68 replies to this topic

[Taynak]

Greetings Fellow Mechwarriors!!


I have been given permission to make a forum post by PGI explaining in detail how to set up MWO on LINUX.

Thats right. MWO is finally on Linux and there is no messing with Wine and I will tell you how to do it.




Step 1:

This is probably the easiest step. You need to get a program in Linux called Crossover. You can get the program from the https://www.codeweavers.com website.

Now you will notice that there is a cost to the program. The cost is actually for the companies, not the individual. For the individual, all you have to do is sign up as an Advocate and you when approved you get the program for free as long as you meet a couple requirements. One is to use the beta build at least once in the production cycle and report any issues. The other is that you participate in the forums, which if your here you know how to do that!

So what you are going to do is go to codeweavers website and sign up. Install the program and when you are approved to be an advocate just enter your login info when it asks you to register. Then you are going to go to this page: https://www.codeweav...hwarrior-online , this is the main page for MWO through Crossover.

Now since I have been working on this for a while already, the game is pretty much ready to go. Scroll to the bottom of the page and on the left you should see a button that says "Advocate", you want to become an advocate for MWO. You'll also notice that there is a green button that says "Install Mechwarrior Online via CrossTie"

Click that button and you can move to step 2.


Step 2:

After clicking the button you want to open it with Crossover. It will pretty much be automated but you will notice some After Install Instructions. FOLLOW THOSE INSTRUCTIONS... lol but I will post them here:


Step 3:

***AFTER INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS*** ... uninstall all of .NET and reinstall
.NET 4 only from within the Runtime Support Components. After that you
want to open the program and before patching.... go to the settings in
top right.. switch to force 32bit, then select temp directory (select
change on first window, then set default on second window.) then select
Patch automatically... then patch.. and wait.

In Wine Config, you want to add libraries...
d3d9
d3dcompiler_43
d3dx9_43

Also - in the Graphics tab, automatically capture mouse in full screen windows

******note: now the Crossover program is pretty self intuitive, but in case you can't figure it out, from the main Crossover screen click on the Tools menu and click Manage Bottles after you have done the initial install and you will notice the all the options I have mentioned.


****Note 2: MAKE SURE to set it to 32bit in the options before patching, and to do the temp directory thing or it will have all sorts of issues.


Step 4:

Play the game. You will have to patch and all that but then you can play the game.

Now I want to make sure you understand that there are issues still with the game running perfect on Linux. There is an issue with the program recognizing the video card. PGI doesn't have any Linux boxes to test it out on and find the issue but they are willing to let us go about this on our own for now since technically we are not violating any of the EULA laws.

If any of you are so inclined, you are more than welcome to help with the project. After the initial install you can tweek it and mess with it all you want. The Crossover Forums are filled with all sorts of good info and moving this project forward will hopefully lead someday to PGI paying for the Port Process from Crossover which will mean a polished product without 2 code bases.

So start dual booting Linux folks! If you have any questions or need any help I am more than willing to help. You can send me a PM or you can come on over to the Teamspeak3 that we have for our guild: ts3.arkablegions.com . I'm always online, so you can send me a poke there and we will work out a time to get you going.


Hope to see you in the game on Linux!


Taynak

[Ollie Rifleman Brown]

How is the performance ?

Did you try wine? http://www.winehq.org/

Wine is for free.

Edit:

Or playonlinux http://www.playonlinux.com/en/

Edited by Katadhoum, 25 August 2015 - 02:29 PM.

[AEgg]

Katadhoum, on 25 August 2015 - 02:25 PM, said:

How is the performance ?

Did you try wine? http://www.winehq.org/

Wine is for free.

Edit:

Or playonlinux http://www.playonlinux.com/en/

It looks like this crossover thing is, in a nutshell, a really complicated wrapper for wine that does most of the fiddling it usually requires to get stuff working through wine for you.

