[asday9]

I got this info from ChatGPT but I honestly don't know any better:
apparently this magnification.dll is the issue because wine is unable to emulate it, same with proton. This game is simply unrunnable under Linux. Though correct me if I am wrong.

[Codechopper]

same for me. I did pretty much the same as you. I do have a VM where I pass a GPU through and it works fine in there. its really weird considering its apparently brand new. Im getting a feeling they more or less reverse engineered war in the pacific with all of the ancient things it does almost 1 to 1. war in the pacific also didnt work for me though it gave me even less of an explanation for it.

That's the funny thing, Cachy runs WitP just fine. I did the same steps creating a wine prefix and a few other adjustments that I can't remember lol. I launch it from a script...

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
export WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.wine-witpae
cd "$WINEPREFIX/drive_c/Matrix Games/War in the Pacific Admiral's Edition"
taskset -c 0 wine "War in the Pacific Admiral Edition.exe" \
  -w -skipVideo -fd -px1920 -py1080 -altFont -deepColor -dd_sw

I set that all up a while ago, runs like a champ. I tried the same (as I said) with WiS and it's that darn magnification.dll that has it stumped.

I bought the game hoping it would work...at least I'm supporting the devs and hopefully the UI will be fixed for Windows (and VM!) soon(ish).

[Codechopper]

I got this info from ChatGPT but I honestly don't know any better:
apparently this magnification.dll is the issue because wine is unable to emulate it, same with proton. This game is simply unrunnable under Linux. Though correct me if I am wrong.

This is exactly the problem. It is identified and hopefully will be fixed in the next version of wine? We hope?

[Chronic]

I've nearly gotten it working.

So far, you need to compile your own version of wine and reimplement some functions for magnification.dll.

If you compile both the 64 and 32 bit versions and copy the respective, the game runs

I've gotten it to the point where it will load a campaign but the map display is bugged and so I imagine more functionality in the dolls is needed.

[asday9]

I have delightful news to everyone: I managed to get the game working normally on Linux Mint 22.1. At this point I have done so much troubleshooting that I am honestly not sure anymore what caused this. I havent done extensive testing yet, but I loaded into a scenario without issue and the UI, audio and game itself seems to function.
I have:
-Installed it via lutris, including the newest patch which I highly recommend
-used "wine-staging-11.2-x86_64 (default)" as the wine version
-enabled DXVK, VKD3D, D3D Extras, DXVK-NVAPI / DLSS, Esync, Fsync, AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (not sure if this is exactly needed)

the rest should be standard settings if those are not already the standard.
I have also gone ahead and put both a 32 bit magnification.dll and a 64bit version into their respective folders (System32 / Syswow64) in its wine prefix. I am not entirely sure where I got those from. It could be from the internet or it could be from my Windows 11 VM. I have also gone ahead and made it so that wine prefers the native magnification.dll over the built in one. The Windows version is set to Windows 10.

If you need more info feel free to reach out. I can also link my two magnification.dll files if they are needed.
(I have just checked and saw that I have 2 of them in both System32 and Syswow64, not sure what happened there)

[asday9]

I have played for a bit. sadly its not working 100% error free, though good enough to play.
-Fullscreen does not work. The sidebar becomes unclickable. (Its more or less transparent. If you try to drag and drop it, you click through it and it selects the hex thats behind your mousepointer.)
-be careful which resolution you set when playing windowed. If you pick the wrong one, the game will refuse to launch again. I found that after starting it a couple of times the resolution fixes itself, but Ive only tried once.
-AI turn procession takes much longer than on windows. Its bearable though.
-Sometimes, the bottom panel and the sidebar are bugged. For example the bottom panel is more or less stuck on the same unit in the stack, meaning it becomes impossible to transfer devices between units or to issue orders since it refuses to select any other unit than the unit its focussed itself on. For some reason, air units are excluded from this. I have no idea how this is triggered. Is fixed by restarting the game
-The sidebar is also sometimes bugged and doesn't give your orders to the units you selected. For example, I entered a hex with deliberate attack. I found that this was a bad idea and set the unit to delay via the sidebar. Sidebar said that the unit is on delay, the unit counter also said that its on delay (when you click on it in the bottom panel) however next turn, they still do a deliberate attack. It only works when you click on the unit counter, set the order to something else and then back on defense. This also means that designating a lead unit through the sidebar straight up doesn't work sometimes. Again, I don't know how its triggered.

Those were all errors I had in my windows vm too, though the recent patches seemed to have fixed it. If those are known errors to the devs (if someone reads this) do you know how those are triggered? are those fixable?

[Nicals]

I'm really looking for this game but I'm afraid that I could not play it under linux

Have you tried running the game fullscreen inside gamescope compositor ? I had similar screen-resolution/side-bars issues with other games and gamescope solved them.

Also, the recent Wine version 11 release may fix some graphical glitches.

[asday9]

I'm really looking for this game but I'm afraid that I could not play it under linux

Have you tried running the game fullscreen inside gamescope compositor ? I had similar screen-resolution/side-bars issues with other games and gamescope solved them.

Also, the recent Wine version 11 release may fix some graphical glitches.

First time hearing of gamescope. I will try that out. And aren't I already on win11 since I use "wine-staging-11.2-x86_64 (default)". A little confused now. For me this seems to be the only version that works.

When it comes to the issues I face in game I am never sure if this is a general bug or Linux specific, but I remember having the bugs I mentioned also in my windows 11vm which uses a passed through second GPU. This is as bare metal as it gets. Granted I use looking glass to simply capture and display the cards framebuffer on the host instead of hooking a physical monitor up to it, which can cause visual issues, but still. When I asked about those issues on the discord I felt like I was the only one who has those.

[asday9]

sadly I cannot use the newest version of gamescope as its simply not available on linux mint