Playing Urban assault on Ubuntu with WINE?

[M1kkko]

So, I tried this official Urban assault demo today, and just getting a black screen with WINE. Has anyone gotten past this point?

UPDATE: Zidane has put up a patch file that should make it possible to play UA on WINE. The file is a replacement for the original UA.exe and it can be downloaded at https://files.metropolisdawn.com/index.p ... cd%20crack under the name ua_linux.zip.

UPDATE #2: As of today (december 31 2011, with wine version 1.3.35) Urban Assault is somewhat playable. (!!) Only software rendering works, though, as direct3D rendering still seems to be bugged.

UPDATE #3: As of today (March 17 2013, with wine version 1.4.1) Urban Assault is fully playable, even Direct3D rendering works (with proprietary NVidia drivers at least). The intro videos are still bugged, however, and the video directory "MOV" must be removed/renamed before launching the game. The unstable Wine version 1.5.25, however, does not work.

[GoldStar611]

Welcome to the forum. I think Roland will be best able to help you out. Maybe you can revive his old thread and the two of you can work on it
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=466

I just installed FreeBSD on my laptop a few days ago. I am a long ways off from getting X windows on it though since I am a linux noob. Then maybe I can work on getting UA and wine going

[M1kkko]

I will try installing DirectX on wine and if I have any success running the game, I might write a wiki article about it to help anyone else in the future.

[M1kkko]

Still out of luck. I think I'll just file a bug report to the WINE developers about this and hope it'll get fixed sometime.

NOTE: Installing "directplay" from winetricks removed some dplay-related errors, but the game still won't start.

[Ormu]

Have you tried to use software rendering instead of hardware (or vice versa)? Go to Options -> Direct3D Device, change it and see what happens.

Or have you tried other compatibility layer software such as Cedega or CrossOver Games?

The ultimate solution is, of course, to install Windows (95, 98, ME, 2000, XP) inside a virtual machine and then play UA through it but it isn't as easy as using Wine and there might still be some issues with graphics.

Edit: Have you tried to play the full version in Wine? I think there were some problems with graphics at the last time I played the demo even though I have Windows XP. I have never had any problems with the full version.

[M1kkko]

Have you tried to use software rendering instead of hardware (or vice versa)? Go to Options -> Direct3D Device, change it and see what happens.

The thing is, I can't go to options because there is no options because there is nothing but a black screen However, I used my winXP machine to change some options and copied the files to this one but the game still won't run. And I want DirectX rendering anyway, it looks horrible on software mode

I submitted a bug report to wine's bugzilla page, but I doubt it's getting fixed anytime soon. For now, I guess I'll have to find a windows machine to play on.

Or have you tried other compatibility layer software such as Cedega or CrossOver Games?

Nope, I haven't. I heard they are commercial and cost money. I searched their databases, however, and they don't seem to support this game.

The ultimate solution is, of course, to install Windows (95, 98, ME, 2000, XP) inside a virtual machine and then play UA through it but it isn't as easy as using Wine and there might still be some issues with graphics.

Hey, that's a good idea. I think I may still have an old Windows 98 license somewhere. But I have used linux/Ubuntu for a relatively short amount of time and I have no experience in virtual machines. Do you know if it is possible to get the game running via a virtual windows 98 and have directX rendering enabled? That would be awesome.

Anyway, it will soon be the time for those old Windows operating systems to stand aside, and that's why it's very important to have a working alternative (wine).

Have you tried to play the full version in Wine? I think there were some problems with graphics at the last time I played the demo even though I have Windows XP. I have never had any problems with the full version.

I haven't tried the full version, but it's reported to have same kinds of problems. I might just as well give it a try.

[Ormu]

The ultimate solution is, of course, to install Windows (95, 98, ME, 2000, XP) inside a virtual machine and then play UA through it but it isn't as easy as using Wine and there might still be some issues with graphics.

Hey, that's a good idea. I think I may still have an old Windows 98 license somewhere. But I have used linux/Ubuntu for a relatively short amount of time and I have no experience in virtual machines. Do you know if it is possible to get the game running via a virtual windows 98 and have directX rendering enabled? That would be awesome.

I don't have very much experience of virtual machines but VirtualBox should support hardware-based graphics acceleration provided that Virtualbox Guest Additions are installed on the guest operating system. However, those additions might not work with Windows 98. See the User Manual for more information. Software rendering should run fine anyway.

[M1kkko]

We'll see about that soon. I'm installing Windows 98 on a virtualbox right now.

[M1kkko]

I have managed to get a Windows 2000 virtual box going, and I finally managed to play Urban Assault on it. I was still limited to software rendering only, and haven't found a solution yet. And now I managed to screw up my win2000 installation, but i'll get back to it later.

The problem was: "Primary display driver" option didn't show up on the options screen. Otherwise everything worked flawlessly.

[Ormu]

I have managed to get a Windows 2000 virtual box going, and I finally managed to play Urban Assault on it. I was still limited to software rendering only, and haven't found a solution yet. And now I managed to screw up my win2000 installation, but i'll get back to it later.

The problem was: "Primary display driver" option didn't show up on the options screen. Otherwise everything worked flawlessly.

Yeah, those graphics things are somewhat complicated... I'm away from home and I don't have Virtualbox on my laptop so I might remember something wrong but...

1. Install Guest Additions to the virtual machine. They must be installed in Safe Mode in order to get Direct3D acceleration to work. See the User Manual for details.

2. Now you might have to enable hardware graphics acceleration in Virtualbox settings. Again, the user manual will help you.