[Ollie Rifleman Brown]

Works with wine:

https://appdb.winehq...rsion&iId=30686

[Taynak]

Katadhoum, on 25 August 2015 - 02:25 PM, said:

How is the performance ?

Did you try wine? http://www.winehq.org/

Wine is for free.

Edit:

Or playonlinux http://www.playonlinux.com/en/

yes i realize that wine is free. Crossover is better. They are owned by Codeweavers. Who have dedicated 86% of the current wine code.

Crossover is a polished bottler. it creates a self contained wine so that you can personalize wine to each program.

I tried PlayonLInux but I didn't get anywhere with it and it didn't work all that great.

Crossover has already been in this for a while having ported quite a few programs already. Big titles like World of Tanks have used them to port their clients so that they don't have to have 2 code bases.

the level of use that you get from crossover compared to just using the wine is like Pinto to RX-8...

This could be the official way to get a legit Linux version from PGI because of the simple fact that they woldn't have to create a Linux Client with a seperate code base.

AEgg, on 25 August 2015 - 02:31 PM, said:

It looks like this crossover thing is, in a nutshell, a really complicated wrapper for wine that does most of the fiddling it usually requires to get stuff working through wine for you.

essentially yes... its very user friendly as well... and... as i said in my post... you can get it for free.. just sign up as an advocate for mechwarrior. you will get accepted because they always look for advocates.

[Taynak]

Katadhoum, on 25 August 2015 - 02:59 PM, said:

Works with wine:

https://appdb.winehq...rsion&iId=30686

Actually... if you read the comments... like everyone else on there... I couldn't get it to work through normal wine. it was far far to complicated... with every thing that you have to do... essentially needs to be written by you.

essentially Codeweavers... who have done most of the coding for wine... have created a GUI for wine building. and since I have already done all the work to get the game installable... with only a couple extra steps... you only need to do about 15 minutes work to get the game on linux.

thats the convienence...

and like i said.. big league programs have already used this program to port.. codeweavers crossover work with mac as well so they know what they are doing... if they polish up the install via PGI then there might be a legit linux installable.

[Namouche]

But....does the game runs better with Linux? do you get more fps? can my makeshift 1998 pc run MWO at max settings or do I still need to save for a 1500USD gaming rig that barely runs this game at acceptable quality under WIN10?

[Rhaythe]

Keep in mind that by supporting Crossover and Wine, you are removing the need for companies to do direct ports to Linux for future games. Basically, you're shooting linux gaming in the foot.

[LordNothing]

crytek works in linux, idk why pgi doesnt roll an offitial linux build, and an osx one while they are at it. multiplatform is good.

actually i do know why pgi doesnt do it, but i cant tell you, they are watching me.

Edited by LordNothing, 26 August 2015 - 03:36 AM.

[Yokaiko]

Rhaythe, on 26 August 2015 - 03:23 AM, said:

Keep in mind that by supporting Crossover and Wine, you are removing the need for companies to do direct ports to Linux for future games. Basically, you're shooting linux gaming in the foot.

Except that 32 bit thing.

Its still not going to perform on the same scale ( as poor as that is)

Linux gaming suffers from number, i.e there aren't many people that use Linux are usually people that use it professionally anyway (like me) or just turbo dorks that are fighting the power (or to cheap) to use windoz. There are few outside of professional computing professionals.

That may change when windows goes to a subscription model (**** them) but as it stands there isn't going to be much support overall as long there are billions of windows users to each linux user.

[Rhaythe]

I'd put more stock in Steam OS being linux-based and urging developers to move in that direction as opposed to anything Windows does. Still wouldn't hold your breath though.

[Taynak]

Namouche, on 26 August 2015 - 12:24 AM, said:

But....does the game runs better with Linux? do you get more fps? can my makeshift 1998 pc run MWO at max settings or do I still need to save for a 1500USD gaming rig that barely runs this game at acceptable quality under WIN10?

Well since the game requires DX9 at least... and you say your getting horrible graphics already on your gaming rig you might get a little better just from the fact that Linux uses less resources than windows does.

I will warn you guys though.. this is still in the process of polish.. there are a couple issues still unresolved... but if we can show that there is a Linux based community then we can get PGI support on this.

[Taynak]

LordNothing, on 26 August 2015 - 03:35 AM, said:

crytek works in linux, idk why pgi doesnt roll an offitial linux build, and an osx one while they are at it. multiplatform is good.

actually i do know why pgi doesnt do it, but i cant tell you, they are watching me.

LOL.. but no.. actually crytek runs of of CryEngine 3.8 or higher (CE3.8) which does support export to linux installer. However MWO is built on a previous version of CE... at least this has been what was told to me by PGI in my talks with them about the Crossover program.

Rhaythe, on 26 August 2015 - 03:23 AM, said:

Keep in mind that by supporting Crossover and Wine, you are removing the need for companies to do direct ports to Linux for future games. Basically, you're shooting linux gaming in the foot.

I disagree... making windows based games more accessible by making them easier to install brings more gaming to linux. even bigger titles... like i said... World of Tanks used crossover to port there client to linux..

[Taynak]

Rhaythe, on 26 August 2015 - 04:01 AM, said:

I'd put more stock in Steam OS being linux-based and urging developers to move in that direction as opposed to anything Windows does. Still wouldn't hold your breath though.

essentially this is what is going on. Even with SteamOS... which is Linux based... you still have to have an installable.. Crossover, in it's end stages of Porting, creates that installable.. that PGI would be able to host as a downloaded and installed directly into linux...

The fact is that this is still in its early stages. what i have done is get it up and running smoothly... just need to fix a couple bugs and build the linux community and take it to PGI to have Crossover do the Final Polish and produce the Linux installer...

What im trying to do here is get some of the guys that are already into MWO and Linux to help with the project. Help me track down the last couple errors and get the word out and get PGI to go ahead with the Polish.

Edited by Taynak, 26 August 2015 - 12:30 PM.

[Vorgen]

I followed your instructions and got this to work. I previously failed to get it to work with playonlinux or just pure wine. So kudos to crossover! This is the last reason that I needed my windows partition, so I think I'm going to delete it now.

[Satan n stuff]

Namouche, on 26 August 2015 - 12:24 AM, said:

But....does the game runs better with Linux? do you get more fps? can my makeshift 1998 pc run MWO at max settings or do I still need to save for a 1500USD gaming rig that barely runs this game at acceptable quality under WIN10?

Don't buy prebuilt gaming rigs, especially not ones with brand names.
Get some advice from the hardware forum on the specs you need and your options for parts, then order the ones you think are best for you and if you can't build a PC yourself there are many stores that will do it for you. You'll save tons of money that way.

[Mystere]

Taynak, on 25 August 2015 - 10:12 AM, said:

So start dual booting Linux folks!

Why? What is the point?

Just choose one according to your needs and stick with it.

[Escef]

LordNothing, on 26 August 2015 - 03:35 AM, said:

crytek works in linux, idk why pgi doesnt roll an offitial linux build, and an osx one while they are at it. multiplatform is good.

actually i do know why pgi doesnt do it, but i cant tell you, they are watching me.

OSX represents about 8-9% of online users, Linux less than 2%. You seriously think spending dev resources on making the game multiplatform would be a good use of man-hours? Are you nuts?

Edited by Escef, 05 September 2015 - 11:06 AM.

[Strum Wealh]

LordNothing, on 26 August 2015 - 03:35 AM, said:

crytek works in linux, idk why pgi doesnt roll an offitial linux build, and an osx one while they are at it. multiplatform is good.

actually i do know why pgi doesnt do it, but i cant tell you, they are watching me.

The short version would be, essentially, that PGI's license to the MechWarrior franchise does not extend past Microsoft products (e.g. Windows-based platforms & Xbox consoles).

For the long version, see here.

[LordNothing]

figures ms had something to say about it.